Things we love

Celebrating Valentine's Day with a quiet evening at home. (Don't worry, we won't gloss over our last V-Day as soon-to-be-newlyweds! We always celebrate the week after/before to avoid the crowds.)

A chunk of Prima Donna cheese with a divine California Pinot Noir
(Arista 2006 Longbow Pinot Noir to be specific)

Netflix movie plus blankets, couch and snuggling

Obligatory but delicious chocolate strawberries.

Dessert from Papa's.
Mmmm, carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.
How are you celebrating your relationship with that someone special today?

(all personal photos)

Five years...

Five years ago today Mr. P and I had our first date. You know, the one with the coffee and sushi.

Where the heck did the last five years go? It doesn't feel like that long, but when I actually think about all the trips, events and life we've been through in that time... wow, we've covered a lot of ground.

2006
My first sailing trip (and overnight on the boat)

Summer wedding (and his first time meeting my extended family)
4 months together

NYC weekend

This past weekend Mr. P and I ran up to northern NJ to see his brother for his birthday. Any visit there isn't complete without popping into the The City. Oh yes! *excited dance* With six hours to kill before our dinner reservation, the below freezing and windy weather didn't slow us down one bit.


Sight-seeing from the High Line doubled as our diversionary route between destinations: Eataly and the Chelsea Market. It's a much better way to walk the city! No waiting at lights and a lot less people, all like-minded cold weather wanderers.

Looking toward 18th St. entrance
Fantastic architecture: IAC Building
Sunset over the Hudson River from our vantage point on the High Line

Rock me, baby

Inspired by last week's ring about metals and rocks, I thought I'd share a little gem with you. Growing up, I collected things. I was the kid who'd come home from a walk with my pockets filled with treasures, hands carrying what wouldn't fit elsewhere. Leaves, wildflowers, seed pods, rocks... if it was a found object, I loved it.

Once I was old enough to receive an allowance, the collections turned a little more material. Postcards from our travels, pencils/erasers to trade with the other girls, an embarrassing but thankfully short-lived troll doll phase, etc. But there is one collection that has remained close to my heart for 20+ years.

Rocks. Yes, I collected rocks. Rocks and gemstones. Found and store-bought. (God, I must have been a slow walker... always studying the ground for unusual specimens.) On my last trip to WV, I brought the rock collection home.

(Unfortunately for Mr. P, just one of my boxes. Also, note the cotton batting and labels. Apparently, this was something I took very seriously.)
If you were wondering how committed I am to exposing my dorky side, here you go...

Matchmaker, matchmaker

Do you remember taking those teen magazine quizzes? Most of us probably did at least once or twice, right? Please tell me I'm not the only dork who thought it was fun! And who didn't look forward to Psych 101? It was one of the more interesting freshman level offerings.

(I remember buying this one.)
Now we're a little old to buy teen magazines... so I've got a new quiz for you to try, no teenybopper magazine required.

Yog-urt

I think that's what I'm going to feel after my first yoga class tonight.

That's me.
It's something I've wanted to start for over a year and just never found the right combination of motivation, time, and people. I'm not a Y or gym membership kinda girl. The whole gym thing intimidates me, which is odd considering how athletic I was in high school. But that was 10 years ago!

Countdown: 7 months

With exactly seven months until the big "I do" to do, my mind is on all the things left undone.

To-do list items that are still nagging me:

1. Book officiant.
2. Design invitation suite.

We've thought up every excuse in the book to delay finding an officiant. The search started in August with 5 "feeler emails" which was then pared down to 3 in early October. Last week we were thisclose. Until the guy emailed a few days before our scheduled meet and greet to cancel. Another couple had booked him. The search (and knot in my stomach) resumed.

It's tough selecting a perfect stranger from a field of other perfect strangers to oversee and perform such an intimate ceremony. We have a closer relationship with our neighborhood bartender than our local clergy; unfortunately, the bartender is not ordained.

Hey man, can I get a White Russian?
And then there's the invitation suite. I would prefer to have started it in September, or even October, but more pressing to-do's popped up - and so it was back-burnered. Honestly, the more time I have to fiddle with the design, the more it'll keep changing. It's better I'm putting it off. Brian has caught on that I should have started already. Darn you, shared GoogleDocs to do list. It should be relatively easy to design and print, considering my background. I'm keeping it simple. Now tell me how naive I am and you'll see me in 4 weeks when I'm curled up in the fetal position.

How's your to-do list looking? Am I budgeting enough time?

Our first registry gift

Arrived home in late July to find a small Williams-Sonoma box tucked away on the front porch. At first, I thought it was a gift for Brian; his birthday was the next day. But because it was from one of our registry stores, I started to fret because it's too soon for registry gifts to start arriving... and (oh crap!) we still need to ask his dad if we can redirect gifts to his house.

Brian and I deliberated on who sent it and what it could be while I searched for scissors. We had a good chuckle once I found the packing slip and note. My first-time buyers, A & C, went to closing a week prior and sent a thank you gift sourced from our registry. They are newlyweds so we discussed weddings during the house hunt. She must have super-sleuthed our registry or remembered me mentioning it (although I don't).

Either way, we were thrilled to open it up and find a Vinturi and wine pump with stoppers. Now we were left with a dilemma. It is a thank you gift from our wedding registry. What's the protocol for use? Brian reasoned that since it was technically a thank you gift, etiquette and superstitions would permit us to open now. It was put to use that night on a bottle of Finger Lakes Cab Franc!

Testing out our new wine gadget

Not in the face!

That's what Mr. P asked of the other black belts in his morning karate class in the weeks leading up to our engagement shoot. (Isn't that more encouragement to deliver a hard blow somewhere else?) He got popped when sparing last week; I couldn't tell, thankfully. Our close up with the camera is tomorrow. Fingers crossed he is untouched when he returns from class later.

Mr. P in 1984, yellow belt
Update: No boo-boo's! Mr. P thanked them by saying they could resume "disfiguring him on Thursday." Lovely sense of humor.

Do your or your future spouse participate in an activity that could make you less than camera-ready? What is it and would/did you change anything in the weeks leading up to your wedding?

Lego Love

We may combine furniture, household goods, and even finances but our Lego collections will never be combined. At least that's what Mr. P has jokingly maintained for the last few years. He claims his Legos are superior to mine and co-mingling would be disastrous (for his).

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Both of us grew up with a fascination with the tiny bricks. When I moved away from home, my Legos were packed up for the trip. Every once in awhile, we'll drag the storage totes out and start construction projects. My foreman does a poor job of planning since my projects inevitably run out of bricks and I eye his pile. Man, it would be nice if I could just borrow a few.

See what I could accomplish if I had more bricks?
You can tell whose Legos are whose; our sorting styles are a microcosm of our personalities. Mine are grouped by color and size into large chunks. And his, well... they're dismantled with lightning speed and unceremoniously dumped back.

Thing whole Lego thing got me thinking... How can we incorporate this quirky shared interest into the wedding? Cake! It's the most obvious and tastiest, of course. The internet is awesome. Ask (search) and you shall receive.

Almost famous

Browsing through wedding blogs, I cam across a particularly lovely wedding on Style Me Pretty. The sneak peak of the ceremony showed a yellow stucco church that looked like nearby St. Joseph's on the Brandywine, but I couldn't be sure.

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Then... I saw photos of the reception venue and fell in love. Sure it looked like the Greenville Country Club (our venue), but what's the likelihood of a national blog featuring little, ol' Delaware. It was probably someplace down in the Carolinas.

Tented reception on a brick patio with views of a rolling lawn... Hmmm.
Until I scrolled down to the vendor list, I still wasn't sure.

Achoo!

If you're going to rifle through 40 year old photo albums, do yourself a favor. Don't do what I did. Wear a dust mask or run an air purifier. I don't have allergies but managed to inhale enough particulate to irritate the heck out of my nasal passages and throat.

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No wonder my throat feels like sandpaper. Does this mean I can eat ice cream for dinner?

Old, embarrassing family photos...

Back in town after a weekend trip downstate to see Mr. P's mom. Since he would be working around the house, I had to find something to occupy myself. Something productive. She has a (treasure) chest filled with old family photos, many of which I haven't seen. Scanning in all the photos sounded like a reasonable project. Except there are close to a thousand images...

We brought six albums home for me to work during the week.

Say hi to baby Mr. P!

Something's cookin'

Appetizers
To say that we love eating is stating the obvious. Everyone enjoys food! But cooking is a completely different animal. Before you can eat, you have to purchase and plan, then find the desire AND time... Once you've tackled those hurdles you've got prep, wash, chop, season, add heat and assemble. While you're at it, try to get everything to finish at the same time! Given all of this, why is it so surprising to learn other couples don't cook (alone or together)? We'd always assumed making meals together was automatic. You've gotta eat - why not do it together!