And if we do, Where?

Despite the despair and confusion in my last post about the honeymoon, we actually have a few good ideas of where to spend this 3-4 night mini-moon! I'm going to list these in order from most-probable to mostly wishful thinking.

As a side note, we agreed pretty early on that we want our honeymoon (preferably scenic) to be 75% relaxation, 25% adventure. If you read my last post, you'll know why. Spoiler Alert: Sh*ts about to get real hectic.

1. Austin's Hill Country

Images by Classeguide

Austin is only about a 3.5 hour drive (and one we and GM T make frequently). The hills of Austin are gorgeous, and Austin has some pretty-impressive resorts available. Given the Manatee's fondness for drink, downtown has unlimited nightlife and activities to keep us busy for the 25% adventure. Cheap, close and hello. Its Austin. Need I say more? However, we've also been there many times. Is this the most exciting option? No.

2. The Oregon Coast

Img by Tripadvisor

Img by Walldesk

I hate to admit this, but Twilight had some seriously jaw-dropping scenary. I investigated where it was filmed. If you guessed Washington, that is incorrect. Oregon. Also partly filmed in British Columbia,which is absolutely breathtaking in general. That is, if I'm allowed to make generalizations about a part of Canada where I was born and spent half my life. Because I'm a Canadian citizen. Am I getting off-topic? ANYWAY.

Oregon is gorgeous.

It has a beautiful coastline, Portland, canyons and mountains. Silver Falls State Park http://www.oregonstateparks.org/park_211.php has 10 waterfalls. 10. Oregon also has white-water rafting, which I fell in love with during my two week stint in Costa Rica, and the Mr. got a taste of during one of our trips to Colorado.
Can you tell I've got my fingers crossed for this one?

3. A 4-day Cruise to the Bahamas.

Img by Bahamas Air Charter

My father used to travel quite a bit for his old job, and has quite a bit of travel points saved up. He has offered that we could use some of these travel points either for a cruise or (since the best cruises leave from Florida)  flights to a cruise. I've never been on a cruise (although Mr. Manatee has) and transportation and meals are mostly included! The bad side is, unless you want to just wander around on shore or stay on the boat forever, excursions are expensive. Also, Mr. Manatee has already been to the Bahamas (spoiled!) and we kind of want to go somewhere we've either both have or havent been to. That way neither of us will be too "been there, done that" about it.

Right now, the bahamas actually seems like the least tempting option! I never would have expected that.

Did you investigate non-conventional honeymoons?

Will We or Wont We?

No, this post is not about (in my opinion, WAY over discussed) wedding night sex.

This post is about the honeymoon!

Now when I first told people I was getting married during nursing school, I got a mixed bag of reactions: Mostly polite congratulations, some crazy looks, and just a little even flat-out-rude discouragement. I was originally  I think I'm getting a slight idea about why.

My particular nursing program is a 15 month 'fast-track' program, which means we pretty much go continuously for 3 month sessions with one week break inbetween. Guess which week DOESN'T fall on a break! Of course, the week after our wedding! Since it's a fairly newish program not particularly known its communication skills, my desperate pleas for information about this summer's schedule have been met with  a whole bunch of 'we're not really sure yet." The good news is, this program is online with 1-2 full days of clinicals (school time spent with real patients) a week. They THINK clinicals that semester 'might be on Tuesdays, but dont count on it" and there are rumors that we have a test every week. Joking, (or am I?) I may need some serious xanax that week.

Img by Some Ecards

Deep breath!

Because of this, we've decided that IF a honeymoon is gonna go down, it's going to be a mini-moon!

Here are some worst-case scenarios:
1. In the case that clinicals are ACTUALLY on Tuesdays, either head straight from the hospital to the airport (worst, worst case) or fly out bright and early Wednesday morning (slightly better). Study on the plane there/back for a hopefully non-existant test that next Monday. Damn.
2. Throw caution to the wind and re-schedule/skip clinical. Live in a bubble for the rest of the semester to prevent getting sick ever/having to miss another one.
3. Fake death. Go on mini-moon and never come back.
4. World ends on December 21st, situation becomes null and void.

Best case scenarios (unlikely)
1. No clinical that week. No test either. Best week of my life.
2. The nursing department decides that a mini-moon is a completely acceptable reason to miss 3-4 of material and I get off scott-free.

Also, since we'll have spent pretty much every dime we've ever earned on our wedding, we're largely relying on Mr. Manatee's Fancy New Job sign on bonus (which we may not even get in time) and hope that our guests continue to react positively to our Honeyfund.
And yes, we're doing a honeyfund.

All these things/stressful roadblocks beg the question...Do we really need to have a 'honeymoon' right away? Besides, we've already been - wait for it - cohabitating/living together/LIVING IN SIN  (nobody faint!)for over a year now. If honeymoons are traditionally for 'exploration', that ship has sailed.

Img by cheezburger

The only saving grace to this situation is that the mini-moon in question is firmly in Mr. Manatee's territory, and once we get the go-ahead on any of the above-mentioned scenarios, he's going to be planning it.

In summary:
Like many bees before me, I'm left biting my fanga-nails to the quick and trying to convince myself that its totally okay that we may not have a honeymoon/minimoon....yet.

You lazy blogger, you! / We find a photog.

I, like Miss Otter, have been on a little blogging hiatus due to a new job!! In addition to my original hospital, I picked up a job at a county hospital in Dallas! I adore my previous job working with mothers/infants and will stay PRN (very very part time, for non-medical folk!), but this new job is a really great career move. The transition has been time consuming, but exciting!

Anyway! I've teased a lot about our amazing photographer, but it's time for the reveal!

As I mentioned in my Risky Business post, I was totally in love with the photography of Jonathan Ivy and Allison Davis, but it just wasn't in the budget :(

I had actually heard of a photography company based in my high school hometown, Mansfield.  Daydream Photography was fairly new at the time that I contacted them. Small world - the photography assistant used to date one of my guy friends in high school. My younger brother's friend had their senior pictures done by them, and they recommended them. They mostly did senior pictures and family portraits, so I was skeptical. Sure enough, they did weddings too!

Photography by Daydream Photography

Photography by Daydream Photography

 I exchanged a few emails back and forth with the owner, and he was awesome! We had an in-person meeting at his studio, and he was always quick to respond to my emails (a big plus for me). He was willing to give us the printing rights as part of our package, and his prices were excellent. I was really hoping for someone who specialized in wedding photography, but with our small budget we were staying open-minded! I had a good feeling about it, but kept my options open.

I looked and looked and looked. I googled, I asked around, I flipped through countless wedding magazines, and haunted Weddingwire and The Knot.

I think everyone goes through a knot.com phase. Its so exciting, with the little countdown and the seemingly endless vendors! I dont know about you guys...but I grew disenchanted with the Knot very quickly. Checking out the $ page for photographers, I got well...nothing. Nothing really good, anyway. If my memory serves me right, The Knot insisted that only  4 photographers in ALL of DFW were in our price range. I checked out the first 3 web pages, found nothing special, and closed the page. I wish I had clicked on the 4th, because she ended up being our photographer!

Later in my search, I came across June Bug Company.

All photography by June Bug Company

Seriously, I had a hard time even picking just 3 to post on here.

This is really where 'getting in on the ground floor' really, really, really helps. Nadia had been in non-wedding photography for a while, when another photographer called asking for her help shooting a wedding. After that, she couldn't get enough. She'd only been on her own doing purely wedding photography since the end of 2010. But she is holy-crap amazing. Since we booked her, she's been featured in several magazines, added an unbelievable amount of weddings to her gallery and has just gotten better by the day. I love that she captures a sense of fun in all of her pictures!

Funny story, when we decided to meet at Starbucks after a flurry of emails, I almost missed her! She was the tiniest little person (although, that's compared to me at almost 5'10), and looked about 21. The meeting was supposed to be quick, but we were there at least an hour, we just clicked!  The funny thing is, we both thought we were drastically younger than we are! I kept talking about graduation, and eventually she just looked at me with a totally straight face like "You seem really mature, but your parents are okay with you getting married in high school?" I thought I was going. to. die. laughing. I guess she thought I was like, 16. (Its probably the freckles!) I told her that was okay, since I thought she looked like she was still in college! 

She was a little over our budget, but we negotiated a package to include two photographers instead of one and an engagement shoot. We even kept the option open for a boudoir, ow ow! ;)

I couldn't be happier! Did you bond right away with your photographer?

In Lieu of Paper Sacks

I want my girls to look good. Like "I feel like a rockstar" good. Seriously! I'm not the kind of bride that is secretly plotting to make my ladies look a mess so that I'll look better by proxy. Hive, that is tacky. Also, no one wants to $100-$300 on a dress that they hate. I don't even like spending that much on dresses I like.

But when I originally asked my bridesmaids what kind of dresses they were thinking about for the wedding, they were totally wonderful....but also very vague. They assured me that "they'd wear a paper sack if I wanted them to". Well, hive, I'm here to announce the official cure for well-intentioned "I'll wear whatever you want" bridesmaids! Spoiler alert: Terrorize them with pictures like this.

Img via RackedNY

I had had some ideas before, mostly Pinterest inspired, but I was torn between matching and mismatching dresses. To add even more indecision, 'mismatched' also has about 10 different ways TO mismatch.

Our only confirmed wedding colors are blue and gray. It just so happened that my favorite inspirations were usually one or the other of these colors. I also knew I would really life them in soft, light fabrics like chiffon. I wasn't sure if I preferred that they be long or short, just that they all chose long or all chose short. I loved 'matching' options like these...

Image via Style Me Pretty

Img via Em for Marvelous

But then the mismatching options were cute too....

Img via Style Me Pretty Photography by Jen Fariello

Img via Princess Wedding Styles

I loved that the mismatched options also worked really well with my ombre theme!

In case your head is spinning with options like mine was, I found this awesome blog post with examples of each mismatched 'style'. I posted this link to my "Bridesmaids!" Facebook group (which I would highly recommend!) to clear things up so they could choose their favorite!

I polled my bridesmaids, and they actually unanimously picked long dresses over short. They also liked the same color, different dress idea! Now just to decide on blues or grays!

Next we'll try some on!