Friday, July 30, 2010

FRIDAY!!!

I am on my way to Destin to celebrate my best friend getting married!
This weekend is her bachelorette party! So many people were supposed to come, but unfortunately only two of us stuck with it to the end! But, it should still make for a wonderful (and drama-free) weekend with just the three of us! I hope she has a BLAST and we make it all she wants it to be!

As for home, the husband is home alone this weekend! I will definitely miss him! But maybe the weekend will go by quickly! I hope you all have a great weekend and I will see you all next week!!

Thursday, July 29, 2010

What do I say?

For months now I have been consumed with planning a wedding, a honeymoon, moving, and settling into a new life and routine. Now, the wedding is over. The honeymoon has come and gone. I have moved, although I am not quite settled. We have wedding remnants all over the house. Most of which includes gifts that need to be put away or returned, mints that were our favors, stacks of thank-you notes that are to be sent, address lists and a few other wedding things. Not that much left. As a matter of fact, hopefully after today, there won't be much at all.

Last night Emory and I were talking about the blog and he said, what are you going to blog about now? You have been talking about the wedding and honeymoon for a long time now, and now that it is all over, what are you going to talk about? I said, well, I guess just life. I mean it still goes on right? Even though I don't have any big plans or things coming up, life still goes on.

So, with that being said. I hope you all stick with me while I journey through life. I guess it is going to be fun to watch me navigate through life now as a wife. My first biggest hurdle: getting out of bed. If I can get used to that, I will be doing good. I mentioned it yesterday, but it is still getting to me. I used to get up every morning easily. I am big about getting up quickly and easily. I cook Emory breakfast and have some coffee then get on with my day. Now, I am having the hardest time getting out of bed. I need some motivation!

Well, I can't believe it is Thursday already! I am trying to finish my to do list today. I am going to be going to the beach this weekend for my BFF's bachelorette weekend. It should be really fun! But, I will miss my husband! This is our first time to be apart since we got married! But, it is just for the weekend! While I am at the beach, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!! Thanks again for sticking with me! Can't wait to see where life takes us!

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Honeymoon - Part Three (Final)

Well, today, I have decided to turn over a new leaf. (Or really just get back into the old way of doing things) I am getting up when Emory gets up, I cook breakfast while he is getting ready and then he leaves for work by 7 and I am still up. I either get busy on my day or relax and read books or blogs and watch a little tv. But, I am at least up and doing something that I planned to do that day!

So, I am up and posting about the last leg of our honeymoon before 8 am! You should be very proud! And if you missed any of the other parts, you should go look at them!

Here it goes....we left Paris and took the train back down to the coast to Nice. Because Paris was so hustle and bustle, we decided to REALLY relax for our last few days and not worry about a thing. There were a couple of things we wanted to see/do but it literally took about an hour of the four days we were there. We got to Nice and stayed in the Sheraton. It was super nice! And since my husband is so awesome (or maybe because he travels so much for work, who knows) we were upgraded to a suite and spent our last few days in France in luxury. I don't know if you have ever been to Europe, but most of their hotels (unless it is pretty Westernized) have small, closet-sized rooms, air conditioning is sparse, and there is really no room to spread out. SO, being upgraded to a really awesome suite was the icing on the cake for our honeymoon! We had great views of the sea from a wall of windows! Needless to say, we didn't do much but enjoy the relaxation, sleeping til noon, enjoying a bottle of wine for lunch and dinner and sometimes in between! It was the PERFECT ending to the PERFECT honeymoon. We absolutely HATED coming home, but it had to be done. We did adopt a few things in France that we brought back. In no particular order:
1. Our love of coffee because theirs is so awful.
2. Melon and prosciutto sandwiches (OMG)
3. Taking time to enjoy our meals
4. Slowing down
5. The love of linen
6. Saying "Oui" instead of "Yes" and other French phrases
7. The lack of watching tv
8. Being more relaxed

We honestly had the perfect honeymoon that couldn't have been any better unless it had lasted longer! We really got to enjoy each other, enjoy being married, and learning a lot of things that we liked about really taking the time to relax and enjoy life. I think that our honeymoon is going to be something we will talk about forever. I can't wait to frame some of the awesome pictures we took as a daily reminder of just how awesome it was! So, here are a couple of pictures from Nice. I hope you enjoyed hearing a little bit about our honeymoon!




Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Honeymoon..Part Deux...

I am SO sorry I have been the worst blogger in history. Well, maybe not in history, but as far as I am concerned! I figured things would slow down and give me some time after we got back from the honeymoon and they haven't! Things have been non-stop ever since we landed! I need to clean house, finish thank-you notes, go to my bff's bachelorette party in Destin, put up gifts, return gifts, laundry and did I mention clean my house?! I have a million things to do and not enough time to do it! Did I mention that jet-lag is still kicking my butt? Because it is! I used to be such a morning person and now, I can't even crack my eyes open in the morning! It is awful!!! Anyway...you didn't click on this blog to read about my ever growing to-do list, you came here to see/hear about my honeymoon!

The second part of our honeymoon, we rode the train a few hours north to a little place you may have heard of..PARIS!!! We got there and took a taxi to our hotel and since we were staying literally a block away from the Eiffel Tower, we decided to go see that first thing. Now, I must say, I expected the thing to be big, but no picture, description, or book can do it justice. I was absolutely stunned when I saw it. It was magnificent! And beautiful! And did I mention it was GINORMOUS?? Because it was. I think this was one of our favorite parts of Paris. We ate lunch on the lawn in front of the tower, drank bottles of wine in front of it at night when it twinkled, and of course, we went to the top!! I could honestly just post about the Eiffel Tower. But, there was so much more....
We saw:
-Napoleon's tomb
-The Rodin Museum (with the Thinker)
-The Arc de Triomphe
-The Louvre (for free!!)
- The Mona Lisa and Aphrodite
-The National Assemblee
-Tullieres Garden
-A lavender garden
-The Obolisque (not sure how that is spelled)
-Notre Dame
-Where Marie Antionette was beheaded
-So many other things that I know I am forgetting!

We had some awesome food, really enjoyed each other! It was SO fast paced and we walked our butts off! Seriously, like 10 or more miles a day! We had a lot of fun, but were ready to go when we did. We could have seen a few more things, maybe, but we tried to cram everything in while we were there. But, again, like I said, we were grateful when we got back to the laziness of the Riviera! So, without further ado, here are some pictures from PARIS!!




Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Honeymoon (Trying Again) - Part 1

Ok, since we know have internet, I am hoping blogger will cooperate with me and allow me to upload some pictures for you!!

On the first leg of our trip (there were three), we flew into Nice, France and took a limo (yes a limo, prearranged by my sweet husband) from the airport to the hotel about 15 minutes up the mountain outside of Nice. We went to a sleepy little town called Villafranche Sur Mer, France. Google it, you will love the pictures, and you can see the location. Anyway, we decided before we went that we wanted to really experience things in France. So instead of choosing all Westernized hotels that we were used to, we chose local hotels that had great ratings. We made the BEST choice in our first hotel, La Fiancee du Pirate. It was a cute little hotel that was run by the sweetest couple ever! They let us check in to our bungalow (yes, we had a private bungalow, again thanks to the sweet husband) at 8 am because our flight landed so early! But I am SO glad that we were able to do that! Since this was my first trip to Europe, it was also my first experience with a 9 hour flight! It actually wasn't too bad, but I was super tired. We decided that it wouldn't be worth our while to try to stay up and we had absolutely nothing to do, so we went straight to sleep for about 4 hours when we got there, and we didn't have a problem with jetlag the whole rest of the trip!!

So, like I said, we were on the side of a mountain overlooking the ocean. The views each morning were absolutely breathtaking. We took it so easy during the first leg and just relaxed, forgot about everything, and really just enjoyed each other! I mean how could you not when every night walking to dinner (down a really steep hill and through the residential parts) we saw this:

Or even this:

And then, when we got to a seaside cafe every night for at least one bottle of wine and dinner, everything looked like this:

Then, we would stroll over to the Mediterranean Sea, stand in it for a photo-op and get pictures like this:

Here is one of the old town:

Needless to say, we didn't have a care in the world. The views were beautiful. The food was great. The people were so nice. We were totally and completely in love (I mean we still are, but it was SO new). We had the BEST time here. We were sad to leave when we did, but hopefully we will be going back very very soon! ;) (Ok, soon enough!)

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Finally up and running!

I am FINALLY back for real this time! Our internet has been fixed after what seemed like an eternity of it being out! But, anyway....I am working on a Honeymoon post that will be up shortly.

Until then, PLEASE go to my photographer's blog and look at the cute post she did about mine and Emory's wedding! Let her know how cute the pictures are! She sure took some great ones and we were so lucky to have had her as part of our special day!! So...what are you waiting on?? GO HERE NOW!!

And I will have some honeymoon pics up soon!

Friday, July 16, 2010

Honeymoon!!!!

Well, our Internet at home is not working! For some genius reason, the line isn't buried, and the cable to cut some time while we were gone, so I am at Starbucks right now using the wifi until they come out and fix it!

So, anyway, this post may be a little short, but I PROMISE to give a better, fuller update as soon as my connection to the outside world (from home) is restored!!


As you may know, we went to FRANCE for 2 weeks on our honeymoon! We started off in Villafranche Sur Mer on the Riviera just outside of Nice and then went to Paris, then back to Nice.

Well, I can't get blogger to upload any pictures! Grr! I promise I will upload them as soon as I can! Have a great weekend if I am not back before then!

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Wedding Blog - Part 3 - Reception

So, after the what seemed like oh-so-quick ceremony. Emory and I, as Mr. and Mrs. took pictures with our guests and the grandparents and our families. Then, it was time to send people on their way to the reception so he and I could get some pictures just the two of us! After some awesome pictures (did I mention we had the BEST photographers EVER?!) we headed over to the reception to be introduced as man and wife and have our first dance. It was to Can't Take My Eyes Off You by Lady Antebellum. We had some technical difficulties getting the song to play, so while my brother downloaded the song on his iPhone and saved the day, my step dad gave the "father's toast." This was so much fun! We tried to include everyone since my dad and step dad are both special to me. I am SO glad we chose to do it this way, because it worked out so well! And it was just perfect!
After the dance and his toast, we cut the cake so we could then mingle and speak to all of our guests. The place was decorated amazingly. I don’t think any words are going to do it justice and I can’t wait to get the pictures back!! Again, that will be a whole new post! We had THE BEST time and again, we couldn't’t stop smiling! Our photographers had some props for some fun pictures of us and our guests, this was a lot of fun! We threw the garter, and my brother caught it! I threw the bouquet and my BFF Carlie caught it. That was GREAT!
Then it was pretty much time for us to go. Our car, a vintage Rolls Royce came at 9 and we left to Say Hey I Love You by Michael Franti. Everyone had sparklers and it looked so awesome, Again, I can’t wait to see the pictures! The car took us to our house where we changed clothes and then it was in the car to Nashville where we spent our first night of our honeymoon! Which will bring some more posts. Here are reception pictures for now though….









Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Wedding Blog - Post 2 - Wedding Day

After going to bed rather quickly on Friday night, I woke up bright and early on Saturday SO excited! My mom and Carlie made sure I remembered what day it was, so they sang wedding show tunes to me! Ha! It was cute, and just added to my excitement! For my bridesmaids' gifts, I gave them a cute bag with their initials filled with wedding day essentials such as flip-flops tied with ribbons, a make-up bag, tissues, lip gloss,a tank that I made that said "bridesmaid" and note cards. It may have had more things in there, but I just can't remember at the moment! I wish I had taken a picture of them, but I simply forgot!

Anyway, I made myself a tank top as well that said "Property of the Groom" on the front and "I DO" on the back. It was fun to wear it on the wedding day to get ready. Anyway, back on track....Carlie and I got ready (I must add that I took the LONGEST, BEST shower that day because I was just literally soaking it all in. I wanted to remember every moment and enjoy every second of my day! This started it all off wonderfully! Anyway, after we got ready, we headed to the nail place again, this time just for her. We got her a manicure and pedicure oh and chik-fil-a first for breakfast. Then, I had a hair appointment at 11:30. Funny little thing, Carlie and I got done with the nails early and didn't want to go home just to come back, so we did what every girl would do, we went shopping!! :)I thought that it was funny, the morning of my wedding, we were SHOPPING! Really, we were just wasting time and didn't buy anything, but it was still funny!

All day long, I was just so happy and excited! Not once did I get nervous, not once did I cry. I was cool, calm and collected all day! It was literally the best day ever! Everyone kept asking me how I was keeping so calm! But I must say that I was just SO excited that it was my wedding day finally, I was getting married to the most wonderful man on the planet, and all of the hectic planning that my mom and I had been doing was finally all together and the day was HERE and better than expected!! :)

After I got my hair done, it was time for the girls to come over and get ready. The photographers were there and my mom's BFF came over and had lunch for us ready. We ate lunch and started our make-up. Everything was still so happy and calm. Again, it couldn't have been better. Then, it was time for us to head to the church so I could put my dress on, the girls could put theirs on, and we could start taking pictures. I was SO ready to put my dress on! I couldn't wait to have it on, since I knew I could only wear it once! After I got my dress on, we started taking pictures. I just could not stop smiling. I was SO anxious to see Emory though, but I must say, the day went by SO fast! By the time I was done taking pictures with just me, my girls, the groomsmen and a few with my family, it was time to hide so everyone could get in the church and we could get started!!!! My mom and I didn't have to worry about anything on the wedding day. Everything was decorated and just beautiful! I had a harpist, and as soon as I heard the chime on the harp for "Hear Comes the Bride," my smile got even bigger and I was on my way to see my groom! I absolutely could not wait!!

After I was in the church and my dad gave me away, everything went by so quickly. Amy (Emory's sister) read some bible verses, my brother (emotionally) played guitar and sang a song, then it was our turn to say our vows, exchange rings, and kiss. We were presented as Mr. and Mrs. During the WHOLE thing, we both had the biggest grins on our faces! We literally couldn't stop smiling! We were both so excited! Everyone kept saying that we were the two happiest/smiliest people ever! It was so cute!

Everything went just as planned, everything was smooth, beautiful and everyone was SO HAPPY! There were storms all around us, but it didn't rain one drop during the day where we were! So, without further adieu, here are some pictures I have stolen from people's facebooks...we don't have the professional pictures back yet, but I am sure when we get them, that will be a whole other post!! Enjoy!




Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Wedding Blog 1 - Rehearsal Dinner

I think the last time I talked about the wedding before it happened, I was worried about how slowly the week of the wedding would actually go. Well, surprisingly, it didn't drag by like I thought it would! It actually flew by and before I knew it, rehearsal day was upon us! Emory and I actually spent the morning with his best man and his wife shopping for The University of Alabama apparel for them since they were out of town and can't get it where they are from! It made the day fly by and pretty soon, I was getting my nails done with one of my bridesmaids and getting calls and texts from the wedding party that they were on their way, some almost there and some stuck in traffic, but everyone was definitely on the way! We had a few issues with the tuxes not fitting and some of the ties weren't what they were supposed to be, but in the end, everything worked out.

My mom and step dad headed to the church early to clean it up and start setting the few things up that we were bringing. Emory and I were there shortly after, most all of the wedding party showed up (besides two that were stuck in traffic from Atlanta) but rehearsal went smoothly and quickly and everyone knew what to do for Saturday. Everyone was so excited that the atmosphere was great. We all headed to the hotel where most people were staying so we could have the rehearsal dinner (we had it catered by a BBQ place that was famous where we went to college and all of our wedding party went to the same college, so it was only fitting. We gave out our presents and then our maid of honor and best man gave the cutest speeches ever. We couldn't have been happier with our wedding party and the way everyone just meshed and got along!

After the dinner, we decided we would all go our for some drinks to just relax and to just get to know everyone. Some of them had never met, and I had never met 2 of the groomsmen. So, we all got some drinks and had the best time ever. There were no nerves and everyone was hanging out like we had known each other forever. It couldn't have been more perfect!! It was getting close to midnight, so Emory and I had to go our separate ways. Wes and Liz took Emory home and Carlie came with me to my parents' house. We stayed up talking about what the next day was going to bring, but thanks to a couple of drinks, we were able to go to sleep rather quickly! Which was a good thing, considering the next day was going to be a busy one!!
Here is a picture someone snapped of the girls at the rehearsal dinner. Sorry all of us look less than our best, but everyone had been traveling, it was the end of the night, and it was HOT! (Did I mention the church had no A/C?)

Monday, July 12, 2010

I'm back!

I have so much to share! we got back from France late on Friday night and this morning I officially changed my name! I have mountains of laundry to finish and a new routine to create. and of course I have so much to share! my internet is not working at home, so I am Blogging from my phone, but I promise the flood of wedding and honeymoon blogs are on their way, no matter how I have to do it!

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Be home soon.....

I am still enjoying newlyweded bliss, but I will be back with everyone soon...hang in there!! ;) Pictures to come ASAP!!

Here is a wedding tease picture:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=45574621&l=fddcc37073&id=27400481