Life

#EmnBWed – The Date

| The Bee Life

Woah, it’s August 1st!  Where has the summer gone? Where has 2016 gone? I can’t believe it!

It was late-May that B and I decided on a date, August XX 2017, and it seemed like a long ways away, but now that it’s August 1st, we are inching closer to the year-mark. Ah!  It always seemed like we had more than enough time to plan and figure things out.  But now it definitely feels like it’s go time. I know this next year is going to fly by.  The good news is we’ve made some, in my opinion, serious progress over this past weekend!  Go us!

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Photo cred: Timothy Logan Photography

Now, I’m not going to give out specifics because that would be too easy, I need to build the suspense for all of you.  But things are definitely cranking and over this next month I know a few other details and specifics will be finalized.  B and I are both getting excited, and I love that B is getting excited, involved and helping make decisions.

As we’ve started figuring out a few details, a million other little ones seem to pop up in it’s path… and as I start exploring those little paths the price tags keep adding up, a couple grand here, a couple more over there… there are a few things we will definitely need to be creative with and already have some ideas on how to do just that.  I can’t wait to share those little details once we get a few more of the bigger ones finalized.

Part of me, is ready to get this done and marry B, and just elope.  Another part of me is so excited to see our dreams come to life for our special day. So I think I’m going to wait and take the ladder.

Cheers to August!

Weekend Highlight: Kayaking

| The Bee Life

It has been toasty toasty this past week, but I know we haven’t been the only ones roasting.  Our humidity was nearly 80% on Friday. Gross! Not to mention, we don’t have AC … *smiles* … so it’s been even more unbearable, we broke down and bought a window AC unit for our bedroom, so we at least can sleep at night, after sweating all day! So a little mission this weekend was to ‘beat the heat’ whether it was going out to eat at a restaurant to cool down or hanging out at our neighbors to soak up some cool air!

Saturday morning we headed to the Metroparks with some friends and rented kayaks!! Living close to a large lake, I often take for granted the amenities or extracurricular activities that’re available to us within minutes from our house. So I was happy when some friends recommended we go kayaking.

It got off to a little rough start, with the oh so friendly woman at the kayak rental.  We luckily were able to rent kayaks for 1-hour, after she scolded us to make reservations and how you have to make reservations, especially on the weekend, oh and if we were even 5-minutes late coming back we would be significantly up-charged and it would throw off the rest of the day because they were so booked. She was so nice.IMG_4555So after we got through that, we were able to jump in two tandem kayaks and head out on the river with sights of the lake! It was relaxing after B and I got into our grove and  were able to enjoy the scenic views along the river of the private yacht club and large beautiful homes flanking the river. We were able to make it out to the lake with plenty of time, after the fear of god was instilled in us to not be a single minute late back to the rental area. So it was just enough time to paddle around the lake, enjoy the view and then head back down the river. IMG_4537FullSizeRender

The water and breeze from the lake was refreshing, while still being able to soak up some of the hot summer sun! After we dried off a bit, we headed for some bottomless mimosas and brunch at a nearby spot – yum!

Safe to say, B and I will definitely be doing this again before the summers end! We might just try out another rental spot and will definitely make reservations ahead of time, regardless of where we go! *winks*

#EmnBWed – The Dress

| The Bee Life

So a few weekends ago, I surprised my mom with dress shopping. We were walking to a nearby boutique (she didn’t know where we were going) and on the way there, I said, “Ok! We are going dress shopping!”  She replied, “We Are?!” She was excited and surprised about it for sure. I went into the appointment with the mindset of not finding a dress and just wanting to try on a lot of different styles and options to see how they looked and figure out what I like – but that quickly changed. I quickly started figuring out what I liked, and what I didn’t like. Butttt I also liked a lot of different styles.  The boutique we visited blew me away – they had unique, well made dresses in lots of different styles and fabrics, not to mention what seemed like unlimited customization options, well unlimited based on your budget. *winks* This was all confirmed after visiting a chain wedding dress store.  All the dresses seemed cheap, over done with lace and bling and just completely lack luster.  Although it was good to have the comparison, I don’t think I’ll be bothering with any stores like that again. FullSizeRender (2)FullSizeRender (3)FullSizeRender (1)FullSizeRender
So I thought almost all of the dresses I tried on at the boutique looked really good, not to sound full of myself, but they did!  It got hard narrowing them down, especially the styles that I really liked. Luckily, some of the styles/looks just weren’t what I’m going for. For example – the last dress was AMAZING, if we were having a winter wedding that would definitely be a top contender along with the full beaded dress (it was SO heavy). The other part I loved about the boutique is that the owner would pair different dresses from a designer to make a new dress; observe above in picture #2!  It truly helped envision and create a dress unique for you.

I ended up going back the week after with Katie (surprising her too), so I could share the experience with her and also show her my top contenders after going with my mom. Having one-on-one shopping trips with my favorite people is definitely not the conventional way, but it’s my way of making special memories with each of them.

When Katie and I went back, I think we found the dress. Although I’m not sure I will get that feeling, of just knowing, but I think I’m pretty darn close. It’s so pretty.

So here is my advice to first time bridal dress shoppers;

  1. It’s OK to say NO!
  2. Don’t be afraid to speak up or ask questions, especially when it comes to price
  3. Go to at least one smaller boutique
  4. It’s OK if you don’t get THAT feeling, just pick what feels right
  5. You don’t need to know all the shapes/styles by name, just have your pinterest board ready!
  6. The decision might be harder than you think!
  7. Think accessories with your dresses; belts, necklaces, veil, hairstyle, shoes. Every little detail will tie into your overall look and vision!
  8. Invite as many people (or not) as you want
  9. Take pictures
  10. Enjoy it!

Unfortunately, the dress won’t be shared until our wedding day – so you’ll have well over a year for that one! Bum bum bum!

Weekend Recap – June 24

| The Bee Life

Remember how all your weekends are booked? And before you know it the weekend is over, and the work week is looming. Ugh!! Not to mention, this past week didn’t even seem real, or that anything productive happened, I have a feeling this week will be the same. But any who…

This past weekend was a fun one, and one of many consecutively booked weekends. My parents came in town on Friday, I had Friday off, so it was nice to run errands in the morning, take Moz for a walk, vacuum the house, and then spend some time with my parents before our plans. We surprised my parents (but especially my dad) with a tour and tasting at a local distillery, Cleveland Whiskey.  One of the game changers for Cleveland Whiskey is that they speed up the maturing of the whiskey, and can produce an aged tasting whiskey/bourbon within 2-days! They’re not a favorite in the whiskey world, but they’re definitely shaking things up, and their drinks are tasty and innovative. My dad is definitely a fan! I enjoy the whiskeys in my manhattans, *smiles.*

 

Saturday was a busy day, I had a few surprises up my sleeve for Mom, more details to come at a later date *winks* needless to say, she was surprised and I think she liked what we ended up doing! The guys worked away at the house, and we (my dad and B) finally installed our new storm door on the front, it’s all open so you can see our pretty blue door!  It looks awesome!  My aunt and uncle came up for dinner, so we all went out along with G&P. We went to a new spot, at least for us called Forage. I was pleasantly surprised, the food was really great, especially the appetizers we ordered: pretzel sticks, calamari, and devils on horseback, OMG, yum.  I really need to get in a better habit of snapping some pictures before we dive into the food… telling you it was good without showing you half defeats the purpose!  B and I will definitely be going back for a date night.

Sunday, B was itching to do something around the house – so why not on a 84+ degree day do decide to do some sweaty gross yard work. We made small progress, but progress still, which is huge when we want to finish the project since we figured out all the kinks (hopefully) with our test round today!  Getting more items crossed off our to-do list, woo!

Today, marks a new chapter and journey in my professional career, it’s not how I imagine it would be, but I think that’s part of life’s journey of growing and evolving and continually finding and pursuing things we love.

Please send me your positive thoughts and energy this week!

XO

 

Champions. History. Cleveland.

| The Bee Life

WOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our city was ELECTRIC last night!!! First NBA Championship to Cleveland, ever. First Championship won in over 52 years. First team to comeback down 3-1 in the finals.

HISTORY.

I knew it since they made the finals that this was going to be the year they won. I felt it. Not growing up in Cleveland, I think I was able to truly believe since a lot of people wanted it, but were easy to heartbreak – and I’ve told them the entire time to think positive and not to say “if they win” but “when they win.” *smiles*

Last night was truly epic for Cleveland. A night that will be remembered not only in the history of Cleveland, but the history of basketball and the history of sports.

We had a watch party in my aunts backyard, which is how we’ve been watching most of the games. It was amazing, everyone was screaming and cheering, and even crying. A lot of us, just couldn’t believe it. We stayed up until 2AM – watching the footage on the sports channels and soaking it all in.

Wednesday is going to be another epic day for our city! Cannot wait for the parade.

Go Cavs!

Our Engagement Photos – Sneak Peak

| The Bee Life

Okay blogger-verse, you’re getting the first look at some of our engagement photos, I repeat… FIRST LOOK. I haven’t even posted on social media!!

We took pictures this past Saturday, and instead of doing the standard sunset photos, we opted for sunrise at the suggestion of our photographer.  Our photographer, Tim, is a friend at work who I talked into doing our engagement pictures, although a photographer, he doesn’t typically do engagement pictures. He is so talented, so I knew they would come out amazing.  We ended up going to three different locations with three different outfits over the course of 4-hours, it was exhausting, but also really fun!

Enjoy the sneak peak:

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Photo Credit: Timothy Logan Photography
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Photo credit: Timothy Logan Photography
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Photo credit: Timothy Logan Photography

The last photo was taken on Tim’s 250 Polaroid – a camera that is nearly extinct as far as finding or getting film.  This was the last one that we took with the Polaroid, and it was definitely the winner, third times the charm.

I can’t wait to see how the rest of the photos come out, but Tim said there are over 700 pictures for him to go through and edit/touch-up, so he will send them as they come. I absolutely love what I have seen so far (B does too!) !!

XO –

Weekend Recap – Family Wedding

| The Bee Life

This past weekend was full of family as we celebrated my cousin Tim’s wedding to his long time girlfriend, Morgan! So here is a quick recap of the weekends events.

Friday, we both took a half day in hopes that we could head out mid-afternoon and get down to Columbus early evening… but I had a little too much on my to-do list before that happened. Running around making stops, getting an oil change in, and then forgetting about our call with a wedding planner that I was expecting to have while we were already in the car, pushed back our leave time by about 2-hours, oops! We dropped Moz over to our neighbors, and then finally hit the road and got into Columbus a little after 7pm.

Dinner reservations were at 8:30pm, whenever my family has a weekend of any sort together (especially weddings) it is ALWAYS jammed packed with family dinners, activities, workouts, you name it. So we headed to Bravo! Cucina Italian – my first time there, andddd I know it’s a chain, but I wasn’t impressed at all. Service was slow and the food wasn’t that great. Which only led me to snack on Doritos later in the evening. *smiles* After dinner was over, some people went to the casino and others headed back to the hotel.  We stopped and grabbed some adult beverages to hang out at the hotel with my parents, Nate and Kiera.

Saturday morning we slept in until 9:30!! We haven’t slept in, in so long, it was so amazing! We got up and headed to Starbucks and then came back to workout and hang with the family. The hotel had a basketball court so everyone was hanging out between there and the pool while I sweated through a 45-minute boot camp workout, luckily my cousin Niki joined halfway through! From there we headed to lunch at First Watch, yum! (Avocado toast for days, please and thanks.) By the time we got back after lunch it wasn’t long before we had to start getting ready for the wedding.

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The ceremony; was so nice and the vows were beyond sweet. Tim and Morgan have been together for nearly 11-years, not to mention living long distance, so this has been a long time coming. My cousin Tim is a bit more reserved than the rest of us, so it was so awesome seeing him pull out his handmade scroll with his vows and reading them with so much love and truth in what he was saying.  After they said their vows, and kissed the rest of the night was about celebrating!

Tim & his adorable Mom
Morgan coming down the aisle
The kiss!
The send off – big smiles.

The reception was at La Scala Restaurant, which had a back room for the reception area and was the perfect size to accommodate everyone. The staff was great catering to everyone and we had our own private bar in the back which worked out perfectly too! Although it took some tweaking for the mixed drinks, since I’d like to say my family is a bunch of alcohol snobs, it would’ve been easier if we could just get behind the bar, ha! The dinner was served family style, which I really liked. It was a mix of lasagna, two types of chicken, green beans, and mashed potatoes, with salad and bread as the starter. Yum!

Forever Wedding Date ❤
Our Table!
Kiera & Nate
Their cake!
Most of the Fruit Loops!

Once the dancing finally started, the rest of the night was toast (unless a country song came on, then the dance floor was nearly cleared out, yet the DJ still insisted on playing his set-list).  Everyone tore up the dance floor and definitely got a second workout in. I think B danced the most out of all the weddings we’ve been too together, it was so much fun! Of course, there were a few breaks for shots – although we had to order them in the main restaurant, so it was funny to see the bartender mix up 25-lemon drops and a rowdy crowd come into the main area demanding shots.

B and Tim
The First Dance
Jordan and I cutting a rug
Me and Niki
Hampel Ladies
With the beautiful bride
Final Dance!

It was a great time,  and family drama was at a fair minimum, minus a few situations which I am currently ignoring for the time being. *smiles* You could tell how happy Tim and Morgan were and how excited they were for their big day and commitment to each other. They’re truly just a sweet couple. It’s always a great party when we are welcoming another person into our family, needless to say everyone was hurting the next day.

We had a family brunch Sunday morning so everyone could see each other one last time before we all went our separate ways, a family tradition for wedding weekends. B and I were back home by 12:30 and got our little pune baby back (Moz). She was exhausted from her weekend with her friend Maybel! We were exhausted too, so it was a lazy afternoon.

Cheers to another beautiful wedding and fun weekend!

Wedding Plans – An Update

| The Bee Life

Now that it’s officially June – I figured I would start sharing and writing a little more about our wedding planning (or lack thereof).  If you remember, I wanted to wait awhile before we started planning since I feel like a lot of couples rush into it, and don’t actually enjoy being engaged or take advantage of it! (I might be taking a little too much advantage of it :])

Venue
Source: Style Me Pretty

So here is the thing I’ve learned with the tiny bit of “planning” aka research I’ve done so far… EVERYTHING IS SO MUCH MONEY.

Period, end of story, done.

Source: Wedding Chicks http://static.weddingchicks.com/2015/11/18/red-fall-winery-wedding/
Source: Tessa Barton http://tessa-barton.blogspot.com/search/label/Wedding

But seriously, I truly can’t believe or fathom spending that kind of serious cash on ONE DAY. Granted it’s a day of celebration and the start of a new journey, but it’s just crazy to me, there are SO MANY OTHER THINGS, I would much rather spend that money on. Don’t even ask what, because the list will be endless. I don’t even want my parents to spend that much money on our wedding either – it’s crazy! Unless Donald Trump wants to pay for our wedding, it’s hard to reason it all.

Long story short, there has been no wedding planning, just a lot of chats to try and figure out what sort of direction we want to go in (small, large, or half-half).  We were set on one direction, but the more I started researching and vetting out options, the less interested I’ve become, mainly because it doesn’t seem like it’ll save any money, and would be more involved from planning. So I truly just don’t know what to do. B and I have a few more chats that need to happen, I am thinking an evening or afternoon with some continuous beers will help make some decision, and then of course sticking to it.

One of these days, I’ll actually have something solid to report back on. The only thing we have planned right now is our engagement pictures… so stay tuned for a first look at those in the next few weeks!

 

#CoakleyEverAfter – Part 2

| The Bee Life

Ready for Part 2?!

Katie was one of the most beautiful brides. Her dress was perfection and she was glowing. We made our way to the venue after everyone got ready at the hotel, the rain was starting to pick up on and off as we got to the venue, so came the decision of keeping the ceremony outside or setting up inside just in case. It was touch and go for awhile, and it got set-up inside just in case. About 15-minutes before the start of the ceremony, Katie decided to make it happen outside. The venue was beyond accommodating and made it happen, sprinting to clean off the wet chairs and getting everyone from inside to the outside location.  After all, her vision for the last year+ was having an outdoor wedding, and it was going to happen, rain or shine!

Bathroom Mirror Shot
Almost ready!
Ready to go!
The Ceremony

Katie and Travis wrote their own vows, which were very sweet and touching, in fact that was one of my favorite parts – it was truly personal and unique to them and their relationship. And the rain held off! Woo!!

From the ceremony we went and took pictures while the rest of the guests enjoyed a cocktail hour before the festivities got started around 7.  We were announced and quickly got into the speeches, Katie’s dad spoke, then the best man, and then myself. I was surprisingly so nervous, like shaking nervous! I think it was the setting, and I wanted everything to be perfect. I was told it sounded great! Phew.

After dinner, was the cake cutting, first dances, and then real dancing! It was such a fun night, and like I mentioned before completely surreal to see Katie and Travis married, yet so awesome because they’re completely meant to be. My family was at the wedding too, so it was great to hang out with them, and B once all my official duties were finished (although they never seemed to be, we had to get Katie ready with a new up-do after all the key moments).  There was also a photo-booth, which is always fun to take a few photos with everyone. Enjoy some of my favorite pictures from the night!

Cake Cutting
First Dance
B + Me
Nate, Kiera + Mom
Dad, Me + B
Me, Travis, B + Katie
Katie and I with Lori, her mom
Genesee Light, in cans.
Katie & Her Dad dancing
Best Friends.

The night was just perfect mainly because it was Katie’s wedding. I can’t wait to see her professional photos from the day, not to mention her photographers were awesome. We helped shut the place down and clean up. By the time we got back to my parents it was probably 2AM. It was strange saying bye to Katie with no future plans in hand like we’ve had for the last few months, which I’ve truly enjoyed. But I know we will be seeing each other soon. Hopefully they’ve landed safely for their honeymoon!

Cheers to the bride + groom!