Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Christmas Ornaments!

Every time I pass this tree, I always have to stop and take a look at my favorite ornaments. I don't know if it's the fondness for it or the slight OCD, lol, but either way, I figured I'd share some of my favorites.

We got this one on our Disney trip the week (and a half) after we got engaged. When we buying it, a woman next to us said "Oh is that your engagement date? That's my wedding anniversary!" How funny.


 I love this one of two lobsters singing Christmas carols. We picked this one up on our trip to Maine last   winter while celebrating our 4th dating anniversary.


I got this one to save for next year. Just came today! I couldn't help myself! It's from PersonalizationMall.com. If you love personalized stuff, this site is like crack.

This one I picked up earlier this week at one of those ornament booths at the mall (Roosevelt Field). I can't be trusted around anything that is personalized. 

The inspiration for it came from this picture we took during our summer Disney vacation this past year: 



This one we made after our Disney World trip in 2012. The frame of the ornament depicts the symbols representing each of the four parks: the Sorcerer's hat with Mickey ears for Hollywood Studios, the castle for Magic Kingdom, the globe for Epcot and the Tree for Animal Kingdom. In the picture, we are standing in front of the Days of Christmas store in Downtown Disney. Needless to say, this definitely made the list of favorites!!

Need I say more!

One of my favorite ornaments, of Jonathan's, that he'll definitely be taking with him next year!

We have so many saved in a bin for our first official (married) Christmas together. Just another thing to look forward to!

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Happy Birthday Victoria!

Today, this sweetie pie turned 2! 


iPhoto shows you the pictures taken in the last 12 months, which of course means that the first pictures shown today are from her 1st birthday. Crazy how she's grown since then. (Yeah I know, that's what babies do...they grow, lol)



And here she was on her day of birth:


Over the weekend we had celebrated by going to Bounce U, this place in Brooklyn that had all these blow up bouncy contraptions for the kids to run around in. The afternoon ends in a room with pizza and cake. It reminds me a little of Discovery Zone from back in the day. (Anyone remember that place?!) This particular Bounce U was connected to an Asian supermarket. We had never been there before and didn't realize there was a separate entrance to get in. Jonathan, his parents and I literally walked all around the supermarket before figuring it out. Priceless!! We couldn't stop laughing at our mistake.  Here are some pictures from the party.





Victoria is, for those that are not familiar (I'm not actually sure who reads this!) the daughter of Jonathan's sister a.k.a one of our cutie flower girls :)

Monday, December 9, 2013

Natali & Goran's Wedding - November 23, 2013

Natali and Goran's wedding day was one long party. In similar fashion to a Big Fat Greek Wedding, as the movie goes, this was One Big Macedonian Wedding! (Though technically speaking I don't think the Macedonians and Greeks are friendly but I don't know how else to describe it!)

Some backstory: This girl and I became best buddies in the 3rd grade...aka the 1992-1993 school year. Holy moly. Talk about feeling old. Right before the 7th grade I believe, her family moved to New Jersey. This was definitely sad but it also gave me another great friendship. Natali, myself and another girl named Tiffany always hung together in the 6th grade and after Natali moved, Tiffany and I became close. Flash forward 15 years later, Tiffany is what my mom calls our adopted sister, haha :)

Well the point of that story is to show how good things come from seemingly bad moments. (One friend leaving and gaining a new one.) Even though Natali and her family left, we did get to see them sporadically over the years. But it was always understood: we would be in each other lives forever in some way. The wedding was also fun because I got to see people that I hadn't seen in the longest, like her uncle and Godmother. Some of them remembered me, which was very cool.

I had to be at her parent's home in New Jersey between 10:30 and 11AM, but since Natali herself was running behind at the hair salon, we had more time to get there. I was late for my 9AM hair appointment but the girl managed to do a great job and had me out of there by 10:15. I think she did a great job!




Jonathan and I arrived at 11:30 and quickly began to get into our outfits. The outside of the house was nicely decorated. 


The house was filled to the brim with people. It was great! 


Though I didn't know any of the other bridesmaids, except for her cousin and Godmother, they were all very nice. The reason I hadn't met the majority of them before was because the day of the bridal shower landed on the day of Michele and Joe's wedding! (October 5th) I had already RSVPed long before the bridal shower date was revealed. I was so bummed and attempted to do both in one day but time wise, it wouldn't have worked out.



One of the things I got a kick out of, was that both bride and groom got ready in the same house! I think because they were married in June civilly but whatever the reason, it made for a unique start to the wedding! 

So out the house we went, all the while people clapped and the musicians continued to play music.



We took ourselves to the church, as the (very large) family rode in the limo. They were only a 10 minute drive from St. Nikolas Macedonian Church. 








Natali looked beautiful! And the ceremony itself was very interesting. I am used to Catholic rituals but love observing other faiths. For starters, the wedding party stood the entire time. The entire ceremony was sung. A large white shawl was wrapped around the bride and groom, with a crown put on their heads and they had to walk around it a couple of times. That is a poor description of what actually went on but after the entire ceremony was done, we headed to The Brownstone for the reception. 

I didn't find out until later that The Brownstone is made popular thanks to Real Housewives of NJ. One of the housewives husbands owns the place apparently. 

I didn't take any pictures once I got in, though my mom did. Here are some of my favorites from her camera. (Canon Rebel T3i)


It was fun to be in a wedding party together. It was our first and as far as I can imagine, our last!


This next picture shows you how massive the wedding party was!


I've always wondered what our height difference looked like standing next to each other like this. Not gonna lie, it gives me a good chuckle! :) (FYI: I love it, but it does look amusing.)




Just beautiful.





Cheers in the bridal suite! Jonathan clearly got a head start...haha

I am just seeing these photos for the first time as I upload. I ADORE this one!





My mom took this as we were leaving the bridal suite to head to the cocktail hour. Priceless! (For those unfamiliar with these faces, that would be my lovely sister in the front looking like a movie star, Tiffany laughing at me haha, and my brother drinking way in the back.)




Jonathan and I did this whole thing for our entrance where he tossed the flowers to me. I'm guessing this was pre-toss!

First dance. A joyful one at that!



What a great shot my mom got!

Why yes, that's a pig with hundreds of dollars in it.

And yes, people are clapping and dancing around it.


The cake cutting! Natali had changed into a different dress by this point.

And then into this, for the last dress change of the night. And yes that is money on the floor, lol.

All in all a great night, and so crazy to think, the last wedding until our own. 


Monday, December 2, 2013

Save the Dates

Now that the save-the-dates are out, I can post about them. Yay!


I was so pleased with the quality from MagnetStreet.com. I had heard many good things about the website. There's another one called Wedding Paper Divas and their save the dates are SO nice...and also really pricey. With MagnetStreet, we were able to get 15% off the original order. On top of that, the day after we ordered it, I got a coupon via snail mail (!) for 25% off. We called them and they applied the 25% even after we made the purchase! Well since it was already paid, they refunded back $22 to reflect the complete 40% off. Great customer service if you ask me!

For those that don't know Jonathan, he gives 100% in whatever he does. Unfortunately that means even little things like save the dates :-P It took us hours to complete the save the date because we kept trying different pictures, fonts, etc. When it was finally done, I think I literally got up and cheered, lol. But it came out great so I'm not complaining. If we had gone with Wedding Paper Divas, this is the two I liked:


&




It took about a week to come and as soon as they arrived, I got to work on printing out address labels, putting stamps on the back, and all that little stuff. What surprised me was how time consuming it all was. All the addresses started to blend in after awhile. We ordered 100 save the dates and I sent out 91 so far, I think. Something like that. At one point, I thought I was losing my mind. Take, for example, this exchange between myself and Kim (one of my married go-to friends for wedding advice!)

Hilarious!

Yeah...I worried about how to stuff magnets into an envelope. I've lost it.

Anyhow, once I regained my sanity, I was able to mail them all out. The post office clerk almost dropped the entire stack and I looked on in horror as she caught them in time. Okay, so I was still a tad bit looney. But they were my babies for a week!




Yeah...a whole lot of save the dates!


The stamp I used on the back of the envelopes was something I had picked up from Michael's Arts and Crafts. I've always had a stamp collection but then after engagement, I had to get this particular one. You can get it here: Save The Date Stamp. By the way, that picture above was not organized that way for a photo op. I spaced them out to dry for an hour! Tedious, but fun.

Our address labels I had ordered weeks prior from Zazzle. Zazzle is awesome. If you've never checked the website out, you're welcome. 


I liked this fall themed one. I almost went with fall themed stamps from Zazzle too (a pumpkin with the word love in the center) but I was talked out of it, thankfully! Would have been nice, but a waste of money. The address labels were a little bit more practical. For stamps, we went with the "celebrate" ones the post office sells. 

I mailed the majority out this past Friday, a half hour before the post office closed, and a lot of people got it the next day! I loved the feedback we got! It was fun to see their excitement. I mailed three more out today since those took time in finding the addresses. Instead of handing it to a postal clerk this time around, I put it in the slot that's inside the post office and they got stuck to the lid! D'oh! Magnets are tricky. 

I did want to note most people wait 6-8 months before the wedding to send out save the dates but most lists tell you that you can start once you hit the 11 month mark. I really wanted to send it before winter hit because of its' fall theme, hence why we sent them out now.

The pumpkins in the save-the-date are one of my favorite wedding purchases. We plan to use them during the reception, like on one of the tables in the hallway or something.


We got a great deal on them. $30 each. There were websites selling pumpkins for wedding purposes, for well over $100 per pumpkin! Of course, I was the crazy loon willing to spend that much, but when I saw the Michael's one, I was sold. They came in real fast too. That store really has gotten an A+ for me in this wedding planning. The fact that both the Woodside and Forest Hills houses are in walking distance to one is a bonus.

And while we are on the topic of save the dates, on one of our recent Michael's visits, my mom, aunt and I bumped into a neighbor we hadn't seen in awhile. She asked about the wedding and if it was going to be at Saint Sebastian's and when I said yes and that she could stop by the church and watch if she wanted, she said she'd mark it down. Pretty cute! That's what I love about Woodside, everyone knows each other, or at least of each other. Not that I'd want the whole neighborhood to show up, but ya know what I mean!