H and I spent seven days in the Maldives in December on our romantic, amazing honeymoon! I was so excited for the trip, and I wanted to pack my dream honeymoon wardrobe. I spent a lot of time brainstorming the best outfits to bring and I decided to take a maximalist packing approach,
While it feels like it’s been ages (over a year already!) since H and I got married, there was one important wedding event left—we still had to go on our honeymoon! Researching potential honeymoon destinations, we wanted to go somewhere tropical, where we could relax on the beach without the packed vacation itinerary we had in the Azores and Paris. We were willing to go a little further than we usually would, since our honeymoon would be a once-in-a-lifetime trip, and when we started looking at the Maldives we knew it would be perfect. Our honeymoon was a dream come true: we stayed in a luxurious villa over the water, with a private deck and plunge pool, surrounded by the gorgeous Indian Ocean. It was the most wonderful, romantic trip I’ve ever been on.
Once H and I booked our wedding venue, the next thing we did was start looking for our wedding photographer. Since we only had a few months until the wedding, I knew a lot of photographers would already be booked for our date. The photographer I liked from the Williamsburg Inn’s preferred vendor list wasn’t available, but he referred us to his good friends Michael and Carina Photography, a husband-and-wife photography team from Richmond. I loved their artistic style, and once I met with them I knew they would be perfect! The day of the wedding
Waking up the morning of the wedding, the surreal feeling from the day before stayed with me. Maybe I couldn’t believe that the day I had planned, reworked, and planned again was really happening, or maybe it was just the bizarre sensation of waking up in a huge, fancy hotel room by myself, like I was Princess Ann in Roman Holiday. It’s funny that the day started with something totally spontaneous—I woke up to a text from my parents to ask if I wanted to come with them to get breakfast at a pancake house!
I was so excited about the rehearsal dinner, since it was the start of the weekend I had been planning and looking forward to for months! The rehearsal dinner was at one of our favorite restaurants in Williamsburg, the Blue Talon, a French bistro a block away from the restored area with delicious food and an elegant, intimate atmosphere. (I realized while we were in Paris that the Blue Talon copied everything Parisian restaurants do, right down to the glassware.) H’s mom did a wonderful job planning the rehearsal dinner—she knows how to throw a party!
I have to start by admitting that I started shopping for my wedding dress before we started looking at wedding venues, which is evidently a cardinal sin in wedding planning. In my defense, I KNEW that I would want a huge ballgown no matter what venue we chose. There was just no scenario where I would wear anything less formal.
Our trip to Paris was the most spontaneous, romantic trip I’ve ever taken, and not just because H proposed in front of the Eiffel Tower! I had been talking to my parents about our plans for Thanksgiving, and they kept talking about going to Europe for the holiday week. I was skeptical, since my family never does anything like that, until they called three weeks before Thanksgiving, said they were booking flights and a four-night stay in Paris, and asked if H and I wanted to come. I consulted H, and a day later we booked our trip to the City of Light!
Sudden Claireity 