Welcome to Sandals Jamaica

Our road trip out to Negril Jamaica was a long and informative trip. I enjoyed learning about all of the little towns we drove through, but by the time we arrived I was so glad to have my feet on land again.

We went inside and were told to wait in the waiting room for our check in. They grouped a few couples together and while everyone else waited they were given a cold towel and a big cup of Rum Punch. I totally needed the punch after our day of travel.


We were finally brought up to check in and then we had to wait again for the rooms to be ready. All I wanted to do at that point was to go take a little nap in my bed, after all we had gotten up at 3am to start our trip. But I was hungry too, so I settled on going to the Island Grill for some grub while we waited.

It was humid, sunny, and BEAUTIFUL. The service was great. The people were friendly, the food was yummy and we were in Jamaica!


Soon after we were done eating, our room was ready.

The room was really nice and although smaller than I imagined, it had GREAT air conditioning. It felt so amazing after being out in the humid weather! Although I liked our room, the Man was not a fan of the paint smell that was slowly taking over the room. After a while it started to cause me to get a head ache too. And so, we went to do the one thing we didn't want to do, complain! The staff was really sweet and changed us to a different room, but it was not a walk out balcony room like we had before, so they said the next night we would have switch rooms again.

Since we couldn't unpack, we relaxed, had some drinks, enjoyed the view

and just took in the fact that we started out the day in NY and ended the day being in Jamaica!

And We're Off

After all the stress of planning our wedding, the man and I were soooooooooooo looking forward to getting out of town for our fabulous honeymoon.

We had decided we didn't want to do anything for ourselves on the honeymoon and wanted to be pampered for a whole week so we looked into an all inclusive honeymoon spot. After much contemplation and months of indecision, we settled on Sandals in Negril Jamaica.We had narrowed it down to Jamaica but there were several all-inclusive resorts in Jamaica so we headed over to TripAdvisor and looked up all the places. Negril had some fabulous reviews and so it was decided.

I was both excited and nervous. Excited because we were going on our honeymoon, nervous because not only had I never been out of the country before, but I had never flown before. ever. You see, my mom HATES flying so we never went anywhere on vacation where we couldn't get to by car.The anticipation of flying was causing some serious nerves to erupt. The Man told me not to worry, and I tried not to, but of course it's not that easy.


As it turns out, Flying was a piece of cake. All that worrying for nothing! I didn't care much for taking off or landing, but once we were up in the air, I was completely at ease.

A few hours after we took flight, we landed in sunny, warm, humid Jamaica!

After going through customs, exchanging some American money for Jamaican (which you totally do NOT have to do-hey we didn't know), we were shuffled to a waiting room for Sandals guests where we were offered a beer-

Red Stripe, of course, while we waited. Once the Sandals shuttle arrived to take us to the hotel, our bags were taken out by a Currier who did not work for Sandals. They are not afraid to ask for tips in Jamaica and with the accent The man was having a hard time understanding what the Currier was saying. We paid the man and got in the shuttle.

I was not expecting the drive out to Negril to take another 2 hrs, but it did. And it was insane. The way they drive in Jamaica is VERY different from in the States, and outside of Montego Bay (where we flew into) there are not traffic lights. Basically they drive REALLY fast and beep their horns when they come up to an intersection-they don't even look or stop. The Man even said the driving was a bit psychotic.

While I didn't enjoy the way they drive there, I did enjoy the ride out to Negril. It gave us a chance to see the real Jamaica, not the commercialized Jamaica. I knew that it was a poor country, but it was really sad to see some of the places that people lived in. It really makes you appreciate all that you have here. The driver narrated a lot of the trip and told us all about each little village we were in which i loved hearing about.

Finally, the trip was over, and we had arrived in Sandals Negril.

Up next, our introduction to Sandals.

Vows with a View: Shake your groove thang

My DJ had a hard time getting people up and dancing- at first. Some of my friends and I had to be the first one's out there, enticing others to join us. Once people were on the dance floor, they stayed, and danced and danced and danced. My DJ did a great job keeping the beats flowing and everyone happy.

Some of the guests needed a little liquid encouragement, and it was Hot Mama's hubby to the rescue:


I loved that my aunts and uncles were out there shaking it

We knew our friends would be out there on the dance floor

And I didn't realize my parents would be dancing ALL NIGHT Long. They were so so so very cute!
In fact, my mama danced so much that she threw her hip out and couldn't walk for a week! Now that's commitment!

My new husband had no problem shaking his butt on my mama


Partner in Crime and I got down and dirty
And I'm not sure how it happened, but before we knew it a circle had formed and everyone took turns dancing through the middle. Sort of like a dancing initiation. This is my girl A and I working it in the center.

As the night went on, the dancing got a little naughty
I managed to save a few dances for my groom
Best. Night. Ever.

Vows With a View: Did someone say cake?

So I'm not sure how many or you know or not that I LOVED my cake baker. Okay, not loved so much that I wanted to marry him, but loved him in a close 2nd to that. I had a dream.... and apparently it was hard to fulfill the dream for some bakers, but I lucked out and hit the baker Jackpot.

Not only did I find a Baker that would work with my peanut/nut allergy, but I found a baker that had a cake plan that I never knew was possible, but that I jad always wanted.

I interviewed a few cake bakers before deciding who would be making our wedding cake. Basically, I knew before I met him that I would choose Jeremy. I had done some research online and found that Jeremy from Gambles has some pretty sweet reviews. In fact, I had pretty much bet that I would chose him just from the reviews I had read. However, I had a pretty big circumstance I was hoping he would be able to guarantee.........

When I met Jeremy I never expected him to know what kind of cake I wanted. My groom doesn't really like cake, so I brought my mama and MOH Cooper along with me. I guess I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted my cake to look like at the moment. I knew I wanted it to taste fantastic, but I was sort of all over the place with cakes.

I brought several pictures of cakes I was interested in with me to the meeting. Jeremy laughed at me and told me my cakes were all so different from each other that he didn't know what I wanted. I told him the important things to me were that the cake was not plain (ie: textured), that it was round, and that it had some butterfly's. Jeremy showed me a picture of a cake that he pontially had on order from a bride and I knew right then it was the one!

I'm not going to lie, I was NOT disappointed and I LOVED my cake:



Not only was the detail impeccable, but the taste was oh so amazing. Jeremy gave me what I wanted exactly with looks and taste. what more could you ask for?

Ummm, do you see how excited I am to cut this cake:


I didn't even get to eat my cake, but I am excited about the top layer we froze (which is raspberry with white chocolate filling) for our 1 yr anniversary!

We decided not to smash the cake in each other's faces but to nicely feed each other the piece:

Somehow the Man and I ended up with a little frosting on ourselves but whatever........

at least he cleaned me off. And the guests all raved about how yummy the cake was!

Up next-dance moves?

Vows With a View: So You Think You Can Dance?

After the drama of our guests being taken away by ambulance, my groom came back in and so did everyone else that was attending the "fallen" guests and we did what everyone wanted us to do, we continued the party.

First things first, we needed a little help relaxing after the drama of the night before, the excitement of the ceremony being "real" and the drama of the guests being taken away by ambulance, so my groom and I headed to the bar to get a little helper.

And we were ready to get the party started after that.

My daddy and I danced to "I loved her first" He picked the song and I knew it would make we cry. Instead of crying I talked to him the whole time, and we joked and laughed and had a great time.

Towards the end of our dance together my dad passed me over to my new groom, and he took my mom in his arms. It was a nice way to symbolize of his acceptance of my new hubby.


And my Hubby had decided to let his mama pick the song he'd dance to as well (2 less decisions for us to make) and she chose Josh Grobin's "You raise me up"


And with all the formal dances done and over, it was time for something really yummy.
Up next-Did someone say Cake?