My Last Single Girl Post

As a single girl.... I can't believe this day has arrived. It's hard to believe that it is here, it really hasn't even sunk in until today. We have been so busy lately with last minute preparations, meetings and dropping things off that was hard to step back from all the logistics and realize just how close this day was. The last 18 months have just flown by. In many ways it feels like just yesterday that Mike proposed to me. I will never forget that night. It was the happiest day of my life. I was overcome with joy and happiness when Mike asked me to be his wife and tomorrow it will come true. I can't believe that tomorrow at this time we will have been married in front of God and all our friends and family. I am so excited to marry my best friend and I could not have asked for or imagined a better husband or best friend.

Planning a wedding has been quite a process and a lot of hard work, time, and money. Tomorrow we'll see every little detail come together in the vision we had in mind for our wedding. From every vendor, to the flowers, to the location and dresses, and everything in between, and  I can't wait to see how it all comes out. I will say this has probably been one of the most stressful processes of my life, it's had it's up and downs. I certainly have enjoyed my time as a bride-to-be, to have such an exciting life event to look forward to. Mostly I am excited about starting my life together with Mike as Husband and Wife and knowing that we will be joined together in the end that is what it is all about anyway. Not what song was played or what flowers we picked out just as long as Mike and I are happy. And I know that no matter what happens tomorrow we will have the most beautiful day together and I can't wait to walk down that aisle and see him waiting for me at the other end.

Girls Night Out

I had my big 'last night out as a single girl,' aka my Bachelorette Party,  and it was a blast, a true night out on the town with the girls. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect night out with the girls, we had so much fun hitting up the big apple, def one of my favorite Rachel adventures with some of my absolute favorite people.

We started the night out at my Mom's house with some wine to get us started with cheese and crackers and some snacks. The girls all met up there for a few cocktails before we headed out. Even some of my favorite Aunts came out for the occasion (my Mom got to hang out with some of her favorite girlfriends too for the night). Before we went out I was decorated in my bridal gear, a veil for me, along with a sash, and some pick lei's. The girls all coordinated and wore something pink & black, which looked awesome (and I found the most adorable black & pink dress). After everyone had their bachelorette party gear we were ready to hit the town in our snazzy limo for the ride to the city.

We began our night in the city at Sala, an incredible Spanish restaurant! We had our menu all picked out ahead of time so it seemed like they just kept bringing out more and more delicious food, and to accompany that we had unlimited sangria to wash down all the yummy tapas. We had all different kinds of courses, from things like Spanish bruchetta would be my best description in different flavors, with ham or shrimp one them, or tomato ones to then the next course had garlic shrimp, and croquettes, and mushroom ones. I can't even remember them all but I remember each one was more delicious than the last. And there was even two huge frying pans of paella that was amazing too! I absolutely loved this restaurant and can't wait to go back again and try some more!

Then we were ready to get the party started and get our dance on. We headed across town to Prohibition, a chill lounge type bar with great music, the featured entertainment of the night was an 80s cover band for us to rock out to. We had a great table literally right next to the stage we couldn't possibly get any closer, which was perfect to be center stage and get our groove on. It also doesn't hurt that Prohibition also makes incredibly delicious drinks, I had some sort of strawberry martini that literally had fresh strawberry pieces in it. We danced up front with the band and had a great time belting out some classic 80s songs.

The crowning jewel on my bachelorette party experience though and the perfect end cap to the night was going to Johnny Utah's where I got to ride on a mechanical bull. I did make sure to change out of my dress before I did this (wish I could say the same for some other girls there). I had such a blast during my 45 second ride, it was a lot of fun and I had a giant smile on my face the whole time.

Of course this night wouldn't have been anything without my amazing friends that all helped me to celebrate. I had so much fun just hanging out and being with them that anything we did was sure to be an adventure!

My Something Old

For a long time I wasn't sure what my something old was going to be for the day of the wedding but my Mom and I came up with the idea that I would wear my maternal grandmothers engagement ring. We had forgotten all about it since for some reason my Mom's sister-in-law had been holding on to it, but my Mom was able to get it for me to wear. When she took it the jewelry store, the clerk even made the comment about this being an heirloom and that it's been around for quite some time. I think my Mom said it would be over 60 years old by now and my grandparents were happily married for over 35 years before she passed away. I think this is the perfect something old for me to wear to represent my Mom and my maternal family. The ring itself is beautiful and so different, it's so simple yet elegant in it's own way, I'll be wearing it on my right hand, along with my borrowed headpiece from Bridget, my something blue underwear, and my new wedding dress.

Back to The Original Plan

Scratch the caramel apple idea, although I really liked them, we're back to the jars of apple butter. I don't know how we got back to them, I think it was Mike's idea, in any case we ended up purchasing 90 jars of apple butter from our favorite apple orchard when we went apple picking. We really weren't going to do them but for whatever reason Mike wanted to change his mind and go back to giving those out. Although everyone won't know the apple butter jars are significant to us. They represent one of our very first dates and it's a piece of the place that we go to every year for our annual tradition and it's always been one of my favorite things to get when we've gone. I think it's symbolic and a piece of us so I'm happy we decided to go back to them. I hope everyone enjoys the jars as much as we do and they can spread it on their favorite A&S bagel.

Apple Picking 2010

After a brief one year hiatus we resumed our annual apple picking festitives in full force. We picked a perfect, beautiful, sunny, fall day for the event and were joined by 4 of our best friends, John & Amy, and Michelle & Chris. We literally all crammed into the back of Mike's car and were off for our journey. Of course it wasn't exactly the most comfortable ride all six of us riding in Mike's Acura, but we made it work and was more of adventure, there was some lost feeling in some limbs and such but we survived.

We pulled up to our favorite farm stand, Wright's Apple Farm, which is located just outside New Paltz. We've been going to this very same farmstand for the past 6 years now and look forward to it every year, it hasn't let us down yet. When you pull up to the farm, there is a big farm market down on the street with all kinds of delicious goodies, and then you head behind it up to the orchards where it seems to go on forever.

We had a beautiful day to pick all kinds of apples. Amy looked to picked the perfect apple every time, she wouldn't settle for any apples that were less than perfect. Every time she picked one she made the announcement she found the perfect apple. Michelle on the other hand had high hopes of reaching all the best apples on top and strategized with Chris on how to get them down. Mike and I just soaked up the beautiful fall day with our favorite people and favorite fall activity!

 

My Little Charlie

I fell in love with that doggy in the window. I made the mistake of going to a pet store last weekend and falling head over heels in love with an adorable puppy. He was so cute, I went back two days in a row to see him. He was a male, cavapoo puppy, which is a mixture of a cavalier king charles spaniel and a poodle. I even gave him my own name, I called him Charlie. And I was seriously contemplating purchasing him, and I pretty much had Mike convinced as well.

I wasn't exactly in the market for a new puppy seeing as though I just started a new job and oh I don't know, getting married in two weeks. But my biggest qualm was that the dog was from a pet store. I know there are no guarantees with anything in life but you always hear these terrible stories about dogs from pet stores being from puppy mills and questioning their health. But man this dog was so cute I was almost ready to look the other way on all that. But a puppy is a big decision and before I could make that decision someone else beat me to the punch and adopted him.

I know it wasn't the right time for us and he wasn't meant to be our dog but I do now have Mike's agreement and full support to find us our dog after the wedding. I've been trying to find some cavapoo dog breeders but so far it hasn't been as easy as I had hoped. I have found one breeder I really liked so far and I just got our name added to a list for an upcoming litter that the dogs would be ready to go home by mid-December which would be perfect. I hope we find our dog, this could be it!

Two Left Feet

Mike and I have been taking dance lessons for the past two months. We had decided a while back that we didn't want to make fools of ourselves trying to dance in front of everyone and that some lessons might not be a bad investment to get us ready for the most important dance of our lives. We had our wedding song all picked out now we just needed to know how to dance to it. After some searching and several phone calls we found a dance studio about a half hour away that had a wedding package of 5 lessons and with that we signed up.

The lessons were actually a lot of fun, we had a terrific instructor that was extremely comical and easy to follow, she made learning the steps really easy. We started off with some basic moves and then added in a few patterns as they're called. The basic step we'll be doing is the fox trot. She even helped us choreograph an entrance. The hardest part of the lessons was actually on me! Mike did fantastic with it and always had the next steps well thought out in his head, I however seemed to have two left feet at times. I def think that Mike did a better job at the dance lessons and surprisingly I felt like the weaker link. By our last lesson though we had everything cleaned  up and we're pretty good to go. Now that we both know how to dance I'm looking forward to dancing with my husband our first dance at our wedding.

Five Years Ago

It's hard to believe that it's been five years since our first "date" or what I consider to be our first date. I guess it wasn't really a date but it was our first real adventure together and the first time we really hung out, it was also the day of our first kiss.I was hoping we would have time this month to recreate our first date but seems that time has gotten the best of us again.

I remember our first 'date' it was a beautiful, and hot, sunny September afternoon. (We think it was the 17th). In any case we began our day by taking the train from Westchester into Manhattan. My game plan was for us to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Since it was such a beautiful day outside I had suggested walked there from Grand Central Station, turns out not such a close walk, I had under estimated just how far it was. I think I told him the museum was on 60th or 70th, turns out it was on 82th. I just looked it up and it was over 2 miles away. To this day Mike still gives me grief about making him walk all the way there. He must've somewhat liked me then since he was a pretty good sport about walk there. We had a good time at the museum where we saw my favorite Egyptian temple exhibit. You can tell by the look on Mike's face that he really enjoyed it.

After that we walked and found a local bar where we had a quick drink and we chatted for a bit. Then we decided to go downtown to the St. Genaro Italian Festival. That turned out to be pretty crowded, which I later learned in our relationship that Mike doesn't particularly like crowds, so we headed back to midtown by the theater district where we got an nice Italian dinner the two of us before we headed home for the night. This was to be the first of many of our adventures together.

The Tire Story

In honor of our apple picking trip I am posting the now famous story of our first trip to the orchard when I ran over the tire.....

On one of our  very first "dates" I had suggested to Mike that they go apple picking. After a lovely fall day in the orchard picking all kinds of delicious apples we were ready to head back home to Westchester. The orchard is located at the top of a "hill" and required driving down a long, bumpy, dusty road. So me (being the great driver that I am) decided to ride along side this road on the grass. When the time came that we had to get back onto this dirt road to exit the orchard, I "thought" I saw an opening. The grass and road were separated by tires to prevent people from doing exactly what I did driving along the grass. Driving a low Toyota Camry, I proceeded to head towards the dirt road driving OVER the tires. Well needless to say one got lodged underneath the car. Driving along with the tire underneath kicking up tons of dust, I then pulled over to the side of the road and got out of the car to inspect the situation. Panicked I said to Mike, "you drive, you drive." Figuring we had to at least get down to the road Mike agreed to drive. In order to exit the orchard there is a girl that collects your orchard ticket from you on the way out. She was casually sitting there painting pumpkins when we drove by her. It also happens to be a small hill to go down to the road right where the girl was sitting. Upon passing the pumpkin painting girl going down the hill the tire thankfully got dislodged on the hill. We looked back and could see the tire now sitting in the middle of the road but the girl kept on painting her pumpkins. It was one of our funniest and most memorable first dates and as part of our annual tradition every fall we make the journey back to this particular orchard. Although Mike has never asked me to drive back again.

Another Check

Mike and I are making our way through our to-do list. Our dining room table is now covered by 24 gift bags. These bags are filled with goodies for our out of town guests that will be staying over at the hotel with us for the wedding. We stuffed them with two bottles of water, a bag of sun chips, two nutrigrain bars, two rice krispie treats, and my mom is going to pick up some chocolates for us to throw in there as well. Now we just need to print out message cards to put in the bag and we'll be all set. We kept it pretty simple with these but I think they'll work and will give our guests a few little goodies to enjoy in case they're hungry during their stay.

Beautiful Grounds

While we were at The Manor recently it was such a beautiful day outside and the grounds looked incredible I couldn't help but snap a few pictures of the grounds. I can't wait to take pictures outside here!

Apple Picking Extravaganza

It is an annual tradition for Mike and I that we go apple picking every year. It's something that I know I don't have to twist Mike's arm about, he looks forward to going every year, and it's always a blast. It started out just us the first year, let us not forget that is also when I ran over the tire but we still kept going back. Every year since we've invited all of our friends to join us on this little adventure as well, the more the merrier.

Every year we go to this adorable orchard, Wright Farms, which is up near New Paltz. We do all of our picking and walk all over the farm and then Mike's favorite part afterwards is going to the farm stand and picking up all kinds of delicious foods and jellies. My favorite is their apple butter.

We've gone every year since 2005 with the exception of last year. We did take some of our engagement pictures at an apple orchard though if that counts at all. Here's some of our favorite pictures from our annual adventure. In reverse order (oldest to newest), apple picking 2006, 2007 and 2008, and Mike pumpkin picking in 2009. No pictures though from our first adventure apple picking, that one we just have the infamous tire story to remember by.

Mangia

One of the items on our to-do list was going back to The Manor to pick out all of the menu details including cocktail hour and the reception. I'm glad that I was organized (as I always am) since (somewhat disappointingly) The Manor didn't offer too much extra help guiding us through the menu, but that's ok since we already knew everything we wanted and didn't want to be on our menu.

We started with the cocktail hour where I added on such things as my martini mashed potato bar that I've been talking about since I first saw it at Joe & Gina's wedding two years ago. We'll of course have all the traditional hot and cold plates, passed hors d'ouevres and even a seafood bar, where the ice sculpture at Mike's picking is to to be the New York Yankees logo, carving station and other hot buffet stations. You name it, I'm sure it'll be at the cocktail hour, well expect maybe sushi, I took that out.

Then if you haven't already stuffed yourself silly at the cocktail hour it's on to the main event. The first dish will be a wild mushroom ravioli, which I have personally had and they're incredible. Then we kept it simple with the Cesar salad. And for the entree it's a choice of the following:

• French Chicken Breast on Sauteed Spinach with Market Mushrooms and Pancetta 
• Grilled Salmon with Tuscan Beans and Roasted Garlic, Red Pepper Coulis 
• Chateaubriand, Sliced Beef Tenderloin, Burgundy Reduction 
• All entrees are served with the Chef's vegetables and potato 

And hopefully everyone will save room for dessert where there is a dessert sampling plate for everyone and of course wedding cake. We (somewhat randomly) chose a yellow cake with strawberries and banana filling inside. After all that food I'm sure we'll be rolling our guests out the door at the end of the night! 

Busy Busy Busy

It's been a while since my last post, life has been pretty busy and stressful lately. As of September 16th I officially started a new job at work.Taking on a new job and still doing the old job while trying to plan a wedding just a month before the big day does not make for the best combination. While the timing certainly isn't ideal I wasn't really able to set the timing of the new job and it's a great opportunity. In terms of HR positions my new job is the typical job you think of, I'll be an HR Generalist (or an HR Partner as we call it at IBM). I'll be working directly with managers on day to day employee relations issues, performance management, compensation and other various topics. I'll have to meet face to face with my managers and support them with all their HR needs. I know it's a great opportunity and I'm really looking forward to it but it has not been easy doing the two jobs lately which doesn't leave much time for anything else, including wedding stuff.