Hawks on Honeymoon: Arriving in Punta Cana

Because we had Labor Day weekend on our side, Mr. H and I decided to do a Monday to Monday honeymoon rather than Sunday to Sunday. It was probably one of the best decisions we made. Even with the extra recovery day, we still managed to look pretty darn tired on the plane.

We arrived early afternoon at Punta Cana International Airport (PUJ). Customs and Immigration was a fairly quick process, but be aware that purchasing a $10 tourist card (per person) has to be done before going through customs. Another thing to note is that PUJ is an open air building (NO AC!). I wore jeans since I tend to be cold on flights, but I was regretting that decision while waiting in line for security and customs. There are large ceiling fans, but it wasn't enough to keep me cool!

To get to the resort we chose to take a taxi, and I'm so glad we did. I had read mixed reviews on the various transfer options and rates. One shared transfer I researched offered round-trip for around $60. Mr. H and I paid $40 each way for a taxi and made it to Majestic Elegance in about 15 minutes. Not having to make multiple stops for other travelers was more than worth the extra $20 we ended up spending.

The check-in process at Majestic Elegance was a dream. Being that it is a larger resort, Mr. H and I chose to upgrade to the Elegance Club. Among the many additional perks of staying in the Club, they offer a separate check-in desk with a personal concierge assigned to you for your stay. Within minutes we were touring the grounds drink in hand.

With the lobby above, the staircase leads to a lower bar with open air seating



The grounds with a partial view of the downstairs lobby bar area



Private Elegance Club pool area



Private Club bar

After grabbing an afternoon snack, our concierge lead us to our room. We chose not to upgrade to a "swim up" room, so our room was located on the second floor. Even though we had to walk a little farther to get to the pool, I thought it was a good decision on our part. Our room offered a lot more privacy.


The bed with the bathroom to the right



Small seating area and balcony

 



I was very impressed with the beautiful grounds and thankful that we upgraded to the Club. After a busy wedding week, I knew I'd appreciate the quieter, adult-only area of the resort.

Did you chose to make any upgrades on your honeymoon? Is being in an adult-only environment important to you?

Wedding Day Timeline

I'm sure my fellow type-A brides can sympathize with one of my biggest pre-wedding fears: mass chaos. The closer the big day came, the more I worried about the specific timing of events. The thought of missing bridesmaids, groomsmen wandering off, being disorganized, and missing out on certain things such as family photographs made my heart palpitate a bit faster. I knew that things running smoothly was key to me staying calm. Because of this, developing a wedding day timeline was of the utmost importance to me.

I started off by researching timelines that included a first look. Many photography websites include sample timelines that gave me a better idea of how much time each "event" should take. Here is the photography breakdown I developed from samples:

Bride/Bridesmaid makeup, hair: 2-3 hours
(Actual primping shots - 30 min.)
Detail shots - 30 min
Groom/Groomsmen "getting ready" - 30 min
Bride dressing/accessories - 15 min
First look + couple photos - 1 hr.
Wedding party photos - 1 hr.
Ceremony - 30 min.
Family formals - 30 min.

Using this as my guideline, I started with my ceremony start time (5pm) and then worked my way backwards to the beginning of the day. Adding travel time was key. Without it, the schedule would have been off by at least 30-45 minutes by the end of the day! For the reception timeline, my DJ/Master of Ceremonies was a huge help.

For those interested, here is the actual Hawk wedding day timeline:

10:30 am: MUA, bridesmaids arrive in bridal suite
11:45 am: Bride's makeup
12:00 pm: Lunch delivered
12:30: Hair stylist arrives (only for Bride's hair.)
1:00: Photographers arrive
         Detail shots, primping photographs
1:30: Second shooter to Groom
2:00: Bride puts on the dress
2:10: Groom leaves for first look location
2:20: Bride leaves for first look location
2:30: First look
3:00: Bride and Groom Photographs
        BMs and Groomsmen leave for ceremony location
3:30: Wedding party photographs
4:00: Florist delivers bouquets
4:30: Photography ends. Music begins in the chapel
4:55: MOB seated
5:00: Bride walks down aisle/Ceremony begins
5:20: Recessional
5:30: Family formals
(5:45: Cocktail hour begins)
6:20: Must be completely done with photography
6:30: Grand Entrance
7:00: Dinner
8:30: Toasts
        Cake cutting
8:55: Open dancing
11:00: End of reception

Phew! Distributing the timeline to the bridal party was a relief. I knew by providing this, I wouldn't have to be worried about rounding everyone up. I still heard a question or two like, "what time do we have to be at Wren again?" The running joke continued to be, "you obviously haven't read your timeline." Trust me, I didn't mind the ocassional teasing though. The wedding day went more smoothly than I could have imagined!

Did you/will you write a detailed schedule out for your wedding party?

A Bee's Life: Hawk Edition!

How I Found Weddingbee

I don't remember exactly when it was that I found Weddingbee, but to save face let's just assume it was shortly after Mr. Hawk and I became engaged. ;) At that point I had already voraciously ingested what The Knot had to offer, and I was looking for fresh and unique inspiration: Weddingbee was just that. I loved how it wasn't just beautiful editor-selected photographs, but rather real brides sharing their journies. Being from Richmond, I gravitated to Mrs. Cloud's recaps about her Richmond wedding, and I was instantly hooked. From there I devoured another Virginia bride's, Mrs. Brooch, posts before becoming a daily follower of the site.
My Application Story

From the start I knew I wanted to be a Blogger Bee; however, the idea of blogging seemed a little abstract to me. I had always thoroughly enjoyed writing, but I had never blogged before. I wasn't really sure I'd have enough to write about or even have an interesting story to tell. I put off thinking about applying until late September when I my wedding was less than eight months away. The idea of missing my opportunity to apply kicked my butt into gear. I decided to quit being silly and just go for it. Telling only Momma Hawk and Mr. Hawk, I started blogging in secret. To my surprise finding topics to write about came easily, and before I knew it, I was blogging almost every day. I absolutely loved it.

Not wanting to waste another minute, I sent in my application right after I had written the requisite fifteen posts. Four weeks s-l-o-w-l-y passed by. Near the end I swear I was checking my email every fifteen minutes. It was the first thing I looked at in the morning and the last thing I checked before bed. I anxiously prayed no one would pick Hawk as their moniker. After waiting exactly a month, I coudn't wait any longer. I emailed Mrs. Penguin kindly asking about the status of my application. A few hours later she came back with a response saying that I was "kind of a mind reader" and that I should hear back shortly. The fact that she ended the email with a smiley face was all I needed. My heart was beating out of my chest for the next several minutes until I received my acceptance email. I immediately called Mr. Hawk. He could hear the excitement in my voice, and before I could even get it out he asked if I had been accepted. (Then he asked if we would be the Hawks. Of course we would!) I was elated.

On Blogging for Weddingbee

I can honestly say that blogging for Weddingbee has been one of the coolest experiences of my life. When I started as a Blogger Bee, I looked forward to sharing my story. I even hoped that I might provide some inspiration or support for fellow brides, but I never anticipated that I would get so much back in return. Having a community to share the highs and lows with has been such an amazing experience. There is nothing quite like receiving support and positive words of encouragement from fellow brides who are going through the same struggles. There is also nothing quite like having a space to freely ramble about bridesmaids dresses, shoes, or the chairs I dreamt about, and have a community of people who understand!

While it has been gratifying and rewarding, I also must admit that it can be time consuming. Regularly blogging while working and planning a wedding can at times be overwhelming. There were moments when I felt like I had taken on a part-time job, but feedback from the Hive made it worth every minute.
Advice for Applicants

This is nothing new, but considering it's the most important piece of advice I can give, it bears repeating: Bee yourself!

Write like you would speak to your best friend. When I first started blogging, I repeatedly made Mr. Hawk read my writing to make sure it sounded like me. I wanted to make sure that my personality came through and that he could actually hear me saying the things I wrote. Having a close friend or family member read your writing might be your biggest asset.

Don't feel the need to meet a certain formula. There is nowhere in the application process that says one post about the engagement, two posts about the shoe search,  and three about the dress search equals a winning combination. Heck, I never even shared any details about my dress shopping experience and I was accepted! If you write as you naturally progress through the planning process, you'll end up covering what's important to you.

Share your story. It's nice to see a post filled with lovely inspiration pictures, but the journey is more interesting. Knowing the reasoning behing your choices is what makes your writing relatable and interesting to readers.

Don't be afraid to put yourself out there. If you're thinking about applying, just go for it! I'm so glad that I did. :)

OOT Wedding Packet

I mentioned in my post yesterday that I included a wedding packet in our OOT bags. Along with the Williamsburg guide books, I wanted to include a schedule of the wedding events along with personal recommendations of restaurants and activities to try in the area. Although I offered many of these same suggestions on our wedding website, I found that (like Mrs. Turkey also mentioned) many of our guests didn't utilize the site as much as I had thought they would. Plus, once on location, how many guests would think to pull up our wedding website for suggestions? For inspiration I of course turned to the 'Bee. Mrs. Cloud's post on her OOT bags helped me create the perfect informational packet.

To fit our theme of utilizing Kraft paper and monograms, I designed a simple cover.

I began with a quick welcome and details the guests could expect to find in the packet.

Although to my knowledge it went unused, having a contact list was a nice "just in case" for any possible questions or emergencies.



Probably the most important information was the schedule of events and wedding map. I loved that everything was laid out for our guests. Having this prevented me from having to field questions about events, timing, and locations.

Lastly I included a couple of restaurant and activity suggestions.

I'm happy to report that several guests followed my suggestions and enjoyed exploring (and eating!) in the Colonial area of Williamsburg before the wedding.

Are you creating a packet for wedding guests? If you were an OOT wedding guest would you find information like this helpful?

The Hawk OOT Bags

Although our Williamsburg wedding was hardly a destination wedding, the majority of our guests stayed at the hotel I blocked. Knowing this made providing out-of-town bags for our guests a priority of mine. I kept the contents simple sticking to snack foods and plenty of Williamsburg information for those staying the entire weekend. 

OOT bag goodies

Here is the breakdown of what each bag contained.
Snacks:

• 2 bags Utz chips (purchased at Costco)
• 10 Hershey Kisses (Costco)
• 2 packs of Lance peanut butter crackers (Costco)
• 2 bags of Hubbies Virginia Peanuts (Hubs Peanuts)
• 2 bottles of water

Williamsburg Info:

• Colonial Guide (including several detailed maps)
• VIP Coupon Book for the Premium Outlets
• Colonial Williamsburg pamphlet
• Williamsburg Winery pamphlet
• Postcard of the Wren Building (where we got married!)

Other

• The Hawk wedding packet
•  2 Advil packets (purchased from Amazon)

I packaged all of the goodies into Kraft gift bags purchased from the Dollar Tree (two bags for $1), and finished them off with a hanging tag of our pre-ceremony monogram.

Blank tag templates from Homemade Gift Guru, Monogram added by me

Can you think of anything I missed? Are OOT bags a must-have for your wedding?

Love Affair With My Hair: the PWC

My hair ADD is really no secret. Over the years, I've sported many different colors and cuts, but the wedding definitely put a kabosh on that. I made up my mind early in our engagement that I wanted to wear my hair mostly down in curls, which meant no drastic cuts. I also knew I wanted my hair to be a natural light brown, which translated to no color changes. For those of you who also suffer from hair ADD, I'm sure you can imagine how I was squirming inside. Well last weekend I finally made an appointment for the long overdue PWC.

THE BEFORE:


Please excuse my "I'm still half asleep"/no makeup face

THE AFTER:

Hey, short hair!

And to give you a better idea with straighter hair, here is a recent picture of Mr. H and I.



At Pippin Hill Vineyards (Shout out Mrs. Mink!)

 And post haircut:

I'm glad for the change, but I've got to admit I'm already missing my longer hair. (Uh, oh. Here comes that pesky hair ADD again...)

Anyone else planning a major post-wedding chop?

On Being a No Program Bride

As you may or may not recall, even though I planned my wedding from start to finish, I really didn't have a lot of real wedding experience. In fact, not counting my own, I've still only attended two weddings in my adult life. At the beginning of planning I felt a bit lost, but I found that in some ways it was a blessing. I think it may have relieved some stress from feeling obligated to participate in or do certain things simply out of tradition. In some ways, like our chapel wedding ceremony, we stayed very traditional, but in others we said "tradition shmadition."

Although I loved our paper elements like our STDs and invitations and was obsessed with monogramming anything that didn't move, I was completely uninterested in the idea of creating a wedding ceremony program. I guess I saw it more as a "nice to have" rather than a "need to have." We weren't having a super-long ceremony or participating in any special or unique ceremony elements that needed explaining. I suppose it would have been a nice place to call out and give thanks to the wedding party, but we had other things planned for them at the reception. In the end, I just said "to hell with it" and skipped them all together.

However in effort to make sure all our guests still made it to the reception, I ended up making a simple map to distribute a la Ballet Flat instead. I knew directions couldn't be skipped since most of our guests were unfamiliar with the Williamsburg area, but eliminating the task of programs from my to-do list certainly made for less stress.

Photo by Valerie Demo

Any other "no program brides" out there?