Cait's wedding, pt 1

Last weekend was quite a crazy one. I meant to post on Thursday that I was getting away from the weekend for my dearest friend (and bridesmaid) Cait's wedding.

Cait is a college friend whom I love dearly. She's been my relationship shoulder since E and I started dating. She's the only one of my friends who was dating when E and I were, and now the only close friend that's married.

Cait met E before I did at school, and I was the late comer to the group of friends. We became close the end of my junior year (her sophomore), chatted over the summer, and I was thrilled for her when her summer crush made it official that August.
In the meantime, things were stirring up between E and I, and within the first week back to school, he asked me out...and shortly after we became official.

I know this all seems very high school, but there is a point to the story!

Cait and I have been at the same relationship stage for last couple years, and it's been so fun to experience everything with her. When she got engaged in early fall, I screamed with excitement at a restaurant with friends before she even got out the words to tell me why she called. I knew. :-)

E called her the morning before he proposed to me to let her in on the big news. We set wedding dates 5 weeks apart and have been having girl-time bouncing ideas off eachother for 9 months! While we were planning very different weddings in different situations, she kept me grounded and focused on the important things--marriage and family. And I was always on the lookout for little details to match her classic black/green outdoor wedding! We've chatted about everything from centerpieces to birth control, and her support on the wedding day and as it approached was a life saver.

It was so fun to see her own wedding come together, especially considering how insane she was--interviewing for a new job the day before the wedding!
I loved seeing how happy she and Wil were to finally be together forever!

So before I tell the story of my crazy weekend getting to the wedding, I just wanted to share a few of these very sweet first dance pictures I took of the two lovebirds.

Congrats caiters! I couldn't be happier for you.






(ps. the pictures are edited because I was a terrible photographer with a point and shoot camera, no patience, and a migraine)

Another ring for my finger?

Ever since sporting my engagement ring for the last 9 months, I've become attached to the feel and look of rings on my fingers. Generally the only jewelry I wear is my wedding ring set and a pair of earrings...until I found this Etsy shop.

This couple sells handmade rings, bangles and earrings [from Hawaii!] and I'm drooling over them....I would love add the hammered band or the infinity (the 2nd photo) to my jewelry collection!





What are your favorite Etsy jewelry finds?

I've converted

Well, I finally did it.

I'm not sure why I couldn't get used to Google Reader when I tried it several months ago. But I came back from the honeymoon and didn't want to miss a single blog post while I'd been gone. I opened Google reader and they were ALL there!

I slowly made my way through over a thousand blog posts. I hardly skipped a single one! (though it took me 2.5 weeks) Now I've cleared out a couple of abandoned blogs...and I'm looking for some new wedding blogs to add to my subscriptions. Do you have any good recommendations?

I'd love to hear them.

Thanks in advance :-)

Post-Wedding Chop (PWC)

I used to be a long hair girl. This is what I looked like when E and I started dating.


But for the last two years I have kept my hair fairly short, and loved it.

(me with the sisters)

About 2 weeks after our engagement I was long overdue for a cut, and I went. Even though everyone I knew encouraged me to grow my hair out for an updo for the wedding, I was being defiant. My little bob was "my style" and I was not about to let the wedding take over every minute area of my life. I was keeping my hair short, dangit!

So even against my stylist's suggestion, I went as short as it's ever been. And not a week later I was kicking myself and willing my hair to grow.


This is how far I got: (it grew about 4 inches in 6 months)

It was easily long enough to pull off the updo I has dreamed of, inspired primarily by this photo:

It looked like this on my wedding day

and now.....
it looks like THIS:

(excuse the bathroom pics and my tag sticking out of my tshirt! This was taken right before a run.)

I LOVED that I decided to do the bob where my hair is longer in the front. it's so much more sophisticated. And with the weather in SoCAl right now, I really needed the hair off my neck.

Have a lovely weekend!

I wonder if my blogging friends have forgotten about me because it has been so long. You've been awfully quiet! Are you out there?

My California dinner party/reception thrown by MIL is tomorrow evening and I'm excited! I'm planning to wear my rehearsal dinner dress and wedding day shoes.


There will be lots of people to meet, good wine to drink, and and laughs to be had (My hubbies friends are the funniest!)
Besides that, my parents flew out for the occasion, and so did our best man, so we have a full house and a half!

See you on the other side of the weekend!

saying thanks: it's gotta be cute!

When I was in the conception stage of all of my stationery/paper products for the wedding, I was determined to have a unified theme running through everything--from the invitations to the menus, programs, and even thank you notes!

Just before the wedding, I decided that I didn't want to cut another piece of paper for the rest of my life, so I outsourced my wedding thank you notes.

I almost forgot about them until I unpacked the cuteness that is our (almost) corresponding thank you notes, compliments of target!
Adorable, no?


and pretty close to our invitations, no?


This past week I've been going through the stack of wedding cards and gifts and preparing to write almost 100 thank you notes, and I realized we have no return address labels!

Rather than do it the easy/ugly way (print address text onto Avery labels via Microsoft Word), I decided to check out etsy's selection of address labels, and got totally overwhelmed.

After an hour, and about 25 more 'favorites', I saw it! Etsy seller, lettercdesign has an adorable round address surrounding.--you guessed it--a dandelion! I immediately placed an order for the green one and I can't wait to see what they look like with our names together and our new address!


Cindy has lots of other cute circular address label designs. I was just drooling over this one! Check out her shop!



In the meantime, my hand will busily working on those thank yous!

Work Shower: Italy style

Just a week before my last day at work, my office got together to throw me my only surprise shower. In honor of our honeymoon location, they put together a gorgeous Italy themed shower complete with lots of olives, grapes, and even tiramisu! (any Chicago girls out there? It was from Maggiano's. Heavenly!)

I was a busy bee that morning preparing for my replacement to come in the next week for training, and was totally oblivious to planning going on about 30 feet away from my office in the break area! Finally my boss asked me to come over for a minute.
And this is what I saw.









fun, huh?

and this is what all my co-workers saw:



a very surprised me!

I wish I had pictures of the delicious food close up, but I didn't have my camera with me, and stole these few from my [former] co-worker!

there was:
salad with vinaigrette dressing
pasta (duh!)
lasagna
italian pasta salad with olives, artichokes, and lots of olive oil!
bread with oil and parmesan
and lots more!




My sister and mom came too!



present time!



Honey Do whistle



Sweet card signed by everyone in the office.



Then it was time for the big present!



What could it be?



a 17 piece pots and pans set!



All the office staff chipped in to purchase this set for me. Even though it wasn't the brand we'd registered for, Eric and I decided to keep it because the set we really wanted cost about 3 times as much, and we were sure we wouldn't get it (and we didn't!)

It was a tough decision (especially because I didn't want to seem ungrateful...they were SO generous), and I was thinking about returning it. Then my wonderful fiance (now husband) brought me back to reality saying something like: "you don't always get what you want...be thankful we're getting things we need!" He was right. And we're using it!

It was a very sweet shower with great little touches, and it was partly a going away party as well--so I was a little sad! I had great co-workers!

Home Sweet Home

I'm back, and a Mrs!

My husband and I (WOO HOO!) flew back into the US, from an amazing honeymoon in Italy, and home to California on Saturday evening. We missed the fireworks, because we were just so tired and trying to unpack. I had a day and a half to recover before my new job started yesterday, but I'm hanging in there. ALl of our gifts are hanging in limbo as we had to ship them all from Chicago (we flew)...so I have empty cabinets for now!

But on to the important stuf.....the wedding!

The wedding has come and gone so quickly I can hardly believe it, but I can't wait to relive it all with you, and share a little bit our our amazing honeymoon to Italy!

here's a little teaser pic taken by a friend (who was my hair stylist!) on the country road where my parents live.

I'll leave you with this--I was so worried (up until the big day) that my own wedding wouldn't be as fun or stress free as I've heard from others, especially on the bloggers!

But I can absolutely say that my wedding day was the most fun day of my life! I want to relive it every day!

(photos by Uncle Cam)

I'll be easing into things for a little while...but I missed you all tons, and I'm so glad to be back!