the satin bow peep toe d'orsay

Way back in early wedding planning days i've had my heart set on a pair of delicious stuart weitzman bowribbon shoes, but alas, it is now discontinued and sold out EVERYWHERE

isn't she lovely? (le sigh)

so now that those dreams are dashed and squashed...i have to find an alternate shoe...j crew has stepped up to the plate with a few very VERY good alternatives...

first up is molly

she's peep toe, shes satin, ivory and she's got a bow and comes in at $250...she's not as soft around the edges, but she might get the job done

next up we got ella
she is softer around the edges, comes in ivory satin, she's a D'ORSAY HEEL!, a little lower and coming in at $225...she's looking pretty good wouldn't you say?

last up at bat we have Carmen...
i gotta say she's got the whole package and coming in at $265 isn't a sneeze at in terms of price...she's a little more expensive but she's not d'orsay!

i actually blogged about her in one of my earlier entries and have always considered her...but i somehow couldn't justify spending this much money on a pair of shoes i'm only going t be wearing for one day (i have no illusions i will ever again wear a pair of ivory shoes, i can always dye them, but i know i'm lazy as all get out, i've been meaning to dye my old bm ivory shoes black and have NEVER gotten around to it, this is over 12 months ago now)

Another beauty i've had my eye on are the martinez valero brit shoe:
she's a a touch of glam, a touch of fierce, peep toe, ivory and d'orsay, and comes in at $153 (man i'm loving this price after the above shoes)...but she's not a soft bow...gah! what would you do?

the innards and gizzards

on the heels of my last post, lets see what two rounds of revisions has yielded in production shall we?

i know i didn't technically give birth to you, but you were still a labor of love! (please excuse the ugliness that i used to block out some info)

respondez sil vous plait!

chinese bakery cards and directions (yea sorry dudes, not everyone gets the chinese sweet stuff, only certain guests on the brides guestlist gets these, ie auntie lulu and uncle jack)

all bundled up with a double sided satin ribbon

ready for the mail!

the font for our names on the invitations is carpenter calligraphy by Laura and the envelopes were actually printed through my printer (man this is another story i will have to post later) with the font English... i thought they're pretty sweet lookin, what do YOU think? do i pass muster?

Wedding invitations at last

After a lot of hemming and hawing i decided to go with lucky orchid wedding invitations by Laura Hooper. The woman is a genius, not only is her calligraphy something awesome, her line of invitations are absolutely beautiful.

i didn't go the DIY route with this because, lets face it, i'm really just not that talented and to attempt such a huge project on my own is a disaster in the making. plan A was to order invitations on mygatsby.com because well i didn't want to spend a whole lot of money and the designs were very nice...but ultimately i wasn't happy with the paper quality, it wasn't as heavy as i would've liked and there was very little i can do to customize it to make it my own. so i gave myself a new budget and started looking up alternatives on thermographically printed wedding invitations on substantially weighted paper and Laura Hooper came to my rescue.

so without further ado, lets take you back a couple of months when i received THIS in the mail:

can this be?OMG! IT IS! IT IS! MY FREAKIN WEDDING INVITATIONS!

God it's like opening a present at Christmas! TEEHEEOMG OMG OMG!
It's even wrapped so prettily! Laura Hooper i love thee!

i know i know, you wanna see what this baby looks like dontcha? DONTCHA?

Honeymoons on the brain part Trois - la piece de resistance

After lots of thought and research, i was about to throw in the towel and just go anywhere for this honeymoon, it's a lot of work! and i'm having this conversation one day with my boss and i was just saying, "if it was up to me i'd be in europe, maybe the french riviera or something" - this is the crux of everything i suppose...i like cultural old things sorta trips, and chris likes beachy do nothing sorta trips...we don't really meet eye to eye here...but Saint Jean Cap Ferrat actually seemed like it might fit the bill for both of us at the suggestion of my very french boss!

Saint Jean Cap Ferrat is a peninsula located in the Cote D'Azur (thats the french riviera to non french speakers) and according to my boss P, is heave on earth and you'll find no where more relaxing and beautiful on this planet...the creme de la creme! so i began my research and what do you know, it truly is a very beautiful place...favorite vacationing spot for european millionaires, royalty and celebrities...it's truly not a place to miss, st tropez doesn't even hold a candle to this gem in the mediterranean

Saint Jean Cap Ferrat is surrounded by the villages Villefranche Sur Mer and Beaulieu Sur Mer, both very nice little Frenchy towns with lots of yummy food and very easily accessed by WALKING! score!! car rental is completely optional as railway and buses are very easy to use and closer sights are within walking distance...30 minutes from the Nice airport, you can always head into the city if you want to take a break from relaxing and wanna get into some hustle and bustle of a larger city...bonus Nicoise cuisine! you're right here! i'm sure the most snooty foodie won't find much to complain.

the resort we're considering is the Royal Riviera, it's a 5 star boutique resort sandwiched right in between beaulieau and Cap Ferrat...

it boasts its own little private beach

heated pool

home away from home

and sharing a meal with your new hubberoo in one of the best restaurants Saint Jean Cap Ferrat has to offer accompanied by views of the mediterranean sea

sounds wonderful doesn't it? a true romantic european honeymoon if you ask me...but the downside to this is that in November its a bit on the cooler side.. 60s to be exact so we wont really be able to take advantage of the pool and beach...but sightseeing will be very comfortable...

another pro would be we can probably take 2 days and go to Corisca to visit where Chris' Meme (grandmother) is from and discover some of his heritage and maybe even see some relatives...

i'm totally loving this pick and it's evolving into my dream honeymoon :)

(note: booking a standard room at this hotel might not be ideal as reviews will tell you it is so tiny you can barely fit your luggage in and overlooks the railway tracks...better off booking a room with gardean and sea views)

honeymoons on the brain part 2.5

Last i left you off with the awesomeness that is Blancaneaux, here i'll show you what the sister property Turtle Inn would have to offer you.

while Blancaneaux is situated in the mountains and in the forest, Turtle Inn is built on a beach in the Caribbean! How's that for a paradise honeymoon eh?

to start your honeymoon in a place like this, who can say it's not paradise in your own little bungalow?

the chinese matrimonial suite is perfect for the most discerning honeymooner
and who can turn down a fancy shmancy japanese bathroom such as this

i really have to hand it to Mr Coppola for building these fantastic resorts...while i haven't been to either myself, the reviews i've read and judging by what i've seen, it's a pretty sweet trip to take with your new spouse if you want to be somewhere a little different. Belize has a lot to offer for everyone with different interests...you can relax , you can explore and you can play in the sun!

while there are all these pros and i clearly am in love with these locations, Chris and I ultimately decided that its a lot of travelling to be done for our shortish honeymoon and with the unpredictable caribbean weather in November, we didn't want to chance it...so we went back to the drawing board

Honeymoons on the brain part dos

yesterday i left you all off with why we chose and didn't end up going to Hawaii, where did we next consider you might ask...well we were heavily considering, wait for it..... BELIZE

it's a little off the beaten track...but it was one of those places that they recommend for honeymoon destinations if you google honeymoon november...whats great about Belize is that it is english speaking, not THAT far in the caribbean and very eco tourism friendly (this was what would've sold us)... upon further investigation though i realized that it's not that easy to get to the major resorts...you will have to either take a boat or plane to ambergis island or in our case a commuter flight to placencia or drive like 2 hours on some not so great roads...but let me show you the awesomeness that is Blancaneaux and Turtle Inn before you knock the travel
firstly they're both Francis Ford Coppola resorts... the man opened them!

Nestled in the forests and mountains of Belize you'll find the 5 star luxury resort known as Blancaneaux, feast your eyes on THIS paradise:

imagine your honeymoon dinner here
imagine your first nights and husband and wife in your own private forest cabana

frolic and play with your new husband in the pool
wake up to this spectacular view:
not enough privacy? how about your own plunge pool?

In Belize you'll be able to hike mountains, explore rain forests, mayan ruins, horeseback riding and canoeing...sounds pretty awesome for a little something different from your average tropical honeymoon right?

unfortuntely though, there was a recent beetle infestation and a lot of the forestation has been destroyed, i've read that it's started to grow back but who knows when it will return to its formal glorious self...but i'm sure one day chris and i will make our way to Blancaneaux...

oh and to make matters even easier, you can book a honeymoon package or adventure package where they will take care of EVERYTHING for you. arrange the travel from the belize city airport, to the private air strip, francis ford coppola champagne welcome, all meals will be taken care of and all excursions will be planned for you with guides, and of course arrangements to go home...what more can you ask for in a luxurious forest retreat?

but there is one big downside, for those that are very heat sensitive, there is no air conditioning on the properties...so you might wanna consider the season and location before you book...

stick around for what turtle inn has to offer, you won't wanna miss it, i promise

Honeymoons on the brain part one

with a little under three months left until the wedding, i'm shamed to admit we have not yet booked out honeymoon yet...but it's not for lack of trying though...there are just a couple of factors that have been digging us in the side that won't go away and because of we haven't booked anything yet...

firstly, we both want to take the honeymoon right after the wedding and not postpone it...we see eye to eye, great! one hurdle down...this means we have the option of flying out on monday wherever we decide to go.

Second, Chris is only allowed to take 5 working days off...now this is where it gets a little sucky..since our wedding is on sunday...we lose one weekend and means we can only go somewhere for 7 days including travel time...but not to be discouraged, 7 days is nothing to sneeze at...it's a week...we can do honeymoon in a week... so monday to sunday it is...this is non negotiable.

third hurdle is, we're getting married in november, which means 2 thinks, winter approaching in the northern hemisphere and hurricane season tapering off in the caribbean...uhh where does that leave us that we can go???

our first instinct was to think, oh this is easy, we'll just go to HAWAII! number 1 honeymoon destination in the world, beautiful weather all year round...and look i even had my dream hotel picked out! the Halekulani on Oahu!




this is also the home of the famed vera wang suite (pictured above) ...HELLO! perfect honeymoon resort right!?!?!

so chris and i were all set on this place and then disaster...we realize that we'd fly out on monday, won't land until monday night and would have to leave by saturday in order to be home before monday so chris can get to work.. that means we'd only be able to enjoy Hawaii for a whopping 4 full days?! o_O this can not be...all this money and all this time travelling and we only get to be there for 4 days?! i was crestfallen...this won't work...so we had to go back to the drawing board..

note: for a shortish honeymoon like 6 days i think Oahu would be really great... you can do hiking in diamond head, visit the dole plantation, see pearl harbor, go to a luau, lay out on the beach, play by the pool, snorkel, surf... SO MUCH TO DO and it would be a pretty good time me thinks..not to mention you probably won't have to worry too much about the food situation for picky eaters...Alas, Halekulani and we are not meant to be this time around... maybe a 1st anniversary trip would be still doable?

Camping 2009

This past weekend Christopher and I went camping, this is like an annual event where C's co-worker Chianelli will plan this rafting/camping trip up in warrensburg for a weekend and Chris ever the boyscout will inevitably sign us up...i'm a city girl through and through...so in order for Chris to get me to agree to continue going with him...we do out camping a bit more luxuriously...let me take you through luxury camping one oh one

firstly, you get a big tent, much bigger than is required for the two people that will share it... WE got a 6-8 person cottage tent for us, exhibit A
Next you want to make sure you have the best accomodations as you possibly can, this means air bed...

(source amazon.com)

trust me it won't matter if you got a root under the tent or WHATEVER, you won't feel a thing since you'll be elevated from the ground! we got a queen one... and then put 300+ thread count sheets on (don't use your ultra nice sheets because it will just get ruined in the woods) and voila, it's like a travel hotel in the sticks! not too shabby at all

This year we decided to add onto our little luxury camping accomodations by affixing a fan/latern to the ceiling of the tent, ala

(source: rei.com)

granted we didn't use this much because it was WAY colder than we thought it would be in august in NY, the ceiling light really did help when there wasn't a flashlight handy...just reach up and flip the switch and " ahhhhhh let there be light!" it's fabu, really! just take my word for it aight?

i have to say besides the "omg i freezed my arse off that first night" experience, everything else was pretty good, i wouldnt have known i was camping out...it's these portable comforts that make camping bearable for a non wilderness girl like me...so fear not ladies! if your man wants to go camping, by all means agree to go with him and outfit your abode away from home with a few extra "amentaties" :)

oh, it also helps when you go to a campsite with water spigots and electrical outlets, makes a world of difference...

come to think of it... did i really camp out? like for reals? maybe not...but i like to cheat myself and think i did... i mean i SMELLED like i did after the weekend was over and got the battlescars (mosquito bites) to prove it... i deserve a gold star!

here are some other photos from the weekend for those of you who are curious how we made out

view of inlet where we launched our canoe, nice isn't it?

on top of mt hackensack (portrait via auto timer on camera sitting on a rock, hence not that close and not centered, solly!)

hike up mt hackensack, i almost died.. ok maybe not but i had a wimpy moment, it was actually an easy hike i have to admit, less than an hour up and less than an hour down.

breakfast of camping champions! home fries over a campfire! i'm marrying a man who can cook! this is good news.

view of schroon river at 6am, look at that mist and reflection... isn't it romantic? it's like something out of a storybook

this is our campsite, fiance to the left, tent and car to the right, picnic table about dead center...the spigot and electrical box is right in front of the car haha

alright so i never said i REALLY REALLY roughed it... it wasn't too bad...until next year schroon river!

(we stayed at schroon river campsites in warrensburg new york, it's like a the foot of the adirondaks national park... you can google it for more info)

side story: we had to head to walmart after our ridiculously cold night, we underpacked on the linens and had to buy a sleeping bag, also my last night camping, some mosquitos decided to have open feast on my face and bit BOTH my eyelids... they swelled up and i looked like rocky balboa for like 2 days...not one of my better moments i gotta say...

Sweet Deal

So this saturday i go in to get measured for my chinese wedding dress...i am to be prepared with my shoes and i'd imagine that will be all until the first fitting about 6 weeks later...since november of last year i've been searching for a pair of nice strappy gold sandals that i will be able to rewear again and again after my big day... but alas 9 months later i was still empty handed...and with less than a week to my first "fitting" i was desperate... i went to macys and found the caparros fedora shoe :
they were like 70 bucks but i wasn't sure i wanted to spend that money on them, i mean they looked really good but something didn't feel right about them...

another consideration i had was the aldo glosson shoe:
it was very sexy, but at $80 bucks i thought i could do better... i actually already bought these but returned them...

so this monday i was on a mission, i was at marshalls, found nada
macys again...nada
5 shoe stores on 86th street brooklyn that sold every kind of dress shoe you can imagine and still nada...seriously i'm either really picky, or its just that hard to find a pair of simple golden shoes when you need them...like REALLY need them...last stop i made was at this place called American place and i found these puppies, nine west reedy:
so they're a little on the brighter gold side than a muted gold than i was looking for but, ultimately what sealed the deal was the price tag, get this eighteen freakin dollars, thats right $18!!!! yea i happily walked to the cashier with my shoes in tow and walked outta that place one happy bride...but it wasn't all without some suffering... at american place there was no rhyme or reason how the shoe department was organized...all the shoes were placed in stacks, mismatched boxes (like nine west shoes in a caparros box with the wrong size) AND they were not organized by size, style or price... yea...it was a miracle i found anything there, oh and not to mention there was no Air conditioning in that section of the store on one of the more humid NY days we've had yet...i was sweating bullets! (this took the place of a gym workout i kid you not)...but in the end it worked out, the shoe gods smiled upon me and blessed me with some reedy :)

squeee!

i had the best meeting with a florist tonight, now hopefully she won't charge me an arm and a leg and i think we've got a florist in the bag!!!