Pure Appiness: May 2011

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

My last weekend as a single lady

My sister, Nickie, went above and beyond planning a fun filled bachelorette weekend with my closest girlfriends. She spent months planning one heck of a weekend, somehow keeping it a well-kept secret to me the entire time. Everyone knew where and what we were doing but me! All I knew prior was to clear my weekend schedule and what to pack. Nickie, Sairy, Sianneth, Chelsea, and Elyse surprised me with the best weekend everrrrrrrrrrrrr!

When I say well-kept secret, I mean well-kept secret. I didn't even know where we were until the moment we arrived! They didn't go to the extent of blindfolding me (which they were actually considering) but on the ride down in the Bachelorette Mobile, we popped in a season of How I Met Your Mother and my eyes were GLUED to the TV. I have just recently discovered the show (I know, I'm late) and I'm kind of obsessed with it. They lucked out that I wasn't constantly looking at our whereabouts. Once we made it to our destination, I realized we were in Charleston, SC!!!!! WooooooooHoooooo!! Who doesn't love Charleston?! Check out our awesome Bachelorette Mobile we rode around town in!

Riding in STYLE!

Too bad we didn't end the trip with half of these decorations!

Once we got to Charleston, it was go go go. They wore me out with everything they had planned! We started the trip out right with mani/pedi's at a fancy spa. It's been soooo long since I've had my nails done so it was a nice little treat. Also, very relaxing.

Pedicures!

Manicures!

If you know me, you know I don't drink much. After this weekend, I think I'm done drinking for the year. It's not like I went out and got hammered. I just had a good time :) I'm pitiful, I know. Here are a few of my favorite pics from our first night out on the town.

Heading out!

Yum.

Ha, I love Sianneth in the background

First night out!

The next day was full of surprises. They kept every activity that we did a secret up until the very last moment. The biggest surprise was a trip to Isle of Palms for PARASAILING!!!!! I've always wanted to go so of course I was all giddy! Ahhh man, I have a few funny stories about this little trip. We boarded a little speed boat and rode out to the middle of the ocean. Our guides gave us one fast, BUMPY ride. It was fun, nonetheless. They gave us the spill on all the safety precautions and how NOT to get a major wedgie while in the air.

Sairy, Nickie, and Elyse

Chelsea and I

The parasailers!

Holding on for dear life on our bumpy ride

First up, Sianneth and Chelsea!

Hahahaha this picture cracks me up

Now to get to the EMBARRASSING (funny) stories about my little parasailing experience.

Story #1. Our captain talked me into doing a flip once I got strapped into the harness. He told me to "Just lean back and let gravity do the work". I thought to myself...sounds easy enough, I can do that. Wrooooooooong. Once I flipped over, I couldn't pull myself back up! I was helpless! All while managing to get one of those major wedgies he warned us about at the beginning of the trip. Jeremy always tells me I need to learn how to do a pull up because they are life saving. I would always laugh at him and just shake my head. I couldn't stop kicking myself in the butt for him actually being right! Everyone saw how miserable I was just hanging there so they brought me back down to the boat to get me situated once again.

Story #2. So my sister and I finally have a successful take-off wayyyyyyy up in the air. 800 feet to be exact. I'm sitting there...admiring the view when all of the sudden I don't feel so good anymore. Turns out I don't do well being 800 ft in the air overlooking the ocean and......I puke. Yup. All over my right arm. My goal was to not get it on my lovely sister. Mission Accomplished. I'm sure she thanks me for that :) I had to close my eyes for the rest of the trip in the air. Luckily they dipped us in the water before we got on the boat so I was able to wash off. Ay yi yi.

And we're off!

My attempt to do a flip

Uhhhh...HELP!

Major wedgie. Can't do a pull up!

See...still smiling! :D

Despite those two little mishaps, I had an AWESOME time! I even got to drive the boat! That was a little scary with me as the driver. If you own a boat, I advise you NOT to let me drive it :)

Captain Asha

The whole crew :)

Once we get back to shore we headed back to Charleston to grab some lunch, do a little shopping and sprint to a Harbor Tour that we almost missed :)

All Aboard the Carolina Belle

Sairy, Elyse and I

I wasn't the only one caught sleeping!

After our lovely tour of the harbor, we went back to our hotel to get ready for dinner and Activity #3. They surprised me with a "Bride to Be" tank top, sash, and veil! I matched with the rest of Charleston that night. There had to be at least 6 other brides out with their parties too. It was fun congratulating them and getting recognition for the upcoming wedding.

Bride to Be...that's me!

I am Queen! Not really.

As we're walking to dinner I notice a sign that says 'Ghost Tours'. I pointed it out and said "Oh, I'm glad we're not doing that!". That's when everyone got silent and I saw little smirks. Yup. Activity #3 was a Ghost Tour. I HATE scary movies, haunted houses...anything spooky or creepy. I got to thinking and told myself that I would be okay as long as I was in the middle of two people. We went to dinner and to my advantage it took too long and we missed our scheduled Ghost Tour. Darn! Next time girls, next time.

The rest of the night was spent drinking (not too much!) and dancing on the rooftop bar of the Market Pavilion Hotel. Good times were had.

Sianneth and I at dinner. Check out my bliiiiiiing.

Dancin' the night away

For some reason, I really like this picture

Our last morning rolled around and we finished our trip with a carriage tour and shopping at the City Market. I couldn't have asked for a better weekend.

Carriage ride!

It was the perfect place to get my mind off the wedding and hang with my awesome girlfriends! It's a trip that I'll remember forever. I can't thank my friends enough for such a wonderful time. THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!! You rock :)

Friday, May 20, 2011

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

The month of May has been nothing but good to me. It has been the start of fun wedding festivities and counting down until the big day. On the weekend of my bridal shower I also looked forward to doing a Friendship Shoot with my Bridesmaids.

Whenever you book a photographer for weddings, you usually get a package which includes engagement photos or bridal portraits. Before we booked our photographer, Sunny of Themba Imagery, we had already taken our engagement photos. I plan on doing my bridal portraits after the wedding so Sunny suggested doing a Friendship Shoot! I absolutely loved the idea and couldn't wait to spend the day with my besties snappin photos.

Before I begin to share some of my favorites, a big THANK YOU goes out to makeup artist Latisha Ross for doing my makeup. When it comes to makeup, I don't know what I'm doing so any help will do. Plus I loooooove being around Tisha! I don't think she realizes how funny she is! I'm so glad she'll be around on THE day. If you ever need someone for makeup, call her. She's worth every penny ; )

Also a big THANKS goes to Sianneth, Sairy's sister, for doing Nickie, Sairy, and Chelsea's makeup. Thanks for making us feel beeeeeeautiful! Ok, ok, enough talk already. Check out these pictures!!!!! We spent a beautiful afternoon in NoDa.

www.thembaimagery.com

I did NOT see this coming! They silly-stringed me!

www.thembaimagery.com

Sianneth was a great help throughout the shoot!

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

And the Winner is....

We had a few people enter our little giveaway on facebook. Are you itchin' to know who won? You shall wait no longer!

The winner is Katie from North Carolina!!! Wooooohoo! It was a close race. We had a whopping 3 entries and they were all really good! It was her mentioning Apollo that pushed her for the win :) Check out her response:

When Asha + Jeremy swagger down the aisle, family, friends and Apollo (in spirit) will be there to high five them. We are so delighted for Asha + Jeremy. We wish them 100 billion years of happiness (hey it worked for Dr. Evil) and "horseplay" with each other.

Here are some our favorite responses that we got from our guests coming to the wedding:

But our favorite was from our good friend, T-Sloan. He gets the grand prize and of course a dance with the bride at the wedding!

Thanks for participating in our giveaway blogger peeps! We hope you had fun! Keep a look out for more giveaways in the future :)

17 more days until the wedding! Are you guys ready?

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

A Shower for the Bride to Be

deHave I mentioned that I have the BEST Bridesmaids in town? Like...for real. No joke. They are awesomely awesome and I can't thank them enough for throwing such a fun bridal shower! They did such a good job adding unique touches making me feel special throughout the afternoon :)

The shower was thrown at the lovely Sanchez household. I walk in and the first thing I hear is Jason Mraz on the speakers. They made a customized "Asha" play list full of Jason Mraz. They know how to get on my good side, that's for sure :) I then start to look around at all the yummy food and drinks and noticed pictures of Jeremy and I throughout our relationship {awwwww}. I then step outside on the deck to see a beeeeeeeautiful arrangement of more food, flowers and friends. It was a gorgeous afternoon to spend outside with all the women who have inspired me throughout my life.

I couldn't have asked for a better shower! It was filled with games, laughter, and gifts {woohoo}! My favorite game was a little pop quiz my girls put together about Jeremy and I's relationship. The quiz was a little harder to figure out because everyone had to give an answer that JEREMY would say. That's right, Jeremy got involved, which gave me a little scare at first. A few days before hand, he got a call and had to answer questions about our lovely relationship. There were questions about where we first met, where our first kiss was, when he proposed, yada yada yada, you get the idea. It was fun seeing what he said. Lucky for him he got most questions right!

We ended the afternoon with what felt like Christmas to me! I got to open presents! 1980's gift wrap and all :) Forget Christmas in July...let's do Christmas in May! Little did I know, they were writing down my reactions to each gift. Once I was done opening everything, they decided to embarrass me. Turns out anything I said about my new loot was going to be my reaction to Jeremy and I's first night as husband and wife. Check out my responses, haha:

"Yayyyy!"
"Niiice!"
"Yes! Woo Hoo!"
"Woo Hoo!"
"Ohhh Nice!"
"I'll put this to good use!"
"Yay!"
"Whoo Hoo!"
"I like it!"

Ahhh man. If only I knew....

I can't thank these ladies enough for throwing such a wonderful shower for me! Nickie, Sairy, and Chelsea, thank you sooooooooo much for being by my side through thick and thin. I'm lucky to be loved by such strong, independent women who know how to throw a good party :) LOVE YOU ALL....except when you won't tell me where or what we're doing for my bachelorette getaway weekend... punks :)