Our Weekend in Charleston Part III

Hi friends and welcome to the third and final blog entry for our weekend in Charleston! I honestly can't believe that this 2+ day getaway has required 3 whole blog posts, but I'm extremely passionate about photography, and Charleston has got to be one the most photogenic cities I've ever visited. There were so many trees, historical buildings, dinner dates, and even residential doorways that deserved my Canon's attention. So I figured that the best strategy was to sift through the hundreds of photos, choose my favourites (which was so hard because my favourites seemed to be never ending), and divide the photos into different blog entries so that you guys wouldn't be scrolling and scrolling for hours on end. See? There's always a method to my madness.

After our lovely afternoon spent at the beautiful Magnolia Plantation & Gardens (Click here if you missed the previous blog post!), we headed back to our Airbnb house on James Island to get freshened up for our EVENING PHOTOSHOOT!

That's right! Leah Judway Photography, also known as, our favourite photographer ever, moved from our neck-of-the-woods down to Charleston (an excellent career move, right? Actually, make that an excellent life move as well) and was doing a shoot with us that evening!

Before our trip, Jarryd told me about his photoshoot idea (yes, this was ALL him!!) and that he originally was going to make this a surprise for me but then quickly realized that a "surprise photoshoot" wouldn't be the greatest thing in the world to give to his wife. Jarryd knows that a photoshoot is a big deal to me; one reason is because these photos last an entire lifetime and actually longer than a lifetime considering they get passed down to your children. Also, you don't want to wear just ANYTHING for a photoshoot! I can't imagine having on a casual pair of shorts and a tank top with my makeup all mediocrely done and my hair up in a frizzy ponytail (I hate when my hair is up) while Jarryd tells me: SURPRISE! We're actually on our way to a photoshoot! Instead of a happy reaction, he'd receive a tearful and anxious reaction--one that he wasn't hoping for at all. (I don't know, maybe some of you ladies aren't this way; maybe some of you would thrive at the prospect of a surprise photoshoot, but not me. I love and need to be prepared--hello, perfectionist over here!) So because Jarryd is awesome he decided to tell me about it before we left for Charleston so I had my outfit picked out and everything ready to go. Yay!

Our Weekend in Charleston Part II - Magnolia Plantation & Gardens

Our second day in Charleston, South Carolina consisted of us waking up after a gloriously much needed eight hour long sleep. There's always that age-old debate when you're on vacation: should I catch up on sleep so that I can feel fully rested and ready for the big day ahead of me...OR should I screw sleep because sleep is for the weak wake up early so that I can have more time to make the most out of the short time that I'm here? I personally feel like there's no right or wrong answer to this question. Sometimes it's hard to enjoy vacation when you feel so completely drained and exhausted from the work week that's now behind you. Let's face it, working full-time is HARD. But sometimes when vacation has long passed and you're half-way into the following work week you can't help but feel a tinge of regret that you didn't cut your sleep short so that you could spend more time exploring and vacationing, awake.

So yes, we did indeed choose to not wake up at sunrise, but truthfully I woke up around 7 am because I was just SO excited to be in Charleston!! This happens to me everytime I'm in a new city/area, I have trouble falling asleep and sleeping in because I spend so much time daydreaming about what's ahead! I think that the ladies can agree with me on this, that it's nice waking up before the hubs because this gives you a chance to get ready without feeling a little rushed by the guy with uber short hair and a makeup free face. Haha...

Our Weekend in Charleston: Part I

When my boss announced to me that my workplace was actually going to CLOSED for Memorial Day, I immediately texted Jarryd, I have Memorial Day weekend off--let's go to Charleston!! 😍  It's so rare that both Jarryd and I get the same holidays off so we figured that this was our only opportunity to make the most of this time!

Over a year ago we invested in Southwest Airlines credit cards, and have been racking up flying-points just with our normal spending (groceries, gas, bills, Starbucks...ect). Having all of these Southwest points, along with a Companion Pass (I get to fly for free with Jarryd!) was probably the only reason we even entertained the idea of flying anywhere for the weekend, because otherwise we'd have had to pull the money from our own pockets and that just wasn't going to happen. (We're definitely not rich over here.)

And why Charleston, South Carolina you ask? Well, to be honest I had two cities at the top of my "long weekend" travel bucket list, (one stored mentally inside my head): Boston and Charleston. But I was wanting to getaway to somewhere that felt different from Maryland. In regards to the colonial states, Maryland is right in the middle of them, but I feel it still has that same New England/Northern mentality that also encompasses Boston. I feared that it wouldn't feel any different from Maryland, which would actually negate the whole purpose of "getting away". Long story short, I was--and still am--a bit tired of the fast-paced lifestyle of the northern east coast. I was in desperate need of some southern hospitality, relaxation, (and palm trees) in my life....