So, I’ve been a slacker and now it’s time to catch you up on all that’s been happening!
First, we did buy the S/V Carpe Diem.
We signed the paperwork and enjoyed dinner on our new yacht on September 30th. We’d gone to Joe’s Crab shack and got dinner to go and ate with the girls out in the cockpit at the dock. We had to close up the boat since we’d be gone for a long weekend in Florida.
We woke up at about 3:30am on Thursday morning, October 2nd. We had packed the night before, so we grabbed our stuff and headed down the street to the bus stop. We caught the early morning bus to the LA airport at 5:00am, with all our luggage in tow. What an experience! I never knew how many people got up that early to go to work. These folks are up and on the bus everyday by 5:00am…whoo, thank God my job doesn’t start that early! I have a new respect for those kinda folks.
The flights to Tampa, FL were marvelous! We had one lay-over in Phoenix and though the leg room was a bit small on our planes, there were no problems with the flights and we got in on time WITH OUR LUGGAGE! Whoo hoo! To top it off, my parents were coming into town right when we landed, so they came and picked us up! We were planning on sitting at the airport until my Matron of Honor, Christi, got off work…so yay, no wait time and we got to hang out with my parents early!
The whole weekend went so fast and we had SO SO SO much fun! On Thursday, Missie had a little dinner party at her condo, then we went to the airport to pick up my sister, Taylor, then headed to Christi’s condo for the night (she and her husband, David, graciously let us crash in their guest room for the weekend). On Friday, my mom, Lisa, Taylor, Sean and I got up very early (again) and drove up to Gainesville. I went and got my hair cut and permed by my wonderful stylist, Dana, at Mia Maxx Hair Studio. Then we all went to pick up my wedding dress. It did not fit like I had hoped, but no biggie…had to take it back to Cali for bustling anyway. We quickly drove back to Tampa to get ready for our bachelor/bachelorette parties!!
All the girls met at Missie’s place for starter champagne cocktails and opening gifts. All the gifts were so great, so cute and sweet, and some naughty! Perfect! Then, we walked to dinner in Channelside at Tinatapas where we had some very yummy champagne sangria and a whole bunch of delicious tapas! I love tapas! Then, we walked over to Splitsville for some good ole’ fashion bowling fun! We had a number of drinks here including a very large margarita that some of the girls split! After Taylor beat everyone at bowling, we headed over to Jackson’s Nightclub (we lost my mom along the way, she’s not into clubbing, but it was great to have her during the first half of the evening!). Christi has reserved us a table where we got a bottle of vodka and all the mix-ins we could want! We had some drinks together and danced the night away. Unfortunately, the night ended around 2:00am, but my feet were starting to hurt anyway. We had so much fun and slept so well that night. A few of the girls stayed over at Christi’s so we had a mini slumber party! the next morning, Sierra, Sarah, Joann, and Christi made me breakfast! Christi had found a recipe for these wonderful morsels! They had a crustini slice, topped with fig jam, then topped off with a slice of brie cheese. OH MY, SO SO GOOD!!! She also made these yummy quiches with lots of cheese! Add in some fruit and we had a top notch breakfast! Thank you Ladies, see pics below!
The Frat Girls: Jessi, Pamela, & Lauren!
The Jay’s Bridal Girls: Sarah, Christi & Sierra (who I technically met through Christi)!
The HUGE Margarita! The fraternity taught us how to drink!
Saturday afternoon, Taylor and I joined mom for a shopping trip where I got a dress for the Sunday brunch after the wedding, and mom picked out her rehearsal dinner outfit and her dress for the wedding and reception. They were all very beautiful and you’ll see them later in the wedding photos I’m sure!
Sean’s bachelor party was probably as much fun as the girl’s party. They went to dinner where they ate way too much. Then they went to an arcade I think. They finished the night at a strip club (I know, I know…he got it out of his system) and then he stayed with his best friend, Beau, for the night.
Saturday evening was our wedding shower and Christi and Missie put together a party not to be forgotten! We had the party in the Clubhouse at Missie’s condo. The girls had decorated it in white and green (perfect wedding colors) hanging lanterns. Christi had made these beautiful table decorations and the food…oh the food! The party had an oriental theme, so we had chinese eggrolls and wontons, then a dish with lo mein, shrimp, chicken, and veggies. Then, the best part of all…Christi had made RICE KRISPY SUSHI for dessert. Let me say that again…RICE KRISPY SUSHI with WASABI!!! She used gummy candies and fruit roll ups to look like ingredients inside the rolls and the kelp bands, then green icing for the wasabi. They were very good and so neat…how inventive is that! She’s so creative!
We mingled and talked the night away! The boys played pool and watched football. The gals chatted and drank champagne sangrias! We played a game, “How well do you know the Bride & Groom?” where Taylor won, because of course she knows us the best! The night ended at Missie’s place with my family chatting the night away after clean up! It was an amazing party, see photos below!
Taylor and I all dolled up.
Fancy Drinks!
The Bride with her Centerpiece!
Appetizers and a friend of Christi’s hired to pass the food around!
RICE KRISPY SUSHI!!!
Doesn’t it look SO good! And look at the little wasabi!
Sunday was very low key. Taylor left around noon and my parents dropped us of at the airport as they were headed out of town. Sean and I had another set of wonderful flights home, no problems, just a long day back to LAX. We took the metro home to Long Beach and walked the 3 blocks back to the apartment! Aside from having to fly way out of the way (Tampa to Detroit, MI, then onto LAX), the only thing that went ary was that our air matress in our apartment had popped. How weird! Sean and I slept on it that night, but it was done.
The rest of October was pretty uneventful. We moved onto the boat that Monday after getting back, since our bed was popped, we needed something to sleep on. We kept the apartment through October 24th, slowly moving and cleaning it out. We worked on a bunch of wedding stuff and the month went by pretty quickly. Sean had a lot of work to do and my restaurant was slowly coming to an end. We were told about a week before November that the restaurant was officially closing. I found a new job and Chez Allez closed on Halloween Day.
This has been a very long catch-up post, but it’s only part one! I’ve got a whole ‘nother month to cover!! I’ll leave it there for now and hope to get all caught up by the end of the week!
Ciao!
