Our Honeymoon Part II: Caving & Four-Wheeling

Catch up on part one of my honeymoon recap here!

On Wednesday and Thursday we planned excursions, which made for a perfect mix of relaxation and adventure. The excursions we chose were AMAZING. We’re pretty sure we picked the best ones.

On Wednesday we did the Eco Tour through Adventure Antigua, which let us explore and hike several unspoiled islands, snorkel, learn more about the history of Antigua, and the best part — go caving at Hell’s Gate. Hell’s Gate is a cave where the Atlantic meets the Caribbean Sea, creating a whirlpool. We were able to go inside the cave and hike to the top of it. It was so neat seeing the deep blue Atlantic waters meet the turquoise Caribbean sea.

On Thursday we went on an ATV four-wheeling trip through the countryside of the island. I have to admit, I was a little nervous for this one. I was the only one in the group who had never been on a four-wheeler, and several people in our group actually owned their own. The terrain was definitely not easy, but after about 10 minutes I got the hang of it and was able to relax and have a LOT of fun. We went through farmland and you truly felt like you were in the middle of nowhere, with cows and goats passing right in front of you. It was amazing. We rode up to the top of a mountain to find the most beautiful view that overlooked the entire island. This ended up being our favorite part of the trip!

Also, a quick note about Antigua. One thing I really liked about the island was how safe it felt. I’ve been to some other islands where going off the resort property is not recommended. We took several cab rides to venture outside of our resort and always felt safe. All of the locals were very friendly and we never felt taken advantage of. I like to really experience a new place and see more than just the tourist side, so I really appreciated this aspect!

Stay tuned to hear my take on the food at our resort plus a few other eateries in town!

How Do You Recap The Best Two Weeks of Your Life?

I’m baaack and I’m MARRIED! The past two weeks were, without a doubt, the best two weeks of my life. How do you recap that in a blog post? I have no idea.

(A sneak peak by my fabulous photographer!)

I think your wedding is one of the only events in your life that has so much build up and yet still exceeds every single expectation. The feeling you have during that day is pure joy and I’ve never experienced anything like it. Our wedding was better than I could have ever imagined. I’m pretty sure I was smiling for 12 hours straight. My knees hurt the next day from dancing so much (I consider this a good thing). Everything was beautiful, special, and FUN. I’ll wait until I get all the photos back from our photographer to attempt to recap it in full, but for now here’s a few snapshots into the night from photos that some of our guests took!

As for our honeymoon to Antigua, it was amazing. We woke up at 5am the morning after our wedding to get to our 7:30am flight on Sunday to Antigua. Please Note: I do not recommend this. You will be passed out on the floor at the airport as evidenced by the photo below (sorry Cameron).

After two easy and quick flights, we arrived in Antigua at about 3:00 on Superbowl Sunday.

We had grand plans to attend a “must-do” Sunday-only party at Shirley Heights, which is a restaurant/bar on a cliff with beautiful sunset views that I had read all about on Trip Advisor. When we first arrived at the resort we got a second wind and grabbed some pizza and beer. Post-pizza and beer, we quickly realized we needed to lay down ASAP. I crashed hard that night and fell asleep around 6pm and did not watch the Superbowl at all. I think I woke up at halftime and saw Katy Perry dancing on top of a tiger, but I could be dreaming. Needless to say, our Sunday night party did not happen. Waking up at 5am the day after your wedding is no joke. But sleep was exactly what I needed and I felt ready to carpe diem when I woke up the next morning.

We stayed at Sandals Grande Antigua, an all-inclusive resort, and it was perfect. We didn’t want to think about money or planning too much since we had done plenty of that during the course of wedding planning. We were able to completely relax, drink as many cocktails as we wanted and order lobster for dinner without feeling even a tiny bit bad.

Had to include this pic of me looking like a total diva on the beach. When in Rome.

Monday and Tuesday were spent relaxing at the beach and pool. Well, I relaxed at the beach and pool while I watched Cameron play every single activity offered. Sandals was perfect for us because Cameron loves playing any game or sport, and they definitely delivered on that. He gets bored sitting at a beach/pool all day, so you could usually find him playing in (and winning!) the pig pong tournament, beach volleyball, pool volleyball, bocce ball, juggling in the talent show…the list goes on. There was always some kind of activity to participate in which made the trip a lot of fun. I’m pretty sure everyone at the resort knew his name by the end of the trip – just another reason why I love him 🙂

On Monday night we went to a beach barbecue which was delicious and fun. We also met some of our favorite people that night that we hung out with a few times throughout the trip. Tuesday night was dinner at Eleanor’s, where I ordered lobster and loved it, followed by the talent show, which Cameron won by juggling and then breaking it down afterward. His dance at the end is 100% the reason he won. Hilarious.

Stay tuned for a recap of the excursions we went on and to hear my take on the food, because I love food therefore it deserves its own post. Until then I’ll be cyber-stalking my photographer for wedding photos and attempting to survive the real world. Oh how I wish I was drinking out of a coconut instead of slamming coffee right now. Cheers!

Disconnecting + Weekly Workouts

We are in the final countdown!!! On Wednesday, we are leaving for Orlando and I am anxiously counting down the days! My to-do list is a mile long so you may not hear much from me.

We leave for our honeymoon in Antigua the day after our wedding, so we spent some time at Barnes & Noble Saturday night to pick up books to read on the beach. I picked up Wild by Cheryl Strayed and also bought Amy Poehler’s Yes Please on Audible. I’m a big fan of listening to comedian’s books on Audible rather than reading them because they tend to be even funnier when said in the voice of the comedian. I’ve recently listened to Tina Fey’s Bossypants and Mindy Kaling’s Is Everyone Hanging out Without Me on Audible and both were incredible. Any other book suggestions??

I am so excited to completely disconnect ALL week long on our honeymoon. I plan on turning my phone on airplane mode the entire week and being free from email, social media, etc. and just truly relaxing and soaking it all up. I can’t remember the last time I went more than an hour without my phone by my side so this will be a good reset. We’ve made plans for a few excursions as well, so it will be a good mix of adventure and relaxation. I cannot wait to plant myself on this island all week 🙂

Let’s talk workouts. This week was heavy on the Iron Tribe. I usually try to stay away from doing Iron Tribe more than 3 days in a row, because my body is typically so sore by then it needs a break. This week, though, my body felt good and the workouts didn’t feel extremely difficult, so I did more in a row than usual. Plus, I just don’t have the mental capacity to create a workout on my own right now!

Monday – Iron Tribe
100 Double Unders
20 Thrusters (65#)
20 Burpees
-Rest 1 min-
75 Double Unders
15 Thrusters
15 Burpees
-Rest 1 min-
50 Double Unders
10 Thrusters
10 Burpees
-Rest 1 min-
25 Double Unders
5 Thrusters
5 Burpees

I went into this thinking it would totally suck because thrusters and burpees are essentially the worst, but surprisingly it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I’m starting to like thrusters more and more…ok, like is a strong word. I’m starting to *tolerate* thrusters more and more.

Tuesday, Iron Tribe
A. Every 90 seconds for 8 sets (12 min total):
6 Front Rack Lunges (3 each leg) + 6 Bent Over Rows (I did 85#)
B. 9 min AMRAP of:
12 Russian kettlebell swings (35#)
6 Pull-ups

Wednesday: Iron Tribe
Partner Workout!
20 min AMRAP of:
20 HSPU
20 Medball passing situps
20 Box jumps
200m run with medball overhead

We got about 4 rounds. Those medball overheard runs were HARD.

Thursday: Iron Tribe
5 Rounds of the following:
30 sec. max calorie row
39 sec. rest
30 sec. max power clean (I did 85#)
Rest 3 min.
B. 10 min EMOM of the following:
Min 1: 2 Burpees
Min 2: 4 Burpees
Min 3: 6 Burpees
*Add 2 each minute until you can’t complete the total amount within the minute.

I think the burpee part of this workout was one you had to mentally commit to if you were going to complete all 20 burpees within the last minute, and I was definitely not committed. I went hard on the first portion of this workout and gave up on the burpees after minute 8. Still a great workout!

Friday: Iron Tribe
A. Front Squat: 5-4-3-2-1
I got a new Front Squat PR of 145#! Here’s the thing, I don’t really write down PRs or do a very good job tracking my progress on workouts (other than this blog). Maybe one day I will care more, but right now I have a pretty good idea of my limits and it works well for me.
Rest 1 min
B. For time (12 min. cap):
30 Double unders
15 Wall balls
15 Knees to elbows
30 Double Unders
15 Wall balls
15 Knees to elbows
30 Double unders
15 Wall balls
15 knees to elbows
30 Double unders

Saturday: Jogging at the park!
It was so nice out on Saturday afternoon, so we took it to our new favorite park to get our sweat on.

Sunday: REST!

What was the best workout of your week? Any book suggestions for me? Has anyone been to Antigua!?

My Wedding Pinspiration

Since we are now 10 days (!!!) out from the Big Day, I thought I’d share some of my wedding inspiration. I tend to ebb and flow with Pinterest, either spending way too much time on it or ignoring it for months, so I figured I’d be in full-on flow for the entire year of my engagement. Thankfully, this wasn’t the case. I spent a lot of time on it in the beginning, and then backed off once I figured out my overall look, which has an urban-rustic feel to it. So, let’s take a gander into my Pinterest boards, shall we?

We are getting married in a very beautiful and traditional church, but we wanted the reception to be unique and relaxed. Those types of venues are surprisingly few and far between in my hometown of Orlando. I knew as soon as I walked into Quantum Leap Winery that it was where I wanted my reception to be. It’s an urban-style winery complete with lots of wine barrels. It was perfect.

P.S. I can’t get enough of string lights. I love the way they make a room feel.

My bridesmaids’ dresses are deep purple, and my flowers will be all white with lots of greenery. I gravitate toward a clean, natural look and I can’t wait to see how my amazing florists put it all together! 

One of my very best friends and bridesmaids is creating lots of chalk signs throughout the venue, which was of course a Pinterest-inspired edition. She is an amazing artist and has seriously WOW’d me with everything I’ve seen so far! And of course the last photo on here represents the feel of our reception — FUN. We want everyone to be dancing and having a blast!

Married people: What was the look & feel of your wedding?
Non-married people: do you have a secret wedding board on Pinterest? (um, I was 100% guilty of this).

6 Awesome Things That Only Occur When You Live With Girlfriends

So, life has been crazy lately. This whole engaged thing has been really fun and relaxed until about a week and a half ago. Then, all hell broke loose. I’ve been suddenly slammed with emails and random things I’ve forgotten about until now. Friends keep asking me if they can help, but you see, it’s not really things people can help with. Unless you want to sift through my emails and find out how much money I still owe our lighting or cake people, then be my guest.

But I promise the point of this post is not to complain because I am honestly SO excited and happy that it our wedding is only 2.5 weeks away! I’ve started thinking about how life will change once we are married, and while I don’t think all that much will change, it did make me realize that I will never live with a roommate or group of girls ever again. While I am mostly happy about this, there is a little sadness that comes with it too.

Aside from the last 6 months, I’ve lived with girlfriends for the past 6 years. And besides the occasional passive-aggressive drama that goes along with that, it was really, really fun. There are a few things you only experience when you live with your best friends that I know will miss, like…

1. Getting ready together.
When you’re getting ready by yourself or with your significant other, it’s usually a really sad, half-assed process of convincing yourself to get up and actually straighten your hair and spending about 10 seconds on your makeup. When you get ready with a group of girls, something magical happens. There is wine, there is Britney playing in the background, there are hair tips and makeup tricks. You end up spending 30 minutes on one eyelid while your girlfriend teaches you how to use a curling iron properly. It is often times more fun than whatever it is you’re getting ready for.

2. Watching shows like The Bachelor/KUWTK/Houswives together.
I am banned from watching these shows in Cameron’s presence, which is probably a good thing since I feel like I’m a better person because of it. But I’ve also realized these shows were solely designed to watch with a group of your girlfriends. Have you ever tried to watch these shows alone? It’s sad. They are meant to be watched while simultaneously drinking wine, Pinteresting and discussing how ridiculous each character is.

3. Sharing clothes.
When you have multiple closets to choose from, you always have something new and cute to wear. You also end up saving money from not having to go shopping. It’s a win-win.

4. Analyzing text messages from the opposite sex.
This is something I honestly miss about living with girlfriends. I love hearing interpretations of texts like: “Sounds good. Looking forward to it.” But what does it mean???

5. Analyzing life in general.
Questioning your love life? Considering a career change? Thinking about coloring your hair, but can’t decide between highlights and lowlights? Your girlfriends will help you break these burning questions to their very core.

6. Having a good cry.
I’m pretty sure if I came home from work and said “Tonight, I just want to have a good cry” I would get looked at like I was a crazy person. But girlfriends understand that every once in a while, you just need to cry. And they will happily put the popcorn in the microwave, turn on “My Sister’s Keeper” and cry alongside you.

 

 

11 Ridiculous Questions You Only Get Asked While Wedding Planning

With my wedding less than two months away, I find myself getting asked (and asking myself) the most ridiculous questions that are only acceptable while wedding planning. So I thought I’d share the ridiculousness with you all.

1. What is your wedding hashtag?
I once heard someone say “are you really getting married if you don’t have a wedding hashtag?” and the sad part is it’s kind of true now-a-days. I used to think the whole wedding hashtag thing was a bit ridiculous, but once I saw its actual usefulness I fully got on board. Unfortunately, rhyming with “Ingrum” is really, really difficult.

2. How do I share a Secret Pinterest board with my florist?
You can’t. So my wedding board is now public for the world to see. Oh, the horror!

3. What song do you want played while you are cutting the cake?
You could be playing “Gangsters in Paradise” and I’m pretty sure no one would remember.
P.S. I love the movie Marie Antoinette

4. What color nail polish should the bridesmaids wear?
Seriously? I could care less.

5. Does this cost extra?
The answer to that one is always YES. Everything wedding-related costs extra x 50.
Except for selfies. Selfies are always free.

6. How do you address two married doctors in a formal invitation?
This was a question I had to google while working on my invitations. In case you are wondering, it is: Drs. John and Jane Kelly.

7. Wait, you didn’t register for china?
Nope, I didn’t. I know, I’m a big-time bride rebel.

8. Do I look “bridal” enough?
I asked my mom this before every shower. It’s very hard to find white dresses that don’t look too summery in the dead of winter.
Dark green is bridal, right?

9. Is confetti biodegradable?
They do in fact make biodegradable confetti! Now we can celebrate AND feel good about not simultaneously destroying the earth.

10. What if it’s freezing the night of the wedding?
Our venue does not have AC or a heater, so this question has popped into my mind a few times, with me quickly shutting it down and calling myself crazy. We live in Florida. It will be fine.

11. Should I get donut holes or full-sized donuts as my ‘giveaway’ favor at the end of the night?
Serious question. I’m leaning toward full-sized because bigger is always better when it comes to donuts.

What ridiculous questions were you asked (or asked yourself) during wedding planning?

Bachelorette Part II

In case you missed it…check out Part I!

Saturday night was deemed our night to par-tay. I have a one night of partying per weekend limitation (basically, I can’t hang). And luckily, my friends know this and planned accordingly.

Once we were all dolled up, I broke out the bachelorette favors I got for my bridesmaids. If anyone is looking for bachelorette favors/gifts…I am obsessed with these monogrammed mason jar shot glasses from Etsy. Plus Fireball minis, Essie nail polish, chocolate, ring pops and advil. Ya know, all the essentials.

We then piled into a truck and Ubered to dinner. Everywhere we went last weekend we piled 7 people into one car. Smart? Probably not. Fun? YES.

Dinner was at The Hominy Grill, another delicious spot downtown. Followed by a night of shenanigans, bar hopping and dancing starting at Stars Rooftop Bar.  If you can’t tell we had a lot of fun 🙂

On Sunday morning, we drove about 30 minutes away to an amazing plantation home – Middleton Place – for a trail ride! I was a little nervous about this, because my last horse experience was not the greatest (My horse didn’t get along with another horse, so it turned around and started RUNNING. I finally jumped off when it slowed down to a trot). Thankfully, this was a completely different experience. It was so peaceful, the weather was perfect and the trail was absolutely beautiful. I couldn’t think of a better end to the trip.

We made the long trek back to Orlando and I happily fell asleep at my parents at 7:30pm.

And that concludes the best weekend of my life. I am SO incredibly grateful for my bridesmaids and friends for putting so much thought and planning into this weekend and for making it so special and fun for me!

Married peeps – did you have a bachelorette? What did you do for it?
Single people – what is your ideal bachelorette party?

Bachelorette Par-tay Part I

I knew my bachelorette party would be so much fun, but I didn’t expect it to be best-weekend-of-my-life fun. Seriously, I think this was the best weekend of my life. I’m sure my wedding weekend will trump that, but for now, this weekend holds the #1 spot.

I had a hard time deciding where to go for my bachelorette party. My friends are very scattered (Orlando, Charleston, Atlanta, NYC, Dallas, Miami, Alabama) so there is no location that is close by for everyone. I finally realized this and just decided to pick a city that was really fun. I decided on Charleston because I had never been there but have always heard it’s amazing. Plus, one of my best friends and bridesmaids lives there.

I knew Charleston would be a great city, but I had no idea just how much I would love it. Seriously, Charleston is THE BOMB. It’s a beautiful historical city with amazing food right next to a cute beach town (Folly Beach). Fun fact: Charleston was just voted the #2 city in the WORLD right after Florence. I guess I did a good job choosing my location afterall.

Three of my friends and I made the 6-hour drive from Orlando on Friday at noon, which landed us in Charleston around 6:30 – perfect timing! We immediately got ready for a DELICIOUS dinner at High Thyme in Sullivan’s Island. I ordered the sweet potato risotto with salmon and was in heaven. Emily shares my love for food and she did not disappoint in choosing amazing restaurants. Every meal we had throughout the weekend was so good and right up my alley.

Strangely enough, we had some alien-themed visitors at dinner. They stayed in character the entire time and we were all sufficiently creeped out.

After dinner, we grabbed a drink at Poe’s Tavern – a bar right across the street from our restaurant. The entire bar was covered in Edgar Allen Poe stories and photos. It was a fun, chill spot to grab a drink before we headed back to Emily’s apartment for the main event of the night – a lingerie shower!

 

We woke up early on Saturday because we had a full day ahead! Our first stop: The Saturday Farmer’s Market followed by a horse carriage tour of the city!

I can’t decide which part of the trip was my favorite, but the carriage tour is up there on the list. Our tour guide was HILARIOUS and Charleston has such an interesting history and culture. She was great at telling us everything from ghost stories, architecture and random facts about the city, plus she kept us laughing the entire time. If you’re ever in Charleston I highly recommend going on a carriage tour. I didn’t want it to end!

After the tour we ate brunch at Poogan’s Porch, which is located in an old house that is haunted by Charleston’s friendliest ghost — Poogan, the former dog who lived there. The food at Poogan’s is incredible Southern food — think warm biscuits, chicken and waffles, crab cake benedicts and grits filled with cheesy goodness. To say I was in my happy place is an understatement.

After brunch we shopped around and had a beer at Folly Beach, an adorable nearby beach town, followed by naps for all. We had an eventful night ahead of us to rest up for!

Stay tuned for the par-tay that is Part II!

 

 

The Best Part About Weddings

We had a couples wedding shower this weekend, and I left Orlando feeling so overwhelmed with gratitude. I think that’s one of my favorite things about this whole wedding deal so far. I know that I have amazing friends and family, but when all of them are together in one room, it just fills you up. In my opinion, it takes more than just parents to “raise” someone – it takes a village. And it’s amazing to think how every single person at that party shaped my life in some way, at some point.

The one piece of wedding advice I’ve heard from nearly everyone is to soak it all in. To be present on your wedding day – for every single minute of it – because it flies by. And just when I’ve decided I’m “over” the wedding planning process and just ready for the big day, I go to something like this that reminds me to savor this part, too. I want to always remember how I felt on my wedding day — the anticipation of getting ready, laughing with my bridesmaids, walking down the aisle and dancing my face off with Cameron. But I also want to remember the little stuff — the dress fittings with my mom, being giddy with Cameron after picking out our weddings bands, and laughing hysterically with a bunch of girlfriends that rarely get to be in the same room together. Life is really just a bunch of little moments, and I want to soak them all up.

Things I’ve Done Right While Wedding Planning

It’s officially October, and I’m kicking the month off with something that I’ve been really excited about for a long time — our catering tasting this weekend! Now that wedding planning has slowed down, I thought I’d share some things I’ve done right during the process. I don’t consider myself a wedding-planning-genius, but, some of these are share-worthy, like drinking copious amounts of champagne while shopping for my wedding dress. Read on…

I said yes to the dress 3 times. And popped champagne 3 times.
When I went shopping for my wedding dress, we went to three different shops, and I thought I found my dress at all of them. So naturally, my mom and I popped champagne at all three shops. By the time we got to the third shop, I finally said yes to the dress and meant it. Or maybe I was just tipsy at that point and thought I looked fabulous. Regardless, I highly recommend popping as much champagne as possible while shopping for your wedding dress, because it’s kind of a once in a lifetime thing.

I utilized Etsy.
When I tried on my wedding dress at bridal shop #3, it was paired with an awesome belt. Too bad the awesome belt was $800. No, I’m not kidding. Yes, I thought about handing over almost a thousand dollars for a belt and then realized I was insane (it was really pretty, ok?). I decided to look on Etsy for belts and found one I loved that was very similar for only $50. I also saved a ton of money by finding my veil on Etsy. Moral of the story: shop on Etsy.

One of my friends took my engagement photos.
I’m just going to say it. Engagement pictures are awkward. Or maybe I am just awkward. But I don’t like kissing in front of a stranger and I don’t know how to “act natural” when a camera is snapping photos of me. Basically, I’m like Chandler in that one episode of Friends.

Luckily, one of my friends is an awesome photographer and she agreed to take our engagement photos so that we could relax and take really normal pictures like this:

I didn’t buy any kitchen/home stuff.
I told myself I would not buy any home/kitchen-related items because that is what your registry is for. So far, I’ve stuck with this plan. In fact, I’ve been so dedicated that I’ve been using a tupperware bowl as a mixing bowl, and let me tell you…cracking eggs on tupperware is really difficult. My mom got me mixing bowls for my shower last weekend and I am excited to consume less egg shells in my future.

I went cake tasting on my birthday.
If your birthday falls during your wedding-planning time, DO THIS.

I Involved Cameron only in the fun stuff.
When I first started planning this shindig, I involved Cameron in every decision. Should we have string lights or uplights? Should our band’s stage be 15 inches high or 20? You know, all the thought-provoking questions you get bombarded with while wedding-planning. I quickly learned he could care less, so I stopped talking about it and involved him in the stuff he does care about, like our catering tasting.

My bridesmaids are actually helping me do stuff.
If there’s one thing that you should know about me, it’s that I’m not crafty at all. My mind is creative, but my hands are not. Anytime I try to create something, it looks like one of those Pinterest fails.

Luckily I have some of the most crafty people you’ve ever met as friends (evidence: my friends in high school started the French Knitting Club, a club that knitted and baked french desserts. I was really good at eating the baked goods.) I’ve already recruited some of my friends to help with the decor for our wedding and am so, so grateful.

Anyone else have tips for things you did right during wedding planning?