Category: Wedding

New Years Eve & Weekending {girls luncheon & PMC Resolution Event}

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Good morning! I have to say… going into this week knowing that I have to work a full week is really not that fun.  As much as I am ready to be back on a more normal schedule with regards to working out and eating (and not having so many social engagements to go to), I was really quite fine with working shorter weeks 😉

Did you guys have a good New Years Eve? Did you do anything fun? This year, we decided to not make any plans- if we ended up doing something, great. If not, that was fine, too. I was just tired of the big NYE hype and then never really having as good as a time as I wanted, so having no expectations was how I wanted to spend this NYE and you know what? I had the best one I’ve had in a long time!

When I got home from work, I decided to skip the gym or any sort of workout and instead snuggle up with some bubbly and a book. I had been getting oddly sore from my workouts and felt a little off all day so I decided that rest was best!

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This book was fantastic and I was so happy I decided to relax and finish it!

RM had been feeling under the weather for a few days, but managed to rally enough to walk to the Social Bar & Restaurant for drinks and dinner. We didn’t think we would stay late, but it was nearly 11:30 by the time we got home!

We were both happy to see that the restaurant was busy, but also that we were able to snag seats at the bar only after a short wait. We started with drinks (bubbly for me-duh- and beer for him) and then decided to do sharsies and pick a few things of the menu.

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We also split a phenomenal burger and then finished with this Nutella bread pudding…. thank goodness we had a little walk to get home to help digest!

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What I loved about the Social was that you didn’t have to buy a ticket, so it was very non-committal. They also had a DJ and party favors and a champagne pour at midnight (which we didn’t stay for). I love that we have a handful of great dining options within walking distance from our apartment- ranging from sushi to pizza to wings to the American style food at Social.

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We ended the night watching the ball drop in our jammies on our couch- perfect!

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New Years Day started with some eggs and toast for breakfast and then was followed with lots of save the date work. I’m mailing 98% of them today- feels amazing!!

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Once we both got hungry for lunch, I decided to walk to Max & Leo’s and order a pizza and some wings. It was SO good and totally hit the spot!

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Later that night I started to feel like I was getting sick from whatever RM had, which was not going to be a good situation since I had a lot of fitness things over the weekend I did not want to be sick for. RM suggested I go to bed early so I did just that- 8:30pm and I was sound asleep! I set my alarm for 7:30, thinking I would absolutely be awake before that, but next thing I knew it was 7:30 and my alarm was going off. I was amazed at how much I could sleep, but you know what? I woke up feeling great- imagine that 😉 Thank goodness, because I didn’t want to feel sick for my first class of 2016!

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I thought the crowds at the Y would be bigger than they were- hopefully they’ll pick up in a few weeks!

The rest of my Saturday was spent lunching with my girlfriends. We went to Not Your Average Joe’s in Medford and then decided to get one more drink at Regina’s since no one had anything else to do for the day. It was such a fun afternoon!

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Saturday night was very lowkey, so we were up relatively early on Sunday. I was on pancake duty again and then took down all of the Christmas decorations before heading to The Club to participate in The Resolution ride by PMC. In short, it was an incredible event and I’m so happy to have been a part of it! I ended up raising enough money to do 2 rides, so at noon I rode with Elise and Cara from The Handle Bar and at 1 with Rich & Mick from Turnstyle Cycle. Both rides were a blast- The Handle Bar girls did a Bieber/Senena Gomez ride and the guys from Turnstyle did more of an older mix of intense songs with a good build in them. Needless to say, by the time my second ride was over, I was totally spent!

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The rest of my Sunday was spent relaxing on the couch. I can tell I’m still fighting something because I’m feeling more worn down than usual after my workouts this weekend… so rest it is!

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I’m subbing tonight at the Watertown BSC for Dana’s 6:30pm Cardio Kickboxing class- come sweat with me if you can!

Questions for you: How was your NYE? Do you like to make big plans or do you prefer laying low? How was your weekend? Did you get your first workout of 2016 in? Have you ever participated in a fundraiser event?

Weekending: Getting Into the Christmas Spirit

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Good morning- happy Monday! Did you guys have a good weekend? Ours was relatively low-key, but that was perfect since I was pretty dead most of Friday because of getting home at 2:30 in the morning after 11 hours of traveling! Work was luckily quiet so I was able to catch up on some stuff without being interrupted. Let’s recap!

Friday

I was supposed to get together with my friend Liz and then go to a little party with my sister, but I ended up canceling on both because I was just too tired and knew I had to teach on Saturday and wanted to be rested. RM ended up coming home early from work so it was nice getting to hang with him before he went out with some of his friends that night. He offered to pick me up Whole Foods hot bar for me for dinner, which pretty much made my night. That, and being able to watch a sappy Hallmark Christmas movie and finish our latest book club book.

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Have you guys read this? If not, YOU MUST! This was such a fantastic book and I can’t wait to read the sequel. I may or may not have balled my eyes out as I finished the last couple of pages. Ugh. So good!

Saturday

I woke up feeling great thanks to 9+ hours of sleep! I was so excited to teach my cardio kickboxing class for 2 reasons:

  1. It was my last class before Christmas and I couldn’t wait to use my Christmas playlist. It’s always a big hit and I love seeing everyone smiling and singing along.
  2. I had some awesome new lululemon pants to wear- you can never have too much mesh, right?! The best part? They were an outlet deal- $29!

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Class was awesome! Everyone brought their serious A game and it was so fun to get in a good sweat sesh before the day’s activities.

After, I met up with my friend Jessi and her twin sister to talk wedding hair. I’m in the process of selecting someone to do my hair and Jessi’s sister pretty much specializes in wedding hair so hopefully it will work out! I was pumped to get to wear my new Stitch Fix sweater (a full review of my latest fix to come!)- it’s so soft!

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After hanging with the girls, I met RM at the Assembly Row shops and we grabbed a very late lunch/snack at Fuji. While the sushi was good, the rolls were very small and we were shocked that Roberto’s beer was $12 (!!!). Womp.

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Once we finally started to get hungry for dinner, I whipped up some roasted buffalo cauliflower and some baked butternut squash and RM cooked some spicy broccolini. We also shared some leftovers to round out the meal. It totally hit the spot.

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Sunday

Sunday started out the best way: with healthy pancakes! Historically, RM has always made them but lately I’ve taken that role and I have to say, I’ve been doing a pretty good job! I do not measure anything but here’s the ingredients I used yesterday: 2 eggs, 1/2 banana, coconut flour, almond meal, vanilla, flax seed, little bit of honey and some water.

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After breakfast, I headed out to do some errands. I wore my new Athleta sweater that I got for a SUPER deal during a recent Schoola promotion. I am in love with how comfy it is and I can’t believe I got it for $42 when it’s originally a $128 sweater. Yes, please.

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I also treated myself to a chai tea latte at Starbucks thanks to a very sweet member who gave me a gift card before class on Saturday!

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It was a pretty busy shopping experience, but I was totally immersed in the holiday spirit so it was fun! I was able to finish up most of my shopping, which will make this week easier 🙂

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I love the looks of a Christmas tree filled with presents underneath it. My mom always wanted to wait to bring presents down on Christmas morning (or late Christmas Eve), but my dad would always try to sneak the presents down earlier than that. I remember one year the back and forth of my dad bringing them down and my mom bringing them back up . I have to say, I like the presents under the tree before Christmas!

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Late Sunday afternoon we went to RM’s mother’s house to celebrate his birthday, which is on Wednesday. We had a delicious escarole soup, croquettes and a fantastic coffee cake. The rest of the night was spent hanging on the couch, relaxing before a busy week- I love our couch time!

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And that wraps it up! I have to go into the office today, but it’s a fun day because we are having our group Christmas party at Kings in Lynnfield. I also made my favorite Funfetti cookies, which basically make anything better 😉

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Have a great Monday, friends!

Questions for you: How was your weekend? What was the best part of it? Have you finished your Christmas shopping? Are you working this week? What’s your favorite holiday treat?

Wedding Update: Finding “The Dress”

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Good morning! I’ve said all along that I don’t want this blog to become a wedding-focused blog, but I’m just too excited about finding “the dress” that I have to share my experience with you! I said to RM on Saturday that I wished I was still shopping for dresses because I had so much fun doing it… a little crazy considering the thought of going dress shopping kind of overwhelmed me initially. But, I am happy to say that it was literally one of the easiest shopping experiences I’ve ever had!

Let’s back up, though. When my parents decided to come to Boston for Thanksgiving, my mom suggested that I call some bridal stores to see if they had any open appointments for Black Friday. I had a feeling they would be booked and sure enough, most places I called were booked so I put myself on the wait list at Vows and Anthropologie. The next day both places called me back and I was able to get appointments for Black Friday- score!

As with most things wedding-related, I just didn’t want to make a big deal out of dress shopping and bring lots of people who would probably have different opinions. I wanted to keep it to just my mom and sister, but when my dad asked if he could come I couldn’t have been happier! It was so cute shopping for my dress as a family- they were all fantastic and my dad was cracking everyone up.

Anyway, we showed up to Vows right around 10 and had to wait a bit until they were officially.

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My bridal consultant, Kristen, was absolutely fantastic. She listened to what I wanted (simple, not a lot of poof, low back, not a lot of lace, no sparkles, etc.) and grabbed a great selection of dresses for me to try on. She even set us up in a private room so that my whole family could be together (guys aren’t allowed in the normal fitting room area). I also loved that she was very professional- she didn’t give her opinion that would sway me one way or the other and she offered up lots of interesting tid bits of information regarding the style and designer of the dresses. I never once felt like she was just trying to make a sale.

I think I ultimately tried on maybe 8-10 dresses, but kind of knew from the first one that I had found “the one”. It wasn’t one I was crazy about off the rack, but once I put it on I absolutely loved it. It needs very little alterations and is different from most dresses I’ve seen. I thought all along I wanted more of the Bohemian, very simplistic look but when I tried those on, they almost looked too sexy for a wedding! They were so form-fitting that they showed everything- not really appropriate for a wedding!

Here are some pics of the dresses I tried on, of course, not including the one I bought 😉 That is going to stay secretive until I walk down the aisle!

This one was a fun one to try on just to make sure I indeed didn’t want a big poofy dress

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This was a style I originally thought I wanted- no poof or boning- but when I tried on some dresses like this I realized they were a bit too, how to I say this, showy… and not really my idea of wedding appropriate!

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We all really loved this dress but ultimately I wanted to change too many things about the neckline in the front and around my neck. And I feel like keyholes and lace like this are really standard these days and I wanted something a little different.

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This was another close runner up, but I just didn’t love the way it looked on me as much as the one I picked.

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Ultimately, I ended up cancelling my appointment at Beholden/Anthropologie because I realized all of the dresses that I loved from their selection were the ones that I decided were not wedding appropriate (for me, anyway). My mom and sister thought that I should’ve gone just to look, but I knew that I would’ve been thinking about the dress I ended up buying the whole time so we decided to just go for it. Walking home with my dress was the best feeling in the world and I can’t help but continuously look through the pictures my sister took of me in the dress. I cannot WAIT to wear it!

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Now, it’s time to find shoes. I think I want something fun- maybe a fun color or sparkles or something like that. I’m not really doing “wedding colors” so I won’t need to worry about matching to that. I also think I want to wear my hair up, I’m just not sure the details on that yet. Also, I wasn’t sure I wanted a vail, but after trying one on with the dress, I think I do want one. It made me feel so pretty and so much like a bride!

Questions for you: Did you have an easy time finding your dress? Did you end up getting what you thought you wanted or did you change your mind when you tried it on? Did you wear a vail?

Weekending: Thanksgiving & Long Weekend Edition

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Good morning! I feel like I haven’t “talked” to you guys in a while… I guess an extra long weekend will do that 😉 I ended up taking Wednesday off since my company gave us a half day, so not working Wed-Sunday was a nice little treat! Although the time off was very relaxing, we did do a lot of fun things, so let’s recap! Warning- this is a long post, but there are lots of pictures so you can just skim and check those out if you want 😉

Wednesday

After sleeping in a bit, RM and I got up and had breakfast and then I hit the gym for a run and lifting session. It’s always a nice treat to be able to workout mid-morning without being on a time crunch.

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Since a few of my girlfriends also had Wednesday off, we decided to meet up at my friend Jess’s apartment in the North End since she needed to stay close to home for her daughters nap time. It worked out well because we were able to chat and hang out without feeling rushed like we might at a restaurant.

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For dinner, RM and I met up with his brother and sister in law at Charcoal Guido’s on Moody Street. One of RM’s childhood friends opened the restaurant a few years ago and since we live closer to the area now, we decided to finally check it out. The pizza and atmosphere were both great! I had never been to Moody Street but I think we will be going back soon because it’s such a fun street!

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Thursday

We woke up on Thanksgiving and lounged around while watching the parade. I wasn’t sure if I was going to workout, but ultimately decided it was something I wanted to do. I wasn’t doing it to “earn my meal” or because I wanted to feel better about possibly indulging, I did it because I felt rested and I felt thankful for the fact my body can move and that it’s strong.

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My parents ended up going to my sister’s for Thanksgiving so RM and I decided to go there for apps and a drink before doing the whole dinner thing at his mother’s house. I decided to bring a variation of the Apple Brie Appetizer Bites Athena posted last week. To change it up, I ended up using sharper, hard cheeses instead of the mild, soft Brie. They came out great and everyone loved them!

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We had a blast at my sister’s and even though it was hard leaving them, it was nice to be able to see both families. Dinner at RM’s mother’s house was- no surprise- delicious, but sadly I didn’t take a single photo! I always feel awkward taking food pictures when I’m around his family, but I think I need to suck it up and take them because everything is always very picture worthy.

Friday

Friday was a super fun day because not only did I shop for wedding dresses, I ended up buying one!!! More on that later- I have a whole post to describe that experience 😉

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I loved that my whole family- including my dad- were there for the experience. It was so special and so fun! And, might I add, there was no “Say Yes to the Dress” drama! To celebrate, we went to Buff’s Pub for lunch. My parents hadn’t been before and my sister and I thought it was a great place to take them. The verdict? They loved it!

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After my parents left, RM and I went to Lookout Farm to visit his cousin and check out their new taproom. I fell in love with everything about this place! It was originally just a farm where you could go apple, pear, peach and strawberry picking, but recently they decided to make good use of the excess apples and they started making their own hard cider. I’ve never been a huge cider person (except for when I studied abroad in England and we drank cider all the time!), but the ciders at Lookout Farm are absolutely delicious! They aren’t too fruity sweet and they’ve got great fizz to them. We started with a sampler flight of the 4 flavors they had on tap: Farmhouse Blend, Super Berry, Green with Envy (has green tea in it) and Barn Burner (which is spicy, I think with habanero peppers in it).

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Mark, RM’s cousin, brought us for a tour of the property and it was incredible to see how big it was and to see where they brew the cider.

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Once we got back to the taproom, we each ordered our own cider (Super Berry for me) and shared a charcuterie plate (3 meats, 3 cheeses & olives for $12.75 I think). They also have big, soft pretzels and various flatbreads and everything looked delicious.

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Such a fun time! If you’re ever in the South Natick/Wellesley area, this is definitely a place you need to check out!

Saturday

We got up early on Saturday and I fit in a workout before hitting the road to Ikea.

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I’ll say that I love a good dorky matchy-matchy sesh, but RM and I were even a bit much for me on Saturday. In my defense, I got dressed first! Luckily he ended up taking off the vest once we got to Ikea 😉

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We grabbed some Starbuck’s and then attacked Ikea. I was so impressed with how well the experience went. We were there early enough to avoid the crazy masses of people and we found everything we were looking for.

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To celebrate, we went to La Casa De Pedro for lunch and cocktails. Everything was fantastic!

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The rest of the night was spent putting stuff together and being totally lazy. We logged some serious couch time!

Sunday

I woke up craving pancakes so I decided to whip some healthy ones up.

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And yes, I love topping mine with syrup, homemade jam and almond butter. Don’t judge 😉

After breakfast we did a good cleaning of the apartment and then I went and got a new phone. My old one had something stuck in the headphone hole so I couldn’t really use it when I was at the gym or teaching which was annoying.

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We decided to get a new, smaller table and I love how it looks now! and the yellow chairs RM picked out are amazing!

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Later in the afternoon, RM had to cash in a bunch of quarters so I went along for the ride… mostly because he also suggested getting a drink at a local bar after 🙂

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Wine and an onion soup for me- perfect mid afternoon snack!

The rest of the night was spent doing some meal prep and lots of blogging. This is a busy week and I have lots to share with you guys so I tried to get ahead of the game by logging in some serious blogging hours. It’s actually a perfect sunday night activity since RM is usually watching football!

Questions for you: Did you take extra time off around the holiday? Where did you celebrate Thanksgiving? Did you do any good workouts over the weekend? Have you been to Ikea before? Ever been to any of the restaurants linked in this post?

Weekending: Wedding Update Edition

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Good morning! How was your weekend? Did you do anything fun? I was loving the great fall weather. Know what else I was loving? BOOKING A VENUE AND A DATE!!! If you’ve been following B2B for a while, you already know that wedding planning thus far has been stressful. Being on a budget, having no idea what I want and having a busy schedule anyway has made the whole process just not that fun. BUT, now that we have a venue and a date I already feel a million times better. Before we get to that, let’s chat about the rest of the weekend, too.

After work on Friday, I met up with my sister at Hopsters in Newton Corner. This place is literally walking distance from my apartment and they sell lots of craft beers and delicious looking charcuterie boards and flatbread pizzas. On top of that, you can even make your own beer there, which sounds like a fun activity even for someone like me who isn’t a big beer person.

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The purpose for our meetup was so that I could finally officially ask her to be my Maid of Honor! I scoured Etsy for a while until I found this bracelet, which had my sisters name all over it (literally and figuratively!)- she loves bracelets and monogramed items so this couldn’t have been more perfect. Luckily, she agreed 🙂

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When I got home, RM and I made a nice healthy fish dinner, thanks to my mom’s friend Jean’s husband who caught the fish!

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A little while after dinner, it was snack time. Yes, we have a snack time every night- it’s my favorite! We always try to have healthy snacks like paleo banana bread muffins or toast or something else that’s not loaded with tons of sugar. On Friday, RM toasted up some Ezekiel bread, topped it with almond butter and my mom’s homemade blueberry jam, bananas, cinnamon and ground flax seed. Delicious!

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After teaching on Saturday, I rushed home to shower and hit the road to head up to Jackson, NH to look at The Wentworth Inn as a possible wedding venue.

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I had spoken with Kim, the fantastic wedding planner, a few times leading up to our visit and was totally in love with the venue before even seeing it in person! It was affordable, included a lot of things in the package that most other places didn’t include (90 minutes of full open bar at the cocktail hour?! yes, please!) and seemed like a great mini destination place since it’s just 10 minutes north of North Conway. I also loved that everyone could stay on site, which eliminated the need for us to need to book buses or vans or some other type of transportation. And, they source all of their food locally, from 15 nearby farms, to be exact, and they said nothing is ever frozen. For foodies like us, we loved the sounds of that!

After a tour and long discussion with Kim, we were pretty sure we were going to book our wedding at The Wentworth… on the 4th of July! They were giving a phenomenal discount to have the wedding on that day, one that was just too good to pass up, so we are going to be getting married on July 4th, 2016! We are hoping it doesn’t throw a wrench into people’s normal 4th of July plans, but since the holiday is on a Monday, we hope that people can do celebrating on Saturday and Sunday and be with us on Monday-  I promise it will be a good party!

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After our tour, we decided to walk to the Wildcat Tavern for a late afternoon snack and drink since we didn’t have lunch. The trio dip platter was a fantastic option and their wine selection was incredible! Ashley- they had La Crema by the glass 🙂

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When we got back to our room, RM laughed and said we apparently didn’t need to get a snack. Curious, I went over to see what he was looking at and was so surprised by the super sweet gesture that Kim had done by sending us a nice card and a cheese platter.

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It’s little things like this that really go a long way with potential clients- we appreciated it so much!

After resting for a bit, we went down to the hotel bar to have some dinner. They have a full restaurant, but we prefer the bar atmosphere. The food was unbelievable- I got the lamb stew and RM got the steak and everything was absolutely delicious and so fresh tasting!

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We also shared some sort of apple tart with cinnamon ice cream for dessert that went unpictured because we were too impatient to wait for me to get my phone to take a picture 😉

Another great thing about the Inn is that breakfast and breakfast tip are included in your room rate. When we saw all that they had to offer for breakfast, we couldn’t believe it! They had a really nice continental breakfast bar with fruit, yogurt, cereal, pastries, etc., but they also had a full breakfast menu. We decided to split both of the specials: blueberry pancakes and eggs benedict, with a side of homemade corn beef hash.

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Oh, my, God. Everything was so fresh and flavorful and just delicious.

We hit the road after breakfast so RM could be back in time to watch the game. I decided to make good use of time and went to Whole Foods. I treated myself to a smoothie since I was hungry for lunch at that point.

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We decided we wanted to do a roast chicken dinner so I prepped that when I got back before going to a yoga class.

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There is a CorePower Yoga a short walk from our apartment and last week there was a day where I just didn’t feel like going to the gym so I decided to check it out. They offer a free first week for new students which is an amazing deal, so I’m trying to get the most use out of it. Yesterday, the only class they had in a time that worked for me was their Yoga Sculpt class, which is almost like a yoga bootcamp. I really wanted a restorative yoga, but I ended up really loving the Yoga Sculpt class- we started and ended with nice yoga flows, but in the middle we used weights and did all sorts of lunges, pushups, squats, jumping jacks, burpees, etc…. I was totally in my element, even in the 98* room! I felt great when I left.

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I popped the chicken and veggies in the oven when I got home and everything came out SO GOOD! I have never made a roast chicken before even though it’s my favorite meal so I was a little nervous but everything tasted delicious.

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And that’s about it. If you made it this far, thank you!!

Now that we have our venue and date picked, I can focus on the fun stuff like dress shopping and invites and things like that! Feels SO GOOD to have the biggest part of wedding planning checked off 🙂

Questions for you: What was the best part of your weekend? Do you prefer beer or wine? What’s your favorite dinner meal? What do you have going on this week?