Best of Feast + West 2019

Here’s a look back at the last 52 weeks of 2019. The Best of Feast + West 2019 remembers my favorite posts as well as yours! Check out the most popular posts from the year. 

Our wedding cake with colorful macarons

Another year has come and gone, and HOW? It really seems like every year just goes faster and faster.

This was a big year for me personally, and for Feast + West too.

What was the biggest thing? Well, in September, Chris and I tied the knot!

Colorful wedding bouquet photo

Our colorful day was so incredibly fun. We had the best time planning it and it was so special to celebrate with all our family and friends.

And the best part is now I get to be married to the best guy ever!

I promise to share a recap with tons of wedding photos soon, but here’s our engagement story from 2018 if you are feeling nostalgic like me. I can’t believe it’s been almost 2 years since we got engaged!

Afterward we went on an epic Eastern Europe honeymoon to Prague, Budapest and a road trip in Croatia.

I am still going through the bajillion photos we took but I promise to share about it here soon too!

Dubrovnik, Croatia city walls and kayakers
Dubrovnik, Croatia in October

And I can’t forget that you guys nominated Feast + West for a Saveur Blog Award this year!

I still can’t believe you guys think I have one of the best entertaining blogs out there. Absolutely floored.

The American Sign Museum sign wall in Cincinnati
The American Sign Museum in Cincinnati in November

I spent an incredible long weekend in Cincinnati with other finalists, amazing speakers and Saveur team members.

It was a wonderful experience and I left feeling so humbled but also proud of the work I’ve done here. It really means so much. Thank you.

Chris and Susannah in Ellijay GA
Us in Ellijay, Georgia in May

2019 also brought a ton of travel. I already mentioned our honeymoon! But there was so much more.

I traveled a bunch for work this year, but had just as many fun trips too. (And work is fun!) I visited 11 states (1 new — Michigan) and 4 countries (2 new — Croatia and Hungary).

Lake Michigan as seen from Saugatuck
Lake Michigan in August

But this year has also been really hard. I feel like life has thrown blow after blow lately.

I am still dealing with my achilles tendinitis, which I told you about in this post about flying with an injury. It still has me wearing tennis shoes and orthotics most days. Thanks, I hate it.

In an effort to stay positive, it has been a good lesson in taking care of myself and developing better habits, but I can’t deny it’s been really tough.

Things that involve lots of walking (like parts of our honeymoon) and standing (like a day in the kitchen making recipes and shooting photos for the blog) can be so painful still.

Oh and car shopping. No one tells you how much walking is involved in that! We had to do it in December, as Chris’s car was totaled in an accident (everyone is fine, thankfully).

A wedding photo with my grandmother

And then there’s the heaviest of all: Losing my grandmother two weeks ago on Dec. 12.

Much of our holiday season was spent in a whirlwind of unfamiliar places — car dealerships, the hospital, a rehab center, the hospital again, the hospice center where she died. It just felt so different.

The weeks following were both empty and full.

Empty, because she wasn’t at our family Christmas party donning her signature snowman sweater and armed with a red velvet cake from her favorite bakery, later showing off her latest Zumba moves.

But full in a strange way — with memories swirling their way through everyday life, family and friends from all over making their way for the memorial services, kindness from strangers that just meant the world.

I’m still processing all of it. I plan to write a longer remembrance post soon the way I did for my Granny Nova who passed away four years ago. But I just couldn’t write this recap post without sharing all of the ups and all of the downs of this year.

Taking a trip to Louisville, Ky.? Check out where we stayed, ate, drank, shopped and explored during our weekend on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail in this Louisville Travel Guide! (via feastandwest.com)
Louisville, Kentucky in March

Now, as is tradition, I’m sharing a few favorite posts — yours and mine. It’s always fun to look back at what I made in the last 365 days and to see what you guys like the best around here!

I started writing these posts one year into my blog, which pairs up nicely with celebrating her birthday. Feast + West will be 6 years old tomorrow!

I hope your year was wonderful and that your year ahead is even better. 2020 is going to bring great things, I can just feel it. // susannah 

Photo credit: Our wedding photos were taken by Mary Costa Photography

Best of Feast + West 2019

Here's what you and I both loved in 2019!

My Favorite Posts in 2019

Here are the Top 10 Posts I loved creating for you in 2019!

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Here's what you guys loved in 2019!

Thanks so much for reading the Best of Feast + West 2019! Check out past years here: 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014

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