Our house!

I posted awhile back than Ben and I bought a house, but we never put pictures up. Here are some pictures before we painted and moved in. We absolutely love the house. It has so much character and charm and the location is incredible. It's in the historic district just a few blocks from Lee and the greenway. Now, we're just working on making it our own, which is taking longer than I'd hoped. I'm realizing it might be one of those ongoing processes since our tastes change over time.

Check back for the after pictures of what we've done so far and let us know when you're in town - we love houseguests!

Yeah mon!

Wedding planning is tiring, no matter how laid back of a bride you are. Your whole life gets consumed by aisle pomander decorations and stalking the newest bridal magazines at Barnes and Noble. Needless to say, Ben and I were definitely looking forward to a little R&R and our honeymoon was the perfect getaway.

The day after our wedding, we left for Sandals Dunn's River resort in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. It was so beautiful. The resort was a smaller, intimate resort - which we loved. The beach was perfect and the locals were great. We were escorted straight to the concierge desk upon arrival and from that moment, we never had to worry about a thing. We went to check out our room and it was wonderful - we had an ocean view and it was so nice to sit out there in the mornings and eat breakfast and listen to the island wake up.

The first day we were there, we got our shopping out of the way and hit up some of the local markets to grab the usual Jamaican souveniers. The next couple of days we went on some island excursions. The first one we did was climb Dunn's River Falls. This place was so beautiful. It's a waterfall in Ocho Rios that flows out in the ocean. We started at the bottom and climbed our way up with a huge group of people.

Our second excursion was the Blue Mountain bicycle tour. We took a bus with a group of people from nearby hotels and we headed off to the Blue Mountains. The ride was about two hours, but it was so fun. Our driver gave us great info on all the areas we drove through and the history of the island, as well as the current state of the island. We finally reached the Blue Mountains and we drove up near the top and stopped at the tour headquarters where we had brunch, learned how coffee berries are transformed into coffee beans and then headed off to ride our cruisers down the mountain. This excursion was a blast. We ended the day with a dip in a pool of cold mountain water right under a waterfall where some local boys were jumping off (you know Ben was dying to play, but the guides wouldn't let him jump off the falls since they would be liable) :(

The rest of the time at the resort was spent in the pool or by the beach. It was so nice to just relax and not plan anything for a change!

We did take a few pictures and you can view them here if you're interested. I wish we had taken more, but our cameras aren't waterproof so we didn't take them down to the pool or beach. Enjoy!

We did it!

We got married! I am now Mrs. Ben Williams and Ben is...well, he's still Mr. Ben Williams, but with a new sidekick. We've got some pics that friends and family have taken and you are welcome to view them here. (I'll let everyone know when our professional pics are available for viewing.)

We had the best time that day and were so lucky to have so many family members and close friends in attendance. And even though my 100+ candles didn't stay lit, everything was perfect. I feel like people were able to see our personalities shine through in the details of our wedding and that's what we wanted most.

So thank you to everyone who was able to join us on that day. We know it was hot and sticky, but at least there were sno cones!