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I’ve been looking forward to sharing these pictures with you all that it took me an extra long time to write this post, so I apologize for the delay! These are some of the most “New York” pictures from our wedding and I adore them, although the Grand Central ones where Mr. Star finally gets to get in on the photo action are fun, too. 
When I left you, dear readers, my ladies were rockin’ the camera lens up on the rooftop deck of our building. I have one more picture that I love to share with you from the roof:
That is one urban bride, right? I love me some country weddings, don’t get me wrong, but I am and always will be a city girl at heart.
I wonder if, just like every set of newlyweds thinks their wedding was the coolest and most fun wedding ever, every bride looks at her bridesmaids and her female family members all done up and thinks, ‘Wow, I really have the most beautiful set of ladies there ever was.’
I don’t know if that’s the case, but if it is, then call me a stereotype, because I really think I have the most beautiful set of ladies there ever was. I mean, come on:
So, this was it: we were all prepped and beautified, my ladies were already dressed and ready to go, and my lovely dress was just waiting to be donned.
You know all those lovely, ethereal pictures of wedding dresses just hanging gracefully, looking as though they’re dangling from a cloud? Yeah, I didn’t get those. Which doesn’t particularly bother me and wasn’t anyone’s fault, it’s just that our apartment was so stuffed to the brim with people and stuff that shots of my dress came out looking more like this:
Decidedly ungraceful, but perfect just the same, because these shots remind me so vividly of exactly what that day was like and how I felt.
So, now we all were sporting fabulous ‘dos and we headed back to our apartment. It was time for everyone to throw on their accessories, touch up their makeup, and take a few last pre-dress pictures!
My wonderful bridesmaids (have I said that enough?) took a minute and arranged all of their different polka dot accessories together for a photo op, my “something blue” polka dotted garter included:
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Our day started bright and early because, even though the wedding didn’t start until that evening, we had six girls in a one-bedroom apartment who all needed to get ready and I was determined to not have to rush through anything so that I wouldn’t get stressed!
Because I have the most amazing lady friends ever, they volunteered to all get in the shower before me, meaning these fabulous ladies were up, showered, and had their air mattress deflated before I even woke my beauty-slumbering self up.
I didn’t have to wake up until around 8 (did I mention how much I love my bridesmaids??) and had time to start the morning off right — drinking iced coffee and snuggling with my puppy.
After our hectic rehearsal, we all grabbed cabs and headed back up to Midtown. A few of us ran up to our apartment to grab the gifts for our families and bridal party, while most everyone headed straight to the restaurant on the next block.
I had to pose for a quick photo op with my favorite bunny:
We finally got everyone to the restaurant and seated at two long, family-style tables, ready to enjoy some delicious CUBAN food! We chose the Cuban restaurant because it’s one of our neighborhood favorites and we knew that many of our out-of-towners had never gotten the chance to enjoy yummy Cuban food!
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
After our night of partying, no one was in a huge hurry to get up early that Friday morning and we didn’t have a whole lot left to do, so we took our time and got a late start. Mr. Star headed off to work for a bit and Momma Star, my MOH and I all headed off to pick up my dress at the salon. Because Mr. Star was going to be around until the night before the wedding, I had put off picking it up for as long as possible and even two days before the wedding, I still couldn’t take it back to our place.
My MOH’s family generously offered to serve as protectors of my dress in their hotel room until the next day, when Mr. Star would be skedaddling. It was a surreal feeling to be walking into the bridal salon for the last time and walking out (finally!) with my dress, my actual wedding dress, in my arms. Well, in both my arms and my MOH’s arms. It was waaaay too much dress for me to carry on my own. We made it downstairs and hopped in a cab, with what my MOH joked was a white body bag. Man, that dress is heavy! Who knew sparkle was so heavy? I sure didn’t. We got it back to her family’s hotel room and opened the bag up so the train wouldn’t wrinkle and spread it across their TV. You guys didn’t need that, right? Didn’t think so…
Well, my friends, this is it. The beginning of our wedding recaps. I’ve been putting off starting for days because I’m a little overwhelmed about writing all of these posts in a way that shares how special that weekend was for us and also keeps you guys from getting bored, but I think I’m ready now. 
I’m so so so excited to share our pro pics and show you why I’m so proud of the way everything turned out, but first things first. We hafta start where the weekend started: Thursday. Almost all of our families and our bridal party had to travel from out of state and this was the day that people started to arrive. Up until Thursday, I had been bumming around the house all week getting everything super clean and generally feeling excited for people to get here and totally useless because I had taken the week off from working and had nothing left to do! I was actually over-prepared and left with nothing to finish the week of our wedding… crazy, right? I guess that’s what you get when you’re engaged for 23 months!
That morning, my MOH and her family arrived from Alabama and they were the first people I saw! They took me out to a lovely lunch and were very pleased with themselves that they were the first to arrive and “got to spend some time with the bride before everything got crazy”. I was so touched that they came all the way to New York and they were incredibly helpful all weekend! Thank you, Carpenter family!
MOH, her Aunt, and her Father (Mom and Sis were there, too!)
Just in case any of you questioned my dedication to Weddingbee, Mr. Star and I made our annual trip to Macy’s to add to our Christmas tree ornament collection (hey, these things take work when you want to put up your own tree right after moving out of a dorm room!) and this is one of the things we left with:
Fellow Weddingbee addicts: feel free to go get one at your local Macy’s now, so I don’t feel like the only weirdo.
Do you ever look at something bee-themed and immediately think, “Weddingbee!” or is it just me?
I saved this post for last because, well, we’re the Stars. Honestly, the main reason why we picked Greece as our honeymoon destination is because it is, quite literally, the birthplace of theatre. And we are still theatre kids at heart, even though we’re old married theatre kids now.
Sure, the food was incredible, the sunsets were to-die-for, and we saw some really amazing ancient sites, but what we were really most excited about was definitely seeing the place where it all began — showbiz, that is.
Mr. Star insisted on taking about a million pictures of me in front of the Roman Odeion in Athens. I still can’t believe that they have performances here in the summertime and we weren’t able to see any. How cool would that have been??
Perhaps the most fabulous memories of our “stellar” vacation in Greece are the glorious sunsets. They are so gorgeous that it’s worth planning your afternoon just to catch them from the perfect spot. We did a lot of that in Greece — just relaxing and waiting for the sunset:
I was all for taking it slow on our honeymoon and we were rewarded for our waiting and optimal sunset-viewing location jockeying for sure. Check out these pictures and tell me if you agree.
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It’s no secret that Mr. Star and I are huge animal people. I mean, we had one of our dogs serve as our ring bearer and I run my own small dog boarding business. So wherever we are, we are on a constant lookout for cute animals — we just can’t help ourselves.
What we weren’t expecting (more with the unexpected-ness in our travels!), was the vastly different attitude there is towards animals in Greece. Whereas here in the U.S. we make attempts to capture and domesticate stray animals (or at the very least maintain feral cat colonies), in Greece it is considered perfectly normal and acceptable for stray cats and dogs to roam the streets and countryside as they see fit. As it turns out, these animals are cared for by the locals and seem to be well-fed and happy. We didn’t think they were suffering in any way, but of course wanted to take them all home and give them love! We decided that if we moved to Greece, between the two of us and what animal suckers we are, we’d have to have a whole farm full of adopted semi-stray animals.
There were large stray dogs everywhere. EVERYWHERE! This was just outside of the entrance to the Acropolis. They looked happy, though! Just look at that guy.
Of course, when you’re as obsessed with weddings as I am, even though you’re on vacation (and already married!), you can’t stop thinking about weddings.
The Greeks love their weddings every bit as much as we do, if not more. While we were on Santorini, we saw THREE separate weddings! I love how they do weddings there, with practically the whole island getting involved. They drive a parade of cars carrying the bridal party and family members through the streets of the villages, honking and making a huge, celebratory ruckus. Then they end the night with a good round of fireworks. I love how they make everyone on the island know that someone is marrying the love of their life that night.
I happened to snap a few pictures of one of the weddings that we stumbled upon, because their receiving line was so long that it ran into the public square in Oia and we happened to accidentally walk right through it. They had at least 300 guests; the whole village was overtaken!
Now that you’ve read about many of the sights in Greece that I expected to see, let me share some of the things that I wasn’t expecting… here goes…
One of the very first things we saw as we came out of the metro station on our first day in Athens was this sign. We were both like, wait, we did not just spend 12 hours traveling to see a SUNY school!
Whenever I go to a foreign country, I try to go in without any expectations at all. Inevitably, I end up failing at that because we all have these visions of faraway places in our heads that we can’t force out or forget — they are safely tucked away after being absorbed from dramatic scenes in classic movies or vividly descriptive passages in our favorite books.
Greece is no different. While I tried to be as open-minded as possible about the experience that Mr. Star and I were about to embark upon together, there were many sights we saw that were entirely expected on my part.
Brightly-colored buildings, for one
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Mrs. Star, New York City Age and Occupation: 22, Actress Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Casting Assistant Wedding Date: October 2009 Venue: Ceremony: The Kraine Theatre, Reception: Midtown Loft & Terrace About Me: I’m a professional actress who’s always had New York City in her blood and I'm finally getting the chance to make a home in Manhattan with my fiancé, my dog, and my big dreams! I love polka dots, craft projects, Dunkin’ Donuts’ iced coffee, and anything sparkly. I’m having a blast planning our elegant/dramatic/New York City/acting-themed/largely-DIY wedding and am thrilled to be the youngest current Miss Blogger!
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