Real Weddings: Lauren + David

Puerto Rico, baby!

Thats's right - Two of my very good friends were married in Puerto Rico over the New Year and we had the extreme pleasure of joining them! But before we get to the trip photos, and wedding deets - let's do the invitations. 

Lauren is an interior designer herself, so she knew exactly what she wanted for her invitations: a classy yet artistic invitation with art deco elements. Her colors were coral, emerald and gold. Since she was having somewhat of an untraditional wedding, we decided that the layout should be untraditional as well (tri-fold). I designed the art deco emblem for the front using their initials and carried the background pattern design throughout the design. 

Deco Wedding invitation now available on my Etsy Shop. Click here for details. 

Now on to the good stuff! Puerto Rico is pretty damn cool. People kept saying I was still in the United States, but I didn't believe them - it was too tropical and warm for all that!

The view from our hotel.

Being the adventurous type that we are, Jonathan and I decided to go on a few mini-adventures once we arrived. We drove to the exact opposite corner of the island (which only took about 2 hours) to Guanica Dry Forest Reserve. Since it was New Year's day, the park was closed, but we hopped the little gate and hiked on up the Fuerte Trail to Fort Caprón. There wasn't any info on the fort once we go there, so I'm not sure of it's history - but it offered some great views of the bay below.

Fort Caprón

panoramic view from the top of the fort

The next morning we went to El Yunque National Forrest, which, in my humble opinion was very underwhelming. It was super crowded (see below photo) and all of the trails were paved... It was the first time I've ever been to a tropical rain forrest, so that was kind of cool... I guess. 

ugh... too many people!

That afternoon we went into Old San Juan (which was great). Had I had the day to do over, I would have skipped El Yunque and spent all day in Old San Juan. The architecture was very reminiscent of Spain (brightly colored buildings, cobblestone streets) and being on the tip of San Juan (geographically ), it offered some amazing views. 

On to the wedding! The ceremony was (supposed to be) on the beach, but it was threatening rain so they performed the ceremony in an anteroom in the hotel. It was a quick one and I didn't have a chance to snap any photos. After the ceremony, we went up to the rooftop lounge, Mist, where the reception was held. We had pretty much the whole rooftop to ourselves (which was nice). Lauren brought table runners and centerpieces with her (in her corals and emeralds) to match the existing decor.

view from the rooftop

The happy couple! Love her art deco inspired dress - gorgeous! 

Congratulations Lauren and David! We had a blast at your wedding and I wish you many happy years to come!

The Old Dominion State

Do you keep up with anyone from High School? A lot of people change and drift apart and seem to be a little proud of the fact that they don't talk to anyone they went to High School with - that is NOT me. 

I moved to from Germantown, TN to Lexington, KY my Junior year (yikes!) and though it was going to be just awful. I could NOT have been more wrong. I met a super awesome group of girls and still keep in touch with most of them to this day. We have all been to each others weddings, our husbands are all friends now,  and we usually try to have a Girls Trip every year. It's so nice to see how everyone has grown up and matured (husbands, kids, houses, etc.). 

Blah, blah - anyway! So, last weekend I went to visit Frances. Frances and I have been friends since we were 16 and I recently spent the most amazing week of my life in Paris with her (which I need to blog about...) She living in Richmond, Virginia now and recently bought a house. While we were in Paris looking at the most incredible art in the world she said she wanted a painting, and I said I would paint her one (I think I was a little art-high at the time). I have dabbled in painting, and by no means consider myself an artist - but she said she didn't care what it looked like as long as it was from me (awwwwwwwwwww... famous last words, huh?) 

So, I painted one and shipped it to her and hopped on a plane for the big reveal, and...

She loved it!

I was so thrilled because I loved it too! Isn't her living room amazing? She and another Kentucky friend, Whitney painted the coral bookcase without telling her husband first. But he loved it (duh). The rug is from Pottery Barn, the tables are family antiques and the upholstery has all been recovered. It is absolutely my favorite room in the world right now! I love being an adult...

Well, this all took place within 5 minutes of me landing, so what to do with the rest of our time? The weather was absolutely gorgeous so we decided to check out the Canal Walk downtown. It's an awesome walk that takes you directly through downtown Richmond and is rich with modern art and history.  For example, I did not know that the burning of Richmond was the end of the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln came through the city and emancipated all of the slaves. He was assassinated 5 days later. Crazy. 

Canal walk - goes right through Downtown Richmond

Awesome artist murals along the walk - Memphis, I hope you're taking notes. 

The walk ends at the ruins of the bridges that were burnt in the Civil War. There was a bridge walk that chronicled the 3 days Richmond burned and ended in the middle of the James River. It really was amazing to be surrounded by all of that history. I got chills.

Frannie and I at the end of the walk.

Well, I'm not done yet. Since we were all excited about the new house, we decided it also needed a face life. We decided we were going to paint the shutters! Sounds easy, right? Well, not that it was hard - just more involved that we were anticipating (bushes and direct sunlight and spiders, oh my!) But we powered through and I it looks amazing!

Selecting a color was more difficult than we thought. The original color was a hunter green and we wanted to go navy. But some were too dark, some were too bright... 

But in the end we picked the perfect color and the house looks fantastic! Go us!

Overall it was an amazing trip! Between all the decorating, painting and historic tours I also got to reconnect with one of my oldest friends - which makes it all worth it! Love you, Frannie! I'll be back soon!

Happy Friday!

And what a happy Friday it is! Why, you may ask? Because... I am going to Paris! That's right! Last week (in a spur-of-the-moment decision) one of my bestest freinds and I decided "Why not? - Let's do this while we are (somewhat) young and irresponsible and we bought our tickets THAT NIGHT (before we lost our nerve!) So, I will be spending my 33rd next birthday in the City of Lights, munching on delicious breads and cheeses (and pastries and chocolate!) while sipping on exquisite wines and wishing I was cool enough to wear a beret (well, maybe not - Monica Lewnisky and Sadam Hussein totally ruined that look for me...)

Bluegrass in the Bluegrass

Well, I must say, I had the BEST weekend! My brother (aka "Chicken") came down from NYC and we drove to visit our mom AND attend the 8th Annual ROMP Festival (River of Music Party) in Owensboro, Kentucky. I've been a fan of bluegrass for several years (living in East Tennessee will do that to you...) but I think I can now elevate my status to serious bluegrass fan! Maybe it was the super talented bands, maybe it was the gorgeous weather, maybe it was the spiked orange/strawberry slushies... but we just had the best time at the festival!

We saw some spectacular bands including (but not limited to) Tony Rice with Mountain Heart and (my newest obsession) Punch Brothers.

There was this crazy old Martha White Flour Bus Museum thing that was pretty awesome.

Saturday it rained all day, so we decided to skip the festival. We were sorry to miss Emmylou Harris and the Carolina Chocolate Drops, but having a lazy day around the house was nice as well. We played Rummikub (but we just call it Rummy Tile) and watched movies (Super 8 was cute) and Chicken made a homemade Peach Cobbler with local peaches - it was perfect! And check it out, my mom still drinks Tab! What a trip!

All in all, it was a pretty amazing weekend with the Fam and I will definitely be making plans to attend ROMP next year!

Rocky Top!

Well, I'm back from Knoxville and I am exhausted!!! We packed a weekend full of old friends, new friends and lots and lots of food!

We stopped in Nashville on Friday night for a quick visit with some old friends from Memphis/Knoxville. We got off to somewhat of a late start on Saturday (thanks, Five Guys) and arrived in Knoxville with just enough time to shower and meet up with Sarah and Ty from The Happy Envelope. Sarah is one of my very best friends from Knoxville and I was so thrilled to finally get to spend some QT with her and her husband! They have recently opened a studio space in Knoxville's (absolutely adorable) Market Square and I couldn't be more thrilled for their success!

After a delish dinner at Cafe 4, we headed on the the Modern Ink Mag release party where I FINALLY met Allison and Rachel (the masterminds behind MIM). It was an AWESOME party held at the Public House and they even had Dixie Pixel set up with a photo booth! So much fun!

On Sunday we had a lovely brunch with MORE old friends from Knoxville and then we hit the road for the (seemingly endless) ride back to Memphis.

It was an absolutely lovely weekend and I am so glad I was able visit my college stomping grounds and spend some time with the ladies of Modern Ink!

The Beaver State

Last weekend we took a long(ish) weekend family trip to the Portland/Costal region of Oregon. Once we finally made it to Oregon (not Maine, where our plane tickets almost took us. Yup we were those people...) we had a fantastic time!

Our first stop was at The Albany Brass Ring Carousel studio. The building is an old turkey processing plant (random fact: at one time Oregon had the most turkey processing plants in the world... who knew?) and it is now being used to build/carve a carousel - all by volunteers and all by hand!

A model of what the finished carousel will look like.

A little bit about how this remarkable project came to be.

You actually tour the studio while the volunteers are working! The volunteers are all super friendly and willing to talk to you about their specific animal and what it is like to work on the project. The majority of the volunteers are not trained in wood working at all; they just have the desire (and time!) to dedicate themselves to this amazing community effort!

Once the carousel is completed they will tear down the studio building/ex-turkey processing plant and build a park area for the carousel to live! I think we will have to make a trip back once it is finished!

Our nest stop was Newport, Oregon where we are delicious seafood while enjoyed the fantastic view of the harbor.

We spent the rest of the time traveling up and down the coastline: walking on beaches, touring lighthouses, eating wonderful seafood. It was an great mini-vacay. I'm so glad we went (and didn't end up in Maine!)

Deceased baby whale. Gross. Guess that's what you get when you go on vacation with a Ecologist, Oceanographer and a Biomedical Engineer. They were fascinated...