Food! Part 2

Now, you know what we'll be munching on during cocktail hour. Ready to find out what the real food will be? Cuz it's going to be awesome, too.

There won't be a bread basket to get passed around and man-handled by everyone at the table. Instead, each person will have a martini glass filled with slices of artisanal bread wtih some herbed butter pooled at the bottom. I couldn't find any pictures of this, but just picture it...yeah, pretty great, huh?

Salad will be a seasonal fall salad - baby spinach, apricots, dried cranberries, goat cheese, and walnuts, tossed in a cranberry vinaigrette. Yumm-o.

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For the main course, each guest will have the option to choose (on the RSVP) from one of three meals. First up, the vegetarian option - a stacked vegetable napoleon served on top of Isreali couscous. I know it will include eggplant, but I'm not sure what other veggies will be there. Nonetheless, it looks good. We initially were oging to have a pasta dish with roasted veggies, but I feel like the vegetarian option is always pasta, so when David told us about this as a new option, we jumped on it. Change things up a bit, ya know?

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Another choice is blackened tilapia with a smoked corn relish. I am slowly expanding my seafood horizons, and tilapia is the first fish that I've tried that I really like. I'm working my way up to salmon.

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And last but not least, beef tenderloin with a sea salt rub. Lord knows I love me a good cut of steak.

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Each of the entrees will be served with twice-baked potatoes and roasted vegetables. I think it's all gonna be delish, but of course can only choose one meal, so I'll be going with the steak. Matt's going to get the tilapia. And then we'll trade bites, like we always do.

Stay tuned for the cake, coming soon!

Food! Part 1

I cannot wait for the food that we're planning to serve at our wedding. We worked out an awesome menu with David from JDK, and I think that everyone is going to love it. David asked us what our favorite foods are; what do we like to cook; what are we "known" for among our friends - he used our answers to all those questions to build our appetizer menu. Have I mentioned yet how much I love working with David? Cuz I do.

Anyway, with no further ado, here's a sneak peek at our appetizers...

First up, asparagus and herbed-boursin cheese wrapped in phyllo dough. This one originated from our "pee-stinkers," a really yummy recipe that we like to make and take to parties. Our recipe (courtesy of my mom) is made by cutting the crusts off of white bread, rolling it flat, and smearing Cheez Whiz in it. Then, you roll the asparagus in it, dip it in butter, and then coat it with Parmesan cheese. Then you bake it for about 30 minutes until the bread gets just crispy. It's amazing. It's also white bread and Cheez Whiz, so when David said they've got a fancier version, we went that route. It'll look something like this:

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Up next, a crab cake with aoili lime sauce, served on a small Asian spoon. We chose this because I don't eat much seafood, but I do eat crab cake. Our probably won't be quite this fancy looking:

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And now we have butternut squash soup shooters. David suggested this because it's a great fall option, and its one of their award-winning recipes. So...yummy:

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We're also having gingered chicken meatballs. We told David that Matt loves to make homemade meatballs, just like his grandfather used to do. So he suggested the gingered chicken meatballs to change it up a little bit. (No pictures, unfortunately)

And last but not least....the piece de resistence (as far as I'm concerned)! Cherry tomatoes and mozzarella skewered on a pipette that will be filled with balsamic vinaigrette. You eat the tomato and mozzarella, and squeeze the pipette at the same time - like your own personal caprese salad!

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So those are the butlered hors d'oevres that will be served during cocktail hour. Follow-up post coming about the actual dinner. And....the CAKE!!!

Hair and Makeup

I have been obsessively considering my makeup for the Big Day for a couple of weeks now.

Say you: Why?! The wedding is still, like, 5 months away!

Say me: Um, hi, do you know me at all? Because I obsess. It's what I do.

So anyway. I have a pretty good idea of what I want my hair to look like. And I've officially decided - no veil. That's right, Bridesmaid-Who-Claims-She-Won't-Come-If-I-Don't-Wear-A-Veil (you know how you are!). I am still a bride without a veil. Just so you know. A regular veil just is not my style, and the birdcage veil, while super classy and vintagey and pretty, doesn't seem to be quite the right match with my sort-of hippie-ish dress. So...yeah, no veil. In other news, I finally ordered the clip I plan to wear. I found it on Etsy (my all-time new favorite website), and I am completely in love with it.

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Pretty, right? Here's what I'm planning to do with my hair (not exactly, but something very similar).

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I love how natural and fresh it is, and I think the feather clip in my hair would do a similar thing for my hair as it does for (gorgeous) Rachel McAdams's hair. That's from The Notebook, which is easily one of my favorite movies, and even Matt will watch it with me now and then.

I think I had that decision actually made a long time ago, I just needed to commit to having made the decision. I'm a sucker for changing my mind at the last minute. But I am still kind of struggling with what to do with my makeup. I like the makeup I use on a daily basis. I use Maybelline MineralPower liquid foundation, finishing veil powder, and blush. They look nice on my skin, even out my tone, all that good stuff...but it doesn't last terribly long, and it really doesn't cover up the fact that my pores are enormous and (to me) incredbly noticeable. I love the eye shadow I use: I have the Almay Intense I-Color for green eyes, and I think it really does make my eyes pop. Plus, it made me actually kind of good at applying eye makeup cuz it gives you fool-proof-even-for-non-girly-girls-who-don't-have-the-first-clue-about-makeup instructions on where to put what. And then I use Cover Girl's Last Blast Luxe mascara in Cabernet, cuz it gives a subtle hint of purple. And I think, on a day-to-day basis, that I look pretty good. But for my wedding day, I don't want to look pretty good. I want to look freaking amazing. Like, so freaking amazing that I'm gonna start walking down the aisle and Matt's gonna think, "Who's that girl? I'm not marrying that girl! She's too pretty to be Erin. I don't know who this freaking amazingly pretty girl is!" Yeah, that freaking amazing.

So I went to Sephora last week and talked to someone there. She gave me a run-down of recommended products, and samples of two different primers plus an eye primer. I have tried both of the primers out, and I still don't think my makeup stayed on very long. The one I used over the weekend for my friend Justin's wedding felt totally amazing and looked really good for the first few hours, but by the end of the night I still felt like my makeup was down for the count. Oh, but the eye primer is definitely an investment to make. My eyeshadow stayed put all night, and didn't get all smudgey or creasy. Anyway. I didn't buy anything at Sephora. (Well, at least not any makeup. I did end up purchasing my wedding day perfume. Delicious by DKNY. Mmmm... So even if I don't look good, I'll still smell damn good!) I wanted to get an idea of what look I wanted to go for before I started actually making purchases. They will do a quick 15-minute freebie makeover with whatever products you choose - they'll do one side of your face and then let you practice on the other side to see how terrible you are at matching what they did so they can laugh at you later.

So this is what I'm thinking of for my makeup.

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Say you: Whoa! Holy dark eye, Batman. And, hey, what's with the Rachel McAdams obsession?

Say me: Yeah, I know...I sort of love her.

Now, truthfully, I don't know if I could pull that off. But I'm willing to give something similar a try. Not quite so dark and heavy, but I like the overall idea. So I had planned to print that picture out to take to Sephora with me for their little 15-minute trial thingy. And then...on Friday...I got a call from the salon where we're all getting our hair done for the wedding - they're offering makeup now, too! So I could just have them do it! Yippee!!! I am going to trial it, of course, a few weeks before the wedding to make sure I like what they do, but I'm pretty confident that I will. The salon is owned by two guys I went to high school with, and is staffed by mostly people that I grew up with, including one of my closest friends from high school (who will be doing my hair) and one of my psuedo-little-sisters. They all always look absolutely flawless (in part because they're just naturally beautiful girls), so...I feel pretty good about the idea of someone in that salon doing my makeup for the day.

It's all coming together. I'm having way too much fun with all of this!

SURPRISE!

A few weeks ago, I suggested to my mom that she and I should host a baby shower for my friend/bridesmaid, Abriel. We knew she would be in town for the bridesmaid dress shopping, and all the other girls would be around, so it seemed like perfect timing. My mom and I went to work, emailing back and forth, making plans and laying out groundwork for a surprise baby shower. She spoke to Abriel's mom, who wanted to have the shower out at her house. I emailed a couple of the other girls to help us bring food. We went shopping for baby-themed paper products and ordered matching balloons. I decided I was going to supply the favors - I had found some gorgeous cake pops on bakerella.com, and wanted to replicate them as something unique and special for Abriel.

So I spent all day Saturday, being careful about what I said around Abriel, catching myself while talking to the other girls. At one point, Abriel mentioned "Oh, I told Sandie to bring them to the shower tomorrow..." and everyone froze and looked at me, but I just though, "Oh, bummer...Abriel knows about her surprise shower!" But, you know, no biggie. We got through the rest of the day with no other "slip-ups," and I woke up bright and early on Sunday, ready to get to Melinda's house and get set up for the shower.

My mom and I got everythign ready - packed up the bus, picked up the balloons, and headed out to Melinda's house. We were scheduled to get there around 12:30, so we had 30 minutes to set up before Melinda and Abriel were getting home from church. As we got close to the house, my mom remembered that she still had my sister's coat in the car, so she called Callie and told her that she'd call her after the shower to make plans to drop it off, but since we were almost at Melinda's, she couldn't do it now.

We pulled into the driveway and as we approached the house, I noticed a big crowd standing on the front porch. I thought to myself, "Oh no...everyone beat us here!" But as we got closer, I started noticing people who didn't belong there - most notably, my college roommates. As the reality of the situation hit me, I turned to my mom and said, "Those aren't Abriel's friends, those are my friends!" I started to laugh/cry, and my mom stopped the bus, telling me she'd drop me off at the sidewalk instead of going ahead to park the car. I got out of the car to a chorus of "Surprise!" and walked up to greet all of my closest friends and family.

Those sneaky girls had been planning for that to be my bridal shower for weeks, and when I suggested Abriel's baby shower, I gave them the perfect excuse to get me to Melinda's! As I learned of all the elaborate plans they'd made, and the multiple opportunities for them to giggle behind my back, I was shocked - they'd really pulled off a great surprise! We played some fun games, and Matt and I got some wonderful gifts. It was so great to spend the day with [almost] all of my favorite people, and I had such a fantastic time seeing everyone!

Me and my girls [minus Stephy]

Aren't they gorgeous?

Bridesmaid Dress? Check!

The shopping excursion on Saturday was a total success - and a BLAST! I always love catching up with these girls. We rode around in the bus (my mom's VW van) all day - from bridal shop to lunch to bridal shop to Friendly's (mmm...ice cream) and back to my mom's house to hang out and work on our tans.

But I digress...we found a dress! Actually, we found two dresses! One at each bridal salon. Everyone really liked both, and we got all the girls measured at the second shop, but then after some serious soul-searching, I decided I like the first one better and that's the final decision. The original decision-maker was that the second dress came in Peacock blue, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought, "You know...that could be really obnoxious on 6 girls!" Plus, I think the first one will be a bit more comfortable for the girls. So, the decision was made!

It's a Bill Levkoff design, and I love it. I think all the girls are going to look stunning in it. And navy is such a classic, elegant color. I'm thrilled that we were able to find something in one day. I'm thrilled that almost everyone was able to come (we missed you, Stephy)! I'm so blessed to have such amazing girls who are going to be standing up with me on one of the most important days of my life.