Making Memories and Movies: Our Honeymoon

I had never been on a cruise before. Living in Texas, when I thought cruises, I thought leaving out of Galveston and going to Mexico, which would never have been a first choice vacation for me. And then our honeymoon happened…

It changed every notion of cruising I had ever had. We cruised from Barcelona, Spain to Rome and Florence, Italy and Monaco. Post-trip Anthony and I were discussing what we thought of cruises and I said, “I feel like we got to travel the world and go ‘home’ to the same bed every night.”

Cruise with us by watching a video slideshow of our honeymoon.

DIY Adventure Map

When I got engaged I had this vision of blogging about  all of the beautiful steps of the wedding planning process. When starting gusto & grace I hoped to write of my favorites spots of each place I traveled and dreamed of posts about decorating and DIY projects. And then life happened. Since he “popped the question” last month, my home has sold, I have taken a trip to Niagara Falls and Toronto, and my fiance and I have both had a car issue or two come up. This of course is on top of the day job, driving 400 miles every other weekend, and planning the big day. I’d still love to blog about this fiancee phase of my life, but to this point packing boxes and trying on wedding dresses have been priority. Writing will happen, just not as frequently as envisioned.

Amid the fun-filled chaos, Anthony and I found time to do a simple DIY project during one of our Austin weekends. We’ve wanted a fun way to map our travels, so when we came across this great four dollar map at Paper Source (while looking for invite inspiration) I knew we had to pick it up and get creative. This project took about ten minutes and cost less than ten dollars.

What you need:

• A map like the one we used
• Foam board
• A ruler
• Xacto knife
• Sewing pins
• Wire cutters
• Sawtooth picture hangers
• Super glue

First, cut the foam board to the size of the map. I suggest running an Exacto knife along the edge of ruler. Then adhere the map to the foam board. You can do this however you’d like, but we chose the simplest method: buy adhesive foam board. Turn the board over and super glue on some sawtooth picture hangers. That’s it! You’re ready to put pins in the places you’ve been! Choose the push pins of your choice. We selected sewing pins and cut them in half with wire cutters because we liked the smaller size of their head. See the photo above.

I am so excited to add pins on the right side of our map after our honeymoon. The plan is to book a cruise that ports in Spain, Italy, and France or Monaco!

Coming soon:

• My take on Niagara Falls and Toronto
• Wedding planning progress.