Showing posts with label Beach wedding. Show all posts

Memorial Weekend & Wedding Festivities

Hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend! 
I had a pretty hectic weekend but got to spend Memorial day yesterday relaxing at home before the start of another busy work week. I left work early on Friday to head to St Pete for a friend's wedding that evening. We checked into the hotel and got dressed. Our hotel room had a pretty sweet view of the beach.

On Saturday everyone hung out at the beach and at the hotel tiki bar/restaurant. It was a sunny and beautiful weekend on the West Coast and I have to say St Pete Beach is one of my favorite beaches so it was the perfect way to spend the long weekend with friends.

On Sunday we checked out of the hotel and headed home but first we had to drop off a friend downtown so we stopped off at a Ray's bar right outside the stadium for some lunch and drinks. There was a Rays vs Red Sox game that evening so the bar was packed with people tailgating before the game. 

Monday was a lazy day at home getting laundry and stuff done around the house.

How did you spend Memorial weekend?

Joining Bella & Lisa for Weekend Recap.
Dateless in Dallas

Beach Bound for the Long Weekend

I've been looking forward to this weekend for months now since we plan to spend it with friends out on Florida's west coast. We're going to a wedding tonight at a resort on St Pete Beach and the rest of the weekend will be relaxing on the beach, catching up with friends, BBQ-ing and inevitably drinking way too much. Let's not fool anyone here!

*Announcement* Tuesday Recipe Swap will be taking a break next week 05/27 due to the holiday on Monday.

I met up with Kate for lunch on Wednesday since her new job is literally walking distance from my office so we got to catch up and start planning our trip to Chicago later this year. We'll be meeting up for more lunches & happy hours in the future since we work so close together now.

I was most excited to come home to find this package from Blue Avenue waiting for me. The dress is just as gorgeous in person and fits perfectly. Blue Avenue is Jordon's brand new online clothing store with some pretty fabulous pieces (plus free shipping). Go check it out!

Last minute trip to the nail salon to get my nails prettied up for the weekend. I swear I love walking into the salon and hearing "Hello Emily" by all the ladies and they remember exactly what I like to get done. They also get me in and out quickly on my lunch break so no waiting around.

I was supposed to get my hair done last night just in time for the wedding today but my hairdresser cancelled on me last minute so I stopped for some happy hour drinks after work. I'm pretty bummed my hair is going to look like crap for the long weekend. Ah well!
I NEED to remember this for the weekend!
(and well, for every wedding, birthday celebration, bachelorette, etc...)

Hope everyone has a fun and safe Memorial weekend!

Joining Lauren for H54F and April for Five on Friday.

Travel Tuesdays: Negril, Jamaica

I'm excited to join Helene's brand new Travel Tuesday Linkup today. If there's one thing I love, it's  traveling although I feel like I've barely but a dent in the map but I'm working on it. If only we were all rich and didn't need to work to make a living?
Helene in Between 

Today I decided to talk about my trip to Negril in Jamaica. Maybe because I've been missing sunshine and warmth for the past few day or maybe simply because it was absolutely beautiful.

My cousin decided to have a destination wedding at the RIU Negril resort last summer so it was the perfect excuse for our family to reunite from different parts of the world on a sunny all-inclusive resort in Jamaica.

This was the view we woke up to every morning.

Jamaican Jerk Cusine.

We were pretty excited about staying at an all-inclusive resort but we didn't expect them to take it as far as having liquor dispensers in the hotel rooms (which the housekeepers refilled daily).

Negril is known for it's 7 mile beach so we had two tour guides take us on a boat cruise around the Negril coast.

We stopped at Jimmy Buffet's Margartiville to get a drink and check it out. While returning back to the boat, a local offered us 'Shrooms. Yeah that really happened....and no we did not accept. (That was the only negative experience on this trip)

Our last stop was at Rick's Cafe which is a must-see for anyone visiting Jamaica. They have food, drinks, live music and cliff-diving. We didn't jump off the cliff but instead watched the locals do it.
 
Our tour guide did some flips off of the cliff for us to get on camera.

We had a fantastic time in Jamaica and cannot wait to go back again soon! I can't wait to read about everyone else's travels.

Our Wedding Recap

Yesterday evening we went to our friends wedding that took place at the same venue we had our wedding at this past June. Paradise Cove is a hidden gem of a location in Orlando and I was so excited to be a guest and not the bride this time! I thought this would be a good time to do a wedding recap and talk about all the awesome memories that were created for K and I on June 16th, 2012.


Our wedding took place on a sunny Saturday evening this past summer at Paradise Cove which is an outdoor venue that sits on a lake and is just beautiful. The premises has a bridal suite, beautiful garden area facing the lake for the ceremony, tiki bar & cocktail area along the water, and open pavilion for the reception. We had friends and family travel to Orlando from Trinidad, Canada, England, and all over the US. Our wedding had a tropical Caribbean theme with Hawaiian food and a Caribbean band to entertain our guests.

My 10 bridesmaids and I got dressed in the bridal suite. The girls all wore matching purple tank tops that I gave them and we got to spent some quality time together getting our hair and makeup done.


K and I did formal pictures before the ceremony with our wedding party and immediate family.


Our ceremony started at 6pm and we had steel pan music during the ceremony. The guys arrived by boat which came as a cool surprise to all of our guests seated facing the lake.


We had K's uncle as our minister for the ceremony which lasted about 30 minutes. We were very lucky to have perfect weather in June because is usually the rainiest month of the year in Florida. God really blessed us that day!


After the ceremony our guests went off to cocktail hour while we did formal pictures together as husband and wife and also with the whole wedding party together and both of our families.


The reception then started and we had a Hawaiian buffet spread for dinner from a local caternig company who also did our bar service. We had out first dance, a champagne toast with speeches, caking cutting and all the traditional and fun wedding activities.


I did a lot of DIY projects for our wedding including designing and printing the menus, programs and seating cards as well as "bride" and "groom" chair signs.  I also got a lot of cute ideas from Pinterest and loved our sweetheart table which was decorated with my bridesmaid bouquets.


Our Caribbean band really got the party started and everyone had a lot of fun dancing. Many of our guests also enjoyed the open bar and unlimited cocktails!


Overall our wedding was a huge success and it is one of the most special days of my life having everyone their to support us. Great memories!!

Photos by S&S Photography