Honky Tonk City

Change can be good right? But what about unexpected change? I'm talking about the kind that occurs so fast that you don't even have time to react. The kind that stops you in your path. The life changing kind of change...is that kind of change good? I think it can be! But who is to say that we have any say what so ever in how things turn out? I mean, God is the only one who knows our past, present and future. He knows whats ahead of us even before we are given any sort of glimpse as to what lies ahead. And you are probably starting to wonder where I am going with this. Since I don't want to go into too much detail, please bare with me as I give only a short explanation!

Remember how Will and I planned on moving to Houston? It was 100% finalized. We had broke the news to all of our family and friends. We had already started looking at places to live and had even planned a trip for the two of us to head down to our future home to do a little exploring. However, like with most things, when you think you know whats to come, you really have NO idea.

Emotions were high for a little while and feelings on the whole situation were leaving me feeling pretty uncertain. But to be honest, I was so happy that I no longer had to worry about leaving behind all of my family and friends in North Carolina. And planning a wedding in a different state was never something I was looking forward too. The main thing that really had me burning on the inside was the fact that I had put all of my trust in God and being an engaged couple, moving to a state hundreds of miles away from "home" was something I gave to God 100%. And once I thought I had given everything to him, it felt as if he took it all away without any warning. But you know what I think? I think I thought I knew what God had up his sleeve for so long that I forgot that HE was the one in control...not me!

So there you have it...another change, and yet another update in a nutshell. But with change comes new seasons in life. And to welcome all the change that has been occurring in our life, Will and I decided to take a very spontaneous trip to Nashville, TN! This was the second time I had been to Nashville and Will's first so it was only appropriate that we stay at the Gaylord Opryland Resort. We slept in, ate out and played everything by ear...something hard for a planner like me to do!

But in my opinion, it would be wrong to share photos from our trip without giving some recommendations of places to go and things to do so enjoy a list that I created just for you. I wish we had time to visit more places but for now, these are the one's that are Melissa approved :)

The Loveless Cafe located on Highway 100 and known for their scratch-made biscuits and fried chicken.

The Pharmacy is one of Nashville's hippest burger joints were you can also find an old-school soda fountain that serves those good ole' milkshakes and ice cream sodas that you love.

For breakfast and brunch I recommend going to The Southern of Nashville. With a wide variety of options you won't be disappointed.

For an upscale American bar experience head over to Pub5.  

If you like coffee then The Frothy Monkey is a must! It has a very homey atmosphere and a full breakfast, lunch and dinner menu too.

Puckett's Grocery is nothing fancy but really good! It was founded in the 50's and seems to be a place that all the locals enjoy going!

If you have a sweet tooth, you must make your way over to Jeni's Ice Cream. And go early because there is always a line out the door. I highly recommend the Brambleberry Crisp and Brown Butter Almond Brittle flavors.

The Second Fiddle, Lizard Thicket, Legend's Corner and Tootsie's Orchid Lounge are all a must if you are in the mood for some true country entertainment and music. If you only have time to visit a few I'd say go to Legend's Corner and Tootsie's Orchid Lounge first.

Sambuca is probably my favorite place to go for dinner! They have live music every night and some of the best entrees I've ever had.

If you are in the mood to visit a museum then go to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Even if you are not a huge fan of Country Music you will still enjoy your time exploring this place. Most of my picture above are from the CMA of Fame too! Some of my favorite parts of the museum were being able to see Elvis Presley's gold piano, outfits that Dolly Parton has worn and Taylor Swifts guitar and handwritten song lyrics! 

The first time I went to Nashville I went on the General Jackson Showboat and really enjoyed getting to see Nashville from the water. Not only that but you also get to enjoy a three-course dinner and a live country music show! Really fun and worth doing at least once.

Be sure to check back tomorrow were I will be sharing tons of engagement photos from our recent engagement session! 

5 on Friday

Happy Friday, y'all! As you're reading this, I am probably getting ready to go bridesmaid dress shopping with my girls Emily and Caitlin! I truly wish my whole bridal party could go shopping with me but am so thankful that these two gals live in Charlotte and that this is one more thing we get to check off our wedding to-do list! And quality time with some of my best friends is something I will not complain about or take for granted. Since i'm on the topic of bridesmaid dresses, let's just jump right into my 5 on Friday! I hope you enjoy!

ONE
Fact: I knew there would be hundreds of options when it came to finding my wedding dress but I mean there are thousands of options when it comes to bridesmaid dresses and I just don't know how I am going to pick out what I want my bridal party to wear! Our wedding colors are mint and gold so I pretty much knew from the beginning that I would want my ladies to wear mint green dresses. I also took into consideration that our wedding is taking place in June so shorter dresses seemed to make more sense. But as far as fabric and style I have no idea what I am going to choose so this will make for one fun shopping trip! But being the organized/planner that I am, I did pull a few ideas from Pinterest that I'll be taking with me to our appointment. Below are a few that I have in mind. What do you think?

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Since I've already been talking about all things wedding related, I thought I'd continue. But don't worry, I won't carry on much longer :) Let me just take a second to say that if you haven't heard of Nancy Ray Photography then you are truly missing out. Nancy and her team are ahhh-mazing! No exaggeration. Callie (our friend and also our wedding photographer) recently took our engagement photos and sent me this blog post she wrote which includes some of the images from our engagement shoot. Be still my heart! Will and I looked at all of them together last night and had so much fun going through and picking out our favorite ones. Come back next Wednesday and I'll have a post dedicated to all the ones we can't help but share!

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Since I mentioned Callie once, I'll mention her just one more time and tell you to go check out her new blog; Call Me Callie! Callie recently decided to start a blog as a way for others to get to know her better, share wedding planning tips, traveling adventures, style and MUCH more. With her new blog launch, Callie also has an awesome giveaway too! You'd be silly if you didn't go and enter to win. I personally have my eyes on the jewelry box from Anthropologie...

 

FOUR
Last week I came across this blog post which talks about ways to come up with new blog ideas. I'm not going to lie and say that I've never found myself running in circles trying to come up with new ideas for blog posts before and found that this post was very helpful!

FIVE
If you are OCD an organized person, like to be detail oriented, or need help figuring out how to keep everything in order then this post that Carly from The College Prepster did on how she organizes her life is right up your alley. Knowing that Carly uses the same program that I do to stay organized made me feel on top of things. I mean...do you follow Carly? She is the bomb.

Fresh & Beautiful

Having a bad day? Do you want to send a special someone something special? Are you looking to order beautiful flowers? In need of fast delivery? How about reasonable prices? And flowers that last more then two or three days? If you said yes to any of those questions then I know what would be right up your alley...it was for me at least.

The Bouqs. The name says it all and what you see is what you get. Seriously. Just take a look at the bouquet of flowers I received. Although, I'd have to say that I personally feel my flowers look better in person then they do pictured online!

I've had my flowers since this past Saturday and they are STILL blooming and smell oh so good. But I know what you might be thinking...ordering flowers is just not for you. I mean, what if you don't like what you get? What if they arrive late? And how much will they cost you? An arm and a leg? Not if you order from The Bouqs!

Let me give you a quick run down and it's actually quite simple. You go online and take a look at their selection. Find what you love and know you are in good hands. The Bouqs cut your flowers on the actual day that you place your order and are delivered right from the farm were they are grown. So instead of receiving flowers that are almost dead and will die in a couple of days, your order will be delivered just 2-4 days after they are cut! And when they arrive they are tightly and neatly wrapped in a box, ensuring they are not damaged. A bonus...the directions are printed on the inside of the box!

But let's move on and talk about the costs. This too is simple. You have a flat $40 cost that includes shipping and no hidden fees. Zero. Zip. Nada. What's not to love about this? Affordable flowers? Count me in!

And you might be wondering why it looks like they don't have a wide variety to choose from but that is far from true! Remember how I said what you see is what you get? Exactly...they carry around 40 different types of bouquets that match well with any and all occasions! Instead of having to surf through hundreds of pages of flowers, you only have to go through one (maybe two) at most! And don't worry, the selection is updated by the season so they are always on-trend and up-to-date.

If I were you, I would check them out. I've been pleased with my order and may already have a few people in mind that I can send a "bouq" too. 

Thanks to The Bouqs Company for sponsoring this post. All opinions however are my own. 

A Winery Tour

It should be on your bucket list to visit a winery at least once in your lifetime. It was on mine and after many years of wanting but never going to one, I  was finally able to check it off my own list this past weekend when Will, his family and I headed down to Albemarle, NC where Stony Mountain Vineyards is located.

Stony Mountain Vineyards has been around for about 20 years and is a family-owned and ran winery that makes you feel at home as soon as you drive down the gravel path, up to the log house where you park. With stunning views of the Uwharrie Mountains and the lower Yadkin Valley area, it's hard not to take photos and want to be outdoors sipping on a glass of wine all day long.

When we went to visit, the skies were cloudy and we experienced a light rain shower but all was okay since we were touring the winery and enjoying our wine tasting inside. But it wasn't long after our tasting that we were greeted by a beautiful rainbow so of course we ventured outside to snap a few photos and take in all of mother nature's beauty. It was the perfect way to end our mini trip before getting back on the road and heading home to Charlotte to soak in more time with family.

I thoroughly enjoyed my first experience at a winery and can't wait to visit others in the near future! What wineries have you visited and recommend? Please leave a comment with your suggestions so I can add them to my list of places to go.

5 on Friday

Oh Friday...I couldn't be happier that you're here! And what a week it's been! A hectic one, but a good one nonetheless. One of the big reasons why I'm excited it's Friday is because my favorite link-up started back up last week! In other news, I'm also looking forward to the weekend so that I can spend as much time outdoors as I possibly can. The weather lately has been perfect and I feel it would be silly to let it slip away without enjoying it first. I hope y'all enjoy whatever you have planned (or don't have planned) for the next few days and before I leave here are my 5 on Friday.

ONE
Vogue's 73 Questions with Reese Witherspoon is a must watch. It's short, sweet and who doesn't love Reese and her bubbly personality? Oh, can you guess what she said her rapper stage name would be? Watch the video to find out her answer along with her responses to all the other questions!
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Gilmore Girls. Need I say more? In honor of Netflix bringing us ALL seven seasons, Fashionista.com presents us with 11 of the best fashion moments from the show and let me just say that after reading this article, it made me THAT much more excited to spend my free time watching every single episode back to back.

THREE
Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day and it's always been that way. When I lived at home with my parents, we would have BFD (Breakfast for Dinner) some nights and I always looked forward too having breakfast twice in one day. Fun fact; I almost always requested french toast. So when I came across an article on 43 breakfast spots in the Charlotte area recommended by Charlotte Magazine, I knew I was in trouble. My mouth water's just thinking about all of these yummy places I'll be trying in the coming weeks...

FOUR
If you're anything like me, you don't tend to wear makeup every single day. I try to give my face a few days a week to just breath and I should probably do it more often. When I do wear makeup though, I tend to get frustrated when applying concealer. It either feels to thick when I put it on, is not the right color or just doesn't seem to hide those bags under my eyes or the redness around my nose as much as I would like. Tell me I'm not the only one who has felt this way before! After reading this article though, I was able to learn some pretty helpful tips and tricks and hope with the purchase of a few new products my hate for concealer will vanish away.

via Once Wed

FIVE
Will and I booked our honeymoon a few days ago and the anticipation of going is killing us! For starters, we did what seemed like weeks of research and narrowed down our options to Jamaica, Antigua, St. Lucia, and Turks and Caicos. We both wanted to stay somewhere that was all-inclusive, wasn't too touristy, had more then one restaurant on the property, and was a place that allowed us to relax and be adventurous at the same time. Oh, and time flying was also a huge factor we looked into.

It was pretty easy for us to take Jamaica and Turks and Caicos off the list, although we want to go there one of these days. Pretty much from the beginning we knew it would come down to either Antigua or St. Lucia and after talking to some of our family and friends, we finally decided on....St. Lucia! More specifically at the Cap Maison Hotel Resort & Spa!

It's hard to look at these photos without getting giddy with excitement. I can imagine the days we will relax by the pool, sip on tropical drinks, take tons of photos and explore the area. Time will not be a factor and relaxing and enjoying one on one time with each other will be pretty much the only things on our agenda. If you've ever been to St. Lucia I would love for you to leave a comment or email me with recommendations on things to do and places to check out!

via Cap Maison Photo Gallery