Wedding planning was never my favorite thing. I didn't have tons and tons of pins on my pinterest boards. I just kind of winged it. So when the parts that came around that didn't require anything from me, i.e. Bridal Shower and Bachelorette Party, I was in heaven.

Today I am going to recap my Bridal Shower. The shower was the first week of August, and a hot day to say the least. It was held back in my hometown in Pennsylvania in a beautiful church hall.

My friends and family put on a beautiful shower with homemade food and games. I'lllet the photos do the talking. Photo credit goes to my lovely friend Kellie!









There you have it. My cute Bridal Shower. There was great food, great laughs, and great friends. Okay there may of also been some lingerie and chocolate syrup..

Don't forget to catch my recap up to the shower here, and come back next week, same place, same time for a recap of my Bachelorette party which may or may not include a Sublime cover band and a contact high..

Now that it's FINALLY starting to feel like Fall around here (I swear the Powers That Be were listening when I prayed every night for Fall weather on my wedding day 2 weeks ago (It was perfect by the way.) I figured I would make a real bucket list of things I want to do this time around.


I always seem to write down everything I want to do and forget and then it ends up Winter and I'm like.. "wow I sure dropped the ball on those fun ideas". So let's not let that happen again this year.

• Attend a college football game - I have only attended high school football games at this point and since my hubby enjoys his college ball, and has gotten me into it, I really want to go to one.

• Star gaze: Fall is the time of year where we get crisp skies. Perfect time to check out the sky and the stars. The next meteor showers are the Orionids which peak on the night of October 21st.

• Apple picking: I went for the first time 2 years ago and I loved it. For some reason we did not make it last year, but I am making sure it happens this Fall! 

• Fall photos: Me and R just got married, and I want to start doing regular photos. I will be doing them myself, so this will be cost effective and fun all at the same time. 

• Hike: Summer is fun to hike, but it gets REALLY hot. Fall is one of my favorite times to hike. You get exercise AND get to take in the Fall scenery without suffering from heat stroke. 

•  Eat all the Fall foods: I love comfort food. I can't wait to make all the soups and chilis. Also pumpkin and apple everything makes my little heart flutter. Maybe I'll share some of my recipes this time around. Also Cider. That is all. 

• Halloween: No list is complete in my book without Halloween being mentioned. It has always been my favorite holiday. I can't wait to get out all my decor and plan a costume of sorts. I am planning to attend my local Wizarding Weekend. So many great things come from Halloween! 

So much magic there. I'm makes me super nostalgic.

What's on your list?

For those of you who are new to the page, or missed my wedding posts during the planning process, this post is for you. I am highlighting everything from my engagement up until right before my bridal shower.  This may be a little lengthy, but please bare with me! I wanted to make sure I get everything linked for your reading pleasure.

Here we go..


We were engaged on August 12, 2015 (My moms birthday!)  and quickly started looking into places to hold our wedding (I even blogged about first impressions of being engaged here). We live in the Finger Lake region of New York, AKA wine country. We knew we wanted to have a wedding that everyone would enjoy, but without breaking the bank.

We looked at a number of barns (You can see one of them here!), but none of them seemed to fit what we were looking for. We were having a small wedding, so a place fit for hundreds of people, just was not our style. I had booked marked a list of wineries in the area that hosted weddings.

A winery seemed like a great idea. We love wine. Our friends love wine. So why not. We looked at 2 places that responded to our request. R really wanted a wedding with a lake view. One of the wineries fulfilled that want, but the rest of the place was not working for us.

We decided on Knapp Winery. They had 2 dates left in the time frame we were looking for. Labor Day weekend or September 24th. We wanted Fall, so the 24th seemed like a no brainer. We booked and were set.

October came and I had an appointment with David's Bridal and a local boutique. My mom came into town and we had at it. You may remember I wrote about my experience with both here. I bought my dress a lot quicker than I anticipated, but it was love for sure.

Once the dress was bought and the venue was picked, I kind of stopped planning. We had engagement photos taken and I sent out cards to the ladies I wanted in my bridal party and everything kind of stood still til the Spring.

When March hit, I jumped into full on panic mode. So much to plan, so little time. I am a pretty thrifty person, so keeping costs down was very important to me. Our location was very pretty on it's own, so not much went into decor. I booked a photographer and a DJ and we chose our bakery. Everything was set.

We had planned to get married in front of a famous waterfall in the Ithaca area, however due to an extreme draught, there was no water. In August I changed the location of the ceremony. It was pretty risky, so close to the date, but I made it work and we had a plan.  

The first weekend of August was my bridal shower. I will be sharing that with you all next week on the 12th.

September 10th was my Bachelorette Party. That will be posted on 10/19.

You can expect the post on my wedding day on 10/26.

I can't wait to get into this mini series, sharing with you my wedding festivities.

Well here we are again. Another new month with more goals to be had. At this point my goals are really more like themes. I have goals, they just spread further than one month at a time.



In September I decided to have a mic drop moment. Just go with the flow. Stop letting things eat me up. Just have fun.

I think I did okay.. Let's have a good at September:

I saved my brother for the last time. Sad story, but his life is so toxic right now, I can't have it anymore interfering with my own life.

I had my Bachelorette party. That equals fun. And I needed it so bad.

I went to the Great New York Fair for the first time and I ate all the fried things!

And.. I got married!

I think I did well for the month. Mostly going with the flow. Having some fun aND having the best day ever for my wedding.

Now for October. I want to live Fall to its fullest. Leggings. Hoodies. Smores. Wine. Halloween.

This is a magical time and I intend to live it up. My goal/theme will be being the best wife I can be while enjoying the magic in the air.

I'm expecting more blogging. Wedding series. Life recaps and updates. Projects. Cat pictures and stories. And possibly the return of my tea swap!

What are you looking forward to this month?

Just a little bit of advice...

Don't get married AND have a big work fundraiser all within a 7 day span of each other!

I think after Sunday I need a vacation where I come in contact with no people at all and I really do like people.

Okay that is enough rambling. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Follow along on Instagram and Snapchat (thetrishlist)! I have been loving sharing photos lately, so you are sure to get some fun stuff from both accounts.

See ya back here next week with some wedding details, October goals, and god only knows what else!

Hi everyone! Just wanted to do a quick post to let you all know, I'm officially hitched! The past few months have been light here due to all the planning and stressers that come with planning a wedding.



I can't wait to show you all the stuff I did for this wedding in a mini series that will start hopefully next week. I have so much to show you all.

I am hoping to dig out a place on my desk to sit and plan for the week. Get some stuff written up and hopefully scheduled to roll. My house currently looks like a bomb went off in it with all of the gifts, decor, and food we have from the wedding.

More is coming soon, I promise! Have a great week!

So here I am, 11 days out from my wedding, 2 days past from my Bachelorette Party and I am starting to feel the burn. All of those little tiny details you don't think about a few months out have started to creep out of the woodwork.

Reality has hit. I get married NEXT WEEK. How did that even happen? How did the time sneak up like this? And my most confused question, how the heck did Summer fly by like that?!

Rocking the "Bride" hoodie!

I have officially picked up my dress. It is even more beautiful than I remember. It fits perfect and all of my accessories are on point. I am ready to rock the shit out of that outfit. It is true, I am not a fashion blogger, but I certainly have style. I have always been told that. Maybe you can all let me know when I post those photos in a few weeks..

I spoke to the bakery yesterday about the cake. It sounds lovely. The photographer is all set. We are finalizing our wedding playlist for our DJ. All good there.

Now one thing I decided to do just 3 weeks ago is change the venue of the ceremony part of the wedding. I know it was a really tricky thing to do that close to the wedding, but I just had this feeling it needed a change. I got all panic-y about it and we made the choice to move it. We are now going to be married at a private lake house on the beach. I am over the moon excited.

Everything is shaping up. I am on a strict diet until the day. I need to slim down just a tad and clear up my face. I have sugar and wheat allergic reactions so with all the stress eating I have done over the past few weeks has my skin looking a disaster. Green smoothies for me!

That is about everything I have to report right now. I will be doing more in depth blog posts after the wedding. This includes my shower, bachelorette party, and everything in between.

What do you all think? Am I on track for this wedding?

Yes I did actually use that ^ up there as my heading, and no I have no shame in doing so. You're here right?

Anywho.. I wanted to make a quick announcement. I have officially updated my e-mail address for this page. It only took me 2.5 years. I have owned my domain since 2014 and have never taken the time to create an e-mail to go with it.

Moving forward, you can now e-mail and the brand new and shiney address of:

September is Self Improvement Month.  A month to take time to focus on yourself. It sounds like a lovely thing to celebrate, however I feel like most people like the idea, but have no idea how to actually stop and focus on just themselves. I am part of that group.

I am a HUGE advocate for self care and self improvement, however when I look at the whole picture, I am not doing enough of it for myself. So because September is a month to focus on it and because I have a wedding coming up at the end of the month, I decided to think of some ways to focus on me in between all the madness... Here's my ideas.

I have always been a journal-er and by journal-er I mean I collect them. I have tons of them. I don't really use them though as much as I should be. I took a few out the other day and decided it was time. I needed to put them to good use again.

I am now the happy owner of a bullet journal and a challenge journal. I am working on making my bullet journal a place to ease my anxiety and help keep my creativity flowing. My challenge journal is a place to keep some of the instagram challenges I come across. I am currently participating in a "Self Care September" challenge and a "Rock Your Handwriting" challenge. Both of which need some practice.

I have always enjoyed writing, thus the reason I have this blog. I find it much more therapeautic to put pen to paper and just let my mind wander though. Some of those thoughts will make their way onto this page. Some will stay hidden away for only me to see. That's how it should be.

The journal is going to lead me to some self improvement, along with that 90 minute massage I booked for the day before my wedding...

Journaling and massage aside, I also plan to read more this month. I am currently reading You are a Badass by Jen Sincero. I LOVE IT. It is the perfect book to read about self improvement. I have read a lot of books about self improvement and so far this is in my top 5.  It also helps that someone RAKed this to me. They knew. I love that.

And yes I am going to mention the "Y" word. Yoga. I need to do more yoga. I felt better when I was doing some form of pose on a daily basis. It really does ease some of the tension away.

All in all it sounds like a lot, but taking on some daily habits will be good for me and my soul. I am hoping I will ease my way into the wedding in a better condition that I have been in.

What are you planning to do for yourself this month? Do you take time for self improvement and care? Share you ideas! I would love to see how everyone else relaxes and works on themselves.

As you may have read in yesterday’s post, August was sort of hard.  I hit a lot of road blocks that needed addressing. The good news is I was also able to have some fun throughout the month. I mean it was, “technically” the last month of summer. I couldn’t only use it to contemplate life and not have any fun.

Where do I begin? There is so much to say, but so little I am ready to share. Is that fair? Maybe I feel self-conscious, or maybe it’s a bit more than I should be sharing with strangers. I am not sure yet.

So I know I said I was taking time off from the blog this month for me, however I am a writing this one for fun. I am a HUGE Olympic freak and I need to write some commentary. Like most people I am glued to the TV during swimming and women's gymnastics.

I remember watching my first Olympics where I actually paid attention in 1996. It was the Summer before I went into the 8th grade. The games were in Atlanta. I watched the Fab 7 win a gold medal.

It was the first time I knew what it felt like to be patriotic and proud of my country. I have watched ever since. Laughing and crying my way through each Summer Olympics.

Can we put our hand together for Simone Manuel? She is amazing! She rocked that race last night and earned that gold medal! You go girl!

And then there's Michael Phelps. What can we say other than wow! He just keeps going.

The Final Five killed it with their near perfect routines. So much dedication to this sport and our country. Woman's gymnastics is both exciting and heartbreaking. One little mistake can take a medal from you.

Aly Raisman and Simone Biles are amazing athletes. Both with flawless routines. Could not keep my eyes off the screen while they performed.

And I have to mention Figi. Winning their first ever Olympic medal. A gold medal in rugby! That is so amazing!

These games have been amazing. So many records and first times. This is what the world should look like all the time. Cheering eachother along. High fiving and hugging whether you win or lose.

Let's keep the love going! #TeamWorld

Also happy birthday to my mom!

Welp, it happened. I have hit that burn out wall again. I have been pushing myself like crazy in all aspects of my life again and I am feeling the burn bad. I am going to have to put some things aside for a bit, and I am sad to say this blog will be one of them for now. 

My goal for August is easier said than done, but here goes nothing. 

My one and only goal is:

Now that the travel itch has taken over, and I have no trips currently scheduled, I figured I would start a new series called Walking Through Wanderlust. I am going to start this series by recapping all of the places I have been thus far, and hopefully I will have newer destinations to post later this year. In the mean time I have oodles of photos to post from some of my past trips, including advice on what to do and see in each place.

Today I want to focus on my most recent trip because it's still fresh in my mind.

Destination: Denver/Glenwood Springs, Colorado
Date: May 7-10 2016
Day 1 & 2

We flew into Denver and then drove half way to Glenwood Springs. I would have to say, this was one of the best choices we could have made. It was beautiful, but we ran into winter conditions just as it started to get dark, which wasn't far from where we had plans to stop for the night. Today I want to share with you day 1 which consisted of our half way point drive to Glenwood springs and what we did on day 2.

Heading into the Rockies! Wish us luck!

We drove halfway to Glenwood Springs our first night and stopped at a cute little hotel in Friscoe called The Alpine Inn. It looked very new and was very quiet. It had an indoor pool and Jacuzzi, which we took advantage of after a scary drive in the mountains. The snow was really coming down when we parked at the hotel. We enjoyed how cozy the place was!

The lobby at the Alpine Inn

We got up the next morning to make the second part of the trek to Glenwood Springs. We had really nice weather and some pretty amazing scenery!

Our view outside the Alpine Inn before we hit the road. We made it to Glenwood Springs earlier than anticipated so we decided to take a walk and get some brunch. We ate at the Colorado Ranch House, which was serving your first mimosa free in honor of Mother's Day. It was pretty amazing along with the food. I recommend this place to anyone who is visiting the area! The outdoor patio was super cute too! We finished up our brunch right as it started to rain, and just in time to be able to check into our hotel. We stayed at the Best Western The Antlers. It was a really cute hotel centrally located to all the attractions in the area, including the hot springs. The price was pretty great too. We spend an hour or so in the hotel and then headed to Iron Mountain Hot Springs. This was the highlight of the trip! I had been dying to get into some hot springs and Glenwood Springs was the perfect destination for that. (Source) We had such a good time at the springs (pictured above), we did not take our phones or cameras in. We did not want to risk getting them wet. I was glad we didn't because while enjoying the soaking tubs, a quick hail storm came over the mountains and drenched us. Let me just say, running barefoot in the ice from the hail was not fun. But, as they say in Glenwood Springs, "Welcome to Spring in the Rockies!" We enjoyed this part of the day a lot. We got back to the hotel and showered and nearly fell asleep from all of the travelling and relaxation we experience that day. We peeled ourselves off the bed and headed out to dinner at a place called Grinder. It had really good food and the prices were decent. I am glad we had a chance to eat here. There were so many options! This is how we spent our first full day (Day 2) in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. Come back next Wednesday to see how the rest of our trip went!

If you're a blogger you've probably found yourself in some kind of awkward situation. Whether it be to get that perfect photo, or talking about a subject that makes others uncomfortable. We have all been there at least once. I thought I would start a series to share my laughable awkward moments. I hope you will follow along and share your laughable awkward moments as well!

Awkward Moment # 257

Friend 1: I have a package that got delivered to my house in your name.

Me: Well that's funny, but either way I'm glad you have it.

Friend 1: Want me to bring it over to you while you're at work?

Me: Sure!

An hour later: Friend 1 shows up with Friend 2 who is a male

Friend 1: Here is the box!

Friend 2: I hope whatever is in that box is important! She ran it right over!

Me: Oh it's just some tampons! No big deal.

Friend 2: Laughs (makes a joke kind of uncomfortable)

Me: I mean it's for blogging. I need to review them.

Friend 1 and 2: Laughs.

Me: Oh blogging! 

After what seemed like the longest week ever, we have FINALLY made it to Friday! I could not be more thrilled to have a weekend ahead with no plans in sight. I am closing in on all of the pre-wedding events along with other events sprinkled in, and I feel like the rest of my summer is pretty much booked.

I am getting excited for my wedding, yet feel like I have so much to still do before it happens. I am really looking forward to my bridal shower in 2 weeks. I get to see all my girls on top of family who I don't get to see as often.

Other things on my mind are photos for this blog, or lack of. I have a wonderful DSLR and I hardly ever pull it out. I feel very guilty about this. It was a joint Christmas present from my parents and R 2 years ago. I do love it, but I just can't seem to pull it out often enough. I really thought summer would force me to use it more, and here we are at the end of July and I have yet to pull it out.

I am making it a point to use it more because who doesn't want nice crisp photos for the blog? Tonight would be the perfect occasion to pull it out, as I have a work event at a winery. I'm sure there will be some pretty amazing views to catch.

Something that has really been on the mind the past few weeks is travel. I have not done enough of it lately and I really want to get something set up. I have to admit, I have never taken a trip with my girlfriends where we explore new cities and then stay up and laugh all night about our day. I am desperately seeking this type of trip, along with a possible solo trip, which I mentioned here.

I am hoping I can also take some trips with R as well. We are not 100% set on a honeymoon, but we have a few pretty amazing ideas in mind. I will share once we decide. Honestly I would be happy with either of the options. Just anxious to get going! Also another good reason to break out the good camera..

I have come to the conclusion that I am way more creative in my own head then I am actually implementing them. I have so many things I want to write about on this blog and they never seem to come to life. I am really working on making them all realities. I literally have notebook pages filled with great ideas and yet I scroll through my archives and see none of them here. Or maybe some half- assed (exused my french) starts to these ideas that never really go anywhere.

I feel like a broken record at this point. So much whining about what I haven't done. I need to take the energy I have used to complain about it and just do some of it. I am going to hopefully spend a good chunk of my weekend doing this. I must clean off my desk first and sit down. I think this will be the starting point of keeping me motivated and keeping my attention on the blog.

So after all of that, do you all have any questions for me? It has been pretty quiet around here lately. Not much interaction. Sorry if I  have scared you all away. Please come back. I promise to be a better host here. Oh and if I have to beg, I will.. please check out my post on hosting a country chic picnic on the cheap.. It is one of my favorite posts yet!

Have a great weekend folks!