Hawaiian Honeymoon: Oahu - Waikiki Beach

Andy and I left for our honeymoon on the Tuesday following our wedding. We wanted a couple of days to rest and relax after all of the wedding events so that we could truly enjoy our honeymoon and all of the fun things we had planned in Hawaii. Two of my wonderful bridesmaids and best friends, Lindsay and Mikaela, picked us up from my parents house to take us to BWI airport for our flight to Las Vegas. We decided to break up our traveling both on the way to Hawaii and on our return by staying a night in Vegas on each trip. While it didn't help much in terms of jet-lag, it helped keep our sanity instead of sitting on planes for 10 hours each way. So upon our arrival in Las Vegas, we checked into our fountain view room at the Bellagio hotel and went out to grab dinner and drinks.

Andy loungin' in our room

More of our Bellagio suite

The view out our window of the strip

We went to the Mirage for dinner at CPK to reminisce about our first trip to Vegas for my 21st birthday. We grabbed a drink and some pizza and then headed out to the strip to check out some of the newer hotels like the Wynn and the Encore.

After walking the strip for a little, we headed back to our hotel to get some sleep. To us, it was about 3am and we had to wake up very early to catch our 6-hour flight to Hawaii.

As soon as we got on our plane, flying Hawaiian airplanes, we were pumped! From the Hawaiian music playing over the loudspeakers, to the pillow and blanket we got for free, to the lunch and drinks we ordered on our flight, we were both SO excited to be on our way to Hawaii and officially kick off our honeymoon!

Excited to be Hawaii-bound

Lunch & champagne on the plane

Cheers to the Saulitis'!

Our first glimpse of Hawaii!

Upon landing in Honolulu, we got our rental car and headed straight for our resort... the Royal Hawaiian! We pulled up, walked out and were taken aback by how BEAUTIFUL the place was. The hotel is the one of the oldest and most famous on the island. It has a rich history of celebrities staying there, including us of course :) As we sat down to check-in, one of the ladies brought us both lei's! We were also treated to some delicious pink lemonade as we went through the check-in process. They handed us several different envelopes, so we took all of our check-in goodies and headed to our room.

The Royal Hawaiian

The digs

Beautiful Floral arrangement awaiting our arrival with a congrats note

Surprise #1!

Lei'd

As I mentioned, we received many envelopes upon check-in, so the first thing we did was open them! The first one we opened was a congratulations card from the Royal Hawaiian and an invitation to attend the manager's cocktail hour that evening for drinks and appetizers! The next surprise was a gift certificate to the spa at the resort! My awesome friends Hogeboom and Cooch had gotten Andy and I a couple's massage at the spa! The third envelope was a $75 gift card to use anywhere at the resort from one of our favorite couples RJ and Justine! We were SO excited! Nothing like arriving in Hawaii and having so many surprises awaiting us! Next, we changed and headed down to the cocktail hour for some Hawaiian Mai Tai's!

The infamous Mai Tai bar- first ever Mai Tai bar

At the cocktail hour

View of Waikiki Beach from the Royal Hawaiian

After the cocktail hour, we headed out for dinner at a local restaurant named Duke's where we received our first of MANY free desserts! Andy and I are planning to tell everyone that it's our honeymoon for every vacation in the future. I love free desserts!

On our way to dinner on the first night

After dinner, we headed to bed. We were pretty exhausted from all our traveling and we had a big day planned, starting early the next morning. RJ and Justine had gone ahead and made plans for us to go snorkeling at Hanuama Bay. He had arranged for a private van to come pick us up from our resort and transport us to and from the Bay. It was amazing! Hanuama Bay is HUGE and the reef itself is gigantic. We had an awesome time swimming around and seeing soooo many beautiful and unique fish.

After a wonderful day of snorkeling, we headed back to our resort. We had a few hours to kill before dinner time, so we decided to do a short 2 mile hike that we had read about in our travel guides. Manoa Falls is only about 20 minutes from Waikiki Beach and it is incredible to see such a drastic change in climate from one area of the island to the next. Little did we know that Manoa Falls would be our favorite hike of our entire trip. It was very rustic, tropical and beautiful. We were even able to see them shooting some scences in the park for the new series Hawaii Five-O that will be airing on NBC this fall! It was a great hike and worked up our hunger for dinner later that night.

Us at the top of Manoa Falls

The most dramatic waterfall we saw on our trip

For dinner that night, we went to a delicious Italian restaurant called Arancino's that was recommended from on of our guides. It was a little Mom & Pop restaurant and we had some more delicious pizza and pasta, and another free dessert for the newlyweds! I even got to wear one of the new dresses Andy got me as a wedding gift!

The next day, we decided we would take a trip up to the North Shore of Oahu. We ventured out early in the morning because we knew we'd be making several stops along the way. Here's just a few of the amazing sights we got the chance to see during our drive.

Stop #1 at the Dole Plantation

Pineapples at the Dole Plantation

Stop #2: Hike up to Waimea Falls

Stop #3: Romy's roadside van for delicious shrimp (a Hawaii must-do!)

Stop #4: Randomly found the Pirate's of the Caribbean filming site

The Black Pearl from the 4th installment of The Pirates of the Caribbean

Stop #5: Pipeline where the serious surfers compete

Stop #6: Turtle Beach to see the infamous sea turtles

After a busy day, we had a nice dinner at a local mexican restaurant. Again, it was a small mom and pop restaurant and it was DELICIOUS! Probably the best fajitas I have ever had... and we enjoyed several margaritas before walking to the International Marketplace for some shopping! Then we went to Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville for a few drinks. We were wildly entertained by the locals dancing to a band that was playing that night! We even made a few friends and had a great night.

On our way to Cha Cha Cha's for dinner and shopping

The next day was our last full day on Oahu, so we decided to get up early and enjoy our last AMAZING breakfast at the Royal Hawaiian.

Breakfast on the Beach

Each morning we ate here, and the menu was amazing! We enjoyed everything from eggs, bacon and toast to Macadamia Nut & Banana French Toast (my fav!), to Blueberry pancakes, to an egg-white mexican omelette. Every option was delicious! Then we got in our car and headed to Pearl Harbor. We were able to take a tour of the USS Missouri, a battleship introduced during WWII but used primarily during Desert Storm. The deck of the USS Missouri is, however, the location where the treaties were signed to end WWII.

We of course then visited the USS Arizona Memorial. It was an eerie feeling to recall what took place here so many years ago. From seeing the mountain range that the Japanese flew over to bomb Pearl Harbor, to seeing over 1,400 names engraved on the memory wall at the memorial for all those lost, to standing over the sunken ship where so many men lie entombed. A somber visit during our honeymoon, but something we couldn't have left without visiting.

After finishing up at Pearl Harbor, we headed straight to Diamond Head National Park to hike up for the best view of Waikiki. Andy and I wanted to see how quickly we could climb to the stop so we timed ourselves. It only took us about 20 minutes to get to the top, and although it's only a little less than a mile hike- there are  ALOT of steps! We busted our butts to get to the top for the incredible view and then actually ran back down for a little exercise during our trip.

Pre-Hike

At the top! View of Waikiki Beach in the background (the little pink resort is the Royal Hawaiian)

After showering and getting ready for dinner, we headed to Andy's favorite restaurant of the trip: Cheeseburger. That's it. That's the name. He fell in love with their cheesburgers! After dinner, we did a little more shopping and then went back to the Royal Hawaiian for one last visit at the world famous Mai Tai bar!

A statue of one of the first teachers on the island

Infamous Mai-Tai's

Last Night in Oahu at the Royal Hawaiian

The following morning, we got our fabulous massages at the resort spa thanks to Hogeboom and Cooch and then hopped on a plane for the second half of our fabulous Hawaiian Honeymoon. Next up: Maui!

Our Wedding Day ~ July 31st, 2010

I can vividly remember waking up on this morning. I slept okay the night before, much better than I did the night before our rehearsal day and dinner. The great wine and company must have made me at least tired enough to get a few hours of rest. My maid of honor Rachel stayed the night with me after the rehearsal dinner in the bridal suite to keep me company and ensure I didn't stress over details all night long. As soon as we woke up, laying in bed, she said, "Today is your wedding day! How do you feel?" And my response was, "I feel good". I wasn't nervous, or stressed, or overhwelmed... yet. We woke up, put on our "wedding day getting ready outfits" which consisted of a white Bride tank top for me and adorable bridesmaid/maid of honor tank tops for the girls. I also wore a cute white sweatsuit. The hoodie was embroidered with Bride on the front and Happily Ever After on the back. My capri pants had Bride across the bottom as well to match, and I had comfy white slippers embroidered with my new monogram: HMS!

Mikaela, Me, Lara

Beautiful Bridesmaids

The other bridesmaids came to the suite at 8:30am to begin hair, make-up and mimosa drinking. Above is me with two of my bridesmaids, Mikaela and Lara, all gussied up before I got done! The suite was so big that none of us were stepping on each other, everyone could get ready in the room together and we had lots of space for music, tv and even a mini-yoga session! This wonderful lady from the hair salon that I have gone to since middle school came to the suite and did all of our hair and make-up for us. She was AMAZING!!! One right after the other, we sat down with her to get ready. She was so quick and so good at what she does. Everyone was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! My parents and grandma came up to visit for awhile, Andy's mom stopped by, Andy's sisters Robyn and Gena popped in for a quick visit, and all the flowergirls and our junior bridesmaid got their hair curled- which they all loved! It was so nice having a great space and lots of loved ones to spend the morning with as the excitement built for what was to come that day.

Now, I didn't stress about a lot of things prior to the wedding. I kind of figured nothing goes perfectly and not to sweat the details. But I was panicked about one thing and one thing only. THE WEATHER! Mother Nature is so unpredictable and with the way our summer was going, I was convinced that it was going to be either 105 degrees with terrible humidity, or thunderstorming. Neither of these options worked for our planned outdoor ceremony. One of the balconies from our suite overlooked our ceremony site, so I could peek out all day, check the skies and see them set-up the chairs, flowers, and stage for our ceremony. Lucky for me, the weather turned out to be PERFECT! It was in the mid-80's, low humidity and sunshine. We definitely lucked out and I was so glad to not have to stress too much about it on the day of the wedding! I had getting ready to worry about!

At 12pm, my mom had planned for the resort to bring up a catered lunch for all of us to share while we were getting ready and hanging out in the suite. It was delicious, and hit the spot after several hours or prepping for pictures around 3pm!

Our delicious spread

Girls Loungin' in the suite

My fabulous maid of honor Rachel & I enjoying mimosas

Then, it was my turn to get all dolled up! My hair and make-up lady did an even MORE phenomenal job getting me beautiful than she had even at my trials. I told her to make me look like Carrie Underwood- and she did! I felt absolutely amazing and beautiful and I can't thank her enough for making me feel so wonderful on my wedding day.

Curlers!

Carrie Underwood In-Progress

All done!

Mother of the Bride & Bride

 Since there were SO many people getting ready, we took a little longer than we anticipated. We weren't ready for pictures until about 3:30pm, so we only had about 30 minutes to head downstairs, take some pre-ceremony shots with the girls and my family, and head back to the suite so as not to run into any guests or heaven forbid-ANDY! While we headed out the back to get some shots, our photographer's assistant went to grab some shots of Andy and his boys at the front of the resort. While we were taking pictures outside, a man and his 4 little girls were walking around watching us. The man looked awfully familiar to me as a sports fan, so since it was my wedding day, I actually had the courage to ask him if he was Shaun Alexander, a running back in the NFL. Turns out- it was! I even had the guts to actually ask him to come take a picture with me in my wedding dress! He was so nice as to come visit with us for a few minutes with his beautiful daughters and take a picture for memory's sake. It's a moment I'll never forget. The football obsessed bride has a wedding picture with an NFL running back! Perfect!

After running around and rushing to get some pre-ceremony shots, we headed back to the suite to wait for the "phone-call" from our fabulous coordinator, Leslie. In the meantime, I opened my wedding day presents from Andy. He got me 3 beautiful Tommy Bahama Hawaiian print sundresses for our honeymoon. They were beautiful! He also got me a snorkeling set for our trip to Hanuama Bay. Such a thoughtful and practical gift from my soon-to-be hubby! As soon as I finished opening, we got the call. It was time to head down to the ceremony site. I remember waiting in the back room for the rest of the bridal party to walk down the aisle and get set. Waiting for my dad to come stand beside me. I was nervous. I hate being the center of attention. I was terrified of everyone staring at me! But I was also SO excited inside. To see Andy. To have him see me. To finally after 7 long, wonderful years, to say 'I Do'!

My handsome, beaming groom

The boys all set

My favorite girls all set

Here Comes the Bride

Perfect

The ceremony was absolutely perfect. It was a little too windy to light our unity candle, but our officiant did a fantastic job of still tying in the meaning of the unity candle and incorporating it in our ceremony despite the wind. It all went so quickly. One minute I was walking down the aisle with my dad, and the next, Andy and I were walking back out together as husband and wife! It really is true what they say- everything happens in the blink of an eye! After the ceremony, the bridal party and families gathered for more pictures while everyone headed to the cocktail hour to enjoy. We arrived just in time for the kick-off of the best party of my life.

Room shot

All of my details coming together

Place settings

Our delicious and beautiful wedding cake (and wedding bobble heads that Andy had made as a surprise!)

Groom's cake- Go Dallas! (Made by my mom)

Best weekend of my life

Cake-cutting, and nice, clean cake feeding :)

After the reception ended (the best night of my life, might I add) we all headed to the bar inside Lansdowne resort for the after party. When that closed, about 20 of us headed back outside to an area called the firepit and sat around to enjoy each other's company. I never wanted the night to end. In fact, when Andy and I headed to our suite for the night- I cried to him that it was the best day of our lives and I was so sad that it was all over. We were both so unbelievably touched by how many of our friends and family came out to celebrate with us. The immense amount of love we have surrounding us is more than we could ever imagine. I can truly say that everything about my entire wedding weekend was perfect, and I couldn't be more happy or more lucky to now be Mrs. Heather Saulitis. I love you Andy! Thank you for the best day of my life. It's in my heart, as are you, forever!

Rehearsal Day/Dinner

Friday, July 30th officially marked the kick-off of the Heather-and-Andy wedding weekend extravaganza... 7 years in the making. My maid of honor, Rachel and I, had arrived at Lansdowne the following evening for a little girl time before all of the festivities. We rolled up with two SUV's packed to the brim with wedding things, checked-in, went out to dinner at the resort and then went back to our room to watch wedding movies and drink wine. Lansdowne was kind enough to put us up in a BEAUTIFUL and HUGE bridal suite with plenty of space for all of the pre-wedding preparations to come.

 I had a really hard time falling asleep that Thursday night in anticipation of all that was to come, so I tossed and turned until waking up early Friday morning to begin the celebrating. We met briefly with my wedding coordinator at the resort to hand-off oodles and oodles of boxed wedding goodies to be used for the ceremony, cocktail hour and reception. As we left the meeting, my bridesmaids were at the front desk checking in! Everyone was so excited to be there and to get started. We headed straight out to a nearby salon for our group mani/pedi's. I was so touched to have all 6 of my beautiful girls join me so early in the day to get our nails done together and grab lunch. It was so nice to have a little girl time before all of the family began arriving later that day.

After lunch, we headed back to the resort to shower and get ready for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner that evening. At 5:30pm, we all met back in the resort lobby. As soon as I walked out of the elevator, I was overwhelmed! There were about 50 friends & family members waiting in the lobby to head to the rehearsal site together. It was so amazing to see SO many people that Andy and I love altogether. It was even a little strange to literally know every single person in a room, so it was a daunting task to visit with everyone and thank them personally for being there to help us celebrate. But it was so great to walk off and see Andy (who I hadn't seen since arriving at the resort Thursday night) smiling and so happy for such an awesome weekend. The rehearsal went well, even with ALL the people involved, and I felt very confident that everything would work out just perfectly on our big day :)

Immediately following our rehearsal, the girls headed back up to the suite for a quick champagne toast,

...and then it was on our chartered bus to Tarara Winery for our rehearsal dinner. Tarara Winery is the place where Andy asked me to marry him, so it was the absolute most perfect setting for our rehearsal dinner. Andy's mom and dad hosted a BBQ-style dinner, with delicious wines to drink, great food, and even better company in our awesome friends & family. The weather was PERFECT! Not humid, not hot... a gorgeous night for a fun dinner on the back deck at the winery. My mom even made our rehearsal dinner cake that was so perfect and so "Me and Andy". We both really enjoyed having the opportunity to give some very important thank-you speeches to our friends and family, and were able to present them with gifts for being such an important part of not only our wedding, but our lives in general. It was so fun spending time with everyone we love in a smaller setting, with everyone so excited for the big day! We are both so lucky to have these people in our lives, and our rehearsal dinner was a perfect beginning to the most perfect weekend of our lives.

25 days...

until THE DAY! We are busy putting all the finishing touches on everything from flowers to music to seating arrangements and placecards. Andy just returned from his New Orleans bachelor party and I will travel with my favorite girls to Atlantic City in a week and a half for my last night out as a single lady! I can't believe the day is almost here! When we got engaged in October, it seemed like a lifetime until the big day, but here it comes! Looking forward to the last special moments, lifetime memories and I DO'S!