Our Thai Honeymoon – Video Teaser
Thailand was amazing; the people; the food; the spa; the elephants; the beach. Since we had so much fun, our final video is 44 minutes long! Mike made a teaser video to give everyone a taste of how fun our trip was! Thailand Honeymoon
Wedding Photos
Our wedding photos finally are all together and sorted…and the best of the best are on the above link for your viewing and downloading pleasure. Feel free to pass on to people we may have forgotten to send it to!
Special thanks to Kristin Karkoska at Blue Sky’s for her awesome work and talent. She was unbelievably awesome and helpful out in Florida and the pics turned out great. Also, thanks are owed to Matt Lackey, one “unlucky” volunteer that turned out to be a brilliant wedding photographer in his own right. Nice work Matt! The last bunch of photos are all from the table cameras, thanks to all that came and celebrated with us!
The Johnsons
For those asking to see more…
Thanks to Blue Sky’s Photography for putting together a slide show of our wedding day for those asking to see more!
Stay tuned for Mike’s film production with footage taken by our wedding guests!
Thailand Photos
Check em out…let us know what you think. I still hope to make a mac movie out of the video we took too, but we’ll see…
Thailand – Day 3
We’ve come to love the Thai people, they’re so friendly. But we may have to work on their english pronounciation a little bit. For instance, whenever our yoga instructor said “just breathe, just breathe,” it actually sounded like “just breed, just breed.” It took extra concentration on our part to not laugh.
Video of the day: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7964813827115936346
Thailand – Day 2
Mc(ee)D(ees) in Bangkok- Ronald giving the lotus hand hello
Video of the day: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8711350438175367925
Thailand – Day 1
We made it safe and sound…after a long, long trip. Our first day was eventful and fun, but I’m not going to go into detail here (because I’m lazy). But I’m going to try and upload a picture and a video from each day from our honeymoon. That may prove to be more difficult that I imagine…but we’ll see.
Video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-765872466325374798
Quick note on the picture: The thing we’re standing in front of at the Grand Palace displayed a “demon” and a “monkey.” Our tour guide told us a story which I forgot the main parts to already, but the demons and monkeys were fighting (as they do naturally, duh…), but they had to build a mountain. The mountain would crumble unless they worked together, so the monkeys and the demons banded together to keep the mountain stable and strong. I kinda took that as a euphamism for our new marriage, Jill and I have to band together to keep our marriage stable and strong.
I’ll let you decide which one of us is the monkey and which one is the demon. I don’t know which is worse.
More tomorrow hopefully.
MJ
Update from FL!
We’re having an amazing time! Enjoy a few pictures from today – compliments of Shannon.
Registry
In case you are wondering where we are registered… 
Pottery Barn 
Crate and Barrel 
Macy’s
JF+MJ
OC after party
We know you’ve been waiting anxiously, and yes, the party details are finally here. In order to make sure our friends here in California get to celebrate and be merry along with us, we decided to have an “post ceremony celebration.”
Date: 07/05/08
Time: 3-5pm
Location: Casta Del Sol Golf Course
27601 Casta Del Sol, Mission Viejo, CA 92691 – (949) 470-4996
RSVP to: jillandmike070508@gmail.com
It’s going to be a fun time, come and join us!
J+M
We moved in!
Someone told me yesterday that “time flew by,” while referring to our engagement. I nodded yes, but I really think that time lagged by. It seems like forever ago that Jill and I were in Hawaii…technically, only a year and 8 months. I remember Jill and I met for lunch a month or two after we got engaged and we weighed the pros and cons of marrying in CA versus FL. That seemed like forever ago.
Now we have our own place together and we’re getting married one week from today. Amazing. We moved to Talega, a community in San Clemente, CA. Its very nice and quiet and close to the beach–which was a requirement. Its our home now, and so far we love it. Here are some pictures of our moving day and moving day plus one. It’s starting to look better than that, haha, give us some time.
MJ
What to pack?
Seriously. We don’t have to tell you what to pack. You know you’re coming to a tropical island for a wedding. Bring your suit, sandals, and something “casually-nice” to wear at the wedding…and you’re good. Don’t forget your camera!
Did I mention sunscreen? You may need it.
Jill
Last minute fliers
I apologize for throwing this up so late in the game, but I realize that some people may have not purchased their airplane tickets to Florida yet. No, I’m not volunteering to pay for anyone, are you kidding? My wallet is empty from this wedding! I’m just realizing that I didn’t let anyone know which airport to fly into.
There are several options. If you’re fortunate enough to get a flight into Sarasota, you’ll be stoked. It’s just across the bay and only 13.5 miles (24 min) away from the Hilton Longboat Key.
The most common option is Tampa (which is where we are flying into), because it’s generally cheaper and has better flight schedules than Sarasota. The drawback is that it’s 59.3 miles away (1 hour and 15 min without traffic). There are two major routes to take from the airport though, so if you have an opportunity to check the traffic once you land you can take the 75 South or the 275 South, depending on which is better.
The third option, if you’re a little more looney, is to fly into Orlando and follow my parents down to Longboat Key. My sister is flying in from Japan to Orlando and braving the 2.5 hour trek down. I don’t recommend it.
I hope that by now you’ve already purchased tickets, but if not, you better get on it. We’re less than 30 days away!
MJ
Less than a month to go…
It’s less than a month to go and we realized that we haven’t started planning yet. Uh oh. Just kidding, we’re practically done planning…now it’s realizing how much there is to do once we get there. There is a lot. Fortunately, we’ll be there for a week prior to the wedding and we’ll have a chance to relax a bit (I hope). We are really excited to see our family and friends that we haven’t seen in a very long time in a place we’ve come to love. I hope you all are ready and excited–I know I am.
On a side note, my bedroom is in shambles. Partially because I’m lazy, but mostly because we’re moving in a week. Yeah, we thought that there wasn’t enough to do before a wedding, so why not move to a new apartment? We like to keep things interesting. When you’re sipping a cold beverage and relaxing next Saturday, think of Jill and I trying to navigate a large couch up a narrow flight of stairs. We’ll let you know how it went at the wedding.
See you all soon. Bring your sunscreen.
MJ
Our Song
For 6 years, the two of us were songless. Most couples have a song they can call one that they both enjoy, love, and call a “representation” of their relationship. Jill and I didn’t have that. We liked thousands of songs together, but none adequately enough to call one “our song.”
Then we went to Hawaii. We stayed at a beautiful hotel in Waikiki and were fortunate enough to have a balcony overlooking nightly Hawaiian entertainment and musicians. One night, we heard this one song played by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole (don’t try to pronounce it, just call him “IZ”) and we instantly fell in love. Have a listen of IZ’s rendition of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow/What A Wonderful World.”
Oh yeah, and that was the night I proposed too. Just a small detail I left out.
MJ
Laguna Beach
Thanks to Blue Skies for uber amazing pictures! Please visit http://blueskysstudio.wordpress.com Here is one of our favorites on Main Beach in Laguna.
Steel Drums
Keeping with the beach/island theme…we wanted to have a steel drum at our wedding and reception. Meet Dave Lapio. He comes highly recommended by the locals in Long Boat and by the BeachHouse in particular. Apparently, Dave has 7 recorded albums to his credit and has pretty much played a jillion shows in 2007 alone.
I’m trying to get Jill to wear dreads for the wedding to go with the Rasta theme we’ve got going. I’m pretty sure she’s on board…I’ll keep you posted.
MJ
Thailand
After many eye-numbing hours of sorting flights, scouring hotel locations, online reviews…we’ve decided on the honeymoon location. Thailand. Needless to say, we are extremely excited to go on an exotic trip to the other side of the globe.
We will arrive at the Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok on June 10th and will be there for 2 days or so. Exploring the city and soaking in the night life in metropolitan Thailand is on our list of to dos there.
From Bangkok, we travel to the Hyatt Regency Hua Hin (about a 4-5 hour drive). We plan to stay here for 8 days. Sailing, ocean kayaking, windsurfing and the spa are all at the top of our activity list. If the conditions permit, some tandem surfing may be in order as well.
We will be traveling back to Bangkok to stay there for another night before we fly home. We are incredibly excited…it will definitely be hard to wait out the 149 days.
JF+MJ
Jill & Mike's Wedding - 06/07/08 