Why do I have to wait until Christmas...

...to be reunited with my boyfriend Leo.

I have been a Baz Luhrmann fan since Strictly Ballroom. And Romeo + Juliet was (and is) one of my favorite movies. I was obsessed with it in high school...and I'm pretty sure that's when I fell in love with DiCaprio.

This movie looks amazing and I cannot wait to see it. Christmas? That seems so very far away!

The South + India = Gorgeous Wedding

This past weekend, we attended a wedding at Harborside East over by Patriot's Point in Mt. Pleasant. It's a lovely little venue with a big patio that has fabulous views of the Charleston harbor and the Ravenel Bridge.

The wedding was for an old friend of mine who was in Computer Engineering with me at Clemson. Just in the past two years, he and his now-wife have started a little donut shop on King St. downtown you may know as Glazed. They make delicious gourmet donuts with different flavors each day. They sell out almost every day, were recently voted Best Bakery in Charleston, and have recently been mentioned in national pubs like the Wall Street Journal. I'm so proud of them! I really admire their entrepreneurial spirit.



They are a really sweet couple and we were so honored to celebrate with them on their wedding day. The most fascinating thing about their wedding (besides the lack of donuts, lol) was that the whole thing was planned in two months. The groom's parents live in China and were only going to be able to travel to Charleston this past weekend -- so instead of panicking, they planned their wedding in record time.

The bride is from the South, and he is from India, so they created a wedding that was the perfect blend of both cultures. For food they had two separate buffets set up - one had Southern-style foods like Low Country Boil, and the other table was Indian food. The bride's mom and her maid of honor wore saris, which I thought was really cool.

"Bangle Up! Party down!" Bangles as gifts as we entered reception.

The bride's dress was fabulous! I was so in love with it - it was so unique. She told me because of the time constraint, she ordered it online and when she got it in, she said it fit perfectly - no tailoring needed. I told her that the dress was MEANT To be her dress.

The lovely couple.

The timing was perfect for sunset views of the bridge - we took a MILLION photos. My husband was so annoyed. :)

Elephants were a big theme at the wedding. Their invites had elephants on them, and beaded Elephant tapestries hung behind the bars and dance floor. How cute is their cake?

In addition to the bangles , we also got these cool decorative elephants as favors...

Here are all the flowers, centerpieces, etc. gathered up at the end of the night. I loved all the bright colors. Still in shock all of this was planned and pulled off in two months time.

Hope everyone is having a good week! Cheers!

TGIF OOTD

Finally going to wear my navy Old Navy maxi dress - pairing it with my new wedges from Ross and my Lilly Pulitzer cardigan and purse. Question: Is it too matchy matchy to have my purse match my cardigan? Lol. This is my fave purse though and I love this print...so I'm OK with sporting a lot of it.

Happy Hour @ Water's Edge by charlestongirlblog

Random Tuesday Ramblings

So I haven't posted in a week. Sorry. I haven't really been motivated. I'm still fighting the lingerings of a cold and that with staying busy just makes me mentally drained and unmotivated to write anything.

So today's post will be a bunch of randomness.

Last night a few girlfriends and I went to one of our fave wine night events, Wine & Design. However, this time we weren't painting - we were gluing. Wine & Design in Mt. Pleasant tried out a new 'craft' last night. They purchased a ton of old windows from the Habitat for Humanity store. Then we took the colored, clear craft marbles you can get at like Michaels and created a design on our windows. Most of us opted for Palmetto Trees, but others did crabs, fish or other fun 'Charlestony' (yes, that's a word) designs.

It was surprisingly easy and something I think we could definitely do on our own. I really loved the way that mine turned out. They also had other materials we could use like sea shells, sand, glass tiles and beach glass, which I used for my Palmetto Moon. It was hard to get a good picture of it.

I want to try and figure out how to hang this somewhere so it catches sunlight through it. Not sure how I'm going to do it, but I would love the hang this out on our back deck or fence somehow.

The glue we used is super strong and weather resistant.

Wine & Design told us they plan to do this again next month, so keep an eye out if you're interested.

So, if you've been following my blog for a while now, you know how obsessed I am with Old Navy's Rock Star jeggings. Well, I was super excited when they recently came out with Rock Star Jegging capris! I'm the same size (went up lots of sizes as usual) in them as I am in the jeans and they are perfect for work, running errands, catching a movie, etc. As a shorty, I roll up the bottoms about two inches to form a cuff. Super comfy. Hooray.

I was also excited (my wallet, not so much) to find the Rock Star colored jeans in a new minty blue color! I snagged a pair online before they sold out in my size... they will be a nice addition to my pink, purple and green pairs. Yes, I may have a colored jean problem...but they get lots of wear out of them, I promise.... Hmm, I'm thinking my wardrobe may soon resemble Rainbow Row.

Today during lunch I ventured out to find some nice picture frames. I first stopped at Ross For Less thinking they'd have a selection like you could find at Marshalls and TJ Maxx...negative. They had barely any picture frames and they were all crappy. I did, however, walk out with (I paid for them of course) these adorable Nine West pink and straw wedge sandals for only $25! I love them!

So I went next door to Target assuming they'd have some higher end picture frame options. Not really. I ended up getting a few frames at Target that were just ok in my opinion...but I also walked out with a new bandeau bathing suit top and a bathing suit cover up as well. Stupid Target trap! It could have been much worse though. I purposely avoided certain aisles because I knew it could be trouble.

Has anyone tried the One-a-Day Vita Gummies? I recently read about someone taking them and loving them. I definitely need to take a daily multivitamin, but have struggled in the past with the typical One-a-Day capsules. Not only are they enormous and I hate feeling them all the way down my throat and in my stomach - but they always, always made me nauseous....even when I would take them after a big meal. So as a fan of fruit snacks, I thought the gummy vitamins might be a nice alternative to try. I just took my first 'dose' of them about an hour ago...so far, no nausea. They do have 10 calories and 3g of sugar...but that's nothing, right?

How is everyone else's week going? I will play catch up and read your blogs tonight...I've been reading now and then when I've had a chance, but have been really bad about leaving comments - as in, not leaving comments. I'll try to not be such a lurker. :)

Happy week everyone!

Winter Wedding: Bridal jewelry & small details

It's been a while since I've done a post on my wedding -- but after doing a guest post on the entire wedding for fellow Charleston blogger Keller Creative, I didn't know what else to write about.

I recently received an email from someone who found my blog via Pinterest and asked if I could do a blog post on my jewelry, so I thought I'd do a quick post on my bridal accessories and some of the small details.

I already did a long post about my shoes that you can read.

As for my jewelry, I knew from the start that I would be wearing a string of real pearls given to me by my grandparents when I was younger. My mom had kept these pearls in a safe for me since I was so afraid of being responsible for them until my wedding day.

I also knew I wanted to wear my grandmother's emerald and diamond ring on my right hand since my engagment ring is diamonds and emeralds. This of course meant I couldn't wear my Clemson ring (which is a major Clemson tradition), but I felt as though my grandmother's ring was much more important.

However, because I took off my Clemson ring to wear my grandmother's ring, I completely forgot to take it with me so I could get Clemson ring pictures with my husband - something I am bummed about. So if you're a Clemson alum, make a note with your photographer that you want Clemson ring/wedding ring photos!

Bradley (well, really me and then I told him) decided that his gift to me on our wedding day would be my earrings and bracelet. I scoured online for hours and hours to find the perfect jewelry... I did so many Amazon.com and Google.com searches for 'pearls and emeralds', 'diamonds and emeralds', 'emerald jewelry', etc., etc., etc.

Here's the problem - emeralds are ridiculously expensive. We looked at a pair of small, teeny tiny emerald studs that cost more than my wedding band. I knew I wanted earrings that were somewhat dangly since my hair was up (which reminds me I still need to do a post on my hair!), so I resigned to the fact that I probably would not have real emeralds on my earrings on my wedding day...so my searches turned more towards 'cz emerald and pearl jewelry'.

I finally stumpled upon a bracelet and matching earrings that I liked on Amazon. I sent the links to Bradley and he gifted them to me on our rehearsal dinner night. They turned out to be so much prettier in person and were the perfect compliments to my rings and the greens used all throughout our wedding. I couldn't have asked for better jewelry...

I also found some bracelets that were similar in design to mine to gift to my bridesmaids...

My something blue wasn't really my shoes, but a tradition my mother started with my older sister...a blue sash with my full new name and wedding date embroidered on it. My mom pinned it inside the skirt of my dress.

I also wore a garter - a Clemson one of course! My best friend gifted me two of them at my lingerie shower - so I had one to wear and keep and one for Bradley to throw at the reception.

And of course, I never go anywhere without a purse of somekind - I can't live without my comb, powder, chapstick, etc. So I needed a fun clutch for the reception... I found this gorgeous, navy sequin clutch on Nordstrom for like $20! I love it and it was the right amount of bling to keep by my side at the reception. And I love the shot my photographer got of my engagement ring on top of it...

Finally, I kept warm wrapped up in my grandmother's mink stole - it still has her initials embroidered on the inside lining. She was very much with me on my wedding day.

 Read the rest of my blog posts about my Winter Wedding in Birmingham, AL on 12.10.11.

That nagging feeling you had about Titanic...

"The only thing that made Titanic irritating has finally been brought to life. Yes, two people could fit on that door. Poor Jack."

A friend of mine posted this on Facebook and it cracks me up. I was obsessed with Leonardo DiCaprio in high school, and of course, the movie Titanic. Raise your hand if your dance studio had at least 10 people do solos to that Celine Dion song that year.... {raising hand}

Not until this moment did I ever consider that Jack could have fit on that door... damn you Rose!

Is anyone really shelling out money to go see it again in theaters in 3-d? Do you think Leo and Kate are getting paid again?