Merry Memories

Remember when?………You are traveling back in time for this question. Remembering back to when you were younger and it was the Holiday Season…..Thinking creatively, write about some of the best childhood or young adult moments you can remember – families, traditions, etc., what did you do, where were you, who was there.

This year I spent Christmas Eve with my fiancé Rob and his large Portuguese family. They are a young wonderful bunch of people who demonstrate what family means. I don’t have any relatives that live close by, so holidays for my family are typically small. This is the second year that I’ve spent Christmas and Christmas Eve with the Ferreira bunch. The night started out some mouth watering Portuguese treats and chocolate martinis. People slowly filed in from the cold and the kitchen soon grew to max capacity. All night we heard shouts as to Santa’s location. (did you know that you can track Santa on www.noradsanta.org ) However, Santa made a special stop and surprised the children with his visit. The kids giggled with delight as each one took turns sitting in his lap as they received their gift. With full bellies and empty glasses, everyone joined together for a little karaoke and dancing. It was amazing to see everyone come together, young and young at heart and shake their booty to the YMCA, Cotton Eyed Joe, and Portuguese tune I don’t quite know the name of yet. I hope with all my heart that this was a little taste of what’s to come 5 months from now : ). I also pray that this is a family tradition that we can continue as we move into this next phase of our life.

Christmas morning was just as wonderful. I woke up at five am to Rob’s two cheerful siblings who had already dived into the presents. It was a two hour battle to get them to wait until everyone else woke up. I remember when I was their age and I would sneak down into the living room. My brother Matthew would always beat me to the punch though. He would be sitting there with a devilish grin on his face as he announced the number of presents with his name on it. Sara and Tyler were no exception. They piled high seven stacks of presents and proceeded to count each one. Remember that magic?? The excitement and anticipation? They checked and saw that Santa ate his cookies and drank his milk. They even told me that Santa must have seen me sleeping because there were presents for me too! Haha it was absolutely wonderful and I just hope that Rob and I get to experience that same Christmas magic when we have children.

Mucho Moolah

Question of the Week:

You have been given $6,500 to use for your wedding. Big question………..how best use this moolah? Think about this. I want YOU to ask your fiance what HE would do with the $6,500 and write about it. THEN, I want YOU to say what YOU would do with the $6,500. and write about it. What were the similarities or differences?

 

 

Bride-to be’s Answer:

What’s this??? Someone just handed me a $6500.00 check?? Well now, that could pay off .0012% of our school debt!! Just kidding…kinda…
Nevertheless, $6500 is a lot of extra dinero to have hanging around. If it was necessary to put the money towards planning the wedding, I’d probably give it a one way ticket to “Honeymoon Moolah.” Currently I am not sure that we are able to afford a honeymoon, and since I have proclaimed that I don’t want to know anything about the honeymoon planning, I can’t even tell you if we HAVE money in that portion of our budget. I can, however, say that Rob and I have spent many long plane rides talking about some dream trips. We would love to do a WW2 history tour around Europe, or a food and site tour around Italy. We’d love to have the sands of the Maldives underneath our feet, or hike the Austrian mountains… we both just love to travel and I can think of nothing better than to have the opportunity to make more memories

Groom-to-be’s Answer:

 If I had an extra $6,500…    I would ensure that we could get ALL of our traveling friends to the wedding for free and I would pay for all of their dresses and tuxedos. Next I would ensure that we got all of the flowers and extra decorations that we had to scratch off of our original budget list so that we could have the dazzling wedding we dream of. After that, I would think a little bit about honeymoon travel… Perhaps a week in the Maldives Islands lounging and having lovey time with my new wife, while also interacting with the islanders and seeing where we can donate some of our (perhaps) left-over money!

Oh that’s what you said…

Hmm, well after reading what Rob wrote I realized that I got a little carried away without thinking of the logistics first (good thing he’s practical J) . After taking a little more time to think, I believe I would spend the money first on our family and friends traveling expenses. Secondly, I’d rent those gold chiavari chairs which I love so much yet can’t afford, and then I’d give the rest of the money back to my parents as a “thank you for all that you’re blessing us with” gift. I’m so utterly blessed that my parent have offered to host our wedding, so rather than go cross country, I’d prefer “blessing them back” by putting as much as we can towards the wedding expenses.

I was pleased, nonetheless, to see that Rob and I are very much on the same page when it comes to travel ideas and money values. I really appreciated that he considered putting the money towards things that we’ve mentioned we would want, but can’t afford. I think however, that it says so much about Rob’s character that the first thing he considered when “given” the money was putting other people’s needs first. Rob is so selfless and considerate. He is always looking for ways to help others, whether it’s opening the door open for someone, or walking a lost person to their destination. I know that this was just a fun imaginary exercise, but for me, it is another reminder of how blessed I am to have found a Godly, gracious, and giving man. I love you Rob.

 

 

Love in London

Love in London

At this time last year, Rob and I were preparing for our 6 month trip to Europe.  My parents were worried about our safety, but they were also concerned that they were going to lose their “little girl.”  As we walked away and headed towards security at the airport we heard my dad’s voice, “Remember you don’t have permission!” Getting engaged had been a repetitive discussion that was always turned down, but Rob and I had decided: we were getting engaged in Europe.  I didn’t want to know when or where, but I knew that at some point it would happen.  I would sit with my best friend and we’d talk about the different places Rob might pick: on the white sands beach in Mallorca, in a castle in Germany, at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, or maybe in the Sierra Nevada mountains in Spain…my imagination ran wild with ideas.  Gretchen convinced me that it wouldn’t happen though until late in the trip because Rob loves to keep me in suspense. So I wasn’t expecting anything that New Year’s Eve day, 3 days into our European adventure.  We had just arrived in London, England and we hadn’t slept in 24 hours.  I was tired and grumpy but Rob was upbeat and encouraging.  He convinced me that we should have the best seats in the house since we didn’t know when we would ever get this opportunity again. So at 6pm we left for the Waterloo Bridge.  We hunkered down in the very middle of that bridge and waited til midnight for the magic to begin.  As the clock struck 12 and the explosions of lights and music filled the air, I heard a whisper in my ear.  With his arms wrapped around me, and hands intertwined, I hear his comforting voice, “My New Years resolution is to spend the rest of my life with you.” As he slipped the ring on my finger I finally realized what was happening.  Then my screaming voice joined the thousands of others as I proclaimed, “YES! YES!!”

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE

Key ingredients to our wedding:

God
Family
Friends
Dress
Food
Photography
Music

The question of the hour though is if I would change this list if money was no object? Well the answer is a resounding YES. As the months creep closer and closer and the budget is squeezed tighter and tighter, Rob and I have to take a long hard look at the guest list. This is my (and probably every brides) least favorite part of the wedding planning. So with an unlimited budget, I would take my black “delete” marker and ditch it out the window! I’d invited all my friends and family and I’d even have my host mom from Spain fly over.

I wouldn’t change the location of the church or the reception. I love Huddleston Hall! I have had my eye on that place since I was a freshman here at UNH. I think that it is the perfect place since Rob and I met on campus. It gives us the chance to show our family and friends where we have grown up the past four years. However, if we had an unlimited budget, I’d book the entire on campus hotel and I’d do a weekend wedding with a dinner and bonding time the day before the wedding and a breakfast/ brunch the day after the wedding. No one would need to pay for their bridesmaid dresses, tuxes, or airplane tickets. Everything would be taken care of! I’d hire a wedding planner that would take my ideas and then surprise me with a dream wedding! I am honestly very bad at the planning portion. I haven’t had a “wedding vision” like many little girls. My only desire when we started planning was to have a winter wedding….which isn’t happening. So I’ve had a blank slate in my head filled with random ideas, but I’ve never had that concrete picture of “this is what I want our wedding to look like.” As unusual as it sounds, I’d rather just show up to our wedding and have it already planned. As long as those key ingredients I listed above were included, I would be happy.

BACK TO REALITY

So yes, we have a budget and I won’t have every doo dad and whistle imaginable at the wedding, but it doesn’t bother me. I know that the wedding is only one day, and as much as I’m excited about our wedding, I’m MORE enthusiastic about preparing for our marriage.

Tips for the Taking

HONEYMOONING MADE EASY

For most brides, the honeymoon is an integral part of the wedding planning.  However, for me, the honeymoon isn’t even on the list of things to think about.  I want the honeymoon to be a complete surprise. I don’t want to know where, what temperature, or which activities. I just want to pack my bags for anything! My only prerequisite is that I get crepes in bed the following morning!  When I tell people that I’m “informationless” when it comes to the honeymoon they generally respond in two ways: Oh that’s so cool, or Are you crazy??

Rob and I love to travel.  We spent six months in Europe and six weeks in Mexico.  We’ve hiked mountains in Portugal, swam in warm Acapulco oceans, wined and dined in Spain, and bundled up against cold Germany winds.  We are very blessed to have experienced so much at such a young age.  We learned a great deal through our adventures, lessons that may be very helpful for other couples as they plan their honeymoons.  So after talking with Rob, we came up with our top eight traveling tips: (they are in no particular order : )

1. Apply early for a passport and get the required shots/ vaccines

You wouldn’t want to book a trip overseas and then have to cancel because you are waiting for the passport to come in the mail.  Nor would you want to find yourself sick in your hotel room (or hospital) because you forgot to get that malaria shot!

2.  Pack light!

Rob and I often traveled on Ryan Air when we were overseas.  The prices were ridiculously low until we realized that we had packed so much over the weight limit that we had to pay $200 USD to bring out bags with us.

3. Before you arrive review a map of the area!

Rob and I would check out the area’s attractions online and then we’d map them out and list them in order of importance.  This saved us time and money and allowed us to visit everything without having to cut something out that we really wanted to see.  It also kept us from looking like tourists, which many pick pocketers look out for.  Americans make easy targets when we carry around big books that say: TOP TEN PLACES TO SEE IN ITALY.

4. Don’t carry your valuables with you!
Luckily we didn’t have to learn this lesson the hard way, yet many of our friends did!!  Leave passports in the hotel room and carry a copy with you!  One of our friends was confronted by a guy in Paris.  He wasn’t in uniform, but he claimed to be a cop and demanded to see ID.  Our friend and his dad were then surrounded by a group of guys, all demanding to see their passports. Our friend thought it was a joke: NOPE! They had to stop their sight seeing and walk back to their hotel with this group of under cover cops just to show that they really had ID.  We also had to use our passports when we used our credit cards, so remember KEEP A COPY WITH YOU!!

5. Tell people you are on your honeymoon!

We didn’t learn this one through experience…but all of our married friends have told us great stories of free desserts, upgraded hotel rooms, or first class seat switches, just because they mentioned that they were on their honeymoon!

6.  Go through a travel agent!
When Rob and I wanted to visit Africa we went through a travel agent.  They were able to offer us a great deal which included transportation, our hotel, 3 tours, and some food.  This was a great option for us because we weren’t familiar with the area and we couldn’t speak the language.  As luck would have it, the weather turned sour and our ferry was canceled.  If we had done the trip on our own, as opposed to using the travel agent, we would have lost our money.  Fortunately, we were reimbursed and used the money for our next trip!
Try places like: http://www.sandals.com/

http://www.accenttravel.com/index.html

http://www.milnetravel.com/

7. Bring portable speakers

Again, this is one piece of advice we heard from our friends.  They made a love making playlist before they left. They said they used these all the time to “set the mood.” Don’t forget the charger though or your mood will be cut short!

8. Use the web for resources!
There is AMAZING information online!  Check out websites like:

http://wedding.theknot.com/honeymoons.aspx

http://weddings.weddingchannel.com/top-honeymoon-destinations/usa-united-states-honeymoon-vacations.aspx

http://www.thehoneymoon.com/

I am especially drawn to theknot.com website.  I found the layout very user friendly and it offered great options (US honeymoons, Europe honeymoons, best ocean honeymoons etc.).

It is important, however to go through reputable companies if you decide to book your honeymoon online.  I’ve hear horror stories of people who have booked their trip, bought plane tickets separately, and then when they arrived at the hotel, there was no reservation or ANYTHING! The company had taken their money and ran!  So newly wed beware!