My 50th Post...and Exciting News!

In honor of my 50th post (I like to celebrate the minor milestones!) I have big news to share with you, dear friends and followers. You may or may not know that the two magazines I absolutely can't wait to get my hands on when they're fresh off the press are UsWeekly (it's an obsession that has begin to rub off on Mr. T - ask me how many times he has come home from the grocery store with one in hand, pretending it's for me) and the prized publication of Music City, Nashville Lifestyles.





Now I also look forward to the occasional Glamour for a long flight (reading it front to back will last me a good two hours) or Food and Wine for some cooking inspiration, but those two are my go-to's in terms of good reading.


Insert anecdote: before I moved to Nashville, I was interviewing for my current job and got put up at the Loews the night before my big interview. I crawled in my big comfy bed with the issue of Nashville Lifestyles that was brimming with new restaurant openings and must-see happenings that were going on here, and it made me think even more that Nashville should be my home one day. I read that magazine front to back and dozed off dreaming of how much fun my life would be here. And now, it's a reality. :)


Fast forward to a few weeks ago (which is actually rewinding, but whatever) and here I am at a recent private tasting at tayst, one of my favorite restaurants in town, where they showcased an amazingly cool concept called Local Kitchen Catering. Basically it's where Chef Jeremy Barlow (one of the best chefs in Nashville, truly) comes into your kitchen and cooks dinner for a group of your closest friends, using local ingredients the guests bring themselves (so they feel like they can contribute something). What you may not know is tayst is the only green certified restaurant in Nashville, and one of his claims to fame is that all of the food he serves is locally grown. He even has a blackboard listing the local farmers he has used for that day's menu, so you can rest assured you are supporting the local man, which I just love. So anyway, I'm having a glass of wine and chatting with the kind bartender about how excited we are to be having our rehearsal dinner there (they rarely do private events, but luckily Mr. T and Jeremy are good buddies and do business together, so they made an exception for us) and this kind, petite, blonde woman overhears me saying this, introduces herself as an Assistant Editor for Nashville Lifestyles, and asks if we might be interested in having our rehearsal dinner covered in their next issue of the Nashville Lifestyles Weddings magazine! Go ahead, pick up your jaw, please. Are you kidding me?!?





Now, knowing what you now know about me, you can imagine how hard it was for me to not spit my wine out all over her face in disbelief and excitement. But I tried to keep my utmost composure, casually said that yes, we would be interested in doing that, and we set up a time to meet for coffee so she could interview me for the article. We met at dose, the fab new coffee shop on Murphy Road (with the most delicious apple cider you've ever tasted) last week and chatted about what inspired us to choose tayst, and how special events are trending towards a green movement, even in the wedding industry. Now I am no tree hugger, but I do think we should be mindful of how we treat the world while we're lucky enough to use its resources, so I thought it was so very "Nashville" to have a restuarant like tayst showcased among our friends and family, to let people know that even though we're the Music City, we have some pretty amazing restaurants around as well, and they're doing some pretty amazing things.


As an event planner and now a planner of my own wedding, I've tried to be more mindful of how many times I can use my flowers (I love Perenity, a service provided through Hospice which picks them up and takes them to patients so they will brighten their rooms and hopefully their spirits) and things of that nature, but I can honestly say that my experience at tayst has truly has encouraged me to think more about what I eat, and where it comes from. And apparently, others are taking notice as well.


So be on the lookout for us in the upcoming spring issue, peeps! How excited are WE?!