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October 29, 2014

Be You, Bravely

Who am I? What do I think it means to be you, bravely? What's encouraging me this week? If you want to find out all of these things and more go over and visit my dear friend Bailey's blog, Brave Love! I adore this girl so much and was so excited when she asked me to be a part of her Be You, Bravely series. Take a peek into today's post and if you have time, stick around to get to know Bailey a little bit more too! Hope y'all have a great Wednesday friends! 

October 22, 2014

Lucky I'm In Love With You




You may be following me on Instagram (@mmackvick) and also on Facebook and probably saw a few engagement photos that were posted last week! My wedding photographer, Callie with Nancy Ray Photography also shared this blog post with a handful of them and I couldn't help but show you all of my favorite ones too! It was hard to narrow them down because I love so many but hope you enjoy the one's I chose. I've already gone ahead and put in an online order to get these beauties printed (thanks to mpix) and can't wait for them to arrive so that I can display them all throughout our home.

On another note, I  would like to give a quick shout out to my sweet and adorable Mom! Today is her birthday and even though I am not able to celebrate it with her in person, I hope she feels extra loved and knows how important she is too so many people in this world.

October 21, 2014

Honky Tonk City

Change can be good right? But what about unexpected change? I'm talking about the kind that occurs so fast that you don't even have time to react. The kind that stops you in your path. The life changing kind of change...is that kind of change good? I think it can be! But who is to say that we have any say what so ever in how things turn out? I mean, God is the only one who knows our past, present and future. He knows whats ahead of us even before we are given any sort of glimpse as to what lies ahead. And you are probably starting to wonder where I am going with this. Since I don't want to go into too much detail, please bare with me as I give only a short explanation!

Remember how Will and I planned on moving to Houston? It was 100% finalized. We had broke the news to all of our family and friends. We had already started looking at places to live and had even planned a trip for the two of us to head down to our future home to do a little exploring. However, like with most things, when you think you know whats to come, you really have NO idea.

Emotions were high for a little while and feelings on the whole situation were leaving me feeling pretty uncertain. But to be honest, I was so happy that I no longer had to worry about leaving behind all of my family and friends in North Carolina. And planning a wedding in a different state was never something I was looking forward too. The main thing that really had me burning on the inside was the fact that I had put all of my trust in God and being an engaged couple, moving to a state hundreds of miles away from "home" was something I gave to God 100%. And once I thought I had given everything to him, it felt as if he took it all away without any warning. But you know what I think? I think I thought I knew what God had up his sleeve for so long that I forgot that HE was the one in control...not me!

So there you have it...another change, and yet another update in a nutshell. But with change comes new seasons in life. And to welcome all the change that has been occurring in our life, Will and I decided to take a very spontaneous trip to Nashville, TN! This was the second time I had been to Nashville and Will's first so it was only appropriate that we stay at the Gaylord Opryland Resort. We slept in, ate out and played everything by ear...something hard for a planner like me to do!

But in my opinion, it would be wrong to share photos from our trip without giving some recommendations of places to go and things to do so enjoy a list that I created just for you. I wish we had time to visit more places but for now, these are the one's that are Melissa approved :)

The Loveless Cafe located on Highway 100 and known for their scratch-made biscuits and fried chicken.

The Pharmacy is one of Nashville's hippest burger joints were you can also find an old-school soda fountain that serves those good ole' milkshakes and ice cream sodas that you love.

For breakfast and brunch I recommend going to The Southern of Nashville. With a wide variety of options you won't be disappointed.

For an upscale American bar experience head over to Pub5.  

If you like coffee then The Frothy Monkey is a must! It has a very homey atmosphere and a full breakfast, lunch and dinner menu too.

Puckett's Grocery is nothing fancy but really good! It was founded in the 50's and seems to be a place that all the locals enjoy going!

If you have a sweet tooth, you must make your way over to Jeni's Ice Cream. And go early because there is always a line out the door. I highly recommend the Brambleberry Crisp and Brown Butter Almond Brittle flavors.

The Second Fiddle, Lizard Thicket, Legend's Corner and Tootsie's Orchid Lounge are all a must if you are in the mood for some true country entertainment and music. If you only have time to visit a few I'd say go to Legend's Corner and Tootsie's Orchid Lounge first.

Sambuca is probably my favorite place to go for dinner! They have live music every night and some of the best entrees I've ever had.

If you are in the mood to visit a museum then go to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Even if you are not a huge fan of Country Music you will still enjoy your time exploring this place. Most of my picture above are from the CMA of Fame too! Some of my favorite parts of the museum were being able to see Elvis Presley's gold piano, outfits that Dolly Parton has worn and Taylor Swifts guitar and handwritten song lyrics! 

The first time I went to Nashville I went on the General Jackson Showboat and really enjoyed getting to see Nashville from the water. Not only that but you also get to enjoy a three-course dinner and a live country music show! Really fun and worth doing at least once.

Be sure to check back tomorrow were I will be sharing tons of engagement photos from our recent engagement session! 

October 17, 2014

5 on Friday

Happy Friday, y'all! As you're reading this, I am probably getting ready to go bridesmaid dress shopping with my girls Emily and Caitlin! I truly wish my whole bridal party could go shopping with me but am so thankful that these two gals live in Charlotte and that this is one more thing we get to check off our wedding to-do list! And quality time with some of my best friends is something I will not complain about or take for granted. Since i'm on the topic of bridesmaid dresses, let's just jump right into my 5 on Friday! I hope you enjoy!

ONE
Fact: I knew there would be hundreds of options when it came to finding my wedding dress but I mean there are thousands of options when it comes to bridesmaid dresses and I just don't know how I am going to pick out what I want my bridal party to wear! Our wedding colors are mint and gold so I pretty much knew from the beginning that I would want my ladies to wear mint green dresses. I also took into consideration that our wedding is taking place in June so shorter dresses seemed to make more sense. But as far as fabric and style I have no idea what I am going to choose so this will make for one fun shopping trip! But being the organized/planner that I am, I did pull a few ideas from Pinterest that I'll be taking with me to our appointment. Below are a few that I have in mind. What do you think?
TWO
Since I've already been talking about all things wedding related, I thought I'd continue. But don't worry, I won't carry on much longer :) Let me just take a second to say that if you haven't heard of Nancy Ray Photography then you are truly missing out. Nancy and her team are ahhh-mazing! No exaggeration. Callie (our friend and also our wedding photographer) recently took our engagement photos and sent me this blog post she wrote which includes some of the images from our engagement shoot. Be still my heart! Will and I looked at all of them together last night and had so much fun going through and picking out our favorite ones. Come back next Wednesday and I'll have a post dedicated to all the ones we can't help but share!

THREE
Since I mentioned Callie once, I'll mention her just one more time and tell you to go check out her new blog; Call Me Callie! Callie recently decided to start a blog as a way for others to get to know her better, share wedding planning tips, traveling adventures, style and MUCH more. With her new blog launch, Callie also has an awesome giveaway too! You'd be silly if you didn't go and enter to win. I personally have my eyes on the jewelry box from Anthropologie...
CallMeCallieGiveaway 
FOUR
Last week I came across this blog post which talks about ways to come up with new blog ideas. I'm not going to lie and say that I've never found myself running in circles trying to come up with new ideas for blog posts before and found that this post was very helpful!
The secret to a gazillion blog post ideas
FIVE
If you are OCD an organized person, like to be detail oriented, or need help figuring out how to keep everything in order then this post that Carly from The College Prepster did on how she organizes her life is right up your alley. Knowing that Carly uses the same program that I do to stay organized made me feel on top of things. I mean...do you follow Carly? She is the bomb.
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