Venezia!

We're still in the process of moving all my stuff from my old computer to my new one, but I was able to transfer some pics on a thumb drive to upload a few. :) 

I took over 700 photos in Europe and I'm sure that's no surprise to you. ;) Picking some of my favs was really hard, but I realize the highlight of your day is not looking through 300 photos of my vacation, sooooo I tried to narrow. :) I landed in London on Wednesday and Lauren and I took off for Venice on Thursday afternoon, so I thought I'd just do one whole post dedicated to Venice and maybe one or two dedicated to London. 

We spent Thursday afternoon-Saturday morning in Venice and got to experience SO much! We arrived, checked in to our fabulous hotel right on the Grand Canal then immediately set off to explore. We grabbed a couple of cokes (fending off my jet lag) from a local cafe and were off to take in our first views of Venezia! That night, we enjoyed a fabulous dinner right off the Grand Canal with a view of the Rialto Bridge. The next morning, we explored the local market, St. Mark's Basilica, Doge's Palace, Frari Church (breathtaking), St. Mark's Campanile (the bell tower), and every adorable little street in between. We had fabulous food-from local pastas to gelato to espresso to wine. We even got to experience a real Venetian flood! Photos to follow, but it was actually a really cool experience that I'm glad we got to have.

The photos recap our trip better than I ever could in words, so here goes...

Postcard views in absolutely every direction. 

Our fantastic hotel, the Foscari Palace. 

St. Mark's Square

Playing paparazzi during this couple's romantic gondola ride. 

Little cafes line the adorable stone streets. While many modern storefronts take over street level, a quick glance above them reminds you of the amazingly charming and historical architecture all around. 

Good morning from the Rialto Bridge!

This was the view in almost every direction on every little pedestrian bridge...approximately every 500 feet. Impossible not to be blown away. We often didn't even know where to look first because we were so in awe of everything around us!

Venice is very small, but the streets wind, turn and criss cross! Lauren's navigation skills saved us. I was snapping photos nonstop while she actually figured out where the heck we were going... haha... 

Crowded St. Mark's! I was standing in front of St. Mark's Basilica facing the place where I'd stood the night before to get the night photo (above) :) Also, note the bench-looking things. We were so oblivious, we thought those were for a presentation or something. No. Those were set up because Venice was about to flood (we had no idea) and folks walk on them when the water rises! 

View above St. Mark's from the bell tower 

It's raining; it's pouring! 

Awesome little restaurant where we had the BEST server who brought us lots of wine...which is probably why we didn't realize flood sirens were going off overnight...haha...

Well worth the 10 euros in order to keep my pants dry en route to the water taxi/airport :)

Walking down the street to the water taxi! See- people are walking on those concrete things!

Flood? No big deal in Venice! Everyone just keeps on keepin' on. This is NOWHERE near as deep as the flood can get. Google some pics if you're curious! It's crazy! 

Yeah, that's someone's door. 

I think I fell in love with Italy...flood and all. I want to go back and see Florence, Pisa, Rome, and so much more. I've already been talking to Eric about a potential one year anniversary trip and we're not even married yet...haha... (We'll probably do a beach for our honeymoon, but that's still TBD). Sure, Venice was touristy in some regards... I mean if you don't run a gondola, restaurant, shop, or hotel, there probably isn't much for you in Venice in terms of work. So, of course it's packed with tourists. But, the history, people, architecture, food all just make it so easy to look past the rest of the tourists and feel like you've just stepped back in time to one of the most beautiful places in the world. I'm so thankful that I got to visit Lauren and that she and I were able to do a little side trip to this fabulous city!

It's OK Thursday!

 

It's Thursday. Not Friday. WHY? WHY? WHY do shorter weeks seem LONGER? I think people try to cram 5 days of work into 4. I'm just saying. (I was off for Veteran's Day). And while I LOVE bank holidays, it also stinks that we only get Thanksgiving day off (not Friday) and Christmas Day off (not Christmas Eve). Blerg. First world problems. Anyway, moving on.. I'll take my holidays where I can get 'em.

 

It's OK that...

 

* While I miss my macbook (the new one arrived and we're in the process of formatting everything), I'm getting some outstanding sleep since I don't have my laptop to occupy my pre-bedtime hours. (Damn you, Pinterest!)

 

* Since I don't have my laptop and we don't have cable, I've been purchasing single eps of my favorite shows that I miss on our AppleTV so I can stay current (Revenge, Hart of Dixie, etc). Eric will be glad when I can watch Hulu for free again.

 

* Gracie dog was in some of our engagement photos! :)

 

* I'm already way too excited to stuff my face with turkey and all the goodies that come with Thanksgiving.

 

* I refuse to wear tights b/c they're just too complicated in the morning before work. Bare, pasty legs are where it's at, people.

 

* I've taken a bubble bath-complete with wine and a girly magazine- almost every other night for the past week. Baths in the winter are just perfect, I think.

 

* I'm really excited to decorate a Christmas tree with Eric for the first time this year! :)

 

* I'd be totally lost if I couldn't express myself in noises instead of words a lot of the time.

 

* I wear flats in to work (I park far-ish away) and change into heels when I get there. Those heels often stay under my desk all week because I'm too lazy to carry them home. Whatever.

 

* I think Christmas lights make everything feel a little more magical. I just love them. I always mentally cheer when I see a house with its lights still on in mid-January when everything else has gone dark and somewhat winter drab.

Wedding!

So, even though I seem to somehow mention something about the wedding in my other posts, I haven't really done a post about wedding stuff all alone yet.. sooo.... here we go!

First, THANK YOU so much for all your feedback about the honeymoon registry! Seriously, that made me sigh from relief that it worked for so many of you. And thank you for the recommendations on the companies you used! That helps a ton, too! I think that's probably a route we'll pursue, along with a regular registry for guests that prefer the traditional gift route.

We have plenty of time, but here are some things we've either already decided or are leaning towards. :)

COLORS:

I saw this bouquet on Pinterest and just fell in love. I have every intention of using it for my color inspiration. Thankfully I have friends who are much more design-oriented than I am that can help me integrate these colors beautifully. (I also plan to copy this bouquet, too. Gorgeous, right?!)

PLACE:

Inside/outside at the beautiful Garden Center mansion. We walked in and both exchanged a glance like "Yeah, this is where we're getting married." :)



PHOTOGRAPHY:

We're using Ace Cuervo and I couldn't be more excited! If you've been reading awhile, you know I'm completely and totally a little obsessed with photos. I think they're the best way to document experiences, memories, etc. And it's not just about the pictures. It's about the memories and feelings they evoke when you look at them, ya know. Anyhoo, I've had several friends use Ace and I've stalked wedding photographers' blogs for a couple years (I'm creepy. It is what it is). And he's always been my favorite. Meeting him in person just solidified that further.

Excited for our upcoming little engagement session this Monday if the weather behaves itself! :)

Speaking of...

I had NO idea what I wanted to wear...until I saw a friend's photos in gorgeous bright blue. I loved them. I started a quest for a perfect bright blue dress. Randomly, I stumbled on this one at Gap this week when I was meandering around Utica Square at lunch.

Cute, right?! I'm thinking possibly a gold belt. Not too thin, but not super thick either. I don't want to overdo it so if I do a belt, I probably will do a simpler necklace. Probably nude heels. So I'm on a quest for the perfect belt this weekend.

I also have a casual jeans/blouse outfit for some fall foliage pics.

We have some ideas for music, food, etc, but haven't really talked much about them. And the dress? Well, if you follow my pinterest board, you know the kind of style I like on paper. Lace. V-neck. Low-ish back. Simple silouette. But, I've heard that reality can be much different and to stay open to trying on different styles. I need to make an appt to go look at dresses at least once before Christmas, but I just haven't done it yet. :)

Random Ramblings

Random ramblings...in random order. ;)

* So, after saying I was going to blog more, guess what happened... My computer died. I mean, it hasn't officially kicked the bucket yet, but it's close. It's doing very bizarre things and I don't trust it enough to load my Europe photos on it. :( I'm using Eric's computer, but we have to get me a new one. Blah.

* Speaking of spending, while we were waiting on election results last night, Eric and I made a budget. Not a wedding budget... we have one of those... but a budget-budget. I mean, neither one of us are exactly buying Ferrari's or anything, and we're both already cautious with our cash-especially with wedding planning- but we knew we needed to lock it up a little. I was FLOORED by how much we spend to eat out and entertain ourselves. Starting a good budget together will be challenging with the holidays coming up, but better sooner than later, right?

* Over the past month, I've become obsessed with the show Revenge. My friend told me about it and since we have Netflix, I decided to watch the pilot. Here I am approximately 5 weeks later and I'm totally caught up with all 22 episodes in season 1 and the all of season 2 thus far. Good grief it's good!

* In other television news, how freaking crazy was Walking Dead this week?! I don't want to ruin it if you haven't watched this week's yet, but good grief! And watch the preview for next week...What do you think? Glenn needs "two more" of them dug? Two more?! I mean, I can get two, but then who is the third one?! (Watch here if you want to know what I'm talking about).

* Eric and I are having some engagement photos taken Monday if the weather permits! Do a little happy weather dance for us, please! We're off work for Veterans' Day and plan to take advantage of the fall foliage while it's still pretty if we can. (And of course little G dog is going to be in them). :) I'm SO excited!!! I just LOVE engagement photos! It's probably a little creepy how much I love engagement photos. Eh whatever.

* I'm going to skip over all the election talk but just ask if you guys saw Diane Sawyer last night? Whoa. What the heck was going on with her?

* What are your thoughts on registering for parts of a honeymoon? No, we haven't even thought about registering OR our honeymoon yet, but here's the sitch. We're in our 30s and we really just don't need a lot of "stuff" that we don't already have. I mean, don't get me wrong.. I can think of PLENTY of things we'll "need" come registry time...haha.. But, it's also crossed my mind to think about registering for some of our honeymoon if it makes sense. We live in an adorable little house, but we don't have a ton of room for extra things we might need "someday." Sure, we'll move and need more stuff, but there's so much you can guestimate about what you'd need, ya know. Could be a good idea to give people options of a regular registry and a honeymoon-type registry...*shrugs* Have you or anyone you've known done that? Heard anything good or bad about it? I've read some sites take a huge percentage off the top which is stupid and not worth it, but just thought it was worth investigating...

Eurotrip, by the numbers!

I'm back! My body is WIDE AWAKE right now and it's super early as I draft this post even though I'll post it a bit later today. Funny stuff. Anyhoo, I didn't really notice much jet lag (thank GOSH) but I definitely have some equalibrium issues b/c I'm dizzy as hell. It's pretty bizarre. I got home last night and have to work today (b/c I'm bananas), so just wanted to do a quick update!

London was awesome. Venice was fantastic. I had such a great time on my trip! It was great to see Lauren, explore a litte piece of Europe and have some time away. :) I'll most more detailed stuff soon when I download the pics from my camera, but for now... here is my trip by the numbers, including a few pics from my iPhone. :)

5....Candles we lit in the various cathedrals we visited in honor of our lost loved ones.

528....Steps we climbed to the TOP of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. (I almost had a panic attack on the last leg of the narrow, completely vertical winding metal stairs).

47....Average high in London while I was there, but we didn’t let it bother us! That’s what coats are for. J

52 ....Amount of carats of just one diamond in one of the larger crowns at the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London.

1270....The year the oldest part of Hever Castle (Ann Boleyn’s home that we visited) was built.

1....Venice flood we went through! What a cool memory (pic of me below w trashbags on my legs in one of the more shallow areas outside our hotel. I have better pics of how deep it was on my real camera).

1....Flight we missed returning from Venice to London. Easy Jet should change its name to Difficult Jet. Long story. Explain later. Had to buy another ticket to get home on a different airline.

2(ish)....Liters of wine we consumed on our last night in Venice where we had the best Italian food and had a fabulous waiter (who brought us more wine for free!)

3....Times the time difference changed for me. Once when I arrived, once in Venice and once for daylight savings time while I was there. Who knew they have a different daylight savings date?

443....The amount in feet above the ground that we viewed London from the London Eye.

30+....Times one of us burst out in “Oh Sole Mio” while in Venice.

5....Number of little Cavalier doggies I saw! Little G would have had lots of friends. J

3....Typical number of ice cubes they give you when you ask for ice with you drink. It’s funny.

5....Umbrellas we went through by either leaving one on a train or ruining it in the wind/rain.

500+....Photos I can’t wait to DOWNLOAD!!!



Clickwise starting in top left: Subway, Tower of London guard at the Crown Jewels, Big Ben, St. Mark's square at night in Venice, London from the London Eye, Venice flood!



Catching up (again)

Dear Blog- I am sorry you are sitting out here on the interwebs with less typing love from me than you're used to. I promise to spoil you with photos and love very soon. :)

Last week was TU's Homecoming! I co-chaired an event on Friday night at Tulsa's Oktoberfest for the Young Alumni in town for the Homecoming festivities. :) In case you missed it on the Today Show a couple weeks ago, Tulsa was recognized as having one of the biggest and best Oktoberfests in the nation. Just.saying. 

We gave out plastic TU beer steins at O-fest. :) Eric and his friend, Chris, had TU cornhole boards made.. awesome.

Best part: we won the game- Go TU!  Oh and check out that I'm in a freaking tank top! In late October. What?! I even got a sunburn. It was 85 degrees last weekend. Tulsa weather is so bizarre sometimes...

But, glad the weather was good b/c it might bode well for our WEDDING which is exactly one year from last Friday! On Friday, I turned in the contract and deposit to officially book Saturday, October 19, 2013! I think that sounds like a darn good day to get married, don't you?! Leaves changing, crisp morning/evening air (unless it's 85 degrees again), gorgeous fall colors. *happy sigh* We're shooting for an outdoor wedding, but it can be moved inside if Oklahoma weather gets feisty. The venue can accomodate both easily. I am so excited, friends! On Saturday morning before the TU game, I met with our photographer and finalized that, too! :) Those were the two things we cared about the absolute most up front, so I can breathe a little more easily for a bit.

So with TU Homecoming over with...and two large things booked for our wedding, I can now concentrate fully on the next exciting thing.. EUROPE! I leave TOMORROW! Eek! Am I packed? Let's not talk about that.


London, here I come!

I fully intend to keep my eyes peeled for a sighting of this lovely lady. You think I'm kidding. I've already looked up where she likes to walk her dog. My camera will be ready to snap photos should the opportunity arise.

We weren't sure what we were doing for a quick weekend-type trip while I'm there, but we officially booked Venice (!!!!!) last week! I have ALWAYS wanted to go to Venice, so I can't even express how thrilled I am! I know.. Paris is an obvious choice.. but Lauren has been to Paris many times and I wanted to go somewhere we could both explore for the first time. I love how getting from place to place in Europe is so simple and affordable. In my head, I picture two people sitting around discussing "Oh, shall we go to Paris, Rome or Venice this weekend?" *said with a flip of the hair while sipping champagne* haha...



*happy sigh*



Anyhoo... feel free to share any tips for an overseas flight... Stay awake the whole time? Sleep the whole time? Who knows... I might not blog til I get back, but I'll be instagramming (Don't you love how all social media sites can be made into a verb?). I'm Ok_Jax. :)

Happy Monday, friends!

Weekend Recap: Catching Up

Long time, no blog... Sorry. I've been consumed by trying to find a venue/date for the wedding. We really wanted to have it at TU's chapel, but they couldn't book us until the fall 2013 football schedule comes out...in February. Blech. So, we re-evaluated and decided to go with somewhere else. Then it became "We should have it somewhere we can have the wedding AND reception..." Anyway, I'll talk more about that later, but needless to say, my free computer time has been spent researching, reviewing photos of wedding sites, etc.

As of lately, I've...

...cooked a little. :)

Slow cooker veggie soup a la Pinterest! It was YUM!

...decorated pumpkins with the girls..

Ashley and Jenny decorated...

Sarah and I drank wine and goofed off...

...hung out with G...

...even though she rolled in cat poo... twice. 

 ...celebrated Matt's 30th birthday!

 ...went to see Journey with Sara! We "didn't stop believin' " til around midnight on Wednesday, so Thursday morning was a little rough... haha...

Awesome ride to the concert! Our friend has an old school Cadillac convertible.  

 ...cheered on TU for a Thursday night home game.

 ...went to Marla's housewarming/OU v TX watch party and got to hang with adorable little Roman! I think he loves his aunt Jax. :)

 ...saw these...

Five stars. Seriously so good. 

Good, but not not as good as the first. 

Final season!

Finally, I'm happy to report we've officially found a fantastic venue for the reception and possibly the wedding, too! :) If TU works out for the ceremony, great. But, if not, we have a great place to hold both. We just have to make it official by dropping off a deposit and filling out paperwork on Tuesday, so I'll post more about it when it's final! YAY! Definitely a fall wedding in 2013...which is what I've always wanted! (Not the 2013 part necessarily, but the fall wedding... you got what I meant). 

So, sorry I've been all MIA on the blog, Twitter, and Instagram. Hopefully I'll be better once that's all finalized! :) 

Weekend Recap!

How on earth is it already October?! This year is FLYING by! Granted, I'm super excited for some pumpkin fun, my trip to Europe, TU Homecoming, etc., so I'm okay with it being October. :)

Eric and I have hit up the Austin Farmers' Market and the Fayetteville Farmers' Market in recent weeks, but had yet to venture out to the Tulsa market that's just a 2 minute drive from our house. Something felt wrong about that, so we headed to the one on Cherry Street on Saturday morning. Breakfast burritos from Pear, local produce, local beef... good stuff. 

Saturday night, Eric and I hung out and had dinner with our friends, Jenny and Jeff, at their house. I think we started with three or four bottles of wine. And there was no wine remaining when we left. I woke up and apologized to Eric for trying to make the passenger seat my own personal dance club my behavior in the car on the way home...haha... Needless to say Saturday night was a good night with good friends. :)

Today, I got out some fall decor-Wahoo! I packed everything away with some scented pine cones I really liked last year. In a tightly enclosed tub, the pine cones' scent penetrated all my fall decor. It's a little eye-watering strong when you first walk into the living room, but it'll get better.... I hope. 

Tonight, my mom took Eric and me to dinner to celebrate our engagement. :) I took pictures of my breakfast burritos (below) but forgot to take a pic at dinner tonight. Fail. 

Thank you guys so much for your comments on my last post by the way! Personally, I didn't think a year felt too long at all, but you definitely helped support that thought! We're working to get a date locked in, but our venue of choice has some limitations and won't let us book the wedding yet. Long story. So, we might have to book the photog before we book the actual wedding venue because I don't want to lose the photographer that I really, really want and he's already booking up. Eek!

Also, I'm putting together my packing list for Europe!! I bought some comfy, casual (but still cute) shoes, so hopefully I'll be good there. Unless it pours. Which could happen. But I won't let wet feet stop me from exploring London. Any tips on late October weather/packing for London, please let me know. I'm thinking layers.layers.layers.

Happy October, friends!

WIRW

Instead of What I'm Loving Wednesday, I've decided to go rogue and do a What I'm Ranting Wednesday. It's more applicable for my brain today.

Without further adieu, I bring you the randomness that's currently swirling around in my brain...

* I'm pretty sure my flu shot made me feel a little like I have a cold. I know people say that's bullsh*t and it's in my head, but I disagree with them.

* I tried a recipe from Pinterest this week-cilantro lime chicken. The chicken was tender, but the rest of it kinda tasted like the bird must have eaten limes its entire little chicken life. Pinterest fail. Or maybe domestic Jackie fail. Either way.

* The ring on my left hand makes me happy. I can be working on the most mindless and random thing, glance down, and get happy. It's cheesy. It's true.

* I'm one of those addicted-to-magazines people. Glamour. Cosmo. Real Simple. People. Vanity Fair. Love them. Lately, I have an issue with bridal magazines. Have I opened even half of them? Nope. But do I keep accumulating them? You betcha.



Case in point.


* I REALLY wanted to like the new JJ Abram's show, Revolution. But so far, it seems like a lot of really attractive people with swords and bows/arrows running around trying to give me lessons in how technology is ruining the world. (Case in point the woman this week saying "All my photos of my family are on my iPhone. I never even printed them." Or the guy last week saying "I'm a billionaire from google and I'd trade all my money for a roll of toilet paper."). I'm trying to like it, but..yeah.

* I really want to get married next fall. I find it odd that other people think that's weird. People seem to think a year engagement is like waiting til we're 95 years old to get married. *shrugs* Whatever.

* My internet searching consists of wedding-Europe trip (next month!!)-wedding-Europe trip-wedding... haha.. :) Also, I think I should start calling it my Eurotrip. That was such a funny movie. *glances off in distance thinking of some of the funny scenes*

* I got my nails shellaced (is that even a word) when Eric put my pretty ring on my finger (!!) Now some of it is coming up and I have an issue with wanting to peel it off. In meetings. At home. At my desk. I'm sure everyone who sees me doing it cringes inside. Eh well...

I'll stop now b/c you've just spent 2 minutes or so of your life reading my randomness... I have full intention of being more exciting soon. Maybe. Probably not. Happy Wednesday, friends!

Weekend Recap!

What a week! I can't thank you enough for all the thoughtful and kind congratulatory wishes in comments, tweets, emails, fbook posts... I'm still just so overjoyed! Eric and I are both so excited and get smiles from ear to ear when we start talking about it. Granted, so far many of the conversations between us have been "We're getting MARRIED!!!!!" followed by a high five, kiss, hug, or whatever feels right in the moment...haha.. In short, it's blissfully still sinking in. 

Okay, I have a separate post coming with more info about all that, so I'll just dig into the weekend stuff... :)

Saturday morning, Eric and I got up early and drove to Fayetteville to have my ring sized. Why, you ask? Because that's where Eric found my gorgeous ring! They're able to do everything in-house, so they sized my ring while we explored Fayetteville a little.  

Saturday morning farmers market 

 Chi O was founded at the U of Arkansas so you know I had to take a sneaky snap as we drove by. Not creepy of me at all...

Just ignore the crazy girl in the truck taking a photo... :)

 Eric, my newly sized ring, and I made it back in time to tailgate for TU. Did you expect anything less? ;)

My best friend since second grade, Blaze, was in town from Dallas! Such a perfect weekend for her to visit! We got to hang a little before the game and talk about weddings and then again at brunch this morning and talk a little more about weddings.

G dog wanted to tailgate this weekend, so I happily obliged. :) 

And she made some new friends...

And I think Gracie was lucky...b/c TU won! Wahoo!

Okay, sidestepping a little to tell you about an "issue" we've had around Tulsa this summer/fall. See below. Those, my friends, are crickets. They.are.everywhere. Especially at TU. This picture doesn't even do the infestation justice. They were flying at us all night long.. yes.. at us. I'm pretty sure they're trying to take over.

*shudder* 

 Tonight, Eric and I decided to walk around the nearby campus.. Gorgeous night and gorgeous view from the library steps.

Intramural game and skyline in distance... 

I hope you had a fantastic weekend, friends!