Once In a Blue Moon Love: The Girls Lunch

Another charming tradition that was incorporated into our pre-wedding events was a bridesmaids' luncheon, which, in my area, is typically hosted by the bride or an immediate relative the day before the wedding to honor the bridesmaids. I think the bridesmaids' luncheon used to be very prevalent everywhere, but it is still deeply traditional in the South. I have also read that in other places, the bridesmaids will host the luncheon for the bride, instead of the other way around. However, my girls did so much to help me with my planning that I wanted to have something special to thank them!

Our luncheon was hosted by Mr. Blue Moon's mamaw, and the guest list included my bridesmaids, our flower girl and her mother, Mama Blue and Blue Mom, and our grandmothers. Mamaw chose to host in a restaurant called Lyrics, which is housed in an old factory-turned-indoor-village-street-mall. It is seriously the most adorable!

Via TripAdvisor

Bridesmaid H had finally arrived from Georgia, and I was SO FREAKING EXCITED to introduce her to my best childhood friend, MOH K, and all my family who had not met her yet. It is seriously an amazing feeling to have some of your favorite friends together after you have talked them up to each other for so long!

Mamaw's menu included chicken salad or pimento cheese samplers, with spoon rolls and butter, fruit salad, fruit tea or lemonade, and a scrumptious raspberry sorbet for dessert. Bridesmaids' luncheon fare is usually very light, sort of what you might see at a wedding shower, but it was all so delicious! The ladies also surprised me with a special corsage for to wear during the luncheon and for the rehearsal dinner later that night. 

Pictured here with my mom, Blue Mom, and my pretty white rose corsage. 

I am usually not a huge stickler for tradition, although that changed a little during my wedding planning, but it was especially lovely to follow through with this one. Something about being the bride at a bridesmaids' luncheon in honor of my very best friends felt so special and really hit me hard--it made me so excited to realize this was all really happening! We took photos to commemorate the day. 

Pictured with two of Don's grandmothers, with the hostess, our very own Mamaw, on the right! 

I also gifted my girls with their thank you presents at the end of the luncheon. I was planning to do this at the rehearsal dinner, but I got all the bridesmaids satin robes, which I did not really want to present in front of a crowd (a robe is kind of an intimate thing to unwrap in front of strangers), and I had read online that a bridesmaids' luncheon is an acceptable place to present gifts. Of course everybody had to try theirs on for a photo op! 

These robes, which I ordered from Macy's, were so comfy that I also got one for me!

I also gave each of my bridesmaids a sterling silver knot bracelet. My ladies decided to wear their bracelets on the wedding day, and the robes for getting ready in the bridal suite. It was so lovely to see the gifts appreciated! For my sweet flower girl, I found a book about being a flower girl, and a special ballerina music box. She was so excited to unwrap her presents, but paused for a quick picture.

I cannot get enough of these hugs!

And then it was over! My last hurrah as a bride-to-be with all of my favorite ladies came to an end, and we all headed back to Mr. Blue Moon's parents' house to welcome some of our out-of-town guests to Tennessee. By now, my excitement could barely be contained because I felt as bridey as a bride can feel, and I was SO ready to walk down that aisle! Thanks for coming along for the journey, and stay tuned next for our big, crazy rehearsal and dinner!

The Blue Moon Wedding has begun! Check it out here: 

• The Girls Relax

Once In a Blue Moon Love: The Girls Relax

Two days until our wedding day launch found me back under my parents' roof for the last time as a single lady. I had just spent the previous week in Alabama running a debate camp for high school kids, so describing myself as "wiped out" has to be the understatement of the year. MOH K could probably tell how exhausted I was in the days leading up to our wedding, and so she put together an amazing spa day for me and Bridesmaid E on Thursday. My other two bridesmaids were not set to arrive from Georgia until Friday morning and late Friday night respectively, so I didn't really want a big bachelorette party that they would get left out of. But Mr. Blue Moon did bowling and drinks with his boys the weekend before, and I really wanted one last day of singlehood, hanging out with MOH K, who I have been best friends with for eighteen years, and E, Mr. Blue Moon's little sister who I've basically watched grow up. A spa day was a great way to spend time with my hometown ladies, and knock out some of our pre-wedding to-do's.

Geared up for a perfect day. Personal Photo.

We started the morning at a salt cave, which I had actually never heard of until MOH K raved about going to her first one. We have two near our hometown, and MOH K booked an appointment at Serenity Salt Cave at 10.

Serenity Salt Cave. Photo via Yelp user Chris R. 

Essentially, a salt cave session is 45 minutes in a darkened room covered from floor to ceiling in Himalayan salt. You sit in a zero gravity chair with the most snuggly warmed blanket ever, your very own salt-stuffed pillow, and noise cancelling headphones that play relaxing music. Lights on the ceiling blink in rotations, sort of like fireflies, and it is very calming. You're not supposed to talk to anyone in the salt cave in order to enjoy all the relaxation benefits. There are supposed to be many health benefits to breathing in the salty air and having it on your skin. I'm not sure how much is scientifically backed, but the experience itself is super relaxing and I found myself drifting in and out of sleep. It was a little trippy for sure, but I left feeling much calmer and less tired than I had been in days. 

A salt cave room at Serenity Salt Cave.

After the salt cave, we made our way to MOH K's apartment to pick up her wedding shoes, and then we had our fingernails and toes done at this amazing nail salon called The Nail Bar in my hometown. 

The Nail Bar, via Polish Me Perfect

This place has tons of different lotion scents for you to choose from at the end of your manicure, and ya'll, they are BYOB and also have different wines on complimentary offer for you to enjoy during your mani or pedi. Plus sodas for our underage Bridesmaid E! It was super fun. We got purple toes to match the bridesmaids' dresses, and everyone picked out their own manicure color. 

After all this pampering, we were starving and enjoyed lunch at Tupelo Honey Cafe, a nod to my new Mississippi home. MOH K had a chicken BLT with macaroni and cheese, Bridesmaid E ordered pancakes, and I got the most delicious veggie burger I have ever tasted. It was the perfect end to a fabulous spa day!

The biscuits, honey, and blueberry jam they start you with before every meal are to die for. Via Yelp user Janelle C.

After our relaxing spa day, it was time to finish up some last minute favors and get enough beauty rest to enjoy a bridesmaids' luncheon the following day! Stay tuned for...

Compromises With Tradition & Two Wedding Showers

For me, one of my favorite parts of  wedding festivities are all the fun events that happen right before the big day itself. Even when I was a little kid, I loved attending people's wedding and baby showers with my mom and grandmothers. I love the games (I'm super competitive), and drinking the fancy punch and eating little finger sandwiches always made me feel so elegant and grown up! I also love shopping for other people, so as I came into my teenage and college years, it was always so fun for me to pick out shower gifts for friends and family.

My nanna generously offered to host my bridal shower with my great aunt and MOH K as co-hostesses. We're in the South and tradition still reigns supreme, so massive showers haven't really made their way to my circle of friends yet. Only those ladies who are closest to the bride are invited to a small shower, and in my case, this included my grandmothers, mom, aunts, female cousins, and bridesmaids.

My shower hosts laid out a beautiful spread of cucumber finger sandwiches, a cheese ball and crackers, a fruit tray, chicken quiche and chicken salad stuffed celery, and petite fours. Nanna also made her famous red punch for that beautiful punch bowl! And of course, she had a Frozen crown for me because I'm her only granddaughter and I'm rotten (and I still love Disney princesses). 

 MOH K did an amazing job co-hosting my shower, and even practiced for her big wedding toast by making the sweetest speech about our friendship!

Of course with MOH K and I together, there are going to be selfies involved.

After shower games and opening some amazing gifts, from two sets of my fine china to a waffle iron, Mr. Blue Moon showed up to thank all of my wonderful ladies with me for hosting such a beautiful afternoon. Since we live in a different state from our families, we always take every opportunity to visit and catch up with everyone. 

 Mr. Blue Moon puts the biggest smile on my face!

 I thought we would be done after one wedding shower, but the mothers of Mr. Blue Moon's two best childhood friends surprised us by planning a groom shower for Mr. Blue Moon. I think it is really cool that I got my very traditional ladies' shower, but then we broke tradition with a groom shower for all the dudes in our families, and the groomsmen. They combined it with a pool party and showered Mr. Blue Moon with home and garden tools. 

 

 

I even got a set of pink tools for me! 

We didn't have a bunch of party games at the guy shower since we had the pool, but the hostesses did put together a tasty spread of party food and baked Mr. Blue Moon a beautiful cake. 

It was so special to have everyone to come out and celebrate Mr. Blue Moon. I think a lot of wedding stuff mainly celebrates one partner, so I loved that Mr. Blue Moon had a day all to himself. Overall, both of our wedding shower celebrations were lowkey and very relaxed, just like us, and very family focused. It was all leading up to the most amazing wedding day! 

Have you ever attended a wedding shower for the groom? What kind of creative touches have you noticed in the showers that you have attended? 

DIY Lite: Wedding Favor Edition

I finally have professional photos back, so recaps are coming! Before I get started, I want to share my last-minute DIYS that we completed before the wedding. I am the kind of bride that will pin the crap out of some Pinterest ideas, but when it comes time for me to execute anything, I nearly always get it wrong somehow...which is really a bummer considering the fact that I'm a middle school teacher and should probably be a lot craftier than I am.

If only it were this easy. Via Crafty Manolo

For our wedding favors, Mr. Blue Moon and I pretty much knew we would like to make something ourselves so that we could (a) save money, and (b) personalize our favors. We started off with some pretty ambitious ideas...handmade candles or our own jams, perhaps? 

Via Ruffled

Via ClementineWeddings on Etsy

We quickly realized that we are most definitely not skilled enough or patient enough for projects like these. Eventually, we settled on two ideas: birdseed feeders for our guests to hang at home, and s'more kits for our guests to enjoy either at the wedding reception or at home. The feeders are a nod to my granny, who passed in February 2015 and loved watching birds from her backyard every morning, and the s'mores are just a snack that we really love when we're camping or enjoying a summer bonfire with friends.

For my birdseed feeders, I primarily referenced a how-to guide I found on The American Wedding, but after making just a few, they were easy enough for us to basically autopilot. 

The recipe calls for gelatin and birdseed, but we opted for vegan gelatin found on Amazon so that all our guests could take a favor guilt-free. You basically prepare your gelatin or substitute by dissolving it in boiling water, and then pour it over about a cup of birdseed, and mix. Then we used a spoon to pack the birdseed mixture into cookie cutter hearts, but you can use any shape. We found our cookie cutters at Dollar Tree, so this ended up being a super cheap project. The gelatin and birdseed will hold their form after you remove the cookie cutter, and take about a day to dry. You have to form a hole somewhere in your feeder while it's still wet to put twine or ribbon through in order to hang it. We started by cutting pieces off of plastic straws to stick through the birdseed mixture, but eventually realized that poking a hole with a chopstick and then moving on worked just as well. 

Here's our finished products, displayed from lit branches at our wedding reception. They were apparently a big hit with our guests, who enjoyed watching the new wildlife that visited their yards and balconies after hanging these babies up. We started making these about three weeks before the wedding, fell off the wagon midway through, and spent the night before the wedding with Mama Blue, Bridesmaid E, and our flower girl's mother making the rest. I think it was worth it to give our guests something from the heart, and I think about my grandmother every time I look at mine hanging outside the window. 

The s'mores were a lot easier because there is really no creating involved. Instead, it is just a matter of assembling the necessary materials and finding a block of time to put it all together. This is a project I completed with Blue Mom the night before the wedding, and the morning of the wedding (I know, I know, it was a little hectic). 

We chose clear bags, lilac ribbon to match my bridesmaids' dresses, and a custom label that I threw together in a Word document and printed on white stickers from Target. We used the same graphic from our invitations and programs to give everything a cohesive look. We also needed everything for a s'more, so two graham crackers per guest, a mini-chocolate bar, and two marshmallows. We packed these bags, tied the top with ribbon, stuck the label on, and knocked out 100 of them in about three hours total. Since Mr. Blue Moon and I did want everyone to be able to indulge in a s'more, we did do vegetarian (marshmallows contain gelatin), vegan, and gluten-free versions, and found the special food products for those dietary needs at Whole Foods. Overall, this project was beyond easy and people of all ages loved roasting their marshmallows and making s'mores, fancy wedding clothes and all. 

The favors were staged on people's individual dinner plates, like this, and then we set marshmallow skewers (which we found at a craft store) outside next to the s'more station on the patio.

Video still from Stratosphere Videography

I thought it would be stressful to finish all our favors the night before the wedding, but it ended up being a great bonding experience with family and friends. How many DIY projects will you incorporate into your wedding day? 

All photos by Amilia Photography unless otherwise noted.

Blue Moons Honeymoon

While I wait for my professional photos to come back, so I can start recaps, I thought it might be fun to share some of my favorite moments from the Blue Moon honeymoon!

Even though I'm a control freak, I gratefully accepted Mr. Blue Moons' parents' offer to plan our honeymoon for us as their wedding gift to us. Lots of ideas were tossed around, from Iceland to the Dominican Republic, but ultimately Mama Blue (my mother-in-law) wanted to keep the honeymoon a big surprise until after she booked it!



She settled on a week-long stay in Cozumel, Mexico, and when we found out, we could not have been more excited. Mr. Blue Moon has traveled extensively, and we have taken several trips together to the mountains and beach, but we've never traveled internationally together before.

We stayed at the beautiful El Cozumeleño Beach Resort and got to enjoy this fantastic view from our suite's balcony.

We ordered omelettes, fruit, and sweet rolls (sort of like doughnuts, but not as sugary) from room service every morning, and also enjoyed some amazing meals at the resort's restaurant. I basically lived on fajitas and this roasted cheese for the entire week, and I'm not sorry. The swim-up bar and unlimited margaritas, strawberry daiquiris, and piña coladas kept Mr. Blue Moon and I well hydrated, too!

After such a busy few weeks leading up to the wedding, we spent a good bit of time snoozing in beach hammocks, reading (I finished A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness, and it was fabulous), and relaxing in the water. And it was such beautiful water! The sunsets were to die for.

Being the Blue Moons, though, we did want to spend at least one whole day exploring the island...and that, my friends, is how I ended up in the passenger side of a 25 year-old rental Jeep that had trouble starting every time we parked somewhere, cruising the island with Mr. Blue Moon at the wheel. We ended up starting the day at Punta Sur, an eco beach with a historic lighthouse, a museum, and some pretty extraordinary reefs.

Celrain Lighthouse at Punta Sur. Photo by Greg Johnston via AllPosters.com

Mr. Blue Moon and I were determined to climb to the top of this lighthouse, but it was not to be. I don't think I've mentioned this before, but I am deathly terrified of spiders. I was bitten on the neck by a brown recluse when I was in high school, had an infestation in one of my college apartments, and seeing a spider much bigger than a pencil eraser is enough to send me into a tailspin. Before we got to Punta Sur, this exact conversation happened.

Me: "Mr. Blue Moon, do you think tarantulas live in the wild here?"

Mr. BM: "I doubt it, this is an island."

Me: "If I see a tarantula in real life, you might have to carry me out of here. Because I will most definitely freak."

Mr. BM: "You won't see a tarantula."

Halfway up the lighthouse steps, someone shouts from the top, "please tell the Americans there's a tarantula on the middle landing!"

We were standing on the middle landing. I looked down. IT WAS RIGHT BY MY FOOT YA'LL! RIGHT BY MY FOOT. IT WAS BIG.

I'm super sorry I didn't snap a picture to share with you all, but I was too busy trying not to pass out in a 110 degree lighthouse with a giant hellspawn spider right next to my foot. The hyperventilating and tunnel vision began. Mr. Blue Moon is pouring his water bottle on me shouting "stay with me so we can get you down!" I realized just how much of a good one I married as he half-carried, half-dragged my pitiful self down ninety lighthouse steps. Though I was all for driving directly to the airport and getting a flight back to a tarantula-less place, Mr. Blue Moon sat me down, got me a Coke, kindly did not join the locals in raucous laughter (I'm sure I was acting beyond ridiculous, but my mind just totally shut down), and found people with parrots to cheer me up. He's the greatest.

I think I look pretty good for just surviving a near-death experience. 

He also sprung for snorkeling, because I just really needed to get off land for a hot minute (the park ranger assured me tarantulas don't swim, especially in salt water). I was a little nervous because I've never snorkeled and I'm not the best swimmer, but at that point I was sold on the fact that Mr. Blue Moon could probably save my life again if he needed to, and we did it. I'm so glad we did! We ended up swimming about a mile and a half, which I never would have believed I could do, and saw all kinds of reefs, colourful fish, and a massive stingray. That's what I love about Mr. Blue Moon- he brings out the best in me and makes me feel like I can do things I wouldn't normally do. 

We also visited the Mayan ruins at San Gervasio. This place was fascinating. It used to be a fertility temple that every Mayan woman had to travel to by canoe in order to have many children. Since we're both history buffs, we really enjoyed exploring this part of the island. And we made more animal friends! 

The Thursday before we left was Mr. Blue Moon's birthday, so we went out to dinner and explored Cozumel's nightlife. From shots to shopping, it was basically all my favorite things wrapped into one awesome package. I also made sure Mr. Blue Moon got an awesome birthday card! 

All in all, it was an amazing honeymoon and the perfect gift from my in-laws. I feel like we got a good mix of adventure and relaxation, and we would definitely travel back to Cozumel if we could! It was super hard to come back to our home in Mississippi and real life. Mr. Blue Moon immediately went back to work, and I've been getting ready for my school year to gear up starting this Monday. We both start graduate school at the end of August, so post-wedding has all been a whirlwind of work and getting ready for school. If it were up to me, I would just lay around on the beach forever! 

Is your dream trip to somewhere tropical, or some place different?

We Blue Moons Got Hitched!

It has been a whirlwind month of final wedding plans, but after two years of planning, our wedding day came and went...finally! No one told me how much RELIEF I would feel after it was all over. Mr. Blue Moon and I are back from our fabulous five days in Cozumel, and enjoying some time with our families in Tennessee before we head back to our permanent home and resume life as we know it.

Mr. Blue Moon and I directly after our ceremony. Guest Photo. 

Our wedding day was HOT. It felt like it was about 105 degrees outside, and the Tennessee humidity was miserable. I was a bride hoping for rain, if only to cool things off, but we made do. Despite the hellish weather, our wedding was the intimate, family-oriented day I always dreamed of, and to us, it was perfect! 

With Mama Blue, my brand new mother-in-law, right before our ceremony. Guest Photo. 

As we got our festivities under way on the Friday before our wedding and started welcoming all our friends and extended family into town, I commented to Mr. Blue Moon that the best part of having a wedding is getting to have all the people we love in one place at one time. The celebrating with our friends was truly amazing. I have never felt so loved! It was a truly incredible feeling.

Walking down the aisle with Daddy. Guest Photo. 

My side of the family is not big on dancing, so I was pleased that our dancefloor stayed full most of the night, anyway. Guest Photo. 

Our venue still had construction going on when my bridesmaids and I ARRIVED that morning. They really worked hard to ensure that everything was picture-perfect, from the outdoor lights, to cleaning the dirt off the parking lot, by the time our guests arrived. It came together beautifully and Mr. Blue Moon and I could not have been more pleased. 

Guest Photos. 

It could be 6-8 weeks before we get our professional photographs back, but in the meantime, I plan to share photos from our honeymoon adventures and talk about the frenzy of DIY activities we worked on in the days leading up to our wedding. Until then, Mr. Blue Moon and I are holding ourselves over with guest photos like these, working on getting our video footage edited and set to music, and gushing over the sneak-peak photograph provided by our incredible photographer, Amilia James, that's keeping us eagerly waiting for more! 

Photograph by Amilia Photography, planning by Adriel Nutter Events, flowers by Forget Me Not Designs

Can't wait to be back in the loop soon! Thanks for staying along for the ride!

Becoming Mrs. Blue Moon

Ya'll, I can't believe how the weeks have flown by and how quickly our wedding day has snuck up on us. We are getting married THIS Saturday. It's crazy to think that this time next week, I'll be Mr. Blue Moon's wife. The final weeks have been a blur of finalizing all the little details, from favors to the signs we'll need around our venue. We have been thoroughly showered with everything we'll need to start our married life by our family and friends, we have finished purchasing gifts for our bridal party, and tomorrow night, we're completing our favors with the help of my awesome MOH K. All that's left now is to sit back and relax!

Our haggard faces after waiting in line for our marriage license in Memphis. Personal Photo. 

One huge to-do that we completed within the last few weeks was getting our marriage license. This seemed trickier at first than it really was, because we are currently living in a different state than the one we're getting married in, and Mr. Blue Moon can't ask for any time away from his new job since they're being nice enough to let him have next week off for our honeymoon. Thankfully, Tennessee has this great law where a marriage license from any county is good to marry in any other county, and we live about thirty minutes away from our home state's border. So yep, we drove right over after work one day to get our license from a county different from the one we're marrying in (which is 3.5 hours away from our home in Mississippi) and created a genealogy nightmare for all of our future posterity who might research us a hundred years from now. 

Sorry, not sorry. Via Riffsy.com.

We also finally got the HUGE news from Mama Blue, my almost-mother-in-law, who has been diligently planning our honeymoon for the past several months: we're going to Cozumel, Mexico!!!

YES, YES, SO MUCH YES. Via TripAdvisor

This is our wedding gift from Mr. Blue Moon's parents, and I'm just so freaking excited to be on a white, sandy beach in Mexico. I've never been privileged enough to travel internationally before now, so I am pumped to spend a week relaxing in this beautiful place with Mr. Blue Moon and hopefully getting some snorkeling in, too! 

If you're wondering what all a bride does in the final week before the wedding, it's a lot of running around completing random errands. Crazily enough, I was spending the entirety of last week in yet another city in another state running a debate camp for high schoolers, not getting enough sleep and putting all things wedding on my back burner, so I am really playing catch-up this week. I imagine that for brides who have the entire two weeks before the wedding free, things are a lot more relaxed.

Yep, this bride was back in the classroom during her summer break less than two weeks out from her wedding. Photo by Lauren D., Personal Photo

In the past few days this week alone, Mr. Blue Moon and I have attended one wedding shower, Mr. Blue Moon had his bachelor party, I had an extended meeting with our wedding planner, did walkthroughs of both our ceremony and reception venues, met with our officiant, and have been running random errands for a guest book, stuff to stock our emergency day-of kit, and items I want to take on the honeymoon. I wish I could say I am a totally serene and relaxed bride, but that is just not my personality. I wish I were more organized, but part of me knows I would find a way to complicate things no matter what. I tend to get really stressed before big events in my life, and then wake up totally fine the day-of. I hope that's the same situation this time around! 

Thankfully, our family has been wonderful! Even though Mr. Blue Moon is still in Mississippi until tomorrow night for work, MOH K and I spent the last evening with his family drinking wine, eating delicious strawberry cake, and laughing it up. That really helped take my mind off of the to-do list I've created for myself. Today, I'm going with some of my bridesmaids for a spa day, so I'm really looking forwards to that. Then we have the rehearsal and dinner, and our wedding! 

Many people keep asking how I feel, and it's hard to describe. Nervous isn't the right word, but I'm definitely not totally relaxed, either. My maid of honor asked me on the way back to my place if I'm happy, and to that at least, I can give a resounding "yes!" Knowing that Mr. Blue Moon and I are about to become our own tiny family is just the greatest feeling in the world. My best advice as you reach your own final countdown is to give in to enough of your personal level of crazy to feel in control and sane about the whole wedding part, but also to remember the big picture. There's a person you love waiting for you at the end of that aisle, and that is just an incredible thing!