Things that are awesome - lazy Tuesday edition

It's a slow day. And I've perused the internets for home decor and holiday shopping inspiration. Enjoy.

Amanyara, the bananas amazing resort that we visited on our honeymoon, for dinner and drinks with our honeymoon friends, the amazingly Southern-preppy-cute Martha and Luke. Check out the picture tour. Love the clean lines and amazing scale of the architechure.

My parents were awesome. Love this idea.

I had a dream with a piano and found this post the next day!!!

What to do with my huge seashell collection? Spray paint!

Menswear inspired goodies from J. Crew:

how fun is this lighting?

Happy Thanksgiving!

And I----e----I will always love you

As much as I love love love my wedding dress to somewhat unhealthy levels, I have decided to put it up for sale. Sigh. I am a bit sad, but perhaps my lovely dress can be worn and enjoyed by another lucky lady. It feels v strange to turn so quickly from obsessing and loving to slapping on a price tag and hoping for someone to take it away. But, it's for the best. Do it quickly, like a band aid.

For those pondering whether to sell, here are my top reasons in favor:

1. It's like recycling. Recycling is so hot right now :)

2. Wedding dresses take up a lot of space. I need this space for my clothes/shoe/handbag habit

3. As awesome of a dress as it is, I will never wear it again. And neither will my hypothetical future child, who would need the dress approximately 30 years from now. Let's review fashionable wedding dresses from 30 years ago:

Exactly.
4. Plus, let's be real, I can think of a lot of things I will do with the $$. Like buy expensive wii bundles, or unrealistically tall cole haan boots. Or both.

It's a tough decision, but I think I will be glad. I'll just hang a 4 foot picture of me in the dress in the entryway. just kidding.

ps - shameless plug. i will be posting the dress on weddingbee and ebay very soon. if you know any brides who are interested, let me know!

Mrs.

First post as a married lady! Still getting used to the name change--for now I will answer to any variation of my names. Long pause when I left a voice message for our office IT guy today: Um, this is Emily Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Um.....
I don't really know how to begin to express my gratitude, but I must make an attempt to tell everyone how thankful A and I are. We were absolutely OVERWHELMED with all of the love and support during the week of the wedding. We really couldn't have pulled it together without the help of so many friends and family (most of all, mom, of course). The ceremony and reception were beautiful. Flowers by mom = awesome. And thanks to my lovely wedding party for braving the cold for our photoshoot and for helping me keep it together during the emotional parts :)
I've said it before and I'll say it again--our wedding photographer, Kristen Overbay, is amazing! Love her style and so fun/easy to work with. The website is overbayphotography.net, and you can view two wedding sneak peeks and the bridal sessions on the blog now. Uh-mazing. Unbeknownst to Kristen, I have a long history of obsession with collages. Picture a 10 year old me, on my bedroom floor with old copies of Vogue magazine, diligently cutting and pasting away. So, you can imagine my delight with this lovely sneak peek collage that she put together for us, while we wait. A's response--"That is our wedding??? Cool."
Will try to update the blog with wedding/honeymoon recaps (and photos, when available) over the next few weeks. Then, I believe it's time for a blog makeover. Blog 2.0. Given that my friends and family have incredibly awesome taste, I am going to post some photos of our new home and suggest options for home renovations (comments/suggestions welcome!). A and I have purchased a 1965 brick home--3 bedrooms, 2 baths. Given the somewhat questionable taste of the previous owners (um, floor to ceiling mirrors in the living room, really???), we have a lot of work ahead of us. And who doesn't love a good before and after?

Calm before the storm (make that non-storm, please!)

At the start of this journey, I wasn't quite sure I could pull off the wedding of my taffeta-and-lace dreams with a less-than-six-month engagement. But, the people I trust and love the most promised me it could be done. I am a planner, so this was a hard-sell. Less than a week away from the wedding, I think I can say we've done a fab job. We're the bomb.com. We've (and I strongly emphasize the we, since I could never have done this by myself without going a bit crazy) organized what I hope will be a beautiful wedding with lots of meaningful details, with the help of many of our family and friends.
In hindsight (if it's not too soon to see from the hind), I'd definitely recommend a short (6-month) engagement, especially if you have amazing helpers (like my mom). My only regret was that my mom didn't get to participate in the dress shopping, due to our time concerns for ordering the dress. She was able to consult via emailed photos (what did people do before the invention of digital photos and email???), but it wasn't exactly the same experience. Kind of like swimsuit shopping online--you have to see the look up-close and under warm dressing room lights to get the full effect (although wedding dress shopping is infinitely less depressing than swimsuit shopping, I think you'd agree). Side note: skinny mirrors are genius and should exist in all dressing rooms.
But, it worked out with the dress, and the short engagement has many perks, the primary one being a shortened period to rethink (and second guess) your wedding ideas. I went with my gut and we knocked out most of the major details in the first two months.
The timing of everything in the past few weeks has been hectic (understatement), but I'm feeling calm. I'm writing now from the dining room table in our packed-up apartment. We've packed for the movers--to haul our belongings to the house we just bought--and we're also all packed up for the honeymoon. When we get back, we'll have a new chapter to start, a new (to us) house for our new (married) life. I can't wait.

Gorg.eous

How lovely and elegant is this?

Source

Am loving Katie Holmes with this 'do. Retro and pretty.

My hair trial will be next weekend (in Kingsport) and I'm pulling some inspiration photos for the hair stylist. Here are some of my faves:

Images above from theknot.com and weddingbee.com

Will probably go for a simple high bun, with the veil over the top of the bun (not underneath). No hair flowers, but pretty sure I will wear a non-tiara-y sparkly headband. I hope the hair guy can make my hair look bigger and thicker than it is!

The dress has arrived!

It's been several months since I found THE DRESS. The sample I tried on was quite a bit different that the order I placed--I wanted a lighter color, longer hem and waaay longer train. A girl needs a train on her wedding day. (The purpose of this silly extra swath of fabric? I'm not sure--but it looks awesome and dramatic, right?)

So, I was dying to see my dress in person after having tried to picture it in my mind hundreds of times. THE DRESS was supposed to be delivered to the store "around the week of September 24th" (ug, vagueness with details of this importance? seriously?). I called Houston Bridal & Formal on Thursday of this week, since I figured I had tested my patience enough. And as luck would have it, it had arrived that day! Me and the dress have a special connection that way ;)

They told me to hold off till Saturday to come in for a visit, since they were 'checking it over' (which doesn't reassure, but whatev). So, I came in at the dot of three, which is the earliest they take walk-ins on weekends.

Friends--it is even more beautiful and stunning than I imagined! The bridal consulant ladies had to watch me ooh and ahh for about five minutes as I inspected it from every angle. Color: the perfect creamy ivory, length: perfect, train: superfantastic! I even got a little teary eyed. And then I changed back in to my regular-girl clothes and grudgingly left without it so that they can steam and press it before I pick it up at the end of the month. Elation and sigh of relief and excitement to wear it on the big day!!!

I did discover that I will need some help in the bust area for some filling-out-itude. Hitting Victoria's Secret today to look for something that I'm not sure exists: strapless, padded, ivory, low-back (ish), push-up bra (but not too too cleavage inducing, which isn't really possible for me anyhow). Wish me luck.

As if that weren't enough of me being ridiculously happy for the day--I also found my perfect rehearsal dinner dress, after many hours of online shopping over the past few weeks (slash stalking of bananarepublic.com and jcrew.com for sales). I found it at Saks of all places (I do not shop at a Saks usually unless it is associated with some mega outlet discounts). Here is a sneak peak of the detail of the dress. And the back is super special and different! I will save the full reveal for later :)

Drumroll please...

After much deliberation and procrastination, we have decided to spend our honeymoon at the Turks & Caicos islands (!!!!). This was one of the lingering 'to dos' that was sorta stressing me out so I am thrilled that we've booked it and more thrilled about the destination! T&C is an ideal vacay destination for me (beautiful beaches and hot temps!) and A (fishing, diving, water-related activities!). There will be some relaxing by the beach and also some scheduled excursions for mr. cant-sit-still (this would def be A's Indian name--mine would be lays-by-pool).
In case you need a geography refresher (I did) T&C is a group of 8 major islands and 30 other islands and cays. It's nestled northeast of the Dominican Republic and just east of the Bahaman islands. Technically, it's not in the Caribbean, but is an Atlantic Ocean island. T&C gets gold stars from a fancy magazine I can't remember the name of (as a top beach destination) and the diving is supposed to be some of the best in the world.

It's not crazy touristy, which A likes about it, and the crime and poverty rates are extremely low. The blue of the water is insanely neon:

source

I've been so excited for the wedding that I haven't had a chance to start getting excited for the honeymoon--but now that we have plane tickets and hotel reservations it's starting to feel more real! Am hoping that A will be exhausted from all of the wedding activities and will lay with me by the beach for a day or two :) Maybe we can even whip up some margaritas and guacamole...