Category Archives: my life

italian honeymoon photo diary | tuscany.

tuscany8tuscany16tuscany14 tuscany15tuscany3 tuscany18tuscany20 tuscany6tuscany19 tuscany4tuscany5tuscany22 tuscany13tuscany9 tuscany10 tuscany12 tuscany11our first stop on our honeymoon was tuscany.  just looking at these photos makes me want to go back already!  we were both pretty exhausted from all of the excitement and craziness leading up to our wedding so we wanted to go somewhere relaxing to start off our trip.  we stayed in petroio, a quaint little village about an hour outside of siena, at a villa called palazzo brandano.  i can’t say enough good things about that place…we experienced the most amazing service here of our entire trip!  the hotel manager drove us around tuscany since we didn’t have a car and made sure we were well taken care of on our honeymoon.  tuscany was just beautiful at this time of year with its rolling hills, vineyards, orange and yellow leaves, and gorgeous sunsets.  i am really glad we went in the fall when there are not as many tourists and everything is less crowded!  we explored pienza and montepulciano while we were there, ate delicious food, and took a lot of long walks everywhere our legs could take us.  the roads are so tiny and narrow and i just have a major thing for cobblestone streets!!  it makes every city just so unbelievably charming.  i couldn’t get enough of it!  up next: cinque terre.

 

monday morning.

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this is what my monday morning looked like.  today is my self-established first day “back to work” since our wedding festivities officially ended last week.  i already love working from home and really am the happiest i have ever been because 1) married life is AWESOME since it’s just a sleepover every night with your best friend!! and 2) pursuing design full time is a dream come true and i cannot wait to get my studio up and running!  we are adjusting to newlywed life quite well and making our first home together as cozy as ever.  lots of italy photos coming later this week!

p.s. thank you ALL so much for the sweet comments on our wedding video!!!  i really was touched by all of them.  and um, how sweet are reis’ dance moves?  boy likes to groove.

an unforgettable bridal shower.

there are really no adequate words to describe the unbelievably AMAZING bridal shower my sister, sister-in-law, and two best friends threw for me a few weekends ago in california.  like, seriously.  just look at these photos!  what!?!  i still look through them and am just amazed by every single detail and beauty of it all AND the fact that they did it all for me!  i am blessed beyond measure, that is for sure.  they all know how much i love little details so they went over-the-top in every. single. aspect of the night with intricacies that i appreciated more than they will ever know.  when i first walked out into the yard, i’m pretty sure my jaw just about hit the floor.  i was seriously in awe at everything in front of my eyes that i immediately ran back inside to grab my camera because light was escaping us and the beautifulness NEEDED to be captured on my camera before it was too dark.

the table settings were impeccable and glamourous (so in love with the green bottles/vases and black & white striped runners).  the gorgeous market lights were strung just for my shower by heather’s dad!  the escort table (yes, they had an escort table!) had custom designed name tags for every guest.  the appetizers and dinner (mostly made by the talented janelle) were insanely delicious.  the food presentation was incredibly detailed (how cute are those little glittery pom poms?!).  they had an italian soda bar, a bellini bar (complete with black & white striped straws), a candy station (with a ridiculously cute backdrop that heather made!), AND a dessert bar (with hundreds of homemade goodies & an ombre cake)!  they had customized mint favors at every place setting, beautiful and classy balloons (of which the hanging garlands were slaved over by my sister for 3 days!), matching sugar paper napkins, customized labels for every dish/drink/dessert (taylor did ALL of the design for the night and i loved that it was all cohesive from the invitation to the signage to the name tags!)…i really could go on and on and on about everything.  it was a truly unforgettable night and i am forever grateful to my hostesses (and everyone else who helped!) for going to great lengths in planning this event and for making me feel so special in this exciting time of my life!  love you guys SO. MUCH.

for more deets on this “bridal shower of a century” as my good friend ann-marie has coined the event (and quite accurately so!),  janelle’s recap is  here and you can also check out ann-marie’s post here — she helped set up and took a ton of beautiful photos!

1st photo by my sis, photos 3&4 by ann-marie

my newest obsession.

this past weekend, reis and i flew to LA for a super quick trip with the main reason being to meet our precious new niece, ryan nicole.  she was born two weeks ago and i have been dying to snuggle those cheeks since the minute she was born.  i am overwhelmed with the amount of love i have for her and i never knew i could feel this way about anyone!  i wouldn’t necessarily say i’m a “baby person” and never really understood how people could just stare at babies for hours.  oooh ohhh NOW i get it.  i literally could just watch her for the whole day and be perfectly content.  i already miss her like crazy and can’t wait until i get to see her again in just a few weeks!  for now, i just demand my sister and brother-in-law send me a daily pic (or 2 or 3 or 4) to get my ryry fill for the day.

the rest of our weekend was filled to the max and we were incredibly productive doing wedding stuff (more pics of the weekend to come soon)!  it was way too short like always, but so special and fun to be with my entire family for the first time since ryan was born.

life updates.

sorry for the lack of blogging for the past few months!  life is full of lots of exciting things over here, though!

we finally got most of our save the dates out (YAY YAY YAY) this monday so thats a big fat red check off of the list (not short of an all-nighter or a 1.5 hour stint at the post office, woohoo!).  i will be sharing them next monday here on the blog and i am ridiculously excited to show you guys!  oh and did i mention that amidst wedding planning craziness, i am moving?!  my landlord sold her house and i have to be out by this sunday!  ay yi yi, moving for me consists of being SUPER last minute with my packing/cleaning, having anxiety about throwing away things that i’ve accumulated over the months , and then after awhile getting so fed up with packing all of the stuff i have, that in the end, i am able to purge said crap quite easily.  we call this “purge-mode.”  lots of stuff ends up in that big black trash bag and it actually feels really great and cleansing.  it’s a good system, i tell you.

taylor + bradley wedding: part III.

taylor and bradley’s reception was held in taylor’s parents’ gorgeous backyard (a dream of taylor’s since she was little!).  she spent months perfecting the decor, shopping for vintage pieces, and creating a billion DIY projects…all of which were well worth it because her backyard was transformed into an absolute fairytale dreamland!  market lights + fabric strips + the most amazing flowers (the head table pictured above was unreal!!) + candles + old bottles + a create your own pasta dish bar + lots of burlap and lace + OMG the most creative and beautiful dessert table i have ever seen!  girl is seriously talented.  it was a beautiful day celebrating the marriage of a very very special couple!  i love you both so much and i am so proud of you guys.  congratulations tay and bud! xx