Thursday's Randoms :: Wedding Edition

{image}

I loved my wedding hair - my friends Inna and Lauren worked so hard to perfect the messy chignon and Inna spent hours curling, curling and curling some more.  My hair was beautiful and I'm nothing but pleased with the way it looked.  But a year down the road, part of me wishes I had opted to wear it down with loose, flowy curls.  I almost always wear my hair down (except as of late with all this disgusting humidity) so it would have been a little truer to myself.  Oh well.  I can make my hair look like that any day :)

{image}

I am in love with the dusty hues of this beautiful bouquet!  It's rustic, it's modern and it's gorgeous.  Wrapped up in raffia or twine, it would make the perfect bridal bouquet, don't you think?

{image}

EmersonMade's silk flowers are versatile and gorgeous all at once!  While I opted for a real gardenia in my hair (at my florist's suggestion who told me I would smell great all day long with one in my hair) it might have been easier had I gone the silk route.  We ordered two gardenias because the oils in hair tend to make the flowers droopy a little faster than normal.  Again...oh well.  I enjoyed the smell all day long!

{image}

Having your wedding in the forest sounds pretty amazing to me.  Instead of handing out parasols to keep your guests shaded, you could hand out those new insect-repellent fans!  There is so much beauty in the forest - it's incredibly dramatic and would be quite captivating for the occasion.  

{image}

I wouldn't change our honeymoon to Italy for anything in the world.  But I do have to say, that if you're planning your honeymoon for directly after your wedding (like the next day) then plan a honeymoon that is nothing but relaxing.  I can't even begin to describe the amount of tiredness that we had to deal with post-wedding.  All I wanted to do was sleep for days!  I'm so glad we waited a month to go on ours; it allowed us to fully bounce back, have an added something to look forward to once the wedding excitement passed and it helped us deal with the jetlag a little better (I am assuming).  I would LOVE to go to Bora Bora sometime in my life and lay on a towel just like the woman in the photo.  

Italy, Pt. V

Today's post concludes our honeymoon trip to Italy.  I hope you've enjoyed the posts, and I'm sorry if you were annoyed by the abundance of them!

We ended our amazing trip in Rome, which was beautiful, overwhelming and exhausting.  If I could do it all over again, I would definitely start out in Rome and end in the Cinque Terre but either way I'm thrilled to have visited Rome.

We rented this amazing self-catering apartment conveniently located downtown on a quiet street.  It was recently rehabbed and apparently they've only been renting it out for 2 months.  It was cheaper than a hotel and way more enjoyable.  I highly recommend vacationing this way!  Since we had a kitchen, Badger decided that we should make a meal.  So he made pasta (big surprise) with the weirdest noodles and it was absolutely delicious!  Later that night we went out to our private terrace (which had the nicest patio furniture), drank a bottle of wine and some grappa and just talked for hours.  It was one of my favorite nights even though we weren't out and about.  I love that we had that opportunity!

We did a LOT of walking in Rome.  We dropped our rental car off on the north east side of town and walked our way back to our hotel, stopping to see everything on the way.  Like this:

It really is a marvel, that Pantheon.

And this:

The ancient ruins are breathtaking.  They're several feet below modern street level, so cats really enjoy hanging out in them.  We passed by some ruins and saw HUNDREDS of kitties just hanging out, living the dream.  It was pretty hilarious!

On our last day, we ventured out again and walked across town to Vatican City.  I never expected to go there in my life.  I'm not the least bit Catholic and I knew that Badger didn't want to go but we ended up trusting Francesca, the owner of our apartment.  She was right, that place is something you have to see.  I'm glad we devoted our afternoon to it because it is so massive that you need a looooong time there.  We started out at St. Peter's Basilica and then headed over to the Vatican museum and the Sistene Chapel.  I can't get over the work by Michelangelo and Raphael.  It's so amazing how an artist can making something seem so real.  The colors in that place are incredibly vivid and realistic that it just blows your mind!  It really was a crazy experience that I'm glad to have had.  It might not have been the most romantic but it sure was impressive.

After visiting the Vatican, we did some shopping (our poor dogs were barking so loud at this point) and picked up some gourmet cooking supplies, like a 12-year balsamic, fine olive oil and some rather large pasta shells so I can try and recreate my grandmother's delicious mac-and-cheese that she used to make for me whenever I came over.  I ended our trip with some pistachio gelato because I hadn't had enough of it and we had a fabulous dinner that night at a random restaurant that included a guitarist and singer serenading the diners.  It was pretty awesome to say the least.

Now that we're back, neither one of us will be itching for a vacation for quite awhile.  In fact, flying to Kansas for the holidays sounds unappealing right now - the airplane part, that is.  I'm tempted to suggest we made the 12-hour drive just because I don't want to board a plane for a long time.  Two two-week vacations in two consecutive months is kind of draining, but definitely something I will never take for granted or ever forget.  If I was still at my old job, I wouldn't have been able to do this and for that I'm eternally grateful.

So now it's all over, no more wedding or honeymoon plans in the future.  But that's totally okay.  Now we just get to be married and enjoy being a family!  And I get to start looking for a job.

Italy, pt. IV

After leaving Venice, we sped on down to Florence to spend a night and fully embrace ourselves in some fine art.  Driving to Florence is not fun, let me tell you.  But we managed somehow to find a free parking spot close enough to the Duomo and somehow miraculously made our way in, ate some DELICIOUS apple and sage gnocchi at the Accademia restaurant (it was Sunday and we honestly thought everything might be closed because we didn't see anything open for the longest time) and promptly went to go see David before the museum closed.  After walking around the Accademia, we moseyed over to the leather market and then through the rest of the city center.  Once again, I had some gelato (this time, fresh fig) and tried again to buy something but to no avail.

Florence has such amazing artwork and architecture.  While it definitely wasn't my favorite, I enjoyed its beauty.  There was certainly a lot to see every direction we turned.  Perhaps if we had more than one day in Florence to enjoy everything we would have felt differently.  But we were too excited to have found time to pass through Tuscany.  And I won't even go into the horrors of trying to find our hotel, but we had to stop for a drink because it got that frustrating.

The next morning, we packed up and hit the road and quickly got off to enter Chianti.  It was so exciting!  We weren't really sure where to go, and we needed to be in Rome later that day but we just wanted to stop somewhere and enjoy the beauty and tasty wine.  We did!  We stopped at Badia a Coltibuono and had a delicious lunch paired with very delicious Chianti and Sangiovese.  The view was spectacular and the staff were so friendly.  I was sad to have to leave so soon but at least a storm was rolling in and we had Rome to look forward to.

There I am, immensely enjoying the exquisite albeit expensive wine...

Ah, Tuscany.  I do love you. 

* Today I fell in love with Picnik, as you may have noticed by the difference in the pictures.  I'll never not use it now. 

Italy, Pt. III

I'm still trying to decide what my favorite portion of the trip was.  I really think I'm going to say it was Venice but I'll probably back peddle on that and say it was Rome or Cinque Terre or Tuscany.  But I think it was the feeling of Venice and the things we did that made it my favorite.

After we left the Cinque Terre, we drove to Venice which made for yet another long day.  But it was fun driving on the Autostrada and seeing Italy from a different point of view. We were even able to stop outside of Parma and pick up some appropriate cheese.  Once we arrived to Venice, we boarded the ferry and headed to the Rialto where our hotel was awaiting us.  After being in the Cinque Terre, I was ready for the Italy I remembered.  Don't get me wrong - the Cinque Terre was everything I had hoped it would be and more, I truly loved it.  But I wanted to show Dave the reason I wanted to bring him to Italy in the first place. 

We arrived and freshened up/took a power nap and then made our way out to the maze of alleyways.  Needless to say, we were both enamored.  There's just something about Venice that screams romance, we couldn't get enough of it.  I know it's super touristy but Piazza San Marco really took our breath away - and I've even been there before.  But you can't help but fall in love with it when a) you're there on your honeymoon, b) you're being serenaded by not just one but at least 4 sextets playing Sinatra and Vivaldi, etc. and c) there is so much astounding architecture and d) all those pigeons, they're gross and don't give a damn about you but there's something slightly appealing about them in Venice (no where else though, esp. not here in Chicago). 

We walked around for hours upon hours.  We ate delicious food and drank delicious wine and grappa and limoncello.  We had more gelato and loved every slurp of it. 

The next day, we ventured off to Teatro La Fenice and bought the remaining tickets to the matinee perforance of Verdi's La Traviata.  I'm so happy that he was OK with splurging on this (the remaining seats were in the royal box seat section) because as some of my friends know, going to the opera in Italy is on my list of things to do before I kick the bucket.  It was so incredibly amazing that I don't even know how to describe it.  I was brought to tears when it began.  Everything on the stage was so lovely and vivid, and Violetta had the most beautiful voice.  Alfredo was incredibly handsome and even though the story was in Italian and the subtitles were too, we still understood most of the story (there were a few things that made us go, OH, so THAT'S what she/he was doing) and appreciated it entirely.  This was definitely the highlight of our entire trip in my opinion.  Thank you honey for treating me to one of the most amazing experiences in my life.

After the opera, we had some vino and strolled over to the other parts of town where we had not set foot.  The streets were a little wider and less crowded and we ate some food at a jazz house and strolled aimlessly through the wonder of Venizia until the late hours.

Even though we were only there for two nights, it was the perfect stay.  I think having had more time there might have been too much, although it would have been fun to check out the Guggenheim museum there.  We were able to just stroll in and out of places at our leisure.  There was a really awesome book store we wandered into that had some really amazing vintage books on art and architecture that we debated over buying, even if they were in Italian.  Aw, I'm feeling nostalgic now...

Italy, Pt. II

We couldn't come all the way to the Mediterranean without spending some time in the sun on the pristine sandy beaches.  Our little town, Moneglia, had the best spot for us to lounge around on.  We got a little more sleep the night before and woke up with an even more overwhelming urge to find the best cappucino.  We did.  After sipping on that, we made our way to the beach and found a decent spot to soak up the sun.  We were (well I was) both so paranoid about the intense sun and lack of sunscreen but we never gave in.  I got sunburned but it faded right away and you know what? It actually turned my skin a little bit on the brown side.  But let's not let my mom know of this, let alone my dermatologist (and if you're so curious, yes, I had tinted moisturizer with SPF 20 on).

The water was crystal clear and when the sun is out, it sparkles like the brightest diamond.  It's true!  The sun felt so nice and we were both so sad that it was our only opportunity to do such a thing until next summer.  That lemon soda I'm drinking was the best.  Thanks for the recommendation, Inna!  A few hours later, the sun went away and a gigantic storm settled in for the remainder of the day.  So we made our way back right before the downpour and spent some r&r at our monastery hotel.  There was a mezzanine with an outdoor seating area that had tons of books and magazines in various languages for all the guests to read.  We sat out there for quite awhile, drinking prosecco and playing cards.  It was lovely.  There were even a couple of lemon and olive trees!

It poured down rain and thundered and lightning for hours and hours.  We went to a very small pub to entertain ourselves for a bit and then braved the rain to the nearest restaurant.  Which was unfortunate because it was this night that we had our worst meal.  I won't go into the details but I'm a little bit traumatized.  I've been vegetarian for nearly 6 years and this past year my husband finally convinced me to try some seafood. I've been experimenting very slowly and cautiously but I went all out at this meal.  Why? I don't know.  Big mistake.  So I was rewarded with gelato and lots of it.

Our time at the Cinque Terre and Liguria was pretty wonderful aside from the dinner disaster.  I highly recommend a trip out there if you're interested.  And I want to thank my friend Katie for recommending a portion of our trip being spent there!

Next up: Venizia!

Italy, Pt 1

After a loooooong grueling day of traveling, we arrived to Pisa on Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. (at that point, we had left on Monday at 5 p.m. Chicago time and barely had any sleep).  We rented a car as fast as we could, navigated our way into Pisa and kind of tried to follow the confusing signs as well as the large groups of tourists we spotted.  We made our way to the Tower to take this picture as well as many others (I know it's not that creative and he didn't exactly want to copy the rest of the tourists doing the same thing but he humored me).  But that's all we did in Pisa.  There just wasn't enough to keep us there.

Next, we drove on to Liguria so we could check into our honeymoon suite at this Monastery in a little town called Moneglia.  After getting stuck in a bad traffic jam and waiting on a green light into a chain of one-way tunnels (the light turns green once every 20 minutes) we finally arrived and boy was the owner happy to see us...finally.

We didn't seem to snap any pictures inside our room but it was pretty amazing.  We had a four-poster bed, a spacious bathroom and gigantic windows that you could crank open and take giant breaths of fresh Ligurian air.  We enjoyed a gnocchi and pesto dinner with some fried calamari and Cinque Terre wine and then headed back for an actual nights rest.  We slept forever.

Our first full day in Liguria was spent hiking.  It was so beautiful and there was so much to see that we felt overwhelmed.  We took the train to the Cinque Terre and got off at Riomaggiore.  What a delightful town!

We stopped in a market store and bought some very delicious tomatoes (so sweet, they were perfect), some fresh mozzarella and some focaccia and enjoyed our delicious but simple (not to mention cheap) lunch perched right here, just gazing at the sparkling azure sea. 

Next we decided to hike up to this nature observation point, which turned out to be a pretty ideal hike for us.  It was an uphill climb the entire way but was well worth it.  We got to see views like this the whole time:

We just kind of weaved through the cliffs for a few hours, met some nice people along the way and saw the town from a pretty amazing perspective.  Once we made it to the top, we had to wind our way back down through the town which turned out to be pretty awesome as well.  We passed by this beautiful cemetery and were naturally very curious.  So we decided to take a stroll through it and pay our respects.

Every last one of the 'headstones' or whatever they should be called here, had beautiful pictures of the person and there were flowers for everyone, even if they were fake.  It was a touching place and we both were completely enamored by it.

We decided to make our way to the next village of choice, Vernazza.  After getting on an express train from Riomaggiore to Monterosso Al Mare (oops, but it was here where I got my first taste of Caffe Gelato and there was no stopping me after that) we finally made it and we were so happy we did.  This little village was completely quintessential Italy to us.  There were children shouting up at their mom who was hanging out of the shuttered-window up above.  There were cats wandering the alleyways as the bell tower struck the hour.  There were young boys playing futbol and every direction you turned there were patrons feasting on pasta and sipping Limoncello and the likes.  We ended our night here.  We perched ourselves on some rocks and gazed out at the setting sun over the sea.  It was so romantic and the perfect way to end our perfect day.

We even had our best meal here.  I can't remember the name of the restaurant but it was amazing.  We sat outside, our waiter was a real charmer who joked with us and teased me for my pronunciation of 'the check' (il conto, pronounced cohn-to not con-to).  I had a quattro-formaggi pizza which was hands-down my favorite pizza of all time.  It was creamy and runny and downright delicious.  And as we were dining, a dog and a cat accidentally met and the dog proceeded to chase the cat right into the restaurant! Our waiter had to shoo them out of there and everyone was laughing.  It was such a charming experience.

And this was just the first full day!  We were as happy as clams.

To be continued....

Buon Giorno!

Ciao, blog friends!  We arrived to the land of overpriced coffee with a vast array of food choices yesterday and are truly quite relieved.  Our cat really missed us and promptly let us know by snarfing down too much food and throwing it up (and then some).  Does anyone else's cat do that?!  Anyway, you may be wondering how our honeymoon of a lifetime was.  Well I'll tell you.  It was incredible.

Nearly every experience was pretty wonderful.  The  exception were a very bad dinner and not being able to find specific streets thus driving in circles many times but other than that it was wonderful.  A friend of ours we saw last night even said we looked tan.  That never happens.  Figures, I can tan in the Mediterranean sun and 'look tan' now that summer is over.  Bah!

We took hundreds upon hundreds of photos.  We saw 90% of the art there was to see.  We hiked the Cinque Terre.  We went to the Opera in Venice!!!  It made my heart swoon.  More details to come next week but I wanted to say Arrividerci for the weekend and readjust to my American life.  La Dolce Vita was wonderful while it lasted :)

Ciao!

P.S. I miss gelato and cappucino.  Very much so.

P.P.S. I really dig the retro camera app for my phone, obviously.

P.P.P.S. I can't believe it's all over and done with.

And we're off!

 {image}

I bid you adieu until late next week.  We're headed overseas to spend a blissful 10 days in beautiful Italy!

I've scheduled some posts so you won't forget about me :)

Until then, have many wonderful days!

The countdown is on.

6 days until we leave for our Italian honeymoon!  Huzzah!

We fly into here:

 {image}

And after we take photos like this, we go here:

 {image of the cinque terre}

We plan to do some hiking, relaxing on the beach and eating delicious food while watching the sun set.  

After our three days are up, we're moving on to here:

{image}

We only gave ourselves two days here but that's okay.  Hopefully we'll be able to go to the opera but our travel guide says they highly recommend buying tickets in advance and quite frankly, the website where you buy the tickets doesn't translate enough for me to understand, not to mention that the map of seating is microscopic.  Is it just me?!

We're making a short but sweet pit-stop in Florence to see this:

{image}

And finally ending our trip in an apartment here:

{image}

I feel like such a lucky lady!   A wonderful husband plus a super romantic honeymoon in Italy?! 

La vita è grande!