All images below by Ava Moore Photography. Immediately after the ceremony, we dispersed to take bridal party photos. I wanted to get them over with quickly so they could enjoy the cocktail hour. We got them done in 15 minutes! We took some pictures in front of the venue and some on the rooftop of...
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#HereComesMcBride- Wedding Ceremony
All images below by Ava Moore Photography. It rained... it rained SO HARD! But it doesn't even matter, our wedding ceremony was still so perfect. Three years of dating, a year of planning this day, and it was all coming down to 30 minutes where we became husband and wife. The forecast had changed all...
#HereComesMcBride - We Exchange Gifts
All images below by Ava Moore Photography. Prior to the ceremony, Sean and I exchanged gifts. I got my gift from him before the girls left the hotel and Sean opened his at the wedding venue. He made these stickers with our wedding logo for the wedding welcome bags and was so proud of them....
#HereComesMcBride - Groomsmen Photos Before Ceremony
All images below by Ava Moore Photography. I wrote a couple days ago about what my groomsmen and I did on the morning of the wedding and about how suave we looked while getting ready at the hotel. Well, at 4:15 on the dot, our transportation arrived and picked us up to deliver us to...
#HereComesMcBride - Bridesmaid Photos Before Ceremony
All images below by Ava Moore Photography. Prior to the ceremony, we took Bridal + Bridesmaids portraits. It was great to get some pictures of just us girls at the venue. We wanted to take quick group & family pictures after the ceremony so they could enjoy the cocktail hour, so it was great to...
#HereComesMcBride - I get into my Dress
All images below by Ava Moore Photography. This is kind of a wacky thing to have as it's own post, and it's made all the more anti-climactic by the fact that I already showed you my bridal portraits, but my photographer got so many good pictures of me getting dressed that I just had to...
#HereComesMcBride - The Groomsmen Get Ready
All images below by Ava Moore Photography. When I woke up on the morning of our wedding, I was very calm. People talk about stories of grooms and brides having some sort of mental breakdown on the day of their wedding and freaking out about getting married. Why would I do that? I was in...
#HereComesMcBride - The Bridesmaids Get Ready
All images below by Ava Moore Photography. So, our wedding was awesome. I had a fantastic time. But I almost want to say that I had more fun getting ready. And I mean that in the best possible way. My bridesmaids arrived at the hotel suite around 10am. I had been awake since about 7 (I...
#HereComesMcBride - Welcome Party Activities
It was important to us that we had something going on at the Welcome Party other than just food. Food will get people there, but we wanted something to keep them around for a little while (other than the keg). We decided to have a big group trivia game. Trivia is one of our favorite...
#HereComesMcBride - Welcome Party Food & Decor
Pretty early into our wedding planning, we made the decision that we did not want a small, formal rehearsal dinner. We knew that so many of our guests (over 80 percent) were travelling in from out of state and we wanted to extend our time hanging out with all of them. Before we get into...
#HereComesMcBride - First, We Rehearse
It's a good practice to rehearse your wedding ceremony before the fact, so everyone knows what to do. Our officiant and coordinator recommended it (and included it in their fees) so we decided to hold a rehearsal for our bridal party the day before the wedding. Unfortunately, our venue was booked for a wedding that...
Wall Mounting a Rolling Pin
I was so excited to get the rolling pin off of our wedding registry. Every time that I have needed a rolling pin, I've had to borrow one from a friend! It was about time. Unfortunately, all of our drawers are getting pretty full and I couldn't come up with a good place to store...
How to Cut a Pineapple
There is nothing sweeter than fresh pineapple. I just love the juicy and sour flavor of the fruit, but buying pre-chopped pineapple at the grocery store can be really expensive. Publix, our grocery store, sells a container of chopped pineapple for over $10 - while a whole fresh pineapple is only $4 right now! However,...
May in Review
May's almost over, which means June is here and summer is in full swing. For us that means beach days, grilling out at the pool, and lots of visitors. We've been a bit wedding heavy around here and will continue to be for about a month more. I hope you are enjoying it, but if...
Italian Honeymoon: Glad We Dids and Wish We Hads
As with any trip, there were things that we were really glad that we did and things that we wish that we had done to prepare for our trip to Italy. This was a major trip - we were gone for two weeks immediately following our wedding. It was Sean's first trip to Europe and...
Italian Honeymoon Day 13: Rome to Charlotte
We had to wake up at 6:00 a.m. today to get everything done. We packed last night, so no problem besides our last few things. We washed up and ate croissants for breakfast. Then we started our trek 20 minutes to Roma Termini train station for a 30 minute express train to the airport. We...
Italian Honeymoon Day 12: Rome
Rome wasn't built in a day... but you can definitely explore it in a day. Neither of us really care much about museums or going into places, especially two weeks into our trip and on our last day. Sad face. We just wanted to walk around Rome and take it easy. We slept in this...
Italian Honeymoon Day 11: Naples to Capri to Rome
This morning when we woke up, we overwhelmingly did not want to head to Rome. We really preferred the smaller stops on our trip to the big cities and did not want two full days in Rome. I'm sure that some people will think that is crazy, but it's the truth. Meghan had to leave...
Italian Honeymoon Day 10: Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast
We woke up bright and early this morning and Josh made us eggs- a nice change of pace after all of those pastries we've been having! Meghan drove us about 45 minutes to Pompeii where we parked in a camping parking lot and bout tickets for a self-guided tour of the ruins. The weather was...
Italian Honeymoon Day 9: Florence to Naples
After a really long day doing Tasty Tuscany and the Fiorentina soccer game, we slept in until about 9 a.m. We ate breakfast at the Strange Uncle. We finally met the owner and talked to him for a few minutes. Interesting fellow named Breditz. We packed up all our stuff and walked to the train...
Italian Honeymoon Day 8: Florence and Tuscany
Today was a HUGE day. I can't express that enough. When we were planning our trip to Italy, we only booked two things to do. We had our plane tickets and our places to stay through AirBnB, but we only had two activities booked... and they were both on the same day. That day was...
Italian Honeymoon Day 7: Cinque Terre to Florence
We got up early on this Sunday morning for breakfast once again downstairs at Bar Centrale. We went down to the Coop (the grocery store) to buy souvenirs. We were still worried about having to carry anything we buy on our backs, but there were certain things here that we wanted to buy from this...
Italian Honeymoon Day 6: Hiking Cinque Terre
We woke up on our full day in Cinque Terre early and went downstairs to Bar Centrale's breakfast bar and had pastries and cappuccino for breakfast and planned our day. We had learned from our AirBnB host (who happened to work for the Italian National Park Service) that ¾ of the Lover's Trail was closed...
Italian Honeymoon Day 5: Lake Como to Cinque Terre
On Friday morning, we sadly had to bid farewell to Lake Como. We were really sad - Lake Como was like a dream. I grew up visiting the mountains a lot and just felt at home there, and the towns were so friendly and beautiful, I truly feel that we could have stayed for weeks....
Italian Honeymoon Day 4: Lake Como
On Thursday we woke up in Varenna, on the banks of Lake Como. We had pastries and coffee at a small cafe on the town square. Then we headed out to catch the ferry across the Lake. We bought an all day unlimited ferry pass for 15 Euro each, which was a great buy. You...
Italian Honeymoon Day 3: Venice to Lake Como
On Wednesday, we woke up in Venice and walked for about 20 minutes to the train station. Inside the station, we picked up sandwiches and cokes for the train ride. This was crucial as we were taking small regional trains that definitely did not have food cars! The train took about 3 hours and we...
Italian Honeymoon Day 2: Venice
On Tuesday, we woke up in Venice! Our apartment provided a great breakfast spread - we had fresh fruit, juice, coffee, yogurt, and pastries. It was great to not have to go out and hunt for breakfast. We packed our day bag and headed to St. Marco's Square. This is the big tourist-y area in...
Italian Honeymoon: the Flight & Day 1 in Venice
On Sunday April 12, the day after our wedding, we left Charleston around 11:30 for Charlotte. We spent the morning at a farewell breakfast with our out of town guests and then stopped by our condo to grab our suitcases and throw together our toiletries. Then we hit the road towards Charlotte. We decided to...
Wedding Sneak Peek
I can't believe that it has almost been a month since we got married! It is hard to believe. It was just the most beautiful, amazing of days. It's crazy to explain how it feels to be surrounded by so much love and happiness and the most important people in your life. It was amazingly...
Bridal Portraits
I am so excited to share my favorites from my bridal portraits with you today. I never really saw the point of bridal portraits: it isn't your day, or your actual bouquet or maybe even your actual hair and makeup choices. However, my photographer described them as a chance to get all of the shots...
Choosing a Wedding Dress
I kept my wedding dress a secret until the big day, so I thought that I'd stop in now and tell you about it. Bridal Portrait by the lovely Ava Moore Photography... more on these tomorrow! I was definitely a bride with very little vision of what I wanted in a dress. I tried on...
Ombre Fabric Strip Photo Booth Backdrop
I am all about the little personalizing wedding touches. Things that bring in your colors or theme can really make the event feel more unique and less like every other wedding your guests will attend this season. We knew that we were going to have a traditional photobooth for our guests, but I wanted to do...
April in Review
April was just the perfect month. We got married, surrounded by our friends and family, and spent two weeks in the most beautiful country of Italy! We also finally got to share some wedding projects that we've had up our sleeves for a while now. If you missed them, here's what we did: We shared...
Wedding Parking Sign
The entrance to our venue is a little closed off. You turn off the main road and go about 200 yards to a small intersection. The venue entrance is directly across that intersection, but hidden by large bushes, so we wanted people that aren't familiar with the area to know how to get there. That's...
Welcome to the Party
Since we were having so many out of town guests, we knew that we wanted to have welcome bags for them at the hotel. The hotel where we blocked rooms didn't charge a fee for this service, so that solidified that we had to go for it. I really wanted welcome baskets that would have...
Wedding Bathroom Baskets
Planning to have bathroom baskets at your wedding? Here's what we put in our wedding bathroom baskets, and what was a hit and what was a miss! Ready for another example of how Pinterest & wedding planning can make the average girl go crazy? Enter: bathroom baskets. I never knew that this was a thing....
Table Numbers
When it comes to wedding planning, at least for me, some things you get creative with, and some things you copy straight off Pinterest. But that's what Pinterest is for, right? Sharing really cute, "unique" ideas? Have you ever noticed that some things that you see all over Pinterest, you never see in real life?...
It was Sweet of you to Come!
We made our own wedding favors of a special sweet treat for our guests. This was fun to do for our guests! Favors have been one of the aspects of our wedding that we have wavered on. I knew that I wanted to do something edible (take-home glasses with someone else's name on it end...
Gifting the Parents
Is it just me or is it really hard to buy a present for your parents? Usually if they want something, they buy it for themselves, or they give you a specific list. We have had the most success in the past surprising our parents with experiences or sentimental gifts. For the wedding, we knew...
Groomsmen Gifts
I've been a groomsmen for two of my friends before, so I knew the standard protocol for a groomsmen gift- anything with a monogram. In the past, I received a monogrammed flask and a monogrammed cigar cutter. Both of those guys are in my wedding, so I had to go a different route. When searching...
Bridesmaids Gifts
I am so thankful for my bridesmaids. They have really helped me so much during the wedding planning process. And, of course, they’ve been my good friends for years. While my big ($-wise) gifts to them were paying for a portion of their dresses and the makeup and updos for the wedding, I also wanted...
Nautical Bridesmaids Hangers
I have always known that I wanted to do special named hangers for myself and my bridesmaids. Not always as in, since I was a little child, all I dreamed of was hangers. Not exactly, but ever since I saw them in wedding pictures, I knew that I wanted to have them at my wedding....