A Fall-ish day at the Pumpkin Patch!

This year Max and I decided, instead of buying our pumpkins at the grocery store, we wanted to pick our own! So a few weekends ago, we spent a beautiful fall-ish day at Old Baker Farm in Harpersville, Alabama. We had heard great things about the farm and were so excited to see fall festival foods (like fresh squeeze lemonade, fried pies, and fresh popped kettle corn – yum!), a corn maze, sunflower fields, cotton fields, hay rides, christmas trees, a petting zoo, and of course pumpkin picking! Despite the high temps, it was a beautiful fall day and we had the best time and found two perfectly imperfect pumpkins for our front stoop. If you're looking for a family-friendly place to spend some time outdoors check out Old Baker Farm, it's a fun cheap way to have some fall fun!

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Shop Save and Share Giveaway!

It’s time again for the annual Shop Save and Share event, presented by the Junior League of Birmingham. This event is a great way to kick-off your holiday shopping (only 9 weeks until Christmas, can you believe it!?) and a great excuse to get out and get shopping, all while benefiting the community. For a $40 donation, your Shop Save and Share cards gets you a 20% discount at participating retailers from October 19 - 30th. 

Want to win a FREE Shop Save and Share card, and get 20% off at over 500 retailers and restaurants?! Of course you do! Follow the instructions below to enter for a chance to win before the Kick-Off Party Wednesday 19th at 6pm:

1.  Follow me on Instagram (instagram.com/laurendelthompson)
2. Tag a shopping buddy in the comments on the Shop Save and Share post
3. and let me know which retailer or restaurant you are most excited about!

Good luck!! Be sure to check out my shopping list and a rundown of the retailers and restaurants that I am most excited about below!

For me + max::
JCrew and JCrew Factory, Madewell, Anthropologie, Fabrik, Free People, Soca, Stella Blu, Old Navy, Alabama Outdoors, Mountain High Outfitters ...

For House + Home:
Leaf N Petal, Pottery Barn, West Elm, Sugarboo & Co, Williams Sonoma...

Around Town: 
Pure Barre, Birmingham Zoo, Red Mountain Park, Happy Nail Salon

Local Eats: 
Cantina, Taco Mama, Ashley Macs, Basil Gourmet Pizza, Crestline Bagel, Dyrons Low Country, La Paz, Mafiozas, Maki Fresh, Mountain brook creamery...
Post office pies

Gifts + More:
Yellowhammer Creative, Alumni Hall, Swaddle, Swoozies, The Pantry, Whole Dog Market


*Pro tip – be sure to read the descriptions to see what exclusions apply and what discounts are offered for each retailer.

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Honeymoon Recap :: Excellence Riviera Cancun

So this is an extremely overdue blog post... like, 5 months overdue but hey, better late than never right?! So, you may remember I shared some of our honeymoon with you here and here - we had the best time! When we began planning our honeymoon, we knew we wanted to go somewhere all-inclusive where we could just relax and not plan, especially after all the wedding planning and budgeting. Our friends had gone to the Excellence Resort in Playa Mujeres and had great things to say about it so we figured, since they’d already done lots of research and comparisons and loved their stay at the Excellence, why not do the same thing? 

After a little research, we found that the Excellence Riviera Cancun location was a little less expensive, but with equally as impressive reviews, so we booked a week-long stay in an Excellence Club Junior Oceanfront Suite. It was AMAZING! The grounds were absolutely beautiful, rooms and amenities were impressive and clean, they had a great variety of food, and the entertainment was awesome! 

Before booking, we debated if the Excellence Club (which gives you better amenities and full access to everything in the resort) was worth it. We decided, since it was our honeymoon and all, to just go for it. While we were there, we decided that it was worth it for our honeymoon and our first trip but, if we went back, we could definitely do without it. We also decided that a swim up suite, with the lounge bed and hammock, would be more fun especially if you got one by the spa that’s more private. 

We loved how beautiful and lush everything was at the resort and had the best week together lounging on the beach, frequenting the swim up bar, trying out their restaurants, and enjoying our first few days of marriage. It was an incredible trip and we can’t wait to go back! Here are a few pictures I snapped around the resort – just look how beautiful! 

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