Stop looking!!

Even though I have and LOVE my wedding dress, I still can't stop looking through magazines to see what is in fashion and what's trendy. (Totally playing with fire here!)

I received an email today from Ms. Vera Wang and was freaked when I saw that she has done a difusion line with David's Bridal with 12 dresses from $600-$1200. The dresses are lovely, but thankfully I don't like them as much as my dress. Whew!

(Source: David's Bridal)

I think these are my three favorites. Aren't they so glamourous? It's not very me (thankfully), but I think they would make amazing wedding dresses. She also has a line of accessories and veils which I will definitely be checking out! 

Baby Model Strikes again!

Baby Carson is back online at Babies R Us and their local flyer this week. Look at his chubby legs! Isn't he just too adorable?

Here's a close up of the picture

French Food Adventures

This week wasn't all about studying (thankfully)! The uni hosted a couple of nights out, and I went out to dinner with some new friends on the other nights.

We had a wine and cheese tasting which was pretty fab. There was a sommelier who told us all about the different regions in France and what types of wine they produced. We listened-ish but really just wanted the wine to be handed out.

Stinky Cheese

We also went to a couple of lovely French restaurants. This has actually been the first time I've gone traveling where the restaurant didn't have a translated English menu. I could work out what some of the dishes were but not all of them. I was feeling adventurous and picked something where I didn't recognise any of the words.

La Petite Friture a Grignoter

What could this amazing delight be? I was hoping for something CRAZY... turns out it was calamari- not so exotic but still delicious. For my main course I went with pigeon- yes THE flying rats. I had never seen it on a menu before and figured what not?

And here's what she looked like.

Yum! It actually tasted similar to duck but was a bit more gamey.

Finally, we headed to a little sweet shop and got macaroons which is crazy trendy right now. Although they are pretty little things, I'm not sure I understand the craze. I found them to be ok- pretty sugary to be honest.

So there you have my French food adventures. We also spent a lot of time eating baguettes- morning, noon and night which is not as exotic as pigeon :) I'm looking forward to my next trip in March! 

Opps!

I completely and totally forgot to wish my buddy a Happy Anniversary yesterday. I can't believe it's been NINE years!!!!!

Bedouin Tent in Petra, Jordan 

Ouch!

My brain hurts. I don't think I've had to concentrate this much for years!

We've been going on a non-stop learning experience 8 hours a day for 4 days straight- not cute. However, what is cute .... where I've been spending my days. Does this classroom not remind you of the classroom at "M.I.T" in Good Will Hunting? Can you spot the 1989 relic overhead projector? And of course the chalkboard? I don't think the class knew what to do with themselves when the professor whipped out the chalk!!!

Liar

I'm such a liar. I said I wouldn't talk about weddings while at school, but one of the gals in my class recently got engaged and two others recently got married. As you can imagine, we haven't shut up about weddings since Monday :)

One of the girls is American and moved to the UK for work, but she got married in a Sonoma California vineyard (swoon!). When she told me that her wedding was featured on StyleMePretty, one of my MOST favorite wedding blogs, I nearly died of jealousy.

Look at how GORGEOUS!  I kept on asking her questions about her wedding with the hope that she'll just plan mine for me....wishful thinking! Enjoy the rest of the pictures here. 

 (Source- StyleMePretty)

ahh...oui oui....bonjour...au revoir

That's about the extent of my French after 7 years of studies...Pathetic, I know. It will do me no good this week while I'm in France.

I found out a couple of weeks ago that I was accepted to a part time executive-baby-MBA-type program at the amazing INSEAD school in France for the year.  We have intensive classes for a full week three times this year, and I'm here in Fountainbleu for the start of the program this week. 

It's actually a really strange experience because I feel like I just started freshman year all over again...trying to make new friends, being scared to eat by myself, making sure we walk in packs to class :) I've got one day down so far. It's strange to take notes and be in a classroom setting - such a change from my normal life.

I'm off to do HOMEWORK (!!!!!), but expect some non-wedding updates from me this week! :) 

Fishy Feet

This weekend, some gal pals and I decided that we needed to treat ourselves to get over the January blues. What better way then to get a fish pedicure, right? Riiiight. We went to Sole Therapy in St. George's arcade, and it was a weird and unrelaxing experience.

The place is cute, and there were actually a lot of people who stopped in to try out this treat.  Essentially, you stick your feet in a tank and they EAT YOUR DEAD SKIN. I die. Sooo weird.

This was the general reaction from all of us. EKKS!

Once you settle in, it doesn't feel that different then a bubbling foot bath. However, when you look down, fish are eating your feet!!! It definitely felt like there were tons of fish just nibbling away. The weirdest part is when they get in between your toes. EKKKS!!!

While it was strange, it did leave our feet feeling super soft. After that freakish experience, we needed to calm our nerves so off to Saba for cocktails! :)

BRRR!!!

We had our first come dine with me session of the new year at my house yesterday. With the advent of new year's resolutions, I kept it super healthy and easy.

- Hummus and carrots
- Stir Fry Chicken and lettuce wraps
- Jackfruit and Lychee

I put the appetizers out on the living room table and then went into the kitchen to start the main dish. After a couple of minutes, I came back out to check on the gals and this is what I saw:

BRRRR! It's cold in the house! I forgot to change the timer on our heat and it was still chilly when we came on. Even on full blast it was chilly- How embarrassing!

Wedding Website

Since we have tons of out of town guests coming to our wedding, we  I felt we needed a wedding website to update guests on travel and accommodation. I also overshare (obviously with this blog practically telling you what I eat every morning!) so a wedding website was created.

The free Knot wedding websites were pretty good, but didn't allow for tons of creativity not that our wedding website is that crazy. I actually used Google sites. They have some cute wedding website templates that allow you to customise the site. Also, you can incorporate Google Maps to help your friends locate the ceremony. You can also incorporate Picassa which allows guests to upload their pictures into one central place after the wedding.  Err... I drink the Google Kool-aid, eh?

Here's a shot of our website:

The only problem with the site is that you then have a long URL so if you were to put these on the save the dates, you would have something like this:

sites.google.com/site/supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

That's not cute. So, I bought a domain on GoDaddy.com (terrible superbowl commercials but cheap domains!) that looks more like this and redirected it to the Google site.

BfLastName-Mylastname.com

Better! It was super easy so let me know if you're looking to do the same, and I'll point you in the right direction.

Productivity!

I had a whirlwind US holiday and had such a fab time with the family! However, in that time I made HUGE progress with wedding planning. Below are the things that have been (happily) crossed off my to-do list.

- Bought the dress!
- Booked the venue (and confirmed date for September!)
- Ordered the wedding cake
- Asked my high school BFF to be our officiant (cute!)
- Picked out the save the dates
- Found the bridesmaid dresses (though still debating on color)
- Thisclose to booking the caterer (just to get it over and done with)
- Found hotels and B&Bs for guests

Pretty good for a week and a half, no? I've still got tons to do but the biggest priority is for an amazing photographer. If you have any suggestions, send them my way!

House Update

With all the craze of wedding planning, decorating the house was moved to the back burner. However, while I was back in the good old USA, I found some amazing rugs for the house.

I have to say I'm super sad that we didn't buy our first house in the US cause there are TONS of adorable house decor that is just not available here :( While walking through Target, Pottery Barn and Crate and Barrel, I would have gladly taken anything and everything home! (We can't even have our wedding registry there cause then we would have to ship it home- Pain!) Anyways, we were looking for a rug for our living room and conservatory, and here is what I ended up with.

What do you think? The rug is from Anthropologie, but I got it at TJ(or K- depending on where you live) Maxx. Even though I was searching high and low for an all yellow rug (and not a floral one), I love the colors of this one. Now I have to rethink the color for my curtains.

And for the conservatory... Nice, right? I purchased it from Dash and Albert  who have an AMAZING collection of cotton and wool rugs. If I didn't have to carry it back with me, I think I would have bought one for ever room in the house!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, dear readers! What did you get up to? Something fun, I hope.

I was super exciting and passed out at 10:30 on New Year's eve (awesome!), but woke up just in time to see New Kids on the Block and the Backstreet Boys on Dick Clark's New Year's eve special (Could the start of the new year BE any better?)

On New Year's day, the fam and I headed into Boston for a late lunch and a wander around Boston Commons. There were ice sculptures in the commons but it was 65 degrees (!!) and this is what we saw when we finally found the sculptures...

SAD... Melted and all gone

We didn't give up on Boston though and walked around to find another sculpture that was in better shape. See it in the background? Mom, dad and I are covering it up just a bit.

We wandered around some more and found the cute frog pond where there were SO many people waiting to skate. Here's I am with my frog buddy. 

I hope you had a lovely, lovely start to the new year. 

J Day

Yesterday, I headed into Boston to hang out with some pals from different parts of my life (college, after college roomie, work friend) and strangely enough all their names began with J! (Jackie, Jasmine, Jenny). It's a requirement to be my friend apparently. Another requirement- the love of food!

I met Jackie in Cambridge for Breakfast at this lovely little Turkish breakfast cafe. How yum does that look!

With breakfast barely digested, I headed over to Brookline to meet my friend Jasmine at our most favorite sushi restaurant.  Looks like a cocktail, tastes like tuna. I seriously could devour fifty of these glasses in one sitting.

I had some time before meeting Jenn for dinner, so headed to one of my most favorite spots - the Natick Mall. I could spend hours just walking around in that place. Unfortunately, I only had two so I had to take it all in quickly. After enjoying the mall, I headed over to my friend Jenn's house for Chinese take out. Love, love, love.

Today, we spent all day visiting and trying out wedding caterers. My wedding dress diet seriously needs to start ASAP!