Kendall, Candle, Candle, Kendall

With Dave in New York this week I'm taking advantage to getting Lots of Wedding Things Done (that deserved to be capitalized). Today, Dave registered us for Pre-Cana, I emailed our "personal registry consultant" (really!) at Bloomingdale's, and I contacted Team: Wedding (aka my bridesmaids) about dress fittings. Tomorrow we're checking out Bed, Bath, & Beyond and Thursday we plan to go shopping for wedding rings. Also on the agenda: sketching out our save-the-dates and invites and sculpting our cake toppers (version 1 was too big, version 2 too cartoony, version 3 will be abstract and sculptural. I...think.).

But tonight! I am thinking about candles. My kiddo loves candles almost more than me (which is funny! because my name sort of sounds like...y'know...). We're currently in the middle of the Great Tablescaping Debate (flowers? hurricane glasses? moss?). Right now, in the dead of winter, I'm feeling the no-flowers thing, nothing but simple, beautiful candles.

I'm all for simple greenery and pretty white candles.

Colored candle holders! I actually sort of want this in our house.

Beeeautiful! Although you'd sort of have to say good-bye to the person on the other side of the table. Still, pretty, no?

Not for tables but still gorgeous. These I'm actually pretty sure we'll do.

Big, bold, beautiful.
I love the simple statement of a row of oversized white candles.
Plus then Dave can take them to study by
(which he really does! I think he thinks it's cozy..?)

Very Merry

Merry Christmas blog-o-sphere!

Remember, the best way to spread Christmas cheer, is to sing very loud for all to hear.

Bling Bling

Comes with free pen/carrying case

I noticed something today that got me thinking...

A coworker recently got engaged, and after I congratulated her and shared post-engagement stories, I asked to see her ring. She seemed a little embarassed as she held it out--it was pretty, and huge--and right away she said she had to get it made smaller because "it looked like costume jewelry." I don't know if she meant the ring band or the diamond, and I didn't ask, but I thought it was a little strange. The diamond in my own engagement ring is smaller, and I got the sense that she was worried that she was showing off or embarrassing me because hers is so much bigger.

It's bizarre, but it's not the first time it's happened (another was a friend of a friend who got engaged a week or two before me. We made the mistake of holding out our hands at the same time, she blushed, said something about the size, and pulled her hand away). And every time it does happen, I feel weird. I love my ring, L-O-V-E it. There is absolutely nothing I would change about it, including the diamond size--it is so exactly what I want that I keep trying to pressure Dave into picking out the wedding band, too.

So why all the weird feelings about comparing ring sizes? I don't really know where it comes from, and I'm not the best at making anti-Tiffany's rants or raging about the consumer-driven mindset that's led people to equate size of diamond with amount of love and happiness afforded to a couple.* Still, it bothers me, and I don't like feeling like I have to defend my beautiful ring every time someone pulls out something bigger (which I don't do, because that would only add to the weirdness, but the feeling's still there).

I think engagement rings, unlike almost any other kind of jewelry, are so universal and so expected and so tied up with feelings of love that they naturally lend towards comparisons. And I don't think this is necessarily bad, and I enjoy seeing different styles and shapes and settings, but feeling any kind of embarrassment about rings--yours or someone else's--is pretty silly.


*You know who is awesome at this? Meg, from A Practical Wedding. Along with oversized engagement rings, her blog should be required for all brides- and grooms-to-be.

Roma, Stiamo Arrivando!

Honeymoon tickets bought! Two-and-a-half weeks in Italia with my bambino!

Lacy Embroidery

I think celebrity weddings are a little silly in general, but I did love Nicole Richie's lacy embroidered sleeve:
My wonderful talented grandma is making my wedding veil, and I would love love love to include this in the design. What a sweet, pretty, personal detail (to share with German tabloid magazines...).

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Christmastime is almost here!

If I knew how to knit well-enough, I would be making these for me and my kiddo:



They are called Smittens and they're for couples to hold hands as they walk. I know, right?

For all you knitters, here's the pattern

Mmm Cake...

Red velvet cake, made by Martha.
Yes, it is perfect and I want, obvs.

This weekend I get to participate in the part of wedding planning that Dave has been excited about since day 1: menu tasting!

Sadly my funny honey will be studiously studying for exams and won't be able to come (more cake for me!!!), so this is a mother-daughter face-food-stuffing.

I used to be (and sort of still am) a pretty terribly picky eater. But ever since I graduated and have had to fend (and cook) for myself, my tastes have broadened, and I've discovered I really like food--cooking it, researching it, and (duh) eating it. Actually, my first foray into the wild world of blogging was creating a cooking blog, Res-o-puh-leese, and still one of the few things that helps me recover from a bad day is going wild at the grocery store splurging on fancy cheeses and artisan pastas.

But while I love cooking, I know I am a far cry from an adequate chef, and as much as secretly dream of opening up my own cupcake bakery (it will be painted bright yellow with a huge plate glass window and antique French brass accents and be called "Sunshine Bakery"), I am sort of only mediocre. Which is why good food made well is one of my favorite things in the world and why I have been counting down the days (three!) until the menu tasting.

Yes, they cater weddings.
Unfortunately I think to pay them you have to spin a whole room full of straw into gold,
plus Illinois sales tax.

Side note on the good food, because Dave says I have to blog about this in some capacity: Last week we had the best meal in our entire lives at Tru, a restaurant in Chicago and current owner of one Michelin star (wha-whaaat?!?). Last year Dave got a gift certificate to go there from his uncle, and we finally decided to take the plunge and splurge on food (I was proud of Dave for giving good food its due. This is a man whose go-to meals consist of hot dogs and tortilla-wrapped PB&Js). Oooooh man... Thirteen courses later we were lost in a happy food coma. I still dream of the delicate caviar, the caramel-flavored foie gras, the roasted venison, the cheese cart (oh the cheese cart!!!). I never wanted to leave, just to spend the rest of my existence beneath those cathedral ceilings, having dapper young men in red suits continually deposit and whisk away (in sync) plate after plate of confusingly-pronounced, precisely-prepared heaven.

mini cobblers haunt my dreams...

I'm not planning to hold my wonderful caterer up to such ridiculously high standards, but good food at our wedding is certainly a goal. As it should be! How many tough chickens and watery pastas must wedding guests endure? The best wedding food I ever had was at a friend's casual back-yard affair, where, she said, about half the budget went just to the food. It showed. All day today I was thinking about the delicate raw sushi with candied ginger, the gazpacho shooters, the delicate cheese puffs... Was their wedding almost three months ago? Yes, and I can still remember every bite--that's a good menu.

So, I can't wait to dive in to all that wonderful wedding deliciousness, especially cake tasting! Oh man, cake tasting... Hear that fiance? While you are slaving away over regressions and algorithms (that's what you do, right?), I will be sampling piece upon piece of wonderful wedding cake... That's what getting married is all about, right?