This year was obviously a big one for me. The wedding took up a lot of the year with planning, showers and parties. I didn’t travel quite as much as I usually would because of that. It was also a big year for work! We opened four Drake’s in three different states. Check out my year in review below. PS, I also shared my five most popular blog posts of 2019 here.
January
January was pretty chill. I traveled some for work, we celebrated one of my best friends from college’s weddings in Birmingham, and went to a friend’s roaring 20s birthday party.
February
Another relatively slow month. We opened Drake’s Chattanooga! Dave and I took marriage classes at Southland Church.
March
Celebrated a friend from college’s wedding in Ormand Beach, FL. I also won an award at work and got to go on a very cool trip to Naples!
April
A few visits to Keeneland, including our first wedding shower, a brunch before Keeneland hosted by sweet family friends. This was also the month we put an offer in our house! We had to make the offer pending on Dave’s house selling, so then it was a mad dash to do some work to Dave’s house and get it on the market. April was also when I started an unintentional three month blog break. I couldn’t talk about the house drama, and just had too much going on that I just needed some time off. I went on my bachelorette trip to Palm Springs at the end of the month and had the. best. time. One of my best friends also had her baby in April and I became an aunt!
May
My mom and I took a plant workshop at Springhouse Gardens for Mother’s Day. We had our stock the bar shower and learned to sabre Champage! We anxiously waited through house drama.. I think Dave got the offer on his house in May, but we had to wait a while to close. Zeke got second place in a Memorial Day dog show!
June
Although it felt like it was never going to happen at times, after a few hurdles we closed on our house! We packed both our houses into a Uhaul, waited in limbo a few days, then finally got to move Dave into the house. I moved back into my parents house for a few months before the wedding. During all this Dave and I became landlords; we rent out my old condo now. I also had my bridal shower hosted by my aunts and cousins at Talon Winery. Sadly, we had to put down my childhood dog Happy this month 🙁 It honestly sucked that it happened literally the day I moved back into my parents house, but she was 17 and it was her time. We also opened Drake’s in Burlington, NC at the end of the month and celebrated Drake’s tenth anniversary.
July
We spent Fourth of July at the pool. Celebrated Dave’s birthday on the peddler. Had two wedding parties hosted by very dear family friends! Anxiously awaited wedding month…
August
Wedding month! The week leading up was honestly fun! I wasn’t that stressed and was able to enjoy being with friends and family. The wedding was August 10 and we left the next day for our honeymoon in Singapore and Bali. I’ll be sharing a full wedding recap and honeymoon blog post in the new year, but in the meantime you can read this wedding update for most of our vendors etc.
September
We spent Labor Day with my grandparents in western Kentucky saying goodbye to their house, one of my very favorite places in the world, before they moved to Louisville. It was bittersweet for sure. A lot of football and a family friend’s wedding, but mostly just enjoyed settling into our new house. I hosted a Llama Baby Shower for my coworker. Dave and I threw our first party before Christ the King Oktoberfest and I got no photos, so please enjoy this gem of me doing karaoke at Chinoe Pub at the after party.
October
Keeneland of course. We dressed up as party animals for Halloween. Drake’s in Owensboro, KY opened! It felt like I was sick for the entire month with two colds and a nasty stomach bug.
November
We decorated for Christmas early. Pretty much the first thing Dave and I talked about when we bought our house was decorating for Christmas, so you could say we were eager 🙂 We hosted a party on Thanksgiving Eve and then celebrated Thanksgiving with both of our families in Lexington.
December
This month was fullllll of parties. We were booked probably 2/3 of the month. My work party, Dave’s work party, my family’s party, Toys for Tots, ugly Christmas sweater party, our niece’s birthday.. I’m so grateful for all the people we get to celebrate with, but I have to admit it’s been nice taking it easy around the house these last few days! We had a little Christmas morning celebration with just the two of this and then spent the day with both our families. We laid low for New Year’s Eve and had exactly two people over and were in bed to watch the ball drop.
I have so, so much to be grateful for this year, and you all are top of the list! I’m honestly not sure where I’d be without you. I know around this time many people are sharing their “highlight reel” on social media, and all of the above makes my life look pretty peachy. It was obviously a good year with getting married, but that doesn’t mean that there weren’t some hard conversations, hard days, even hard weeks to get there. And that doesn’t mean that I haven’t had some pretty meh years before this really great one. Hoping you know you always have a friend in me, and that you are so very loved! Wishing you only the very best in 2020.
Biscuits & blessings,
Leels
