Marry-Ment

The Friday before Thanksgiving my parents threw the fella and me a glorious engagement soiree. We toasted and celebrated with some of our closest friends with a "Confections and Cocktails" party. We had tasty desserts, flowing wine and bubbling prosecco. I swathed myself in gold sequins and soaked in each moment of the wedding season kick-off.

It's a Date

Sunday night is a dedicated date night for the fella and me, as I believe I've mentioned before. This morning I found the greatest tool to enhance these romantic and rejuvenating evenings. Restaurants.com has piqued my interest before with their $25 gift cards for $10. As I was perusing the selection, I decided to check and see if they were listed on Ebates. Sure enough, they promised 30% cash back and a valuable coupon code for an additional 80% off the gift card price. Want to know how I racked up?

$25 to our favorite Thai restaurant

$25 to an excellent, upscale Indian restaurant

$25 to a swanky Uptown eatery

$50 to a mediterranean wine loft

Grand Total... $9.00. Yep, $125 worth of date night bucks for single digit dollars. Best ever. Can't wait to hit the town with my love!

Aggressive Recognition

I get incredibly excited when I see someone that I know out in public. Even if it's not someone I particularly care for, my instinct is to excitedly wave, shout out their name and engage in some small talk. Perhaps it's an off-shoot of my need for people's approval. How popular must I be to engage in multiple conversations whilst out and about during my daily errands?

Unfortunately, the downside of assuming you will know everyone and that they'll be thrilled to see you is the occasional miscue. A couple of weeks ago in Harris Teeter, I approached a woman and bear hugged from behind thinking it was an old friend. Notsomuch. She assured me it was okay and continued with her meat order.

This weekend, I had the lovely pleasure of my old friend and bridesmaid, Georgia Peach, staying with my to celebrate our engagement party. On Sunday morning I met Georgia at a local cafe for Sunday brunch after church and saw her waiting for me in line. I approached slowly, wrapped my arms around her neck, and nuzzled her a bit. When I felt her stiffen, I backed away and realized that the object of my affection wasn't, in fact, my sweet Peach but rather a stranger who looked more than peeved and ready to mace me.

Clearly, there is a time and place for guerilla affection, but that is not, I have discovered, in public places approaching people from behind.

A Wonderful Weekend It Has Been

ChocoWine

This morning at 9:30 my personal training made me try a couple of swigs of chocolate wine in between push ups and abs. It was every bit as incredible as you're imagining. Best endorphins I've ever gotten from a workout. Ever.

Unplugged.

Admittedly, the title of "wife" carries an incredible weight with me. I've always been a great girlfriend, and, as it turns out, I've got the fiancee thing down pretty well. The obligation I feel as the fella's wife is considerable, and something that I welcome with open arms, with the knowledge that I'll feel an overwhelming responsibility to be a wonderful partner for the man whose life I'm pledging my own to. Part of the way, I've realized, that I can prepare for this major life transition - and that I can be best able to serve him selflessly - is to learn to take care of myself and manage my own life well.

I constantly feel the need to do-do-do and go-go-go... from juggling an insanely hectic and harried work schedule, to maintaining my own side business, continually pouring into my family, actively staying plugged into friendships, I feel the pull of many different roles and hats - as many of us do. I realize that there are days, if not weeks, at a time that I don't spend one second intentionally inhaling, exhaling, being. I manage my sizable stress and anxiety well, but when I hit a wall, it's at 120 mph, and the debris can scatter far and wide.

The best thing I can do before entering my marriage is to learn how to take those breaths, prioritize myself and decompress healthily. Today on my to-do list, I included, "RELAX." Odd, but helpful. After a whirlwind day at the office, fast and furious workout, quick stop by Little's accessory showcase (delightful swig of prosecco included, natch), some rah-rah-rahs in the stands of the fella's softball game and squeezing in a quick bite to eat, I settled in to teach myself to relax.

The first step was to tackle some laundry (a strange step in the process, but a great way to ease my anxiety about household chores being behind), then to pour myself a glass of wine, break off a square of Ghiradelli extra dark chocolate, run a hot bath, grab the newest Marie Claire out of my to-read mail pile and sink into the tub. I forced myself to stay in the bath for 12 minutes (10 seemed too cursory but 15 seemed impossible). I set a timer for myself and coached myself to sip, read, luxuriate and repeat. Magically the final 7 minutes melted away as I sunk deeper into my tub (the first 5 seemed an eternity and extremely wasteful).

I was fabulously energized to tackle my next big project - cleaning my closet. With a new mindset of taking care of myself, I quickly filled six bags with old clothing and shoes and swiftly began emptying my bathroom cabinets as well. I'm in bed now with an insane sense of accomplishment. I still have so much to do to ready my condo for the fella to move in (we refuse to live together pre-marriage), but I learned so much about myself tonight. Active, productive tasks can be counted as relaxation exercises when paired with passive, indulgent ones. There are still many, many, many things I can learn before officially becoming a wife, but I'm excited to spend the next five months getting reacquainted with myself, so that I can be the best version of "for better or worse" when I become Mrs. The Fella.

To the 'Moon and Back

With most of our major wedding decisions made, we're carving out time to discuss the honeymoon. We knew early on that we wanted a location that was tropical and out of the country... if you remember back to late May before we departed as a family to Turks & Caicos we jumped through mega hoops to secure the fella a passport, and we want to put it to good use, dang it! We also wanted to find a locale that afforded us the option be active when we wanted and relaxed and lazy when we wanted. Another 'moon criteria was a short travel time. To us, there's not much worse than having to dedicate two full days of a trip to travel. Finally, we don't want to break the bank in order to, ummm, consummate things and enjoy one another.

Enter... COSTA RICA!!! We are so excited to plan our honeymoon now that we've decided on our destination. A mere two and a half direct flight from Charlotte, Costa Rica boasts active city life, remote rain forest and pristine beaches, and we can't wait to partake of it all. We'll depart our wedding and spend the night at the Ritz in town, then board a plane to La Rica, as I have just this second opted to call it. We'll spend a night in San Jose, two nights in a honeymoon cabin in a rain forest lodge (hiking and zip lining are a must on my list) then the remainder of the time we'll be at Tamarindo Beach where we can lounge, surf and be together. Have any of you been to Costa Rica? Is it as magical as we're picturing?