my life friend's shower

Hello Lovely,

We got the opportunity to shower our best friend with love and blessings a few weeks ago. Katherine is the most loyal and dedicated friend. She was such a blessing at my wedding. She organized my shower, my bachelorette party, and made sure everything came together the day of. For Rachel's wedding she came 2 days early and helped her run errands before the big day. The woman is amazing. That being said, we had to return the favor as best we could once she got engaged. We held the shower at my Grandmother's house. You might remember it from another big event in my life. The girls all came together with flowers, food, & drinks. We all wanted Katherine to feel loved. The afternoon was filled with good food, good friends, and family. There were a few tears, and lots of laughter as we shared stories and advice for the happy couple. The bride to be got some great gifts as well, but most importantly we got to take a moment to honor a wonderful friend. 

Love you, Life Friend.

xoxo,

alyssa renee

**Clarification: Kat and I call each other "life friend" because we are friends for life!

10 on 10

happy anniversary to us!

my friend amanda suggested i do a "10 on 10" post since the 10th is our anniversary. so here it goes, 10 things from our 1st wedding anniversary celebration. the first one is my gift to Niles. the traditional gift for the first year is paper, so i had the lovely Kelsey Roy make this sweet watercolor caricature of our family as of year one. she is so talented! niles and i can't stop looking at it. it is a treasure that will hang in our home always.

1 our family as of year one

2 the angel oak tree

3 my anniversary gift from Niles

4 my card to Niles by oh my deer

5 brunch

6 complementary strawberries and champagne

7 charleston pier

8 dear god make me a bird

9 our rings 1 year later

10 beach day

one year

hello lovely,
this monday is our one year anniversary. i can't believe it. in some ways it seems like only yesterday, in other ways it feels like we've been married for years. people told me the first year of marriage is the hardest. which makes sense when you think of all the changes that have to be made when you combine two lives. but, to be honest we haven't had too many hiccups this first year. niles is a pretty fantastic husband. we share responsibility for chores and making dinners, we complain over who has to fold the laundry and for the most part end up doing it together, and in the evenings we curl up on the couch and watch HBO. it is a pretty lovely life. this past year we wanted to relax and enjoy ourselves and i think we've done pretty well at that. next year we might try to be a little less lazy, but it was fun while it lasted. we did accomplish a few things other than watching a lot of sopranos this year. we bought a car and almost have it all paid off, i got to go on my grand european tour, and niles just built a screened in porch on our deck. i'd call year one a smashing success. to celebrate we are taking a long weekend in charleston and i can't wait! i'm looking forward to many more anniversaries with my moon my man. thanks for making each day an adventure, my love.
xoxo,
alyssa renee

 

a new project

hello lovely,
i went estate sale-ing with a sweet friend from work this morning. we were supposed to be looking for furniture for her new house but of course i was the only one to buy something. i found this record player console for $15!! it isn't really our style so i think we will try to sell it. niles isn't excited about having a project so i think i'm on my own with this one. i'm posting some photos i took on my phone. if anyone knows someone who knows anything about repairing this kind of thing please let me know! when you plug it in a little light comes on over the player. you can hear the vibration through the speakers when you flick the spot where the needle goes so that works. when you move the arm over the record you can feel it vibrate. a woman at the estate sale told us she thinks it just needs a new belt. so, that doesn't sound too bad, right? if i can find the parts... if it costs too much to repair i'll probably just sell it for $30 and call it a day. if we can get it working for cheap i can sell it for at least $100. i'll let you know what i find out!
xoxo,
alyssa renee

snapshots

hello lovely,
well it's been over a week since we returned from our grand european vacation. i figured it was time to check back in on the ol' blog. we had such an amazing adventure. so many beautiful sites with even more beautiful people. we were so blessed to experience such love from our ulster family. honestly, it was so wonderful being with them i wish we would have stayed there longer. london was expensive but one of the best cities i've visited yet. and we got to go to the harry potter studio tour! amazing! then we spent a lovely few nights with some friends from home in paris. honestly that city would have been a bust without them. (not a big paris fan) then ashley and i got to spend some quality time in munich and salzburg. it was one of the greatest experiences of my life. i took over 500 photos so this it was hard to slim them down. i hope they inspire you to make the time to get out of your everyday routine and experience something new. it is well worth it.
xoxo,
alyssa renee

a dream come true