I've been sucking at blogging lately, mainly because we're super busy right now with house projects, work and general life stuff. I realized I never did a honeymoon recap!
We went to Aruba and it was AMAZING! I highly recommend Aruba - super friendly, clean,
beautiful island. We really loved it...very relaxing and low-key. We honestly didn't do much besides lay on the beach all day, every day. It's really hot there (Aruba is really far south - off
the coast of Venezuala and it's mainly a desert - no joke!) so you can't really lay out in the sun or you will fry. They have these little grass huts, called papalas, that you can reserve each day which are perfect because then you have a shady spot and comfy chair all day. We did a lot of
laying on the beach, eating, drinking and sleeping. Basically perfection!
The beach there is seriously incredible. I don't know if I've ever seen water that color before - turquoise blue, but very clear and calm. You could see your feet straight down and the sand was SO soft! They had these rafts that you could float around on in the ocean and it was our favorite thing to do all day...amazing! We would be on the beach by 9am every day until like 5pm...my idea of the best day ever!
Finally by Thursday we realized we needed to do SOMETHING while we were there, since we had been such lazy bums. So we did a jeep tour for that morning, where you drive through the desert side of the island, over cliffs and rocks, and see the Natural Bridge (where it used to be - it collapsed like 4 years ago), the Natural Pool and some other cool sights. Jake was excited because he got to drive the jeep and it was some serious off-roading. It was a little bit intense
in parts (I was definitely holding on for dear life to the roll bar on the jeep!), but still really fun. Of course, after our adventurous morning, we then spent the rest of the afternoon asleep on the beach - ha!
Onto the pics...
The view from our balcony!
Absolute heaven - Can't beat that view!
The Papalas at our hotel
We found this cute little restaurant out on a dock close by to our hotel and went there a
lot - they had the best view and it was amazing to be surrounded by water on the 3 sides while you drink fruity drinks and tropical beer!
Walking down the beach one night to go to dinner
We saw sunsets like this every night...incredible
We ate dinner one night at this beachfront restaurant...loved eating barefoot with my toes in the sand!
Jake driving the jeep on our tour - he was so excited!
Cliffs we saw on the jeep tour - the desert side of the island. So weird that half the island is lush beautiful beaches and the other side is a big dusty desert!
Jeeps!
I love this shot with the jeep and the ocean in the background. We were climbing up these old ruins on our tour. 
Another stop on the tour - the collapsed Natural Bridge. Still pretty cool to see it though!
Before going out to dinner on our last night - taking pictures out on the balcony!
We seriously had the most relaxing and best honeymoon ever - it was painful to leave and we say to each other all the time "I wish we were still in Aruba!"
Right after the ceremony - K taking my veil off (it looks like I'm in pain, but I wasn't - that's a happy yell!)
We had a bridal party cheers with our mojitos right after the ceremony - it was great to have a second to celebrate with them before the craziness began!
Cocktail hour - you can see the wreath on the big tree! One of my favorite details was all the wreaths!
J and I listening to the speeches - love the light in this pic!
Visiting tables during dinner (more about that later!)
First dance (I love that you can see my parents in the background to the right, holding hands)
More dance - during most of our dance, we were saying to each other "is this over yet" - it was pretty embarrassing standing up there dancing in front of everyone because neither of us really dances very well at all!
Dancing with my dad - he sang to me during the whole song, to keep me from crying. Or maybe to keep himself from crying. 
J dancing with his mom (they came in halfway through my dad and I dancing) - I LOVE how happy Jake looks in this picture!
Showing my new bling off to J's parents (my in-laws!!)
Sunset was gorgeous that night - we got some great shots down on that dock with the whole bridal party that I can't wait to see!
Cake Cutting - we didn't annouce cake cutting or make a big deal of it. J and I literally snuck over to the cake, cut it and went back to dancing. It was in the same room as the dancing, so most people did see it. J is watching his two cousins do the worm across the dance floor at this point!
I'll have to post a picture of the front of our cake soon - it came out so cute!!
Our ice cream cart! SUCH a hit - people devoured the ice cream! Especially the older guests!!
Our exit - good shot of my exit dress! I can't wait to see the rest of these in color to see all the fun glow sticks! 
I love how bright and fun everything looks. For as nervous as I was to pick yellow bridesmaids dresses, I am really glad we went with them now!
J and I reserved a school bus to take our friends down to the wedding venue and back, to make sure we didn't have any drinking and driving. Our photographer got the great idea of posing with the bus and I LOVE the way the photos came out! 
Close up of the table centerpieces and table names. You can sort of see the lemons in the bottom of the vase, I love how the yellow popped against the navy linens. Our tables were named after fish that Jake has caught. 
Our wheatgrass centerpieces with the striped and polka dotted flags that I had made. I'm proud of the fact that I wrote out all the names on the cards and I think they came out pretty well! We had big containers of lemons and limes as decor on some of the tables - such an easy and cheap way to add some color!
Program fans - these were a lifesaver as it was a little warm during the ceremony. You can also see the fun colored lanterns that hung over the dance floor. 
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