Honeymoon: BOOKED!!! Yikes! We did it! We just booked our HONEYMOON! Going to Mexico! Yep we went with the one I was just posting about. Jon also researched more options on BookIt.com today and we both decided we liked that place more than anything else we found within the same price range. Here was the one problem... it said on the site that the prices were ending at midnight! HOWEVER, we also had to drive to Tipp City, Ohio right after work tonight...which meant we couldn't research and call and ask questions. Instead we had to jump in the car and drive, drive, drive... The trip usually takes about an hour and a half, but our luck, it took us 5 HOURS. So by the time we got to the hotel room, not only was it 11:30, but the price had gone up by $200 ($100 per person). So that made me more hesitant to have to rush through the payments. It's a lot of money! At the same time... considering we could go and not spend a penny more (if we really didn't want to) that's a pretty good package. We have options to do some other things down there. I think our top choices are to visit the ruins (Chitzen Itza) and do the ATV/Zip package. At the same time, there seems to be a lot to do at the resort so we want to get down there and figure it out first. I hope we made the right call in going ahead and booking, but that is my thought process anytime I spend a decent amount of money, even if it is at a good price. I think the increase of $200 just threw me off in the rush :-). I know Jon is more comfortable going somewhere on LAND than doing a cruise on a boat in the middle of the ocean.
My other accomplishment tonight was getting here and trying a PURPLE PINGUS. Rachel had a drink her friend had made before that she thought was purple, called a Pixie Stick. Turns out this mix was more of a blue-green. It is very potent! If it's not purple, though, I'm not sure I'll want to use it over any other drink. I guess I'll be discussing more with Rachel tomorrow.
I did a little further digging on BookIt.com and man-oh-man do they have some nice packages! All Inclusive as well! I'm hoping there aren't all of these extra fees and things they hit us up for in the end, because right now it appears to be too good to be true!
Here's the one I was looking at: Grand Sunset Princess Resort (I won't lie...It drew me in with the name "Princess"...) in Cancun. We can get there just afternoon on Monday, Oct. 10 (Giving us that Sunday to relax, finish packing, visit, etc.) and come back Friday afternoon...flights and the restaurants included it totals $684 a person! Throw in taxes and transportation to the resort (which we may swap that out for a rental car so we have an easy way to get to the other places we need to go) and you're at $1,647! If we can pay that much and have food, airfare and room covered that is pretty awesome! I'm so glad Jo showed me this site. I am definitely going to call and try to speak with someone before putting money towards it because I want to know we're getting all we think. It appears as though the restaurants are included but I'd hate to bank on that and then it all costs a ton! Then again, we'll be in Mexico so it should all be cheaper anyway.
The other cool part is that there are so many neat things to do near by like ziplining or visiting the Mayan ruins. Now, included in the package is a $90 charge for the roundtrip from the airport to the resort, so we don't have to worry about it ourselves. We could remove that and do a rental car for $18 a day which comes out about the same price. My thought is, if we have the car we can do any traveling we want to; however, are we going to regret trying to get around ourselves as opposed to just riding with people/services who do it everyday? Another cost we might end up with the rental car is parking it in whatever garage they have. It might be less of a headache to just spend the money to take the bus or whatever to the different activities, because you know they'll have that readily available. Maybe the travel to and from those main places is fairly cheap or even a service of the resort.
Jon and I aren't hung up on doing anything overly exotic. We mainly just want time to get away together. In my opinion, whatever is cheap and requires the least work on our behalf is great. So far this is looking like the winner, but I think we'll need to decide soon if we want to get this price!
It was "driving day" (ie, I drove 2 hours home from Louisville after work) so there wasn't a lot of wedding time. I did give Rachel a call and ask her to follow up on the silver shoes she found at Marshalls that she showed me pictures of on her phone last weekend. Very cute in several styles ranging between $15 and $22. I'm going to let the girls know about them and find out who would like a pair so we can get that scratched off the list. Jon did some more mowing of our field tonight. Pa had used the finishing mower on the main space in Knob End where the reception will be held. It's starting to come through with pretty nice grass and less woody stumps. Jon took care of mowing some of the lower part of the field where we plan to set up corn hole and yard golf.
Rather than doing any fun wedding stuff on my computer tonight, Jon and I researched auto insurance quotes for this '96 Ranger we're probably getting within the week. Hmm...yes finding ways to save money on wedding planning is much more fun than HAVING to find ways to save money on auto insurance...
I'm taking it pretty easy tonight. I needed that. I've been looking on Etsy for cupcake papers to use. I figure I'll go with green and purple (imagine that) and maybe the patterns like in this picture so we can do each flavor with a different pattern. I'm going to look on some more general bulk sale sites to see if Etsy is the best route or not. These run about $16 for 225 papers.
Holly also introduced me to a site I may look at with Jon for honeymoon options. It's BookIt.com. It seems to be a great place to do last minute trips and get them cheap. My guess is it's resorts and cruises with extra space and when it's so close to that date being passed they'd rather sell it at a cheap rate than make no money at all. I really want Jon to just pick a honeymoon so we can have that decision off our plate!
Here's a quick synopsis: Yesterday Mom and I verified where we are with the budget. What we've spent, what we're committed to spending and what we have left to spend. Mom and I finalized the invitation verbiage, insert and RSVP cards. We actually test printed an invite but not the others. Rachel was visiting so we browsed for jewelry and hair pieces for me and the bridesmaids. We're finding some pretty good options. Claire's hair flower pieces are probably the nicest, cheap option.
Tonight Dani came over and helped me address the invitations. We only messed up SOME... I think we'll have enough extras to make up for the mistakes. :-)
My other accomplishment tonight was getting here and trying a PURPLE PINGUS. Rachel had a drink her friend had made before that she thought was purple, called a Pixie Stick. Turns out this mix was more of a blue-green. It is very potent! If it's not purple, though, I'm not sure I'll want to use it over any other drink. I guess I'll be discussing more with Rachel tomorrow.
