Coyotes Couple Up: Sleep Deprivation

For our honeymoon Mr. Coyote and I spent ten fabulous days at Couples San Souci, an all-inclusive, couples only resort in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. We spent a lot of time deciding on the best resort for us and I have to say we really hit the jackpot with Couples. Before I get into all of the fantastic parts, I want to share some things we wish we'd done differently (and they all have to do with our travel arrangements).

• I wish we had spent a few days at home before leaving for the honeymoon. 

In fact, I wish we had gone back to work and "real life" for a few days and then left for our honeymoon. I know this is completely unorthodox, but just hear me out. We spent almost the entire week before the wedding away from home. Due to adrenaline and nerves I slept about three hours the night of the wedding and maybe another four hours the night after. On Sunday we had breakfast with our friends and family, packed up our things and drove three hours back to Westchester.

Of course, Mr. Coyote realized that he left his sneakers at my parents' house, so we had to go shopping. And then we had to stop at the pet store to get more food for our cat. And then we had to unpack the car and finish packing for the honeymoon. And then... I'm sure you can see where this is going. I managed to sneak in an hour-long nap before our car service arrived at 3 AM to take us to the airport. I really could have used a few extra days at home to get ready for our trip and catch up on some much needed sleep.

• I wish we had checked in prior to arriving to the airport.

Because I booked a really cheap trip with a really shady travel site (or because I hadn't slept properly in three days and couldn't figure it out) I was unable to check us in online. When we arrived at the airport we were told that there were no two seats next to each other and that we would have to sit in separate rows.

We explained that we were on our honeymoon and begged the agent to move someone else so we could sit together. There may have been a few tears on my part, but the agent eventually was able to move our seats. It was a super stressful situation to be dealing with at 4 AM and it could have been avoided by checking in online.

• Finally, I wish we had planned our arrival at the resort to coincide with check-in time.

This one is kinda weird and maybe only specific to our situation, but we arrived at our resort around 11 AM - which is apparently the absolute worst time to show up. We had been awake for almost 30 hours straight and had nowhere to sleep and nowhere to eat (at this particular resort, breakfast ended at 11 and lunch started at noon) but I think the staff took pity on our sad, pathetic state (or we were just bringing the resort morale down so low that they needed to get rid of us ASAP). Either way, they scrounged up a turkey sandwich for us and had a room ready in about an hour - and for that we will be eternally grateful! Once we finally arrived in our room we both collapsed on the bed and slept for the next two days.

Wow that was a lot of complaining, eh? Don't worry... There's lots of happiness coming up in my next post! And honestly all the headaches were worth being able to arrive to all of this:

Did you have any disasters that could have been avoided on your honeymoon?

Box It Up

Sooo a long, long time ago when I first started blogging with the 'bee I talked a bit about our wine box ceremony and then promptly forgot about it for the next six months. Whoops! I'm happy to report that we did in fact have a wine box ceremony. It was a beautiful addition and I'm so glad we did it, but it wouldn't be a true Coyote experience if there weren't a few mishaps!

A while back I purchased a beautiful wine box from True Fabrications on Amazon and made a mental note to purchase a nice bottle of wine before the wedding. I had left the box at my parents' house and when Mr. Coyote and I went upstate the week before the wedding for some craft wars and to drop everything off with our venue I made sure to bring a nice bottle of Malbec with us. Our lovely wine box was still sittin' pretty waiting for some wine:

But this genius right here forgot to measure the box before purchasing the wine (I'm sure you can guess where this is heading) and the bottle we chose did not fit in the box.

Son of a beeeeeeetch. I didn't have the time nor the energy to go shopping for yet another bottle of wine so I just grabbed whatever I could find that would fit in the box. Since Mr. Coyote and I are winos...

(Scratch that... I guess it's just me.)

I didn't have a problem finding a bottle that fit, but I'm kinda disappointed that we couldn't use the Malbec we purchased.

To be honest, I don't even remember what's in the box right now and that makes me sad. Now that the wedding is over and we avoided that little crisis I am thinking about swapping it out for a nicer bottle that actually FITS this time. Ok, technically we're not suppose to open the box until our anniversary but there was also a bit of a, uhm, situation with our letters too so we might have to open the box again sooner rather than later anyways. But that's another story for another post.

Did you have any last minute wedding mishaps?

A Thank You to Those Who Raised Us

Both sets of parents have been incredibly supportive of Mr. Coyote and me -- not only during our engagement but throughout our seven years together. Although no material gift will ever be able to express how much their love means to us we did want to thank them for being there for us through the years.

We bought a few things for our parents, but because our wedding was just a few weeks after Father's Day we decided to split up the father gifts a bit. Just like the gifts we purchased for our groomsmen we bought cufflinks for each father and decided to gift them on Father's Day. Choosing a pair for my father was easy. Once we realized there were cufflinks on Etsy for literally anything you could imagine I thought of what really bonds my dad and I together. Sports. And not just sports, but baseball. And not just baseball, but the New York Yankees (aka the greatest sports team in history).

Poppa Coyote and I have been going to Yankee games together for as long as I can remember so when I searched "cufflinks, sports" and found these I instantly snatched them up.

Cufflinks purchased from White Truffle Studio on Etsy

Finding a pair for Mr. Coyote's dad was a bit more difficult. Sure we know what he likes (golf, soccer, wine), but we wanted to find something that really encompassed FIL Coyote. While we were brainstorming, Mr. Coyote casually searched "cufflinks, food" and we hit the jackpot.

Cufflinks purchased from SchickieMickie on Etsy

Oh, how the man loves a good barbecue. 

We saved the rest of the gifts for the rehearsal dinner. My father's gift was definitely the highlight of the evening.

I had been toying with the idea of giving him a nice bottle of Johnnie Walker, but the occasion was never right. When a shop in Grand Central Terminal (which I commute out of everyday) was offering free engravings a few weeks ago I immediately jumped on the opportunity. Thanks to our father-daughter song ("I Loved Her First" by Heartland) I knew exactly what to engrave.

I'll get into his reaction when I start my recaps, but let's just say this gift was a hit. ;-)

For my momma I purchased a gift certificate to a local theatre. A few months ago she mentioned that Wicked would be coming in the Fall so the plan was to purchase tickets for her and I to go together. Unfortunately the tickets still aren't on sale yet so I made sure to get a certificate that would cover the cost of two tickets. When I gave her the gift I let her know that I had intended to purchase tickets for Wicked, but she now had the certificate to use for anything she wanted.

Finally, our gift for Mr. Coyote's parents. In true procrastinator fashion Mr. Coyote put off purchasing gifts for his parents until less than a week before the wedding. My blood pressure definitely rose during those final days, but like always he pulled through at the last minute with a gift certificate to Half Moon... A freakin' gorgeous restaurant located on the Hudson River that his parents' have always raved about.

Image via Half Moon Restaurant

We absolutely loved picking out gifts for our parents and even though it's peanuts compared to what they have done for us, we hope they enjoy them! Did you give wedding gifts to your parents? 

Have A Drink on Me

Hello there Hive! Mr. Coyote and I are back from our wonderful honeymoon and even though we loved every minute of it we're ready to get back to normal (or as normal as it can get in the Coyote household). Before I jump into our honeymoon recaps I have a few pre-wedding things that I never had a chance to share with you! Well, technically that's a lie. I did have time to share this upcoming post with you, but I have a few family members and close friends who read Weddingbee and I really wanted to surprise them with their gifts! 

What wasn't a surprise was that I covered the cost of having the ladies' hair done professionally, but that was really more of a gift for me than anyone else so I wanted to give them something a little bit more personal and tangible. First, I used a Vistaprint Groupon to purchase personalized tote bags for each of them:

I kinda left this project for the last minute and only managed to snap a photo of two of the six totes before they were packed away. Each tote had a design that reflected their personality and their name printed along the bottom.

Then I filled the bags with a bottle of wine and a bag of Godiva truffles (yum!). I figured I was all set with gifts for my ladies until I saw this tutorial and decided that I needed to jazz the wine bottles up a bit (but I didn't get nearly as detailed). I simply removed the original wine label and used some of the leftover card stock from our invitations to make this:

We debated a bit on what to get the guys, but ultimately decided to go in a similar route. We picked up a 6-pack of their favorite beer, but instead of chocolates we thought pretzels might be a better pair for the beer. Again, this was another last minute project so unfortunately there aren't many photos to share.

The cost was a little lower than what we spent on the ladies so to even things out a bit we also purchased some cuff links for the dudes. And not just any cuff links. I scoured Etsy to find cuff links that reflected the personality of our guys.

For my little bro we found these hilarious pug cuff links because the kid is OBSESSED with pugs. I mean, who wouldn't be? They're adorable!

And Groomsman J has hopped on the mustache trend.

So we found mustache cuff links.

And Best Man M… Well, Best Man M may have the received the best cuff links of them all. 

Image via The Clay Collection on Etsy

Of course, this will only make sense if you are familiar with the Umbrella Corporation. Best Man M is seriously one of the biggest Resident Evil fans around. In fact, for his 30th birthday his girlfriend ordered him a Resident Evil cake, which was of course hilarious and delicious.

We certainly had fun assembling these gifts so hopefully all of our friends are having a drink on us right this minute!

Have you thought about wedding party gifts yet?

BOOM! Married.

By the time you read this Mr. Coyote and I will be on our way to the fabulous Jamaica for our honeymoon. And even though I've slept a total of five hours in the past three days and I still have to finish packing, I just wanted to pop back in to write my first post as a Mrs. (And share some guest photos of course!)

Our wedding day was absolutely magical and better than anything I could have ever dreamed up for myself.

(Guest Photo)

At one point during our reception Mr. Coyote looked at me and said, "The word surreal has never had so much meaning to me."

(Guest Photo)

Our ceremony was so, so beautiful and heartfelt (I literally sobbed through the entire thing) and then we partied like freakin' rockstars at the reception. Our guests had so much fun that many of them came up to us at the end of the night and told us that we should get married every year. I think I could get on board with that. ;-)

(Guest Photo)

Our awesome photographers have promised us a quick turn around on our photos so I can't wait to get started on recaps, but in the meantime I have so many great things to share with you when I return! See you guys next week!