Telling the Truth Hurts

Ever since the Man moved from his hometown to mine I remembered him going on and on about how he wants to go scuba diving. We talked about going in Jamaica before we even stepped on the plane. We were looking forward to it a lot. The second day we were there we went and signed up to do it the following day.

They had us fill out a questionnaire and told us to be truthful on it. The man went through and marked no's on every question, while I had one yes. One. I used to have asthma when I was a kid. It was mostly animal induced from the pet hair in the house from our cat and two dogs which I was highly allergic to. BUT since I marked a yes, they told me I couldn't go!

I was told I couldn't go unless I got a note from my doctor telling them I was physically fit enough to go. They told me I could have it faxed over. I called my doctors office to see if they could fax a note over, but they were closed for the week on Vacation.

I decided it wasn't meant to be for me for some reason and told the Man that he should still go! He was hesitant since it was our honeymoon, but I knew it was something he was dying to do and the prices were pretty good in Jamaica.

So he decided to go and he had an amazing time. He was gone for half the day, but the smile on his face afterwards was totally worth it. He told me he didn't think I would have liked it because I have slight anxiety and he thought it def would have caused an attack, so I'm glad I didn't go.
The Man had a great time, saw a lot of cool fish and would suggest it to everyone.

A man of many surprises

After our afternoon tryst in the pool playing Volleyball, we headed back to the room for some showering action before heading off to dinner. The Man suggested that we dress up, so I got out a dress and he put on his only dress shirt he brought, the Hawaiian one. What I didn't know was that the Man had set up a surprise dinner on the beach for us weeks ago. After we had gotten ready, the Man suggested making ourselves a drink from our fully stocked bar/fridge before heading off to dinner. Soon after we made a drink there was a knock on the door.


We were met by our server for the evening and she asked us to follow her. Of course, at this point I had begun to figure out he had a little surprise up his sleeve. We were brought to a very pretty table set up on the beach with an excellent view of the sunset.

(Photos taken by our server)

They even drew a heart in the sand and filled it with rose petals. It was romantic.

Our server got our meal choices for the evening and took off to have them prepared. While we were waiting Sandals staff decided to take our pictures which we were then allowed to buy before leaving sandals (they charge you an arm and a leg, but then again they are there documenting your honeymoon so who wouldn't want the pictures?) Please excuse my fluffy hair, as I did not have my hair straightener and it was beyond humid there!

They had us pose and somehow I thought the pictures would come out better than they did, but then again I am not very photogenic and we did get some cute ones!



The server came back and sold us a bottle of wine which was the same exact bottle of wine they restock our fridge with in our room for FREE everyday. It was not good wine either. I was a little annoyed that they charged us for it and wished I had just gone back to the room and grabbed our bottle! But it was my fault for wanting wine, I should have known better. Other than that, the dinner on the beach was great. I won't bore you with the details but the food was delicious, the sunset was amazing and the sand flies were biting!

Yes, I said sand flies. There were no mosquito's there, but they had something worse. Sand Flies! Those things are viscous!

Anyone else encounter something different on their honeymoon?

The thing about rooms

The thing about rooms is that if you aren't happy you have to switch rooms to make it better. We had to switch rooms 4 times. 4 times! The first room smelled of paint, so they moved us upstairs. The second room wasn't a walk out terrace room (which is what we paid for), the third room smelled of paint again (they did recognize their mistake and moved us one more time). After the 4th move, I was FINALLY able to unpack my clothes and hang them up so they didn't wrinkle more than they already were! Besides the whole room smelling like paint and musical rooms debacle, Sandals was fabulous.

After we finally settled into our room we went down to the beach to relax finally. The weather was warm, sunny, and humid. The water was warm like bath water and clear-very clear and very turquoise. So pretty!

Soon after we went in to try the water out we heard bunches of people talking about the jellyfish. Which in turn freaked me out. One of the couples started saying there was one right there- and I got curious. I wanted to see what it looked like so i could avoid them. Well people, they are clear and very hard to see and while I was inspecting the one that everyone was looking at another one happened to brush up upon my leg. It did not feel good at all. I was in pain and wanted out of the water.

The man didn't think I could have gotten stung because he didn't see anything in the water and he was right there and did not get stung, but I did. I had the huge red line on my leg to prove it. The jellyfish sting left a large red welt and once that went down a red line stayed for weeks. The pain eventually went away and I think I got brushed up against and not fully stung, but oh how even that hurt.

Of course, my first time in the Caribbean ocean and I have to go and get stung by a jellyfish!

After the jellyfish incident, I didn't want to go back in the ocean for the rest of the day, so we headed over to one of the pools to relax and ended up doing something we hadn't done in years



We joined some other couples and played a little pool volleyball! That's us on the left. I had so much fun.

Then the man made me get out of the pool and told me he had a surprise for me.... I was intrigued. It had been quite the day already and we headed off to go and shower up and get ready for the surprise.

And here is the rest of it.

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?

Vows with a View: The Party Must go on

I had just finished returning to the reception from the bathroom. I didn't think I had been gone THAT long, but when I returned there were a bunch of people missing, including my groom.

My mom came over and told me she didn't want to worry me but that one of the guests had some kind of allergic reaction and they took her to the hospital and her parents left with her. If only i'd been around when it happened I could have let her borrow my epi-pen. To this day we aren't sure what she ate that made her have a reaction. She said she only had some cheese which she's never had a problem with before and then before you know it she was having a horrible reaction!

That explained the ambulance and missing people, but there were still quite a few not in the room, including my groom.

My mom then continued to tell me that someone else had a heart attack. She wasn't sure who he was because he was on my Groom's side, but that explained where my new husband was.

My hubby used to be a first responder and so was his father, so when Guest R had the heart attack they responded and brought him outside and administered 1st aid until the ambulance came. He left by ambulance with his wife and was admitted to the hospital where they ran all sorts of tests and kept him overnight.

I wasn't quite sure what to do at that point. Who has a reception that has two people taken away by ambulance in the first few minutes of the party?

My groom came back inside shortly after and we did what any couple could do that just got married and had two horrible events take place. We continued to celebrate our marriage.

As it turns out, both guests were fine! The girl with the allergy was released later that evening and Guest R with the heart attack was released the next day, not knowing what really happened. They said he didn't really have a heart attack, but they didn't have an explanation for what happened to him.

Have any of your guests had to leave by ambulance?

Vows with a View: The Party DRama

After months and months of planning the wedding, we finally tied the knot, and we were looking forward to a nice relaxing evening of celebrating to top off the perfect day. What we got was a whole lot of interesting stories to tell.

After we were introduced as Mr. & Mrs. Roser,

We went right into our first dance which we dance to Big and Rich's "Lost in this moment" and tried to imagine that we were not being stared at by a hundred of our guests.

It was our first "real" moment alone together all day. We talked, we laughed, we swayed the the music, we smooched.



It was great.

After our dance I stole Partner in Crime and MOH Cooper to help me out of the most uncomfortable shoes I've ever worn (they sure were cute though)!

but mostly I needed their help peeing. I had been holding it since Right Before the ceremony began and it was esential that I release it. We decided the best way to accomplish this task-since we all had rooms- was to go to MOH's room (closest) and just get naked. I stepped out of my dress, and took off my slip and ran to the bathroom. I decided my slip was making me way to hot on the dance floor and opted not to put it back on. MOH and Partner in Crime zipped me back into my dress and this was the way I went to the bathroom all night.

This process had taken a little while and by the time I got back to the reception area, there were a bunch of people missing (including the Man) and shortly after that something else was there-something we were not expecting to see at our reception:

Oh-you want to know what happened? Well, you are going to have to wait in suspense...just like I had to.

Did you have any unexpected events occur at your wedding/reception?

Vows With a View: Details

While the bridal party, family and I were out finishing off our formal shots outside, the guests wandered inside for the cocktail hour where they enjoyed some drinks and appetizers! We had our own butler outside that delivered us each a drink and walked around with food-but not wanting to get any stuck in our teeth while we were picture taking, sadly, we did not get to enjoy any appetizers.

The gift table was all set up in the cocktail room, and it looked fabulous. I updated my card box with some thicker ribbon and added some butterflys at the last minute. In front of that you can see my completed guest book that I refabed. Just to the left of the guest book, you can see our ring bowl I bought off of etsy. I was happy to be able to have the ring bowl for the future, however, it did not survive our rambunctious ringbearer and got broke that day. Hope that's not a sign of bad luck!

The name cards I worked so hard on (right before our computer broke-I was glad I had finished them) The different colored paper stood for the three different food options we had (Chicken, pork and filet mignon). I love how cute these looked all set up!


After we were done with our formal pictures, Roberta, our wedding coordinator (assigned by the hotel, who I LOVED) snuck me away to have the first glimpse of the room after it was all set up.

I walked into the room and saw this:

and this:

Our Sweetheart Table:

Close up of the Table Numbers, Candles, and Favors:

Inside the favors:

My mom had bought us the customized M & M's for the favors. Thanks Ma-they were sweet.

The hotel Staff had set up the whole room exactly how I had asked. They did a GREAT job. I was blown away with how beautiful it all looked and how well my vision had pieced together.I was even more surprised when Roberta said to me that our wedding was probably the priettiest wedding she'd ever seen (and she'd been working there for 20 years). She told me that a lot of the brides didn't put much effort into it, not like I had, and it made me feel very proud to have been blessed with the crafty gene and able to create something so beautiful.

Did your reception look the way you had envisioned it?

Vows With a View: The formal us

This post is picture heavy with some of our formal shots of us. Our photographers Emily Johnston and Mary McDowel, certainly did capture some beauties.



The man doesn't like this one-but I think it's cute!



My Fave.



The Man's Fave.







We out.
Up next, the party and the drama begins.