Vendor Day in the OBX

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In case you missed our live tweets from our vendor day a couple of weeks ago, I'll recap everything for you here, including our new vendor choices.

With about two hours of sleep under our belts, Matt and I headed out bright and early for North Carolina from Virginia Beach. We had made an all-night drive to VA Beach where my parents live from Washington D.C. the night before.

Our first stop was at Renee Landry Style, our florist and designer. Our wedding planner, Marie Russell from Bordeaux Events, met us there (Marie's husband designed the famous OBX sticker above, btw). If there was any doubt that Renee was a perfect match for us, and really there wasn't, just walking into her front door proved that she exudes the fun and creativity we were looking for:



We discussed what we were looking for in our wedding decor...fun! flowy curtains! puffy flowers! glitter! umbrellas! a Twitter bird! hot pink and white! casual! Umm, yeah, we want a lot. And that might intimidate a lot of designers, but not Renee! The more energized we got, the more energized she got. We matched each other's excitement perfectly.

As soon as I said I wanted puffy flowers, she immediately came up with a theme name for our wedding: "Puffy Galore." If you don't get it, then you obviously haven't watched Austin Powers and this blog is too PG for me to explain it to you. ;)

So, we decided that our main flower would be the dinner plate dahlia, in hot, hot pink...hotter than what's pictured below:



We discussed dozens of other ideas and Renee will put everything together in a proposal for us to review (we should be getting that by the end of next week). I know that whatever she comes up with will be fabulous and I will be sure to share it with you when we know more.



Our next stop was at Argyles Restaurant & Piano Bar for our first tasting. Since we started our day at 7 and it was now 10, we were definitely hungry and eager to taste everything that was put in front of us!

We tried:



Citrus Lemon-crusted Scallops, Pasta Provencal, Herb-crusted Chicken, Hummus Platter, Chocolate Grand Marnier Cake, Chocolate Eclair Cake and Raspberry Cheesecake. Yes, we ate ALL of that, lol! And it was delicious! I can't even put into words how amazing all of the food was, most especially the Citrus Lemon-crusted Scallops! We were very impressed to say the least! Enough so that we chose Argyles to be our caterer.

We still had more cake tasting to do, however, at Great Cakes! We checked out various styles of cake before tasting and we decided to go with this one:



We may add very, very hot pink ribbon around the base of the tiers and possibly an umbrella and flip flops. Marsha is also going to add edible sand on the table next to the cake and will write a heart in it with our phrase "So Much" next to it. (I'll explain that phrase and the significance of a heart in the sand for us in another post)

We then went on to taste three different cakes:



Okay, you might be able to tell which was my favorite BEFORE we tasted them. The half-eaten Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake. *grin* Being the biggest fan of peanut butter and chocolate alive, I was so eager to try that one that I dug in before I remembered to snap a picture of it!

The other two cakes were Almond Batter with Swiss Red Raspberry and Great Cake's signature cake: Key Lime Cake! (that's a lot of "cakes" in one sentence and believe me, it was a lot of cake in our stomachs too!)

So, now that you know what a huge peanut butter chocolate lover I am, I think it speaks volumes that the Key Lime cake was the best cake I've ever tasted!! It became my favorite AFTER we tasted everything, and I'm not even a big fan of key lime pie! It was that good. Matt and I were sold (he loved it as much as I did) and we decided right then and there that it was the perfect cake for us. It's not only delicious, but it's light and beachy so it was an easy choice.

With our bellies completely full, and with a gift in my hand from Great Cakes:



...we had a quick meeting with our photographer to go over details of that aspect of the wedding, and then we were off by ourselves for our favorite part of the entire trip...seeing our beach house and where we'll be married!

The photos we had viewed online really did not do this house justice. It is HUGE! Huge and beautiful!



We ended our day with a walk hand-in-hand on the beach where we will say "I do!" in front of the house. We collected shells together and slow danced a little with the waves rushing up to our ankles. It was the perfect end to a perfect day, all planned and executed by Marie, who is beyond fabulous.

And just this past weekend, Matt surprised me with the shells we had collected on the beach and added them to this sign I bought for our home:



That's my guy! Romantic, creative, loving and thoughtful. I am blessed beyond words to be marrying such an amazing man! I wouldn't want to share this journey in life with anyone else but him by my side.