Wedding Weekend | Rehearsal Dinner | Arnaud's Restaurant

 

 

We had our Rehearsal Dinner at Arnaud's in the French Quarter of New Orleans.   The menu gave everyone a taste of what great New Orleans food is all about.  The night was filled with incredible food, strong cocktails, good laughs, tear-jerker speeches, beautiful flowers and amazing friends and family.  Oh,  and also a really good surprise.  We had the perfect evening.

 

 

 

 The Arnaud's Ballroom

Great Friends 

 

My Handsome Hubby who had me crying within the first hour of dinner with a very heartfelt speech 

 

 

The Speech 

 and lets raise our glasses for a toast

 

My dear friend Tiffany who was also my excellent photographer for the night! 

The gorgeous flowers and centerpieces done by my incredibly talented friend, Hayden at Geraldine's

 

And I'm a bit teary eyed with my high school girls plus Tiffany 

My brothers and my sister and law and soon to be other sister in law!!!  

And here comes the surprise… the band busts through the doors and we have a surprise 2nd line, a New Orleans tradition, that we take from the restaurant back to the Ritz Carlton hotel

 

 

 

A few people hopped in the rickshaws! 

 

 

The 2nd Line

 

Heading down Canal St with a light rain

 

 

It was such a fun surprise.  We had a blast walking through the streets of the French Quarter and caught a little rain at the end which made it feel so surreal.  We met up with other friends and family at the Davenport Lounge in the Ritz Carlton for an after dinner drink and then called it a night to make sure we got our beauty sleep.

Wedding Weekend | Bridal Luncheon | Galatoire's

I wanted to give a few snapshots of our events during our wedding weekend in New Orleans.  We had a lot of out of town guests that arrived on Thursday evening and met us at the Ritz Carlton for cocktails and appetizers at the courtyard bar.  It was so much fun seeing everyone get into town and ready to kick off the weekend.  We had the bridal luncheon on Friday morning at 11:30 am at Galatoire's to really get the festivities started! 

 

The ladies did a beautiful job setting up the tables and gave my favorite Tyler Candle in the "Tyler" scent to all the girls as a gift. 

 

Pretty center pieces 

 

Me with the wonderful hosts for the luncheon

 

Bride and MOB

 

The Malone Girls-- My new SIL, Melanie, MIL, Sandy, and niece Kayla

 

My gorgeous and incredibly impressive MOH and cousin :)

 

On the Menu:

 

My childhood BFF's 

 

My DG girls + an adopted one :)

 

Me giving the girls their bridesmaids gifts

So fun!

 

Cousins!

Pretty girls

 

 

Here are the goodies that I gave the bridesmaids for standing by my side on my big day :)

 

1. Mudpie Strapless Cover-Up | 2. Tan Towels | 3. Batiste Dry Shampoo | 4. Lucite Catch all Tray | 5. Kendra Scott Earrings | 6.  The Final Product

 

I would not recommend the Mudpie Cover- Up.  Those were given for all of us to wear while we were getting ready together on Wedding day, but they were quite see-through.  They don't appear that way on the model, but they were.  The tan towels and dry shampoo are two of my most favorite products to use and I had a feeling they would come in handy for the weekend.  The lucite tray is a great for lots of things, but is wonderful to throw jewelry in and put on your vanity.  I loved the Kendra Scott designs because she allows you to choose whatever color combination you would like.  Check out her website and go to the color bar. There is every combination imaginable.  The earrings shown were not the colors I used.  

 

I hope you enjoy and I will be back with more photos from the weekend soon!

The Perfect Guest Room

Summer is here and lots of people are ready to hit the road for summer vacation or visits with family and friends that live out of town.  I don’t know about you, but I love hosting my friends or family at my home.   I also have a huge appreciation and take notice when I am at someone else’s house and I can tell they made a special effort to make the guest room extra cozy and homey. I came across this adorable water color and blog post from Jess at The Aestate and had to share.  She covers the essentials to a cozy guestroom for your house guests and she hand paints these watercolors.  WOW.

 {Source}

1.  Fresh Flowers- Who doesn’t love a beautiful vase of wonderful smelling flowers next to their bedside?

2.  Luggage Rack- Have you ever noticed that just about every hotel you have ever been to has one of these?  They are great and can be found at Ballard Designs.

3. Waste Bin- Bedroom/Bathroom must have

4. Scented Candle & Matches-  I think for the bedroom this is nice, but definitely a must in the guest bathroom.  One of my favorite candles is the Tyler scent from www.tylercandles.com.

5. Tissues-  You never know when your guest might need them in the middle of the night.  This is a nice bedside touch.

6. Alarm Clock- This is a great back up just in case your friends or family has not joined the rest of the 21st century and does not have an alarm on their phone.

7. Pen & Paper- A hotel always supplies this don’t they?

8. XL Robe-  This is always a nice touch.  Most of your guests will probably not even bother using it, but I still think it is a great idea to supply one.

9. Good Reading Light- Your guests may read every night before they go to bed and you would hate to be the one to break them of their routine :)

10. Magazines- Being a lover of magazines, I always think this is a nice touch.  You probably have some laying around your house already, so just throw a couple recent ones in for leisurely reading.

11. Pitcher & Glass- I am always extremely impressed when I see this on a guest room bed side table.  But it makes so much sense.  Don’t we all bring a glass of water to bed with us every night? This is great if your guests forgot theirs or needs a refill at 2am.

12. Snacks- Any type of snack might be nice, but what I think is really special is an evening sheet turndown with a little bite of chocolate on their pillow. I love it when a hotel does that for me.

13.  Wooden Hangers-  This is a nice touch in the closet for your guest’s clothes. $4 for 8 pack at www.ikea.com.

 

Another nice touch can be placing your guests bath towels, hand towels and wash cloth on the end of their bed.  That works well if it is a one or two night stay.

What do you do for your guests to make them feel more at home? Do you have any special touches?

A Good Friend is Cheaper than Therapy

This past weekend, I made a trip back to my hometown of Gulf Breeze, FL. If you don't know where Gulf Breeze is, it is connected to Pensacola by a 3 mile bridge in the panhandle of Florida. It is most commonly known as LA-lower Alabama or the Redneck Riveria. We are not necessarily proud of these references, but I can easily overlook it when I go back home and am reminded that I grew up with the best beaches in FL right in my back yard.

GB is a small town with one elementary, one middle and one highschool. This photo to my left is a picture from my 5th grade graduation. In this photo is 3 of my best friends growing up that I have continued to stay in touch with and are still my best friends today. This past weekend we organized a reunion to all get back together in GB for the weekend and mix it with a little family time as well as a Father's Day celebration.

I have to comment on the picture above and point out a few things. First, I never knew that my sweet friend Kiel was such a little fashionista at age 10. Who knew that onesie's would be back in style 15 years later? Now, the white tights with open toed shoes are still up for style debate even for 1996. Apparently, socks with sandals were a pretty cool thing to wear too; but thank God that hasn't come back around. I love looking at this photo because I know we all got dressed that morning thinking we looked dashing and quite proud of the outfits we picked out for our big day-5th grade Graduation. What a milestone...

Kiel, Kalyn, Elizabeth and I have all been friends since early elementary school. We went our separate ways for college and all live in different cities now, but it hasn't stopped us from staying close. The beauty of great friends is no matter how much time passes and how few phone calls, emails or facebook messages you share; when you are reunited, it is as if we have not missed a single beat in each others lives. That is what best friends are all about. I love them each so much and look forward to many more years of friendship and quality time spent together back in the Breeze.

Spending Saturday on the beach stopping at Paradise, Islander and the Break :)

Beaching it with the girls
Dressing up for our Saturday night outing and Elaine's Bday Celebration
Cook out with our Mama's for Elaine's Birthday


Fitting some quality time in with our Dad's for Father's Day!


Me and Pops

Although it was a short weekend, I would say it was a huge success! Can't wait for the next one!

A good friend is a connection to life - a tie to the past, a road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world. ~Lois Wyse

twenty.five.

Meet my friend Kate. Today is her birthday.
Happy Birthday Katelyn.

She's laid back and super cool.

Kate and I went to the University of Florida together. We met my freshman year of college and were instant friends. I love Kate.

Kate and I were partners in crime throughout college. We have some great memories together. I miss her so much. She moved to Charlotte after college which was great. I lived in Atlanta, so we were only a few hours apart. That meant when we hadn't something cool going on in ATL, she could come to town and play with us and vice versa. Now, Kate has moved to PHILLY. Philly is so far away from me. I am trying everything in my power to get her to head back south, but it doesn't seem to be working.
Kate is one of the most grounded and down to earth people I know. I know she is always there for me when I need her and I know when we are together we always have a great time. No matter whether we are sitting on the couch in our PJ's discussing the prior evenings chain-of-events or we're skiing together in Colorado. She's easy going, flexible and laid back. That's what I love. Now here's a little trip down memory lane:

She's lovable

She lets me wear a Bulls eye on my head when it's not Cinco de Mayo...

She makes me take shots on my 21st birthday

She dresses up in hats with me for fun.

She sends her love to everyone

It's a guaranteed good time when you're hanging out with her.
She's athletic and we have a great time skiing together!

We celebrated Mardi Gras in New Orleans together. She's spontaneous.
She plays Edward-40-Hands with me and my cousin Alex.