Bridal Shower for a Wine Lover

In just 6 short weeks, this pretty lady will be getting married.

I can hardly wait to see my beautiful little sister put on her wedding dress and walk down the aisle. She's going to make such a gorgeous bride and the weekend of Philly fun that she and Justyn have planned has me itching for June 6 to arrive already!

With the wedding just over a month away, the festivities have already begun. A few weeks ago the day finally came for her bridal shower. I've been having so much fun planning this event and it's been tough to keep everything a secret. She knew she was having a shower, but all the details of the day were a surprise, so I tried my hardest to keep things under wraps. Not easy when you talk to your sister a million times a month!

Amanda and Justyn are wine lovers, and went to Napa Valley on their first big vacation together, so I knew when I started brainstorming with the bridal party that it had to be a vineyard theme. I love how everything came together, thanks to some small local vendors, Etsy shops and Pinterest crafting.

The Details

{Vendors}

- Signage and Favor Tags by Etsy Shops

- Wine Charm Favors by Etsy

- Personalized Recipe Book by Zazzle

- Custom Wood Trays and Wood Chest (used as the wishing well) by Price Custom Creations

- Wine Cake and Gourmet Cupcakes by Angela Goblesky Pastries


The Food

The Bride & Her Maids

{Sisters}

I love these candid shots caught by my aunt. I can tell you that my grandmother gave Amanda a very inappropriate card for a bridal shower. Love my crazy family!

Such a beautiful day for an amazing bride-to-be!

Next up - the bachelorette party. We're heading down to Florida this Friday for a weekend of beachy relaxation. Sun, sand, warm breezes and pina coladas, here we come!

Putting Down the To-Do List

As I've said many times before, I love summer weeknights. With warmer days and longer evenings, we're more apt to break up the work week by doing fun things with friends and family. Last night our friends Chris & Karla came over with their two kids for a little play date and BBQ, and tonight I got an impromptu invite from my in-laws to go on a sunset boat ride on Barnegat Bay.

I had a late night of work last night after Chris & Karla went home, so I was determined to finish work by 6:30 this evening so I could relax with the fam. That plan almost went down the tubes as I got caught up in a project, and Matt called me saying he would be home late, and Riker was with his grandparents - a quiet house just makes it too easy to keep working beyond when I really need to. But when Matt's mom called me to meet them at the marina for an evening boat excursion, I took it as a sign. Sometimes you just need to force yourself to walk away from the to-do list and go enjoy life for a while.

What a beautiful night. I love the serenity of the bay in the evening, when everything gets quiet as the sun goes down.

And lucky me, Riker and I came home to dinner on the table in the form of fried green tomato & mozzarella napoleons and a side of almond crusted grouper. Yum.

I love fried green tomatoes and have been itching for them all summer. Matt is a master at making them, and this time he made them with almond flour instead of regular flour or breadcrumbs.

Love that gooey fresh mozz. The napoleons tasted way better than they looked; they came out a little messy once the cheese started to melt, but I can promise they were ama-z-ing. They were tangy, sweet, salty and crunchy.

I'm feeling wiped so an early bedtime is in my future. I'm going into the city for work tomorrow for the first Friday in a really long time, but I'm excited because 1) Summer Fridays mean I get done at 2:00 tomorrow and 2) Matt and Riker are coming in to meet me so we can all spend the afternoon in the city. We're going to give Riker his first experience in Times Square and I'm sure he's going to love it. Night friends!

Blueberry Picking for the Soul

This past weekend was one of those weekends that don't come around too often. One where you can't think of anything else that could've made it more perfect. We celebrated the marriage of good friends on Friday, with great food, cocktails and a pretty awesome dance party; on Saturday we had the beach, ice cream, crabs and a bonfire with family; and on Sunday we spent the afternoon just us - me, Matt and Riker - at a farm enjoying the wide fields, warm air and fresh blueberries. We got a drizzle of rain here and there, but nothing that could force us to stay indoors.

Emery's Organic Farm has the absolute best blueberries around, and they are ridiculously cheap when you pick them yourself. The last two years we didn't make it to the farm in time to pick our own so had to buy frozen boxes of them for my summer jam-making addiction (the frozen still taste great, but buying them from the farm store doesn't have quite the same charm as spending an afternoon picking), so this year we made a plan to get there as soon as the fields opened.

The blueberries were bountiful! We each grabbed a bucket and spent a half hour walking through the bushes and plucking off the biggest, juiciest ones we could find.

Riker had a great time running around picking berries. He had a pretty good method too: pick a berry, drop it in the bucket, eat the berry out of the bucket. When he got sick of the extra step, he just got right down on the ground and ate the ripe berries that had fallen on the ground. He was a kid on a mission.

We picked 5 or 6 pounds of berries before hauling our load into the market. With Riker's love for blueberries, it'll be enough for breakfasts and snacking for a while but I'll need to go back for a bigger bucket to make jam.

There's something so primal about berry picking - or really, picking any food you're going to eat. I used to go berry picking all the time in summer when I was a kid, and I really adore it. As kids we'd pick wild raspberries and strawberries, pour whole milk and sugar over them and eat them with a spoon out of a cup. Vermont Snacking 101. When we were meandering through the bushes picking the berries and feeling the breeze on our faces, it brought instant happiness. It's something I think we were all meant to do on a regular occasion.

After picking and paying, we made ourselves a little picnic lunch by the car. Riker doesn't look too happy here, but I swear he loves riding in that wagon. He was just bummed that he couldn't eat his entire bodyweight in berries.

For lunch we packed veggies and hummus, strawberries, various cheeses, and a salad of garden and heirloom tomatoes with olive oil & fresh basil.

After eating such a healthy lunch, it's only fair we ate dessert. If you've been reading for a while you know Matt cannot leave Emery's without a blueberry pie, and he cannot leave the parking lot without eating a slice out of the box. I came prepared this time with paper plates and forks. :)

Before leaving we stopped over to see the donkey and goats, then spent the rest of the afternoon driving through the pretty countryside. At some point we ended up at Matt's parents' house (they had requested pies of their own we needed to drop off) and ended up staying for a simple dinner of salmon, veggies and salad. We got home just as the sun came out so got to enjoy some last minute rays of sunshine before the real rain started - which meant falling asleep to thunderstorms.

As I said, one of those perfect weekends, right?

The blueberries are safely tucked in baskets so we can bring some camping this weekend (hello campfire blueberry pancakes), but I had some on my yogurt this morning and another handful on my salad for lunch at work.

The bowl was filled with all kinds of veggies, seeds, soy "chicken" (non-GMO Lightlife), ricotta salata cheese, blueberries and blueberry balsamic vinegar. So good. It's safe to say we'll be eating blueberries in every meal for the foreseeable future. Not that I'm complaining.

Hope your weekend was just as wonderful and this week flies by to the holiday!