flowers!

Yesterday was a big steaming heap of amazingly productive exhausting fun.  My mom and I met our friend Ros and her son Alex in the city yesterday.  After a quick powwow on what we were looking for, Alex left to go sort out a upside-down book and we hit the flower district.  Turns out we didn't have to go far.  Pretty quickly we found Kathy at George Rallis, Inc., a flower wholesaler.  We liked what we saw, the flowers were in good shape, pretty and well organized.  After about an hour of questions and pointing and saying "5 bunches!" "50 stems!" and "will that be enough?" we had ordered a whole bunch of flowers and were set to pick them up the Friday before the wedding.  Here's a sample I threw together to give you a taste of what we got. 

After lunch on the go, we headed into Jersey to Ros' wholesale floral supplier (she's the queen of the Maplewood Garden Club and has the hook up!), Suburban Wholesale Florist.  We got all the little goodies we need, plus the tall vases for the bar, aisle and card table.  At first we'd bought a whole bunch of 5" glass cubes for the centerpieces, with the plan to possibly spray paint them gold or silver.  Lo and behold, as I'm walking out, I spot none other than a whole whack of 5" cube vases in silver and gold!  Successed!  So we took a bit more of their time and switched out clear for metallic and were on our way.

Our last stop was Ros' house for powwow part 2.  We went though our list, figured out how we actually wanted things and cut out all the stuff we ordered because we had big eyes and well, flowers are pretty.  After chopping off about a third of what we ordered, we felt pretty damn accomplished and celebrated with some awesome Chinese food. 

I was so exhausted, I went to be at 10:30 (not my usual 3am) and slept 11 hours.  It was a good day.  Now, off to work on the chuppah and ketubah!

boom!

The thunder happening right now is in-sane!  So loud and awesome.  And you can even see the lightning, even though it's still daylight.  I love thunderstorms, and ones during the day seem a rare treat.  Plus, it's not even raining so hard, so it's like a show with free tickets.  Happy Monday, indeed.

the almost elopement

When the wedding insanity starts to set in (starts is perhaps not the right word...), or works itself to a pitch, I often ask myself, or Ari if he's handy, why we didn't elope.  Weddings are exciting and fun and a labor of love, don't get me wrong, but they're not without their share of tears, fights and anxiety.  My fantasy for a good long while was a flight for this weekend (whichever weekend it happened to be), and a trip to San Francisco City Hall (which is beyond amazingly gorgeous).

In the end, we both knew that what we really wanted was a wedding with our friends and family.  But hey, if you can narrow down your nearest and dearest to 30, and would rather trade the big city for sandy beaches, you might be in luck.  Pacific Weddings Magazine is giving away a wedding in Maui.

You give them a photo of you and your fiancé and tell them how you met, fell in love and got engaged in 300 words or less, and they might give you

• Wedding and reception at Timba in Lahaina, Maui
• Honeymoon stay at the Hyatt Regency Maui
• Wedding and ceremony for 30 people
• Reception including floral décor, dinner and drinks for thirty guests
• Photography coverage of wedding and reception
• Oceanview room for bride and groom for three days
• Sunset sail for two aboard Trilogy Excursions

Sounds pretty damn good to me.  And since the whole thing is paid for, the head count comes with a concrete cutoff and you're already at your honeymoon, I'd say the only thing you have to worry about is what to wear.  Have a pina colada for me.

photo city

This is the reason that you really need to research a photographer before you hire them.

It's one of many reasons I'm glad we picked our photographer (who is definitely not the perpetrator of the above photograph!), Noah Devereaux.  I'm excited for totally awesome photographs like this instead.

Ari's coming in next weekend and we're doing our engagement session (better late than never, right?).  I'm really looking forward to working with Noah and getting comfortable on the receiving end of the camera lens.  We're thinking maybe the Met and Central Park for a location.  Anyone have any cool places in the the city they like to take photos?

home again, home again

jig a dee jig!

This afternoon I'm off home to New York for my sister's birthday, delivery at college and the rest of my mad wedding prep.  Still not done packing so I'll keep it brief.  I may be sad to leave my honey, but I'll sure be glad to see this:

Think on time, non-turbulent thoughts for me!

heart and sole

Ok, lame pun.  Sorry.  Anyhow.

In case you were crushing on these Alexander McQueen heart-shaped peep toes but aren't quite in the market for $800 shoes Frederick's has knock-offs for $20.  Admittedly I couldn't handle their 4.5 inch heel, but the price tag, yeah that works for me.

Alexander McQueen at Saks                                            Frederick's of Hollywood

wowza

Please.  Somebody wear this dress.  This is a dress meant to be rocked.  Duuudes... please.

Tadashi Shoji from Nordy's.  $548.  He-llo.