sparkley bands

we have been looking around for wedding bands and seeing what we like. there are so many gorgeous styles and types! my engagement ring looks like this, a simple cathedral set solitaire. then the bands styles i have been looking at are mostly eternity bands - floating diamonds, channel-set, and bezel styles. i have small hands so i want a thinner band but still want something with lots of sparkle. right now i'm leaning towards the bezel (last one in the photos), as i love how each diamond is hugged by the band.

inspiration from blue nile & amazon

honeymooney ideas

st. lucia looks perfect, but is it too risky in august (hurricane season)? i read that it's in the hurricane belt and risk is lower than other islands in the caribbean. here are some amazing pics of ladera resort. each room has a pool and an open wall that looks out at the mountains. breathtaking... another idea is lanai, anyone ever been? maui is our backup :)

inspiration by ladera

wedding updates

i have lots of updates that i haven't blogged about yet due to my crazy days as a grad student. here it goes - wedding will be august 2010 in woodside california. that means no more winter wedding but we are still going for that rustic yet modern style. we are in love with our venue, here are a few pics that we took during out visit. it's perfect with the big green meadow and the tall redwood trees, there's even a view of the bay if you look past the trees.

inspiration by me

then... i got a dress! it's the pronovias diamante pictured here. it's with the seamstress right now getting altered and i am changing the neckline to be sweetheart shape. i think i'm going to go for a birdcage veil but need to try different types with the dress on.

inspiration by pronovias

That's all for now :)

pretty floral pinks

i heart this bouquet - love the pinks and the green berries. asked my florist to pull together something like this.

inspiration from the knot

pink pretties!

i decided on these kate spade lovely sandals for my wedding shoes!

inspiration from zappos

pondering shoes

i am starting to look for shoes for my wedding... here are a few that i liked when looking around. i'm not sure whether to go bright and pink or go for a more classy subtle metallic color. also, our wedding is on grass so i could wear a heal and use heel stoppers or i can look for flats/wedges. tons to think about :) shoes are giuseppe zanotti, stuart weitzman, roberto cavalli, & kate spade (in order)

inspiration from zappos

study break...

needed a little study break and saw these beautiful earrings. kevia gold vermeil with smoked topaz and blue topaz earrings on moondance jewelry. they have a 20% off coupon on their site right now.

inspirations from moondance jewelry

for dog lovers

just picked up the winter 2009 in style wedding magazine and they showcased these adorable bulldog cuff links from thomas pink! we love dogs, although we don't have one yet.

inspiration from thomas pink

berry cute

i had to treat myself after my first round of grad school finals and got this lauren merkin eve splashed leather clutch. best part was gilt group had a sample sale so the clutch was only $88! (versus a regular $180). who doesn't love a sample sale? if you want an invite to gilt group, let me know!

Inspiration from Luna Boston

it's a mystery

hi everyone! sorry i have been so MIA lately. as you might know, i am living in chicago and going to grad school. life has changed dramatically in the past few weeks. since the last post, i went on a trip to new zealand with some of my new grad school friends. the funnest part was that we didn't know where we were going until we got on the bus to the airport - talk about crazy! anyways, new zealand was amazingly beautiful and fun. i had a great time with the group. since returning, i have been in orientation madness for two weeks. i forgot what it was like to be a student.

the fun part is meeting other newly married or engaged folks and sharing ideas. i have seen some beautiful engagement rings (although i LOVE mine the best) as well. don't have much time to write, but here's a picture a friend took in new zealand when we were sailing on an america's cup boat. would new zealand be an amazing honeymoon destination or what?

inspiration from a travel buddy

my new ride

before the move from san francisco, i sold my cute little red toyota prius (sad!). good news is that because of fuel prices and the economy AND my california HOV sticker (allows solo drivers to drive in the carpool lane during commute hours), my car sold at a premium. i sold it for the same price that i bought it for in 2006. very cool and nice on the pocketbook, especially because i'm now a grad student.

it's been weird not having a car around, but so far so good. today we went to a local bike shop and found this cute little town cruiser so i can get to school a little quicker and to run errands. see how cute it is!! and the shop was having their end of the season sale, so i got 25% off. i love a good deal.

i learned a few fun facts about bike riding in the chicago area - helmets are not required (but I will always wear one!) and riding on the sideway is not allowed. strange but i guess they don't want bikers running into pedestrians. makes total sense.

anyways, here she is! what should I name her? (is it weird to name a bicycle?)

inspiration from bianchi

thoughts on party favors

we have brainstormed a little about whether to have favors and if we did, what we we'd like to give our guests. we love both chocolate and coffee. i think the key to a great favor is to make sure it's personal and meaningful to the couple. so we thought about our favorite things and came up with - chocolate and coffee :)

one idea is the give vosges chocolates. check out their adorable packaging for their truffles and caramel collections. my favorite is the naga chocolate (sweet Indian curry + coconut + deep milk chocolate, 41% cacao). we first found vosges in new york, but i see that there are two locations in chicago! they have all these exotic flavors with ginger, wasabi, green tea, and even bacon (i haven't tried that one yet).

inspiration from vosges chocolates

our second idea is to give our guests coffee beans from blue bottle coffee. they are small organic coffee bean roaster that has amazing coffee beans. they have a few locations in san francisco, but we subscribe to their bi-weekly coffee delivery. we could give our guests 1/4 or 1/3 pound of coffee beans in fun packaging such as small brown bags or perhaps a cute tin that is personalized.

inspiration from blue bottle coffee

and the last option is to opt for no favors. we just went to two weddings and both couples opted to give a donation to a charity in lieu of a favor. what a great idea. maybe we can donate money to a local animal shelter since we love dogs. i'd pick a pooch over chocolate or coffee anyday.

just for fun flats

just got these cute naughty monkey brand flats on my way to the gym. i love sparkley shoes! and i think metallic twinkley shoes can go with almost anything - jeans, skirts, shorts, and dresses. maybe anything except running shorts, which is what i was wearing while trying them on :)

inspiration from endless.com

homemade fizzy and eco-friendly

we got one of these yesterday in the mail - the soda club soda maker! you can make sparkling water or soda at home. we drink tons (and I mean tons) of sparkling water at home, but lug home bottles and bottles from the grocery store. not only is it heavy, but we were wasting a lot of packaging with all the plastic bottles. we got the value kit that comes with extra bottles and carbonators. right now they have a special for $129.99 and free shipping. i think the investment will pay off on no time. move over pellegrino :)

inspiration from soda club

more ocean views

here are a few more photos I took of the venue we are considering. the potential bogey is the weather in december but they have a gorgeous back-up fireside room (the very bottom picture). isn't the view breathtaking? i love all the flowers and green surrounding. we are going to visit again this december to scope it out a bit more.

all images are from the author

coastline beauty

Sorry about being MIA. We just moved to Chicago in the past week and things have been busy! Here is a small snippet of a potential venue we found in Carmel. Isn't it breathtaking?

cute snowman cookies

i found the perfect winter wedding gifts! these are SO cute.

inspiration from the knot

winter wedding thoughts

inspiration from the knot

so we are thinking december 2009 and want a cozy rustic wedding. after seeing a lot of places this past weekend, i realize that winter weddings get tricky since everything must be planned indoors and not a lot of venues have two indoor spaces.

i don't think we want to use one space for both the ceremony and reception because it's nice to have it separate and offer the guest to flow around to different places. but we not sure if we want our guest to have to drive and park twice, especially cause SF has terrible (very!!) parking. plus that also means two venue fees! (these weddings really do add up)

but we still love the idea of winter... maybe serve hot apple cider during cocktails. we also want a place that has a (or multiple) fireplaces so people can stay toasty. maybe a mistletoe in the entrance. or hang the guest table assignments on a xmas tree.

still alive

i am still alive! have been busy quitting my job and starting to plan the move to chicago. this past weekend, my mom was in town and we drove all around town to look at venues for the big days. right now we are thinking next winter.

key buzz words for our "wedding vision" - cozy, rustic, winter, cute, simple, elegant but casual, lots of pink, comfort foods, hot cider, mistletoe, cocoa, coffee...

we must have seen at least 10 venues and my head is spinning. there are so many things to consider. ceremony and reception in one place? who has tables? BYO alcohol? how is parking? is the space too big? is the space too small? can we light candles? how much time? eek! more thoughts later. :)

sparkley wedges

these are the shoes that we wore at the wedding in sayulita. they are very comfortable and the gold really pops. the wedding was out on the grass so we could only wear wedges. do you like? they are only $35 on amazon right now. maybe i should get another color :)

inspiration from amazon.com