Okay, gotta have a wedding post.  We just got back from our two weeks away for the wedding and honeymoon. WOW wow wow. Both were such incredible, surreal, joyful experiences.

The wedding weekend couldn’t have been more perfect for us. Everything we wanted and more. Words don’t describe, but we felt so lucky. So blessed. Wait til you see pics of Noelle.  Heart-stoppingly knockout crazy beautiful. And all the locations for everything were just amazing. St. Clement’s is a gorgeous church in Lincoln Park, Chicago, and you just can’t avoid staring at the ceiling the entire time. The hotel was also awesome. The Palmer House Hilton downtown, which was super close to the reception, another venue we loved–at the School of the Art Institute Ballroom. Then there was the food–wow.  Fortunately we enjoyed the food tasting months ago, because Noelle and I didn’t have much time for eating. We did our best to go around and see everyone, and we didn’t even get to all the guests. We were really bummed about that. Once the fabulous band started, we couldn’t stay off the dance floor!

Getting out of DC was the hardest part. Noelle drove all the way from DC to Chicago and picked up her mom halfway in Cleveland. We packed the car full of clothes for the next two weeks, not to mention all the wedding accoutrements (dress, favors, programs, etc). We really put our heart and soul into this event, and i think it showed. Noey of course was the planner extraordinaire, but I had my fair share of duties. My proudest was creating the slide show that we showed at the reception. I’ll try to figure a way to post it on here, as well as the pics of course. Another big feat of mine was making 240 bottles of limoncello for the favors using the recipe from the Nistas in Italy. With Noey’s help, of course.

Santorini was absolute paradise. The sunsets are legendary. The Greeks were so welcoming, and the pace of life so slow. All the stresses of wedding planning and anxiety were completely washed away, and we could spend all week reminiscing about the wedding weekend. We spent most days relaxing on our private balcony overlooking the Mediterranean and walking around the town, Ia. We spent the rest of our time eating. Greek salads are awesome–no lettuce, just tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, onions, green peppers, topped with oregano. Also loved the tzatziki–the yogurt/cucumber/dill salad. Had yogurt with honey every day for breakfast. And the baklava–one of my favorites. We had a bit of seafood too, of course. The octopus there is pretty damn good. Fortunately, the walking on Santorini was pretty demanding and provided quite the workout to burn off all the eating we did. Had a few excursions as well. We had a super romantic sunset at Sigalas winery where we had the place to ourselves and tasted about 6 wines. Then we walked up the road to a really fun tavern where the owner walks around playing some of his own Greek-style tunes and singing with his guitar and bouzouki, the little Greek mini-guitar. He passes these guest books around where everyone who comes in can write a note and he pastes a photo of each next to it. He took ours and put us in his special honeymoon book. His phrase is ‘Next Time Come Back With Your Children”, and he wrote that on a CD of his music he gave to us.  And on our last day, we had a boat excursion to the volcano of Santorini. Santorini is very unique geologically and set where the Eurasian and African tectonic plates of the Earth overlap. These have caused volcanoes and earthquakes over centuries, which have broken up the original circular island into 4 major parts. We visited the central volcano island and hiked up to the active crater, then swam in the nearby hot springs. Met some great people along the way. It was a perfect way to finish off the trip.

We got stuck in Athens on the way home and the airline put us up at a hotel for the night. So we headed downtown and went straight to the Acropolis before sunset. I had been once in high school, but it was fun to go again with Noelle and discover neighborhoods I barely remember. We didn’t complain, and it ended up being like an unexpected surprise.

So now we’re back and basking in the post-wedding/honeymoon fever, yet sad it’s all over. Took the day off to get settled in and catch up on everything. We promise to get all the pics up soon!

Thanks to all of you for your well wishes–we love you back!