Friday Favorites: Beach Weddings, T3 Wand, Xcaret, The Travel Institute

Happy Friday!
I'm so glad to jump back in to one of my favorite days.
It's a Friday Favorites kind of day!
I have so many great things to share!


As always, I'm linking up with Erika, Narci and Andrea. 

We're sharing our favorites from the week.

Grab their graphic and linkup with your favorites from the week, too.

Beach Weddings

I am a sucker for any and all beach weddings. 

A couple weeks ago Alex and I went to Mexico. 

We stayed at two resorts and both had lots of weddings!

One of the resorts had more over the top weddings, and I LOVED them!

My favorite thing about our destination wedding might have been my beautiful flowers that I couldn't even take home with me because we lived over 1,000 miles away and were going on a cruise the next day!

Xcaret

While in Mexico, we ventured off to our first ever excursion. 

I had seen and heard about Xcaret, so we decided to see what it was all about. 

So fun!

Xcaret is an all-natural park. 

They have animals, snorkeling, underwater rivers, swimming with dolphins/stingrays, etc. 

The locals compared it to our Disney World. 

You pay a fee to visit the park and then you can add on any extras that you want. 

We paid for the whole day and evening. 

During the evening they have a couple shows, with the Espectacular being the final and most grand one. If we were going to be there all day, why not stay for the shows?

We added on swimming with dolphins and full-body fish therapy. 

We got there pretty early and didn't want to be wet all day, so we decided to forgo the underwater rivers until later. 

We walked around and saw various animals and basically toured the whole place, getting our bearings down for where our extra add-on activities would take place. 

We saw the butterfly conservatory, birds, stingrays, turtles, etc. 

We went on a little boat ride, which was beautiful. 

I would have ridden it several times had we had the time!

Then, we ate lunch and got ready for our swimming with dolphins extra. 

I've always wanted to swim with dolphins, so I was excited when Alex agreed with it. 

We chose the package that allowed us to interact and swim with them. 

I was a bit disappointed that all of the groups were in the same area. 

There was even bleachers and a waiting area for people to watch. 

I'm not much on crowds, and even though there were about 6 groups going at once and only 3 other people in our group, I would have enjoyed a little more seclusion. 

We had a blast interacting and swimming with the dolphins!
They are so intelligent!

Then it was time for our fish therapy. 

Alex really wanted to do this, and even though I feel it's kind of like swimming in fish poop, I went ahead with it. 

The best thing about this activity was that we did the full body one. 

There were two tubs overlooking the beautiful ocean with little fish in them. 

The water was freezing, and the poor worker wasn't quite sure how to communicate with us on what we were supposed to do. 

I would say this was the only time that there was an immense language barrier. 

Otherwise the Mexicans were so great at answering our questions and communicating with us. 

Props to them for learning more languages than their native one. 

We were easily able to figure out what the guide was trying to say and slowly got into the water. 

Now let me tell you....that water was COLD!

The view was breathtaking, and I think they forgot about us because it lasted longer than I think it was suppose to. 

After the fish therapy we headed for the underground rivers. 

We were SO disappointed to find out that they close early!

We didn't check the time because we just figured they would be open until the park closed. 

Nope. 

We were five minutes late and didn't get to experience the underwater rivers. 

I felt so bad for Alex because I knew he would love that. 

We learned a major lesson, though, always check the time to see when things close!

The day seemed to fly by. 

I almost wish we had two days there.

There was so much to do and see!

We ended the evening with the Espectacular!

T3 Wand

I've been hearing a lot about wands for a while now. 

I typically use a curling iron and wrap my hair around it just like a wand. 

One day I saw the Whirl Trio set on sale on Gilt City.
It just happened to pop-up in my email.


via

Interestingly enough I thought I had a credit on that site from our wedding. 

Sure enough, I logged in and found I had a $100 credit. 

I could purchase a $250 T3 gift certificate for just $160. With an additional discount I got it for $35!!

The actual set itself cost $270. I had my $250 credit and there was an additional discount, so I paid $5 for it.
That's a grand total of $40 for this set that retails for $270!

The great thing is I love this tool!
I wasn't sure how much I would use it, but I've been loving the tapered barrel.
It only takes 10 seconds to wrap it around the barrel and you are good to go.
I've been trying out the different barrels, but the tapered one is my favorite so far!

Red, White and Blue Trifle

If you're looking for a quick and easy dessert for this weekend, check out my red, white and blue trifle!

Yesterday I posted this light, airy and delicious dessert that I might have gotten more comments on than any other dessert ever!

It's easy to make and doesn't even require heating up your kitchen!

Check it out here!

The Travel Institute Scholarship 

Last summer I took a leap of faith and started working in the travel industry. 

I had no idea what I was doing but jumped right into a three day boot camp and got the ball rolling. 

Now that I have a base, I'm working on gaining more knowledge. 

Each week I've been watching several webinars. 

One of the webinars last week was the chance to win a scholarship for a certification through the Travel Institute. 

I quickly got to work on my essay and ended up winning one of the scholarships!
I'm currently working on certification through Royal Caribbean; I'm about half way through.

When I'm done with that I will start on the new one through the Travel Institute. 

The whole world of travel has been so exciting!

Currently I have clients in Jamaica and Vegas and Alex and I are off on another getaway tomorrow morning!

Here's to hoping you have a relaxed and enjoyable weekend!