Bright & bold colors, a bubbly couple, beautiful details, an outdoor ceremony, and a party boat! This is the recipe for a FUN wedding!! Ashley and Nick are the definition of "modern wedding couple". They took a lot of wedding traditions and added a personal twist. One of my favorites was their alternative to the traditional "dollar dance". Instead, they had a raffle! Nick and Ashley are die hard Iowa Hawkeyes & Minnesota Vikings fans. So was everyone else at the wedding. They had their wedding party go around throughout the evening selling raffle tickets to a few different prizes. The prizes being: tickets to a couple Hawkeye & Vikings games. End result? Win, Win for everyone! : )

It's always a refreshing change of scenery for us when we head to Okoboji for a wedding!

xoxo,

Val

I want to start with a warning...we are kinda, super huge, dorks! We are (more me than Jeff) the stereotypical "tourist". We take pictures of the food we eat, we take turns taking pictures of each other standing next to everything and anything, we ask random strangers on the street to take pictures of us, we check out the souvenir shop of every tourist trap there is. (I may or may not have an obsession with purchasing children's books for children I do not have yet from every and all major tourist traps. The collection may be up to 5 books) There, that was my warning to you all. New York in one word is: AMAZING. It's truly the city that never sleeps, so diverse, so fast paced, full of amazing cuisines, and spectacular views! We are HUGE foodies and packed about 5 meals into each day just so we could try as many things as we could. (the scale at home was NOT impressed) Here are our top 3 favorite things we did:

3.) Every. Single. Meal. But, our fav restaurant of the trip: a Tapas Bar called "Alta" http://www.altarestaurant.com/

2.) Wicked on Broadway

1.) 4th of July on the Press Rooftop Bar of our hotel, Ink 48. The views were breathtaking, the cocktails were delicious, the hors d'oeuvres were wonderful, and we had the best seats for the Macy's fireworks show. The view on one side of the rooftop was the NYC skyline/Times Square. The view on the other side of the rooftop was the harbor where the fireworks were being lit. The sunset was unbelievable and the fireworks were amazing!!!!

xoxo,

Val