August Rush

August is always a bittersweet month. Summer is on the downswing and we start to stress a bit about getting everything we wanted to do over the summer packed in before it starts getting cold. So far its been a really busy month, but we wouldn't have it any other way! First up was a trip to the South Shore for my friend Liz's wedding!

The wedding was held at the Nantasket Beach Resort in Hull, MA. Growing up I spent alot of time at Nantasket Beach so I jumped at the chance to bring Mike down and show him my old summer stomping grounds. We made a weekend of it and took Friday off to get a little beach time in. Unfortunately it wasn't the bright sunny day I was hoping for but we did take a nice walk on the boardwalk. Later we had dinner at the Sea Dog Brew Pub. We are all about waterfront dining and craft brews so this place was a must. Both the food and the seasonal brews were delicious and you can't beat the view of the Boston skyline in the distance.

Saturday was the big wedding and Liz was an absolutely radiant bride! The ceremony was beautiful and it was extra special because my friend Meghan, who introduced Liz to her husband David, was the officiant!

The reception was a blast. Some highlights were a photo booth and Liz and her Dad doing karaoke to Pitbull & Kesha's "Timber". Its always so much fun getting together with my friends from high school.

After the wedding we walked next door to Daddy's Beach Club for the after party. Pizza, beer and a live band, whats better than that? Sorry, these grainy iPhone pics could be better but you get the idea!

Other than the wedding, Mike and I spent most of the weekend freaking out. Why? Because we bought a new Camper! We'd spent the last few weeks searching and finally found one that was absolutely perfect for us. We checked it out on Friday before heading to the wedding, mulled it over and then went back and bought it that Sunday.

Why the reason for the upgrade, you ask? Our current trailer didn't fair too well last winter and has been having some water issues this season. Its actually in great condition other than that for its age (its from the early 90's, we inherited from Mike's grandparents) and was well taken care of. We were hoping it would last a few more seasons but we just decided to upgrade now rather than worry about further problems down the road.

We're taking delivery of the new trailer this weekend and are beyond excited! I'll share more once we get settled in.

Speaking of camping, last weekend we partook in some tent camping. We meet up with our friends Lindsay, Bart and their new baby, Pearse, and camped at Horton's Campground in Truro, MA on the Cape. Lindsay and Bart moved to NYC a few years ago so we don't get to see them that much and its always so nice to catch up. We brought Dale and they also brought their dog, Elby.

The best thing about this campground is that its right down the street from the most amazing beach! Beaches with Sand Dunes are my favorite, it doesn't get any more Cape Cod than this!

Another nice thing about Truro is that its right next door to Provincetown. We love P-Town, its so much fun. On Saturday night we headed down for dinner and ate at our favorite restaurant, Patio. They have great outdoor dining, so you can hang out outside and watch all the Commercial Street action as you eat. P-Town is very dog friendly, you can bring your dogs into most of the shops and Patio even has a few dog friendly tables. 

After a great evening in P-Town we returned to the campground for drinks and S'mores. I especially love their fire pits! The design reminds me of Mickey's hat in the Sorcerer's Apprentice, Fantasia anyone? 

Well that's it for now. Hope August is treating you well!

Let them (finally) eat cake!

To piggyback on last week's post, last Wednesday was our third wedding anniversary.  When planning our wedding one of our favorite things we designed was our wedding cake! Since we were doing a Cape Cod theme I knew I wanted to incorporate that into the cake.  

We settled on a four tiered cake with White Buttercream icing and a Swiss Dot pattern allover. We incorporated the Cape Cod theme by adding bouquets of candy shells and topped the cake with two Adirondack chairs. I just love the way it turned out!  Two of the tiers were Chocolate Torte - Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Mousse filling and two were Lemon Citron - Gold Cake with Lemon Mousse.  The bakery we used was Konditor Meister in Braintree, MA.

We were so excited to try a piece of this masterpiece during the reception.  Problem was, we were socializing with our guests when the cake was served and our pieces were cleared by the time we got back to the table! The horror!

We had the venue save the top tier of our cake so we figured no big deal, we'll get to have some on our first anniversary.  This didn't work out so well either.  Turns out that thawed, 1 year old cake isn't the most appetizing desert.  This tradition is really more ceremonial than anything.  We each took a bite and that was it, kind of a letdown.

The lack of wedding cake on our wedding and our first anniversary seemed to come up in conversation a lot between us as the years went by.  Mike is a big dessert lover and he was especially irked that he didn't get to enjoy any cake.  So for our third anniversary I decided to have Konditor Meister recreate the top tier of our cake.

I had them do the Chocolate Torte filling but skipped the shells this time. It didn't really make sense for just the single tier.

I also got a bottle of champagne and broke out our Mr. & Mrs. champagne flutes.  Mike was really surprised and loved the cake.  I even dug out our cake toppers and threw them on for the big reveal. I have to say it was worth the wait.  The cake was to die for, so moist and delicious!

We are going away to celebrate both our birthdays and our anniversary coming up so on our actually anniversary we had a nice night in cooking dinner, eating cake and watching our new favorite show, Fargo. Mike loves the movie and forced me to watch the show, but I have to say I'm really into it. I can't believe next week is the finale! I'm wondering if it will only be this one season or if its going to come back next year? I guess I'll knew more next week!

Three Years

Today marks our third wedding anniversary! Its hard to believe its been three years since Mike and I said said "I Do"! In honor of that I thought I'd share some of our wedding photos and look back on our special day.

Mike and I got engaged in August 2009 and then immediately started planning our wedding.  We've always shared a love of the beach and travel.  We knew we wanted to do a destination wedding but we wanted to be able to have all our friends and family present to share the day with us.  We decided that Cape Cod was the perfect location.  We chose the Cape Codder Resort as our venue and decided to do a beach ceremony at Keyes Memorial Beach in Hyannis.

Once we settled on the date of June 4, 2011 and booked our venue, it at first seemed like we had all the time in the world, but before we knew it the big day was here! On the day of I was both nervous and excited. I spent the morning with my bridesmaids and family getting ready and relaxing before the ceremony. It was important to me to enjoy that time and not spend it stressing. I had to trust that all of our careful planning would pay off.

We planned every detail of the wedding and added many DIY and personal touches.  We made personalized dress hangers for the bridal party, a friend handmade all of the wedding party's jewelry and my sister designed and crafted our wedding invitations.  Our colors were sage green and periwinkle blue to compliment the spring landscape of the Cape with all the beautiful Hydrangeas.  We also incorporated our love of the beach into our reception.  We created sand dollar escort cards and named the tables after all our favorite beaches on the Cape.  Our cake was covered in shells and topped with two adirondack chairs.

We were so lucky to have an absolutely beautiful day for our wedding.  The beach ceremony was perfect.  We said our vows looking out into the ocean with the waves crashing in front of us.  We had an acoustic guitarist play some of our favorite beach tunes and love songs as the guests arrived and as I walked down the aisle.  We did a sand ceremony where we each took a handful of sand from the beach and poured it into a glass vase to symbolize the melding of our two lives.  

The reception was a blast.  The Cape Codder provided a delicious four course meal and we danced all night under the twinkle lights of the JFK ballroom.  It was such a perfect day filled with love, laughter and the support of our amazing friends and family. 

Photography Shoreshotz Weddings

Attire Chantilly's Bridal

Gown Maggie Sottero

Cake Konditor Meister

Flowers Wedding Flowers by Nichole

Hair Artworx Hair Design

Makeup Kimberly Richard

DJ 2Way Entertainment

Venue Cape Codder Resort