Happy New Year!

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Happy New Year's Eve, everyone, and good luck to all those beautiful brides who are planning to tie the knot tonight (here's to you, Miss T)! Is it just me, or has the blogosphere been quiet this week? I decided to take a break myself, but will still have a "Happy Friday" post for all of you on New Year's Day.

Tonight, I am going out to dinner with some friends and then to a New Year's Eve party hosted by one of my bridesmaids. It should be low-key and fun. I'm so excited to ring in 2010, the year I will get to marry my wonderful fiance. I'm sure I'm not alone on this one! Have a safe and happy New Year's Eve!

XOXO,

PartyPlannerGal

It's Official . . . We Have an Officiant!

By now, it's no secret that the fiance and I come from different backgrounds. As with many Lebanese people, I was raised as a Maronite Catholic (recognized by the Roman Catholic Church). I was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church, and regularly attended mass with my family growing up.

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Meanwhile, the fiance's parents were born in India. While he was born in the United States, he grew up learning about Hinduism and celebrating Hindu holidays.

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While neither of us consider ourselves to be "religious" in the very literal sense of the term, we knew we wanted to incorporate the traditions we grew up with into our wedding day.

Therefore, we decided that it made the most sense to us and our families to do abbreviated versions of both a Catholic and Hindu ceremony at our wedding. I say "abbreviated" because full Catholic ceremonies can last more than an hour, and I've heard that traditional Hindu ceremonies can last more than four hours! Accordingly, we decided to limit the Catholic ceremony to 30 minutes, and hopefully keep the Hindu ceremony to under one hour.

We just had one problem from the Catholic end of things: our wedding venue is not a Catholic church, and most Roman Catholic priests will not perform wedding ceremonies outside of the church. Enter, our solution: the White-Robed Monks of St. Benedict (WRMOSB).

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I found out about the WRMOSB by simply doing a Google search for "priests that will perform marriage ceremonies outside of the church." I read up on the White-Robed Monks via their very informative website, and was sold when our venue actually recommended one of the monks as a "preferred officiant." According to the information I read about the WRMOSB, their philosophy regarding marriage ceremonies is the following:

"Christ's message: When ever two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of you. (Matthew 18: 19-20) suggests that your marriage ceremony, whether a Nuptial Mass or Marriage Rite without a Mass, can be celebrated in any venue and not necessarily inside a church building. Your wedding will take place in the historical sense of 'church': ekklesia, the gathering together of The People."

The fiance and I both really like the fact that the WRMOSB focus on spirituality and the inclusion of individuals from all backgrounds and religious upbringings. And while our marriage will most likely not be recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, the WRMOSB celebrate the same seven sacraments as those in the Roman, Orthodox or any other Catholic jurisdiction. Here is a photograph of a WRMOSB performing a wedding ceremony:

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After filling out the necessary paperwork, the fiance and I met with Father Robert M. Dittler, PhD, OSB this past October. We really enjoyed meeting with him and designing our ceremony and readings, which I'll post about later. The best part? He can keep the ceremony to under 30 minutes, which fits perfectly into our rough timeline for the day. I think it will mean a lot to my family to witness the fiance and I taking the traditional vows that united the generations before me, and I'm so happy that we found an officiant that appreciates the fact that we have different beliefs.

I hope that this post can be a help to other Catholic brides whose fiances are not necessarily Catholic. In the meantime, I'm interested to hear from other inter-faith and inter-cultural brides out there! How are you incorporating traditions from each of your backgrounds into your wedding day?

Eschewing Wedding Traditions, Part Five: The BIG Honeymoon

I think it's going to be a honeymoon-ish week over here on my blog. I'm going to chalk it up to the fact that it's the week between Christmas and New Year's, and I'm trapped at the office as opposed to being on vacation like I usually am this time of year. The reason? I got stuck with jury duty this week, so I have to call into San Francisco Superior Court every afternoon to see if my group number is going to be called. Which means I can't go on vacation. Boo.

As I mentioned in my last post, the fiance and I won't be heading on a big honeymoon immediately following the wedding. We sat down and talked about it, and while I would love nothing more to jet off to the South Pacific with my new husband in tow come next October, it just doesn't make sense for us. First, there is a high probability that the fiance and I might still be settling into our new apartment together (we don't live together now), and I want to make sure we have enough time to get our place settled after the wedding. Nothing bothers me more than having a disorganized living space, and with all the gifts we will most likely get from our 400+ guests, I am going to need some serious time to unpack after the wedding.

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Second, the fiance and I have already done a good amount of traveling together. Don't get me wrong, I love, love, LOVE to travel with him, but our honeymoon definitely will not be our first, major international trip together. We have seen some romantic places, and I'm so excited to do more traveling together. For example, two years ago we went to Costa Rica, and had an amazing time! We drank Imperial Beer while overlooking the ocean on the Southern Caribbean coast:

I met a friendly parrot at the cabin we rented on the beach for $60 per night:

We explored natual hot spring baths in Arenal and took pictures in front of historic buildings in San Jose:

The trip was amazingly romantic, and our first vacation together as a couple. It was a big test for us, and I'm so happy that we passed with flying colors! I thought nothing could top this trip, until the fiance and I visited Egypt this past March. We rented camels and trekked out to the pyramids of Giza:

The fiance didn't seem to mind when I kissed the Sphinx:

We climbed Mt. Sinai:

And we snorkelled in the Red Sea off the coast of Dahab:

Finally, we went for a sail in a felucca on the Nile River. Please ignore my hair. And the wind that created a balloon effect in my shirt, for that matter:

Lastly, as a young associate, I can't take a ton of time off from work, and the fiance and I have already committed to travel plans for this summer with a group of our friends. That's right! Come June 2010, we will be going here:

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And here:

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Russia and the Czech Republic! I cannot wait. I have never been to Eastern Europe before, and one of the friends with whom we are travelling was born in St. Petersburg and lived there for 10 years before coming to the United States. He will be an amazing tour guide!

Do I feel bad that we aren't going on a big, full-blown honeymoon right after the wedding? Eh, not really. We're going to go on a mini-moon, and I'd rather do these sorts of adventure trips with our friends while we're young and still have the energy. Furthermore, we are making some tentative plans to travel here for our "real" honeymoon in 2011:

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You guessed it - Fiji! The break we plan to take between the wedding and the "real" honeymoon will give us a chance to recover, emotionally and financially, before this big vacation.

How about the rest of you? Any plans to delay the big honeymoon for the time-being, or are you planning to board a jet plan immediately following your wedding?

Great Honeymoon Spot: The Carneros Inn at Napa Valley

I may or may not have mentioned that the fiance and I will not be taking a full-blown honeymoon immediately following our wedding. I plan to do a full post on the reasons why shortly, but for now, I'll just tell you that our (i.e., my) work schedule most likely won't permit it given the timing of our wedding and previous travel commitments we made for this coming June.

Even though we won't be jetting off to Europe or the South Pacific immediately after the wedding, we do still plan to take a few days to bask in our newlywed glow. This past October, I was lucky enough to be invited to a co-worker's birthday party at the Carneros Inn, a Plumpjack resort located in the Napa Valley. While we were there, I couldn't help but think that this would be a great place to take a mini-moon for a few days after the wedding. We haven't firmly committed to this option, but in my mind, it's a top contender. If you are not familiar with this resort, it's essentially a self-contained compound complete with cottages, two restaurants, a market, boccie ball, a spa, an infinity pool and wine tasting. Once you get there, you don't have to leave the property at all! Better yet, the surroundings are breathtaking, the accommodations are luxurious and sparkling wine is my all-time favorite adult beverage.

Enough talking . . . let's look at some pictures! First up, the driveway up to the Carneros Inn. At the entrance, the resort staff took our bags and we jumped into a golf cart for a tour of the property. How unbelievably lucky am I to live 45 minutes away from scenery like this?

After the tour, we were dropped off at our rooms. My co-worker is good friends with a girl that works at the resort, so we were able to stay in a two-room suite with a private internal courtyard for about half the usual price, which I believe is about $1,200 per night during the high season (May-October):

The hotel was probably one of the nicest I have ever had the pleasure of staying in, and boasted amenities such as a huge bed:

Flat screen televisions:

And my personal favorite part, heated stone-floor bathrooms with whirlpool tubs. I had no chance to use the tub, however. Do you see the shower next to it? Through the back "door" of the shower is an outdoor shower that allows you to clean off in the privacy of the internal courtyard. You can just barely make it out through the window over the tub. It was so amazing!

After getting settled, we called the resort and they escorted us to Domaine Carneros for an afternoon of wine tours and wine tasting:

On the way up to the winery, we enjoyed more lovely views of the Napa Valley. I absolutely love Napa during the fall. It's the best time of the year to go wine-tasting, in my opinion:

At dusk, we headed back to the resort to relax in the courtyard and prepare for dinner at the onsite restaurant, Farm. The food was amazing, and the chef even came out after dinner to see how we enjoyed our meal. I had the lobster tail, pumpkin soup and pumpkin ice cream for dessert. The menu was wonderfully seasonal, and we enjoyed a large amount of sparkling wine with dinner. I have edited the photos to protect the innocent, but I think you can tell that we were having an amazing time:

Before dinner, we enjoyed cocktails around the fire pit at the entrance to the restaurant:

I think this would make an absolutely lovely, though admittedly not cheap, destination for a honeymoon if you don't live in Northern California, and a mini-moon if you do! I truly do feel so lucky that I was able to attend my co-worker's birthday party and receive the royal treatment at this resort. I'm also happy to start gathering ideas for where the fiance and I will go for our mini-moon. California really offers a ton of options, so the choice will be a tough one.

Have any of you had a wonderful experience at a Northern California resort? If so, please do share!

I Kick A**

The wonderful Miss Chocolate Lover from A Chocolate Lover's Confession was nice enough to pass this "Kick Ass Blogger" blog award on to me last week.  By now, I shouldn't have to tell anyone to check out her blog.  It's amazing, and she has well in excess of 100 followers to prove it!  Thanks so much, Chocolate Lover!

The rules for this award are simple: I just need to pass it on to five more Kick Ass Bloggers!  So here goes:

1.  Morgan from The Handcrafted Hitching Post

2.  Heather from Bicoastal Bride  

3.  Katerina from Girl with a Ring

4.  Born to be Mrs. Beever from Thoughts of the All Consumed Bride

5.  Ghenet from Ten Eleven Ten

You ladies are fabulous, and you know it!  Keep up the good work and the good posts.  And don't forget to pass this award onto five other Kick Ass Bloggers!

Happy Friday!

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So, how's that for a Christmas tree? I didn't have the chance to put one up in my apartment this year, but luckily this tree at Neiman Marcus in Union Square is just steps away from my work. Last week, my co-worker and I snuck away for a few hours to enjoy lunch and champagne cocktails in The Rotunda restaurant at the top of the store. Afterwards, we took some awesome "tourist" photos in front of the tree. I just love the holidays in San Francisco. The whole city comes to life in such a magical way.

Today I'm headed to the fiance's parents' house in the South Bay for more celebration. As for the rest of the weekend, I'm going to play it by ear. A friend of mine is back in town from Greece (where he works), so I'm hoping to see him at some point. Happy Friday, and Merry Christmas to those who are celebrating!

'Twas the Night Before Christmas

Remember when I told you that I was going to bake a million cookies this past weekend? Well, I wasn't lying! Want proof? Here you have it.

First, I made a few batches of triple ginger cookies with lemon glaze icing to satisfy the gingerbread component of this Christmas cookie extravaganza:

Next, I tried out a new recipe for white-chocolate, cranberry oatmeal cookies that turned out wonderfully. I used Ghirardelli white chocolate bars, coarsely chopped, and the results were so yummy. Here they are, all bagged up and ready to go to work with me:

Next, my friend/bridesmaid and I made these Polvorones, also sometimes referred to as "Mexican Wedding Cookies." I call them "Snowballs," because they look like, ummm . . . snowballs!

Finally, I made a ton of Snickerdoodles! One of my bridesmaids makes the best Snickerdoodles ever, and I finally got her to share her recipe with me last year. These are ones of my favorite cookies. I'm ignoring the grease stains on the parchment paper for the time-being:

The fiance sweetly offered to drive me to work on Tuesday morning, thus saving me from having to ride the bus with my mountain of cookies in tow. Here are my creations, all lined up and ready for my firm to dig into:

My co-worker made the chocolate chip cookies on the end, but the rest are all mine, baby! It took all day on Sunday to bake these cookies, but I was lucky enough to have a good friend helping me out. Makes the time go by much more quickly, don't you think? Must keep this in mind when it's time to stuff all those envelopes full of invites . . .

Have a happy Christmas Eve, everyone! My family celebrates and opens packages tonight, so you know I'm excited!

A Beautiful Bride

I've mentioned several times that I was lucky enough to be a bridesmaid in the wedding of my best friend from college, the now Mrs. O. You can read all about her amazing bachelorette party here, here and here. I was searching through the photos on my iphone the other day, and realized that I got some really cute shots of her getting ready for her wedding, which took place on July 25 in San Jose.

The traditional Catholic ceremony was held at the church Mrs. O and her husband regularly attend, and the reception was held at the Hotel De Anza in downtown San Jose. Her wedding colors were hot pink and orange, and the combination was perfect for a warm, summer wedding filled with love, laughter and lots of Latin music (Mrs. O is half Nicaraguan and her husband is Colombian).

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Before the wedding, Mrs. O and her three bridesmaids (including me) had a fun day of getting our hair done at a salon near her parents' house. Afterwards, we took over her parents' master bedroom and turned it into a dressing room for the female side of the bridal party. Here are some pictures I managed to sneak in, though I was trying to stay out of the photographer's way. First up, this shot that showcases her lovely dress and train. Believe it or not, I have no idea who makes this dress, but it looks similar to a Pronovias gown I tried on while gown-shopping for myself. Looking at these pictures now, I'm really curious as to the designer, so I'll have to remember to ask her about it!

Next, I was able to snap this close-up shot of her. I think she was confused as to where she should be looking. I'm 99.9% sure I was getting in the way of the professional photographer at this point:

Isn't she so pretty! Ever since I have known her, she has always had this amazing figure and beautiful skin. I really loved the lace detailing on her gown, and the stark white looked lovely against her olive-toned skin.

I really loved this shot of her Maid of Honor helping Mrs. O with her with her traditional mantilla veil. Can you believe her Maid of Honor was six months pregnant at this point? You can barely tell! She looked beautiful and rocked the hot pink Bill Levkoff dress that Mrs. O picked out for us all to wear:

This is my favorite shot I got of the afternoon's events. Mrs. O looks so peaceful, happy and calm in this picture. I hope that our photographer can get a few photos of me looking like this, because I know that I will probably be a nervous wreck the morning of the wedding:

Doesn't her mom look lovely also? I really liked that she wore a non-traditional "Mother of the Bride" outfit. Us girls had so much fun getting ready for Mrs. O's big day together. I hope to do something similar with my bridesmaids, though we will most likely have to get ready in a hotel room, since my mom's house isn't very close to our venue.

Where will you and your bridesmaids get ready on your wedding day?

All the Pretty Flowers, Part Three: Ceremony Decorations

When we left off, I had just told you all about how I blew my floral budget on our reception decorations and bridal party flowers. I had all but resigned myself to having a flower-less ceremony until my mom and aunt came to the rescue and offered to pay for this portion of the decor. Yay, mom and aunt! Had it not been for them, I was going to make some cute aisle banners like this and call it a day:

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I probably would have incorporated some lace into the aisle banners as opposed to using flags, but seriously? How cute is this look? I love it! Turns out that I didn't have to abandon my dream of having floral ceremony decor, however, since my family generously offered to contribute. As I mentioned in this post, I really love the look of hanging pomanders, but knew they would be pretty far out of my (practically non-existent) budget, even if we went the DIY route with silk flowers:

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Just look at how beautiful this pomander looks with the contrasting purple ribbon! I also loved this image, but knew it was out of reach since it would require me to buy/rent shepard hooks:

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I decided it would be most cost-effective to hang a series of pomanders from the chairs closest to the aisle, like this:

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At about $40 apiece, however, there was no way this was going to happen, especially since I estimated that we will need about 40 pomanders spread out amongst the 400 chairs (I would like to hang some additional pomanders from the chairs in the back row to add a pop of color as guests enter the ceremony space). Lucky for me, my awesome florist Carolyn came to the rescue again! Remember when I told you I liked the look of these moss balls?:

Well, it turns out that they are crazy cheap for florists to buy in bulk - I think Carolyn said she could get them for about $3.50 apiece. Even better, she is going to dress them up with satin ribbon and even tuck a few small sunflowers into the balls. I couldn't find an exact image of what they will look like, but I am hoping they will turn out like this, with some cute little sunflowers peeking out:

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I love that the moss balls are more of an olive green than a bright green - they match our color scheme to perfection! Carolyn offered to dress these babies up for a grand total of $8 per pomander, which will cost $320 before taxes. I'm super-excited that we are going to have pomanders at our wedding, even if they aren't the traditional, full-flowered pomanders I love so much.

So, now I need your ladies' help! Do you like the look of the plain moss balls with the ribbons, or do you think they will be cute with some little sunflowers sticking out of them? I was also thinking about alternating the pomanders so that there will be some plain ones mixed in with the ones with the sunflowers. Too many choices! Thoughts and comments are much-appreciated ;)

The Story of Us: The Proposal

I just realized the other day that I never shared our proposal story on this blog! Initially, I hadn't wanted to because I felt that it was a really personal moment that didn't need to be splashed all over the internet. I still feel that way, but the difference now is that I feel that my followers aren't really strangers anymore.

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I know this may sound strange to some, but the community of wedding bloggers feels like a real community to me. I can't tell you how happy I am to have an outlet to chatter endlessly about our wedding to people that actually care, because they are planning their own weddings and can relate. It has been an awesome experience so far, and I would highly recommend starting a blog to anyone that may be on the fence about it.

So, without further ado, I present our proposal story! It was a Wednesday unlike any other, except for the fact that I had taken part of the afteroon off to get my apartment in shape for my best friend from college's bachelorette party. So there I was, cleaning and scrubbing the apartment from floor to ceiling while wearing a t-shirt from Old Navy and yoga pants from Target. Just a side note: I would not be caught dead in this outfit outside the comfort of my apartment. I am strictly a high heels and dress/skirt kind of gal.

The fiance came over around 5:30 or so, and used his set of keys to let himself into the apartment. I was on my laptop at the time, but I saw him walk into the bathroom and quickly walk out. I asked him what he was doing, and he said he was "just looking around." I let this one go, since he is an inquisitive guy and often does things like this. We sat on the couch and chatted for a bit, and eventually I asked him whether my apartment looked clean to him. He said it did, but that there was something weird going on in the bathtub.

I freaked out and immediately thought it was a spider. He told me to calm down and just go check it out. I pulled back the shower curtain to find a dozen roses sitting in the tub. At this point, I knew something was up, since the fiance is not the kind of guy who randomly brings me flowers on random Wednesdays during the week. I walked back to the couch, and he presented me with my mom's diamond, set in a beautiful Tacori setting that he picked out all by himself. Here's a refresher of what it looks like in case you forgot:

Photograph by Paige Morrison

Just one problem - he wasn't down on one knee, and I had always envisioned the proposal happening that way. With a *little* coaxing, the fiance got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. Of course, I said "yes."

After, we took some pictures to send to our families. This is the one the fiance chose to email around:

He's such a goof, but he's my goof, and I love him! I must also really love all of you to post a picture of me in a t-shirt with no jewelry or make-up on this blog! Later that evening, he took me to dinner at Kokkari, an amazing Greek/Mediterranean restaurant in the Barbary Coast neighborhood of San Francisco. I even changed and put on some jewelry and make-up before we went out. The fiance made an appropriate face this time around:

And there you have it! The proposal was simple, no-fuss and perfect. I wouldn't have had it any other way. At the restaurant, one of the bartenders overheard us celebrating and comped the champagne we had ordered and sent over a free dessert. All in all, it was the perfect night. And I loved going to work the next day to show off my new ring and tell all my co-workers.

So, how about the rest of you? Did your fiances keep the proposal simple, or did they pull out all the stops?

Happy Friday!

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Can you believe that Christmas is one week from today! I've purchased and wrapped all of my store-bought gifts, but still need to get to work on my homemade chai tea and hot cocoa mixes I have in store for some of the people on my list. That's the plan for Saturday.

On Sunday, my good friend and bridesmaid is coming over so that we can bake a million cookies, which we will bring into our offices for our co-workers next week. I'm also going to make separate gift boxes of cookies and fudge for my boss and the senior associate on my team. It's really the perfect gift for them, since both men love them some sweets! Lots of time in the kitchen ahead. Tonight, I'm off to a birthday happy hour for one of my co-workers, and from there we'll go to a friend of the fiance's house for a get-together. Lots of great things ahead this weekend. Happy Friday everyone!

All the Pretty Flowers, Part Two: Reception Decorations

As I mentioned in this post, we will need anywhere between 40 and 50 centerpieces at our reception. I was determined to keep the cost of each of our centerpieces to under $40, but I had one small (or rather, LARGE) problem. Do you remember the room where our reception will be held from this post? If not, here's a refresher:

Do you see my problem? Those are some tall ceilings! And tall floral arrangements really weren't within our budget, as they tend to be far more expensive than short centerpieces. Lucky for us, Carolyn of Diablo View Florist is awesome and thought up some creative ways to work with the funds we have. First, she is going to let us use 20-25 tall vases she keeps at her shop for free. I forgot to take a photograph, but they look similar to this:

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Nothing special, but at a price of "free," they will get the job done. On top of these vases will sit round pomanders of sunflowers gathered at the bottom in bouquet holders and placed into the openings. The vases will be filled with curly willow or some other type of branch-like filler to add visual interest to the vase. Price? $45 apiece for the tall arrangements.

Next, we will have between 20-25 short 5" cube vases filled with sunflowers and green kermit mums. These vases look like this, with banana leaves wrapped around the insides to hide any "murky" water:

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The cost of these centerpieces will be $35 apiece, bringing the average cost of our centerpiece arrangements to $40 each. Just like we wanted!

We will also be having three small cocktail table arrangements, and two wrist corsages for our mothers. The cocktail table arrangements will consist of three sunflowers, and will sit in vases that look similar to this:

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We will pay $17.50 apiece for these three arrangements, and $15.00 each for the two corsages.

Grand total for bridal party and reception flowers? $2457.50. Looks like under budget to me! Except . . . we will need to pay $75 for the delivery/pick-up fee, which will bring the total to $2,532.50 if all 400 of our guests show up. Hey, $32.50 over budget isn't so bad, right? Except . . . that left no room left in the budget for our ceremony decorations.

I'll share how my awesome mom and aunt came to the rescue of our ceremony decor next week!