Honeymooners!!!

I know it's early (but not too early) but Kyle and I have been deeply immersed in honeymoon talks pretty much every time we need a playful diversion. And we made a kind of breakthrough over the past couple of days, so I wanted to bring it up!

As I mentioned, we were originally gung-ho about getting married at the Grand Hyatt in Kauai, Hawaii.

 

As I was in talks with my friend Julie before her wedding last summer, I picked up one of her wedding magazines and discovered this place and fell in love. Kyle was the one who was originally skeptical, but he ended up being the most flabbergasted when I said we were no longer getting married in Hawaii.

My mother is of course right, very few family members would have been able to come. And we would have felt their absence acutely. I originally thought it would be worth it because they do everything for you which forces you not to stress. Furthermore, the honeymoon was a given, at the same resort (which is not all-inclusive, but still has everything you need).

Waterfalls, an open-air spa, lagoons, four restaurants. I could go on. But I won't. We were pretty much certain that even though we were no longer getting married in Kauai, we would still honeymoon there; neither of us have ever been, and, hello! it's Hawaii!

The Na'Pali coast, north shore of Kauai.



And Kauai has the most breathtaking waterfalls.

So our decision seemed an easy one.


For some reason though, I started having misgivings. It might have had something to do with Couples Retreat, which was a pretty abysmal movie, but it took place in Bora Bora...

I mean come on! The gorgeous crystal clear water, the little huts over that gorgeous crystal clear water!






Your own private little hut over that gorgeous crystal clear water!!!

You can even get your own private poolside cabana!

Kyle and I value our privacy, as we found out when we took on a roommate and have felt our privacy violated ever since. I do not really want to see ANYONE else during my honeymoon unless I choose to.



So with this idea taking root in my head, I approached Kyle. We looked up our options... then we started looking at prices... and airfare...







Here's a breakdown of expenses for Kauai (for two):
For a seven day honeymoon (I don't think that's too much to ask, it is a honeymoon, might as well make it feel like a vacation!)

• Hotel: $3,850
• Food: (roughly) $1,470
• Airfare: $1,886
• Flight: 13 hours, with stop, but we could use miles here
• TOTAL: $7,206

And that includes nothing extra. We wake up, we eat, we lounge by the pool, we eat, we lounge, we eat some more, and then we go to bed. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't plan on doing much during my honeymoon... But at this price, we couldn't if we wanted to. And 13 hours on a plane or in airports waiting for our connection when I just want to get onto a beach? Not ideal.

How about The Four Seasons Bora Bora (for two):

• Hotel: $6,519
• Food: (roughly) $2,800
• Airfare: $2,834
• Flight: 19 hours, with two stops, and we can't use miles
• TOTAL: $12,153

And of course, this includes nothing extra BUT this is more of an exclusive resort that I would not feel the need to get away from as we wouldn't have to worry about noise of other guests nor would we have to worry about kids, because the Grand Hyatt has no problem with kids, but the Four Seasons Bora Bora I don't think allows kids... not 100% sure on that one, but even if they do, you don't have any neighbors! No thin walls or ceilings between you! This to me would be worth some extra expense, but not $5,000. $7,000 is too much too, and I don't think it would be just that, because I picked the 2nd most modest room they had, and for my honeymoon, I don't really feel like being modest. Sorry.

Anywhoo, it appeared as if we were stymied. Either we would foot a huge bill for Hawaii and feel guilty about it later, or not have a honeymoon (or have a much shorter one) and feel guilty about it later!

Thank goodness I saw a special on TV about bioluminescent bays in Puerto Rico.

 

Being a scientist, I thought it was just really cool by itself:

because this little guy is why the bay bioluminesces!

But upon further investigation, I realized it was in a really nice area of Puerto Rico. I started looking up the area and found the El Conquistador Resort about half an hour from where the bioluminescent bays are!

This place isn't particularly special, but it's got great views and cliffs and it's a Waldorf Astoria hotel, and has great rooms with great views:

Moreover, it's better-priced than anything else we'd looked at yet.

Puerto Rico for two for seven days:

• Hotel: $2,679 (this includes taxes, which I forgot to add for the other two, and I'm not going back now)
• Food: (roughly) $1260
• Airfare: $730
• Flight: 4 hours, NO stops
• TOTAL: $4,669

Now that is much better! I can swallow that.

I was still a little hesitant though, because this place is more family friendly and once again, we were looking at a hotel- a nice hotel- but a hotel nonetheless where you have neighbors on all sides of you separated by thin walls and all connected to hallways. I started to think it was going to be impossible to find exactly what I wanted without paying a down payment on a house for it.

Well, once again, thank goodness for wedding blogs!! Usually they just have cute little ideas that make me say "Awww, that would would be sweet." but this one made me jump out of my seat! This one may actually change my whole life!! That may be a bit dramatic, but, not by much!

I would like to introduce you to Oxygen Jungle Villas!

Fantastic, yeah? Private villas, modern architecture and furniture. GLASS WALLS!! Yes, you read correctly, the walls are all glass. There are curtains though... no biggee.

There's a king-sized four poster with mosquito netting...

A spectacular front porch area that as far as I'm concerned, might be the farthest I venture out of the villa...

Super modern bathroom, but with normal privacy considering the rest of the structure has all GLASS WALLS!!!

I would venture out of my room for this infinity pool though with that view!

This is the beach in Uvita, the town in Costa Rica where Oxygen is located. Have I not mentioned it was in Costa Rica? It is, in fact, in Costa Rica.

This is the whale's tale, the little lagoon-type structure that protects the beach on either side, and it looks cool. Oh, and this is a view from Oxygen Jungle Villas!


It also has its own jungle reserve:

with waterfalls and swimming holes and howler monkeys and toucans!!!

Kyle's only worry was security and safety of the area, but a friend of mine studied abroad in Costa Rica and told me she had a spectacular time and felt completely safe the whole time. And let me note that this chick is self-proclaimed "sheltered" and too friendly for her own good. So if no one managed to take advantage of her, I'm pretty sure no one's going to be able to put the wool over both mine and Kyle's eyes.

My only worry was and kind of still is getting there. It's half an hour away from the nearest airport, and the Oxygen website tells you to rent a 4X4 vehicle... Whhyyyy????

It's because of this!!

Apparently there is some rocky terrain... That makes me a little nervous, not because Kyle can't drive, because he can, he's a very good driver. But in a foreign country, on our honeymoon, I'd really rather not fall off a cliff into the jungle... That's just me.

Anyway, I e-mailed them to ask if you could take a taxi and hopefully that will resolve itself. Other than that, you wanna' know the best incentive for Oxygen Jungle Villas???

The PRICE!! Here's the breakdown for Costa Rica for 7 nights for two:

• Hotel: $1,260
• Food: (roughly) $800
• Airfare: $1,548
• Flight: 8 hours, with two stops, and of course one bumpy ride
• TOTAL: $3,608

Of course there's the matter of the trek to get there not being as pleasant as Puerto Rico, but it's still a better trek than Hawaii and only one time zone change!

Kyle and I talked last night and decided that saving money for a house and a family is a better idea that going broke on a one week splurge. For about $4,000, we'll be able to have our own private villa in a NO CHILDREN resort, a restaurant, bar, pool, and spa. We'll wake up to natural sunlight and bird-song. We'll get served breakfast at our villa and champagne poolside. OH, I forgot to mention the place also only has 12 villas! So only 24 people can be at the resort at one time... compared to hundreds everywhere else! Why are we even still debating??

Does anyone have any misgivings that I haven't thought of?

Quick modification and addition

Quickly quickly!!!

I "fixed" the invites/StDs by finding a better color for the names!! I found a really nice burgundy. Here's an StD for your viewing pleasure:

 I also did a better compilation of the trifold:

Loads better, yeah?!

Last but not least, we have a DJ!!!

I forgot to mention earlier!!

Our friend Nick (I was just in Julie's and his wedding this past summer) is a DJ and he DJs weddings, and we had been putting off this decision because how do you judge one DJ from the next unless you go see every single one... I'm not doing that. We've seen/heard Nick DJ. He's great, for what we want, which is literally just music.

Yay!! One more thing off the list!!!

Gotta' go do laundry!

Blow the dust off the blog

I know I know. I've been a very bad blogger.

Kyle and I had a very very busy Christmas and New Years: we went from my maternal grandparents to his maternal grandparents to his paternal grandparents to my paternal grandparents! In two days!! All in all, it culminated in 10 hours in the car!

We didn't even get presents for each other because of Rome and Long Island being sort of Christmas and birthday presents for/from both of us. We've spent quite enough money thank you and we'll be spending even more in preparation for this lovely wedding.

We spent a scant few days at home and then headed to our best friends' house in Pasadena, MD (2 more hours in the car!) in order to help Mia with her invitations and Dan with his basement (Kyle helped with the invitations and I hang drywall... do you believe that? No, scratch that, reverse it).

Mia's invitations came out sooooo spectacularly, especially considering she printed them at home and enlisted the help of friends and family to help her cut them out and put them all together. I didn't take any pictures... I'm upset with myself, it didn't occur to me... Well, anyway, somewhere in there I had some time to fiddle with what our invitations are going to look like!

This is the original template just typed up in a word document:

Chocolate brown, all caps for the formal text and a really fun yet rustic font I found online, for freeeeee. That little symbol in between the date info and the "Reception to follow" is just a squiggly, it's a way of saying 'pause for cool symbol.'

When I printed this onto my cool German paper, the sort of forest green color came out kinda' dark puke yellow... graphic enough? Well, it was just not quite what I had in mind, so I decided to scrap any sort of green in favor of keeping my original color scheme:

The only issue I take with this scanned in image of the color scheme is that the burgundy should have a bit more purple tone in it, not too much, but, just go with the flow. Yeah, also, who names a color Bagdad Brown???

So, I attempted to trace over the cool font with a burgundy (more purple) colored pencil, sharpened really really sharp, and it didn't turn out too bad, but I apologize if the words are no longer legible, you know our names anyway, so who cares. I also shaded in the corners with some chocolate and burgundy blending pencils and added some stamping to the corners. Now, I messed up a little on the invite, so as far as design, the Save the Date is my favorite as far as how it turned out. Look to the Save the Date for how I want them all to look:

I forgot to mention I also tore them out instead of cut so that I would get that rough edge... that's going to take longer than anything. I must also note that the Save the Date in my hands is a little more off-white or cream or ivory, it looks really white on my screen. The more yellow invitation is a true color. With the brown and burgundy, I don't think I like the paper so yellow-ish. I would rather a cream color. I found some paper at Office Depot of all places that was only $12 for 100 sheets and may just end up being our paper, who knows! In the meantime, tell me what you think! I love how the turned out. Kyle says the text is too small and he thinks the wording on the invitation is weird (I have tried desperately to explain to him that is my parents are presenting me, my last name does not need to be one there!!! but does he listen?!?!) but otherwise he's on board, which is nice because he actually took the time to look at them and give me his honest opinion. He likes the edges and the rustic feel. Yay!

Now as far as the set-up, I believe I am sold on the vertical tri-fold; invitation in the middle, pocket on the left with the inserts, flap on the right just to fold everything together. The example below does not have a flap on the right, so I designed one up with some rectangles and such so you could see what I want it to look like:

Picture the green-brown color a little lighter brown, a bit like the one in the real example, and then I was thinking a strip of burlap to wrap around the whole thing, and then a twine or hemp string to tie the whole thing together, including a dried, pressed flower, which I am not 100% sure on yet, but it's just an idea I'm throwing around in my head.

I recognize how much work is involved here, I have not yet decided how much I want to do myself (the design/blending pencils/stamps) and how much I want to buy (the tri-folds perhaps). At least printing turned out really well. I did see a blog post somewhere in which the bride designed her invites, like I did, but then posted her design up to Vistaprint. She got the homemade look but she only had to design it once, then got it copied and printed elsewhere. I then saw though that the design she made was a computer-generated design, not a painstaking, hand-blended, scanner-sensitive masterpiece!!!

I digress, I will not give more weight to this than necessary. It took me about 5 minutes to do one of these... 1 invitation, 1 save the date, 1 RSVP, 1 directions insert, 1 table card, 1 thank you note... 50 repeats... 25 hours... Money saved?? about $400... I know I know, it all sounds crazy!!! But I worked it out, it should take me about 4 hours to do each component, so if I set a couple weekends aside and do one component per day, I can have ALL this done in a few weeks!

The more I think about it, the more do-able it seems, just with patience, and more than a few breaks. More on this as it progresses, for now, back to work!! All opinions are welcome!!!

All I write about is dresses

I'm sorry, but I did state clearly when I started that this was a vent source for me. I have tried in vain for days to keep it all bottled up, but as a result, I've had a headache for three days...

So get over it, or walk away. Not to be combative, but just to make you aware that I'm going to talk about dresses again!

So, as I promised, I am going to talk about my fantastic trip up to NYC with all my important ladies. And THANK YOU sooooo much to all my ladies that made it out. As the trip at one point looked like it was going to be an abysmal failure, it couldn't have turned out better in the end: My mom and sister were able to make it, Kyle's mom, and my other two bridesmaids Mia and Keri all made it!! I bought us all bus tickets (Thank you Greyhound!!! Not only were they cheap cheap cheap, but they were remarkably on time, we even got home at night 15 minutes early!!) and Keri made us a subway schedule. When I first met Keri, I would have laughed at her for this, not hurtfully, but she's very type A and Mia and I are type Bs about most things. But since I've known Keri, she's helped me to realize that the type A that's buried inside me is OK to be let out of her cage every now and then!

So thanks to Keri for scheduling our subway trips, because the success of getting to and fro on this day was obvious. Thanks to Mia for coming even though she was up the entire night previous writing a paper. Thanks to my mom and sister for driving to Philly Friday night even though they had just finished driving 6 hours from Virginia Tech where my sister had just finished for Christmas break! Thanks to Kyle's mom for coming just because I'm not her daughter! I was very happy to have her support considering the fact that she really didn't have to come.

So, thanks to the New York subway system, we made it to Kleinfeld's in plenty of time:

I really wanted a picture of all of us, but no one could figure out who was going to hold the camera... This whole day was such a hen party it was hysterical!

Anyway, I'm not even going to waste a lot of time talking about Kleinfeld's. My love for Kleinfeld's began because I didn't know anything else existed, so all of a sudden, and very quickly, I realized that their collection was either full of cheap crap, or full of $25,000 dresses.

The store was packed so we couldn't hear each other talk. We had to share pedestals so half the time, I couldn't even display the dresses because I didn't have any room to stand. And as soon as my consultant (who shall remain nameless, particularly because she's on TV) realized that I was not going to buy her $8000 dresses, she became impatient and restless and short and kind of rude to my entourage... There were cameras swarming all over the place. I actually walked past Randy and Nicole at one point and they were whispering conspiratorially but a camera was smack in their faces. It was all very staged and dramatic. It was worth the experience but definitely not worth a trip back.

It was craziness there!!! We got a peak though at all sorts of famous people!! Co-owner Mara, Fashion director Randy, looking fabulous and adorable... Lots and lots of camera people


We found a couple dresses that looked nice but I didn't like them enough or they were too expensive:

Hey baby! I'm about so show more wedding dress pictures!

While these are not dresses I have any intention of buying, I'd like to continue our tradition of keeping all wedding dress peaking to a negative!

So go away, but I love you!!

 

Does it even matter who they're by?? I had an epiphany while trying on the first one: It was really cool looking, the taffeta in general is just... cool. But it crinkles and is stiff like paper. I remembered all the fashion shows Kyle and I watched together (because he is a fantastic man that watches all my reality shows with me!) and he always expressed a hatred of the papery, crinkly-looking taffeta and or silk. And I've always had my reservations about it because it doesn't flow, so why are we even still talking about it?!?!

We had a nice lunch at a place called E.A.T. on Madison Ave. They had $16 grilled cheese sandwiches... $18 if you wanted ham on it. But it was warm and cozy and amazingly not crowded. And then the moment arrived... we get to Vera Wang's flagship store:

Eeeeee!!! I was so excited!!

This was my first excursion into Veraland. I had no idea if I was going to like anything. Her designs are like works of art in that they are very unique and artistic, but were they too 'out there'?

Umm, no, they were fantastic of course. They felt phenomenal, they were so comfy and not too heavy but also not too insubstantial or lightweight. I like to feel that the dress is on me, you know? I learned this about myself right off the bat, all the dresses that I was liking were really heavy. I mean, the wedding is on November 25th. I bet it'll be cold.

However, there is still debate, and I'm not posting any pictures because of stupid wedding karma superstitions. It's down to a choice between three: The Diana, the Diedre, and the Erica. My three leading ladies!

 

I'm so in love with all three!!! A quick breakdown: Most of my entourage felt that the skirt on the Diana was too big, but I think I'm coming around to it, I have narrow hips and broader shoulders, I'm trying to balance my body shape out. Also, the Diana is the only one with a modified sweetheart, which I really wanted. The Diedre bodice made my bosoms look great; by great I mean modestly perky, they weren't all out on display but they were held up really well and it was tummy flattering. However, it didn't move nearly as beautifully as the other two. The Erica was at first my absolute favorite, but I've since come to hesitate because the top did not look good on me. It made me look too top heavy and made it look like I was going to pop out. The bottom though was simply gorgeous and it made my butt look adorable. But the whole ratio thing again; I have narrower hips than shoulders, I'm worried that a mermaid gown makes me look top heavy, because there's so much going on up top there (boobs).

Even if I were to show pictures, because Keri had to be sneaky with the camera, they don't do my agonizing justice. But from what I've just said, how the hell do I choose?!?!?! They're all equally expensive, but the Saks in Chevy Chase has a sample for sale of Diana. If I were to choose it, wouldn't that be a nice little chunk of saved change? Just food for thought. Again, I also don't want to just pick the cheapest... but when you're looking at as much money as I'm thinking of throwing down, and really all of them are great and could equally be the one, then hello! Sample for sale! Go buy it!!!

We'll see, these are the thoughts running through my head... constantly... so if you've made it this far, thanks for reading, and HELP ME!!!!

One more reason to hate Mondays!!

No one in the wedding business is open!!!!! I do most of my calls and catching up on Mondays because I think too much during the weekend and then have to make all sorts of calls and things Monday morning. Well, no bridal salon I have ever encountered is open early. Period, and most aren't even open on Mondays!!!

I will briefly explain why this irks me:

I went to Kleinfeld's and Vera Wang in NYC this weekend (whoopie!!) and I am not going to talk about that trip right now because we have pictures but I don't have them in my possession at this second, so when I get those pictures on my computer, I will do a whole post! I think I found the dress, and you won't have to guess too hard to figure out where I found it...

All I have to say is... Vera is super dee duper expensive. Too expensive?? Kyle thinks no, and offered to pay half, or at least put it on his credit card (better APRs) and pretend to let me pay him back. So, when I say I think I found the dress, oh, I found the dress, but deciding to throw this much money down is a huge huge decision. And because it's such a huge decision, I keep making up reasons why the dress is not perfect (it is... *But I wanted a modified sweetheart neckline and the color isn't ivory enough and man wouldn't it be gorgeous with straps*)

*waffling voice

This brings me to my anger with Mondays! I had discovered long ago and then rediscovered this weekend after the NYC trip a few Enzoani gowns:

Oh, but first:

Sorry Kyle, please go away unless you want to potentially ruin my surprise.

And I know you don't want to do that.

Anywho, here is the Enzoani gown:

It has the same effect in the skirt as the Vera Wang gowns and a few of the other Enzoani gowns have this effect in some form or other as well. So I thought, well, just to explore all avenues, and because Enzoani is about a third the cost of Vera, maybe I should try them on.

Well, at almost the same time, I was formulating a plan to try to get a Vera dress a little less expensive by going to a salon that does not exclusively sell Vera Wang dresses (important note: the consultant at the Vera Wang flagship store told me a neckline couldn't be changed because "Vera does not like the way it looks"... obviously they're on a tighter leash at her own store and the sun shines out of Vera Wang's genius butt) because they'll be more willing to negotiate because for them, any sale is better than no sale... Vera's not hurting... by the way, that quote is an exact quote from an e-mail I got from my consultant...

If nothing else, I have no qualms being sneaky and shrewd: "Well, another store offered me less... what can you do for me??" HELLO!! This is a service industry! We do not exist to serve Vera, Vera exists to serve US!! All I want is a little business respect, think what you will.

ANYWAY! I found out this morning that the only other store outside NYC that's at all close to me that sells Vera Wang dresses and also sells Enzoani is the store in Jersey... Yeah, the same one that I had to call to see if they had the new collection of Vera dresses in yet and they didn't! I've got to go crawling back to them again as soon as they have the Spring 2011 Vera line so I can try on those dresses I loved again plus the Enzoani dresses.

Ok, a drive into Jersey sucks, you say, but why so angry?? THEY'RE CLOSED ON MONDAYS!!!!!

I called today all excited, ready to plan a little calming two hour drive into the armpit of America, hopefully find the dress of my dreams (one way or another) for a steal, and they're closed... so now I have to wait till tomorrow...

...   ...........    ....       ........

Well, maybe this wouldn't set you on edge, but I'm dying. Tomorrow?!?! I want to schedule an appointment now!!! What does the wedding industry have against Mondays?!?!

Save money save money!

I would like to introduce everyone to my new favorite thing!!

Saving on crafts!!! I found this website completely serendipitously: I saw a blog post about balsa wood flowers... interesting, those were cool looking:

 

And so just for fun I looked up balsa wood flowers on google (also known as sola and tapioca wood, oddly enough) and low and behold I found the save-on-crafts website. It's basically an online Michael's or Joann's but with a lot more stuff... I love the internet. I started randomly flipping through and found some cool stuff... not stuff I had pictured, but very cool stuff nonetheless:

 

Did not even know that roses could be chocolate! Don't these two look awesome next to each other?!

 

These will add a very nice splash of color, I love the velvety, swirly celosia and those rose petals are about $8 for 5 cups!

 

Ah yes, of course, what we actually started looking for! Lovely balsa wood flowers!! Aren't they sweet?!?!

I absolutely love the cake up top there, love love love it!! Then when I saw the preserved champagne and chocolate roses together, I thought to myself "... This is amazing!" in an awed voice, I almost got teary eyed. Champagne or ivory and chocolate are two of my colors, throw in a burgundy and I think you have a very nice well-rounded color scheme, and preserved or wood flowers makes it feel more down-home-on-the-farm! But there was more!!!

 

Everything to make the centerpieces and accents I have been thinking off. I would love to put our cake on a wood base! It was one of the first things I saw when I started using blogs for inspiration! I also love the driftwood as a candle holder, or if no candles, just something for the middle of the table... although I picture this more for long tables than round ones... maybe, maybe not.

The wood bases were $13, the wheat stalks (something like 30 in a bunch) were around $10. I was astounded!




The moss comes in 7 pound bags! for around $15!! And then I found this glass vase for terrariums with succulents!! But wait! there's more!

 I wanted pussywillows, but these tallow berries are still adorable!

Can't forget preserved rose leaves for body and verdancy! haha, don't know where verdancy came from... they're green!

Get it??

 

They also had all the feathers I've been thinking of and a nice selection of feather hair accessories should I choose to go that route.

They had some really cheap feather boas too! heehee

 

 

All the little details I've been contemplating. That twine... actually comes with the hanger!! How cute! Those chalkboards are $13 for 6!! and the burlap is 10 yards for $11!!!

So, I just COULD NOT pass up the opportunity to let absolutely everyone in on this. I am not that selfish, everyone needs to know about this!!! So, what's the point?? I still haven't 100% ruled out DIY flowers or at the very least DIY centerpieces. The price of these products (I forgot to mention, the preserved roses aren't cheap, but not horrible. And of course they're preserved, so they last, so that to mean equals worth-more-money) is great and I can do the work whenever because everything is preserved or otherwise not alive. Also, everything was homey without looking kitchy or yard sale-like. And of course, the end all be all: I don't have to go running around to store after store.

I do so love the internet!!