Back from Block!

We are back from our wonderful vacation. I was really sad to leave on Sunday and even more sad to go back to work today. Block Island was really incredible!! I would highly recommend it - we had a blast all week. The weather was great and we got some relaxing beach time in, as well as exploring the island (it's only 10 miles total, so we rode our bikes around alot). The wedding was absolutely amazing on Saturday evening - one of the best I've been to! They had a really fun after party at a local bar with a fun band and late night munchies...doesn't get better than that!

I'll post some pictures tonight...I think I took about 200 (oops!), but I'll post some highlights.

Also....OUR WEDDING IS IN 6 WEEKS!!!! How did this happen??? Holy crap - I am in serious wedding mode now. I'm sure I will be posting with tons of projects and progress over the next few weeks.

My 2nd bridal shower and bachelorette party are THIS WEEKEND! YAY! The bridal shower is mainly with my friends (with my mom and J's mom included) on Friday evening and then we leave Saturday morning for THE BEACH for the weekend! You have no idea how excited I am...I'm sure there will be many pictures and stories early next week!

And We're Off!

We leave bright and early tomorrow morning for VACATION! It's finally here - today is totally the longest day ever as I watch the minutes tick by until I leave work. Tonight right after work, I'm heading in for a last minute tanning session and then finishing up my packing. I'm also going to bake a few batches of slice and bake chocolate chip cookies (the only kind I ever make!) because to me, a week at the beach is not complete without chocolate chip cookies to snack on after laying in the sand all day.

We'll be back late Sunday evening! I'm sure I'll have tons of pictures and stories! Have a wonderful week!!

Some pictures of Block Island...so beautful, I can't wait to see it!

Pretty Picture Friday!

My BFF K got her professional pics back, and they are all SO amazing, that I had to share! This was us in the Bridal Suite right after our flowers got delivered and before we got dressed. I love how we all had different bouquets and K's bouquet was like a combo of me and L's.

This is hands down my favorite picture from their wedding...I love the lighting and basically everything about it...

Doesn't it look like a magazine ad? I can't get over how beautiful it is!

And here's a few good ones of me and Jake --

Dancing...love this one of J, he's so cute!! and I'm obsessed with black and white pics.
During Cocktail hour - obviously I'm telling J something interesting...haha.

I wish I could share ALL of K's pics. They are incredible. Oh and have I mentioned we're using the same photographer for our wedding?? YAY!

Happy Friday! I'm working ALL weekend, but it's worth it because we'll be on vacation in t-3 days!

(all photos by Egomedia Photography)

Summer Vaca!

J and I leave NEXT TUESDAY for summer vacation! We're heading up to Block Island, Rhode Island for 6 days. You have no idea how excited I am. With my job, I haven't gone on a summer vacation in 4 years. That's pretty ridiculous, considering I grew up going to the Outer Banks EVERY summer with my family.

Our friends are getting married up there on Saturday, the 18th, and we decided to just make a vacation out of the wedding and stay all week. We've rented a house with a bunch of other couples, and I'm so excited to relax and enjoy the beautiful island. I've never been there, but Jake has and he's shown me his old pictures...it looks gorgeous! I'm excited to ride the ferry over to the island - I've never been on a ferry boat before!

In preparation for the trip, I, of course, have been shopping for some beach clothes. Here's a few things I've picked up for our trip:

Obviously, you can't go to the beach without a new bikini! Loving the seersucker and the flirty ruffle trim. I got this color (rich purple) because it's so summery...love it!

J.Crew knit jersey dress in charcoal. Perfect to thrown on after the beach and I also plan on wearing it to the welcome dinner for the wedding on Friday evening, dressed up with fun jewelry!

Ruffle trim polos - from Target! They look exactly like the ones from J.Crew...except they are only $12!! I definitely stocked up on these as they are a perfect staple and go with everything. Love!

Jeweled sandals from Old Navy to wear to the wedding with my new print maxi dress. I'm so excited to wear flats to the wedding - I will be able to dance all night!!

Beach countdown is ON! t-6 days!

So Sweet!

The nicest thing happened to me today. I had a final meeting with my bride for this weekend and her mom. When I went out to greet them, the bride was standing there with a large bouquet of gorgeous flowers, in a box. They explained that they brought me the flowers to say thank you for all of my work on their wedding this past year. I was so touched, as the flowers were all in yellow and green (my wedding colors). The bride told me that in the box, the flowers were in a vase, but they put them in a box for easy transport.

Well, after they left from their appointment and I went back to my office, I took the box off the bottom of the flowers and saw this:

The beautiful Kate Spade "Larabee Dot" vase from our wedding registry!! I couldn't believe it! They purchased the vase, and then had the floral arrangement made in for it! I was so touched that I started crying! I'm just so blown away at how thoughtful and nice people are. They obviously already knew I was engaged, but they took the time to go to our registry and find the vase and then have the flowers done in our wedding colors! They had even tied a navy ribbon around the vase to bring that color in as well...just so sweet!

It totally made my day and I can't stop smiling! Enjoy this sunny Tuesday!!

Relaxing Monday

Monday is my favorite day of the week because it's always my day off. I love having off when everyone else is working because I can get so much done (grocery shopping, etc.) But if I decide that I just want to be lazy for an entire Monday, I don't typically feel guilty about that. 

Spencer also loves Mondays because she usually gets double the amount of walks, plus she gets to be lazy with me. Here's Spencer's typical Monday routine:

While I'm eating breakfast and drinking tea on our deck, she acts as the neighborhood watch. She checks out every car and person to go by to make sure there's no funny business going on. 

I usually walk her down to this big park by our house and let her run around off leash. She LOVES it

She finishes the day by taking a nap in our guest room (because it gets a ton of afternoon sun) and sprawling out on the carpet. Pure dog heaven! 

Hope everyone's Monday is as relaxing as Spencer's!!

Welcome Home

With our new homeowner status, we've been scouring yard sales and Craigs List regularly for household items. With our budget for new items being right around zero, it's been tough for Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware catalogs to come in and for me to realize it's going to be a while before we can afford anything from those store. Bummer.

 

Our kitchen is definitely my least favorite part of the house. Isn't that so sad? It's never been updated and all the appliances and cabinets are pretty much horrible. Before we moved in, I completely scrubbed down the entire kitchen, which made it a little bit better, but not great. Almost every cabinet squeaks when you open them and most of the drawers come off the hinges constantly.  All the appliances work fine, they are just gross and old. 

However, our stove is the devil. It's possessed. It is definitely the original stove (circa 1984) and it has a lovely tilt to it, that we can't seem to fix. It makes cooking extremely interesting, since all the food goes to one side of the pan. It's also a coil cooktop, which I really think should be discontinued. Do they still make stoves like these? I honestly just want to throw it off our back deck. 

So while most of the kitchen upgrade is going to have to wait until this winter after we get our first time homebuyers credit, we decided we just can't wait for a new stove. With being so broke right now, a brand new stove isn't in the cards for us right now, BUT we found a 2 year old stainless steel Kenmore stove on Craigs List last week for the budget friendly price of $200!! Yes, it will soon find it's new home in our kitchen tonight! We went to look at it and it seriously is like brand new. I love it...nice flat cooktop and lovely stainless warming drawer underneath. 

Welcome Home beautiful stove!

(ps - my favorite part about getting this is that it now forces us to buy all stainless steel appliances when we re-do the kitchen...J likes black appliances better, but oh well!!)