Lake Norman Vacation

We just got back from an awesome week-long vacation at Lake Norman, near Charlotte, NC, with my mom, dad, sister and Lee.

Earlier this year we were trying to decide on a family vacation to take this summer. We were tired of the beach thing, but wanted to go somewhere nice and relaxing. My sister suggested Lake Norman, and we thought it was a great idea since we could enjoy the water and quiet atmosphere, but also be close to good shopping and restaurants. 

I searched online and found a house for us to rent in Troutman, NC. Before I get onto the details of the trip later in the week, I wanted to start by sharing some pics of the house with you. 

The house was big and spacious and had awesome lake views from almost every room. But it definitely had some quirks. It was probably top-of-the-line when it was built back in the 80s, and the owners had done some renovations, but some of the fabulously 80s details remained.

For example, the first master bath:

You probably can't see it, but back in the right corner is the shower. Yep, no doors or curtain or even raised floor, just a shower head in the wall and a drain in the floor. Weird, huh? And you gotta love the fabulous matching toilet and bidet: 

The sauna, however, was awesome and definitely not from the 80s :-)

This was the second master bedroom that Lee and I stayed in. There were three things in abundance in this house: mirrors, vertical blinds and track lighting. They were EVERYWHERE!

And here's our shower/tub. Yet again, no curtain/door to be found. Weird.

We definitely enjoyed the top-floor deck overlooking the lake:

The kitchen had been updated:

And we got a sweet welcome basket, with Ghirardelli chocolates, wine, crackers, and yummy cheeses:

Downstairs rec room with pool and foosball.

This is where Lee and Dad stayed the whole week: out on the boat and pier.

The house was situated on a huge wooded lot with awesome landscaping and two nice decks for laying out:

Another quirky feature of the house: the sounds it made. The doorbell rang the tune of "I've Been Workin' on the Railroad." And the house was equipped with an alarm system, so that anytime anyone opened an outside door, it made a dinging sound. And there was a door to the outside from EVERY room in the house. So, you'd be sitting in the living room and there'd be dings from people coming in from all different doors: downstairs, front door, side patio. My sister took to saying "Welcome to Wal-Mart!" anytime a door dinged. She'd switch it up and say K-mart every once in a while. It was pretty hilarious.

Ok, that's all for now. I'll be back later with details from what we did on our trip, pictures of some of the fabulous houses on Lake Norman, and a post about the most bizarre part of our trip.

Show Us Your Life: Wedding Reception and Honeymoon

It's time for the last wedding installment of the Show Us Your Life Series over on Kelly's Korner. (Sorry it's a little late, but we're just getting back from vacation...more on that later this week.) This week's topic is: your wedding reception and honeymoon.

I've had an awesome response to the first two posts in this series (you can find them here and here). But before I go on to dish the juicy reception details, I have to address one very important issue. The elephant in the room, if you will. Lots of times we bloggers are guilty of only focusing on the good things in life, and sort of skimping over the negative parts. Well, I can't share all of my lovely wedding details with you without painting the whole picture of our wedding day.

You see, IT RAINED. I know you're thinking, 'what's the big deal? it rains on lots of people's wedding days.' Well, it was a huge deal. Seeing as we had planned An Outdoor Ceremony. At The Beach. Overlooking The Water.

For months, I had pictured our wedding ceremony in my head to look a little something like this. The idea of the waterfront ceremony was the reason we wanted to get married at the beach. The reason we asked most of our guests to drive 2+ hours to our wedding.

Oh, we had a back up plan of course. A tent that the ceremony could be held under in case of rain.

We cancelled the tent 3 days before the wedding.

We knew that some rain was coming through but were assured that it would be gone long before the wedding. Well, instead of passing through, the storm system decided to descend upon coastal NC and SIT. For DAYS. It was the most bizarre thing you'd ever seen. Even the weathermen were bumfuzzled.

People kept telling me, "oh, it's good luck if it rains on your wedding day." What? That's the biggest bunch of crap I've ever heard. That's something someone dreamed up to tell rainy-day brides TO KEEP THEM FROM JUMPING OFF THE NEAREST TALL BUILDING. 

I tried very hard to keep it together. On the morning of the wedding, our wedding planner at the country club called to discuss the situation. Luckily, the country club had a pretty large covered porch (that still overlooked the water) where we could have the ceremony. It would be a tight squeeze to fit the "altar" and bridal party, and we wouldn't be able to have chairs for all 200 of our guests, but she assured me that some guests could stand and everyone would fit. I was disappointed. Scratch that. I was devastated. But it would all work out. I was ok with the plan. And still keeping it together at this point.

She calls me back about two hours later. Not only is it raining, she says, but the wind is blowing really hard. It's blowing the rain onto the porch. I'm afraid some of your guests might get wet. And you and Lee and your bridal party, since you'll be closest to the outside. Ok, I say, what do you suggest? Is there another option? By this point my voice is cracking. I'm about to sob. I should be upstairs, getting ready with my bridesmaids in this fabulous beach house my family has rented for the week. I should be laughing and joking and doing my makeup. Instead I'm downstairs holed up in a bedroom, talking on the phone to the wedding planner, listening to the rain, with my mom and sister peeking in and out of the room, wanting to be supportive, but not wanting to say the wrong thing.

Well, says the wedding planner, we can set you, Lee, the pastor and the bridal party up inside on the dance floor. The guests can watch the ceremony from their tables we have set up for the reception.

This is the point where I lose it. I'm thinking, as if Plan B isn't bad enough, now we've gotta resort to Plan-FREAKIN-C?? Ok, I sob, let me think about it and call you back. My mom says, I don't think that's such a bad idea, that might be what we have to do. WHAT?? By this point I'm ready to scream. So I do. "I DID NOT SPEND A YEAR PLANNING THIS WEDDING TO GET MARRIED ON THE DANCE FLOOR OF A COUNTRY CLUB!!"

Ok, ok, says my poor mother. And now Lee is on the phone. Someone asks, "do you want to talk to him?" Yes. I have to talk to him. To hell with all the 'no seeing or talking to the groom before the wedding' -- he's the only one that can make this better.

"Baby, what do you want to do?" By this point he's at the country club with his groomsmen. I say, "I don't want to get married on the dance floor. I don't think I can do it." "Ok then, it's done, we'll do it on the porch. I'll take care of it." And I realize, he doesn't give a shit that it's raining. He's just worried because he knows I'm upset.

And it hits me: I don't care where we get married or how. All that matters is that I'm married to this man at the end of the day. This man who knows exactly what I'm feeling and why. This man who puts my happiness before his own, who will do anything to keep me from being upset. That's. All. That. Matters.

So I take a deep breath. Put on my big girl panties. Dry my tears as best as possible. And go upstairs to be with my bridesmaids and get dressed.

Yes, the rain was a nuisance, but the next thing you know, I'm standing next to my dad.

And he's walking me down the aisle.

Down to the man who cares so much about me.

"Are you ok?" he whispers when I get there. I smile and nod. And then we can begin, once he knows that I'm ok.

It wasn't what I had envisioned. No one could see or hear the string quartet I was so excited about hiring. Some of our guests got wet. Some of the outdoor pictures I had planned were no longer possible. But you know what? Our ceremony was incredibly INTIMATE. We were literally surrounded by our family and friends. Our 175+ guests were so close it seemed like we could reach out and touch them.

Here's a you-may-now-kiss-the-bride shot to demonstrate the intimacy of the ceremony :-)

And, I have to say, I think the drama of the ceremony made the reception all the more amazing. It was such a relief to have the ceremony done and be out of the rain that I wasn't going to allow ANYTHING else to get me down. So now, onto the reception details!

Starfish escort cards led everyone to their table:

And placecards hung from the back of each person's chair:

For our favors we did a candy buffet, with purple and green themed clear chinese takeout containers. This was a HUGE hit with the kids and kids-at-heart.

This is technically a ceremony detail, but I worked so hard on the handmade programs that I had to include them:

Loved, loved, LOVED our wonderful cake. It was five tiers of flawless cake perfection.

Here's a feeding-the-cake shot:

In lieu of a traditional guestbook, we did a polaroid guestbook, where we asked guests to take a picture of themselves or their group, and leave it in the guestbook along with a little note. This was probably one of my favorite details of the wedding, because we will treasure that guestbook forever. It is so sweet and ridiculously hilarious all at the same time.

However, all of these details pale in comparison to the sheer fun that we had at our reception. I still have people who randomly come up to us to tell us was an amazingly fun wedding it was.

Remember when I was telling you about the relief we felt once the ceremony was taken care of? Well, it looked a little something like this:

And this:

And this:

Then there was this guy:

And the cupid shuffle. Our DJ said it was the largest crowd he's ever had on the dance floor for the cupid shuffle. This may or may not have been due to the fact that we practiced ahead of time.

I love this one of Lee and his sister:

And this is one of my favorites from the night:

And before you know it, it's time for the last dance. The DJ plays "New York, New York."

Huh? Not exactly what I pictured as the last dance song. But everyone forms a chorus line and starts kicking their legs and getting really into it. And what happens next is like something out of a movie. All of a sudden Lee is up in the air.

Everyone's cheering and laughing and I think it's the greatest thing ever. Until all of a sudden I'm up in the air myself.

And for the next 30 seconds or so there we are, in the air, swaying and laughing. And the reality of this wonderful night hits me. All the months of planning have paid off. Here we are, surrounded by the people that love us the most, soaking it all in. That, my friends, is a pretty darn good way to start the rest of your life.

Of course, we still had to do the exit:

And here we are in the limo, sweaty and tired, but amazingly happy:

Oh, and there was a honeymoon as well. That was just as amazing. We spent a week at the Excellence Resort in Riviera Maya, Mexico. It was fabulous, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone looking for an awesome vacation. The accommodations were great, the unlimited meals and beverages were amazing, and we were literally waited on hand and foot. You can see pictures here, in the photobook of our honeymoon that I recently created. (If you need it, Book ID is S2581144 and Password is 2692601.)

Show Us Your Life: Wedding Flowers & Bridal Party

I was super excited when I found out what this week's Show Us Your Life topic was over on Kelly's Korner: your wedding flowers and bridal party. I absolutely loved our wedding flowers, and loved our bridal party even more, so I'm happy to share.

Here are a few shots of the delish bouquets:

Our wedding color scheme was deep purple and bright green, so for our flowers we picked (the florist and I, not Lee and I...he could care less): white hydrangea, green spider mums, hypericum berries, white roses, green kermit mums and purple statis. My three instructions to the florist (yes, I was probably a little bridezilla-ish here): NO lavender, NO baby's breath and NO carnations. I was so happy with the way everything turned out. (By the way, I've since reconsidered my disdain for carnations. When done well, like here and here, they are actually quite beautiful.)

Lee's boutonniere:


Here are the "pew markers" we did - galvanized pails filled with a variety of the wedding flowers and hung with purple satin ribbon:


And here's a shot of one of the flower centerpieces at the reception:

And now, the bridal party! We were lucky enough to have five groomsmen, five bridesmaids, two junior bridesmaids, two flower girls and a ring bearer stand beside us on our wedding day. We are so thankful to each and every one of you for making our day so special.

P.S. - I'm sorry you had to stand in the rain to have this picture taken.

Love this one of me and my maid-of-honor sister:

Aren't these two just precious? (Oops. I see some lavender. Those petals were supposed to be white. Although I know it shouldn't, this bothers me. I will find a way to carry on though.)

This is Lee's nephew. Isn't he just the cutest? He took his duties very seriously and we were so proud of him.

Two great shots of my girls before the wedding:

One last picture:

Sara is going to kill me for this. But I love this shot so much I had to include it. You see, we've been best friends for 18 years give or take, and seeing her get emotional during my dad and I's dance just makes me all mushy inside. I love how Katie is looking up at her, and how Chrissy is emotional as well, and how my sister is instead probably leaning over cracking a joke with someone. (She doesn't do mush well, and I love her for it.)

Stay tuned for next week: the reception and honeymoon (a.k.a. where the fun really begins).

Photos by: Leslie Ann Mills photography

Flowers by: Sandra McCuin of The English Rose

Goodbye July, Hello August

July has come and (almost) gone. Remember my goals for July? Here's how I did:

1. Create and order a photobook of our honeymoon pics (similar to this one I created for our parents of our wedding photos) Done! Well, sort of. I've created the book, but haven't ordered it yet. I'm going to create another book and wait until they have a sale to order them. (There's usually a $50 minimum on their sales.) Because you know I'm all about a discount. Want to see the book? You can see it here. (If you need it, Book ID is S2581144 and Password is 2692601.)
2. Finish unpacking desk/office boxes and get desk set up (yes, we’ve been in our house almost a year and we still have unpacked boxes) AND back up my computer Done! Well, sort of again. I DID back up my computer - halle-loo! And I did unpack my desk boxes, but everything's sort of laying around in piles right now because I'm trying to find the perfect organization system (bookcase, magazine files, etc.) AND the funds to purchase said organizing system. Stay tuned for the finished product.
3. Move 3 of the books on my “To Read” shelf to the “Read” shelf in Good Reads So I only finished two books. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski and The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks. My excuse is that Edgar Sawtelle was pretty long. Both of these books were just average, nothing to write home about. I plan on fully making up for this though on our relaxing vacation coming up.
4. Finish organizing our closet Done! (With no caveats!)
5. Replant my porch planters and patio planter to replace the dead pansies Not done. Not doing this. I've decided we have too much to water already. And it's time for stuff to die off anyway. I did at least clean out the porch planters and store them in the garage. And, well, let's just say Sugar helped clean out the patio planter:


So, that's it for July. And although it seems like only a semi-success, I really think posting my goals helped me keep myself accountable. I can guarantee you that without publicly writing out these goals, only about one of them would've gotten done (and halfway done at that). So without further adieu, here are my August goals:

1. Finish my office organization project.

2. Read five books this month (our vacay is the reason for the higher number).

3. Set a date for a yard sale (we need to have one desperately) and start getting things together for it.

4. Get started on an exercise regimen and cut portion sizes. This is for both me and Lee. We've decided that we love to eat too much to go on any kind of hard core diet. We love cooking yummy meals together, and aren't willing to give that up, but we can do better about portion sizes. And we'd rather work out harder than stop eating the things we love. Soooo, we're thinking about trying P90X. Several people at work are doing it. Has anyone else tried it? Have you had success, or is it just a gimmick?

Ok, that's all for now. Happy August!

Tightwad Tuesday

We haven't been canning tomatoes like crazy lately in order to save money per se, but rather because we have SO many tomatoes that it's ridiculous. We'd never be able to eat them all fresh. But, the saving money part is not a bad side effect. 

Here's a few glamour shots of just some of the tomatoes we canned this weekend, pre-canning of course:

Yes, I styled this photo by adding a few mason jars and a watering can. Don't judge me.

Here's a shot of the canning setup:

And the finished product:

Oh, we also made homemade salsa and pasta sauce. Eat your heart out Martha Stewart.

Bachelorette Bar Golf Follow Up

My previous post about bachelorette bar golf has been quite popular. Every week I have several visitors to my blog who get here through Google keywords related in some way to “bar golf.” If you look at the Google image results for "bachelorette golf," three of the images on the first page are of us from that fateful night (we're famous!). I’ve also received several questions regarding our bar golf details. Not one to leave the people hanging, I give you: 10 Steps to Fabulous Bar Golf.

Step 1: Plan your route.

Plan out the bars (or "holes") you'll be visiting ahead of time. We planned a 9 hole game, but actually only managed to make it to 8 holes. If you want to be ambitious and play 18 holes, go ahead. But don't say I didn't warn you.

Obviously, consider geography in your planning. Each bar should be a short walk apart, and you don't want to go zig zagging and backtracking all over town. Plan your holes in a logical order. Another important point to consider is cover charges. Don't plan holes at bars where you know there is a cover charge. No one wants to pay 9 or 18 different cover charges to go in and drink one drink and leave. That being said, with a big group of bar golfers, you can usually talk your way out of paying a cover. As Amy said to one bouncer, "There are 11 of us. We're playing bar golf. We're coming into your bar and all buying a drink and leaving and we're not paying a cover." Boom boom pow we were in, sans cover.

Bonus points for: planning food holes into your route. It'll make your golfers last longer and make everyone happy to boot.

Step 2: Determine your scoring.

Our scoring went something like this for each hole:

• Eagle, -2 pts = signature drink from that bar or a classic cocktail or shot
• Birdie, -1 pts = well drink
• Par, 0 pts = beer
• Bogey, +1 pt = water or nothing

Step 3: Make awesome scorecards.

You need a scorecard, like ours below:

We typed this bad boy up in Word and printed on regular computer paper. It includes each hole, the eagle, birdie, par and bogey drinks for each hole, and a column to keep score. Then we backed the scorecards with cardstock and laminated them to protect from spills (this comes in handy!). If you don't have access to a laminating machine, you can use something like these self-laminating pouches that you can get from any office supply store. We attached a ribbon long enough to hang the scorecards around our necks and tied on a mini Sharpie marker. Voila!

Bonus points for: matching the cardstock, ribbon AND mini Sharpie for each golfer.

Step 4: Dress the part.

Remember what we looked like? You MUST dress up, or your bar golf outing will be lame. Here are some ideas: Polo shirts, white or khaki shorts, skirts or capris, sweater draped over the shoulders, pearls, anything argyle, Sperry's or Ked's (but more importantly, whatever shoes are comfortable).

Bonus points for: popped collar, visor, golf glove.

The next 4 steps are dedicated to Bachelorette bar golf, in particular:

Step 5: Send out a cute invitation.

Sara did a great job on ours:

You can find this one here.

Step 6: Assign a designated golfer to each hole.

This was probably the smartest decision we made. Each hole was assigned a Lead Golfer, who was responsible for 1.) picking out the signature drink for that hole 2.) buying the bride's drink at that hole (or finding someone at the bar to buy her drink) and 3.) coming up with the dare for that hole.

This made it super easy to divide the duties between everyone attending and make sure the bride was never left lacking a drink and always had a fun dare to complete. Which brings me to...

Step 7: Come up with fun dares for the bride to complete.

Each hole should include a dare. Have your golfers come up with these beforehand, so people have some time to think up good ones. We typed ours out and backed them with paper with grass printed on it. Some of the dares were golf related and some weren't. Some of our favorites? Find a cute guy at the bar and have him stand behind you and teach you a proper golf swing. Find an older couple at the bar and ask them for their best piece of sex advice.

Step 8: Outfit your bride in a sweet visor veil.

This isn't rocket science. Find a solid white visor (or whatever color) and attach a cheap dress-up veil or piece of tulle from Wal-Mart or Michael's and maybe some ribbon.

Step 9: Let the night take you where it will.

Your plans will change. Your holes will change. You won't make it to all of the holes. You'll be having so much fun dancing on tables at hole 5 that you won't even bother to keep playing. This is ok. If you play out all 9 or 18 holes as you planned them, something is probably wrong. Someone is probably not having enough fun.

Step 10: And the most important: Be safe.

Designate a driver or secure a cab ride home for everyone. This should actually be done at Step 1, before you even start planning your route.

Thanks and happy bar golfing!

Weekend Update

We had a pretty low-key weekend. Sometimes those are the best.

This morning, we decided to go hiking at Harris Lake. We did the 5 mile loop around Peninsula Trail. The trail usually takes about 2 hours, but between stopping to let the dog swim and stopping to eat lunch it took us about 3 hours.

Harris Lake is located at Shearon Harris, which is a nuclear power plant. See the cooling tower in the background of this picture? All throughout the park were warning signs of what to do if the plant blows up and you have to evacuate. Scary huh? But other than that the park  and lake were beautiful!

Although it was REALLY hot (and we went at the hottest part of the day -- not smart) it was fun, good exercise, good quality time with Sugar, and best of all, FREE.

Now, brace yourself for this next picture. This was my kitchen at about 7:00 tonight, after not being cleaned after this morning's pancake breakfast, today's packed lunch, and tonight's pasta dinner. Not a single surface was left uncluttered. It was so atrocious I just had to take a picture and share. If you don't ever look at me in the same way again, I understand.

In my defense though, I spent what seemed like 2 hours just yesterday cleaning this kitchen! Don't worry, after another two hours of cleaning tonight, our kitchen is back in order once again.

Hope you all had a good weekend!