Weddingbee

Well hello there, hive! It has been over a week now since Mr. Cupcake and I returned from our absolutely heavenly honeymoon in Antigua, and we’re still functioning on island time a little bit. Hence my delay in telling you all the wonderfully relaxing details of our journey.

You may remember that we chose the Galley Bay Resort in Antigua for our week of R&R following the wedding. Let me tell you that we made the RIGHT decision!

Photo by me…. I think this looks like a postcard!

We had heard both positive and negative reviews of all-inclusive resorts, but we decided that it was the best option for us. Instead of a larger type of resort with lots of activities and constant buffets, though, we wanted a smaller resort with more personal service — we chose Galley Bay for its size and for the fact that they don’t have a million different activities or trips going on at all times. We knew that we’d be tired after the wedding, and we wanted a resort where we didn’t feel pressured to participate in group activities and where we could just do as we pleased at our leisure. We most definitely found what we were looking for. Galley Bay offers non-motor water sports and there was always live music on the pavilion after dinner. We didn’t do any water sports or any other activities (except get a couple’s massage, if that counts as an activity!) as we truly just wanted to RELAX. For us this consisted of eating, drinking cocktails, reading, eating, napping, lounging in the pool or ocean, and eating. (Yeah, we ate a lot )

We left for the honeymoon bright and early the Monday after our Saturday wedding. I highly recommend giving yourself this extra day if you have a Saturday wedding, and have the option to depart for your honeymoon on Monday instead of Sunday. We were able to relax with friends and family at our brunch on Sunday morning, open some gifts with our parents, and pack for our trip. It was really nice to not have the added stress of packing before the wedding.

Our first flight was from Philadelphia to San Juan, Puerto Rico, and from there we had to catch our connecting flight to Antigua.

Mr. Cupcake flashing his new bling, and you can also see the pretty gold monogrammed necklace that Momma and Stepdad Cupcake gave to me as a wedding gift.

We were pretty excited when we finally reached Antigua…. just look at what was waiting for us!

Once we went through customs (easy) and got our luggage (even easier), we found the driver who was to take us to Galley Bay. Thirty minutes later, we were checking into the resort and on our way to our room via golf cart, with a rum punch in hand.

I can get very, very used to this.

We had reserved a Gauguin Cottage — named for the artist who was a frequent visitor of the island. The cottages were the most affordably priced on the resort, and although we could afford a higher-priced room, we chose a cottage for its quaint charm, privacy, and our very own private plunge pool!

Our room…. pretty much the spitting image of what’s shown on their website.

To the left is our bathroom and on the right is our room. We didn’t mind having to walk outside to go to the bathroom, especially because we never saw any other people around our cottage (we were at the end of our row of four). Those chairs were for lounging by the plunge pool, which we never actually did… we preferred lounging IN the plunge pool!

The only slight annoyance that we had with the two separate rooms with the breezeway in between was that the doors lock behind you when you leave and we only had one key between the two of us. The line of the week became “do you have the key????” We managed to never lock ourselves out, though!

Our plunge pool! Upon arrival we immediately got changed into our bathing suits and hopped right in.

After a quick dip in our pool, we decided to explore the rest of the resort.

Everything was so lush and green, and the beach — oh, the beach!

We also headed to the open air bar to get ourselves some treats.

Look at the paleness….

Pretty much my attire for the week was bathing suits and cover-ups. I brought lots of ’em

We had never seen water so clear and blue!

We are big fans of the self-timer on our camera… hence the crooked photos. But this one is still my favorite.

We also spent a good amount of time at the freshwater pool.

One day we were a bit sunburnt (oops) and we didn’t want to get anymore crisp than we already were, so we hung out in the lounge area of the bar and read most of the day. We both read two books in our week at Galley Bay! Reading is not something I made a lot of time for while wedding planning, so delving into two books was delightful.

We snuck in some newlywed smooches

The view from the bar

It was fun to get dressed up for dinner every night, where we dined at either the Seagrape Restaurant or The Gauguin. The Seagrape is open 7 days a week and you can get all three meals a day there (they always have specials and the menu has changes each day, so it never gets boring). The Gauguin is only open for dinner 5 nights a week, and reservations are required for either of the two seatings (6:45 or 8:30).

Self-timer in action again!

The food was really, really good…. we could not get over how wonderful and gourmet everything was. Aside from maybe one mediocre dinner, everything else was truly delicious. Ask my waistline!

Every Wednesday night there is a Manager’s cocktail party, where hors d’oeuvres are served before dinner at the Seagrape. The food at the cocktail party was delicious!

Every day at 4:00 there is tea on the pavilion. Delicious tea sandwiches and cookies were available as well as tea (of course).

Here is our daily view from the Seagrape restaurant. It was so wonderful and relaxing to sit there at each meal!

The Gauguin features tables on their own individual platforms with thatched roofs. Very charming and romantic!

These two charming and talented musicians visited our table to sing us a little love song. It was sweet and very islandy!

A third restaurant called Ismays is open 5 days a week from noon to 5:00 for lunch. We visited one day and had some great food, but for some reason that day the mosquitos were ruthless and there was not much of a breeze, so we visited the Seagrape for lunch from that point on.

Ismays Restaurant

It rained a little bit each day, but it rarely rained for more than 20 minutes or so and the sun was never away for long.

Apparently on this cliff beside the resort sits Gianni Armani’s home. Not too shabby!

Overall we just had the most amazing time, and we were both a little sad when it was time to go home. We were looking forward to seeing our friends and family, but it was hard to think about getting back into real life after such a blissful week in paradise!

Bye bye, plunge pool!

Our best sad faces

Until next time!

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