Wedding Month - Our Honeymoon

This is the last of the wedding posts (since tomorrow is our 3rd anniversary!).  The very next day after our amazing wedding, we left for our honeymoon.  We went to Italy for 10 days, visiting Venice, Florence, Rome, and the Amalfi Coast.  I had been to Italy before, but Chris had never been before!  

Our first stop was Venice, Italy. We had amazing weather, and it was the perfect place to start our honeymoon.  In my opinion, there isn't as much to "see" in Venice.  Instead you get to enjoy just wandering the streets, getting lost, taking water taxis and gondolas, and taking long lunches.  This was perfect since we were a little jet lagged and tired from all the wedding festivities, so it let us relax a little before getting super busy with touristy things!  

We then took a train to Florence.  We stayed in this amazing hotel in the heart of Florence.  It was the perfect home base for all the things we had planned!  We did a sightseeing bus tour, went to the Uffizzi, and even went on a vespa wine tasting tour (yeah doesn't it sound safe to combine driving vespas for the first time ever with wine tasting...)!   

After a few days, we took another train to Rome.  I had already done all the usual sightseeing tours in Rome when I went in 2007, but I have to say it's amazing how you can forget the details so quickly.  I thought I'd find the tours a little boring the second time, but going to the Vatican again and seeing the Sistine Chapel was interesting even the second time around.  We also tried to plan something new (to me) in each city we went to.  In Rome, we took an "Angels and Demons" tour that was pretty fun.  They took us all over the city in a bus showing us all the locations where the clues were in the book/movie.  

Our final stop on our honeymoon was the Amalfi Coast.  I was excited for this because I had never been there before either!  We booked a hotel in Naples, which I would not suggest doing.  The hotels along the Amalfi Coast were so expensive and since we already splurged on our Florence hotel and we were only going to be there 2 days, we decided to take a chance and stay in Naples.  Honestly, since the train ride is only 2 hours from Rome, I would have preferred to stay in Rome and take the train down each day.  The first day we were there we hired a drive to pick us up at the train station and take us along the Amalfi Coast.  I'm so glad we did this because we didn't have to worry about the windy roads along the coastline and instead enjoyed the views.  He also had suggestions on where to go in each town and brought us to an amazing family owned restaurant with no real menu for lunch.  It was one of the best meals we had all vacation.  We ended our trip by going to Pompeii and "hiking" up Mt. Vesuvius.  

Wedding Month - Reception

Today's wedding post is about our cocktail hour and reception.  Right after the ceremony, we had cocktail hour in the courtyard of the hotel.  The weather was gorgeous, so it was nice to be outside for a  little while longer.  There were lots of stations and passed hor d'oeuvres.  I really wish I could have spent more time there!

After cocktail hour, we headed inside to the ballroom for the reception.  We had the escort table set up with a sign in book made with our engagement photos as well as pictures of our parents on their wedding days.  

We also had a table with pictures of our grandparents who are no longer with us.  

I absolutely loved how our room looked!  Our florist was amazing, and not only did the beautiful centerpieces, but he also got us the chairs, table linens, and extra lighting.  

We gave boxes of chocolates as our favors.  We got them from a local chocolate shop, Enjou.  We loved them so much that we have since used them again at my baby shower.  

We had our cake made by the hotel's baker.  I liked the clean look of the white frosting with just some dots and ribbon on it.  Our florist added the hydrangeas last minute.  Our cake was white cake with chocolate mousse and fresh strawberries... absolutely delicious!

We had an amazing DJ, Excel Entertainment.  A former co-worker referred him to us, and we were so happy with them!  Not only did they play amazing music and kept everyone dancing the whole time, but he also did some guitar solos.  Some of his assistants also went around taking pictures during the reception and instantly put those pictures onto a huge projector screen!  

And since I've been giving some shout outs to my amazing vendors, I have to give major props to our photographers.  Papillio Photography did an amazing job and I really enjoyed working with them.  They took amazing photos and were super fast at getting us the digital proofs and making our albums.  I couldn't have asked for anything more!

Our reception, and wedding in general, was amazing!  The whole time I kept saying that it was going by too fast and I wanted to really soak it all in.  While there are always little things that you can look back on and tweak, I really can't think of many things that I would have changed.  It was an amazing day and party and one that I wish I could relive!  I honestly can't believe that it was 3 years ago!  

Wedding Month - The Ceremony

We are now finally at the actual ceremony!  Chris and I got married at the Dolce in Basking Ridge.  I was so happy to be able to have everything at one location!  We got ready at the hotel, took pictures around the grounds, had the ceremony on a wooded deck, had cocktail hour in their courtyard, and then had the reception in their ballroom.  

I ordered these "fan" programs offline.  I was a little nervous at first because of how much customization was involved and it was all done online.  But we ordered samples of the paper and ribbon, and after many proofs and emailing back and forth, they turned out exactly as I wanted!  

We hired a harpist to play our ceremony music.  She sent us samples of a bunch of popular ceremony music and then we met with her to hear her play and to decided what songs we wanted played when.  It was a beautiful touch to our ceremony!

Let me just say how much we lucked out with the weather!  We knew that the weather could be hit or miss with a wedding at the end of August.  So while we planned for an outside ceremony on the deck, we always had a backup plan to have the ceremony inside if it rained or was too hot.  

These next two pictures are also some of my favorites!  When we decided to have my niece, Kaitlyn, be the flower girl, we were totally prepared that since she was only 2 1/2 that she might get nervous and not want to walk down the aisle.  The night of the rehearsal we explained what she had to do, and she was so shy and timid listening to the instructions.  Little did we know that instead of being too scared, she would just run down the aisle and steal the show!  It was absolutely adorable!  

Then to have this next photo taken just minutes later as I'm walking down the aisle is absolutely precious.  We aren't sure if she's looking at her dad, her mom, or Chris, but whoever she's staring at... it's perfect!

We opted against doing a candle lighting ceremony since we were outside.  So instead, we did a little something with different colored sand.  We probably should have discussed more or even practiced, because when we got up to do it, we were laughing trying to decide whether to take turns pouring our colored sand in to make pretty lines or to just pour at the same time to blend it together!  

After the ceremony, we immediately took some family pictures together as a married couple!  

 ^^^ The Freel Family

^^^ The Flinn Family

 ^^^ Both families together

Then everyone else went to join cocktail hour, and we took some pictures just the two of us.  While I loved that we kept the tradition of not seeing each other before the ceremony, I do see the positives of getting all the pictures done before hand.  Besides the obvious of missing most of your cocktail hour, even if it wasn't the case, I felt a little rushed, and since we had an outside ceremony in August, I felt a little sweaty and that my hair and makeup weren't as perfect as they were for all the pictures we took beforehand.