A Honeymoon in Charleston

It's official... we're married!!! Our wedding took place last Saturday, May 7th, at Bowing Oaks Plantation here in Jacksonville (which is the most gorgeous venue you can imagine, please do yourself a favor and check it out! Seriously, I wish I could live there). Every single part of our big day was more beautiful and perfect than we ever imagined and we are so happy we got to share it all with our family and friends. I could cry again just thinking about it!


I can't wait to do a full wedding post later on, but for now I wanted to share some of my favorite pictures from our honeymoon! We left Sunday and spent a few days in Charleston, SC. I can't tell you enough how beautiful Charleston is and how much we enjoyed its history and charm. We stayed at The Grand Bohemian (an awesome wedding gift from my Aunt & Uncle) which is probably the coolest hotel I've ever stayed in! The Grand Bohemian has multiple art galleries, giant paintings on every wall, funky furniture, colorful chandeliers everywhere, and a chic rooftop restaurant and bar. Plus, it's downtown so we were able to walk almost everywhere. Here's a list of some of the fun places we visited in Charleston:

• Hominy Grill: Ok, so because James and I REALLY like to eat (like, a lot), we prefer to do some research when we travel. Most of the restaurants we visited were highly rated online and/or featured in Southern Living & on The Food Network. Hominy was one of these incredibly popular places. We arrived for breakfast and were seated with no wait, which was awesome because it was packed! I ordered from the specials (something like a biscuit with a poached egg and chicken gravy) and James ordered their famous Charleston Nasty (similar to The Five from Maple Street here in Jax). Although we both enjoyed our meals, we'd have to agree that we'd still choose The Five over The Charleston Nasty, hands down. We like our gravy with a kick!
• South Carolina Aquarium: I understand that most people who visit Charleston come to see the scenery and experience history and don't usually plan to spend time in an aquarium. However, I definitely recommend it. Here's a few reasons why... 1) The tanks are massive! The main tank is 385,000 gallons and two stories, which makes you feel like the fish, sharks, and turtles are swimming all above and around you. It's crazy. 2) Hands-On Activities! I don't care if you're 6 or 60, you know it sounds cool to touch and hold things like starfish, horseshoe crabs, sharks, and sting rays. 3) A/C! This isn't the most exciting reason but if you happen to be walking around Charleston during a hot time of year, you'll thank me for suggesting a fun activity that gives you time to cool off.
• Palmetto Carriage Works: Of course you should take a carriage tour while you're in Charleston. As I already mentioned, we walked pretty much everywhere so this carriage tour was a much needed break for us on Monday afternoon. There are quite a few tour companies to choose from but this one seemed like the best based on ratings and reviews. I loved that it was covered (some are not and I'm too pale for that!) and our tour guide was funny and entertaining. Everything was lovely EXCEPT for the Big Red Barn. I'll be completely honest and tell you that one of the reasons I booked this tour was because of the extra animals they claimed to have in the barn that you can meet before the tour. Most importantly, Peanut, the MINI HORSE! If you know me at all, you'll understand how incredibly excited I was to meet Peanut, but sadly, we learned they no longer have the advertised animals due to other companies claiming it was an unfair advantage. Heartbreaking. I know. 
• Tattooed Moose: Any restaurant that has been featured on "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" is typically at the top of our list of places to visit. If Guy thinks it's delicious, how can you go wrong? We visited the Tattooed Moose Monday night and loved it. The atmosphere is relaxed but fun and the giant moose head on the wall is awesome. I also love that they have tons of board games you can play while you're there. This felt like our type of place. We ordered and split Mike's Famous Duck Club with a basket of fries and WOW. It was so delicious! Very large and hearty which is exactly what I crave after a few beers. So good.
• Toast: We enjoyed another breakfast at this popular restaurant. One of my favorite things about Toast is their different espresso options. We had been drinking plain coffee from our in-room coffee maker and it was very nice to have a strong pick-me-up. James ordered the Steak & Eggs and I couldn't get any more low-country with my order of the Eggs Meeting Street (a take on eggs benedict with biscuits, crab cakes, and fried green tomatoes). Both of our meals were gigantic and so yummy! I'm not a huge fan of fried green tomatoes but with the crab cake and remoulade it was delicious. A great Charleston breakfast!
• Rooftop at The Vendue Inn: There are several rooftop bars in Charleston, but this is definitely one of the best! The spacious rooftop at The Vendue has multiple levels, providing lots of great views of downtown, the river, and even the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge. I loved that you could sit at the covered bar or relax on a couch in the sun, all while enjoying tasty drinks and killer views. Plus, the hotel itself is beautiful and while walking through we encountered some cool things like a gigantic Abe Lincoln head and a life size pin-art frame that you can press your whole body into. 
• Husk: When browsing online for the best restaurants in Charleston, I quickly found that Husk was at the top of every list. This acclaimed restaurant is led by James Beard Award-winning Chef Sean Brock and delivers a modern spin on Southern classics. The menu focuses on fresh, local ingredients and changes daily. You'll want to make a reservation because this place is so popular. We called early in the morning and found they were fully booked, but we decided to go anyway and enjoyed ourselves at the bar until a table became available. The restaurant, located in a restored Victorian-era home, is gorgeous (much like the rest of Charleston). James and I are not accustomed to eating in such fabulous, fine dining restaurants like Husk and we were a little intimidated by the menu at first. I ordered chicken with new potatoes, grilled wild ramps, turnips, rapini, and sweet onion broth. James ordered Carolina Heritage pork chop with butterbean sofrito, baby heirloom kale, roasted carrot, pancetta, and pepper vinegar. We genuinely had no clue what half of the ingredients were when we ordered but both of our meals were incredible. Everything worked so perfectly together and we loved all the strong flavors. It was our favorite meal in Charleston!
• The Early Bird Diner: Another spot from Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives that we had to visit! Throughout the entire trip, Charleston had us craving some excellent chicken and waffles and according to Guy, The Early Bird Diner is the place to go. At this point, we both felt like we had gained 10 pounds each, so we decided to split the chicken and waffles and thank goodness we did. It's massive but so good I was tempted to lick the plate. The chicken was tender, juicy, and not overly crispy and the waffle was perfect. While I loved the honey mustard and syrup that came with it, I would have preferred some sort of buffalo syrup like Metro Diner serves. Still, it was delicious. 
• The Griffon: In our opinion, the Griffon was similar to any other great pub (laid back, good drinks, & hearty, delicious food) except for one thing- dollar bills everywhere! Every single surface in the place is covered with dollars that people have drawn pictures, notes, names, and dates on. It's awesome and such fun concept. We knew immediately that we had to leave a dollar (to remember our honeymoon especially!) and the bartender supplied us with sharpies and a staple gun. The hardest part though, was actually finding an uncovered spot to place it. We finally found a little wooden booth near the bathrooms and stapled it on. So if you ever visit The Griffon, try and find our dollar!

Overall, we really just had the best time eating, drinking, and being MARRIED :)