Team Wedding (And Why Being a Millennial Won't Stop Me)

Ah, the joys of being a millennial.

You get to live life with people calling you lazy, entitled, oblivious and overall expecting you to be the worst.

Yeah, I love to binge watch Netflix and I'm horribly addicted to Facebook and Candy Crush, and yes, I genuinely don't know anything about fax machines or how to properly mail things. But I'm talking about something more important than your general opinion of my age group as a whole.

Age discrimination is a thing, and not just for older people. I can't tell you how many times I've been called "young lady" and "sweetheart", how often I have to set aside my real work to help my co-workers with their cellphones or printers or Microsoft Word because "You're young right? You know how to do this stuff", or how often my ideas and opinions have been completely discredited because my superiors have "t-shirts older than" me. I don't want to hear you talk to me in your "dad" voice because your children are my age.

It's not that I expect to be taken seriously without the work or experience. I realize that I haven't been working for thirty years. I know that I am still green. But that doesn't mean I don't have fresh ideas or worthy ideas. It doesn't mean that I'm allowed to be silenced or excluded simply because I'm in my twenties instead of my 40s or 50s,

I've worked hard. I've worked all the way up from cleaning cheddar bay biscuits out of high chairs to where I am now, all while taking care of my family and getting a degree (that no one asks about). Do I feel like I deserve something? You're damn right I do! It's called respect. I don't want anything handed to me, I just want to be treated like an adult. I pay my bills, I figured out Obamacare, I can almost not eat hot pockets for dinner for the majority of the week! Ok, so maybe I see your point with the last one. BUT STILL.

I love work. I always have. I'm motivated by having work to go to each day, something to do and create and be proud of. I'm a workaholic who can't sleep some nights just because of a project I get to work on the following day. I judge my value in life by what I do with my days, and with that being said, it's extremely depressing for me to work in an environment where I don't feel fulfilled, appreciated, or respected. I don't want to live a life where each day is a struggle to find happiness within my work because frankly, life is just too short to be miserable.

For the sake of my sanity and my happiness, I'm about to make a big change.

It's been a tough decision to do something this drastic, and potentially insane, but with Eric and my friends and family's endless support behind me, I've decided that I am venturing out to fulfill my life's dream of owning my own business.

This January I will be launching Team Wedding, a full service wedding planning business.

It's a terrifying thing to take a chance on something like this, but I know I have the support of all you wonderful people out there who have believed in me through all my journeys.


You can check out my website and learn a little more about it by clicking here. And if you hear of someone needing a wedding planner, you can send them my way!

One Fell Swoop

Guys, I know it's been a while since I've written.

And that's because I decided it would be a good idea to get (another) dog, a house, host Christmas, and plan a wedding all during the holiday season.






Yeah, yeah. I know!


Needless to say, I think I've survived it all and come out on the other side realizing in 18 days I'll be married.





Let me fill you in on what's developed in wedding plans since we last spoke.


The plan for paying for the wedding took an unexpected turn and we found out we'd be paying for the whole thing ourselves.




Which, while super terrifying and unexpected, just meant we had to change a few details.


NBD.

(Shout out to my fiance who decided to be an engineer instead of an artist.)




Anyway, in the midst of wedding chaos we found a new addition to our family.

Cue Butterball, the worlds most precious, scraggly pup next to our Jackson.

We adore her, and even though we were fifth in line to get her...we still managed and brought her home right before Thanksgiving. 

We quickly realized that our zoo was now too large to remaining in our cool-kid loft downtown and it was time to find somewhere with a yard and real people space. 

Look at them. LOOK AT THEM. 

 So we loaded up and the week before Christmas moved into our new home, a suburb in West Knox like the classy ass people we are. Or something like that...

The next day my brother showed up to spend Christmas with us, bringing along his beautiful lady and their ADORABLE PRECIOUS PRINCESS daughter. 

We're basically BFF's already. 

We saved the world from destruction. 

Christmas was insane and wore us all out, and this past Sunday was the first moment we had to breathe since before Thanksgiving. 

There was lots of napping. 

In the quiet of our new, empty house it started hitting us that in less than a month we'd be married. In a house. With our little family. 

It wasn't a panicked realization, it was more like a calm. Like it was all coming together and we'd be starting a new adventure that we (for once) were completely ready to embark on. 

We're so ready for the next year, and for the rest of our lives.


Let's do this!

It's All in the Details

I'm a fan of the little things.

Little things make me really happy, especially when a lot of thought goes into little details.

Like one wedding I did, they had this hilarious story about their first date. They were at a bar, starving, and the kitchen was closed. But the bartender served them tater tots and pigs in a blanket in beer pitchers.

So at their wedding they had us carry around beer pitchers full of tater tots and pigs in a blanket. All their guests probably just thought it was the best wedding food ever, but really it had this whole back story.

Or I had a bride who used raspberry filling in her cake because once she got a big raspberry stain on a fancy dress during on of their dates and it was mortifying, but later became a huge joke.

Those little things make my heart melt like buttah!


And I love those little details so much that I try to put them into everything I do, and this wedding is giving me the opportunity to go BIG with it. Our theme has given me the freedom to make it consistent from the decor to the party favors, and I'd love to share some of those little details with you!


First off, I'm delighted about our favors.

Kawaiiiiii!

They're cute little air mail packages that we'll be filling with a variety of different candies from around the world.

Most people end up leaving dozens of favors around after the wedding, but in this case I won't be upset if I end up taking some home!


There's also this stamp:

Which, this one of course doesn't have our address on it. But we had one made with our's for our invitations. 

They're pre-inked stamps, so you don't have to re-ink it every stamp which makes life a whole lot easier when you're stamping 200 envelopes. Plus, it has a gorgeous vintagey feel which is exactly what we wanted!

(If you'd like to purchase your own stamp in any style, you can find their Etsy store here. )

I also had the help of the lovely and talented, Lynn Justice (And my bridesmaid, Christine too!) to emboss my invitations.

That basically just means we make it shiny. We did the plane on the front and the stamp on the back, and it is literally the most time consuming thing you could ever do to something BUT SO PRETTY. 

If you'd like to see how to emboss, you can check out the pins on my blog board that have tips and videos on how to do it. 

Another super exciting find was these vintage luggage tags to use as place cards. Obviously we won't have that butterfly logo, but we'll put guest's names there instead. We're probably going to take off the tacky blue string, but these were the most realistically affordable luggage tags for our guest counts, and they matched our invitations. 

Last but not least, we found our send off car! This is a 1960 Chrysler New Yorker hardtop. It's beautiful and we are PUMPED that we get to ride off in this beauty. 

Not to mention the guy that owns it is a complete doll and has been a delight to work with. 

He has some amazing cars, and from what I've seen the best price on rentals in the area. 

If you're looking for classic cars for anything, you can see his stuff here. 

We have more exciting details to come, and I'm so thankful to be getting things knocked off the list.

If you'd like to see any of the stuff I mentioned, the jewelry I picked out for the wedding, and more good stuff check out my blog board and follow me on Pinterest! 

Follow Marvyl Cockrell's board To Be Triscritti on Pinterest.

The Biggest Lie

What's the biggest lie you've ever been told?


For me I don't know if it was my high school boyfriend telling me that he wasn't cheating on me... or my best friend telling me that she wasn't having an affair with said boyfriend. Or maybe it was that my college years would be the best years of my life. Or even that my degree would matter...


But in reality I think the biggest lie I was ever told is that you're going to meet the perfect person.



If you would have asked 15-year-old Marvyl to describe who she was going to marry, I can bet you anything that it's probably the polar opposite of the person I'm actually going to marry. Well, maybe except for how handsome he is...that's definitely on point


But the ideal person that I created the Sim version of for years and years, doesn't exist. The person that all my friends and mentors and TV shows told me that I would eventually find isn't real. Because the truth of the matter is that when you find the person you're going to spend presumably forever with, reality comes up and slaps you in the face and shows you that the perfect person you were expecting is only that... a person.


And the truly awful thing about people is that we suck. Boys, girls, all of us...were awful things. We get mad, we get angry, we're messy, we're lazy, we're selfish, we want our alone time while simultaneously needing someone to constantly interact with...we're addicted to our phones, addicted to our games, addicted to food and drinks that are really awful for us.


There are so many things that can be wrong with a single person that when you're growing up that should lead you to believe the chances are, the human you're going to be stuck with has at least a few of those things going for them.


And guess what? You've got a few of those things going for you too. Finding someone to spend forever with doesn't mean finding a perfect person. It means finding a person that you can tolerate, and who can tolerate you. It means finding someone who will take all be terrible, awful things in the human part of you and still think that you're perfect. (While knowing that deep down inside you really love Carly Rae Jepson songs and that you're probably going to skip your workout tonight to eat smores that are even cooked because you don't have the patience to wait for the microwave to finish).


And you're going to realize that the person you love drives you absolutely crazy sometimes because they just have to finish this quest before doing that thing that you asked them to do, and that there really going to want to sit on the couch in their boxers even if you have company coming over and you're going to have to have a real life argument about wearing pants.



But at the end of the day you know that you found the person you're supposed to be with because they're not perfect and you're not perfect but you make each other better. You love all those wonderful things about each other did make up for all those really awful things about human beings.



So the biggest lie that I was ever told was that I will find the perfect person. But the truth I found was that I found a wonderfully human person that has good days and bad days and wonderful things about them and terrible things about them.



I wish 15-year-old Marvyl knew that she shouldn't have been looking for a perfect person. But I guess it all worked out in the end, because I found a whole lot of people that I thought were perfect.

Thank goodness I didn't end up with the perfect person, because I found MY person.

Why is everyone more motivated than me? And More Reasons Real Life Ruined My Diet

It's technically day 14 of the 21 day fix...but if there was a 21 day fix wagon I didn't just fall of it. I jumped, ran, and then took a plane as far away from it as possible.

Because as it turns out, real life makes diets like this incredibly difficult to complete.

The first problem is that it takes a whole lot of time. Between the hours spent on the weekends prepping your food, and the three and a half hours a week you spend exercising I found out really quickly that I literally did not have enough time to pull it off.

I ran out of groceries on Monday, and I worked doubles all week. My fridge looked like the ghost of good meals past.
 

Not only did I not have any healthy food, I had no food at all because I had cleaned out all the no-no list food for my fix.

This left me with the eating-out at work option, which was a real eye-opener for me. At first it was really hard to find food that would fit into my container categories, and then when I got my meal it was VERY difficult to portion it. I'd cut my meat in half but when I finished it, I had the other half laying there wanting to be eaten up!

 


The first week I couldn't even finish my containers, but without a real container schedule I was getting super hungry and I was starting to miss my favorite foods AKA pizza all day every day.

 

I picked up the phone to dial pizza literally a dozen times.

But I tried to stay in as much of a container-approved zone as possible, and since I was working my butt off at work I was still staying active.


So at my weigh-in at the end of the week I was still stuck at the four pounds I had lost, and no inches off my waist.

I could definitely feel the difference of not exercising, and I was actually eager to get back into the routine of things.

So, starting tomorrow I have to start my second week over again. BLEH.



I realize there are super humans out there that either wake up two hours early or go to bed after midnight so that they can work in their thirty minutes of work out and their post-workout shower, but I am not one of those humans. I love my sleep, I love my body not hating me.

I think there is definitely a balance of diet and still living life that is appropriate, and if nothing else it has definitely made me more conscious of what I'm putting into my body.


So this week is do-over week!

Day 5: The First Weigh In

Oh, man.

Day 4 was ROUGH.

I actually cried during the Lower Fix workout and wondered if I would even be able to continue on through the 22 minutes I had left, let alone the rest of these 21 days.

I was not happy at the end, I didn't feel accomplished or proud, I just felt miserable. I barely had made it through, and I had no desire to finish eating my Boca Burger patty for my meal that night.

I was sweaty. So. Sweaty. And all I could think about was how tomorrow was the "Dirty 30" and it made me want to die.

 

I crawled into bed, feeling awful and not prepared for another day of this.


But, day 5 arrived.

DAY 5

I woke up, and surprisingly felt pretty good. My legs weren't in that much pain, my abs only had a slight hint of burn left, and I was well rested (for once). The combination of my new medicine making me feel like part of the living again and me exhausting myself each day left me sleeping pretty well and waking up in a shockingly great mood.

I was ready to take this day on!


I packed my containers, and before I left I did my first official weigh-in since Monday.

THREE AND A HALF POUNDS HOLY CRAP.

I excitedly threw off my dress and ran in to grab a pair of jeans.

 


Well, I got them on. And baaaarreeely got them buttoned but DAMN IT THEY ARE ON!

I'm only seven pounds from my goal, and I've got some new motivation to carry me through.

Three pounds, four days. I got this.

Autumn says you just have to be better than yesterday.

I think I can handle that.

 


I'll update you after the Dirty Thirty tonight.

Day Four: I am Kat

Today started off with a Nyquil hangover.

I slept through my alarm and battled with this cold all day.
 


DAY 3

I didn't eat any of my containers for the day, except for my cottage cheese and peaches for breakfast. I felt like crap and couldn't do it.

My Lumberjack Crew took me out for lunch for my birthday, and it was brought to my attention once again that everything in my life is centered around going out to eat. Luckily, salmon was an option and I used one of my red containers and green containers and skated by.

Before I even headed home I had already talked myself out of today's work out. The pain of the two workouts was finally settling in, and I was pretty sure both my legs had been beaten with baseball bats while I was asleep, and I knew there was just no way between my head and my legs that today's "Lower Fix" was going to happen.




But that's why people like me HAVE to have a coach to force us into doing what we're suppose to do.

So she bargained with me, and we decided to flippityflop today's Lower Fix with tomorrow's Pilates.


I was not a happy camper. I did not want to be sitting on this floor with Jackson dragging squeaky toys over my face and attacking me because of my exhales which he believed to be directed at him.

 

This goes out to all you people working out in a zoo...

Anyways, the warm up starts and OH MY GOD it's so hard whyyyyyy.

I immediately send a voice message to Coach Melissa blaming her for subjecting me to this torture. If the warm up is this hard, what the hell will the next twenty four minutes be????


But once we actually start, I have to admit to myself it isn't that bad. Me and Kat are hanging out in modify-land today.

I AM KAT TODAY. 

We're making our way through and even though my abs are on fire, my head actually feels a little better, and I could do a slightly (VERY SLIGHTLY) longer plank today. Autumn tells me again, "It's not getting easier, you're getting better!"

I feel like an idiot, but I smile when she says it anyway. I've come to terms with the fact you have to buy into it, even just a little, to make it through.

I've also realized Autumn's catch pharse is, "Yeah?" and I lost track of how many times she asked it and how many times I stupidly answered back with the group.
 


AND SERIOUSLY....

LOOK AT THEM! HOW???


Eventually it ends, and we all applaud.


I'm in considerably more pain than yesterday, but I feel extra proud that I suffered through and did it.

Day three in the bag, and hopefully I'll feel better for tomorrow.

A Quarter of a Century

I'm kind of known for birthdays.

Your birthday, my birthday, anyone's birthday. I'm all about it!
 


But this year, I had no energy to plan the usual over-the-top extravaganza as per usual, and Eric couldn't rent an ice rink because he was busy getting ready to move.

So before I knew it, my birthday was here and I had no party planned, no cake, no nothing.

I was already dreading this birthday, because I knew that high school Marvyl would be super disappointed in where I was at in life. According to my ten year plan, I couldn't be farther from where I was suppose to be.

 



But I am happy with where I'm at for the most part. I'm happy that I have a wonderful family and amazing friends, and the love of my life by my side. Although I may not be exactly where I want to be, I know that high school Marvyl would probably be forgiving and appreciate that I'm still trying to get there.

 


Anyways, aside from my birthday breakdown about my life and babies and careers and stuff, I said good bye to Eric and my mom at a Red Lobster birthday lunch.
 



I know what you're thinking...

YEAH. I MADE IT A WHOLE DAY.


But it was my birthday! And I don't give no damns!



I talked to my coach/aka Melissa and she told me this would not ruin all my diet and hopes and dreams.

So after Eric left I basically watched Garfunkel and Oates for hours until Melissa and I's scheduled workout time.

 


DAY 2

Today's workout with Autumn was Upper Fix. THANK GOD because my legs hurt soooo bad from yesterday's I was entirely sure I would immediately quit today's workout.

 

So it began and I was super psyched because my cats peed on my weights (probably because they're might "light" weights and they think I'm a loser) so lifting them towards my face was really pleasant.


 

I didn't use my heavy weights as suggested because, come on Autumn, let's just be real. I'm still at a Kat level right now.

Autumn said, "You can't have what you never had if you don't do something you've never done."

Oddly motivating, so I push through round one.

Ok, this one is way better than cardio. I feel awesome.

 
Totally accurate description of what's happening to my body.


She keeps throwing motivating things at me, but I'm all like, let's just both acknowledge that I can't even do ONE push up, Autumn.

 

But despite the push-ups, I make it through all the workouts and she tells me it's ok that I'm using the baby weights. (Aw, thanks Autumn and Kat. I AM trying.)

Autumn tells me, "Give me three weeks and I'll give you the body you want!"




It's over and I'm surprised that even though my abs are on fire and my arms probably won't work tomorrow, I didn't completely hate it.


I applaud along with the workout team in the video and immediately hate myself for basically wanting to high five the screen.

      


Day two is over, and tomorrow I'm back on the meal plan wagon. Only 18 more days!


 

When You Know Fancy People

If you're anything like me, photos were number one on my MUST HAVE list for our wedding.

Video, wasn't as high up, but I knew we still wanted it. I want my kids to inevitably have to suffer through watching our what will be decades old technology.

But really, I would give anything to have been able to watch my parents wedding video and to have more video of Eric and I's life together.

The problem was, since I hadn't budgeted as much for video, I was worried that we wouldn't get a good enough quality one to make it worth it.

Then I remembered, duh! I got to work with one of the most talented videographers around, and he would be PERFECT for my big day.

This is Andrew, but we call him Fancy. We're obviously VIPs.

We worked together at WBIR, and now he's not only the Image Promotions Producer there, but he also has a videography business called HISCREATIVE. (Lucky for me, amirite?)

He has incredible vision and storytelling abilities, and is one of the most affordable videographers in Knoxville.

I bring this all up now because he's running a special on his Facebook right now for $100 off a wedding package.

So if you're reading this and don't have a videographer yet and want that discount, GO HERE NOW!


If you'd like to check out his work you can click here. 


As always, you can find this and more of my nonsense on my blog board:

Visit To Be Triscritti's profile on Pinterest.

Just Me and These Gorgeous Invitations

I just watched my sweet boy leave in his massive, super country truck.

One of the only times I've seen him cry was this moment, as it all sunk in at once that he was moving away and even though it's only to Nashville and only during the week it just sucks.


And so now it's me and these cats and this monster of a dog. He is a cute dog, though.


With all this silence and free time, I've decided to play catch up on my wedding to-do list. One of those items being my wonderful invitations, which have finally arrived!

Which reminds me, I need to tell you about a lovely lady in my life.

This is Becky. Becky and her adorable hubby. 

I have been lucky enough to know this graphic/creative genius from my time at WBIR and I can't tell you how incredible she is, so I'll show you.

Becky has pretty much put her magic all over my life, making sure that the biggest moments in my world are highlighted with beautiful graphic design. She's always been able to take my insane/vague visions and turn them into pure, unadulterated MAGIC.

Um, she made my graduation invitation look like I was a model portfolio picture. So there's that. 

She has also been the master mind behind our wedding invitations and save the dates. I haven't sent out the invitations yet, so those will be revealed later on, but I did want to share our Save the Dates. 

Look at this. It's. So. Beautiful. 

Besides being amazing, they were super affordable. 

Brides and grooms out there, don't take chances with your invites and Save the Dates. They're really expensive mistakes if you mess them up. It definitely pays to have a professional help you design them to make sure they are the right printing size and exactly what you want. 

I love ours because they are unique and match our theme perfectly! They're exactly what I wanted!

Thanks again to the beautiful and talented Becky Simmons!

If you'd like invitations for birthdays, weddings, or Save the Dates you can contact her by clicking here.

If you'd like to pin our invitations or see the latest updates to my blog board check them out here:

Follow Marvyl's board To Be Triscritti on Pinterest.

And for now, I'm going to get back to work on these invitations, addressing these gazillion envelopes, and coping with this insane silence in our house.

Body Bora Bora Back On Track

Nobody hates wrap things and advoshakes and diets more than THIS girl.*points to self*



But now that my new medicine is making me feel sort of like a human being again (yay!) I decided to start looking for options to get rid of this weight and get back into my wedding dress.

 


And lucky for me, my beautiful bestie is actually a BeachBody coach! She'd never asked me to do her programs before (probs because of my general attitude towards diets and whatnot) but after seeing her results picture I was all:

 

Girl looked healthy. Not just rockin', but she looked healthy. She seemed strong and fit, and I wanted that. So I broke down and asked her to tell me how much is was going to break my bank and my spirit.


As it turns out, it would do neither of those things. For the most part.

The 21 Day Fix is a BeachBody program that focuses on portion control and exercise. Instead of just drinking liquids for a month or losing water weight, you're eating the stuff you already (or should be) eating in smaller portions and balanced appropriately.

There's a variety of colored containers, and they each represent a food group. Red is protein, yellow is carbs, purple is fruit, etc.

Once you calculate what group you're in, you just plan your meals according to how many of each container you can have each day.

The caveat is that you still have to fill it with things that are approved, which basically means low-fat, non-processed foods.

Pair this with a thirty minute work out each day, and you can lose up to 15 pounds in 21 days.

So there's the pitch. Let me tell you real-people style what I like about the program, real talk.

First, it acknowledges that you're going to cheat.
 

But it tells you, that's ok.
 

There's a whole little section of ways to cheat the right way and how to get that wine into your diet, because, let's be real. I'm not going without Starbucks AND wine. I'm AN AMERICAN.

Besides being just written in a funny way, the book is pretty realistic about what you're going to accomplish and making it as bearable as possible. As much as I complained about having to give up the love of my life (McDonalds) the meal possibilities are pretty broad thanks to Pinterest and the options they give you.

I also loved that it was a one time fee of only $60 for the containers, the book, and all the DVDS. HEY OH. (That's like, what I'd be spending on Starbucks this month...so...)

The meal plan is that you have six meals a day, two hours apart so for a snacker like me, this is ideal!


Anyway, whether it works or not, I'll find out in 21 days. Until then, prepare yourselves for updates via this blog.

Day 1

8:33AM: It’s the first day of my 21 Day Fix. I enjoyed being able to throw my containers into a bag and head off to work as mornings are not my forte.

I didn’t make it quite to 9:00AM for my breakfast, but without coffee I decided I deserved it.

I started off with cottage cheese and fresh peach slices, which is actually one of my favorite treats so it’s not unbearable…yet.

10:29AM: It’s time for the first snack, and even though I’m not really hungry I’m super sleepy (and struggling without my morning coffee) so I decide to dive into my apples and peanut butter. Black coffee is sounding better and better. Also, two tablespoons doesn’t seem like a lot, but it’s a good amount of peanut butter.

12:44PM: I tried to sit idly by enjoying my caprese salad during our office’s Labor Day Cookout…but I couldn’t. I don’t know if the whole grain pasta was really as bad as it seemed with the vinaigrette, or if I really just wanted to be eating BBQ.  I decided to swap one of my planned red containers for a hamburger patty and mustard. Defeat tastes so good. So much better than whole grain pasta. I will say though, had this been delicious, this was more than enough food. I was slightly discouraged when I made it because it looked like such a little amount, but it’s actually way more than I need.

2:53PM: It’s time for the afternoon snack, but I’m so full and not used to consuming this much during the day, I barely get through three carrots. Not to mention my office is WAY too quiet for carrots. I put the containers back in my bag and couldn’t help but think that I still have another meal….and a workout…to get through today. More excited about the meal, obvs.

4:30PM: Since it’s a holiday and since without my morning/afternoon/second afternoon caffeine fix I am miserable in so many ways, I reaaaaaaallly don’t want to be at work anymore. However, I am equally not excited about being at home because that means I have to do this work out. Ugggghh exercise whyyyyyy!?

4:40PM: Note to self: Do it for the dress. Do it for the dress. Do it for the dress.

6:15PM: I've made it through the god-awful Pigeon Forge holiday weekend traffic and made it home. In a futile attempt to procrastinate this work out, I take Jackson to the dog park.

6:20PM: My bestie and also coach says we can do the workout together. This will make it easier, somehow. Accountability for the win! She convinces me not to fall asleep watching Netflix.

7:00PM: I put the DVD in and for a moment consider toggling over to the Netflix tile instead of the DVD one...but Melissa is on the other side of the phone waiting for me to be a decent human being. So begrudgingly I click DVD. And so it begins.
 


Workout: The video begins with Autumn, the creator, telling us how important Shakeology is to our workout. I fast forward and tell Jackson about paying for bills not shakes is being an adult. He seems indifferent to my suffering.

Not like this guy.

Ok, she's kind of peppy in that obnoxious sort of way, but her words are still motivating me. I guess I'm a cog in the work out machine. YOU'RE RIGHT AUTUMN! I CAN PUSH THROUGH THIS! I CAN GO FARTHER!



I'm laughing at myself, and the cats are definitely judging me.

And by the way I pull my leg muscle shortly after, I can see why. SO out of shape. So, so, so out of shape.



I sympathize with Kat, the "modifier" who is the only not-skinny one in the room showing us how to do the modified steps if we can't manage the impossible ones the others are doing.


My leg is still unable to do most of the work outs, so I do all the right side ones and then spend the left side ones jogging in place and talking to Kat. I feel you girl. I feel you.

Everything is in one minute intervals and she keeps telling me I can do anything for sixty seconds. OKAY KIMMY SCHMIDT.

But she right, tho.

At this point I've extended my twenty second rest break into a generous 40 second break. Don't you judge me, cat. Or Kat. Either one of you.
 



I spend this 40 seconds trying to determine if T Mac in the back is attractive, or if I just like his TREX shirt and the way he really wants everything to end and how Autumn can be so small and fit and have so many abs and still have boobs that look like that.



I mean, my boobs will be the first thing to go when/if I start losing weight. HOW ARE YOUR'S SO PERFECT AUTUMN? HOW?


I'm back in the game and thankfully we're down to the last round. The ab work outs suck, but I was just thankful to be laying down sort of, so I didn't complain.


The rest went pretty quickly and before I knew it the cool down was over and it was finished.

Autumn congratulates me and says she'll see me tomorrow.

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF.


FINE.



So day one ends. I'm still here, and it really wasn't so bad.



If you want to learn more about the program, join our Facebook support group, or just get a kit for yourself you can click here. 


For those of you in my area, we'll be starting a new group next week so there's still time to order one and start all together.


And if you want to check out some recipes for the 21 Day Fix check out my Pinterest: Follow Marvyl's board 21 Day Fix Foods on Pinterest.

Weekend at Gary's -The Best Bachelorette Party EVER

Everyone hates bachelorette parties…except the bride. There’s really no bridesmaid that is super pumped about spending all night spending money and pretending their bride is a queen, following her around in matching outfits attending to her every whim. But my bridesmaids are not just any bridesmaids…they are super heroes. They are grand adventurers. And without a doubt, they are the best friends I could ever ask for.

This is the tale of our Weekend at Gary’s.

Our story begins with me having no idea what’s going on. My bridesmaids had planned a surprise weekend (which I did eventually find out was in Nashville) of which I knew none of the details. 

Friday evening I met with two of the girls, we loaded up on Red Bull and Rhianna and hit the road to Nashville.

We arrived to what seemed to be not a hotel-type neighborhood and rolled up to a condo looking house. This would be Gary’s house, and our home for the weekend. Gary’s house, as it turns out, was an AirBNB. I’d never stayed in one before and if you’re not familiar with AirBNB let me inform you.

It’s where super awesome, trusting people, open their doors to strangers and rent out their home to travelers.  In our case, Gary the architect (*made up backstory fact) lent us his super gorgeous home, decorated in vinyl records and Nashville themed art clad with photos of his loved ones that helped fueled our ongoing backstory of who Gary was in real life.

When I walked in I took in the amazing spread of snacks and décor that looked straight up outta Pinterest, and also my favorite wine ready to go. My ladies had clearly outdone themselves, and we were ready to party. The hashtag #weekendatgarys and #garybeforemarry was created and my excitement over the hot tub started the evening.

My MOH freaking made this. With her bare hands. LIKE CUT THE WOOD AND DREW DESIGNS ON IT AND MADE IT. DYING. 

My future sister and mother-in-law made Pinterest come to life with these adorable snackages. The jello shots were too delicious. TOO. DAMN. DELICIOUS. 

Now, this is how you know you have the right kind of friends. When they have an itinerary for the whole weekend (legitimately printed out, thanks to your super-planner sister-in-law…a girl after your own heart) and have scouted all the must-dos in Nashville. (P.S. The itinerary had cowboy boots and hats on it!)

And like that we were off... 

They whisked me off to the most hipsterish place I’ve ever been…the Pharmacy. Apparently this is where all the cool kids go, as evident by the boatloads of handlebar mustaches and beers I didn’t recognize.

We had the world’s least enthusiastic server which only made it even better as we tried anything we could think of to make him smile. (He didn’t, though.) The burgers were AH MAH ZING and probably exactly what I didn’t know I needed for the night that would follow.

Afterwards we retreated to Gary’s where one of the girls suggested we go to Play. We were pretty much convinced after learning that there would be a drag show and that Ke$ha had a song about it, but we were COMPLETELY convinced after she mentioned there would be a foam pit involved.

We piled into our Uber in our swimsuits and outfits and headed to a gay bar. Already this party was more than I could hope for, and I just didn’t even know what was coming.

After paying the insane cover charge, we found our way to the drag show. The place was packed and after a few acts we decided to further investigate the seemingly endless hallways and rooms of the club. We found our way to the main dance floor and decided we definitely made the right choice. It was full of lights, a disco ball, and dubstep. Although the dance floor was empty, it gave us a chance to admire the bartenders and pre-game with cheap tequila. And boy, it was cheap tequila.

Soon enough we felt brave enough to find this rumored foam pit. We traversed down the hallway to a door way where people covered in suds were flowing out from and ventured in.

This is all I want out of life every day. 

You know when people say that if they won the lottery they would fill up a pool with jello or something? This was basically that feeling but about a parking lot. The lot had a fence all the way around it, a stage with a DJ, and bubble machines raining down over the crowd. The bubbles were about knee high, but that was enough for us. Most of us dove in, and the others stayed behind to capture proof that this was real life.

As we danced our faces off, swimming around with a bunch of strangers in bubbles, they began to rise. Before we knew it, the bubbles were up to our shoulders. We’d dive down and disappear, and people would suddenly appear up from the tide. I can’t describe the feeling, but it was bizarre and incredible and probably the most fun I’ve ever had on a dance floor.

After a while we exited off the bubble-floor and headed back inside. It was very cold, and we were covered in soapy water. We toweled off though, and headed in to the now packed dance floor. There was twerking. There was a lot of twerking. Not by us, although I fell victim to dancing to close to someone’s behind as they twerked into my face. THANKS, DANCE PLATFORM.

He had that booty, tho

Before long we befriended a lone dancer, flailing around in khakis and a button up shirt. Clearly, he was misplaced and alone and we decided to make him ours. 

His name was Brandon, and he told us he was a banker. We had guessed as much, but we let him tell us how important he was. He seemed to need it. 

Although we prefaced our conversation with the majority of our group was taken and the odds were not in his favor, he insisted on buying us all drinks all night.

Maybe because he knew he would eventually take off all his clothes in the foam pit and we would need to stop security from hauling him out.

We headed for round two in the foam pit and danced until they shut it down. We helped Brandon find his pants then headed back into the bar.

While we were ordering, Brandon decided to climb up onto the wall divider. A simple mistake, as it's located mere feet from the dance platform. But it was too late. Apparently Play has a no tolerance rule for dancing on the wall, and he was pulled down by security.

My loyal bridesmaids party pulled me back from arguing with the bouncer, and even the bartender tried to plead with him, but it was too late.

He hauled Brandon out, and he waved to us. RIP Brandon in Khakis. We barely knew ye.


For the remainder of the weekend, we would drink in his honor.


We cabbed home and ended up in the hot tub before finally getting to bed around four.


But the party began again the next day with breakfast at T Swifts favorite place in Nashville, Fidos.

I came prepared in my tiara and sash, and we attempted to get the story of when my wedding actually was straight because we got sick of explaining why we were celebrating and it was in January.

We were rockstars, though.

We then went to our first secret stop...which ended up being the Arrington Vineyards. It was beautiful and we were all in our matching wedding party gear and it was a blast. We did a wine tasting and relaxed and it was perfect.

We had a quick nap-stop back at Gary's where we piled in bed (Gary's wonderful, massive, king sized, super soft bed) and watched Broad City before the ultimate evening began.

It started with us getting ready, and then me coming outside to find a limo waiting. A FREAKING LIMO.

The plan was to drive around Nashville, eat pizza, and drink champagne like freaking badass bees. 

Our first stop was this amazing look out, where you could see the whole city. It was right at sunset and it was perfect (they literally had all our stops planned and I couldn't get over how much time and effort was put into this weekend). 

Then we visited the Nashville Parthenon and took a bunch of pictures and got to pet some super soft adorable pups. 

Unfortunately, everything in our limo was broken. The AC, the lights, the radio. At this point, we were really starting to realize the AC part of the problem. My sister-in-law got on the phone like a BOSS.

 

So we got the limo ride free if we got out where we were, which happened to be the County Music Hall of Fame.

We hopped out, and as we were deciding what to do we ran into two rickshaw drivers who convinced us that they would bring the party, and they totes did.

What began as a quick ride to find a horse drawn carriage, ended with a three hour rickshaw ride around Nashville. Tim and Tim #2 (Ryan, I think was probably his real name..) showed us all these amazing places that we never would have seen otherwise, including some history about the city.

They gave us some pretty cool stories to tell, and pictures like these...

It was pretty much the best experience I've ever had in my life. They paraded us up and down Broadway and made me feel like a parade princess and made us feel like the coolest bachelorette party of all time, which really, what else could you ask for?

via GIPHY

We said our goodbyes in front of Coyote Ugly and bid the Tims farewell.

And then the dancing began. There was lots of dancing.

And well, that's all we'll say about Coyote Ugly. But there was this guy:

So. 

We ended up at another ball that had a disco ball, and that's pretty much all I remember from there. 

Somehow our Uber got us to a Cookout where we met Jeff-Michael-Rick whom we convinced to buy us all food. 

We ate with him, and then retreated back to Gary's.

 

The next morning, we assessed whether or not we were going to live much longer, and came to the conclusion that none of our legs worked and we would probably all be dead soon without breakfast.

We headed to a place that Tim #1 had pointed out on our tour, Monell's. It's an all you can eat, family style place that serves down home Southern food. IT WAS SO GOOD OHMYGOD. We sat with strangers who had just gotten engaged and so that was fun.

I was still wearing my tiara and I have no regrets.



We headed our separate ways after leaving Gary a lengthy note about how much we love him and his beautiful house.



It was one of the most fun, memorable weekends of my entire life. I laughed so hard, and I got to scream Rhianna lyrics at people from a rickshaw and dance in a foam pit so I really don't know where my life goes from here.

Thank you to my beautiful, intelligent, generous friends who went above and beyond the call of duty making this bride feel like an all out QUEEN.




 
X THAT WHOLE WEEKEND.


If you'd like to check out some of the things we did in detail, check out my blog board on Pinterest:


Follow Marvyl's board Weekend at Garys Bachelorette Party on Pinterest.