I took the train to New York City after work on Friday. The boyfriend and I flew out early Saturday morning. First stop: Cozumel, Mexico.

We spent 5 days in paradise, joined for a few days by the boyfriend’s best friend and his wife. The four of us scuba dived (yes, you heard me correctly), the two men golfed. We ate decent food, explored San Miguel and relaxed on the beach with plenty of pina coladas to go around. We also celebrated a certain someone’s 30th birthday (not mine). Golf, scuba diving, and tequila. I’m pretty sure he once said that would be his dream birthday. Well love, I guess dreams can come true (with a price tag, of course).

For much of the trip, I felt like we were the only couples on vacation here. Quiet, isolated, alone. We explored the windward side of the island, free from hotels, resorts and tourist traps. We watched the waves crash, alone on an empty beach. I spent an early morning by the pool, not another chair occupied. We watched the sun set over the bay, swaying in a hammock, beer in hand.

Cozumel was our perfect little getaway, and I think I could have stayed there forever.

On Thursday we flew to the mainland to join 40 of my friends from home for a destination wedding (not mine). Here there was a bigger crowd. The area was more commercial, the resort louder. More music (and booze), but also more friends. It was another wonderful portion to our vacation. Men golfed, ladies gossiped.

I finished two books, actually got a tan, and surprisingly avoided Montezuma’s revenge… with plenty of time in between for fun, drinks and dancing. Time for sun, massages and falling even more in love.

It’s funny how little I realized I needed a vacation, until I was thousands of miles away, far from the office, no laptop in sight. This vacation did wonders for me. Physically and emotionally. It cleared my head, filled my heart and made me a stronger person.

It cleared my head. During this trip I disconnected. I mean, we really, really disconnected. I gave myself permission to pause. Something I owed myself, but couldn’t before find the discipline to allow it.

It filled my heart. I shared love. In a multitude of ways. I fell more in love with my own relationship. With him, and us. I saw my best friend marry her soul mate. And I witnessed love in the most heart wrenching of ways – through the terror, the sadness, and the heroic stories that came out of my hometown, Boston.

It made me a stronger person. Seemingly insignificant given the tragic events that took place while we were away, I will forever be proud of what I accomplished this trip. The boyfriend challenged me to try something new, something that took months of preparation. Of planning, studying, practicing. Of coursework and classroom time and pool sessions. He encouraged me to become certified in scuba diving. Something that made me face all of my life’s biggest fears at once. The ocean, the openness, the darkness, the creatures, the risk. Literally all of my biggest fears are somehow involved in the idea of scuba diving. But I did it… I am so proud of myself, and so thankful to him for pushing me to try something new, to challenge myself, and face a fear (or two, or five).

This weekend I traveled to New York City with three of my best friends to join the soon to be bride at her first wedding dress appointment. Although we spent both nights at her condo in Connecticut, we certainly got our fill of New York during our day trip into the city on Saturday.

After a girl’s night in on Friday – complete with take out and wine, nail polish and tabloids, and a chick flick and cuddles on the couch – we woke up early on Saturday and drove straight to the train station in Fairfield. Once in the city we were all business. We made endless coffee shop stops, popped into a number of stores for some shopping, and most importantly we ushered the soon to be bride to her very first dress appointment.

I may be biased but my dearest best friend looked drop, dead, gorgeous. In every, single, dress. Her consultant Jill (who was also her college roommate) did an amazing job pulling dresses that fit the soon to be bride’s shape, and shared such a wide variety of styles so that she could really get a sense of all the possibilities.

Simply put, the experience at Kleinfeld Bridal was ah-mazing. I’ve been in a number of bridal stores (during my sister’s wedding dress search), but Kleinfeld Bridal is like no other. The dresses were absolutely jaw dropping (obviously), the atmosphere was stunning, and the consultants were, well… just like they are on the show! No Randy sighting, but between all of the other consultants and the lingering camera crew, we felt like we had our fair share of ‘celebrity’ sightings.

Following the dress appointment we met up with a few more girlfriends for a delicious brunch at Markt Restaurant on 6th Ave. Finding a wedding dress at Kleinfeld Bridal definitely deserves a celebration with your friends. Or at least we thought so. Mimosas, bellinis and bloody marys, yes please.

When we were beyond full and buzzed from brunch, we jumped on the train and went back to Connecticut for another night of chick flicks and vino and Thai takeout before all parting ways this morning. What a weekend we had. Road trips and girlfriends and a day in the city might just be my new favorite remedy for a stressed out head and heart.

Enough from me, what’d you all do this weekend? Send me a link to your weekend recap!

This morning I’m heading into New York City with three of my best girlfriends to do a little wedding dress shopping at Kleinfeld! No, not for me. For my long time best friend who was proposed to this summer. I’m so honored to be a part of her wedding, and dress shopping at Kleinfeld is one heck of a way to kick off our wedding party responsibilities.

I haven’t been to New York since July when I visited Ashley in Brooklyn, and boy, am I excited to be back. I hope you all have a fabulous weekend planned!

Late last week I posted a few of my favorite pictures from my recent trip to Mexico.  We spent 4 nights and 5 days at an all inclusive Iberostar resort on the beach outside of Playa del Carmen, Mexico.  On Saturday of our vacation, we attended a close friend’s wedding.  It was small, and quaint and just classic Mexico.

Overall, the vacation was a hit.  The foot was mediocre at best, and the weather was too hot and too humid, but a tropical vacation was exactly what the doctor ordered for us.  Much needed vacation.

Moving out of an apartment, living from a suitcase, traveling to Mexico, returning to work after being gone for 7 days all while trying to move into a new apartment and adjust to living with your boyfriend is apparently quite exhausting.  And rather tolling on your body.  The boyfriend is sick. I’m stressed.  And as a result my to-do list at work is too long, our new apartment is still empty and I haven’t even posted pictures from our gorgeous trip to Playa del Carmen.

What?  Yea.

So while I’m not about to share a minute by minute recap of our trip, I will share with you a few of my favorite photos.

White sand and hibachi dinner on our last night

Before dinner and the bold resort colors

Dinner outfit and jungle greenery

Blue water and our wedding ceremony attire

In 24 hours, I will be on a plane, on my way to this gorgeous, beautiful, white beach, turquoise water paradise.  Thursday morning the boyf and I will board a plane, destination: Playa del Carmen Mexico!  We’re heading down to the tropical paradise for 4 days to attend the wedding of two of our favorite friends.  I cannot wait to escape the busy city, the stresses of work, the anxiety of moving.  I cannot wait to sit by the beach, lounge by the pool, sip cocktails all day and most of all, I cannot wait to witness the love and promise of forever between our two friends.

Look forward to sharing pictures of our vacation!  xoxo

For all of you naysayers and cynics.  For all of you who questioned my 4am alarm this morning.  For all of you who called us childish, immature, silly girls.  For all of you who told us to grow up, get over it and ‘focus on things that matter.’  For all of you who berated those of us who seemed to care–

I leave you with a small excerpt from the Bishop of London’s sermon at today’s Royal Wedding.  A reminder that for the world as a whole, today symbolized more than designer dresses and fancy cars.  The world watched today -yes, in part to witness a fairytale come true- but more so, because in a time of great uncertainty and hurt, instability and despair, the Royal Wedding beckoned us each to pause, to smile, to cry, to revel in the love of Will and Kate, and to have hope.  Hope for the future, hope for true love, hope for loyalty, happiness and great faith.

“Many are full of fear for the future of the prospects of our world but the message of the celebrations in this country and far beyond its shores is the right one – this is a joyful day! It is good that people in every continent are able to share in these celebrations because this is, as every wedding day should be, a day of hope.”

The Bishop of London’s Sermon

(Credit: Huffingtonpost. Click through picture for source)

My alarm sounded at 4:15am this morning – perfect timing to wake up and catch the early morning coverage of the Royal Wedding.  As guests arrived, followed by diplomats and finally the Royal Family, I couldn’t help but notice the streams of red and yellow.  Royal red, as anticipated.  Last night, I choose a royal red nail polish, appropriate selected considering this morning’s events.

On my nails: OPI Kennebunk-port
Occasion: The Royal Wedding

Prince William picture: http://blog.zap2it.com/pop2it/
Queen Elizabeth picture: http://shoescarpe.com/

When my older sister asked me to be her maid of honor, one of the first things that crossed my mind was oh shit: I have to write a maid of honor speech.  Being the maid of honor at my older sister’s wedding would be a dream come true, quite frankly I never imagined it happening any other way.  In fact, I would have been quite royally pissed had she asked somebody else.  But anyways, back to the ‘oh shit’ reaction.  I knew being the maid of honor came with some hefty responsibilities: bridal shower, bachelorette party, handling wedding planning induced emotional breakdowns, dealing with bridezilla style temper tantrums, finding on the spot quick fixes to wedding day catastrophes, and not but certainly not least: the maid of honor speech, or in my case the sister of the bride speech.  Thinking about the maid of honor speech was fun.  Memories, stories and sisterhood secrets flooded my mind.  Actually sitting down to write the speech was a bit different.  I struggled to find the balance between humor and honest sentiment. As someone with zero to no comedic skills, this struggle was harder than you might imagine.

The speech came and I nailed it.  Nerves had got the best of me for sure, I hadn’t eaten in days, and my hands were to shaky to hold my notes.  Well, fortunately for me I didn’t need my notes because the moment I stood in front of the crowd, my nerves disappeared, my anxiety was calmed, and I felt blissfully happy, proud, and excited to share my thoughts with the guests.  So here you have it, a 3 month later rendition of my maid of honor speech (or sister of the bride speech).  One day soon I hope to ask the videographer for the real deal, but until that day, you get to relive my maid of honor speech with me from the comforts of my own bedroom!  YouTube style.  Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mofWyFECyUo

After over a year of being engaged, my sister and her long time boyfriend tied the knot this month.  The day went off without a hitch, and it was truly, honestly, the best day of my family’s life.  My sister looked stunning.  Her dress was ah-mazing.  The venue was drop dead gorgeous.  Food and drinks delicious.  Music, perfect.  Dancing, too fun.  My maid-of-honor speech came and went without any tears or breakdowns.  I’ve been to a lot of weddings.  I may be slightly biased, but my sister’s wedding was really, the best wedding ever.

• Wedding Venue: Grace Restaurant
• Photography: Nadra Photography
• Photography Preview: Sneak Peek of Nadra’s photos
• Dress by Maggie Sottero
• Bridesmaid Dresses by Amsale