J & T's Wishes Wedding 5/5/12 SB/SBP/BW *Wedding & Aulani HM TR Complete!*

[Bewitch324]

I'm loving your Hawaiian Honeymoon report!! Everything looks so beautiful, and it sounds like a perfect bit of R&R after all the wedding planning and wedding stuff...

Bummer about the luau though...but at least it's an entertaining story and 30 years from now, you two will probably still laugh when you remember the crazy honeymooners fighting over the gift shop shopping spree!

I admire your bravery in taking the helicopter tour...those things really scare me!

Can't wait to read more...

Brooke

 

[itsmebabygi]

I'm surprised I never actually commented on your PJ. I'm more of a lurker than I realized!

Hawaii looks amazing! And your wedding looks amazing, even with the few bumps. Hopefully those turn into really funny stories someday instead of bummers . But you have beautiful pictures and an awesome new husband, so that's what you'll be able to remember years from now.

And btw, I definitely have never heard anyone use "foiled" like you do (it must be a regional thing?), but I am about one day of the trip report away from slipping and using it myself. Haha. I love it!

 

[disneydreamer1025]

Your pictures are amazing!

 

[Crofttobe]

Your Wedding was beautiful, congrats lady! Definitely a pleasure to read through your Wedding Journal!!

 

[tric8783]

I'm all caught up! (I've been terrible at replying. And doing my own TR. And pretty much doing anything online lately, despite being in front of the computer so often.

Oh, man, Aulani and Hawaii are SO beautiful. I can't wait to go there. (Though maybe paired with a CA trip, so as to break up the flying time. It's only four hours from San Francisco!)

I don't know about that helicopter ride... pretty views, but eh... I'm okay in planes, but I'm not a fan of heights at all.

A hydrotherapy garden? I need one of those in my life!

Thanks twin! No worries! I haven't seen updates on your TR recently, did I miss them? Thanks!! I really wanted to try stopping in CA on our way back to break it up, but we decided to just get home and we really needed the time to unwind so I guess I'm glad we did. A little stop in Disneyland wouldn't have hurt! hehe

I have more pretty pictures from the copter, my phone was just dead yesterday. I'll add more!

Yesss wait til you see the spaaa!

What beautiful pictures! I want to go there. I took a Las Vegas helicopter tour into the Grand Canyon once and loved it. So much fun.

Thank you!! It is so gorgeous! I've been scheming in my mind how I'm going to take Josh to Vegas for his bday in January (once his vacation time refreshes). We stopped there once too for a layover but thats the extent of visiting there. Would love to see the Grand Canyon!!

Wow what an amazing hm you are both having, very pretty

Your cabana at the poly looks like a great day to spend the day after the wedding to relax, do you know if they have any at GF and if so how do I book please? Look forward to reading more!

Thanks! I called the recreation line (I think 407-WDW-PLAY) and told them we were at the Poly and wanted a cabana. No deposit etc, just gave them our reservation # Super easy! They definitely have them at the GF as far as I know!

That sucks that the luau wasn't the romantic meal you were expecting.

Pretty pics from helicopter ride even if you were a little scared.

Looking forward to more.

Thanks!

I'm loving your Hawaiian Honeymoon report!! Everything looks so beautiful, and it sounds like a perfect bit of R&R after all the wedding planning and wedding stuff...

Bummer about the luau though...but at least it's an entertaining story and 30 years from now, you two will probably still laugh when you remember the crazy honeymooners fighting over the gift shop shopping spree!

I admire your bravery in taking the helicopter tour...those things really scare me!

Can't wait to read more...

Brooke

Definitely HI was great for R&R! And we do already laugh about the luau, haha! seriously, hilarious. The other day I did the hula wrong and said, "hun, who am i???" he said, "you better not spend our savings in the gift shop!!" hahahaha

I'm definitely proud of myself for getting in that thing! It was definitely something to at least now say I've done once!

I'm surprised I never actually commented on your PJ. I'm more of a lurker than I realized!

Hawaii looks amazing! And your wedding looks amazing, even with the few bumps. Hopefully those turn into really funny stories someday instead of bummers . But you have beautiful pictures and an awesome new husband, so that's what you'll be able to remember years from now.

And btw, I definitely have never heard anyone use "foiled" like you do (it must be a regional thing?), but I am about one day of the trip report away from slipping and using it myself. Haha. I love it!

I'm usually a lurker too, trying to comment more myself! Thanks so much for all the sweet compliments! I actually went to school in VA and got "Foiled!" from my virginian roommates! I hope it spreads Another one we love to say is "Get it!!" (we always joke we're going to spread it worldwide.. this has been going on for a few yeas now, we're crazy!)

Your pictures are amazing!

Thank you!

Your Wedding was beautiful, congrats lady! Definitely a pleasure to read through your Wedding Journal!!

Thanks so much!!


Alrighty I am off to the denist (womp womp womppp) but I'll be back and keep going later today!

 

[tric8783]

I'm baaack! Sorry I didnt come back yesterday, I was super tired after running a few errands!

So, HM day 7 Sunday
(Mother's Day!)

We woke up and called our mom's to say Happy Mother's Day! We called and managed to get a reservation for Makahiki that night and we were off to the beach!

Since we had explored the left side of the beach the day before, we decided to go to the right today. We weren't sure what was on the other side of the Marriott but we decided to check it out. Turns out, it's a public beach, which mostly consisted of rocks and little inlets. We walked past a few signs "warning" us we were leaving the resort but it was daytime and it didn't say no trespassing, so off we went! To our surprise, when we got to the water, there was a couple getting married! Her dress was hanging in a tree and she was about to put it on. We scurried out of their way and to check out the coastline!

(you can see her in the far left)

While we were exploring, we realized they were now having their ceremony. They maybe had about 10 people with them so a nice intimate ceremony. The only way back for us was to walk through their wedding, so clearly we didn't. We spent some time just hanging out and watching the waves crash (and one missing the bride's dress by inches!)lol

Once their ceremony was over and we could tell they were taking pictures, we scooted back and got out of their way. Back to our beach!

Since the convention was over and most of them were leaving, the beach was back to being nice and quiet and we were loving it. Did I post pictures of the big raft/float thing that is in the water? They have a big float thing anchored down in the shape of a Mickey head. When the beach/lagoon wasn't crowded, we loved going out there and laying on it by ourselves, so peaceful!

(and Josh liked jumping off it) he's nuts! lol

They also have this Aulani catamaran that goes out a couple times per day, we're guessing based on demand. We never did it so I'm not sure exactly where it goes but it would leave the lagoon for about 20-30 minutes and come back and pull right up on the beach. After the convention people left, the people who drive it were just driving it around the lagoon for fun, or maybe to attract people to take a ride? We never checked out the prices for it so I'm not sure how much it cost, but I liked the big red sail on it with the Aulani logo anyway

we also spotted, you guessed it, another wedding!

We headed back up to the room to take a nap before dinner (notice a trend?) On our way, we noticed the infinity pools were pretty empty, so we decided to check them out!

We thought they were normal pools, but they were actually huge hot tubs! They were super hot and it was hot out, so we didn't stay long. We jumped in the pool pool to cool off and of course Josh couldn't resist going down the slide!

 

[fireofmarajade]

Love your photos as always!

*Stalker pics are awesome! Loving the tuxes on the men
I say that disboards gives us an excuse to stalk.... maybe we know them ehehhehe

 

[tric8783]

That night we had a reservation for Makahiki, so I got prettied up in one of my new HM dresses and we headed to dinner!

waiting to be seated!

pretty murals inside

Once we were seated we were given the option of having the buffet or a la carte, so we took a walk to make sure there was things we wanted at the buffet and both decided to go with it! I thought the food was really tasty, Josh didn't love it but didn't think it was terrible either. I tried to get one of my cucumber lychee drinks but they didn't have it there and hadn't heard of it, foiled!

nom.

Josh had a bunch of crab legs and some other things. I don't do shellfish so I went straight for the beef! haha

Then of course for dessert! And I had you ladies in mind taking pics of the buffet to report back... hahaha

don't you love that these say Aulani on them??

my selections

We were clearly and completely STUFFED! So much fooooood! haha We went back up to the room after dinner and listened to our boys from the balcony! ( I finally got a picture of them too!)

HM Day 8, Monday
We woke up and surprise surprise, headed down to the beach! Nothing exciting this day or much out of the ordinary. We had our couples massage that night at 5:30 and they told us we could/should come an hour early to take advantage of the facilities. We got some lunch out by the pool and lounged around in the lazy river. Around 4 o'clock we went up to the room to change and drop off our stuff to head to the spa. The spa is called Laniwai and it sure it amazing!

Walking towards the spa:

Outside the doors (everything there is very understated, nothing screaming "Spa this way" etc. It's kind of hard to find things if you don't know where to go)

We checked in for our treatment and waited to be escorted into the facilities

We were walked to the locker rooms and along the way we stopped and were asked to choose a stone with a word on it. Josh and I both chose "balance", then we walked over to a small reflection pool and threw them in with a wish

Then we were each taken individually so we could be showed to the locker rooms. The women's locker room had of course lockers, full showers, a sauna and a steam room separate, a vanity area with anything you could need, and my guide told me if there was something I needed that wasn't out to ask for it. They showed me to my locker which had a robe and slippers for me and then told me I could get changed and meet Josh in the "relaxation room" oo la la

I got changed into my robe and then went to find Josh. It was kind of maze like. First I found a lounge type room with citrus infused water and cupcakes

 

[tric8783]

I waited there for a few minutes but no Josh and I knew I took longer than he would, so I realized this might not be the "relaxation room" haha.. so I open the door and go into another hallway that led to another room. This room had cushioned loungers, tranquil music and doors that led outside. Josh wasn't there either, so I headed outside, where I found him on a lounger in the hydrotherapy garden

The hydrotherapy garden was amazing. We first headed for a eucalyptus(i'm totally spelling that wrong) bath

There was a lilac bath as well, which we also tried. The whole area was pretty quiet and empty, which was nice. There were also massage stations outside (empty while we were there) and an actual shower area, with 6 different types of showers. I forgot to mention that while we were showed the locker rooms and given our tours, we were able to choose our scent for our treatments and given a scrub. They told us we could use the scrub later in the outdoor showers. There was also a cold plunge and several hot tubs. Josh jumped in the cold plunge just as we were being called for our massage, so both of our guides saw him go in and said not many people do (he went all the way under, they were cracking up at him)

The spa was completely amazing. Our guides came and let us know it was time for our massages, so we went and took our bathing suits off and got in our robes and met up again to be taken to our treatment room. We met up and were brought to the original relaxation room where we lounged and had a few snacks before our masseurs came to introduce themselves and bring us to our room. The room had a gorgeous private patio connected, they let us pick the music (I picked Hawaiian love chants ) and we got to pick our lotion scents. I picked mango for Josh and he picked Jasmine for me. We had a "Lomi Lomi" massage and it was heavenly! Afterward we went back out to the hydrotherapy garden and laid on the loungers for about a half hour. It was starting to get dark and the pretty lanterns in the trees were turning on. We decided we were ready to head back to the room for dinner and went back to our locker rooms and changed out of our robes. We had bought chicken breasts at the grocery store, so I decided to make us chicken for dinner in the room, howeverrr I made it and it didnt taste right. Something wasn't right and we decided we were going to go down and get sandwiches from the counter service One Paddle Two Paddle. We totally chowed down on bad for us food after we'd just had our massages and were feeling all fruit, vegetables and water healthy... lol oh well!!

We watched a movie in bed and decided to turn in early, we were going to Pearl Harbor in the morning and the pickup time was 6:30AM!

 

[NicknNancy]

That spa is beautiful! It must have been SO relaxing! Just exactly HOW cold was the cold plunge? lol Your pictures are so beautiful! I hope to go there one day!

 

[MrsDuck]

OMG, Tricia, all of your pictures are GORGEOUS! I just love that blue water!

It looks like you had an amazing time! That spa is to die for and I absolutely love that Josh went down the slide. Obviously a good catch!

Seriously, your honeymoon looked like paradise!

 

[Princess_K]

I sooo want to go to Aulani after reading all about your trip! It looks absolutely gorgeous!

 

[mebbradley]

I can't wait to hear about Pearl Harbor. If we make it to HI, that's on our list for sure!

 

[JP2013]

WOW! I just started looking at the Disboards Weddings and came across your GORGEOUS wedding!! Congrats! You made such a beautiful bride and looked like you had such a wonderful time!! Plus, you had so many great ideas. I had a great time reading through your thread. Thanks!

 

[belle aube]

As promised, here are pics of my nephew and ringbearer, Tyler Joseph
(there are like 10 because i couldnt choose.. I am a proud auntie what can I say bahaha)

getting him in it...

full suit (clearly needs a little fitting)

Tyler, turn to the side....

Ok turn around...

Work it...

<3 too cute! <3

about to pull the tie off... oops

too funny!

We also went shopping... my sister had some things to get with coupons she had at Babies R Us, and we found this adorable Fedora I told her she HAD to get for him to bring to FL... rehearsal perhaps?? lol

AAAAAAAAAAND my sister ordered these "Disney Love Quotes" picks from Etsy for my shower... we're not going totally Disney but small touches, like these picks, will be placed randomly

OMG! I was reading through your plans and came across the photo of your cupcake toppers... I made them! Your sister ordered them through my etsy shop! I hope you enjoyed them!

 

[tric8783]

That spa is beautiful! It must have been SO relaxing! Just exactly HOW cold was the cold plunge? lol Your pictures are so beautiful! I hope to go there one day!

Isn't it?! The spa was so so amazing. It was somewhere around 50 or 60 degrees I believe?! brrrrrrrrr! lol

OMG, Tricia, all of your pictures are GORGEOUS! I just love that blue water!

It looks like you had an amazing time! That spa is to die for and I absolutely love that Josh went down the slide. Obviously a good catch!

Seriously, your honeymoon looked like paradise!

Thanks Faith! We definitely were sad to leave!! Josh tries to be cool but he's definitely a kid at heart! Yesterday we went for Father's Day, we walk in and my nephew, yes MY blood nephew yells "JOSH! JOSH!" helloooo, auntie??? LOL

I sooo want to go to Aulani after reading all about your trip! It looks absolutely gorgeous!

It definitely is amazing and I'm probably not even capturing how amazing it is through my report, definitely add it to your list!

I can't wait to hear about Pearl Harbor. If we make it to HI, that's on our list for sure!

It was amazing, for sure. Here we go!

WOW! I just started looking at the Disboards Weddings and came across your GORGEOUS wedding!! Congrats! You made such a beautiful bride and looked like you had such a wonderful time!! Plus, you had so many great ideas. I had a great time reading through your thread. Thanks!

Aw thank you so much, you're so sweet! And I just commented on your new PJ, looking forward to hearing your plans!

OMG! I was reading through your plans and came across the photo of your cupcake toppers... I made them! Your sister ordered them through my etsy shop! I hope you enjoyed them!

No way, that is great!!! I am slightly crazy and planned things myself, so I found them and sent them to her to buy. Love it!! Thanks so much, clearly I loved them! Glad to know we were supporting a DISbride!!

 

[tric8783]

Alrighty! HM day 9, Tuesday!
As I was saying, the bus was leaving Aulani at 6:30AM- and we'd been sleeping in for the last week til about 9 or so then laying in bed til about 10:30... ha! What was even scarier, was that in a few days, 6:30AM was going to be 12:30PM at home. We were totally on Hawaiian time...

I set my alarm for 5:45 so we could shower and get dressed (I have a lot of hair to dry), well it went off and I decided I had til 6 to get up. So I got up and got in the shower at 6. Somehow I stayed in the shower for 20 minutes. I think I was sleep-showering. I got my towel on and looked at the clock to wake up Josh and it was like 6:23... uhhh we have to be downstairs dressed in 7 minutes, yikes!! I tell Josh and he jumps in the shower, I throw clothes on and gel in my hair, clearly no time to dry it in 7 minutes. Then our phone rings. It's the front desk, valet, what have you, looking for us to see if we overslept, eek!! We're on our way!!!!! We went down the stairs quick and came out to the front of the hotel, and the bus was there waiting for us. Thankfully our tour wasn't full, there was only about 15 of us, but nonetheless they were all on the bus waiting for us. I felt so bad, I hate to be "one of those" and I'm sure they were rolling their eyes at us. haha But we made it!
We met our tour guide, Shannon O'Brian (He was totally Hawaiian with an Irish name, and he kept making jokes about it). Shannon was by far the best tour guide we've ever had besides maybe Levi Baron in Domanica when we went on our cruise. But they might be tied (if you go to Domanica, look him up rather than going through the ship haha)

Shannon pulled out a huge map of the whole Memorial, told us what we'd see and we were off! He was very funny and had us laughing at 7AM which was great (you know how miserable it is to be up at 7AM with someone that hates their job...lol) He had us all introduce ourselves and say why we were in Hawaii etc. When we said we were on our honeymoon, we got the "OHHHH's" from the bus for being late... lol It was hysterical. We hit morning rush hour in Hawaii and becasue of traffic it took us about an hour to get to Pearl Harbor. I could tell we were close because we were passing all the barrack's and there were military people everywhere. Maybe it's very normal for you ladies who are military wives or about to be, to see military people in their uniforms constantly, but it was such a treat for me! I'm sure Josh wanted to ring my neck by the end, because every time I saw a handsome man in uniform, I'd nudge him to look. And yes, every man in a military uniform is handsome in my opinion!

Shannon told us about the entire history of the attack on Pearl Harbor, how it came about, etc. Josh said he was spot on with everything he said and you could tell he was really passionate about it. He told us what he thought was a perfect game plan for seeing everything in the allotted time, etc. Then of course, we made it to Pearl Harbor! When we got there, Shannon told us what time to come back to the bus and where it would be, and told us he would be blowing a conch shell for us to find him again. He also told us there was an air carrier that was scheduled to come in that day but he wasn't sure at what time and hoped it would come while we were there. He said it was huge and there was no way we'd miss it. (Unfortunately it didn't come) and I'm not a huge current events or history buff etc, but it was supposed to be the carrier they threw Bin Laden's body off of. Josh really wanted to see it but we were on a schedule to leave so when it didn't come, we didn't have a choice to stay.

Shannon walked us to the front- you are not allowed to bring in any bags at all to the Memorial. No camera bags, no wristlets, nothing. So I brought my camera in one pocket and phone in the other. It was so odd to not have a purse but those are the rules. You would be amazed people trying to come in with their book bag's...... what about "no bags permitted" on the ticket did you not get?? ha!

Once we got in, we got our tickets for the actual tour out to the memorial and had about a half hour to explore on our own first. We did a quick bathroom break then Shannon offered to take our picture in front of the anchor
While we were waiting for people in the bathroom, I took pictures of this painting on the ground showing Pearl Harbor in 1941

Then we headed for the anchor:

We did some exploring and made use of our "free time" before we headed out to the memorial

It was about 5 minutes until our "tour time" so we waited in shade.

Then our time slot was called. We were all taken into a theatre to watch a short film about the attack on pearl harbor, and invited to board our boat out to the memorial. They asked us to keep quiet and keep in mind this was a tomb we were about to go out to...

 

[tric8783]

It was a short ride over to the memorial, and as we pulled up we were told we only got I think it was like 12 minutes at the memorial. Basically enough time for the boat to take the group before us back and bring a new group out. Shannon had told us to go to the back first as that was the most important room. As we pulled up the guides told us not to take pictures going in. The entire boat needed to empty onto this "island" and get the previous crowd off so we could have room for our group. We were at the back of the boat and I'm good at the stealth pics ( just holding the camera up and taking pics without looking or focusing etc) so I got some anyway

Josh couldn't believe how much oil was still clearly taking over the water

Once we got inside we headed for the back like Shannon had told us

You can see people bring in flowers and flower leis and leave them. They also throw out flowers to sit on the oiled water surface. It was very moving to say the least

We tried to see as much as we could and apparently it was a great day to be there, the water was pretty clear and we could actually see some of the USS Arizona. After we left Shannon told us sometimes they don't even allow ships out depending on weather and sometimes people can't see anything at all so we felt very lucky!

 

[tric8783]

The boat was back to take us back to the visitors center, so we all lined back up to board the boat

Back on the boat

And driving away

We got back to the visitors center and had about 20 minutes until we had to be back at the bus. We headed to the fit shop and got my dad a shirt and josh a newspaper. They sell the newspaper there that was the newspaper on dec 7, 1941 and josh was all giddy to see one

Then we headed inside the museums they have

We grabbed a water and headed back to the bus to find Shannon and his conch. And he was blowing it as we walked up. Lol

Josh got his maps out on the bus while we waited for the rest of our group to make it back

 

[tric8783]

We made our way back to aulani, while Shannon kept us entertained. After the excitement of seeing pearl harbor wore off, the fact that we'd been up since 6AM kicked in and all of a sudden I was sooo tired! We got back, headed to the room to change into our suits so we could take a nap on the beach! This was our last full day in Hawaii and I was NOT going to sit in the hotel room .

I had been wanting frozen yogurt since we got there, but it's only open certain hours etc. finally today I got some! The actual place is hard to find, it's inside a closed door teen spa, with no signs at all ( I mentioned the signage was bad before, right?) but once we found it, it was amazing!

Josh's (he had pineapple yogurt with granola, oreos and sprinkles)

Mine! (I had chocolate yogurt with coconut, macadamia nuts and chocolate pearls)

Yum! On our way back out, people stopped us to ask where we got it, if they promoted it better and had signs, I'm sure this place would be hoppin!

So we lounged on the beach and soaked in all we could. Then we spent time at the pool and we were starting to get sad we had to go home tomorrow, as much as we missed our pup, if we could have gotten him there, we'd have totally stayed!!

We grabbed lunch again at off the hook(chicken fingers were yummoooo)