Weddingbee Blog

Our friends Blair and Giselle were on the same flight as we were which made traveling so much more fun! After flight #1, we arrived in Ft. Lauderdale; we were all pooped and it was only 10:30AM. So what did we do? Hit the airport bar for some cocktails. What? I needed some red bull with a kick!

Sleepy, pasty Chicagoans

Unlike on flight #1, the flight #2 attendant told me there was nowhere to put my dress (psh, liar) so we were forced to shove it in the overhead compartment. Grrr. I managed to get a little cat nap in the air and before I knew it, we were in St. Thomas! We walked off the plane and were immediately greeted by my new bestest friend—a smiling, cheery lady with a tray of complimentary rum shots. It was much-needed after the long day we had had already! We strolled over to baggage claim, retrieved my bag and waited for Mr. N’s. And we waited. Aaaaaaaaaand waited. Then the belt stopped.

Uggggggh.

Have I mentioned that Mr. N thinks he’s cursed when it comes to traveling? He was pissed. But you know what? That’s why we carried on our wedding stuff in the first place, just in case. We went to the Spirit counter and were told that his bag would probably come in tomorrow. So, one bag lighter than expected, we hopped on our shuttle and soaked up the sights on the way to the resort.

Oh my goodness, the resort was beautiful! Everyone was so friendly as soon as we got there – someone opened the door for us, there was complimentary flavored ice water, someone took our bags right away, and the lobby was gorgeous. When we went to check in though, they didn’t have record of our upgrade to an ocean view room, but they were able to accommodate the upgrade on the spot, so there were no problems there. We finally got to our room and were greeted with this view…

St. John across the way

Ahhhhhhh, I felt like I could finally relax! We unpacked our bags and met up with our parents who had arrived the day before. We said our hellos, grabbed a cocktail and hit the pool. And since the resort is on a mountain, every trip to and from the pool required some good muscle toning up and down 99 steps…

I totally pulled out my ’80s bathing suit of radical awesomeness for the first few days ’cause the strap is detachable and I didn’t want funky tan lines in my wedding dress. Yeah, I got some sweet comments from my sister about how they don’t make high-waisted bottoms like that anymore. It’s Esprit, circa 1992. ‘Nuf said.

We instantly met some friendly locals…

The iguanas were everywhere! And, um, a word of advice, don’t feed them the fruit out of your cocktail unless you want them following you around like a pet. This guy planted himself under my chair for an hour because he may or may not have eaten a few cherries. And a slice of pineapple. And maybe one more.

After a little sun, we managed to just barely stay awake for dinner with the families and went to bed. I was just so happy to have made it there, I was seriously delirious by bedtime.

(All photos above are personal pics)

Up next… day 2: Marriage license and OOT bags