Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I hope you wear a little green today, I HATE getting pinched!  

Especially from obnoxious coworkers.

This is the first St. Patty's Day that I can actually say 

I have had a little taste of the luck o' the Irish!

(And a taste of corned beef and cabbage!)

Shug and I were so lucky to have traveled to this beautiful country in September.

The greenery and rolling hills looked more like paintings than "real life."

Everything truly looked like a set of a movie!

We also enjoyed the company we were able to travel with!

Shug and I felt so lucky to have traveled to such an amazing place!

 Our last evening in Ireland, Shug and I enjoyed a pint of Carlsberg and a glass of wine in the pub connected to the B&B where we stayed.  The large windows looked out over the ocean and the gusts of wind rolling off the water shook the panes in their sills.  We talked about returning to Ireland, even though we hadn't even left yet.  It was the most surreal experience and if you ever have the chance, go to this charmed and lovely place!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

A Kinsale Wedding

The whole reason Shug and I went to Ireland was to attend our two close friends' wedding celebration.  Supermodel and Shug's Best Bearded Friend started dating almost exactly the same time Shug and I did four years ago.  It has been such an amazing journey to the altar and I feel I was able to share a lot of the fun with these two on our parallel trips!

 The wedding was just surreal.  It was a beautiful Irish autumn day with rain (good luck!), sunshine, clouds, and everything in between.  The ceremony was lovely, with an officiant from Cork and close to a hundred people that had crossed the pond just for the special occasion!

Supermodel lived up to her name and looked ethereal.  Her dress, that was custom made, conjured up old Hollywood glamor with sparkling paillettes and demure cut-outs in the dark grey silk.  She had the cutest pin curls to top off her wedding day look.

There was such a feeling of support and love for these two it was indescribable...!  After the ceremony we went to have drinks and take pictures while the dining room was prepared.  Champagne and Jameson were the popular choices!

 

All of the bridesmaids wore navy dresses with cream cabbage rose bouquets and the groomsmen all had navy vests with plaid ties and cream Vans shoes.  I'm not gonna lie, it was a dapper-looking bunch!

Dinner was served and the toasts began to honor the bride and groom.  I can honestly say I haven't heard a better speech from a best man!  There wasn't a dry eye in the house.

 The dinner was delicious and the company couldn't have been better.  One of my favorite things about this celebration was that Supermodel and BBF have such a diverse group of friends and it was so nice to get to spend the day with them!

I think I'm still "coming down" from this amazing experience.  But you know what was the nicest part?  That I get to have these two in my "real" life back in Salt Lake City.  I hope you all have a lovely weekend! xo.

SO Much to Talk About...!

Annnnnd we're back!

And so many funny, lovely, ridiculous, and crazy things 

happened while we were away.

I'm still a little jet-lagged, 

so I will just give a few items that will be up for posting in the next few weeks!

• Wedding FOOD. The. Best. Ever.
• Ghosts!
• Dublin's best vantage point of the city.
• The amount, in pounds, I consumed of pork products.
• High-kicks in the street at 3:30am.
• Shug driving on the left-hand side of the road.  AHHHH!
• Irish TV show, "Embarrassing Bodies," with hairy (!) buttholes.
• Waking up by the ocean.
• The most thoughtful bridesmaids/groomsmen gifts.
• Traveling with some of my favorite people on the planet!

And that's just the Ireland leg of the trip!

I'll leave you today with a Polaroid Shug snapped
of the newly wedded couple
just moments after their beautiful ceremony.

It was so lovely and just...THEM.
I'll tell you all about it later...!

P.S. I missed Goldteef!  I'm glad to be back!
xo.

Dents d'or en Irlande et en France!!!

Goldteef will be on little break seeing as Shug and I will be in Ireland for a wedding and France for the museums and food for the next two weeks!  I promise to take lots of of pictures, drink lots of wine, and eats lots of stinky cheese;)!

I'm going to miss Ruby so much, but Grandma is sleeping over to hang out with the Rubester for our vacation!  She's gonna get SO spoiled!  It's good that she gets some QT, though, since we've been working like crazy and Ruby hasn't gotten the belly scratches she deserves.

I hope you have a lovely two weeks!  I'll be back with blisters and tons of photos;)!

x to the o.

My Friend Wallis

Hiding - My Friend Wallis from Kyle Surovy on Vimeo.

LOVE Crystal Dorval aka My Friend Wallis.

She seems like the kinda gal I could be BFFs with.

Foreves.

Have a great weekend!

xo.

Psst...!

I'm leaving on a jetplane!

To Ireland!

For a wedding!

ROMANCE!!!

Countdown

It really really really helps a person to get through a crazy insane-o week when you know you'll be traveling to Ireland for a wedding in a little over a week...!

Words cannot express how excited I am to be a part of my good friends' celebration.  Both Supermodel and Best Bearded Friend are some of the hardest-working people I know and they deserve this little break!  I'm so looking forward to windy beaches, verdant farmlands, and warm pubs.

Have any of you ever been to Ireland?  What should I check out? What foods (or brews) should I try?

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!  I'm on call: BOO.  But I also leave for Ireland in a little over a week: YEA!!!

Bestest Best's Wedding

Bestest Best had her wedding at the beautiful Red Butte Gardens at the end of July.  The ceremony took place in the Fragrance Garden that was alive with bees and the heavy scent of lavender.  Hearing Bestest Best and her betrothed exchange vows while the summer breeze carried it away was such a lovely gift.

The weather was truly perfect for a typically hot and sunny Utah July day.  The entire morning was sweltering, that's why I look so frumpled in all of the pictures Shug took of me!  But the breeze started blowing about 15 minutes before the ceremony and then rain came after everyone moseyed down from the Fragrance Garden for the celebration to begin!  The rain lasted only a bit, but it cooled off the gardens so we could start to dance!

An old German saying is that it's good luck to have bad weather on your wedding day, but Bestest Best and her betrothed got an even more auspicious sign: a little rainbow peeked out after the rain stopped!  It was one of the happiest days.

Bestest Best's Wedding Teaser

This was one of the most beautiful days and I'm honored to say I got to be a part of it!

Bestest Best's wedding was a little under a month ago!

I can't believe how quickly the time flew!

To tide you over until Monday,

here's a shot of Best looking luminous as her parents 

walk her down the aisle.

She was the most beautiful bride!

Have a lovely weekend!

xo.

Bridesmaid's Dress 2.0b

Well, I made it through Bestest Best's wedding and only cried the ENTIRE ceremony!

Now to search for September's party in Ireland!

What do you think of this J.Crew classic cut?

In navy, of course;)!

Happy Friday!

I hope you all have a lovely Friday and weekend!

I'll be at the wedding of the summer!

xo.

Yellow Dress Search Continues...

STILL looking for the right shade of yellow....

Help!

This cute number is by THREAD, but it's waaaay outside my price range.

P.S. This is totally unrelated, but for the most heart-warming and raw birth story, head on over to Pacing the Panic Room.  And bring tissues.

Bridesmaids Dresses

So I have been a-searchin' for a beautiful yellow summer dress.

It's for a very auspicious event that will occur in July,

also known as Bestest Best's wedding!

I lucked out and get to be a bridesmaid!

I found this at Anthropologie (of course)

and was wondering what you gals think.

Too embelished?

Too bright of a yellow?

Too...too?

I'd love to hear what you think!

Salt Lake Talent - Ello There

I feel pretty lucky to live in an era where I can find local

talent at the drop of a word created JUST for interweb sleuthing.

Ello There is a local wedding invitation shop

that uses windpowered press

and,

I'll tell you,

Labyrinth references getyoueverywhere with me...!

So cute.

Our Wedding Invitations

Well, it's been over half a year since our little wedding

and our invitations are still one aspect of our special day

that I am so very proud of!

Shug designed the invitations.
Tuesday Mourning did the portrait.
Mandate Press did the letterpress.

They were perfect!

While letterpress is a little spendy, Shug and I saved money
by purchasing small manila envelopes online.
We made sure they matched well with these cute stamps.

We had perforations made on the bottom of the invitation
to rip of the RSVP card to drop in the mail.
This saved us from printing an entirely new RSVP card,
saved paper,
and cut down on costs!

It also saved money to have your husband-to-be design the invitations...

I'm basically the luckiest girl in the world!

I'm already married and all, but...

...Holy hell I love this Lanvin wedding dress!

It's two pieces, the top rings in at $600...not too bad,
BUT the skirt, is $3200...

Yeouch.

In comparison to a Vera Wang or a Monique Lhuillier,
this dress is a downright bargain and totally worth the investment because...

5 words:

LANVIN
ON
YOUR
WEDDING
DAY.

Lovely ladies that are getting hitched this summer, this is your warning.

2010 is looking up already...

Wouldn't you know that two of the most beautiful-amazing girls on the planet asked me to me one of their bridesmaids!

I can't believe how lucky I am to have such a wonderful summer to look forward to!

They both were bridesmaids for my wedding this past summer and made my and Shug's day all the more special.

Now just to get through the little details of school and winter...

Photo from our wedding photo booth!

Wait for it...

...A book I actually liked!!! I know! Crazy, right? Well, before you think the book is about gene splicing or the political maneuvers of the Shining Path, I'll let you know this book is a work of fiction! And it's not even by Dostoevsky!!!

This was a "honeymoon read" that I didn't get around to reading. I mean, it has the perfect title for honeymoon fare: A Happy Marriage. I picked this up right before the insanity of the wedding thinking it would be a great lakeside read. Wrong.

Luckily, as we were listening to NPR the afternoon after we arrived in Idaho, Terry Gross was interviewing Rafael Yglesias about his new book, A Happy Marriage. I listened long enough to find out the book is about his late wife's battle with cancer and his inner turmoil with the nasty leftovers of an affair. So, um, yeah, this book was probably not what I needed to read mere days into my marriage. So I tucked it back in my suitcase for later.

"Later" turned out to be one of the most crazy weeks of the semester so far, so instead of doing my homework, I read this book. It was lovely. It recounts a beginning and an end of a marriage. This marriage was far from perfect and I really liked that. Margaret and Enrique (Rafael's pseudonym) are not perfect, either. They are infuriating at times! The book is brutally descriptive about the dying process for the individual suffering and their family, as well. It's visceral and raw, both the beginning and the end of this marriage.

Rafael needed some absolution for his adulterous ways, so he wrote this book. I'm so glad he did.

Today I feel...

...married. It's finally sunk in after a month!
.
.
.
And, I love it!

Happy Labor Day!

I hope you do something fun!

Bachelor/Bachelorette Party

From what I can remember, it was pretty fun!
Shots via Shug.