The World's Sexiest Resorts

When considering options for your honeymoon, what is most important? somewhere you can relax? adventure? someplace romantic? somewhere that means something to you both? oh the possibilities and the options that you can consider!

my MOH sent me a link a couple of weeks ago to concierge.com's list of sexiest resorts in the world and told me to consider one for my honeymoon and boy some of these are to DIE for! here are a few of my favs (this might not be totally work safe...so proceed with caution):

Intercontinental Resort Tahiti French Polynesia
http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/intercontinental/en/gb/locations/tahiti
shirtless bellboys in nothing but a loose sarong!!! need i say more?!??!??!!?! (ok on second thought maybe not such a great place for honeymoon, but definitely a 10 on the sexy scale in my book)

Aleenta Resort and Spa in Phuket
http://www.slh.com/thailand/phuket/phuale.html
elegant, secluded and EXOTIC! i'm reconsidering my original honeymoon plan because of this one!

Hotel Victor, Miami
http://www.hotelvictorsouthbeach.com/
This place is just HOT period...i'm thinking bachelorette party....

(all photos from concierge.com)

The Secret Life of MEEEEE

i've been debating a while whether i should write this or not...but since i have nothing really particularly interesting to add more to my blog this week i figure why the heck not...my not so much a secret, secret hobby is reading...and i mean i read a lot...and i read like a demon...in reality i want to say i spend all my money on ultra girly things like makeup shoes and handbags, but i actually blow more money at the local bookstore and or online bookstore than i do at any fashion place of shopping...how nerdy of me?!

gucci joy hobo in platinum i'm using today (isn't she cute?!?!?)

VS.

third book i'm reading this week and second to review (third chapter and it's okay...nothing great to write home to mom about yet)

FIGHT!

i wasn't ALWAYS this way i'll mind you, i majored in psychology and women's studies in college, always hated my english classes, majoring in english/literature didn't even cross my mind at this point, and then decided to go into fashion/apparel 2 years after graduation and got my certification at FIT to become a product development manager...only to discover that in reality, fashion probably isn't my passion...READING is (i probably should've picked up on the cue that i started reading the harry potter series during FINALS week and finished the three books that were out at the time within that time frame as well lol) ...i have to admit to myself though i never really envisioned a book worm to be ultra stylish... it's like an oxymoron! but here i am...girl into fashion that LOVES TO READ!

one day at work a few years ago i discovered a HUGE pile of books in the stairwell when i was taking out my rubbish bin! it was like WOAH discovering gold! anyways...i find out later that a literary agent shares the same floor as us so i introduced myself and told her if she ever needed me to review anything for her, i'd be more than happy to! and from then on, i've had a great reader reviewer relationship with my awesome agent friend betty anne...i love her! i love what she does! and above all i love getting books for freeeee! by reviewing books i've managed to save myself quite the pretty penny...i'll read anything from how to guides, fiction, non fiction, childrens stories, ANYTHING...but my guilty pleasure is reading romance, the more paranormal/fantastical the better...there is something about a happy ending that ALWAYS gets me...sometimes the hot sex scenes do it for me...but in reality its the fiction that draws me in... it's my escape from reality whenever i crack open a book...it's my happy place and it can be done anywhere, not to mention makes my commute a lot easier (brooklyn to midtown is sometimes brutal on the subway), it also helps that i feel special sometimes when i get to read something that hasn't been mass released yet AND the fact that my review counts towards something, i feel like i'm helping humanity get rid of crappy literature!

so there you have it, fashion girl by day (textile sourcing specialist) and nerd extroadinaire (book reviewer) by night! how many of you out there lead a double life? >:)

Where it ALLLLL Began

ok so lets take a stroll down memory lane...rewind almost 8 years ago to Oct 2001, it was my first ever sorority formal, and C was seated next to me as a guest of the organization...if you know me, you'll know i'll talk to anyone (crazies on the MTA not withstanding) about anything, so it was really no surprise i turned to C and introduced myself

Me: "hi, i'm jenny... whats your name?"
C: points to his place card in front of our faces!

okaaaay there...i totally made a fool of myself on that one! but moving along i introduce myself to one of his other frat brothers E (he is one of our groomsmen of course) and really didn't think much of it after that night...but E and I became fast friends, he's the dude i can tell and talk to about anything! he's like a big brother to me!

(E and I on one of his trips to NY, in his words we're "wierd and fobulous")

so as E and I's friendship got closer, i came into more and more contact with C, and my crush on this man just grew and grew along with some semblance of a friendship, i was starting to feel like a little tweener with a ginormous crush on a NKOTB member (ie - i would stalk him any chance i got, made easier because i was close friends with E)...anyway...the days go by and april has come as C and E were graduating from college, they were to select a date for their senior formal, and i find out C not only didn't think of asking me, he's already taking another girl...can we say heartbroken? i moped and moaned for like 3 days (MOH R would attest to this since she was my roommate)...until i couldn't handle it anymore, feeling miserable and like crap was not condusive to being a normal functioning productive human being ( i'm mellow dramatic i know...) so i picked up the phone and just point blank told him how i felt (forward of me, don't you think?) and after what felt like the most agonizing phone call i've ever had to make, we agreed that we should date, 7 years later we're still together

(a few months after C and I started dating, he took me to my formal as my date this time - us circa 2002)

(us circa 2008 and engaged to be married!)

i made the first move i guess you'd say but he did all the work after that :)
how did you and your significant other get together?

Who Doesn't Love a Sale?

i've always envisioned my wedding day "hair" look to be a simple updo/chignon and accessorized with a fresh flower, something like this:

(from theknot.com)

but after watching bridewars, anne hathaway's something blue was a little blue hair stick, it was so simple and understated, i just LOVE LOVE LOVED it...so i was starting to rethink my original plan...

today on my lunchbreak i was walking down 5th aveneue and all the little accessory stores near 37th street (there are like three in a row) and everyone of them were having a 50% off everything sale...and then i saw these!

dainty crystal blue butterflies! they were each on sale for $1.50, HUZZAH! so i bought 6 even though i have no intention of using them all, maybe 1 or 3 depending on how my hair trial goes...it never hurt to have a spare anything especially if they're THAT cheap right?!??!

since i got a hair and makeup trial scheduled with Sissi Chan this sunday, i plan on asking her to work her magic with two styles, one with a fresh flower and one with my little crystal hair sticks, i wonder which would end up the winner?

An Auspicious Day

What exactly does this mean? and how many of you are getting married on an auspicious day?

some 30 years ago, when my mom and dad were getting hitched, they saw a fortune teller in macau about an auspicious/lucky day to wed...he divined a day, but unfortunately for my then long distance relationship parents (my dad was residing here in the states and my mom in macau) the day was too far into the future for them (in reality it would've been a few months to a year probably) but they were in love and couldn't wait that long, despite the fortune teller's prediction that the marriage would only last half a lifetime if they chose not to follow the mandate and got married on a date that was "better" for them. my parents' marriage dissolved when i was 18.

so now that its my turn at this whole wedding/marriage thing, my mom was in no way going to let me shirk off an auspicious day out of convenience or any reason at all really to ensure that i will have a long and happy marriage...first we consulted the lunar calendar:
this sucker will tell you what day is good for what, i kid you not, my mom looks at one of these things everytime we go on vacation for an auspicious travel date, party date, anything you can think of my mom will go and look it up and find a good date with this trusty calendar she gets from an asian supermarket for FREE at the beginning of every year.

then mom consulted the chinese almanac:

(momma tse's chinese almanac)

(page after page of chinese information, none of which i can read and or understand lol)

(this baby can tell you about births, past, present and future, crop info? and some other crazy chinese voodoo stuff :))

after consulting a chinese almanac and coming up with a few dates we had in mind, momma tse armed with C and I's lunar birth info/ star chart (our birthdates from the lunar calendar) saw a fortune guy here in new york and totally bought into whatever he was selling, because this particular fortune guy was blind and handicapped so she felt that he MUST have a special gift, because in order to have these gifts one would of course have to sacrifice something and this man clearly sacrificed a lot of his physical capabilities in order to divine the future for others...(yea...stop smirking!)... so after about an hour of matching up my star chart and c's star chart, he came up with a sunday in november!

NOVEMBER!?!??!?!? i was crestfallen, i REALLY wanted a spring time April wedding, but momma tse was convinced that I HAD TO GET MARRIED on this particular day because we can't chance something this big...so ultimately the selection of my big day was at the mercy of a blind handicapped fortune teller (go ahead laugh)...BUT, we'll have a long , happy and PROSPEROUS marriage, this particular day is supposed to be lucky for our careers as well. so what more do i have to say to that? well HOT DAMN, we're getting hitched this november!

how did you arrive to the conclusion of what your wedding date would be?

Win a Free Honeymoon to Greece!

follow this link for a chance to win a free honeymoon to Greece from J Crew!!
http://jcrew.eprize.net/promotion2009/index.tbapp?page=intro

good luck!

money matters

a sensitive topic to most, i found myself confronted with this, big time this weekend...
As one of our many reception deposits were due, i took a gander at my budget spreadsheet...and boy was it a wakeup call...granted i KNEW full well how much we were going to spend, the hugeness of the amount didn't really hit me. for a lack of better words i had a "holy SH!T" moment...seriously it can serve as a pretty healthy down payment on a house somewhere (not applicable to nyc)

i was concerned whether we would still be able to save while we were beginning to empty out savings accounts, cds, mattress stash etc...i really had to ask myself if it was worth it...the practical part of me felt it wasn't. i mean its one frickin day! less than a 12 hour event will cost me a years salary! it's nuts! but after some more chatting with the fee-yon- say (the more money savvy one out of the two of us, which i have to begrudgingly admit i'm not perfect) i felt better about our choices and decisions...i felt calmer knowing that his aggressive savings plan for us is still in tact and untouched..how i love that man...

but for the curious minded, so far we're within budget still but at this rate i'm fairly certain we'll go over by the prodigal 10% most likely without including the wedding rings and honeymoon...with luck though we might be able to stay within if i can find more deals along the way as there are a number of vendors that we have yet to secure...

my weddings savings plan of attack is really just trying to find the best possible deal out there with the help of online research (ie: weddingbee, liweddings, theknot.com)...and to do as much DIY as humanly possible where i'm concerned (which, if you haven't figure out already is not much...)

whats your wedding savings plan of attack?