...and The Wedding!

I'm on a roll tonight! While I'm at this whole blog thing, I decided to tell you all about Ben and Jill's beautiful wedding!

Despite my car (R.I.P. Ford Escort) breaking down on i-16 and eventually meeting its death, and two-hour hiatus in McDonalds with all my luggage, I finally met up with Hunter and his parents who took me the rest of the way to Hunter's hometown right outside of Atlanta.

The wedding was on a gorgeous, lush farm in the country side. I hope Jill got a picture by one of the rustic fences in her cascading, white dress! What a perfect background for a classic, Southern wedding.

Sadly, it rained during the ceremony, which was supposed to be outside under a ivy-covered arbor, but they had a rain plan! The wedding was quickly moved inside to the finished barn where the reception also took place.

 I know Jill and Ben were sad to see it rain, but I can say that the joining together of these two love birds (of 10 years, I might add!) was truly a sight to see. 

They had an evening ceremony followed by a dessert reception (my get-fit plan was put on hold this weekend!) The color palette was black, white with an accent color of light pink, and was found in even the smallest details of the wedding decor! Jill and her family hand-made everything from the invitations to the delectable, bite-size desserts.

note: the wedding favors included a personalized CD of Ben and Jill's favorite love songs and a book of matches that held the sparklers that we lit for their departure!

 yum!

One of my favorite parts of the wedding design, was the cake. Jill's oldest sister, Ana made and decorated the cake and it was incredible. The cake was delicious, and every rose was frosted to perfection.

 (missing the top tier in this picture!)

The couple had their first dance to Frank Sinatra before the dance floor was opened to guests!

And I just couldn't resist snapping a quick picture of the adorable flower girl! 

Hunter and I after a little dancing (my heels were killing me.)

As the night began to wind down, the groom threw the garter and the bride threw the ceremonial bouquet (you all know what catching the bouquet is supposed to mean...)

 drum roll please...

...I caught the bouquet!

 I walked over to Hunter with a smirk on my face and he said "Don't even think about it!" The funny thing was, the reason was happy was because I knew it would be perfect for the blog!

The wedding was a night to remember, and I know the bride and groom were beaming as they rode away into the night in their getaway Rolls Royce. 

Congratulations Ben and Jill!

Scallops, Scallops and More Scallops!

FINALLY a blog post! I am laying on the couch at Hunter's house after a long day out on the water.

In Florida, today was the first day of scallop season! I didn't know how big of a deal this was. The day before we had been out on the water fishing, and we saw one or two boats the whole day. Today, on the other hand, every resident of this tiny, fishing town seemed to be out there with us! We anchored our boat, put on our snorkel gear and jumped in.

I didn't even know what a scallop looked like (FYI, it looks just like the Shell gas symbol). They really are amazing creatures, they swim by opening and closing their shell and they are surprisingly fast and feisty!  We had so much fun, and we collected five gallons of scallops. We brought them home, cleaned out the scallop meat and had ourselves a seafood feast! It felt (and tasted!) really good to catch, prepare and eat the scallops, and believe me they were absolutely delicious.

Here are a few pictures from our day!

first scallop of the day!

my favorite, ha!

Oh, and while I'm at it...

As I was blogging, I was also listening to my newest downloads.

Current obsessions?

this...

this (Bon Iver's new album)...

definitely this...

and absolutely cannot forget this.

Love, love, love these albums. Soundtrack to my summer, hands down.

Cricket, Cricket

Hello darling readers,

I know it has been over a week since I've posted. I'm quite ashamed as usual. I tend to get caught up in working and then just laze around or hang out with friends and family. Honestly, most of the time my laptop is off in its case. I have an iPhone which almost eliminates the need for a computer on a regular basis. I can look at everything on my phone! But that is no excuse. 

I have lots of great pictures from Ben and Jill's wedding weekend, and I can't wait to share a few with you all! That will be my next post.. Maybe with a few pictures from Hunter's graduation and our trip to Florida! 

I'm pretty ashamed that I have yet to upload those pictures!! Next Thursday I'm going back to Florida for my final visit of the summer before Hunter moves much closer to me (4 hours closer to be exact!)

I feel like the summer is absolutely zooming by. In two weeks, I'm off to England for sixteen days. We are making the trek across the pond for my oldest sister's wedding, to meet my sweet baby niece (her name is Kitty Alexandra, how cute!) and to visit with both my mother's and father's sides of the family. It is going to be quite the family reunion.

And I'm sure I'll be able to make a little time for some London shopping :)

Pictures will be up soon!

Can't Wait for the Weekend!

It is super late (almost 2 AM to be exact) but I had to share this quick thought.

I would like to fast-forward through the next two days of work, and get to the weekend.

Reason 1: Get to see my honey.
Reason 2: Get to read my magazines in the car on the trip to ATL.
Reason 3: Get to attend a wedding, which I can say is probably one of my favorite things to do.

Hunter's best friend from high school is getting MARRIED. I'm beyond excited for our lovely friends, Ben and Jill. I met Ben and Jill over this past Christmas, and we all clicked instantly! They are one of those couples who you can tell are just meant for each other. And I cannot wait to go to their wedding.  This will also be the first time I've been to Hunter's hometown (Hunter's parents moved away from Georgia after Hunter's freshman year at university).

I will be sure to charge up my camera, because this is going to be quite the summer weekend!

Pictures and detailed description of the wedding to come (as long as Jill approves!)

Getting Fit!

Hello lovely readers,

I am waiting for blogging to just click into my daily schedule, but it just hasn't happened yet. I can't wait to be one of those bloggers who has updates at least once, sometimes twice a day! Once I get going, I love it and it seems effortless to write for hours!

Though I have quite a to-do list of blog posts that I plan on getting to, I wanted to blog today on my summer work-out/healthy eating plan. My boyfriend and I were chatting last night, and I was whining about how bad I have been about blogging regularly. We were talking a lot about how we want to push each other to eat healthily and work out, especially when we both move back to Charleston. So he suggested that I blog about my plans to become a health-nut!

As any one who has finished their first year of college or first year on your own, you more than likely share my struggle of eating healthy and exercising regularly. While I was in high school, I swam competitively in the fall, went straight into playing basketball throughout the winter months and then my senior year I went straight into soccer season. I worked out every day, and could essentially eat whatever I wanted. I have never been skinny, but I've always been athletic and fairly tall (5'7''). On top of that, my family has never been big on junk food. We occasionally have ice cream, or a bag of tortilla chips in the pantry. We usually have a bar of British chocolate laying around, but only after a trip back to England.

I was confident that I would not be one of those people who let themselves go at college.

I wouldn't go as far as saying I "let myself go" but I definitely got to a point where I stopped feeling healthy. I went to class, gave tours at the College, went out with friends, and studied. First-year students are required to have a meal plan, so my meals were eaten either at Einstein's Bagels (no one told me bagels are SO high in calories), Hungry Cougar (which had deli sandwiches, greasy pizza, the occasional hot-meal and a not-so-impressive salad bar), or our campus cafeteria. Our campus cafeteria is all-you-can-eat and that is where I think I, along with many of my other friends, went wrong. The salad bar is there, but it is so hard to resist all the carbs, desserts, and greasy treats that were just steps away. And fountain drink machines everywhere! It's honestly gross talking about it all.

I am painting a pretty appalling picture, but that is what my options were for meals every day for nine months. Now don't get me wrong, I still worked out. I did Zumba classes, joined an intramural volleyball and basketball team, and second semester I did yoga four times a week, and felt great! But you can't just exercise, and I've realized that.

Next year, I might have a small meal plan, but most of my eating will be done in my kitchen! I can already see the improvement.

So HERE are some of the healthy habits I am determined to make part of my every-day life:

• WATER, WATER, WATER! I'm trying to drink 2 or 3 Nalgene bottles full a day.
• Yoga, zumba, pilates. I have enrolled at Dancing Dog Yoga, and I can't get enough! There are so many fun classes that make you sweat! I'm trying make to four classes per week.
• Run/jog twice a week--this is going to be a challenge for me, because running just isn't my thing. But I'm trying!
• When I'm back in Charleston I want to make an effort to walk down to Waterfront park at least twice a week. (If you know Charleston at all, you know walking and biking becomes a major part of your life!)
• Avoid processed foods, high-sugar items, and high-fructose corn syrup as much as possible. (I know this is a tough one, because if you look at the nutritional facts, you will find that almost everything packaged has high-fructose corn syrup in it. This stuff is bad news...
• Fresh fruits and veggies (especially for snacking!)--I'm a big TV snacker. If I'm watching TV, I want to be munching on something. The other night I had celery sticks with peanut butter, and last night I had a few Wheat Thins and cheese, so much better than chips, cookies or ice cream!
• Cut out soda and tea (This one kills me, I am a true Southern girl and I love my sweet tea, but if it is done right, it has so much sugar brewed into it.)
• Smaller portions
• Healthy eating at restaurants--one of my favorite places to eat out is at Mexican restaurants, I honestly can't get enough. Tortilla chips, salsa, queso, quesadillas, I'm drooling even thinking about it, but one meal can be at least a day's worth of calories, ugh.
• MOST IMPORTANT: Don't try and keep up with your boyfriend's eating habits. I always try, until I realize my honey could probably eat 3500 calories per day and not gain a pound.

That's all for now, hope you all enjoyed reading today's post, and I hope this will inspire you to improve your lifestyle as well!

And if you have any more tips, recipes or advice for me on this topic, please leave comments!