*This post was made in partnership with Responsival. Thank you for supporting brands I feature*
It's almost Valentine's Day and what's a better gift than beautiful gold necklaces!? Even if you're not attached you can be your own Valentine and get yourself something special. Christian and I don't generally do Valentine's gifts - just cute cards like these from LovePop! With a little help from AURate I treated myself to a couple things. For a bit more of a Valentine's Day feel I chose a super cute Infinity Heart Ring in white gold to match my wedding set. My second piece is more of a statement but still something I could wear every day.
The moment they announced their AURATE x Kerry: The Lioness Collection in November I knew I had to get one of the pieces! I opted for the more affordable Lioness Pendant at $150 (Rather than the GORGEOUS necklace version for $530.) I have a few gold chains so I can effortlessly switch up the style of the necklace. Maybe even a mixed metals version with silver!
“I’m so proud to share this Lioness Collection, and all that it represents, with you. In both aesthetic design and in cultural meaning, each piece is built to embody the values of this unique moment while also honoring timeless truths. Make no mistake, the lioness is a queen. Her beauty is incomparable. Her strength is undeniable. She is a warrior, built for the hunt, and a nurturer, devoted to her pride. She is magnificently regal, and yet in the world of the Lioness, democracy and collaboration rule. In the #LionessPride there are no egos, there is no pecking order, just fierce felines winning collectively. You are a fierce lioness - beautiful, powerful, communal, and winning. And in our shared community we are a #LionessPride. So this collection is for you. I hope that it adds beauty, joy and strength to your day. And I pray that these pieces remind you of the sisterhood of this pride. WITH LOVE, KERRY”
Selling directly to consumers helps Aurate keep costs down. Many pieces are made to order so they don't have unneeded stock. Pieces are made in New York City so there are no import taxes which also drive up prices. This $150 lioness pendant from AUrate could cost upwards of $390 at traditional retail prices. Each product page shows this information so you can see the difference, just like another favorite store of mine - Everlane!
You're also getting a lifetime quality guarantee with your purchase. They re-plate, polish, and repair your jewelry when needed. Additionally, for every order, Aurate will donate a book to a child in need in your name.
P.S. If you want to add a little sweet treat to your Valentine's celebrations, get your hands on Hershey's Lava Cake Kisses! They only sell them this time of year so stock up if you like them! (I only bought 1 bag so far, trying to behave!
Sweater: Madewell (Shobop), Jeans: J Brand 'Maria' High Rise in Supreme, Flats: Restricted 'Memo' (DSW), Earrings: Aurate Pearl Studs, Rings: Sofia Zakia Wandering Star Ring & Altair Ring, Aurate Infinity Heart Ring, Necklace: AURATE X KERRY: Lioness Pendant on my own chain
The holidays may look a little different this year but that doesn't mean we can't still give to those we love - or get ourselves a few frivolous things. I won't judge (I do it too!) Even if it's a drop-off on their porch or shipping directly to them, you can show your loved ones you're thinking about them!
For the Home
If you're looking for women-owned businesses to support, rockflowerpaper is a great option to check out! I'm very into gifting household items this year instead of clothes and, luckily for me, they have a great selection of both home goods and clothes/accessories!
rockflowerpaper has quite a few Winter-themed serving trays that I'm considering as gifts (and for myself, obviously!) How adorable is this Winter Stags tray I bought with a gift card!? Might have to buy a plate hanger to showcase it on the wall instead of covering it with treats. Or I'll just leave it like this on our dining room table (without the succulents.) That's also what makes trays great gifts, so many ways to use them.
They also have a collection of ceramic pots with succulents! I have a thing for cute little succulents so you better believe I added some to my cart for the living room (and one for my Grandma too!)
Earlier this week rockflowerpaper started their Black Friday sale! You can get 20% off of $50, 30% off of $100 and 40% off of $150 orders. (not including succulents)
Handmade Gifts
Since I'm doing most of my holiday gift shopping online I'm trying to avoid the "major" stores and shopping small. I do a Secret Santa every year with my siblings/their partners and browsed etsy last month for my gift and found lots of fun options. I can't tell you what I got since it would give away the secret, but I used a few different sellers to make the perfect gift! Jewelry from etsy is also a popular choice and I've gifted many etsy-ordered necklaces in my day!
The Gift of Food
Another fun option for gifting this year is a week of meal delivery services! That way your loved one can have a fun meal without leaving the house! My brother bought my Mom a week of Blue Apron years ago and it was such a great gift. There are a ton different options too. I have personally used Blue Apron, HelloFresh and EveryPlate and enjoyed them all! You get the most bang for your buck at EveryPlate ($59 for 5 meals) but I find Blue Apron's meals ($59 for 3 meals) more adventurous.
To make it even more fun you can coordinate a week to get the same meals and make them together over FaceTime/Zoom/whatever video service you prefer. It's like date night for a family member or friend!
Personalization
Who doesn't love a gift made especially for them? Stealing another idea from family - my Mom made a photo calendar for my Grandma one year that had all our important family dates in it - birthdays, anniversaries and even puppy birthdays. She has twelve grandchildren so Mom made each month a photo collage of a different grandchild.
You could also go another route and make a recipe or photo book, both of which I have received as gifts and loved! Knowing someone took the time to create something just for you makes it all the more special. You can use sites such as Snapfish and Shutterfly for these! (I always check who has a better coupon at the moment.)
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*This post was made in partnership with Nakturnal. Thank you for supporting brands I feature* |
I finished the look off with a pair of sandals - I live in my Ancient Greek Sandals all Summer. I'm up to 9 pairs so far - with another possibly on the way, wow! I didn't need a bag since we were just going on a walk but if walking is the only activity on the schedule for the foreseeable future why not make it a complete outfit. This Madewell crocodile effect bag was a pre-quarantine purchase that I never got to wear before lockdown. So glad I was finally able to use it, even if it was just holding my phone, mask and hand sanitizer!
Dress: FARM Rio Amazonian Ombre Mini Wrap Dress c/o Shopbop, Sandals: Ancient Greek Sandals 'Apteros' in Crosta Wine (bought in Athens), Bag: Madewell Medium Slim Saddle Bag c/o Shopbop, Sunglasses: Ray Ban Erika c/o Shopbop, Necklace: Shashi Princess Leia Necklace c/o Shopbop, Rings c/o Aurate - Stackable Twist Ring & Mini Infinity Ring in Rose Gold, Earrings c/o Aurate - Gold Twist Huggie Earrings in Rose Gold
When it comes to jewelry in Summer I find that less is more is the way to go. Pairing simple outfits with dainty fine jewelry is the perfect solution for accessorizing in hot temperatures. I'm delighted to be featuring sustainable jewelry brand AUrate again. I previously featured their Sensu Ear Jackets in rose gold during the holidays.
Pearls can sometimes feel a bit too "proper" for me. I have a full pearl necklace that my Grandmother gave me that is sitting unworn in it's box. It's beautiful but too much for everyday wear. When I saw this simple pearl necklace at AUrate I thought it was perfect! It's made with a sustainably grown Akoya pearl on a thin 14K rose gold chain and goes with any outfit.
A classic pearl necklace can go with everything from fancy dresses to a tee and jeans. For it's first outing I decided to wear it with a thin lacy dress and coordinating heeled sandals. Christian and I ventured to a local historical society with an apple orchard to take these gorgeous shots at sunset!
AUrate only uses ethical solid gold from conflict-free suppliers in vermeil, 14K or 18K gold as well as white gold and rose gold. AUrate only uses real, solid 18-karat and 14-karat gold. 14-karat gold is 14/24th parts, or about 58%, pure gold. The remaining percentage is an alloy, added to enhance the durability and hardness of naturally soft gold.
When it comes to their pearls, AUrate uses the highest quality AAA-grade pearls, plucked from the South Sea and reaching up to 12mm in size. This necklace features smaller Akoya pearls from Japan, ranging from 6.0 to 8.5mm.
Since they sell directly to consumers - many pieces are made to order so they don't have unneeded stock - you end up saving money. A $200 necklace from AUrate could cost upwards of $520 at traditional retail prices. On each product page they share this information with their customers so you can see the difference, just like another favorite store of mine - Everlane!
I'm going on my honeymoon (FINALLY!) in a couple of weeks and will definitely bring this along. I don't take much jewelry when I travel, but this necklace will be the perfect finishing touch for all my looks in Italy and Greece. Be prepared to see it a lot in my photos! (unless I get too scared that I'll lose it.)
Dress: Robert Rodriguez tonal paisley chiffon dress (Roundabout), Heels: Cole Haan 'Minetta' (Amazon, originally found at Marshalls)
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| Venice, Italy by boat |
It's almost honeymoon time! Christian and I intended to go on our honeymoon this past May but he wasn't able to get off work at that time so we pushed it to September to celebrate his birthday and our first anniversary on the trip! Here's how we went about planning our honeymoon and some guidelines for you to keep in mind.
*This post was made in partnership with Nakturnal.
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| View of Florence from Piazzale Michelangelo |
Funding the Trip
Will you save up the money on your own or use gifts from your wedding? An easy way to do the latter is to use a honeymoon registry site like Traveler's Joy to let friends & family choose a part of your trip to contribute to. Since we had a simple wedding party Christian and I opted to not focus on having a registry - we had one with maybe 10 items on it - and allocated cash gifts from our wedding to the various items we needed. This meant anything from small home appliances, a couch for the basement and a security system all the way to our honeymoon fund. We also added some of our own money because we wanted to take a long trip. If I had to do it over again I probably would have included a honeymoon registry too. It's such a fun way to let guests give money knowing what it's going toward. What do you think of using a honeymoon registry?Deciding Where to Go
Picking your honeymoon location may be the hardest part about the planning process. So many places to go, so little time! When we discussed locations we thought about a shorter trip to somewhere like London or Aruba but since this is Christian's first big international trip I wanted it to be AMAZING. He's a big fan of Ancient Roman and Greek history so I suggested we do a 2 week whirlwind tour of Italy and Greece!We'll head to Rome for a few days, including a day trip to Pompeii, and then head to Florence for a couple nights. After Florence it's off to Venice for a few days - where we will celebrate our anniversary. After Venice we're off to Santorini, Greece for three blissful days in a cave house! Our trip finishes up in Athens to visit as many of the ancient sites as we can and eat some tasty lava cake (if the restaurant still sells it!)
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| View of Santorini from Airbnb |
When to Go on Your Honeymoon
Most people will go on their honeymoon right after their wedding. This means you need to have the money already saved up before the wedding. This is where a registry website would come in handy. Your guests could fund the pieces of your trip before your wedding so you don't have to worry about fronting the money.Christian and I decided to wait a year to go on our honeymoon so we could save up more and he could get extra days off work. We will be gone 16 days (10 work days) and 2 of those are almost full travel days.
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| View of Venice from San Giorgio Maggiore |
Booking Transportation
One of the biggest expenses of your trip will be transportation. How will you get there and what forms of transportation will you use after you arrive? When to book the flights is also important because you want to get the best price! Unfortunately for us we hit some roadblocks when booking our flights because prices kept going up and down. We ended up panicking and buying tickets with a layover because the direct flight was 3 times the flight and then 2 weeks later the direct flight went down. That's the risk you take though, if we had waited we may have missed out all together. So decide what's important to you and take a leap of faith (and then don't keep checking prices or you'll just upset yourself.)
Christian and I will get to Italy by plane and travel to the different cities by train. Most of our city travel will hopefully be walking distance so we won't have to worry about using public transportation. After that it's another plane to get to Santorini and to Athens. Since we will arrive in Santorini late at night we're going to be using our Airbnb's shuttle service which will cost a bit more than other options, but we want the convenience. The same goes for getting from our Athens Airbnb to the airport. Since our flight is super early in the morning we have to take a taxi because public transportation won't be running when we leave.
A lot of companies offer coupon codes so be sure to check for those before making any purchases! I saved some money on our Italy train tickets by checking the company's Twitter. Every Friday they release a coupon code for 25% off select trips and a couple of ours happened to be discounted with the code, yay!
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| Traveling by Train in Italy |
Hotel, Hostel or Airbnb
After buying flights, the next big step is figuring out where to stay. Do you want to go super cheap and stay at a hostel? Or do you feel safest when you're in a hotel? We went for the middle-ground and opted for Airbnb's so we could stay in a nice place but not pay as much as a hotel (in most cases.) Plus you can feel more like a local this way by spending your time in an actual home rather than a stuffy hotel room. Another great thing about Airbnb is you can choose to stay in a single room or rent out an entire apartment so you don't have to feel awkward about being in someone else's home and clashing with their routine.For our honeymoon we went on the cheaper end in Rome, Florence & Athens and splurged on our lodging in Venice and Santorini. We booked the same cave house I stayed at on my first trip to Santorini in 2015!
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| Airbnb in Santorini, Greece |
You've Made it There, Now What?
Planes, trains, cars and lodging booked, what's next? Time to figure out all the places you want to go within each location. I love the planning process and figuring out how we'll be spending our time but I don't want to have every second planned because that can be a little stressful.What I like to do is create a spreadsheet with where we'll be, and on what days. Then I fill in the important details like flight/train departures and arrivals and hotel check-in/check-out times. This gives us a basic guide of what our days look like.
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| Honeymoon Itinerary |
After that I'll start searching travel blogs and Instagram for must-see places and create lists for each location. This includes everything from the major sites (The Acropolis + Colosseum) and off the beaten track finds (The Aventine Keyhole) to where to find the best gelato or pasta. One of my favorite travel blogs is World of Wanderlust, Brooke has so many different guides from all over the world so no matter where you're going she's sure to have some tips!
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| Honeymoon To-Do List |
My next step is to create a google map with all of those locations pinned so no matter where we are I'll be able to see what we're close to. We will have some things timed out but for the most part we will be wandering and popping in and out of museums as it suits us.
We considered booking some Airbnb experiences but we want to be free to do what we want, when we want and, as we only have a couple days per location, it's hard to book out 6 hours for an excursion. We may still try to do a bike tour or something in one or two locations, but that will be decided right before.
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| Personal Google Map of Places to Visit in Venice |
The main thing I purchased ahead was tickets to the Colosseum. You can book through the official website - COOP Culture. Unfortunately we didn't nail down our dates early enough so all the Underground and Panoramic View tours were booked up. (I was able to grab just 1 Underground tour but the release of new tickets is super competitive so I ended up having to buy regular tickets and we'll waste the Underground tour unless Christian wants to do it alone.)
NOTE: If you're interested in the special Colosseum tours I would recommend visiting this thread on TripAdvisor, they are very helpful in letting you know about ticket availability. There are quarterly releases for the big tours and then monthly releases with just 25 tickets per day for those tours. Regular entry tickets are fairly easy to purchase even the day before, I booked them early so we don't have to think about it.
Other Tips
Cash vs. Card
Make sure you know when you'll need to use cash vs a credit card. Most credit cards now offer no foreign transaction fees. While many places will take credit cards some locations overseas are still cash only so make sure you have cash on hand. Some examples of when you'll need cash:- City Tourism Tax Fees - Airbnb hosts in some cities are required to collect a tourism tax per person per night. This may need to be paid, in cash, to your host on arrival. Some include it in the cost of your Airbnb, Make sure to read the fine print to know what you'll owe! (Airbnb took out our occupancy tax when we paid for our stay in Florence but we'll pay for Rome and Venice)
- Taxis/Car Service - One of my Airbnb hosts is helping us with booking a car service. He warned us beforehand that we will be paying the driver directly, in cash upon our pickup.
- Restaurants - Some restaurants, like one we'll be visiting in Florence, are cash only so be prepared and read signs before entering restaurants to avoid awkward situations.
- Public Transportation - Some forms of transportation will only take cash. When I used the bus system in Santorini in 2015 we had to make sure we had Euros on us at all times.
Phone Plans
Most phone plans will now let you use your own data for a daily fee. I have AT&T and they charge $10 per 24 hour period. I'm opting to do their international plan which is $120 for 3GB over 30 days. Since we're there for 16 days it's cheaper that way.Luggage
I won't go into more itinerary details now, stay tuned for my travel guides after we return! Do you have any questions on traveling to Italy and Greece? If so, leave them here and I'll try to answer them in those posts.
