Fashion, Travel & Lifestyle Blog || Est. 2012 || Virginia Beach, VA
Last month, Ryan and I got to cross off a bucket list item for both of us: attending a major golf championship! Majors are the four most prestigious annual competition events in the golf world. They include The Masters in April, The PGA Championship in May, The US Open in June and The Open in July. This year the PGA Championship was held at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, NC. Ryan and I got to attend on Saturday May 17th, and I'm excited to finally recap our day at the PGA here on the blog!
My first concert of 2025 will be seeing country singer Megan Moroney in a couple weeks! She's currently on her "Am I Okay?" tour, and it's the largest tour that she's done to-date, with shows all over the US this spring, summer and fall. I've been a fan of Megan since first she came on the country music scene a few years ago. Her first hit single "Tennessee Orange" started gaining popularity during my first year working in country radio, and I've loved following the rise of her career ever since. I thought it would be fun to share some concert outfit inspiration for Megan's current tour!
Popping in on this Tuesday morning with a little life update: I am starting a new career today!
If you're looking for a quiet, restful and romantic escape that's surrounded by beautiful nature views, look no further than the Lilly Valley Inn in Pearisburg, VA! Ryan and I recently had the chance to visit and experience this lovely and unique bed & breakfast, located in the heart of Virginia's New River Valley. Keep reading for my full review of Lilly Valley Inn, and information on unique activities in the New River Valley area!
Continuing on with my photo recaps of our November 2024 wedding day. Today's post is all about our wedding ceremony! We were married at Virginia Beach United Methodist Church, at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront. We had some wonderful premarital counseling sessions with Pastor Tim in the months leading up to our wedding, and then he performed our wedding ceremony.
One of the first decisions that Ryan and I made for our wedding was that we wanted a classic late afternoon church ceremony. I know the trendier decision for brides these days is to have the ceremony and reception both at the same venue, but I wanted to be traditional in this regard. Both Ryan and I liked the traditional aspect of having a church ceremony, and I also liked how it stressed the importance of faith. I also knew that I wouldn't be able to handle planning for an outdoor ceremony and needing a rain plan if the weather didn't cooperate on our day. I loved knowing that we would have lovely ceremony pictures inside of the church no matter the weather on our wedding day.
Our ceremony was fairly brief (only about 15-20 minutes long), and we opted for traditional piano and organ music instead of using a DJ or recorded songs. We didn't have any additional readers or speakers for our ceremony, it was only Pastor Tim. I was very excited to have a receiving line following the ceremony for our exit of the church! We purchased bubbles wands and bubble guns for our guests, which created some fun photos of the exit.
Without further ado- here are the photos from our church decor, wedding ceremony, and church receiving line!
For the past couple of months, I've been doing a fun partnership on Instagram with a clothing rental company called Armoire. I realized recently that while I share updates about using Armoire on Instagram weekly, I hadn't shared much on the blog yet! Armoire has been the first clothing rental service that I've ever tried, and I have really enjoyed using it so far. And make sure to read until the end- I have a great discount code with two special offers for you to try Armoire!
I'm so excited to finally start recapping my wedding day here on the blog! For my wedding day recaps, I want to kind of let the photos speak for themselves to tell the story, and not add too much writing to these posts. (Not my norm! 😉)
Ryan and I got married on November 16th, 2024 in Virginia Beach! Ryan, his dad and the groomsmen spent the morning hanging out and getting ready at his parents' house.
Myself and the bridesmaids spent the night before and the wedding day morning most beautiful beach rental home, Bayberry House by Transcendent Stays. I had the hairstylist come to Bayberry to do everyone's hair, and my mom and Ryan's mom came over as well for their hair appointments. Everyone did their own makeup, which I was so pleased with! My mom and I then got a few photos together in my dress, and then I did first looks with my bridal party and my dad. (Only my mom and Ryan's mom had seen my dress prior to the wedding day.)
Without further ado- here are the photos of getting ready and first looks (with my bridal party and my dad)!
This trip already happened about a month ago, but I wanted to share a recap on the blog before it gets too much further out. I had a wonderful and much needed quick trip to the Sunshine State in late February! My good friend Gentry from Girl Meets Bow had an exciting last-minute opportunity to attend an event for influencers in Miami with LTK, which is the main affiliate link platform that most bloggers use. She was able to bring a plus-one, and kindly invited me! The stars aligned perfectly for me to get off work, and use flight credits that I already had for a free flight! I also extended my trip on the front end a bit, and all-in-all it was a great time.
Since starting my own journey of learning to golf in 2022, I have quickly become obsessed with watching professional golf as well. The pinnacle of all professional golf events of course is The Masters! Held annually at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, GA, this is also one of the most exclusive and hard-to-attend sporting events in the world, thanks to the extremely selective Masters ticket lottery.
I hope and pray that Ryan and I can someday be lucky enough to score Masters tickets in the lottery and be there in-person. Until then, I'll continue to get more obsessed each year while watching at home. This year I am also planning to host my first-ever ladies' Masters viewing party on the Saturday of Masters weekend, and I'm so excited for that!
Since I am hosting a Masters themed party this year, Masters style for women has been on my mind a lot as of late. I've found so many great picks, and wanted to round them up! Whether you were lucky enough to get tickets this year to be in Augusta, are also planning to host or attend a Masters party, or perhaps have another professional golf tournament to attend later this year and need outfit inspiration for that, I hope you enjoy these picks! ⛳️ You can also find these collages and more on my LTK page (I'm miss_alk on the LTK app!)
Before I start sharing the photo recaps of our wedding ceremony and reception, I thought that my wedding dress deserved a detailed blog post of its own! I first wrote about my wedding dress shortly after I purchased it last winter. But that entire post was written without any photos of the dress, since the wedding hadn't happened yet! And then a second dress (reception dress) came into the picture as well. Basically, I have a lot to catch you up on dress-wise, and it seemed right to do that before starting wedding day recaps! 😊
Ryan and I recently finished my favorite home decor project to date: our bar cabinet area! This is such a glow-up from how this area of space in our apartment used to look before. I shared all the details on my Instagram last week, but I wanted to share here on the blog as well.
Welcome back to Wedding Wednesday! Before I get into sharing photo recap posts of the wedding day itself, I wanted to recap the day before the wedding with you.
Truth be told, this was actually my favorite day of the wedding weekend! Yes, I really did enjoy the day before my wedding just a little more than my wedding day. I know that probably sounds crazy! But let me tell you, there was just something so exciting and electric about the great anticipation I had for my wedding day on the day before. It felt like my childhood excitement and anticipation on Christmas Eve for Santa to arrive... except times 100 on the excitement scale. 😊 Truly a certain type of anticipatory high that I've never experienced before, and I'm not sure I ever will again!
And as far as my favorite part of the day before our wedding, that would definitely go to our wedding welcome party on Friday evening! If anything, I hope this blog post might convince any brides-to-be reading that wedding welcome parties are the best, and every couple should have one if they're able to!
Now without further ado, let's get into recapping Friday, November 15th, 2024: the day before our wedding!
I would so appreciate a couple minutes of your help and participation in today's blog post! I am well overdue for sharing a blog reader survey to get your direct feedback on my blog and social media content, but better late than never right?
I'm so excited to share all the info about the beautiful beach rental home that myself and my bridal party got to stay in for my wedding weekend! It was an honor to continue a partnership with local short-term property rental group Transcendent Stays. If you have any upcoming travel plans to the Virginia Beach area, or you yourself are a fellow bride getting married in the area, you'll want all the info about this beautiful beach rental home, which is available to rent year-round!
Shout-out to my five bridal party memories who joined in for the photos in today's blog post, as well as my dear blogging friend Gentry! She came to Virginia Beach for our wedding, and it was a joy to have her join in for this fun photoshoot the day before the wedding. 😊
