Rehearsal Dinner on the Bay-Fairhope, AL, Part 2: Event

For this event, the groom’s family selected The Yardarm, a local landmark restaurant located out on a pier (over 200 yards!) in Mobile Bay. The location was located near the outdoor wedding site (and therefore convenient for the wedding party), was very small and very casual.

The concept was to work with the space, not trying to transform it with big arrangements that would be overbearing but rather embrace the rustic setting and just dress it up a bit. It’s hard to use formal flowers when the menu is a fried seafood platter (that I heard was amazing by the way!)

The tables:

I used an ivory standard lap length cloth, topped with natural burlap and chocolate napkins. The napkins were rolled with silverware and held together with twin and a tag printed with initial square logo repeated on the personalized koozies and napkins.

The only flowers I ordered, at the request of the client, were Alstroemeria. They were mixed in with a wide variety of greenery (um…yard clippings!) including various ferns, nandina, oleander, berries and even some dusty miller.

We couldn’t stray too much from the restaurant’s table set-up due to the small size of the restaurant so there were tables of various shapes and sizes, which actually helps a space feel more comfortable and casual.

Center banquets featured a green moss covered runner with centerpieces and Spanish moss as a nod to the Fairhope area (lots of live oak trees!)

Alternating tables featured bronze lanterns which provided a good tie in with the rustic nautical look of the restaurant and allowed us to use large candles (Enjoy flameless candles of course-the best!)

Outside the bar tables held additional lanterns and larger arrangements. Copper pots of various sizes held personalized koozies and napkins and served as buckets to ice down beer and wine. Paper lantern lights strung along the back of the deck added an extra bit of casual ambience to the outdoor gathering spot.

It just goes to prove that somehow you can mix elegance with casual style and come away with a relaxed atmosphere that still somehow shows effort.  I think the restaurant owners and locals were amazed there little local place to look so good!

Labor Day Weekend Away

For Labor Day, Matt’s parents decided to rent a condo in Perdido Key and get us all away for a little time together, a little relaxation and a little support of the Gulf after such a terrible tourism summer.  August has been so hectic with school starting, Campbell’s activities, Matt & I are both busy with our work and sweet Sara Gray just getting bigger and faster each day…we have all been running in so many directions it was a great get away to relax & reconnect!

We spent the beautiful weekend playing on the beach, being lazy in the condo and eating lots of good seafood!! 

Saturday night we drove over to Magnolia Springs to eat at Clairey’s new favortie spot. Jesse’s.  It was a great meal and there was the sweetest church across the street that Campbell and explored before dinner.

On Sunday, Matt’s cousin, Anna Katherine, came over with her family and our kids got to play together which was so fun getting to introduce Campbell to her cousin Julie who is the same age.  They played “zoo” which meant Campbell (somehow, someway) got Lewis & Julie to get underneath Sara Gray’s pack-n-play and pretend they were animals in the cage. Campbell would feed them and read them stories which is what any good zookeeper does I guess.  Finally we got them to watch a movie on the sofa for some downside and then ended up all climbing into Doug’s lap to watch the Wizard of Oz…they even had to make room for Campbell!

After dinner Sunday night, Matt & I met my college roomate, Melissa, at the famous Flora Bama!  She recently got engaged and of course we had to interview the lucky guy!!  We didn’t exactly fit in at the FB but it was fun to reminisce about old times and to get to know Clint and talk about Melissa’s wedding plans. I never thought I would be excited about being a bridesmaid at this point in my life but I am SO happy for her that I really am thrilled to get to be one of her attendants!!

Monday morning we got in a few more hours on the beach before we had to pack it up and come back home, finding an Orange Julius in Pensacola!

Thank you Clairey and Papa Q for including us in your beach weekend and holiday!  We had lots of fun and love you!

Soccer Mom in training…and soccer wife too!

Tonight, Campbell had her very first soccer practice. She is on the 4&5 yr old The Revolution team and Matt (after much convincing) is her coach! I came home from work to find her dressed in head to toe pink soccer gear, carrying her pink ball and ready to go.

It was hot…so hot!  And for some reason the coach decided he was going to keep 4 and 5 year olds for a 90 minute practice!  Sara Gray and I sweated through it (she wanted to be on the field more than her sister I think!) and had lots of laughs watching Matt and the other coach herd those little ones around.

Campbell has some potential but half way through practice decided she would rather hug and love and dance with the boy next to her! Then towards the end, she totally figured out the ball everyone else was chasing was only going to come back down to her side of the field again so there was no point in doing all that running.

We definitely have a soccer princess on our hands!  But I am hopeful it will make for some good times with our friends and meeting some new friends too.

Favorite Color Friday

Yesterday was “Favorite Color Friday" for Campbell.  All week they had reviewed their colors and learned cute little rhymes…Campbell’s favorite is “Yellow, Yellow sat in Jello”!

We got a note home saying we needed to help our child choose something they could bring to school in their favorite color that was not a toy.  Favorite color: easy-the child oozes pink. We got lots of that!  But choosing something not a toy…that was a little bit harder!

Matt suggested she bring her pink golf clubs.  Great idea..until I thought maybe her swinging some clubs around wasn’t a great idea after all. Hmmm…we talked about lots of things but then I saw that pink robe hanging in her bathroom and asked her if she would like to take her robe.

YES!  But not just the robe mom…she needed to take ALL pink things that had to do with her love of taking a bath and playing beauty parlor.  That meant a lot! 

I knew Miss Cindy would count on the kids to be independent about getting out their items and showing the class so we practiced putting on her robe and her slippers and then all her garb.

This was her practice round at home….

In her pink kitchen cooking up her pink plan…

Gathering anything she can find to pull off her look…two headbands and scrunchie…I mean an opportunity like this only comes once in a lifetime….you gotta accessorize to the fullest, don’t you agree?

Not sure if she is applying some pink lip gloss or thinking hmmm…what else can I put on??

 

I wasn’t so sure what she would do or what Miss Cindy would think when I dropped her off yesterday morning with her pink bag stuffed with all her pink things and even her “Pinkalicious” book to read during storytime.  I am sure Miss Cindy got more than she had expected!  This was the pic Miss Cindy posted on her blog so I guess it all turned pinkalicious after all!