from a smith in the south.

Greetings, friends! I'm writing to you as a married woman in beautiful Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Yeah, I'm not real mad about it.

I could write to you all for days about the dirty details of my wedding, but I'll save that for later. Here are some of my favorite things about our big day - and some photos to show you just how fabulous the weather was, how wonderful my mother's hard work and decorations turned out, and how beautiful the entire day was.

I cried like a baby. I held my shit together ALL day. Like, lockdown. Everyone kept asking me how I felt, and I was completely honest - I felt nothing. I did a great job at taking mental pictures of everything, and I'm still actively reviewing them all. But I didn't feel a single thing until I was walking down the aisle with my dad, and saw Rob standing up there. I think almost everyone there - including some of the most cold hearted of my friends - teared up. Tears are a good thing. I'm so happy I had them. They're proof that I was engaged.

I tried to cut our cake with the serving utensil instead of the knife. And to think I'm the good cook between the two of us.

Rob had a rip in his pants before the reception even started.

My dad did the sprinkler, the shopping cart, made everyone in the audience cry and did a kickass air guitar to Journey.

My grandpa did the Gangnam Style dance.

The night of our wedding, my new husband's main priority was jumping into a pool full of straight men in his boxers.

We're still eating leftover wedding cupcakes. Mojito was totally the way to go.

In closing, here's what you're really here for - some photos :)

Our amazing photographer participating in our hashtag fun - this was so much fun to do with her, and I couldn't have imagined a more perfect person to shoot our wedding. Follow her on Instagram and Facebook - you won't be sorry!

Our reception - at the Dunes House in Palmetto Dunes. They did such a fabulous job setting up and hosting the most perfect evening we could have ever imagined. 

My mother, unbeknownst to me, took paw prints of both our dogs with washable ink, and had the prints framed and put at our table for the reception so the dogs could be with us for the wedding. I had totally locked up the tears during pictures with our photographer, and then lost it once I saw the prints. 

Centerpieces. My dad cut up old skids into wooden planks, topped with white lanterns filled with starfish. Mason jars filled with sand and tea lights sat alongside these, and my mom tied monkeys knots with rope to hold our place cards. Tables were named with iconic places in Hilton Head important to Rob and I, rather than typical table numbers. 

The #smithberryhhi hashtag was the best thing we've ever done. It was so fun to look through Instagram photos after the big day was over, and seeing everyone's take on the entire weekend was hilarious. 

The most beautiful scene this world has ever seen. Fifty of our favorite people in the same place, under the same beautiful sky, for the same reason.  

Welcome gifts for our wedding party and officiant - girls got Kate Spade bow bangles, guys got new Leatherman knives. Everyone got monogrammed towels with their initials and a fabulously designed welcome packet with sand dollar ornament.

If you're considering a destination wedding, I'd highly consider it. We couldn't be happier, and for as frustrating as it can be planning a wedding from afar, we were so thrilled with all our vendors, I can't even tell you how thankful we are. Each and every person, from the legal officiant we had sign our license, to our cake, amazing photographer and perfect DJ/musician, we were beyond thrilled. Here are the vendors we used - and who we'd recommend to you over and over and over again.

Wedding Venue: The Dunes House, Palmetto Dunes, Hilton Head Island, SC
Photograhper: Carolina Photosmith
Music: Johnny Breeze Event Entertainment 
Cake: Sweet Carolina Cupcakes 
Flowers: Flowers By Sue
Print Design: Beach Street Creative
Decorations: My Mother. As original as they come.

cookouts, bridal showers and keeping the momentum.

Happy Sunday, friends! This post comes to you mainly because I'm avoiding cleaning out some of my old kitchen gadgets and dishes to make room for the brand spankin' new goodies we received at my bridal shower this weekend. Blessed does not even begin to cover it.

But since we haven't chatted since my birthday, I guess I've got some ground to cover. Let's talk about the fact that I gained 3 pounds this week at my weigh-in, despite tackling several workouts this past week in a desperate attempt to make up for birthday weight gained over the weekend. Frustrated does not even begin to cover it, and after an hour circuit class last Tuesday in a room covered by mirrors, it's safe to say that I haven't felt this bad about myself since I was at my highest weight.

I could write a series of posts on body image and how important it is to come to terms with who you are aside from your physical appearance, but my recent hiatus from strength training to more actively pursue my running has reminded me that strong is better than skinny any day of the week. It's something that, deep down, I think I always knew, but let's face it - sometimes we're more excited by a loss on the scale than we are by arm muscles. But truth be told, I didn't realize how much I missed being strong until I stopped doing bootcamp a few months ago and lost virtually all the muscle I'd gained during that process. The constant soreness I experience from strength training is fantastic, but detrimental to my running (this is my personal opinion - more power to you if you can bust out 9 miles after leg day at the gym). But I miss strength training dearly, and vow to pursue it more habitually once I get these pesky 13.1 miles out of my system.

The highlight of the work week was a 3.1 mile hike in 90 degree weather with the fabulous Healthy Habits ladies, followed by a cookout with all our favorite recipes from Skinnytaste. Here are some samplings from our fantastic cookout. Don't worry, we didn't have leftovers.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you southwestern black bean salad and chicken pesto kabobs. The black bean salad is a fantastic cold salad on its own, but we devoured the entire bowl before dinner with a bag of tortilla chips from Trader Joe's - I would highly recommend it for any and all summer cookouts and even as a healthy football party dish this fall. I used frozen corn, because I am inherently lazy. And not even sorry about it. The pesto kabobs are a perfect appetizer or main course - we used them as our main course, and someone brought a delicious tomato, basil and mozzarella salad that paired perfectly with these guys. Gina at Skinnytaste makes her own pesto and after I made hers for the first time, I've never bought prepackaged pesto again. It's fabulous. Understatement of the year. 

On the breakfast front, my wonderful friend over at Fabulous Fit Foodie sent a recipe my way for a southwestern scramble in a mug. I'm not a big breakfast person, and struggle to find things that are low in points but fill me until my next feeding (seriously, I eat every two hours like some sort of sick animal). I heat one link of chicken sausage separately, cut it up and add it along with the Laughing Cow wedge once the egg is cooked. Breakfast. In. A. Coffee. Mug. I'm in love. 

I usually eat my breakfast at work, so these are perfect things to store in the office fridge and use when you get hungry mid-morning.

All food and running aside though. This past weekend was my bridal shower, thrown by the best cousin/maid of honor, best friend and family I could ever ask for. The attention to detail, thought and extra mile taken turned out to be the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. I cannot begin to tell you how blessed I feel. As I sit here staring at all our new goodies, every one of them reminds me of the person who gave them to us, and it's actually kind of a humbling experience to know that every time I use our new crockpot, Ninja blender or snuggly green throw, I'll be thinking of the people who love and support us. It's an added bonus to the gift-receiving process that I hadn't considered until it happened.

The shower was also my first "wedding festivity," making the entire experience way more real than it's felt so far. We have 70 days (yes, 70) until the big day and all the planning, weight loss, exercise and logistics have taken priority thus far - but this past weekend allowed me to stop and breathe in the moment, and realize how lucky Rob and I are to have everyone here to celebrate with us. So, in closing, I'll leave you with a few detail shots from the shower - you can thank my amazing cousin over at Shannon Barth Photography for the amazing shots of the smallest, most intricate and beautiful details from Saturday's festivities.

Happy Sunday, friends - may you not kill anyone at your offices this week!

the truth about my wedding.

Rob and I both know that marrying each other is the coolest thing since Beyonce released her first solo album. We love that we're doing the big day in true Lauren & Rob style - toes in the sand, and a beer in hand. I don't need to constantly proclaim to the world how fantastic it is to be marrying the only other person in this world that I want to simultaneously kill and hug all at the same time, and neither does he. We share that with each other, during Duck Dynasty commercial breaks. So I'm not going to sit here and tell you all about it. If you're married, you get it. If you're still single, and anything like I was 3 years ago, you'd rather let a bird slowly peck at your eyeballs for 8 hours. But I do have to tell you how awesome this wedding planning thing is.

Coordinating centerpieces, discovering all the legalities of marriage licenses and learning that there are 80,000 different shades of white does not concern me. Those things suck, bad. What's awesome is realizing that not only are we having our wedding in my favorite location in the entire world, but we're essentially planning a giant family/best friend vacation in the process. As I hear about friends and family making their travel arrangements, I cannot help but picture how incredibly amazing this entire experience is going to be. Having the opportunity to get married on the beach is a blessing in and of itself, but being able to throw in margaritas with my college roommates, a pool party with friends and the constant presence of my kickass family just completely blows my mind. It's like the best family vacation/spring break/getaway you could ever imagine, culminating in the actual "I do." I mean, seriously? Does this even exist in real life?

Yes, it does. And I've never happier about sticking to my guns and going through with a beach wedding. My heart and soul is in Hilton Head, and Rob's is at that beautiful moment when the ocean hits your toes, but when the tide pulls it back out, your feet still feel the heat from the sun. Throw in an entire week of friends, family, margaritas and a beachfront home, and I'm pretty sure I can die happy.

I have no desire to look at reception decor, find someone to do my hair or figure out the perfect timing for cake cutting and dancing. I'm not concerned with what color my linens are, what color napkins we use to add color or if Rob gets a pedicure before he goes barefoot during the ceremony (no seriously, he better get a fucking pedicure, or I will throw up mid-I-do.). What I care about are my friends and family booking their travel arrangements, and planning several excuses to get all my friends together for beers, fun and sun. What I care about are the pictures, and the fact that I can't wait to see everyone's best Instagram photos with our wedding hashtag. The dancing, the wine and seeing everyone I care about enjoying themselves on the beach. And marrying my best friend. Yes, that too.