Wedding Wednesday.....Our Honeymoon-last stop, South Beach

We left Antigua around 3:30 on a Thursday afternoon. We left the resort around 12:30 and had a short 10 minute ride to the airport. Upon arriving at the airport, we realized that there wasn't much to it-in fact, it reminded me a lot of the Port Au Prince Airport in Haiti. The check-in was outdoor, in a covered area-there was a nice breeze so it was actually pretty nice! We waited in line for about 15 minutes and then headed to the next check-in spot; I say next because there were several. We proceeded to the window and paid our $50 fee to leave the country ($25, each) and then went through another gate where we had to show our passport, a second time. We made it through that gate and then came to yet another gate where we had to show our paperwork again and then we headed to the actual security check. We put our carry-on luggage through the scanner and mine was flagged because of my medicines. They had to check my ENTIRE carry-on, down to EVERY last corner-talk about feeling a tad invaded! Ha! After finally making it through the security check, we were in the actual airport. 

We didn't each lunch at the hotel as we thought there would be plenty to eat at the airport and boy were we wrong- aside from a pizza counter, there was nothing. There were a few cute little shops, one in particular that we used to buy M's temporary wedding band.....for $7.95 :) The sweet cashier told us that she would be our official witness to make our new wedding band official! Ha!

The pizza counter and the new wedding band!

The airport did have free wi-fi which was really nice and after waiting around for a couple of hours it was time for us to board our flight. We lucked out and ended up being on one of American's brand new 737 planes- SO nice! It definitely eased my flying anxiety being on such a nice jet!

We arrived in Miami a few hours later and entered in the crazy mess of customs. If you've ever been through customs in Miami you know it can be quite the hassle, but overall it went pretty smooth. We felt like rats being pushed through a maze, but overall we made it through in pretty good time and without hassle. We grabbed a taxi and then headed to our hotel, which until we reached the taxi car, I had no clue as to where we were staying. The hotel in Miami was a surprise from M. He researched it and booked it all by himself and he picked a winner.....The Cleveander!

Stole this photo from Google since I forgot to sanp one!

M had also called the hotel earlier in the day and told them about losing his wedding band as well as the house flooding before our wedding. He asked the hotel to make sure our room was extra special and they totally delivered on his request! We arrived and were handed what is quite possibly the best pina colada I have ever consumed and then we were whisked away to our room. The hotel had upgraded us to what they called the "best room in the house" and had yet another surprise for us as we walked in- rose petals, EVERYWHERE!!!

They also gave us a sweet note and a bottle of champagne to enjoy! How sweet are they?!

View from our patio

We were super excited about our night in Miami so we changed clothes and got ready to hit the town! We were stoked about being in South Beach and couldn't wait to enjoy all it had to offer us!

As we headed out it started to storm, but we thought,"Eh, it's the beach, it will stop in like 30 minutes." Ha! Were we ever wrong!! It stormed, and stormed, and stormed. The streets filled up with water, the wind was kicking and here we are walking the streets under a dinky little umbrella! We stopped into one of those trashy beach shops for a bit to try to stay dry and then we ended up in the gellato shop- the same shop featured in the Jersey Shore.

view from the porch of the gellato shop

We grabbed some gellato and waited for about 30 minutes hoping it would let up, but by this point we were half soaked (me wearing white pants mind you) and we decided to head back to the hotel to re-group. We made it back to the hotel about 10 minutes later and were totally soaked. The hotel was CRAZY by this point with people EVERYWHERE watching the NBA Finals- and I mean C-R-A-Z-Y, like spring break style. We took our soaked bodies up to our room and ordered room service for dinner and decided to just call it a night! So much for our big night out in South Beach. Ha :)

elevator shot on the way back to our room- drenched.

We woke up at 4:45 the next morning for our super early flight home! We had a pit stop in Dallas, which has THE best airport that I've ever been in, and then we flew home to Lexington! We had a great honeymoon, but we were very excited to be home!! We are planning on cruising next summer for our one year anniversary, so we will try to tackle South Beach again next June. Fingers crossed for no rain!

Wedding PICTURES :)

Our final wedding images just arrived from our photographer! Here are a few :)
Feel Free to pin away, just please link all images back to this blog so that my awesome photographer gets the due credit he deserves!!!

Photography by Nelson Benton Photography. All images Copyright Protected.

The Wedding Day

My MOH's and I woke up around 7:30 on the morning of the wedding. We were all very excited to start getting ready and just enjoy the events of the day. Everyone had told me that the day went so fast, so I was trying to soak up every moment of the entire day.

Around 8:30, Kelly and I headed out to Enterprise to swap out the regular rental car for the luxury rental. We hopped in the Jag and took off.......into the ghetto. Okay, so maybe it wasnt really the ghetto because Lex doesnt really have one, but still, we ended up in a very shady part of town. I looked at her and said "We are seriously drving a Jag through the ghetto." We both began dying laughing as I was picturing a shoot out occuring outside as we drove a $65,000 car past (because with everything else that happened pre-wedding, it wouldn't be out of the ordinary by that point), but we managed to get back into the part of downtown where the hotel was located. Then, in true *my wedding has been one crazy event after another* fashion, the roads leading to the hotel were blocked off due to a race. We circled, and circled, and circled, and there was absolutely no way to get into the hotel, unless we drove the wrong way on a one way street.....so, we did.....with a policeman seeing the whole thing and pointing his finger and yelling at us. Kelly was like, "You're going to go to jail on your wedding day." Ha! He saw us turn into the hotel so I'm sure he realized that we only went the wrong way out of sheer despiration and must've had sympathy for us. Thank you, Mr. Policeman.

When we got back into the hotel my hair and make-up girl, Amanda was already there working on Em's hair and the girls had fresh Starbucks  waiting for me. Is anyone else addicted to iced skinny carmel machaittios? I think I had one per day the week of the wedding :) Anyway, shortly after we arrived back, the hotel had the suite cleaned and ready, so we packed up our items from our regular room and moved over to the suite. M and I had planned months prior to stay in the suite for our wedding night, so they went on and let us move to the bigger room around 10 that day. It was great because it was much larger and had a seperate sitting. Once she was done with Em's hair, she did my hair and make-up and then did the other 2 girls. During this time, my mom and Kelly's mom and daughter (flower girl) arrived. Despite as crazy as it may sound, it was such a "chill" environment. Everyone was so relaxed, happy, and we were all socializing and soaking up the moments. Around noon, we ordered Jimmy Johns (Yum!) and our photographer arrived and began doing some of his artsy shots of the rings, shoes, etc.

LOVE the one of us jumping on the bed! Childhood memories

Wearing our matching robes, and the girls in their wedding jewelery.

We then headed down to the hotel lobby and began taking my bridal portriats. The hotel is very old and historic, so their lobby is perfect for those mansion style pictures. Again, the hotel was beyond amazing, letting us move furniture etc so we could score the perfect picture. We moved outside to take some more pictures for about 45 mintues until my honorary bridesmaids arrived and then we took some more pictures with them. It was a BEAUTIFUL day- 72 and sunny...quite rare for this time of year.


After our pictures were done, I actually got out of my dress and back into my "Future Mrs. Kinney" robe to relax for a bit. By this time everyone was at the hotel and I had each girl sign the bottom of my shoes with a silver sharpie. We relaxed, touched up our make-up and then headed over to the chruch around 4:30. At the church, we snapped a few more pictures with my nephew, grandparents, etc and then we headed to the bridal area to wait for the ceremony. During this time, I got handed a little teal box with a white ribbon (Helllloooooo Tiffany and Co) and a letter from M. I opened the box to find the heart tag toggle necklace with my new monogram inscribed on it. His letter was sweet and reading it made me even more excited to know that we were just moments away from being Mr and Mrs.
My dad walked in shortly after I opened my gifts and we got to spend some QT before he walked me down the aisle. Around 5:30, they moved me up to the hallway and I was listening to the music and such from the stairwell. My legs were shaky so my dad got down on one knee and let me sit on it like a chair (a special moment that will forever be etched in my mind). After one song ended and before the video was supposed to play, I heard Cannon in D being played. I was like "No, no, the video! The video!" He said "It wouldn't work. Something is wrong with the system. We've been trying for 2 hours to get it to work and it just wont. It's okay. It's okay. Just enjoy it and don't worry." I went through a few moments of sheer heartbreak as I worked on that video for weeks. However, as I walked up to head down the aisle, I forgot all about it. The doors opened, Clocks by Coldplay began playing and I saw my man- for the first time :)




I remeber seeing a few faces as I walked down the aisle-not many, but a few. I kept focusing on looking at M and not tripping over my large and in charge dress. As we made it to the front, I felt so calm and relaxed. I had both my dad and M there with me, my friends in front of me and family behind me- what more could a girl want?! My other uncle prayed and then M and I moved up to the stage. Having one arm hooked in M's and the other holding my boquet presented a problem since I needed to hold up my dress to make it up the stairs. I looked up at Jules and was like "You've gotta take these." She took my flowers, we made it up to the stage and my uncle began by saying "Just breathe. You made it" M and I took deep breaths and I scanned the audience to see everyone during this moment. I kept telling myself to soak it all in and.....I did. I enjoyed every moment of our ceremony and surprisingly, we both made it through our vows sans tears. One of the sweetest moments during our ceremony was when we took communion and then prayed together over our marraige. Right then and there, we gave our entire marraige to God-what a comfort and no better way to begin our new life together :)
After the ceremony, we walked out and headed downstairs to wait until everyone lined up for our flower petal toss. After about 10 minutes, everyone was out and we came out, down the stairs, and into the car.

I had petals EVERYWHERE- I mean EVERYWHERE. My train caught them all and M and I spent the 3 min ride to the park picking out petals and laughing. As we arrived at the park another wedding was taking pictures under the archway we got engaged under, so we headed to another area and took some pictures while we waited for them to be finished. We snapped our pictures and headed back to the chruch to meet back up with everyone. At the church, we spent a few more mintues taking pictures and then we headed to the reception.



We arrived at the reception and we had a little wedding party toast and then we walked in the reception to "Forever" We immediately had our first dance and then we began socialing with our guests. We sat down for about 5 minutes and grabbed some food and then we cut the cake and my dad and I had our dance. And thats when I lost it. I cried like a baby the whole song. I just couldnt help it. I was overcome with emotion throughout the entire song.

Crying. Of course :)

We LOVED our cake!!! Notice the chalkboard cake topper? 2 teachers :)

We headed out to the runway to take some more pictures as the sun was setting. Because of TSA laws, we could only have so many people out on the runway at a time and we had to be quick. We snapped some family pictures and then we took some more with our wedding party. The sky was beautiful and our runway pictures are some of our favorites.

Taken from Tiff's iPhone. We cant wait to see Nelson's pics!

The rest of the night was spent dancing, socializing and photo-boothing! We had a blast, especially with the old school dance party the wedding party had (I cant wait to see the pics from it) and then around 10:30, we had a sparkler send off and we headed out....as husband and wife :)

With my silly parents

      



If you read this far, congratulations! Ha!
Honeymoon posts coming next......