South Carolina visit

Bryan and I went to my Dad's house in Columbia, SC recently to visit my Dad, stepmom, brother, and two younger sisters. We had a wonderful visit!! On Saturday we tailgated at the Florida/South Carolina game near the stadium. We had a couple of my Dad's best friends from school in town with us as well. After eating some yummy chicken and brownies we headed over to a reception held by the President of of the University. The marching band performed and then we all walked to the stadium.

Mimi, Grace, and me in our Gator gear!

Chase, Bryan, and me on the field before the game

My Dad was able to get us passes so that we could go on the field for pre-game. It was by far one of the most amazing things I have ever done in my entire life! We just stood on the sidelines and watched the Gator football players warming up. It was like seeing a ton of celebrities because that is the kind of family i have. :) We kept exclaiming "there's Riley Cooper!" "there's Joe Haden and Brandon Spikes!" "OMG- its Tim Tebow- he's huge!" You get the picture...

This continued on for a while longer until it was time for the SC band to take the field and begin the pre-game festivities. My Dad is the Dean of the College of Music and he conducted the band as they played the Alma Mater. It is always amazing to see how crazy awesome my Dad is. After the pre-game we moved over to sit with the SC band and watch the game. The Gators won the game (who hoo 10-0!) but it was nerve-racking at times, especially because Caleb Strugis missed 3 out of 4 field goals... not cool. Regardless, it was an amazing day and an amazing trip!

More to come!

Maryel

A day off from work!

So, I had a weekday off from work recently and had a wonderful little day. It was so fall and rainy, but still kind of delightful. I woke up and had my coffee. Then I cleaned my house, which with how busy I have been has gotten a little out of control, clutter-wise. I was starting to wake up in the middle of the night and feel anxiety about the state of my bedroom. It felt really good to get everything put away. I stopped by the bridal shop and picked up my little sisters' bridesmaid dresses and then hopped on the train to Philadelphia. I enjoyed a wonderful thanksgiving style lunch at a restaurant and then stopped by this super cute fabric store called Spool and bought some fabric for a project I am planning (because apparently I need more to do) :) After the shop I went to Lithe for the Arm-istice class and then just relaxed at home for the rest of the day. It was fantastic.

Everyone loves a spa weekend

Last weekend my Aunt from Boston met me in Connecticut and treated me to spa weekend that was incredible. We stayed at this very cute bed and breakfast in Branford, CT called By The Sea Inn and Spa. I arrived late Friday night and we just stayed up and chatted for hours. On Saturday we woke up pretty early, and enjoyed a quiet coffee and then began our spa treatments. We each got a massage and a facial, then we had lunch, and had our manicures and pedicures after lunch. It was soooo relaxing. After the spa day we drove to Milford in order to watch the Gator football game. After a self-love day with a healthy lunch we both had a craving for cheeseburgers so we watched the game at the Buffalo Wild Wings. I also tried a new beer cocktail that was very interesting- it was called and Electric Blue Moon. It was Blue Moon with cointreau and orange juice. It was actually delish. It was an amazing weekend and I am so incredibly grateful with that time with her!

Wedding Planning update!

While I am still trying to catch up with all of the updates of my travel stuff, I thought I would throw in an update of wedding planning stuff because there has been a lot going on. First off, I updated our inspiration board because our ideas for things have certainly evolved since we began. I think we definitely have a more focused look now.

If you have been to the website recently, you will tell that Bryan has made some pretty awesome updates. Our invitations came in from our calligrapher and I sent those off to the printer to get printed. Our envelopes came in and I shipped those off to the calligrapher to be addressed. The bridesmaid dresses are in and I was able to bring the two for my little sisters to my Dad's house this weekend and have them try them on. So cute! I had another dress fitting that was amazing and will be able to pick up my dress at Thanksgiving in order for my Mom to drive it down to Florida.

More to come!

Mary

Dayton Trip

I recently went to visit Bryan in Dayton. It was Halloween and Florida/Georgia weekend so we had a packed weekend. On Friday I had the girls over to watch Twilight. The first time I saw it was on those tiny screens in the seat in front of you on an airplane, so I wanted to see the first movie on a real TV before the second one comes out. Of course it was way better!

On Saturday, Bryan and I had our AFIT family over to the house for the football game. Bryan worked really hard cooking up some delish food for everyone. He made ham and bean soup and this amazing low country boil with shrimp, sausage, corn, and potatoes. I made the cornbread :)

Our amazing friend Natalie owns Tickled Pink Cupcakery and made these awesome cupcakes for our little rivalry. Our friends Russ and Julie are big Georgia fans, so we had a great time!!

The Florida cupcakes are vanilla cake with apple pie filling and tinted vanilla frosting. The Georgia cupcakes are cinnamon walnut cake with tinted maple frosting and the mixed cupcakes are carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. The apple pie cupcakes were my favorite, convenient that they were the Florida cupcakes :)

Julie and me with our opposing team cupcakes.

Our amazing family of friends at AFIT.

Most of the folks headed out around the third quarter to go do their trick or treating, but everyone came back over later to watch the World Series games as some of our friends are Phillies fans. Tanner is the shark, Evan is a fireman, and Hank is Tigger. They were so cute!!

The Death Bridge...

... and other assorted goodies! My Alpha Chi little sister, Kristen, and my grandlittle, Alex came up to visit me recently and we had a delightful weekend. On Saturday, I took them up to Princeton for brunch. It was a typical cold, rainy, fall day, which made the trip to Princeton that much better because I believe Princeton is best enjoyed in that weather. The trees are amazing- black tree trunks and bright orange leaves. We enjoyed breakfast at PJs Pancake House, a Princeton staple. Unfortuantely, their machine that makes their unbelieveable orange freeze drinks (they taste like orange creamiscle posicles) was out of order!! I had to have a plain ol' root beer float instead :(

Both Alex and Kristen got mini makeovers at Blue Mercury. That's where we found the coolest candle. It was called "tree house". Although wise Kristen says, "You really shouldn't burn candles in a tree house, thats a fire hazard". Awesome.

After Princeton we wandered down to Washington Crossing but since it was raining, decided not to get out of the car and continued into Pennsylvania. We were forced to cross the death bridge (see above) in order to get there. One of the most horrific experiences of my life. :)

Once we made it to Philadelphia we stopped by City Tavern and enjoyed their beer sampler of receipes from Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, and Franklin. It was delish! We finished off the night with the Gator football game, another win of course! Go Gators!!

Bryan's visit

I am sorry, I have been slacking with blog updates. Things have been getting pretty crazy busy, but actually not with wedding stuff- just life stuff in general.

Bryan was here to visit for Columbus Day weekend. We were able to take care a lot of random wedding details. The big thing was that we finally registered! Check out our website for the details, but we have registered at Target (see picture above of Bryan's skills) and with a website called justgive.org that allows you to build a wedding registry for charity. Bryan and I picked a few charities that we support and are encouraging our guests to make donations!

We also discussed and worked out most of the ceremony and reception details including the timeline. Very exciting!

Lastly, we attended our second pre-marital counseling session. It went very well :) Basically, the priest went over the test that we took separately and discussed the items where we had differing answers. Funny enough Bryan and I had already gone through all of those answers, so we just got to talk about it all over again.