When Colt and I first started talking about our honeymoon we dreamt of far away places like Bora Bora, the Maldives, Paris, Thailand and other places that would awaken our deepest desires. We talked about how amazing it would be to emerge ourselves into a new culture as we explore, learn and grow and we couldn’t think of a better way to start our new life together.

Since Colt works at the Four Seasons we have so many options as to where we could go. We started researching every property we could possibly think of, along with flights and travel time. We quickly found out that traveling from Hawaii isn’t the easiest of tasks not only for cost but also for time. We would be losing a full day and a half no matter where we went over seas. We started talking about staying local since Hawaii is the #1 place to honeymoon. We thought about going to the big island instead to relax and enjoy our beautiful home. We also looked into the possibility of Mexico and wine tasting in California. In the end we still kept coming back to foreign places, unknown adventures and elephants so we decided on Thailand!

One of the main reasons (besides the elephants, I can’t wait to ride one) we chose Thailand was because we could stay at three different properties during our stay. We decided we would stay in Bangkok the first night since its such a long flight. The next morning we will fly to Chiang Mai to stay at the golden triangle for 4 nights. The golden triangle is in the middle of nowhere and you have to ride elephants in. It’s tented tree houses of luxury and sounds and looks like a dream. From the golden triangle we will go back to Chiang Mai and stay there for a few nights. This is more of the resort style four seasons that we are use to. I’m sure we will spend our days by the pools, golfing and exploring. There are a few museums that everyone says we have to go to. I personally can’t wait to ride around town in a tuk tuk and explore! I can just imagine the never ending laughter as we cart around Thailand in one. From Chiang Mai we will go back to Bangkok. We certainly could not go to Thailand and not experience the red light district! I hear they have some of the best street food in the world. Colt wants to see the lady boys and ping pong girls in all their glory, I’m sure that’s going to be an adventure to say the least.

Colt got his first passport (ever) a few weeks ago and I am so excited for him. I also got mine renewed. We are officially officially ready to take on the world (literally)! I can’t wait to travel to far off lands with the man of my dreams. I know that Thailand will be our jumping off point to accomplishing our many dreams and adventures. I already got my time off approved from work (I am so grateful that my boss is being so flexible with my wedding and honeymoon). Colt is still waiting for his final approval (fingers crossed) but as soon as he gets it we will be booking our flights. Colts boss also offered to help us book our rooms at each hotel throughout our stays which is so amazing and helpful. Once all of our travel plans are approved and finalized we will also be creating our honeymoon registry! This will allow our guests to purchase rounds of golf, elephant rides, breakfasts, dinners, activities among other things while we travel! It’s a fun new option for wedding registries and a great way to bring everyone along with us on our many adventures!

We are beyond excited to announce that we just added two amazing people to our wedding party, Anuhea Dooge and Joe Getgen! We are very happy that they will be by our sides on this extremely special day.

(History)

When Colt and I moved into our new place in August it was by total fate that a month later Joe and Anu moved into the main house with our other best friend Eric (also in the wedding). Joe, Eric & Colt all work together at the four seasons so it was pretty funny when we all became neighbors. Anu and I had met several months prior but never really got to hang out much. Once she moved in we quickly became friends and haven’t spent much time apart since. Colt and Eric were already always hanging out before so the move just made things more convenient and in turn he also got to hang out with Joe all the time. When I was in California going through my manager training for Hard Rock Colt and Kailea spent the majority of their nights over there hanging out and eating Anu’s cooking. Once I got back it didn’t take long for us to all start hanging out and we quickly became a sixsome (Kai is of course included)

(Now a days)

Colt & I technically “live” in the Ohana next door but we pretty much all live together, we could probably move into their extra bedroom and nobody would even notice. Kailea also spends most of her afternoons with them and we are so grateful to always have the extra helping hands since Colt & I work so late. Anu is pretty much the Mom of our “sixsome” so she is always making sure we are all fed and happy. She is an awesome cook, not only is it always delicious it’s also WW friendly which is great since we all beast together at 5:30 in the morning. The boys if they aren’t working play pool, play golf, play golf did I mention GOLF… yes they LOVE golf and lucky for them Anu’s dad runs a beautiful golf course here on Maui, so they tend to get a little spoiled. Anu and I just mostly workout, shop, dine, watch our 3 favorite shows, beach and of course the whole groups favorite SAILING! Joe has an amazing sailboat and the adventures have been priceless. I absolutely cannot wait for our next family adventure (and hopefully this one doesn’t involve the lifeguards).

boys will be boys.

adventures at sea.

(Asking)

Since our engagement Eric, Anu and Joe have been by our sides. Eric was actually one of the people that helped Colt set up on the night of the proposal while we went on our hike. (if you haven’t read about Colt’s proposal just click here). Each of them have become such important pieces in our day to day lives and it’s incredible how selfless they have been in their friendships. Colt and I have obviously been on a budget and working like crazy so to have them always helping out on a daily basis has been a God send. They are always taking Kailea on walks and babysitting, cooking delicious dinners that are ready for us after our 12 hour work days, waking up with us at 5:30a.m. every morning and holding us accountable for beasting, coming to Vegas with us for our Bach parties, having family nights with movies, games or fire pitting. They have also helped us so much in regards to the wedding just by being there to listen to all our excitement, frustrations and disappointments.

One day as Colt & I were talking about the wedding I was mentioning how I really wanted to include Anu in a lot of the things on the day of. Colt then said “you really want her in the wedding don’t you?” I looked at him and told him that I really did. He then told me that he had also been thinking about it and he really wanted to add Joe to the wedding party as well. We couldn’t be more excited! After talking about it some more we both agreed that our day just wouldn’t be the same without them by our sides. We asked Anu & Joe and they happily accepted. We couldn’t be more honored.

Our bridal party now consists of 7 of the most amazing guys and girls this world has to offer, 4 of the cutest flower girls everrrr plus Colt and I! We feel so blessed and honored to have such amazing family and friends to stand up for us while we celebrate our love and start our new life together. I LOVE that we are having a small wedding with the worldest biggest wedding party! I guess my original dream of a big wedding has come true after all just in a different way. To me it’s truly the best of both worlds to be able to have a big wedding party with a small wedding so our time is spent with everyone. Which in turn reminds me; RSVP’s are DUE next week so please get them in the mail if you haven’t already. Once we get our final count there will be a lot more information coming down the pipeline for all our guests and we couldn’t be more excited!

The time has finally come to make some noise about our VEGAS trip as we get into the much anticipated 4 week count down! Excited doesn’t even begin to explain it! I feel like Jessica Spano from Saved by the Bell (minus the caffeine pill freakout)

♪ I’m so excited and I just can’t hide it, I’m about to lose control and I think I like it ♪

It’s so surreal to think that at exactly this time next month we will be in Vegas with our best friends celebrating our upcoming wedding. We are both so grateful to all of our friends that are coming and to Ashley (my sister in law) and Landon (Colt’s best man) who have put so much time and energy into planning our bachelor and bachelorette weekends for us. It is such a huge stress relief especially with how much we are planning right now with the wedding. We can’t wait to see what is in store for us! From the sounds of everyone’s excited chatter I know it’s going to be better than anything we could even imagine. I love that we both have NO clue! The only thing that is certain is …

As excited as we are about going to Vegas it doesn’t even compare to the excitement we feel that we will get to see and spend time with our best friends. It has been so hard being so far away from everyone while planning the wedding (I think it’s been a lot harder on me since my Mom, Sister and all my girls (expect for Anu) aren’t here). It’s going to be so amazing to be able to spend 3 days with everyone and truly just celebrate, LAUGH, catch up and have the time of our lives. I think the best part and the part that doesn’t seem real is that it’s only the pre-party to the ACTUAL party. Not only do we get to see everyone in 4 weeks, but then we get to see everyone AGAIN 3 months later! We are so spoiled & blessed. I don’t know how I am going to get through the next 4 weeks when I am already jumping out of my skin, but I also know that in 4 weeks I will be sitting here saying I can’t believe we are boarding our plane to Vegas!

I honestly can’t believe that Sunday made 5 months until the wedding. It was an extra special one too because we hit our 10K mark on the “operation I Do” meter. It felt so good coloring that in! We have been working so hard and budgeting so much, so to see that red hit 10k was one of the best days of my life! It is so great to see our hard working paying off (literally). We had a special bottle of Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin on reserve for this very special occasion so we colored the meter, broke out the champagne glasses, started a fire pit in the backyard, cheers and celebrated with Anu, Joe and Chris.

just keep coloring.

popping bottles

It’s funny how when you are planning your wedding you can easily forget all the good things that are going on. It’s really hard to focus on the “win’s” when you still have a full list of “to do’s”. The “to do” list end’s up blurring the “done” list and this became very apparent to me this weekend. I decided to toss the “to do’s” for 48 hours and rejoice in all the little and big things that were already done. We even went out to dinner at Outback (watch out now party animals) to celebrate 5 months and treat ourselves for all our hard work thus far. I allowed myself to really enjoy the experience and just be present in the special time with Colt. I love how much you appreciate the little things when you take the time to pay attention. Prior to Colt and I getting engaged we lived very frivolous and never went without. If we wanted to do something we did, if we wanted to go out to dinner we went, if we wanted to buy something we bought it. It certainly took some getting used to after we got engaged to think about every single thing you were spending money on down to the penny and how it was going to affect your over all BIG picture. At first I hated having to be so disciplined but now it’s kind of nice. I love watching us work together towards our goals and future.

almost there!

Last night I went by our friend Tammy’s house and got to see the first sample of the girls tutu’s. I almost melted. I could not believe how perfect they were! They were exactly what I had been thinking in my head and I couldn’t believe she created them. She is so talented and the girls are going to look so adorable. The best part is they get really puffy when they twirl! I can’t wait to watch them spin at the reception and look like little ballerina princesses!

ceremony tutu's

reception tutus!

The reply cards have slowed down so it’s always a nice surprise when we get one in the mail. The number is climbing and we are filled with joy every time we get a “wouldn’t miss it for the world.” We know how hard it is and we can’t express enough how appreciative we are to have you all here on our very special day. We are working on getting our order of sequence down for the ceremony and reception. We have about 10 “check-lists” between our wedding planner, photographer and DJ that we still need to complete. There is so much to decide on in regards to photos and songs! We also have to order our “extras” that we are doing on our own. Colt needs to have the boys order ties, shirts and belts. It’s just hard for him to try anything on right now because he is dropping weight so fast. He has reached the point where everyone is noticing a big difference. I couldn’t be more proud of him. His discipline has been my motivation. He looks amazing and we still have 5 months to go!

The next big things coming up are April 25th which is when we should have our finalized guest list so we can move into the seating charts, guest set ups, etc of our planning phase. We also have Vegas creeping its very sneaky little head; I can’t believe we are almost a month out! I hope you all are ready, ARRIBAAAAAAAA!!

My, oh my what a wonderful day! We had our cake tasting last Sunday, it was awesome. We got to the grand around 10a.m. and we met with MaryAnn in the lobby. We grabbed some coffee for her and colt and headed to one of the banquet rooms. Once in the room we found out that we have our own personal bakery chef making our wedding cake (we also had a personal server to wait on us as we tried each cake). Natalie our wedding chef had created 4 different cakes for us to try. She kept our “yellow and grey” theme and had a few yellow filling cakes that included lemon and lychee. She also brought out a few other favorites we had asked for like carrot & strawberry. The presentation was amazing and totally blew us away. Our chef even created a vision board of four different style cakes that she thought would match our wedding / colors perfectly. I loved all the extra attention to detail and effort especially since I am so visual. I thought I had my heart set on a certain cake I had found on pinterest but when I saw the one on her vision board I decided I might like that one better. I am not going to spill the beans on what cake/cakes we decided on because that would be no fun but I will say I don’t think you will be disappointed. It’s a great balance of island flare with elegant deliciousness.

One of our four mini cake samples.

they were all so pretty!

We also picked out our food stations (each station will have a personal chef to make each item to order). The stations items are awesome and we even have a surprise! (I know the surprises are endless, isn’t that so exciting!) I also picked out some cute flare for the tables inside the ballroom. I gave MaryAnn a picture of the flowers I want for the girls and the chapel. I am still looking for my perfect bouquet. I want everything to be “less is more” since the Grand is already so beautiful in itself. I really just want a touch of color to set the theme. I have the perfect picture in my head and I am not sure if that is a good or bad thing. MaryAnn always reminds me that I cannot control every minute of every situation no matter how much we plan. I hate that even though I know it’s true. I know that there is going to be things that come up or go wrong but I also know that on my wedding day I am going to be so happy that I probably won’t even notice or care, however right now that seems like a nightmare. We have so many moving parts to this wedding and I just want to make sure that everything goes smoothly. There has already been enough unforeseen drama with friends and family and I am so over it. It sucks that for one day people can’t get over themselves and their own wants and needs and just let Colt and I have our day our way. It sucks even more that we even have to worry about these kinds of things when we are planning the happiest best day of our lives. (Well that’s kind of a lie — we aren’t really “worrying” about it because we refuse to let other people’s problems bring us down, but it still makes us sad when people feel the need to bring it to our attention).

the true taste tester of our relationship as you can see he took this job very seriously.

We have lots of reply cards coming back to us! We were getting at least one a day for the last two weeks which was so exciting. So far we have 31 attendees, I am so happy most people “wouldn’t miss it for the world.” It’s funny how many texts I have got that say “so I am coming but I can’t decide on a perfect song so I can’t send the reply yet” I love that people are really putting some great thought into this. It’s going to make our day that much more special.

I can’t believe this Sunday is going to be 5 months! Time is flying. It’s going to be a real trip when May comes around and we are in Vegas (then it’s really on). Ashley texted me today that her shoes came in and they are so cute! Its little things like this that make me jump out of my skin because it continues to become more real. I love talking to Ashley because she will say things like “I can’t believe my brother is getting married” and I know that it really trips her out! It makes me laugh so hard because a normal conversation with Colt and I starts like this “remember that one time we are getting married.” Just wait until we are actually married then it will be “remember that one time we are married and you are my wife/husband.”

The next month and a half is mostly just tying up contracts and deposits with the DJ/Photographer and working out other details with our wedding party. Come May we will meet with our florist and see examples of our flowers. In June we will have our final guest count so we can determine our final budget along with table layouts, food layout, table décor, ballroom décor, bar package, up lighting, DJ run through etc., The only things we will have to do in August will be a final walk through, our marriage license, insurance for the day of our wedding and run through with our minister. MaryAnn is working on a timeline for the wedding day for us and the DJ! I am also working on buttoning up our honeymoon details so we can set up our registry as well as a list of our pre-wedding activities. It’s funny how everyone I talk to about planning things for August thinks 5 months is still “so much” time, I think they are crazy! We will be saying “I Do” at the chapel in no time….

The inside of the beautiful chapel.

We have had so much going on lately it’s hard to keep it all straight in my head. Like yesterday, all day I thought it was Thursday even though it was only Wednesday. It’s a good thing we do yoga on Wednesday nights because it really helps me clear my mind and open some space, it also breaks up the work week which I love. We have now been working out for 9 weeks straight, 6 days a week. I am so so proud of us. I just started my 2^nd tier of my brother-in-laws 3 tier workout plan he put me on. He is pushing us hard but the energy and results are well worth it. I love being so committed and watching us better ourselves as we cheer each other on along the way. We are so exhausted by the time we crawl into bed each night it is ridiculous. I can only explain it as that feeling when you were a kid and you would ride your bike all day in the fresh air, you biked so much that by the time you came in for dinner everything hurt so bad you almost felt like crying. It’s like that but without the innocence that came along with those rides (grown up world is a very different ride) but none the less both very much the same.

TSB, just beasting.

at 5am every morning.

I booked my wedding make-up with Tiffany. Befabulousbytiffany and she is just that ….Fabulous. She is one of the most creative and artistic make-up artists I have had the pleasure of playing with. She is flying into Maui that morning from Oahu to get the majority of my bridesmaids and my mom ready. I was so happy that she said yes, it really lifted a weight off my shoulders. I know my stress level will be nonexistent now that I know she will be there to get me ready. I also have my extremely talented & edgy sister-in-law Ashley doing my hair that day. I can’t wait to let her work her magic. With the two of them getting me ready I know I will have nothing to worry about (besides of course Colt fainting from my extreme beauty when he finally gets to see me, just kidding, well kind of).

Some of the big things on my bride “to do” list that I need to get are my veil (My best friend Kristen wanted to try to make it for me, she really is the sweetest) I can’t wait to see the final product coming up here in April. I also need to find wedding shoes and anything I might want to wear for jewelry. I think I want to go really simple on the accessories with the “less is more” mentality. I am hoping to find my shoes and “extras” while shopping in Vegas. I really wanted to get Bella’s shoes from Breaking Dawn and I even found them online. I pretty much convinced myself I was going to get them until I texted Anu and Ashley and asked if $1300 was too much. They both brought me back to reality fairly quickly. Thank god for good girlfriends, I am sure I will find another pair that I love (sigh).

Colt still needs to have his groomsman order their ties, undershirts and belts. We are waiting for Men’s Warehouse to open on Oahu since they have the same color swatches to match our bridesmaid’s dresses. He is pretty much set otherwise besides his ring. We need to find him a wedding band. He is set on the old fashion band like the one his Dad use to wear. I like that. We will find something perfect for him. I can’t wait to get a tan line on that ring finger of his, hahaha.

All of my bridesmaids and maid of honor have been fitted and have ordered their dresses. I am so happy that they are all finally done! Their dresses are gorgeous and they are so flattering. I still can’t believe that the dresses are for my wedding, it’s so surreal every time I think about it. I also have the flower girls outfits being made. It’s funny because as I was typing this Tammy called me to tell me she found the material and will have a sample for me by the 9^th. I can’t wait to see them; they are going to be to die for. I decided to wait to order there tops and shoes until closer to the wedding since they will be fairly easy to get and the girls are growing like weeds. I don’t want anyone growing out of anything before August.

My beautiful bridesmaids.

We just signed our second contract from the Grand! I can’t believe we are already cutting check number TWO! We continue to surprise ourselves with how much we are saving; we are only $874.00 away from our half way mark. Our color meter was seriously the best idea for us to keep our eye on the prize. Now that the second contract is signed we need to find the time to set up a meeting with MaryAnn to button up all of the food, cake, musician, pastor etc., she has been so busy with groups in house that we had to reschedule our last meeting and cake tasting. We are anxious to get things done! Especially now that we only have 6 months to go! I think time is escaping us, is it really March 1^st?