Mike & I may be back from Jamaica, but mentally we’re still riding this whirlwind adventure.  There are so many boxes to go through, laundry to wash, and things to break-down, never-mind the thank you cards!  It’s all welcomed though.  The wedding might be over, but the adventure still continues.  I can honestly say I’m having the best time of my life.  Pictures to come, promise, but first, one last guest post so I can get myself together!

Liz, from Next in the City, is another favorite B2B (Bride-to-be) planning her wedding and sharing it with the interwebs.  She wrote some great advice for others in the same boat:

Well, gang this is my first guest blog post, ever! Very exciting, thank you Vicki – and congrats! I cannot believe you are married, now husband & wife! I thought the word fiancé took some time adjusting — the next “title” might be harder, but way more amazing!

While Victoria unwinds, I thought I would discuss how wedding planning in general affects relationships with friends, family, and of course – your fiancé! Many of my friends are already married – I have been a bridesmaid once and a maid of honor three times in the past three years – and every time another friend walked down the aisle, I was warned about the heartaches of planning. I brushed them aside, hoping that I wouldn’t feel an ounce of those pangs. However, I have and now I am that girl telling people to prepare for the sometimes unpleasant, confusing, and tricky decisions and frustrations that go along with engagements.
Friends want rights to your wedding, family believes they deserve the same rights, but where does that leave the bride and groom? Often bickering about these people and coming up with no resolution. Tiny examples of these situations include, several friends asking if they will be invited to the wedding (eeek!!!) – my response for the past year and a half as always been, “we are still finalizing the guest list” and my brothers asking me for six months straight if they will be groomsmen (“ask Jared!”). I have heard that a wedding is truly a “family experience”, and I believe to a degree it is, but when you get down to it (or down the aisle, actually), it really is all about the girl and boy whose names are on the marriage certificate.

So, my advice? Actually I probably need some, but I will say I have tried to brush aside these friend and family unpleasantries as best I can and just focus on us. All the wedding blogs I read every morning and Jared, my fiancé, have been wonderful at helping me remember this motto. So, brides: keep looking straight ahead because there is a light at the end of the tunnel – or actually a honeymoon! I see sunshine, white sand, and blue waters at my end and a lifetime of funny yet crazy memories waiting to happen. Being engaged is stressful, but life is short and sooner or later, you will be married!

Welcome Krysten, a favored tweep of mine.  She write a fantastic blog, of which I make time to check on the regular.  She’s a girl after my own heart, sharing an Etsy & all-things-handmade obsession. I swear without us, the handmade biz might go under…

Hi all! I”m Krysten from After ‘I Do’ and I am super excited to be blog sitting for Vicki while she’s off having all kinds of married fun!

Today I’m going to give you all some advice.  For those of you that are already married I hope you’ll be nodding along with this.  For those that aren’t, pay close attention!

• Something will go wrong.  Inevitably something with the wedding planning or the wedding day (or both) is going to go wrong.  My husband and I had plenty of drama leading up to the wedding, I was in a car accident the day before the wedding, one of my readers backed out at the last minute and it rained (and we had an outdoor ceremony).  Go into your wedding planning and wedding telling yourself that something could go wrong.  And if it does, try to let it roll off your back.  Marriage isn’t perfect.  Neither is wedding planning.
• Go with your gut.  It’s easy with all the wedding propaganda to get swayed.  Maybe you wanted to wear a red dress but you’re on TheKnot.com and all you see is poofy whiteness.  Maybe you want to walk down the aisle first so that you can watch your wedding party walk down after.  Whatever it may be, do what you want.  This is the one day when you’re allowed to do what you want, no matter what anyone else may deem weird or nontraditional.
• Eat.  On the day of your wedding take time to eat.  I know you’re a busy bride and you think you don’t have time.  I promise you will want to eat something.
• Pause.  I’ve heard from so many brides that their day just flew by and they barely remember it.  Take time to pause and take it all in.  Just stop for a moment or two and take a mental snapshot.
• Make lists.  Keep a list of your must have pictures so that your photog knows what’s important to you.  Have a timeline of how you want your day to go (but also leave a little room for spontaneity).  Have a list of everything you need the day of, such as band-aids, extra hairspray, mints, etc.  Lists will be your best friends.
• HAVE FUN.  I know you want everything to be perfect.  I know you’re a control freak.  I know you’re 3rd cousin is off getting drunk and trying to make out with everyone on your bridal party.  Stop worrying.  Let someone else worry for you.  It’s your wedding day.  Enjoy it.
  

Vicki I hope your wedding is everything you want it to be and I hope you have a fabulous honeymoon!  We miss you!

While Mike and I are away celebrating our marriage, some lovely readers offered to guest post for me!  First up is Meaghan from The Twenties Roar.  She’s planning her September wedding, so now that my journey is at the end (or the beginning?!) you can follow along with her plans!  She’s a fun, sweet, lady with a handsome man (“The Boy”) by her side.  And she is gracing us with the story of how they met…

She went out with her house-mates in her 2nd year at University for a night at the local bar.  After waiting in line they finally got in, and easily found a table – curse those fake lines! Just an ordinary night, out chatting and dancing with friends.
He went out to the bar “he made popular” with a bunch of friends. After enjoying a couple of pops, he informed his friends to “watch this.”

She looked up and saw a very tall boy leaning against the back of the booth she and her friends were sitting at.  Intrigued by his height she tried to listen to what he had to say, but didn’t really hear him so smiled instead.

Meanwhile, he pulled out his best material – “Oh sorry, I thought this was my table.” Not having heard him she simply smiled – he sat down.
The next thing she knew this tall boy was sitting beside her.  Pulling out more ace material “Do you come here often?”
She laughed in his face. “Did you just say ‘come here often?’

Slightly flustered he replied, “Yes, but not like that. I just meant do you come here?”
He introduced her to his friends, “This is bean! As in jelly-bean“
She laughed at his inability to remember her name and his quick thinking… tall and funny.  Intriguing.

They danced the night away. And she gave him her number, along with her name.
She thought, “He probably won’t call… but look how TALL he is!”

Seven years later, he became known as The Boy.
Eleven days shy of nine years after they met, they’re walking down the aisle:  September 10, 2011.

Next up is one of the very first blogs I started reading on a regular basis.  Jayme of The Tater Twins shares amazing posts about strength, love, and her adorable kids & family.  You can also find her on the Twitter: @Tatertwins.

While Victoria & Mike are off doing the wedding and honeymoon thing, I get to guest post!  My name is Jayme, and I have been married to my husband Aaron for over 10 years now, and although we didn’t have a wedding or a honeymoon, I thought perhaps I could offer some advice anyway.  Feel free to take it with a grain of salt!

Wedding Advice:
Invite people.  We went to the justice of the peace, and it was a spur of the moment decision.  Our friends were upset we didn’t include them.  Our family was annoyed we didn’t tell them we were getting married until a month after the deed was done.  So I think letting people know is a good idea.

Take pictures.  Even if you don’t hire a professional photographer, have SOMEONE take a picture or two of you and your spouse on your wedding day.  We have no photos of that day, and it’s one thing I really regret.

Buy rings BEFORE the ceremony.  As I’ve mentioned, our wedding was impromptu, and we didn’t even think about rings until the part where the justice of the peace asked us to exchange them.

Honeymoon Advice:
Take one.  Even if it’s just camping or something equally inexpensive.  We didn’t take one, and have yet to have the opportunity to go on a vacation without the kids.  So take one while you can.

General Marriage Advice:
Accept the things you can’t change.  We don’t fight. I think some number of disagreements and that kind of back and forth bantering is ok, healthy even- if you work it out and don’t let it get bottled up and fester- but no matter how much I argue with him, he doesn’t argue back. He just doesn’t respond to that. It took me a LONG time to learn that. But that’s just him.

Your spouse is your BFF.  Aaron is truly my best friend. I can tell him anything. I can be myself around him. I am not the slightest bit self conscious in front of him in any way. And I  think that is the way it should be.

Be there for each other.  During our first year of marriage, our first baby was stillborn. The grief counselor told us something like around 75% of marriages that lose a child end in divorce within a year. For us though, we clung to each other in our grief. It brought us closer together. I don’t know that I could have gone on without him. He’s my rock.

Keep things in perspective.  After our baby died, when things got stressful between us, one of us would usually say something like ‘We lost a baby, this is nothing’ and the tension we were having about money or whatever would seem so trivial. It helped us remember what was really important.

Even though we’ve been married over a decade now, I still get butterflies when I’m thinking about him or talking about him with others.  He tolerates my love for the internet, my horrible spending habits, my lack of housekeeping skills. What more could a girl want?

Victoria and Mike- I have loved watching the behind the scenes wedding planning, as I never went through that.  I hope your day is absoutely gorgeous, and all the details fall into place.  I know you two are well on your way too an eternity of happiness!

~Jayme
http://www.tatertwins.com/
@tatertwins on twitter

This next post made me laugh out loud.  Nicci & Tim, wife & husband combo from Changing the Universe, are no stranger to guest blogging here.  You can find them both on the Twittersephere.  Nicci wrote from her perspective in standard font, Tim’s input is in italics.  Enjoy!

My husband, Tim, and I have been married for just over three years. In those three years, one thing has kept us together above all other things.

Our GPS navigation.

Do you have any idea how many arguments have been solved by that soothing, robotic voice? Countless.

Our first experience with a GPS came on our honeymoon. We headed down to San Diego, and since neither of us knew the area and since we were planning on taking a trip up to Anaheim, I didn’t blink once when asked if I wanted to pay the extra $40 for a GPS in the rental car.

To be fair, I didn’t think twice, either. I didn’t want to risk our lives looking at a map while driving all around an unfamiliar city. And I have this minor problem where I am the only person who can properly read a map in my presence. If you’re with me and you’re looking at a map, you are obviously wrong. Does that make me a bad person?

The first thing the gentleman at the rental car desk did was program the GPS to recognize our hotel as “home.” So we headed to the car, hit “Go Home” and we were on our way. Not a single argument. Nary a “you missed a turn, jackass” was uttered.

Although Sally (as we affectionately named her) did have to recalculate once or twice.

As much as we loved Sally, and as helpful as she was, she was not without flaws.

See this map? This was a section of our drive from the hotel to Old Town, which was overrated as a destination but included the best Mexican restaurant either of us had ever even conceived of. Anyway, As we were going under Interstate 5 toward Pacific Highway, Sally told us to turn right. So I did, onto Pacific Highway. But that was incorrect. She yelled at me, I took a few more turns, and I ended up at the same place again. Again, I turned right. Again she yelled at me. It turns out that I should have taken the less severe right turn. So I’m yelling. Why would we call that a right turn when it’s just a continuation of the road? It’s stupid. Stupid!

All the while, I? Was laughing my ass off. Also, can I just say that that Mexican restaurant had the most amazing grilled shrimp I’ve ever had? And the margaritas! Oh, the margaritas. I had one. It was a big as my head. I made it my goal for the evening to finish that entire thing. And I did.

Then she passed out fell asleep on the way back to the hotel.

Whatever. What was I saying?

Oh, right. Sally continued to provide us invaluable help in locating vineyards in Temecula, the San Diego Zoo, and In-N-Out Burger. On our memorable trip over the Coronado Bridge, Sally felt the need to interrupt our most important video ever:

That was my poor attempt at a Howard Cosell impersonation. In a related story, no, I was never in theater in school. And this burrito is good, but boy is it filling.

But despite her flaws, and her rude habit of waking me up several times on the late night drive from Anaheim back to San Diego, Sally proved to be the glue that held our marriage together those first few days. I don’t think we had a single argument the entire time we were there.

Months after we returned home, I bought one for myself. New Sally (and now Robo-Sal, my phone) continues to guide our vacations and keep our marriage on the right road.

Except when I’m driving. Because real men don’t need a GPS, and besides, I always know the Twin Cities roads better than Sally anyway. Right?

• You will not feel like you get the credit you deserve from some people, no matter how much you deserve it.
• RSVPs mean very little to some people. Some people will show up or not show up regardless of how excited they seemed to be coming or how sure they were that it was impossible to come
• The day truly is about you and if you spend too much time worrying about how everyone else will take certain things, it will suck all of the fun out of it.
• Something will go wrong. And it won’t be the first, second, or third thing you expected to go wrong.

• Every little thing will be alright. When the day is done and you’re walking back into your hotel, or your house in my case, barefoot and exhausted, remind yourself that you’re one of the lucky ones. You found your perfect match.

Happy Middle of the Week, all!

This time on Friday I will have picked my mom, dad, sister and 8 month old niece up from the airport and be getting ready for a weekend packed with family fun!  We’ll meet up with Mike’s dad and step-mom for dinner on Friday night, then Mike’s mom flies in on Saturday, we’ll hang together, and on Sunday celebrate my wedding shower! Oh and my school’s PTA fundraiser auction is Saturday night.
Tired yet?

In the meantime, if you need some relaxation, head over to Mom-Nom to read my guest post on how yoga shaped my life.
It’s amazing what a little zen can do!

Well, not really, but sorta.
Also? I’m not a fan of referring to myself as “The Queen” but it works in this context.

At any rate – If you’re looking for me I’m over at Meagan’s blog: The Twenty’s Roar writing about a great traveling experience abroad.

Go check ‘er out!
Tomorrow – a catering tasting review! yum!

Happy Monday!