NYC Recap Part 1: The Wedding

Just got back from an afternoon shift at “the store,” and wow, today I saw the not-so-fun side of working retail.  Stock.  Boooo.  Though opening boxes of fabulous clothes is a lot like Christmas, hanging and steaming every single article of clothing in the boxes is not.  Therefore, I thought rewarding myself with a little shopping afterwards was totally necessary.  I mean, its with a discount, so its practically free, right?

Right :)

As promised yesterday, here is a semi-recap of our New York trip.  I say “semi” because there is no possible way to show and talk about all the fun and fabulous memories we made.  It was seriously so much fun that I could ramble on for-ever.  (I hope you said that in your best Sandlot voice.  FOR-EV-ER.)  And for about two seconds today, I actually thought about posting all 384 pictures from our trip, but then realized that no one but my mom really cares to see that many pictures of me :)  So, I’ve narrowed it down a little, and broken it into two parts but I’ll warn you, its a bit of a NYC picture overload :)  The first part is all the wedding related festivities, and tomorrow, I’ll work on posting the second half of our trip.  Enjoy!

The whole reason for us going to New York was for the wedding of Liz, a good childhood friend of Matt, and her husband Nitin.  (Liz is pictured in the middle in the fabulous dress and belt.  The belt that I I loved so much I considered ripping off her waist and making a run for it.)  Matt and Liz, along with the other peeps in this picture, grew up together in a teeny tiny town in Arizona and even after everyone moved and went to college, the group managed to stay in touch and stay close.  (One of more of gang is missing due to a delayed flight.)  So the night before the wedding, Liz joined her hometown group (and 3 added significant others, including moi) for a nice dinner at our hotel.

Me and my man at dinner :)  I can’t believe its been almost a year since our own wedding.  Eeek!

Ok, I know I’m a huge weirdo for always taking pictures of my food, but when its this good, I can’t help it.  I mean, how can I keep halibut crusted sea bass all to myself?!

The gals after dinner.  And no idea why I just typed “gals.”  Weird but whatevs.  Rebecca wasn’t able to make dinner thanks to Continental Airlines, but  luckily she made it in time for the pictures :)

Thursday was the wedding day, and wow, it was definitely a day to remember.  Before you look at all these pics, I should tell you that this wedding was like something off of Platinum Weddings.  (Please tell me I’m not the only wedding crazed looney that watches that show?!)  Everything was breathtaking, over the top, and the best of the best.  For realz.  It was in-credible!  Here are Matt and I outside of our hotel waiting for the chartered bus to take us to the groom’s home for the ceremony.

Rebecca and I about to head down to the tents.  Check out that gorgeous view behind us!

The beautiful home (and lawn) of the groom’s family.  Their home is in Oyster Bay, New York, and though its a bit of a trek from the city, it is insanely gorgeous.  The picture was taken from inside the tents where we were seated for the wedding.  Like I said, incredible!  PS: Thanks RA for letting me steal this pic :)

The BEAUTIFUL bride and groom.  The ceremony was a traditional Hindu ceremony, and though I couldn’t understand most of what was going on, it didn’t matter because I was overwhelmed by how beautiful everything was.  Seriously.  Check out Liz.  Gorgeous.  And check out the freaking flowers.  Insane yall!

A full view in case you weren’t yet overwhelmed by the beauty of this mandap.  I mean, for realz, gorgeous.

Alaina and after the ceremony.  Alaina was a bridesmaid so she and the other bridesmaids wore traditional bindis on their foreheads.  Very cool.

Woo hoo, time to celebrate!  After the ceremony, the family bussed all the guests into the city for a fabulous reception…on a yacht!  Matt and I were super excited (as was Foster judging from that little smile on his face in the top corner of the picture!)

And here we are aboard the yacht.  It was so beautiful, no picture or words can even describe.

A great shot of the whole group (5 hometown friends and 3 spouses/significant others.)  We get a little crazy when we’re all together, but its a rare occasion, so we make the most of it!

A required sassy shot of the girls :)  (PS: I am apparently a giant.  Its a wonder I have any friends.)

Kari and I at the back of the ship as we left the pier.

Matt and I inside the second level for cocktail hour.  I made a point to make friends with a server who found me whenever he brought a new hors d'oeuvre out.  Lol, a little pathetic I realize this, but it was so worth it as the food was so stinking good :)

Once the boat left the dock, we grabbed our drinks and headed to the top of the boat for an insanely fabulous view of New York.  And to make it even more magical, Jay Z and Alicia Key’s “Empire State of Mind” was playing through the speakers.  I mean, seriously, it was a moment I will remember for the rest of my life.

It wasn’t even my wedding day, and I felt like I was living in a fairytale!

:)

Watching the sun set off the other side of the boat was beyond breathtaking.

After enjoying some fabulous views, we headed to the main floor for dinner and dancing.  We were met with these two beautiful pieces at the bottom of the stairs.  I stood and oogled for about ten minutes, until I realized people were staring at me.  Oopsie :)

The only two pictures I have with the bride are blurry.  Dang it!

Table 4 was the place to be!  (And yes, every centerpiece was this incredible.)

After an insanely delicious dinner, we headed back up to the top deck for some NYC nighttime views.  Thankfully, I have a thoughtful husband who lent me his jacket once it got chilly :)  Though towards the end of the night, they gave all of the women shawls to help us keep warm.  Shawls we got to keep, a woo hoo!

After a sparkler exit (my favorite type of wedding exit)…

…the bride and all the guests were met with an ice cream truck!  Liz is obsessed with ice cream, so we were treated to any frozen creation of our choice.  I wasn’t quite as ambitious as Liz and went with a chocolate malt :)

Hahahah, clearly we were excited for our Mr. Softee delights :)  It was such a fun ending to an incredibly fabulous night!

The wedding was so beautiful, but more importantly, so special.  Watching two people join their lives together is such a privilege in itself that we were so thrilled to be there.  And the fact that it was so beautiful and so magical for all of us guests, was the cherry on top!  (No pun intended for the Mr. Softee reference.)  Cheers to happy marriages, fabulous friends, and lots and lots of wonderful memories! 

I’ll post part 2 of our NYC trip tomorrow if you’re not pictured-out yet :)  Till then, I’ll be belting out some  serious Jay Z and Alicia Keys…

“In Neeeeeew Yoooook…”

I sound just like Alicia Keys if you can’t tell through the computer :)

Back from NYC!

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We are back from NYC and oh my goodness, we had a complete and total BLAST!  It was one of the best few days I’ve ever had!  We flew back to Chicago this morning after two and half hours of sleep last night (I mean, who wants to sleep when you’re NYC?!), and I took a three hour, crazy, so good its painful naps as soon as we walked in the door.  (Please tell me I’m not the only person who has those kind of naps?!)  Currently, I’m in the process of going through and editing all 384 pictures (literally) that I took, and hopefully I will have them up sometime tomorrow night or Tuesday.  Hope your weekend was fabulous!

My Own Elle Woods Moment and an OOTD

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I am assuming most of you have seen Legally Blonde.  Yes, I know what they say “assume” makes (or were my parents the only one who said that phrase?) but if you enjoy reading this blog, you’re probably someone who has seen the movie.  Maybe that’s a stretch, maybe I’m wrong, but I’m gonna guess most of you have.  And if you haven’t seen that movie, you need to stop reading, call in sick to work, and rent the movie.  It’s a classic, it’s my favorite, and I will go on for days and days about if you let me.

So don’t let me.

BUT there is one scene from the movie, that was so relevant to my day today.  My day that started out good, then turned kinda crappy (but ended better so no worries!)  You know that scene where Elle just found out Warner is engaged, you know, to Vivian, the “stinky old Vanderbilt” (ok, see, I’m getting carried away, I love this movie.)  Anyway…you know the scene where she hears that, has an emotional breakdown and they furiously gets in her car driving like a mad woman, eyes furiously darting back and forth, then tires screeching as she pulls across three lanes of traffic into a nail salon?  Yeeeah… that scene.  Well, that was me this evening.  Yep really, it was literally just like that.  I then proceeded to sit in the spa pedicure chair with tears running down my cheeks.  No, Matt did not dump me for a “stinky old Vanderbilt.”  Today, I had my first bout of homesickness.

I can laugh about it now, really I can.  I mean it was just like the movie, which I adore and think is funny, so how can I not laugh at myself?  And really, sitting in the pedicure chair quickly wiping my tears away, praying no one would notice?  It is a little amusing now (though at the time it wasn’t.)  I just felt super far away from my friends, and to make it worse, my parents are in England and my little brother is studying abroad in Spain, so I can’t get a hold of them as easily as I usually can.  It was just one of those days where you’re far away from home, a little stressed out, and a little bit tired, which for me, makes for a tearshed moment.  Buuuuut…I took a deep breath, enjoyed my pink pedicure, and calmed down a bit, to come back home to a big hug from Matt which made everything about 90% better.  Now though, looking back, I kinda wish I would’ve been on Candid Camera because ya’ll would have died laughing at my Legally Blonde moment.  For realz.  It was a little out of control.

But besides that little, um, episode, today was a good day, and it started out deliciously to say the least!  Matt and I grabbed brunch at a little local spot this morning before I had to be at work.  I am a firm believer that a local brunch spot is one of the first things you need to find when you move to a new place.  (One of my BFFs is also coming to stay overnight next week, and I wanted to scope out a spot for his visit.)  The menu was super big and had so many cool creations.  It was one of the only times I’ve ever been to brunch and wanted everything on the menu.  Ugh, so good.

For drinks, I couldn’t decide between a cappuccino or one of their freshly squeezed juice combos.  And since I’m not one to be exclusive, I ordered both :)  The cappuccino was of course delish, and the fresh orange-pomegranate juice, heavenly.  (I really wanted to try one of their specialty mimosas, but I was going to work after and didn’t think that would be such a good idea during my first week.) 

Then, I ordered these babies.  OMG.  No picture can do them justice.  Their house crepes filled with sweet cream, warm berries, topped with whipped cream, powdered sugar, and fresh berries.  I mean, seriously?!  Who knew fat free meals were so good ;)  Matt ordered a breakfast panini with 2 eggs over hard, tomato, prosciutto, provolone, mozzarella and pesto mayo.  Hi, can you say breakfast heaven?

I had a few minutes before I had to be at work, so we walked to Barnes and Noble for some good old booking browsing.  I had Matt snag a quick OOTD picture, though the quality is pretty terrible.  Buuutt…always a faithful blogger, I am posting anyway :)

Dress: Anthropologie (also seen here in my birthday celebration)

Blazer: The Limited

Belt: Steinmart (from a bazillion years ago)

Shoes: Kenneth Cole

Earrings: Banana Republic

Bracelets: vintage; vintage; Banana Republic

Yall have probably figured out by now that I LOVE dresses.  My legs are ten miles long, and I gave up as an awkward teen trying to find pants that fit me.  Its next to impossible.  So, I embraced dresses and haven’t looked back.  But the thing about dresses is, most people buy them for “special things” you know, weddings, showers, pictures, whatever, but they often get only a few wears out of them.  For me, I force myself to pull out my dresses often and throw on a blazer, cardigan or tee to make them more wearable for day.  I’ve fallen into the “wear a dress once” syndrome, and it’s such a waste of money.  So, I force myself to try them with others things, and usually it works out.  If you have the “wear a dress once” syndrome, just try my technique, I swear it works with 90% of dresses!

We’re off to New York tomorrow (too bad its not DC or I could have my own Legally Blonde 2: Red, White, and Blonde moment!)  Hahaha, perhaps its best we’re not going to DC then.  I’ve had my fill of Elle moments for now :)  Have a fabulous Wednesday yall!

PS: If you have any last minute NYC ideas, let me know!

Rolling on the River

Ok, I don’t know what the heck was going on with Blogger for the past 48 hours, but I was near an anxiety attack today after trying to post this every twenty minutes for the last bazillion hours.  Whatever “bugs” they are working out, need to get worked out and stay worked out.  Ugh.  Anyway, moving on from that little rant…

After moving in and getting semi unpacked (aka boxes out of the way, dishes in the kitchen cabinets, and sheets on the bed) we left the unpacking for a bit to explore our new city.  I’ve mentioned before that we are actually living in the suburbs, which, though sometimes a bummer, seems to really be the best decision for us all around.  We have two fabulous friends that live in Lincoln Park, so we can crash at their place if we ever desire a late, crazy night in the city :)  So, Wednesday, we left our boxes (and our burb) and headed into the city for some much needed exploring.

Friends of ours had recommended the Chicago River architecture tour as a great way to both see the city and get some good history in, and since our BFF Miguel was in town for a few days, we wanted to do this while he was here.  (Want to know how good of a BFF he is?  He drove Matt’s car all the way from Texas and helped load and unload the truck at both spots.  Yeah, whoa, good friend huh?)  Here are a few pictures from our River tour adventure :)

Off the train and onto Michigan Avenue!  This is the Tribune Tower, home to the Chicago Tribune and one of my favorite buildings downtown.  (Random fact: the Batcave scenes from the Dark Knight were shot in the basement of the Tribune Tower.)

Our first family shot in our new city :)

On the boat and ready for an adventure!

{photo by Miguel Cano} 
Our view from the boat.  Not bad right?

Maybe this will be our Christmas card photo :)

  {photo by Miguel Cano} 
After the river tour, we headed to State street for some exploring and window shopping.  (Ok maybe a little more than window shopping, but I only bought one little thing, I swear!)

Chicago’s newest couple :)

Of course we had to stop off at Garrett’s popcorn.  I mean, we couldn’t let Miguel visit Chicago without a trip to popcorn heaven.  Its not like I got my own personal sized bag of caramel popcorn or anything.  (Ok, I lie, I did, but its soo good, you cannot possibly pass it up!)

 {photo by Miguel Cano}
That evening, we hopped on the train and headed to the West Loop to meet our friend Christie for dinner.  Miguel snapped this picture on the way, and I think it is so cool!

For dinner, we ate at the Green Zebra, a contemporary vegetarian restaurant in the West Loop area.  None of the four of us are vegetarians, but we’d heard great things about the restaurant, so we thought we’d give it a try.  I barely recognized half of the stuff on the menu, so we just asked the server what he recommended and went for it.  All in all, we were pretty pleased with the experience.  I will confess though, that my cocktail was my favorite thing of the night.  I ordered the Il Coltivatore  which had St. Germain elderflower liquer, grapefruit, and sparkling wine.  It was so good I had two :)

After dinner, we headed for drinks at the Violet Hour, a swanky little spot in Wicker Park.  It’s unmarked, has a hip crowd, and killer drinks.  We were there a few years ago when we were in Chicago, and I swear, I instantly feel a little hipper when I step inside.

So our first adventure as Chicago residents was a success!  Though this week, we are leaving our new home for a quick trip to New York City for a friend’s wedding.  With the big move, we haven’t had much time to plan for NYC, so if you have any recommendations or spots we should visit, please let me know.  I’ll take a recommendation over a tour guide book any day :)

Sweet Home CHICAGO! Move Updates and an OOTD

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Hi, hello, we made it, we’re here, we’re in CHICAGO, woo hoooo!  So sorry I am just now getting to posting; I know I promised a quick check in Monday, but clearly that did not happen as its FRIDAY night and I’m just now posting.  However, we made it, and I have so much to tell you!  (Ok, not so much as in “so exciting,” just so much as in “random things I feel the need to share” haha.)  I started out the move quite enthusiastically in terms of photo taking, plans to blog about the process, etc. and about three hours into the anxiety filled drive, I kind of gave up.  (We had a disaster with our U-Haul experience; they messed up our reservation, failed to tell us neither of our cars could be towed behind the U-Haul, and our truck drove at a diagonal.  No joke.  A good 25-30 degree diagonal.  It looked like the truck was skidding off of the road the entire 18 hour drive.  It was terrible, and we will never ever ever use that company again.  Ever.)  Anyway, here are some random snapshots and descriptions about the move process and what’s been happening since we got to Chicagoland!  (And um, people really do say “Chicagoland” here, which to me, is kind of hilarious, as it sounds strikingly similar to Candyland.  Right?  Candyland, Chicagoland.  Just saying.)  Anyway…onto the move :)

Here we are with our diagonal driving U-Haul, ready to head out of town early on Friday morning! The truck was a 26 footer, made to move a family in a four bedroom house.  We have a 2 bedroom and packed the thing to the brim.  What can I say?  We have a lot of crap stuff :)

Last skinny vanilla latte in my old home!

Aaaaaand we’re off!  And yes, I realize this picture is both dorky and dangerous, and well, I’m embracing both.  (But for realz, there wasn’t anyone near me on the road, it was 7 am, and I had a ten hour day one drive ahead of me.  I mean, what else was I supposed to do?!)

Day 2 (hence the hand signal, not to be mistaken for a peace sign.)  After a night stop off in Springfield, Missouri, we finished the second leg of our journey with an eight hour drive.  Here I am following behind Matt/our diagonal driving semi truck and taking self portrait pictures.  (Yes Mom, I know this was not smart, I won’t do if again!)  We arrived in Chicago early Saturday evening, found a hotel close to our apartment (we moved in the next morning), and grabbed wings while watching the NBA playoffs.  (Poor Phoenix.)  The next morning, we got the keys to our new home, turned the lock, and moved in.  Eeek!  I had planned to snap a key turning video, but between my exhaustion and the fact that I looked ten times more mousy and scary than in the photo above, the key turning video and move in day photos were a no go.

And to celebrate our first night as official Candyland Chicagoland residents, we enjoyed deep dish pizza from Lou Malnati’s.  I have a feeling I’m going to need to get my butt back to the gym very soon with this place so close by.

Monday was spent unpacking, unpacking, and you guessed it,  unpacking.  Though I kept breaking down boxes, I felt like I wasn’t even making a dent.  But, at the moment, we’ve only got 5 boxes left, and most of them are my jewelry and handbags, so they’ll take a while to sort through.  Tuesday morning, I got up bright and early for, guess what…an interview!  Woo hoo!  Quick story needed.  Remember last week when I posted this about worrying, especially about finding a job in our new city?  Well, an hour after I posted that, I got a call from a potential job opportunity.  The woman did a quick phone interview, and then scheduled an in-person interview for Tuesday.  Then two days after that, I found out I didn’t get the job I interviewed for back in April.  Some good news, some bad news, all within a short time after deliberately deciding not to worry for one whole day.  So for me, it was really a symbol that when you let go of stuff, stop worrying, and start living in the present, things seem to just happen.  Such a good reminder :)

Anyway, my interview Tuesday morning went well, and hooray, I got the job!  It isn’t in my field, it’s not full time, and it isn’t really utilizing my Ph.D coursework.  Any guesses what it is?  (Short pause for those of you who want to guess…)  If you guessed retail, you guessed right :)  Sure its not in my field, but its at a store I love, its working with people, it pays,  it gives me time to work on my dissertation, and its something to get me out and about in my new city.  No complaints here.  I’m still looking for something at a college/university, but for now, I’m pretty pumped to do something different, much lower stress than my previous position, and something that gives me a huge shopping discount :)  For now, I’m going to hold off talking about where I’m working, not because it’s a secret, but more because I don’t want this blog to turn into an unofficial poster child for this retailer.  Its a retailer I’ve blogged about before and one that is well represented in my closet.  I’m sure many of you will be able to guess the store as I continue doing OOTD posts, especially since my discount will mean a larger representation of the retailer in my closet.  Hopefully my husband is not reading this, as I promised him I wouldn’t spend my whole paychecks before I walked out of work :)

After the interview, we headed to Ikea for some mass houseware shopping.  I figured I’d snap a few OOTD pics since my interview was the first time in several days I’d worn real clothes or makeup :)

Dress: Banana Republic

Cardigan: Ann Taylor

Shoes: Kenneth Cole; I actually wore the BCBG heels from this post to the interview

Necklace: vintage

Earrings: my wedding day gift from Matt

Shades: Juicy Couture

Coffee: Starbucks non-fat mocha  :)

Normally, I would be in a full suit for an interview, but since this was  a retail position, I really wanted to dress in the retailers style.  My thought was, if I can look like I walked out of their catalog, then it will easy for them to see that I’d be a natural fit for their team.  I had training last night, and work my first real shift tomorrow afternoon.  Woo hoo.  “Can I start you a fitting room?”  (Just practicing!) :)

If you’re still reading this, thanks for hanging with me.  I’m gone from Candyland blogland for a week, and then there’s just so much to catch up on!  We had a really full and fun day in the city yesterday and I’ m still trying to go through all my pics from our outing.  Hopefully I’ll have them up later this weekend.  Thank you all for your incredible words of support and encouragement throughout this move process.  I can’t tell you how much it has meant to me and how many times I’ve reread your comments for assurance that all would be ok.  You all rock beyond words, and I’m excited for a new twist in this blog as we explore and fall in love with Candyland together :)

Have a fabulous weekend!