First I want to say that our wedding was the most amazing thing I could have imagined. Everything was so perfect...way above my expectations. This is going to be very hard because there was no ugly haha! But I do want to give everyone a recap of the wedding week and highlight the awesomeness of it all and details on things that could have been better.
Monday – arrived to Santa Teresa. It was a HAUL because I could not take the local flight over. I had to do the shuttle from the airport to the town….with my family. This was probably the ugliest part of the trip. After getting up at 4 in the morning and not getting in Santa Teresa until 10pm that night. It consisted of a shuttle, ferry, no paved roads, family members that do not travel and lots of bitching. Luckily the bitching did not start until the end of the journey … but still. I was so ready to be away from my Mom and Aunt at this point. And it was only day 1.
Tuesday – It was a new day and we woke up to pure paradise. The place we had rented out (http://batikcostarica.com/) was seriously amazing. I cannot say enough good things about it. It was something that I cannot even explain in words. Everyone had their own pool, cleaning staff, pool boy, gardener's (amazing flowers everywhere), security guard, concierge. And the staff was PERFECT. VERY VERY GOOD.
We had gotten groceries the day before for breakfast and Robert & I’s ATV arrived that morning. Our transportation for the week: an ATV down dirt roads. It was seriously AMAZING (#good). We road into town and got more groceries and explored the town. Santa Teresa is the best place on earth. Robert & I are foodies and the restaurants here are like no other (#good). There are so many to chose from so we all stopped at a brick oven pizza place and it was AWESOME, but EXPENSIVE (#bad). After that we delivered groceries and pizza to my family who did not have an ATV (all of our friends rented out all the ATV’s in town that week!). It did kind of stink for my family to not have transportation (#bad) but it worked out because we were able to get groceries for them and get taxi’s to dinner and what not. Speaking of taxi’s…we had an AMAZING transportation service all week owned by Richard (#good). He picked us up everywhere and even delivered us beer/wine when we needed! He spoke perfect English and his cars were so nice and clean.
Robert and I snuck away on his ATV after and decided to drive all the way up the beach to pure seclusion. No houses, people, nothing. We stumbled upon this random beach bar and stopped to have the most amazing guacamole of my life. (#good). It was so romantic and a great escape from the day before stresses.
That night the group had dinner at Habaneros. All I can say is WOW. (#good).
Wednesday – We got the call from Dahlia (the wedding coordinator and concierge) that our trip to Tortuga Island had been canceled because of swells. I will not say that was bad because it ended up being better (will explain). Speaking of Dahlia, what an amazing coordinator and concierge she was. (#good). She basically did anything that anyone asked her to do all week. Seriously. You just picked up the phone and called her and she made it happen. We decided after the wedding if we have a girl we wanted to name it after her.
We decided to have a beach day instead. My mom has bad knees and they did not have beach chairs for sell anywhere in town (#bad). So I bought one off a local on the beach! (#good). The beaches in front of our resort were AMAZING. Breathtaking views, white sand, seclusion. (#good). The only bad part was the waves. Costa Rica is a surf destination…so for the surfers in the group it was good. But you could really only be out there for a little while because the waves were so intense!
We had decided before we got there that a 4th of July cookout was in order for that evening. It was a good thing we did not go to Tortuga because cooking for 40 people is not an easy task! We went to the grocery store and bought chicken, sausage and beer. My mom and aunt made side dishes as well. Our grocery bill was so cheap! Turns out groceries/beer there are way less then back home (#good).
The cookout was amazing (#good). Almost everyone was there by Wednesday and we had a blast. We decided to have it at the house the groomsmen were staying at because they had the biggest pool. We had a huge feast and it was so much fun!
Thursday – Thursday was our ATV trip to go hike the waterfalls in Montezuma. We had a huge group on ATV’s riding to Montezuma. The drive was incredible. We arrived at the waterfalls and had an intense, amazing, beautiful hike up 3 waterfalls. We saw lots of monkeys and I even jumped off of one of the falls! It was scary but so much fun. After, we went to a place called Chico’s bar and had drinks. It was probably my favorite day of the trip (besides wedding). (#good).
On the way home we stopped at a place called Kika’s to make dinner reservations for everyone. They were having live music that night and we heard the food was good. We all got ready and headed over around 7pm. All I can say is the food ONCE AGAIN amazed me. The Grandma’s pork was the best thing I have ever eaten. They had appetizers of calamari, crab bites and different breads with sauces. It was SOOOOOO GOOD. The band came on and people started dancing and having a great time. Overall the night was a success.
Friday – Today was when I started to realize we were here for a reason. I was getting married! I went down to the beach with Robert’s parents, sister and cousins and the random girl his sister brought (#bad). She did not talk to me or Robert all week and she really kind of sucked.
We walked over to the ceremony around 1:30pm to have a quick run through. We paid extra for it and I was a little disappointed. We did not really do anything? Just talked about what was going to happen….which we already knew. (#bad) Oh well at least I got to talk with our officiate and I think it made everyone less nervous. I went in and started getting ready for the rehearsal dinner.
The rehearsal dinner at Brisas Del Mar was again amazing. The view was incredible as it was up in the hills overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It was so good. Robert’s Dad made me cry with his speech that night.
Saturday (wedding day) – I went to bed early the night before so I would be all refreshed for the wedding. I took my regular medication that I have for stress headaches and started feeling a little weird about 30 minutes after. Well turns out I had accidently taken ambien. WTF??? SO BAD. I had my friend call her father who is a doctor to give me a suggestion. He said I should just drink lots of water and try not to fall asleep. He said it may make me tired but it actually works well for anxiety…so I actually had no anxiety on my wedding day which was good! Well I had set up a group yoga session scheduled for any girls that were interested. I was a little sad at the turnout. It was only 5 of us (I will not say bad, but just sad). But it was okay, it was something that I really enjoyed and it was a great de-stressor. I almost fell asleep in the relaxation part but hey…that’s what ambient will do to you I guess. After yoga I went for a shower and our water was out! Not really all the way out but slightly drizzling. It would go back and forth between drizzle and regular water coming out. It was kind of bad because my shower took about 45 minutes!
During my shower Dahlia had ordered food for the bridal party to be delivered as we were getting ready. It was great. Salads and sandwiches. Yummy! The rest of the getting ready process was extremely rushed. I do not think I planned enough time (#bad). But it was okay, we all got ready in time! My aunt did my hair and my BM’s hair. She did the BM’s in different styles of braids and mine down with beach waves. It was so beautiful! (#good). The photographer arrived and started taking pics of all of us. She was AWESOME. We barely noticed she was there and the shots she got were SO SO SO GOOD. (http://www.jenniferharter.com/). My BM’s all got their dresses on and I could not be happier with the decision I made about them all picking out their own in the color coral. It was nice to see everyone’s different styles and they all looked so beautiful (#good). It was then time to put my dress on, and it made us cry of course. We were so sappy that day! Well everyone except my sister. I do not want to go into too much detail but she was going through something that made her not be involved at all that day. She barely even talked to me and I was very upset (#bad). But did a great job at not letting it ruin my day! After I got dressed my mom and aunt quickly got my veil headband together so I could do some solo pictures with the photographer.
We all piled into the taxis at about 4:30 to head over to the ceremony. Our ceremony was at another property beside us on the beach. We used one of the houses as our kitchen/bathrooms and set up a huge tent for the reception. I started getting so nervous and had intense butterflies! Not a bad nervous but a holy s*it this is the best day of my life nervous. Well of course this brought on me having to pee really badly. Let’s just say popping a squat in a wedding dress is a funny site (not #bad but actually pretty freaking hilarious). Well this is when the only bad part of my wedding came. The bridal party started walking to the song we had agreed on. My Dad and I were waiting there for the musician to change into my song I had picked out…AND HE NEVER DID. I was kind of upset about this, but we got the signal from Dahlia to start walking so we did. Well I started walking through the people and as soon as I saw Robert I cried. It was so amazing. Everything. The ceremony site, the people, him. Everything was perfect. It was beautiful. (#good) Our officiate sprayed us with something called “Ylang Ylang” which is an aura cleanser. Well the ceremony started and I notice Robert not looking too hot. As in he was way too hot (good thing we had the fans for everyone else #good). Poor thing was in a suite in 80 something degree weather. I thought he was going to pass out. (#bad). Well someone passed him a napkin and he was able to wipe his face with all the sweat and it was fine. I cried a lot during the ceremony. I could not help it, it was so sweet and meant a lot. (#good).
After the ceremony we started pictures. I missed all of the cocktail food which stunk because I heard about it all night! (#bad). Speaking of food…we had the most amazing chef in the world (http://www.somachefs.com/). He cooks for Tom Brady and Giselle! Out of this world and so impressive. They used the tiniest kitchen and cranked out the most amazing foods and cocktails EVER. Our cocktail drinks and wedding cake are still talked about. (#good) Anyway, I am getting ahead of myself. We had a big surprise during our pictures. The only sunset that we were able to see all week. It was usually too cloudy at night to see but this one was so vivid and amazing. Our pictures are stunning. (#good). And we got a rainbow on the other side of the house…but we missed it because of pictures. But still! It started raining a bit after pictures but it was okay because it did not last long at all.
We had the most amazing reception site I could of asked for. It was decorated perfectly (http://www.malpaisgreenweddings.com/). (#good). It was seriously out of a magazine. Our stationary fit in perfectly too (http://www.ruffhouseart.com/).The escort cards were hand painted stones from the beach which turned out SO GOOD. The food was of course delicious. We used the front porch of the house as our dance floor and danced the night away. My Dad gave the sweetest wedding toast I could of asked for (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnixNroc7Sc&feature=youtube_gdata_player).
The only thing bad about the whole night was Robert and his sister getting into it a bit. She was trying to take control over certain things and he was getting very annoyed. (#bad).
As the night came to a close we did 2 things that were pretty freaking AWESOME. 1 – Wish lanterns over the ocean. If you are thinking of doing these DO IT. It is so amazing to watch after your wedding is over. And the fact that everyone makes a wish for you (#good). 2 – Our getaway car. It was our ATV from the week. Robert was in HEAVEN. He loves riding ATV’s and it was the perfect surprise for him 
(that and the CAT garter I got him #good). We also got to go back a little before everything to “enjoy” our night. And apparently some of the staff continuing partying with our friends LOL!
SUNDAY – Sunday was our farewell brunch that was held at our villa. The same amazing chef was coming back to do the catering for it. IT WAS AWESOME OF COURSE (#good). We had lots of beer leftover and made mimosas too. We ended up turning it into a pool party/brunch. It was a lot of fun and a great way to say goodbye to everyone. I was a little upset about how much extra alcohol we bought for the wedding (#bad). But figured I would not stress over it. Oh, and we forgot to do our TTD (#really bad). We were having too much fun we did not want to take more pictures. It kind of stunk not to have this but I guess it just meant our wedding was too awesome 