Honeymoon, Provo, Turks & Caicos

8 1/2 months after our wedding we headed to Provo, Turks & Caicos for a much needed honeymoon. Let me tell you this place is AMAZING!!!! We stayed at the Regent Palms and it too was AMAZING!!! Let me start by saying the travel to T & C is SUPER easy and fast, and if you are looking for a tropical vacay, you should definitely check this out. Our flight left from Bham @ 6:10 am CT, after a quick layover in Miami, we landed in T & C @ 11:55 am EST. We took a 15 min cab ride to the resort, and were in the pool by 1:00 pm! THIS IS FABULOUS! So, after 5.5 short hours we were in paradise. Here is our trip:

Our first full day, a guy walking down the beach called Rick out on his Auburn hat (he was a BAMA fan), and we stopped to chat. We instantly made friends, and soon realized he and his wife were from Mobile (and also on their honeymoon). So we made plans to grab dinner with them, and another honeymooning couple from Atlanta at a local dive called Da Conch Shack. Rick and I tried the conch, checked it off our list and will probably never eat it again. Conch is BIG down there, and on pretty much every menu you find in T & C. We had so much fun with our new friends minus the conch.

This was the view from our room, have I said AMAZING yet?

This was dinner @ the Veranda Resort (where our honeymooner friends stayed and 2 resorts down from ours). We loved the Veranda, and they offer an all inclusive package. We pretty much hung out here and our resort. We loved both resorts, and when we go back we will probably try to stay at the Veranda.

Our resort, the Regent Palms, did however have a swim-up bar. Can you say AWESOME!!!??? This came in very handy, and the staff was very nice. They served tasty food and drinks.

We also loved the infinity pool & hot tub overlooking the ocean.

This was at the seated area of the pool bar @ Regent Palms.

We went on a snorkeling trip that was SO MUCH FUN! They took us to the most beautiful coral reef I have ever seen to snorkel for an hour or so. Then they took us to hunt for some conch, I did not participate in this (rum punch and Turks Head beer were served on board). Rick did the conch hunting for the McKib family, and he caught a few, but they were too small to eat, so he had to throw them back.

After all that they took us to a small island off of Provo to hang out, and the water was even more gorgeous than Provo which I didn't think was possible.

The boat captain told us there were iguana on this island, and Rick was ALL over this! He wanted to look for them for hours, but after you see one iguana.....

Can you see how excited he was?

On the way back to the resorts, the capt spotted some starfish, so they stopped and grabbed them. I have never seen this type of starfish in my life, and it was beautiful!!! We had to throw them back as you are not allowed to take these amazing creatures home.

There was some unbelievable sunsets in T & C, so we tried to schedule our dinners around sunset everyday. There's just something about watching sunsets that make me happy.

This was the best honeymoon I could ever imagine! We mostly just relaxed, ate, drank, watched sunsets, took naps, and enjoyed the scenery. I STRONGLY suggest everyone visit the Turks & Caicos if you can. By the end of the trip my outdoorsy, Alaska loving, white water rafting, husband was telling the staff at Regent Palms that we would definitely be back (music to my beach loving ears!). We loved this island, the people, the fact that it is the safest island in the Caribbean, the water, the sunsets, the FABULOUS food, EVERYTHING about it!!! Thank you to my sweet husband for the PERFECT honeymoon, I LOVE YOU!

Our entire lives in a slideshow

This is the slideshow that was played at our rehearsal dinner, thanks to our fabulous, talented friend, Sam McAlister.

Candice and Richard McKibbin from McAlister Creative on Vimeo.

OUR WEDDING!!!

This was the most AMAZING, PERFECT, WONDERFUL, FABULOUS, SWEET, SPECIAL, UNBELIEVABLE DAY OF OUR LIVES!!! Rick and I are SO blessed to have been surrounded by so much love and support on such a special day. All of our friends and family from near and far, beautiful weather, and the man of my dreams, what more could I ask for? We had 13 bridesmaids, 13 groomsmen, 2 flower girls, 1 ring bearer, and 5 ushers. Just a small intimate affair, right? Ok, not really, but I wouldn't have changed a thing!! I seriously can not express in words how amazing this day was, and at the end of the day Rick and I are married. I am such a lucky girl! If you want to see the photographer's pictures click here. Thanks to all who worked so hard to make our day so perfect, my mom, Mrs. Maureen, Angie, all of my mom's friends, and so many more I am sure I have left out. None of it would have been possible without you all! Most of all THANK YOU RICK, for making me the happiest girl in the world!

The Rehearsal Dinner

Our rehearsal dinner was SO much fun!!! We had buses to take all our guest from the Beau Rivage in Biloxi, to Scranton's in Pascagoula. This was the first bus with the wedding party and dates.

After a quick stop for an actual rehearsal, we were off to Scranton's. I grew up going to Scranton's at least once a week. One of our close family friends/ one of my mom's best friends from high school owns Scranton's. My mom also was there accountant most of my life. Lots of memories there, so it was only appropriate to have the dinner there, not to mention I had to show the out of towners my ole stomping ground. Scranton's building was the fire dept, court house, and police dept back in the day, so its a pretty neat building, not to mention the food was AMAZING!
We decided to invite all out of town guest, the wedding party (plus dates), and everyone involved in the actual wedding, so we had a large dinner. 120 to be exact. I wasn't sure how it would all work out, but it was PERFECT! Seriously, so much fun. It was fun, casual, and we were surrounded by the most important people in our lives. Lots of hilarious, sweet, kind, fabulous speeches, here are a few comments about a few:
1. There was a top 10 list about me, loved it.
2. One speech started with: I was a 1 man wolf pack until I met Rick.
3. LOTS of talk about Rick's high school vehicle.
4. A VERY sweet one by my step-dad about how glad he was that we came into his life.
5. Another from one of my high school friends saying how glad they were that my step dad came into our lives as well, because we had LOTS of parties at my house when my mom was in Little Rock. Actually he said it was the best thing that happened to our high school. Lots of applause from the rest of my high school friends.
6. Lots of talk of Rick running into things.
7. One about a National Geographic show about an antelope getting attacked by an alligator on one end and lion on the other end, this some how related to marriage.
8. Last but not least, a really sweet speech from Rick that ended with, "And that's about it."
There were lots more, we were crying we were laughing so hard. We have AMAZING friends and family!!!!!
Here I am with a few bridesmaids, Traci, Fancy, and Taylor.
And a crew of our Bham friends.
I forgot to mention that my very talented friend Sam, created a slide show of pics from mine and Rick's entire lives. I cannot express to you how fabulous this was! When I get the cd from Sam, I will try to put that on here, because it was really AWESOME. Rick and I also introduced everyone to our wedding party, just so they would all know each other, and how we all know each other. After that, Rick's dad decided to intro all his friends from college. IT WAS HILARIOUS!!! Rick looked at me and said "What is John doing?" He was just having so much fun, he totally forgot to intro his brothers that came from Virginia and South Carolina. The entire night was just SO much fun. I wish we could have a rehearsal dinner every year! After all that perfectness it was back on the buses and back to the Beau. Rick and I had a BLAST!!!!
If you want to see the rest of the pics click here.

Wedding Welcome Bags

I was so excited about the welcome bag for the guest staying at the Beau Rivage for our wedding! I thought they turned our super cute, and we had fun making them too. Rick and I went to SAM's Club an stocked up on goodies, and it cost much less than I expected. So here is what we put in them: Cheez-it, bottled water, granola bars, chips or smartpop popcorn, Advil, mints, laffy taffy, assorted mini candy bars, sweetarts, and a weekend itinerary. I got plain white gift bags, navy and aqua tissue paper, and I printed labels myself. Here is the finished product:

Here is a close up of the label. Sorry I don't have a better picture, but after making 60, we were over it.

Let the Wedding Weekend begin!

After our night in Meridian, MS, we drove straight to the Beau Rivage, dropped off all our stuff (LOTS OF STUFF! We couldn't even see out of the windows in the car), and headed to the airport to pick up Rick's college roommate Eric and his fabulous wife Rachel. Rick talked about "the Erics" all the time, and I had never met either of the Erics before the weekend, and was pretty pumped to meet these people that meant so much to Rick. Rachel and I had become besties on facebook, so I was beyond thrilled to FINALLY meet my new bestie! Rachel and Eric came all the way from Appleton, Wisconsin to be there with us for 4 days in Biloxi, were the first to book a room, and the first to book flights, I knew I would love this couple! Below are the famous Eric & Rachel.

Aren't they adorable??? I LOVE THEM, and can't wait to see them again soon. We took them to one of the Biloxi staples, the Old Biloxi Schooner for lunch, and caught up, then it was back to the Beau to unload again, then Rick & Eric headed back to the airport to pick up the other Eric. The other Eric is the other college roommate I had yet to meet. Rick, Eric, Eric, and James all lived together at Auburn, and oh the stories they tell. Below is a pic of the 4 of them back together 10 years later.
They were like little kids, so excited to see each other. I was super excited to meet Eric H., but we were sad his wife couldn't make the trip. She stayed home with their 3 kids for football games, back to school, etc. AMY WE MISSED YOU! They live in Cape Coral, FL, by the way. All of Rick's roommates were groomsmen in our wedding as they were all 4 in each other's weddings. They are quite the crew, and it was so fun to see them all together again reminiscing about the good ole days on the plains. To the Erics and Rachel, thank you SO much for coming so far to be there for Rick and me, you have NO IDEA what it meant to us!
Here are Traci, Rachel, and me at eight75 in the Beau.

Our sweet friends Kristen and Brad also made it down from Hattiesburg to get the weekend started early, as you can see Traci, Kristen, and me below.

We had quite the crew on Thursday night, Matthew, Jordan (who came from NYC to be a part of our wedding), Walker & Heather (it was H's birthday!), James & Abnous, Beth & Kyle, Charles & Jennifer all made it down. The few of us that were there in time for dinner went to my dad's (now my step-mom's) restaurant Manhattan Grill. It was so nice to have all these new friends of mine in a place that meant so much to my dad. The dinner was EXCELLENT as always, as was the company. It was a PERFECT way to start off the weekend. Then it was back to the Beau to meet up with the late arrivals at eight75. We had a FABULOUS night, and were so thrilled to have so many amazing friends there to celebrate with us on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, the place I love so much. THANK YOU ALL for a weekend we will NEVER FORGET! We are so blessed!

OK, so I had to put this pic on here because it cracked me up when Rachel sent it to me. Apparently, Rach was trying to find something in her purse, but had too much stuff in there. So I helped her out. All the stuff in my hands, and the sunglasses are from her purse. I LOVE IT!

Mississippi Marriage License

Let me just say getting a Mississippi marriage license while living in Alabama is no easy task. First, Rick and I had to go to the Birmingham health department to have a blood test. Yes, I said a blood test in 2010. I think Mississip is one of the only states that still requires this, and while you may think it is to be sure we are not cousins, it is actually a syphilis test. Is this not the craziest thing you have ever heard? Two weeks later our results came in as "non reactive" so I guess we passed? Then the fun part, we drove to Meridian, MS on a Tuesday night (because it is the closest MS city to Bham), had to get a room, wake up bright and early go to the Meridian Health Dept, to have our blood results verified by the state of Mississippi. As you can see from the picture, Rick was super excited about this. He was seriously asleep in the health department.

We got there at 7:30am, and were about 10th in line. After waiting about 1 1/2 hrs, they called us into a booth, only to tell us "the lady that does that aint here today, you will have to come back another day." WHAT!? I immediately start crying, as the reason we did it this was is I have no vacation time left and had to get back to work ASAP. I told the girl with tears streaming down my face in total panic since we were 2 weeks out from the wedding, we can't come back. I explained it to her, and she said "well I can try to do it, please don't cry." She brought us back a form that literally had 4 blanks she had to fill in, our names, and our current addresses. Now seriously, only 1 lady in that office can do this? On to our next stop, the Lauderdale County Circuit Clerk's office. Filled out a few forms, this took about 3 minutes, and we were done! Well, not actually done, but close. You have to wait 72 hours, then come back to pick up the actual marriage license. SUPER! So the Wednesday before our wedding, after a 3 day work trip for Rick, a 9pm arrival at Bham airport, loading the car (to the rim!), and a 2 hour drive, we were in yet another hotel in Meridian, MS at 1am. Finally the Thursday before the wedding, we wake up bright and early, head to the court house and pick up our official marriage license!!! YAY!!! Then it was off to the Beau Rivage to get the wedding weekend started!

Bachelorette

Sorry for the lack of post, wedding planning has consumed me. Here are a few pics from my Bachelorette Party in Destin last month.

Crab Island!

Thanks girls for a PERFECT weekend!!! I am so lucky to have such AMAZING friends!!!

Tacos & Margaritas

Last weekend a big group of our friends here in Birmingham hosted us a Tacos & Margaritas wedding shower. It was SO nice to be home and not have to travel to one of our showers for a change. Not to mention get to see all our friends we have missed in all our travels. The shower was SO much fun, and it was great to see Rick with all "his people." The food was awesome, margaritas were perfect, and the company even better! Thanks to all our sweet friends that hosted. 30 days until the wedding!!!!!

Some of my Mississippi girls.
My love.

All of our wonderful host (minus Vance).

All the girls.

And last but not least, all of the guys. Most of these guys have been best friends since they were kids, and you will never meet a more close knit group of SO many guys. It really is amazing, and I feel so lucky to be a part of that.

Arkansas Shower

July 4th weekend we when to my parents lake house in Hot Springs, AR, where we continued the shower tour. My sweet step-sisters hosted us a Casino Shower. We had a blast. They really went all out, and that made it so much fun. THANKS GIRLS! WE LOVE YOU!

Here is our little family. My mom put a white bow on Lilly for the party, she was less than thrilled (Rick hated it and took it off when no one was looking)

My mom and me with some of the sweet ladies that traveled to be there for us. Just adore them.

This is my family and host! Love them so much. Just 40 more days until the wedding!!!!

Mississippi Gulf Coast Shower

Some of my bridesmaids and a couple of my friends parents hosted Rick and me a shower on the coast last weekend, and it was perfect! I know I always say that, but it really was. I was surrounded by tons of people that have known me the most of my life, some since the day I was born. I get so emotional about all things from my home town and childhood, because they all mean so much to me. These people, every single one of them, made me who I am today. The best part of it all, is they all love Rick too! We were literally showered with love last weekend, and I couldn't imagine anything better. Thanks to all that went out of your way to be there for us, especially those that hosted this amazing shower. Once again, Rick and I are SO BLESSED to have such wonderful people in our lives.

Rick and I with my sweet friend since 1st grade, Amanda.
Traci, my MOH, and Martin who I am pretty sure is on the Candice & Rick wedding shower tour.

Rick & me with my brother & sis-in-law.

May adorable parents flew down from Little Rock to be there.

These girls are have been my best friends since I can remember. I just ADORE them all! Oh, and I think Kristen is on the shower tour with Martin.

Our first wedding shower!

5 of my bridesmaids (and husbands) hosted Rick and I a wedding shower last weekend in Hattiesburg, and we had SO MUCH FUN!!! The location, the food, drinks, friends, it was PERFECT! There is nothing like have all these people that have meant so much to me for so long, totally welcome Rick in to the crew. It seemed like they had known him for years. It just made me so happy. Rick and I talked about how much fun we had on the way back to Bham and how lucky we are to have all these people who care so much about us in our lives. Thanks to all who traveled to be there, those that hosted, and those that came to be a part of our first shower. WE LOVE YOU!

Here we are with our host: Bonnie, Kelly, Chrissy aka "Fancy", Kristen, and Taylor.

Us with all the guys.

And the girls.

Don't we look like we had fun?

These are my friends from Goula: Martin, Kristen, Allison, and Aaron.

Save the Date's

Our Save the Date's went out last week (better late than never), and I think they turned out great! Thanks to our engagement photographer Elizabeth Pettey, she not only took the pics, but she also designed the Save the dates. You can see her site by clicking here. I guess it's official, we are getting married 08.21.10!!! YAY!!!