My 25th Birthday!

January 08, 2018

My 25th Birthday!

It’s official, I’m now a quarter of a century old. Yesterday was my 25th birthday and I spent it celebrating with my hubby and family. We went to go do my second escape room and went to dinner. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it out of the room in time but we had so much fun. I never thought I would like those things, but now I’m kinda addicted! This past year has been absolutely amazing for me and I can’t wait to see what’s to come next.

I started the year off newly engaged, which meant I had to go straight into wedding planning mode. I had no idea what I was doing, but invested in a planner and looked to my mom and sister for advice. On June 10th, Jacob and I celebrated our five year anniversary for the last time before having a new date to celebrate. Even with as much as we have gone through, five years seems like nothing. We’re just as giddy with each other as we were when we started dating in 2012.

I had my first bridal shower in July to celebrate with my family in Louisiana and a second one in August to celebrate with my Florida family. I don’t remember ever really going to a bridal shower before, so I had no idea what to expect. My mom and sister had kept pretty much everything a secret from me. I had such a good time at both and even though being the center of attention makes me a little nervous, the fact that it was all in celebration to marry the man of my dreams made me more comfortable.

In May, we had our engagement photo shoot. Neither of us had ever gotten professional pictures taken before and we had no idea what to expect. We had three outfits with us and basically went into it completely relying on our photographers to tell us what to do. We had the best time ever and literally laughed our way through the entire shoot. It was amazing!

In August, I had the opportunity to work with Tim and Audrey (with Phocus Photography) again on a bridal styled photo shoot that they did. My mom always tried to get me to model when I was younger, but I was never into it. Clearly, she saw some potential in me because I absolutely loved working on this shoot. Both styles of dresses that I modeled were completely different than my actual wedding dress and it was so much fun to play dress up with my friends, but in real life!

On October 6, 2017, I married the most kind, caring, chivalrous man in the entire world. Sowell Farms provided the most beautiful venue ever and made all of our wedding day dreams come true. Tim and Audrey captured every moment and I am still completely speechless when I think about all the photos and how perfect that day was. Everything was better than we had imagined and totally worth waiting for.

A few days after we officially became a family, we set off on our honeymoon to the Sandals Montego Bay resort in Jamaica. Neither of us had ever been to Jamaica before and we absolutely fell in love. We especially enjoyed how friendly the people were and how delicious their Blue Mountain coffee is. During that trip was also the first time either of us had ever flown first class and after being completely spoiled with that, we can never go back...on the very rare occasion that we ever have to fly again. Keep an eye out for a post coming up next week talking all about the resort and our honeymoon experience!

When we came back from our honeymoon and got everything settled again, we went straight into home renovation mode. I had been wanting to make two huge changes to our house for a while and after the wedding was the perfect time to do it. We painted literally every single wall in our house and covered all of our hard ceramic tile with more comfortable vinyl planks. It looks like a completely different house and I am so happy with all the changes. After two years of decision making, we finally have a home that flows together exactly how we want it.

This was also the first year we have hosted both Thanksgiving and Christmas at our house for our families. In 2015 when we had decided on moving back to Florida and were looking at houses, one of the main factors I thought about was having a home that we could entertain in. We made the perfect choice and finally made it happen for our first year celebrating the holidays as a Mr. and Mrs.

Side note to the picture above, Thanksgiving Day was also my first time posting on my Insta stories. I had been wanting to do it for a while, but was too nervous and kept making excuses like waiting for my new phone. I’m still trying to figure it all out and need to stay more consistent with it, but I am proud of myself for finally doing it.

In the beginning of December, we actually had a little bit of snow! It didn’t stick to the ground, but I did get to scrape some off of the table and Jacob’s truck to make my first snowball. I’d never thought I’d see snow in Florida, even though this Winter has been extremely cold so far. We stayed up way too late in the morning to see this, but I’m glad I have the pictures and that we made such fun memories.

I would have never thought that I would have done so much during my 24 years. I’ve moved across the country and back, bought a home, a car, a dog, graduated college, started a blog (that has nothing to do with my degree), got engaged, married the most amazing man, traveled out of the country, the list goes on. I am so proud of the things I have accomplished and I can’t wait to see what happens during this next year. I have a feeling it’s going to be awesome! ♥

~Mani Monday~

Because of the holidays, I haven’t been including many Mani Mondays in my recent posts. But I have still been doing my nails and wearing a lot of muted neutrals. This week I wanted something more dark and bold, so I went with an Ulta brand nail polish in the shade Bittersweet. It’s a really, really dark purple that almost looks black unless the light reflects off of it. I wear this at least once every Winter!