It is the most wonderful time of the year! Ahhh! So much excitement, I feel like I have everlasting butterflies just thinking about it! It is such an incredible time to reflect on the AMAZING blessings that surround us and share our gratitude with the world!
We hope you are joining us to take some time over the next few days to truly reflect and take the time to appreciate the love that surrounds you! We will certainly be doing just that!
In the meantime, here is a little love from our hearts to yours! We wish you an absolutely AMAZING holiday season! Merry Christmas, friends!
*Time got ahead of us and we never got the chance to send out holiday cards this year! However, if we did, they would probably look a little something like this! ;) Let’s just say we are being environmentally conscious and have decided to send it electronically this year! ;) Merry Christmas!!
For the longest time, literally for years, we have had Charleston, SC on our list of places to visit! We have no idea what it was that was drawing us there, but we knew we wanted to visit! Maybe it was all of the talk of the AMAZING restaurants or just the idea of a southern city on the water… it was definitely all of the above!
Over the past year, we have heard so much about Charleston. Literally, I feel like everyone that we chatted with said something about Charleston. lol. Okay, that may have been a bit of an exaggeration, but seriously everyone was talking about it! ;) And every time we heard about Charleston, our hearts perked up a bit and we knew we needed to make that trip a priority! ;)
So, as Ryan’s birthday approached, we brainstormed something fun to do to celebrate, ya know like a beer tasting party or maybe even a scotch tasting… All great options! ;) But we decided to go crazy and make the trip to Charleston! It was the perfect excuse to gather friends and have the time of our lives exploring a city that we all really wanted to visit! We are so grateful for our super adventurous friends, Justin and Mary and Ashley and Jeremy (the What’s Next Crew) who are always up for being crazy with us and helped make #RyansDapperBirthday one we will never forget! (Check out the Instagram hashtag for more photos!! ;) )
We started Ryan’s birthday celebration the night before his birthday with an absolutely incredible dinner at Husk. The food was AMAZING and the service was definitely purple cow remarkable! ;) I called about an hour before dinner to share the news that we would be celebrating Ryan’s birthday. They said “great, we will make a note of it.” When we arrived to the restaurant, they had Happy Birthday at the top of our menus! Incredible! Husk is a definitely must visit for anyone going to Charleston in the future!
Ohh… and another must visit is The Gin Joint. We actually went back there twice during our visit because it was the perfect low key bar to enjoy tasty drinks and AMAZING conversation! The best part about The Gin Joint is the choose your own adventure type menu! ;) You can choose 2 words out of a list of adjectives and they will make you a drink based off those words! ;) So much fun!
A trip to a new city would not be complete for us without finding the most AMAZING coffee shop in town! ;) After doing some searching, we found Collective Coffee just outside of the city. It was so worth the adventure to seek it out!
Ahhh! Okay, I must admit, we definitely were not aware of the absolutely gorgeous plantations that make Charleston so charming! We were so excited about the food that we didn’t even think about anything else! ;) However, Mary recommended that we go check out a Plantation for the afternoon. So we did just that. We went to the Boone Hall Plantation and I am so happy we did! It was just gorgeous! And this was our very first time seeing a cotton field in person!!! Ahhhh! Seriously gorgeous!!!
Our day was already AMAZING! But there was still more to come! ;) Ryan had dreamed of going to a Holiday s’mores event that a waterfront resort was having in Charleston while we were visiting. We had it in our plans, but then it rained! I had been watching the weather and had a feeling that event was going to be rained out. So I thought it would be fun to try to find a way to have our own little campfire on the beach! Why not, right?!? ;) This has definitely been a bucket list item for us for the longest time! I did some research and found that we could get a permit for a campfire on the Sullivan’s Island beaches! PERFECT!
We made a pitstop at Lowe’s to get campfire supplies and then made or way to the beach just before sunset! Gosh, Charleston is dreamy gorgeous friends! We really couldn’t even have dreamed of a more perfect night! (Ok, it was a bit chilly… but other than that, it was pretty much perfect!)! We celebrated Ryan’s birthday (again) with a birthday candlelit Peanut Butter Cup s’more from our beach campfire! ;) It was… AMAZING.
Gosh, I love this guy! ;)
And this AMAZING group of friends! ;)
Ryan’s dapper birthday was definitely a birthday we will never forget! For all of you with Charleston on your list of places to visit, we would definitely recommend it in a heartbeat!!! And let us know when you go so that we can get super excited for you too! ;)
One of Jill and Tripp’s all time favorite things to do around the holidays is go to NYC and take it all in! When they suggested a Christmas engagement session in NYC, you can only imagine how excited we were!!! There is nothing quite like NYC around the holidays and we could not wait to be able to capture the magic with Jill and Tripp!
As the day got closer and we watched the weather closely, we started to get a little nervous. They were calling for a snow and ice storm the day before (which also happened to be the day Jill and Tripp were driving to NYC!) and another snow storm the day after the session. The day of the session, it was suppose to rain. It takes a lot for us to get nervous about the weather, but this is one of those moments where we definitely refreshing Accuweather a little more than normal! ;)
After a crazy long day of travel for Jill and Tripp the day before (think 10 hours instead of 3 :( ), we were saying our prayers that the weather would clear for them! And that it did! The cloudy skies definitely created a dreamy atmosphere and a picturesque day that we will never forget!
Jill and Tripp, we had an absolute blast with you in NYC! When Ryan said my excitement was like I was a little kid in a candy store, he was absolutely correct! This was a dream for us to be able to capture the magic of your love right along with the magic of the holidays! We loved every minute of it! Thank you for being so adventurous with us and walking so much that our bodies reminded us for the full week after! ;) It was worth it! We hope these images always remind you of that special magic you two share!
It is Ryan’s Birthday! Wahoooo! This is such a magical day!
Today is a big day! This is not just any other birthday. Today, Ryan turns the big 3-0! Wowzers! ;) haha! It is so funny, I feel like when we were younger, 30 seemed like this crazy age when you had to grow up and actually become an adult. When Ryan and I were younger and dreamed of what 30 would look like, I am pretty confident both he and I would say that it looks WAY different than we had ever imagined! Life has taken us through a crazy ride and I am pretty sure we could have never imagined where it would lead us.
I am super blessed to have Ryan by my side every single day to enjoy this crazy ride right along with me! Ryan holds me together when I seem to be falling apart. He makes me laugh when I am taking life a little too seriously. He lights up my heart like nothing I have ever experienced before. Ryan warms me up when I am cold. He challenges me and makes me a better person every single day!
I am incredibly grateful for Ryan and all of the love he has shared with me over the past 12 years!! (Whoa… soon Ryan and I will be able to say we have been together more of our lives than we have been apart! ;) That is so fun to think about!)
Today, I am so super excited to celebrate Ryan! The BIG 3-0… reflecting on the 30 years of crazy life adventures he has been on and dreaming of what could come in the next 30+! ;) But most importantly, celebrating the here and now and this AMAZING man I am lucky enough to call my husband, friend, lover, dream partner, business partner and love of my life!
I would absolutely love your help in making this the best birthday ever for Ryan! Leave him some birthday love! I know it will make him smile BIG!
There is something incredibly magical about sitting on the floor of our living room and looking around at a super full room of AMAZING couples who have filled our hearts with joy! I have shared about the idea of our Liz and Ryan family many times, but it is in moments like Wednesday night at our 2nd Annual Cookies and Ornament Exchange Date Night when everything becomes super real.
We went around the room and shared our favorite holiday traditions. The first one that came to my mind was that tradition right then and there. For the second year in a row, we have squeezed into our living room and found ourselves surrounded by a lot of love during this holiday date night. The second tradition that came to my mind was one that oddly resembles that same moment! It is on Christmas Eve at my MeMe’s house when the whole family plus family friends squeeze into the living room singing Christmas Carols and reading T’was the Night Before Christmas in anticipation for Santa to arrive. And then he does! ;) It is magical. But I think what I love about it most is gathering in the living room full of love where literally every single inch of floor space is completely covered. Sitting on the floor in order to squeeze as many people in is something we would never even think twice about! ;)
It is a room full of love that makes our hearts smile so incredibly big! We are so grateful for our AMAZING couples in our lives who have filled & continue to fill our hearts with so much joy! We are blessed to be surrounded by them!
Huge thanks to everyone who came out to join in the fun! It is such a crazy time of year and we know that you all have ten million other things you could be doing! For all of those near and far who could not make it… we LOVE you all and you definitely added to the love in that room in a special way! Thinking of you always! XOXO!
*Time got ahead of us and we never got the chance to send out holiday cards this year! However, if we did, they would probably look a little something like this! ;) Let’s just say we are being environmentally conscious and have decided to send it electronically this year! ;) Merry Christmas!!
