Welcome to the Club... RE & JM Tie the Knot

Last weekend Mark and I had the opportunity to watch two of our favorite people get married.  We have had the pleasure of knowing RE and JM for the entirety of their relationship and I can truly say that when I heard that J had finally popped the question I was absolutely thrilled because I know these two were made for each other.

R & J couldn't have asked for a more perfect day to tie the knot.  Granted it was a bit hot and humid, but the sign was shining and they were getting married in an air conditioned church, so they had nothing to worry about.  One thing is for certain, R is definitely a tax accountant because this wedding had the most on time start of any wedding I have ever been to (and for those of you who know me, that is a lot).  When the church clock said 4pm, the mothers were just getting ready to be escorted down the aisle so that they could light the candles... seriously, in all the weddings we have been to, I think this is the first time this has ever happened.

Mother of the Bride being escorted by her two fabulous sons

Lighting the candles

The ceremony was absolutely beautiful.  R and J had a vocalist who sang the most amazing songs and the ceremony overall was precious.  The way R and J looked at each other... well you can absolutely see the love in their eyes.  I think J even got a little teary eyed when he saw R for the first time!!

Seeing his beautiful bride for the first time

Excuse the blurryness because it is from my cell phone, but I love how you can tell how much these two love each other just by how they look at each other

You May Kiss the Bride

After the ceremony we headed over to the Mendenhall Inn where we attended one of the most fun wedding receptions ever.  The had a FABULOUS band and I honestly don't think I have ever spent so much time on the dance floor at a wedding (except for maybe at my own).  The band was so interactive and really knew how to get us all up on our feet.

Beautiful Table Set Up

First Dance

Obviously between all the great food, great drinks and dancing we had to take some time to take group pictures!! We had such a fabulous time with so many amazing friends!!

Bridesmaid, Adopted Sister, One of the most amazing ladies I know!

Couldn't ask for better friends than these two!

We clean up nice

I think the hubby was annoyed we had made him take so many pictures!

My Glittle makes the most beautiful bride!!

Chi Omega Love <3 nbsp="" td="">

We seriously have some of the best friends in the entire world 

One of the highlights of the reception probably had to be that ML (he was best man in our wedding) brought a date to the wedding.  We get to the reception and he can't find the placecard for his date... he can only find one for himself.  We ask him if he had been given a plus one and he said something to the effect of "I think so, it was so long ago though, I don't remember." followed shortly thereafter by "But I know I said I wanted two of the beef dinners on my reply card."  His date, SP (one of my bridesmaids), was not too pleased with him, but we decided to figure it out once we got into the reception room.  Sure enough, when we get inside there are only nine chairs at our table instead of the ten people we had.... and we had our answer... ML did not have a plus one, which meant SP was a wedding crasher.  For the first time in my life I attended a wedding where I knew an actual wedding crasher.  Thankfully the bride and groom were able to see the humor in it, but that doesn't mean that we haven't been giving ML a hard time about it or that we won't give him a hard time about it for years to come.  It was also great because R and J had a photo booth and of course we found a party crasher sign which we proceeded to make SP carry around for the rest of the night with her.

Yup, our real life wedding crasher

R & J seriously put together such a fabulous wedding... wish we could experience it all over again this weekend!! R & J, hope you have enjoyed your first week of being married and welcome to the club!! We love you!!

Have you ever been to a wedding that has kept you out of your seat and on the dance floor the entire time?

#MarryingaMariotti Part 3... JG & DM's Mexican Wedding Adventure

It has been about 2 weeks since getting back from Mexico and I have to say, I still really wish that I was there!  Besides the fact that I was there to see one of my best friends ever get married, being there for 5 days was so relaxing and exactly what I needed because of my crazy work schedule.

Before leaving for Mexico I worked for 7 days straight and let's just say that working that many days in a row at a restaurant is enough to make you question your sanity!  By the time Thursday morning rolled around I was ready to leave for Mexico!

Excited to finally be on the plane heading to Mexico!!

Goodbye dreary Philly!!

Hello Sunny Mexico!!

We had a pretty smooth flight and an easy ride to the resort, so I was definitely in a good mood when we got there.  JG and DM had picked Secrets the Vine Cancun as the spot for their wedding and I don't think we could have been more pleased with our stay there! Upon our arrival we were greeting with glasses of champagne and a personal butler who would take us to our room.  When we booked our trip we booked a preferred club honeymoon suite because it gave us access to a bunch of different things... a separate pool, an additional bar... as well as some other discounts for the resort and let me say it was definitely worth the money to do so.  One of the really nice things was that we checked in on our floor... we didn't have to wait in a check in line or anything... we got our champagne, got in the elevator to the 26th floor and there was someone there waiting to check us in.

Our room seriously did not disappoint.  On one side of our balcony we had a fantastic view of the ocean and on the other side we had a great view of the lagoon.  I was so excited because I knew we would be able to have a beautiful sunset dinner out on our balcony one of the nights we were there!! And I mean, what better way to have dinner than a sunset room service dinner with your husband??

Our fabulous room... and yup, first thing we did was pop open the coronas!

After getting settled we headed down to the pool to meet up with those who were already there and to relax a little bit before the rehearsal.  It was so nice to lounge around in the sun and to of course enjoy a margarita or 2 before getting ready for the rehearsal.

I have to say that the rehearsal scared me a bit as it didn't seem like they knew what they were doing and I was very nervous about how things were going to go for the wedding.  I am pretty sure JG felt the same way, but she did a really good job of remaining calm and in control of it all.  After the rehearsal we all headed to the sushi restaurant for a fun dinner and then over to the piano bar to hang out.  Mark and I headed to bed fairly early as it had been a long day of traveling and traveling really takes its toll on me.

Friday morning we were up bright and early to head to the beach.  Mark and I got some great beach chairs, but OMG was it hot on the beach.  We went down to the water to cool off, but there was so much seaweed that I really didn't want to go in, so after about an hour on the beach we decided to check out one of the other pools that the resort had to offer.

While relaxing by the pool with our margaritas (yes we were drinking margaritas at 9am) we discovered a giant chess board behind us, so of course when EO came to find us we decided that a game of chess was in order. After a riviting game of chess we headed to the other pool to hang out with the wedding party until lunch and it being time for me to start getting ready for the wedding.

Ladies chilling by the pool

Original 3 does Mexico :-)

Seriously some of the best friends a girl could ask for!!

We all headed to JG's room to get ready for the wedding around 3pm.  AH, one of the MOHs, did all of our hair and it looked absolutely FABULOUS!! I was originally planning on just curling my hair, but AH convinced me that I should wear it up since it was going to be windy and this way I wouldn't have to worry about things at all.  I am so glad I listened to her!! It was fun just hanging with the girls and getting ready.  Also, you had to love that the bride was doing AH's makeup with AH was doing someone's hair.  Multitasking at its finest!  Of course we weren't ready on time, but it wouldn't have been JG if we were on time!

The wedding was absolutely beautiful!! The ceremony went perfectly and I was so excited to see my best friend marry the love of her life.  It is so amazing when you see the two of them because just in the way they look at each other it is so evident how much love they have for each other.  Love like theirs doesn't come around often and I am so glad that they found each other!!

The day after the wedding we all needed some time to recover, but instead we all pretty much spent the day drinking.  Mark and I hung out in a cabana for most of the day because he had gotten so sunburned on Friday that he didn't want to be out in the sun.  But just because we had a cabana didn't mean that we didn't drink and enjoy ourselves.

Comedy Show

Sunday was the day that Mark and I decided to take just for ourselves.  We knew that we would be spending a lot of time with friends and the wedding party while we were there, but we also knew that since we had barely seen each other in weeks that we wanted a day to be just us.  So Sunday we got up early, had breakfast and headed to the preferred club pool for the day.  We spent the day just lounging by the pool and overall getting to enjoy each others company.  It was exactly what we needed!! Sunday night we had our sunset room service dinner on the balcony and it couldn't have been more perfect.  It was so amazing to just get to spend an entire day spending quality time with my husband with nothing else to worry about.  I can't remember the last time we had a day like that and who knows when we will have a day like that again.

Monday came too soon and it was time for us to head back to Philly.  I was so sad to see our vacation end, but so grateful for the amazing time that we had.  2 weeks later and I am seriously so ready to hop on a plane and head back!! Who's with me?!?!?!

Have you ever gone on a vacation where you just didn't want to come home? And then even after you did come home all you could think about was going back??