Our Wedding: Part 1 - Pre-Wedding

Written 7/7/2016 

"I have to remind myself to breathe--almost to remind my heart to beat..."

-Emily Brontë - Wuthering Heights

I plan on making this post a two part (maybe three since I'm a typoholic) post describing the details from the BEST day of my life! <--NO JOKE! :)  I don't want to pretend like I have a mantra or anything, I really like the saying:  Expect Nothing. Appreciate Everything.  The truth is, my wedding day wasn't flawless, but it was perfect.  I didn't set any expectations, so when things went wrong or weird (stay tuned), it really was just something to laugh about!  SO, let's get started!

Pensacola Grand Hotel in Pensacola, Florida

We woke up in the morning and hit up a Krispy Kreme.  Yes, I ate donuts before wearing my wedding dress...WHAT OF IT?!  :) Pensacola is about 45 minutes to an hour away from Destin, so we made the drive fueled with Bush karaoke, donut sugar rush, and crappy coffee.  We got SUPER EXCITED when we reached the bridge that leads you into Destin.  Just look at that crystal blue water! 

Even through the window, it was beautiful!  THIS is the water that we fell in love with on our vacation last year when Ben proposed!  

We had A LOT of time to kill before we could check into the beach house, so we did what anyone would do!  We hit the beach!  DEAR BABY JESUS!  There were SO MANY PEOPLE there!  I was surprised to see that all of the big resorts had "claim" on the beach.  They posted these big signs saying that you can't setup your beach chairs or anything unless you were staying there.  We walked and walked for what seemed like MILES to find a spot to lay our stuff down.  Ben was not very happy, especially carrying the heavy cooler.

FINALLY, we were able to check into the beach house, which was pretty cute!  I found it on AirBnB and fell in love with the garden in the pictures.  I thought it would make for some great pictures.  This was our first time using AirBnb, so it was a little strange to not have a whole lot of interaction with the hosts.  

One oddity that we are STILL talking about is the lockbox that was placed over the thermostat in the beach house.  When we arrived, the temperature was set at 76 degrees!  WHOA BABY, that is waaaaay too hot, especially for Florida!  Ben made me call them to come lower it.  They seemed slightly annoyed, which was surprising to me!  The husband told us that he would come over within an hour...we sat there like WTF!  If we owned a rental where people were paying us $200/night to stay, I would jump that minute to make them more comfortable!  He came over and turned it down to supposedly 72 (STILL TOO HOT for our blood).  We grabbed some dinner, and we found that the thermostat was now set on 74.  Ben swears the hosts came back into our beach house and changed it again.  I don't know, but needless to say, we had a hard time sleeping.  We generally set our ACs at home anywhere between "deep freezer" and "ice box."  Regardless, the place was pretty clean, and that made Ben very happy.

We spent the day before the wedding at the beach!  There's a spot off the main highway leading into Destin that has these HUGE signs that make you feel like the US Air Force is going to gun you down for being on their property.  Those signs are probably why there are hardly any people on the beach (Winning!).  

Would you just look at all of his HUNKYNESS?  I am seeeeriously the luckiest girl in the WORLD!  

I remember we kept saying to each other:  OMG!  We are getting married tomorrow!  

Time flew!  I couldn't sleep...mainly because I thought I was sleeping inside a house-sized oven (stupid lockbox), and because of all the excitement of the next day!