Wedding Wednesday: DIY Details & Rehearsal Dinner

* I'm finally getting around to sharing all of the wedding photos and recaps. It's A LOT so I'm hoping to do a wedding related post every Wednesday! I hope you enjoy seeing some of the details of our special day!*

I tackled many of the wedding details myself. I knew that since we were having at OOT wedding, I wanted to put together welcome bags for our hotel guests. I decided to just use plain old kraft paper gift bags with tissue paper in coordinating wedding colors. I designed and printed out a weekend itinerary to tie to the outside. I also put together a packet that contained information on restaurants, shopping, and attractions in the area.

In the very beginning of my wedding planning, I selected three main fonts to use throughout all of the paper products. I think this really helped tie everything together and make it seem coordinated. I found the fonts for free through various links on Pinterest.

Once we got to Rhode Island, we filled the bags with bottled waters, snacks, local brochures and maps. My mother-in-law bought decorative starfish and shells to add as well. Those added a nice touch!

My mother-in-law had planned a "Welcome to Rhode Island" picnic themed rehearsal dinner and there weren't any invitations out there for this kind of idea so I just made my own. I printed the information on a nice piece of cardstock and attached it to a piece of scrapbook paper. 

I saw this idea on Pinterest, made my own, added it to a frame and displayed it on the food table the night of the rehearsal dinner. (The starfish in the picture below is the same as what we added to the welcome bags.)

I did a lot of the other paper products (program fans, favor labels, thank you notes, etc.), but those were all professionally photographed so I will share those when I share the professional photos of the decorations and details. 

In the meantime, here are a couple more pictures from the rehearsal dinner!

Rehearsing!

The tables and centerpieces (and my nephew)

With my besties!

Mom with all of her grandkids!

Vacation: Part 2!

I forgot to share some other pictures from the first part of our trip. I was so focused on the food! These are from the day we rented an electric car and drove around downtown. We used Tropical Rent a Car for this as well as when we rented our scooters. They are really nice to work with and have great rates.

Abbey's face in the picture above is so funny! She hates the heat and it was really hot that day. She's too cute!

Moving on...

After our awesome week in Key West, we headed back north to celebrate New Year's Eve at our cousin's house! Nothing is more fun that hanging out with family :)

On our drive up we stopped in Ft. Lauderdale to see the house and area where Chris spent most of his early childhood until his family moved to Rhode Island when he was 12. I had fun seeing where he grew up and of course, Chris loved the walk down memory lane.

We spent a couple of days in Melbourne and had a great time as usual. On New Year's Eve the group of us (it's a big group!) went to eat lunch at The Burger Place. 2 words: HOLY YUM! The burgers here are for real awesome! They even make the buns!!! Hello, they make the buns!!! And they are fluffy, pillowy bites of heaven. Go there if you are ever in the area!

We had our New Year's Eve party at the house. I don't know how, but I actually made it to midnight. I think I've only done that once or twice in my life!

Abbey loves her GranDanny!

 

She's thrilled...obviously.

With my father-in-law! He only made it until 10:00 :)

Our little family!

Midnight kiss!

We headed home on New Year's Day. Once we got back, we celebrated Christmas with my side of the family. This is only the 2nd time I haven't been with my parents on Christmas day so it was a little weird. My mom and I went Christmas shopping when I got back and I have to say, the money we saved buying our Christmas presents AFTER Christmas was worth it! We've actually kind of decided to do it this way from now on. I'm willing to wait a few days to open presents if it means saving a bunch of money!

My big present this year from my parents was a set of Beats Solo headphones! I've said for at least 2 years that I've wanted these! They are pretty awesome - the sound is so clear and when you have them on, you can't hear anything else! Chris bought me a new Coach purse while we were in Key West and I love it!

Once we got back, I still had 5 days off before I had to go back to work. It was nice to actually relax because we all know that after a vacation, you need a vacation! After 17 days off, I was ready to head back to work and see all my little kiddos!

Happy New Year!

In 2013, I blogged a whopping 19 times. It was probably the most exciting year of my life, and I didn't even take the time to blog about it! I've decided to try to blog at least once a week in 2014. I want to remember even the mundane details about my life. I take tons of pictures and I want to share them and be able to look back and remember what happened in 2014. So let's do this!

For Christmas break, Chris and I headed down to visit his parents in Key West. We even took Abbey with us! We had so much fun during our trip - we ate at a lot of yummy restaurants, rented scooters for a day, rented bikes, drank craft beer, celebrated Christmas, and visited cousins in Melbourne for New Year's. 

Have you ever been to Key West? The food and restaurant scene is awesome! There are so many great restaurants to choose from that we only were able to get to a handful of them. Everything was delicious and I'd highly recommend it all!!!

Kaya Island Eats

Thai Island

DJ's Clam Shack

Santiago's Bodega

We also went to Sunset Grille & Raw Bar, Banana Cafe, 2¢ Restaurant & Pub and Roostica.  All of those meals were delicious too!

We didn't just eat on our trip (although it sure seems like it). One day we went to the old Seven Mile Bridge and biked it with Abbey. That was so much fun!

The most fun day we had was when we rented scooters and rode all over the island! I have never driven a scooter and I was so nervous. I wasn't very good at it at first, but then I got the hang of it. It was so awesome!

That was really only part of our trip, but I will post the rest of it next time!