Burgers and Battle #2

The weather was in the 80s today!

During our afternoon walk around the lake with Sadie, Ryan and I decided that the weather was perfect grillin’ weather and picked up some lean ground beef at the grocery store to throw on the grill for dinner.

Ryan prepped our burgers while I sliced zucchini and sprinkled the veggies with garlic salt. We threw everything on the grill and had an easy clean-up meal in no time!

Grilled Zucchini

I used an Arnold whole wheat sandwich thin as the bun for my burger, which worked perfectly.

My Plate

Grilled Goodness

Yummy

Ryan and I weren’t the only ones who enjoyed the burgers.

"Feed Me!"

Enjoying Burgers

 Sadie waited patiently for a few bites and licked our plates clean.

Ryan and I may have a new epic battle to test out: If given the choice between a chicken breast and a hamburger patty, which would Sadie pick? I’m thinkin’ the burger… In the last epic battle on Sadie’s birthday, she picked a McDonald’s cheeseburger over vanilla soft serve. Stay tuned for battle number two!

Which do you think will win?

My money is on the burger.

Dessert

After dinner, Ryan and I both had a tasty dessert of freshly sliced strawberries and a Lindt white chocolate truffle.

Chocolate + Strawberries

Now we’re off to watch our latest NetFlix movie and straighten up the apartment a bit.

See ya in the mornin’!

The Wedding Planning Begins

Whoa what a busy weekend! This was the official kickoff of our wedding planning!

On Friday we headed for St. Petersburg to meet up with my parents to check out Feather Sound Country Club as a potential venue for our big day.

Feather Sound County Club

The facility was very nice for a reception site, but I wasn’t sold on the club as a ceremony site. If possible I think we all agreed that we would like to have the ceremony and reception in the same location. I loved the views from the possible reception room though. It overlooks a gorgeous golf course with lots of palm trees.

That night we headed to the dinner at the Vinoy, an amazing hotel where we had an appointment to meet with  a wedding coordinator the following day. We ate dinner at Marchand’s at the Vinoy and it was unbelievable.

Ryan, my mom and dad all ordered the three-course special: salad with marinated grilled shrimp, seared scallops and filet with gourmet macaroni and cheese followed by chocolate mousse. SO delicious. They definitely made a fantastic choice. I ordered the shrimp cocktail appetizer and the mussels and clams with sausage. Also quite tasty!

We left full and excited to return for our appointment the next day.

Saturday

On Saturday we woke up hungry and made a big breakfast of oatmeal pancakes.

Oatmeal Pancake Mix

This mix provided a great base for some yummy pancakes.

I topped mine with strawberries.

Oatmeal Pancakes and Strawberries

Ryan and my dad used lots o’ syrup.

Yummers

Once my mom returned from her doctor’s appointment, we drove out to the beach to check out a community center as a potential venue before walking through the Don Cesar hotel.

Don Cesar

The ballrooms at the Don Cesar were so neat. We loved it, but after receiving the wedding packet with pricing information, we basically took this out of the running for a potential venue.

After stopping for lunch at Coney Island for hotdogs, we headed over to the Vinoy for an appointment with Jennifer at 2:30 p.m.

Vinoy Hotel

Jennifer was very friendly and immediately took us on a tour of the various rooms used for weddings in the hotel.

Our first stop was the Tea Garden, used for the wedding ceremony.

Tea Garden

The Tea Garden was gorgeous and would be an unbelievable location for a ceremony. The foliage added so much to the location and it was nice and secluded from other parts of the hotel.

We then moved on to look at ballrooms, including the Sunset Ballroom, located approximately 1.5 miles from the hotel at the golf club.

Sunset Ballroom

This ballroom was built in the 1920s. It was beautiful and the example pictures Jennifer showed us highlighted the various ways the rooms can be transformed to create a romantic reception site.

Jennifer also gave us a little gift from the pastry chefs at the Vinoy.

Mini Chocolate Wedding Cake

This cake was unbelievable and soooo fudgey. We split it four ways, but I easily could have enjoyed a whole one by myself.

After walking around the Sunset Ballroom and asking questions, we returned to the main hotel and talked prices and enjoyed some drinks on the veranda. We all agreed a wedding at the Vinoy would be memorable and a dream, but we want to visit some other places and compare prices to make sure our decision makes sense.

Dinner

We worked up one heck of an appetite and headed over to El Cap, home of the BEST hamburgers in St. Pete.

Big Burger

This burger was great and very juicy.

Basket of Fries

Dinner was greasy goodness!

Yesterday was a very productive day in the wedding planning process. I feel better knowing the basic prices for a few facilities. We have quite a lot of work cut out for us, that’s for sure!