Happy Halloween!

I love getting to dress Lilly up every year for Halloween! This year she is an adorable mermaid! I'll be honest I just wasn't really feeling Halloween this year and putting a costume together so painting pumpkins and dressing up Lilly was the most festive I am getting this year!

It's exhausting being a mermaid!

Since we have a decent amount of snow outside already I thought we would place our pumpkins on the fireplace this year

{Monogram & Chevron}

{Stripes & Swirls}

I hope everyone has a fun Halloween!

xoxo Ashley

Coffee & Tea Bar

I put together a little Coffee/Tea Bar and it's just a nice little area to go to when making a drink in the morning! It's great to store all the coffee, tea and coffee mugs in the same place and that way its convient! I know it's nothing crazy, but I enjoy it!

We just recently upgraded our Tassimo for the new Keurig 2.0 and we love it! 

I made the chalkboard picture frame and the cute "Mr. & Mrs." mugs were a bridal shower gift from a friend.

My sweet hubby knew I wanted the rod iron coffee cup holder and he surprised me with it :)

Happy coffee drinking!

Decor Pumpkin & "Sugar & Cream" Containers: Target // Rod Iron Coffee Cup: Pier 1 Imports 

xoxo Ashley

Weekend Trip to Kelowna

My husband and I went on a road trip last weekend to Kelowna! I have only been to Kelowna maybe 3 or 4 times, but I think its just an awesome city. Plus it has a Target & Pier 1 Imports! (miss having these stores!) The drive was 12 hours there and 12 hours back (12 hours non stop). Sean and I have done so many road trips together. I honestly think we are just used to it now. We leave early, make a stop at Tim Hortons and hit the road. Lilly absolutely loves car rides. She sleeps almost the whole entire drive! She really only wakes up for when we stop to grab lunch and stretch our legs. Sean has family living in Kelowna so it was really nice to visit with Grandma Murphy and his aunt & uncle. With living in a small town the last 4 years it is just nice to get out of Fort St John and go see/do things we can't in FSJ. Things I miss from living in a city! My MUST do in Kelowna was to go shopping, walk around downtown and go out to eat at restaurants! Oh and get pumpkins! There is one pumpkin patch in FSJ and we went the other weekend and it was sold out! Not a single pumpkin left. I couldn't believe it. So I told Sean we had to go to a pumpkin patch in Kelowna. 

Okanagan Lake

Lilly is a total beach dog!

{Wearing the Classic Polka Dot Top from AshleyKae Boutique}

We went to McMillan Farms in Kelowna. It was such a cute place! Other than a pumpkin patch they had farm animals, a corn maze, hay rides and other activities for kids.

I was completely in my happy place at Pier 1 Imports and absolutely love shopping for Christmas decor! I can't wait to put up the Christmas decor in our house!

I love how downtown Kelowna is right along the water. It's so nice to walk along the lake at night and go to different shops and bars. We went out for dinner one night at RauDZ Regional Table and wow was it amazing! We had never been there before and had heard great things about it so we wanted to check it out. 

I had the Cheese Burger and it was one of the best burgers I have ever had!

Sean had the Lamb Special and every bite he was saying how good it was!

It is pretty neat how the restaurant buys from local farms and you could definitely taste it! Their local wine list was great as well. If you haven't beed to RauDZ before you have to go.

A pretty rainbow on the morning we were going to start our drive back to Fort St John.

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! 

xo Ashley

Sunday Family Walk

Yesterday Sean and I went out for a Sunday brunch and then for a walk along the river. It was a beautiful Fall day and I am just loving all of the pretty Fall colors! Lilly was excited to be out on the walk with us and running through the leaves. She's more of an indoor dog (it gets way too cold here in the winter!) so when she is outside she gets super hyper and likes to sniff everything! 

Pumpkin sweater time!

Comfy cute sweaters are a must! This Pop of Neon Sweatshirt is one of my favs right now.

Love my little family!

It was a holiday weekend here in Canada and I hope everyone is having a wonderful Canadian Thanksgiving today filled with love, a full heart & a full tummy!

xo Ashley

Pop of Neon Sweatshirt- AshleyKae Boutique

www.AshleyKae.com

Our Wedding Day

Our wedding day was honestly the best day of my life so far! It was amazing to have mine and Sean's family all together in Mexico. We don't get to have our families together very often since they live in different countries! Like all brides say, the wedding day FLEW by! It was so nice to have the whole week in Mexico to celebrate and be with everyone though. That's another reason why I think a destination wedding is the way to go! I hope you enjoy these photos from our special day! 

Getting ready with my bridesmaids 

Getting into my dress

My wedding dress felt like it was MADE for me. It was one of the first dresses I saw online & I couldn't stop thinking about it! I am so in love with it!

The guys taking tequila shots!

My mommy walking me down the aisle 

My sweet emotional groom

Bridesmaids 

For our unity we did a wine box with letters we had written for each other 

Having a guitarist play at our ceremony was a must & the music was lovely 

The kiss

New Mr. & Mrs. Murphy!

We were so thankful to have our closest friends & family with us on our big day!

I want to relive this day

We wanted a romantic, whimsical and glamour chic wedding 

Our center pieces were multiple small floral settings with roses & peonies along with candle lit lanterns

Our chair signs 

We had a buffet (I wanted a plated dinner, but Sean really wanted a buffet so I gave in) but I still wanted printed menus 

Our guests book was a family name sign and we now have it hanging in our home!

The lighting at our reception was important to me! We had chandeliers, string lights above the dance floor, lanterns with candles on the tables and floating candles in the pool.

We searched for a cake topper that we loved, but honestly couldn't find one! So we went with something that meant a lot to us. 

Our first dance to "Make You Feel My Love" by Adele 

We had such an amazing night and danced the night away! I can't believe our wedding was over 5 months ago already. I honestly miss having a wedding to plan for! 

xo Ashley

Planning a Destination Wedding

I wanted to write a post about planning our destination wedding and hopefully I can give a few helpful tips to other soon to be brides who are planning! Sean and I had always known we were going to have a beach wedding. When we started looking into exactly where we would have our wedding it only made sense that we went back to the place we met, Mexico. I started researching All Inclusive Adults Only resorts in the Riviera Maya and made a list of the top 5 resorts we liked based upon the resort itself, wedding packages, location, and price.

 Sean and I did a trip to the Riviera Maya a year before our wedding day to check out our top 5 resorts that we were potentially considering to host our wedding. I had emailed the 5 resorts before the trip to set up meetings with the resort's wedding coordinators and I would have to say I am SO glad we were able to do this! We saw a couple of resorts that we loved online, but then in person we didn't feel it was what we were looking for. The last resort we had a meeting with was Secrets Maroma Beach Resort (the one I was most excited to see!) and WOW did we fall in love with it! The resort was exactly what Sean and I were looking for!

After the meeting with the WC at Secrets Maroma we went in for a swim!

The beach is absolutely STUNNING!

Loved how the resort was so modern & chic

All of the rooms were gorgeous! (the "Tropical View" rooms as well!)

One of the options was to have a Swim Out Room and there is a pool right outside your balcony to step into! Sean and I had this room for the first part of our trip and it was SO nice!

The pools were beautiful. There was the infinity pool and the middle pool with a swim up bar.

The Spa was amazing! You HAVE to experience the royal treatments at this spa! 

 Just a few more tips:

 -Keep in mind when seeing the Wedding Package prices that this does NOT include everything for your wedding! There will be an additional cost for extra guests (a lot of the resorts have a limit of number of guests included), decor, flowers, upgrade on flowers, upgrade on food, DJ, photographer, videographer, upgrade on cake etc.

 - Do your research on the resorts! I found TripAdvisor was very helpful. I also liked reading reviews and discussing with other brides to be on bestdestionationwedding.com

 - The sooner notice you can give your wedding guests the BETTER! Also, ask your wedding party ASAP! We sent out our Save the Dates a year before our wedding and I asked my sister & girlfriends to be my MOH/bridesmaids a year in advance!

Our Save the Dates were a "Message in a Bottle

I "Popped the Question" to my sister/MOH when trying on wedding dresses!

My Bridesmaids live in Minnesota so we Skyped when I "popped the question"

 -Having a destination wedding your guests have to RSVP much sooner to book their flights and make their hotel reservations! We sent out our Wedding Invitations 9 months before the wedding day!

Our Wedding Invitations were "Passports" with RSVP "Boarding Passes"

 - Our wedding package included a wedding photographer that came with the resort, but Sean and I had found wedding photographers in the Riviera Maya that we fell in love with! So we had to pay our wedding photographers separate, pay a fee to have the come on to the Secrets Maroma property and then we used the "included" photographer from the wedding package to come later in the night of our wedding to take "dancing & party" pictures! We think it worked out great! 

 - I definitely would recommend working with a travel agent. It is great to have someone help your wedding guests with booking their hotel and flights. Also, our TA was there to answer our guests questions and they did not have to contact the bride & groom. Plus you are able to get Group Rates with your TA! We found our wedding TA on bestdestinationwedding.com

 - Email, email, email your wedding coordinator! I sent tons of photos to show what we wanted for decor and ideas at our wedding. You can not be detailed enough! Also, be patient when waiting to hear back from your WC if your wedding is over 3 months away when contacting her. She is busy dealing with sooner weddings, but she WILL respond to you! 

 - Your resort works with a decor company and will go through them to rent the decor that you are NOT bringing to the wedding. We brought all of our signs, table runners (they didn't have the ones I was looking for), guests Welcome Bags, and items the decor company did not have available. I would recommend emailing the decor company directly not through your wedding coordinator! 

 I hope this helped and please let me know if you have any questions I didn't cover! Even if you're not planning a destination wedding I hope you'll be able to go to Secrets Maroma for a vacation!! I can't wait to go back!! 

 xo Ashley