We had our rehearsal dinner at the restaurant connected to the Beachside Inn - Camille's. When we made our reservations, we only planned on having access to part of the restaurant, but upon our arrival to the Inn, we soon found out that they were giving us the whole place!

We had TONS of food (a lot more than was originally planned) and everyone was raving about how delicious it all was! We had antipasta, fresh mozzarella, salad, garlic bread, chicken alfredo pasta, roasted vegetables (artichokes, eggplant, zuchinni), mashed potatoes, vegetarian lasagna, sundried tomato crusted mahimahi, and a few other appetizer thingys. Unfortunately, due to the plague that had infected my body, I could only eat a few bites. I stuck to liquids and garlic bread all night - and I smelled wonderful =0)

This was taken by my 3 year old nephew... he's got mad photographic skills.

The Groom-to-be and Bride-to-be - I just noticed in every photo where we are kissing we both have duck lips...and never reallllly go in for the kill.

Here is my mom reading an email she wrote to Mr. Bear in April 2004, a few weeks before I went to visit him at the University of Tennessee for the first time. It was a very emotional moment for the three of us, but also quite funny. I was so proud of her for holding it together the whole time! She basically made a list of things he needed to remember while I was visiting - such as her ties to some pretty scary old Italian men, my allergy to dairy and fried food (which I used to ignore), the effects of tequila and Jeigermeister on her daughter, as well as the importance of never leaving me alone. I'd love to share the letter, but it is very personal and a little embarrassing, haha. Needless to say, he followed ALL of her rules... because I don't think I would be allowed to have married him if he had not! She ended her speech with some beautiful words about her thrill of gaining another son and seeing her daughter so happy.

You know you are old when... you have to teach your new 9 year old cousin how to dance to "Cmon Ride The Train." I think I may or may not have led a mini train around the room...

Look at these two hamming it up for the camera... my hubs and my nephew... Finny loves Mr. Bear SO much that he started calling him Uncle B before we were even married!

The boys being crazy... Mr. Bear met an amazing group of guys in college, who are all equally funny and unique in their own ways (missing from the photo is Harold!)

It was such a fun, memorable night as you can tell. Wish I was still there.

Overall, our rehearsal dinner played out like a big wedding reception, minus the ceremony. There was dinner, dancing, drinking, favors...from Mr. Bear's mom of course...

....and even a speech! Definitely a party we will all never forget.

Mr. Bear's mom organized the whole event and I have to say her idea to invite all of the wedding guests was brilliant! She also hired a guy to play beach music, and he turned out to be a better DJ than the toolbag we had at our wedding (I'll tell you allll about him later). All of our family and friends were able to mix and mingle with the people they'd never met before so that by our ceremony the next day, everyone was bff!

As you may already know, I am utterly completely absolutely overly obsessed with our photographers. Not only have we established a more than client-vendor relationship with the married couple, but Susan and I are now very close email-pals who chat more than once a day! Because of the awesome connection we had with our photogs, they captured every emotion on our wedding day imagineable. Here are some of their pictures...

I was actually very sick on my wedding day... we got married on Saturday and the Wednesday before I caught the flu from someone... and it didn't go until the Friday after our wedding! Here you can see my nose is a little pink from being sick... and I like that they didn't airbrush that our of the photo, for it shows ME oh so na-tur-al.

Handome husband and some of his groomsmen...

Peeking at my soon-to-be husband...

Some of our wedding party (we had 18!) chasing my husband who was stealing me away from them!


The most emotional father-daughter dance our photographers have seen... they told me so! My daddy and I could not keep it together - I love him so much!
The newlyweds...

Beautiful sky... beautiful sand... amazing photo
My
my husband the joker faked out all of the guys when we went to throw the garther. Notice it is still in his right hand and all the guys are reaching for his empty left!
We did a day-after shoot and it was one of the best ideas our photographers had. They captured us on our first day as a married couple. I think you can really see the love between us in this photo.

The
Inn we stayed at on our wedding night was amazing - Henderson Inn in Destin - it is a bed and breakfast on the beach and I highly recommend you escape with your loved one there someday! 

Hope you enjoyed my photos! There are more on their blog and website - and MANY more to come in the next few weeks.

I don't think I have actually sat down and thought of all the advice to give to someone planning a destination wedding until now... normally when I am doing something that I think others may do in the future, I will mentally jot down important dos and don'ts for the process. Here is a quick rundown oftips for a successful destination wedding!... I promise to have more later when I have the time to reallllly sit and think about everything!

1. Meet with all of your vendors in advance!
Example: My DJ turned out to be a total jerk - who sent his young partner to DJ our wedding and only showed up at the end to GET HIS MONEY. He also overcharged us! Over the phone he sounded really nice and excited to meet us, and then we actually didn't see his face until we were running out of the reception through the sparkler tunnel. When he realized we weren't going to stop and chat, he followed my mom to her car and demanded his check. His name is DJ Zoran with American DJ Company in Destin and I am telling you now - Don't Waste Your Time With Him!

2. Use Etsy. That website was a Godsend and I purchased all of the bridesmaid gifts, our parents gifts, my garters, my jewelry, our invitations, programs, and menu cards, AND decorations for the wedding - all handmade and for amazing prices. Some of the items that people make and sell on that website are just out of this world and so unique!

3. Visit your wedding location more than once! We visited the reception site twice before the wedding and I wish we had gone three times. It pays to know where everything is ... and to let your guests know about the secret bathroom!

4. Make sure you figure out your seating even if you aren't having guests assigned to tables. I wish we had worked out the seating arrangements before the wedding. We went with a buffet dinner and open seating - and didn't reserve enough tables for our immediate families!

5.  Ship items in advance. Ask your hotel if you can send items prior to your arrival for storage. I shipped Welcome Letters to the Inn where most of our guests stayed and the concierge handed them out. They also posted one in the office!

6. To cut costs of expensive local vendors - buy your items, such as ribbon, and send them to the florist. I also purchased my own vases (12 for $24) and saved my parents hundreds of dollars.

7. Get to your destination EARLY ... and invite your close family and friends to join you! We were in Florida by Wed night and I am so thankful for those extra days we had to hang out with everyone we love.

8. Get everything done BEFORE your rehearsal day. My husband and I were so relaxed by Saturday knowing everything was under control.

9. Even though you are going to the beach, pack for all seasons! It was 85 on Thursday and 60 by Saturday. Very cold at our wedding, and most of the girls brought shawls, but the ones that didn't were left wearing weird jackets and sweaters! In the end it really didn't matter because our reception venue had heaters above the dance floor, but it would have been nice if all the bridesmaids had matching shawls!

That is all I can think of for now... more to come later!

I had my bridal shower in Connecticut over Labor Day weekend and WOW. It was amazing. I was so impressed with all of the hard work the ladies I love put into my bridal shower. My mom, sister, 2 best friends, and cousin are incredible! Their attention to detail and the personalization of those details are some things I will never forget. Starting with recipe request cards and secret Christmas gift ideas in the invitations, they thought of every way to make the shower just like us. There were starfish, shells, and sand dollars, red and green decor, a red velvet cake that matched our invitations perfectly, my favorite foods, recipe cards for 'love,' Mr. H and I's cd from our couples 'stock the bar' shower, Italian pastries, mimosas, and lots of our favorite engagement photographs. Here are some photos to recap my wonderful day!

The cake was baked by a friend from high school. All she was given was the rehearsal dinner invitation and our wedding invitation and she created this masterpiece. It was Red Velvet with whipped buttercream frosting sitting on top of brown sugar sand and covered in white chocolate sand dollars and starfish!!

My best friend Melissa made me this beautiful towel cake! I love how she incorporated our wedding colors into the ribbon decoration.





The wedding favors were SO creative - each gift had an organza gift bag filled with ingredients for a life of love and happiness after marriage (ex: a penny so you are never poor, an eraser to remove all past mistakes, etc).

My best friend's mom took one of our favorite engagement photos and turned it into this beautiful canvas photograph for us to hang in our apartment!


Mr. H stopped by the shower to help me cut the cake and to visit with my family and friends.

 
(Photographer: Addilay Photography - People in the photo: US!)

Mr. H and I need to pick a First Dance song. We have narrowed it down to two and just can't decide on one! Once we have the song figured out we are going to work on our moves. I always wanted to take a couplse dance class but we just don't have the time! 

What was/is your first dance song?? Did you take dance lessons before your big day?

Last night Mr. H and I decided we wanted to look for our rehearsal dinner outfits asap... summer is ending and we need to find something that is beach-worthy before all the fall clothes take over the stores! I can't decide if I want to wear a white dress, something red or green, or something completely not in our color scheme. Here are a few dresses I've found online:

Lost In Paradise Dress by Free People

Strapless faille dress by Banana Republic 

 Cutwave Dress from J.Crew - it also comes in a Melon color that I LOVE but don't think it really matches my skin tone.

What color dress did you/will you wear for your rehearsal dinner? Did you and your future hubs match??

On Saturday morning we headed over to Shane Co. and thought we would just browse their selection of wedding bands and get an idea of what we both liked. We ended up purchasing both of our bands!
We decided on Mr. H's within a good 15 minutes...and I can gladly say I picked out this beauty:

Actually... I can't find a picture of his band but it looks very similar this band. 14K White Gold. Very classic and bear-y nice.

Choosing my wedding band took a little longer than 15 minutes... I think it was close to an hour before we made a final decision. The problem (well, its not really a problem - more like the reason it took so long) is that my engagement ring is very unique. Mr. H designed it himself. He bought it from Shane Co., but almost every jeweler that saw my ring today said they'd never seen one like it. =0) My setting looks something like this...but with a sparkly Princess cut diamond set between the prongs:


The way the princess cut diamonds are turned on their sides, making "diamond" shapes, made it difficult for us to find something that looked right alongside it. When Mr. H picked out this band though I fell in love:

I think that the combination of the Round and Baguette diamonds look amazing against the "diamond" shaped Princess cut stones on the band. Also, the Baguette diamonds are square, like the solitaire Princess diamond sitting on top of the setting. We are both super excited to be able to cross Wedding Bands off of our To Do List.

Mr. H's mom is a lifesaver! She spoke with me briefly about wedding favors a few weeks ago and in two days had come up with the cutest wedding favors EVER!! Each guest will receive an ivory bag - tied with a bright red ribbon. Inside the bag are sparklers and a red matchbook.

There is a little tag that says - "To all that had added sparkle to our special day!"

We would love for everyone to light up their sparkles for our departure from the reception so we can run through a fire-y sparkle-y tunnel.
 
Hopefully Mr. H and I receive a package of sparklers so we can recreate this ADORABLE picture...

Credit: http://wildbillsfireworks.com/images/Heart%20Shapped%20Sparkler.jpg

I think it was fate that I stumbled upon Brandon and Susan Cook's ad on Craigslist last November advertising a husband and wife photography team located in Destin, Florida. Why fate?? First of all, Susan and I have become internet bff - emailing one another atleast once a day, every day, talking about everything from our wedding, to television, to food, to things happening in our everyday lives. Secondly, when we worked with them on our engagement pictures July 24th in Destin something magical happened... wanna see??

Check us out: Brandon & Caitlin