pre wedding festivities

i've become obsessed with candles lately. i could spend hours in a store just looking and smelling them all, and then getting a very big headache. i don't know why i just love them. my favorite two are from target, island midnight & goji berry. mmm. a few weeks ago i had a really hard day at work and when i got home kenneth had chocolate and a new candle waiting for me. makes me laugh how excited i get over some of the smallest and weirdest things.

well besides that random note, these pictures were all from the week before we got married in southern california. our first day we had to go and see the beautiful place that we would be getting married at a week later! love this place so much.

then we got to spend some time with kenneth's sister desi at the beach. it was quite the gloomy and cold day, but kenneth was still thrilled to surf and i was happy to touch my toes in the ocean.

i have basically all nephews. and kenneth has basically all nieces. so it's basically been a match made in the aunt and uncle department. i love my nieces so much! this is maddi. she is such a free spirit, i sure do miss her.

james out catching some waves

kenneth and all his siblings actually look related to me. me and my siblings, not so much. i had a friend that knew kenneth's brother jesse and thought they were twins for a solid 6 months before i broke the news that they were only brothers haha.

maddi is the best at finding shells. isn't she a cutie??

i think weston is the cutest human being ever. i am obsessed with this cutie. 

i feel so blessed that kenneth and i had so many of our friends travel to california for our wedding. it meant the world having them there. not to mention how fun it was. 

the day before our wedding my sister threw me the cutest bachelorette party. i don't know what i did to deserve such a wonderful and kind hearted sister like her. she's my best friend. we started the night off with getting our nails done. i never get my nails done. i just don't see the use for it because i can paint my nails myself so i feel like it's a waste to spend money on it. but let's just say it is SUCH a good thing i got them done. alexis and i were cracking up getting our pedicures because let's just say that our feet haven't fully recovered since africa and i now understand why people go get them professionally done haha. then we went pole dancing and my friends would literally murder me if i ever posted any of those photos or shared any details about it haha. all i will say is that it is a huge workout and it was quite a blast. we got a lot of really good laughs out of it. after that we headed back to brittany and grace's hotel and they set up this cute little party for me and we had cake and yummy food and opened presents. i seriously feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends. i love all these girls so much. 

xoxo

lo