Love Under the Moon: It's Go Time!

I woke up Friday morning with adrenaline coursing through my body. Pre-wedding jitters had officially kicked in and I was ready to go-go-go. I packed up all my things since I was staying at the hotel for the next two nights and then leaving directly for Westchester on Sunday morning. It was a strange feeling leaving my parents' house that morning. Even though I technically hadn't lived there since I was 18 it was still very surreal knowing that the next time I walked through the door I would be a married lady.

The rehearsal wasn't until 4 PM so everyone split up. Momma Coyote, MOH D and I had to pick up a few things and then had an appointment for mani-pedis. Mr. Coyote was in charge of checking into the hotel and transporting the gifts for our wedding party as well as some last minute items like our guestbook, wine box and marriage certificate. Then he was meeting our out-of-town groomsmen so they could pick up their tuxedos.

All day I was on high alert. I was certain that whatever went wrong that day was going to be a sign of things to come. I was so worried about forgetting something or being late that I just could not relax. Instead of just enjoying the moment I was constantly checking the clock and thinking about the next thing that needed to be done. After a while I'm pretty sure my attitude started to rub off on my companions (sorry Mom!).

After all that worrying we did in fact make it to the hotel with plenty of time to get ready – meanwhile Mr. Coyote and the guys were still at the tux shop! After Thursday's shenanigans I kinda saw this coming, but there was nothing that could be done. The guys arrived back at the hotel around 3:45 which would have been perfect... If everyone was dressed. Instead, all the guys scurried back to their hotel rooms to change while the handful of people who were ready headed across the street to Franklin Plaza. Ready or not, it was time to start our rehearsal.

Unfortunately I don't have any photos of this part of the day because I was too wigged out to break out the camera... That was going to slow us down! Fortunately, I did manage to relax enough to snap some photos during the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, so stick with me!

Miss a recap?

•  I babble about being married and share our wedding video.
• We finish up some last minute wedding tasks and I have complete breakdown.

Love Under the Moon: Chaos Ensues

The week before our wedding was complete insanity. It all started Tuesday night when we loaded up the car and prepared for our three hour trip upstate. Mr. Coyote was having unexplainable back pains, I hadn't slept in two days due to nerves and we left way later than expected. We spent most of the car ride arguing over things that I can't even remember now and didn't get to my parents' house until 1 AM. Ouch. On Wednesday we were still a bit huffy with each other, but there was no time for bickering. I had a dentist appointment and we still had to purchase the gifts for our wedding party. In between all that we also managed to squeeze in our first (and only) dance lesson!

Honestly, the day wasn't too crazy and the dance lesson helped loosen us up and forget about our early arguments. But our to-do list for Thursday kept growing and I was starting to feel the pressure. I was looking forward to getting everything over with early in the day so I could relax in the afternoon with Mr. Coyote and MOH D.

Right. Thursday morning we headed out to pick up our marriage license. Also a disaster. The woman entered everything into the computer sooooo slooooowly and messed up the form like three times and had to start allllll over again. It was excruciating.

No, seriously. Are we done here yet?!

We finally finished up and booked it to the tux shop so Mr. Coyote could pick up his tux. I didn't really start to freak out until about halfway through the tux appointment. What I thought was going to be a 30 minute fitting turned into an hour and a half ordeal. While I appreciate that they were so thorough with us I still do not understand what the fuck they were doing back there. Did they sew him an entirely new tuxedo?! To this day, I am not completely sure what happened. All I know is that we were way behind whatever arbitrary schedule I made up in my head and had reached my limit for the day.

And that was when Mr. Coyote informed me that he had no clothes for the honeymoon. Now, I know my darling husband is a procrastinator. Most of the time it is quite endearing and I just roll my eyes at him like any loving wife would do. But seriously?! It was two days before the wedding and my patience was spent. I wanted to be at home, relaxing and basking in my last few days as a bride. (Spoiler alert: That didn't happen.)

Instead we spent the next two hours clothes shopping for Mr. Coyote. Meanwhile my maid of honor (who was oblivious to the chaos that was my life) was texting me every half hour asking why I wasn't hanging out in the pool with her. And with every text that came in I became more and more stressed out and eventually took it all out on Mr. Coyote because ALL I WANTED TO DO WAS HANG OUT IN THE POOL WITH MY MAID OF HONOR BUT MY FUTURE HUSBAND WAS A FREAKIN' TOOLFACE WHO DECIDED TO GO CLOTHES SHOPPING TWO DAYS BEFORE HIS WEDDING.

Deep breaths.

Eventually I ate a sandwich and calmed the eff down. Mr. Coyote purchased an entirely new wardrobe, we finished wrapping all of the wedding party gifts and I poured myself glass of wine. Actually it was more like five glasses of wine, but it's okay because my maid of honor came over, my brother acted like a complete idiot to cheer me up (or because he was also drunk. I'm really not sure. Let's just go with the first one.) and all was right with the world.

He's special.

Were the days leading up to your wedding super stressful? Did you fight with your fiance over stupid things like clothes shopping and tuxedo fittings a few days before your wedding?

Miss a recap?

• I babble about being married and share our wedding video.

Love Under the Moon: The Coyote Wedding

Last week Mr. Coyote and I celebrated our one month anniversary as a married couple. It's hard to believe that just over a month ago we stood up in front of all our friends and family to proclaim our love for each other and commitment to one another. It was hands down the happiest and most beautiful day of my life (so far!).

Photo by Upstate Photographers

In the past month the question I have fielded most often is, "Do you feel any different?" and my immediate answer is always no. After all, we have been dating for seven years and living together for five years. Our routine is the same, our apartment is the same, and our lives were already intertwined in such an intimate way. What could possibly be different?

(Guest Photo) / Yep, we are still this goofy.

But then somewhere between the honeymoon and the thank you notes and the boxes of wedding gifts I stopped and realized that I do feel different. And although I have always prided myself on my writing I find that words escape me when I try to describe exactly what it is that is different. It is a feeling. A feeling like I have never experienced before. I honestly did not believe that after seven years I could love or care for Mr. Coyote any deeper than I already did. But I do. I feel stronger, happier and more committed to Mr. Coyote than I ever did before. I know that I am getting all mushy on you guys and starting to ramble, so I am just going to wrap this up by saying that being married is friggin' awesome!!

 Photo by Upstate Photographers / Soooo awesome!

Now that that's out of the way, I would like to start off the Coyote recaps with our beautiful highlights video. A video that shows the emotions of the day better than any words could possibly describe and STILL makes me bawl every time I watch it:

Cristina & Jason, Marry Me from Dennis R Shaw, Shaw Video Prod on Vimeo.

Alright you guys... Let's do this thing!

Coyotes Couple Up: Relaxation

When we weren't working on zero hours of sleep or exploring the resort we were relaxing. After a few days of acclimating to the resort we fell into a lazy routine. Breakfast began with room service to our room (which was part of the all-inclusive package) and brought out to our balcony.

We chose an oceanfront room and are so glad we did because of this view:

(Sorry for the shady photo smooshing. You guys get the picture, right?!) After breakfast we would do some wandering to walk off all of the delicious food and eventually headed to the beach. The beach at San Souci is very small, but we never once had a problem finding a nice spot to chill.

Look at all those empty chairs!

After a few hours of lounging we would mosey back to our room to shower and get ready for whatever evening activities we had in store. Because we told the resort we were honeymooners one evening we arrived to this delicious spread:

Just a note: There is an au-naturel beach at this resort. We did not take advantage of it since we're a little bashful. Instead we saved the au-naturel portion of our honeymoon for our hotel suite (in particular our sexy jacuzzi tub). ;)

Anyways! After 6:00 PM the au-natural beach was no longer au-naturel and if you wandered in at just the right time you were treated to the most fabulous sunset.

Once the sun went down it was time to feast. There were three different restaurants on the resort (two of which required reservations) and on Tuesday and Friday nights the restaurants would close up shop for resort-wide dinners.

The food was absolutely phenomenal, but my favorite night by far was a little non-inclusive extra we splurged on: a private dinner on the beach. It was a bit pricey, but honestly SO worth it. We were treated to a five course meal and our own personal attendant. It was definitely the most beautiful, romantic part of our honeymoon. We were greeted with candles lining the way to our private table:

A beautifully decorated table for two:

And it was all just steps away from the ocean:

So dreamy.

That pretty much wraps up our honeymoon recaps. Mr. Coyote and I had an absolutely amazing time and would definitely recommend Couples San Souci to anyone planning a trip to Jamaica. The grounds were pristine, the staff was always accommodating and there was always plenty to do (or not do, in our case!).

Our wedding photos are on their way so stay tuned for the official Coyote wedding recaps!

Coyotes Couple Up: Exploration

After we awoke from our coma we began to explore the grounds. Even though we stayed for ten days we never once left the resort. We actually didn't plan it this way -- we arrived at the resort with the same mindset as Mrs. Mink and decided that as soon as we got bored we would start looking at the different excursions the resort offered. The thing is, there were so many great things to do right on the property that we never got bored and never felt the need to do anything "extra"!

Couples San Souci is known for being one of the more secluded Couples resorts. There were so many nooks and crannies to explore that we often would just wander around the resort.

We even made a few friends...

And there were always activities happening throughout the day to keep us entertained.

We actually surprised ourselves by never leaving the resort. We thought that we would get bored at some point, but honestly after all the long nights and stressful days leading up the wedding it was nice to just wander around and unwind.

What kind of honeymoon are you looking forward to? Relaxing? Adventurous? Maybe a little bit of both?!