The winter thaw!

I haven't written since December before Christmas and it just dawned on me.

We had a rough winter around here, We almost broke snow fall records for the entire winter, we were only a few inches short. The last time we had close to this much snow was back in 1995!

So enough about that annoying white stuff, It has all melted now finally and we are starting to see sunlight and warm weather around the corner. Of course, with warmth comes melting. A few weeks ago we experienced just that. I'm sure a number of you saw the pictures I uploaded of the flooding, but just in case you missed it...... here is a photo for your amazement.

Pick your jaw up off of the floor...................do you have it yet? Yup, that's what we dealt with during the thaw. This was a combined effort of more than enough snow with a full day's worth of raining.... hard rain! 

It took 2 days to get everything back to "normal" with the exception of a section of road that drifted away AND part of the railway that runs from New York City to here. So, railway riders have been taking Metro-North buses instead. 

Lots of Chaos! 

With the spring on the way, I am looking forward to using our nice yard and have a party. I saw all of the spring/summer sport equipment in the store today and couldn't help but daydream of warmer weather. Here's to welcoming the much missed sunlight!

Wedding Pictures....... I can't get enough!

So there hasn't been much lately, however, we did receive a very nice canvas of one of my favorite pictures from our wedding. I received an email from our photographer letting us know my mother in law (Allan's mother) ordered us a few Christmas presents and she could either ship them OR we could go to her and pick them up. I opted to pick them up for two reasons......

1- It was another opportunity to thank Molly yet again for how amazing our photos came out and chat with her.

and

2 - Allan works in the same town she lives in, 6 mins away. So it gave me a great excuse to be in town and have lunch with him on my day off.


After trying many, many locations for it, our canvas is now lovingly hung over our kitchen sink..... I know, that doesn't sound like the best place. But it really does look quite awesome there and all of the walls in our living room are pitched so the pickings were slim.

Take a look!

It really does look pretty there because it is centered right under the recessed lighting. :D

It seems that every day I go through the wedding pictures I seem to find another favorite that I love. I just can't stop getting excited about these things! Which is a good thing considering I searched high and low to find the perfect photographer AND we paid for them. :)



So here is today's favorite wedding photo:

Christmas is right around the corner and I am excited about it. I can't wait to see how everyone reacts to the gifts I spent so long hunting down. :)

Christmas and Snow

We are coming up on Christmas and it's our first Christmas married. Allan and I set up our Christmas tree right after Thanksgiving and it looks fabulous. We had the hardest time picking a place to put it that our cats wouldn't try to climb it. Then the loft over the kitchen came into play in conjunction with shatter-proof ornaments so if the cats managed to get up there, the ornaments wouldn't break and create a hazard for them.

We also had our first official snow fall last night and I got so excited that I ran outside this morning and took pictures of it. It was fun to see this place with some snow!

The wreath Allan's father and step-mother sent to us

Inspiration Bridal Photo Shoot!

So the day after I come back from my honeymoon I'm going to stay home and relax right? Wrong! It's time to head right back to work and hit the ground running!

My boss/suedo-mom Melanie asked me if I wanted an opportunity to wear my wedding gown again after I came home from my honeymoon. Of course I jumped on it! So on Monday Nov. 15th, myself, Lauren, Melanie, Amelia at Whisconier Florist, Andrea's Bakery, Make-Up by Candee Caldwell and MW Photography all came together with their respective services and did a photo shoot for promotional purposes. The photos will be used in a variety of publications to promote all of the services involved. (Wedding gowns, make-up, flowers, bakery, and photography.)

We took photos at two different, gorgeous homes! The first home was in Westport and the second was right here in Danbury on Candlewood Lake. We are so grateful that these homeowners were so nice to open up their homes to us for the day!

And now, the pictures from that day. All photos were taken by Melissa Wilson of MW Photography and Alyson Hickey of Alyson Hickey Photography.

Before you ask, yes, Amelia is in a wedding dress, in Candlewood Lake, in the middle of November. It was COLD! 

Amelia, Owner of Whisconier Florist. Candlewood Lake, Danbury

Amelia, Owner of Whisconier Florist. Candlewood Lake, Danbury

Amelia, Owner of Whisconier Florist. Candlewood Lake, Danbury

Amelia, Owner of Whisconier Florist. Candlewood Lake, Danbury

Lauren wearing Maggie Sottero. Private Residence, Westport

Lauren wearing Maggie Sottero. Private Residence, Westport

Lauren wearing Maggie Sottero. Private Residence, Westport

Me wearing Marisa. Private Residence Danbury, CT

Me wearing Marisa. Private Residence Danbury, CT

Me wearing Marisa. Private Residence Danbury, CT

Me wearing Marisa. Private Residence Danbury, CT

Me wearing my own wedding gown. Also by Marisa. Private Residence in Westport.

It was such a fun day and I LOVED being able to wear not only my own wedding gown, but another wedding gown by the same designer. I can't wait to see the rest of the photos from the day.

Home from our Honeymoon!

Allan and I got home on Sunday November 14 from St Kitts, West Indies. It was an AMAZING trip!

Our great friend Tony volunteered to drive Allan and I to JFK at 3am, which we are eternally grateful for! Our flight left at around 8am on American Airlines and it was a 4-hour direct flight to St. Kitts. We landed at the airport in Basseterre, St. Kitts (The capital) and actually had to walk off of the plane onto the runway. I must say, that was a first for me. Even Westchester Co. Airport has a bridge and they only have 1 runway!

St. Kitts' Airport (From the runway)

The first pictures are so hazy because the airplane cabin was a comfortable 68 degrees, and St. Kitts was 85 degrees. My camera lens didn't appreciate the abrupt change in temperature.

The plane

After walking into the airport, we had to go through Emmigration and Customs. For anyone who has done this, they know it was SOOOO FUN! (Sense the sarcasm?) And of course, the "airport", which resembled an airplane hangar, was NOT air-conditioned and completely open air so we were all roasting. 

We got through everything and caught our shuttle to the resort. The driver was also nice enough to explain some things about the area and pointed out some great sights on the way to the resort, which was only a 10min drive.

On the way to the Marriott.

Our week was full of relaxing and it was great! We spent everyday sitting by the pool with the exception of our two excursions. We went horseback riding through the rainforest and zip-lining over it! It was such a great experience!

Pool with Swim-Up bar

Horse-back riding, just before we went into the Rainforest

Allan on the Zip-Line.

It was a great week and Allan and I would LOVE to go back in a few years. Most of the island is un-developed and not Americanized which is quite nice! We felt like we were truly on vacation in a different part of the world. Not to mention, jewelry is MUCH more affordable in the Caribbean compared to the U.S, so Allan and I took advantage of that. Allan bought me an Alexandrite pendant which I absolutely LOVE!

Another fun fact about St. Kitts and Nevis (It's sister island)......... A U.S President is from there! Take a guess who it is??

Alexander Hamilton! His original home is Nevis. So if you didn't know where St. Kitts and Nevis were, shame on you because an American President was born there! His house is still there and is open to the public for tours. Allan and I didn't end up making it there because we needed to take a ferry from St. Kitts to Nevis and it was at least a half day even to take the Ferry and explore.

Big Things comming!

So Allan and I have been married 24 days and we have had a lot happen in those 24 days!

I made Allan our first homemade dinner as a married couple, which was baked spaghetti! I even got to use my new lasagna pan that we received as a wedding gift. It was quite tasty if I do say so myself.

We were given access to our online photo gallery from the photographer and got to preview all of the photos she took. They were nothing short of amazing. If you want the link, email me!

Last week I somehow got an infection in my toe and had to go visit my father-in-law to fix it. Hopefully it will heal by the 7th when we leave on our honeymoon! This past weekend we went to a Halloween/Birthday party at our friend Rob's house and managed to win the "best costume award". We went as Mario and Princess Peach.

As well as the party this past weekend, we were FINALLY able to get our washer and dryer hooked up!!!! We moved in back in July and we bought washer and dryer units (front-loading I might add) and waited for the landlord to get the hook-ups installed. Well, apparently people in the plumbing and electrical field are rather difficult to get a hold of and getting them to return phone calls is even worse! We finally managed to make some headway with this project and had our units hooked-up over the weekend.

Due to all of my excitement to finally do laundry at home and the fact that I can label it as a "wedding gift". I lovingly named my washer "Angel of Music" AKA "Angel" and my Dryer "Phantom of the Opera" AKA "Phantom".

It sounds crazy, but if you were paying attention at our wedding ceremony.... you would know why it's important. In case you weren't there, here are your cliff notes. When I walked into the ceremony, The song that played was "Music of the Night" from the Phantom of the Opera soundtrack - Played by Andre Rieu. Additionally, I discovered when I turned the washer and dryer on the first time that they play music! Every time I turn it on, it sings. The "Cycle end alarm" is music as well. No annoying buzzers! So I thought that the names were EXTREMELY appropriate. Yes, I'm a dork.

We leave for our honeymoon on Sunday at 3am. Thanks to our good friend Tony, we will be getting to the airport on time and NOT having to wake up my mother to bring us 1.5 hours to the airport. See you when we get back!!!

Professional Pictures!!

So my photographer, Molly Feit of http://www.mefphoto.com managed to get our pictures done early! I had to try REALLY hard to be patient.

So here is one of the photos, if you want to see the rest, go to : http://mefphoto.com/?p=417 
While you're there, leave a nice comment at the bottom of the post. If you do, it helps my chances of getting free prints. So please go do it. :)