Words to Keep in Mind

I saw this sign on Emily Maynard's twitter feed and I now want to hang it somewhere in my house. I love it!

Wedding Wednesday - Those Moments You Never Want To Forget

Have you ever been having a moment and thought “I need to remember this moment forever”? I’ve been blessed with so many “rememberable” moments in my life and many of my most recent ones happened during my wedding. For posterity reasons I figured I would share some of them with you.

• The night before the wedding, going over the last minute details with my mom in the living room and knowing everything would be fine.
• Some how I actually slept through the night. When I’m stressed, and sometime even when I’m not stressed, I do not sleep well. My mind just will not shut off and I end up going over every detail over and over. But I slept like a baby that night, which was exactly what I needed.
• Sitting around the bridal room at the church with all the bridesmaids and having Rebecca redo my hair and makeup since it was already looking a little rough after a morning of picture taking.

Photographer: Evan Laettner

• The church ladies closing the doors and mom and I standing there waiting to walk down the aisle. I could not wait to see Andy’s face. I was so sure of my decision and I wanted to get this show on the road. When they opened the doors all I could see is Andy. There could have been a bunch of people I didn’t know in the pews and I would have never noticed. All I could see was his smiling face.

 Photographer: Evan Laettner

• Feeling incredibly loved during our reception. This probably is a DUH comment but I never put it all together. You are surrounded by all the people from both of your lives that love you the most. It’s a little overwhelming to realize that you know every single person in the room.

 Photographer: Evan Laettner

• Taking a couple minutes to eat just with Andy before we were introduced at the reception. We joked about how maybe no one would notice if we just left for our honeymoon right then. Obviously that would not have worked and I’m so glad we didn’t miss out on such a great party.
• Dancing with my ESA girls. I have being looking forward to dancing with all my college girlfriends at my wedding for as long as I can remember. That is always my favorite part of ESA weddings. When all the girls are on the dance floor we are in our own little world. They are the best!

Borrowed from Celia G Photographie

• My brother’s face when I gave him one of my dad’s old handkerchiefs with his initials on it. It was an incredibly sweet moment for just our family.
• Being totally surprised that Andy stuck his head up my dress to retrieve the garter. To be fair, I couldn’t for the life of me remember which leg it was on and I did have a lot of dress for him to search through.

Photographer: Evan Laettner

Your wedding day really is moment overload. You want to remember as much as you can but you can’t process everything. (This is why you hire a photographer and videographer.) But my advice is to take a moment and try to remember exactly how you feel during parts of the day. You may surprise yourself at what you remember for your special day.

Boxes Everywhere!

We are in the middle of packing up our Charlotte condo and it's reminding me how much I hate to move.

We, well really I, have SOOOOO much stuff. I don't know where it all came from. We already went through all the boxes we collected last week and we need a bunch more. I hate empty walls and shelves but I guess it's better to do it now than on Saturday morning while the guys are trying to load the truck. It makes me sad to think of all the memories we have in this condo, but I'm excited about all the new ones we'll make in Columbia.

Here are pictures of our progress so far. Please don't judge us for the craziness. 

Where can I find free boxes in Charlotte?

Friday Favorites

I'm linking up with The Bargain Blonde for Friday Favorites.

 

 

The Bachelorette - I generally try to stay away from reality tv, but I have been sucked in by this show. I just love Emily (love her shout out to Charlotte) and I want the best for her, but goodness she has been unlucky in love. She voted off my favorite (Team Sean) and now she has to pick between Jef and Ari. I don't dislike either really, but Jef's hair reminds me of Jimmy Neutron and Ari is just bland. I'm excited about Sunday's episode. My prediction, she doesn't pick either of them.

 

Essie - Watermelon. Thanks to Pinterest I just had to buy this color, which ended up okay because I love it. It's the perfect bright pink for summer.

 

Parmesan Garlic Quinoa - I am so proud that I have been a little adventurous in the kitchen lately and haven't been so reliant on recipes. We had some left over quinoa from a different recipe so I just threw some stuff in a pan and hoped for the best. Well it turned out to be an awesome side dish that I will definitely be making again. Here is a link to the closest recipe I can find to what I made.

 

 

Cake Batter Rice Crispy Treats - Both Andy and I had a craving for these so I made a batch last night. Imagine my surprise when I saw three different friends had repinned the recipes that night and I found a blog post about it too. If you haven't tried this version of rice crispy treats, DO IT NOW! They are so incredibly good, here is the link.

 

Wavepool Hello Dress - I love this dress and I think it would be perfect for a beach wedding we are going to this summer. What do you think? (Please say you agree so I can justify buying it. ;)

 

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

We Are Moving!

 

Surprise! Andy and I both got jobs down in Columbia, SC and we are officially moving in one week. Everything just fell into our laps. I have always heard people say, when everything just falls into place just to go with the flow. Well everything did, so we are packing up and heading back to Gamecock Country.

 

I've originally from Columbia and Andy and I met at USC, however I never pictured us moving back there. We both found fantastic jobs and we still have a ton of friends in town so the oppotunity became too good to pass up.

 

We will miss Charlotte. We have made some good friends here, but thankfully Columbia is just a short hour drive away so we can always plan a quick trip up. Charlotte will always be special for us because this is where I planned our wedding, where we created our first home as a married couple, and were completely dependent on each other since we moved here knowing almost no one.

 

But we are super excited about our move. It looks like a large purchase in the form of a house may be in our future (Yay! If anyone has tips please send them my way.) I'll keep you posted.

 

P.S. Thanks to all the Charlotte bloggers out there. I really enjoyed our dinner out and I've learned so much from your fabulous blogs. As you can see by my boring header I'm still learning, but I'm getting there. I just figured out how to let people rely to my comments. Oops. You are all fantastic and I can't wait to stay connected to Charlotte through your posts.

4 Years Together

Four years ago today I started dating my best guy friend. We had known each other all through college and everyone said we should be dating but we took our time. I asked him to be my date to a wedding and the rest is history.

I can honestly say from the first day we were together I knew we would get married and live happily ever after. It feels like we have been together for much longer than for years but it also feels like we just started dating. It still makes my heart flutter when I see a call, text, or email from him because it means he is thinking of me. I know it’s corny but I’m still crazy about him, just like in the beginning.

Photographer: Evan Laettner



To celebrate the four years together mark I will watch the trailer for our wedding video over and over until Andy can’t take it anymore. ;) Check it out: https://vimeo.com/45425985

P.S. If you ever need a videographer Bill Grant at Cinema Couture is phenomenal!!!! I wasn’t sure if I was even going to have a videographer at the wedding and it was hands down some of the best money we spent.

Friday Favorites

Moment Junkie – This is my most recent blog obsession. Cleck out the link: Moment Junkie. They post one picture every day that captured a special, un-posed moment from different weddings. Unscripted moment pictures are my favorite and I love that someone has created a space for all of them. They will make you laugh, cry, or just make your heart swell.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern – A coworker lent me this book. I’m only about 50 pages in but it’s interesting. Apparently they are making a movie based on the book and they are predicting it to claim the same followings as Harry Potter and Twilight. I’m still in the story building stage of the book but I have big plans to just sit around and read this weekend so I’ll keep you updated.

Oreo Birthday Cake Blast Ice Cream – Okay this ice cream is about as unhealthy as it comes but I figured I would spurge since both Andy and I LOVE funfetti anything and Oreos. This ice cream is amazing! It really tastes like birthday cake with chunks of Oreos in it. It’s very rich so I’m usually good to just take a spoonful and call it a day. Am I going to keep this stocked in my freezer all the time, no. Was it fun to try something totally wild and crazy, yes. (And yea I consider buying a different ice cream flavor wild and crazy)

Wine & Design – I didn’t get a chance to write as much about my Wine & Design experience as I had planned, but I really enjoyed it. I am a truly awful painter, I mean really bad, but I had a blast. You bring your own wine or beer and you just have fun with it. I’m itching to pick another design and go again so if anyone wants to go just let me know. I promise I’ll try not to embarrass you with my lack of artistic skills.

I stole this picture from Olivia. Thanks for remembering to take some.

Basil Plant – A couple weeks ago my mom brought me a cutting from her basil plant. I’ve tried really hard to take care of it since I’ve missed having fresh herbs here in Charlotte. I’m proud to say it’s doing really well and we have used it a lot. The best part of it seems to be that the more we use it, the better it does. I wish we had more direct sunlight so I could grow more plants but that will come with time.

Have a great weekend!

The Day All Hail Broke Loose

After a fantastically relaxing weekend in Columbia, Andy and I mounted good ole’ I-77 for our trip home to Charlotte. We had driven separately so with Andy in the lead in his car we settled in for the usually very easy drive north. About 30 miles out, after being an incredibly sunny day, heavy black clouds rolled in and rain started to fall. No big deal. It’s the summer and random pop up storms happen all the time. All of a sudden I see Andy swerve to the shoulder, so I swerve to. While dialing his number to find out what the heck happen, I heard the first stone fall. That’s right, it started to hail. Again, this is not unheard of, nor is it a big deal. You just hang out for a bit and then you are on your way.

Well it turned into a big deal when the hail stones falling became the size of golf balls and larger. Andy said he watched a hail stone shatter the back windshield of the car in front of him. Umm okay, that’s not so normal.

Two hail stones hit the lower right side of my front windshield and cracks it in two places. At about the same time I look up to see a hole in Andy’s back windshield. I call him up again to see if I’m imagining it. Nope, a hail stone had shot through his windshield like a bullet and bounced off the front dashboard and landed in the passage seat. It shattered the back window, however the tint he added back in high school was holding most of the glass up. Umm..awesome….not.

When the hail finally subsided we decided to see if we could get home. We passed tons of people with multiple windows broken out and huge dents all over their cars.

About 40 miles outside of Charlotte I started to notice Andy’s back windshield started to crumble.

So we pulled off to a truck stop, Andy brought a pair of gloves, and went to work peeling off sections of the window. It was the craziest thing. There was glass everywhere in the backseat. We spent what felt like a small fortune in the shop vacuum swiping up all the glass and trying to make it as save as possible to drive.

Poor guy rode the rest of the way home without a back windshield. Of course after the crazy storm it went back to be hotter than Hades and he couldn't have the air conditioning on.

Just to add to the really fun day of driving we had to run to Lowes for a tarp and duck tape because it decide to rain for 15 minutes once we got home.

I am happy to report we are both safe and we both have brand new windshields on our cars. P.S. My car is still insured in South Carolina and they replace windshields for free! Yay for a break. Both are cars look like the parked on the wrong end of a driving range but that is all cosmetic.

I wasn’t particularly scared during this ordeal, however the more I thought about it, the more I got freaked out. If I had been riding with Andy I would have been covered in glass when the hail stone went through the windshield because it all sprayed on the passage seat. We are lucky neither of our front windshields shattered on top of us. So here are some quick tips to keep in mind in if you get stuck in a hailstorm:

• Don’t drive through it. Pull off to the shoulder and under trees or an overpass if at all possible.
• It’s better for the front windshield to be hit because it is reinforce. Your side windows and back windshield is not, which explains why we saw so many shattered back windshields.
• Don’t get out of the vehicle. Hail falls that crazy fast speeds and you can really get hurt it you get hit.
• If possible get on the floor and cover yourself or at least your face with a blanket or some clothing.

We are in for some crazy weather this summer (100 degrees this weekend, then 76 degrees on Tuesday) so make sure you are prepared.

Weekend Recap!

We had a very full and eventful weekend in Columbia, S.C. It had been a while since we have been in town without any wedding stuff to do so it was great just to relax and catch up with friends.

Friday night we had a date night at one of our favorite places in Columbia, TakoSushi!!!!!! What could be better than a place were you can get sushi and Mexican food? We got our usual rolls, Andy got the Stoney's Roll and I got the Crazy Roll. Honestly have I dreams about this roll. It’s so unhealthy, but totally worth it. I know the name of this place kind of sounds like it should be attached to a gas station but it isn’t and I love it. We try to fit a trip to TakoSushi in every time we are in town.

Saturday morning we woke up and after a quick bagel stop we decided to walk around 5 Points before it got too hot. We stopped in Oops, which I really miss and I’m surprised they don’t have a store in Charlotte. I picked up a couple dresses for football season. It’s never too early to start stocking up on your new black and garnet attire. Go Gamecocks!

When it hit over 100 degrees before noon we knew being outside wasn’t going to work. So we went to see a movie and just hang out. I hadn’t realized how busy we have been the last couple of weekends and it was nice to just relax and be together. I then met up with my friend Olivia, from Minor Details, for a Wine and Design class. I have been dying to try this and it was really fun. Then we met up with our newly married friends Ryan and Meredith at World of Beer to catch up on marital bliss and close out the night.  

Sunday morning brought on brunch at Thirsty Fellow with our favorite newly engaged couple Celia and John. It was so great to catch up with close friends. It’s fun to see how much we have grown since college and share funny life experiences from along the way. P.S. If you are in Columbia and are looking for a good brunch spot, Thirsty Fellow is amazing. There biscuits and gravy are savory and southern to a T and their baked French toast is heavenly. And don’t pass on the sweet potato muffins; I’m going to search high and low on Pinterest for a copy-cat recipe for those. This recipe might be close.

That pretty much sums up our trip to Columbia. We ate, drank, and caught up with some awesome friends. We had a blast. I’ll fill you in on our not so relaxing trip home later because it deserves a post all its own.

Did you have a good weekend?