Our day started nice and early!
After a quick breakfast and a super-fast blog post, Ryan and I were out the door to meet with our pastor to discuss our wedding ceremony.
We drove to Dunedin, which is about 40 minutes from my parents’ house, and discussed everything from our vows to special readings and personalized segments we created ourselves. We are personalizing a lot of our ceremony and I’m excited with how it seems to be coming together! I hope it’s full o’ love! 😀
By the time we were done chatting with our pastor and his wife, it was lunchtime.
We headed over to 400 Beach Seafood and Tap House, where we are holding our rehearsal dinner, and enjoyed a quick bite to eat.
Can you spot Ryan? 😉
We started by sharing the seafood chili, which was full of beans, lentils, shrimp and fish.
While waiting for our main course to come out, we perused meal and drink package options for our rehearsal dinner and have some decisions to make. Luckily the restaurant let us take a packet detailing the various options home with us, so we are able to crunch some numbers and think about it in more detail.
After all the food talk, I was ready for my grilled grouper sandwich!
It was served on a fresh bun with tomato, onion and lettuce and a side of the most delicious steak fries.
With full bellies, we left the restaurant and headed home to watch the University of Florida game with my mom and dad. We assumed my sister would be at the game, but we got a text from her saying that it was “too hot,” after we spent the first two quarters searching for her blonde hair in the crowd.
I remember the first several games of football season when I was a student at UCF. It was always unbearably hot. The only salvation from the heat was beer… and lots of it. 😉
About halfway through the UF game, I got a little bored and my mom and I headed into the kitchen to do some baking. Blog reader Andrea won my one-year blogging anniversary giveaway and requested the chocolate chip cookies she saw on Jenna’s blog as her prize, so we had an assignment!
Initially I figured the recipe would be like any other chocolate chip cookie recipe, but it required a few extra steps, like melting butter on the stove top and rotating the cookies as they baked in the oven.
While baking in the oven, the smell of the cookies was unreal. The combination of butter and sugar sure does yield one heck of a delectable aroma!
Within 10 minutes of popping the balls of dough in the oven, we had big, buttery cookies!
Sadie wanted to be the taste tester.
“Gimme!!!”
Chocolate + Dogs = Big No-No
We made sure to make plenty of cookies for Andrea, but had a few leftover to enjoy ourselves.
I had two cookies the size of my hand, plus inordinate amounts of dough.
I am seriously stuffed. Cookie coma.
I’m off to lay around with Ryan and my family and digest because I clearly cannot control myself around baked goods. We also have a couple of wedding crafts to work on, so I’ll try to be a little productive, too. 😉
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I love how you guys are personalizing a lot of your ceremony- that makes it so much more special!!
We just gone done watching the FL game- now on to the FL State game 🙂 Then in-house rival game to watch- NC State v. UCF (Craig went to NC State..and well, you know- I went to UCF 🙂 )
GO Knights!! 😀
I just made chocolate chip cookies too! Good luck on the crafting! Can’t wait to see the results 🙂
I just got back from the UF game and it totally was a scorcher. I almost passed out from the heat! Good victory, though, GO GATORS!
i love when Sadie makes the face she’s doing in the second picture of her! (well…maybe i love all the pictures of her… :)) she’s so stinkin’ cute!
Love the photo! Those cookies look amazing!
I feel like with all the personalization, your wedding will be really special and amazing.
Those cookies are huge! You can’t ever go wrong with plain old chocolate chip cookies. 🙂
Your ceremony is just going to be awesome. I can’t wait for your wedding!
I love that you and Ryan are so involved in planning your wedding, it’s going to be so much more personal which I think is wonderful.
By the way, Sadie is just the cutest ever. 🙂
Good luck with the rest of your wedding plans, it’s almost over! Those cookies look great!
Those cookies look delicious :).
P.S. Your outfit/skirt is so cute!
Those cookies look amazing! 🙂
Personalizing a wedding makes it so special! That is so wonderful that you are doing that!
And please do another one of those giveaways! I would love to win a batch of your cookies! You such a good baker! =)
Always love your skirts; they look cute and comfy! I may just have to make those cookies for a bake sale we are having at the school where I work.
I’ve been wanting to try Jenna’s cookies as well!
I have an issue with baked goods as well. 🙂 Those cookies look fabulous!
i really can’t believe how close the wedding is! feels like just yesterday you got engaged (i sound like a mom)!
Those cookies look delicious!! I definitely think another giveway is in order, so I can win some cookies too!
I love the “Where’s Ryan?”. I actually laughed out loud when I noticed him, haha. And your cookies not have me craving chocolate now! Its the middle of the Toronto International Film Festival right now and I would do anything for a homemade chocolate chip cookie right now! They look so good!
I’m in a cake coma right now! My fiance and I were at a bridal show all day and oh…my…goodness…cake samples galore! I’m so stuffed and sick of sugar. And the best part, I get to relive it all over again tomorrow with a second bridal show I’m attending with my mom! It’s going to be a cake coma WEEKEND rather than just one day. Yay! I’m gunna hit the gym HARD on Monday!
The cookie bing! We all have it sometimes 🙂
That is a very cute photo of you and Ryan, I love your skirt! Where did you get it??
thank you! it’s from banana republic. i got it at the beginning of the summer.
I love personalized weddings. They are so much more fun!
The cookies looks so good. I have a problem with eating just a cookie, I have to have multiple amounts.
This weekend I suffered a coma too…an Ice Cream coma. The fun only lasted for a minute because I woke up with a sugar hangover the morning after and even worst, the day of my friends wedding.