We’re back from Tahiti and had an ama-a-a-a-azing time!  We came back about a month ago and have been back at work since.  The trip was fabulous and we did so much.  A few highlights:

• Scuba diving four times and seeing lemon sharks, black tip sharks, sea turtles, eagle rays, moray eels and all sorts of wonderful underwater creatures
• Going shark and ray feeding.  Standing in water as these guys swam around us eating.  Sounds crazy!
• Swimming with a dolphin—literally grabbing its dorsal fin as it took us underwater.  An amazing experience.
• Taking an ATV tour around the island and learning about the various fruits
• All the delicious food

Pictures can only describe this experience….of which we took lots!  Here are Pictures from Bora Bora and Pictures from Moorea.

You would think that with the wedding over, we’d be completely done—but we still had a few things to do.  For starters, we took advantage of the completion discounts from Macy’s and Crate & Barrel to get a few items off our registry.  Of course, we have been working on Thank You cards (of which we’ve only gotten about half done so far).  Lastly, we still have a wedding reception in Boston that Matt’s parents are throwing for us in November.

This will be the last wedding blog post I’ll be making.  If you’re curious about photos, I’ve created a section on the wedding website — Wedding Photos — that links to all the guest photos that I know about.  I also put the disposable camera photos on there from the tables and will eventually link to the professional photos when we get them (probably in about a month or so).

Meanwhile, if you’d like to continue reading about my various ramblings, I do keep a personal blog on my regular website. 

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I’m so excited to truly recycle my bridal magazines as I unloaded all of these onto Sandra tonight, who recently got engaged to Wally! (congrats!!!)  What’s sad is: this isn’t even all of them.  This is the pile after doing some recycling of my own over this last year.  It’s pretty pathetic how many wedding magazines I acquired over this last year.  With going to the grocery store and all the random flights we took this last year, it was so easy to just grab a wedding magazine to read.  Well, now, they’re all with Sandra so she can get mentally stimulated with wedding dresses galore!  Have fun!

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179 is our final guest count, including the two of us and pending 1 person who should let me know by end of week.

This number has been instrumental in this last week or so in determining the number of tables, number of centerpieces, number of placecards, number of programs, number of menus, etc.

This weekend is the last that Matt and I have to ourselves and to do random errands before family rolls in—his parents get here on Tuesday! (primarily to catch the Red Sox)

I’m proud to say that placecards and menus are complete as of 15 minutes ago.  Woo Hoo!  Double-sided tape is my friend and I think we (yes, we–Matt helped assemble today) went through about 4-5 rolls of tape putting together the menus today.

What else is there left?
- put together favors
- make programs
- determine music for other special dances
- pay off vendors
- fill out form for photographers
- make tablecards
- put together slideshow & scan photos
- plan brunch for day-after
- buy bubbles for after ceremony
- get red envelopes
- pack for honeymoon!

There’s more, I’m sure. Eeks! 2 weeks!

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Last week (on June 3rd), Sri & Asayo organized and hosted a bridal shower for me at Sri’s parent’s house in Bellevue.  It was an amazing event where many women from all parts of my life attended.  The theme was “Honeymoon Sendoff” and the gifts, food and decor were centered around going off to Tahiti!  I had such a wonderful time!  Here are some photos from the event.

Party favors for guests

Mimosas & Pomosas greeted guests as they came in…

The entryway as guests came in…

Delicious food and fruits…

Everyone sitting and eating…

We then played “Bride Bingo”

Time to open presents!

I got lots of wonderful gifts to use on the honeymoon…

The whole group of attendees!

Thanks to everyone that attended!  I had such a wonderful time catching up with everyone!

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In about 7.5 hours, I will be on a plane with Phoebe, Jigna, Asayo, Sri & Jessica over to VEGAS to spend the weekend for my bachelorette 48-hour party.  I absolutely cannot wait—we’ll be staying at the Venetian and visiting my parents Sunday afternoon….and that’s the extent of what I know that’s in the plan (the rest has been kept secret from me).  Thanks to Jigna for organizing this!

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Matt and I just returned from Mexico where we attended the destination wedding of his cousin, George, to Jennifer.  They chose the Azul Beach Resort just south of Cancun for all guests to stay at–it’s a boutique hotel (with only about 60 rooms) and was so intimate and wonderful.  Oh, and the best part was that it was all-inclusive.  This was the first time I’d ever stayed at an all-inclusive resort and it was soooo convenient.  When I mean all-inclusive, I mean all the food we ate, whether we went to a restaurant on the beach or ordered in room service was included.  All the drinks we wanted including the daily stocked mini-bar in our room.  This was a huge incentive for all us guests to, well, just stay at the resort the whole time!  It ended up being such a fun experience having everyone nearby all the time.  Since this blog is an ode to weddings, I thought I’d share some pictures from George & Jenn’s wedding on the beach.

Pre-wedding, here I am with Matt and his parents.  Note that we are all wearing white.  All guests were asked to wear white to the wedding, which actually made it a fun experience when seeing all of us together.

This is the ceremony site set up on the beach.

Here is Jenn coming down the aisle.  George and his son, Zack, look on…

George & Jenn with all their children during the ceremony.

A shot of the whole wedding afterwards taking photos

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Yay!  Phoebe and Jigna came over yesterday to help me finish the batch of frog buttons on the invitations and we finished it!  We all got on a roll, put on a couple movies and finished it pretty quickly.  All that’s left is for me to put the invitations in the outer envelopes, stamp them and send them off.  Excellent.  Here’s a picture of our setup and with Phoebe putting a button on an invitation…we, of course, were munching on cheese…

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We finally completed writing up bios of our wedding party—check it out with the link on the right side!

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I got a 3rd hair trial last night from Salon Maison, whom I had booked way back in September.  They’re super popular amongst Seattle girls on The Knot—for some reason, I was a bit hesitant….but I was really happy after meeting with one of the women last night.  She really captured the look I was going for and I feel more confident with my hair now.  (excuse my makeup in the picture below…it was obviously not a makeup trial)  Check!

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The average American engagement is 16 months.
June is the most popular month for weddings, then August, followed by September October and May
Every year an average of 2.4 million weddings are performed in the U.S.
The Wedding Industry is a 50 billion dollar a year industry
Average age for first-time brides is 25 years, for grooms it’s 27.5
175 guests are invited to an average wedding
One third of engaged couples retain a Wedding Consultant
An average honeymoon vacation is one week
The average household income of a newly married couple is $60,000/year
Average size of wedding party: 12
Most brides (30%) plan their weddings for 7 to 12 months
35% of weddings occur in the summer; 29% in the spring; 23% in the fall; 13% in the winter.
11% of winter weddings are Christmas weddings
$22,000 is the average amount spent on a traditional American wedding
A total of $72 billion is spent on weddings annually in the U.S.
$19 billion is spent buying presents at wedding gift registries
The average amount spent on a bridal gown is $800
David’s Bridal accounts for 20% of all bridal-gown sales, and that percentage is increasing
The average ring costs $2,000
Four out of five brides are employed.
There is a 43% chance of a marriage ending in divorce.
Percentage of couples living together before marriage: 64%
Percentage of engaged couples who’ve known each other longer than 3 years: 69%
Percentage of brides who say they’ll be changing their surnames: 60%
53% of weddings occur in the afternoon; 31% in the evening; 16% in the morning.
30% of receptions are held in churches; 20% in hotels; 20% in country clubs; and 10% each in fraternal halls, private homes and other locations.
38% of weddings have a buffet; 34% have a sit-down dinner; 28% serve only cake and punch.
62% of weddings have a flower girl.
56% have a ring bearer.
More than 4.2 million unmarried couples live together.

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