Topical Tuesday 22 - Honeymoon Checklist

Alycia and I were in Puerto Vallarta in Mexico for our honeymoon last week. Unbeknownst to us, Mexicana Airlines was facing complications from a bankruptcy and buyout, complications that eventually forced them to suspend all air travel. Fortunately for us, we flew on Alaska Airlines and wouldn’t have been trapped in Puerto Vallarta for an extended honeymoon. The situation did start me thinking about what we would have needed had our honeymoon been forcibly extended. So here is a completely PG list of what we would have needed on a longer honeymoon.

Books

Alycia and I have already turned into an old married couple and spent a lot of our honeymoon reading books. After all the busyness and insanity leading up to the wedding, both of us were more than content to sit and relax by reading. I brought four books with me to Puerto Vallarta and finished all four over the course of the week. Granted, three of them were Narnia books, but I still made it through them rather quickly. Without another book or two to read, Alycia and I would have had a lot of awkward moments of sitting and staring at each other.

Underwear

It is really humid in Puerto Vallarta, like really humid. Even in our room everything was always just a little damp, nothing was ever completely dry. So when we were outside in the heat and humidity I was sweating through my underwear and undershirts, not feeling so fresh and so clean (so fresh and so clean, clean). To make matters worse I also spent some time on the treadmill every day; after getting off the treadmill I looked like I had been competing in a wet t-shirt contest.

Pepto Bismal

The food at the resort was good, so good that I probably ate way more of it than I should have. After five days of eating large meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner, my stomach started to reject me. It’s as if he said to me, “You’ve been shoving too much greasy, fatty food into me for five straight days, and that doesn’t even include all the Pedro’s Tacos from the weekend. Now, because of that, I’m exacting my revenge. Enjoy the cramps and time spent in the bathroom.” My stomach was mean and spiteful but, in his defense, my diet had consisted of beans, tortillas, cheese, meat and meat wrapped in meat.

Movies

Being the old married couple that we are, Alycia and I also spent a lot of time watching movies in our room. We watched Coraline, The Hurt Locker and Saving Private Ryan. The resort had movies to check out but most of them were more along the lines of Sex and the City than The Hurt Locker. Had we known that we were going to be watching movies, we could have packed some of our own. We could have brought great movies that Alycia hasn’t seen, like The Usual Suspects, or movies that are always good for a watch, like A Knight’s Tale.

Let’s be honest, I’m just upset that I didn’t bring Can’t Hardly Wait.

Sunglasses

I own like four pairs of sunglasses (down from the eight I used to own), but somehow I managed to not bring a single pair. Let’s think about this, I didn’t bring a pair of sunglasses to the beach. That’s like not bringing a bride to a wedding, not just like it but almost. So I was without sunglasses at our beach resort with the sun shining down upon white sand. The worst part about not having sunglasses wasn’t the bright sunlight, but the inability to inconspicuously stare at Europeans and wonder why on earth they would wear Capri pants.

Music Monday 26 - Our Wedding Music

I haven’t posted a new blog since May 17. In the months leading up to our wedding, I was losing brain function at an alarming rate; unfortunately, what brain power I had left, needed to be reserved for things like my job and planning a wedding. Now that I’m happily married, though, I feel my brain coming back to me. So, in the words of Eminem, guess who’s back?

I did get married recently and I certainly don’t plan on every subsequent post to be about either our wedding or marriage. But since I’ve already discussed wedding songs, I thought I might spend some time reflecting on our wedding music and why we chose certain songs.

Procession of the Bride

Alycia and I had a difficult time selecting the song to which she would walk down the aisle. Neither of us wanted something traditional like the wedding march or “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring”. I thought that Billy Idol’s “White Wedding” would be a good selection but Alycia disagreed; I think it was a sign, though, that we should have chose that song when we saw The Wedding Singer on our honeymoon. We eventually decided upon Norah Jones’ “Come Away With Me”. Alycia and I both like jazz and I had always felt that “Come Away With Me” was one of the most romantic songs ever. Sure, it doesn’t have the blatant romance of “My Heart Will Go On” or “Teenage Dream”, but I’ll always think about my bride walking down the aisle when I hear “Come Away With Me”, and that’s all right with me.

Recessional

If our decision for the procession was difficult, our decision for the recessional was contentious. Before we even began dating, I told Alycia that I wanted the throne room song from the end of Star Wars played as my wife and I walked back down the aisle. In my mind I couldn’t understand why Alycia wouldn’t want that song, especially when I wanted it so badly and she didn’t really care. While it was a contentious and difficult decision, it provided a great illustration for a sermon and we eventually decided together upon “Where the Streets Have No Name”. U2 is my favorite band and “Where the Streets Have No Name” is my favorite song ever, so my musical inclinations were still satisfied. It was great to hold my wife’s hand for the first time and walk back down the aisle as the intro built; it truly was a celebratory moment.

First Dance

In our minds we both had images of a well choreographed first dance. With that in mind, we selected “The Best is Yet to Come” by Michael Bublé. We thought it would be a good song to dance to and wow all of our guests with our dancing prowess. Unfortunately, even though we had some choreographed steps, we lacked the time necessary to practice. So our beautifully planned dance dissolved into something akin to Kate Gosselin’s appearance on Dancing with the Stars; unlike her, though, we’re still not crazy. So instead of a tightly choreographed dance, we had a stumbling, bumbling shuffle across the dance floor, full of laughs and smiles, mercifully cut short by the DJ.

If you're married, what songs did you select for your wedding? If you're not married, what songs would you like played at your wedding?