Tyler & Julie's Wedding

On Saturday morning, after our Friday adventure in NYC, we headed to New Jersey for our friends' Tyler and Julie's wedding.  James and Tyler went to grad school together at The University of Virginia and both still work for Ernst & Young. The wedding was in Basking Ridge, New Jersey.  We took a train out of New York and then drove for about 30 miles (?) possibly... am I the only one who doesn't pay attention to how far things are on vacation?

We checked into our hotel  around 1 on Saturday and Tyler and Julie's wedding ceremony was at 2:30pm.  The ceremony was beautiful and the bride and groom had a receiving line after the wedding to visit with all of their guests.  To be honest, going into this weekend, James and I kept wondering if a Northern wedding would be different than a Southern wedding, as neither of us had ever attended a wedding up north.  The receiving line was different, as well as the break between the ceremony and reception, but it seemed to work out well.  Shuttles picked all of the guests up from the hotel at 5:00 to bus us to the reception site.  The reception was at Natirar, a mansion set on a hill that looked out over sprawling hills and beautiful scenery.  Apparently, the mansion used to be owned by the King of Morocco.

There was a cocktail hour, while the guests enjoyed the sunset, and then a plated dinner.  The wedding decor was beautiful.

Tyler and Julie had a wishing tree where guests could leave comments and well wishes

Before dinner, we headed back outside to take a few more pictures.

James with his friends from UVA

Ahna and I, the only girls in the group for the weekend.  Ahna is engaged to James' friend Anthony

The dinner was amazing.  In true married people fashion, James and I ordered one of each-- chicken & steak, so we could try both. Tyler and Julie were announced during dinner, and then the speeches and dancing ensued.

The wedding was so much fun! Especially when the DJ started playing rap music and all of the old people got up to dance (definitely a polar difference from a Southern wedding... key words...DJ... and Rap Music). All in all, it was a successful weekend! We had a blast!  

New York City

Last weekend, James and I traveled to The Big Apple.  We were heading up North to attend the wedding of one of James' grad school friends.  I have so much to say about both New York and Tyler and Julie's wedding, so I plan on separating out the two blog posts.

We took Friday off work, and to take full advantage of our time in New York, we booked a flight leaving Atlanta at 6:30am.  We set our alarms for 3am so that we could shower and get out the door by 4:30.  Needless to say, I was falling asleep a little exhausted by the time 9 o'clock rolled around Friday evening. Our flight landed in NYC around 9:30 Friday morning, and the adventure began.  We were staying at our friend Brent's apartment in the West Village but as soon as we got off the flight it dawned on us, we had no plan and didn't know how we would actually get to Brent's place.  Keep in mind I had never been to New York and James went once... in 7th grade.... on a safety patrol trip... with chaperones.  Yeah.

So we ended up getting an airport shuttle to Grand Central Station and then navigated the subway to Brent's apartment to drop off our bags.  By the time we got to Brent's we were starving (hello, we ate breakfast at 6:00am) and sweating. New York was unseasonably hot and muggy, as it had been sprinkling on and off.  This girl only packed jeans, boots and sweaters.  Needless to say, after we ate lunch we had to go shopping.  Those of you who know me well may think that I planned that little coincidence, but I promise I didn't!  James was very patient while I stopped off in a store and bought a dress really quick.

After we ate lunch, we headed down to the World Trade Center.  We didn't buy tickets beforehand, so we couldn't go on the official tour of ground zero, but we were able to see the construction of the new Twin Towers.  It was a bit eerie to be down there, and think that  just a little over ten years ago that whole area was covered in dust, chaos and fear.

After ground zero, we headed towards Wall Street.  We were hoping that we would see the Occupy Wall Street protesters so that we could take pictures and heckle them, but they were at a private park somewhere else in the city.

Of course, I had to get a picture outside Tiffany & Co. It's a girl thing...

After Wall Street, we headed down to Battery Park to see the Statue of Liberty.  Unfortunately, they weren't offering crown tours that afternoon, so we couldn't go up into the statue, but we did hang in Battery Park for a bit to take it all in.  We happened to sit down at a bench that had this carved into it:

I swear we didn't carve that ourselves.  Such a coincidence though...

We left Battery Park around 4pm when some of James' friends were starting to arrive in town.  We ended up going to get pizza with friends and hanging out Friday night.  Saturday morning we were up early to head over to New Jersey for Tyler and Julie's wedding.  More to come on that next...

The closet!

You may remember this post where I first talked about the master closet remodel, and shared a few pictures of the construction.  I am embarrassed to say that a) it has been over a year since that post, b) the closet has been done since January of this year, and c) I have still yet to update the blogging world on the finished product!  The original master bedroom closet in our house was pretty small, as most closets in older houses are. So last year, James and my Dad set out to build a walk in that would be big enough for all of our things.  I mean, I dont know why they were concerned...it's not like I have a lot of clothes or anything.

After the walls were constructed and painted and the carpet was installed, we started purchasing the closet organization system.  We ended up going with the Elfa system from the Container Store.  James said that the system was really easy to install, and we are pleased with the way it turned out.  They have a lot of "extras" that you wouldn't normally think about.  Things like tie racks and shoe racks that pull out to make access easier and valet rods where you can hang your clothes for the next day, or your dry cleaning when you get home. Here are some pictures of the finished product:

Jewelry organizer

Drawers for t-shirts, socks, etc

Shoe racks!

...that pull out!

Valet rod

Belt organizer

Necklace hooks

Tie rack

Sixteen

On Monday night, I hosted sixteen of my sorority sisters for a supper club at our house. I think sixteen definitely takes the cake for the highest number of people we have ever hosted at our house, which might I add, isn't very big! It went really well, and we had a lot of fun. The weather cooperated, so we were able to open out all of the french doors onto our back deck and spill out to the deck. The theme for the night was Italian, and everyone signed up to bring a different dish or bottle of wine. We had quite the feast! Between everyone we had baked ziti, lasagna, salad, bread, bruschetta, caprese salad bites, pasta salad, cinnamon biscotti, tiramisu, Italian wedding cake and many bottles of wine.

I am able to see some of the girls that came over every week, but it had been a year or more since I had a chance to catch up with the others. It was so much fun hearing where everyone is in life now and reminiscing on good ol' college days at 317 South Milledge Ave.

Dawgs Win!

This past Saturday, James and I headed up to Athens for our first home game of the season. Obviously, we are the dawgs good luck charms, because we finally got a win! Orrrr maybe we just won 59-0 because we were playing Coastal Carolina. Either way, we had a great time. Athens is such a special place to us. It's where we both spent four of the best years of our lives and also where we met. Lots of great memories in the classic city!

James and I tailgating at Sig Ep

After the game we headed to Sweet Peppers Deli downtown. Two of James' fraternity brothers, Alan and Ryan Pope opened Sweet Peppers in downtown Athens last year. It's really yummy and walking distance of everything. If you go, I would highly recommend the Mediterranean chicken panini. I actually didn't get the Mediterranean panini, but James did, and I wish I had after he gave me a bite!

Here's to hoping the dawgs can pull out a W against the rebels this weekend!

Kiawah Island, SC

Over Labor Day weekend, I went on a girls trip to Kiawah Island with 6 of my girlfriends, my friend Sara's mom and my mom. Sara's family has a house on the beautiful Kiawah Island, about 30 minutes outside of Charleston. A fun, relaxing weekend could not have come at a better time, after a stressful few weeks at work. On Thursday morning, me, Sara and Mary Frances made our way to Kiawah. Our moms had been there since Monday....and we were super jealous and ready to join them! On Thursday evening our friend Kelly flew into the Charleston airport. After we picked her up, we headed out to dinner in downtown Charleston at Coast. Can't get better than girl talk and fresh seafood at the beach.

On Friday, we headed out to the beach for the whole day. During the afternoon on Friday Kristi & Shannon arrived and then Amy got there Friday evening. Here we all are before heading out to dinner on Friday night.

Oh, and I know I mentioned Sara's mom and my mom were there the whole time. Well, they pretty much had their own agenda the whole week and spent all their time chatting on the back porch, and going out to dinner together. Apparently they were too cool to hang with us. Honestly though, I am so thankful for the friendship they have formed. It's so fun to be such close friends with Sara, and then our mom's be friends also. All weekend we called them "The Twins" or "Moms".

The Twins, my mom, Edie on the left and Ms Margie on the right

We sat on the beach all day Saturday afternoon, and then went to dinner at our favorite restaurant in Kiawah, Rosebank Farms, on Saturday night. As soon as dinner was over, we headed over to a sports bar to watch the Georgia/Boise State game. Even though the Dawgs lost we had a really fun night!

All the girls after dinner at Rosebank Farms

My mom and I and Sara and her mom

Unfortunately, Sunday was a little overcast and rainy. But it was probably for the best because we were all dragging a bit from the night before. Ms Margie took us all to lunch at The Beach Club on the island and we all kind of lounged around all day. On Sunday night Ms Margie did a low country boil and we stayed around the house playing games and drinking wine.

Feast

Edie and Marge- they have learned the picture pose from their girls...

Sara and I

Sweet friends: Me, Kristi, Amy, Mary Frances, Sara, Shannon and Kelly

It was such a fun weekend, and I can't wait for our next girls trip. I definitely missed my hubby though, and I think he missed me too. I came home to a spotless house and these on the kitchen table: