Someone asked me today how the wedding planning is coming and I just looked at them blankly thinking "What wedding? Rachel's? Laura's?" but then I realized she was talking about my wedding.
If you're new to the blog, Steve proposed to me in February before we took our first trip to England to look for a place to live. Since then I have given the wedding some thought - maybe not as much as a typical bride would. Now that were here it feels like the whole thing is thousands of miles away... oh ya, it is. Ha!
So far this is what we have figured out and when I say we I mean me. Lets be real, as long as theirs an open bar and we don't spend a million dollars Steve doesn't really care.
Location: Atlanta. We were considering Asheville or possibly Florida but we think since the majority of our guests will be traveling from out of town the Atlanta airport will be the cheapest to travel to. For the actual wedding we are looking at a number of catholic churches in Atlanta, of course our top pick is Christ The King which is my home parish, but we are open to others.
Wedding Party: I'd say were about 90% there on who we want to stand up with us. I am all about the idea of proposing to my bridesmaids - unfortunately I'm not sure Ill get to see some of these lovely ladies before the actual wedding so in October Ill be working on a plan to mail out some proposals. And since that's the plan I can't tell you who they are yet. Steve has most of his groomsmen picked out but he's much less romantic and either just asks or assumes they know... :-/ ya, lame I know!
Reception: No idea... Ive visited 4 locations and didn't really love any of them. Back to the drawing board.
Dress: wedding diet need to start ASAP before I even consider looking at dresses.
Date: I feel like we won't know a date until we pick a reception venue, but when we do we will send out basic save the dates & closer to the wedding we will send out a second save the date with more information.
Theme/Decor: all depends on reception, but I know I don't want a lot of flowers, I'm more into candles.
Guest list: too many :) We're probably looking at 180-220 or so. I've always wanted a big wedding and with essentially 3 families to invite hitting those numbers won't be hard.
If you have an idea for a blog post please let me know! I feel like there's lots of interesting things to talk about living in England but I just don't know what people want to read about.
Friday, May 8, 2015
Wednesday, May 6, 2015
Wordless Wednesday
This past Sunday Steve and I went to the 21st annual Reading Beer & Cider Festival! We met up with some friends (yes, we have friends here!) and met another really nice couple at our table. We had a blast, tried some yummy beers, a few not so yummy.
The tent (and Steve)
All smiles after a few pints
Belgian beer
Bubbles!
Check out the sky!
More Belgian Beer
Steve's favorite stout of the day
There was even a bagpipe group!
Travel Tuesday
So since I already covered our travel into London and its Tuesday (I started this post on Tuesday, so I sticking with it) I figured I would reveal where we are headed for our first big out of the country trip - Ireland. We are headed to Dublin at the end of May for a 3 day weekend! We are both excited, this will be Steve's first time outside of England & I will get to see my childhood nanny who lives in Ireland. We are going to Dublin so we don't have to rent a car, but in the future I want to rent a car and drive all over the country and explore castles and sites. But that will be the next trip.
My family & I went to Ireland right before we moved back to the US, so somewhere around 2000. I don't remember a whole lot, we saw the Book of Kells and mom & dad drank some Guinness, but that's about all I can remember.
We're going to try something different as far as where to stay, since its a bank holiday weekend there as well hotels are very expensive. So we keep seeing adds for Air B&B on the TV here, its like normal people who rent either a bed, a room or their entire home out for a fraction of the cost of a hotel in the same area. So Ive found a few places that will work, for about $75/night. If it goes well we can keep doing the Air B&B thing, if not its back to earning lots of Hilton points.
My family & I went to Ireland right before we moved back to the US, so somewhere around 2000. I don't remember a whole lot, we saw the Book of Kells and mom & dad drank some Guinness, but that's about all I can remember.
We're going to try something different as far as where to stay, since its a bank holiday weekend there as well hotels are very expensive. So we keep seeing adds for Air B&B on the TV here, its like normal people who rent either a bed, a room or their entire home out for a fraction of the cost of a hotel in the same area. So Ive found a few places that will work, for about $75/night. If it goes well we can keep doing the Air B&B thing, if not its back to earning lots of Hilton points.
We took this tour company around London and loved it, so we will do the hop on hop off buss tour on Saturday to get our a good overview of the city.
Howth is a bay just outside of Dublin, a its a part of the city that I have never seen. I'm hoping for some great sea food, beautiful views & some shopping!
What would a trip to Dublin be without going to the Guinness brewery? We got a tip from a friend to go strait to the tasting for the free beer and do the self tour backwards. Beer first? Yes please!
This is my only real memory of my previous trip to Dublin so I'm excited to take Steve to see this beautiful piece of history. Plus we get to see all the cute Irish college boys ;)
Steve is a huge scotch fan, but in Ireland we drink whisky so visiting the Jameson distillery is on our list of must sees.
One of my favorite kinds of tours are these land & water ones so if we have time we will take one of these around Dublin.
Saturday, May 2, 2015
Big News out of London Today
Unless you live under a rock, which some of you might, twitter, Facebook, snapchat & every other social media I am too uncool to know about was a buzz today with the news from London, GB. Tweets, posts and "snaps" were coming in from all over the globe over the big news.
Yes, today was the day Steve & I went on our first day trip to London!
Yes, today was the day Steve & I went on our first day trip to London!
We visited the Science Museum
Then we headed over to Covent Garden for some shopping and a quick bite:
Steve finally took to Shake Shack! It was amazing! They even have their own beer brewed for them! How cool is that? Mind you we spent $53 on 2 burgers, 2 fries and 2 beers but we were so hungry & they were so good! I highly recommend it - but maybe as just a one off treat :)
Here are a few more photos from Covent Garden - one of my favorite places in London.
Street Performer
More performers
Next we took a short walk over to one of my favorite stores... ladies I'm sure you can guess where this is!
That's right - Kate Spade! I didn't buy anything but it was wonderful to look at see it all in person, not online :)
From there we took a quick walk to Oxford street, went into Primark, like crazy people & dropped by the food court at Selfridges.
And in other news, Kate & William had their second baby! There is a new Princess in town:
Welcome to the new baby! Wishing the Royal family well :)
Friday, May 1, 2015
Moving Part 3
I'm sure everyone who reads this blog, all 7 of you, are on the edge of your seat waiting to read the next installment of the moving saga.
The truth is there isn't much else to say, we had one last meal with my parents and brother and took a car to the airport on a Tuesday afternoon with all 8 of our bags - that's 2 suitcase each, 2 carry-ons and 2 personal items... If you haven't figured it out yet - that's a lot of luggage! It all barely fit in the town car. After spending $300 on luggage fees (thanks delta amex) we got into the airport. The best part about flying on a Tuesday night in the international terminal is that we got through security in 10 min tops. After making a beeline to the delta lounge, where we each had one more much needed drink, we got called to our flight & boarded.
Steve would know exactly what plane we flew, but since I'm guessing non of you care, ill skip over the 9 hours flight (read couldn't sleep, watched a few OK movies and wished it would go by faster) we landed at Heathrow. Thankfully Steve had ordered a car service for us, so our 8 bags and ourselves got into a nice air conditioned mini van and drove the 35 min to Reading. We stayed at a hotel the first night because a) it was easier & b) we didn't get our apartment keys till later.
If all of this doesn't sound exhausting, both physically and mentally then I am not adequately conveying the stress this sort of move puts you through. Just before we left, sitting at my parents home in Atlanta, I just held onto my mom and cried and asked her if it was worth all the stress & second guessing & anxiety of the unknown. As she held me and reminded me of the grand adventure we were about to embark on, all I could do was cry. I don't mean a few tears, I mean a deep, heaving sobs - the kind of crying when your world has been turned on its side and all out can do is ride the wave & hope you survive. Yes - that might seem melodramatic to some of you, but I can tell you, unless you've done this, its very hard for you to even have an idea of how hard it is. Yes, we're around the corner from some of the greatest cities in the world. Yes, this is a once in a lifetime experience, but that's doesn't mean its not hard. Hard on your mind, body and soul.
That's enough soul pouring out for right now - trust me, there will be more. I haven't mentioned the washing machine or the oven yet, but there is also lots of good and funny to come as well - hot British men in my apartment carrying groceries. Need I say more?
The truth is there isn't much else to say, we had one last meal with my parents and brother and took a car to the airport on a Tuesday afternoon with all 8 of our bags - that's 2 suitcase each, 2 carry-ons and 2 personal items... If you haven't figured it out yet - that's a lot of luggage! It all barely fit in the town car. After spending $300 on luggage fees (thanks delta amex) we got into the airport. The best part about flying on a Tuesday night in the international terminal is that we got through security in 10 min tops. After making a beeline to the delta lounge, where we each had one more much needed drink, we got called to our flight & boarded.
Steve would know exactly what plane we flew, but since I'm guessing non of you care, ill skip over the 9 hours flight (read couldn't sleep, watched a few OK movies and wished it would go by faster) we landed at Heathrow. Thankfully Steve had ordered a car service for us, so our 8 bags and ourselves got into a nice air conditioned mini van and drove the 35 min to Reading. We stayed at a hotel the first night because a) it was easier & b) we didn't get our apartment keys till later.
If all of this doesn't sound exhausting, both physically and mentally then I am not adequately conveying the stress this sort of move puts you through. Just before we left, sitting at my parents home in Atlanta, I just held onto my mom and cried and asked her if it was worth all the stress & second guessing & anxiety of the unknown. As she held me and reminded me of the grand adventure we were about to embark on, all I could do was cry. I don't mean a few tears, I mean a deep, heaving sobs - the kind of crying when your world has been turned on its side and all out can do is ride the wave & hope you survive. Yes - that might seem melodramatic to some of you, but I can tell you, unless you've done this, its very hard for you to even have an idea of how hard it is. Yes, we're around the corner from some of the greatest cities in the world. Yes, this is a once in a lifetime experience, but that's doesn't mean its not hard. Hard on your mind, body and soul.
That's enough soul pouring out for right now - trust me, there will be more. I haven't mentioned the washing machine or the oven yet, but there is also lots of good and funny to come as well - hot British men in my apartment carrying groceries. Need I say more?
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Wordless Wednesday Food!
Beer & Magners
Fish n chips & mushy peas
$7 for a box of lucky charms!?
Pizza Express pizza
Much better fish n chips & mushy peas
Mmmm Starbucks
Sandwich
British Mexican food aka nachos
British Mexican food burrito
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Travel Tuesday
Hello!
So here is the plan for the schedule for the blog:
Monday - anything
Tuesday - Travel Tuesday (I'll either write about a place we want to go, or if we traveled that weekend)
Wednesday - Wordless Wednesday (I'll try and keep it themed)
Thursday - anything
Friday - anything
Saturday & Sunday - I sort of hope to be to busy doing stuff to post but you never know :)
So for my first official Travel Tuesday I'm gonna finish up the moving saga.
Before we got all of our stuff packed into boxes and shipped off we had a bit of a going away party at Mellow Mushroom at Brookhaven. It was so wonderful to see all of the people we love and care about and are going to miss so much come out and see us before we left. I am super proud - I only started to cry but I didn't & if you know me that's a big deal - I am a serious crier! We got a coffee table book of Atlanta photos and asked people to sign it - still haven't read the messages in fear they will make me even more homesick :(
Here are some pictures from the party!
Another really important dinner we had before we left was with my theater teacher from high school - Bonnie Spark. She was and is like a grandma to me, in a old but not really old way. So she's more like an Aunt. Mom, Dad, Steve and I met her at her favorite restaurant in Atlanta - Violet. Side note - OMG this place is really good, expensive but if you're looking for a real dinning experience & good food for a nice date or anniversary I highly recommend this place! I hadn't seen her in a number of months so it was great to catch up with her... aka gossip like mad about people from high school. Bonnie's a sorority girl at heart, just don't tell her I said that. On a side note I did ask her to sing at the wedding in some capacity (yes she is Jewish and yes it will be a catholic wedding, but its mine and ill have a crazy NY jew sing if I like). She also filled us in on Father Dan, who is still in Atlanta and I need to find to ask if her can preform the weeding for us. Yes, its gonna be like a big Pius party but that's what I want.
So after we had packed everything we owned into storage, shipping boxes and suitcases we had one final evening with our closest friends to enjoy one last big group mean and laugh and not cry (again - no tears from me which is unheard of). We went to Taco Mac in Buford, big surprise there I am sure. We were pretty much regulars there without anyone like the staff knowing or recognizing us, that's ok. Its still kinda like our place. So the 8 of us got together and had one last meal together, which was really wonderful. It made the last night in the US happy, not sad, which I really needed because I was second guessing our decision to move at all, but seeing our closest friends be so excited and happy for us made all the difference. Here is the group photo we took that night - sorry the quality is shit, our waiter was a big supporter of 4/20 and couldn't hold the phone still (I tried to fix it). Lesson? Bring the DSLR and tripod when the photos are important!
So here is the plan for the schedule for the blog:
Monday - anything
Tuesday - Travel Tuesday (I'll either write about a place we want to go, or if we traveled that weekend)
Wednesday - Wordless Wednesday (I'll try and keep it themed)
Thursday - anything
Friday - anything
Saturday & Sunday - I sort of hope to be to busy doing stuff to post but you never know :)
So for my first official Travel Tuesday I'm gonna finish up the moving saga.
Before we got all of our stuff packed into boxes and shipped off we had a bit of a going away party at Mellow Mushroom at Brookhaven. It was so wonderful to see all of the people we love and care about and are going to miss so much come out and see us before we left. I am super proud - I only started to cry but I didn't & if you know me that's a big deal - I am a serious crier! We got a coffee table book of Atlanta photos and asked people to sign it - still haven't read the messages in fear they will make me even more homesick :(
Here are some pictures from the party!
Everyone!
Me & Christine - we survived both SPX & GSU!
Me & Doreen, best Carter's trainer ever!
Jordan, me & Courtney AKA World Market Crew
Another really important dinner we had before we left was with my theater teacher from high school - Bonnie Spark. She was and is like a grandma to me, in a old but not really old way. So she's more like an Aunt. Mom, Dad, Steve and I met her at her favorite restaurant in Atlanta - Violet. Side note - OMG this place is really good, expensive but if you're looking for a real dinning experience & good food for a nice date or anniversary I highly recommend this place! I hadn't seen her in a number of months so it was great to catch up with her... aka gossip like mad about people from high school. Bonnie's a sorority girl at heart, just don't tell her I said that. On a side note I did ask her to sing at the wedding in some capacity (yes she is Jewish and yes it will be a catholic wedding, but its mine and ill have a crazy NY jew sing if I like). She also filled us in on Father Dan, who is still in Atlanta and I need to find to ask if her can preform the weeding for us. Yes, its gonna be like a big Pius party but that's what I want.
So after we had packed everything we owned into storage, shipping boxes and suitcases we had one final evening with our closest friends to enjoy one last big group mean and laugh and not cry (again - no tears from me which is unheard of). We went to Taco Mac in Buford, big surprise there I am sure. We were pretty much regulars there without anyone like the staff knowing or recognizing us, that's ok. Its still kinda like our place. So the 8 of us got together and had one last meal together, which was really wonderful. It made the last night in the US happy, not sad, which I really needed because I was second guessing our decision to move at all, but seeing our closest friends be so excited and happy for us made all the difference. Here is the group photo we took that night - sorry the quality is shit, our waiter was a big supporter of 4/20 and couldn't hold the phone still (I tried to fix it). Lesson? Bring the DSLR and tripod when the photos are important!
Bryan, Laura, Andrea, Jake, Me, Michael, Steve, Matt & Rachel
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)