And the Winner is… BERMUDA!!!

Charlotte: “There’s Trey and I playing golf. Did you notice we’re both wearing Bermuda shorts?”

Carrie: “Bermuda shorts in BERMUDA?! You kids were crazy down there!!!”

If you are not a huge Sex and the City fan, you will have no idea that this sweet little dialogue comes from Season 3 – Episode 43, Escape from New York. But if you are, you will remember the scene in the diner when Charlotte is gushing to the girls about her Bermudan honeymoon with her new husband, Trey.

As for me and MY TRES (clearly spelled differently), we will, too, be going to Bermuda on our honeymoon, but I plan on doing a lot more than playing golf, and I also plan to come home and stay married for more than Charlotte and her Trey! Haha… once again, you must know the show to know what I am talking about!

So after a very PINK wedding, my Tres and I will head to a very PINK beach – one of the many reasons Bermuda was the island of our choice! Our other reasons include:

- The Idea – Our #1 no-no was being tourists on our honeymoon… running around with a map and list of places to see (we have years to come to do that, plus we’d rather join our friends for those type trips). We did know we wanted to relax, preferably in a beach atmosphere (put our feet up, play in the sand, drink a few cocktails, go to the spa, etc.).
- Location – We will already be out of town for our destination wedding, so we knew it wouldn’t be possible to go too far from home, so the Caribbean was a shoe-in. Not to mention, the flight to Bermuda is easy as 1,2,3!
- Time crunch – We will already be taking off work so much to get down to New Orleans and get things squared away before the big day, so we couldn’t go on a super long honeymoon. And dare we spend half of our honeymoon on an airplane!
- The Fabulous Resort – I have said before, Tres likes a nice hotel, and he has certainly rubbed off on me. I never thought I cared so much until I started x-ing off islands because of their hotel selection. The resort we found to stay in, Cambridge Beaches, is known to be the most romantic resort on the island!
- The Restaurant and Food Reviews – Food is always a top priority for us. We love a nice dinner with good food and heard that Bermuda has some of the best restaurants in the Caribbean! We will not be going hungry on this trip!

- LOTS TO DO - Bermuda is an old island. It's been around forever and been entertaining tourists for ages. We will have so much to do there, 6 days will not be enough!

As many of you know, we had narrowed our choices down to St. Barts and Turks and Caicos. Well, it became clear to us that no matter how badly we wanted to go to either of these places, it just wasn’t meant to be. We wrestled with Turks and Caicos until I couldn’t take it anymore. We found the most perfect resort I have ever seen in my life, Amanyara, and the place was closed down for renovations the entire week of our honeymoon. This was probably the biggest letdown for me while planning the honeymoon, but I knew we had to move on. We looked at several other resorts and none compared – it was like comparing Leonardo’s Mona Lisa to an eighth grader’s attempt at an art show, in my opinion. I have to say though, after that, we found a few we liked perfectly fine, but I kept being hesitant and neither me nor Tres would make a move in booking anything in Turks, so we moved along to St. Barts. We discovered the flights to this place were approximately 8 hours with stops. The whole point of going to the Caribbean was a short flight. In this case, we could have gone to the French Rivera or even have been halfway to Tahiti. Can I get a no thank you?! So we went back to Turks. We found a hotel we liked, went to book it, and guess what?! Those flights were impossible too! We just couldn’t catch a break!

The next step? Searching for flight time approximations to every island in the Caribbean! Luckily, Bermuda had been one of our top picks all along, so when we discovered the flights each way were 6 HOURS, we were slapping high fives and jumping up and down. After much difficulty, we had found our honeymoon destination! So all we need now are a few pairs of Bermuda shorts (Charlotte and Trey style, of course), and I need to brush up on my golfing skills. Watch out Bermuda – HERE WE COME!!!

Fashionista Bridesmaids: Not Your Typical Bridesmaids!

(ABOVE: The dress paired with fabulous gold, vintage neckalces. The actual color of the dress will not be the color you see on the dress shown - it will be the color you see in the background - Rosequartz. And can I just say, I debated 100 times on whether it was appropriate or not to post the dress, but it's just the bridesmaids - I think it's fine if people get a little sneak peak. Plus, it won't even make sense until it's all paired together in person!)

After about 5 shopping trips, 4 different stores, 100 different websites, and 1,000 dresses tried on… believe it or not – A BRIDESMAID DRESS HAS BEEN SELECTED!!! It’s gorgeous… well at least for a bridesmaid dress it is. Am I in love with it? I don’t know… because I hate bridesmaid dresses. Is it the best possible bridesmaid dress I could find? YES, no doubt it is! And believe me… I KNOW it is (and Ginger knows too) because every possible dress out there, we tried on!

At the beginning of this dress debacle, I was set on choosing a short dress for my girls and one that could NOT be purchased out of any magazine or store that has the word BRIDE or BRIDESMAID in it - I just simply wanted a dress that didn’t look a thing like a bridesmaids dress because I despise them, I really do. It could be the nearly 10 weddings I have been in, but if you haven’t already figured it out my opinion of bridesmaid dresses is nothing on the positive side. But my dreams were soon crushed when I discovered that if you are going to order a fabulous dress from Saks, Nordstrom, Macy’s, Neiman Marcus, BCBG, etc. – you better not be picky about the color because a great dress usually only comes in one or two colors, and pink is NOT usually one of them. I soon came to the sad conclusion that if I wanted a fabulous Rose Pink color, I was going to have to go the bridesmaids dress route.

After our first shopping trip and discussing the formality of our wedding, I not only decided to go down the “bridesmaid” road, but I decided to go down the “long” road. Our venue is very formal, our wedding is at night, and the guys started talking about wanting to wear tuxes – at this point, I had no choice… long dresses it would be! So after several shopping trips and thinking none of the dresses were “fabulous” enough, Ginger and I narrowed it down to two we liked. A few weeks later, we brought my mom to be the deciding factor. Ginger tried both dresses on, and we all decided we hated both of them. Really? Yes, really! So she was forced to try on about 10 more, and we narrowed it down once again and MADE A DECISION! Here’s why I like the dress:

It’s a Watters – Out of all bridesmaids dress designs I have despised, I have despised these least.

THE PINK COLOR! – Let me just say that finding a “pretty pink” is nearly impossible, and this dress comes in one of the most beautiful pinks I have ever seen (see in background of picture above)! ROSEQUARTZ is the official color my girls’ dresses will be.

It’s Fit for a "Lady" - It’s elegant, classy, perfect for a night wedding, and will look good on all body types.

I think of it as a Party Dress – In my opinion, this dress looks like something I would wear to a formal party and not feel like I was in a bridesmaid dress. I really, really think this dress is the furthest away I am going to get from looking like a bridesmaid dress and still go “long.” I told my girls this, and told them if they thought otherwise, they had better keep it to themselves, or I’d torture Ginger again and take her back shopping. This is no joke and they know it, so they have all nicely told me the dress “looks like a formal dress – not a bridesmaid dress.” Are they telling me the truth? Probably not, but I’m sure they are just looking out for Ginger.

On a final note, I intend on making these dresses even less bridesmaidsy. The ROSE-COLORED DRESSES will be paired with fabulous GOLD SHOES and a GOLD VINTAGE NECKLACES (see in picture above). I want all the necklaces to be different so they aren’t looking like a line of clones up there, but the shoes will all match. I think this will play up the “pink and gold” theme a lot and throw a bit of vintage flare into the mix. And need I say one more time: make these dresses look LESS like a bridesmaid dress!

* I want to give a little shout out to my wedding stylist, Sarah. Thank you for all your help! Check her blog out here: Southern Belle Fashionista!

Getting It Together... Starting with the First Dance!

Tres and I attended a beautiful wedding in Seaside, Florida this weekend. The wedding was so beautiful in fact, it made me stress out a little bit… no really, I’ve had 3 bad wedding dreams since that wedding! It’s not until you see someone else’s wedding that you realize the little things that need to be taken care of. I mean, we all know and remember we need flowers… cake… a dress. But what about little things like speeches, vows, the first dance song choice? To be honest, I had completely forgotten about all of these things, but when we saw them at this wedding, we started talking about it. Every love song that came on at the reception, we’d look at each other and ask, “First dance?” So, while I intend on thinking about our speeches and vows further down the road, I want to talk about our first dance ideas today. Here are our top choices as of now:

• “Wild Horses” – Rolling Stones or The Sundays (We think both versions are so beautiful)
  


• “Keep on Loving You” – REO Speedwagon (We are both huge 80’s rock fans… this is so suitable)
  


• “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy” – Blood Sweat and Tears (the words to this song are so sweet, and it’d be so much fun to dance to)

Ideas and suggestions will be greatly accepted! :) I'd also LOVE to know... what did you and your husband dance to? Or what will you be dancing to?

P.S. Congratulations to Kris and Sara Killough– If your life together is as fabulous as your wedding was, you will live long, happy, perfect lives together!

*Image found on weddingwishlanterns.com