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!













Beaches Negril Review

I will write a post about our wedding and our honeymoon, but I wanted to write about our experience overall with Beaches Negril first. 

When Chris and I decided to do a destination wedding we started researching destinations.  I wanted to do the US Virgin Islands.  After much research and meeting with travel agents, we opted for Jamaica.  The reasons we chose Jamaica were that it is an English speaking country, which makes it easier with our marriage documents, there are direct flights from Charlotte, and only a 3 hour flight away,  they have the most all inclusive resorts, so prices are less expensive than other islands since there is more competition, and since we would be staying on the same island for our honeymoon we wanted to choose and island where we could change locations and feel we had a separate honeymoon destination.  Originally, Jamaica was probably the lowest on my list of where I wanted to go.  No good reasons why, I just never thought much about Jamaica, all I really knew was about the island was Bob Marley, and I’m not that into Reggae.

Once we arrived in Negril, and at Beaches, I knew this was the best decision for us.  Negril is AMAZING.  It was all that imagined, and even more.  The water is so beautiful and the white sand beach stretches on for miles.  You can even see the mountains in the distance.  I cannot say enough good things about Negril.

Sunset in Negril

We had three options for destinations in Jamaica for our wedding.  There is Montego Bay, which is where the airport is, Ochos Rios, which is on the Northern side of the island and Negril which is on the western side.  We chose Negril because of its long white sand beaches, and because we read it has the best sunsets on the island.  I am a white sand beach girl; I like being right on the beach and seeing it from my window.  Negril seemed to be the obvious location for our wedding. 

Our room when we first arrived!

After we made the decision to have our wedding in Negril, we had to choose a resort.  Originally, I did not want to do a Sandals or a Beaches.  For one, when we looked through information at the travel agent’s office, Beaches was advertised with Sesame Street characters all around, and we did not want this setting for our wedding.  As for Sandals, I just never liked how it looks when I see adds for Sandals and ‘Sandals’ is written on the bottom of every pool.  Not a big reason, but I wanted other options.  Chris and I really liked the Couple’s Resorts, these were adult only resorts.  I knew my sister would be bringing her kids, but I figured they could come onto the resort for the wedding festivities.  We quickly learned, they could, but only for the one hour ceremony.  This would not work.

After much debate on resorts, we decided to choose Beaches.  When researching this resort more, we read only good reviews; the pictures were amazing, the options of restaurants, pools, bars and activities could not be beat. 

the main pool bar at Beaches Negril

I can say now, this was the perfect location for us and our wedding.  From the moment we arrived, we were treated like royalty.  We were upgraded to an ocean front, 3^rd floor, concierge room which looked right out to our wedding gazebo.  Our room and view were just amazing.  Everyone at this resort was so friendly and accommodating.  They went above and beyond what we expected. 

the main pool, The Mill restaurant on the right

The resort is just perfect.  The beach is breathtaking and the sunsets were just as described.  The Sesame Street characters were not all around us, which was good.  We saw them at the beach party parade, and a couple other times when they were walking to and from their events.  It didn’t feel like we were at a kid’s resort.  The kids at the resort mainly stayed at the water park and kids pool.  We were not bothered at all by having kids around the resort.  It was also great to see my niece and nephews all around and having a blast.  We went to the water park area each day to go down the water slides, which were so much fun!  Even floated around the lazy river a few times. 

Chris and Cassie catching a star fish

For me, personally, I liked being at a family resort because of my picky eating.  Every restaurant had children’s options, which I ordered a couple times!  The pool bars had specialty frozen kids drink menus, and those drinks were pretty good, and you could add alcohol for the adult versions.  There was never much of a wait to get food or drinks, anywhere.  I also liked that there were water dispensers all around the resort, with all different types of fruit in them to add flavor to the water, and you could help yourself.  The ice cream bar was an added bonus for everyone!

There were always more than enough lounges and chairs around the pools and beach, and you could also rent a cabana on the beach for a day and have your own personal server bring you food all day, keep a stocked cooler by your cabana and have a picnic table and lounges set up right there as well.  My family did this the day after the wedding, on their last day, and it was so nice.  Especially watching the sunset there while enjoying drinks.

how beautiful is this water?!

The water sports available, at no charge, were so much fun, you could choose from kayaking, hobie kats, banana boat rides, aqua trikes, glass bottom boats, snorkeling, scuba diving, and more.

The water is so calm and crystal clear water as far as you can see.  The sand is so soft.  I read that there would be many people on the beach approaching us to try to sell us stuff and this could be annoying.  Honestly, this did not happen very much to me, personally.  I did see people selling stuff, and did get approached a few times for Jet Ski rides or to buy a necklace, but it really wasn’t that often.  Also, all you had to do was shake your head no and they kept walking.  I think I was approached more on Waikiki Beach in Hawaii to buy stuff than I was in Jamaica. 

There are seven restaurants to choose from.  We had events three out of the four nights we were there, so we did not dine out each night, but I think between lunch, breakfast, and a couple dinners on our last night, we hit them all.  The Mill is the buffet and open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  We had breakfast here, lunch and this was the location for our wedding reception.  There is so much food to choose from at this restaurant.  The Venetian is the Italian restaurant on the resort, you do need reservations and the website says men need to wear dress pants and dress shoes, but when we were there we saw many men in shorts and sandals, so I don’t think they enforce this rule.  This is a four course meal, the restaurant is fancy, and the food is great!  Kimonos is the Asian restaurant and most people really love this one, as for me, I don’t eat that food, so I just went for the company and the dinner show.  Arizona’s is the Tex-Mex restaurant open for lunch and dinner.  I really liked this restaurant, self serve nacho bar and good food.  BBQ Park is open from 11am to 3am.  This is a walk up window for ordering and they have bar type food and snacks.  This place was always busy late night.  Café de Paris opened when we were there.  It is very cute inside, and is like a Starbucks, also serving ice cream.  Dino’s Pizzeria is the pizza restaurant and it has great pizza, many selections to choose from.  I loved the garlic sticks here.  They are open from 11-6.  Stew fish is the seafood restaurant on the beach under a beach hut.  We did not eat dinner here, but they do serve breakfast and the breakfast was very good at this restaurant, and nice being right on the beach.

the view from our balcony.  the white gazebo is where we got married.

The only negative thing I can say is that the teenagers visiting the resort were obnoxious at times.  Late night at the BBQ Park they hung out here and were rude and loud.  That is about it.

I cannot say enough good things about Negril and Beaches Negril.  I would recommend this resort to anyone.  We like to travel, and go to new places, but I would return here in a second.  I haven’t been to a ton of island beach vacations, but have been to Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Australia, Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Ochos Rios (Jamaica) and Key West.  The prettiest water/beach I have seen is Negril, Jamaica.  The best resort I have been to is Beaches Negril.  This was also my first all inclusive resort, so that might have a little to do with it.  Just the atmosphere and the staff made this stand out, and of course, the wonderful location.  We could not have picked a better location and resort for our wedding.  We will be back!

I will write another entry about our wedding and go into detail about the events the resort had for us each night and how well we were treated and how perfect our wedding was!

Wrightsville Beach Half Marathon Race Report

Wrightsville Beach, day before race

 I have been running since I was in high school and joined the track team my freshman year.  I was on the track team all four years, I also ran cross country and indoor track, for a year or two.  I’ve always enjoyed running, but not so much competing.  I just liked running for the fun of it and the social aspect, but I always felt so much pressure for upcoming races. 

I ran sporadically throughout college, but focused more on the social activities while at St. Bonaventure.  I played club field hockey, but I wouldn’t say this gave me that much exercise either.  I didn’t really begin running again until I decided to train for my first marathon.  I signed up for the Chicago Marathon in 2007.  At this point, I really didn’t know anyone who ran.  I followed the Hal Higdon training program for beginners.  I ran 3-4 days a week.  Generally, 3-5 easy miles a few days a week and then my long run on the weekends.  My long runs were always by myself, and they weren’t always the most beneficial runs.  I allowed myself to stop and walk whenever I wanted, just though the point was to be on my feet, even if it was walking. 

You can imagine how this marathon went.  I had no clue how to train or what a marathon would feel like.  My only goal was to finish, but I definitely did not train the correct way.  Add to this that this was the Chicago Marathon of 2007.  It was SO hot and humid.  I was able to cross the finish line of this race, but I walked at least half of this.  Not even just because I needed to, I was made to walk the last 6 miles by cops on the course.  The streets were flooded by the open fire hydrants, meant to cool the runners down, as well as hoses being sprayed.  I was very happy just to finish this marathon though.

I had the great idea to sign up for another marathon in 2008, and yet another poor training attempt for my 2^nd marathon, Marine Corps.  This was the year I moved to NC and, probably trained even worse for this one.  Not to mention, taking almost a whole month off before this marathon due to an injury in my left leg.  Again, I crossed the finish line, but I hated marathons now.

I did start running more when I moved to NC and joined the Charlotte Runner’s meetup group.  This is where I met some of my first friends in Charlotte.  The Common Market run was my first group run.  Running with people was very new to me and it took some getting use to.  I didn’t even completely ditch my headphones until a couple years after this.  I loved how Charlotte was such a great running community.  The Charlotte Runners were my first running group, but from there I met the University City Road Runners and ran Saturday mornings with them, and later on, joined the Charlotte Running Club.  It is great how many running groups there are in Charlotte and how much support there is in this community.

Running really has helped me make friends throughout my life.  Starting in high school when I was new to town my freshman year and joined the track team, then fast forward to my move to Charlotte, NC and met almost all my friends through running.  Not to mention, this is also how I met my fiancé, at a Charlotte Running Club social.  We really did not like each other at our first encounter, but we got along better at the next function, for a mutual friend’s birthday party.

All of this is just to say that running really has shaped my life in so many ways.  I do tend to get injured more than others, and because of this, I really only allow myself to run 4-5 days a week and stay around 30 miles on average for my weekly running mileage.  This may sound like a lot to my non-runner friends, but to many of my runner friends, I know this is considered not even running! Haha.

Okay, the point of this post, the Wrightsville Beach half marathon. 

One goal of mine was to break the 1 hour 40 minute barrier for the half marathon.  I think this was my 10^th half marathon.  Many of the half marathons I have done were just done as a training run, a few of them I was injured going into them so they were just done for fun.  I was hoping I would finally get the chance to run one with a goal.  Even though, this made me pretty nervous. 

I asked Chris to help me get me to my goal.  This doesn’t always work so well, as I am not the best listener and don’t always take his advice.  I am terrible at stretching, icing, warming up, etc.  I do take 2 strength classes a week to help prevent injury.  I just do not train with the same intensity and thought that Chris does. 

He started giving me speed work training about a month and a half prior to the race day.  I also signed up for a couple races, a 10 miler and a 5k to get some additional speed work into my training plan.  My best time before this race was 1:44:xx in the half marathon.  I had gotten this time a few times prior.  Taking 5 minutes off my time meant going from just under 8 min/mile pace to the 7:35/mile pace.  Keep in mind, my previous 5k’s were about this pace.  I have only done a handful of 5k’s, ever, and not too many races, but still, I was not sure I could handle this pace for 13.1 miles. 

The week before the race I was getting pretty nervous, I was worried about the potential of wind, since it was at the beach, humidity, etc.  I ran a couple times that week and I did not feel good through either of them.  I am a total mental runner, so this did not help me.  I really had no clue if I could run the time I wanted.

We drove to Wilmington on Saturday morning, drove straight to the expo to pick up my packet and then went down to the beach to relax for a bit.  It was pretty windy so we didn’t stay long.  Chris’s friends, Adam and his wife Andrea, were nice enough to offer to let us stay at their house for the weekend.  Adam was running the full marathon and Andrea, the half.  We got to their house and settled in, chatted about the race course and the plan in the morning.  We sat down for a nice dinner and had a glass of wine, before turning in for the night around 9:30pm!  The race had a start time of 6:40am, and we had to take a shuttle to the start, so this meant a wake up call before 5am!  I am not a morning person.

We made it to the shuttle in time to wait at the back of the line and get on the very last shuttle to the start.  I think I was still asleep on the shuttle.  We got to the start line about 5 minutes before the gun.  Chris was not very happy about this since he wanted me to warm up and do some dynamic warm ups (which I have never done,) but I didn’t have a problem getting there right before.   I didn’t have time to be nervous, it worked out well.

The first few miles were in the dark, I felt great.  The plan was to make the first couple miles feel very easy.  7:45-7:50 pace.  I was not sure this would feel easy, but when we were running, it felt very easy.  We started to pick it up at mile 3.  We were even passing people at this point.  So many people we ran by were already breathing heavy, and this made me feel more confident because I felt good and my breathing was good.  I felt like I could have held this pace forever.  The first two miles were low 7:40’s, and then we got into the low 7:30’s  from mile 3 on.  Not too much to report on throughout the middle of this race.  It was nice and flat, there were always plenty of people around us. 

I was not sure I wanted Chris to run with me because it has not always worked out well for us in the past.  I tend to get frustrated with him when he runs with me, since my race pace is his easy running pace.  I like to know that the people around me are hurting as much as I am.  Megan Hovis was signed up to run the marathon, but she ended up not being able to go, so she let Chris use her bib as long as he didn’t cross the finish line. 

I will say, I did get angry at Chris a few times, but kept it in my head, mainly because I didn’t want to waste the energy talking.  In the beginning, every time we went by a cheering zone, he would get all rowdy and yell back at them.  This annoyed me, since I didn’t even have the energy to whisper.  He was also carrying Megan’s bib in one hand, instead of wearing it, the bib was yellow, for about 8 miles I thought he was holding a peeled banana in his hand, and this also annoyed me, that he was just running with a banana in his hand, again, I did not have the energy to ask him why he was holding a banana, so until I looked at it about mile 9 and figured out it was the bib, I was frustrated with him running with a banana. 

Chris was really good throughout the race with not talking to me.  He would say a few words here and there, like, keep your shoulders loose, keep your jaw loose, you’re doing great, we’re right on pace.  I’m sure these sound like encouraging words and I shouldn’t get mad, but they annoyed me during the race and I yelled at him in my head.  It wasn’t until about mile 11-12 , when he said “you’re doing great,” and some other words, that I said “shut up…please”.  I was struggling at this point, it was getting warmer out, there was more wind and I just wanted to be done.  I had no energy to pick up the pace like I thought I would.  The mile markers were so far off.  We still had over a mile to go. 

I thought we were a good bit ahead of our plan since every time my watch beeped a mile, we were always about 7:30, and our goal was high 7:30’s.  When we turned into the plaza where the race finished, Chris jumped out before the last couple turns.  He actually thought that was the end of the race since his watch already had 13.1.  He yelled to me to pick it up because I was already at 1:38:xx.  This made me nervous b/c I just didn’t have that much left in me to pick up the pace.  I pretty much wanted to walk at this point.  I could see the finish line, but the time was not easy to see.  I never looked at the time on my watch throughout the whole race, and I didn’t want to look down at this point, b/c I thought I was going to be disappointed. 

I crossed the finish line and the clock said 1:40:04.  I actually told myself this was okay, because I felt I gave it all I had.  I looked down at my watch, which I stopped at the finish line, and it said 1:39:46 for 13.18 miles.  I was thrilled!  I wasn’t sure if the official results would have me under 1:40, but I was still happy.

My official chip time ended up being 1:39:48.  My watch had me running a 7:34 pace, the official time has me at a 7:38 pace.  Either way, I’ll take it!  I’m happy with my effort and with how the race went overall.  It was the first time I ‘raced’ a half marathon, and now I know what this feels like.  I know it will be harder to knock more time off this PR moving forward, but I am looking forward to the day when I will beat this time!

Enjoying a free beer after the race.  Happy!

Now I can focus on our wedding, this race has been such a focal point for the last month, that I haven’t though too much about how close we are to our departure date. 

We are now 16 days away from our flight to Jamaica and just 18 days until our wedding!!!

Running, Rooms to Go, Wraps and Red Wine



My new running shoes

It has been busy as usual around here.  This was an eventful week.  We had new bedroom furniture delivered, Chris bought me a brand new pair of Newton running shoes, I ran a 5k, Chris joined It Works as a distributor and some of my girlfriends here in Charlotte through me a bridal shower with wine tasting!



As I sit here writing this on my couch, I have an It Works ‘Ultimate Body Applicator’ wrap on my stomach.  Chris joined on as a distributor for a company called It Works.  Our friend Lisa has been a distributor for the past year and has really enjoyed this company and growing her business over the past year.  I am not going to go into detail on this blog post about the company, as I am still learning, but I am trying their body contouring wrap to help tone my mid section before our wedding.  I have seen and read great results from these wraps, so hoping it helps!  I will post more about this, and maybe even some pictures once I finish using them.  I am going to do one wrap a week over the next four weeks.  I also have been taking their Greens each day as a supplement, and do find these give me more energy.  More on all of this in a later post.

Me with my wrap underneath my shirt  (and new running shorts!)

A couple weeks ago Chris and I went to Rooms to Go to purchase a new bedroom set for our bedroom.  This took a long time to agree on which set we liked the best.  We finally agreed on a sleigh bedroom set, with a dresser, two nightstands and bed frame, along with an area rug.  We chose a delivery date two weeks from when we purchased.  The night before the scheduled delivery date, their customer service department called us to inform us that they do not have the headboard for our bed, it will not be in until the end of the month, BUT they were going to give us some sort of loaner piece so the bed could still be put together.  We were not very happy about this, but this stuff happens, what can you do?  They arrived on time, but I was informed that the bed would stay in the boxes until the headboard is delivered.  Basically the loaner piece they told us about was just bed rails to hold the mattress, which we already have.  So, now we have to keep these 3 large boxes containing our bed frame in our room until March 23^rd.  We have been sleeping in our guest bedroom, which is nice and cozy, so I don’t mind so much. 

New bedroom furniture minus the bed!

I signed up for a 5k on Saturday to run as part of my long run of 15 miles.  I normally do not like 5ks, but I knew it was a good way to get some speed work in as part of my long run.  There was a 5k at McAlpine which worked out perfect, because my friend Amy was planning on running 20 miles there that morning, so she could meet me at the finish of the race to run my remaining 10 miles.  This 5k was called ‘Run Jen Run.’  All the money raised from the race was going to the ‘Go Jen Go’ foundation.  As stated on their website; The GoJenGo Foundation is a non-profit institution dedicated to providing financial assistance and emotional support to individuals and families, in North and South Carolina, who are battling breast cancer. 

The race had a great turnout, 532 participants for its first year!  It was run on the cross country course, which I had never run before.  I run at McAlpine a good bit, but I always have avoided the hill.  Chris and I ran the hill as part of our two mile warm up, and I didn’t think it was so bad; it’s steep, but short.  The downhill was the worst part for me.  It is pretty steep going down, so I naturally slowed myself down because I felt like I was going to fall.  I did not do much better with this downhill in the race either! 

I really didn’t have a plan for this race, just knew that I wanted to feel good through it so I could finish my ten miles after feeling good.  I have only done a hand full of 5k’s, ever, so I don’t really know how to race these or run these as a workout.  I decided that I should stay in the 7:20-7:30 range for the first two miles, and run faster for the last mile.  I felt really good in the first mile; I clocked a 7:17, for this mile, feeling really relaxed and having fun.  The next mile included the up and down hill, this mile was clocked at a 7:24, the last mile I did in a 7:09.  I got passed at the very end by some woman who came out of nowhere.  Chris never even saw her behind me through the whole race.  I finished in 22:17 and got 1^st place in my age group.  The best part was that I felt great and really relaxed through the whole race.  Amy met me at the finish and we ran 10 miles to complete m 15 mile run for the day and her 20 mile run.  It was fun, and even snowed, a good bit, on us!

5k Start

My 5k finish

Amy and I in the middle of our run, soaked from the snow!

The best part about this morning was something that happened right before the race.  Chris and I just finished our warm up and went to the bathroom before heading to the start of the race.  There were a 2 woman waiting on their two friends in the stalls when I got there.  One of them saw my Charlotte Running Company WWC trail race sweatshirt and asked if I ran that race.  I told her I didn’t do it this year, but I did last year.  She also said how she liked my bright Newton running sneakers.  Their other two friends came out of the stalls and I went into mine, as they continued to talk in the bathroom.  I figured they were just in there staying warm before the race.  I came out and asked them if the race started at 9, which I was pretty sure it did and we had about 10 minutes.  They said yep, we have plenty of time.  So, I went to wash my hands and one of them said “I promise we’re not creepers, but we want to give you something,” she continued to say how they are Lulu Lemon girls and have a new pair of running shorts for me.  This made my day!!  So exciting, what are the chances?!  I felt a little embarrassed since I was wearing a pair of competitor shorts, but one of the girls told me she actually was as well.  They said they didn’t expect me to wear them in the race, but wanted me to have them and try them out.  What are the chances of that?!  A $54 pair of brand new running shorts just for visiting the bathroom before a race!

After returning home, showering and eating lunch, Chris drove me down to Amy’s house for a bridal shower/wine tasting party for me!  I figured since we were sampling many wines, it would be best for Chris to drive me.  My friends put this shower together and had a wine tasting scheduled with a rep from a home wine tasting company.  It was so much fun learning about the different types of wine and food to pair with different wines.  It’s always good to hang out with the girls as well!  This was so much fun!!

All in all, this has been a fun week/weekend.  As I am sitting here, I see the clock and realize I have left this wrap on a little too long.  So, I better go take this off and see if there are any instant results!  Results are supposed to take place over the next 72 hours.  Will keep you updated.  For the rest of the day we have plans to visit Lowes, and plant bulbs!  Snowed yesterday, gardening today, such strange weather we have here!

I Love Productive Weekends!

Chris paiting our bedroom!

This past weekend was fun and productive! We started off by running in the Charlotte 10 Miler down in Ballantyne. I won a free entry to this race from Theoden’s (running) facebook page. It worked out well for a running workout Chris had planned for me. I am running the Wrightsville Beach half marathon on March 17th, so just a few weeks left to train. I have a goal, just not sure I am going to be ready for this goal in a few weeks time.

For this race, Chris had a plan for me to run a two mile warm up, then run the first two miles of the race at an 8 minute pace and get progressively faster with each mile. Then a mile cool down to finish. I was a little worried about a hill I heard about around mile 8, almost 6 miles of the race was ran on the greenway, so you think it’s going to be a flat, fast race.

That morning we woke up before 6am to heavy rain. We debated even driving down to the race in the cold rain. I decided since I was awake I might as well go, even if I don’t want to run, I could at least cheer others on.

As soon as we got down there and parked, I realized I forgot my race bib at home! Luckily, they were very kind at registration and let me have a new bib, since they were so nice about this, I decided I had to at least run. So, we went back to the car, sat in there to warm up and headed to the start line just in time for the race to start. No warm up for us, and also decided to just use this as a training run, no workout.

Chris ran with me, and we didn’t end up following the workout as planned, but still did get a good workout. Although, that hill before mile 9 was not pretty. I thought the two previous hills into the neighborhood were the hills people were referring to, but when I saw the crazy hill before mile 9, I was not very happy. I started running, but decided I was going to walk. I gave up. Chris tried to encourage me to keep running; saying the last mile is all downhill to the finish, but I did not believe him. I figured he was saying anything to get me not to walk. I did not like this hill, you go up a steep hill, then turn and go up another steep hill. As soon as we made the next turn, it was all downhill to the finish. I do wish I had previewed the course and knew about these last two miles before the race, because then I would have beeen mentally prepared.  My 9th mile was 8:44 pace, yowza! Then my last mile was 7:15, it was such a nice last mile to the finish line.

Overall I finished 14th female and 2nd in my age group, with an average pace of 7:46. Overall it was fun, and I would do this one again.

When we got home, we got to work in the master bedroom. We recently bought furniture for our bedroom, so we had to paint the room in preparation for the delivery on Friday. We chose a light brown color, not exactly what I had in mind, but I think it will look good with the furniture.

painting over the green walls





the finished room, waiting for furniture

won't be empty for long

We are also having my treadmill that is currently at my parent’s house in NY brought down in a few weeks. So, we had to make room in the other rooms for this. We re-arranged our guest bedroom and also our workout/movie room. Soon we will have a treadmill along with our bike trainer in here. Chris hung up a projection screen and mounted a projector on the opposite wall so we can watch movies while working out or relaxing.

workout/movie room

sitting down to watch a movie Saturday night

Sunday, Chris was able to clean out the gutters, finally. It seems like it is always raining down here so we were glad to get this finally taken care of on such a nice day. We also got a bike ride in through Davidson earlier in the day. It felt like a spring day and it was nice to be outside enjoying the weather!

Chris's Dad helped holding and moving the ladder

Just 40 more days until our wedding!!!

Less than 2 Months!!

Our wedding site, how beautiful is this?!!


Chris has been reminding me lately that I have not posted anything on here in a very long time. So, I am going to give a wedding update. We are now just 52 days away from our trip to Jamaica, and 55 days away from our wedding! I am trying to make sure we are getting everything done that needs to be done. We’re almost there, I still need me dress alterations, Chris’s wedding ring and a few minor items finished/bought.


We came close to missing the deadline for getting our documentation sent in for our marriage license. Since we booked our trip/wedding almost a year ago, I couldn’t remember what we did do and what we didn’t do. Apparently, we did not fill out the application for our marriage license, to make our wedding legal. We found this out on the Friday evening of my college girl’s weekend for my bachelorette/shower/birthday celebration. We needed to have our application sent in, along with a notarized copy of each of our birth certificates. This had to be received in the Sandals/Beaches Miami office at least 60 days before our arrival in Jamaica. We had just 8 days, 5 business days, to get our birth certificates copied/notarized and delivered to the Miami office. This was a little stressful, considering if it was not received in time the resort would not perform our wedding. Also, Chris did not have a copy of his birth certificate so he had to make time to visit the office of vitals downtown to get his birth certificate. He was also, of course, out of town until Monday evening. Thankfully, it all worked out. He got his certificate on Tuesday, I had mine notarized and we overnighted it down to the Miami office. PHEW!!

As I mentioned earlier, my college girl friends organized a shower/bachelorette/birthday weekend for me here in Charlotte. This was the last weekend in January, and we had such a great time! It is so fun to get together with these girls; it is always like no time has passed when we all hang out, just like old times! Catherine, Jaime and Kara planned the fun-filled weekend, it was perfect! Jess flew in on Wednesday from Colorado, Kara flew in Thursday from Ohio, Beth flew in Friday from Long Island, Shannon from Chicago and Faz from NJ (she almost didn’t make it with the blizzard we were getting in Charlotte :))

We started the weekend with a home cooked chicken parmesan dinner at Catherine’s house, hanging out and catching up with some wine, of course. (Thanks to Catherine’s husband, Matt, for sponsoring us with endless wine this weekend!) Saturday morning, a group of us headed out to get a cold run in before the festivities began. They had a shower for me during the day, followed by a little flip cup outside and then a trip to the bowling alley for food and a couple games. After that we came back to Catherine’s house and got ready to go dancing uptown! It was such a great weekend and I’m so thankful for all my friends who planned the weekend, flew down to Charlotte to celebrate with me, and my friends in Charlotte who came over/out to celebrate with us all!

I think everything else is on track, we’re getting very excited! We have 25 guests coming to celebrate our wedding with us in Jamaica! All the minor details are taken care of, and we are getting anxious!!

I have been slowly working on my bouquet for the wedding, it is almost done. I started this project last year, after seeing a picture of a similar bouquet on Pinterest. I just hope it all stays intact on the flight to Jamaica!

Our dining room table has turned into my crafting table!


I saw these shoes as soon as I walked into the store and fell in love with them right away. I love these shoes, and am excited to wear them with my wedding dress!

My wedding band came in as well!

I would post a picture of my dress, but guess I shouldn’t do that before the wedding. I love it! Will post pictures after the wedding!

Other than that, we have been busy doing work in and around our house. Chris and I took a trip to Greenville, SC last weekend to celebrate both of our birthdays together. We took Flat Stanley with us as well (for Alex's classroom.)

We stopped at Crowder's Mountain on the way home to hike!

Life has been treating us well this year, so excited for April 6th!!