Wedding Blog

Our journey to our honeymoon was a long one. It started on Sunday, September 6th, at approximately 6:00 AM. Yes, we woke up at 6 AM the day after our wedding! We showered, got ready, and packed all of our things before making our way to my parents’ house to say goodbye to our families. We had a short visit and a homemade breakfast, hugged our parents and sisters, and we were on our way. We would have loved to stay to visit and open gifts, but we had a flight to catch!

We drove the 4.5 hours back to our apartment outside Chicago, switched luggage, and did a quick load of laundry before getting picked up to go to the airport.

Enjoying our ride to the airport.

We’re MARRIED!

We made it to the airport with time to spare, checked our luggage, went through security, and took a deep breath. We had made it! The hardest part was over. We grabbed some food and talked about the wedding day while we waited to leave Chicago.

We boarded our flight around 6 pm and got settled in our seats. It was going to be a long flight to Munich.

Before takeoff

Bye bye, Chicago!

We spent the next 8.5 hours or so in those seats, but luckily we were so exhausted from the wedding craziness that we slept most of the way there. We landed in Munich and had some lunch before boarding the last leg of our journey to Barcelona.

The longest part is over!

Landing in Munich.

Almost there!

The first of many tomato and mozzarella sandwiches.

When we finally arrived in Barcelona, we were very tired, yet very happy. We had finally arrived!

WE MADE IT! This girl is sleepy.

We headed to the Duty-Free shop to get some Spanish wine before picking up our luggage. We like our wine, and knew we probably wouldn’t have time to shop in Spain at anywhere other than the airport! With wine and luggage in hand, we took a bus to the port, snapping pictures along the way.

The view from the bus.

Upon arriving at the port, more than 24 hours after we’d started our journey, we were so excited to see our ship! The honeymoon could FINALLY begin!

Hello, Mediterranean cruise!

A word of advice: I would recommend avoiding leaving for your honeymoon the day after (especially the morning after) your wedding if at all possible! It makes for a long and somewhat stressful journey (depending on where you are going, of course)!

Next, we “checked in” to the boat, which was much less like a hotel and much more like an airport check in, signed forms to say that we weren’t sick, got through security one last time, and we were there! All we wanted to do was get to our room before we did anything else. And we got there, all right.

After such a loooooong trip, we were envisioning something much more… honeymoon-esque? romantic? spacious? luxurious? All of the above. Thank goodness we had upgraded to a window, or I might have left right then. The bottle of champagne waiting there from our travel agent made it a little more inviting, so we quickly got over our visions of honeymoon suites and went out to catch a view from the 11th floor.

We spent the evening enjoying champagne, watching the sunset and having our first of many 4 course meals at Table 462. We crashed early, as we were quite jet lagged and still exhausted from all the wedding insanity.

They forgot to give us champagne glasses. We improvised.

Cheers to a wonderful honeymoon!

The next day was an “At Sea” day, which meant laying by the pool and soaking up some Mediterranean rays. It meant discovering the sushi bar, which we frequented for an afternoon snack.

We shared this plate, I swear!

A day at sea also meant a much-anticipated visit to the salon. I had desperately wanted a haircut (and not just a trim) for a very long time and I simply could not wait any longer. I walked in with a picture of the style I wanted, and after reassuring the stylist multiple times that yes, in fact, I was positive I wanted to cut it all off, I walked out feeling a little bit lighter and much happier with my hair.

Before…

After!

Yay for post wedding chops!

We got all dressed up for dinner at the fancy restaurant on the ship (called The Normandie for those that are interested) and enjoyed a delicious meal, and an even more delicious dessert sampler. YUM!

After a drink in the lounge it was early to bed. We would be reaching Cannes, France the next morning!