I guess it's pretty easy to say I've been neglecting my journal... especially since my last entry was over 20 days ago and here we are... down to the wire.
Two weekends ago was my Bachelorette Party. It was absolutely amazing!
Despite having a few beautiful faces missing (I was sad, but that's life), it was still an incredible day.
My girls really know how to make my day so special!
We all went to New Hope for breakfast at this fabulous restaurant, Rita's. It was just awesome... and probably the hottest day of the summer at the time. Despite the heat we sat in this gorgeous glass menagerie covered with creeping vines and flowers everywhere. It was absolutely enchanting.
Afterward we walked around the beautiful little town, got our sweets on and enjoyed all the cool little shops!
We finally made it to this awesome handcrafted glass lighting shop.
It was just mesmerizing, each piece more fantastical than the last.
After my gorgeous Bridesmaid, Erica folded and bought two magical glass tea light holders, Thea and I followed suit, loving the way the light sparkles through the glass creating a bewitching atmosphere.
We soon hurried back to the car where we ventured the winding roads of Pennsylvania, before stumbling upon Bowman's Tower.
We held our breath as my maid of Honor, Alexis' little Nissan chugged its way to the top of the incredibly steep roadway, up what seemed to be more mountain, than hill.
When we finally emerged at the top, victorious, we walked around... still sweating from the heat of walking outside in my favorite little town, and returned to the car soon after.
The ride down was SIGNIFICANTLY more fun... so we did it. Twice.
We retired at my house, enjoying each other's company before heading home for the evening. It was an absolutely perfect day.
Every day after that was a whirlwind of fantastical interviews, and getting every piece ready as much as I could before Mom and I departed for my home away from home... my peace, my zen, my aloha, my Hawai'i.
The day Mom and I left was chaos, and despite filming on Thursday, then filming a gorgeous wedding on Friday... my time with Shawn was very short and mostly exhausting. Filming all day will just wipe anyone out, even veterans--or especially vets because all the brain work of making sure everything is perfect and running through more that should, could, can be done!
Saturday was Shawn's Bachelor party, while I was busy with Mom packing and figuring out everything we could bring and having mini panic attacks about whether or not my wedding dresses would be permitted on the plane.
Good news: All went perfectly well! Many gentlemen offered to help me when they saw me kind of struggling with my giant dress and insisting that chivalry is not dead. Poor Mom was rushing ahead as we were later than we've ever been to the airport, and we didn't realize it until we got to the gate, but they had already started boarding!
Now here was the real test of whether we could beg to have the dresses in the closet or not.
With much smiling and cooing and giggles about my big day, those dresses got a first class trip all the way to O'ahu.
We arrived 30 minutes early around 1:40pm Hawai'i time instead of 2:10 as originally planned and now it was just a waiting game while we taxi'ed around waiting for a terminal to be freed on to the island.
I stepped off the plane and panicked for a moment.
"Uh, when is Hawai'i this hot, Mom?"
She looked at me with eyebrows raised. "Alex, this is Hawai'i in the summer."
I stared at her a moment, having only been to Hawai'i for the past several years during the fall/winter seasons.
"It's usually this humid?"
"Ye-ah!" she said, as if I should have known this all along because of my childhood experience here. She has a way of saying 'yeah' without the 'uh, yeah' part that still sounds like, 'uh, yeah, dummy'. She's talented like that.
Well... this is going to be interesting, I thought to myself, remembering all the promises I made of cooler temperatures with the ocean breeze by the water.
I had to remind myself that we were still in Honolulu at the hottest time of the day.
When we finally arrived home to Ko'Olina, the temperature was still pretty warm, but not as hot as it was in the city.
Mom and I brought everything up after greeting all of our friends we met along the way.
We were exhausted, but we still had much to do.
After I had set up our wedding closet and Mom got the car started, we took a quick shower, and we were back out buying groceries, and other essentials.
Mystery wedding closet! Oh the sparkling goodies in there...!
We returned later, rinsing off the days sweat and went out for the evening.
That night was... interesting.
While waiting in line at Longboards (a fun restaurant at the Marriott right on the beach), a few gentlemen approached us and tried to have conversations with us.
Mom was too engrossed in the giant movie screen playing 'Despicable Me, 2' on the lawn. She loves those movies... but her favorite is the chicken. She loves chickens. Weird, right? Huh.
Anyway, despite all my efforts of trying to politely not engage, with the persistent men when the server asked us how many, and the overachiever said, "You wanna make it a foursome?" I couldn't even bring myself to look him in the eye.
"No, we're good, but thank you," I said, grabbing my mother from her mesmerized stare off the movie screen and guiding her to our table. "Come on, Mom."
"She's getting MARRIED!" my mother announced to the men. Yep. That's happening. At this point she was already a beer in the game.
Within seconds there was a Mai tai in front of her, the waiter bashfully nodding, "from the gentleman over there..."
I stared at my mother. She looked at me, "What?" she asked, confused.
The waiter returned and took our order and saw that the drink remained untouched.
"Can you drink? You don't like Mai Tais, yeah?"
Mom shook her head, "I don't like sweet drinks. And what is this for?"
The waiter pointed out that she was not wearing any rings.
"I'm allergic to American gold because they mix silver into it," she tried to explain.
He looked at her suspiciously.
"Her husband is arriving in August to celebrate my wedding. They just celebrated their 31st Wedding Anniversary last week."
"And he still didn't put a ring on it?"
I shrugged, "You can lead a horse to water."
He looked at me like he never heard the phrase, let alone understand it, and hurried off with our order.
Within the next few seconds there was another drink in front of us.
"What's this?" Mom asked, incredulously.
The waiter shrugged with a slick smile and giggled, "I don't know..."
Mom sipped it. "Tequila." she scrunched up her face. "Eew."
When our food arrived, I ate quickly. I couldn't wait to get out of there.
It was a creepy experience.
The next morning, Mom and I were up at 3:30... then at 5:30... then we finally got out of bed around 6:30, sleep being too elusive.
We accomplished more today, and still had time to relax despite the sudden rainstorm.
I really wanted to get some luxurious soaps to really enjoy this stay. It is really important to me that everything be a step above our usual incredible stays... just a few details to make this more special.
When we returned we had a late lunch and I roamed the property trying to find perfect locations for the most creative and beautiful shots for our photographer, Brandi, and cinematographers, Glen + Violet.
I am so excited! We then took our sunset walk and then I started this entry... it's too late now in New Jersey to post as it is almost 3 am there, so I'll post it tomorrow.
Now I'm going to hop in the shower and take a few moments to breath and enjoy my new bath products...
Aloha,
Alex Ameen