So there it is…the last year of our life documented! There is a website (www.blurb.com) where you can turn your blog into a book, so that is what I have been working on the last couple weeks. It is also the reason that the last few posts have been done so close together. I wanted the book to include everything having to do with the wedding, and since the honeymoon was the official end of the wedding, I thought it would be appropriate to have that be the last post other than this one. I am really excited to get the book all done and have it printed to see how it turns out. (Fingers crossed that I like it considering the amount of time I have spent on it…)
Writing the blog and putting the blog book together has been so much fun, I decided that it is something that I am going to continue to do. However, this will be the last post at jasonandkellee.blogspot.com. I decided to start a new blog at WordPress for a few reasons:
#1 I get so many error messages on Blogspot when I post that it has gotten kind of annoying
#2 Nicol always tells me that the blog shows up wonky when she tries to look at it on her Mac and I have experienced that a couple times on ours as well
#3 I can post really easily on WordPress from my iPhone
#4 I wanted a new blog with a new name so that it could be a bit more family inclusive just in case our family were to get any bigger at some point in the future…and no, I am not making a sly announcement right now…I actually mean in the future!!!
So…thank you for reading my posts, and for still liking me even though a little crazy crept up every once in a while! I had so much fun recording everything over the last year and I am so glad that I did it! I am so lucky that I had the opportunity to plan the wedding the way that I did and the whole thing turned out better than I could have ever imagined! I am even more lucky to have found and married the love of my life…how many people get to spend the rest of their life with the person that makes them happier than anyone else? I have learned that this is unfortunately not the case for everybody, so I feel very fortunate that I get to spend the rest of my life with Jason!!!
Please feel free to check out the life and times of Team Jaglo at teamjaglo.wordpress.com!!!
I wanted to make sure that I packed everything that we would need on our week long honeymoon in Puerto Rico, so I stayed up pretty late on Sunday evening. I also had not really had much of a chance to relax in the last couple days, so it was nice to just sit in my chair and watch a DVD.I think I finally went to bed around 1:00/1:30. Jason was not impressed!
Our flight was at 6:00am, so we had agreed that we should leave the house at 4:15am. We had the rental car through Monday morning so that we wouldn’t have to worry about having someone come pick us up at the butt-crack of dawn. This way, we would just drop the rental car off at the airport and be on our way. We didn’t think about the fact that we had to fill the car up with gas, so the time we figured we had to leave by was a bit off.
We got inside the airport and, much to my surprise, it was really busy. I guess I figured all of the Thanksgiving holiday travelers flew out on Sunday. Turns out, Monday morning, super early, is a bit more popular. We got to the line to have our bag checked around 4:45. By the time we got the front of that line, it was about 4:55. We finally got to the security checkpoint at 5:00. The flight was leaving at 6:00, so boarding started at 5:30. We were cutting it a little close. I wasn’t super worried yet at this point, because 30 minutes seemed like a very long time and there was no way that it was going to take 30 minutes to get through the line. Well, guess what? It did take 30 minutes to get through the line. By the time I took my shoes off and was walking through the metal detector, I was pretty nervous that we were going to miss our flight. I think Jason was wondering if it was too late for an annulment. (The fact that I am always late annoys him a lot…I can’t be mad about it, it is pretty annoying!) Jason grabbed his bag and was putting on his shoes as I was walking through the metal detector. When I was cleared, I grabbed my purse, laptop/carry-on bag, and my shoes and we took off. And when I say “took off,” I actually mean took off. We were running through the airport trying to get to our gate like some scene out of a movie. And of course our gate was at the far end of the terminal, because it is never the first one on your left, that would be too easy. Thankfully, we made it as they were boarding. How much would that have sucked to miss our flight?!?!?
So we got on and settled into our seats. They showed the movie UP, but after that was over, Jason read a book and I fell asleep. (Another reason why I decided to stay up so late the night before!) As we started to make the descent into Miami, I got this ridiculous, stabbing pain in my forehead. It was not pleasant, to say the least. Jason said that the same thing has happened to him before, and he was thinking that it was probably my sinuses. Once we landed, we found some antihistamines immediately. Our layover in Miami was only about 90 minutes, so we grabbed some food and hung out for a little bit. We boarded the plane again and were off to Puerto Rico!
When we landed, we went and got our luggage and debated if we should rent a car or not. We decided to just take a cab to the hotel so that we wouldn’t have to worry about getting lost. The cab ride only took about 10 minutes and we were at our hotel. It was called the Intercontinental and it was GORGEOUS!!! We checked in and had our bags brought up to our room. By this time, it was about 4:30, so we decided to walk around the area to see what was around. Our hotel was on Isla Verde Drive and there were tons of restaurants within a couple blocks. We discovered that there was a Walgreen’s a couple blocks away, so we grabbed some snacks/breakfast items and water for the hotel. It was getting close to sundown, so we headed back to the hotel so that we could go for a walk on the beach at sundown. We walked up and down and got to feel the ocean and the sand on our feet. It was amazing! Our hotel had a restaurant that overlooked the ocean and had tables set up on the beach, so we decided to eat dinner there that evening.
We grabbed a table and ordered a couple drinks. I wasn’t so sure about any of the fruity drinks, so I ordered a glass of wine. Jason was all about the fruity drinks and he ordered a giant one. It tasted like pure sugar…delicious pure sugar, but pure sugar nonetheless. We decided to share chicken nachos for dinner because neither of us were all that hungry. They were good, but nothing spectacular. It was actually quite shocking how expensive the drinks and the food were, but the location was worth the price! At about 9:00, which by the way is 7:00 Minnesota time, we both admitted that we were exhausted. So like an old married couple, we went back to our room and were in bed by 9:30!
Tuesday, December 1
On Tuesday morning, we woke up around 9:00 and started to get ready for our first day at the beach. Jason covered himself with sunscreen, I covered myself with suntan oil and we headed downstairs. There was a cabana by the pool where you had to check in to get a hotel wristband and a towel. At the entrance to the beach there was a hotel employee waiting to grab beach chairs for us and set them up wherever we wanted.
We got situated and then headed into the ocean. I have been to California and Florida, so I have seen the ocean before, but I had never swum in it, so I was pretty excited. We eased our way in because even though it was about 85 degrees, the water was a bit cold at first. We spent about 30 minutes in the water before we decided to head back to our chairs to relax and lay in the sun. We hung out on the beach for a couple hours, switching off between swimming in the ocean and lying in the sun. We started to get hungry, so we decided to go see what we could find to eat.
The previous night, we had taken a right outside the hotel to explore, so we decided to explore our surroundings to the left. We found another Walgreen’s and a bunch more restaurants. We also found a grocery store, which was awesome because grocery stores in Puerto Rico are also liquor stores! We grabbed some Puerto Rican rum, juice, fruit, and snacks and headed back to the hotel where we had some lunch and mixed up some rum cocktails. After that, we went and hung out at the pool for a little while.
As it got closer to dinner time, we went back up to our room to get ready to go out. My co-workers, Jason and Candace, had been to Puerto Rico earlier in the year and gave us a bunch of recommendations of places to go. We went to one of the places they had suggested that evening called Lupi’s. We ordered Puerto Rican Margaritas, which are made with Bacardi 151 instead of tequila and are delicious! Jason got some sort of seafood for dinner and I ordered a Puerto Rican burrito. It was wrapped in a plantain rather than a tortilla and it was amazing!!! After dinner, we headed to another bar down the street for drinks. We asked the bartender to just give us what the most popular drinks were. Jason ended up with some sort of Bacardi not available in the states and I ended up with a coconut sangria. Both were great! After our drinks, we headed back to the hotel and went to bed for the evening.
Wednesday, December 2
Wednesday morning started out the same way Tuesday had. Sunblock, tanning oil, towels, beach, ocean, beach, ocean. We decided that this would be a good day to do something touristy, so after our morning ritual, we headed to Old San Juan. We had been told to not waste our money on a cab as it would cost about $30 when we could just take a bus, which cost a quarter. We found a bus stop and waited, and waited…and waited. There were no bus schedules at the bus stop and I was unable to find any info on the bus system of Puerto Rico on my iPhone, so after about 15 minutes of waiting, we were getting kind of annoyed. A taxi pulled up at this exact moment and asked if we wanted a ride. We really, really did, but we didn’t want to waste $30, so we said no. The taxi driver then said that he was willing to bring us to Old San Juan for $5 because he was headed there anyway and $5 was better than the nothing he would get if he didn’t drive us. Sold!!! We were on our way and got there in about 10 minutes.
There was a traffic jam when we got close to the city, so we got out of the cab and walked the last block or so into the city. We ended up at Castillo San Cristóbal which was a fort built by the Spanish to protect against land based attacks on the city of San Juan between 1765 and 1783. Castillo San Cristóbal was used as an active military base through World War II and became the jurisdiction of the US National Park Service in 1961 when the US Army moved out of the forts of Old San Juan. We spent about an hour and a half touring the fort; we even got to check out the dungeon where prisoners were held. One of the walls had a bunch of drawings of ships made by one of the prisoners; it was really kind of creepy!
When we left the fort, we jumped on the trolley which did a circle around all of Old San Juan, so we got to see almost all of the city. We got off at one point and found a restaurant to have a late lunch/early dinner at. Jason had seafood again and I had steak that was smothered with onions. It did not look very pretty, but it was delicious! The table next to us was a family of locals. Their food came to their table and all of a sudden we heard loud laughter. We looked over and one of the women was marveling at the size of her pork chop. It was literally bigger than her head! We had her hold it up so we could get a picture of it.
After our meal, we stopped at a Starbuck’s to get an iced latte because I was feeling really tired. We found the bus station and hopped on a bus headed back to our hotel. The bus ride was slightly scary as the bus driver kept making super quick stops and almost running into other buses. At one point, I think that he did run into another bus, it was lightly, but I am pretty sure that it happened. The bus ride was nice though, because we were able to see a bunch of the city because it was still light out.
By the time we got back to the hotel, I was actually feeling really crappy. Not like I had the flu or anything, but like a bad cold. Jason and I decided to just hang out in our room, relax, and watch TV. We had discovered a Man vs. Food marathon, so we stuck with that. The premise of the show is a guy that visits all sorts of comfort/big food restaurants and gorges himself on their food. There is always one restaurant that has a “challenge” food item, like eating the hottest curry in the world or a 4.5 pound steak in one sitting. The City Pages described it as, “the food version of Jackass,” which is a very fitting description! It is kind of disgusting to watch, although it is very entertaining. And although you are kind of disgusted while watching it, it actually makes you hungry. The marathon we were watching was focused on hamburgers and after watching multiple hamburger episodes, we decided that a hamburger sounded really good. We headed down the street to a place called Don Jose’s that was abierto las veinticuatrohoras (that’s Spanish for open 24 hours.) I got a hamburger and Jason got a Cuban sandwich. I had a couple bites of my hamburger and was over it, so Jason got the rest of it. After that, we went back to the hotel to settle in for a night filled with episodes of Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU. (It is on all day, every day…on multiple channels!)
Thursday, December 3
Thursday morning was again, a repeat of the previous mornings. Sunblock, tanning oil, towels, beach, ocean, beach, ocean. I did not feel good at all, so this day was extremely low key. All that we did this day was the beach, hang out in our hotel room, and have an early dinner at Lupi’s. This time Jason had the Puerto Rican burrito and I had nachos. The nachos were unimpressive, although it could have been my bad attitude due to not feeling well! After dinner, it was back to the hotel for a long night filled with back to back episodes of Law & Order.
Friday, December 4
On Friday morning, we decided to mix it up a little bit. Instead of sunblock, tanning oil, towels, beach, ocean, beach, ocean, it was sunblock, tanning oil, towels, pool. I was starting to feel a lot better, but now Jason was starting to get sick. Although I was feeling better, I did feel the need to use my inhaler, which I of course forgot to pack. I called Walgreen’s (in St. Paul) to see if I had any refills available, and unfortunately, I didn’t. They said that they could call and see if they could get a refill order and then just not fill it and I could request that it be filled at the Walgreen’s in Puerto Rico. We waited a little bit and headed down to the Walgreen’s down the street. When we got there, the woman in the pharmacy looked it up and saw that there was a refill in the system, but it had already been filled so she said she couldn’t do anything about it. She did not speak English very well, so the argument that followed was a little sketchy. Basically, what I got out of the argument was that she would give me the prescription, although it was “technically illegal” since there were no refills in the system, but I wouldn’t be able to use my insurance to cover the cost, which meant it would cost over $50. I was WILD about this as I had been told earlier that day that I would be able to pick up the inhaler in Puerto Rico with no worries or hassle. My very wise husband reminded me that paying $50 in order to breathe seemed like an okay price and that my arguing was not really going to get me anywhere in the long run. So long story short, we got my inhaler, I was able to breathe, and we headed back to the hotel. We went for a walk on the beach when we got back since we had spent the morning at the pool.
Jason was feeling pretty crappy by this point, but he decided to try and rally to go out for a little bit. The hotel had Christmas decorations up in the lobby and they were having a tree-lighting ceremony in the evening for all of the guests. They had carolers, cookies, really disgusting Puerto Rican egg nog, and a Santa Claus. It was a nice little ceremony. We wanted to have our picture taken with the Santa Claus, but the line was pretty long, so we decided to go get something to eat. We ended up at a little billiards hall that had pizza and we ordered one to go. On our way up to our hotel room, we stopped and got our picture taken with the Santa Claus. He was the shortest Santa in the history of the world, or maybe it was that we are a bit taller than the natives in Puerto Rico…either way, the picture is pretty funny!
We headed up to the room, ate our pizza and, again, spent the night relaxing and watching back-to-back episodes of Law & Order.
Saturday, December 5
We really mixed it up on Saturday and didn’t spend the morning at the beach or by the pool. We were both feeling better, but we were pretty wiped out, so we decided to hang out in the room all morning. We motivated at some point and got ready and decided to go check out the Bacardi Factory tour. We talked to one of the bellman to see what the best way to get there would be and he recommended a cab, as we would need to take a bus to Old San Juan, then a ferry to Cataño, and then another bus or cab to the actual factory. It was already about 2:30, so we hopped in a cab and headed out.
When we got there, we checked in and were given two drink tickets to try some of the different Bacardi rums they had available. We decided to save these until after the tour. We waited for about 10 minutes and then were notified that our group was ready to go. We were brought over to the factory and the tour began. The tour guide went over the history of the Bacardi family and how they decided on the bat as their trademark symbol. When they purchased the distillery, the building had an infestation of bats. Bats were apparently thought to bring good health, fortune, and family unity so it was decided they would use a bat as their logo and it became their trademark. The tour lasted a little over half an hour and was basically a 30 minute long commercial for Bacardi. After it was done, we were dropped off right in front of the gift shop. Surprising, huh? Jason got a hat and I got a pair of comfy pants, both complete with a Bacardi logo…apparently the commercial was effective on us! They also sold all the different types of Bacardi in the store, but we questioned why we would purchase something in Puerto Rico that we could buy at Morelli’s down the street. We went out to the bar, turned in our drink tickets, and enjoyed our free Bacardi beverages.
We went and talked to the cab drivers waiting and decided that we would take a cab to the ferry, take the ferry from Cataño to Old San Juan, and then take a bus back to the hotel. When we got in the cab, our driver told us that there was a street fair going on in Cataño that used to be held on the grounds of the Bacardi factory, so we decided that we would check that out before getting on the ferry. There was live music, food, and all sorts of craft vendors. We got some food, listened to music, and walked around through all of the vendors for a while. I ended up getting the tackiest statue I could find. I am not sure what it is exactly, but I think it is Christopher Columbus outside Castillo San Cristóbal. All I know for sure is that it is ugly and tacky and exactly what I was looking for as a souvenir!
We got on the ferry and headed back to Old San Juan. We found the bus station again and waited for a bus. It was Saturday, so they were not running as regularly and we had to wait for quite a while. This would have been the time that we should have considered wasting $30 and taking a cab, but finally, the bus came. It was the scariest bus ride in the history of the world! We actually had to hold on the whole time so that we wouldn’t fall out of our seats. The driver was driving about 60 miles an hour in 30 mph zones, did not slow down when making turns or going on clover leafs on the freeway, and to top it all off, it was already dark out, so we couldn’t even see anything! It was terrifying and we were thankful that we made it back to our hotel alive!
That evening, we had dinner at Don Jose’s again. After dinner, we went back to the hotel and hung out in the hot tub and pool. I don’t remember completely, but I think it would be safe to say that we ended the night with some episodes of Law & Order.
Sunday, December 6
We had been told that one thing that we needed to do while we were in Puerto Rico was check out a Bioluminescent-Bay (or Bio-Bay,) so we decided that Sunday was the day to make this happen. We checked in with the concierge and the tours offered through the hotel are not available on Sundays, so we had to find one ourselves. I found a company called Akuadventures that not only does them on Sunday, they do the tours in glass-bottom kayaks. We booked a tour with them and then walked down the street to rent a car, as we would need to drive to Fajardo. Fajardo is about an hour away, so a cab would have been about a $100 each way, whereas renting a car cost about $30. We went back to the hotel and proceeded to get back on track with the ritual we had ditched the last couple of days, sunblock, tanning oil, towels, beach, ocean, beach, ocean.
We left for Fajardo around 4:30 as we weren’t sure how long it would take us to get there and we really had no idea where we were going. The drive was pretty scary. Drivers in Puerto Rico see the street signs and rules of driving as mere guidelines that do not need to be followed if it is inconvenient. Jason drove like a champ though and we made it to Fajardo in one piece. When we got to Fajardo, we were surprised to see that you had to share the road with horses. Kids on horses came running out onto the streets the way that kids on bikes would in our neighborhood. It was pretty freaky! We were very early for our tour, but there was a festival going on in the area, so we had some free entertainment while we waited.
Nighttime finally arrived and it was time to go on our Bio-Bay tour. We had been told what it was, but there is no real way to understand what it is if you haven’t experienced it. Jason and I got into our glass-bottom kayak and paddled through the marina. We were headed toward a channel that would bring us out into a lagoon. Once we were close to the channel, the phenomenon began to occur. Basically, there are 720,000 single-celled bio-luminescent dinoflagellates per gallon of water and they glow a bluish light when agitated. So this meant that every time anything moved the water, the paddle, the kayak, your hand, whatever, there would be a flash and a trail of blue light. The closer we got to the lagoon, the stronger the light would be. It was INSANE!!! So we kayaked through this channel that had a ton of mangrove trees hanging very low. It was also jet black out, so there was a creepiness factor that added to the overall coolness of the experience. We made it out to the lagoon and gathered as a group so that our tour guide could explain the phenomenon of the Bio-Bay. We learned that there were only 5 in the whole world, so it was very cool that we got to experience this. We were allowed to kayak around the lagoon, which was absolutely beautiful. The sky was completely clear and there were a million stars out and it was the perfect setting to enjoy this amazing phenomenon! We didn’t get any pictures of it because there isn’t really a way to capture it on film. Also, we were in a kayak, so if you bring your camera, you are taking a pretty big chance that it will get wet and be ruined. I was sort of bummed that we didn’t get any pictures, but I also like the idea that Jason and I have a memory together that only we share. We can try to describe it to people, but only we know what it was truly like.
We kayaked back to the shore and got into the car and headed back to San Juan. On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at the liquor store to pick up some rum to bring home as souvenirs. Then we dropped the rental car off because it didn’t make sense to keep it and have to pay for parking at the hotel. We realized at this point that we hadn’t eaten much all day and we were pretty hungry. We wanted something quick, so we were extra lame, got some fast food, and brought it back to the hotel to eat it. We ate it in our room so that we wouldn’t look trashy eating our Wendy’s and KFC in the fancy hotel. When we were done, we went downstairs to the hotel bar to watch the Vikings game. They were playing like they were the ones on vacation, so I was kind of annoyed while watching it.
Our hotel supposedly had a casino in it, but we hadn’t seen it at all in the week that we had been there, so we decided that we were going to find it. It was tiny, not very exciting, and it would have been okay if we had never found it! We played slots for about 7 minutes and 34 seconds and then went up to our room. We started to get all of our stuff packed and then ended the evening with, yep, you guessed it, a couple episodes of Law & Order!
Monday, December 7
We were able to get a late check out on Monday morning so that we were able to enjoy our morning ritual one last time before we headed back to Minnesota. So our last morning went like this…sunblock, tanning oil, towels, beach, ocean, beach, ocean. We headed back up to our room and packed the rest of our stuff and headed down to the front desk to check out. We got a cab and headed to the airport.
Thankfully, we made it to the airport pretty early, so we didn’t have to worry about repeating our running through the airport ridiculousness we had to do on our way to Puerto Rico. We grabbed a pizza and waited for our boarding time. We got on the plane and it took off shortly after that. Jason let me sit in the window seat, so I could look out at the island and the ocean as we headed toward home. At one point as I was staring out the window, Jason leaned over with tears in his eyes and sang, “In the aeroplane over the sea” which are words from our first dance song. We both, very quietly, sang the verse that was printed on our invitation to each other and it was the absolute perfect end to the most perfect honeymoon.
Sadly, on the plane ride home, I got another sinus headache and this one was a million times worse then the one I got on the way there. It came on about a half hour after we took off. I was crying, shaking, and pounding on my forehead to try to make it go away, but nothing was working (and I looked like a crazy person!) Jason was doing his best to take care of me and calm me down, but it lasted until the two Benadryl that I took finally knocked me out. Once I woke up, we were close to Chicago where we had a short layover. Once we finally got back to the MSP airport, it was around 11:00.
Jason parents came and picked us up and brought us home. When we got there, we walked into a house full of all the presents that we had gotten at the wedding and opened up the day after the wedding at Chris & Jack’s. Nicol came over to our house while we were gone, and with the help of my mom, my aunt PJ, my aunt Shirley, and my cousin Cindy, unboxed all of the gifts and washed all of the dishes so we wouldn’t have to do it. As I have said before, I am not a big fan of housework, so this was probably one of the best gifts that we got!!! It was so nice to come home to a house full of all the generous gifts we had gotten from everyone at out wedding! I really could not have asked for a more perfect “homecoming.”
As some of you may already know, I am not the tidiest or most organized person when it comes to our house. I do not like doing any type of housework in any way, shape, or form. I actually have an aunt on each side of my family that loves cleaning. You would think that since there is a member on either side of my family who has the home cleaning/organization gene, that at least a little bit of this would have ended up in my own personal gene pool. I can understand why you would think this, because that would make sense, but alas, you would be wrong. Long story short, home organization is not my strong suit. (I am trying to change…so far though, it’s not going so well!)
However, for whatever reason, when it comes to organization of things that I find interesting or fun, I have absolutely no problem. This pertains particularly to party planning. I have been made fun of before for the spreadsheets, lists, and diagrams that I put together for our annual party. I am not bothered by this at all, as I should be made fun of for it, because it is extremely dorky! Being that the wedding was, by far, the biggest thing I have ever planned, I’m sure you would not be surprised to learn that the spreadsheets for the annual party are just a small drop in the bucket compared to the amount of spreadsheets, lists, and diagrams I put together for the wedding.
I was ultra organized with the planning of our wedding, updating every spreadsheet, list, and diagram I had put together almost daily. I will admit that it was a bit OCD and slightly over the top, but it was what I needed to do in order to make sure that everything ran smoothly. And…everything did run very smoothly, so I am happy that I did it! No one had questions of where they needed to be or what time they needed to be there. I put together “participant packets” for everyone who had any role in the wedding and handed them out at Thanksgiving…yes, it was pretty nerdy and I probably shouldn’t have made everyone aware of just how OCD my organization was with the wedding, but I think people appreciated having all the necessary information!
I thought it would be funny to include a couple (believe me, there are way more than what I am going to post...) of the spreadsheets/diagrams I had put together for this post so everyone would know what a nerd I am. Go ahead, make fun all you want…I can take it!!!
After Jason and I had signed our marriage license, Nicol, Lesley, Madi worked on bustling my dress. It looks like it was quite a process, don’t you think?
After that was done, Jason and I made our way out to the reception. We didn’t have the typical cocktail hour, assigned seating sit-down dinner, followed by music and dancing set up for our reception because we wanted it to be a bit more laid back and social than that. What we decided with my friend Jess, who works for D’Amico, was that we would have food stations and have a variety of tables set up for our guests. This meant that people would have the opportunity to grab a drink and socialize if they wanted to, or sit down and have dinner right away if they wanted to do that.
The bar was set up to serve guests before the wedding ceremony if they wanted to grab a cocktail ahead of time. It closed shortly before the ceremony and re-opened right after the ceremony was complete. We went back and forth on what to do with the bar and ultimately decided that it made the most sense to host beer and wine. Jason made these signs so that our guests would know what we were hosting.
For dinner, we had 3 different food stations set up. At one station, there was a Spring Roll Platter, Shrimp Potstickers, and Chicken Potstickers. At the second station, there was a variety of Avocado, Cucumber, and Imitation Crab California Rolls. The third station was my fave…it was a chef manned station where guests had the choice of Sticky Rice or Vegetable Rice tossed with either Beef Lo Mein, Cashew Chicken with Bok Choy, or Fire Roasted Vegetables with Red Pepper Aioli. Once they decided what combination they wanted, it was tossed together by the chef and served to them in a white Chinese to-go container that we had Team Jaglo stickers attached to. I was kind of obsessed with it because I thought it was the cutest idea ever!
During dinner, Jason had put together a playlist on his iPod that had a good variety of songs to be played in the background. He also put together a slideshow chronicling his 40 years, my 31 years, and our 7 years together. We decided to have it play during the entire dinner/social hours on a loop rather than having it be a specific thing that we announced and had everyone watch at the same time. This way, people could watch it if they wanted to or ignore it if they wanted to. It was also nice to do it this way because Jason didn’t have to worry about how long it was when he was making it…and I will tell you, it turned out to be pretty long. I think if we had made it a specific point in the reception, it would not have kept everyone’s attention and people may have gotten a little bored!
When Jason and I came into the reception area, we stayed in the same spot for about an hour without moving. We had people coming to say hello and congratulations in a steady stream, which was great, because we were not completely sure how we were going to be able to say hello to everyone that was there…there was about 200 people there after all! Even with that, there was a handful of people at the wedding that we didn’t get a chance to say hello to. Everyone told me that this would happen, but I didn’t understand the extent to how overwhelming all of it would be until we were in the moment.
After about an hour, we were able to sit down for a little bit and eat some of the food. People that were coming up to us to say hello and congratulations were raving about it, so we definitely wanted to try it before it was all gone. The head concierge had set aside a plate for us in the back so that we could eat at some point if we didn’t make it over during the specified dinner hours. We sat down for a few minutes and were able to enjoy some of the food.
After we ate, it was time for toasts. Toasts were given by my sister, my mom, Jason’s sister, Jason’s parents, Jacie, Adair, Mike, and Brian Fogelberg. It was so nice to have the people that we love say so many nice things about us and our relationship…we were both filled with emotion as we laughed and cried at all the toasts!
After toasts, it was time for our first dance. One of our best friends, James, is in a band called Roma di Luna. Jason and I have gone to see them play almost every time they have a show in the cities. There is something about their music that we absolutely love, and the lead singer, Channy Moon Casselle, has the most amazing voice we have ever heard. We went and saw them play at the Uptown Bar a few years ago and they played a song called In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. It brought tears to both of our eyes and from that point forward we decided that this was “our song.”
Beyond the fact that it is a beautiful song, there is a portion of the lyrics that fit Jason and me perfectly. Jason’s nickname for me is “Face,” and the first line of the song is “what a beautiful face I have found in this place.” In the last verse, the first line is “what a beautiful place I have found in your face.” The song just really encapsulates Jason and me perfectly and we love it. We actually even used one of the verses of the song as the theme for our invitations.
As mentioned previously, James, the bass player for Roma di Luna, is a friend of ours and we have some other “small world” connections with the band. The drummer, Ryan Lovan, is actually married to my friend Sarah from high school and Alexei Moon Casselle, the other lead singer of the band, was one of Chris’ students at Barton when he was in 5th grade. So we were lucky enough to have the band be at our wedding to perform our first dance song live. It could not have been more perfect and I am so thankful to James, Ryan, Alexei, and Channy for doing us the honor of playing our first dance song at our wedding!
Here are the lyrics to In the Aeroplane Over the Sea:
What a beautiful face I have found in this place
That is circling all around the sun
What a beautiful dream that could flash on the screen
In a blink of an eye and be gone from me
Soft and sweet/ let me hold it close and keep it here with me
And one day we will die and our ashes will fly
From the aeroplane over the sea
But for now we are young/ let us lay in the sun
And count every beautiful thing we can see
Love to be in the arms of all I’m keepin’ here with me
What a curious life we have found here tonight
There is music that sounds from the street
There are lights in the clouds Anna’s ghost is all around
Hear her voice as its rolling and ringing through me
Soft and sweet/ how the notes all bend and reach above the trees
Oh now how I remember you/ how I would push my fingers through
Your mouth to make those muscles move/that make your voice so smooth and sweet
And now we keep what we don’t know/ Our secrets sleep in winter clothes
With one you loved so long ago/ now he don’t even know his name
What a beautiful place I have found in your face
That is circling all around the sun
When we meet on a cloud I’ll be laughing out loud
I’ll be laughing with everyone I see
Can’t believe how strange it is to be anything at all
Shortly after the first dance, Jason and I were summoned over to the dessert table to do the ceremonial cake cutting. We decided to do an array of mini desserts rather than serving wedding cake as our dessert. The mini desserts included chocolate-covered strawberries and pineapple, key lime tarts, cheesecake lollipops, and some other delicious little morsels. I had found an idea for some really cute cake toppers that Jason’s parents made for us, so we did have a cake, but it was mainly for decoration purposes. Jason and I did the whole cut the cake deal and we fed each other one of the mini desserts. Jason got the key lime tart and I got the chocolate-covered pineapple. They were both delicious! I wish we would have had more of the desserts, but oh well!
While we were doing the cake/dessert thing, the Sensational Joint Chiefs took the stage and began their first set. Our friend James is also in this band and Jason used to go see them perform regularly when they played in the Twin Cities. He also had them play at his 30th birthday party. They still play every once in a while in the Twin Cities, but not very often, so it was a great honor that we were able to have them play our wedding reception!
Jason and I had decided that we wanted to have a photobooth at the wedding and it was around the time of the first dance that the photobooth was officially open. We thought it would be a fun thing for our guests to do and we also thought it was a fun alternative to the traditional guestbook. The photobooth took three pictures and would print out two photostrips. There was an attendant at the photobooth that would cut the strips in half and place one of them in a book and have you write a message or sign your name. And you would get the other photostrip as a “memento/souvenir.” I am pretty obsessed with pictures, so I thought it would be a fun idea. People seemed to really enjoy it and we have an awesome guestbook to show for it!
The band was playing, people were dancing and having a good time, so I decided that it was a good time for my surprise for Jason. As you may already know, Jason has a slight obsession with Spiderman. In the beginning of the time that we were planning the wedding, my sister, the Swansons, and I were talking about things that we could do to make our wedding unique. My sister came up with the idea that Spiderman should make an appearance at the wedding. Originally, the idea was that Bradley would dress up as Spiderman to officiate the ceremony, but that seemed like we were not taking the ceremony seriously, so that idea was thrown out. Then Abby volunteered to dress up in a Spiderman costume and just hang out at the ceremony for a little bit. This sounded like it would be hilarious, so we decided that was what we would do. A couple days before the wedding, Abby and I met at Twin Cities Magic and Costume to try on and reserve the costume.
Abby grabbed the costume out of the car and we headed back to the back room to help her get ready in it. I found out later that I missed an impromptu Crescent Moon performance with the Joint Chiefs that I am super bummed to have missed, but I am still hoping someone got it on video (although I don’t think anyone did…) Anyway, I headed out to make sure that Jason was on the dance floor and that his back was to the entrance so he wouldn’t see Abby/Spider”man” come in. He suspected something was up when I wouldn’t allow him to turn even slightly toward the door. By this time, Abby/Spider”man” had made her way to the dance floor. When Jason turned around and saw, I am not sure what exactly was going through his mind, but I think that he thought it was pretty funny. Abby didn’t talk at all, so Jason had no idea who it was in the costume…he was slightly confused by the fact that Spider”man” had breasts though!
The band was actually playing what I think was a polka song and Abby/Spider”man” grabbed Jason and started to dance. It was hilarious and extremely entertaining for all! The song they were dancing to seemed to last an extremely long time, and I found out later that the band actually played it twice in a row so that the dance between Jason and Abby/Spider”man” would last longer! Abby/Spider”man” made rounds throughout the reception and took pictures with a bunch of different people and also spent some time in the photobooth. Overall, I think the surprise was a total success! I am actually shocked that I was able to keep it a secret for as long as I did!
The reception was somewhat of a blur, so the timeline is not quite so easy to recall. People had told us that we would probably not see each other much throughout the night, but we did a pretty good job of spending time with each other as well as our guests throughout the evening. The one thing that we did not love about the reception was that we only got to spend about 47 seconds with people when we were able to talk to them, because we were constantly pulled in different directions, although I think everyone understood that we would not be able to spend a ton of time with them.
Jason had put together a playlist on his iPod to play when the band took breaks. One of the songs on the playlist was the Hoedown Throwdown by Miley Cyrus, which has a dance that goes with it. I came up with the idea that it would be cute if everyone in the wedding party did the Hoedown Throwdown at the reception as it was a fairly simple dance and it would be pretty cute with all the kids in the wedding. However, with 12 kids and three adults in our wedding party, it was too hard to coordinate everyone learning the dance, so that idea was eventually forgotten. Jason, however, left the song on the playlist, so when it came on, Sean, Madison, Sydney, Devin, and I all did it. It was kind of corny, but it was pretty cute!
I also got to have a dance with Nick before they left for the evening. He is a 12 year old boy and not that into dancing, so it was very sweet that he did it for me anyway!
Later on in the evening, it was time for Jason’s performance. He had tried to keep his performance a surprise for me, but he is apparently not as good at keeping surprises as I am because I had known about it for weeks. Jason, who is not a singer, got up on stage with the Joint Chiefs and sang me a song. He got together with the band and was able to rehearse it a couple of times, but you would never guess that he had only rehearsed it a couple times! The song was called “It’s Business Time” and it is from the show The Flight of the Conchords. It is wildly inappropriate and hilariously funny and Jason performed it AMAZINGLY!!! Everyone gathered on the dance floor and by the time Jason sang the second chorus, everyone was singing along! Toward the end of the song, Lesley convinced me to go up on stage with Jason while he sang. It was so much fun and I was so impressed with my husband’s performance skills!
Here are the lyrics to the wildly inappropriate and hilarious song he sang:
Aww girl, tonight we’re gonna make love. You know how I know? ‘Cause it’s Wednesday. And Wednesday is the night that we usually make love. Monday is my night to cook, Tuesday night’s the night that we go and visit your mother, but Wednesday night is the night that we make sweet weekly love.
It’s when everything is just right. There’s nothing good on TV, you haven’t had your afterwork social sports team practice so you are not too tired. It’s all on!
You lean in close and say something sexy like, “ I might go to bed I’ve got work in the morning.” I know what you’re trying to say girl. You’re trying to say, “Oh yeah. It’s business time. It’s business time.”
It’s business.
It’s business time.
I know what you’re trying to say, you’re trying to say it’s time for business, it’s business time.
It’s business.
It’s business time.
Ohhh Ohhh Yhea.
Next we’re in the bathroom brushing our teeth. That’s all part of it, that’s foreplay. I love foreplay.
Sheeck sheekk sheeck owww
Then you go sort out the recycling. That’s not part of the foreplay, but it’s still very important.
Next thing you know, we’re in the bedroom. You’re wearing that ugly old baggy t-shirt you got from your work several years ago. You know, the one from BrownCollege.
I remove my clothes very clumsily, tripping sensuously over my pants. Now I’m naked except for my socks, and you know when I’m down to just my socks what time it is.
It’s business.
It’s business time.
You know when I’m down to just my socks, it’s time for business, that’s why they call it business socks.
It’s business.
It’s business time.
Ohhhhhh yheaaaa
Ooh, makin’ love.
Makin’ love for.
Makin’ love for two.
Makin’ love for two minutes.
When it’s with me, you only need two minutes, ‘cause I’m so intense.
You whisper something sexy like, “Is that it?” I know what you’re trying to say. You’re trying to say, “Aww yeah, that’s it!” Then you tell me you want some more. Well I’m not surprised, but I’m quite sleepy.
It’s business.
It’s business time.
Business hours are over baby.
It’s business.
It’s business time.
The rest of the evening was spent talking and celebrating with family and friends, taking photos in the photobooth, and dancing. It was an amazing evening and it turned out to be everything that we had hoped for and spent so much time planning. It was worth every penny that we spent, all the inevitable stress that came with it, and every moment we spent planning it. It was definitely the best day of our lives as we had hoped it would be!
Jason and I had talked about what the last dance song should be, but we never really decided on it. Thankfully, the Joint Chiefs are so amazing…they ended up playing the most perfect song, and it was one that we would not have thought of. They played Shining Star by the Manhattans. Here are the lyrics:
Ooo-ooo-ooo yeah
Honey you are my shining star
Don't you go away, oh, baby
Wanna be right here where you are
Until my dyin' day, yeah baby
So many have tried
Tried to find a love like your and mine
Uum-hum
Girl don't you realize
How you hypnotize
Make me love you more each time, yeah baby
Honey I'll never leave you lonely
Give my love to you only
To you only, to you only
Honey you are my shining star
Don't you go away, no baby
Wanna be right here where you are
Until my dying day, yeah baby
Feels so good
When we're lyin' here next to each other
Lost in love, yeah baby
Baby when we touch
Love you so much
You're all I ever dreamed of,yeah baby
Honey I'll never leave you lonely
Give my love to ya only, to you only
To you only
Honey you are my shining star
Don't you go away girl, no bab-ay
Wanna be right here where you are
Until my dying day, um-hum-hum-hum
Honey you, you are my shining star
Don't you go away, whoa baby
(Honey you) you
(are my shining) star
Don't you go away
No-oh bab-ay
(Honey you)
Right here where you are
Till my dying day
After the last dance, we said goodbye to those who made it until 1:00am and Nicol, Jason, and I headed back to the hotel. We were starving, so we decided that we had to stop at a gas station somewhere to get some snacks. Jason’s feet were killing him, my shoulders were about to break from the weight of my dress, and we were exhausted, but our need for snacks outweighed all of that. There was not much open, but we found a SuperAmerica that was open. Nicol and I ran into SA, her in her bridesmaid dress and me in my wedding dress, and we got our snacks. It was not the cleanest of places to go in fancy dresses, but again, the need for snacks trumped all! We got back in the car and headed to the hotel. Nicol helped us bring our stuff back to the room as we had one more task to complete before the night was over.
Every year, we send out a funny Christmas card. We had talked about the fact that we thought that everyone would be expecting that this year, instead of a funny card, we would be sending out a wedding picture as our Christmas card. We figured that we would deliver on the wedding picture aspect of the card, but we would add a “Team Jaglo funny twist” to it. So Nicol came to our room with us and we had a quick photo shoot. We think that we ended up with a lovely picture for our Christmas card:
After Nicol left, we had some snacks, talked about the evening for a little bit, and tried to stay awake as long as we could. Eventually, we stopped fighting our exhaustion and went to sleep for the evening…our first of many nights together as Team Jaglo!
