Making Good Choices Blog » Newport, RI

Newport Wedding and Renting the Runway!

Nicole — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 11:00:02 +0000

Happy Monday? or not…

This post is a bit girlie and about trying on/renting/buying dresses…feel free to leave if none of this interests you….but this is a healthy living blog. Healthy living involves doing what makes you happy and for me that means trying on many different dresses. So read on if you agree.

It was another weekend away for us, except this weekend Danny and I had different events to go to. Every year for the past 5 years, Danny’s friends have a Support Your Troops pub crawl in Boston and usually we all go, including my friends. This year I had a wedding to go to, so Danny went to the pub crawl with his friends and I went to the wedding. We both spent the weekend with our friends and had a lot of fun. I will share some more wedding photos later, but for now I wanted to share my experience with Rent the Runway.

This was my second time renting a dress from them. I had heard about it from a couple of people, but mainly from my friend Lauren. This was my first dress:

After my first experience, I decided to do it again for the wedding I was going to this weekend. For this dress I had my eye on this Robert Rodriguez collection dress I saw on a commercial for Keeping up with the Kardashians. I ordered it and was psyched to get it.

Here’s what you need to know about Rent the Runway:

The dresses and prices range from a ton of different designers, styles and price points. The dresses I’ve ordered have been priced at around $500-600 dollars and I can rent them for $50-$75 dollars.
They will send you 2 sizes so you can try on.
You mail the dresses back in a prepackaged envelope and still it in the mail.
You need to know what dresses look good on your body and what size you basically are. (I’m usually the same size give or take, so it’s pretty easy for me to order a dress online, I know that is not the case for everyone.

So I was patiently waiting for my dress and then drama ensued. To make a long story short, the person who had the dress last weekend mailed it back late and it was in the mail somewhere. I have to say that Emily from Rent the Runway was super nice and helped me out. She refunded my money and sent me 3 dresses to try on, one of which being the dress I ordered in another color. I picked out some back up options and she delivered had to Danny’s office. I was a bit stressful when I didn’t have a dress yet at 5:00 on Friday when we were leaving around 7:00, but Emily told me she wouldn’t leave me dress-less and I believed her.

Please don’t pay any attention to my pale skin and zero makeup….and my disaster of a bedroom at that point.

Option 1: LOVE

black shoshanna one shoulder

Option 2: Not so much…hence the face.

Robert Rodriguez Heavy Metal Dress

Option 3: Also LOVE

Gray Shoshanna

And the winner was…

the gray shoshanna. I loved the beaded detail on the shoulder, which made the dress not need any special jewlery, so it was effortless. I just threw it on with some shoes and it was perfect. I really, really love Rent the Runway because I really love wearing different dresses. I tend to buy a dress and wear it once, don’t we all?? Rent the Runway turned what could have been a mini dress crisis into a outfit success.

Now some wedding pictures! The wedding was at the Atlantic Beach Club in Newport, RI.

Photo Booth

Love this dress. Want to buy it. Congrats to Luke and Anna!!

Did you have a great weekend?? IIN starts today, pretty excited!!

*Note: I paid for the dresses I rented with my own money, Rent the Runway did NOT ask me to review their services at all. This review is based on my personal experience with them!

Newport (Ocean Breeze Cafe), Westerly (Shelter Harbor Inn) and lots of food

Nicole — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 20:32:00 +0000

I had one of the best weekends I’ve had in a long time this past weekend. It was filled with a perfect combination of things to do and relaxation, which felt so good especially after coming off a week of being sick.

Friday night Danny and I left for Newport, RI. I wasn’t sure about leaving Friday because I really wasn’t feeling well (I’m sure it had nothing to do with the chocolate ice cream I ate seconds before we left…). But I wanted to get up there so we had the entire day on Saturday and I’m glad we did. I slept most of the way up there, which Danny likes because he gets to listen to Podcasts about real adult things like the news. We got up to the bed and breakfast around 11:30-12:00 p.m. which was kind of creepy, but there were lots of people out, so it didn’t feel that weird. Our room was really nice, we had a nice sitting room, big bedroom and a huge bathroom. We stayed at the Bayberry Inn on Kay Street.

Saturday morning we woke up, threw on our sneakers and walked…a lot. We were looking for a breakfast place and finally found one that looked cute, called the Ocean Breeze Cafe. We got pancakes and eggs and split them (and then had a pumpkin chocolate chip muffin). I have to say that from Thursday-Sunday I ate whatever I wanted. I had to choose bread/carb items because that was the only thing that felt good on my stomach. Normally, I would order eggs with whole wheat toast and not even think about pancakes or french toast. It was kind of refreshing to order things I usually don’t order, without the guilt because I knew I would be sick if I didn’t eat the right (or wrong) thing.

We toured Newport on foot throughout the day, doing most of the cliff walk. We really wanted to walk the entire thing, but it’s 3.5 miles each way and we had already walked a couple of miles in the morning. We turned back a little more than halfway and drove around to look at some more of the houses. If this isn’t something you have done, you NEED to. It’s unbelievable and magnificent. I may or may not have found a JCREW in Newport too…

Sunday I had one of my friend’s bridal showers. You may remember Lauren from here. The bridal shower was in Westerly, RI at the Shelter Harbor Inn. It was just so well done, her sister and mother did an amazing job. Lauren was so gracious and appreciative and just SO happy. She is, for sure, a glowing bride! It was also amazing to spend time with my girlfriends from college. I haven’t seen them in a couple of months, so it was great to catch up and laugh of course.

The candy bar were the favors. There were rock candies, m&m;’s, yogurt covered pretzels and more. It was so good, I helped my self to this! The bride and groom’s colors are black and tan-ish,creme.

I think this was the best cake I’ve ever eaten in my life. I wish I took a picture of the slice, but it was chocolate with a peanut butter mousse in the middle. It was something I imagine Jessica making. I think this cake is what cured my stomach.

Meg and I wore the same dress, unplanned. It was funny when we saw each other!

I have to say it was fun eating whatever I wanted for four days, but now I feel like I’m in sugar withdrawal. I went back to my normal eating today, but I was definitely looking for more throughout the day. I’m sure it will take a few days before I get back to not craving sugar.

To all you NYC’ers, what fitness/workout classes would you recommend taking? I’m looking to try new classes over the summer and open to any and all suggestions!

What do you eat when you eat anything you want?