{Monthly} Midweek Ramblings: November 2025

 November 2025:

2025 Black Friday // Cyber Week Sales + What We Did for Thanksgiving

      Happy Black Friday + Cyber Sales Weekend! I was reflecting while writing this post about how Black Friday for me has changed over the years. During high school and college, I never missed a Black Friday at the mall. I truly looked forward to it all year!! I even once had the experience of being on the other side when I had to work at my mall retail job on Thanksgiving night in 2016. 

     The last time though that I went physically out shopping at the mall for Black Friday was in 2021, my first holiday season living in Virginia Beach. Being in a mall setting just wasn't hitting quite like it used to. These days I really do feel like all of the best deals and steals are to be found online. I still very much enjoying shopping in-person throughout the year, but on Black Friday I prefer to be home and shopping from my laptop these days. 😊

Pretty foliage outside of work earlier this week!

Wedding Wednesday: One Year Since Our Wedding + Our Formal Portraits

      Ryan and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary over the weekend! And today is the second anniversary of the day we got engaged. What a joy it's been to be sharing monthly Wedding Wednesday posts for the past two years during our engagement and wedding seasons! It is bittersweet that these are now coming to an end. 

      I have written some very lengthy posts over the course of the Wedding Wednesday series, so I'm going to keep the text shorter in this one and let the photos do most of the talking. 😊 I wanted to finally share our formal wedding portraits of ourselves, our families and our wedding party!

     All of the professional wedding photos were taken by Vinluan Photography.

{Monthly} Midweek Ramblings: October 2025

October 2025: 

Holiday 2025 Shopping Finds + Picks! 🎄

       Happy November! We haven't started decorating for the holidays quite yet in our house (hoping to next weekend, which is also our first anniversary!), but I have been in the full Christmas spirit when it comes to my recent online shopping browsing history. I've been finding so many cute and affordable holiday fashion, accessories and seasonal decor items. I wanted to do a little round-up here of everything. 

      You can find all of the graphics below on my LTK page! Please follow me on LTK if you aren't yet, I share extra content each week exclusively in the LTK app that I don't share always on Instagram or my blog. 

Wedding Wednesday: Our Wedding Registry

       I'm excited to finally share our wedding registry items with you today! This was one part of wedding planning that I didn't want to write any blog posts about last year before the wedding. I wanted to give a good bit of time after getting married to get the chance to use most of our registry items and be able to share what I thought of them once we'd actually used them. (Spoiler alert: all but one registry item have been great! We only had to make one return.) Let's dive into what stores we registered at, and what items we registered for!

{Monthly} Midweek Ramblings: September 2025

September 2025:

Wedding Wednesday: All of Our Wedding Details

      One of the most fun parts of wedding planning for me was figuring out all of the individual details that would bring our day to life! Now that I have finished recapping the flow of our wedding day (getting ready, ceremony and reception), I wanted to share a dedicated blog post with information about all of the smaller wedding details. In this post you'll find all the info about our beautiful custom invitation suite, all things bridal party, details about my something old, new, borrowed and blue, and much more! And for the first time on my blog, I'm opening up a little bit about the biggest disappointment from our wedding day, which had to do with a wedding detail that was very important to me.

      Let's get into all of our wedding details!

Fall 2025 Outfit Ideas 🍂

     Can I make a confession? Most of the shopping that I have been doing lately is for our new house, instead of my fall wardrobe. Adulting at its finest, right? 😊 But as always, I have been doing a fair amount of online window shopping for fashion and accessories lately. I've found some great fall items at a variety of price points (some great bargains, some splurges, and some mid-range finds), and wanted to share them all with you today! 

     And as always, you can find my daily fall work outfits and other fall outfit inspiration daily on my LTK page- make sure to follow me in the LTK app if you aren't yet!

HOTEL GUIDE: A 24-Hour Stay at The Omni Homestead Resort

       I recently checked another iconic Virginia hotel off of my travel bucket list: The Omni Homestead Resort. This historic resort is located deep within the Alleghany Mountains in the western part of Virginia. The Omni Homestead is home to a unique main attraction: America's oldest natural warm springs! The Warm Springs Pools are owned by the resort but open to the public. In addition, the resort also boasts beautiful historic decor, a multitude of dining options, a plethora of shopping and activities, and a large spa. My friend Amanda and I recently did a one-night stay here for our annual girls' trip. Our visit may have been brief, but it certainly was memorable! 

{Monthly} Midweek Ramblings: August 2025

August 2025:

Wedding Wednesday: Our Custom Wedding Crest

     One special branding detail that I knew I wanted our wedding to have was a custom crest. I'm not sure when this tradition originated, or why it's gotten so popular with weddings as of late. But I knew I loved custom crests and definitely wanted one! 😊 Having a custom crest is such an easy way to elevate the design elements surrounding your wedding, and to give everything a cohesive and polished feel. I thought it would be fun to share a post on the design process for our crest, and also recap all the ways that I used it for the wedding day and beyond. 

What to Wear to Tate McRae's "Miss Possessive" World Tour

      One the things I am most looking forward to this fall is seeing Tate McRae on the Miss Possessive Tour with some of my girlfriends! Tate has become one of my absolute favorite pop artists over the past year. Her music feels so nostalgic to early 2000s pop, especially Britney Spears's earlier albums. I was lucky enough to see her in concert for the first time last December on the iHeart Radio Jingle Ball Tour, but I cannot wait to get the chance to see her headline an arena tour! 

     Tate's style is extremely "Gen Z Cool Girl." She's able to make very casual outfits look both sexy and effortless! She favors black, dark red and neutrals in most of her looks, but still likes pops of glam here and there. Her style is honestly a bit intimidating to me as a 30-year old preppy fashion lover. One of my colorful Lilly Pulitzer dresses would certainly not fly at a Tate McRae concert. 😂 I'm viewing attending this concert as a chance to get out of my normal fashion comfort zone. 

     Below are some affordable outfit ideas for Tate McRae's Miss Possessive Tour! A lot of these finds also come in multiple color options.

{Monthly} Midweek Ramblings: July 2025

 July 2025:

Life Update: WE BOUGHT OUR FIRST HOUSE!!! 🏡

      I am beyond thrilled to share the most exciting life update with you today. As of yesterday, we are first-time HOMEOWNERS! 2025 has been really been quite the year so far. I thought that finally getting a new career opportunity in May would be my biggest life update of the year, but I think this might even trump that. 😊 

Affordable Early Fall Fashion Picks.

     We've had a heatwave the past week in Coastal Virginia, and realistically colder weather won't be headed our way until at least October or November. But hot temperatures outside aside, I've been enjoying seeing some early fall fashion collections popping up at my favorite retailers! I shared these finds on Instagram and LTK this week, but wanted also wanted to share here on my blog.

HOTEL GUIDE: Historic Boutique Hotel in Washington DC - The Phoenix Park Hotel

      Last year when I was working as a hotel front desk agent, I won a great raffle prize at the annual staff Christmas party. There were several hotel stays at other properties in driving distance to Virginia Beach that were being raffled off. I ended up winning a free weekend stay at the Phoenix Park Hotel in Washington DC. I was excited to use it, and decided to book it for late March, guessing that might be a good timeframe for the cherry blossoms. (Since I moved to Virginia in 2018, it's been a big item off of my travel bucket list to see the Tidal Basin cherry blossoms in DC at peak bloom!) Not only did I correctly predict peak bloom weekend and finally get to see it, but Ryan and I also had the most wonderful stay at the Phoenix Park Hotel, which I'm excited to review today! 

Wedding Wednesday: Our Wedding Day - The Reception

      I truly can't say enough good things about our wedding reception venue, the Wyndham Virginia Beach Oceanfront Hotel. We went with the very classic "afternoon church wedding ceremony, evening hotel ballroom reception" combo for our wedding day. I think there is something so timeless and wonderful about a hotel ballroom wedding reception, and it really is easy from a planning perspective as well (since the linens, tableware and food and beverage is usually done all in-house). 

Amazon Prime Day 2025: Things I Own + Love On Sale!

       Amazon Prime Day is in full swing for 2025! I was pleasantly surprised to see so many of my favorite fashion and home items that I already own and love being included in this year's sale. I know there are so many bloggers and influencers spamming you at all directions right now with Prime Day picks. Hope it's okay to just share a handful items that I personally own and use. 😊 

     All of these are currently at lower price points than I purchased them for! The fashion items are all things I've bought myself that I love to wear and think are good quality. The home decor items are a mix of things I've bought, as well as some of my favorite wedding registry items that I was gifted at bridal showers!

{Monthly} Midweek Ramblings: June 2025

June 2025:

Wedding Wednesday: Our Wedding Playlists

      When I would dream about my future wedding day when I was in high school, college and my early 20s, the number one part of the wedding day that I'd fixate on and dream about specifically was the wedding reception dance floor. I love to dance, and the thought of being on a dance floor surrounded by the love of my life and all of the people in our lives that we love seemed like heaven on earth to me! I joked to friends in the months leading up to the wedding that the one aspect of wedding planning that I was a bridezilla about was anything to do with our wedding reception playlist! God bless the poor DJ that would have to put up with me. 😉

     Anyways, before I get into recapping our full wedding reception on the blog, I wanted to share a detailed blog post with our wedding playlists, for cocktail hour, dinner and of course the dance floor! Below you can read about the must-plays, the do-not plays, and even the newest songs I would've added to the playlist that didn't exist yet in November 2024. And of course I have plenty of dance floor photos to share with you too! 

Maggy London Dress Try-On + Discount Code!

      One of my favorite parts about my new career path is finally having a job with a more formal daily dress code for the office! I have been absolutely loving putting together daily Business Professional outfits for work. A dress brand that has quickly come on my radar over the past month is Maggy London. I was so excited to get an email from the Maggy London team to gift me a couple of their pieces, and I have an exclusive discount code to share with you today, too!    

Our First Golf Major: Attending The 2025 PGA Championship

      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!

{Monthly} Midweek Ramblings: May 2025

May 2025:

What to Wear to Megan Moroney's "Am I Okay?" Tour 💙

      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! 

Best Memorial Day Weekend Sales 2025

    I am getting this holiday weekend sales post up a bit later than normal, please forgive me! Starting my new job this week delayed me a bit from getting around to blogging tasks. I know that I have had a busy start to the long weekend though, and I didn't even get around to starting to browse sales until this morning (Sunday). My hope is maybe it was the same for others, too! 😊

    I have to say, I am more impressed with the MDW sales than I have been the past couple of years! (Granted I didn't do much shopping this time last year since I had just lost my job and was in the thick of wedding planning + expenses, but still.) But this year I am fairly impressed! Check out all of my favorite sales below:

Life Update: My Next Career Chapter Begins!

      Popping in on this Tuesday morning with a little life update: I am starting a new career today!

BED & BREAKFAST GUIDE: A Luxurious New River Valley Stay at The Lilly Valley Inn

      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!

Wedding Wednesday: Our Wedding Day - The Ceremony

      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!

{Monthly} Midweek Ramblings: April 2025

 April 2025:

My First Time Renting Clothes! A Review of Armoire.

      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! 

Wedding Wednesday: Our Wedding - Getting Ready

      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)!

{Monthly} Midweek Ramblings: March 2025.

March 2025:

Travel Diary: A Quick Winter Trip to South Florida 🌴

       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. 

Women's Outfit Ideas For The Masters ⛳️

     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!)

Wedding Wednesday: My Wedding Dress(es)

       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! 😊

{Monthly} Midweek Ramblings: February 2025

 February 2025:

Apartment Bar Cabinet Reveal + Styling 🍸

      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.

Spring 2025 Shopping Wishlist Picks 🌸

      Something I have been doing well at since 2025 began? Trying to save more money. Something I have not been doing as well at? Fun shopping purchases for myself.

      I haven't been doing a designated "shopping fast" or been forbidding myself from making personal purchases, but it simply hasn't been as much of a priority to me as of late. I've shared this in other recent posts, but 2024 was a rough year for Ryan and I financially, between unexpectedly losing my radio job (and its salary) and our wedding. To end 2024 with even more of a financial bang, Christmas and its gifting obligations also immediately followed our wedding and honeymoon! It's been such a good thing to cut back on a lot of unnecessary expenses so far in 2025, and to actually be able to put money back into savings once again with each paycheck, instead of just pulling savings frequently. 

     With all that to say, I do feel like some personal purchases for the spring season will very soon be on my horizon! There's so many cute styles out right now. But for the meantime, I've had my share of fun doing online window-shopping and curating some wishlists. I love the pieces that I've been finding, so I wanted to share them with you today. They feature beautiful flowy dresses from various retailers, spring shoes from Target and swimwear from Old Navy.  Check out everything below! 

Wedding Wednesday: Our Rehearsal + Welcome Party

      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! 

{Monthly} Midweek Ramblings: January 2025

 January 2025:

The Best Books I Read in 2024.

     2024 wasn't my best year for reading, but I did still manage to read seven books that managed to get a five-star rating from me!! Each year on my blog, I enjoy sharing the very best of the best (five-star rated) books that I read the previous year. Let's get into my favorites from last year!

2025 Blog Reader Survey.

       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? 

Wedding Wednesday: Transcendent Stays Beach Rental House for Wedding Weekend

       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. 😊

{Monthly} Midweek Ramblings: December 2024

 December 2024: