Honeymoon in the Blue Ridge Mountains

After the wedding, Trae and I traveled through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to honeymoon in North Carolina. Most people seemed to be ignoring the Government shutdown business and were hiking in the park anyway. High five, America!
Our check-in time for our cabin wasn't until 3 pm so we spent some time in Cherokee, North Carolina at the Indian Reservation checking out the gift shops. Unfortunately a lot of the businesses appeared to be near shutting down or were already closed. I'm guessing this was due to people traveling the interstates instead of the highways.

We grabbed lunch at the Little Princess Restaurant.

Running River/Creek behind the long strip of shops at the Indian Reservation.

We then made our way toward the cabin that was located in Clyde, North Carolina which was only about an hour and a half away from where we stayed in Gatlinburg. I rented it through turkeycreekcabins.com. We were very pleased with the cabin! It was small, dog-friendly and very isolated from traffic and other people. The dogs were able to go out and run around outside without bothering anyone.

Wyatt and Nyx enjoyed running round on the trails on the property

View in the early mornings

Our cabin. There is a pasture for horses in front.

View leaving the driveway

Pisgah National Forest was located within a few miles from the cabin so we took advantage of hiking in the park. Unlike the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, Pisgah allows pets to walk on the trails. There were many people hiking these trails as well despite the shutdown. The weather and colors of the trees were beautiful!

Max Patch Trail

We were able to hike a short section of the Appalachian Trail. I believe it was called the "Max Patch Trail". 

We didn't do as much hiking as I would have liked to but it was still a nice day. We ended up hopping in the car and driving on the mountain roads. The roads don't exactly have turn-around points so we ended up driving around in the trees for the rest of the afternoon trying to find another place to leave the car and hike to no avail.

Nyx and Wyatt taking a swimming break

The next day we decided to visit Asheville, North Carolina and fell in love! We adored the old architecture, locally owned shops and restaurants, liberal people and friendly vibe. We walked all the dogs around downtown all day enjoying the atmosphere.

Alley in Asheville

I fell in love with this old car. Makes me miss my first car.

We ended the day at French Broad River Dog Park to let the dogs make some friends. They had fun! There were lots of different breeds of dogs at the park and the people were friendly and in control of their pets for the most part (which you know is very nice at dog parks if you typically take your pets there). We grabbed dinner and then headed back to the cabin before leaving the next day to head back home to take care of a couple more things before setting out in Harvey full time!

Smoky Mountain Wedding

Unfortunately, Harvey was not able to grace us with his presence at our wedding and honeymoon but we would still like to share our experiences with everyone anyway. :-)

As some of you know, Trae and I shortly after our engagement decided to have a very small outdoor ceremony in the Smoky Mountains with our family and a couple of close friends. I heard from a couple family members that the fact that we had actually decided to include any guests at our ceremony was a bit of a pleasant surprise for them considering that we tend to sporadically take off on our own. However we both agreed that our special day was perfect and we would not have changed a thing about it.
The festivities started on Wednesday, October 9th. My (Brittney's) family rented two three-bedroom cabins through cabinsofthesmokymountains.com. The cabins were equipped with bunks and pullout couches so that our friends would all have a place to stay with us since the majority of them drove at least 5 hours from Kentucky and Ohio to spend the weekend with us. We rented Hawk's Landing and Simply Serene which were conveniently right next to each other so that we could pop back in forth between the two.

Simply Serene. This cabin is pet-friendly if you, like us, simply can not go anywhere without the pooches! The lovely hatchback you see in the middle is the car that Trae and I borrowed from my Dad to drive to the wedding and honeymoon since my Neon decided to break down the night before we were supposed to leave. We ended up falling in love with the roomy Taurus and nicknamed it the dolphin throughout the whole trip!

These luxury cabins were very nice to stay in if you plan to spend a lot of time walking the strip in Gatlinburg and don't mind being around a lot of other people. They were in a neighborhood-type setting and the 100+ cabins were nestled tightly in together. They each had three balconies on each of the three levels, a hot tub, arcade games, pool tables, and large flatscreen TV's for watching movies. There was plenty of room for a lot of people to stay in the cabins and not have to worry about tip-toeing around everyone else. 

My nephew, Clark, enjoying his sink bath in Simply Serene!

Friday, the day before the wedding, Trae and I spent a lot of time running errands and finishing up last-minute details (including our Tennessee marriage license which is required to get married in Gatlinburg) for the wedding while my family went horseback riding and checked out the Gatlinburg strip. Trae's family arrived and checked into their cabin in Sevierville. Their cabin was a bit of a drive from the main part of Gatlinburg, but was much more secluded and was nestled right next to a running river. It was quiet and beautiful! 

The cabin in Sevierville

View from the back deck of the Sevierville cabin

Our water-loving pups enjoyed fetching sticks out of the river and playing tug of war. Nyx (The white dog) typically retrieves the toy while Wyatt waits near the shore then steals it from her before she can bring it back. Paco (in the vest) doesn't venture too far out in the water but waits to bark at the big dogs when they come back on shore. 

Our wedding was held at ScatterRidge Lodge near Pitman Center, Tennessee which is right next to Gatlinburg. I had been speaking with a very nice lady named Pat who had been helping me plan the ceremony from start to finish including booking cabins, arranging a baker for the cake, and answering any questions that I may have had. To prevent the guests having to drive cars up steep and winding roads, everyone was instructed to meet at a nearby church and a bus shuttled everyone up!

Prior to arriving for the wedding I had never seen the actual lodge besides the photographs, but I was so pleased! The lodge had the perfect rustic mountain vibe that I had been hoping for and was decorated beautifully for autumn. My sisters and Nyx (my bridesmaids) and I arrived early to spend an hour dressing for the ceremony. 

My sister Jessica helping me put on my dress. We had joked for months about how our dresses weren't going to fit on that day unless we did some serious exercising, but luckily we were fine. :-) 

Going over my vows before the ceremony started. This is when the nerves were really kicking in. 

Robert, Jessica, and Paco

Dexter, Bailey, and Nyx

Trae's twin sisters, Chelsea and Brennen, were nice enough to be my 23-year-old flower girls and let the ring bearer, Clark, hitch a ride to the altar with them! He looks proud of that ring package!

Trae and Dexter played a song for me to walk out to. It was precious. 

This is probably my favorite photo. Here's his reaction for seeing me. He got choked up but kept playing. I'll never forget this moment. 

My sister, Bailey's fiance Skylyn with baby Clark. I loved how they matched. So stinkin' cute!

My side of the family

Chelsea, Joyce (their grandmother) and Brennen

We're family now! From left to right: Robin, Billy Joe, Chelsea, Josh, Brennen, Joyce, and Jamie

Our cake! 

Our reception consisted of some excellent cooking by my Dad and some hilarious karaoke. The toasts from almost everyone there brought lots of laughs and tears and left me amazed at how blessed with supportive friends and family Trae and I are. To everyone that joined us, we can't thank you enough for being there for us, and to everyone that was there with us in spirit we appreciate you being in our lives and we love you too!
We are leaving in Harvey today to experience the parts of the country that we have not seen before. We will keep each of you in our hearts and do our best to share our life with you through this blog. Until next time!

--- Brittney