Before And After I Do

View the honeymoon journal of Maria and Trebor.

Registered Couple:  Maria & Trebor.
Wedding Date: March 24, 2007.
Honeymoon Destination: Belize.

Get Married is coming soon! Starting April 15th at 9:30 A.M. on Sunday Mornings, our popular TV show will be seen across the country on WE tv (Women’s Entertainment).

Hosted by Jenn Hobby (She’s the one on the right in the picture. Jenn also co-hosts Get Married Atlanta.) with wedding expert Crys Stewart — Founding Editor-In-Chief of WeddingBells magazine — and Jessica Campbell (She’s the one on the left in the picture).

Check out the promotional video and Bridal Designer Melissa Sweet on Get Married.

 Giftpile Registered Couple: Laura & Sean

Wedding Date: January 2007

Honeymoon Destination: Costa Rica
 

Giftpile:Why was Costa Rica your dream honeymoon destination?
Laura (and Sean): It is only a 2 1/2 hour flight from Houston and had so much to offer in terms of activities. It was a good balance between adventure and relaxation. Our other alternative was Hawaii.

Giftpile: Where did you stay & how would you rate your hotel?
Laura (and Sean): Arenal - Tabacon - 10, Monteverde - Monteverde Lodge - 4, Tamarindo - Cala Luna - 10, Punta Islita - Punta Islita - 10, Jaco - Villas Caletas - 8. We spent 2 nights in each hotel.

Giftpile:What was the perfect place for you two to be together alone.
Laura (and Sean): Just about anywhere - hotels, beach, driving, etc.
 
Giftpile:Tell us about the scuba diving. Did you have get trained up before your dive?
Laura (and Sean): We ended up not scuba diving because Sean could not find his license. We did a sunset sailboat cruise instead. That was awesome.

Giftpile:Did you pick up any great souvenirs?
Laura (and Sean): Coffee, coffee, coffee.

Giftpile:Which of your great activities; hang–gliding, beach wheeling, diving, zip lining, did you enjoy the most?
Laura (and Sean): Off-shore fishing was our favorite.

Giftpile:How was the food? Could it compete with the sunsets?
Laura (and Sean): The food was great, but a bit more pricey that we had expected. You can find a good mix of food types. The seafood is excellent and the Costa Rican fare was great (similar to Cuban food with white rice, black beans, a grilled meat, and plantains). There was plenty of Italian to find too.

Giftpile:Was it worth hiring the jeep to tour Costa Rica?
Laura (and Sean): We could not have made it without a 4×4 vehicle. Most of the roads are dirt and gravel with huge potholes. We were there in the dry season, so I cannot imagine driving in the wet season.

Giftpile:Is there anything that you’d have rather avoided?
Laura (and Sean): We are glad that we saw the rainforest in Monteverde, but would probably not go back. This is an area for hard core bird watchers and botanists. This was the least luxurious and the hardest to travel to/from.

Giftpile:Would you recommend Costa Rica as a honeymoon destination?
Laura (and Sean): Absolutely!!

Giftpile registered couples who have traveled to France included the following on their honeymoon registry:

Transportation

• Eurail passes for travel ($500+)
  Flexibibility of choosing from several passes including the Global Pass, Global Pass Flexi, Global Pass Saver, Global Pass Saver Flexi, Global Pass ‘n Drive or purchase a pass for a specific country or region.
• Visit France through a Mediterranean Cruise ($4,000+)
• Explore the french countryside, small villages and Provencal lifestyle by renting bikes ($20-40/per day)

Where to Stay

• Warwick Hotel Paris ($300+ / night)
  The luxury, four-star Warwick Champs-Elysées Hotel enjoys a prestigious Paris location, just half a block off the Champs-Elysées at the crossroads of Paris’ fashion, entertainment and business.
• Hotel Du Louvre ($400+ / night)
  “Looking out of the hotel from each facade, you see famous landmarks in each direction. On one side - the Louvre Museum. On another - the Opera House Garnier. From the third, the Comedie Francaise. From the fourth, the Palais Royal. You can feel the historical and cultural soul of Paris pulse all around you.”
• Hotel des Deux-Iles ($200+ / night)
  “This is a charming, small hotel on Ile Saint Louis. The location is very convenient to the Latin Quarter and the Marais areas. Ile Saint Louis is full of wonderful little shops and restaurants, but is also very quiet at night when the shoppers leave.”

From the extravagant dresses of Giorgio Armani, Versace and Vera Wang… to the jewelry courtesy of Cartier, we get an education in fashion from the red carpet (the good and the bad). But as fashion moguls love to play “dress the celeb” (the
most powerful marketing tool they’ve got) but not so much “dress the everyday bride.” What does that leave us with?

What can we immediately take away from the Oscars for our wedding? I’ll give you a clue. It rhymes with bear, care, share, tear… Yup, the “Hair!!!”

Abigail Breslin from Little Miss Sunshine	Adriana Barraza from Babel
Jennifer Hudson from Dreamgirls	Hellen Mirren from The Queen
Jennifer Garner, Do you miss Alias like I do?	Queen Latifah
Jessica Alba I loved Dark Angel!	Rinko Kikuchi from Babel
Reese Witherspoon	Jessica Biel Loved her in The Illusionist
(( Images and more Oscar 2007 photos via Yahoo! Movies ))

So start visiting Oscar.com 79th Annual Academy Awards website and swipe some wedding hair style ideas.

My cousin just got married. I would describe my cousin and his fiancé as a more offbeat bride and groom… traditional in some parts (like having a tux and beautiful wedding gown) but when it came down to delicious desserts they went with wedding cupcakes.

Look how elegant yet festive cupcakes can be! There are enough decorating alternatives to adorn the top of a cupcake to make them compliment your wedding day theme.

According to Favor Ideas, wedding cake prices depend on size, type of cake, the icing or frosting and the shape. Favor Ideas says, “On average, today’s wedding cake costs between $3-6 a slice.”

You may have read a few wedding planning tips WeddingBudgetHell.com and what we’ve found is this popular tip: “Enlist Help.”

So do you have a friend who bakes delicious cakes or cupcakes? Does a friend of a friend know someone who loves to bake? If not, fear not…

Plan a day to go bakery hopping and start taste testing.

Here in San Diego, we have the California Cupcake Company with delivery services that can whip up some delicious cupcakes for an average of $2.50 - $3.00 each. Although they don’t have a retail store, they can put together a sample cupcake pack of six flavors for tasting. The cost of sample packs are $15.00 ea.

Sharoni emails, “We celebrated last Friday — one, to avoid the crazy rush (and expense) of restaurants tonight, and two — because the hubby had to go out of town this morning. I like to be wined and dined, so we went out to dinner. He sent me a beautiful bouquet of red roses, and I sent him a fabulous lingerie cookie bouquet from cookies-by-design. He got a kick out of it.”

Liza emails, “We were in Maui. My company paid for 5-days in Maui.”

Noelle email, “We’re spending it indoors, under the covers, in front of the tv catching up on shows we missed over the weekend and eating Chinese food!”

Mario emails, “Carol has school today thus we’re not going anywhere. Maybe we’ll do something on Saturday.”

Myself? We watched the new Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore movie, “Music and Lyrics.”

Your engaged. Congratulations! Here’s a few of our favorite reading materials to help you stress-less during your wedding planning.

	Bridal Bargains: Secrets to Throwing a Fantastic Wedding on a Realistic Budget by Denise Fields, Alan Fields based on 252 Amazon Customer Reviews
	The Bride’s Book of Lists: Things to Do & Questions to Ask by Amy Nebens, Greg Stadler based on 8 Amazon Customer Reviews
	The Everything Wedding Checklist by Janet Anastasio, Michelle Bevilacqua based on 2 Amazon Customer Reviews
	Instant Weddings From “Will You?” to “I Do!” in Four Months or Less by Jennifer L. Shawne based on 5 Amazon Customer Reviews
	1001 Ways to Save Money… and Still Have a Dazzling Wedding by Sharon Naylor based on 18 Amazon Customer Reviews
	Anti-Bride Guide by Carolyn Gerin, Stephanie Rosenbaum based on 39 Amazon Customer Reviews
	Intimate Weddings by Christina Friedrichsen based on 8 Amazon Customer Reviews

Have you been visiting your local Borders or Barnes & Nobles bookstores lately so you can flip through travel magazines? National Geographic Traveler, Travel + Leisure, and Budget Travel are just some of our favorites that can help inspire you to choose your honeymoon destination.

How many times have you gone to the bookstore? How many magazines on honeymoons and travel have you purchased? How many books about your honeymoon destination have you bought through Amazon? How many travel-related websites have you visited? IGoUGo.com and TripAdvisor.com are travel sites we frequent because of the amount of traveler reviews and opinions available to you.

What if I were to tell you about a new online service that will save you a trip to the bookstore and help keep all the honeymoon planning ideas you find online in one place?

According to Gusto, “the Gusto! Grabber allows you to easily save any web page to your been here/going here folders, whether you find it on Gusto! or Google. Travel Planning on your terms. Ever tear out a page out of a magazine so you could save it as a reminder of a place you want to visit? With Gusto Grabber, you can do that online. The Gusto Grabber lets you save and organize travel information you find on the Web. Your Gusto bookmarks are stored in folders, allowing you to share your daydreams, plans and memories with friends and family.”

See for yourself: http://www.gusto.com/gusto_grabber

So far, I’ve only posted some honeymoon photos from Giftpile.com registered couples who graciously shared some of the highlights from their trips. But I can’t wait to use Gusto’s “places I’m going” feature. I’m sure you will benefit from this awesome service.