Friday Favorites, Honeymoon Edition.

Oh how I wish there was a “rewind” button on life!  I want to go back and relive our wedding weekend and the honeymoon over and over and over again.  A lot of our time was spent simply laying low by the pool but we did a lot in the 9 days we were there. I promise to give a full recap of where we went for our honeymoon (Scrub Island in the BVIs) but for today I’m going to give you my Honeymoon Favorites!  And to be honest, the best part about these posts is that I get to relive the moments while posting the pictures.

Favorite View:  Waking up to this every.single.morning. was amazing.

Good morning from Scrub!

Favorite Place to Grab a Drink:  While on our honeymoon, we decided to rent a private boat and captain for a day and basically go island hopping.  And by island hopping, I mean, bar hopping.  One of our first stops was Cooper Island.  It’s easily my favorite place for a drink because there were bar tables in the ocean.  Had it been any later in the day, I wouldn’t have wanted to leave…  Wanna know the funny part about this picture?  Big Guy is the one that got the frozen drink!  Pinky’s up.

Cooper Island cocktails

Favorite Adventure:  By far, my favorite adventure of the trip was the island hopping day.  Here are some of my favorite pics capturing our day:

Cooper Island swing

Star fish at Cooper Island

Willy T’s

view from Soggy Dollar

Time to head back to Scrub!

Favorite Sunset:  This picture was taken on the ferry as we were on our way to dinner.

Beautiful sunset.

Favorite Drink at Scrub:  Sandie Split.  Sandie was one of our favorite employees at Scrub Island.  She made me this drink the first night we arrived and I had to have one every time she was behind the bar.  All I know is that there was lots of rum (light and dark) plus some orange juice.  The rest is Sandie’s secret.

Sandie Split

Sandie!

Favorite Dinner:  We ate some pretty amazing food everywhere we were, but my favorite dinner by far was our private dinner on the beach.  It wasn’t the food that made it my favorite but the company and the privacy was pretty hard to beat.  After a long few weeks of wedding preparation and the whirlwind of the wedding, this private dinner was much needed the second night of our honeymoon.

dinner for two

just us and the sounds of the ocean.

Favorite Frozen Drink:  Let’s be honest, we drank a lot of cocktails during our honeymoon.  But they weren’t one after the other – I promise there was lots of water in between each and every drink.  I mean, if you can have a drink at 11:30am on a Wednesday, why not?  The British Smile was one of my favorite frozen drinks – basically it’s a “skinny” bushwacker.

British Smile

British Smile in his hand, but no smile on this face.

Favorite Day of Relaxation:  I knew from the day we booked our honeymoon that I was going to spend a day at the spa.  Whether Big Guy was going to join me?  That was up in the air.  But he agreed and I’ve never seen that guy so relaxed in my life.  We did the full couples package and it was simply amazing.  Bonus – it was overcast that day, so I didn’t miss any of my sunshine time.

champs and relaxation

private infinity pool

relax.

Favorite Drink:  If I had to name my favorite drink of the whole trip, it would be the Kiwi Caipirinha from a hole-in-the-wall sushi joint we ran across in Tortola while killing time before dinner.  Y’all – this think was out of control.  Fresh kiwi, mint, lime and goodness muddled together.  And isn’t the color gorgeous?

kiwi cocktail

Favorite Picture:  Okay, I can’t really pick a favorite.  But I love this picture.

sandy hands

Favorite Husband:  Thank you, Big Guy, for the most amazing honeymoon I could have ever asked for.  It was the icing on the cake after the most perfect wedding.  I’ve always daydreamed about my honeymoon and my real honeymoon far surpassed anything I could have imagined.  And can I just say, it was even more amazing that Big Guy put up an email message saying he was out of the country and work wasn’t always on his mind (he got about 30 minutes a day to answer important stuff).  Big Guy works so incredibly hard every day and my favorite part of the honeymoon was having him all to myself.

Mr. and Mrs.

my favorite person

love you. (okay, done being lovey, dovey)

Wedding Wednesday, #bellwatson427

Oh y’all!  The past few weeks have been a fairy tale.  From the week leading up to the wedding – full of family and preparation to the honeymoon – relaxing and reliving the April 27th, life has been bliss.  I have so much to share and Wedding Wednesday will continue (perhaps on other days, too) so that I can wrap up all the details I haven’t shared.  I cannot wait to see the photographers pictures because I know that I missed so much at the reception.  But on Instagram, I used #bellwatson427 so that I could see pics as people posted them.  So here are some of my favorite Instagram pictures that other people captured, in no particular order…

“Bell” ladies – somehow, someway.

The guys golfing at BCC.

Groom’s Cake (more details to come)

Last “single” kiss.

much needed the morning of

mimosas!

4.27.13

getting ready

exchanging cards

the original 6

beautiful Rose Hill

me and daddy – one of my favorite moments captured

ceremony collage

“our” places

All the Watson’s

the wedding party

 

The Bell Gang

precious Baby Haines

It worked!!!

 

 

Tomorrow

Wedding Wednesday: Wedding Week is Here!

After 15 months of planning, we are down to 3 days before the big day!  There are so many emotions going on but most of all I’m excited.  My family began to arrive in town yesterday and I can’t wait to spend the whole weekend with those that mean to the most to me and Chris.

Wedding Week!!!!

We’re simply tying up any loose ends this week and hopefully by Thursday afternoon we’ll be confident enough to throw our feet up and relax (wishful thinking?).

My sister arrives this evening and tomorrow her and my Momma will have one last moment of pre-wedding pampering with manicures and pedicures.  We went before my sisters wedding (just the three of us) and so it seems only fitting to do this same for me.  My Momma and my sister are my rocks and they’ve listened to all my stress, complaints and just complete insanity for the past 15 months 30 years so it’ll be nice to have that time of pampering – just the three of us.

I know that there will be some things that come up that need to be done last minute but I am going to just enjoy every single moment from now until “last call” at the reception.  I know that it’s going to be an amazing weekend and I can’t wait to share with you all the memories post-wedding!!!!

Pork and Sweet Pepper Kebabs

One word I can never spell right:  ”kebabs” – I always want to make it “keBOBS.”  Moving on…this dinner recipe from the most recent Cooking Light magazine is not only delicious and easy but it’s easy on the wallet, too. You probably have everything on hand except the pork tenderloin and bell peppers.  Or you may have it all tucked away in your fridge.  I’m sure you could substitute in any protein (beef or chicken) but I really loved the pork since it’s not something I eat and/or cook every week.

The pork was cut into 1-inch pieces about an an hour before I wanted to eat and marinated in a super delicious soy-based mixture.  Other ingredients:  lemon juice, ketchup, brown sugar, crushed red pepper and lots of garlic.  When I was ready to eat – we simply arranged the pork on skewers and threaded the veggies on separate skewers.  I used regular ole bell peppers – taste the same – and I added in some red onion that I needed to use.  I kept it simple with the veggies, just a sprinkling of salt.

kebabs

The pork was cooked perfectly (way to go, Big Guy!) and was perfectly paired with the grilled veggies on top of rice.  The rice soaked up the flavor of the pork – the bites with rice were my favorite.

Simple, healthy and delicious.  Can’t beat that!

Charleston Eats

Wedding week is here!!!  I just don’t know how I’m going to focus on anything else this week.  I was trying to figure out what to blog about (don’t worry, I have some weekend eats (aka SALADS) to share but that can wait) and then I realized I never shared about the dining that went on in Charleston.  I love to read restaurant reviews, especially when I’m about to go to that city, so I want to write a few.  Now these reviews aren’t anything fancy – they’re just my honest opinion on the restaurant, taking into consideration the atmosphere, the staff and the FOOD.

First up, Hominy Grill.  We had scoped out several places to have brunch on Saturday morning but we didn’t make a reservation (most places don’t take ‘em for lunch).  With that being said, we made a decision in the middle of the street to hit up Hominy Grill.  On the phone we were told we were about a 15 minute walk away and there was a table for 8 ready when we were standing in front of Toast (heard great things, bottomless mimosas – for an hour, just decided not to eat there).

Hominy Grill

Well, we walked…and we walked…and we walked…and finally after about 45 minutes we made it.  We were starving.  And thirsty.  There are many things that could have gone wrong at this moment – but things started looking really nice (except to the Buttercream Queen) when we realized we could enjoy cocktails (AKA mimosas) while waiting for our table (that table for 8 had just been sat when we arrived).

beauties…hungry beauties

So we all enjoyed a drink while waiting and took lots of pictures.  We also glared at the table of 8 hoping to encourage them to eat faster (kidding…kind of).

blondies

Finally, the table cleared and we cheered.  Oh, yes we did.  A round of drinks was a must.  Obviously I went for the mimosa but I heard the bloody’s were on point (I enjoyed snacking on their pickled okra).

day drinking is necessary

After glancing over the menu, we were ready to order.  Or so we thought.  We were going to order some appetizers (that’s how famished we were) but come to find out, those are only available during the week.  Major fail.  We did order some fried green tomatoes and they were delicious (I’m going to add – I did eat gluten over the weekend.  And it was totally worth every bite.)

To eat, we all ventured around the menu, but I ultimately went with the Low Country Omelette – Charleston red rice with shrimp gravy & home fries.  Y’all!  An omelette stuffed with dirty rice!!!!  It was awesome!  I cleaned my plate, well except for the biscuit.  That biscuit saved the Buttercream Queen’s life.

Charleston Omelette

A couple of hens ordered the Huevos Rancheros - poached eggs served with black beans, rice, tortilla, fresh salsa & avocado and raved about how incredible they were.  Oh, and their jam is the jam.  Someone, who will remain nameless that was saved by a biscuit wanted to steal the jam.

huuuuevos

If you’re in Charleston, Hominy Grill is a MUST!  I totally recommend this restaurant.  Even after walking 45 minutes, waiting an hour and not being able to order appetizers, I would tell you to go.  The staff was amazingly friendly and sitting on the patio was just what I wanted to kick off the Saturday.

Post-brunch (about 2pm) we ventured to a bar/restaurant/dive called Fuel.  We obviously didn’t eat anything because we were stuffed but we did order a round of drinks while repeating over and over again how amazing the outside seating area was.  I want to go back and just sit for hours and hours and people watch.  And what do you know – I just realized it was featured on Triple D on the Food Network.  Now it’s even cooler!

Fuel

Following that stop, we ventured around Charleston and after stopping at a few boutiques and bars, we made it back to get ready for dinner.

Dinner in Charleston…so many options!  I had heard of Husk and High Cotton and ultimately we made a reservation at  two places:  High Cotton and Anson.  (I am very disappointed to say that Husk would not make accommodations for a party of 8. )  In the end, we decided to go Anson.  It was a stones-throw away from our hotel and I was impressed with their website.  (Just to note – I’m sure that Husk and High Cotton are fantastic, but I feel that restaurants that get as much publicity as they do don’t have to work as hard to get customers to return…)

hen party

Anson was perfect!  Despite having a few glitches with our reservation (the night before) I was blown away by their service and food.  I stuck with drinking Prosceco (bottles for the table!!!!) but I will be returning for a cocktail (someday, mark my word).  The waiter gave us multiple suggestions and really was honest about dishes, as far as his favorites were.

Instead of ordering a large plate, I went with a salad and small plate.  I think most of the table did the same.

To start, GOLDEN BEETS Feta Cheese, Pecans, Radish, Arugula, Banyuls Vinegar.  

The salad was gorgeous when it arrived.  It was so colorful and so perfectly arranged.  Loved the plating!

Ultimately, I couldn’t turn down the pork belly.  I just can’t.  If it’s on a menu, I’m going to order it.  That’s just how it is.

PORK BELLY Corn And Cheddar Waffle, Hot Pepper Jelly, Sunnyside-Up Farm Egg & Succotash

The pork belly was just as melt-in-you-mouth as I imagined and I loved the hot pepper jelly combined with the egg and succotash.  I must note, the waffle wasn’t my favorite (and wasn’t worth the gluten – the only thing the whole trip).  Marlo also ordered this dish – she’s never had pork belly – and is not a pork belly-iver.

pork belly

Other dishes that were enjoyed by the table:

FRIED OKRA Cornmeal Dusted, Goat Cheese & Chili Oil - to die for.

PAN SEARED SCALLOPS Avocado, Grapefruit, Sweet Onion, Citrus Vinaigrette

 SHE CRAB SOUP Laced With Golden Sherry

SEARED SCALLOPS Ragout Of Field Peas, Okra, House Smoked Pork, Anson’s Grits

The thing I”m most thankful for – everyone loves to share (and taste other people’s plates)!!!!  So I tried it ALL.  Oh, and Peaches got a steak that had the most incredible spice rub on the outside.  I need that spice rub in my life.

And finally, breakfast on Sunday.

Poogan’s Porch.

All I’m going to say about this restaurant, order the Chicken and Waffles.  Don’t even look at anything else.

Crispy fried chicken breasts, waffles, blueberry Texas Pete maple syrup…ummm, the blueberry Texan Pete maple syrup needs to be bottled and sold.  I could not keep my fork off people’s plates.  I wanted to dip everything in that syrup.  Every single bite was better than the one before – and that never happens.  Sweet, savory, breakfast perfection.

chicken ‘n waffles

So those are our eats.

Hominy Grill
Anson
Poogan’s Porch

I’d recommend them all!!!!!!

Friday Favorites! Almost no time to pin.

The key word in the above title:  ”Almost.”  I haven’t been on Pinterest in quite a while but I managed to pull myself from working too hard and did a little pinning.  I couldn’t leave you without “Friday Favorites” for two weeks in a row.

Favorite Small Bite:  Chicken and Waffles.  Let’s just say that we had an epic breakfast last Sunday morning.  Four girls ordered the chicken and waffles.  One of my friends insisted that I recreate the dish.

these bites just need blueberry Tabasco syrup

Favorite Bucket List Item:  I’ve never been sailing.  I don’t think Big Guy is a fan but I don’t care.  It’s on my bucket list as of today.

sail away

Favorite Table:  At the same place that we devoured chicken and waffles on Sunday, I fell in love with reclaimed wood tables.  How gorgeous and rustic at the same time!

reclaimed wood table

Favorite Bauble:  In one word:  adore.

make a statement

Favorite Dips:  Dips are totally different than appetizers, right?  I’ll just keep telling myself that…

Fire-Roasted Corn Dip

Favorite Grilled Cheese:  It is National Grilled Cheese month, after all.  So I think that I’ll celebrate this weekend.  You in, Big Guy?  How about we combine two of my favorites:  grilled cheese and pizza?

grilled cheese, please.

Favorite Truth:  This past weekend was simply amazing.  A lot of people would think that putting 8 girls together might cause some cattiness.  But I can honestly say there was no tears or mean words.  And that is why I have the best friends in the whole wide world!

laugh!

Well it’s my last weekend of being a single gal…so to celebrate, I think I’ll have a glass of wine and a grilled cheese sandwich.  Totally normal.

Wedding Wednesday, 10 days.

Big Guy and I will say “I do.” in 10 days.  That means we’re in the single digits tomorrow.  Holy cow.  It seems like just yesterday I was picking out my wedding dress.  And next week my Momma picks up the dress for the last time.  What an incredible journey it’s been.

On Monday we got our marriage license paperwork.  Now all we need is the pastor’s signature and two witnesses.  It’s real, y’all!

There are little things that need to be completed, but for the most part all is said and done.

My To-Do List:

• Wrap wedding party gifts
• Anything Momma Bell tells me to do

Yep, that’s it.

I have written a Wedding Wednesday for over a year now (minus one week) and I can’t believe it’s coming to a close.  Don’t worry, post wedding I’ll catch everyone up on the events leading up to the wedding the week of plus all things reception.

April 27th is going to be the best day ever.

Insta-Hen Weekend

What a fabulous weekend!!!  Y’all, I couldn’t have asked for a better “hen” party.  I have the BEST friends in the whole wide world.  I can’t say “Thank you” enough.

I’m not going to lie – things are going to be a little cray-cray (crazy) the next couple of weeks (11 days) so bear with me.  But here’s what’s been happening lately via Instagram.  For the bachelorette party, we used the hashtag “bellhenparty” and it’s so great to be able to see the pictures that all eight of us took in one place (technology amazes me sometimes).  So enjoy some of my favorite memories.

I can’t even tell you how many times I heard “woo hoo!”

Friday night champs!

brunch on Saturday at Hominy Grill

blondies

cocktail time!

All the hens at fuel.

Beautiful Charleston

 

roof top sippin’

out on the town

Stay tuned for more recaps!

Charleston is always a good idea.

This weekend is all about me and my ladies.  So excuse me for not posting a fun recipe or Friday Favorites but here are some of my favorite gals that I’ll be hanging out with all weekend.  I hope you have a fantastic weekend and I can’t wait to share (some of) our adventures!!!!

peaches, me and mags

leann and me

KP, marlo and me

me and nat

me and kat

Charleston is always a good idea.