I just got married on January 14 and had a wonderful wedding and honeymoon in Belize.  Now I'm back at work and the reality of changing my last name is slapping me in the face.  While I am totaly excited about marrying the love of my life, I am struggling with changing my name.  My first step was changing it on Facebook and it literally made my stomach hurt!  I am going to do it but I guess it won't be easy.  

How do you all feel about this?  

Also, if you use an email signature at work, are your going to reflect your maiden name until people get used to your new last name?  Colleagues recommended listing my new name with my maiden name in paranthesis such as: Jane Smith (Doe)

The day started off with me waking up in the bridal suite, looking out the window and seeing snow. It was a dream come true! (We had a bit of freezing rain but the snow stayed at the reception site all day!) Hair and makeup went well, except I left my flower for my hair back at the hotel! My hairdresser was nice enough to drive there to get it while I was getting my makeup done! What a life savor! I also remembered that I had the ceremony programs and frantically had to call my sister-in-law and ask her to drive to bridal suite, get them, and take them to the guys so they could bring them to the church.

We had pictures taken with us getting ready and then formals with the girls. We waited for the limo to arrive and it felt like we waited forever. We were actually about 20 minutes behind schedule but it was okay. The only real downside to being behind schedule was that we had to pay an extra $35 for the limo in the end. 

When I arrived at the church I began to get emotional. The videographer asked me to say a few words to my FI on camera and the tears were pouring down my face. When I saw my father, I noticed that he was beginning to cry. He is not an emotional guy at all so this surprised me! We began walking down the aisle and we were both crying. It was an amazing feeling! My FI looked amazing at the end of the aisle! The ceremony was everything I ever imagined it to be. The only negative was looking out and noticing guests that were not there. The vows and exchange of rings went great and I was so happy! The priest had a wonderful homoly and he really personalized all his words for us. He made us feel so special and connected to the Lord. I couldn't have asked for a better ceremony! 

After formals in the church we took the limo to the winery and started on bridal party pictures. The photographer was great but he didn't want to shoot in too many different locations but I got firm with him. I had to be firm that I wanted outside pictures with the bridal party and that I wanted pictures by the fireplace with H and I. He knew this ahead of time so I'm not sure why he was acting this way but in the end I got all the shots I wanted and I was happy that my "bridezilla" attitude worked in my favor. 

We were able to go into cocktail hour for about 10 minutes and boy was it amazing. We upgraded our room and I am so happy we did. It was beautiful. The food was incredible. People were coming up to me telling me how great everything was. Boy was that a good feeling! 

Our entrance into the reception was great. Our bridal party walked into "You're The Best" (the song from Karate Kid, which is my H's favorite movie). We walked into "Say Hey, I love you". The room looked amazing!!!! Better than I ever thought it would. The first dances were wonderful, except for the fact that the band faded out the songs and we didn't dance to the entire song. When I danced with my father he was crying so much! This made me cry too, of course. As I said before, my dad is not an emotional guy at all and he never shows me affection so this was a shocking!!!!! It made me feel so loved by him. 

Dinner was great and the wine was delicious. The servers were extremely attentive and the wedding coordinator was great. If someone wasn't quite right, she made sure to fix it immediately. 

The band was INCREDIBLE! We knew they would be good but we didn't know they would be that good! They sounded awesome. They played just the right amount of slow songs vs. fast songs and they had almost everyone off their feet. They wowed us and all the guests, that's for sure! We are so glad we booked them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I danced my butt off and my parents who never dance couldn't seem to leave the dance floor. At times they were the only two out there. Everyone kept telling me what an amazing time they were having! One of my guests told me that she wished she had her reception there and really wished she booked that band. (I'm glad she didn't because then I would have been a copy-cat, lol). The cake was so cool. The design was everything I thought it would be, but since it was dark blue buttercream icing, people's teeth and lips turned blue. It was kind of funny.

When the reception came to an end I wasn't sad like I thought I would be. The day didn't go by too fast like everyone told me it would. I was bummed that four of my friends plus their spouses left right after cake, missing the last hour, but they missed out. Oh and my one brother left even before cake cutting and we missed getting a family photo, but I did get individuals with each person. We had an after party at the hotel bar and people got wasted. My H's family really knows how to party, that's for sure! 

So that's about it, I guess. Thanks for reading. I hope I kept your attention. I'll end by saying I COULDN'T HAVE ASKED FOR A BETTER WEDDING! ALL MY HARD WORK PAYED OFF!

Day after beach photos

I included a few pics (if it works correctly anyway...). These are just some photos that my cousin took, the professional photos won't be done for a little while.

2 weeks until my honeymoon! Jamaica here I come!!

lighting the unity candle

Finally married!

Thankfully, we were able to take those 6 meals home but they certainly wern't worth the $80 we paid for each person. So all in all, we lost $480. That blows. 

We were married January 14th at the St. Louis Hotel or Hotel Mazarin as it is now called.  I will write reviews later this week when we are settled and have more time.   Everything went great.. not even a little drama... we had the time of our lives.. it was truly the best day of our entire lives!....Just returned from our honeymoon in St. Lucia.  Here are a few non-pro pics from our wedding, honeymoon and a great video of our second line!

CONGRATS TO EVERYONE THAT HAS BEEN MARRIED SINCE.. I'VE BEEN A LITTLE MIA!

Enjoy!

me in wedding dress... balcony at royal sonesta suite where bridal party got ready

my husband and I with our dachshund ice sculpture---our babies names are engraved on it :D

pic of us after our second line.. at our after party at Pat O's

honeymoon...in St. Lucia....

our awesome suite which had a missing wall open to the jungle...mountain view with our own private pool--it was truly paradise!

our view at night for dinner

a beach shot

and lastly, my favorite, a video of our second line wedding parade.. it was a total hit and everyone has been talking about it ever since!!!

Anybody else know the feeling or am I an oddball?