Lucky 2013

I don’t even know where to begin to wrap up this past year.  This has been the best year of my life.  I couldn’t imagine being luckier.  I can’t lie, that also makes me a little nervous, because who gets everything they want, right?  I am going to just enjoy all of the blessings in my life and look back at the wonderful year we have had.

I’m going to try and highlight all of the best times of my year, but I am sure I will miss some things!

I was engaged as I entered this year, Chris and I had been engaged for almost a year at the start of 2013, with just four months until our big day in Jamaica!  It was also an exciting time for us because we were now home owners and still getting settled in our home, in our new neighborhood.

January is my birthday month, and this year was extra special because all of my college girls made the trip down to Charlotte to celebrate my upcoming nuptials with me!  We had such a fun, long weekend at Catherine’s house in Charlotte catching up and celebrating, having a shower and a bachelorette party.  It was so much fun, and went by much too fast!

This was only pic I could find :( missing some girls!

Chris and I share our birthdays within a week of each other, instead of doing gifts, we like to find somewhere to go for an overnight trip to celebrate and explore.  This year, we traveled a short distance to Greenville, SC.  We were able to stay downtown and explore the city, see the nightlife and do some hiking.  That was my first time in Greenville, and I really enjoyed it.

Between January and April, this was a busy time for us.  Planning and preparing for our wedding.  Luckily, we had a travel agent/wedding coordinator who specializes in destination weddings that made our planning so much easier.  I feel like this time flew by between dress fittings and last minute details.  I traveled up to Rochester, NY in March for my NY shower.  My mom put on a great shower for us, complete with my favorite Italian food.  It was so nice to see so many of our family and friends come together to celebrate our upcoming day!

Friends at my Rochester shower

Charlotte shower

During this time, I was also training for the Wrightsville Beach half marathon.  I set a goal of breaking 1:40 for the half, which I had not done before.  Chris helped with my training plan and I had additional help with my training from some of my running girl friends here in Charlotte.  I am happy to report that I finished in 1:39!  Chris ran the race with me to help, and I was so happy when I crossed that finish line and met my goal!  I would like to plan for another PR in the future, but I may wait a couple years on this goal…

celebrating after the race!

I remember being so excited in the weeks leading up to our wedding in April.  Jamaica, the trip, our wedding, far surpassed anything I had in mind.  It was just…PERFECT.  We had our good friends Jaime and Adam and Catherine and Matt with us on the plane ride to Jamaica, which made it so much more fun.  When we arrived, some of our family and friends were already at the resort and I can remember stepping off the shuttle into the resort, smelling the lemon grass aroma, and just feeling like we were in paradise.  I am not going to go on in details about our wedding weekend and honeymoon, because I have already written a blog about all of that.  Just thinking back on it all now, I would go back in a second; this was the best vacation I ever had.  Combined with family and friends, it was just icing on the cake.  I could not imagine a better wedding for us.  We both love traveling and more relaxed, less stressful events, and this was amazing.  I wish I had a trip booked there again.  We will be back to Negril!

Just married :)

making it official!

out honeymoon in Ochos Rios

Once we got back to Charlotte, I’m not going to lie; I had a bit of a hard time getting back to reality.  I missed Jamaica, so much.  More than any trip/vacation I had ever been on.  I felt a little down that it was all over, and I wanted to relive our wedding and that weekend over and over again.  It just went by too fast.  I soon came to realize that it probably was not Jamaica I was missing so much, but the year and half of wedding planning and excitement had come to an end, it was all over.  I was missing it all.  I did not expect to feel that way.  I remember watching our wedding video and looking at all of our pictures over and over again, I could not get enough of it.

Luckily, we have such great friends here in Charlotte who planned us a wonderful wedding celebration in May, when we returned.  The only downfall of having a destination wedding is that many of our family and friends were not able to make the trip with us.  Thankfully, everyone was ready to celebrate with us, when we returned.  

some of the girls at our Charlotte wedding celebration

In July, we traveled up to Rochester, NY for our church wedding and celebration with family and friends in NY.  I was able to wear my dress again, and have our marriage blessed by the church, followed by a backyard reception at my parent’s house.  It was a HOT weekend in Rochester over the 4^th of July, but luckily, we had many cold beverages to keep us cool while we danced and celebrated!  My parents had this reception catered by my favorite NY restaurant, Agatinas!  We also had a DJ and a dance floor to keep the party going.  Then we finished off the night by letting off paper sky lanterns into the sky.  It was so much fun!

Letchworth Park in NY

dancing at our NY reception

This is how fast the first half of our year flew by…in a second!

All of the excitement did not stop there.  In July I received a promotion with my company and made the switch from the medical-surgical division at McKesson to the Health Systems-Pharmacy division.  There was a chance we were going to have to move to either Raleigh or Charleston for this position, but when I received the offer, I was surprised to learn that there was a position that just opened where I could stay right here in Charlotte.  It all worked out just right.  I have been in my new position for five months now, it still feels like I am only a month in, it’s a big transition and a lot to learn, but I am really enjoying it.  I really like my new team and my new manager, and I’m looking forward to growing in my new position.

We had many fun local trips over the summer, Folly Beach, Charleston, Asheville, Blowing Rock, Kiawah Island, and Myrtle Beach.  We were enjoying every minute of it in our newly married life, then in August, I found out I was pregnant!  What an awesome surprise this was, and added excitement to the year we were having!

I am already 22 weeks pregnant, expecting a little baby boy, who we have already picked out a name for!  He is moving around in my belly everyday!  I can’t believe we only have four months left until we get to meet him.  He has already added so much joy to our lives!

In November we took a long weekend trip up to Philadelphia for the marathon weekend.  Originally I planned on running the full marathon, but since I became pregnant, I scaled it back to the half, and Chris ran the full.  On our trip to Philly, we stopped over in DC for a night to explore the city.  My family also met up with us in Philadelphia to support us in our races!

The White House

This brings us to the end of the year.  What a year it has been!  I cannot believe how much has happened and changed this year.  I don’t think anything can ever top this year.  Our wedding, the biggest event of our life, and now to come in, a very close second, a new baby to enter our life in 2014!  I thank God everyday for giving us such a good life and so much to look forward to as we start our family together!

Love of Pregnancy?

We have now made it to almost 18 weeks.  In the beginning, this felt like it would be so far away.  Looking back, it actually does go quite quickly.

I feel about the same way I felt in my first trimester.  I know I’m very lucky that I did not have to suffer through any of the common symptoms of pregnancy, mainly, morning sickness.  Overall, I think I have had a very easy pregnancy thus far.  

I am still very curious why women tell me they LOVED being pregnant.  I’m still waiting for this to hit me.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining.  I am very lucky and thankful that we were able to get pregnant.  I just cannot say that I love being pregnant.  No, it’s not difficult for me, but love it? Nope, at least not yet.
.

I use to hear of women that complained of getting ‘fat’ while pregnant.  I thought this was a selfish or superficial thought.  I get it now.  I really did think that you just gradually get this nice, cute little belly that grows over time.  I knew that some people over eat and use the term ‘eating for two’ and get bigger than others, but overall, I just thought it was a process where you just grow this cute belly bump.  I was so wrong.  I sit here at 18 weeks, and I still feel fat.  My stomach is growing, but it’s not just a cute little baby bump.  I feel like I’m growing out everywhere.  I can fit in some of my clothes still, but just not very comfortably, and I have one pair of maternity jeans, and they are too big.  I guess I am just in that awkward stage.  Sometimes it gets hard not to feel self conscious about it all.

I still have not felt any of my baby’s movements.  I was told this can happen between 17-21 weeks.  Maybe this is when it feels more real.  Right now I seem to just have constant heartburn, a constant dull headache everyday and what feels like constant stretching going on in my lower abdomen, which sometimes hurts to even cough, sneeze and blow my nose, especially after working out.  None of these symptoms are terrible, and I don’t notice them at all times of the day.

I was very lucky that little Baby Lamperski allowed me to run the Philly Half Marathon one week ago today.  Besides a few bathroom stops, the baby was very accommodating to me.  Luckily, only one stop was during the race, at mile 7.  I felt really good, it was a breeze through around mile 8-9.  My first stop was at mile 7 for use of the bathroom, there was a line, and some nice gentleman let me go in front of him, very nice!  This break still lasted 4 minutes with the waiting.  I took a gel there and water.  I stopped again going up a long gradual hill.  I think this was around mile 9.3, and I walked for about 3/10 mile up the hill.  Just didn’t want to exert myself too much, and kept reminded myself that this race was not a race for me, and just about having fun.  This was also the point I started to feel ligament pain.  My doctor said this was normal, and nothing to worry about.  I stopped one more time at mile 12.  Only b/c I felt very dehydrated.  It was much warmer that we thought it would be, it was in the upper 50’s, but it was over 90% humidity.  Not a hot humid, but I was sweating a lot and very thirsty.  It was always so crowded around me at all times, so I didn’t stop for many water breaks, I should have carried my own water.  So, starting around mile 11 I was looking for water, they only had a Clif Shot station.  I was so thirsty that I was starting to get worried about the baby.  So, I stopped and walked at 12, thinking maybe there would be a station at 12.5, but as I got to about 12.3 I could see no stations, so I just decided to run very slow to the finish, faster to get water that way.  

I finished with a time of 2:06, my slowest half marathon to date, but I think I was smart the whole time.  There were a few points where I had to argue with myself about time.  A few times I just wanted to keep going, or pick up the pace, but I had to remind myself, time does not matter and to just make sure you feel good the entire time so the baby stays safe.  So, I enjoyed the course, I looked around at all of the sights and people, and had a good time.  Since my longest run was 10 miles before this, my legs were hurting a bit toward the end.  I think this may be the first race where I think I was smiling just about the whole time!

It was fun, and I’m happy I was able to complete a half marathon at 17 weeks pregnant.  When I finished I crossed over to the full marathon finish chute and got to see Chris finish shortly after me, with a time of 2:38, for 26.2 miles!  Good day for him as well!  (I started the race 15 min’s late due to a line for the bathroom, so started with a slower corral.)

Tomorrow we go for the 18 week anatomy scan, ultrasound.  We should be able to find out if Baby Lamperski is a boy or girl!  We could have found out at my 16 week appointment, but the baby wouldn't cooperate and kept it's legs tightly closed.  I really haven’t had any sort of intuition on this.  My guess is a boy, but this is purely a guess and I wouldn’t put money on it.  I base this on the fact that my belly seems to be growing out high up, which I think they say is a sign of a boy.  Really, no other reasons, but just a guess.  Chris’s guess is a girl.  Can’t wait to find out tomorrow!!  Then we can get started on planning the nursery!

A Baby on the Way

I’ve thought about writing again for a long time, but I’ve felt that I have too many things to write/update about that it’s easier not to write anything.  So, now I am just going to pick up from right here and now.

I found out that we were expecting a baby on August 19, 2013.  At this point I was just 3 weeks and 6 days pregnant.  I was alone, in a hotel in Atlanta for a work trip all week.  I found out right before heading back into our Duluth, GA warehouse for a night shadow shift.  I was very surprised, happy, but still skeptical that it was true.  I couldn’t keep it a secret, and since I wasn’t going to see Chris until Thursday evening, I had to call and tell him.  I told him that there was a small possibility that I could be pregnant.  Even though I had taken 2 pregnancy tests, the line was very faint, so I wasn’t sure if that was accurate.  I was very happy, but didn’t want to get too excited, just in case it was not true.

Chris and I had talked about having a baby shortly after getting married, but I just thought it would take a long time.  I’m older;there are many scary stories about getting pregnant at my age, being pregnant, risks, etc.  So, I signed up for a marathon in November and we figured that if it doesn’t happen by early 2014 then we’ll ‘really’ start trying.  To me that meant keeping track of everything, talking to your doctor about options, etc.  Chris just assumed it would happen right away, he must have a sixth sense or something.

After my night shift, I got out of the warehouse around 11:30pm.  I drove about 7 miles to the only open grocery store I could find and bought a set of pregnancy tests, this time the + or – tests.  I took both of these, and yep, I got a +.  I was pretty convinced I was pregnant at this point, but at some point that week, I also bought a digital test, and this time it spelled out ‘pregnant.’ Wow!

I think that Chris really needed the doctor’s appointment to confirm it for him.  We both went in at 7 weeks and we saw our little baby on an ultrasound and heard its heartbeat.  So very little at that point!  Now we are almost to 15 weeks, and oddly enough, I still do not really feel pregnant.

I’ve known, MANY friends and family members who have been pregnant.  I guess I have never paid too much attention to their symptoms or belly through the process.  For some reason, I just assumed that you don’t show for the first 3 months, and then all of the sudden you get this nice, hard, pregnant belly that grows through the next 6 months.  I was so wrong.

I have been VERY lucky.  I have never had any sickness; I’ve had very minimal symptoms at all.  Many times I have questioned if I am even pregnant.  I had some back pain in my 8thweek which made me nervous.  I did too much reading on the internet in the beginning and was so scared of a miscarriage.  Given that I will have my baby at age 35, I am put in the advance maternal age category.  Which, I always knew I would be, but it became much scarier when I started reading the pregnancy books and reading on the internet.  Among the risks that come with this, is a high risk of miscarriage.  I found a home Doppler monitor on amazon.com for just $32.  This has to be the best invention ever!  This has put my nerves to rest on so many occasions.  I can listen to my baby’s heartbeat any time I want.  Like I said, many times, I just do not feel pregnant, so this way I can make sure the baby is still alive and well.  

The big sign for me that still lets me know I am pregnant, is the effect it has had on my running.  Right away, before I even knew I was pregnant, my running changed.  I felt different.  I felt like running was just harder, everyday was a bad running day.  I always felt winded, even at a slow pace; it was just a different feeling.  Before I knew I was pregnant, I also had light cramps every day.  I thought that, if I am not pregnant, which I thought was a very slim chance, then something is wrong with me, and I will have to see a doctor.  

I was more tired in my first trimester.  It was great actually; I was falling asleep by 9:30-10:00 and sleeping through the night.  I slept so well.  Now that I am in my second trimester I ampretty much back to normal.  Any small symptoms I was feeling are pretty much gone now.  Although, my running is still harder than it was before becoming pregnant.  I am not running as much.  I am still running in the Philly Marathon, but I have switched to the half marathon.  I still wonder if I will get through the half!  It will most definitely be slow!

As far as that cute pregnant belly I always thought I would have.  I have just felt fat and bloated since week 5.  My clothes started feeling tighter at that point.  I still do not look pregnant; I just look fuller, bloated, and fat.  I hear that the hard, pregnant belly takes a while to show itself.  I was not aware of this.

I have not had any strange cravings; I have not had any cravings at all.  I do not have to go to the bathroom an excessive amount like some women I hear about. I don’t think I have had mood swings.  I just don’t ‘feel’ pregnant.  I don’t know what that issupposed to feel like, but I’m still waiting for that to happen.  Ialso don’t feel a connection to my baby, I wish I did, and I keep waiting for this to happen.  I feel guilty even thinking and saying this out loud.  Maybe when we find out what we are having I will feel a bond.  Right now, I can only refer to the baby as ‘it’.  

Chris and I made the decision not to do any genetic testing.  This was also something I did not know much about before becoming pregnant.  When you go to your first doctor’s appointment, they will give you all this information about all the different tests you can have done.  Most of it, to me, seemed like more stress than anything.  There are carrier tests, so I do blood work, if I test positive to be a carrier then Chris has to be tested, if he tests positive, then we have a 25% chance of having a baby with this abnormality.  That still leaves a 75% chance the baby is healthy though, so really, is this test even worth the hassle?

Then there is the big one, the down syndrome testing.  This is a time sensitive test; the first is blood work and an ultrasound to tell you your odds.  If you have an increased rate of your child having downs, then you can go on to have a more invasive test done.  This test will give you a statistical result.  You could be told you have a 1/5 chance, or a 50% chance of your child having downs.  The older you are the greater your chances are of having a downs baby.  

I hated thinking about all of this stuff.  The point of the testing is to decide if you want to continue with your pregnancy, if you have an increased rate of any of these abnormalities, or so you can be prepared.  I know people who have done the testing and not done the testing.  For Chris and me, we decided not to.  We were going to have the baby either way.  I didn’t want the added stress of the testing.  We will have the anatomy scan done at 18 weeks, which can also tell us if there are any abnormalities.  We are going to love our baby no matter what, and honestly, I just figured that you can never be prepared for anything that may go wrong with your baby at birth, or after.  We will love our baby regardless, and we will figure things out as we go along.  I don’t judge anyone for whatever decision they make.  I have learned already that everyone has their opinions on your pregnancy and choices you make, so we just have to be comfortable and sure of our choices.  

You know what I have learned, even at giving birth at 35 years old, you still have a 95% chance of having a healthy pregnancy and baby.  I wish this statistic would be advertised more and not all the negative stuff!

That is pretty much our life in a nutshell right now.  Just taking it day by day.  Excited for when we get to meet our little baby, and thankful everyday that we received this gift.  In just 3 weeks we will get to find out if we are having a boy or girl!  

Baby Lamperski at 7 weeks :)

Wedding Celebration and Backyard DIY Projects

 We have been busy here in the Lamperski household since getting back from our wedding/honeymoon, a little over a month ago.  It was pretty hard for me to get back into the swing of things once we arrived back home.  Normally I don't have too hard of a time returning from vacataion, but this time I did.  I think it was just sort of setting in that it was all over, the long 15 months of being engaged and the wedding had already come and gone.  It was wonderful, but I did miss being in Negril, missed our wedding and missed being around everyone that was there with us. 

Some of our good friends here in Charlotte organized and threw a wedding celebration party for us when we returned.  They put a lot of planning into the event and it was nice to get together with so many friends that weren't able to come with us to Jamaica, but wanted to celebrate with us upon our arrival back to Charlotte.  We are very grateful to have such good friends in our lives!  Here are some pictures of the fun we had!

sending us off on our cab ride back home

Since we have gotten back the weather has turned to summer, and we have been doing a lot of work to our backyard.  When we moved in to the house there was not too much going on in our backyard.  There were a couple old putt putt greens back there, and a ton of leaves!  With all the trees, the yard keeps us busy picking up sticks that fall and raking up leaves.  We took apart the putt putts, as we had no use for them, and planted flowers and bushes.  We decided to make a path to our backyard where we dug out and built a fire pit area. 

We were going to wait on making a path, but one day while we were back there working we just decided to start making one with some firewood logs we had.  We dug out path lines with a shovel and began laying the logs as a frame.  Then we raked up the path and laid down some pavers.  We then filled in the rest of the path with pea pebbles.  It looked so good, we decided to fill in the area around the fire pit with the pea pebbles as well.  We also used two tree stumps for seats, and made a large bench for another seating area.  We had an old table top we used and Chris built legs for it to make the bench.  I sewed together a cushion for the top, as well as painted the table green.  It is very comfy!

We LOVE how the path and fire pit area turned out.  We hung globe lights from the trees around the area and added some paper lanters and it looks like a beach party back there!  We bring out wireless speakers to add music and it is the perfect setting out there!

We also picked up a nice big 11' umbrella for our patio, which gives us nice shade from the sun and allows us to sit out back when it is raining, which is has been doing a lot of lately!

We love our backyard now, it is so peaceful and fun, we hope to do some entertaining this summer!

Our Wedding at Beaches Negril

In one word, perfect.  Really, just better than we, or any of our guests imagined.  The resort, Beaches Negril, was amazing.  From the moment we stepped foot off of our shuttle, we were treated like royalty.  They knew when we got off of the shuttle that we were getting married.  We were whisked away into the concierge’s room for a private check in, after being given a cool, damp wash cloth, infused with lemon grass, to cool off with.  The concierge immediately gave us rum punch to sip on while the smell of lemon grass was all around us. 

We checked in and they gave us a large binder of everything we would be going over with our wedding coordinator at our appointment the next morning.  We were upgraded to a Honeymoon Grande Luxe Concierge Room.  This meant that they kept our mini fridge in our room stocked with whatever beverages we requested, at any time.  They would also take care of making any reservations at any restaurants we wanted while staying at the resort.

After checking in we were escorted around the property, on a mini tour to our room.  We even ran into two of our guests, Glenn and Logan, as they were walking to the pool.  They immediately told us how amazing the resort was and unlike any other place they have been. 

After hours of traveling; when we got to our room!

Our room was on the third floor, the balcony looked right out to our wedding gazebo, where we were to get married in three days.  Behind that was the crystal clear ocean, sitting on the white sand beach, it stretched on for miles.  Our room bed was decorated with rose petals and washcloths arranged into cute little animals, welcoming us to Beaches Negril.  We also had a little plate of cookies and a congratulations sign on our door, welcoming us into our home for five days.

view from our room

Luckily when we got there it was still the early afternoon, so we had time to head to the beach and meet up with our family and friends before the beach bonfire party that night.  We headed straight to the ocean with our friends and floated in the amazingly clear water.  We all talked about how beautiful it was, more so than any of us pictured.

Logan and Glenn floating in the ocean

The beach bonfire started at 6:30 and we all met up there and had tables all near each other.  They had a huge buffet of food and plenty of entertainment.  We spent the evening on the beach, eating, drinking, watching the beautiful Negril sunset, and dancing to the music.  Everyone, including the kids, had a great time.  Many of our friends and family continued the party that night at Club Liquid.  Chris and I had intentions of meeting everyone there, but we got back to the room and fell asleep after our long day.

Adam, Matt and Catherine at Beach Party

dancing at the beach party

Friday morning we met everyone at the Mill for breakfast before we headed to our appointment with the wedding coordinator at 10 o’clock.  Our coordinator was Shannon.  I cannot begin to say enough good things about her.  She walked us through all the choices we had, she never tried to pressure us into buying anything additional.  She wanted us to have our perfect wedding day and she was going to do everything she could to make that happen.  We talked about everything from the rehearsal dinner that night to the food at the wedding, the music at the ceremony, at the reception, even food for the kids and me.  Since I am a picky eater, I knew I would not eat the food we chose for the wedding meal; she said she would arrange to have a small pizza for my meal.  This, to me, was perfect!  We walked around the resort so that we could choose where we wanted to have our wedding ceremony and reception.  We chose the wedding gazebo because I loved the setting, I wanted to where heels, so I had concrete to walk on and I liked that the gardens and flowers were around the gazebo, and I loved the beach setting behind it.

our snorkeling trip the day before the wedding

I wore this water shirt to cover me up the whole day before the wedding so I wouldn't get burned or tan lines for the wedding!

random picture of a server carrying a tray on her head, this is also where our recption was at The Mill

We chose the Mill restaurant for our reception.  We were having our rehearsal dinner in the beach hut so I didn’t want to do two nights there, plus we were having a DJ and dancing at our reception, so I wanted the wooden floor to dance on.  The Mill overlooked the main pool and the beach; it also had fans on the ceilings to cool us down. 

main pool

We went with the Beautiful Beginning package; this was the package that was included with our wedding, so we didn’t add any upgrades.  I really liked the décor of this, classic and simple, white.  We chose the traditional wedding photography package.  This included 110 pictures that we choose, on a disc and a wedding photo album with all 110 pictures as well as 25 thank you cards and two brag books with 20 pictures each.  The only thing we added was a private sit down dinner reception and a 3-hour DJ.  We received a free one hour cocktail party following our ceremony, which made our whole reception four hours long.  I did not buy any flowers; I made my bouquet and let my mom carry the bouquet that comes with the beautiful beginning’s package.

my bouquet

The last thing to choose was the cake, we had three options.  Chocolate, vanilla and Caribbean Rum cake.  I did not like the Caribbean Rum cake at all, the yellow was alright, but the chocolate was delicious.  Did I mention Shannon provided us with mimosas at our meeting?  My mother and sister also joined us to help with the decision making.  We gave a list to Shannon of all the songs we wanted played at our ceremony and reception.  She also made arrangements for our guests at Sandals Negril to be picked up by shuttle for the rehearsal dinner and wedding.  I left our meeting feeling very relaxed and confident that everything would be taken care of, just the way we wanted it to be.

our cake

Friday night was our rehearsal dinner in the beach hut.  They provided us with a chef’s choice buffet.  Shannon was with us through this two hour dinner party.  She even went out of her way to go and get the kids food at another restaurant on the resort.  They do not provide music for this; we could have paid $150/hour for their music system, which we did not think was worth it.  So, Chris brought down the radio/iPod player from our room and we plugged it into the outlet in the beach hut.  Shannon and the servers had no problems with this and the music was loud enough for everyone to hear. 

Rehearsal Dinner on the beach

We all had a really good time at this dinner party, it was so relaxing on the beach, and all the servers were so friendly and so accommodating.  We were able to watch the beautiful sunset from the hut.  They had a full bar set up for us and served everyone whatever they wanted.  The workers and servers were just so friendly and happy; you could not get any better than that.

desserts at rehearsal dinner

rehearsal dinner

rehearsal dinner on beach

The rehearsal dinner went from 6-8pm, after that we all made our way into the theater bar for steel drum band entertainment.  This was amazing.  I cannot put into words how impressive and talented these performers were.  Playing so many songs on the steel drums and dancing to the songs, and ending the show with break dancing.  There was also a chocolate party this night in the next room over.  Any type of chocolate you would like; desserts, chocolate martinis, candy, etc.  They even had two people decorated in chocolate and live music.  I think my dad, particularly, liked the music at this party.  Looking around at all our family and friends, everyone was having such a good time. 

this little guy loved the food!

Saturday morning we woke up to our wedding day!  Our wedding was at 4 o’clock.  I had a manicure and pedicure appointment at the spa at 11 o’clock with my mother, sister and niece.  I was given the best-tasting green tea as I had my manicure and then moved on to a mimosa for my pedicure.  This took about an hour and my hair appointment was not sent until 1pm.  I had time to go grab lunch in between.  I went to the BBQ Park to grab a quick lunch.  There I saw Jaime, Adam, Catherine and Matt having lunch, while my dad was at another table having his lunch.  It was so much fun to walk around the resort and see so many people I knew!  I chatted with them for a while and ordered my food.  I had some French fries for lunch.  I was a little nervous, not much, but just wanted something simple.  Jaime and Catherine sat with me and told me they would stop by the spa to see how my hair was going before coming to my room to get ready with us all before the wedding.

This is the point when I started to get stressed.  I arrived at the spa around 12:50pm ready to get my hair done.  I was told to wait and my stylist would be ready soon.  The minutes went by really slow as I waited alone in the lobby of the spa.  At 1:20pm, I asked the two women how much longer it would be, they said, “oh, any minute now.”  So, I waited, and waited some more.  Ten minutes later I could not take it so I went outside to wait so I wouldn’t lose it.  I was getting nervous since my wedding was at 4 o’clock.  Jaime, Catherine, my Mom, Jill and Cassie were coming to my room at 2:30.  I wanted my dress on and my make up done at this point.  The photographer was coming over at 3:30.  So, now it was 1:30 and I was still waiting, no makeup, to get my hair done.  I have long, thick hair, so I was a little nervous of how long it would take when they actually started. 

Jaime at the salon, calming me down!

As I was waiting outside, Catherine and Jaime stopped by.  They could tell right away I was tense.  They tried everything they could to ease my nerves, but also said they would be a bit upset as well.  As we were talking, a woman walked out with her hair done.  Then a stylist came out and told me that it would just be a little longer because that woman who just walked out was not happy with her hair so they had to do it over.  This did not help.  Jaime and Catherine did the talking for me, telling them my wedding was at 4.  They said, yes, we will have her done with plenty of time.  That girl who walked out, her wedding was at 3 o’clock.  They came out again and told me that another stylist would start me right away with curling my hair.  So, they took me in and a stylist started curling my hair.  They also handed me a mimosa right away and tried to calm my nerves, assuring me they would be fast and would make sure I was very happy with my hair.

getting my hair done!

all up in curls

Jaime and Catherine stayed for a while and hung out while I was getting my hair done.  Eventually they had to go back to their rooms to get themselves ready so they could come over to my room when I was done, before the wedding.  My hair turned out great.  It was not exactly as the picture I brought in, but it was nice and it was very secure, it was also comfortable, no bobby pins sticking into my head, or hair pulled too tight.

future "Mrs.Lamperski"

My Mom helping me with my dress!

My photographer stopped by to take a few pictures and then escorted me back to my room, to make sure I would not run into Chris on the way.  Chris was getting ready in Matt and Catherine’s room with the other guys.  When I arrived at my room, my Mom, Jill and Cassie were already there waiting.  Soon after, Jaime and Catherine showed up.  I started on my make up right away, which was pretty quick, and then Jaime helped me get my dress on while Catherine ironed Chris’s wedding shirt.  I am a horrible ironer, so thank goodness she is awesome with ironing! 

Jill helping me get my shoes on

Everything went as planned.  The concierge had brought many bottles of champagne and orange juice to the room for mimosas.  There was a slight scare when my Mom decided to take a sip directly from the champagne bottle, which in turn bubbled up in her face and caused her to spit some out.  The chain effect was that Cassie started laughing and bumped into me while I was taking a sip of my mimosa which ended up spilling on me while in my dress.  Shannon, the wedding coordinator, was there and she immediately got a towel to clean up any mimosa on my dress.  Luckily, it only landed on me and not my dress.  Phew.

My father also arrived to wait with us until he had to walk me down the aisle.  Meanwhile, Catherine and Jaime headed out to bring Chris his shirt and get to the ceremony location.  We could all look out the balcony and see everyone arriving at the gazebo, including Chris.  Shannon was out there making sure everyone was where they needed to be, and then she came back to get us and take us down.

my Dad and I before the wedding

I brought a wooden heart shaped sign that read ‘Here Comes the Bride”.  We thought Alex would carry this down the aisle, but the days leading up the wedding, he kept saying, he did not want to do that.  Adam told us he was going to carry it down the aisle, this surprised us, but he kept saying he would, so that is what we thought was going to happen.  Problem was, he fell asleep right before the ceremony.

While we were all waiting to walk down the aisle, Tom brought Alex and Andy back.  We all tried to get Alex to carry the sign, but he still was against this.  So, we gave it to Andy, who just ran to his father.  I said that I didn’t care if Tom walked down with Andy carrying the sign, or if Andy just carried it and runs the whole way, it didn’t matter to me.  Finally, Shannon figured out a way that Cassie could carry the sign and her flowers.  We all lined, up, my Mom walked down with Alex and then all the sudden, Andy took the sign to carry.  He stood up in line and waited for Shannon to tell him it was his turn.  He watched Cassie go down the aisle, and then Jill and he watched Shannon until she told him it was his turn.  He then started to walk and went very slowly, following the very long path to the gazebo.  None of us could believe he was doing it; it was one of the best parts of the ceremony!  He made it all the way down, walking very slowly to the music!

Now it was our turn.  We heard my song come on, ‘A Thousand Years’ by Christina Perri,  and Shannon told us to start walking.  It was a long path, but it never felt too long to me.  As we walked by down the path, there were people out on their balconies watching us, it was fun, I felt like a celebrity! 

our guests



My Dad and I





 The wedding ceremony was perfect, minus the lipstick that I got on Chris’s white shirt after they told us to hug, following our first kiss.  It was a quick ceremony, we had the opening greeting by the minister, Catherine did a reading, our wedding vows and exchanging of rings and then they had us sign our marriage documents and announced us as husband and wife.  We walked off to 'Brighter than the Sun' by Colbie Cailat and had 'I’m Yours' by Jason Mraz played during our signing of the marriage documents. 

our wedding

Catherine's reading

We're Married!



Official document signing



Mr. and Mrs. Lamperski

After the ceremony, we all walked out to the beach for a group picture and then everyone was led to the reception site for the cocktail hour while we stayed on the beach for pictures.  I brought many pictures with me that I printed from Pinterest, of poses I wanted.  Our photographer helped pose us for every picture I brought, she was great! 

group picture

Shannon came to get us when we were done to lead us to the reception.  She told us that since we ran a little later with our pictures that she extended the cocktail hour by half an hour so that we wouldn’t miss out on any time with our DJ.  That was awesome, we weren’t expecting that.  She even greeted us with two beautiful blue rum cocktails.  The sun was setting at this point and it was just beautiful! 


Blue Tropical drinks!



We were announced into our reception to ‘Marry You’ by Bruno Mars.  We were then taken to the cutting of our cake.  It was best to cut our cake right away since we were in a tropical climate and the wedding was outside, so that the cake didn’t melt before we cut it.  We played ‘Somewhere over the Rainbow’ by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole during the cutting of the cake.  Then we headed into our first dance, ‘Feels Like Home’ by Chantal Kreviazuk.  Next was the father-daughter dance, which we danced to ‘What a Wonderful World’ by Louis Armstrong. 

For our wedding meal, everything was served in a sit down dinner style.  We chose a Caesar salad for our salad, Caribbean shrimp for our appetizer, beef tenderloin for our entrée and baked Alaska Jamaican style for our dessert, along with our wedding cake.  I, of course, was served my very own small cheese pizza!

 

I cannot say enough good things about our reception.  It was just amazing.  I replay our ceremony and reception over and over in my head all the time.  I wish we could all go back.  It goes by way too fast.  Everything was better than I expected and I would not have changed anything.  Our DJ was great; he played all the songs we wrote down the day before the wedding.  Shannon was there the whole time and made sure everyone had everything they wanted. 

Our reception ended around 9 o’clock.  From there I headed back to our room to change out of my wedding dress into a white cocktail dress I brought for after the reception.  We headed to the Theater bar for karaoke night and to watch the end of the Syracuse game.  At the Theater bar, the other wedding party also showed up.  Everyone there was in a celebratory mood!  We stayed and sang songs and when that ended we took the party up to Club Liquid.  It was actually packed on this night, the other wedding party was there and dancing as well.  The DJ was the same DJ that played at our wedding!  We stayed there until we were all ready to pass out.  I cannot remember what time that might have been, but I think it was around midnight. 

The next morning we received breakfast in bed, which we elected to take on our balcony.  We chose our menu when we met with Shannon the day before our wedding.  This was a complimentary honeymoon breakfast.  Our server carried this huge tray up above her head, up three flights of stairs with so much food on it.  We had hot tea, coffee, a bottle of champagne, orange juice, eggs, pancakes, omelet’s, toast, banana bread, and I’m probably forgetting a few things!  It was so beautiful to sit out on our balcony, overlooking our wedding gazebo and the beautiful ocean in the background.  I could not imagine anything better. 

Sunday, my parents and my Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Tracy rented two cabanas on the beach.  With a cabana rental you get butler service for the day on the beach.  They keep a stocked cooler by your cabana and bring you and food and drinks you may want.  We all hung out around here for the day, while taking breaks to go down the water slides and float around the lazy river in the water park.  Chris, Catherine, Glenn, Logan and I also took a banana boat ride!  It rained a little on Sunday, but quickly passed.  It was a very relaxing day.

Waterslides straight ahead, lazy river to the left

floating in the lazy river

One of our wedding inclusions was also a honeymoon dinner.  This was to be picked at any restaurant on the resort and we would have a menu to our choosing and white glove service with a bottle of champagne.  Shannon let us have this dinner our honeymoon destination, since we were going to a Sandal’s resort. 

We also had our appointment to pick out our wedding pictures on Sunday.  This process was a little long.  They show you, one by one, all of the pictures that were taken.  We pre-paid for 110 pictures, so we had to pick 110.  The process they have is a long process, with the system they currently use.  I ended up wanting to go back and look at all the ones we did not pick to make sure we got all we wanted.  We ended up buying 40 additional pictures.  We also got a wedding book with all of our 150 pictures we picked out and two brag books with 20 pictures each, as well as 25 thank you cards.  The whole time Chris and I were looking at our pictures on the big screen television, I was thinking to myself how bad I looked!  I looked so wide, I was hoping it was the television, but didn’t want to say anything, in case this was how I really looked.  Once we left, two hours later, I told Chris how I felt about how I looked; he said he thought we both looked wider than we actually were.  Finally, when we went back to get our CD of pictures, they briefly showed us the pictures that were on the CD, they showed these to us on a small touch screen.  I took a sigh of relief and said; wow we look so much better on this screen.  The woman pointed out that that was because the pictures were taken in high definition and the TV they showed them to us on was not an HD TV.  (I might have this the other way around.)  Either way, I felt much better, and just wish they would have told us this while we were looking at the pictures.  Although, if they did, I may have ended up buying more.  The pictures were definitely over priced, and they are not touched up, but we knew this before we went and we were very pleased with how they turned out.  Much better than we expected! 

Sunday was our only night we had of the four nights we were at Beaches Negril to eat dinner at one of the restaurants.  My parents, Jimmy and Tracy and Bill and Denise, made reservations for The Venetian, the Italian restaurant, at 7 o’clock.  All of our friends made reservations at Kimonos, the Japanese restaurant, at 9 o’clock.  So, we decided to go to both!  I knew I wouldn’t eat at the Japanese restaurant anyway, and Chris wanted to try both while we were there.  It worked out well, they were both great.  I was really tired on Sunday and couldn’t/didn’t even want to have drinks this night.  I was falling asleep by the time we got to Kimonos.  After that meal, we all headed back in the direction of our room and split up.  Everyone was heading home the next day.  We were heading to Ochos Rios for our honeymoon. 

Monday we got up early and had breakfast with my family at Stew Fish, on the beach.  We took a walk on the beach and found a starfish washed ashore.  A security office on the beach taught us how to hold a starfish and then put it back in the water where it would not wash back up on shore.  Everyone then made their way back to their rooms to grab their personal belongings and then to the lobby to catch their shuttle to the airport. 

It was a little sad saying goodbye to everyone and ending our wedding weekend, but now it was time for us to take our shuttle to our honeymoon resort!