Happy Belated Birthday to My Beloved!

I treated Michael to a night at the wonderful Inn at Middleton Place just down the road from us. The modern design beautifully counters the 18th-century buildings and landscaping of Middleton Place next door. Last weekend also played host the the Grand Illumination - Christmas 1782 Tour. It was perfect timing as I found the tour information while booking our room!


Loving the brrrrrr chilly December weather in the courtyard in front of our room!

I picked up Michael's cake from Normandy Farms and drove it, along with some of our absinthiana, out to the Inn on Friday. I requested to have the fountain, glasses, absinthe, ice and water set up in the room upon our arrival and the cake to be delivered to the room while we were out on the tour. We woke up Saturday morning to the sound of pouring rain and my heart sank. I had no idea if the events of the evening were rain or shine. I decided to follow the flow of the day/evening without panic. I gleefully learned at check-in that the event was going on as scheduled. We brought our umbrellas and learned that the rooms are supplied with those AND flashlights for walking the grounds at night.

We had a fantastic time during the tour. We actually ended up on the tail end of an earlier group when we got to the house. It wasn't until we finished our supper {the food was delicious} that we learned that we'd missed half the tour! Silly us, we thought that maybe the gardens portion was cut short because of the weather. We all had a good laugh and Michael and I joined a small group heading toward the gardens. We had several good laughs at ourselves for the rest of the evening.


{ Click on the numbers to enlarge photos. }
1. Tickets to Middleton Place are included in the price of the room. I presented these to Michael after I checked in and we were driving towards the room.
2. Some familiar visual elements, the font we used for the wedding which we now use for anything representing us, and the 'icon' we made during our wedding planning. Just like the font we use it to represent us.
3. I added a ribbon for a finishing touch.



1. We had a Woods View room. There are a couple of small clusters of rooms apart from the main building that offer more privacy, which was my intent. Ours was the bottom back right and we still had a view of the Ashley River { These photos are from the Inn's accommodations page. }. This photo was taken on the path which leads to Middleton Place.
2. Kyle did a wonderful job with getting our bar ready!
3. Michael built the fire after we unloaded the car and kept it going throughout the night. We had to turn off the heat in the room.
4. The tub. It's HUGE and comfortably fits two people. It takes close to a half an hour to fill the 150 gallons but so worth the wait. There was a tinge of guilt using this much water, but we figured what the hell we're very conservative with our water use at home, so why not? It was definitely needed after being in the cold and intermittent rain that evening.



1.  2.  3.  4.  5. The main building and green area facing the Ashley River.

The Inn is the place for us and we're definitely going back in the future. It's a perfect environment to leave your worries behind and rejuvenate. We had so much fun wandering the grounds and gardens of Middleton Place. The room was just right and the staff was amazing, both at the Inn and at the plantation. I think we'll probably try to stay during fire burning weather. No bugs, less people and FAR more romantic!

We took a lot of photos of the gardens and I'll work to post those sometime soon. The one thing we didn't get to see were the Camilla's blooming. It looks as though a few have bloomed but they're estimating about two weeks before they're in their glory. Now that is something I want to see!

Happy Birthday Love.
:x