Our Monthaversary

Yet again, I interrupt the honeymoon recaps for an unrelated post.

One month ago today, I married the love of my life. I don't want to jump ahead of myself in terms of recaps and discuss the day in too much detail (still waiting on professional pictures, after all), but here's what I can tell you:

I remember feeling overwhelmed, but by love, not fear or anxiety. I remember having butterflies when the staff at our venue opened the door and I saw a room full of nearly two hundred people, ready and waiting to celebrate Mr. Palm Tree's and my love. I remember spending a morning with my best girlfriends in the entire world, getting ready and laughing and feeling loved and blessed. I remember when I left for our first look, feeling so happy and READY to see Mr. Palm Tree. I remember it being the best day of my entire life.

The Palm Trees in Paradise: To be active or not to be active? That is the question. . .

Note: this post is long and picture-heavy. :)

Answer: WHO CARES?! It's your honeymoon!

Hehe - it's Mr. Palm Tree cheering you on! *

In all seriousness though, Hive, Couples Negril has a BOATLOAD (again, pun not intended, but made me giggle when I saw it typed) of activities on a daily basis.

The PWC - FINALLY!

I interrupt the scheduled honeymoon recaps to bring you news of a long-awaited chop. 

That's right, folks, my locks were hacked off the Tuesday after we returned because I just could NOT take it any longer (haha, no pun intended and when I caught it, I laughed).

As a reminder (you know, in case you weren't tracking my hair length on your own. . .), here's how freaking long and annoying my hair was before the scissors got involved:

Slight spoiler! ;) Hair on the wedding day

BM Tiny Dancer and I being the fools we are at the rehearsal dinner (there was a  whole Celine performance, oh yeah). This picture serves absolutely no purpose but to show you how long my hurr was.

MOH Mem and I at the rehearsal dinner

The Palm Trees in Paradise: An Overview

In hindsight, I've shared very little regarding our honeymoon. I think that's partially because it always seemed like this far-off thing, like the very, very dim light at the end of a very, very long tunnel. There was always something more, something bigger and more immediate in between us and our honeymoon so after it was booked, it was pushed to the back burner. 

When Mr. Palm Tree and I awakened in our hotel room the morning after our wedding, I squealed. "Baby, how excited are you for our HONEYMOON?!" We shared in some celebratory squeeage. Like I mentioned in my previous post, I think we made a really, really sound decision by taking our honeymoon so soon after our wedding for a couple of reasons:

• It allowed us to take a big giant BREAK from life, which had been absolutely bananas what with work, general life things and planning/executing the wedding. 
• It allowed us to take a big giant BREAK from the wedding. Seriously, almost everyone we encountered on our honeymoon was also celebrating their honeymoon, or an anniversary, or a friend's wedding. Which meant that the wedding itself wasn't that special - nobody asked about details, nobody wanted to relive every second of the day, everybody just wanted to be excited about each individual day and celebrate the honeymoon itself. This meant that by the time I got back, I was refreshed and even MISSED our wedding.
• It provided Mr. Palm Tree and I with a solid chunk of alone, 'us' time - something we hadn't had in what felt like forever. After being together almost ten years, the new husband and wife status didn't need settling into (although that didn't stop us from saying 'husband' and 'wife' alllll the time ;) ), but we missed each other. Even though we made some really great and seemingly longtime friends on our trip, we were able to do whatever WE wanted without needing to be considerate of what other people wanted to do. Super awesome.
• It felt like a really decadent reward. We had spent so.much.time and so.much.money on the wedding that it felt like commendation. Here, Palm Trees, you guys have busted your booties for far too long - why not eat delicious breakfast on your balcony, delivered to you at the time of your choosing?

Our room service breakfast on our first morning! Orange juice, pineapple juice, assorted fresh fruit, chocolate and regular croissants and freshly baked banana bread. SWOON.

NBD, just enjoying my watermelon on our balcony. Mr. Palm Tree completely surprised me by waiting for me to get out of the shower with the robe in his arms - off to a great start as a doting hubby, I'd say. ;)

Back to Life, Back to Reality (Kinda)

First thing: I have known this was going to be my first official post as a Mrs. since I became a Bee, because of this scene:

Now that that's out of the way - HI, HIVE! I'M A MRS.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!