Decisions, Decisions

So, we're down to five and a half weeks until the wedding - yikes! But I'm feeling good about how everything is shaping up, planning-wise. It seems that I'm really on top of things, compared to what I expected to feel like less than two months before the big day. I think it really helps that I'm in PR, as I keep reminding myself that I've planned bigger events, with less time and a tighter budget, than I'm doing for my wedding. Plus, it helps when you're personally invested in the cause, so I care even more :)

There definitely have been and will be some big decisions still to make - such as what song do I dance to with my dad? There are all the typical, popular ones that everyone uses, which could be fine, but I'm worried I'll just sob my way through them. So I'm starting to think I'd like to find a great song to dance to that isn't reminiscent of the daddy/daughter tear-inducing ones, but that still has a special message. Any thoughts? Because I'm stumped.

We also need to do some additional music selections for what songs MUST be played, what song MUST NOT be played (The Macarena, Celebration, Chicken Dance to name a few) and what songs we'd LIKE to be played if there's an opportunity. I'm not sure I can care enough to state which songs must be played - I just want there to be fun music for people to dance to. I feel like I can trust my DJ to handle this, but at the same time, I'm detail-oriented enough to want to provide some guidance as well.

Along with the music, the photographer has asked for a list of shots to capture during the ceremony and reception. Now, again, I'm in PR so I get the importance of making a shot list. But, this is a WEDDING. I want EVERYTHING captured. There's nothing I don't want, so why should I provide a shot list? If it happens, I want it on film, and I don't think that's too much to ask. However, I feel like I need to come up with unique shots that may not be considered "typical" to ensure the photographer doesn't miss anything. Any suggestions to that end as well?

Finally, my programs. I really truly am having a hard time committing time and resources toward these. I know people like them to know what comes next in the ceremony, who is involved in the wedding, etc., but I'm starting to create unnecessary stress around these. I originally thought I wanted a shiny ivory paper with dark purple ink, to tie into my purple bridesmaid colors, but now I'm worried it's going to look cheap having purple ink. I guess I just need to wait and see a proof, but I'm getting stressed out about it just thinking about what they COULD look like.

On the plus side, we did make some headway with decisions - we settled the menu, have chosen the cake (that was actually done months ago) and set the times for the photographer and limo. Small steps, but we'll get this wedding planned eventually!

I'm really looking forward to the next chapter in life of being married and enjoying each other's company (especially since it'll be in glorious, sunny San Diego!) I'm working on not making every conversation between the finace and I about the wedding, and I think I'm doing a pretty good job, but it'll still be nice when the stressful details are all behind us.

Maybe I just need one of Blondie's signature mimosas with just a splash of OJ for color to ease my mind :)

Just a splash of OJ for color

I LOVE mimosas. They are by far my favorite Sunday beverage. I have tried my share of champagnes and juice combinations and have found many that I like (and a few that I did not like... sorry Barefoot Bubbly). Here is my recommendation for building the best mimosa:

INGREDIENTS:

Ballatore Gran Spumante Champagne

This lovely bubbly sparkling wine beverage is sweet, fruity and very affordable at only $10 a bottle. It's made from Muscat grapes grown around Asti, a town in Italy. It's also low in alcohol which is nice since it is a Sunday beverage afterall. I'm not the only one who likes this-- my friends like it too AND it won a Double Gold Medal at the 2005 California State Fair Wine Competition. I'll drink to that!

Tropicana Pure Valencia Orange Juice

This 100% orange juice is crafted from the top 3% of Tropicana’s Florida orange harvest and contains only the juice from select Valencia oranges. Valencia oranges are known for their deep, rich orange color and great taste. Just like the commercials say, Valencia oranges spend more than a year ripening on the tree. The deep orange color also gives the mimosa a pretty color!

DIRECTIONS:

Mix champagne and orange juice in a large pitcher. Keep chilled and pour into champagne flutes to serve. If you're entertaining (or just feeling like being fancy) add some fresh raspberries for color -- you just need 1 or 2 per glass.

I hope you have an opportunity to try this combination and I hope you enjoy it. Let me know if you have any other great recommendations!

Cheers!

-Blondie

Changes are a-comin'

Well, it's been quite some time since my last post (oh, I feel like I'm at confession. Forgive me Father, I have sinned. It has been many many days since my last confession.) In my defense, however airtight it is or not, I have been incredibly busy with wedding stuff, as well as some other changes that are taking place.

The wedding stuff is going really well - I had my shower in Chicago this past weekend and had a wonderful time. My aunts put on quite the party and my friends were wonderful, coming out of the city to the burbs, bearing gifts, their energy and cheers every time I opened a wine glass, margarita glass, martini glass, etc. My mom was thrilled to meet my friends - it's amazing how foreign our friends become to our parents as we get older. I always talk about my friends, especially to my mom, and it was great for her to meet them (and, hopefully, them to meet her!)

The shower really made things seem real - not that I wasn't thinking this was really happening, but things just really hit home with all the people I care about around me for such an exciting time. I can't wait to start my life with the fiance and finally live together in the same state, much less in the same house! That might take some getting used to :) We always joke around that we're going to have to get two apartments since we're so used to living apart that being in the same house might make us crazy!

Speaking of crazy, there's lots going on in these next few weeks. Visiting the fiance probably for the last time in Missouri before the wedding, the bachelorette party is the following weekend (BIG thanks for the cutest invitations EVER to Brown Eyed Girl and Blondie!!!), then it's my hair and makeup trial, followed by Easter, my shower on the fiance's side and getting ready with the final preparations for the wedding and our big move.

I'm really going to try to keep blogging during all this, but I fear that it might be all wedding-related, which I can't imagine is always the most stimulating of reads for anyone other than me! I'll work to vary my topics and hopefully not bore everyone to death with the wedding details.

So, to close out on another subject, I need to learn how to cook. With all the stuff that we got at the shower, I'd say about 85% of it was kitchen-related. I don't know what to do with a blender/food processor outside of making margaritas with it. Time to start studying up and talking more with Blondie, my resident cooking-expert friend! Any suggestions on good starter cookbooks or Web sites to be checking out? Gotta fulfill my wifely duties in T minus 74 days! (not that I'm counting) :)

-Big Red

Houston, we have a problem...

OK, so there is no problem, well, not with me anyway... but that is the line that stood out to me most of the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 movie quotes. Quite a memorable list which includes many famous lines including "Toto, I've got a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore," "Bond. James Bond," and my boyfriend's favorite, "May the Force be with you." You can check them all out here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFI

However, I couldn't help but notice a few important quotes were missing. Here are some of my faves that didn't make the list...

"You can't be the absolute final word on drivers licenses" ... "Girlie, as far as you're concerned, I'm the messah of the DMV." - Cher and the DMV guy from Clueless (1995)

"Well, um, actually a pretty nice little Saturday, we're going to go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I don't know, I don't know if we'll have enough time." - Frank from Old School (2003)

"I like to picture Jesus in a tuxedo T-shirt because it says I want to be formal, but I'm here to party." - Cal Naughton, Jr. from Talladega Nights (2006)

"PC lobe letter? What the f*ck does that mean?" - Michael Bolton from Office Space (1999)

"On wednesdays we wear pink!" - Karen from Mean Girls (2004)

"Hi. I'm Elle Woods and this is Bruiser Woods. We're both Gemini vegetarians." - Elle Woods from Legally Blonde (2001).

What are some of your favorites?!

-Blondie

Success and curveballs

I'd like to explore success for a minute. Success comes in many forms. For some, it's about matching or beating a competitor's capability/time/goal. For others it's finding a soul mate, establishing a home and creating a family. And for still others, it's about always challenging themselves to be better or to learn / experience more so that they can give back more. I believe I best fall into this last category.

For me, life is about taking risks and bouncing back from rejection (I have a quote from Dr. Lillian Glass to thank for that). It's about failing, but failing up. Don't get me wrong, success plays a role in my life, too, but I've found it's those failing moments that most help everything come into focus.

But why am I talking about this?

On Sunday I happened across a book at Anthropologie. It's titled, It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want to Be. I highly encourage you to pick it up and give it a 4 or 5 page test-drive. I bet you'll find the advice obvious (like don't seek approval, seek criticism), but I also bet it will suck you in and open your eyes to how thinking slightly outside the box can also put you ahead of the curve on the road to success.

And if not, you can always rely on my favorite contingency source of advise, my friends in Rascal Flatts. For example, "when life throws you curves ... learn to swerve." No truer words exist in my life -- what about yours?

A pick-me-up

It’s been 10 days since my last post and I’ve been lambasted by numerous fans, so here we go. Let's have some fun.

Today I want to chat about the benefits of hitting on strangers (told you it would be fun). Yes, in my opinion, it is totally okay for a single person to hit on strangers.

• Benefit 1: The “pass-it-on” factor. Really – doesn’t it feel good to be complimented? Do you find it gives an extra bounce to your step? Uh huh. And now answer this: why not pass that feeling on to some unsuspecting lovely creature whose perfume (or cologne) wakes your insides?
  
• Benefit 2: The “jackpot” factor. At the least, you’ll get a cold stare or maybe be swung at (2 tips here: stay at least an arm’s-length away and don’t say anything inappropriate!), whereas at the most, you could snag a new PH (or new potential wifey, you male ThreeChicChick fans out there)! Hello, jackpot!
  
• Benefit 3: The “just because it feels good” factor. Even I have had my fair share of men crooning sweet nothings out their car windows, commenting on my calves, or even stopping me to discuss my toes, and yet while some of these instances were downright awkward – they made me smile – and I still get a good laugh out of them, today.

So, if I may – I challenge each of you to accept this mission: Dare yourself next time you see a hottie, make a game of it, or share a comment and consider it your good deed for the day. And oh, tell me about it J

Let the Good Times Roll

So I spent the back half of last week and the weekend in The Big Easy (New Orleans) for Mardi Gras. I was down there for work, or "work" if you will, and decided to stay for the weekend to enjoy the craziness that is Mardi Gras celebrations and the carry-over from the Saints victory that was still rocking and rolling a week later. I was fortunate enough to do the same thing last year for work and play, and the fiance, who at that time was just "the boy," came down to hang out too. He came down again this year as well and we had the best time. If you haven't ever been to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, I highly recommend it...with one catch. I recommend going the weekend before Fat Tuesday - I can't even imagine what the city would be like Monday and Tuesday. We go out Friday and Saturday nights and that's enough to tire you out for a week. The crowds are unbelievable on Bourbon Street, and only get more irritating the more time you spend around them.

The first time you go is great, watching the parades, getting into catching beads and the other stuff they throw from the floats, pushing people out of the way to catch the beads from the balconies on Bourbon, stumbling through the trash in the streets, avoiding the religious zealots protesting the celebration and handing out literature detailing your heathen ways, and the fiery ways you'll be punished in the afterlife.

Since this was our second time at Mardi Gras, we didn't deal so much with the Bourbon Street mess, but instead found some great dive bars and, most importantly, explored the restaurant scene, which is what New Orleans is also known for.

If you go, here are a few MUSTS you should eat at...disclaimer, we ate at a number of these through my work, so we didn't have to pay full price for most of the meals, allowing us to become incredibly spoiled over the week, as these places can definitely add up. However, it's completely worth it to splurge on a few of these:

- Restaurant August: Owned by Chef John Besh, who you may know from Top Chef Masters, The Next Iron Chef (runner up) and his new cookbook that is everywhere, this restaurant features some delicious dishes that are pleasing to even the most picky eater (me.) I don't eat seafood, so you can imagine how hard it is to find a good meal in a city on the water. However, I highly recommend the yard egg raviolo with brown butter and sage for an appetizer to share and the filet of beef for the meal (OMG). They will change your life. I was also told that the Redfish and the crab-stuffed gnocchi were a religious experience.

- Commander's Palace: Executive Chef Tory McPhail knows how to keep his customers happy, namely by visiting certain tables during the meal to chat you up and make recommendations on desserts, wine pairings, and just make you feel cool. We were treated to his personal recommendations on the menu, which were all amazing - antelope, rabbit, lamb and veal chop for the entree were all melt in your mouth, and the ice cream (I think it was buttermilk) and strawberry shortcake desserts made me want to bathe in them.

- Bacco: The fiance and I celebrated our anniversary with a wonderful dinner out on the town the last night we were in town. The fiance had done some research and this was a restaurant that kept coming up as a fantastic place to eat. It had a great atmosphere - very classy and elegant, white table cloths, marble bar, waiters in crisp shirts and long aprons, the works. We started with an appetizer of Calamari Creole (I was feeling brave and tried the dreaded seafood) and it was amazing. The calamari wasn't chewy or tough, like I've had before, but was light and flavorful and the sauce had a spice that really complimented the flavor. There were a few things on the menu for dinner that looked very appetizing so you really couldn't go wrong here.

- Finally, our last day in town, we went out for lunch at The Ugly Dog Saloon, which is known for its BBQ and it delivered! We both got the sliders on special, which featured chicken, beef and pork, along with their homemade BBQ sauce that had just enough kick to give it flavor without being too hot for my taste.

Any way you slice it, you'll have a blast in New Orleans. I'm looking forward to going again, maybe not during Mardi Gras, to check out more of the city - its architecture, the haunted tours, more restaurants :)

Where do you recommend going for a taste of The Crescent City, so I can start my list for next time?