.back.to.normal.life.

well, here we are. back to 'normal' life.

the wedding was just how everyone predicted it would be. fabulous. i had fun, which made me wonder if other people had fun or if i was being oblivious to their disdain for it. but i took an informal poll, and it seemed everyone had fun too. WOOHOO!

above is one of the shots from our photog, JR.

he sent us a screensaver with 100 images, and they are amazing. he has so much talent, and we definitely believe the money we budgeted for him was worth every penny. can't wait to see the rest of the images!

the day was pretty much a blur, and when it was all over, and we were on our way to the airport for our honeymoon the next day, archie and i looked at each other and said, 'i'm lonely.' we were surrounded by all our friends and family for most of the week of the wedding. everyone was so generous in offering their help in anything we needed; and we did collect on some of those offers. so when it was just the 2 of us, it did feel a bit...lonely. but it was a good lonely. we finally made it, past all the arguments and decisions about the wedding. and now we can get back to 'normal' life. but first....

we honeymooned on a mediterranean cruise for 12 days. can i just say it was the best vacation of my life? so exciting, something new everyday. we hit barcelona, marseilles, florence, rome, naples, mykonos, istanbul, kusadasi, athens, and venice + 2 days at sea. phew! sure it may have been a geriatric cruise, but there were some honeymooners. we became friends with 1 couple from san diego. they were incredibly nice and i think we all had the same kind of humor. after the cruise, they still had 10 more days of vaca - they took the train up to austria (i think), and then will be home next week...good times.

i think my favorite port was kusadasi. not only was it the knock-off capital of the world, but it's a resort town (mostly for europeans), and was much quieter than istanbul. just so relaxing and there's so much history there with ephesius, st. john's grave, and the virgin mary's last house. i also LOVED italy, in general. and italians. so nice! but maybe it was because we were tourists, and they're usually nice to tourists..who knows. at any rate, there's so much history in europe. i could live there. and i would, if i could. but our home is here, so it's obviously not going to happen in my lifetime.

here's a summary of my thoughts on our wedding:

• if you're getting married, get yourself a day of coordinator who will help you the night of the rehearsal dinner and the day of! they are INVALUABLE. we were so grateful to annie and lisa for organizing the mess i left them friday night...i didn't worry about a thing on saturday and everyone knew what they needed to do!
• our flower girls and ring bearer were ADORABLE. thank god we know cute kids. haha:

• we are lucky to have FUN friends; that made the wedding that much more enjoyable. everyone just kicked back and relaxed and danced like there was no tomorrow. sure we had an injury from smacking the tamborine too hard, but she had fun doing it! if you have dj aris, i highly recommend upgrading your package to include the party giveaway package - the glow necklaces, straw hats, tamborines, and maracas. WOOHOO!
• i heard the food was really good. i'm so happy that everyone liked everything. i was a little concerned about that too.
• we had everyone either sing a song with the word 'love' in it, or dance for us, in order for us to kiss. no clinking the wine glasses for us. i had only requested the singing, but archie said it'd be more fun if they had to dance too. and it totally was. we saw so many funny dances that will live in our memories forever.

that's it for now. i'm sure bits and pieces will come up at random intervals. right now i really am still jet-lagged. i wake up at 5:15AM every morning, because my body thinks it's 12:15PM. i plan on taking advantage of this and start to work out again in the mornings...

back to normal life...