Some Wedding and Honeymoon Highlights

Ah, well, first there was the ceremony:

Dad walking me down the aisle (made having a traditional wedding so worth it)


"You may now kiss your bride!"


First debut as Mr. and Mrs. Neeley


And we're off!


Great reception - typical me stealing Cliff's food (he got me back, though).


Lots of dancing (SO MUCH FUN!)


Cutting our beautiful cake (too bad this isn't a shot of us shoving it in each other's faces)


Everyone showering us with love (and bubbles) as we left (and got in the Rolls Royce limo headed for Union Station)




And then there was the honeymoon in St. Lucia, West Indies:

An attempt at showing you a 180 view from our Honeymoon Suite patio (that's the Caribbean sea) that we were greeted and surprised with Monday morning.


Our made-to-order room service we had just about every morning out on the patio


Lounging on the beach with tasty beverages


The swim-up bar in the middle of one of their five pools


Relaxing, at it's best


Us on the Spirit of Carnival catamaran for the "Adventure Sea Cruise" (with the Pitons in the background)


The sea cruise took us down the west coast to Soufriere, a fishiving village at the base of the Pitons


The view from the villa we had lunch at


Once on land, we went to the Sulphur Springs drive-in Volcano...


and the botanical gardens (that's a bird-of-paradise - like, from Superman)...


and the diamond waterfall.



After spending the late morning in Soufriere, we got back on the boat and headed back north to go snorkeling (we snorkled twice in St. Lucia!)





We even sailed alongside the ship that was used as the Black Pearl in "Pirates" - cool, huh?


We loved sailing on the catamaran so much, we got back on the next night for the Evening Sunset Cruise (that's where the picture from the last entry was taken)


Besides spending time on the catamaran, on the beach, and at the pool, we even took out the hobiecat, water-trike, and a jet-ski.



And you know us, if there's a mountain near by, we're going to hike it - so we just walked down the beach to the end of the islet that our resort was on to Pigeon Island National Park


We hiked both peaks, one which housed a fort and the other, higher point, was used as a Signal Peak


Signal Peak had a great view of our resort


It was so sad to say goodbye to room 2409...


We spent our last morning playing a rousing game of Scrabble (I swear I had every vowel in the bag)


And took off that afternoon headed back to the US (that's an aerial view of the islet)...





I miss this:



But it's nice to be back. More on "being back" later.


p.s. the official wedding pictures by Zach and Jody are up - if you'd like to see them and don't already have the information you need to see them, let me know!

We're Hitched!

'Bout time, isn't it? Well, I hate to break it to you, but there's so much going on right now that I don't really have a ton of time to share all of the details of the last two weeks. But they've been amazing. A dream and a whirlwind, really.

The whole wedding was beautiful - more wonderful than I ever even hoped and the exact opposite of everything I feared. So many loved ones, family and friends; everyone was so gracious and complimentary, smiling and easy-going. Every detail seemed to blend into the overall level of love and joy that was tangible from the moment I set foot in the chapel to sitting in the Rolls Royce on the way to Union Station for our first night. I am so thankful to have experienced that day and to relive it through pictures (only a few so far, the main online album will be finished soon) and conversations with family and friends.

And the honeymoon (during which this picture was taken) was incredible. For those of you who didn't know (as I did) beforehand, we spent five days and nights in St. Lucia which is one of the eastern- and southern-most islands in the Caribbean. We stayed at the Sandals Grande resort on the island (one of three there) and enjoyed every relaxing, pampering, and exciting minute of it all. It really was hard to come back, but again, pictures and memories keep it alive, especially since it's just a week since our return home.

Speaking of home, we've been setting up shop pretty much since our arrival back late Friday evening. New furniture, pots, and all sorts of gifts are finding their way into proper places all throughout the apartment. It has both tedioius and fun moments, but overall the feeling of "our's" makes it all worth it. Doing all that and changing my name (which of course, is like an eighteen step process), along with starting back at work (which is a little different these days) at Vandy andBelmont, have kept both of us pretty busy. Cliff's had a huge week at work amidst playing catch up and I'm starting mostly from ground zero all over again.

But it's good and we are so incredibly blessed.

p.s. I'm Mrs. Neeley.