Hurricane Sandy Please Go Away

Last week, or really two weeks ago now, when the chance of rain was 80-90% for our wedding day, I was having a nervous breakdown.  MES and I scoured Cape Cod for cute umbrellas and I overnight shipped a pair of red hunters from zappos to the Inn just in case we were taking wedding pics in the pouring rain.

While I'm not roughing it out with my fellow New Yorkers, I'm glad I have my trusty rain boots to fall back on for when I try and get home tomorrow.

The Right Stuff

I fell in love with Daria Bishop Photography back when our friends Tracy and Alex got married and the Daria and Andy did their engagement pictures.  Mind blowingly enough, their wedding pictures were even more beautiful.  Even more surprising was to see them at our friends' Katie & Josh's wedding last year and I still got the tingle when I saw their style.

When MES and I decided to get married up north I kept comparing all other photographers to them and I couldn't find anyone who matched up.  Then a good friend reminded me that no matter what I remember from the day, what will last forever are the photographs and that I don't need to just be ok with them, but I have to GUSH about them.  And that's when I sucked it up, decided to go with the photographers that I wanted even though they were out of our budget and out of state  :)

And look at how beautiful our pictures are!  Here are just a teaser for the time being.

 

... Now presenting RMS

This might just be my favorite picture of our wedding, albeit I don't have many yet, but this will probably still reign in the top.

I can't believe that 12 months of planning has finally ended and that I'm no longer a Chan (not officially yet).  People kept advising to just enjoy the day and to take in every minute of it because it'll just fly by and boy did it!  It felt like a whirlwind from Thursday through Monday and now it's Wednesday already and I'm already on my next business trip and MES is back in NYC living his bachelor ways.

The Red Inn was a great venue for us and fit our couple style perfectly.  As an event coordinator I had some personal gripes, some pretty major ones, but according to guests they weren't even aware that things didn't flow right or that there were any hiccups and that's all that matters right?

The Randomness of London

If you've been keeping up with my shenanigans, you'll know that I've been pond hopping to London quite a bit this summer and into the fall.  side note:  Hopefully I won't have to come back until March. And amazingly enough it's starting to feel like my home away from home, at least the Hoxton is and even feeling fairly confident about the underground.

But I digress.  The randomness is how many people happen to be over here at the same time as me, completely coincidentally or just bypassing me in the sky coming here as I'm leaving.  Last night I had the pleasure of having dinner with a longtime friend of mine who I haven't seen in years, and by years I mean towards the early stages of MES's and my relationship and she happened to be in NYC.  She currently lives in Shanghai and we amazingly enough are here in London at the same time this week so we made plans to meet up.

I love this pic we took last night as we reminisced about our days as active Kappas and how much things have changed.  It made me want to drag out an old jacket with Fall '01 on it and rock it around the UMass campus when I visit in a few weeks.  We'll see....

Staying Fit While Abroad

I seem to have a problem keeping up with fitness while I'm traveling which is a huge problem since I'm on the road more than I'm hope it feels like.  So what's a girl to do with a white dress looming in the not so distant future?

I "invested" in one of these handy things.  Super light, obvi, that it doesn't take up much weight in my suitcase, and I can use it without workout clothes or sneakers which adds weight to my already over packed suitcase.  It's great because I bought a 15lb resistance and can use it for arms, legs, added to my core workout (if I do one) and I still get in my strength training even though I can't hit the weights.

Travel Savvy

I've been a huge fan of my trusty Victorinox Mobilizer that I've had in red for the past 4.5 years, not that luggage really expires until it breaks.  I purchased this baby right before my first business trip to Chicago when I realized I didn't have one piece of luggage that wasn't a duffel bag and that would be suitable to cart suits around in.  Off to Woodbury I went, hit up the Swiss Army outlet and walked out with this bad larry.

Four years later and I'm anxiously awaiting the next trip when I can use my O.M.G., which I decided to get in raspberry btw, and now it clashes with my old faithful Victorinox.  So what's a girl to do?  I need a new rolly of course!!  Where to start?  I googled cute luggage and found this instantly!

This super cute rolly from Jenni Chan (I mean she's a Chan so of course I have to support!) is right up my alley. Polka dots (duh), and the pink that will go so well with my O.M.G.   The only downside is if the pinks don't match, but I think I might risk it and return if it doesn't work out.

Natty Noshers UK Style

With my 4th trip to London since the end of June underway, I'm feeling like a veteran Brit.  I'm lucky enough to have C&P as my tour guides and live Google for anything GB.

We made plans to hit up The Modern Pantry, just a hop, skip and a jump from Farringdon Underground.  This was such a cute place and I had a real hard time choosing between a main and what is the Brit version of brunch.  Disappointed after realizing tea isn't served on Sundays, I did opt for the more traditional British Sunday and went for a "roast", ie panko crusted pork belly in red cabbage.  Quite delish I have to say.  I never would've thought to coat pork belly in panko, but it did add for a nice textural difference.

And of course, since a main with a 2nd dish was only 20 quid, I had to order dessert.  Bread pudding always has my name on it, so off I went with chocolate gelato on top.  Yum yum!  Not my favorite bread pudding in the world, still think The Red Inn takes the cake on that one, but it definitely held up.

Next time?  Go during a day they have tea.  I have a feeling it'll be Ah mazing!