wedding video: preparation

the wonderful team at monachetti provided eric and i with our wedding videography (they did the wedding video for lisa loeb). they are a great group of guys and presented us with the first part of our wedding video. it was released on weddingchannel.com, and here is the full version that was posted on monachetti' blog. it seriously took my breath away! i cannot wait to see the rest of the video! so if any of you happened to stumble on my site and are planning your wedding, i highly recommend monachetti! you will not be disappointed!

Van and Eric's "Dream Wedding." (Full Prep Version) from Monachetti on Vimeo.

ahoy, mate!

eric and i just came back from our honeymoon last night. for 9 nights, we were aboard the grandeur of the seas destined to stop at four eastern caribbean islands. this was my very first cruise, so i really wasn't sure what to expect. upon arriving to the port, i was simply amazed by the cruise ship, which i later overheard people say was not one of the bigger ships.

upon arriving to our stateroom, we received a pleasant surprise from eric's mom. she sent us red velvet cupcakes, which was just the kickoff to our next few days in the all-you-can-eat wonderland:

we spent the first two days at sea before we arrived in san juan, puerto rico. it was actually really nice to explore the boat, and have absolutely nothing to do. you can imagine how relaxing it was. in san juan, we visited the two old fortifications and roamed the downtown area:

our next stop was st. thomas. st thomas had tons of excursions to offer, but eric and i decided to just be beach bums and hang out at megan's bay, rated one of national geographics top ten most beautiful beaches.

the next stop was semana, dominican republic. eric and i had vacationed at an all inclusive resort in punta cana before, and after this stop, we decided the DR was not for us. it is a beautiful island, but we've had our fix of it.

the last day was without a doubt the best beach weather ever. we stopped at labadee, haiti and this was my favorite stop. we rented beach mats and laid out in the warm water, enjoyed the sun in the clear blue sky, and drank the local drink of the day. i was very relaxing and a great final stop:

i wouldn't be me if i didn't take a moment to comment on the lovely towel animals that were put at the end of our beds each night. ive seen towel animals before, but they got real creative on some nights, putting my sunglasses on the animals, and even hanging a towel-folded monkey from the ceiling:

it was a very relaxing few days, but we are definitely happy to have our feet on land and be home, sweet home!

think of the happiest things

... its the same as having wings! eric and i spent the night before halloween with some friends at the national zoo. they hosted an event called "night of the living zoo" and it was a lot of fun. we entered a costume contest with chris and jenna, and lost to a group that dressed up like characters from 'where the wild things are'. that movie just came out and frankly, their costumes were amazing, but hey, second place? i'll take it!

hope you all had a great (and safe) halloween!

1 month-iversary

my sweet husband sent me this little bouquet of flowers with the disclaimer "i know you don't like carnations, but this didn't come in any other flowers":

how sweet is that? and zero calories!

sewing project #1

okay so i worked on these yesterday and today... they really didn't turn out that great, and only look good in a blurry photo... so here is that blurry photo:

just in case you still need an explanation, these are bibs for my niece, nephew, and their buddy jaxton. they're really rather goofy looking, but hey, you have to start somewhere, right? be on the look out for more random sewing products from yours truly!

sew awesome!

as the high that comes immediately after the wedding starts to come down, i find that i end up having way too much time on my hands. i know the whole wedding was planned for us (thanks again amy, jacalyn, and lindsay) but there were times when my email inbox was overflowing, all the phones were off the hook, and i was about ready to pull out my hair. so now while eric is chugging away at the pto working hard i have a lot of free time and so i decided i needed a hobby. normally i would bake, but with eric not being home as often, i didnt want to end up having to eat all the sweets that come from the oven by myself, so i ruled that out. with halloween around the corner, i got into a crafy mood, and decided that sewing was what i wanted to pick up. i used to play around with my mom's sewing machine fairly often... and i know chi hai has embarrassing photos of me playing designer with some scarves, so i thought it only appropriate. i am currently working on a project for three of the cutest infants in southern california and i would post photos of my project, but i'm really uncertain where this is going at this point. hopefully i will be able to have a post about the end results! wish me luck!

eat, drink, be married!

i cannot believe we are where we're at now. the wedding is over, and although it was about two weeks ago, i remember it as if it happened last night. that was, without a doubt, the best night of my life! it was amazing to have all our friends and family in our neck of the woods and just have a grand time. of course having 5 star vendors helped make the event spectacular, but at the end of the day, those vendors went home, and it truly was our 5 star loved ones that brought the party. i wish i had words to describe the feelings i get when i think about our wedding. whatever the feeling is, i hope every couple feels this same way about their wedding and about marriage. it is simply amazing. i will try and do a full day recap when i get the photos back from our photographer.

so here we are, beginning our new life together! i'm excited about everything the future holds for us, and am making an effort to write about every significant milestone along the journey. so please bear with me!