wedding week: our jamaican honeymoon.

bachelor and -ette parties: check.
rehearsal and dinner: check.
wedding: check.
reception: check.

what's next? the honeymoon, of course! after we partied the night away at our reception, austin and i made a quick stop by our house to change and then we were off to the atl. of course, the night wouldn't have been complete without us getting pulled over by a cop {austin still in his tux and me still in my wedding dress} because the cop thought, for whatever reason, that my car was stolen. clearly, it was not and he let us be on our way.


and while i knew we were on our way to atlanta, i also knew that it was just for one night in order to be close to the airport to fly off to paradise for a whole week. i just didn't actually know where we were flying off to. see, austin planned the whole honeymoon trip without me in order for it to be a surprise for me when we got to the airport and i got my ticket! so sweet, right?

austin got us upgraded tickets on the flight so we had lots of room in first class. i snapped this picture about 14 seconds before passing out completely. i'd like to say it was just complete exhaustion {you know like the celebrities say}. but in reality, it was more like the dramamine i took... flying isn't really my thing and turns out a whole dramamine pill is a bit much for me. needless to say, i have almost no recollection of the flight. apparently there was a meal. i think i ate some fruit. but i probably just drooled on it and dropped it in my lap.

so where were we headed? to jamaica, of course!

we stayed at the secrets st. james montego bay, jamaica.

our suite was in the preferred club.

the grounds of the resort were beautiful.

the wide open ocean was on one side...

and the bay and pretty mountains were on the other side.

{i should share that my awesome friends gifted me with a brand new camera for my wedding, so we should thank all of them for actually having pictures of our honeymoon/anything after that since my previous camera bit the dust. this also explains why a lot of these pictures have fun/weird effects happening in them as i was playing with all the features}

when we arrived at the resort, our room wasn't quite ready. i think i remember being quite annoyed by this in my state of exhaustion, but in reality it wasn't that bad. we just went to one of the little beach side bars while we waited. and ate some cookies, i think. that fruit i drooled on from the plane wasn't keeping me full. but when we finally got to our room, it was beautiful.

and the view from our balcony was a.maz.ing.

day two was spent exploring the resort for a bit, then relaxing on the beach for a lot. then dinner at one of their many restaurants on the resort.

day three was mostly a pool day, complete with drinks from coconuts, followed by dinner and an acrobatics show of some sorts.

we also had some drinks at the piano bar, i liked that my drink matched my dress.

austin tried courvoisier, but i don't think he liked it.

afterwards, we wandered over to the karaoke bar. we mostly sat and listened/watched/laughed as other people embarrassed themselves worked up enough courage to sing something.

and then... the karaoke ring leaders called all the girls in the whole place up on stage for a group song. i, being the terrible singer and shy person that i am, refused to go and tried to hide under the table. then austin shoved me out of the seat. jerk. so up on stage i went. but i refused to hold the mic. or do anything other than pretend to sing slash try not to cry of embarrassment.

let's just pretend i'm joking about the crying thing and move on.

day four was more of the same. dodging rain storms, poolside lounging, beaching it and a few drinks thrown in here and there. i think austin was trying to get a picture of the mountains. instead, he got this awesome face. you're welcome.

on our fifth day in jamaica, we got adventurous. we went sailing! we also went for some walks, dodged some more rain storms, swam in the pool a bit, and hid from the sun under grass umbrellas.

one of these days we went snorkeling. it was awesome and terrifying all at the same time. i just knew a shark was going to come eat me whole. or a jellyfish was going to sting me and i'd have to swim ashore and find someone to pee on me. fortunately, these worst case scenarios didn't happen. but they could have.

the day we had to leave jamaica was a really, really, sad day. i think i could have stayed in jamaica forever {but i might have starved to death, more about that in a minute}. but we started the morning with some champagne {never too early, right?} and listening to the player piano while we waited for our ride to the airport.

finally, our ride came and we were forced to leave. waaah.

but don't worry, we were then forced to sit at the airport for a few hours waiting on our flight. while the power flickered on and off, leaving me in a pitch black bathroom stall at least once. someone get me the dramamine.

no really. i took more dramamine for the flight again {half a dose, this time} and was out the entire time, again, even with the reduced dose. the fun part of the return flight was that it was not first class, so the lovely gentleman beside me served as a nice headrest for me in my drug-induced coma. just kidding, i didn't really rest my head on the stranger next to me. on purpose.

in case you're wondering, we did eat meals while in jamaica. kind of. turns out being a picky vegetarian in jamaica is a little bit difficult. each morning we ate at the world cafe which offered a buffet style breakfast. i mostly ate fruit. austin probably ate a ton of bacon. lunch was usually eaten in the little eating area in the lobby where they had a hodge podge of cheeses, fruits, crackers, cookies, etc. sometimes we lunch at the seaside grill which still meant cheese, fruit and crackers for me, while austin had a whole bunch of options. each night, we did dinner at a different restaurant on the resort. the choices were bordeaux for french food, blue mountain for jamaican food, el patio for mexican, himitsu for asian, and portofino for italian. generally, i ate some lettuce, cheeses, maybe buttered pasta and breads. i had steamed rice at the hibachi place. austin's food, however, was delicious. turns out jamaica doesn't really do ranch dressing either. not. ok. we also ordered food from room service a few times. i remember some delicious french fries.

so there. our jamaican honeymoon. it was perfection. and i managed to not get burnt or, for that matter, even get a tan because i was so worried about getting burnt. we bought a few souvenirs including two hand carved wooden art pieces and rum {duh}. we bought some jamaican captain morgan and yes, it is different than regular captain morgan, as well as some appleton estates rum and yes, it is gross.

i'm hoping some day austin will take me back to jamaica. perhaps for like our fifth anniversary or so? but this time i'll be a little more prepared. in my suitcase i'll pack ranch dressing. i can eat anything if it's covered in enough ranch dressing.