First of all, thank you so much to everyone for everything. The wishes, words, hugs, emails… I was so overwhelmed and felt so blessed those days getting married (yes, it involved multiple days). Seriously, from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much, Tribe.

The less than encouraging words, however, were not necessary, kids.

Some examples:
“It’s not easy. Seriously, not easy. Not easy at all. As in really hard.”
“Hmm, good luck… I guess.”
“Why are you getting married?”
“You do know this is forever, don’t you? But you should always know there’s an option for divorce.”
“We’ll be here for you if it doesn’t work out.”
“It’s good now, but give it ten years.”
“If someone asked you to drink a drink, and there was a 50 percent chance it could kill you, would you drink it?”

I wish I was making these up. But I do wonder how long their comedic effect will last. (Kidding…)

The wedding was amazing. I loved every second of it. No one believes me, but I wasn’t nervous at all. I think my sister Daniella and my mother were carrying all of the stress for me. I was shocked they weren’t wearing headpieces and walkie talkies a la Monica in Friends. I had - give or take - seven thousand family members fly in. I know my family is crazy, but I think when you fly to an event, you’re “in the zone” even more, and they were the most fun and loving people I have ever met in my life. They left when Gotham Hall kicked them out at 4am and made up an “after party” until the hotel kicked them out. Everyone had a really incredible time; the space looked so beautiful I couldn’t believe it was a real place; the food was excellent; and the people were the best bunch I could have dreamed for. My only complaint is I wish the party would have lasted another 10 hours. I feel like I spent an average of 20 seconds with everyone there. It just wasn’t long enough, but still incredibly perfect.

I want to say thank you to three people who made my night from great to perfect (apart from my mom, dad and husband, who are the obvious MVPs of the night).

An enormous thanks to Angel Sanchez, who designed my dress. Out of the entire process of planning the wedding, working with Angel was bar none my favorite part. He’s brilliant and humble and a beautiful person. He was there for every single fitting up until and including the wedding night even though he had a show two days later in Fashion Week. Angel, thank you. I felt like a princess that night. It’s the most beautiful dress I have ever worn, and I will never feel the way I felt that night again.

Veronica Cicero, you blew me away. I’ve always known your talent, but when I walked into Gotham Hall and saw what you had done with the space, my jaw dropped. I couldn’t believe it. You are the most creative and talented person I have worked with when it comes to decorating anything at all. I love you. Thank you for coming into my life and making the wedding process so seamless. Thank you for creating the most beautiful party I have ever been in, staying all night, for handing out cotillion, for making sure everyone was dancing and having fun. You went way, way, way above and beyond.

My sister Daniella. You are my best friend in the world. I know we all joked about it, but without every detail you put into the planning process, we wouldn’t have had a fourth of the memories we have now. I thought I was good at spreadsheets and project planning… but I will never again compete with your color coding. Seriously, Dani, Jorge and I can’t tell you enough how much your help meant to us. I can’t imagine these past few months without you. The moments it was the three of us, including our third sidekick, Eugenia, are top three favorite moments of my night. I will never forget the three of us dancing in the middle of that dance floor and on stage. You made my night.

After the wedding, Jorge and I spent two weeks honeymooning. It was just the right amount of time. I was definitely waking up earlier than him to try to sneak in some work, but no one at Bari was emailing me about anything, so I literally had no work to do. Thanks, team.

The Maldives blew me away. As a born and raised Caribbean I thought I had seen the most beautiful beaches in the world. I was wrong. The Maldives is the most incredible place I have ever been to. The colors, the water, the sea life, the people; everything was just seriously perfect. I can’t recommend it enough. I thought after three days by ourselves in a deserted island, we were going to start having imaginary friends, but there is so much to do there. We went fishing, kayaking, jet skiing, and went snorkeling and played tennis almost every single day. (Yes, we were still participating in the Triber Sweat Challenge, even though - despite my orders - no one added tallies to our names on the wall. Fired, team.)

After relaxing after the wedding mayhem, we headed over to Italy. The Amalfi Coast was the perfect complement to the islands. Still beach and sun, but a very different vacation. We rented a Mini Cooper and spent a week driving from town to town, eating in the most incredible restaurants, meeting the greatest people. We visited Napoli, Ravello, Amalfi, Capri and Positano. Anyone that knows me knows I’m a lover of pizza and pasta, and I was in heaven.

We stayed in amazing hotels, but if I was forced at gunpoint to pick one, I think I would choose the Monastero Santa Rosa right outside Amalfi. An ancient monastery, rumor has it that 10 years were spent renovating it before opening, and the work put into it is obvious as soon as you walk into the door. (As soon as I found out it used to be a monastery, I obviously looked out for ghosts the entire time I was there so I would have an amazing story to tell you guys, but I don’t think there are any.) The views are absolutely breathtaking. In Ristorante Santa Rosa, the hotel’s restaurant, I had a burratta risotto that I am still dreaming about.

Jorge and I realized we definitely are not shoppers. That doesn’t mean I don’t love clothes (there will be an entire post dedicated to my honeymoon finds); I just don’t like walking around looking for it and trying on things. (I’m still trying to convince Jorge that I need a personal shopper since I don’t like doing it myself, but he’s not 100 percent sold on the idea; I’ll keep you guys posted). I’d much rather have a snack (like a bowl of homemade pasta), drink coffee or wine (or both if there’s enough time), and people watch (which I find hysterically entertaining for hours at a time every single time). Or simply walk around, get lost in all of those little streets and learn about old buildings and history; there is so much to learn everywhere you look in these towns.

And here it is… the inevitable sap-fest. This is my story of getting married, so I have to do it, people. Just get through it; I promise I’ll be as concise as I’m capable of.

Obviously I was in love with Jorge. We dated, fell in love, fought, hated each other, fell in love even deeper, learned to fight and not hate each other, fell more in love, he proposed, I said yes and we got married. We had never spent two weeks together, and we had never spent even two hours together without people emailing and calling - on top of the regular interruptions that make life real life every single day. And even though I know Jorge, I feel like I learned things about him I had never noticed before. I can’t even pinpoint a single thing; I just shared two weeks with him, day in and day out, breakfast, lunch, dinner and in-betweens, and they were the best two weeks of my life. Every day I thought “I’m so lucky I married this guy. This is the best man I have ever met. I’m the luckiest woman alive.” Every day. I know it will be hard. I’m sure we’ll have our ups and downs like every other couple on earth, but if there is one person I can do that with and if there is one person I want to grow up and get old with and learn and travel and go through hardships with and open new businesses and fail at other businesses and have a family and share my family with, it’s Jorge Bonetti.

And now we’re back to reality. Back to the little things like reorganizing the kitchen and the bigger things… like planning our life together. And I have never been so excited to start anything as much as I am to spend the rest of my life with Jorge.

I love you, Tribe. Thanks for sharing this past month with me. If you have any good husband bribing techniques, please start educating me. Thanks in advance.