Bridal shower gift

Today is Hyun's bridal shower, and I'm pretty proud of the gift I bought!

I only got to know her this year, so I wanted to get her something personal, useful and cute. After thinking about it A LOT and searching "bridal shower gifts" on Google for an hour, I ended up buying:

Source

...and...

Source

How cute are these? A little picnic set! (I chose the blue throw as the picnic blanket) You can use the basket to carry your picnic items, as a tote when you're buying fresh veggies at the farmers' market or snacks to the pool!

At first I was searching high and low for one of those classic straw picnic baskets, but there's really only one use for that. Also, I couldn't find one... :)

Happy wedding shower, Hyun!

Oxon Hill

I can't believe I haven't showed you guys our venue yet! And by "guys," I mean the five people who actually read this... :)

Presenting...Oxon Hill Manor! This is where we're getting married! We made this video for Cyrus's mom so we could show her what it looks like.

I posted it on YouTube, and a couple people messaged me asking about Oxon Hill. One of the people that watched the video was a friend of Cyrus who had no idea that it was his friend's fiancee who put the video together!

Enjoy!

Skin

I've started going to a skin therapist to get facials in preparation for the wedding, and thanks to Shin at BeautyFirst in Rockville, I've discovered some skin care products that have really made a difference!

First, there's Dermalogica's Active Moist moisturizer.

Source

This stuff feels greasier than what I've been using, but apparently I need it for my dehydrated but oily skin. Strange!

Then we have Dermalogica's Gentle Cream Exfoliant.

Source

This stuff is awesome! You wear it for 10-15 minutes like a mask and when you scrub it off, your skin feels baby smooth!

And last, there's Skinceutical's Gentle Cleanser.

Source

I can't tell how different this is from my normal cleanser (...Dove bar soap...), but it's expensive, so it better be doing something!

The goal is to get great skin and lessen my chances for a breakout by the time the wedding rolls around. So far so good, but who knew it wouldbe so expensive?!

Lost!

I can't find the wedding shoes I bought! I took them to my first and second dress fittings, but couldn't find them for my third! They're in a hot pink J.Crew shoebox! How could I have misplaced them?? Sigh...

Help for our guests

Source

There are tons and tons of wedding blogs out there, but I recently came across a very unique one today. This one is for wedding GUESTS who are trying to survive the wedding season! A lot of our friends this year have several weddings to go to, and for others of our friends, this is their first wedding! So check out this very useful website filled with stuff about etiquette, tips, gifts, travel, etc.!

Also, don't miss the post contributed by our very own wedding planner Vicky Choy from Event Accomplished! Vicky tells us about the confusing "+1" rules.

Smiley steak

Not only does this Ray's the Classics steak that Cyrus ordered look like poop...


The poop's grease made a face at us!

Making of: invitations

Stickers, envelopes, labels, oh my!


You can't tell from his facial expression here, but putting these invitations together was a grueling process! Kudos to Cyrus for enduring the tedious job and not saying a single word of complaint! Here he is with two thirds of the finished product:


62 days to go!

Happy summer

Behold! The vast emptiness!


What was once a lively oasis of learning and academic stimulation...


...is now nothing but a barren wasteland!


Happy summer of 2009, everyone! SCHOOL IS OUT and the teachers are playing!

And just for fun, here is a picture of some of my most bright and hilarious students. We practiced what we knew about character traits and made a movie with some very interesting characters. Here we have a lazy hat and a mean, spooky ghost!


I'm happy about the summer, but I will definitely miss the little kiddies...

RSVP winner

The first RSVP card to come in was from my uncle! How exciting!

Too bad he didn't fill in ANY of the blanks! Oh, relatives!

What's the "M" for?

It's pretty interesting how broad the spectrum is when it comes to knowing wedding invitation etiquette.

Take a look at this RSVP card, for example. (Not ours, just an example I found online.)

Source

Seems pretty straightforward, but when my brother and Olivia sent out their invitations, I heard so many people asking, "What's the M for?"

The "M" is there for you to write "Mr., Mrs. or Ms." and then your name.

I've seen RSVP cards that said "Name(s): ______." To me, that feels too much like I'm making a worksheet for my students. I'm guessing that the pretty, script "M" became the RSVP standard because it's prettier!

Invitations Sent!

Invitations went out today! :D

We were so tired from putting them together last night, that I started getting kinda lax about the quality of the final product. Cyrus's envelopes turned out way better than mine! Some of you might know what I'm talking about when you get yours in the mail. After a while, I took the "good enough" approach to quality. :)

But even after all that, I still get jittery thinking that we'll be getting RSVPs in the mail within a week (hopefully)!

TOOO EXCITINGGGG!!

Pins

Another purchase I made off of Etsy.com:

Source

Aren't these silk hair pins beautiful? They have a tiny pearl at the center, which will totally match with the pearl earrings and necklace! And the seller said that these are supposed to be hydrangeas (not sure about that), which are my new sis-in-law's favorite flower!

Gwyneth Paltrow loves Barcelona

I just watched the fourth episode of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, and the beautiful Gwyneth Paltrow was promoting her new lifestyle website, GOOP.

"People were asking me a lot, 'Where should I stay in Barcelona?' or whatever," she said, "and so I just thought, 'Well, why don't I compile all the information and share it?' "

Of course, my interest was piqued, so I checked it out! And guess what?


Gwyneth loves the hotel we're staying at! Hotel Claris! But who knows if she really put this list of Barcelona faves together. Here's what the blurb about Hotel Claris says: "Mentioned in Spain: A Culinary Road Trip, Hotel Claris is just off Paseo de Gracia. There is a rooftop pool, a hipster vibe, and it isn’t too expensive."

Eh. The description is pretty bland and generic. But still! It's on Gwyneth's official site, and her signature is at the top of the page. It's got Gwyneth's seal of approval, and I'm taking her at her word. :)

Kinko's

Leaving work now to go to Kinko's to get the invitations printed.

!!EXCITEMENT!!

Thinking about it really does make my heart beat a little fast...!

Panda love

I'm going a little crazy on Etsy.com now... Ever since I saw it two days ago, I couldn't stop thinking about this tote:

Source

So I bought it. =X

We're easy

Cyrus and I are the easiest people to buy gifts for. Just ask us what we want, and we'll tell you! Gift giving between us has been super easy, too. Cyrus said that for the rest of his life, buying Red Sox tickets will always be the perfect gift.

So, Labor Day weekend of 2007, two weeks after he started his first year at law school, I took him to a game, which happened to be a no-hitter! Look how happy he is!



And two days ago, I purchased tickets for Cyrus's 28th birthday: bleacher seats at a Red Sox game in September! There are some pretty good deals on Stubhub.com!

Happy SUPER early birthday, Cyrus!

Necklace

OMG, how gorgeous is this necklace??

Source

I love how it's pretty understated, but then there's this assymetrically-placed, funky flower! How fun! It's going to be so hard not to wear this before the wedding! Maybe I should lock it up with the wedding band, which is also tempting to wear...

I'm proud to say that I purchased all of my wedding jewelry. I saw what I liked on etsy.com, I updated my PayPal account and now I have some beautiful things coming in the mail for me! AND, I'm under budget!

Cyrus is awesome

Here is Cyrus. Now that I think about it, this picture was taken the week that Cyrus proposed! Cool!


Anyway, we've gone through about 10 months of wedding planning now, and I want to make it known that Cyrus has been a part of every decision! There are some details he doesn't care about, but there are more details that he does care about. Whatever stress I've had in planning, he's shared with me.

This is pretty rare, isn't it? Maybe? I guess that's why people just assume that he's not a part of the planning process at all, which is not true at all. I'm so thankful that this wedding is gonna be a reflection of both of our visions!