wedding shower in the mountains

Happy Friday!! I know I said that I would be starting the wedding recaps, butttt there are still a few pre-wedding things I'd like to share first. This is a fun one, too! Back in April the mister and I had our couples shower in his hometown of Sylva, NC. My mother- and sisters-in-law did a fabulous job hosting, and they even hired a professional photographer to capture the day!

The shower was held at Sapphire Mountain Brewing Company, which used to be owned by the mister's great grandmother (she was the first woman to be a licensed dentist in NC).

favors

fathers of the bride- and groom-to-be

the mister and his mama

me and my parents

my new in-laws

the flower girl and ring bearer - too cute for words

the mister's grandparents

BM/SIL Katie - hostess extraordinaire

two families combined

It was a beautiful shower and a very happy distraction from recent events. Once the festivities started to wind down, the mister and I wandered off with the photographer to get some engagement type photos of just the two of us walking around downtown Sylva. Those are up next!

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend! We're actually heading to Sylva tonight after work to attend a couples shower tomorrow for one of the mister's cousins. We haven't seen his family since the wedding, so it should be a nice time. See you back here next week! xoxo.

All photos taken by Nick Breedlove.

a cause for celebration

Today our wedding is being featured on the super amazing Southern Weddings Magazine blog! Yipee!!! I've been reading their blog and magazine since before we were even engaged, and they were a huge source of inspiration during the planning process, so it's an honor to have been picked. Go check it out:

Part I

Part II

I guess what this really means is that now I can start the full-fledged wedding recap! So excited and can't wait to share the day with you!

honeymoon in Barbados (part 5)

For the last day of our honeymoon, the mister set up a very special excursion. While researching things to do outside of the trips offered by our resort, he found a small, family-run stable that offered horseback rides. The reviews were amazing, so he called and arranged for us to take a one hour ride. The owners, Sam and Bernard, who are husband and wife, were extremely nice and very accommodating. Bernard picked us up at our resort and drove us to their home, where we signed some paperwork and got set up on our horses. Bernard, and his assistant, Sham, then took us and one other couple on our ride. Bernard was a wonderful tour guide, sharing with us the history and culture of Barbados as well as entertaining us with some of his poems and freestyle raps. He called it "edu-tainment." I also lucked out that he volunteered to take my camera, so we have some great photos of us on our horses.

Bernard (on the left) and Sam (on the right) helping the mister up on his horse, Bishop

me and Zorro

and we're off!

Bishop had to be put on a lead for part of the trip because he was being ornery

Bishop was not happy to be in the water. Zorro loved it.

back at the stables

Once we were done with our ride, Sam brought us some delicious fresh-squeezed juice and after we cooled off a bit Bernard drove us back to the resort. On the way back, he bought us some sugar cane to try. It's very hard and basically you just tear off a chunk and suck out the super sweet juice before spitting the cane back out. I couldn't even manage to tear off my own piece. The mister loved it, but I wasn't a huge fan.


Hands down, this was the best part of our trip. Sam and Bernard (and their two girls) are such a lovely family. Their business is well run and you can tell that they love what they do. We learned so much about the culture and history of Barbados and it was definitely more personal and intimate than the large resort-run tours.

Once we were back at our resort, tired and sore from our ride, we decided to top off the day with a couples' massage. It was absolutely heavenly and the perfect way to end our honeymoon. The next morning we were up at 3:30 to catch our 7am flight back to the states. Back to reality...