Good morning! Nearly a month after the wedding and I’m finally getting around to share some photos- which makes me so happy because it means I get to re-live the weekend again! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again- our wedding events (2 days of stuff!) were the most amazing, wonderful, happy, love-filled days I’ve ever had. After everything was over and we were heading home we talked about how happy we were that we decided to make our wedding a 2 day event because we couldn’t imagine having only had 4 hours of fun with everyone! Getting to be around our guests/friends/family for basically 2 days was the absolute best decision we could’ve made.

We opted to get up and head out early on Sunday morning, July 3rd so that we could get up there before everyone else and have some quiet 1-on-1 time by the pool before everyone started showing up. I’m so happy we did this because the hour and a half we had of just us to kick off the events was one of my favorite parts about the whole thing!

Throughout the afternoon, people continued showing up and joining us by the pool for drinks and games and relaxation. It was such a perfect afternoon!

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Having our wedding on the 4th of July meant we were taking people away from their normal 4th of July parties and BBQ’s so we wanted to make it up to them by wining and dining them, quite literally! With that said, we invited everyone to a big Pig Roast the night before (fun fact: I wanted our whole wedding meal to be a pig roast but since the venue wouldn’t allow it, we opted to do it the night before. Win-win situation!) with a hopes that people could make a little mini-trip out of it. The White Mountain area in NH is especially gorgeous in the summer so although it’s a hike to get to from Boston, once you’re there it was so worth it.

We did a quick run through of the wedding and then everyone gathered for the pig roast. They cooked up an 85lb pig from a nearby farm and it was so delicious! Alongside it we had some of the best coleslaw we’ve ever had, corn on the cob, potato salad, bread and then homemade strawberry rhubarb shortcake. The whole night was such a blast because it gave us a chance to say our “hellos” and “thank you for coming” as well as eat amazing food and hang out outside.

(PS- HUGE thank you to our family friend, Jeanne, who took the majority of the pictures in this post- it was so nice to have a “photographer” there to capture the events from the pig roast!)

All in all, it was such a great kickoff to our wedding and we were SO thankful for everyone who made it up there to celebrate with us.

Quickly before I end the post, I wanted to share pictures of the room I/we stayed in. As part of the wedding package we were given 2 nights in their nicest room- and wow was it nice! And huge! Upon walking in we were greeted with a little living room and fireplace and then we walked into the bedroom with a huge bed and then the bathroom was off of that and was one of the biggest bathrooms I’ve ever seen! It was equipped with a steam shower, too, and off the bathroom we had our own private hot tub- so amazing, although we didn’t end up using it 😦 Next time for sure! If you’re looking for a beautiful getaway, The Wentworth Inn in Jackson, NH is a place you surely should check out. Everyone commented to us how nice it was (and breakfast is included in your stay which is a nice addition!).

Stay tuned for part 2 of our wedding recap!

Questions for you: Have you ever been to a pig roast? Have you ever been to Jackson, NH? How did you spend the 4th of July weekend?

Good morning! Remember me? I’m back, but only to pop in quickly and tell you that our wedding was the most amazingly perfect and wonderful day of my life! Everything went off without a hitch, which I am SO grateful for! The weather was perfect, I loved the outcome of my hair/makeup/dress, the ceremony was short & sweet, the food was delicious, the band was amazing, but more than any of that was the feeling of pure bliss and happiness as I married my most favorite person. We wrote our own vows and he had me crying as he read his to me. I am SO excited to spend the rest of my life with him.

Here are a few pics that various people have sent me/tagged me in. I’ll be back to more regular blogging soon, but for now I’m taking it easy as I’m just not quite ready to jump right back into regular life 😉

 

Good morning! Did you guys have a good weekend? We did! Lots of wedding things checked off the list, which I plan on updating you on soon! But today, let’s talk about Just Add Cooking. I can’t believe that our 4 month JAC ambassadorship has come to a close. While we both enjoy cooking- both the basics and trying new things- it can be a lot of extra time, energy and money planning out the menu for the week and then shopping for all of the necessary ingredients. Just Add Cooking has solved all of those problems because not only do they help with the meal planning, they provide you with all of the necessary ingredients AND the meals have all been relatively quick and easy to put together. Not to mention everything is always so tasty and delivered the same day it’s packed (which isn’t the case for most of these food service companies)!

When I received this month’s delivery, I was surprised to see new packaging. Normally the ingredients would all come mixed together in the box and you’d have to figure out what went with what meal, but this month they nicely grouped the meal ingredients together in their own bag, which made it SO easy to literally just grab the bag and get cooking. And, even though it seems like a lot of extra packaging, most of it is recyclable and still far less than what other food delivery companies are using so it’s really not bad.

The only thing that I missed with this new packaging were the labels on each of the little ingredient baggies. I guess it’s not a huge deal because they packaged everything according to what recipe they were to be used for, but as a Type A/Control person I would’ve liked to have seen the labels… you know, just to make sure there weren’t any packaging mistakes 😉 I know… I have issues! 🙂 Overall, though, I was a BIG fan of their recent packaging change- it made the whole process even easier, which says a lot considering how easy the whole process is in general!

For our meals last week, we chose the Jambalaya, Philadelphia Cheesesteak Sandwich and the Carrot Patties and Mashed Vegetables. I always love seeing where the food is sourced from (since they source locally as much as possible). This week the Bacon was from North Country Smokehouse in Claremont, NH, the all natural, GMO & antibiotic free chicken thighs were from Allen Farms, the Hoagie rolls were from Pain D’Avignon in Hyannis, MA, asparagus from Warner Farm in Sunderland, MA, etc. Here’s a glimpse into the meals!

Jambalaya

I’m always a big fan of these “one dish” type of meals where everything is all mixed together. I love how the flavors combine and it’s easy to reheat throughout the week. My only complaint with this meal was the clove flavor. It only called for a 1/2 tsp. of cloves, but for some reason the flavor was pretty strong, which was too much for my taste buds. Mixing in the sour cream they provided did help to lighten that flavor a bit and RM didn’t seem phased by it at all (he ate it all week!), so maybe it was just me. I definitely want to make this meal again, but I would probably drop the cloves down to 1/4 tsp. We ended up serving the meal over kale and with broccoli and the whole combination was really great!

Philly Cheesesteak Sandwiches

This may have been my favorite meal, but then again, with a cheesy sandwich, how can you really go wrong?! This meal was especially good because it was really quick and easy to throw together when I got home from teaching my Tuesday night double. We were both really impressed with the quality of the meat and I loved the idea of the asparagus “fries”. Thank goodness RM was helping me because I wouldn’t have thought to have added the cheese TO the pan with the steak, peppers and onions, but it was brilliant because everything got coated with the cheesy goodness. So tasty!

Carrot Patties & Mashed Veggies

This was the first vegetarian meal that I ordered from Just Add Cooking and the only reason why I ordered it was because I loved the idea of the carrot patties and wanted to try them out because I could see them being a staple at our house. This was a close second for me behind the Philly Cheesesteak sando’s! I thought the mashed veggies (potatoes, leek, shallot, parmesan cheese, etc.) had so much flavor and the carrot patties were way more interesting then they sound, haha We ended up adding a second egg to the patties and formed them in the pan, almost like pancakes, because they were quite liquid-y. I loved the crunch that the sesame seeds and sunflower seeds added and topped with Franks Red Hot, I was in flavor/texture heaven!

All in all, we were very pleased with our 4th- and last 😦 – Just Add Cooking meal delivery. Everything about our experience over these past 4 months has been nothing but wonderful and I definitely foresee us using their services again even after the ambassadorship is over. I highly suggest checking this company out if you’re in the market for a meal spruce up!

If you like the sounds of everything in this post, Just Add Cooking is offering a great deal for those of you who haven’t yet had a chance to try them. With the code BUBBLY, you can get your first Just Add Cooking box for just $39. Which, btw, is 3 meals- one hell of a deal if you ask me! Click here to sign up for a free account and to pick your recipes.

Previous reviews can be found here:

Just Add Cooking {First Review}
Just Add Cooking {2nd Review}
Just Add Cooking {3rd Review}

Disclaimer: I was not compensated for this post but I was provided with a free week of meals in response for my review. As always, all thoughts and opinions in this post are my own- I really, truly think this is a wonderful company and I’m so excited that I get to work with them! As an affiliate, I do receive a credit when you sign up for the service using my code. Thanks for your support!