Honeymoon Fun - Part II

As I mentioned in my last post, Mr. Onion and I left right away for 12 wonderful days in Curacao.

Day 3:

I took a trip to Curacao with my mother 3 years ago. On the way there we met a wonderful guy on the plane and 3 years later I'm still wonderful friends with him, his wife and their 3 boys. In fact he came all the way to Vermont for our wedding! So when we got to Curacao we were well taken care of to say the least. It was like having family there. Our wedding gift from them was a day trip to Klein Curacao (which means Little Curacao) with the Mermaid Boat Trips. It took 2 hours to get there but was well worth it.



Approaching the island from the boat



On the boat -- I spent much of the trip chatting with a lovely woman from Holland and she took this picture for us.



Notice the Onion painted on the wall -- I couldn't resist!



Our new friends from Venezuela. They were just our age and were in medical school. Very sweet couple. When I asked if they thought they might get married they said "Oh yes I hope so!" It was very sweet. They had been together for 6 years and I think were waiting to be done with medical school.



Our fearless leader, our captain! Yes he spent much of the morning and afternoon just like this!



Here is the Mermaid Boat and the colorful umbrellas they provided for us when we arrived. There was almost NO shade on the island so this was much appreciated.



The book I just devoured -- Bitter is the New Black by Jen Lancaster. Such a great read. If you've ever been unemployed or know someone who has -- you won't be able to put it down!



"Honey?!," Mr. Onion called. "Yes dear?," I said as I turned to gaze at him adoringly. Ok -- so it didn't happen quite like that, but I didn't know he had the camera -- he just called my name and this is how I looked at him. Sweet, no?



Not as sweet -- Mr. Onion caught me passed OUT on the beach! Not so elegant but too funny.

We met the boat at 6:30 AM, took off around 7 or so and arrived at Klein Curacao about 9 or so. You then had the entire day to rest, swim, snorkel and explore the VERY tiny island. At 12:30 they rang a bell and we enjoyed a great BBQ. And at 4:00 we got back on the boat after a nice day of relaxing and making new friends. Other than the sea sickness and serious burn Mr. Onion got (one of those where you don't even know you're fried until hours later) we had a really nice time.

I've got a new attitude...

Cue the music. I kid -- but I do have a new hair cut by a fabulous Venezuelan guy called Gabriel -- see results:



Mr. Onion and I got back from our honeymoon late Saturday night and we spent much of Sunday procrastinating laundry, unpacking, finding our tiny apartment which has been swallowed by wedding boxes and chaos and food shopping. Yeah -- we did NONE of these things.

Instead we relaxed, pretended we were still on our honeymoon, uploaded all our honeymoon photos, organized some of our non-pro wedding pics (will start sharing soon, I promise), caught up on our on-line reading and had dinner with one of my fabulous bridesmaids whose birthday we missed while we were away.

We spent 12 days in Curacao, a beautiful Dutch island next to Aruba. We enjoyed stunning beaches, great food and were so well taken care of by our friend and his family. I thought I'd take it day by day, so here we go.



Here we are at LaGuardia Airport first thing Monday morning after our wedding. We were clearly very tired -- hopefully we'll begin to look more rested and less pale as the trip continues. We arrived late on Monday night, unpacked, ate dinner and went straight to bed as we were exhausted.

Day 1: See my post from the end of our first day. Yes, I brought my laptop on our honeymoon -- mostly to store our photos from our digital camera, but we discovered we had Internet in our rooms -- how could a bee resist?

Day 2:

Our second day there was actually rainy and overcast so we took the opportunity to head into town as it's wasn't perfect beach weather. I came across a beautiful pearl necklace by Yvel we couldn't afford, but a girl can dream, so of course I took a picture of it. We explored Kura Hunlanda, a beautiful hotel and walked over the foot bridge from Punda to Otrabonda.








Day 3:

The weather was back to being stunning so we headed back to the beach at our lovely hotel, Avila Beach Hotel. We read, relaxed, swam, made friends with two iguanas and ate a yummy lunch at the beach bar. This was a typical day in paradise! One of the books I read while on our trip was Bitter is the New Black by Jen Lancaster. It was absolutely perfect beach reading -- hysterical and entertaining. Also check out her blog.







More photos/stories to come soon!

Honeymoon Day 1 :)

So we got to Curacao last night and have had a very relaxing day on the beach. The owner had champagne brought to our room which we just enjoyed on our little porch and next we're off to "The Blues Cafe" for dinner and some music!

But first, a little taste of what it's like here:


Mr. Onion enjoying the sun and his book! Listen to how calming the waves are -- doesn't it just make you want to take a deep breath?


Breakfast -- note Mr. Onion is wearing his "Just Married" T-shirt! He wasn't sure about it but happily put it on when we got here!


Cute "self" portrait


Yummy drinks with lunch


Enjoying the sun

We have Internet in our room so I'll be sure to keep you posted on our adventures!

Cheers,
Mrs. Onion

I *heart* Daria Bishop

If I could change one thing about our wedding day it would be...absolutely nothing! From the moment we got to Vermont on Thursday to the car ride home with Mr. Onion and my bridesmaid tonight -- I enjoyed every minute. Every bride says the day flies by so make sure you take a moment to appreciate it. I'd say I was "present" for just about everything.

Now onto the important stuff -- the professional pictures. What's that you say? Professional pictures?! But you got married YESTERDAY -- what are you talking about? That brings me to the title of my post "I *heart* Daria Bishop."



Daria and her husband Andy (who is her 2nd -- but no less important photographer) are among my new favorite people. They went above and beyond and it was so special to have them share in all the amazing moments of our very intimate (46 guest) wedding. Toward the end of the evening they approached Mr. Onion and I together with a "honeymoon present." It was a small album of wedding pictures -- Andy "disappeared" during the reception, printed them and put the book together. I seriously almost cried. Enjoy until we have more to share :)












Daria and Andy Bishop live in Vermont but travel for weddings, so check them out if you're still looking! They are booking well into 2008 so don't wait. You will be thrilled you did -- trust me! Learn more at www.dariabishop.com Check out her blog as well for her most recent work.

OK, off to Curacao for our honeymoon in 7 hours so MUST sleep!

Signing off for the first time as Mrs. Onion!

We're off!

It's 5:50 am and we are almost ready to leave for Vermont. I am NEVER up this early, yet when we woke up this morning I was excited, bouncing and ready to go. I even went to our market (gotta love 24 hour produce) and got some rolls to make sandwiches for our 6+ hour drive.

We're getting married on Saturday!!!!!!!!

OK -- back to getting ready to go :) I'll try to touch base at least once more before the wedding. Soon we'll be able to wear our t-shirts that were a shower gift...



Cheers,
Miss Onion

Welcome Bags

When you host a "destination" wedding all of your guests are from out of town, so it's really nice to make them feel welcome. And packing welcome bags is almost as much fun as Halloween candy or holiday gift bags.

Mr. Onion and I went to visit our parents this weekend (both of them live within 10 minutes of each other which is great) and we got a lot done. The bags were purchased at Papermart.com and were reasonably priced at $.40 each. I choose these bags because of their color, size and the quantity. You could purchase these bags in sets of 25 -- you didn't have to buy 200+. We also packed all 30 of our welcome bags for our guests. I'm really happy with how they turned out.


Miss Onion surrounded by welcome bag goodies in my parents living room!



In each bag we put water, area brochures, an OOT Welcome Booklet (not shown), nuts in paper bags tied with twine (this is my favorite touch), chips, fruit snacks, granola bars, swedish fish, peppermint patties, hershey's kisses and cookies.








All packed up and ready to go.

All the goodies were purchased at Costco -- the total cost per person was about $2.20 including the bag. The contents shown above was for a couple -- there will be one bag per room and the rooms with two people will get twice the goodies :) I hope our guests enjoy and feel welcome after their long drive.

Did you welcome OOT guests? Did you provide a bag/box/basket full of snacks or just one nice item and a note?

Publisher is my friend, Part II

Last time I shared with you how I designed my wedding programs in my post "Publisher is my friend." Mr. Onion and I were very busy bees over the weekend printing, cutting and folding our wedding programs and menus.

I wanted to share pictures of the final product before we leave for Vermont tomorrow! The program is printed off center to the pattern (that appeared in our invitations) shows on the right when it's closed, then when you open the program the design element is still there. I present to you our finished wedding program:


Cover

The monogram on the cover is from Creative Montage -- such a great deal -- 5 monograms for $15! You can use them for any of your DIY printing projects or provide them to whoever is designing your printed materials. It just "dressed" everything up.


Inside Spread

Inside Left

Inside Right

Back

CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGES

One of my bridesmaids came over last night to see my dress (oh yeah, I picked up my dress yesterday and Mr. Onion is being SOOO good and not looking). Anyway, I showed her the program and she said "who made these?" I proudly said "I did!" She was so impressed. And if SHE thought they were professional, everyone else will too :) Score!