I am seriously in love with the Paper and Honey Shop on Etsy. They have multiple wedding suites, categorized by “theme” (i.e. Lovebirds, Campers, Travelers) – and they are all gorgeous sets of paper goods. And this praise is all without mentioning the calligraphy. Love, love, love. Which suite is your favorite? I’m leaning towards Dreamers.
For the past four years, I’ve made an annual Shutterfly book that covered all travel and adventures for the year. I just finished my 2013 book yesterday, and it was extremely tough to keep it at 111 pages! I literally had to delete 6 pages in order to complete it. What an amazing year! We went to SF/Napa three times (more pictures here), Durango, Dunton Hot Springs, Boston, New York City, Miami, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, Minneapolis, and Bali. We remodeled a house that became our home, got married and are now expecting a baby girl in 2014. I’m almost sure that fits the definition for ‘whirlwind.’
How was your 2013? What are you most looking forward to next year?
Click here to view our 2013 in snapshots (pictures below by Ryan Ray).
Click here to view my 2012 book. Click here to view my 2011 book.
I love trying new restaurants. I got to knock out three that I’ve been dying to try for ages this weekend – Mockingbird Bistro, Underbelly, and Latin Bites. My thoughts on each place are below!
I met two of my good friends, Paola and Guillermo, at Mockingbird Bistro on Thursday to celebrate their recent engagement. I ordered the Organic Beet Salad, which was great. As a beet lover, I will always order a beet dish if it’s on a menu. This one definitely did not fail to deliver. The spicy walnuts were the perfect touch to the dish. The service was amazing – our waiter brought a Congratulations dessert plate without any of us even mentioning the occasion! He must have been very attentive!
I’ve been to Underbelly for drinks before, but not for a meal. The menu is not super conducive to vegetarians, but the atmosphere makes up for the slim pickings. We ordered the eggplant appetizer (amazing), and then I got the Crispy Market Vegetables, which was a bowl of green beans (slightly strange, although they tasted great). The best parts about the evening were meeting Chris Shepherd (Executive Chef) and bragging on one of my good friends, Bryan, who did some of the art work on the wine menu (illustration and Bryan’s bio on page 10 here).
At Latin Bites on Saturday, I ordered the Quinoa Salad. It was heaven on earth. The ingredients include crispy quinoa, poached quinoa, carmelized cashews, mint, mozzarella, choclo, fava beans, avocados, tomatoes confit and passion fruit dressing. It came with baby iceberg lettuce wraps – one of my favorite dishes in Houston. See their dinner menu here. My only complaint about this amazing Memorial gem is the logo. As a typography nerd, it kills me.
I love the work of Karine’s photographer, Laura Murray, and as I was perusing her blog, I discovered the most beautiful floor length BCBG white gown. Currently obsessed with buying white dresses, I thought – why not? I think this one will definitely make it into our engagement session. It’s almost $100 cheaper on Dillards.com than BCBG – find the Mara gown here (and yes, it’ll make me think about you, Mara).
As expressed here, I’m a pretty simple hair gal (which translates into: I cannot even braid my own hair!). In fact, while I have never made New Year resolutions in the past, I decided that this year, I would make it a point to be able to style me own hair – and with thanks to The Beauty Department (Lauren Conrad’s amazing team), I’m going to learn how to do this. I’ve been looking at different hair styles for the wedding day, but everything seems too frou-frou for me. I finally found a few pictures on Taylor Lord and Ryan Ray‘s wedding portfolios and love them. Loose curls, unique braids – nothing say summer Napa nuptials better!
PS The image is pulled from my wedding look book that I made… I’ll share piece by piece, but don’t want to ruin the big day! It’s a pretty massive document.
Featured image via Ryan Ray (my wedding photographer – so excited!)