#JALsquared - Jenny & Justin's Wedding Weekend

Last weekend, we celebrated our good friends, Jenny & Justin's wedding! They are a very special couple to us. Cameron and Justin have been friends since middle school, and Jenny & Justin's second date was to a boat ride Cameron and I threw for our wedding party! We were also lucky enough to celebrate their engagement with them in April of 2014.

We kicked off the wedding weekend at a Welcome Party at the rooftop of Jenny's work! 

Shirt from J.Crew Factory (<-- a="" back="" cute="" detail="" from="" href="https://www.rocksbox.com/" nbsp="" necklace="" open="" target="_blank">Rocksbox

I love that you can see multiple church steeples peaking out over the city line.

Friday night was the rehearsal dinner, which was at Justin's parent's house. They live 5 minutes down the road from us, which was a nice touch. The dinner was some of the best barbecue I've had in a long while. 

I stressed so much on what I was going to wear for all of the events. Bought a new dress for the rehearsal dinner but made a last minute decision to pull an old faithful out the back of my closet instead. I didn't LOVE the dress I bought and figured I'd rather save that money. Man, Cameron has really rubbed off of me. 

So much blue!

And now, for the big event!

The whole week prior, my weather app was calling for 50/60% chance of rain both Friday and Saturday. Luckily, there was not a drop during any of the events and nothing but sunshine.

Both the ceremony and reception were held at Old Wide Awake Plantation, the ceremony down by the river under a big, beautiful oak tree, and the reception next to the plantation house. This place is such a hidden gem! The ceremony was a warm one (hello, 90*!) but the sweetness of Jenny and Justin reciting their own vows did not leave many dry eyes. The reception was beautiful! Amazing details throughout, coupled with a super fun band that had me on the dancefloor all night long! (Alcohol and dim lights helped with that, too.)

Jenny's sister walking Jenny's dog, Sophie, down the aisle

She did a great job - especially for being a very timid pup.

Could they be any cuter?!?

Me with the most handsome groomsman in the wedding - lucky girl!

I promise we are not matching on purpose, just happened that way!

Cameron's adorable parents. How smokin' is his mom?!?

So in love with the Hunter Bell dress I wore from Rent the Runway! Got so many compliments, which made a girl feel good. 

Sunday we contemplated laying out by the pool, but we were even too exhausted for that. Jenny and Justin are currently honeymooning in Antiqua and I can't wait for them to get back to hear all about it!

Fun Weekend with Great Friends!

Morning! Let's get right to a (day late) weekend recap. 

There were two special guests in town on Thursday so we decided to get together at Katie and Henry's house for a cookout/get together. Savannah was in town for a wedding on Saturday, and Jenny came to town a day early before a weekend at the beach with her supper club friends. It's rare that we can all see each other at the same time, especially since there are no more weddings to bring us together, so it was a special mid-week treat! 

Saturday morning, I met up with Shelby, Jillian, and Ally for brunch at Kitchen 208. It's located on lower, lower King Street, almost to Broad, and has a really nice (shaded) outdoor seating area. My turkey wrap was light and tasty, just what I was looking for. Bonus: it was topped with a pickled okra. 

Saturday afternoon, we went to probably one of the sweetest weddings I've been to. Both the ceremony and reception were held at Pepper Plantation. My sorority sister, Courtney Jo, and Jake, wrote their own vows and there were many tears shed by both the bride and the groom, and the guests. 

A quick snapshot with my handsome date before the ceremony

A little selfie action during the reception

Our fellas

On Sunday, we made the drive out to Seabrook for a fun day in the sun! These days of lounging on the beach with my friends are some of my favorite days! The spot that we go to is never crowded and the waves are so calm. Perfect area for all of the little bebes! Note to self for next weekend: don't just reapply sunscreen to your legs, your chest and shoulders need it to! #ouch

Looking forward to this upcoming weekend, as it will be my first in about 5 years where I have the entire long weekend off from work!!!! 

2 Year Anniversary.

I love you, Mr. Baker.

Oh, NOW they have a wedding registry...

All throughout wedding planning, whenever the word "registry" would come up, I would say to myself (and often outloud, as well), "I wish West Elm had a registry!"

Well, now that I'm married, they do. And now I know how my friends who got married before Pinterest feel. 

Some perks of registering with West Elm include a 10% completion discount (even on furniture!), free design services, 30% off your wedding website at Riley & Grey, a discount on your wedding invitations through Minted, and a thank you note tracker!

Here's what I would add to my registry if I were still engaged:

Pom Pom Throw

Textured Stone Planters

Chevron Knot Runner

Lexington Coverlet

Stemless Gold Rimmed Glassware

Marble Cleat Trinket Boxes

I could go on and on, but I think I'll stop now...

Even though I can't have a wedding registry anymore, I CAN still add these items to my "wishlist" board on Pinterest. That was seriously the best thing I ever did when it came to getting exactly what I wanted for Christmas and my Birthday. Just emailed the link to my family, made sure they know what color/size I wanted, and bam!, it would show up in a box. Magic.

First Anniversary. {Part Two}

Back today for Part Two of our Anniversary Weekend Re-cap!

But first, I just wanted to say a quick  thank you to all of my readers who sent me words of encouragement when I posted about my crappy day a week or so ago, and then again when Cameron's grandmother passed away. I (and Cameron) sincerely appreciate it!

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Saturday in Hilton Head, there was an 80% chance of rain. We did the normal touristy things like shop at the outlet mall and walk around Harbour Town. We grabbed lunch and a few drinks at The Quarterdeck, while over looking the marina. 

See how gloomy it was?

Once we were done with lunch and shopping, the sun started peeking through the clouds. We went back to our rooms and changed into our bathing suits. It wasn't quite warm enough for the pool, so we settled for the hot tub. 

I hate pruny fingers, so you will rarely see my hands in the water.

 

While we were lounging, we saw a bride and groom taking pictures separately, and then got to peek in on their first look! It was so sweet to watch!

That night, we cleaned up went to dinner at the Chart House. We arrived about an hour before our reservation so that we could sit outside and take advantage of their happy hour menu. I wore the dress that I wore to our rehearsal dinner exactly a year prior to that night.

For dinner, we started with the East Meets West Tuna {zesty tuna tartare drizzled with wasabi cream paired with seared peppered tuna & avocado, with kim chee slaw and plaintain chips}. Apparently we've been loving tuna lately. For entrees, Cameron ordered the Meyer Lemon Grouper and I ordered the Filet with a side of their sizzling mushrooms. Everything was delicious!

My dress was so tight by the end of dinner, that I wanted to go back to the hotel room and change before we went back out to a bar. Well, that turned into changing and just going to the hotel bar, and that turned into changing into our pj's and just watching a movie. Sounds lame probably, but I wouldn't have had it any other way! 

Sunday morning, we checked out and met our friends, Kelly Anne, Tyler, and their adorable baby, Greyson, for brunch at Lowcountry Backyard. It was so great catching up with them and I could just love on Baby Greyson all day! 

Once we made it back to Charleston, we stopped by an oyster roast that was being thrown by a family friend. My parents and Cameron's parents were there also, so afterwards, we invited them back to our house to enjoy some of our anniversary cake with us! We cut the top layer of the cake the night of our wedding, so I just had our cake baker (Cameron's cousin) make us a small 6" cake of our favorite flavor - chocolate cake with Kahlua icing. YUM. Served on our very, very special china.

Gifts wise, in sticking with the first anniversary theme of paper, here is what I gave Cameron:

Masculine Stationery

Ray Lamontagne Concert Tickets

Photo Book from Our First Year of Marriage

I am so bad about holding on to gifts until the actual occasion. I gave him the photo book before we even left to go on our trip, and I let him open the other two gifts about an hour after we got to the hotel! 

So anyway, that's how we spent our first anniversary! 

First Anniversary. {Part One}

Finally getting around to re-capping our first wedding anniversary!

Let's first start Thursday after work, because let's be honest, the moment you walk out of work, you are officially on vacation! After work, I got a spray tan and Cameron had a work meeting, so we met up downtown and tried Octobachi for the first time, after hearing amazing things about it from Katie. Once we FINALLY found it, we walked inside and sat at the bar. It's super small and the large group of med students were too loud to sit next to. 

We ordered their tuna sushi nachos. Yes, they were as amazing and they look. So fresh and delicious. 

After we finished those, we ordered some edamame, a california roll, and a spicy tuna roll. 

Look at this crab meat!

I'm starving looking at those pictures and can't wait to go back. 

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Now, on to our actual anniversary weekend. 

We left Charleston around lunch time and made the quick, 2 hour drive to Hilton Head. We stayed at the newly renovated Westin, thanks for my friend, Kelly Ann's, suggestion. We checked in and were told that we had been upgraded from a ocean view room to an ocean front room. Score! (Hint: If you're celebrating a special occasion, always let the management know! You'd be surprised what kind of upgrades you'll get!)

We got settled in and went for a walk to scope out the hotel. It was pretty overcast so there wasn't much pool or beach lounging to do. We found the outdoor bar, relaxed, and ordered some drinks. 

After a few drinks, we went back to the room to start getting ready for dinner. There was a knock at the door and some champagne and chocolate covered strawberries were delivered to us by the concierge! What a nice thought!

Before dinner, we stopped by a place called Ela's Grille, which was located in a cove on the water. I can't remember what kind of girly drink I ordered, but I do remember that it was really tasty. 

After drinks, we headed to Santa Fe Cafe, which we heard rave reviews about. It's a Mexican restaurant, but more upscale than your local Senor Tequila's. They were actually booked solid with reservations that night, but Kelly Anne, being the local girl that she is, had connections and got us in. They have a really nice outdoor seating area with a fireplace and live music, but unfortunately it was drizzling outside so we couldn't take advantage of it.

We ordered the guacamole to get us started. I ordered the Outrageous Chimichanga (Beef, chicken, black beans, cheese, sour cream, onions and tomatoes wrapped in a sun-dried tomato tortilla and fried to a pastry crust. Served over green & red chile sauce, topped with guacamole.), which was surprising because I had never ordered a chimichanga in my life. But I wanted to try something new, and I'm so glad I did. And Cameron ordered the Ribeye Burrito (Blackened ribeye, black beans, caramelized onions and cheddar jack cheese inside a flour tortilla), which was really good, too. Huge hunks of steak, which I likey. 

The Outrageous Chimichanga from Santa Fe's website

Needless to say, we were stuffed after our meal. But not quite ready to hit the hay just yet. I Googled "live music in Hilton Head" and stumbled across a jazz bar. Sure, why not? We thought. Let's go somewhere we normally wouldn't. We walked up to The Jazz Corner, thinking this would be a snooze, but we were way wrong. There was a red velvet rope blocking off the entrance so I immediately thought to myself that this was closed for a private party. The woman standing at the door told me there were exactly two spots left at the bar. We ordered some Irish coffees (how old are we again??) and listened to the 5-piece Jazz band. Come to find out, The Jazz Corner is continuously voted one of the Top 100 Jazz Venues in the World and we were there on the night that they were celebrating their 15th year! Everyone was so very friendly to us (I'm sure we stuck out like a sore thumb, being as the average age was probably 70). We met a nice gentleman that was sitting next to us, and even the owners stopped by to introduce themselves to us.  Since this was a night of celebrating their 15th anniversary, they put together a band of their favorite musicians, and they were all so awesome. Could not have had a better experience.

And that's a wrap of part one of our anniversary weekend! 

Kudos to you if you made it this far.