The Good, the Bad & The Ugly
Overall everything was amazing and I could not be happier with how everything turned out! I tried to keep this short and sweet but that so didn’t happen so I hope you are ready for a novel 
Day One- Leaving Tucson for San Diego turned out to be much more “work” than I thought it would be. 9 of us girls decided to drive over in a motor home. We ended up leaving 2 hours later than I wanted and it kind of put me in a bad mood, I really wanted to be the first person to arrive in SD to make sure everything was running smoothly but that didn’t happen. I did not allow the bad mood to stick and just kept reminding myself that all that mattered was marrying my best friend J It actually worked out well that I missed the big check in fiasco at the Marriot Old Town I heard it was a royal PITA! The hotel had messed up our group booking and ended up giving us 2 rooms free for 2 nights so the refund we got made up for the time wasted in the lobby! That night a small group of us headed over to Baja Lobster and enjoyed their happy hour and chip bar.
Day Two- While many of our guests hung out by the pool and checked out Old town my girls and went over the Carlsbad outlets to check out the Coach store some of us made out like bandits and we all got to take advantage of a 30% off coupon J Lunch was amazing and it was great to be with my girlfriends before the true madness started! When we got back to the hotel it felt like our vacation was in full swing almost all of our guests had arrived. (minus one of my BM’s her and her BF.. they showed up a day late and didn’t call anyone and we couldn’t reach them, it was a bit nerve wracking, A. I was super worried about them, and B. she had 3 of the BMs dressed so I was freaking out about that, it was soooo nice when the FINNALY arrived) The pirate welcome party we that day in San Diego was a great icebreaker and really gave everyone a chance to get to know each other. I am so happy we decided to do this. I have to admit it was the least planned out event of our wedding vacation (around noon on that day we got our butts in gear and pulled it all together, the hotel let us use a patio they have off of their restaurant) it also gave DF and I a chance to spend some alone time together running to Costco to pick up pizza and dessert. Everyone had a fun time with the silly pirate themed items I had spread out on the tables and it sure made for some fun pictures! We gave out our welcome bags filled with towels and a box with snacks and drinks here so it made it nice not to have to lug them around anymore.
Day Three- That morning was a bit hectic, we had arranged for transportation to the pier with our hotel, but beyond that didn’t have it really planned (57 of us and only 10 can go at a time) I decided shortly after standing in the lobby with everyone that Ryan and I should slip away and just drive ourselves to the pier, and I am so glad we did! (There were some minor problems getting everyone and everything to the pier and on the boat, nothing to write about but it made it nice to hear about them later and not feel like I had to fix it. I should mention here that with the exception on 1 flask everyone was able to “smuggle” their alcohol on board) Since we were in a penthouse we had access to the VIP line (AWESOME!), check in went great and Ryan and I were on the ship in no time. The first few hours after being on the boat was so nice, I finally felt like I was on vacation! The Bon Voyage Champanage and chocolates were yummy and I am glad we picked them as an amenity for our guests; they were delivered to the cabins with a nice tag thanking everyone for joining us. After we put together the “Cruise Ship Survival Bags” for each cabin, Carnival came and picked them up to deliver over dinner, I was so glad I spent the extra money to have them do it for a dollar a bag I felt like it was a steal and so nice to have my guests come back to their cabins only to find another goodie from us. We spent much of this day scoping out our wedding spots and cool places around the ship. The only bad for this day is that it took us forever to find our dinning room; we ended up being 20 minutes late. Seriously with the language barrier between us and many of the Carnival employees you would think they wouldn’t name the dinning rooms “Imagination” and “Inspiration”
Day Four- Fun day at Sea- And boy was it fun! This morning I met with my group coordinator in person and she took me around the ship to go over all of our wedding plans. I was a bit unhappy with the Romeo and Juliet Lounge they had us in for the ceremony (umm.. Tragic love story, hello?!?) and by a bit I mean totally! It was so dark and manly and not at all something that would go with our colors. I ended up bribing her to move us to the Colt Porter Lounge (it was blue and shinny! Need I say more?) Best 50 bucks spent ever! I am not sure if she would have pulled it off with out the extra cash but I am glad it worked out in the end!
We had a 1.5 hour open bar party planned for everyone that afternoon. I was a bit bothered by the fact that it took them forever to get the drinks flowing and to keep up with the demand but all in all it was a lot of fun. (Our first real ugly happened here, you can read about it in ugly #2 below.) Jaye and Kim got some wonderful candid shots and we had a lot of fun taking group photos. After the party and dinner (ugly #3) , I headed straight to our cabin to try and get some beauty sleep but I heard everyone else had a great time in the disco dancing the night away.
Day 5- Wedding Day- DF and I work up and headed straight to a couples massage, it was a great way to start off our wedding day and being able to connect just the two of us before the madness started. After our amazing massages we heading to the main dining room to meet our WP for breakfast. All of my “girls” had on the tracksuits and t-shirts I got them, I think it made for some really cute pictures!! After breakfast we all headed up to my moms cabin to get ready, both my mom and aunt are hair stylists and I think they did a amazing job on everyone, I had them all of my WP decide with what to do and they all made great choices! I did my own make-up and am so pleased with the way it turned out, I had gone to MAC and did a couple of trial runs being sure to talk to them about mastering the right coverage for pictures with out looking to overdone and I couldn’t be happier with the way it ended up, I really felt like myself just a bit more done up.
Things got a bit hectic with an hour to go; the WC’s showed up, the minister and our video guy wanting me to do an interview. I would have been much happier with out all of them squeezed into the already full suite! That last hour was so rushed most of it is a blur to me, the only thing that really sticks out is the last few minutes my dad and I had alone waiting for someone to take us to the ceremony. If I could do it all over again I would have given us another hour to get ready.
I must take a moment here to thank Jay Reilly, hiring her was the best wedding related decision I made! Not only is she a fantastic photographer who is fun to work with but also she jumped right in to help whenever she could, taking the FG to the bathroom and even saving the bustle on my dress! (Seconds after it was put on my BM stepped on it ripping it apart; thanks to Jaye I didn’t even have time to freak)
The ceremony was short and sweet, Ryan as crying when I walked down the isle it was such a tender moment J We did forget to take my bustle down after the long walk thru the ship to the ceremony so my MOH did it once I got up there, I didn’t even notice!
The reception turned out awesome! I was very happy with the way Carnival had everything set up, the food was yummy and the cake was much prettier than I expected. Funny- When Ryan and I got to the cake I noticed instantly whoever put our cake topper on left on the blue protecting label. I ripped it off of the top and was trying so hard to peel it off but it was not happening with my nails and trying to keep it away from my dress. I handed it off to someone and they ended up taking care of it for me, it is fun to look at the pictures now and see our “blue” cake topper and remember my silliness in the moment. I cried for the first time when my MOH gave her speech it was so touching I couldn’t help it! After that several other people spoke and it was such an amazing feeling to have our two families become one.
After the reception we took some group photos and did all of my must take shots. The plan for the afternoon was to play mini golf in our wedding attire but that plan was nixed after being up on the top deck for about 30 minutes it just got way to windy and we all headed back inside.
I had planned on staying in my dress all night but during dinner (this was the only day of our trip that was really rocky and I got serious motion sickness, made worse by the corset on my dress) I just gave up and wanted to be cut out of it! Thankfully my MOH talked me out of that and just went to go change. Ryan and I got onto the marriage game they did that night. It was super fun and we got a free bottle of champagne for playing. After spending some time in the casino we finally called it a night.
Day Six- What happens in Mexico…. Stays in Mexico… I will just say that a small group of us headed off into Mexico together and ended up at an all you can drink bar. Good times and even better blackmail J
This was our last night on the ship and in the main dining room we made an effort to go over to everyone’s tables and thank them for coming.
Day Seven- We arrived back into San Diego that morning and had no problems being cleared by customs, DH and I took full advantage of our VIP status and were off the boat with the first group of people ready to head to Disneyland to start our honeymoon!
Enter the ugly here… As many of you know my MIL has been a big problem for DH, and me through out our entire wedding process and it didn’t stop in time for our vacation. I have decided to keep my ranting on MIL short and to the point (there is a “Linda” story for every day of our trip and I don’t want to harp on them all, but thought I would share the top 3 with you all)
1. No one will tell me exactly what was said but my dear MIL had some awful things to say about me while hanging out by the pool, she had not met my Aunt yet and was saying these things right in front of her not knowing she was with our party. I do know that my aunt told her to shut it and if she cant get on board she should go home.. (to bad for me she didn’t listen, haha)
2. She was drunk (big surprise) and ended up spilling a drink on my mom, ON PURPOSE!! Thankfully someone came to the rescue and caught it before the whole thing ended up on her and thankfully for me, someone caught it on video so I now have proof of what a crazy b*tch she is.
3. While leaving dinner MIL stopped by our table and DH updated her on a change for the following day, she completely freaked out and started screaming at us in the main dining room! I was so embarrassed for Ryan and just wanted her to disappear. But with that said I was so happy on the inside because it had finally become clear to everyone what her true colors are!