Savor the Flavors

I've been living in or around the city of Seattle for pushing 14 years (whoa.), and never had I heard a whisper about Savor Seattle until a friend who moved away to Minnesota made me a reservation. What I've been missing! In a nutshell, the concept is a themed walking tour of a Seattle neighborhood, complete with delectable food and drink and preferential treatment at each stop. Examples: Pike Place Market. Chocolate. Gourmet Restaurants. Yeah. Top each off with a witty, crazy-knowledgeable guide, and there you have it: Savor Seattle.

My wonderful friend Katy made reservations for all of us who helped her pull the trigger on purchasing a wedding dress earlier in the day, so a celebration was had on our tour: Booze and Bites. Small plates and a half-size drink at each location (six, in this case), perfectly paired and all super different and delicious.

Tacos and a mini marg at El Barracho.

The underground (seriously, you look UP at the sidewalk) bar of The Can Can

Bon Apetit magazine calls it a "must on any foodie traveler's to-see list" and TripAdvisor.com puts it in the top 10 tours in America, and the #1 attraction in Seattle. Do you see why I can't figure out how I've gone all these years without knowing?!

Some highlights, including a drink that begins with a glass full of cotton candy (top right)!

The card given at the tour's end offers a discount at a laundry list of downtown hot spots.

Go as a group, go on a date, go as a single: Guaranteed fun, good food, and a little more knowledge about a city with a fascinating history. Delicious.

Two

Two years married today.

I can't even begin to put into words how lucky I am. We're headed towards eight  years together, and yet I can hardly contain myself for the next eight times eight.

Bring it on - The best is yet to come!
xoxo

One Year Married

...And I couldn't ask for better. I am proud and blessed to be the wife of an incredible man. What more can I say? I'm the luckiest girl around. Happy First Married Anniversary Nate! You have my heart, my love, my life, me.

All photos by Dana Pleasant Photography. She's incredible. Hire her immediately.

Wedding Photo Canvas

A while back I stumbled upon a discount offer through the Today show's "Steals and Deals" segment for a company called MyPix2Canvas.com. I've always loved stretched canvas art, and the idea of using one of my own photographs - what this company specializes in - was pretty appealing for the price tag (...$25 I think? Somewhere thereabouts).

I snapped up the coupon and then proceeded to let it sit neglected in my email inbox for months.

Glad I did, because what better to use than one of our amazing wedding photos from Dana Pleasant Photography?! The images we received from Dana are incredibly high quality, which made it a simple upload process to get the 20x30 canvas ordered and on it's way.

I'm so impressed with the results - Beautiful color, a seemingly durable (aka: gently dust-able) surface, and incredibly sharp picture quality.

Even the tiny details are sharp on this canvas.

 On top of it all, they sent me a coupon good for 30% off all my orders for the next year and hardware to hang the canvas with. This big guy (it comes up to my upper thigh) is headed for the master bedroom, but with a coupon handy and such amazing results, you just may be hearing about an order from this company again in the near future.

Picture Preview!

They've arrived!!

Right now, on my dining room table there are discs containing every tidbit of photographic evidence of our wedding day.

The only problem : I'm on second shift at work and can't get to them until tomorrow! Ack! But in the meantime, lovely lady that she is, Dana posted some on her blog for the world to see. You can see the full blog post here, but I'll drop a few down below this paragraph too (full disclosure : all snaked from Dana's Facebook page).

More to come!

The Dress, Revealed!

I can finally post pictures of THE dress! As mentioned yesterday, I've yet to see very many of myself in it, but here are at least a few from the ever-magical Google Image to paint'cha a picture :

It hit everything I love in a dress : Non-poufy, light, lace, small amounts of beading, interesting back. The fact that I didn't have to deal with tugging on a strapless all night or sweat-liy suffering in an underskirt was just icing on the cake!

Not me, but an idea of what it looks like with a human (instead of dress form) wearing it.

For anyone interested, the official title is "Lace Cap-sleeve Trumpet with Keyhole Back and Sash" Style VW9768, from the David's Bridal Collection. It's a winner and I LOVED wearing it.


And a special shout-out to MOH Emily - She pulled it off the rack and brought it to me when we went dress shopping. I may never have seen it if not for her!

Preview Pic

While I'm waiting chomping at the bit for our photos from our photographer Dana, she sent me a little preview shot to help tide me over.

Photo by Dana Pleasant Photography

DYING to see more, and hopefully we will very soon. I'll certainly post some here!

In the meantime, I've had a few candid snapshots trickle in, which is just the biggest tease ever. Can't wait to get the full scope from the pros!

Almost Un-Veiled

 (hilarious) image

I almost slipped up.

Nate and I were watching - well, I was watching, Nate was tolerating - some wedding show last week and it just so happened that the bride's veil was the exact one hanging with my dress in the next room.

"Hey! That's the same as my veil!" The words were on my lips, the breath taken to speak, and I caught myself just in time.

I know it's such a little thing, but it's the longest secret I've ever had to keep from the guy, and the fact that he enjoys fashion and clothes make it harder. I cannot WAIT to finally get to show him in just a couple weeks.

The Dress I Won't Have On...

Even though pearls are my birthstone, here's a dress I WON'T be wearing... !

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Fit To Be Seen

First dress fitting tomorrow evening!

 (image)

Excited to put my dress on again and start to visualize the magic a few nips and tucks can make.

Here's what I'm hoping DOESN'T go down :

 (image)

Wish me luck and good sucking in skills!

This Just In!

MY DRESS IS HERE!!

...2 months early, but it's here. Better scrambling to pick it up now (I ordered in a place about 2 hours from where I live) then wondering if it will get here on time, I suppose.

Luckily, my parents happened to be traveling through the city I ordered in on their way home from the airport last night. So, they snatched it up before the store closed, upon which I received an eardrum shattering phone call from my very excited mom.

Holy Gigantic Dress, Batman!

Image courtesy of BridalPromDress.com

It's HERE. I have a wedding dress!! Albeit a size too big thanks to having to fit my ginormous rib cage, but now at least I can see it and start the next super fun necessary shopping for appropriate undergarments and the actually fun shopping for jewelry! A bit nervous for the tailoring bill when the time comes, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

WOOHOO!!

No. Just..... No. But probably a small tailoring bill.

Image courtesy of Boards.WeddingBee.com

Veiled Excitement

My mom picked up my veil for me this last weekend.

There is a veil - MY veil, the one I'm wearing to GET MARRIED - hanging in the guestroom closet of my parents' house right now.

It's all getting a little more real...

Princess Di - Not my inspiration, but one serious veil, nonetheless.

Image courtesy of VintageGown.com

Not the Dress

Does anyone else have a different body in their brain then in reality?

I went wedding dress shopping a week ago, and ended up leaving super happy with MY dress (Squeeeee! Ahem. Excuse Me.), but the one I went in to try on that I thought would be a slam dunk was hor-ren-dous. Like : I was a man in a dress. A linebacker. Positively the most unflattering thing I've ever put on my body! The silver lining, however, was since it was the first one I put on, it could only go up from there.

And it did. Thank goodness. Some other girl is going to look so great in this guy though - Super cute, right?

Decidedly NOT my dress.