Wedding Weekend in Cancun

I can't remember ever feeling so completely relaxed and happy after a vacation as I did when we returned home from spending 4 days in Cancun last Tuesday. The main reason for the trip was to be there for 3 days of Indian wedding festivities as one of my very best friends from college was getting married. I'm so so thankful we were able to make the trip for the wedding and the timing honestly couldn't have been better for us to get away for a few days and relax. With the hectic holiday season and stressful personal struggles over the past few months, I feel like we needed this getaway more than other vacations in the past. 

We stayed at the Moon Palace All Inclusive Resort and it was amazing. The food, drinks, service, rooms -- everything was great! I know not all inclusive resorts are as great as they sound, but this one absolutely is. 

Neither of us had been to an Indian wedding before and didn't really know what to expect aside from the fact that there were 3 days of events scheduled. First of all, these guys know how to throw a party. Every night was basically its own wedding reception - the decor, the music, the lights - every element was so elaborate. Not only was it a three-day celebration, but each night the party went until 5 a.m. 

Note: When I say the party went until 5 a.m., I do not mean we went until 5 a.m. I just can't hang like that and I am thoroughly impressed that the rest of the group could do that three nights in a row - especially the bride! Don't get me wrong - we had a blast! I just knew I'd never make it outside the next day to soak up some sunshine if we stayed out all night. I just don't recover that quickly.

Here's a photo of me and the beautiful bride! Monique, you were the most beautiful bride and I'm so thankful I finally got to meet your family and celebrate with all of you. I'm so happy for you and wish you loads of joy and happiness in your marriage!

When we weren't attending wedding events, we spent our time enjoying mimosas and breakfast in bed, lounging by the pool, visiting the spa for pedicures and just relaxing. I started and finished Amy Poehler's Yes Please while sipping margaritas by the pool and enjoyed every second of time with my handsome husband. It was glorious. 

I'm going to stop now and let the photos speak for themselves because I'm quickly convincing myself we need to go back as soon as possible. 

But seriously, can we go back now?

Life Lately

"I will get back to blogging once the wedding is over." 

Clearly, I was lying to myself because here we are, one month post-wedding and I can't seem to get on track here. It's funny too, because there are always stories to share, recipes to rave about and thoughts it would do me a world of good to get out of my head. 

To be honest, we've been busy around these parts, but that is all the more reason why I need to get better at this blogging business. I want to document this time in our lives. I need to be more intentional with my writing. I love reading back on my old blog posts. It takes me back to what I was feeling during that time, good or bad. I am enjoying life and living in the moment, but I truly want to be better about taking time to sit down and write. 

The good news is, I'm finally starting to get back to normal after the chaos of the holidays and then our wedding. Here's what else we've been up to lately -

We're working on our fitness. Right after we got home from our honeymoon, my sweet husband took me out to buy this beauty. 

I would have been just as happy with a budget-friendly bicycle from Target, but Jonathan wasn't having it. We ordered this from our local bicycle shop and I'm glad we splurged a little bit. I love this baby! We've been going on bike rides left and right since we brought it home. I'm absolutely loving it! 

Speaking of fitness, Jonathan and I started Shaun T's Focus T25 program about a week ago and it's kicking my butt. It's a love/hate relationship though, because I do enjoy the workouts despite the tears and yelling at Shaun T through each workout. I love that each workout is only 25 minutes long. By the time I'm starting to feel like I might die, I realize, "hey, there's only 12 minutes left. I can totally do 12 more minutes." I also love that Jonathan and I are doing it together. I'm not going to lie, we are only a week or so in and he is the main reason I haven't missed a day yet. It's not that I'm lazy, I've just having a tough time getting my head in the workout game. I'm getting there, though and in all fairness, he got me started on Breaking Bad and I have very little desire to do anything else but devour a few several episodes a night. 

In other news, we got our professional wedding photos back. I woke up Monday morning and basically jumped out of bed when I saw an email from our photographer. I love them. Absolutely love them! I'm planning on getting my shit together and linking up for Wedding Wednesday for the next few weeks so I can share all the details of our day. Oh, what the heck, I'll share one of my favorites with you today because I just can't help myself!

Photo by Lora Rodgers Photography

I finally feel like I got our house put back together after organizing our wedding gifts and whatnot. I've been baking up a storm as usual and trying out some new dinner recipes, too! I'll have to post some of my new favorites soon. I've also started the oh-so-fun process of changing my name and boy, the Social Security office is not my favorite place. It's quite the process but obviously, totally worth it!

We're one month into married life and I'd say it's pretty fantastic. We've been so busy getting settled back into our day-to-day schedules, but I am absolutely soaking up every minute of this time as a newlywed. It's amazing, really and I still can't believe this is my life. 

So, cheers to married life and to me taking the time to write about this it and all the other random ideas that float through my head. I'm back! 

Wedding Planning Survival Tips

Heyyyyy....remember me? I've clearly been spending too much time living my life to and not enough time actually writing about it. Oopsies.

My Thanksgiving was absolutely perfect and was followed by my bridal shower and bachelorette party on Saturday. I want to tell you all about it but I feel a bit overwhelmed with my to do list now that we are just a few weeks away from our wedding. I'm hoping to have some down time later in the week to fill you in on the fun and happiness that made up my Thanksgiving weekend. In the meantime, I'm linking up for Wedding Wednesday today!

We're less than a month our from our big day so we are busy wrapping up the last few details. Being in the home stretch of this whole wedding planning business, today I want to share a few tips that have helped me deal with the stress that comes with planning a wedding:

1. Don't go crazy on Pinterest. I know you're probably thinking I'm crazy seeing as most of us ladies start pinning to a wedding board well before an engagement is on the horizon, but hear me out. There is such a fine line between using Pinterest for wedding inspiration and being completely overwhelmed with ideas. Pinterest is such a great place for finding inspiration and helping you plan your wedding, but there is soooo much out there. Yes, there are great guest book ideas on Pinterest, but if you over-do it, you could end up making it more stressful on yourself having to narrow down your ideas and settle on one. So yes, use Pinterest. It has been super helpful in my planning, but once you have most of the big details figured out, I recommend scaling back a bit so you don't start to overthink and re-evaluate every decision you've already made.

2. Focus on the marriage more than the wedding. It was pretty early on in our planning when it occurred to us that the wedding can start to seem like something you are doing to appease everyone else but yourselves. At the end of the day, you know it's going to be an amazing day for the two of you, but it's easy to get frustrated making decisions that seem so insignificant to you in the big picture. My only advice is when the little details start to seem completely stressful and overwhelming, slow down and focus on the marriage part...the part where you say your vows, the part where you walk down the aisle, the part where you are announced as husband and wife. Those thoughts will bring you back to the most important thing, you as a couple. Your marriage and the life you're about to start together. Focus on that.

3. Take a break every now and then. Especially in the early stages, there are times you'll feel like all you do is discuss wedding stuff with your fiance'. No matter how excited you are about your wedding, there are times when you just won't be in the mood to talk about it. As much fun as wedding planning can be, it's a lot of mostly expensive decisions to make and tiny details to think about. It's absolutely necessary to purposefully take time off from anything wedding-related. What we've tried to do is have an overall goal of the things we want to talk about or accomplish each week and try to plan ahead what days/nights we are going to tackle those items. This way you have time together to just be together and enjoy some down time and not let the wedding take over your life.

4. You can't please everyone. The sooner in the wedding planning process you accept this, the better off you'll be. After getting engaged, it won't be long before you encounter the many, many opinions people want to share with you. For the most part, everyone of these people have the best of intentions, but there's just no way you can make everyone happy. There's also the possibility of people you weren't able to invite being upset with you and a million other things people might not be thrilled about. All you can do is show appreciation for input from others, be apologetic and straightforward with people who may be unhappy and move on from it. At the end of the day, this is your day and you have to do what's right for the both of you, even if others don't understand it or agree with it.

5. Keep it in perspective. It's just one day out of the very long and happy life you'll have together. In the very beginning of planning our wedding, I realized the chairs our venue provides aren't exactly the style chair I would prefer on our big day. After looking at how much it would cost to rent fancier chairs, I quickly came to the conclusion that I don't think when I look back on our wedding many years from now, I will even remember what the chairs looked like and I made up my mind to not worry about it again. I wish I could say I've been that laid back about everything throughout the process, but I do try to keep in mind that at the end of the day, we are going to be married and the little things that seem like a big stress aren't really going to have a huge impact on the happiness of our life together.

What would you add? Is there anything that has helped you remain cool and collected during the wedding planning process?

Next week I'll finally be back with an update on what we have left on our to do list!

 

Linking up for Wedding Wednesday!

Random Friday Thoughts

Happy Friday!

My mind is a little all over the place today. I'm also quite sleepy and I'm psyched to be getting out of work early today, so here are the random thoughts I feel the need to share with you all today:

Why are people so judgmental about others decorating for Christmas early? If you don't agree with decorating for Christmas before Thanksgiving, don't do it, but there's no need to criticize anyone who does. Good Lord I'll never understand why so many people get so upset by something that has absolutely zero effect on them.

We picked up our wedding bands last night and I honestly couldn't be happier with what we chose. We each tried our rings on and in that moment, it really started to sink in that we are getting married in just over a month. I also had a really difficult time convincing myself to take the ring off. It's too beautiful. I just wanted to sit there and bask in its beauty all night.

Today marks the end of my third week of morning workouts and I can't believe I'm about to say this, but waking up at 4:45 a.m. is starting to feel...normal. I'm on track to run 40+ miles this month and considering last month, I believe my total was 8 miles...so you could say I finally got my shit together. I have a ways to go before I'm back to where I want to be, but I'd say this month is going pretty well so far in that department.

Just two days of work next week and Jonathan and I will be off to my parents' house for Thanksgiving. What could possibly make this better? Oh, yes, the fact that my older sister and her beautiful kids will be there, too. What could possibly make that better? The fact that just a few days later is my bridal shower and bachelorette party. It's safe to say next weekend will be completely overwhelming and full of joy. My heart just might explode.

Black Friday...I can't even go there. All I'll say is I'm quite sad about the fact that we live in a world where stores like Target are open on Thanksgiving. The Black Friday business is crazy enough and now it's going to take over the actual holiday it's centered around. Good grief.

Speaking of my bachelorette party, I ordered these beauties to twirl around in all night and I'm absolutely in love. Do I know what dress I'm wearing yet? Not a clue, but these shoes are a good place to start.

On that note, I'm off to shop around for a dress to go with that pair of sparkly goodness. Wish me luck and have a wonderful weekend!

Wedding Wednesday: 8 Weeks

Earlier this week I received an e-mail from Crate & Barrel informing me that we have just 8 short weeks until the big day. That's just 58 days. 1,392 hours.

There is still so much to do, but I can't even stress myself out about that right now because it's all good. All I'm feeling is absolute joy and excitement over how close we are to the big day. Our day. The day we get celebrate this wonderful love we've found with our family friends. The day I can't picture without doing this laugh/cry combination because I am already completely overwhelmed with joy. The day I get to walk down the aisle to this handsome man.

This man that looks at me and makes me feel so supported, so loved, so absolutely treasured.

This man that brings so much love and joy to my life everyday.

This man that I absolutely, positively adore. 

So yeah, on this Wedding Wednesday with only 8 weeks until our big day, I feel more calm than I ever imagined I'd be. Is that because I've got every little detail of our day figured out? Absolutely not. But the most important detail of our day, the part where Jonathan and I vow to love each other for life, to stick together, to raise a family, to honor and cherish each other every day...we're more than ready for that part...that's what's keeping me calm.

All photos by Lora Rodgers Photography.

Linking up for Wedding Wednesday.

We Can't Stress: a Miley Remix

I think we can all agree that planning a wedding is stressful. While we try to stay focused on the bigger picture and not let the planning and details stress us out, that is much easier said than done. There are so many times during wedding planning it seems you are really just planning the day for everyone else. Jonathan and I tend to be people pleasers by nature, so it's been difficult at times to accept that we can't please everyone and focus on the fact that it is our day.

On an unrelated note, I've been listening nonstop to Miley's new album and even though I hate to admit this, I kinda really love it. As I was running on the treadmill last week listening to "We Can't Stop," I couldn't help but think of my own wedding planning version of this song. This may be a sign (1) that I've completely lost it or (2) that I have too much time on my hands, but I bring you my wedding planning version of "We Can't Stop."

Feel free to play the music video as you read my lyrics below.

“We Can’t Stress”

It’s our wedding we can plan what we want
They’re our vows we can say what we want
It’s our day we do what we want
We can invite who we want 

We can serve what we want

It’s our wedding we can plan what we want
They’re our vows we can say what we want
It’s our day we can do what we want
We can invite who we want
We can serve what we want

Open bar and mason jars everywhere
Hands in the air like we don’t care
‘Cause they came to have so much fun now
 Bet somebody here might drunk now

If you didn’t get an invite
Can I get a “Hell, no”?
‘Cause space is gonna be real tight
‘Til the end of the night, alright

So la da di da di
We’re trying to party
Spending money on all the things
To make sure you’re all happy
This is our night
This is our life

And we can’t stress
And we won’t stress
Can’t you see this is our night?
Can’t you see where about to start our life?

And we can’t stress
And we won’t stress
We’re planning our wedding, not yours
Can’t please everyone and no, we’re not serving Coors
Yeah, Yeah

It’s our wedding we can plan what we want
They’re our vows we can say what we want
It’s our day we can do what we want
We can invite who we want
We can serve what we want

To our friends hurt by no invite
Mad about it like they want a fight
Remember the venue has a limit
If we didn’t want you there we’d just admit it
And everyone who didn’t get a plus one
Don’t cry at least you get to come
We’re so stressed out here
Getting so stressed out here

So la da di da di
We’re trying to party
Spending money on all the things
To make sure you’re all happy
This is our night
This is our life

And we can’t stress
And we won’t stress
Can’t you see this is our night?
Can’t you see we're starting our life?

And we can’t stress
And we won’t stress
We’re planning our wedding, not yours
Can’t please everyone and no, we’re not serving Coors
Yeah, Yeah

It’s our wedding we can plan what we want
They’re our vows we can say what we want
It’s our day we can do what we want
We can invite who we want
We can serve what we want

It’s our wedding we can plan what we want to
It’s our day we can do what we want to
They’re our vows we can say what we want to
It’s our life we can celebrate how we want to
Say yeah, yeah, yeah, ehh

And we can’t stress, oh
And we won’t stress, no
Can’t you see this is our night?
Can’t you see where about to start our life?

And we can’t stress

And we won’t stress
We’re planning our wedding, not yours
Can’t please everyone and no, we’re not serving Coors

Brides-to-be, please tell me you can relate to this. How do you keep calm and not let the stress get to you? I promise a Wedding Wednesday post next week giving you an actual update on our wedding planning!

Linking up for Wedding Wednesday

Wedding Wednesday: Engagement Photos

Happy Wedding Wednesday! Today marks just 100 days until our wedding and I couldn't be more excited about life right now.

This past Saturday morning, just one week after our engagement photo shoot, Jonathan was working and to be quite honest, I was being a lazy bum at the house. Just as I was getting motivation to get up and go grocery shopping, I received an email from our photographer with our engagement photos. It was like Christmas morning! I proceeded to spend the next hour or so looking through them, then calling my mom and viewing them again while she looked. I couldn't wait for Jonathan to come home from work so I could show him. We sat down later that afternoon going through the hundreds of proofs we were sent to pick our favorites to share with friends and family.

I wanted to take today and share some of those favorites with you guys. I honestly never thought I'd never have photos like this. They are so fun and flattering and I think they really represent us. Our photographer did an amazing job capturing our relationship and personalities. We were able to get some really good shots at several different spots in downtown Orlando. We couldn't be any happier with the whole experience. Thank you to Lora Rodgers Photography for capturing us so beautifully!

 

What do you think? Did you have an engagement photo session? How did you incorporate the photos into your big day?

Linking up for Wedding Wednesday!

Our Weekend in Photos

one. Friday night was spent catching up on our marriage prep class homework. This is how excited Jonathan was to be doing homework on a Friday.

two. When we finally finished our homework, we opened a bottle of wine and started Season 1 of Orange is the New Black. We were instantly hooked and proceeded to watch most of season 1 by the time the weekend was over. 

three. Saturday was our engagement photo shoot in Downtown Orlando. My sweet sister did my hair and makeup. This is us right after she finished. So thankful for her help!

four. This is my sister's puppy, Lady cuddled up in her bed while we did my hair and makeup. She is too cute with all her toys. 

five. Jonathan and I were all smiles on the way home after our engagement photos. We had such a fun day and can't wait to see how they came out! We should get to see them in about 3 weeks.

six. Saturday night we went out on the town with Jonathan's best man, Tim. He moved to New York a few months ago and was in town visiting for the weekend. We had so much fun and can't wait to see him again soon.

seven. Even though most of my things are being stored for now, I had to go ahead and find a place for my sunflower at Jonathan's house.

eight. After marriage class was over on Sunday, we headed over to my house to load the trailer with the items we wanted to put in storage until we are ready to move it into Jonathan's house. We were able to load the trailer and unpack everything in just a few hours. I have still quite a bit of stuff to take care of at the house on Tuesday, but this was a good place to start.

nine. We also finally placed our wedding invitation order through Wedding Paper Divas. Here is a little preview of what we ended up with. I can't wait to get these babies in the mail!

Linking up with Sami for Weekend Shenanigans. I hope you all had a great weekend!

Engagement Photo Inspiration

Happy Wednesday!

We have our engagement photo shoot in just a few weeks and I've been browsing Pinterest lately to find some inspiration. I want our photos to reflect our relationship and personalities, but I'm also trying to stay away from anything too cheesy. At the moment, our shoot is scheduled to take place in Downtown Orlando, although we don't have a specific location figured out yet. I'm not a huge fan of incorporating signs and props into our photos, although I do have Jonathan convinced to have a few balloon photos involved. We're planning on two outfits each, one dressy and one casual.

Here's what I'm loving so far:

I love this candid laughing shot

This one is so sweet

I love her outfit.

This twirling shot is so cute.

I love her dress and how natural this shot is.

I don't want to get too stuck on having certain shots in our shoot, but I love all of these. I'd rather our photographer give us some direction and us just be ourselves. I think we'll get some really natural, sweet shots if we don't have specific things in mind. I have been using photos like this to give me some ideas for our outfits and I think I have that part figured out at least.

Where did you have your engagement photos done? How did you make sure the photos reflected your personalities and relationship?

Linking up for Wedding Wednesday :)

Breaking up with bread and other updates.

Hi everyone! I'm still feeling a little too distracted to get back to posting regularly, but I want to share a few updates on wedding planning and life in general.

To add to the stress of planning a wedding in six months, I've been wrapped up the last few days trying to figure out what we are going to do with my house. I bought my lovely townhouse almost 4 years ago and I don't regret it for one second. It has been the perfect first home for me and I've enjoyed my time there making it my own. With that being said, I am so looking forward to moving in with my new husband after our wedding in January. I planned to keep my roommates in my house to at least January and then figure out what we wanted to do with the house after that. Well, life is a funny little thing and things don't always go as planned. Things have changed recently and it's kicked my butt into high gear this week and we are making a decision this week instead. There is a good chance that by the end of this week, there will be a FOR SALE sign in front of my house and I'm feeling surprisingly optimistic about this possibility.

In other news, I recently decided it was time to break up with bread...more specifically, carbs. If you know me in real life, you know bread is my weakness. I can't turn down a dinner roll to save my life. Recently I realized I had been in celebration mode since our engagement on June 29. Cake? Sure, I'll have a piece. Ice cream? Why not? Drinks? Heck yeah.

This had to stop. I mean, our wedding is just a few short months away and I'd really like to feel my best on that day. It's been about two weeks and I've done pretty well at drastically cutting down my carb intake and increasing my exercise, protein, etc. I've lost about 5 pounds, which is pretty satisfying considering I don't have a specific goal other than to feel better, get toned and fit into my clothes a little more comfortably.

Most importantly, I feel great. I'm still treating myself to a yummy snack or dessert once on the weekend, but I feel more in control and better overall now that I've gotten my diet under control.

And because I can't let a Wedding Wednesday go by without an update...

I sat down one night last week after chatting with Jonathan on the phone and felt really inspired to write for some reason. I started writing and next thing I knew, my vows were finished. Yes, we decided pretty quickly that we wanted to write our own vows and I have been a little worried about how I would say everything I wanted to say without being too cheesy, too wordy, too serious, but I am so happy to have them done and I'm so happy with how they turned out. I'm sure I'll make a change here and there over the next few months, but I'm so happy I sat down to write that night! Now I just have to figure out how to say them at our ceremony without being an emotional mess.

We also attended our first marriage prep class at the church last weekend. We absolutely loved and I know it will be something we genuinely look forward to every Sunday for the next 12 weeks.

I've also made my decision on shoes, my veil and my wedding jewelry, so I'll be placing those orders in the next few weeks!

We also sent the agreement for our room block, so I was able to finalize our wedding website and share it with everyone. It's crazy to think of how overwhelmed I was when I went to The Knot to start our website and now all the information we needed on there is complete. I'm pretty psyched!

This weekend, my mom is coming to the appointment with the woman who'll be handling our flowers and I can't wait to start talking about bouquets and whatnot. Jonathan and I are also going to the jeweler to choose our rings on Sunday and I absolutely can't wait for that.

All is well, life is good, we are so blessed. That's all I have to say about that.

Linking up for Wedding Wednesday.

Everyone has an opinion

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Today I'm going on a bit of a rant and I hope you don't mind.

When Jonathan and I got engaged just a few weeks ago, I had so many questions for him. How long have you been planning this? When did you get the ring? Oh, is that what you were doing the day you said you had a "work thing?" Did your family know you were about to propose? Who else did you tell?

He filled me in on the details and told me that while his family was fully supportive of his plans, several friends, neighbors, acquaintances he told weren't quite so supportive. He said he stopped telling people after getting comments about how he is too young to settle down, how he hardly knows me, how we are moving too fast, etc. He just didn't want to hear all the negativity and I can't blame him.

From a friend saying we spend too much time together, to a family member saying "Don't you think that's a little fast?" when Jonathan gave me a key to his house, we're used to the criticism. That's life, I guess. People are always going to have an opinion. I'm sure you or your relationship has been criticized a time or two so you know exactly what I'm talking about. We typically brush this kind of stuff off because none of it matters. When it comes to relationships, my thinking is this:

If you aren't in the relationship, you are in no position to criticize it.

Anyway, getting back to our conversation on that most wonderful day, I reminded Jonathan that this is only the beginning of dealing with the opinions of others. If it's not people criticizing our relationship, we'll have people who don't like the food we have at the wedding or people who don't like the music the DJ plays. People will have an opinion on what we put on our wedding registry, what we choose to name our kids, how we discipline our children, the list goes on and on. We decided right then and there that we have to stay true to ourselves and we can't worry about what others think. Just because everyone is entitled to their own opinion doesn't mean we have to let their opinions affect us.

Unfortunately, as I'm wedding planning and making arrangements for us to move in together after the wedding, I'm finding this whole "don't worry about what others think" thing so much easier said than done. 

See, we have some decisions to make as we move into the next phase of our lives together. One of the more controversial decisions we've made is about our pets. Jonathan has a cat and as you all know, I have a dog. We both love our pets. Unfortunately, we haven't had much success in getting our pets to get along. I don't mean they haven't become best buds (I obviously never expected that to happen). I mean they don't even tolerate each other. We have to keep the cat locked in the bedroom while Blake gets the run of the house. If Blake sees the cat, he attacks. We've tried to introduce them on multiple occasions and we've tried a few different approaches. They are no closer to getting along now than they were the very first time we introduced them. Add to that the fact that Blake is really bad with children and you have a really difficult situation. 

While it's easy to say one of us just has to get rid of our pet, this just isn't fair. If I give Blake away and we keep the cat, Jonathan will always feel guilty and I'll always feel a little bitter about it and visa versa. Nobody wins in this situation. The only fair thing is for both of us to find a good home for each of them and start fresh. This breaks my heart, but I know it's the only fair thing to do. I also know that it will save us the stress and frustration of trying to manage both animals who don't get along.  I also can't imagine trying to bring children into our home with Blake being so bad with kids. I'll feel a little better finding Blake a new home with a close friend or family member, so that's what I'm hoping for. As you can tell, it's a tough situation. 

While I don't want people (my family, specifically) to criticize me for giving Blake away, I have to trust they know me well enough to know I don't take this lightly. I'm not a cruel person. I love Blake and the thought of giving him away breaks my heart. This is difficult for me, but I have to do what's right for Jonathan and I. At the end of the day, we have to live with whatever decisions we make. Other people may criticize, but that isn't something we can control, unfortunately.

Needless to say, I know we'll be criticized for this, and many other things throughout our life together. Heck, I'm sure a few of you are even judging me right now based solely on our decision about the pets.The worst part I think (and the reason I am writing this post) is that I am criticizing myself, too. I shouldn't be concerned with what other people think and especially need to stop judging myself. 

At this point I'm kind of just rambling so I'll just stop, but I feel a little better. Thank you for reading. This is why I blog, to sort out my thoughts and get things off my chest. At the end of the day, I'm not perfect, Jonathan isn't perfect...we are both just trying to do what is right for us. End of story. 

A dream about forgetting to plan my own wedding.

I have to throw in a quick disclaimer: Now that I opened this blog up to everyone I know on Facebook and their mother, you all need to know that I am still going to blog about things as if you weren't reading. So to my sweet, dear boyfriend, please don't lose your shit when you learn I am having dreams about weddings and whatnot.

Okay, now moving on...

Just the other day Jonathan and I were talking about dreams and how it seems like we only have dreams about totally off-the-wall things that would never happen in a million years. I was saying that just once, I would love to have a dream about something normal like going on vacation or something in the future like having kids. Instead, I typically dream about random, unexplainable things like alligators crawling up my house and in the windows while I'm sleeping. I don't even know where this stuff comes from...it's so random.

Ironically enough, that very night we dozed off to sleep and I had a dream about my wedding. That's pretty normal to dream about, right? It was great...for a minute. I remember getting ready, talking and giggling with my mother and my bridesmaids when suddenly, I realized that I forgot to write my vows. Next thing you know, I'm in a complete panic and at a loss for words as I try to write them in the car on the way to my own wedding.

To make matters worse, when I get to the ceremony site, I arrive to find out that I never even booked the venue. So far, we've got a bride and a groom, a whole wedding party with guests, but no vows and nowhere for them to get married. I wish I could say everything worked out, but I must've woken up before anything else could happen.

If you know me at all, you know that I am pretty organized and a little obsessive compulsive. I could totally see myself getting to my wedding day and realizing at worst, that I forgot to take my vitamin that morning, not completely forgetting to write my vows or book the venue! Apparently in my dream life, I expect to just arrive and have a wedding magically appear in front of me without actually planning any of it.

I'm not really into researching the meaning of dreams and whatnot, so who knows where this dream came from. It could mean I am not going to enjoy planning my wedding, whenever that day comes. I doubt it. Maybe it's an overall message to stop worrying about little details in life and focus on the big stuff. Who knows. What I do know, however, is that when the day comes, I'll be sure to book the venue and write my vows before I do anything else!

Lessons Learned from too Much Wine out of a Mason Jar

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

We spent the weekend at my parents' house and went to a wedding on Saturday. I absolutely loved spending so much time with my parents and the wedding was on a farm and an absolute blast.

 As with any social occasion that involves alcohol, I've come away with a few important lessons and feel that it is my duty to share them with you all:

-Even if you are in a happy relationship with a man who loves you a lot, when you arrive at a wedding and shout "I want to get married here!" your boyfriend is probably still going to say, "Woah! Slow down there." Calm down everyone, I didn't say "I want to get married here tomorrow!"

-When you are drinking wine out of a mason jar and the bartender fills the jar to the top everytime you get a refill, drink slowly or before you know it, you've had 1 and 1/2 bottles of wine, a shot of crown and you become a drunken mess who is being mean to your sweet boyfriend for no reason.

-If that boyfriend still loves you the next day after you've thrown his phone, likely embarrassed yourself in front of his family and needed him to take care of you when you got sick from drinking too much, don't ever let him go.

-If you also find out that he took your makeup off for you (while you cried and asked him not to break up with you) and helped you change into pajamas in your drunken, sick state, yet he tells you that he loves you more than ever the next day, close your eyes and thank God you found him.

-Drinking heavily does, in fact, help you survive wearing really uncomfortable heels all night. After a while, you don't even notice you are wearing shoes at all.

-Even though you may have had too much to drink, embarrassed yourself a bit and turned into a hot mess, at one point in the night, you were having an absolute blast and this is what is most important about situations like that.

I hope your weekend was just as much fun (and a little less embarrassing) as mine!

A Happy New Year Indeed

Happy new year! I know I'm a little behind the times on my New Year's post, but better late than never, right?

You see, I don't really love the idea of making New Year's resolutions. I can't explain why, but I usually shy away from it. This year, however, I would like to try and be less frantic. I want to stop trying to squeeze too many things into days I don't have time for them. I want to be more realistic about how long it will take me to get ready so I'm not always running late and therefore rushing around to get ready.

I was off to such a great start after spending a few fun and relaxing days in Jacksonville last weekend for my cousin's wedding. I had all day on NYE to get things done (i.e. go to the gym, take down the Christmas tree, make cheesecake filled strawberries, etc.) before heading over to Jonathan's NYE party. Unfortunately, I knew it would be a little unreasonable to attempt to squeeze in time for blogging that day. I would've ended up frantically trying to get a post up and in honor of my resolution, decided that a January 2nd post would have to do.

My weekend in Jacksonville was absolutely wonderful. We squeezed a lot of run and relaxation into just two days. My cousin's wedding was simple and absolutely beautiful.

Everyone is so happy :)

The wedding was in Jacksonville Beach.
Beautiful location!

Mom and I were basically twins that day :)

We got home late Sunday, just in time to get ready for a fun NYE at Jonathan's house. Ringing in the new year with Jonathan, his family/friends, my roomie/wife Natasha and even my sister and her boyfriend, was an absolute blast. I loved meeting and having fun with so many new people that night, but also having my best friend and sister with me for it.

A few weeks ago, I never would have expected to be celebrating a new year with a new (and wonderful!) man. As I typed this, a memory from last NYE flashed through my mind. I was at a party with my boyfriend at the time and as the crowd counted down the seconds to midnight, I couldn't find him anywhere. I hardly found him in time to kiss at midnight. This year, my boyfriend announced to the whole party that I was going to be his first kiss of 2013. He was so cute and so proud to be telling everyone this. He put down the mic and ran over to me with plenty of time to spare. It was so silly and adorable. I don't mean to be overly cheesy, but I haven't been with someone so proud to be with me in a very, very long time. Let's just say my midnight kiss was full of hope, excitement and lots of sparks.

The night consisted of lots of dancing, more kisses and at one point, me drinking vodka straight out of the bottle. If that night is any indication, 2013 is going to be full of joy and love.

Smitten :)

the ladies!

I hope you all had a wonderful time celebrating the new year! Here's to a joyful 2013!

It's Okay Thursday: Wedding Edition

I participated in one link-up a few weeks ago and now I'm link-up crazy. Not really, but I figured this might be a good way to share some highlights from last weekend's wedding festivities without boring you all with unecessary details. Onward...

It's okay to use more than one penis straw during bachelorette party festivities. It's better to be the girl with the 4 penis straws in her drink than the girl who won't even use one. It's all okay.

 

It's okay to discover a stripper pole at the bar during said bachelorette party and twirl around on it. You're obviously not a stripper, so this is totally okay and all in good fun, proven even more true when you fall off that stripper pole. 

 

It's okay to get ready in the bridal suite with the bridal party if the bride says it's okay and your best friend is with you. It's okay if people are going to see the professional photos and be like "Who is 'that girl' getting ready with the bridesmaids?"

 

 

It's okay that the best man (your best girl friend and wedding date's brother) calls you both out for being in a lesbian relationship and asks you both to stand up during his best man speech. It's totally okay. Just go with it.

 

 

It's okay to shower your best friend with confetti when the clock strikes midnight on her birthday. Maybe you will track it all over the hotel you are staying in and find confetti in your hair 3 days later, but just look at the pure joy on her face. Totally okay...totally worth it. 

Well there you have it. It's Okay Thursday and a recap of the wedding without getting into boring details. I just love weddings...the dressing up, the family and friends that are like family, the dancing and the booze.