27 and reflecting.

Yesterday was my 27th birthday. My 26th year was full of so much excitement! I spent a lot of time yesterday reflecting on the past year and thinking about the upcoming one. This is the first time in my life that I can say I am so proud of where I am! I feel like B and I have made all the right decisions- the most important being to share all the adventures that life has to offer with each other.

We are going out to dinner tonight to celebrate my birthday. I don't have to work tomorrow, so I opted to celebrate tonight instead of on my actual birthday. We're going to eat at the Red Coat Tavern. This is the BEST place in Metro-Detroit to get burgers, and I love the piedmontese beef they offer! A perfect birthday indulgence! While we were in Florida, B bought me my birthday gift. He knew I'd been wanting a string of salt water pearls for along time, so I was thrilled when he bought one for me! I plan to wear them tonight to dinner!

He and I went to the mall last night after work and bought a new duvet cover and pillow shams for our bed. We bought the Organico Stretch line at Crate and Barrel. We have had a gift card for this store for two years! I'm so glad I finally found the perfect duvet cover and was able to use it! It should arrive early next week. Just in time for Michigan winter. Burr!

A few wedding photos

I finally got the disc from our photographer. There are over 600 images from our wedding! Here are a few of my favorites:

Dress is Blue by Enzoani, Berkeley. (Also for sale if anyone is interested, please email me)

I got a little irritated that my "private" moment was captured on camera, but now I'm glad he snuck up and got this!



I am seriously about ready to burst with joy here!

Our gorgeous wedding party!



Loved the back of my gown and my bouquet was perfection!

We are using the above image for our Christmas card.

My beautiful siblings!



Can you spot the "Hidden Mickeys" on our cake?



My sister gave the BEST wedding toast/speech I've ever heard! Seriously, it was amazing. I don't know what I'll do when its my turn to give the speech. I could never top what she put together.

With my two sisters.

I think the flowers looked great! This is one of the tables. There were two other designs. We divided the tables in thirds, so there weren't too many high centerpieces.

I have so many more, but I thought I'd just show you all some of them! I can post more if you're interested. The images on the disc were so big, I had to use photobucket to host them. I'd be happy to post more if you'd like.

Coming soon, honeymoon pics and a giveaway!

P.S.

Look what finally arrived online!

Oh my goodness!

Are you still there? I sure hope so! I've been gone forever! I've missed blogging so much, but the three weeks since I've posted have been simply fantastic!

My honeymoon was really amazing! Disney World was so much fun, and we had a blast! We also met The Pink Tutu (more on this later) at the Disney Boardwalk! She is so sweet, and we had a great time!

Naples was everything I knew it would be....very relaxing and filled with sunshine and shopping. I bought some new Lilly pieces at two fantastic stores (which I will be visiting again over Christmas), picked up a new Vera Bradley bag, and just enjoyed exploring Naples with my husband! I'm still not used to calling him that!

We arrived back in Michigan late Sunday night, and I didn't return to work until yesterday. But boy was I busy! I wrote all the thank you cards, unpacked and did laundry for what feels like forever, ran some errands and found a new car! I won't say I'm thrilled to be back at work, but I am a creature of habit and routine, so that I am happy to be back to that.

I plan to upload pictures this weekend and post some more about our honeymoon. Also, we bought a fantastic Christmas ornament for a giveaway (B helped pick it out) at a very cool store in Naples called A Horse of a Different Color. Stay tuned....

The view from our hotel room in Naples! Paradise!

What a day!

Here is a sneak peek! Above is a picture of my sister and me just before the ceremony.

It really was a perfect day, and I couldn't be happier! I'm off to finishing packing for our honeymoon, but I just wanted to thank you all for following me on this journey for the last year, and for all the advice and well wishes! It means so much to me!

Favors!!!

Well, its a good thing we decided to stick with our plan to give caramel apples as the favors, because it took less than two hours (and less than $320) to get these ready for Saturday!

Here they are, all 130 apples!
I'm so glad that we had these tags printed professionally. The purple ribbon is beautiful too.
The apples came wrapped in cello bags and fastened with a gold twisty tie. It was easy to just attach the ribbon and tag. These apples were purchased from a candy shop in the "country" (not really country, but quite a ways away, and also much more rural than were I live), and they are much bigger and nicer looking than the 3 packs at Kroger! I hope that our guests are as thrilled as I am!

Wedding Stuff

I thought you all might be interested in a few things I've done for the wedding. This what I've done D.I.Y. style...a.k.a.- not much!

Below is the Program Basket. B's cousin is handing out programs (in the program, I put her in as "Program Hostess"), so I had ribbon monogrammed with her initials and we secured the ribbon to the basket. I figure she can use this for other things in her bedroom after the wedding. Here is our Guest Book. I searched and searched for a monogrammed guest book. The one I found that I liked the most was over $50 and wasn't really the color scheme I wanted. So I had another ribbon monogrammed with our initials and hot glued it on the guest book I bought. This guest book was $16.95, I think.
This is the Flower Girl "cone" I found online. I don't remember how much it was, but I think under $20. I had this monogrammed and then found out that our church doesn't allow rose petals to be dropped during the ceremony! I went to Michael's and filled this with Disney and fairy themed toys and other goodies for her instead.
She will carry something like this during the ceremony. Only made out of the Amnesia Roses with an ivory ribbon.

Though the wedding is only one week (6 days!) away, I feel very calm! I haven't left anything to the last minute, so I can really enjoy it all! I saved money where I could, and I feel really pleased with the results. Having these items monogrammed on my own saved me money, and I got exactly what I wanted.

The only thing I have left to do this week is deal with my veil. This is something I didn't have any control over, and hence it didn't arrive until Friday! Also, there is no comb attached to it, so I'm having that done tomorrow morning. It is beautiful, and I am trying to figure out how to wear it. I think it can be a mantilla or sewn to be a more classic bouffant style veil. I personally love mantilla veils, but I don't think that style works with my dress, so I hope to have to bouffant style with a blusher. It'll be sort of a combination of the two styles.

Wednesday we pickup the pre-made, pre-wrapped caramel apples. The tags I ordered look great, as does the ribbon. Once those are done, I'll post some pictures!

I'm a copy-cat!

Running Just As Fast As I Can did a re-introduction post yesterday, and I thought it was a great idea!

So let me (re)introduce myself (does that makes anyone else want to sing a Jay-Z song? Hmmm.)!

I'm from Michigan. I was born in Grosse Pointe, which is where my preppy roots began. I think the city is actually referenced in this book:I graduated from Michigan State University in 2006. I was a Kappa Delta there.
Isn't it a pretty campus?

I'm 25% Polish, 25% Italian, and almost half Irish with a bit of Russian mixed in. My last name is actually Russian. I think I look most Irish. My mother (below) is half Italian and half Polish. She can clearly get a tan....
Here we are a few years ago on her birthday.
And here I am with my dad, who lives in Naples, Florida. Sorry for the lame picture. This was on a visit in 2006 (I had red hair then) and we were on an air boat in the Everglades (one of my favorite places). I lived with my dad until he moved about 4 years ago. I miss him terribly.
Here is my fiance, B (Bub is my real life nickname for him!). In nine days he will be my husband!

Here is my family:
Then:
And now:
As you may have noticed, we gained a sister, Samantha, who is 20. From left we have, Dr. Z, Gina Bean, moi, Saman, and Noah (or NoNo as we called him when we were little. Sometimes I still do). Its complicated because my dad and stepmom are now divorced (though still on great terms). We are all still very close and a tight knit family. I'll have my mother, my father and my former stepmother all in the front row at our wedding, and everyone pictured above is in the wedding party.

Our home:
We bought this condo in Birmingham, Michigan last Spring and I love it! I grew up one town over, so I feel very comfortable here. I'd only ever leave if we were moving somewhere warmer!

Things I love:I've always loved ballet. Its my "sport". I took a break from it, but I'm back in class now, and it is probably one of the best decisions I've made in a long time! I felt a little hole in heart without it. Luckily B liked going to the ballet (twice last season), so we can do that together.I love to cook and bake. And I've been improving so much recently! In another life, I think I'd have been a baker or a chef.I love to read (though I don't normally do this activity in a bathtub!), and I work in a library, so its really the perfect job for me! I also like Kate Moss.Exercise (how funny is this picture?), and just moving my body!

I don't have any pets (yet), but I am really wanting a little guy just like this:
Hear that, B? :) I'd just need to monogram that little polo, and we'd be all set!

Thanks Alexandra, this was really fun. And, I hope any readers who are new, or were just curious, know a little bit more about me and my entertaining life.

Over The Top

Always Organizing tagged me with award! She is a fabulous blogger and is recently married. If you've never read her blog, stop on over. You'll love it! Thanks AO!

So here are the rules:You Can Only Use One Word!Pass this along to 6 of your favorite bloggers!Alert them that you have given them this award!Have fun!

1. Where is your cell phone? purse
2. Your hair? blonde
3. Your mother? brunette
4. Your father? constant
5. Your favorite food? hamburger
6. Your dream last night? wedding
7. Your favorite drink? dirrrty
8. Your dream/goal? contentment
9. What room are you in? library
10. Your hobby? ballet
11. Your fear? disappointment
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? warmer!
13. Where were you last night? work
14. Something that you aren’t? shy
15. Muffins? pumpkin
16. Wish list item? watch
17. Where did you grow up? Michigan
18. Last thing you did? read
19. What are you wearing? gray
20. Your TV? huge
21. Your pets? none
22. Friends? far
23. Your life? happy
24. Your mood? excited
25. Missing someone? dad
26. Vehicle? Jeep
27. Something you’re not wearing? ring
28. Your favorite store? J. Crew
29. Your favorite color? navy
30. When was the last time you laughed? yesterday
31. Last time you cried? Thursday
32. Your best friend? Gina
33. One place that I go to over and over? gym
34. One person who emails me regularly? Katherine
35. Favorite place to eat? Disney!

Dear Talbots,

Photo Credit

I'm really really really in love with this tartan Christmas dress! I check your site everyday in hopes of finding it. Where is it? Please make it available before Thanksgiving, as I've already made of a list of no fewer than 5 places I can wear it in the months of November and December! And I'm very excited about it.

Your's truly,

Princess Freckles