Bridesmaid Brunch and Beautification

The day before the wedding the girls and I went and got manicures and pedicures after a "Thank You" brunch for the bridesmaids at Elmo's Diner in Carrboro.  

My sister Queena brought some pre-wedding presents from the family.  She even picked up on the lace theme from the wedding for the wrapping.  Love her.

She picked out a blue garter from the famous Agent Provocateur store in LA for me to wear, lovin' it!

In Korean weddings usually a set of wooden geese or ducks is part of the ceremony since they mate for life and are symbols of marriage.  My family found this beautiful hand carved set and even wrote poems on the bottoms for us to cherish forever.  This if course made me a bit misty.

After a few more presents we headed out to the Aveda salon for manicures and pedicures.  It was perfect since they had a huge area with 10 seats and could take us all at once and we could chat.  

You can't really see our nails in this photos but trust me, they looked mah-vuh-luss!

Rehearsal and dinner coming up!

Bachelorette Night Out!

Ginny, Khristina, and Meaghan made it into town Thursday and we hit the town for a fun (and thankfully tame) bachelorette celebration.  We did dinner at my favorite restaurant,  Lantern.

I should get some credit for wearing my assigned bridal accessories all night :)

It wouldn't be a bachelorette party without a few items inspired by the male anatomy :)

The straws were a hit!  When else do you get a chance to be this silly?

After a fantastic dinner we headed over to the West End Wine Bar for a low key evening of wine and a game of how-well-do-you-know-the-bride.

Thanks guys, it was great!  If only everyone lived in town, we could do this all of the time!

Pre-Wedding Odds and Ends

There were a few things I meant to blog about before the wedding but as you can probably guess, it got really crazy the week before the wedding and I never got around to it.

We went to the Durham courthouse to get our marriage license (which was just the beginning of the marriage license craziness to come).

As you may recall, we booked our wedding date one year early at Duke Gardens to at least try to time it in the 2-week window that the wisteria blooms all over the pergola but it was not meant to be.  One week out from the wedding the buds were only just emerging, by Easter it was an amazing sight to see!

And where else does one buy beer in Durham other than  Sam's Quik Stop?  We placed our order for 3 varieties from Highland Brewing Company just down the highway in Asheville North Carolina.  Of course we included my personal favorite, the Gaelic Ale.

More to come!

We're Featured on Style Me Pretty!

Style Me Pretty might just be the best wedding blog out there and  I definitely read it constantly while planning the wedding. So it's super fabulous that our wedding got featured on the site today!

Abby Larson is the woman who runs the site and she'll be posting pics throughout the day so definitely check it out! Next week I'll start posting even more of the official wedding pictures and recapping all of the details for everyone, especially for those who couldn't make it.

This is seriously the wedding that just keeps going!

Here's links to  post I,  post II, post III , and post IV.  

Honeymoon: The Video

We tried to take some video along the trip and I edited it to make a short highlight reel. The places we went were all so spectacular, you really do get the feel better in the video than in pictures. Enjoy!


Y & N's Honeymoon from Y L on Vimeo.

The Honeymoon: One last morning in Mexico

One last order of chilaquiles.

Our last morning called for a breakfast of outrageous proportions.  I placed our breakfast and lunch room service orders the day before so we could just relax and the food would show up on its own. 

They brought more food than we could eat and mimosas to boot!

We did not wait the requisite hour after breakfast to get back into the water.  There was still time for one last dip in the tub on our deck.  Fantastic.

After what seemed like no time at all our lunch came, complete with margaritas and flan.  I had ordered the "Mayan Special" that was described as having chicken, skirt steak and chorizo.  What I failed to realize was that it was an entire skirt steak, entire chicken breast and entire chorizo sausage all atop a grilled cactus leaf.  It was every bit as outrageous as it sounds.

This meal was bittersweet because we knew that after this we had to pack up and head to Cancun to catch our flight home.

Two entrees, ceviche, appetizer, margaritas and flan . . . I may have went a little overboard with the lunch order.

One last look at the ocean and back in the car headed for the airport.  What a trip!  We'll remember it forever.

Video coming up next!

Honeymoon: Some much deserved R & R

We spent the rest of the day enjoying the new digs, laying on the beach, taking a dip in the ocean, and of course, filling the tub.

It was really windy, but we didn't complain.

My old flip flops never had it so good.

That evening we walked to a restaurant next door for some pre-dinner margaritas and in a stroke of honeymoon luck, there was a mariachi band playing.  They went around the tables for serenades and of course we loved it.  No photos of that, but don't worry we have some video of it to share :)

After dinner we came back to our candlelit villa and enjoyed the moonlight . . . it was a nice way to spend our last night in Mexico.

Sigh.  Can we go back?

Honeymoon: One Last Accommodation Change

After lunch we checked into our final hotel.  What made it so great was that it was about as non-hotel as it gets.  Azulik is a collection of beachfront villas.  They don't have electricity or phones but they do have tons of character and have I mentioned the view?

Our villa from the beach.

Originally I had planned on making us reservations at a little bed and breakfast in town.  When they were totally booked I was scrambling to find a new place last minute and luckily the honeymoon villa here was still available.  It was a little more posh than we'd originally planned but at this point we were so glad that we ended the honeymoon here.  After all of the excitement it was great to just relax and enjoy some luxury.

Our deck with wooden tub.  It's quite possibly the best tub imaginable.  The view was incredible.

The mosquito netting upped the romance factor inside, it looked great.

No couches here, just a swaying lounge bed.  

The deck was great, and another breezy bed, perfect for a mid-afternoon nap.

More to come!

Honeymoon: Last Minute Adventure

Another day, another amazing sunrise at the cabana . . . 

This morning was a bit of a whirlwind.  Originally we had scheduled a lazy day but we decided to fit in another ruin site and do some shopping in-land, further away from the tourist spots.  After a quick (and yummy) breakfast we headed back into the interior of Quintana Roo.

Sadly our camera was finally giving up the ghost, so we didn't capture much of the outing.  This was especially disappointing for me since we actually climbed to the top of Coba.  Climbing Coba was so scary and such a feat that I wish I had more photographic evidence that I actually did it.  

This is the photo that the camera died on, the view of the jungle from the top is amazing!

We didn't plan very well so we somehow managed to climb to the top in flip flops (not the best idea).  The climb was exhausting and the sun was really starting to beat down so we reluctantly grabbed a pedi-cab back to the gates.

On the drive back into Tulum we stopped and I got a serving set (Nathan was less than jazzed about even more dishes).  I rationalized that this would come in handy on our anniversary when we would in theory make a grand Mexican dinner to commemorate the honeymoon trip.  We'll see come next April :)

We made it back to Tulum without getting lost, purchased a new camera and checked out of our cabana.  We'll miss the "Christopher Columbus"!  

Now it was definitely time for lunch.

I remembered having seen a sign for a beachfront restaurant called Posada Escondido that served whole grilled fish and that sounded like the perfect thing so that's where we went.

He looked so pretty I didn't want to eat him . . .

. . . but that didn't last long :)

Full from lunch and sunburned, we lazily drifted up the beach to our last honeymoon accommodation . . . but we definitely saved the best for last!  

More to come!

Honeymoon: Our most adventurous day

After we finished visiting the Tulum ruins in the morning we headed over to Edventure Tours to pick up our tour guide for the rest of the day.  And let me just say that "Edventure Tours" sounds cheesy and their website could use some updating but this was possibly the best thing we got all honeymoon.  I highly recommend them, I can't imagine not having had the day we spent with our guide.  We did A LOT with him.

This is Nathan on the zipline, I'm waiting on the platform in the distance scared out of my mind :)

Sadly our camera was wet still so all of these photos were taken with the one waterproof disposable camera we had.  These things were so awesome, the pictures just don't do them justice!

The first thing our guide took us to do was the zipline over a lake.  I am terrified of heights and roller coasters so I was very afraid to do this and almost chickened out at the last minute.  Once I was pushed on the line it was great!  Not scary or unstable at all, I'm so glad that I just did it because it was really a lot of fun.  Luckily there were two lines, so after I got my fears laid to rest on the first one I got to go on the longer zipline.  

The best part of all of this was that it was just us and our guide, no tour group and no one was around anywhere.  I don't think they usually do private tours but ours just worked out that way.

The second zipline takes you all the way across the lake where you grab a canoe and have a leisurely canoe ride back to the main landing.  Good thing Nathan was there because I'm not the best canoe-er.  The ride was nice and peaceful with just the jungle around us, it was a great way to see it up close.

Nathan jumping off of the stone "highdive".  

After the canoe ride our guide took us to a secluded open cenote for a swim.  The water was crystal clear and cool, no one around.  We just swam around and enjoyed how peaceful and beautiful the cenote was.  

We don't have photos of the next thing, but we went snorkeling in the Dos Ojos cenote.  It was probably our favorite thing on the entire honeymoon.  We got to see the amazing stone cave formations up close, it was definitely a unique experience that we could not have had anywhere else.

On the beach in Akumal between snorkeling spots.

Believe it or not, our day was still not even close to being over.  Our guide then took us to Akumal to snorkel with sea turtles!  I didn't appreciate how cool this would be until I saw the turtles only 4-5 feet away!  Very cool.

They graze in the sea grass "pasture" that grows in the shallow parts.

And, our adventure was STILL not over.  One last snorkeling spot at a lagoon filled with fish.  I was frankly exhausted at this point and didn't snorkel long, but there were so many fish!  Too bad our camera was out of film :(

We made it back to the cabana.  We were so tired that we napped through our dinner reservation (whoops!).  No worries though, we found a great late-night spot in town for dinner and cervesas.

I was one long day!