A Look Back...

Talk about the ultimate review on a Monday... all of 2016.  It was quite a year, and while I will remember the highs of this year (a new home, new friends, weddings, and weddings) fondly, there were so many ways that I dream 2017 will be better.  On a personal level, I hope that all of my eye troubles are behind me, and for our world, I wish that we can all find peace, love, and acceptance, no matter who we are, who we love, or where we come from.

I also want to thank all of you for your support this year.  I thought I'd round up my top post from each month in 2016, and I was pleasantly surprised at what y'all enjoyed the most:

January - Tax Tips for Bloggers 

February - Carmelita Bars 

March - Disney Glass Slipper Race Recap 

April - (New House:) Framed and Financed

May - Guide to Charleston Breweries

June - Host a Spa Party at Home & Southern Proper Style on Kiawah Island

Two posts within two days got the most page views all year, so I thought they both deserved to be shared. 

July - Watermelon Sangria

August - A Lilly Look

September - Game Day Football Banner

October - The After Matth(ew)

November - Builder Grade to Custom Made Bathroom in Five Easy Steps

December - But the Prettiest Sight To See...

And continuing with December, Mike and I spent the last week in New England with our families.  I can honestly say that I've never "unplugged" for a vacation so much in my life.  I snapped a few times, but took literally 11 photos on my phone.  It felt great, and I am definitely recharged for a new year of blogging.

Mike and I always do our own Christmas before we leave for New England so we don't have to bring the presents for each other up and back down on the plane for no reason.  The cats were obviously very excited about his tickets to the Daytona 500 this year!

I don't even understand how my ring bearer and these twins are getting so big!!

 Coffee dates with old friends

Our annual college friends reunion and Secret Santa party!

New Year's with fantastic friends!

I hope y'all had a fantastic New Year's - happy 2017!  Linking up with Biana for some New Year's Weekending!

Christmas in New England

I don't even know where to start.  The last 12 days over Christmas and New Year's were awesome!  We spent so much time with family and friends in five states and ate all of the food.  Basically, this post is filled with a lot of selfies, snapchat screenshots, and captions.  Sorry in advance for the photo dump, but if I were to write everything out you'd be reading until Biana's linkup next Monday...

Pre-Christmas bowling, pool, and coffee dates with old friends

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with Mike's family

The cutest dude's first birthday party

Meeting up with Biana in Boston!

Cousin time in Delaware

Rhode Island visit

New Year and wedding planning (dress shopping and cake tasting) with my sister-in-law!

Honeymoon Resort Recap

Happy Wedding Wednesday, and I’ve got a special one today: our honeymoon recap!

I cannot even begin to describe how perfect Sandals EmeraldBay was for our honeymoon.  If you know Mike and me in real life, you know that we’re very easy-going people who love: warm weather, drinking, golfing, being outdoors, games, food, and relaxing.  It had all of those things and more: our suite was beautiful, all of the staff were courteous and helpful, and jeesh, we even had a butler!

While each day varied a little depending on if we golfed or did something special (like the water safari or a massage), here's a typical day:

Breakfast on the patio

Morning at the quiet pool (and start drinking by 10 am)

After lunch golf or games (shuffleboard, croquet, giant chess, bocce)

Head back to the room to change back into pool clothes to go to the main pool for more drinks and music

Another outfit change before dinner

Nighttime activities: tennis, live music, drinks at the bar, and more lawn games

I had heard a lot of mixed things about Sandals resorts before going (but we still really wanted to try and all-inclusive and this one with golf was incredible for us), and we seriously had a perfect experience.  The food was all really good, the drinks were always flowing (and delicious), the golf course was beautiful with 6 holes right along the ocean, and everyone was so relaxed.  The only reasons I can see not liking this resort is if you’re looking for a wild nightlife.  We enjoy listening to music and casually drinking at night, but for those of you party people, there was not really a nightclub at the resort. 

I cannot recommend Emerald Bay enough for a honeymoon destination!  Come back next week to see my recap of our off-resort excursion with Exuma Water Sports!

Besides our Wedding Wednesday link up (share you own engagement/ wedding/ honeymoon/ anniversary post with me and Macy below), I'll be linking up for June's Wanderlust Wednesdays with Kate, Kerri, and Emily!

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Back In The States

Hi everyone!  Well, I’m back.  I hope y’all had a great week, and I can’t wait to see what you’ve been up to.  Mike and I got back from our honeymoon on Saturday, and it was the absolute trip of a lifetime.  We were at Sandals Emerald Bay on Great Exuma in The Bahamas.  It was the perfect resort for us because there was unlimited golf included in our package.  I promise not to go too crazy with recap posts, so right now, I plan for there will be two (well, three if you count this month’s ootm): one for the resort and one for an awesome water safari trip we did.  Hopefully I’ll get my act together (and our underwater photos developed - who knew it takes a week or two nowadays to get film back?), maybe in time to do the first one with my weekly Wedding Wednesday linkup.

In the meantime, today is the last day to enter my giveaway with Love Garlands for a $50 shop credit – who can’t use something pretty in their life??

Even though we got back on Saturday, we decided to tell ourselves that we were still on vacation and spent Sunday at the pool.  I finished my second book of the trip: Dad Is Fat by Jim Gaffigan.  My first was Ellen Degeneres's Seriously...I'm Kidding (thanks, Megan!), and both were the perfect, funny vacation reads.

Lastly, I’ll leave you with one photo from my favorite hole on the Emerald Bay Golf Club – a beautiful par 3 right along the water.

Have a great Monday!

Linking up for: Weekend Recap, Weekending, and Monday Madness!

Charleston Life: Magnolia Plantation and Gardens

A couple of weeks ago, while Mike's sister and her boyfriend fiancée (they got engaged on Saturday!) were in town, we spent a day at Magnolia Plantation.  We got there early in the day and spent much of the morning walking along the Ashley River, through the oldest public gardens in America.  Also included in our admission were the horticultural maze and petting zoo; both were recommended by Ericka and were a lot of fun.  We chose not to do any of the add-on tours like the house tour or the nature train, but our half-day trip definitely could have been made into a full day one with just a couple of those as well as a lunch break at the Peacock Cafe.  Here are my favorite photos from the day:

If you want to go to Magnolia Plantation, I suggest you get there early.  We got there about an hour after it opened, and there were maybe 5 other cars there.  By the time we left at 11:30 or so, there were over 80 cars and the petting zoo (our last stop) was getting pretty crowded.  We also went on a weekday, so I can only imagine how busy it would be mid-day on a Saturday!  In my personal opinion, the day at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens far outweighed Boone Hall Plantation.  Both have beautiful homes on the property and many additional tours available, but the gardens and petting zoo both included in the general cost of admission were some of my favorite spots in Charleston so far.