Sipping Through our City

Mike and I have so much fun playing tourists in our own city.  On Monday, when I walked into my office and my coworker and I shared our morning pleasantries, she said that we've done more in our 8 months here than she has done in 11 years.  Honestly, she's right - haha!  Mike and I love exploring and finding new places in our new city.  This weekend, we went on our second tour with Charleston Culinary Tours.  Last fall, we did the Upper King Street tour, and we were so excited to be invited back to go on their newest one, the Charleston Distillery Tour.

Each of the Charleston Culinary Tours is a unique combination of food (in this case, drinks) and history.  It was very exciting to see the up-and-coming distillery culture downtown!  Each of the three local distilleries we visited (and the only three in downtown Charleston) are less than two years old and each produce fantastic products.

Our tour was led by one of the owners of Charleston Culinary Tours, Oscar who met us at the visitors center on Meeting Steet.  On the tour were three of Oscar's golfing buddies and another group of 4 guys.  Yes, it was me and 9 men - haha.  Luckily, it was Masters weekend, so we had a lot in common: checking the golf scores and chatting about the tournament on our rides from distillery to distillery.

We drove up King Street to the Striped Pig Distillery for our first stop, and boy, did we definitely start with a bang.  Johnny, one of the owners and head distillers switched it up a little and had us do some tasting before the tour to "loosen us up."  We sampled vodka, gin, rum, and spiced rum.  After that, we took a tour of facility and tried some molasses mid-fermentation.  At the end, he gave us each a sample of their moonshine (what a punch!) and sent us on our way.

We loaded back up in the van and took the 5 minute drive back down King Street to High Wire Distilling.  It's in a great location, right next to Butcher and Bee, and would be the perfect post-brunch adventure.  Nick gave us a tour of their distillery and we sampled vodka, rum, botanical gin. and 4-grain whiskey.

The last distillery of the day, back on Upper King Street, was Charleston Distilling Company.  Michael led us through their distilling and bottling processes, and we even got a chance to watch some of the Masters on their projection screen while sampling vodka, two gins, and their new cinnamon and ginger liqueur, Tolerance.

All in all, my favorite vodka and rum (especially the spiced rum!) came from the Striped Pig, I really enjoyed the whiskey (4-grain) at High Wire, and at Charleston Distilling, Jasper's Gin is unbeatable!  Each of the distilleries definitely has their own way of doing things to produce their small batches, whether it be with high-tech machinery or good ol' taste testing, and all of the products they turn out are top notch.

But that wasn't the end.  We loaded up again at Charleston Distilling and headed to Burwell's on North Market Street for a cocktail.  We were served the "Can't Touch This," and it was honestly one of the best drinks I've ever had: Striped Pig regular and spiced rums, prickly pear puree, pomegranate juice, and ginger beer - AHmazing!  We stuck around for a while and enjoyed some happy hour food.  We could have taken the van back to the visitor's center, but we opted to walk around the Market and back up King instead.

Mike and I absolutely love the Charleston Distillery Tour.  We learned a lot and have already purchased a few new favorite spirits (Example A - lol).  You can tour each distillery individually, but if you're visiting Charleston and want to enjoy a fun afternoon, or even if you're a local and looking for a safe way to visit a (drunk driving isn't cool, yo), definitely check out the Charleston Distillery Tour!  They take place on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 12:30, and are well worth the price!

Mike and I received complimentary admission to this Charleston Culinary Tour in exchange for this review through Eskimo Advertising.  As always, all opinions are my own.

Wedding Wednesday: It's The Little Things

Welcome back to Wedding Wednesday (aka an excuse to relive my wedding once a week).  I cannot believe it's been almost 7 months since our wedding.  Sometimes it feels like it happened just yesterday, while other times, I feel like we've been married for so long.  I guess that's what happens when you live together for 3 years before you get married haha #livinginsin.  

Alright, back to the wedding.  After the ceremony, while Mike and I were out taking our own photos, one of the photographer's assistants went around the reception venue and took photos of all of the details.  These were the things on which I spent the most time: finding family photos, painting chalkboard signs to match our theme from Minted, and stuffing care boxes for the bathrooms.  I've always been a detail-oriented person, and I wanted our wedding to have a lot of special and handmade touches.  Our reception was at Wedgewood Pines Country Club in Stow, Massachusetts.  The setting, people, and food were all amazing, and I highly recommend them to any future brides in the Boston area.

Two of my amazing former co-workers and their husbands took all of the flowers that lined the aisles as well as the alter flowers from the church and brought them to the reception venue for us.  As soon as the ceremony was over, while everyone was in the receiving line, they hopped to it and got all of the flowers to Stow before anyone else got there.  (They also got first dibs on drinks and appetizers, so not all bad, right?)  We loved it because we got to reuse all of the flowers and there were so many for a lesser cost.  All of the flowers were from Frugal Flower in Hudson.  We (and by we I mean the team at Wedgewood Pines - Mike and I literally just dropped boxes of stuff on Friday afternoon and their team did EVERYTHING for us) scattered little dishes of personalized Kisses (from The Knot Shop) and personalized golf tees (from Par Golf) on tables around the cocktail lounge and in the hallways.

Our wedding coordinator at Wedgewood asked if we wanted a signature drink.  After seeing how much fun one was at my friend Liz's wedding, we hopped on it and chose Palmetto Punch (coconut and spiced rums, pineapple juice, grenadine, and orange juice) to represent our new home in South Carolina.  As the guests walked into the reception for the cocktail hour, they were greeted with a tray of Palmetto Punches.

Next to the drinks (obviously, everyone needs a cocktail first) were family portraits and everyone's place cards.  We found wedding photos of parents and grandparents and put them all together in a really fun display.  Everyone loved them!

After grabbing their place card, guests were asked to sign the guest book, which was made from our engagement photos.  Future brides: our wedding coordinator also gave us the idea to bring the guest book to the rehearsal dinner so that parents, family, and the bridal party can sign it there since they will be so busy during the wedding.  It worked out really well and my coworkers who brought the flowers to the reception also brought the book over.

On one of the other walls was a remembrance table for Mike's mom who had left us 13 months before the wedding.  She was there (right in the room, along with his dad and my parents) when we got engaged and passed away 11 days later.  We honored her with a few family photos and a bouquet that matched my mom's.  

All while this was going on, our guests were outside on a beautiful patio, enjoying wonderful hors d'oeuvres.  The weather was perfect and even on September 20th in Massachusetts, it was 65 and sunny.

We also had an Instagram hashtag.  I know it's kind of lame, but I loved seeing what our guests took photos of, and looking back at all of our photos in one place.

Once it was time for the introductions to start, guests entered the ballroom near where they had signed the guest book.  They walked past our sweetheart table and across the dance floor to their seats.  We loved having a noon wedding with 3:00 reception because of all of the natural light in the room.

The cake was directly behind our sweetheart table.  It was made by The Icing on the Cake in Newton and was delicious.  More on that later!

I loved the way the team at Wedgewood set up the tables.  They had the perfect purple napkins to match our wedding scheme, and everything else was white to keep it simple.  Speaking of simple, I opted for small centerpieces so that guests could see and talk to each other across the tables.  Our favors were also on the tables, and everything fit together so perfectly.

For favors, the adults received Stemless Wine Glasses filled with personalized M&Ms (in purple, teal, and platinum) in little draw string bags.  One of my bridesmaids, Amanda, and I stuffed all 200 of them the Wednesday night before the wedding.  It was such a nice way to relax, catch up, and get a few last minute things done.

As for the kids, they received Personalized coloring books from Simply Sherlock with Golf Wedding Crayons.  The books were so cute and I highly recommend them if you're going to have kids at your wedding.  It kept them entertained, and we even ordered a few extra as our own wedding "souvenirs."

That's all for now!  Check back next week for the start of our reception.  Have a great Wednesday and don't forget to link up with Macy and me to share your own wedding-inspired post!

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Mike's Makes-You-Fuzzy Navels

Mike is the master mixologist in our house.  He can turn any three or four ingredients in the fridge into a drink.  While this one is very simple, it's definitely my favorite: Mike's Makes-You-Fuzzy Navels.

All you need is: a glass of ice, 2 ounces of vodka (we like to go local), 5 ounces of orange juice, and 2 ounces of peach schnapps.  

Fill the glass of ice with the vodka, OJ, then top off with the schnapps.  Give it a nice stir and enjoy!

There you have it - easy, right?  It's definitely my favorite spring cocktail.  

Linking up for all of my favorite Tuesday food link-ups (Tuesday's Recipe Swap, Two Cup Tuesday, Try A New Recipe Tuesday, Delicious Dish Tuesday, and Tasty Tuesdays) AND The Sequin Notebook's Monthly Cocktail Link-Up!