Sweet Mandy

Today my dog Mandy passed away. To write that sentence feels like a nightmare, but I know that it’s reality. She was 9 years young and taken away far too soon. I’m sure God has big plans for her and that’s why she left. It feels like a family member is gone and my house seems empty.

I’ll never forget the day we adopted Mandy for her previous owner. Her last words to Mandy were, “Have a good 2nd half of your life”. I know we’ve given her the best life possible and that Chase was her best buddy. She’s been around since he was only 4 months old and that’s all he’s ever known. We often called her “Princess Mandy”, because we’d never seen a dog that loved being pampered or dressed up as much as her. She loved attention and would go to anyone willing to give it to her. She was a special dog with a loving heart. I’ll never forget our sweet girl.

I’ll leave with my favorite dog quote that says it all..

"A dog has no use for fancy cars or big homes or designer clothes. Status symbol means nothing to him. A waterlogged stick will do just fine. A dog judges others not by their color or creed or class but by who they are inside. A dog doesn't care if you are rich or poor, educated or illiterate, clever or dull. Give him your heart and he will give you his."
― John Grogan

3 on the 3rd

Hello Everyone! I know I most definitely have some 'splainin' to do and I'll get to that later this week. I've missed you all terribly and I'm glad to finally be back.

With that said, today is a day to celebrate because it's my 3rd Wedding Anniversary! I think this one is extra special because it's 3 years on the 3rd. Would you like to know how we celebrated? With McDonald's for dinner. That's just how we roll sometimes and I'm sure we'll make up for it by doing something fun over the weekend.



Time really flies and it's crazy that on this night 3 years ago, we were saying our "I do's", dancing our first dance, cutting the cake and spending an incredible evening with all of our family and friends.

Geof really is as good as they come and I'm blessed to have him by my side. He's my rock and my best friend. He picks me up everytime I'm down and I honestly believe that we can get through anything as long as we have each other. This past year has really proven that. I love him with all my heart and that will never change. Love you babe!

My Wedding, M-Z

Thank you so much for your sweet comments on my last wedding post and here I am wrapping it up! I have to say, it’s been fun taking a walk down memory lane considering that we’re going on 3 years as husband and wife.

Music

The music at our ceremony was traditional and nothing out of the ordinary.

Our wedding party was introduced to Sexy Back by Justin Timberlake and we walked in to Crazy in Love by Beyonce and Jay-Z.

Our first dance was to the song Stolen by Dashboard Confessional.

The DJ company we hired was so good and kept everyone dancing all night long.


First dance

Newlyweds

You bet!



Old, New, Borrowed, Blue

I wasn’t crazy about this tradition, but went along with it anyway.


I did love my monogrammed garter!

Photography

Hiring Cindy Guessford was the best decision we made throughout the whole process. She was incredible to work with and I’m so impressed with what a great job she did shooting our wedding.


I love this picture of our engagement pictures. We used this as our guestbook.

Question Popping

Geof proposed to me at Longwood Gardens two days before Christmas. It was a magical night. The whole proposal story is here.


Fountains at Longwood

Reception

Our reception was held at Drexelbrook. It was a beautiful venue and I loved the ballroom our reception was in. They treated us like royalty



Shoes

I went with an ivory d’orsay pumps from Liz Rene.



Trash The Dress

I was all about doing this and kind of lost interest. I guess I could still do it if I wanted to. I had a whole plan to go to the beach and get in the ocean with my dress.

Unique

Details were very important to me. For favors, we had candy apples to fit in with the whole fall theme from our favorite place, Linvilla Orchards. We also had a candy buffet, which everyone raved about.





Vows

We went with the traditional vows. We both would have been too nervous to recite our own.



Wedding Woes

The Pastor admonishing our photographer in front of everyone was pretty bad, but now we all laugh about it. Full story here.

X-Rated

Eww!

Young Kids

We only had a flower girl (my little cousin). She was the cutest!



Zzzz

Our wedding and reception were on a Friday night and it was more of a party atmosphere in my opinion. Saturday was spent relaxing with our family and then Sunday we left for our honeymoon!



Thank you so much for reading!

My Wedding, A-L

The fabulous Meghan of My Perfect Compilation Tape (don’t you just love that name?) had this on her blog and I couldn’t help but play along.

For those that don’t know, Geof and I met in April of 2005 through online dating. I had a good run of losers in my life and was ready for a good guy. I honestly feel blessed and so lucky to have a wonderful man like him in my life. I know that’s an incredibly cliché thing to say, but it really is the truth.

We were engaged in December of 2006, bought our house in April of 2007 and were married in October of 2008. Our wedding day was absolutely beautiful and something I’m so proud of. Everything came together exactly as I wanted it to and I married the love of my life!

Attending:

118

Bridesmaids:

I had four bridesmaids, one of which was my cousin and the other 3 are friends.



Cake:

I got carried away with this! We had two cakes. One regular cake and one baby cake that was a replica of the larger cake to display on the sweetheart table. I was so impressed with how this turned out and the cake was delicious.


Big Cake


Baby Cake

Dress:

My dress was an ivory, strapless, A-line dress from Ella Rosa. I loved it and had tried on so many that I never thought I’d find the one. I loved my train and how it bustled. The dress shop I purchased it from could not have been better from the service to the price.



Engagement:

I did a post on my engagement story here. It was seriously like a fairy tale and that day stacks right up there with my wedding day. Seriously. We were engaged for a year and half. It gave me plenty of time to plan.


The night we got engaged right before he popped the question!

Flowers:

My bouquet was pretty traditional and consisted of lots of roses and some stephanotis. I also had some pretty crystals in my bouquet to really make it pop. The bridesmaids had colorful fall bouquets and I love how they turned out.





Groomsmen:

Geof had 4 of his buddies in the weeding party. The pic I’ve posted only has 3. There’s a story behind that here and it's a funny one.



Honeymoon:

We had a pretty traditional Honeymoon and stayed at The Royal in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. We relaxed a ton by the swim-up bar and met some other great couples that were honeymooners too. The highlight of our trip was going to Xcaret for the day. We went snorkeling, then swam with the dolphins and caught the Mayan show that evening.


The view from our balcony. We even had a Hammock out there. I remember reading a little bit of Twilight out there everyday.



Invitations:

I loved everything about our invites. They were custom designed by Allison Barnhill. She created a pretty fall motif and carried it through all of our wedding related paper goods.


Our invitations!


This was at the top of our invites on the inside


Pretty paper goods for the reception

Justice of the Peace:

We were married by Pastor Richard at Saint Matthew.



Keepsakes:

I kept a ton all of the important stuff and sold the rest on The Knot. The Trash to Treasure board is amazing for that!

Ladies Night:

My bachelorette weekend will go down as one of the best times ever! My bridesmaids planned a weekend away in Atlantic City. The main party night consisted of a great dinner with the boys at The Continental, after which we went our separate ways to really get the festivities started. The girls took me to a fun show at Showboat and then we went to Mixx at The Borgata to end the night.


So much fun!

I’ll be doing M-Z soon, so stay tuned for that!

The Good Life

It’s almost time for the long weekend and the unofficial start to summer. I can’t help but be a little giddy with excitement.

Have a look at these images, turn up this song and enjoy!


Good Life – OneRepublic Song Lyrics


OneRepublic - Good Life

Woke up in London yesterday
Found myself in the city near Piccadilly
Don't really know how I got here
I got some pictures on my phone

New names and numbers that I don't know
Address to places like Abbey Road
Day turns to night, night turns to whatever we want
We're young enough to say



Oh this has gotta be the good life
This has gotta be the good life
This could really be a good life, good life

Say oh, got this feeling that you can't fight
Like this city is on fire tonight
This could really be a good life
A good, good life

To my friends in New York, I say hello
My friends in L.A. they don't know
Where I've been for the past few years or so
Paris to China to Colorado



Sometimes there's airplanes I can' t jump out
Sometimes there's bs that don't work now
We are god of stories but please tell me
What there is to complain about

When you're happy like a fool
Let it take you over
When everything is out
You gotta take it in



Oh this has gotta be the good life
This has gotta be the good life
This could really be a good life, good life

Say oh, got this feeling that you can't fight
Like this city is on fire tonight
This could really be a good life
A good, good life



Hopelessly
I feel like there might be something that I'll miss
Hopelessly
I feel like the window closes oh so quick
Hopelessly
I'm taking a mental picture of you now
'Cause hopelessly
The hope is we have so much to feel good about



Oh this has gotta be the good life
This has gotta be the good life
This could really be a good life, good life

Say oh, got this feeling that you can't fight
Like this city is on fire tonight
This could really be a good life
A good, good life, oh, this is

To my friends in New York, I say hello
My friends in L.A. they don't know
Where I've been for the past few years or so
Paris to China to Colorado

Sometimes there's airplanes I can' t jump out
Sometimes there's bs that don't work now
We are god of stories but please tell me
What there is to complain about

Images via we heart it

Cherry on Top!

Blog awards can get a little out of control, but every now and then a special one comes along and this falls into that category.

The lovely Leeann at Join the Gossip presented me the Cherry on Top blog award. I urge you all to run over to her blog and say “hello”. She is one of my favorite chicks and I’m not just saying that. We’ve formed a real friendship over the last year and for that, I’m thankful.

List 3 Things You Love About Yourself:
1) I love easily and I’m forgiving. This is something I love about myself because I’m a genuinely nice person. Sometimes this can also be seen as a fault depending on the situation.
2) That I’m good at figure skating and still love doing it even after 20 years. I started when I was 12.
3) Passion. When I like something, I really like it. I think that stirs up an excitement that should always be inside of you.

Post A Picture You Love:



There is nothing in this world like a Hawaiian sunset. This photo is from our last night in Hawaii and it was honestly the best vacation I’ve ever been on. From time spent with Geof, to all our adventures and splashing around in the warm Hawaiian waters. We have so many wonderful memories that I’ll never forget.

Pass on to 5 other blogs that you just adore!
Handbag Obsessed
Love, Lipstick, and Pearls
A Suitcase and Stilettos
Like A Box Of Chocolates
Fashion Meets Food

2010 in review

It was a year of change. There were ups and downs that came with that change, but overall I’m proud. Proud that I’ve gotten certain aspects of my life in order and that I made good on two of my major resolutions. I hope to keep that going into 2011.

Here are my highlights from each month!

January

Going with Geof to see SafetySuit in concert for the first time and getting to see Parachute too! That first show led into many more during the year. We saw them a total of 11 times in 8 months. They’re an insanely talented band and all around great guys. It also gave us a good reason to take some fun getaways.


1st SafetySuit show at World Cafe Live

February

This was the month of record snowfall. 25 inches to be exact. I remember being stuck inside for days. Geof and I were also able to escape for a long Valentine’s weekend away in Connecticut and got to see SafetySuit at the Mohegan Sun as an added bonus.


25 inches of snow


Mohegan Sun in CT

Later in the month we went to Annapolis for another long weekend and saw SafetySuit again. It might have been cold, but we had a blast exploring downtown and had a wonderful time.


SafetySuit and me in downtown Annapolis

March

St. Patrick’s Day, lots of time with good friends and going to yet another SafetySuit show. This one was back in PA.


St. Patty's Day


SafetySuit at Arcadia

April

Best.Cruise.Ever. The title and theme of the cruise certainly lived up to its name. We saw many of our favorite bands including 3 Doors Down, Lifehouse, SafetySuit, Parachute, Shinedown and Carolina Liar. We met some wonderful friends that we’ve stayed in touch with to this day and it was a fabulous vacation.

We also celebrated Kelly’s 30th and went to see SafetySuit with Kristen & Sean in DE.




VH1 Best Cruise Ever


Kel's 30th

May

Celebrated Cinco de Mayo with friends Liz and Josh in Harrisburg. Going to see SafetySuit twice. One of the two shows was acoustic and very unique.


SafetySuit in Harrisburg

Friends Greg and Allison tied the knot and finally got to meet sweet Trish and her awesome husband, Matt.


Greg and Allison's wedding


Date night with Trish & Matt

June

Celebrated Geof’s 34th birthday tops the list for June. We also got to see the Phillies live in action at Citizen Bank Park


Phillies game

July

Celebrated my 32nd birthday by going to Six Flags Great Adventure with Kristen. Getting to ride Kingda Ka was a serious highlight for me.


Kingda Ka

August

Kristen’s Bachelorette Party weekend. Fun times.

Geof and I took a road trip to South Carolina and had an absolute blast. We got to see SafetySuit while we were there and it was a much need mini-vacation.


SafetySuit in South Carolina

September

Lady Gaga in concert for her Monster Ball Tour. Getting to see Kristen and Sean tie the knot at their beautiful wedding.


Lady Gaga

October

Celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary. Lots of fall activities with Geof and Nordstrom Trend Show with Kristen. Deidre and Jason’s wedding Halloween weekend.


Linvilla in the fall

November

Very busy month for work. Thanksgiving with the family tops the list. My mom and I going to see Hairspray was also a lot fun.


Hairspray

December

Going to see Prince in concert at the Izod Center with Colleen. A nice, quiet, family Christmas and taking some well-deserved time off for the holidays. We also had our first major snowfall of the winter season.


Prince concert and Christmas 2010

I hope everyone had a great year in 2010 and I wish you nothing but the best in 2011!