you + mii = wii

check out these cake toppers. they are so awesome that we might just have to get one.

we're going to aruba!

that's right! our honeymoon destination is now decided, and the hotel is booked! woohoo!

we are going to be staying 8 days, 7 nights at the bucuti beach resort, aruba's most romantic getaway according to some including tripadvisor.com. it's located on eagle beach, so it's blissfully quiet and uncrowded. did i mention bringing kids is highly discouraged? i am SO excited!





and our room...


:D

there will be food!

yes, that's right. you will now officially be eating at our wedding!

we met with tina yesterday at the flying monkey, and she's fabulous. she bought at lunch at her cantina; it was so good! i think she's going to be super easy to work with. she's going to pull together some sample menus for us to look at & decide what we like best. the food we talked about sounded really delicious. all her food is organic, local, and fresh. we're super excited!

so, i'll leave you with this...one item she mentioned making for the desert table....chocolate covered strawberries injected with champagne...yum!

yay for food!

the boys' attire

our current idea for the boys is suits. danny would really like to have a nice suit to have, so my idea-searching onthe internet has been focused on suits, not tuxes. we haven't quite figured out what the other boys will do - rent vs. buy. it really depends on the price of the suit we find, i suppose, which won't be too much (we like a good deal (can also be read: we don't have a lot of money)). jen found her husband's wedding-day suite at the banana republic outlet for a really good price, so we might be making a trip. i'd love to buy the suit for all of them...that's probably a bit unrealistic but maybe we can help.

suit - so, based on the pictures i've noted, i seem to be liking brown suits. but i don't like plain brown. i prefer it to be pinstripe. danny has recently said that he'd like his suit to match his car which is a kind of gunmetal grey. i think he was joking, but that could be a pretty awesome color for a suit. an almost blue/grey.

(from mrs. onion on weddingbee.com)

(from theknot.com & banana republic)

tie - i've pretty much decided on an orange tie. danny loves the one on the left. an idea i had the other day was that the other boys could have a tie that matches the girls' dresses & danny would have an orange one. or, they could all be orange & danny's would just be slightly different.


(from theknot.com)

shoes - we were watching a wedding show the other night (really, i should say i was watching...danny just happened to be in the room), and the groom wanted to wear white converse as party of his wedding day outfit. his bride-to-be had a fit and told him he wasn't allowed to wear tennis shoes. danny turned to me and asked how i would react in that situation, probably expecting me to veto it right on the spot, but actually, i like it. a suit with some cool vans or something. besides, why shouldn't guys get to get a pair of shoes that they'll wear again like the girls? here's an example (i don't particularly like the brown color on these, but you get the idea). also, i do still reserve the right to change my mind. ;)


(from theknot.com)

sparkle sparkle

after our time spent in jewelry stores, i became obsessed with wedding jewelry. what's makes this funnier is that i haven't even seen a dress on me. but oh well, it's still fun to look. i don't know what my jewelry ensemble will entail...big earrings, no necklace? small earrings, big necklace? big earrings, small neckalce? bracelet? diamonds (or things that look like diamonds)? pearls (or things that look like pearls? neither? oh, the choices!







(i'm sorry i can't remember where these pictures came from...i will try to figure it out & update)

warmth

we started looking at honeymoon destinations, and it's killing me b/c i want to go NOW. i don't even know where we're going, but i'm ready to go. i was ready to before we started looking at places & now that i'm seeing pictures, it's really killing me. so i thought i'd share that pain with you. :)

i want to go soak up the sun in some warm place and do absolutely nothing for a week. those are my only real requirements although i'd prefer it to be quiet with no kids running around. i'd love to feel like we're the only people in the world.

one thing that might be an issue is that we'll be honeymooning in september which is hurricane season...so we started our search bylooking at places to the west. the first place i started looking was cabo...

possibility: cabo san lucas, mexico

these are pictures from a resort we are considering.



these are pictures of a little b&b that has the highest popularity rating for hotels in cabo on tripadvisor.com. it's called the bungalows.



i haven't really fallen in love with any of the places i've seen in cabo though...so although the pictures do succeed in making me sad to be at work, i don't think it's the place for us.

other thoughts: somewhere else in mexico, hawaii, jamaica, fiji
other suggestions: anguilla, aruba, puerto rico, caribbean somewhere

any ideas?

shiny things

we didn't meet with a caterer, but we did check something off our wedding to-do list - wedding bands! i, of course, was very difficult. i think i tried on every possible ring at multiple jewelry stores & even then i couldn't decide. in contrast, we fell in love with the first ring danny tried on. it's beautiful. he's very upset that he can't wear it now. here it is (the bottom two pictures have my hand):

we found it at reeds. they were so nice. they cleaned my engagement ring, so i had to get at least one picture of it being so sparklely.

we did get my wedding band too, but i don't have it to play with. the ring we picked out is a very thin eternity band, so it couldn't be resized. they had to order a new one in the correct size. it's just about a perfect match to the band of my engagement ring. the only difference is that the band doesn't have a milgrain edge like my ring (danny says you can't tell a difference), but the jeweler said that he can probably add it by hand when they ring comes in. it looks like this ring from ritani:



yay for shiny things! very exciting!

no tina's today

the cantina isn't going to be open today. tina's been sick and it's too cold outside (currently 36), so, we're going to meet with her sometime next week. either during the week or next weekend. but i think we might go look at wedding bands today instead, so that's fun. :D

crippling cardio

in preparation for our upcoming nuptials, danny and i joined a gym. we usually go & either do weights or the ellipitical, but this week, i decided to give the different classes the gym offers a shot.

monday was pilates which i enjoyed. it was just a beginners class b/c most of us were new. i like how you don't feel like you're working too terribly hard but when you get home you can definitely tell that you did something good for body. and it didn't involve sweating which was nice.

tuesday's class was called cardio combo. i had no idea what to expect what this meant besides the obvious - cardio. i walked in and the class was going full force & did not stop for an hour. seriously, no stopping. this class definitely involved sweating. i really pushed myself and felt good that i didn't go easy on myself. the only problem...today i am dying! i feel like my muscles are all scrunched up. i need to spend the rest of the day stretching. i am honestly walking funny. i don't know what i'd do if my daily routine required stairs...i don't think i could do it. i'm having enough trouble getting up out of chair.

so, tonight's class is zumba which i'm told is like a dance class, but i'm pretty sure i will be skipping the gym tonight. instead, i'll be working on walking correctly. hopefully, i'll be feel stretched out enough to make the muscle pump class thursday...it's taught by the same lady who did the cardio class...might be walking funny again on friday...

bridal fair #1278

at least that's what it feels like...in actuality is only (only) the 3rd one. danny's mom came with me to this one.

this one was pretty massive. much bigger than last week's at the round house. couple annoying things right off the bat...#1, to register, i had to fill out a card that asked for just about everything except my ssn. annoying. #2, in order to register for their big prize, you had to take a card & get it stamped by every vendor participating. annoying.

there were lots of photographers (already booked), lots of wending venues (already booked), wedding dresses (done), registry places (already started), videographers (not planning on having one), mortgage companies (already have one), and limos (not going to have one). there was only one florist there. does this seem odd to anyone else? shouldn't a bridal fair be packed with florists?

but there was some good stuff. i found out the names of a couple places that do make-up and hair. i tasted cake from ellen's creative cakes & from pulix. the pulix cake was okay...i think it could have used a filling or something. ellen's cake was good. got a few cards from some caterers. i put my name in for some prizes...no one has called me yet...boo.

tina's cantina

tina just sent me some sample menus. we're going to meet with her next week. everything sounds very yummy. things like...

cranberry-apricot pork roast with wild rice & mushrooms
oven-roasted stuffed chicken breast with rice dressing
baked ham with black cherries & sweet potatoes with apples
mango chipolte shrimp cups
mushroom caps stuffed with pepperjack and polenta
beef kabobs
garlic-herb meatballs
roasted pork with a fuit reduction sauce
spicy creamcheese pinwheels

mmmm......

ketubah me

someone asked us this week if we were having a jewish wedding. no, we said. we both have jewish fathers and family, but we're not technically jewish. then i started to realize that i keep adding jewish traditions to our wedding...

the first was the breaking of the glass. i have always wanted this to be part of my wedding. it was part of my brother's and my sister's, and something i've always thought was a given.

when we decided that we wanted to get married outside, we decided to have a chuppah. a chuppah is basically a piece of cloth held up by four poles. during a jewish wedding ceremony, the bride and groom stand under the chuppah & it is the place where the major parts of the ceremony take place. i love their simplicity, and there is something very natural about them.

the next thing that happened was a ketubah. the ketubah is a marriage contract that explains the basic material, conjugal and moral responsbilities of the husband to his wife. it's real purpose traditionally is to protect the wife in case she is divorced or widowed, so really, it's a jewish pre-nup. i hadn't really thought about having one; in fact, i'd pretty much forgotten the word until i read a post by a jewish bride discussing choosing one for her wedding. my aunt jeannie has a beautiful ketubah that i always loved to look at when i was younger. i didn't realize how many different options there are in terms of wording and appearance. they are works of art.







they're beautiful, and i love what they represent. a signed commitment to each other. so i'll be adding another jewish tradition to my non-jewish wedding. a ketubah. now, we just have to pick one...

for all you video game geeks out there

from miss hummingbird who is a self-proclaimed geek...

a wedding cake


& place settings

e-std

no, not that kind of std...electronic save the date cards. b/c the majority of our guests are coming from out of town, we decided it would be a good idea to do save-the-dates to make sure everyone has the date and can start looking at plane tickets, hotels, etc. one possibility we're thinking about is sending them electronically. there are a few reasons why:

1. saves us money (b/c it's free!)
2. saves some time...no printing, folding, trips to the post office
3. it's a way to ask ppl for their current addresses
4. less paper =better for the planet
   

here is an example of one done by miss daffodil on the weddingbee.com.



this bride made a postcard version to send to those who did not have an email address. i'm wondering if we even have enough email addresses to make it worth it. if we do something with a picture, we're going to have to wait a bit b/c danny and i don't have any pictures yet. we're going to do engagement pictures, but we haven't scheduled them yet.

hmm...i just don't know yet.

mmm....cake...

here are a few cakes i like (all from theknot.com):





this is actually from publix. i was surprised b/c you don't really think of publix as a wedding cake baker, do ya? got ballpark quote from them. i also heard back from lucy, the cake lady. her estimate was actually pretty close to publix. she's getting back to me with her availability and then we might set up an appointment with her to get a more exact estimate.



i think this one is my favorite. :) and below is a cake for danny...