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Jess

WE’RE ENGAGED!

How it happened…
A few weeks leading up to the 4th of July weekend Dustin put on our shared calendar “surprise fun” and told me not to worry he’s got something planned. I was immediately excited because while he’s daily sweet I knew something extra special was planned and hoped it was an engagement! As the weekend approached he informed me that it was a weekend trip and not just an overnight and then gave me a packing list. The list wasn’t a dead giveaway of our trip because it was so well-rounded and included things like hiking boots and swim suits, so I was extra curious! He told me that we’d be getting picked up the morning of the July 4th at 8:00am. Picked up? Talk about crazy levels of curiosity!

The morning of we got up, gathered our things and went downstairs and were greeted by Dustin’s best friend Matt and his wife Aleah. “I knew it!” I yelled and then gave them hugs. I looked at them and asked where we were going and they looked at Dustin and said the same. They didn’t know either! Dustin then pulled out two envelopes labeled “1” and “2” and said “Jess gets to pick where we’re going!” The pressure was on! Before I picked he told us that there was a catch, the catch was that whatever envelope I chose I could never know the other envelopes contents. Crazy right?! So, instead of making a tough choice I closed my eyes and grabbed for an envelope choosing number 1! I opened it and it read “We’re going to Daufuskie Island!” HELL YA! I’ve been wanting to go ever since I met Dustin because he has so many great stories from the island as does Matt and Aleah hadn’t been either so we were both very excited. After regrouping our emotions we settled into the car and went to priority number two, coffee, and then it was the open road all the way to Hilton Head.

Dustin’s parents own a home on Daufuskie but it was booked for the Forth so for the first night we stayed in Bluffton, SC which is pretty much Hilton Head. Once we got there we checked into our Air B&B spot and went to the neighborhood pool. Matt and Aleah opted out claiming they were napping but I later found out they were up to additional surprises. After getting cleaned up we took the ferry to Daufuskie Island for dinner. Once we arrived at the island we grabbed the family golf cart and Dustin gave us a tour. We had time to kill before our reservation so we parked and went to take a stroll on the beach and that’s when he paused, said really sweet things and asked if I’d marry him!!!!

Matt had rented a really great lens and put it on Dustin’s Nikon and was snapping photos as it all went down. They all went above and beyond to make this a special day that I will never forget! After Dustin and I hugged, cried and both stared at the gorgeous ring we ran over and had a group hug. We hung out on the beach for around and hour or so, looking at shells, horseshoe crabs and washed up jelly fish before heading to dinner. I can’t thank Matt and Aleah enough for all the effort they put in to the surprise. Later that night we discovered what they were up to when we were swimming. They had decorated the room at the b&b with strung lights, daisies, gifts, wine and chocolate!

Dustin and I are over the moon with excitement! It was nice being away and having privacy to enjoy the first couple of days as an engaged couple. We did a lot of staring at the ring which is super special as it was originally my grandmothers and given to us from my mom. We were given the option of keeping it as is or making changes and opted to make it our own. Dustin worked with a jeweler and did just that and together made it very much “us.” He upgraded the largest stone to a bigger more clear estate diamond, added two baguette diamonds, kept two small ones from the original and added two sapphire triangles to the underneath, side area for a total of 7 stones which is a lucky number to us. The touch of blue represents Dustin and the triangles were a little something for me. We wanted it to remain two-tone, yellow gold and white gold to be able to go with whatever I want to wear with it and It’s perfect!

I don’t think I could begin to put into words how thrilled I am that I have found my forever partner in love, crime, silliness and all things that life brings us. One last thank you to Matt, Aleah and my future husband Dustin for making this new chapter off to the best possible start!

THROWBACK THURSDAY

First of all, happy long weekend and Independence Day! I wanted to share these really cool 35mm photos Dustin took several months back with a roll of Lomography film using his grandfathers camera. I posted about some regular 35mm back in April, see the photos in this post.

On our walk to the festival at Atlantic Station, the mechanical engineer couldn’t resist this smokestack from the original steel mill.

Dustin nailed this shot, we had to get permission to get this close since there was a security fence but this photo was worth bugging the security guard!

Before entering the concrete madness!

We really enjoyed our round two experience at Shaky Knees, read about it in detail in this post.

Bike love, that blue light leak is awesome!

Keeping cool at Dogwood Festival, wearing Cynthia Rowley shirt, Superga sneakers, and H&M shorts (promise I’m wearing pants!)

Flynn judging all the cyclists and runners on the Beltline. His favorite thing is to chill on the ledge of our window, which is somewhat terrifying to us because we are technically on the 4th floor. Since it’s gotten so hot we aren’t able to open the windows as much, in turn we are having less panic attacks!

On another note, I know I’ve been slacking on LF posts, I was on a roll there for a while and lately just find myself so exhausted at the end of the day. Between keeping up with the new site, I Spy Atl, and daily life I just don’t have a ton of content for this blog. Actually right this second I’m working on this post and TWO for I Spy, definitely respect ladies who juggle blogs and have a family, don’t know how they do it! I do know that it’ll come back to regularity organically like it has in the past, as I’ve always gone through phases of blog productivity, so just bare with me!

Have a safe and fun weekend!

THE PINEWOOD

Yesterday I went to The Pinewood Tippling Room with some girlfriends and enjoyed a tasty spin on my usual Old Fashion. I snapped photos of their charming Southern decor and wrote about it on I Spy Atl, read and view the full post here.

THE WEEKEND

This weekend friends and I headed up north to Cleveland, GA (sound familiar? I was just there, read about it here) for our friend Jessica’s bachelorette weekend. The intentions of the weekend were to relax, chill by the pool, EAT, sip on drinks, hike and of course celebrate J Step’s upcoming nuptials. We managed to check it all off our to-do list and more! Here’s a short recap..

After arriving and unpacking the car we noshed on a cheese platter and hung by the pool. We all pitched in and brought floats, squirt guns and other water accessories. I made a white and red sangria for the night and we all combined forces to make about 6 pizzas of different fresh ingredient varieties. The next day we went for a hike behind the house but realized it wasn’t as “legit” as we wanted so we set out for Duke’s Creek Falls but on the way got distracted by “Helen Tubing” signs and decided that was more our speed! We spent about 2.5 hours floating down the Chattahoochee with several hundred other people from all walks of life, it was something else!

Saturday’s delicious breakfast provided by Muriel included a blueberry “french toast” casserole, an egg and bacon spinach dish and fresh watermelon. Take me back to this meal! But not that coffee, it was gross, we couldn’t figure out the fancy coffee machine and this ended up tasting like glorified gas station coffee..

Despite being gross from our float we couldn’t resist a photobooth in Helen which was obviously made for two people max!

I brought friendship bracelet materials and on Saturday after we sat by the pool and made alphabet bracelets. There was a “Bitch Please” “Stepweber” (bride+groom combo) and I went with “LF FTW”

On Sunday I got dropped off at Dustin’s place and we made our way to Sweet Water Brewery with some of his family and friends and my little brother. A nice end cap to a pretty chill weekend. Yesterday Dustin and I started our Summer kickball season with our team “Community Bucket.” It was my first time playing kickball as an adult and I wasn’t half bad but still very much competitive! Hope everyone out there is having a swell start to the week!

INSTA-FAVES | TOTEWELL

For this edition of INSTA-FAVES I decided to go with my favorite selections from Madewell’s #TOTEWELL competition. When I looked back at all the entries I was really inspired! Sucks cause I had been thinking about buying one of their transport totes for so long and finally took the plunge after the competition but nonetheless, still enjoyed perusing the section of entries, here. Without even trying all my picks have similar vibes —

This last one is mine! Snapped this in downtown Roswell having dinner with my folks last weekend. I’ve already conditioned it with leather conditioner and it’s getting so soft, in love!