July 2024:
Highs of the Month:
- Keeping with one of the major themes of 2024: more wedding related festivities this month! I attended my own first bridal shower a few weekends ago, and then the next weekend I went to my friend Maddy's bridal shower here in Virginia Beach. I sound like a broken record saying this at this point, but this year is so fun not only for my own wedding, but the fact that so many of my friends are also getting married this year! I just love anything to do with wedding celebrations.
- I am feeling a lot more settled with my new job / career change! I am starting to notice an internal shift in myself, and feeling more inner peace about losing my radio career unexpectedly earlier this year. My new job in hospitality is certainly not perfect (no job is!), and there's definitely a fair share of stressful moments, but I have still noticed a shift in myself this month to where I'm feeling much more at peace in my new job. I know this is exactly where I'm supposed to be right now. It's also amazing me how much I've learned at work in just two and a half months! Each week I find myself needing to ask my managers fewer questions for help, and that's exciting too.
- Ryan and I have a new-to-me show that we have been enjoying watching. Ryan had seen it before a few years ago, but I had never even heard of it! It's called Atypical, and it's a dramedy about a high school senior on the autism spectrum, and how he relates to his family and friends. I can't believe that I'd never heard of this show before. It's very witty and heartwarming!
Lows of the Month:
- A family health scare that came out of the blue. Thankfully everything is going to be alright! But it certainly unsettling and scary to get news like that out of nowhere. A good reminder that life has the possibility to change in just a blink.
- I have felt this month like I always have too many thoughts in my brain, and that I can never fully complete my never ending to-do list. Whenever I'm not at work, it feels like I'm always just trying to play catch up on adulting stuff or wedding planning. My brain feels occupied 100% of the time, and I haven't had the usual amount of lazy summer days that I normally do. I do really enjoy wedding planning (and I will be sad when it's over!), but it is a lot to balance that with a career change and work schedule change all at the same time. There's also been limited time for some of my hobbies, and I'm hoping to dive back more into all of those things next year.
- My car randomly broke down at a stoplight on the way to work one morning earlier this month. Ryan and I were able to drop it off with a mechanic later that day when I got out of work... but they couldn't find anything wrong. The mechanic speculated it was a software malfunction, which could only be diagnosed properly by a dealer. Unfortunately our local dealer had a three month waitlist for diagnostic appointments! The good news is that my car has once again been driving normally... hoping and praying it was a one time thing? But still unsettling, and I've had some nerves while driving that this could happen again.
July Weekend Recaps:
- 5th-7th - We were in Maine for a long weekend visiting my parents. This was Ryan's second trip to Maine with me! We enjoyed some time at the beach, visiting my grandma at her assisted living facility, a couple lunches with my dad, and an evening out in Portsmouth, NH with my mom. On Sunday afternoon, my mom and one of my matrons-of-honor threw me my first bridal shower! We flew back to Virginia on Monday afternoon.
- 12th-14th - I honestly cannot remember what I did on Friday (worked I assume?). On Saturday, I went to my friend Maddy's bridal shower, which was so lovely! She's getting married the month before I am, and it's been fun to have another Virginia Beach friend with a similar engagement and wedding timeline to Ryan and I. That evening Ryan and I went to a cookout at our friends Bri and Christian's house. I went to church Sunday and then worked a long shift at my job. I had to treat myself to ice cream on my way home from work that evening for surviving a busy day at work!
- 19th - 21st - On Friday after work, I met a former coworker from my radio job for Happy Hour! It was my first time seeing anyone from my old job, and it was fun to catch up with her. On Saturday, I worked most of the day. Saturday evening, Ryan and I went to a local Italian restaurant called Sorella's with his parents to celebrate his dad's birthday. I was off work on Sunday, and Ryan and I went on a fun and much needed day date! We went to explore the nearby city of Newport News. We went to the Virginia Living Museum, which is a museum focusing on the woodland and ocean animals that call Virginia home. We then got brunch at an excellent local spot called Sate, and then finished our Newport News day trip with some geocaching fun. Once we got back home, I did groceries and then went to the pool.
- 26th - 28th - I worked Friday and Sunday of this weekend, but I was off work on Saturday. On Friday night, we went to grab Mexican food and then went to a Norfolk Tides baseball game with our church small group. The weather was honestly perfect for a baseball game (upper 70s), we lucked out! It was a pretty low-key Saturday on my day off. I went to a workout class in the morning, and then we ended up at the beach for a couple hours later in the day. I worked on some blogging and wedding planning catch-up throughout the weekend.
July Purchases:
- First up: I found the outfit that I'll be wearing for my bachelorette party in September! I wanted something that felt preppy and colorful like my everyday style, but just a little flirty and bold. (It will be my bachelorette party after all!) This matching set looks just like Lilly Pulitzer, but is an incredible dupe at half the cost of what Lilly would be! And it's just perfect for the vibe of my bachelorette party. I didn't expect to spoil my outfit early... but I was too excited and had to share it on IG this week.
- A ton of beauty products for something that I'll tell you more about very soon! I honestly bought too many to link here today... and I hit Sephora VIB status for the first time ever! More to come on what I bought all of this makeup for soon.
- I stocked up on a lot of ImPRESS nails this month. I'm really excited about this pretty pair for fall.
July Wishlist:
- When I was searching for the perfect outfit to wear for my bachelorette party, I came across the cutest neon pink dress! I ultimately decided this was a bit "too much" for the destination and what's on the agenda for my bachelorette (and did find another outfit that I am so excited about that fits teh vibes better!), but I still thought this dress deserved to be included in my July Wishlist.
- A designer splurge piece that I'm dreaming about, but is this not the most beautiful colorful cocktail dress ever?! How amazing would this be to wear to a spring or summer wedding! A total dream piece for my sense of style.
- An effortlessly elegant everyday dress that is honestly a great Tuckernuck dupe. I might end up ordering this soon, I feel like I'd wear it often in fall and spring!
- A new style of jeans with such classic vibes from the brand that has been my absolute favorite for denim the past couple of years.
- A home item that I found recently and added to our wedding registry: how darling are these napkins?
July Blog Posts:
God Bless,
xoxo Annaliese
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