On Feeling Grateful

I am overcome with gratitude. I mean really overcome.

Last week Anthony and I headed out the front door to go for a walk and there was an Amazon box sitting on the step. We looked at each other in confusion. Both of us thought, “what did we order?” With all the orders we have been placing for the wedding and with giftcards we received, it was completely plausible that we had forgotten about something. Turns out, it was another wedding present.

Gratitude washed over me again.

So many people invested so much into our wedding, our rehearsal dinner, our honeymoon, and our home: so many people who have already invested so much into Anthony and I, together and individually, throughout our lives.

I finally sat down and started writing thank you cards. As I wrote, I couldn’t help but feel that a stack of thank you notes would never be enough to express our appreciation.

To our parents who helped fund our wedding, rehearsal dinner, and honeymoon. To everyone who put their hands in the middle of my crazy projects and made the long dreamed of day come to life. To our photographers and videographers who captured both our vision and our memories. To our caterer who fed the multitude. To everyone who showered us during our engagement. To our friends and family who made the trip from all corners of the country.

For every congratulation. For each wedding present. For every happy bit of celebration and support.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Dear Diary (and my very few blog readers)

I gave myself a hall pass. Or a get out of jail free card. I let myself off the hook. Call it what you will… I went into last week with full intention of blogging. I love blogging! I even had a topic in mind and photos to accompany the post.

But I have been busy. 

I have been busy attending the wedding showers of friends. I have been showered (and showered and showered) by friends (and family). I have been busy planning and preparing for three thrilling things: my wedding, my honeymoon, and my marriage. I have been busy helping my friends prepare for their weddings. I have been busy celebrating birthdays and burning through my vacation before I quit my job. I have been busy living this short engaged season of my life.

My writing will likely be intermittent until the big move in May. Please, stay with me as I celebrate.

Celebrate with me. I promise there will be stories to tell.

Cruise Ships and Honeymoons

Remember that cruise ship that caught fire and left thousands stranded? THAT’S the cruise ship I was supposed to be on with my family last weekend. It is also what I thought I would be blogging about this week. Instead, I suppose I will write about my first cruise: the one that has not happened yet.

Rather than heading back from Galveston last Saturday, I attended my friend Caitlin‘s bridal shower (Caitlin gets married six days before me and is honeymooning in Santorini, Greece). One of our mutual friends at the shower asked me what Anthony and I have planned for our honeymoon. Not wanting to brag too much, I sheepishly told her about the Mediterranean cruise Anthony and I will be going on. She replied, “Your honeymoons are going to be awesome!”

Caitlin, sitting next to me, said emphatically, “YEAH THEY ARE!“

I love how Caitlin’s response came across as humble enthusiasm. She said out-loud how I feel inside. 37 days away from marrying my best friend, and 38 from going on the trip of a lifetime with him.

It was Anthony’s idea to go on a Mediterranean cruise. Neither of us are the lie-on-the-beach-all-day type of travelers. We love trying new things and exploring together. He’s never been abroad, and I’ve never been on a cruise. From the moment he suggested it, it was decided. It will be perfectly us.

I hope Spain, France, and Italy are ready for the Paolini party of two.

My Love is in the (Hot) Air (Balloon) Bridal Shower

Last Saturday I attended the best bridal shower I’ve ever been to: my own! My bridesmaids, with plenty of help from my mom hosted a mint, gold, and silver hot air balloon themed party. It was obvious that they put a lot of thought and work into the day.

 

They made a wish tree for guests to put advice to Anthony and I on. Here are a few words of wisdom I thought were worth sharing:

“NEVER stop flirting with Anthony.”

“Don’t divorce”"

“Keep your sense of humor- never be afraid to laugh at yourself!”

“…Sow mercy and lots of kisses.”

“If you ever argue- fight naked-”

The menu consisted of donut hole skewers, mini monkey breads, champagne cupcakes from Stir Crazy, mini quiche, mini pancakes with smoked salmon and herbed cream cheese, and a yogurt bar.

We played a game that was loosely based off of the game IMAgiNiff. One of my bridesmaids read off questions with multiple choice answers and everyone (including myself) wrote down what they thought I would choose. At the end of the game, whoever had the most answers to match mine won. The questions were entertaining. For example: If Dominique were a road sign, what would she be? “Dangerous curves ahead” was my answer, of course!

The gold and silver clothespins are hanging a few of our engagement photos. These will always be treasures.

The love and generosity of my friends on that day was overwhelming. I truly felt showered with love and blessings. And all because I fell in love… It was incredible to spend time with so many women who have shaped who I am and supported me for so many years.

I love the hot air balloon cookie cutter favors as much as all the rest of the guests.

Add a Bride to a Bachelor Pad

Fort Worth weekends are filled with making and finalizing wedding plans. Austin weekends are filled with making Anthony’s house our home.  When I first started visiting Austin, I was baffled by the lack of lamps in Anthony’s house. I was also amazed that he could snooze through the morning in his bright, curtainless bedroom.

I remember the first time I finished that now familiar three-hour drive and arrived at his doorstep. He had gone to significant lengths to tidy up. He did all of the dishes that had piled up in the sink. He even bought a black and grey plaid comforter set (which made its way to Goodwill this past weekend). However, there was no way to disguise the fact that there were three guys and a dog living in the house at that time.

Since that first visit, he’s bought a few new pieces of furniture, he’s acquired some hand-me-downs, and most of my homey belongings have gone to Austin before me. We have cleaned and cleaned and organized, and managed to hang a few pictures on the wall. I almost cried when Anthony told me that now, because of my help, he’s proud of his house.

Rather than writing about all the boring (to you, exciting to me) details of what we have been doing, I will share the list we compiled of things we plan to finish before the end of March.

I am so excited about all the memories that will be made in the place that Anthony insists I call our home.

 

Craft Night and Crepe Lasagna

I am deep into the project phase of my DIY heavy wedding planning. Last week, I hosted a wedding craft night.  With the help of my mom, Anthony’s mom, my bridesmaids, and a couple of other close friends, my wedding t0-do list has several new check marks! Having more than a dozen hands made the monotonousness tasks enjoyable and short-lived.

On craft night, cupcakes from the wedding cake baker were a must. So was this crepe lasagna my fiancé told me would be a great recipe to try “with my friends.” As the original recipe is in Italian, I translated it to English, converted it to US measurements and adapted a few things and here’s the recipe I ended up with:

Crepe Lasagna

Serves 8

For the crepes:

1 1/4 cup milk

7/8 cup of flour

2 eggs

1 Tablespoon Parmesan

Salt

Parsley or pesto

For the filling:

10 oz. frozen spinach

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 egg

1 cup Parmesan cheese

Approx. 15 oz. Ricotta

salt, pepper, nutmeg

For the sauce:

14 oz. tomato sauce

oregano, pepper

+ a handful of extra Parmesan

Mix all of the crepe ingredients together, then let the batter sit in the fridge for at least two hours but up to a day. To make the crepes, pour slightly less than 1/4 cup of batter onto a hot skillet or griddle. When the batter starts to bubble, flip it, like you would an ordinary pancake. You should get 6 or 7  8-9 inch crepes.

Saute the spinach with the garlic over medium heat. Mix in the ricotta. Stir in the egg. Add the Parmesan, nutmeg, salt and pepper. This will serve as your filling. Mix the tomato sauce with the oregano and pepper (or other Italian spices of your choice).

Pour a few tablespoons of sauce into the bottom of a 9 inch round pan. I used a glass pie pan. Lay down your first crepe, add filling, and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Repeat until you have used about half of your crepes. Halfway, add only tomato sauce between two crepes, and then continue with the ricotta an Parmesan layers. Your top layer should be a crepe. Pour the tomato sauce on top and bake at 350F for 20 minutes. This is even better a day old!

Between craft night, my stepdad’s work, and the weekend with my fiancé, in the past week mini envelopes have been stuffed, stands welded, shutters painted, favor bags stamped, envelopes embossed, yards and yards of ribbon cut, fabric strips torn, signs glittered and tissue paper ruffled.

Groomsmen suits have been chosen. Groom’s cake toppers have been ordered. I finally began to collect mercury glass pieces. Wine has been tasted and voted on. The officiant has been met with.  A timeline has been drafted. Ceremony music has been selected. It’s all coming together…

Sixty-four days and counting!

Long Distance Love

I, Anthony, selfishly took my fiancée away from her regular blog writing day with plans of my own.  So, I decided to help out my gal:  the lovely, incredibly busy, wedding planning extraordinaire by guest writing this week’s blog post.  Here are 5 steps for creating a long distance Valentine’s Day date night.

Step 1: Wallow in misery

Being far away from your best friend is challenging on normal days, but on Valentine’s Day??  Oh, the agony!  It was going to be tough on both of us.  We probably would walk like zombies at work, have irrational anger towards coworkers who were able to be with their significant other and then cry ourselves to sleep after being too depressed to eat.  This is the time to feel completely down and hopeless.

Step 2: Slap yourself in the face

Now that you have successfully maxed out the misery and self-pity, it is time to get it together.   As such, I picked my head up and decided to do something about the situation.  It was time to brainstorm.

Step 3: Put it in a box

Of course!  It was so simple.  Every good Valentine’s Day has some or all of the following components:  flowers, dinner, chocolate, wine and romance.  I decided that I would package all of those items into a single box.  Valentine’s in a box!  I went the homemade route to add to the romantic appeal of the surprise.  I took a shoebox, covered it in red and white construction paper and filled it up with some key ingredients.  Coating the bottom of the box was chocolates.  Your mileage may vary, but for my love, there is no such thing as too much chocolate.  I added a small plastic cup and happy meal sized bottle of wine along with a fresh paper flower.  Keeping with the homemade theme I created a paper card inviting my fiancé to a Valentine’s Night dinner.  I boxed this up and it was ready to go.

Step 4:  Add a surprise

The box seemed to be complete, but the dinner was still missing.  Tried as I may, a frozen lasagna meal just wouldn’t fit inside the box.  Therefore, the final element would not be included in the box, but rather would serve as a work surprise, because who doesn’t like getting gifts in front of coworkers.  We could not be together for dinner, but that didn’t mean that I could not treat my girl to a good meal.  So I fed-exed another greeting card to her office with a gift card to one of our favorite spots.  Valentine’s was nearly ready to go!

Step 5:  Modern technology

With the help of the newish technology, the internet, we set up a video chat date while sharing a nice Valentine’s dinner at our respective houses.  And there you have it!  A long distance Valentine’s date.