Wedding rundown

A little rundown on the wedding setup.  Our theme was outdoorsy/camping.  We love hiking and camping and being outside so we thought this would be a good way to share something we love with our guests.  Royal blue gingham was incorporated as much as possible as well as pine cones.  My husband was second shooter and a DJ for alot of weddings and made it very clear that he didn't want "wedding food" so as a compromise to the standard chicken, beef, vegetables and potatoes we ordered sandwiches from Buckhorn Grill.  We had 5 different types of BBQ sandwiches, charred veggies, mashed potatoes, a few sliced tri-tip slabs and salad.  For apps we went to Costco and bought gourmet sausages and meatballs, cheeses, crackers, pretty much anything people could munch on.  It was served buffet style and the majority of drinks were in glass bottles.

Each table had a mason jar with burlap, lace and baby's breath, a burlap runner, pine cones, and a dollar store frame with a post card from different national parks.

My Godmother baked our cake and cupcakes and setup our table with old Christmas decorations and pieces of wood we'd collected from people we knew.

I'm not really a cake person and neither is he so we decided on just a 2 tier cake to make my mom happy, chocolate, vanilla and lemon cupcakes, oreos, donuts, cookies and alot of different Persian sweets that my mother-in-law got for us.

We tied chiffon strips of fabric to twine and draped it between the 2 trees for our altar backdrop

I  used 12x12 scrapbook paper from Michaels (when it was 7/$1, so cheap) and cut them into small pieces.  I stamped a pine cone in the middle and wrote the persons name and table number.  I bought a clearance frame and stapled twine across it and used little clothespins to keep them there.

We rented mason jar cups and napkins and had them at each table with the favor which was a hear shaped seedbomb.  I printed the seed packets from here and folded a few every day, the plus side of a long engagement.

 I bought my dress on Etsy for $250 and just had it shortened to above the knee and taken in at the waist.

I have an obsession with journals so he bought me one to fill out together and a Blake Griffin Clippers jersey, woohoo!

I printed the table numbers to look like campsite markers and glued them to wooden dowels

Badgley Mischka Ina pumps, I later changed into the B.M. Sahara flats

Sign painted by my M.O.H. Cady

I made our programs out of cardstock, twine and printer paper.  I just used a pine tree stamp to put on each one.  I also used the stamp on the paper bags for the trail mix as well as on our thank you notes.

I needed something to make the program a little more fun so I found the tree astrology, everyone loved it.

Tree astrology programs

Crossword puzzle maker

On each seat we had a program and a tissue packet that I made from glassine envelopes, travel sized tissue and washi tape.

Another sign painted on burlap by Cady

Some my favorite pictures from our ABSOLUTELY AMAZING photographer, Ebony

Seriously the best day of my life.  It went by just as fast as everyone said it would so I made sure to take time to just be in the moment.  My friends and family were so important in making this happen, the day of the wedding everyone was at the venue in their work clothes hanging up lights and setting tables.  Every time I look at these pictures I remember how extremely blessed I am to have a wonderful family, amazing friends and the best husband.

My honey, Boo Boo

Moving down to Orange County was not only a big change for me but for my little pup, Boo Radley (my husband already had been living here for grad school so he's whatevs).  At home Boo had our big German Shepherd Rocky [r.i.p.] to play with and our rabbit Winky to chase.  Now he's here and it's just us so he just lays around all day.  I tried to take him to the dog park but the dogs around here literally just sit on the bench at the parks next to their owners and watch.  I've been taking him for runs and buying him new toys, hopefully he'll snap out of it.

My little sleepy love

Veggin Out

Since we've been on our own we've decided to try and be as healthy as possible.  Not at all counting our first week in the apartment when we didn't have a fridge and survived on chips, cookies and beef jerky.  Having been vegan on and off for a couple of years we figured we might as well go balls to the wall and try it.  We're relatively lenient though, we'll eat eggs every once in a while or have meat when we go out but at home there's no dairy or meat in our fridge.  So far it's been pretty good, we're having to get inventive and usually we just make alot of Asian food.

Homemade pizzas with vegan cheese

Instead of roasted marshmallows on our camping trip we roasted bananas & stuck chocolate inside

We live near Little Saigon so there's lots of Vietnamese food, my favorite being Tofu Banh Mi and Tofu Pho 

I've gotten a little homesick for my Dad's arabic food so I made a lentil dish called Mujaddarah with a salad

Made a lasagna with spaghetti squash instead of noodle and some soy cheese, so good.

Grilled fake cheese sandwich.  Galaxy Nutritional Foods makes these Veggie Slices that melt perfectly and are the best tasting I've had so far.

Instead of our usual chips and crap our beach snacks look like this now

 We're both lactose intolerant and have become OBSESSED with the shaved ice at Sticky Fingers in Irvine.  The shaved ice is so powdery like snow, I can't even explain.  Just go get it.

It was rainy down here for one day so I took advantage and made some root soup with potatoes, yams and carrots.  So unbelievably good.

Now I'm just hungry.

Mrs.

Much has happened in my little life since my last post so, a brief photo journey through my last few months.  

I had a French Garden themed bridal shower.

 A Tahoe bachelorette weekend.

 Had a rehearsal dinner.

 Got married.

Had a Vegas honeymoon

Moved to SoCal.

And so now here we are.  I'm living down south with my husband and our dog, trying to figure how to be grown-ups and married and all that super easy-not at all stressful stuff.

Down with the sickness

*when it's 4 a.m. and you're desperate for a salad but there's no lettuce to be found*

I woke up at 1am and couldn't go back to sleep for several reasons:
1. I had handled a raw jalapeno earlier and hadn't managed to wash the oils off but had managed to molest my own face throughout the night.
2. Having a tattoo healing on your rib cage does not allow for the most comfortable sleeping positions.
3. I've recently had to start sleeping with my window closed because teenage mutant ninja spiders have started coming in at night so to replace the ambient noise that the outside world provides I've had to sleep with a fan AND Pandora playing which incidentally must be played quite loud to be heard over the fan.  So during this critical time when I should be racking up the beauty sleep I am instead denying myself comfort at  every turn. Anyway, back to #3.  While sleeping this song plays on Pandora whilst I'm dreaming about walking around on my wedding day arm and arm with my husband all slow motion greeting our friends and I wake up smiling and completely unable to fall back asleep because I'm just way too excited.

So, I go downstairs to make some tea and I realize, "ah shet....birth control".  I take my pill at night because they make me really sick and so when I don't sleep through it I spend the evening hanging over the toilet heaving my guts out (a little something my soon to be husband will become very familiar with).  I attempted to blog to keep my mind distracted and instead just spend 2 hours holding back puke and changing the layout.  My sister joins me at around 3 and from then to 5am we sit in the kitchen and watch Pixar shorts, laugh at fugly cakes and appreciate the fact that after the next 15 days it won't be so easy to just walk across the hall and annoy each other.  As excited as I am to move out and start a new life with my husband I've become so accustomed to the chaos that is life at home with my family and I'm really gonna miss it.

L is for the way you Laugh at me

So,  my sweetest sweetheart came home the day after Valentine's day.  We celebrated today by going on a Thai food rampage, shopping, cuddling, and an excessive amount of hand-holding.  When it came time to exchange gifts I gave him a "soups and stews" recipe book that he had wanted and a pair of hard to find skate shoes.  For his turn he gave me a set of DJ Marvel Wolverine headphones which I loved BUT  he had already told me he was buying them so no need to act surprised.  He then said that I can have my other present later.  So an hour or two passes by full of cloying behavior and he says, "alright, I think you deserve your present" and so I unwrap and it is a two-sided frame with a picture of me on one side, and a picture of him on the other.  These pictures were taken on our last visit together with his grandpa's old film camera.  In the madness of v.day facebook postings and minor breakdowns by my peers on why they didn't get what from whom I became so overwhelmed by the simple thoughtfulness that went into this gift.  So I cried.  Alot.  Which made him extremely emotional because APPARENTLY it was supposed to be a joke.  So in the midst of my tears he reaches into his backpack and pulls out that little blue bag that makes every woman's heart, no matter how frigid, melt into a mess on the floor.  At this point I cover myself with the blanket (shown in the photo above, cape style) and cry even more whilst simultaneously refusing to open it because I can't believe he bought anything from the store that he has openly protested against, especially after I had come to terms with the fact that 1) we are planning a wedding and Tiffany anything should not be in the budget 2) he has voiced on numerous occasions that it is just a hype and that he does not see what is so special about something from Tiffany vs. Zales or Forever 21 for that matter.  So, after I partially compose myself I reach in the bag and pull out the little T&Co. note card and in his beautiful handwritten scrawl it says, "This is just the beginning.  I love you."  Again I cry.  That right there was all I needed for the rest of my life.  So now I sit at 3am in a blissful stupor with my new onyx studs in my ears, my little note card framed on my dresser, and joy in my heart that I am marrying a man who is beyond thoughtful, beyond selfless, and beyond perfect.