Williams Sonoma Moravian Cookies

During our trip to the Woodbury Commons Outlet I had to stop by Williams Sonoma and find a deal on something fabulous. This time the fabulous item happened to be food and specifically Heart-Shaped Moravian Chocolate Cookies. They are thin like a paper Valentine but much sweeter (as the box indicates). I found them in the clearance section, obviously leftover from Valentine's Day, but for $3 per box I couldn't pass them up and to boot they're delish! Even Nick thinks so!

The cookies taste like a chocolate cookie with a hint of gingerbread or something similar. Yum Yum Yum!

I was hoping to find something like a Calphalon or le Creuset on super clearance ... a girl can only hope. Food is always the next best thing.

Nick's Wedding Band - Take Two

As you may remember I previously posted about Nick finally ordering his ring and then us finding out that it was not doable by a local jeweler. Thankfully we were able to find a company that would make the exact ring Nick wants. See the ring below? It's made of tungsten and has a gold inlay. The fiance is quite particular and he wants with platinum inlay instead of the gold.The company is Tungsten World, and in Nick's many communications with them they seem very accommodating and have excellent return, resizing and ring destruction policies. We just ordered it last night and should have it in a week or so ... I'll let you know how it goes.

Posting Mania

I bet someone is asking, "What's with all the posts at once?"

As most of you know I started a new job at the beginning of February and I can honestly say that I love my job. The only problem is that my job tends to kick my ass. Last week was hell week - I had so many items due and so many people pulling me in different directions it was hard just getting a moment to breathe. I get into work around 8am and can't seem to get out the door before 6pm. When I think things have settled down for the day something comes up and I'm stuck trying to fix it. Anyhow the days pass quickly and the weeks too. I haven't yet determined if that's a good or a bad thing.

I finally had a moment to update the ol' blog and just kept on posting. I have some more post ideas and hopefully will be able to get to them in the coming week but it all depends on work.

Thanks and I hope you understand.

Check, check, check

Today was a day for post bridal shower and whirlwind tour of NYC recovery. To recover we went to Woodbury Commons Outlet in Harriman NY. Probably not the best idea of resting as we had to walk quite a bit from store to store.

Nick and were VERY wedding productive at the outlet today. I was able to finish shopping for my bridesmaids gifts and there was a super sale at the particular designer store I got the gifts from. Prices were so good I even got myself a little gift ... for being a bride. Haha, I know you don't buy that excuse. Since there are so many good stores at the outlet Nick decided he'd try and look for his linen shirt for the wedding and after a few stores we ended up in J. Crew and found THE shirt!

I think that's all we got that related to the wedding but heck I think we done good!

We Gotta Move

As I mentioned in my previous post, I had a bridal shower . Now that it's over I've got presents tucked around the house. I feel like I live at the Bed Bath & Beyond warehouse! Here are my largest nooks with shower gifts ...

the front foyer

the spare room

There are other gifts we've received that we're already using or tucked elsewhere in the house but now we're either going to have to store them at my FFIL's house or just get ourselves a house. We're planning to start house hunting after all the wedding stuff is over and hopefully we'll have something before Christmas. Wish us luck.

Quickie Tour of NYC

Pictured here is Katie and my FMIL Joan. Katie and her daughter, Hannah, flew all the way from Georgia to attend my bridal shower! (I know, I am still awed by their gesture). Anyhow, since Katie and Hannah flew 800 miles and wanted to see a bit of NYC we gave them a tour after the shower. Unfortunately we didn't have too much time since we didn't hit the road until about 4:30 or so. We had ten people in total in two cars for the driving tour.

The tour, led by Nick, took everyone from Central Park to Mid-town passing: St. Patrick's Cathedral, Rockefeller Center and Radio City. Then we drove down 7th through Times Square, past the Empire State Building and finally down to Battery Park where we hopped out and saw the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island in the distance. We finished the night off with dinner at Il Palazzo in Little Italy. As usual the food was fantastic and the company even better.

This morning, at 9am, Katie & Hannah hopped abroad a plane and flew back to Georgia. Hopefully we showed them a good time and we're hoping they'll be back in July and we can do a proper city tour.

The Bridal Shower

That's me in the middle, at my bridal shower that took place yesterday. To the left is my FMIL, Joan and on the right is Diane my bridesmaid and future-cousin-in-law. I think we're playing a game ...

Adele, a very good friend, hosted my shower at her beautiful Fifth Avenue apartment serving us fruit flavored champagne and some really delicious food. Diane, Joan and Mandy (MOH & FSIL) did such a great job with the favors, the games and just keeping track of everything for me.

Here are some photos from the shower ...

the foodthe drinksMoneique, Me, Courtney & Olga

Thank you to everyone for coming to my shower, I am so flattered that anyone came. Thank you to Joan, Mandy and Diane for bring the fun. Thank you to Adele for opening your home to me and my guests.

My dress is away from home

After much talk and no action about having my dress hemmed I finally took it to the seamstress. My FMIL has been kindly reminding me and asking me to take the dress to be hemmed because we were slowing closing in on the wedding date and she was getting nervous about it. So I gave in and took my dress to the seamstress recommended by the Short Hills Nicole Miller boutique (before it moved to Livingston) - Anna's Designs.

Ana is going to hem my wedding dress, leaving the train and adding a button so that I can bustle it in the back. It's very mini bustle and so cute with the dress. At first I wanted a loop but it makes the dress look a little funny from one side and it hinders my movement on the opposite side I loop it around my wrist so the bustle was the way to go.

Upon arriving at Anna's Designs this is the sign on the door ...
Nick and I both agree that the sign is pretty darn accurate. Ana herself is the sweetest lady I've ever met. She was so professional and so patient while I was flip flopping between bustle or loop, bustle and loop, shoe me the bustle, show me the loop and finally a decision.

Ana actually charged me with a task ... I must find a bra or some semblance of a bra for my dress as I'm not a voluptuous Asian girl that properly fills out my dress top. So on March 31st at 1pm I need to bring my bra choice with me to see the proper fit of the dress. I will have to pay a visit to Victoria's Secret and maybe Nordstrom's to get the appropriate items. Wish me luck cause I've been putting the bra off too.

What to blog about???

There’s plenty of wedding stuff to blog about but some things just aren’t ripe enough to discuss. For example, today we’ve got quite a few wedding related things to do:

• I’m going to FINALLY take my wedding dress to get hemmed (I’ve been putting it off and the FMIL finally convinced time was a-wasting);
• we’re going to put the deposit down for the restaurant we’re having the reception at and work out some menu details; and
• my mom will measure me for a Chinese dress, qi pao, that my dad’s family is giving to me as a gift.

As you can plainly see we have lots of stuff to do but there’s only a plan and no result just yet.

On another note, when will the weather warm up? My shower is about 2 weeks away and I just got this gauzy dress from Banana Republic and want to wear it without freezing my behind off. Can a girl get a 60 degree day for her shower? To redeem myself for being a little selfish about the weather … I have good friends coming in from Georgia for my shower (and NYC shopping & site-seeing) but I’d like for the weather to be nice for them too.

Save-the-date DIY

As I mentioned in the Quickie Update post – I’ve been working on save-the-date DIY. It’s a terribly simple project but like any project there’s some level of coordination involved.

My supplies.

I’m starting off with a 5.5” by 4.25” piece of red card stock I bought at AC Moore (it was a full 8.5 x 11” sheet until I quartered it). Then I’m printing, with my Canon i850 printer, “Double Happiness” on one side and on the other “For now, a little something for your fridge…” and “Invitation to follow.” On the side that says “Double Happiness” I am using my double happiness stamp from Paper Source to stamp (using Versamark watercolor) the Chinese character above the words and then heat embossing it in gold.

Then on the other side, between the two phrases, I’ve adhered (using glue dots) a save-the-date magnet.

Ta da … the finished product, both sides.

I made some MAJOR progress tonight. I've finished making all 100 save-the-dates! The last save-the-date project item are the cards/inserts that will have hotel and other travel information for guests from out of state and those more than 1 hour from East Brunswick NJ.

Quickie Wedding Update

I can't believe it's been an entire week since I last blogged! My new job has at least 10 hours of my day taken up and then I barely have enough time to do wedding stuff, go to the gym, eat dinner, do house chores ... or whatever else usually fills my time.

Surprisingly I have a couple minutes before I have to head off to bed so let's go straight to the update ...

• Nick's wedding band - ended up being a no-can-do by the local jeweler. Apparently tungsten and platinum is a royal p.i.t.a to create in general and those that will do it charge an arm and a leg.
  
• Got our save-the-date magnets back from Vista Print and they are AWESOME!!! I am really pleased with the quality. I started some wedding D.I.Y. with the save-the-date mailings ... hopefully they'll be done by the weekend and in the mail.
• Went into Chinatown and checked out some wedding invitations for the Chinese reception. I have to say that most Chinese wedding invitations are terribly gaudy and there wasn't anything I was wowed over. There were two very similar designs that go with the double happiness "theme" I'm trying to stay with and are gaudy but are way better than having gold foiled creepy little Chinese children playing with a foiled dragon and phoenix.