Wedding Bells are Ringing in Cleveland!

The other weekend Eric and I took a road trip to Cleveland, Ohio (hence the lack of posts last week as we regrouped after the trip) to see one of my best friends marry, well her best friend! It was so fun, not only because it was just an absolutely gorgeous wedding, but it was almost like a college reunion where I got to see a lot of good friends from college. That can't happen enough! We were fortunate we were able to get some time off of work (yahoo!) so we started are mini-vacation on Thursday afternoon. We started our winding journey through the mountains of Virginia and West Virginia to reach our half-way point at Charleston, West Virginia. It was definitely a fun stop over. We stayed in a sweet suite and got to explore the beautiful downtown a little bit. It is right on a river and has a nice mall...that is mainly what I can tell you about Charleston. Sigh. Eric and I do love to shop.
Friday took us the rest of the way to our destination of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, childhood home of Hillary and the spot of Hillary and Tom’s wedding. Our first stop was to check into our “hotel” if you can call it that. The place we got was called The Alcazar and it full of quirky charm. It was the “it” place in the early-ish 1900s (Bob Hope even had a suite there!) but now is more a residential rental place for mainly older folks. You can read a bit more about it here as it does have a pretty cool history and it seems it used to host some pretty great parties there. The architecture and design is unique though and I totally loved it!

After we checked in we were then on to the wedding rehearsal and rehearsal picnic (absolutely perfect as it mimicked the couple's favorite date), had a little time for exploration of the cute walking area around the Alcazar (which I always say quite dramatically in my head), and then an amazing girls night with the bride herself and all her close friends. Many desserts and funny You Tube videos were shared, including some incredibly hilarious wedding proposals (the good, the bad, and the ugly) and a showing of Marcel the Shell.
Saturday morning (wedding day!) we were free to be touristy, so we saw the early morning to head downtown Cleveland. I was all excited to see Lake Erie, as I had never been to any states around the lakes. Our destination was the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (aka Eric’s Mecca), since Cleveland was the home of rock n’ roll.

(It was just a little bit sunny!)

It was beautiful on the water with lots of neat things around it, like a science museum and a football stadium.

Inside was pretty neat too, although they didn’t allow pictures in most places. They did allow them in the lobby and we were able to snap these beauties.

Yup, that's a hot dog car!!

I was all excited to stand by Michael Jackson’s giant hand replica and his inspired giant guitar because I got stupidly silly excited over seeing Michael’s Jackson’s authentic glittery glove. I also got into Elvis’s bedazzled suit and all the handwritten notes and lyrics (written all over napkins, scrap paper, whatever could be found). I loved seeing the process that the songwriters went through on their way to huge hits. Overall it was definitely a cool stop and a must-see in Cleveland!

Then it was back to wedding preparations! Man, was I excited for the couple. The amount of time and love they poured into wedding preparations was so evident in every detail of the wedding. I could just feel the love between the couple, their families, and friends permeating the air. Here is the sweet couple.

I was honored to be a part of their ceremony and was able to share some pretty amazing readings on love and grace along with one of Tom’s friends. In this picture we are either smiling over the beauty of the day or the deafening helicopter that flew directly overhead during my readings. I’ll let you pick.

Their ceremony was beautifully thought out with inspiring poems, readings, music and singing, and wonderfully written vows. This also may be weird, but they had one of my favorite wedding kisses. Hillary was adorable when she just pulled Tom in for the kiss! Can’t you just tell from the pic?

Then we were on to party it up at the reception. It was hard to get action shots of the couple, so I thought I would share some of the individual flare they put on their reception. First of all, the guest book was the best idea I have ever seen at a wedding! They had this sweet little Polaroid camera. Everyone was able to take pictures and then basically help create a scrapbook guest book. There were all these different color pieces of paper and stickers and glue to go wild and put in your picture, decorate it and write a note.

Their decorations were beautiful too with these sweet little handmade rocks with notes on them. Apparently each table had a theme, although we couldn’t really figure our table's theme out. It tied in well with the centerpiece and beautiful paper (I am thinking that it was to represent the flower, the ground and the rocks…bringing it all together?)

You could also bring home the rocks in the cute little bags as your favors. Love it! One is now nesting in my miniature collection.

Their cake was also fabulously chocolate! Don’t you just want to reach into the picture and eat it? I also love how they celebrated their parent’s marriages by framing their wedding pictures by the cake.

They also had a cute little sweetheart table that was in the center of the room.

All-in-all the wedding and reception was perfect and perfectly represented the couple! It was full of good food, good memories, good friends, good music, and so much love.

Thanks so much to this couple...

...for allowing this couple...

...to share in your big day! So let’s end this post with a toast to the beautiful couple! Cheers!

Christmas in DC

This holiday season has been a a flurry of fun activity. One of the highlights has definitely been my whirlwind trip (left Lynchburg noon on Sunday and got back on Monday at 8pm). The extremely short trip was completely worth it because of the occasion - one of my great friend's Hillary is getting married in June. So a few of my college friends and I planned a surprise bridal party/bacherolette party for her. So the trip was all about getting quality time together so it was a fun mix of winter activities, delicious food, and lots of girl gabbing.

I wanted to show you some of the highlights of our nation's capital at Christmastime. I highly recommend getting into DC to see it during the holidays if you can!

The National Christmas Tree (totally make sure to watch the special on HGTV to see it picked out!). I never new it had such a neat train set that ran around the whole base of the tree.

Had to get one with the National Monument.

As you walked around the main tree there were 50 smaller trees each decorated for a state by elementary school children. This is the Virginia tree!

Of course we had to stop by Santa's workshop and get a shot with the big guy!



Of course the White House looks beautiful lit up at night - both front and back!

A little shot of the bridal shower set-up (see the cake pop post here). PS - that is my veil from my wedding! I let my sister wear it (see it on the little about me post). I have also given it to Hillary for possible wear.

What better way to celebrate winter than ice skating?! This rink was built in the Sculpture Garden which of course we had to check out after our session.

Had to get a shot of the Cube looking so sophisticated in the big city. It did a great job getting us around!

Also had to throw in an Occupy DC shot. There were two in the city and looking in you could see their shelves of supplies. It was intense to observe.

We got one of my favorite meals of all time - crepes and bubble tea!

To finish off the post I have to share a beautiful lamp that one day I would love to mimic in my home. A more utilitarian way to showcase beautiful, sparkly, glitzy chandeliers that I looove!

Thanksgiving in the Caribbean

Let me begin by saying I love Thanksgiving. It is probably my favorite holiday. I love the spirit, the love, the meaning behind it. I love how it makes me think of family. I love how uncommercialized it is (although this year Black Friday completely crept onto it - I actually heard about one family who camped out at Best Buy starting on TUESDAY). I also love the time off from work to focus on family, food, games, relaxing, football (for others in my family although I do find myself getting sucked into when it's on), and just time to be. With all that being said this year we decided to throw tradition out of the window and do something completely different for Thanksgiving. We took a cruise down in the Caribbean for the entire week of Thanksgiving (Sunday to Sunday of glorious sun)!

Our journey actually began on Saturday when we flew down to Fort Myers to get to the wonderful in-laws who would be cruising with us (check on family for Thanksgiving). Then on Sunday we drove the two hours to Miami to board the wonderful Carnival Valor.

Once we got settled into our inner room that offered the best sleep ever in its pitch darkness (seriously, when you shut off the lights you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. People, I actually took a nap once or twice and you know it is almost impossible for me to nap) we began exploration of our ship. Of course it meant EATING our first meal. Thus it begins...bring on the food! We only had a half day on board but made the most of it - especially the night life. Since we hadn't had too busy a day in the sun we stayed out in the lounge area and especially had fun with Brad in the piano bar. This was my first and may I say, I LOVE piano bars. Hear that Lynchburg?!

Our first full day on the ship was a "Fun Day at Sea". And it was. It was a nice relaxing way to start the trip, full of basking in the sunlight (with my waterproof/sweat proof spf 50), going down the water slide, fighting the crowds at the lunch buffet (the buffet was pretty hard to navigate with all the crowds - probably the most frustrating part of the cruise), exploring more of the ship, and eating! And of course getting our first towel animal!

Day Two: Cozumel, Mexico. First stop and probably the one I was most excited for. But this is only a teaser right now because this stop fulfilled a life long dream and deserves it own post. Eric and I got to SWIM WITH DOLPHINS! As you may know, I have been obsessed with dolphins since childhood and have always wanted to swim with them. It didn't let me down either. It surpassed my high expectations. I think this picture pretty much explains it all.

And while in Mexico why not...pop out of a cake!

Day Three: Belize and snorkeling expedition. This one will be brief. It was a beautiful island and a fun boat ride. Unfortunately I ruined any chance in really being blown away by snorkeling by having my first snorkeling adventure on the Great Barrier Reef. Nothing can really top that one. Also, the life vest I wore around my middle (I know I am lame) did something to me and I almost passed out on the boat. We will just leave it at that.

Day Four: Mahogany Bay, Honduras and happy Thanksgiving! This island was fun and relaxing. Since we did not have an excursion for this island our only option was to explore the touristy area right around port because the jungle surrounded us. No exploring that on foot and by ourselves. We did get to see some cool ship wrecks, walk along a beautiful beach, pick up some neat souvenirs, and then get to spend a relaxing Thanksgiving on board. Yes, I am proud to admit this was my nap day and the day we watched the most TV. What can I say, the programming on Thanksgiving is the best. It is weird to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in my bathing suit. Dinner was interesting too. We liked to dine in the restaurant which likes to make everything fancy so they offered the traditional Thanksgiving fixings but in a fancier manner. Being the veggie I am I think I ate something completely unrelated to Thanksgiving EXCEPT for the amazingly good chocolate pumpkin pie. I don't even like pumpkin and this pie rocked my world!

A snapshot on the "nature trail" on the island.

Day Five: Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands. My favorite place with a pretty saucy excursion! "Explore Cayman by Land and Sea" was one of the best excursions ever! We had the coolest native tour guide that took us to our semi-submarine.

This sub let us see all the beauties of the sea without getting wet. Based on my earlier experience I was very okay with this. The captain also anchored the boat, dove, and fed the fish so we could see all the pretties!

Then we continued to see Seven Mile Beach which is famous for its beautiful beaches. I think this picture tells you why.

Then we went to Hell. Yes hell ladies and gentleman. It was pretty sweet actually. It consisted of a ramshackle building that was the only one to survive quite a few hurricanes that no other buildings on the island could. It also has this interesting rock formation behind it that really does look like hell. We had fun playing around at this one.

The highlight of this excursion was getting to play with baby green sea turtles!! Our guide was the best, so knowledgeable, and let us play with them to our heart's delight. I got to see them in all stages and got to hold them up to one year old. They can grow to about 700 pounds so after one year it gets trickier to hold them. Apparently the sea turtle place breeds the most sea turtles, and for two reasons. The reason I like is that they release them into the wild. The other is...well...er....they eat them. Sad.

Day Six: Fun Day at Sea. Whoa! The winds were CRAZY this day. It almost blew my earrings out (I am serious) and it also blew my breakfast away. French toast went flying! But it was a great day to hunker down in a chair, chat with my lovely mother-in-law, and get some reading done. Great way to end the trip!

Night view of the ship on our last night!

The whole family together on our last night!

Day Seven: Disembark, fly back to Lynchburg, and spend the next 2-3 days try to get my equilibrium back! I felt like I was still swaying on the ship for days!
Whew!! What the post. I tend to like to give my internal dialogue complete with long descriptions. What do you think readers. Do you like the longer posts? Or would you like them shorter? More pictures?