UK August-October 2013- Highclere Castle ( Our Engagement)

I'm a huge fan of Downton Abbey (who isn't?) and the real life mansion where the show is filmed, Highclere Castle, is located just a short drive from Dan's hometown of Newbury. When we visited last May, it was closed for the season, so I put it on the must-do list for our end of summer trip.

The biggest thing that you need to know before you visit Highclere Castle is it will be crowded. Extremely crowded. Claustrophobic crowded. The TV show has made this a very popular tourist attraction. They do sell advance tickets, but those were gone months in advance, so we had to rely on their daily allotment of walk-up tickets that are available in the afternoon. We crossed our fingers that we would be able to get in.

When we arrived, the parking lot was jammed with cars and tour buses. Highclere Castle rivals Westminster Abbey for the most crowded UK tourist attraction.

Highclere Castle is owned by the Carnarvon family, which garnered fame through the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, who had a keen interest in Egyptology and was instrumental in the expedition that discovered the tomb of King Tutankhamun in 1922. Currently the castle has an Egyptology exhibition, which is included in the highest level ticket price for twenty pounds. We opted for the thirteen pound tickets, that gave us entry to the estate and the gardens.

The fan-girl in me started to get giddy as we walked down the pebbled driveway to Highclere Castle.

As I previously mentioned, Highclere Castle is a tourist trap. If you're a fan of Downton Abbey, you will love it. The entire self-guided tour is centered around the television series. Several of the rooms have placards explaining which scenes/characters utilize the particular space. For example the sitting room had a placard with a picture of actor Hugh Bonneville and a statement about how Lord Grantham can often be found reading in this room. It's like visiting a movie set. I kept expecting Lady Mary to walk around the corner. There is very little information on the History of the property or on the architecture. It's a departure from the other castles/estates that we visited during our trip. It was more expensive, more crowded and far less impressive.

On the second floor, we found a framed floor plan of the building that referred to Highclere as "Highclere House". I have no idea when they started calling it a castle, but it felt like a fraud. This said, I have no idea what makes an estate a castle, other than maybe fortification? Highclere was not fortified. It had some sheep.

The fan in me loved seeing the house, but on a whole, it was a big let down. We were not allowed to take pictures inside, but I took many of the gardens, which were lovely. We managed to quickly tour them, before the storm clouds started dropping buckets of rain.

By far, the best part of our visit to Highclere Castle was when Dan proposed in a field of flowers behind the estate. It was gorgeous and the one place on the property where we had complete privacy. It couldn't have been more romantic or more perfect.

Lastly, Dan took this beautiful panorama shot of Highclere Castle.

2013 Wrap-Up

2013 has been a year of several monumental life-altering events.

I come from a very small family. This year, both my aunt and uncle passed away, leaving me as the final member in our family. Sure, I have some distant cousins somewhere (Iowa, Utah?), but I've never met them. It has hard enough when my uncle died in April, but I never could have imagined that last week, my aunt would join him.

I'm still more stunned than sad, although I'm sure that emotion will take over in the new year. I miss them, but I'm relieved that they are no longer physically suffering. In particular, I know that it was very hard on my aunt when my uncle passed. Her grief was overwhelming.

In addition to the loss of my family, I'm also transitioning out of a caregiver role. I've spent the last several years helping my aunt and uncle, often spending several days at a time living with them. I accompanied them to doctors appointments, helped around the house, cooked, gardened and ran errands. It's strange to go from being so needed to nothing. 2014 will be spent closing out their estate and getting their home ready to be sold. It's going to be a big task, but I feel like it will help with the grieving process.

Even with the loss of my aunt and uncle, 2013 wasn't a bad year.

Dan and I got engaged at Highclere Castle (Downton Abbey) and we married a few months later at the Aria in Las Vegas. It couldn't have been more perfect and the joy has spilled over, making the most difficult days of 2013, a lot easier to bear. Dan has been my rock. In many ways, this has been the happiest year of my life. I feel blessed to be part of Dan's wonderful family, which include his two adorable children.

I traveled more in 2013, than in any previous year. We spent two weekends in Las Vegas, one weekend in Big Bear and three nights in Portland, adding Oregon to list of states I've visited.

This year marked my first trip to Europe. We actually visited the United Kingdom twice, spending a total of seventy-six days and visiting three countries. On our second trip, we did a 3300 mile drive around England, Scotland and Wales.

The United Kingdom is beautiful and diverse. I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to explore so much of it and yet, I'm also left wanting more! Contrary to what some may think, it is not a small island!

I read 55 books in 2013. More than last year, but less than in previous years. I've found that I read more when I'm happy. While we were in Europe, I plowed through books. When I was dealing with family health issues and death, I barely read a chapter. Trashy television is more my speed when I'm stressed.

I started a new part-time job at the end of 2013. I'm now a professional dog-walker. Don't tell my cats. It's a good fit. I love being outdoors and with animals. Starting in January, I will have several clients on a regular basis, including the most adorable golden retriever puppy in the world.

As usual, we went to tons of movies and events throughout the year. My favorite event was seeing Josh Ritter perform in Hollywood. It was magical. We are going to another Josh Ritter concert in January and I can't wait!

We attended our first NASCAR Race, which was hot, loud and a lot more fun that I ever would have anticipated.

We went on more outings with the SoCal Smarties, our local Smart Car club, including a memorable visit to the Battleship Iowa. We even leased the first Electric Drive Smart Car in California.

I learned that Zip-lining and Segway tours are more adventure than I can handle. Both were more terrifying than thrilling.

In 2013, we went through paperwork hell to refinance our house and in the end, it was all worth it. I'm far better off financially than I was this time last year.

My health and weight are about the same. We did a few solid months of exercise, including waking up before sunrise to go on long walks. It didn't stick or become a lasting routine, but I'm hopeful that things will change in 2014.

We did several home improvement projects in 2013, including new wood floors for our stairs and bedroom. Our house has really taken shape and it looks nothing like it did when I inherited it from my mom back in 2008. I can hardly believe this is my childhood home.

2013 was a year of highs and lows. I spent most of it feeling unstable and unsteady emotionally. Again, it wasn't a bad or unhappy year overall, but I'm looking forward to 2014 being more peaceful and calm.

We Eloped!

On November 2, 2013, Dan and I ran away to Vegas and got married in the Fireside Lounge in Aria.

We had been planning our wedding for several months and had it all booked before we headed to the UK and "officially" became engaged at Highclere Castle. We both had big weddings with our first marriages and decided to make this wedding just about us. We wanted a romantic weekend escape.

The initially planning process had us thinking of venues in various states, but we narrowed it down to Nevada, because Vegas just makes it so easy. We first called Bellagio and Wynn. They had nice venues, but we didn't get a good vibe until we spoke with Marissa at Aria.

Marissa was so warm and enthusiastic, that we knew that we had found our venue and coordinator. Aria was not originally built with a wedding chapel and they have just started offering weddings last spring. One of the big selling points with Aria is that they offer various wedding locations outside of their traditional chapel, which is modern and stylish. Want to get married surrounded by hand blown glass sculptures in the Chihuly Gallery? How about in front of a cascading wall of water? Maybe by a giant Buddah statue? The sky's the limit.

We picked the Fireside Lounge, which is located in the Aria day-spa. This area is only available for night weddings, after the spa is closed for the day and cleared. We were sold on the beautiful wall length fireplace and nature theming. It feels like a upscale mountain lodge, perfect for a fall wedding.

Aria offers a variety of wedding packages and we chose the Just the Two of Us. Our package included a night in a Sky Suite, photography, flowers (bouquet and boutonnière), a mini wedding cake, champagne, dinner at Social House and all of the wedding services. The use of the Fireside Lounge was an upgraded fee and we also opted to have a pianist. Live music is always a nice touch!

Upon recommendation, I had an awesome stylist come to our suit to do my hair and make-up. Kristin Koval made me feel gorgeous and I highly recommend hiring her to make you beautiful on your special day.

Here is a picture of my up-do with a flower pin that I bought at Nordstrom. I opted for non-traditional wedding attire and we found everything, including the accessories, at Nordstrom.

My Wedding up-do by Kristin Koval in Las Vegas,

We headed down to the Fireside Lounge a little before eight and met with Marissa and the rest of the team. Admittedly, it was a little odd having so many people working on our wedding and no guests! As the spa was just closing, the venue was not quite ready for us.

Marissa took us to one of the private spa suites as a waiting room while they prepared the Fireside Lounge. We learned that the Spa Suite is very exclusive and can't just be booked, as they hold them for high priority clients. It was a fun place to wait for our wedding.

We were given our bottle of champagne, in case we wanted to start celebrating early!

In the Aria Spa Suite with our champagne.

Our wedding couldn't have been nicer. We walked down the aisle together to the pianist playing, Love Me Tender and ended the ceremony with In My Life. Although he just met us and it was a "Quickie Vegas Wedding", our minister conducted a very meaningful ceremony, filled with good advice that I took to heart. It really felt personal, like he knew us.

Here are some of the professional pictures from our ceremony.

We were assigned two photographers and they were awesome. Aria is filled with unique picture spots. We had our photographers for forty-five minutes and they ran us all over the property, snapping pictures. I appreciated that they asked us for our input and they were flexible with what we wanted. We only had one request, a few shots by the water wall and bird chairs in front of the hotel.

After our ceremony, we ate a late dinner at Social House located in Crystals, the high- end mall in the City Center complex. Social House has Asian-fusion cuisine and a seven course dinner was part of our wedding package.

Our dinner at Social House was not a great experience. The evening prior, we had an amazing dinner at Jean George Steak House. We had hoped that our wedding dinner would at least equal our experience the prior night. Nearly everything that we had experienced at Aria, up until that point, was first-class.

We arrived at Social House for our ten o'clock reservation and they let us know that they had been expecting us the previous night. They seemed a bit put-out, but corrected the issue and seated us in a booth in the middle of the restaurant. It was completely dead. Ten o'clock on a Saturday night in Las Vegas and the restaurant had patrons at two other tables.

We were given a special wedding menu that was printed on a flimsy piece of paper and had no mention of "wedding". Our server didn't even know the details of the special menu and was a complete mess during our meal. The seven courses came out in a haphazard manner and our server was often M.I.A..

The courses were hit and miss. I liked the sushi, but neither of us enjoyed the miso cod, which we ditched after one bite. One course was a fancy version of the cheap pork buns sold in Chinatown.

I would have preferred a gift card to use towards a meal at any Aria restaurant of our choosing, rather than having the set menu at Social House. Beyond the lackluster meal, the ambiance during our dinner did not make us feel like hitting the town. It was a downer.

The next morning, we ate our mini-wedding cake from the Jean Philippe Bakery at Aria. When we filled out our paperwork for the wedding package, we were given a page with several cake design choices. They were adorable! We really wanted to go nuts and pay extra to have one of each. When we arrived at Aria, we saw the physical cakes in the bakery and fell in love with them all over again.

They are little works of art!

Excuse the picture, we didn't refrigerate the cake and it started to melt and slumped over by the next morning. It looked perfect when we received it!

We took our own cake cutting photo.

And finally we proceeded to stuff our faces with wedding cake!!!

Overall, we had a great experience with the wedding services at Aria and in particular, our coordinator, Marissa, was a rock star! If you're planning on getting married in Vegas, definitely give them a call.

Aria Wedding's Official Link