Wedding Wednesday.....Our Honeymoon-ANTIGUA!!

We spent a majority of our honeymoon, 10 days, at Sandals Grande Antigua. We left San Juan (to read about our time in PR, go back a few posts) around 9:30 Tuesday evening and arrived in Antigua an hour or so later. Upon check-in, we found out that we were upgraded about 7 room categories to the Verandah Concierge Suite. Apparently Sandals does this a lot, and we were more than happy to take the upgrade.

Pineapple accents everywhere! I was in LOVE :)

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Caribbean Grove Entrance

The resort is stunning and the grounds are immaculate. It's divided into two parts, the Caribbean Grove side and the Mediterranean Side. The Med side is newer and a big high-rise building where the Caribbean side feels very tropical where no building is over 3 floors tall and is set amongst the trees in a jungle like setting. We chose the Caribbean side because we LOVE having that tropical feel while we are on vacation! Our room was in a great location-almost right in the center between the two sides. We had both big pools within 50 yards of our room-one to either side.

Caribbean Grove Pool

View of resort from Mediterranean Building

At the swim-up bar :)

We set up a honeymoon registry through Honeyfund.com in order to register for all of the 'extras' for our honeymoon- massages, excursions, etc. We lucked out and ended up with about $1300 which made our honeymoon even that much sweeter! I highly recommend making one, especially if you're like us and you don't really need many of the typical registry items!


Here are some pics of some of the fun we had while there-sorry that they're all close-up's we snapped ourselves; that's what happens when you travel sans friends/family!!

We had a couples massage

We went on a sunset cruise

Ate yummy dinners

played in the pool

We went zip-lining through the jungle

We went jet-skiing through the bay

Took sunset walks on the beach

We also rented a car one day and took on the island ourselves. I had to get a temporary British driver's license in order to be able to drive and it was definitely an experience driving on the wrong side of the road! We went all around the island and got to see so many neat places. Antigua must not believe in street signs, because there were none around. We relied heavily on our cartoon map that they gave us at the front desk, but we somehow managed to make it around the island. It is, afterall, only 18 miles from one side to another :)

Our ride-straight off the set of the movie Just Married. Ha :)

With my driver's licence

We even found a pineapple farm- Antigua has a rare "black pineapple"

Sandals sliced and delivered this to the wrong room so I never got to enjoy it :( It smelled AMAZING though!!!

At Devil's Bridge- a rock bridge formed from the waves. So neat!

Then, on our last full day on the island, my sweet husband lost his wedding band.....in the ocean. We were out snorkeling off the shore and when we returned to the pool, we noticed it was gone. We searched and searched and searched some more, but it was gone. Thankfully, we had trip insurance so we will get to replace it. Until then, he's wearing a fabulous temp we purchased at the Antigua Airport! Ha! It even has a spinner band. Amazing.   


Now, for anyone who's wondering my overall thoughts/review of Sandals it's this: It's overpriced. Is it nice? Yes. Is it over-the top amazing? No. We paid a pretty penny to stay here and if it hadn't been for all of our excursions, we would've been very bored. The resort itself, while nice, was pretty boring and full of either 21 year olds or 60 year olds. Not that's anything wrong with either of those groups, but hubs and I weren't into acting like our enitre honeymoon was spring break 02' or our retirement vacay. Ha! There also wasn't much in the way of night-life and you were constantly hounded by spa people about setting up spa appointments. You always had photographers in your face snapping your picture and they charged you a fortune for the excursions and such. We had a great time, but it was not worth the price we paid to stay here-and we got a great deal vs what they normally charge. Would I go back to Sandals? Yes, but only if it was a crazy good deal and the only all inclusive available at the time, otherwise it's just not worth it. There are LOTS of other all-inclusives out there who offer more and cost a lot less!!

Coming next.....Our last stop. South Beach :)

Have you liked the Pink Pineapple Blog on Facebook yet?! If not, do so today :)

Wedding Wednesday....On A Thursday....The Invites :)

We completed our final per-marriage class last night hence the late post. We decided to participate in the Prepare and Enrich program at a local "mega-church". While it's not the church we call our church home, we do love that church and we were glad we did our per-marriage counseling through them. If anyone is looking at doing per-marriage counseling, I highly recommend finding a place that uses the Prepare and Enrich curriculum. I also HIGHLY recommend pre-marriage counseling in general. Honestly, M and I thought we didn't really need it since we've read tons of books, grown up around healthy marriages with our parents, are pushing 30, etc., but, we are so glad we did. It was SO nice to sit down each week and hear everything a second time and also to interact with other couples to see their views on things. We felt pretty prepared before, but now we feel super prepared to tackle this whole husband and wife thing :)


Now, on to the invites! As mentioned before, we found our invites for a steal of a price-around $1 total including personalized envelopes and reception RSVP cards. For me, invites weren't something that I wanted to drop big bucks on because face it, they end up in the trash. Little Miss Bargain hunter here was bound and determined to find something that looked fabulous, but was cheap. After receiving a catalog in the mail from Exclusively Weddings, I decided to order some of their invite samples since they had great pricing. They will send you five free samples, so I chose five different varieties of ones that I liked and had them shipped. They arrived a couple of days later and we quickly narrowed it down to two. One, elegant and simple and the other contemporary and colorful. Since we are doing an evening wedding, we decided the elegant ones were best and to our surprise, they were the cheapest ones of the five we chose. After signing up for the email updates from the magazine, we received a coupon for an additional 25% off any purchase over $100- score!
When looking at the over-all quality and construction and printing of the invites, it's hard to believe they cost us $1 per one. The paper is high quality card stock and the printing in the raised lettering. The envelopes were lined with gold (to tie in our champagne color we are using) and are high quality as well. We were even able to have my parents addressed printed on the envelopes in the same raised lettering as the invites. We've received lots of compliments on our invites and we just couldn't be happier with the overall product. If you're looking for your invites, I highly recommend Exclusively Weddings.

Paper is ecru color and font is navy

For our rehearsal dinner and bridesmaid tea (which I'm doing morning of rehearsal due to 3 bm coming in from out of town), I wanted to do something fun. After searching and searching and searching for something I loved, I finally stumbled upon PolkaDot Designs. I loved their design options and while they aren't super cheap (still priced reasonable though), I LOVE the invites-especially our rehearsal dinner ones! Since we were only buying a few, I felt it was okay to drop a few bucks per invite-they were printed and shipped super quick, too!

I LOVE these!!!

I stuck with the poem theme as I did with asking them to be in the wedding :)

Only 15 more days until we say "I Do" and only 5 school days remaining. The wedding party jewelery has been made (I'll wait until after the wedding to show- I dont want my girls to see them until the tea) and I'm planning to make some coffee filter wreaths for the front doors of the church. As if I need to add any more to my list of "to do's before I do" Ha! But I just love them and think they are perfect for our doors. I'll be sure to post how they turn out :)

XOXO
The Bride To Be

Wedding Wednesday....All The Single Ladies (and fellas)

I thought about writing this for some time; in fact, I've spoken the words below to several of my single friends...I feel like I'm the poster child for the girl who thought that unless she "settled" she was going to stay husband-less for forever. Because I refused to settle, I just assumed I'd be the eternal bachelorette.

 

I LOVE  Beyonce. Love! Love! Love! Her song, Single Ladies, came out right at the perfect time for me. I was single (and when I say single I simply mean un-married, not sans a boyfriend. Lord know I had plenty of those-good and bad! Ha!) and living in a world of where it seemed as if EVERYONE was in love and getting married. EVERYONE, except me. I spent the summer of 2007 (the song came out in 08, I think?) attending 13 weddings and even have my own real life 27 Dresses experience one Saturday- running back and forth between two wedding of two dear friends. Seriously friends, this was my life. As much as I wish I could say I loved that time of my life, I didn't always enjoy it. It was hard sometimes. Really hard.  It was hard seeing everyone get married and wondering if I would ever have that experience that all of my friends were having. It was scary thinking that maybe I was just supposed to spend the rest of my life "alone." Had he been hit by a truck and I never got to meet him? Maybe. Was I supposed to go live in the African bush and love on orphaned babies for the rest of my life? Maybe. I didn't know; but what I did know was this: I had a huge desire in my heart to be a wife and a mom and I questioned God on several occasions as to why I was 25+ and still finding the "wrong" guys. It's hard being single in your late 20's (especially when living in the South) when you have a desire to be a wife and a mom, or a husband and a dad. 
But friends, it's worth the wait and looking back now, I understand and am SO thankful for my single days. I learned so much about myself and life in general, had amazing experiences and met some fabulous people. Being single really is a blessing; one I wish I had realized earlier on in my twenties. Below is a list of my personal favorites and blessings from my "single lady" days. 

Note: I didn't meet my fiance until 2 months before I turned 28.

1) Went to Africa and loved on orphans and teachers. I thought maybe this is what God wanted me to do with my life and while I'm so blessed with the experience, the Lord showed me that this little prissy girl is not cut out to live in the African bush. Regardless, this experience was AMAZING and left me forever changed and I never would've gone had I not be searching for what the Lord's plan was for my single girl life. 

2) Traveled. A lot. I have SO many wonderful memories of spending my 25th birthday in Vegas, 2 weeks in FL with some dear friends, weekend road trips, mission trips to Jamaica/Haiti, cruise vacays, etc. There's a big ol' world our there, and exploring it is SO fun and was SO fun during my pre-Michael days. Don't get me wrong; It's amazing now experiencing it WITH him, but the memories of my single girls travel days are priceless :)


 3) Learning how to take care of myself with typical man jobs. I can change light bulbs, paint a room, take out the trash, check the oil in my car, weed a garden, put together a piece of furniture, etc. All of which I guarantee you I would never have taken the time to learn had I been married in my early twenties. 


4) Buying a house. Alone. With no financial help from anyone. Talk about feeling like Miss I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T :) With that comes decorating a house any way you want. Pink and green guest room? Yes, please :)  Love my fun little bachelorette pad!

5) Having several years of working "real" jobs with "real" salaries.  M and I will be in pretty decent financial shape when we get married and it's all due to the fact that we are getting married 2 months before we turn 30. Had we met and gotten married younger (when I was so desperately wanting to be a wife), we'd definitely not be in as good of shape as we are going to be. I will hopefully be able to stay home when we have babies, and that's all thanks to working big girl and big boy jobs with real salaries for several years before getting married and having kids.


6) Enjoying life sans kiddos. Don't get me wrong, we LOVE kids; M and I want kids, several in fact, and we will probably have them within a year or two of getting married. But, we also know that kids change everything; how our time will be spent, our money, our vacations, etc. And I know good and well, had I been married and already had kids, I wouldn't have gone and done half of the things I've done and that we will do pre-kids in our marriage.




8) Having a deeper and greater relationship with God. Sometimes, the greatest times of growth with God (at least with me) are when you are questioning him. It's through my long prayers and constant asking the Lord what his purpose for my life was, that he truly showed himself to me in many ways. It was also during this time that the Lord really showed me all of the benefits of being single which led to me to really LOVE life and embrace and enjoy my singleness in the year leading up to mine and M's meeting.


So single ladies (and fellas), if that desire is in your heart, the Lord WILL bless it; your perfect mate will show up when you least expect it  and it will truly happen at the perfect time:) Don't settle. Don't ever feel like you need to settle. ENJOY life, travel, have fun, do things only single people can do, and have faith that God has it all planned out perfectly for you because, he does. He totally does.

XOXO
The Bride to Be :)

Wedding Wednesday....Bachelorette Bash :)



My destination bachelorette bash was an absolute and total blast! The weekend was truly perfect and everything I hoped it would be- low key, relaxing, and fun! We had wonderful weather, yummy food and great conversations all weekend long. Here's the re-cap: (It's long. Sorry. I'm really detailed when I tell stories; I can't help it! Ha!)

Our Condo @ Folly

Friday: 5 of us loaded up and headed out of Lexington after school and Julia (one of my MOH's) drove down from Raleigh, NC. After taking a detour to avoid the mess at Jelico, we arrived at our condo in Folly Beach about 8.5/9 hours later. Jane, Em, and I had a great time catching up and reminiscing on spring breaks of the past during our drive. Ha! Ha! What memories : )
As soon as the second group of girls arrived (we got split up in the detour mess), I gave each girl her little thank you gift from me- a personalized Tervis cup (I LOVE how you can personalize them via their website) with a pink and green SC logo, a bottle of Essie Bachelorette Bash color polish, and a luggage tag. Each girl loved her gifts and the cups came in super handy all weekend! Not long after that we all went to bed like the old ladies that we are! 

The gifts for my girls :)

Saturday morning Jules, Em and I woke up around 7:30 out of sheer habit. Since we were up we decided we'd go for a run on the beach. The 3 of us completed the Women's Half Marathon in November, so it was fun to run as a group again. We ran about 1.5 miles down and then back and headed back to the condo to get ready to head into downtown Charleston for our mani/pedi appointment. When we arrived in downtown the Cooper River Bridge Run was still going on since it started a lot later than planned, so it was neat to see all of the runners finishing up their last stretch. Downtown was hopping which made things super fun! We found our nail place on King Street (Tips 2 Toes-highly recommend)  and they took us right up to their pedicure room. They spoiled us with wine, gave our toes some lovin, and then we headed back down to get our manis. I got my first ever gel nails manicure and I LOVED it! Polish has never lasted on my nails this long and my nails feel super strong- I'll definitely get one again!

@ Tips 2 Toes

We left the nail place, went to lunch at Leaf and then spent the rest of the afternoon shopping around. I was in bow tie and seersucker heaven :) We headed back to the condo around 3 or 4 and relaxed, showered, and got ready for our evening out.

Saturday Evening started with apps and wine, a fun game, and my lingerie shower! We watched the first half of the UK UL game and then we then headed back into downtown to eat dinner at Virginia's. We ate southern style food, including homemade pimento cheese- yumm- and then headed down to the rooftop bar at the Pavilion Hotel. I went here a few years ago and LOVED it, so I knew that's where I wanted to spend my evening. They have The. Best. Sweet Tea Martinis there and the environment is super fun- a very South Beach/Vegas feel. We scored a table and spent the rest of our night dancing, laughing and just having fun. We left there around 12:30 and went back to the condo where we sat on our patio and talked until 2:30 or so.

At the Pavilion Hotel Rooftop

Best ever sweet tea martinis

Before heading out for the night!

Sunday morning we woke up and headed down to the beach for our beach day. One of mine and Jane's pledge sisters lives 5 miles from the beach and came to spend a few hours with us while her newborn took her nap. It was great seeing her and catching up! We spent the morning sipping mimosas and soaking up some sun! The beach was CRAZY- like spring break style crazy, but it was definitely fun! Around 1,  we headed to Taco Boy for lunch and to the local beach shack shops for some shopping.

View from our balcony

Pledge Sisters!!

Mimosas on the beach :)

We went back to the beach afterwards where we laid until 6 or so (pure heaven) and then headed in to get ready for dinner. As we were getting ready we watched 27 Dresses ( a girls weekend must) and then headed out for dinner around 9. To our surprise, no place was serving food by then. Apparently the crazy day wiped several of the places out of most of their food so they closed their kitchens early. We finally found the Blu restaurant in the Tides Hotel. We ate tapas style food outside on their patio and just enjoyed dining right on the beach! Their bison short ribs cannolis were AMAZING!!!!!

My first college roomie and fellow bride to be :)

Smoke from the fire pit at restaurant :)

Monday- Em and Jane headed back to KY because they had to work on Tuesday. Mel, Ash, Jules, and I headed down to the beach after checking out of the condo. It was 90 and sunny (they broke a record for the heat) so we were definitely roasting. Jules left to head home to NC around noon and Ash, Mel and I went back over to Blu for lunch. We then went into town and found this cute vintage/consignment shop that is used to buy the clothes for the actresses in Army Wives-it's filmed in the area. I found the dress for our rehearsal dinner and the fascinator for my bridal tea for only $69 total! All of the girls in the wedding are going to wear fascinators for the tea. I'm super excited about this :)

Butterfly Consignment. Full of cute cute clothes!!

After our shopping adventure, we headed to check into our B & B, the Indigo Inn. I've never stayed at a B & B before so I was super excited! When we arrived, the courtyard was full of the 65+ crowd- LOVE! They were all so cute :) We took showers, went to the lobby for the evening wine and cheese, and then headed out for some sightseeing and dinner.

We dined at Poogan's Porch (Yum!) and then headed to the King Street Sports Bar to watch our Wildcats win the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP! We found several UK fans on the streets and in the bar so it was definitely fun cheering on the Cats with fellow fans!

Cheering on the Big Blue Nation!

Tuesday morning we woke up and enjoyed the hotel's breakfast and then checked out and went down to the Battery/Rainbow Row area for some sightseeing. There were tons of houses for sale and being renovated so it was fun sneaking peaks at the multi-million dollars homes that I'd LOVE to own one day ( a girl can dream, right?!). I saw and snapped pictures of lots of cute flower boxes so I can try to re-create a little bit of Rainbow Row in my own backyard. Maybe, I'll luck out and have mine come out as cute as their's. Doubt it, but it's a fun thought :) Ha!

Yummy breakfast in our courtyard

Rainbow Row

Loving their back patio!!

Beautiful flower box!!

Around 12:30, we headed out and began the Looooong drive through the wind and rain back to KY. We made it back around 9:45 last night and I was super excited to see my lovely hubs to be's handsome face along with my 4-legged furry man.

I am just so blessed to have such wonderful friends who made my weekend so wonderful- and I missed those that couldn't make it. I couldn't have asked for a better weekend! If you're looking for a great girls getaway, I HIGHLY recommend the Charleston/Folly area. SO SO FUN!!!! And to my lovely wedding party, I love y'all so much-Thanks again for everything!!!
                                         



XOXO
The Bride to Be

Wedding Wednesday....The Hair

First off, I'm super excited to announce that My blog is being featured on the Southern Weddings Magazine page via their Southern Brides Blog Page! So Fun :) If you're another bride to be, go visit their site Southern Weddings Magazine, its great, and if you're visiting from there, welcome!!!

Now, onto the hair

Choosing your wedding hair is a BIG decision. You're going to be looking at picture of yourself for years to come, so you definitely want your hair looking good and not done in some way that you're going to look back on in 25 years and say "What on earth was I thinking?!" Ok, so maybe in 25 years the style will be to have lime green spikes in your hair, but still, you get the point. My mom, in true 70's fashion, wore her hair down, but it was lightly curled and looks beautiful in her pictures.

At first, I toyed with the idea of wearing my down, but let's discuss my crazy fro' for a moment and you'll see why I decided against it. Ohhh the fro' that I have on my head. I have super-duper THICK hair that has, over the past few years become crazy curly/frizzy by nature. I'm talking, you have the "Holy Hair" reaction when you see what my hair looks like after I attempt to dry it straight. I don't have a picture, but any of you who've seen it know exactly what I'm talking about! Ha! Hot Mess!!! Once it's straight, you would never guess that it had natural curl in it, but its quite the process to get it looking this way.

Thank the Lord for the Chi!!

And here it is with its natural curl.

The curls...on a good day :)

It's hit or miss with the curls looking good or crazy. I wore curls to school last week and my roomie (who is a male) said "So Cooper, are you rocking your Girls Gone Wild hair today or what?!" It obviously was looking a tad crazy! Really, I think the curls only look good when I'm at the beach. Salt water + curly hair = LOVE!!

So, that left me with a decision. Wear it down and curly, or just wear it up. I'm going with leaving it up. Although it does look good when I have straightened it then curling iron curled it, I'm just scared the humidity will make it go haywire. Case in point: Mexico professional pictures. It WAS flat-ironed and curled with the curling iron curled and looking great when we left our hotel. Then the wind came, and then the rain, and this was what was left, a stringy, frizzy mess.

Up was just the only way to go....Since I made that decision, I've been searching through tons of hair options. I've looked at pinned up curls, high buns, low buns, deep parts, no parts, etc. Here are some pictures that I've found that I LOVED:
   

   I really LOVE the last two! I love the sophisticated look to them, so I think (however my mind my totally change! ha!) I'm going to go with something similar to the two. My Aqua Net (which btw, I LOVE) will definitely be in full force on June 2nd and lets pray for no rain and no frizz :) If rain is in the forecast, I may be changing my idea and do something to embrace the curls and doing something similar to the first picture! I do have a fun flower, that I will be adding for sure for the reception and may possibly be adding for the ceremony, too Thankfully, my hair girl rocks at bridal hair so I know whatever the weather happens to be, she will make it look great :)

XOXO

The Bride to Be :)

P.S. MY DRESS IS IN!!!!!!!!! EEEEEEEE! I am SO pumped!! I'm going Friday to get it :)

P.P.S. If you haven't joined in on my fundraiser to help the tornado victims, all of the info can be found   HERE  Just today, one of my students who moved from the tornado ravaged area a few months ago, was telling me about her friends' homes. Absolutely devastating.