The second blazer on the blog in a week! I feel like it's 3 years ago when I wore my blazers all the time. It feels nice to be breaking them out again. Rather than just wearing my sweaters and a coat I've been trying to throw o a blazer instead. This is one of my favorite deals - a Brooks Brothers blazer for only $40, and I bought it new with tags, it retailed for $750! The last time I wore it was in March for Jury Duty, haha! This time it was just a walk in the park and dinner at my parents.

I've also been wearing these boots a lot lately, should probably give them a break and wear one of my MANY other pairs of boots, ha ha! This top, however, hasn't been seen on the blog since I was in London for New Years in 2017, oops! Definitely need to bring it back for more outfit photos (I have worn it since that post)

Blazer: Brooks Brothers (Roundabout), Sweater: Marc by Marc Jacobs "Pyo" Striped Sweater (Saks Off Fifth, also here), Jeans: Everlane high-rise skinny jean in mid-blue, Boots: Cordani (Roundabout), Bag: Dark Purple Chloé Faye (eBay), Sunglasses: Chanel

I was a little crazy on our last day in Montreal and wore my heeled boots even though I knew we would be "hiking" up Mount Royal. But here's the thing, they're actually pretty comfortable and they have a grippy bottom which would help if there was slippery ground (which there was...plus some mud.) I was more bothered by the fact that I'm super out of shape and could barely breathe while walking up. The shoes weren't too bad, except when we decided to go off the paved path down a hill, that's dicey even in flat shoes, ha ha. But I survived and got one heck of a calf/thigh workout! Totally worth it.


I love the colors of this cropped sweater, they're so perfectly fall and go with pretty much everything in my closet so it's easy to layer. I actually found one on eBay if anyone is a size small!

Crop Top Sweater: Zara, Sweater Dress: Miss Selfridge (Lord & Taylor), Faux-Suede Leggings: H&M, Boots: Cordani (Roundabout),  Wedding Band: Sofia Zakia Altair Ring (Catbird), Engagement Ring: Custom Sofia Zakia Wandering Star Ring, Opal

Coat: DKNY (old), Hat: bought at Kensington Palace, Scarf: NOMA (now LOUMA)

My friend Kristen told me we had to visit Cacao 70 while in Montreal for some delicious hot chocolate. They have a ton of locations in the city and we chose one that was near a location we were visiting on our first day. It wasn't as crowded as many others we walked by later in the week, probably because it was in a less dense area. I'm wondering if other places would have had more fun options to choose from. For our visit we just stuck with plain dark hot chocolate, which was DELICIOUS. I was still a little full from lunch so I didn't try one of the various snacks. But I bought a dark chocolate bar that I have yet to try, I'm sure it will be very tasty. Our two travel partners had cookies and said they were really good. I'll share some photos of the inside in my mini travel guide later this week!

Since we would be outside most of the day I layered up in a thin turtleneck, chunky sweater and my winter coat (not pictured.) The inside of the cafe was so fun we decided to do my photos inside, yay for not freezing while taking pictures! I found a LOT of this sweater on eBay so if you want it check out the widget below the outfit photos!

P.S. If you are in the US - GO VOTE TODAY!!!!!

Sweater: Madewell 'Sophia' Ribbed Sweater,  Turtleneck: Vanessa Bruno (Coco's $10 sale), Jeans: J Brand 'Maria' High Rise in Supreme (Gilt Groupe),  Boots: Vince Camuto 'Davilla' (Marshalls), Wedding Band: Sofia Zakia Altair Ring (Catbird), Engagement Ring: Custom Sofia Zakia Wandering Star Ring, Opal

*Still wearing my original pair of these boots, especially when I travel, so I don't ruin the new pair!

I guess I should also share our engagement story during what I'm now dubbing "wedding week" on the blog. I had Christian write up the story for you all to enjoy:

Proposals are no easy task.  People have romantic dinners, the Eiffel tower is in the distance, and a soothing quartet has to be nearby. Except none of this happened.  While camping in Vermont, Megan showed Christian the Overlook after a 1 mile hike.  The view was wide open and full of trees down below.  After spending the rest of the day enjoying various camping activities, Christian discussed his desire of capturing the sunset on camera from the Overlook.  Of course Megan would support him, but it seemed a couple others, her brother and cousin, wanted to join in this venture!  Panic started filling his mind as to what to do now.  Fortunately, they were very willing to skip this evening after he had a quick talk with them.  The time came and off they went.  Saying the mosquitoes were doing their best to muster the troops to attack us would be an understatement.  The second hike in one day was much harder than the first, as well.  Sweaty, aching, and covered in itching bumps, we finally reached the top.  Christian decided to take his time setting up and risk losing sunlight in order to give them time to get their breath back.  After carefully setting up the camera to capture the orange sunlight spilling across the hills and trees in the distance, Christian asked Megan to check on some other equipment across from him at the edge of the cliff.  A few moments passed, and Megan turned once she heard him start to speak.  The camera captured everything.  The sunset was only one part of Christian trying to secretly capture the moment.  Surprisingly, she said Yes, and here we are.

After I said yes, we sat up on the cliff together for a bit soaking in the view. Then we called our parents to tell them the good news before going back down to the campsite to see our vacation buddies. My 2 brothers, aunt, uncle and cousin were all there and were very excited when we shared the news.

We were actually supposed to go camping alone for the 4th of July (our anniversary week) but changed it when we had a family reunion to go to that same weekend. It just so happened that there were campsites open when my aunt and uncle were going on their yearly trip so we decided merge our trips. My extended family on my Dad's side used to camp here every Summer when I was younger and then I continued the tradition with my 2 best friends.

Normally I skip posts on Wednesday but I figured today could be a hodgepodge of photos that I didn't post the rest of the week! So here are some "getting ready" and other pictures I like from our special day.  (I had to narrow everything down from 699 pictures Lydia took, yowza! And that's just the wedding day, not the party!)

Wedding Dress: Needle & Thread Mirage tiered embellished tulle dress (Net-a-Porter), Wedding Shoes: Nicholas Kirkwood Lola embellished Lurex sandals (Net-a-Porter),  Wedding Band: Sofia Zakia Altair Ring (Catbird), Engagement Ring: Custom Sofia Zakia Wandering Star  Ring, Opal

Men's Button Down: Ryan Seacrest Ultimate Slim Fit,  Pants: Apt. 9 Slim Fit Twill Suit in Dusty Blue (we scored the pants only for $15 on the clearance rack at Kohl's!)

Wall-E and Eve Ring Box

Growing up I never pictured myself with a big diamond engagement ring. I wanted something more unique if I was ever going to get married - which I thought was a very small possibility because I was far too shy to talk to boys. My parents would joke to the rest of the family that I would be the one taking care of them in their old age because I would be alone. Then Christian came into the picture and the rest is history. We knew fairly quickly that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together so we started researching rings.

Quick backstory - The first "date" we ever had was watching Wall-E one night during the Game of Thrones convention we met at. It's one of his favorite movies and we all know how much I love Disney/Pixar. Needless to say, we're very into space representing our relationship.

We came upon Sofia Zakia while browsing Catbird for ideas, not thinking I'd find a ring there.  I didn't want Christian to have to spend a lot on my ring but we both fell in love with her Wandering Star ring featuring an opal (my birthstone!) It's an opal surrounded by diamonds (as the stars) and 2 crescent moons on either side. On Catbird it only came in regular gold and rose gold but I wanted white gold so we set off to find something else. Here is an early inspiration image I made. Notice how large the Sofia Zakia Wandering Star ring is featured ;)



In the end, Christian found her website and saw that she did white gold versions of her rings. He also customized the ring by trading out some of the diamonds for sapphires, his birthstone. It was such a wonderful surprise to see the ring of my dreams when he opened up the adorable Wall-E & Eve box he ordered to put it in. It's the perfect ring to represent us and our story.

Sofia Zakia makes special wedding bands that fit around the interesting shape of the Wandering Star ring. We had a few to choose from but thought the Altair was the prettiest and most complimentary.  I insisted on buying my band because it was a lot pricier than we would have spent with any other ring. Luckily Catbird offers a 10% discount when signing up for their newsletter so I was able to save a bit of cash that way.

For Christian's ring, he wanted something a bit more unique and in a darker metal. Originally he wanted something with meteorite or a textured metal but decided that would be too fragile to wear every day based on research. He went with a dark gray ceramic ring with a blue inlay so it would sort of match the sapphires in my ring.

We used the ring box Christian proposed with to hold our wedding bands on the day.

Wedding Band: Sofia Zakia Altair Ring (Catbird), Engagement Ring: Custom Sofia Zakia Wandering Star Ring, Opal

Sofia Zakia Altair Ring, Custom Sofia Zakia Wandering Star Ring, Opal

Dark Gray Ceramic Wedding Band with Blue Inlay, Sofia Zakia Altair Ring, Custom Sofia Zakia Wandering Star Ring with Opal, Diamonds and Sapphires

Wall-E & Eve with Custom Sofia Zakia Wandering Star Ring, Opal