Life Lately |

Hello, May! Time keeps flying by, and I’m excited for the arrival of spring. I need some warmer weather and sunshine in my life. Plus spring means it’s almost summer, and this is sure to be one of the best summers of my life, with so much anticipation for our wedding day and fun bridal events like my shower and Bachelorette weekend. Life is pretty good right now.

Here’s our life lately…

April

April was a busy month for us with three out-of-town weekends!

Patsy and Brandon were in Missouri the first week of April, so they came to spend Friday night with us in Columbia. It was so good to see them and catch up. We went to Teller’s for dinner, Vault for drinks, and ended the night at The Roof.

The next day I had my hair colored for the first time in more than two years. Yikes! I’m naturally a dark blonde with baby highlights; my hair lightens in the summer. But lately, I’ve noticed my hair has darkened with less sunlight exposure (thanks, winter and my windowless office) and my hair photographs pretty dark, which I don’t love. I’m trying to figure out what hair color I want for my wedding day, so this appointment was my first step toward finding a color I love. I did lots of research on balayage in Columbia and found someone via Instagram, of all places. I opted for minimal, very subtle balayage highlights. Here’s the before and after with colorist Jamie McDaniel:

I love it! Honestly, I’m sure most people I see daily cannot even tell a difference, but I love that it’s just a little brighter and mostly still my natural hair color. I got a blowout while in Chicago and the stylist said she loved my hair color and asked if it was natural, which is exactly the reaction I wanted! I think I may go even lighter this summer before my wedding.

The next weekend I headed to St. Louis to celebrate my friend and Phi Mu sister Rachel’s Bachelorette party! We started the day with a brewery tour at Budweiser, had a lingerie shower at the hotel, went to dinner at Landry’s, and then spent the night at Ballpark Village. It was a blast. I love girls’ night outs; I feel like I rarely have them anymore! I’m so happy for Rachel and cannot wait for her July wedding!

We traveled north for our long-awaited Wilmette and Chicago engagement photos with our wedding photographer! We started in my hometown, Wilmette, on the beach where Dan proposed (which is just a short walk to our wedding venue), and then we drove into the city for some picturesque Chicago shots at Lincoln Park Zoo and North Avenue Beach.

I spent a lot of time planning the shoot and our route, even walking it beforehand and scouting all the locations on our recent weekend in Chicago, but of course, you know what they say about the best-laid plans… We had some hiccups (pedestrian bridge out over LSD, bigger crowds than normal because of the gorgeous weather, crashing a proposal at one of my coveted photo spots, Zoo closing before we done so we had to walk all the way around back to our cars…) but ultimately it was so worth it to capture this time in our lives in a place that means so much to us and is, hopefully, our future home. I’m thankful to our awesome photographers for rolling with it and spending so much of the day with us!

We don’t have our photos back yet, but our wedding photographer, Laura of Laura Ann Miller Photography, did share a preview, and we love the photos! My dad brought Henry to the beach so he could be in a couple of our photos, and my heart melts seeing our little family in the place I grew up. Here are our preview photos:

P.S. My makeup for the shoot was done by my wedding makeup artist, Dominica of Outer Beauty Airbrush Makeup.

Another long-awaited April event: Our mini vacay to Florida with my parents! My mom was in Orlando for a conference, so when it ended, my Dad, Dan and I flew down to meet her. From there, we drove about an hour to Ormond Beach, which is just north of Daytona Beach. My parents spent the whole week there, but Dan and I could only get away from work for a few days, so we spent three nights in Ormond Beach.

On our first day, we drove about an hour to St. Augustine and explored. It is such a cute little town; I definitely want to go back. The Spanish influence mixed with the Southern influence reminded me of New Orleans or Savannah. It is so charming. While we were there, we visited the 17th century Castillo de San Marcos National Monument, the oldest masonry fort in the continental U.S.

We started off with a busy day, but the rest of our trip was all about relaxing: We spent most of our time in Florida lounging on the beach and eating as much seafood as possible. The timing of the trip worked out so that we could spend the first anniversary of our engagement and our eighth anniversary of dating on a beautiful beach! Lucky us.

We rounded out the month with a country concert. One of my birthday presents was tickets to the Kacey Musgraves concert on 9th Street. Each year, the spring and summer seasons usher in 9th Street Summerfest, which is a series of concerts outside The Blue Note on 9th Street. Kacey Musgraves is one of my all-time favorite musicians, so of course, we couldn’t miss seeing her again in our very own downtown. A couple shots we snapped while in the crowd:

If you’re not familiar with Kacey, you should be. Even though she’s a country artist, I think a lot of my anti-country friends would love her singer-songwriter style. Plus, she’s a cool, liberal girl’s girl. Here are some of my favorite Kacey songs:

On to a new month with new adventures! In the coming weeks we have Mother’s Day in O’Fallon, the Miranda Lambert concert in St. Louis, a bridal shower in Hannibal, Beyoncé in Chicago and Memorial Day Weekend at my parents’ house. Plus our good friend Lee is moving to Columbia! Lots to look forward to, as always.

Posted By: Ali Salter · In: Life & Love

April

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