Our first Valentines Day as a married couple

Generally, I don't go gaga over Valentines Day. It’s always kind of been a thorn in my side.

Background: When my ex-husband and I decided to get married, I thought Valentines was perfect – turn a kind of crappy holiday into a special day. I was SO wrong about that (please listen to me and NEVER, NEVER schedule your wedding for Valentines Day. Yes, my ex was pretty scummy and I should have known he’d leave me – but do you know how BAD Valentines Day was for a few years after the divorce?!)

Anyway, so even though I got over hating the day, I still wasn’t too excited about it, even when Mr. S and I got together. Our first V-Day, he was really sweet and went all out. Last year I got roses, and a diamond bracelet, but then since we had kids it was a “crowded” dinner out at a family restaurant (I know, I really shouldn’t complain).

This year, I felt like I should step it up, do a really nice “wifey” thing and plan the day. Although because of a STUPID wrestling tournament for the boys scheduled on the 14th (who the heck does that?!), we’ll celebrate on the 13th.

No, peeking honey....

Budget

I know that in my grandmother's age, it was rude to talk about money.  But this day in age, I think information is the key.  So, to help those of you out there planning a wedding and who want to know how much things cost, here is a budget I submitted a while ago to Weddingbee for Real Readers's Budgets, but it was never posted.  Hopefully it will help you out in your planning process.

Vendor Review

I had my wedding in Okoboji Iowa, but I used many local vendors in Omaha while planning.


Venue: Gull Point State Park (Lake Okoboji) Super simple to work with and a beautiful location. It is self service though, so unless you have a wedding planner, you’ll have to do all the set-up/cleaning yourself. A+

Caterer: Yesterday's (Okoboji) So, So GOOD! Dwayne was so much fun to work with and he and his staff did an EXCELLENT job. A++

(Dwayne is standing behind me in the kitchen)

Sugardoll Award

I started browsing new blogs and found this:
Mireya over at :: Pearls and Such:: has given me the Sugar Doll Award (almost two months ago)! I just found her blog, but she’s been following mine for awhile. She has a great blog and tons of yummy recipes I’ve found (there goes my new year’s resolutions)!

The rules are: Post this award on my blog, write ten interesting facts about myself, and then pass it on to ten other bloggers, so here goes!

Honeymoon: Days 4 and 5

The fifth day was hard, for a few reasons. The first was that we knew it was our last full day there (we wanted to stay SO bad – forget the kids and our jobs). The second was because I woke up with a full-blown UTI. I’ve had a history of really bad ones and for a long time I was on a daily antibiotic to fend them off. I hadn’t renewed my prescription and I left what I had leftover at home. Grrr… I was in a lot of pain, but finally broke down and called room service (one perk for Concierge Level – fee room service) and asked for three large glasses of cranberry juice. I downed all those and kept going to the bathroom and I finally got it flushed out enough so I could walk without cramping over and didn’t have to pee anymore every five seconds. Whew! I wasn’t out of the woods, but at least it was somewhat better. Lesson learned: NEVER, NEVER leave your home without ALL your medications!

Anyway, we walked to breakfast; it was pretty humid out that day, as you can tell from the pictures.

Honeymoon: Days 3 and 4

Our third day of our honeymoon started off pretty slow. We took our time that morning getting started out for breakfast and then wandered around the resort checking out the shops and other things going on.

(Mr. S floating in the lagoon)

Honeymoon: Days 1 and 2

Our honeymoon to Riviera Maya, Mexico started VERY early on Monday. We got to the airport about 4:30 AM. Mr. S upgraded our flights to First class when he checked us in so that we didn’t have to worry about baggage fees and so that we’d have a little more comfort for our special trip. I’m so glad he did. Our first flight was on a little plane though, so no first class and it was delayed because of an engine issue. We were nervous because our next flight was only 50 minutes after our scheduled landing and we had to get across the airport. The stewardess assured us that we could probably make it and since there were 18 others on our flight going to the next flight, they’d probably even hold the plane. When we landed in Houston, we jumped off the plane and ran with some other couples to the next one; luckily we got to the next plane just fine. We had a really yummy breakfast on the plane and tried to get a little cat nap in, but we were too excited.