Gatherings

The Graduate

Posted on May 12, 2013 | 6 comments

Congrats to Matt for not only making it through two challenging years of business school at Duke, but for getting awesome grades along the way and a fabulous job in the end!! I’m so proud:)

Bachelorette

Posted on May 5, 2013 | 1 comment

The lovely ladies in Durham were kind enough to treat me to a bachelorette outing on Friday night! In lieu of big bachelor and bachelorette parties, Matt and I asked all of our friends to come to the island a day early to hang out and celebrate. So it was fun that I ended up having a little bachelorette party after all!

We started the evening off at the Carolina Inn, where they have live music and drinks on Fridays in the summer. Despite the chilly weather, it was packed!! The music was festive there’s nothing like wine, music, and lawn chairs to kick off a Friday. We were chatting so much that I didn’t even realize two hours had passed!

We moved on to Elaine’s on Franklin for dinner – I’ve been wanting to try Elaine’s for two years, so I was pumped that my friend Rachel chose it. The cocktails were fantastic – they make their own version of ginger beer and I had the best dark and stormy!! There was really good house made focaccia we well.

I had ceviche to start: yucatan style local fluke ceviche w/pickled habañeros, coconut milk, ginger, lime, local cilantro & plantain chips – probably another best I’ve ever had.

In honor of the derby, I also had a mint julep – whoa this drink was strong, but perfectly sweet and right up by bourbon-loiving alley.

Next, I ordered: the southern fried n.c. softshell crab w/ purple cabbage slaw, millarckee farm’s arugula & tabasco aioli! I know I’ve had softshell crab before, but definitely not often and this guy blew my socks off. And it was much better than having to dig for crab meat in the shell:)

After dinner, we gathered at West End Wine Bar for cupcakes and games. These were supposed to be mini’s, but the bakery gave us the big ones! 12 cupcakes for 5 girls made for a lot of sharing of flavors. Red velvet was my favorite.

We played a version of the newlywed game with Matt’s input – not sharing any details here:)

[Don't worry, she's simply posing with one of my four glasses:)]

We ended the night at the coolest little speakeasy that the wine bartender told us about. We were hesitant to follow my friend Katie into this door, but it was so neat inside! Am I supposed to share the name or does that ruin the fun?

Thank to my friends for an amazing celebration – I’m only ‘single’ for a few more weeks!

Finished

Posted on Apr 30, 2013 | 4 comments

Matt is officially finished with business school! Wooo hoo! He doesn’t graduate for two more weeks, but finishing eight terms at Fuqua is definitely something to celebrate!

The Dean hosted a reception at the Nasher Museum with all kinds of goodies:

Good thing some of these folks are heading to Dallas with us!!

Early to bed, early to bootcamp! Night.

More April Showers

Posted on Apr 28, 2013 | 6 comments

I had the pleasure of attending two baby showers this weekend!

Don’t ya just love shower food?!

This was like a nutty pineapple carrot cake combo involving cream cheese and buttercream!!!!

Cheers to [one of the] lovely moms-to-be:)

The second shower on Sunday had fabulous food too! Both showers were gender-neutral, which meant lots of yellows and greens.

After Saturday’s shower, Matt and I grabbed pizza with friends at Pizzeria Toro.

We shared the asparagus salad and a spicy clam pizza – I can’t believe I’m going to Italy next month – this meal made me soooo excited!

After we said good night to our friends, we couldn’t resist a drink at Mateo Tapas (my very favorite in Durham). We have so few free weekends left here! So even though we had just finished dinner, we ordered the blue cheese stuffed bacon wrapped dates because they are heavenly.

What a nice weekend! And after today’s shower, I had my second-to-last fitting, so my dress is just about ready to be picked up. Yay!

Tots and Such

Posted on Apr 24, 2013 | 0 comments

Food truck Wednesday!

Well not really – I think there are trucks at Fullsteam Brewery most nights! Side note: I love food trucks as long as I have a table. I can’t stand eating while standing up – I’m a fast eater and have learned that I do much better if I can sit down and savor my food!

Tonight, we met up with friends and a birthday girl for beers and celebration and it was so nice! I love random Wednesday outings. Matt and I shared a spare rib quesadilla, tots, and a spicy goat cheese slice of pizza.

Oh man, those tots hit the spot. And the quesadilla was fabulous.

I had one summery white beer, and it was just one of those nights where it went straight to my brain and left me with a massive headache – maybe I’m dehydrated since Wednesday is bootcamp in the am? Regardless, I’m heading straight for bed and I’m pretty excited:)

Night!

Shower Scenes

Posted on Apr 21, 2013 | 19 comments

Guys, I had the most wonderful weekend!

My bridal shower was so lovely I nearly cried.

It was hosted by three of my mom’s close friends, who have watched me grow up:)

They prepared a beautiful spread of food, sangria, and pear punch!

Although everyone knows cake is my true love.

Strawberry in the middle!

I think my favorite part of the shower was a newly-wed game that the hosts had put together with Matt’s input. I did pretty well, but was stumped on a few of the questions.

Opening gifts was pretty fun too!

I hope the guests had fun too – I think Mazen loved being around so many ladies…

The shower was only the highlight of the weekend – I also got to spend tons of quality time with family and friends. I’m sad it’s all over, but so thankful to the hosts for such a sweet shower.