Amy and Chuck Tie The Knot!

This past Saturday, Miguel, my parents and I went to a family friend's wedding. We had a blast and loved being able to celebrate such a joyful occasion with longtime friends! I'm afraid this post is going to mostly be photos... =)

The ceremony was held in the lawn of the Swan House. I had never been to a wedding there before and was just blown away with the gorgeous backdrop! 

Amy, the bride, chose some of my favorite wedding picks... there were plenty of hydrangeas (one of my favorite flowers), the wedding party wore navy blue (love this look), and musicians played beautiful music with string instruments.

Mother of the bride and her future son-in-law, Sam

The wedding party entered the ceremony by walking down the two staircases on either side of the fountains. I really enjoyed not having to strain my neck to see everyone walk down an aisle.

The grooms children were just too precious!

One of the best parts about this venue has to be the double doors that open up as the bride makes her entrance! That's a fairy tale moment right there!

Here comes the bride!

The lawn was in the shade which provided a nice relief from the hot, summer day. The couple also kept the ceremony relatively short so the guests weren't uncomfortably warm. 

The reception was held in one of the ballrooms of the Atlanta History Center. All the decor was simply lovely! I can't think of one thing to criticize! I adored the linens, the flowers, and the cake was just stunning!

Wedding Party Table

Miguel and I were seated with high school and childhood friends. It was so much fun to see old friends and reconnect. 

Weddings always fly by too quickly! The food was yummy (I had good vegetarian options!), the band fun, company enjoyable, the bride was beautiful, the toast sweet, and my feet hurt at the end of the night from too much dancing!

Wyatt, one of Amy's new step children, was wiped out! Everyone thought he was too cute falling asleep at the table!

Father Daughter dance

Congrats to the Bride and Groom as well as the entire Bentsen and Boring Families! Thanks for sharing your special day with us!!

No Place Like Home

As I previously mentioned, I am home in Atlanta visiting with my family this week! S.O. much FUN! Time has passed wayyyy too fast though. I seriously cannot believe that it is already Saturday! HOW is it already Saturday?!? 

One of the great things about this week was how much time I got to spend with my Gramma! I got to see her three out the six days I've spent here! She is so classy and beautiful. I would be seriously happy if I could have 1/3 of her taste! 

My mom, Gramma, and I enjoyed a fun day of shopping at Nordstrom on Monday. Then to top it all off we went "shopping" for accessories in my Gramma's closet! Her things are amazing and beauitful and even more fun because they have a history to them. She can tell you the story of each item including where she got it years ago. 

Gramma, from back in the day, looking like a movie star

On top of being stunningly beautiful and put together, even at age 89, my Gramma is incredibly generous and thoughtful. She knows the way to my heart and made me deviled eggs as a special treat and surprise. If you know me at all, you should know that I gobble up deviled eggs like nobody's business. Holiday meals aren't complete without deviled eggs, preferably ones made by my Granmma, and if you are lucky enough to be at those meals, you know you have to put some eggs on your plate fast before they quickly disappear into my belly! 

I'm so blessed to have such a loving Gramma and I loved being able to spend so much time with her while I've been home!

Tuesday afternoon my parents and I went to the Farmers Market in Historic Norcross. Downtown Norcross is really cute and charming. There was live music, interesting people watching and practically every food-selling vendor had multiple taste samples. 

We thoroughly enjoyed snacking our way through the market. I was also pleasantly surprised with the amount of gluten-free options, a factor that allowed my mom to partake in all the food tasting fun as well!

We made out with loads of goodies, including soft, gluten-free bread, a trio of fruit flavored goat cheese, gluten-free pasta, gluten-free cookies, and some mango salsa. Miguel was thought of even though he couldn't be there (thanks for working hard in Savannah while I got to play!), so my dad bought Miguel a really yummy balsamic vinegar with peppercorn, jelly to marinade and grill with! My absolute favorite thing I got at the market, however, was a chocolate, lavender, sea salt popsicle! I'm not a huge ice cream fan, but holy cow, this was amazing. It was so good that I would make a trip every Tuesday to this market just to get it again. 

After the market, we decided we had a little room in our stomachs left for dinner. So we went to a Cuban restaurant in Downtown Norcross, Mojitos. The food was delicious and the atmosphere was great. I just wish I wasn't so full. Next time I'll go with an empty stomach and big appetite!

I had a yummy black bean soup and some veggie empanadas!

I may have stolen eaten one of my dad's plantains ;)

I've also been catching up on my cuddles with these two cuties this week:

I love my family puppies! No one listened, comforted, or loved as well as these two! They were always there and loved me through my awkward, hard teen moments. They totally sympathized when my parents were being "unfair" and "way harsh".  ;)

Much like my parents' dog, Bailey, food and I get along way too well. I'm pretty sure I should list "Eating Out" as one of my favorite hobbies. If you think that is sad, then I say you need to learn to love food more. Okay, maybe I should re-phrase that to, you need to learn how to love food that other people make for you and clean up for you more! ;) 

Anyways, I guess it should come as no surprise, then, that going out to dinner another night this week, was a highlight for me! Thursday night my parents took me to 52 Bistro in Downtown Alpharetta. 

What a fun restaurant! It's in an old house and just oozes comfortable, Southern charm with some wear and tear around the edges... if that even makes sense? A musician played fun music while we ate on the closed in porch. It was hard picking out what we wanted from their menu. Everything sounded delicious and I'm pretty sure we would have been pleased with anything they have to offer. 

Our server was an adorable French lady who suggested we try a French Rosé. Both my mom and I got a glass. I should have written down the name of that wine because I really enjoyed it. By no means do I understand anything about wine so I know I won't do it justice by attempting to describe it here, but it was dry with some fruity flavors that came out more as an aftertaste. Generally, I prefer a richer wine over a sweet wine and probably never would have picked this wine out on my own, so it was an unexpected pleasure. 

This is sort of an awkward photo, but it was the only one of the two of us were we both had open eyes and were looking at the camera at the same time. It's dad's fault for making us laugh too much while he was taking it!

The food was sooo yummy! I had a mushroom, goat cheese, flat bread, mom had pork chops, and dad ordered beef tenderloin. Thanks, Dad, for sharing your potatoes with me! Potatoes may be my favorite food group ;) I could probably go on like Bubba from Forest Gump, substituting potatoes for shrimp, about all the different ways one could prepare a potato... I would eat them all. 

Though the proportion sizes were probably an appropriately, healthy size and satisfactorily filled us up, we couldn't resist the temptation of desert! Don't judge! Take a look below...

I love how they wrote 52 with the sauce!

Yep, that's what I thought. You wouldn't have been able to say no either! Homemade pecan pie, creme brulee, peanut buttercup cheesecake... num num num =)

I didn't just shop and eat out this week! I also go to catch up with some friends! Though, now that I think about it, I either ate out or shopped with them... haha! Oh well! At least I know what I like! It was good to see them! We're in that time of life where most of our childhood friends and college buddies have moved and spread out all over the place, so it's always a rare and special treat when it works out to see each other! 

Miguel and my puppies arrived home Friday afternoon! Yay! I missed those three!! The first night I was home I had trouble sleeping. I had the whole bed to myself and with no snoring "breathing-hard" hubby and no itching-at-their-jingly-collars dogs, it was way too quiet!

My dad headed to Chicago for a business trip so my mom and Miguel humored me by going to see the new Disney Pixar movie, Brave. I was so looking forward to this movie! I'm sad to say, however, that it was a disappointment. It felt shallow in terms of the story line. Almost like it didn't feel complete. Which, to be honest, surprises me. I have high expectations for Pixar. There were some funny moments, but it was pretty subpar. The highlight, for me, was comparing the heroine, Merida's, hair to my expectation for my niece's future hair. We joke a lot about how unruly it will likely be due to the fact that both her parents have loads of hard-to-tame, curly hair. 

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My week felt way more jammed packed than this post leads you to believe. I can't believe how fast it has gone! Pout. Tonight we have a wedding and tomorrow we go home. That makes me so sad to think that my 'vacation' is already coming to an end. But it's always good to be home in your own home and I miss going to work. Guess I'm pretty lucky that I have a job that I actually miss when I'm not there. Miguel and I are also lucky that we get to see family as much as we do! We have a family vacay coming up at the end of July with the whole family so I'll just have to start counting down to that! I've loved being home and I'm sure I'm leaving parts out, but if I think of anything more I'll put in the post about the wedding =) 

I love wedding season....!

Happy Place

This week I am home in Atlanta. It's a silly thought that I am "on vacation" in my hometown. I came home last weekend to celebrate Miguel's birthday/Father's Day and am staying till next weekend for a wedding. More on all that later. For right now, I want to write about today! 

Today my mom and I went to the High Museum of Art. When I was little my mom took me to see an Impressionist Exhibit at the High and that trip is what got me hooked on my love of Art and its history. All during my childhood and early adulthood, my mom and I would make special trips to the High to see different exhibits. It has always been "our thing". One of the things I hate most about living so far away is missing out on seeing so many showings and the opportunity to build more memories with my mom! So this week we made it a special mission to go to the High since I'm in town!

I felt a little silly taking pictures like a tourist, but I couldn't help myself! Plus, after living in a different city for two years, I appreciate Atlanta and it has become beautiful to me in new ways. Even just driving down Peachtree Street is exciting for me!

I think Atlanta is a pretty city. I love all the different architecture in this view!

To avoid a college field trip group, my mom and I ducked into the gift shop first. But with all the neat things in there, in their own little display cases, it was sorta like it was part of the museum anyways. ;)

The first exhibit we saw was of Hale Woodruff and his murals (the museum doesn't allow photography in the special exhibits - bummer). I was surprised just how much I enjoyed his work! His pallet is so bright and I have never seen an artist's work that has captured movement so well. I really can't put into words what I mean by that. I guess the closest my mom and I came to describing what it was like is by comparing it to what we pictured the painting in C.S. Lewis' Prince Caspian would have looked like right before it became real and swallowed the children up into Narnia.

We also enjoyed two photography exhibits. One was a modern day focus on the South and the other was a series of photography of New York City. The NYC photography was really so interesting! The photographs were mainly taken during the early/mid 20th century. I just found it fascinating.

After we finished touring the special exhibits we had only about half an hour left on our parking meter so we quickly toured some of the museum's permanent collection.

One of my favorite things about the High is the old lobby space. It is about four tall stories high and has a winding ramp all the way to the top.

Isn't that pretty? I love all the natural light! Here I am standing in the middle of the lobby, which is a bit of an awkward photo, but it gives you good perspective on the size. 

Mom and I used this moment to snap a picture... isn't my mom beautiful?! 

On the way out I enjoyed taking some pictures of the High's sculpture installations. They're so much fun and bright and quirky! Plus, it doesn't hurt that today we had such lovely weather. 

Before they expanded the High there was a board were everyone stuck their admission stickers on when they were leaving. When my mom and I walked by this sign on our way back to the car I was so excited to find that the tradition lives on today!

I am so thankful that I got to spend the afternoon with my mom doing something that we both love to do! The exhibits are really great right now and would encourage anyone in Atlanta to go check them out! I can't believe today is already Wednesday! Boo! Where is the week going?! Enough blogging for now... time is going too fast and I want to take advantage of being at home!