You Wait Your Whole Life For One Day, And Then Suddenly That Day IsTomorrow! 10.25.13

The time has come! So our wonderful wedding week was here and boy were we ready! We left Tuesday October 22nd to head down to Orange Beach. We were all packed for the week and the honeymoon and we were so excited! Mr. Tan Lines' parents had come to visit in mid-September and took my dress and a ton of other decorations back down with them, which was a huge help! Here we were waiting for our flight at the airport!

We arrived in Alabama late Tuesday night and pretty much went to sleep soon after unloading at Mr. Tan Lines’ childhood home. We woke up early Wednesday morning and headed for the beach, but there was one quick stop before. We had to pick up our marriage license!! It was SO surreal. The office was very quiet and empty, it felt very business-like and formal. The clerk was very stone faced but Mr. Tan Lines and I kept looking at each other thinking “OMG! We’re about to really do this!” This process only took 20 minutes and after that we were off! I was able to convince Mr. Tan Lines to rent a convertible car so it was a fantastic drive down to the beach with the top down! We arrived in Orange Beach in very high spirits! The resort we selected for our guests was located directly next to where the reception was and across the street from where the beach ceremony was, it was called Caribe Condos and Resorts. We checked into our room, on the penthouse level and were so relieved to finally be there! The first picture is of our view of the beach and the second picture is of our view of the bay and Robinson Island!

The rest of the week we had a few final appointments with the reception coordinator and the florist, but other than that it was really relaxing! Our family and friends slowly fizzled into town and we were so happy to see all of them! The Thursday before we went boating and ate lunch at a famous water front restaurant called Tacky Jack’s, we drank fruity beach drinks and ate super fresh seafood :)

 

Friday morning was the “official” start of our wedding weekend and excitement was in the air! My (then future) mother in law and her friends offered to throw me a bridal luncheon, inviting all of my lady family members and friends to attend. It was held at her room in Caribe Resort that had a wonderful view! They had mimosa’s ready to go and a ton of food! There was chicken salad sandwiches, salad, ham and yummy petite fours! It was fun getting to see everyone in such a relaxed atmosphere and also giving them all a chance to meet. While I was at my luncheon the boys went off to play golf, Mr. Tan Lines reported back that they had A LOT of fun! I got my fun little "bride" headband from an Etsy shop, as well as my "bride" lacey tank top!

Here I am with my mom and (then) future mother in law!

After everyone regrouped it was time for the rehearsal on the beach. The company we hired to provide the ceremony services also provided a day-before coordinator that helped walk us through the ceremony. The weather was beautiful and everyone was so excited! Here is a picture of one of my bridesmaids and I on the beach during the rehearsal!

 

Orange Beach were we got married was actually featured on this list of the most beautiful beaches in the U.S. not to miss!

 

http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/12/travel/beautiful-beaches-united-states/index.html

After the rehearsal it was time to get ready for the rehearsal dinner! Here are Mr. Tan Lines and I leaving the resort and on our way to dinner!

 

Mr. Tan Lines' parents rented out a private room at a water front restaurant to serve as the location for the dinner. The restaurant was called The Compleat Angler and it was situated right next to the dockyard and bay! We offered up a classic shrimp boil for our guests complete with shrimp, red skinned potatoes, corn on the cob and Conecuh sausage (TO DIE FOR!!) There was also an open bar and an acoustic guitar player to help set the mood! It was a fabulous evening and I think as guests started arriving it really hit me that this was all in preparation for OUR WEDDING! It was so exciting!! Everyone ate, laughed and mingled, it was a great time! Here are some fun pictures from the rehearsal dinner!

After dinner we had told guests ahead of time that we planned to go out for a bit at a local (and famous) beach bar called The Flora-Bama. It is a HUGE beach bar located right on the Florida-Alabama state line and was just 2 miles from the Caribe Resort! The bar has 4-5 different stages with bands performing and 10-12 different rooms you can lounge in, not to mention the outdoor areas. About 30 guests came with us after the rehearsal dinner and each and every one of them could not stop talking about how much they loved the Flora-Bama and how much fun they had! It was a great taste of the South for them :) 

 

All in all it was a wonderful day and the perfect start to our wedding weekend!! I can’t wait to share all of our wonderful wedding day details with you on Monday! Here is a sneak peak of what’s to come!! Have a great weekend everyone!

 

TEN DAYS!

We’re almost there! So we were 10 days out from the wedding, that’s right TEN! I was so excited! We weren’t packed or ready for our 3 week vacation but we were mentally already gone! We spent the last few days at home organizing ourselves and making sure we had everything we needed. We also spent as much time as we could with Miss Lily…look at that face, who would ever want to spend time away from her? <3 I will get into our wedding week tomorrow, starting with our arrival, my bridal luncheon and our rehearsal dinner, oh and the kick ass party after!

But, for now let’s fast forward to a couple of weeks ago! First of all Mr. Tan Lines started our weekend off wonderfully by bringing home beautiful pink roses for my Friday flowers. I had made a recent trip to Mecca, I mean World Market and was stocked up on new yummy wines. I also purchased 2 new wine glasses from them. I absolutely love that place! I’d never tried Garnacha before but it was delicious! It had a really bold flavor, similar to that of a Malbec. It’s characterized by its spicy berry flavor and is usually blended with Syrah, Carignan, Tempranillo and Cinsaut. This particular brand was delicious and only $12. I will definitely buy it again!

 

I had a special little project I did for Mr. Tan Lines' birthday, I wanted a cool, vintage looking photograph of me for him to carry with him in his wallet. It took A LOT of selfies to get the ones I felt were just right, but here were my two favorites!

 

We were actually in Columbia, South Carolina the weekend of his birthday doing some sight seeing. We ended up going to Buffalo Wild Wings for his actual birthday because someone was in the mood for wings! The following day we drove around and checked out Lake Murray. It was so beautiful! It was a chilly day but we had a blast exploring, it seems like it would be a great place to live :)

I almost forgot! Here was Miss Lily just a few weeks ago, rocking her high fashion scarf :)

 

Cocks & Hens!

Enough is enough! Let’s get to the fun stuff!

So on September 21^st Mr. Tan Lines and I had our bachelor/bachelorette parties, or as I affectionately called it, our “Cocks & Hens” party. We invited all of our closest friends and their significant others to join us on a party bus ride into downtown DC. I asked the girls to wear their favorite LBD’s and the boys to wear jackets. We loaded up the bus with plenty of alcohol and my party playlist! It happened to be straight down pouring that evening so we weren’t able to take any pictures outside, but the bus was pretty sharp looking! It took us into a little village called Adam’s Morgan. It’s really just an assortment of bar after bar after bar intermixed with the best big slice pizza. It was pretty quiet for a Saturday night but everyone had such a great time!! Here is a picture of the whole gang and then just the girls and then the boys! :)

Here we are on the bus and then at one of the bars! 

And then here's a picture of me and Mr. Tan Lines! I purchased my veil and sash from an Etsy shop (go figure!)

Mr. Tan Lines' best man and wife came up to visit all the way from Alabama for the weekend as well! We took them sight seeing in DC, here is a picture we snapped outside of the Lincoln Memorial, as I mentioned, it was a very wet weekend!

The following weekend we ran in the 4.7 mile race for wounded vets! It was held at a local park and it was a beautiful morning! We had so much fun getting out and running the trails! 

And as far as a Miss Lily update goes, she was entering her "terrible twos" phase. It was quite comical but A LOT of work!

What A Wonderful Weekend!

So if you look back in my earlier posts you’ll notice that I read and rated The Fault In Our Stars. Looks like they’re gearing it to be this decades The Notebook, but I just don’t see it. The book was good, but I didn’t shed one tear. I felt the emotions and I fell in love with Hazel Grace & Gus, but the tragic ending just didn’t hit home for me. I think I’ll have to re-read the book before the movie comes out. I can say that I can already see thousands of teenage girls swooning over the tragedy and heartbreak and it makes me sad for the next generation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ItBvH5J6ss#t=137

Anyway, I have been busy at work so here’s what happened this weekend! As I mentioned I had some fun things planned out to celebrate Mr. Tan Lines' birthday. On Saturday I surprised him with a romantic dinner at a yummy French restaurant. There are locations in Vegas, Chicago and Bethesda, MD. The restaurant is called Mon Ami Gabi and it was delicious! We met some friends for drinks first, they had a fabulous HH special. We drank two different varietals of pinot noir to start. We were seated at our table right on time and ordered the warm baked brie dish and the french onion soup. We enjoyed both thoroughly. We then both ordered steaks, I got the hanger steak with a pinot noir butter sauce, what? YUM. Mr. Tan Lines ordered the Béarnaise, which was a classic French cut of meat with a sauce similar to a hollandaise. Both steaks came with thinly sliced potatoes, or aka steak frites. We also ordered a bottle of the Bordeaux Superieur, Chateau Cadillac from 2010. It had a wonderfully nutty flavor and paired excellent with our steaks. After we devoured our meal we were too full for dessert, however the waiter brought over two complimentary profiteroles that were delicious! They had creamy, vanilla filling inside of them and were covered in melted chocolate. We had a wonderful and romantic evening and Mr. Tan Lines loved it! :)

On Saturday we spent almost the entire day cleaning. I, also spent almost the entire day cooking! We invited five of our friends over that night to enjoy some delicious food and play some board games. The meal I had planned for that evening was a cheese/meat platter to start, Mexican shrimp cocktail and chicken fajitas! Dessert was going to be guiltless brownies and low-fat vanilla ice cream. Here is a picture of my cheese board, I purchased the meats and cheeses from my local Trader Joe’s, along with my guiltless brownie mix and ice cream :)

The chicken fajitas required very simple treatment. I used our new Emeril indoor grill pan and got great color on the green, yellow, red peppers and the yellow onions. I seasoned the chicken with chili powder, salt, pepper, cayenne and garlic salt. We then made a large platter with lettuce, tomato and onions. We then let our friends top off their fajitas with sour cream and guacamole. I did not home make the guacamole this time, we purchased it from Whole Foods because it is our favorite! Sorry, I was wayyy to busy for pictures! After everyone ate we played around 50 rounds of Cards Against Humanity, an adult card game that is truly entertaining. We had some good laughs, even a few tears were shed from laughing so much! After a while we switched over to Taboo which was a lot of fun too!!! It was a great evening and we all had so much fun. I cannot wait to do it again!

The recipe for the Mexican Shrimp Cocktail I got from here:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/mexican-shrimp-cocktail/detail.aspx

Last but not least I spent Sunday night in a flurry of excitement getting ready to watch Sean and Catherine’s wedding!! I loved his season of The Bachelor and thought they made a great match! The wedding was stunning and they both looked so happy! Bridal Guide Magazine put some behind the scenes pictures, check them out! They are soo cute! 

http://bridalguide.com/planning/bachelor-sean-lowe-wedding

The Countdown Continued!

So after my return to Virginia from Alabama in August I had a great sense of accomplishment and readiness for the wedding. Almost everything was finalized and it was now time to sit back and relax. This was how I timed my planning all along; I wanted the last few months to be spent in complete relaxation and excitement for the big day! We were down to just 60 days :) I purchased a delicious white chocolate and coconut cake from our local grocery store and added some candles to it! I surprised Mr. Tan Lines with it when he got home from work :)  The picture in the background was taken in May 2011 at Virginia Beach. We had been dating for only a month and Mr. Tan Lines swept me off my feet and took me away for the weekend to celebrate my birthday. We had a fabulous trip and it brought us even closer together!

I also purchased a coloring book, I find coloring to be so so relaxing! Mr. Tan Lines thought it was very elementary school but I thoroughly enjoyed it! There’s nothing better than hanging out with a glass of wine, a coloring book and your favorite music. Here is one of the master pieces I created!

Around this time too I was leaving work and spotted this amazing sun/cloud picture. I felt like it was God looking down on everyone and saying Hello :)

And lastly, you know there has to be a Miss Lily update! Here she is at a little more than 5 months dancing with dad! She had gotten so tall by then, she also started what we called “counter surfing.” Meaning she was now tall enough to reach the food on the counters, causing us to purchase baby gates to eliminate the threat to our dinners!

Well Happy Friday everyone! I am so excited for this weekend, we are celebrating Mr. Tan Lines 28th birthday! It was technically last week but I don’t feel like he got the proper celebration since we were traveling. I am taking him to a romantic French style restaurant tonight and tomorrow we are having friends over to play games and hang out!  I will be cooking up some fabulous meals so I will be sure to share the recipes on Monday! Talk you all then! 

They Always Come Back

Well, well, well. Look who decided to join the party again! I cannot believe it’s been 5 months since my last blog post. Where did the time go?? Well, a lot has happened in those 5 months. I of course, got MARRIED and it was the most perfect day! We had an amazing honeymoon in Antigua and we have traveled to a few places since then too.

But, alas. We must start from the beginning. So let’s go back to where we last left off, shall we?

In late August I made a solo trip down to Orange Beach, AL to finalize our wedding plans. I met with the event coordinator for the reception and revisited the flower shop aka the local Publix. I also had dinner at the reception site with my (then) future in-laws where I was able to capture this gorgeous picture of the sunset. It must have been an omen :)

It was a cloudy Saturday but my (then) future mother in law and I drove up and down the beach looking for weddings and examining our wedding site. We were lucky enough to find a protected sea turtles nest which I thought was so cool!

It was a fabulous trip and I got SO MUCH done. There were 62 days left, yet the wedding still felt years away. I was calm and just ready at that point for the big day to arrive! 

Here was Miss Lily at 5 months with Mr. Tan Lines :)