Happy Thanksgiving!

This was the last Thanksgiving for Jonathan and I as "single people" as the saying goes.  It was a very pleasant and traditional one as usual. This year we opted to go to his aunt's house in Westchester again, even though we had gone last year. Reason being that his Uncle Dom had unfortunately suddenly passed away this past spring. We figured it would be best to make the house feel as full as possible this year because of that.

I liked what Jonathan wrote about his own view of yesterday:
Nicole reminded me that it was my last Thanksgiving as a single man and the last Thanksgiving in this house (at least, the way it is now). After she had said that, I got to thinking, how true she was. I was a bit sentimental...but not a bad way. I just tried to soak it all in. But, trust me, I'm more than happy and eager to start my life as a married man! :-)

We hit some pretty awful traffic on the way over. What normally takes just over a half hour or so, turned into an almost two hour car ride. But once we got there, the feasting began. Though I did miss seeing Ayla and Eliza (my two little cousins), we had another little cutie cousin there, Caity, the daughter of Jonathan's cousin Lauren and her husband Chris.

Between dinner and dessert, we hung out in his cousin Danielle's room, which is like Disney mecca. Needless to say, Caity really enjoys hanging with her aunt in there!

We left around 6 with full bellies and after dropping his parents at the house, continued to Woodside. The traditional movie was on (they chose The Money Pit with Tom Hanks) and the girls were down with their dad. Alex, my aunt, was nice enough to go get them. Luckily they weren't sleeping so I got to kiss them all up. Do I sound like a sucker for my little cousins? ....that's because I am, lol.

Raise your hands if you think my grandparents need to upgrade their TV!

We wrapped up the night with a Kris Kringle picking. This year, it was brought up that maybe we would take a break from the usual big gift swap (booo!) thanks to all the wedding stuff coming up. (Oops?) Jonathan wanted to participate too, so pretty much everyone in the house minus my Opa had names in the hat. The person I drew is easy because gift cards are definitely the way to go here. And, of course, regardless of what my mom said, Jonathan and I agreed my parents are still getting a gift from us! 

That leads to me to a short but sweet "Thankful" list:

1. I am thankful that everyone (both families & friends) have been excited about the wedding. It's more exciting thinking of it as a family affair. With lots of good food and music, of course. The emotional and financial support means more than a paragraph can express!

2. I am thankful for Starbucks iced mochas. They keep me sane, which keeps Jonathan sane, lol.

3. That even on Thanksgiving morning, some Starbucks employees came in and even seemed genuinely cheery as they worked!

4. Speaking of Jonathan, I am thankful that there is someone like him in the world. Everyone needs a Jonathan in their life. 

5. For siblings. Instant buddies for life. And I've got three! (A headache for my kid self, a blessing for my adult self, lol)

6. For my parents and Jonathan's parents, who secretly must all be saints.

7. The Big Man Upstairs. Without Him, I wouldn't be here to make this list!

Another year older

Been slacking on the updates ever since I got the complete series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer for my birthday, thanks to Jonathan! Well that, and things have been pretty low-key lately.

Turning 28 on the 8th of this month was relatively painless (the pain part being two years shy of 30!). Jonathan took me to London Lennie's for dinner, a fantastic restaurant on Woodhaven Blvd. They were having a dinner special so I opted for the limited menu and, as I am notorious for doing, ended up wishing I had went with the salmon instead of the fried fish platter. The point of this story? I don't know, lol. Just acknowledging that bad habit of regretting my dinner choices!

Afterwards, Jonathan had invited a few of our friends out. It was a last minute thing that he decided to do the week before. But on a short notice, I enjoyed the company of those who came out!

Here are some wedding related things that have happened in the past few weeks:

Honeymoon - We started off with putting a deposit on NCL's 7-day Hawaiian cruise around the islands. We will be there November 1-8. (Starting the honeymoon one age and ending it a year older. Awesome! Or not.) As I had mentioned, my dad called for us since my parents have gone so often, they are phone buddies with one of the travel agents for NCL, lol. Both my dad and the agent urged us to upgrade to a balcony room. Their arguments were hard to ignore, like the free breakfast every morning that you can eat while taking in the view from your room. I figure, when the heck will we get a chance to go to Hawaii again in the near future? Might as well do this trip right!

After that, we waited a bit and started booking the hotels, since reservations have opened up for next fall. So the hotel we're staying at for 2 days in Anaheim is booked for our Disney adventure, as well as the hotel (Waikiki Beach Marriott) in Oahu for 4 days.

Save the Dates - We ordered 100 save the dates with MagnetStreet that was supposed to ship out today but not sure what happened there. We're hoping to mail it out before December arrives and the Christmas card frenzy begins. We bought the address labels for the envelopes but are slacking on the actual printing them out part. Our return address labels are fall themed and cute (from Zazzle). I'll post a picture once they've been received by everyone.

With Thanksgiving approaching and Christmas coming at lightning speed, the wedding planning can take a nice break (well, once the save the dates are out.)

This Saturday, I am a bridesmaid for Natali, a childhood friend of mine. The wedding party is absolutely huge and Jonathan is one of the groomsmen, actually. The bride and groom come from a big European family. I remember, I think it was 1996 or so, I attended a family party (wedding?) for someone Nat's family knew. We did some big dance with everyone's arms linked, forming a circle. It left quite an impression on my eleven year old self, lol. It's going to be one big party Saturday. Looking forward to it! Both church and reception are located in New Jersey - will be a long, but joyous, day for sure.

Engagement photos

We were able to review our engagement photos recently and let me tell you, deciding which ones to go into a save the date (and then actually making the save the date) was such a process. I think that threw me for a loop. I thought it would be easy breezy but it was far from it! Magnetstreet.com has great affordable save the date magnets so we went with that site. It took us hours to figure out which photos to use and then actually work on the save the date itself, since the template we picked came with four spots for pics. Originally, I did not want a save the date with that many photos but I could see Jonathan really liked playing with that many, so I stuck with it. The end result is really nice! I will post it once they're out.

Here are a few photos from the photo shoot last month with Sal of Graffeo Photography. After reviewing all these, I've determined I never look relaxed in front of the camera, lol. I much rather be the one behind it!

Even though photos from this angle are generally unflattering, I still really like this one.

This picture shows how windy it was that day! My hair whipping around ruined so many good shots    :-(

This picture is too funny not to share. Between Jonathan's face and my hair completely in my face, what a laugh!

This is another one that gave me a good laugh! I've always wondered what people are thinking when they pose for these photos. Jonathan looks so natural. I look like I'm wondering where's the nearest Starbucks.

In real life we'd be holding hands....and looking down at our phones, haha. 

I love this picture - the "There's Something About Mary" hair cracks me up. Jonathan wanted to put it on the save the date (it didn't make the cut). Typical dude!

One of my favorites!! And yes, I do realize the bag is in the background of the photo. Drats!

My favorite wedding item we've bought yet.

 Oh let's stop and dip in the middle of Flushing Meadow Park...lol

It looks like he's trying to make sure I don't get blown away! Haha.

All in all, Sal gave us so many good pictures to work with and we can't thank him enough!

Fall Swap

Over the summer, when I was doing venue research, I had Googled Russo's on the Bay for some reviews. I had been there for a wedding a year prior and my bride friend who had her reception there had told me many wonderful things about it. But once you're in research mode, there's no turning back, lol. I stumbled upon Laura's  blog at the time, which you can still see in the "Our Wedding" tab on her page if you're getting married yourself and want to check it out. I loved that she was candid about the planning process and very informative. Being a wedding planning newbie, I read the whole blog in a matter of weeks!

That being said, I found her new blog and learned about the Fall Swap. It seemed fun, why not? Ironically enough, we got paired up together. Which kind of makes sense, as we are both living in the same borough. Her gifts were very creative. I can't thank her enough!

Everything was very thoughtful (not a thing here I can't use!) and I loved this frame. Jonathan was impressed as well! 

Laura is due with a baby this month and her blog is a fun documentation of that. Head over to hers to see what I got her! 

http://www.littlemomentsbigmoments.blogspot.com/

Week recap

We finally got something out of the way that I've been wanting to do for awhile now...transportation!

This sweet 1966 Rolls Royce is what my dad and I will be arriving to the church in. I wish the church wasn't just 7 blocks away! Would have been fun to go for a long ride in that thing. 

We decided to go with Camelot Limo as the price they offered us for what we needed was lower than the other company we had checked out, that I mentioned in the other post. Since the day-of transportation is generously being taken care of by Jonathan's parents, the final decision rested with them, in terms of what deal to get. They let us pick the cars, of course. They rock! Many thanks to them for helping us. 

So here's the time-line. Mass starts at 2pm so the guys will be picked up in a party bus at Jonathan's house at 1pm and taken to the church. It takes about 20 minutes by car, give or take, from his house in Forest Hills to my house in Woodside. 

Not a bad ride, huh?

After the guys are dropped off, the bus will swing around to get the girls at my house, and my mom and the rest of the family will hop in to go to the church. 

We are having a Mass not just a ceremony so it will take about 45 minutes. With the receiving line, pictures, etc. we figure we will be headed to Long Island around 4pm. Jonathan and I will ride in the party bus with everyone else. From Woodside, it takes about 40 minutes without traffic to get to where Chateau Briand is. The biggest question to answer right now is where are we going to take pictures in between the church and the reception. It gets dark around 6pm  so really we have a good hour for pictures. I feel bad making the Mass at 2 when that's such a huge gap between church and reception but any later, we would be outta luck for pictures. I love Chateau Briand but it's not like Marina Del Rey where there's a big outdoor space for pictures. (Side note: I sometimes tease Jonathan that we should have had it at the Marina because he was always comparing everything to it, since his sis & bro-in-law got married there and it was nothing short of fantastic.) Anyway, we will cross that bridge when we get to it. I'm just happy transportation has been taken care of! And I must say, Samantha, the woman we dealt with at Camelot was so nice and personable. 

Two years ago on this past October 30th, I was a part of Anthony and Gina's wedding. It was such a fun day that I want recap it another time. I remember the excitement leading up to it very well. Would you believe it had snowed the night before? It was fitting too, which I'll explain in that recap.

In other October related news, Halloween with this guy is never a dull moment. Jonathan really wanted to dress up as the Joker from the TV series circa 1966. I opted to be Harley Quinn to complete the duo. It was fun putting on the white face stuff...not so much taking it off at 3AM, lol. We went to a local bar in Glendale called YerMan's that always throws a costume party/contest. We ended up winning best couple costume for the second year in a row!

Last year we went as Alice and the Mad Hatter and in 2010, as Popeye and Olive Oyl! (I was sick for the party in 2011 and skipped out.)

Next year for Halloween, we will be in Hawaii and dressed as newlyweds. Sweeeeet.