Metivier Inn- Mackinac Island

Metivier Inn
PO Box 285
Mackinac Island, MI 49757
Ph# 1-866-847-6234
Email: info@metivierinn.com
http://www.metivierinn.com

Ahh The Metivier Inn on Mackinac Island. We happened upon this great establishment by chance. As I mentioned before we stayed two days at The Inn at Bay Harbor for our honeymoon. Our original plans were to stay two days at Bay Harbor and then three days at our economy location. We ended up staying two days at our economy location and the last day at the Metivier Inn. After staying at The Bay Harbor Resort our old economy vacation with inconsistent water pressure in the shower wasn't looking so good for our honeymoon. While visiting the Island we came across the Metivier Inn. We went and checked it out and our thinking was maybe next time we could afford to stay at this cute little bed and breakfast. After inquiring and speaking with the inn keepers they made us a fabulous offer. $100 off the turret room. I literally cried in front of them lol They said we deserved to have a great honeymoon! It was the perfect little honeymoon room too. Even with the floral decorations my husband loved it! We then decided to forfeit our money on our last day at the Beach House in Mackinaw City and take up the great offer at the Metivier to round out our honeymoon. We had such a great stay there. The Innkeepers David and Blanca made you feel like you were at home. They were so friendly and really wanted you to enjoy your stay with them. They even gave out their years of wisdom in conversation regarding marriage after hearing we had just gotten married. They are great people and their happiness is contagious. They offer a great breakfast too. Matter of fact both the Metivier and The Inn at Bay Harbor have excellent breakfasts. My husband and I dream of them. The grounds are perfect and the rooms are exceptionally clean. The actual owner of the Inn is an artist and she did all the renovations of the home and decorating. We actually bought as a keepsake one of her paintings of the Metivier. There are so many little details in the house. It's a step back in time yet you have modern conveniences as well. We've stayed on the island once before but this time we got to see the island's night life. Being so close to town was a plus. The regular businesses at night turn into clubs and you can hear all the fun they have there. Remember in the movie Dirty Dancing how much the help had fun...well something similar goes on there.  I've included a few pictures taken of the inn during our stay. Also from the backyard you can see the Grand Hotel.  We would stay here again and you should too :)

Our room we stayed in at the Metivier Inn.

Duel Purpose Wedding Items

I recently got married and while planning our wedding you realize how truly expensive things are. When looking for a venue and place to get married we looked for a place that had character. We figured the place itself would be our biggest decoration. Of course I would still need favors and additional decorations to pull everything together. I crafted a lot for our wedding to save on cost as well. But one of the things I also did to save money was to get our monies worth out of everything we used for the wedding. It took a little bit of thinking ahead but all our decorations were able to serve duel purposes in our home life as well and we've gotten our money back in the use of our decorations. Waste not want not I say :) We've used our wedding decorations as decorations in our home and have reused them for party decorations and even as Christmas ornaments. Even the left over advice postcards we were able to use as thank you cards for guests. And if you are lucky enough your venue will love your wall decorations so much they will purchase them from you! We were one of the lucky ones that our venue absolutely loved our decorations and wanted to purchase them from us to use always. Heck what were we going to do with these large and multiple wall decorations so it was a win win for us :) Pictures listed are just a few of our decorations and all were re-purposed. 

Drinking pitchers have been used repeatedly for flower vases. We love our guest book with all the pictures in it. We got it on Shutterfly and with coupons it was free with only paying shipping!

The bird cages have found a home in our living room. We stored all our wedding cards in them and advice cards. They are like a little scrapbook of our wedding we can pull out and look at anytime. We've used our votive candles multiple times. Even before the wedding we used them for our Housewarming party. We just repainted them.  The wreath found a home in our family room in our basement.

We use the jars in our kitchen. My husband recently got a Keurig Coffee maker and the large canister holds all his coffee perfectly. We use the other canisters and rotate out candies and cookies in them. 

Left over bird favors were used for our Christmas Tree and for a wreath I made in the fall. We also made wedding gift boxes for guests that could not attend our wedding and used our extras in them. 

We reused our baskets for rolls at our holiday party. 

Victoria's Secret Dryer Sheets

For Christmas my Mom got me some of the Victoria's Secret Dryer Sheets. I never even knew they existed! They have the most fabulous smell! I washed my new robe and used one of these dryer sheets and I just couldn't quit smelling myself lol! Now that I love them so much I checked the Victoria's Secret website and it appears they no longer carry any of the line. I have found that a box of 40 sheets can be purchased for $20 on ebay. Major bummer to find such a great item to no longer be available at Victoria's Secret. If this item was more easily accessible I would definitely make this a routine purchase.

Neat Receipts Portable Scanner

I am always striving for better organization in my home. Most days it feels as if I'm on a treadmill to no where in the pursuit of a household that virtually cleans itself. One of my family's biggest issues is excess paper. Receipts, credit card bills, documents etc. For Christmas my husband got me a Neat Receipts Scanner. I have just started using it. It's pretty simple to use, but i still need to play with it more to figure out how all the bells and whistles work on it. I'm pretty sure I will want to scan everything soon enough. It's going to take time to get our paper monster in control. I think the Neat Receipts is definitely a good organizing tool and something to check out. My only concern is that my computer is old and how much storage space it will use in my system, however it appears there is a trial offer for virtual cloud storage that could solve all of that. In the end any person who loves Martha Stewart and her everything in it's place outlook will love this tool. I also love that it is so small it takes up no space on a counter etc.

Bet you never thought Michigan had a Resort like this!

3600 Village Harbor Drive, Bay Harbor, Michigan 49770
Ph# 1-800-462-6963
http://www.innatbayharbor.com

Everyone that looks at our honeymoon pictures swears we were someplace else, but nope it's in Michigan. Sure there are many exotic locations we could have went for our honeymoon but we chose to stay in our own state. Heck we still haven't seen all there is of Michigan. We couldn't have asked for better weather than we had for our honeymoon. The resort is pricey so we could only afford two days but it was the best two days we ever had! After always living the economy life it was nice to see how the richer people live and let me tell you  we now know what we've been missing and nothing compares. The Inn at Bay Harbor has awesome customer service. They are beyond friendly and not the fake sort of friendly it's the real deal! For me it was like a scene in a favorite movie to stay at the Inn at Bay Harbor. The scenery in Bay Harbor is beautiful. Take a drive in any direction and there's even more beauty to look at. Petoskey, Harbor Springs, Mackinaw City any one of these cities have something wonderful to offer so If you are thinking of taking a vacation and don't know where you would like to go definitely check out Michigan and the Upper Peninsula.

Negative Review regarding Diane's Dream Brides and Casablanca Wedding Dress Manufacturer

I will elaborate in a future blog when I feel I want to get my blood boiling more. In the meantime I would like to put out there that for several valid reasons I do not recommend anyone purchasing a bridal gown from Diane's Dream Brides in Livonia Michigan or a Casablanca gown. Regarding Diane's Dream Brides the negative review is based on the fact that the dress situation was never resolved to satisfaction and the Casablanca negative review is based on they do not understand the true concept of customization of a gown. Casablanca has extremely poor customer service...and that is being generous with words. BUYER BEWARE! I suggest brides RUN not walk from Diane's Dream Brides. More like a nightmare than a dream!

Looking for Bridal Make-Up product ideas...look no further :)

I have extremely sensitive skin and I knew the basic look I wanted for my wedding day. I decided to purchase all the items I would want for my big day and have my make up artist pick and choose what she thought would look ideal for my special day. One of the best investments I made was purchasing the Urban Decay Naked II eye shadow palette. Price for this palette is $50 and can be purchased at Ulta, Sephora or at many up scale department stores. There are so many combinations that can be made from this one palette. Definitely worth the money. I have hit pan on many of the shades. For lip liner I wish I would have discovered ahead of time the Urban Decay 24/7 liners. I purchased the color wicked. This color would have blended perfectly with my Aveda lip color I wore on my wedding day. Liner cost $19 and is well worth it with it's long lasting wear. My make up artist recommended Maybelline Volume Express -The Falsies Waterproof Mascara at $5.94 a tube this is by far the best bargain. I cried a lot during all my wedding activities and this stood up to the test for me. Another staple that I just couldn't believe how much I would love was gel liner. I purchased the L'Oreal Infallible Gel Lacquer Liner 24 Hour brand. I am addicted to this product and can no longer go without. Product cost approximately $9. Another option for an eye shadow palette would be the Jane Iredale Pure Pressed Eye Shadow Kit Perfectly Nude for $52. I found this eye shadow kit while on honeymoon. It would make a great natural bridal make up look. It is pricey however the colors are traditional and can be used with anything you may already have. I recommend bringing your foundation with you when meeting with your make up artist. My artist used my shade to blend a custom color in HD foundation. This method helped to keep my coloring as close to my natural daily make up look as possible and kept me from looking too made up. If you think you can not afford a make up artist think again. My artist fee was only $25 plus $10 eyelash application fee and was from an Aveda Salon. Also, get individual lashes, because if you are a crier you will only lose one lash at a time instead of the possibility of the whole lash strip coming unglued. If you prefer to do your own lashes the Katy Perry brand is pretty amazing. Even the thicker style look natural on. Hope this gave you a few ideas to help with your special day!