Weekend Recap: October

Have you ever had an entire month overwhelm you? *Raises hand*

October.

Everyone's favorite month.

Bye...

Birthday month! So fun, right? My October was too much fun, and I was more than ready for a slow down in November to start this week.  Last month I worked a lot, traveled a lot, and went to a lot of concerts. It was one of the most challenging, rewarding, and eye opening months on record!

October started off with just a lot of preparation for the rest of the month, but things quickly picked up with our trip to Biloxi, Mississippi, for some of our friends from CJM's time in Savannah during pharmacy school. We flew out on the Thursday before the wedding and came back the Monday after. Seeing friends we haven't seen since graduation last year was so sweet. We all danced too much, stayed up too late, and played too hard; but it was a blast!

 

Friday let me explore the Beau Rivage Resort & Casino while CJM golfed with the guys. Such a beautiful place! Great shopping, food, and drinks, and of course the giant casino and clubs, there really was something for everyone. Friday night featured the rehearsal dinner at the Biloxi Welcome Center which was stunning. An evening of dancing later, and wedding day was here! Such an amazing event for an amazing couple.

Dress: Target | Shoes: Sam Edelman | Tassel Earrings: Lisi Lerch 

Dress: BooHoo | Earrings: Lisi Lerch Ginger in Gold 

Sunday CJM and I rented a car and drove into New Orleans. We were so close and neither of us had ever been there before, and were able to meet up with a couple that knew the area incredibly well! We got to see the highlights, and eat our fill of oysters at the Royal Sonesta's Desire Oyster Bar and beignets at Cafe du Monde.

The following week featured my busiest work week of the year including a community event for over 1,000, a music video project, and my birthday to top it all off. But the really icing on the {birthday} cake? The surprise tickets to the Eagles concert on my birthday from my amazing husband! We had so much fun! He sneakily told me we were going that afternoon, and drove us to Atlanta that evening for the best concert. Of course, we had to get The Varsity to eat on the way home.

Eagles at Phillips Arena in Atlanta--thanks, Kim, for the great shot from your amazing seats! 

Chicago at the Macon City Auditorium--thanks to Tara for her awesome pic, too!

The last full week of October saw more work business, a wonderful Chicago concert in Macon {who are we? Two concerts in one week?!} and a weekend visit from the in-laws featuring a football game and oyster roast. Needless to say, we have been practicing for holiday meals and celebrations all ready!

November is going to be busy, too {birthday month for the hubs!}, but I'm looking forward to a little bit 'cozier' schedule heading into the holidays.

Mid-March Recap

It's amazing to me how fast time flies as an adult. I remember being little, and counting down the days to whatever event {okay, maybe not so little. Maybe like, 16...} because time just moved so slowly. Now, I am feeling like I need just two, three, four, more hours in the day to get it all done!

But here we are, and we've lived in our new house and town for just a little over a month. And what a month it's been! During that time we've gone through two rounds of living room paint, too few boxes, and wayyy too many trips to Home Depot. We've had our first weekend guests, made an eight our round trip to pick up dining room furniture, and have crafted spaces and unique pieces to fill our home. And we've had a lot of fun!

A few of my favorite highlights of the last month:

I took a photography class with the amazing Frank Fortune {longtime Georgia Southern photographer, etc.} in the two weeks I had off between jobs. It was so educational, and has really helped me understand my camera much better. I love seeing an instant improvement in my shots, and look forward to learning even more and refining my hobby even further.

I experienced my first Dublin St. Patrick's season. 52 official events span the end of February to the end of March, but the pinnacle event is definitely Super Saturday and the St. Patrick's Parade followed by an Arts & Crafts  Festival. We had a float for work, and it was really cool to work on that together and then walk the parade route through town. So many people! I kept hearing how huge of an event it was, but until you actually see it, its hard to believe.

I'm looking forward to heading to North Georgia for the weekend to see all my sweet little friends who were in our wedding, and watching the new Beauty & the Beast movie with them. Happy weekend, friend!

Cozy Casual

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This weekend, CJM and I went to Atlanta for a really terrible football game that I honestly don't even want to talk about. Other than that, we had the absolute best time! Friday night, we got in kind of late, but our hotel was amazing--we stayed at The W Downtown, and it was so nice. We had a blast at the bar until way too late in the evening.

Saturday was a chilly and windy, but beautiful day. We walked to the Georgia Dome for the game, where I realized I forgot our tickets in the room {of course} about half way there. After the game, we had dinner at one of our favorite places: Ted's Montana Grill. There is something about a massive bison burger that makes both of us so happy.

Sunday morning we got up and brunched and shopped at Ikea before heading back south. It was really our first weekend getaway since the honeymoon, and we both left feeling so thankful that we had time together this weekend.

Saturday, I broke out a few of my favorite fall staples. I layered my favorite Old Navy chambray dress with this tan plaid Mud Pie wrap, topping it all off with a wool hat from Nordstrom and my favorite Talbots riding boots. The Georgia Dome has lots of rules about what you can and cannot bring in, but my monogrammed clutch from Walker Boutique passed the test...a little bit of sassiness may or may not have also helped make that happen, but a girl needs a bag!

P.S. Sorry for the poor picture quality...camera bags aren't allowed in the Dome either, so we had to do some quick iPhone photography!

Weekend Recap: Hurricane Matthew

It's always a bummer when a weekend doesn't really feel like a weekend at all. I'm kind of obsessed with the weather, so when the possibility of a major hurricane hitting the Savannah area developed last weekend, I of course began tracking that thing by checking my weather apps multiple times a day and constantly refreshing my Twitter feed for any related news. Last Wednesday it was pretty much confirmed: the Georgia coast would be seeing extremely rough weather sometime over the weekend.

Most of the town closed down Friday in preparation, which was great for me. I slept in, cleaned house, and sat on the couch most of the day watching the 24/7 live stream of Savannah news as the storm rolled in. As the winds and rains began to pick up after dark, I started getting a little more nervous. Christopher wouldn't be off work until 10 p.m., and then he had over an hour commute home. Thankfully he pulled up right after midnight, and right after the first storm band was beginning to really come in strong.

We went to bed while many of my friends didn't sleep all night long. I woke up a few times to the 50 mph+ wind gusts rattling the windows. Once, I woke to the sound of cracking limbs, but that was all I heard so I went back to sleep. Imagine my surprise when I woke Saturday morning to find that we actually still had power and a major downed tree in the back yard! It appears to have been struck by lightning and split down the middle as it fell, taking about six smaller trees down with it, crushing the fence along the property line. We are so thankful that it didn't fall the other way, as it surely would have landed on the house, and probably in our bedroom!

Our backyard

Visitors will have a hard time getting in today!

There are still trees down all over town this morning, including one blocking the main entrance to our office building. We were blessed to have had power all weekend, while still so many are without, including my family in South Carolina. Sunday was full of yard clean up and trying to get the house back to normal after such an intense weather weekend. Needless to say, I'm a little exhausted today, but nothing like the amazing men and women working to restore utilities to our region! One of the Georgia Power men yesterday stopped to ask why we had power when the rest of the streets surrounding us didn't {I don't know! But glad we do!} and mentioned that he still didn't have lights on at his own home.

Riding out the storm with our scaredy-dog 

My favorite house in Statesboro...seemed to only sustain fence damage! 

I'll be interested to see how Christopher's apartment on Whitemarsh Island near Savannah fared, but there is still no way on to the island at this point. Thanks to all who checked in on us throughout the whole ordeal. We are definitely counting our blessings!

Power truck from Tyler, Texas 

Marrying McAfee | Let's Party!

Oh the wedding reception...one of the most fun parts of the day. After dinner, the music cranked up, and everyone hit the dance floor. We had a friend from college {DJ Hurricane Herman, what what!} DJ our reception, which allowed for a lot of personal touches and requests. He definitely played to the crowd and got a lot of people moving, which was important to us. 

We took one break from the party to do the traditional bouquet toss, or throw in our case, and the garter toss. I surprised my maid of honor Kirstie by throwing the bouquet directly at her as a surprise. It was so funny. And Christopher surprised me by having hands full of ice when he went to retrieve the garter! I was so hot that I didn't even feel it for a few seconds...it just felt wonderful and cool on my legs, but it got icy, fast. 

Both my maid and matron of honor gave heartfelt and memorable speeches. Christopher's best man Elijah was deployed on our wedding day, but he had two great men step in to fill that place. A few weeks before the wedding, I had messaged Elijah to kind of put the idea out there of a surprise speech if it was at all possible. He was able to record his thoughts and our DJ played it for everyone to hear, much to Christopher's surprise. I'm so glad we were able to do that, and include Elijah in our special day from afar.

My Phi Mu sisters also did the traditional wedding cheer, and I was so proud of myself for remembering to bring my candle from the candle-light ceremony announcing our engagement in the Phi Mu house three years prior, almost to the day! I'm so thankful we were able to get a picture with our fabulous photographer, a Phi Mu herself.

 

Throughout the reception, I could tell that our friends were getting feisty and were creating quite the getaway car. We were scheduled to leave through a tunnel of sparklers at 10:30 p.m., but about 10:15 p.m., I hit my limit. I was exhausted, hot, and just ready to be alone with my husband! So I headed back to the getting ready space, and literally laid on the couch for five minutes while the sparklers were handed out to the remaining guests. When Christopher finally made it back to the room, he asked, "How's my little introvert doing?" He knows me so well, and knew my "socializing limit" had been met!

We spent a few more minutes by ourselves with our photographer and videographer soaking in the last seconds of the day before heading out through the front door through a beautiful tunnel of sparkles. After pulling Saran wrap {and condoms...boys...!} off the car, pushing out dozens of balloons out of the seats, and stuffing my giant dress into the car, we were off! We rode back to our house to change and grab our luggage before heading to Savannah for the night. I think we both couldn't stop smiling all the way home, and kept saying how it was truly the best wedding ever.

Thank you for following along while I chronicled these memories! But no worries, the wedding features will continue, as I have the honor of featuring a few friends and blogging buddies and their wedding days. If you're interested in your wedding being featured, shoot me an email at piperellice at gmail dot com.

Also a huge thank you to all of our family and friends, near and far, who made this day the best day of our lives. We love you all!