A Pura Vida Honeymoon

With Jon and I both loving to travel, deciding upon just one honeymoon destination was quite tough. We narrowed it down to the locals that we knew we would only travel at this point in our lives...no kids, in good shape, adventurous, and fearless!!! We decided upon an "adventure honeymoon" and Central America looked like the place to go. Costa Rica is known for it's world class surf and mountainous inland areas with many active volcano's.

We started our trip in Liberia airport with a long and bumpy drive to a city further inland called Arenal. Arenal has the most active volcano in the western hemisphere, erupting almost daily. We stayed at the beautiful and remote Lost Iguana Resort. Our villa had an incredible view of the volcano, not to mention being directly in the middle of the rain forest. We spend our days here hiking, kayaking, and white water rafting. We had some amazing "typical" (local) food and lounged by our pool a couple afternoons.

Our journey next to us to Playa Hermosa for the beach portion of our trip. On the way we saw monkeys, macau's, and several lizards and iguanas. Again, the ride was long and bumpy...and we both experienced our first bouts of car sickness. We finally arrived at our beautiful desitination and were in awe of our secluded paradise on the top of the cliff overlooking the ocean, La Finniesterra. We by far had the best few in the city, not to mention the privacy of the entire property to ourselves! We enjoyed our private pool, went for jogs on the beach, surfed, had scrabble-offs, read, and relaxed! Jon would like you to know he beat me 2/3 games, but I would like to remind him I got up surfing on my first try. :) We had some amazing food at the local restaurants in Playa Hermosa and enjoyed our coffee leisurely each morning on our balconies.

The climate was hot and rainy inland, and hot and humid closer to the water, but beautiful non the less. On our beach portion we traveld to Tamarindo to surf and shop and several other little local surfer towns to spend the day. Most people spoke english, and our driver was actually from America, so we were lucky to feel the comforts of our own language. We left feeling ready to return to our busy lives and see our families!

It's a wonderful life.......

A Post Wedding Breakfast

As if planning a wedding wasn't enough....Donna decided to throw a wedding breakfast in the mix. The food was tasty (perfect for those of us who had a bit much champagne) and gave the B&G a chance to chat with their family and friends that they might have missed the night before. The weather was beautiful...allowing us to utilize the fabulous new backyard!

Wedding Photos

Let them eat cake

When hiring wedding vendors...the cake was by far one of the most important pieces. Our Hotel Vetro wedding planner had several reccomendations and after extensive research we decided upon Adam Kophfman at Tip Top Cakes. Not only did the cake taste amazing and have seven different flavors, but it was beautifully crafted and completely unique! We were able to choose from ten's of flavors, fillings, and icings. We finally narrowed it down to a unique 7! We are lucky enough to have some lemon with lemon curd filling and chocolate raspberry still in our freezer.

If looking for a vendor in the Eastern Iowa area....He might even travel! :) Check out Adam's site at www.tiptopcakes.com .

Pre Wedding Festivities

I took off work the week before the wedding to spend time in Iowa City getting ready and relaxing before the big event. I had a fantastic week with my mom...here is a photo of her as we tied 200 ribbons around the truffles she and Jon's Mom, Lisa made for the wedding!

To get ready for the wedding breakfast, my Mom had a major landscaping project taking place this summer. They hired a wonderful company out of Mt. Vernon called Kaspers Landscaping. They are a family of 5 that work together...and did an amazing job! The worked tirelessly in the pouring down rain and heat in order to finish the job for our party. Here is a photo of them on one of the days of my visit...some of the hardest rain I've ever seen and they were putting up the yard sculptures.

Jon's parents hosted the rehersal dinner at our favorite Iowa City Restaurant, One Twenty Six. We had a GREAT time! It was an awesome start to the wedding weekend. Our close family and wedding party were present as we toasted and ate incredible food to celebrate our upcoming wedding.

Signing our marriage lisence....