My wedding dress is IN!!! YAYAYAYAY.
Sadly I won’t get to try it on until my first fitting on May 27. But I totally want to go visit it before then. Admire it. Feel it. Maybe even give it a hug. Can you tell I’m excited? 😀
Too bad my excitement has now been deflated with the thought of fitting into the dress. I don’t think I’ve gained any weight but… UGH.
Time to hit the gym. BOO.
So the other day I was browsing around on the Crate and Barrel website to see if there was anything I could add to our registry when I saw IT. That wonderful word in RED.
Fulfilled
SQUEEEEEEEEE!!! Someone bought us our first wedding gift(s)! WOWOWOW.
It’s really real now.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU so much, whoever you are. 😀
Aww yeah. My week is OVER! Tomorrow’s a holiday at work (“Spring Friday” is our PC term for it, hehe) and I’m heading to Las Vegas for the weekend to celebrate a good friend’s birthday. Woot. I just finished packing and of course, I overpacked. Oops. What? I need options! Hee.
So I’m finally a “regular” somewhere! It only took a year but the employees at the Starbucks across the street from work finally know my name and my order. A tall nonfat peppermint mocha. 😀 When I’m standing in line and one of them sees me, they yell out my name and confirm that I’m having the mocha. Sometimes I like to freak them out and order a tall nonfat latte. Hee. And the best part is that they charge me for a tall and I always get a venti. YAYAYAY. I feel so loved. 😀 Too bad I *really* need to lay off the Starbucks cause the venti is about quadruple the calories of the tall. I should have given it up for Lent. Maybe next year…
Also, why is printing addresses on wedding invitation envelopes considered bad etiquette?! My handwriting is not pretty enough to write all the addresses. And I don’t want to pay a calligrapher (hey, I’m cheap — I have to cut corners somewhere). ARGH. Oh, wedding etiquette. I shake my fist at you.
I’m so random today.
So… the wedding is in 5 months. !!! I’m not freaking out. Yet. 😀 We’ve actually been making some good progress in the past month. Let’s see, we’ve…
— Booked the videographer
— Reserved a suite at the Fairmont for “getting ready” with my bridesmaids (squee, girly fun!) and for the night of the wedding
— Booked my hair and makeup artist
— Ordered bridesmaids dresses from Jenny Yoo. They’re a lovely pink color in silk shantung fabric. My Maid of Honor and I narrowed the choices down to 3 styles and each girl chose their own dress. See how pretty!
— Ordered and mailed out our Save the Date postcards!
— And lastly, we’ve ordered our invitations… they’re set to arrive in a month. I don’t think I can wait. I loooove staring at them… all metallic and shiny. Is it possible to be in love with stationery? Cause I totally am. 😀
In non-wedding news, I totally failed at my Lenten sacrifice this weekend because I ate ice cream both days. OOPS. It was totally worth it, though. :/ Just LOOK!
Yesterday, Rob, Diesel and I went to 4th Street in Berkeley. I wanted to go over to my little slice of heaven, aka Paper Source, to get some inspiration for miscellaneous paper projects I have planned for the wedding. Weelll, no trip to 4th Street is complete without a stop at Sketch. The owners, Ruthie and Eric, were former pastry chefs at Aqua. They use produce/fruits that are in season so everything is packed with flavor but never too heavy or too rich. It’s just perfect. I had the Strauss plain yogurt with cocoa nib topping (on the left) and Rob had the Cocoa Nib. Mmmm. I’m drooling right now thinking about it. We’ve also tried Earl Grey (sounds weird but it’s incredible), Raspberry sorbet (a bit tart but yummy), and Burnt Caramel (*drool*).
Today’s stop on the East Bay ice cream tour was Ici, also in Berkeley. This store was opened by Mary, a former pastry chef from Chez Panisse… I think I like this trend of pastry chefs leaving top restaurants if it means MORE ICE CREAM STORES! Rob and I waited a little over half an hour to get our ice cream but boy, was it WORTH IT. YUM-O. My treat (pictured above) was the Meyer Lemon (so light, so refreshing) and Chocolate Chip with a hand-rolled cone (the cone was so good and it had a chocolate tip!). Rob had the Chocolate Chip and Milk Chocolate Almond, which was also pretty spectacular. I can’t wait to go back and try some of the other flavors, like Ginger, Honey Lemon, Coconut Sorbet, etc.
Diet? What diet? Heh. OOPS.
6 months until our wedding. EEEK.
Our “Save the Dates” arrived this week. YAY. They’re just little postcards that I “designed” in PhotoShop. And by design, I mean that I inserted a picture and slapped some text on there. 😀 Sadly, there’s a little hiccup. The text on the back of the STD (heh, that makes me laugh — I’m obviously 5) is just a *tad* bit too small. Argh. IT DID NOT LOOK SMALL IN PHOTOSHOP! Oh well, the front of the postcard serves it purpose so I guess it doesn’t matter that our guests may not be able to read the back without a magnifying glass. Oops. :/ I’ll share a peek once we’ve sent them all out.
In other news, I watched my recording of the Eli Stone premiere. I liked it! Ok ok, it was a bordering on cheesy at times (particularly with the George Michael scenes) but I had FAITH in the show. HA. Get it?! Do you? Seriously, I haven’t met a Greg Berlanti show I didn’t like. Plus, Victor Garber’s in it — that’s a huge plus right there. I’ll have to check out the second episode before making a decision but if Eli continues to be his charming, endearing self, I might just keep this show on my already bloated TV schedule. 😀
I completely forgot that tomorrow is the start of Lent. Now, I may not be the best practicing Catholic but I always give something up during this time. (I guess it’s more of a habit than anything). Last year I gave up candy and chocolate. This year, I’ll probably stick with giving up some sort of food… possibly fried foods? Or maybe desserts/pastries? Hmm. I’ll make up my mind when I wake up tomorrow.
😀
So Rob and I spent the latter half of last week in LA because we had to attend a wedding tasting event that our caterer was throwing for their upcoming brides and grooms. OMG, YOU GUYS. The food is going to be so YUMMY. We tried about six salads — a fruit/walnut salad, caesar, mixed green salad, etc. But my favorite was by far the strawberry spinach salad with poppyseed dressing…
We also had 5 different entrees — chicken florentine (this was THE BEST!), caramelized chicken, prime rib, filet mignon, and shiitake encrusted halibut. Behold the yumminess of the filet and the halibut…
And of course, we had to try a few desserts — chocolate-covered strawberries, meringue cookies, and banana mandarin flambe. Sorry, no pictures. I was too busy eating!!!
Here we are with full bellies at the end of the night…
I’m definitely NOT going to be one of those brides that doesn’t have time to eat on the wedding day. I’ll be sitting down at the table chowing down along with my guests. 😀
It’s past midnight and I just made myself hungry writing this entry. Heh.
I know I’m a week late but R.I.P. Heath Ledger. There’s nothing to say except his death was a horrible, horrible tragedy and he will be sorely missed. I didn’t realize that he and I were the same age until this week… it’s a little eerie seeing 1979-2008. 🙁
So… I’m doing so badly at blogging this year. My days seem to be flying by so quickly nowadays (it gets worse and worse every year)… but a real life update is long overdue!
I had a tooth extraction this afternoon… and now that the anesthesia has worn off, I’m in so much pain. *whimper* I’m such a baby.
The hard drive on my laptop is continuing to make really annoying loud huffing noises. Anyone have any experience with this? My prediction is that this is not going to end well. So I’ve been frantically backing up all my data on my external hard drive. As much as I would love to get a shiny new laptop, I so don’t have it in my budget right now. Please don’t die on me. Please don’t die on me.
Wedding planning is… going. 😀 We now officially have a DJ for the reception and a classical guitarist for the ceremony (mmm, live music, yay!). And we’ve finally started our registry. But it is FAR from being completed. It’s actually a lot more work that I thought. It’s not just walking through the store and scanning this and that! (Though that’s totally fun too, lol). Rob and I have a mish-mash of cheap-o kitchen tools and accessories so we’re in need of some quality items. But it’s been tough because we have to research the products and factor in functionality, style, cost, etc. So. Much. Work. But so far, the biggest wedding nightmare has been the GUEST LIST. Compiling those names and addresses and making sure everything is correct is kind of a pain. I just ordered our “Save the Date” postcards so I’m hoping to finish the guest list this week. *crosses fingers*
Speaking of weddings, our old roomie, Jimmy, got married this past weekend. Awww. 🙂 Here’s a picture of Jimmy and me and one of Rob and Eleen (the bride, obviously)…
Please excuse my shiny, round face.
And I have to share a picture of the yummy cupcake bar that they had instead of a traditional wedding cake.
All the cupcakes were made by one of Eleen’s bridesmaids and let me tell you, they were SCRUMPTIOUS. Mmmm. Such a cute idea.
Hmmm. Seeing that picture of me above is making me re-consider the whole “no bangs” look. (I don’t think I ever mentioned it here but back in July, I decided to grow my bangs out because they require so much maintenance). I look ROUND. That’s not quite the look I was going for. ARGH.
Anyway, I’m so, so excited for this week because I only have 2 days of work! Rob and I heading down to LA on Wednesday for a tasting with our wedding caterer. YUM. Can’t wait.
Hope everyone has a good week!
I started this a few days ago and just got around to finishing it. Oops. 😛
_____
I’m back at work this morning and I SO do not want to be here. Particularly since the pants I’m wearing right now do not fit properly due to all the holiday feasting I did during my vacation. Argh. So instead, I’m going to do some blogging. Hehe.
Here’s a few highlights from the past few weeks:
1. Spending LOTS of time with friends and family. Being in Southern CA for so long made me realize how much I miss it.
2. Doing lots of wedding “stuff.” Most notably cake tasting! YUM. Rob and I went to 3 different bakeries and had all kinds of cake (white, chocolate, carrot, marble, banana) along with all different kinds of fillings/icings (buttercream, cappuccino, mint chocolate, fresh strawberries…). Seriously, the best part of wedding planning so far. Just kidding. Sort of. Anyway, we decided on the design of our cake and selected our baker. YAY. Some pics of the yumminess…
The samples at Heidelberg Bakery. This is where we’re going to order our cake!
Rob sampling the banana nut cake (I think) at Torrance Bakery.
Mmmm.
3. Diesel playing with the other doggies in our family. He met my cousin’s dogs, Poker (also a shih tzu) and Roxy (a maltipoo), and he stayed at Rob’s parent’s house where he got to play with their dog, Oski (a pug). See the fun he had!
Diesel, Poker and Roxy (from left to right) on Christmas Eve opening up their presents. I take it back. Diesel probably didn’t enjoy playing with these two. Poker barked at him the whole night. Nicely, of course, but Diesel was still taken aback by him. And Roxy growled and lunged at him when we first got to my cousin’s house. She then proceeded to ignore him the rest of the night. I think that’s why Diesel is sitting so far away from them in this picture. Poor little guy.
Diesel and Oski. The Deez LOVES Oski. They play fight and have little tug of war games. I think he misses him. Aww.
4. Opening Presents! My friends and family were incredibly generous with the presents, as always. Some of the particularly noteworthy gifts I received:
— CTU t-shirt. HEE.
— Jack Bauer figurine. He currently resides on my desk at work ready to shoot anyone who approaches. 😀
— Brookstone ultrasonic jewelry cleaner. YAY. Now I can clean my engagement ring at home. I can’t wait to get it all sparkly.
— Cuttlebug. An awesome embossing and die-cut machine for scrapbooking!
— Casio Exilim EX-S770. This was a total surprise because I got it from a vendor at work. CRAZY! It’s only my second Christmas at my agency but I have quickly learned that the holidays are ridiculous. Really. We give so much business to various companies throughout the year that they practically throw presents our way at Christmas. We received an insane number of gift baskets, gift cards, boxes of chocolate, popcorn tins, etc. But the camera was the best of them all. Good stuff.
— canvas Marc Jacobs tote that I’ve been coveting
— DVDs (Veronica Mars s3, Brothers & Sisters s1)
— And tons of other good things — honestly, I feel so spoiled. The people in my life know me very, very well.
5. Eating my way through Cerritos. There’s just some things I can’t get here… like Filipino food (I *must* learn how to cook the dishes I love) and Chick-Fil-A (the BEST fast food EVER). The only thing I didn’t have was Pinkberry. I had a day planned out to go and everything but Rob and I got lazy. Next time for sure.
… And I guess that’s it. I already miss the holidays. :/ Since it looks like it’s going to be stormy all weekend, I better take down all the Christmas decorations and put away the luggage that’s still strewed all over the apartment…
You guys up for more wedding dress talk? 😀
I’ve actually been dress shopping a few more times since my last post on the topic.
First up — Neiman Marcus
I was actually really disappointed in NM. They don’t have very many dresses out on the floor (and what they did have on display were more “high fashion bridal” than “regular person bridal”) so you have to tell your consultant what you want and then she’ll select dresses in the back and bring them to your dressing room. I had a good consultant, though, so this wasn’t a problem… but I still wish that I had the chance to browse through their selection on my own and leisurely study the beautiful details on each piece. They do have a really nice, spacious dressing room, which was great — with the 3 of us in there (I brought my future sister-in-law Susie with me), it never felt cramped. I didn’t really care for the dresses I tried on… but there was a memorable Vera Wang and Monique Lhuillier that I’ll post pictures of at the end.
I also visited Clarissa Bridal, which is a really nice family-owned salon. I had such great service here! Unfortunately, they seem to be about 3-4 seasons behind in the dresses they carry and while they had a solid selection, I didn’t find any that were my style.
After visiting these salons, my mind kept drawing me back to 2 Monique Lhuillier dresses that I saw on my first shopping day. Because I didn’t want to go back to the Unique Bride (didn’t like my consultant), I went to Bridal Galleria instead (they carry similar designers). I tried on the dresses again but still couldn’t decide. I even dragged my cousin in when she visited back in October and she was no help. She insisted that she liked both.
So finally, during my trip to Southern CA a few weeks back, I dragged my best friends, my aunt, and my cousin to the Monique Lhuillier flagship store in LA. They overwhelmingly liked one over the other so when I got back to the Bay Area on Monday, I went in to Bridal Galleria to get measured and put my deposit down. THE DRESS arrives in mid-April. SQUEE.
Want to see some pictures? 🙂 (Rob, this is when you stop reading).
So last week, I headed down to Southern CA for the second annual Girls Weekend in Palm Springs with my best friends, Carmen and Robyn. But before we made the drive down to the desert, we spent most of Friday visiting bridal salons in LA.
😀
We started off bridesmaid dress shopping… we hit Bella Bridesmaid (thumbs up — we found some pretty silk shantung dresses in lots of different styles) and Renee Strauss (thumbs down — they had TONS of dress choices but they weren’t very… stylish. Their wedding dress selection looked much better). I had an idea of what I envisioned for them prior to our appointments but I wanted to make sure they were comfortable and liked what they would be wearing. So I’m pretty sure I’m going to pick the designer, fabric and colors of the dresses and my bridesmaids will choose their own styles, be it strapless, halter, v-neck, etc. Yay, they’re going to look so pretty!
Our last stop of the day was the Monique Lhuillier salon where I wanted to show them my top 2 dress choices. They’re both very different “looks” so I was having a tough time making a decision on my own. My cousin (aka Maid of Honor) and aunt joined us for this appointment and all 4 of them unanimously voted for the same dress. I’m planning a big dress post soon and I’ll share THE DRESS then. 🙂
After all that, we finally headed down to Palm Springs for our weekend at the La Quinta Resort & Spa. We woke up on Saturday morning to a beautiful day — warm but not overly so. I think it was in the high 70s/low 80s. Definitely a welcome change from the frosty weather in the Bay Area! I hit the gym to start my day (I am *really* trying to be better at this) and then we lounged around the pool for a few hours before finally ending up at the SPA! I had a milk bath, massage, and facial. Mmmm. We ended the day having a yummy dinner at Azur, one of the resort’s restaurants.
The next day we leisurely woke up, got ready, and headed to Desert Hot Springs to visit our friend Errikka from elementary school who we’d all lost touch with until recently. I haven’t seen or talked to her since high school (more than 10 years ago!) so it was great to hear what she’s been doing since then and also to meet her husband and kids! It’s amazing how far we’ve all come since we knew each other way back when…
And that’s my very belated recap of my Palm Springs weekend. I’m already counting down the days til the next one. 😀
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!