here are a few shots of the inside of our newlywed digs…
hallway at entry
looking from kitchen toward Nick’s desk
looking from bed to the kitchen
kitchen
bathroom
Our space is small (less than 500 sq. ft.), but it doesn’t feel so bad! Other than the "*teeny tiny* kitchen, it suits us well! Check back with us in May and see if we still feel the same way! I think by the time we get back to AZ we will be thrilled to have more space to rattle around in!! :)
some of my favorite shots while we were getting ready.
1. The spread of makeup necessities!
2. Champagne!!
3. The boys celebrating…
4. All of my girls! (l-r: Beth, Lauren, Rachel, me, Melyssa, Shelli, & Alice, and down front Miss Paige & Layla)
5. My FAB bouquet! LOVE this shot!
6. Someone was thoughtful enough to take a picture of all of our dresses hanging up. So Cute!!
7. Me with the CUTEST flower girls! Layla was so excited!!
8. I LOVED my hair!! Coif courtesy of Emily – she did an AWESOME job!
9. Nick looking dapper getting ready!!
10. Nick putting the finishing touches on his ensemble!
11. My shoes! Even though I doctored these puppies up with foam strips so that they wouldn’t kill my feet (a lesson I learned at Rachel’s wedding), I still had them off before the reception even started!
Last weekend we wandered into the Chelsea neighborhood to do some exploring… And let me just say I am in LOVE!!! This area is so cute, it is a designers delight! The architectural details are thoughtful, the spaces are hip, and if you love to people watch – this is your place!
1, 2, 3, & 5. Chelsea Marketplace, home to Food Network studios and about a million food stores & bakeries! Yum! I had to take a picture of the GIANT Nutella (#5) we saw in an Italian grocery store, who needs $70 worth of Nutella? Alice? :)
4. A random building.
6. Walkway that meanders above ground throughout the area. This particular section where the glass is, is a a sort of amphitheatre section for people to sit and watch what’s going on on the street.
7. Detail on the walkway of how it integrates with the vegetation.
8. Another random building… I liked the materials used and how the building elements interact with each other.
9. Outside seating area at The Standard Grill & Bar, LOVE the light fixtures and how they break up the space between the walkway above and tables below. On the other side of this building was an open air outside bar that is defined by the restaurant on one side, adjacent building & the walkway above. One look at this space and it DRAWS you in. (I don’t have a picture – this is about the time when Nick was calling me the “paparazzi”! for taking SO many pictures, so I reluctantly stopped snapping them for about 10 minutes. I need to go back!!!)
10. Outside of The Standard there was a public seating area with yellow picnic tables. I thought it was *visually* interesting & somewhat strange that they covered the bollards with knitted “socks”.
11. Building by architect Frank Ghery!
Our wedding weekend was full of many fun events leading up to the BIG DAY… (see collage below, thanks Brittney & Lauren for sharing your pictures with me!) And as you would expect, the experience was not without some unwelcome surprises too! :)
Nick and I arrived separately on Friday to Los Abrigados Resort & Spa. I rode up with one of my Bridesmaids, Beth, along with her daughter & sisters. It was nice to get some girl time in with them, I have known them for about 20 years and have seen her sisters grow up right before my eyes. And Nick had to take a portion of the BAR exam back down in Phoenix so he drove up by himself after he was finished.
When we checked in we were told that at that time the resort didn’t have any hot water. No big deal! Right? I thought that they would have it figured out within 24 hours and I could shower and get ready for the wedding no problem! I got ready for the rehearsal with Rachel (my MOH) & we headed over to Tlaquepaque to meet with my coordinator to go over the schedule for the wedding. Everyone met at the Plaza de Campanas at Tlaquepaque to do a quick run through of the ceremony & then we were off to the rehearsal dinner at Los Abrigados. After a FABULOUS Mexican feast, being introduced to all of the family, and some embarrassing stories we were all ready to have a low key night cap and get to bed somewhat early. I invited the girls back to my room to relax & chat, while the boys went back to Nicks room to hang out and smoke cigars to celebrate the ending of his bachelorhood! As the night was winding down & I was walking the girls out, I noticed that the walkway outside of my room had water flowing down it, didn’t think too much of it… In the middle of the night I woke up *bleary eyed* to use the restroom and noticed that the water pressure in the faucet was low, still didn’t give it much thought… Then I woke up in the morning and went to turn on the faucet and all I got was a little spit of water & a lot of air, I knew we had a problem! Apparently the road construction nearby had caused a water line to break & the entire resort now had NO WATER!!! Except for a select few suites that were on another system entirely, which is where they put the BRIDE up for the day… :) THANKFULLY!!!
1. Nick & I practicing walking back down the aisle at the rehearsal. The bouquet is a collection of all of the gift wrap & ribbons from gifts at the shower Jill Dutchess threw for me over Christmas in the Northwest. Thanks Lindsay for assembling it all!!!
2. Bridal party standing in their spots for the ceremony.
3. Nick and I *pretending* to say our vows.
4. Our adorable flower girls, Layla & Paige, playing on the steps at Tlaquepaque.
5. The boys hanging out keeping Nick company the night before the wedding.
6. My sister, Shelli, & I with our grandmother from Illinois! She is 92 and made the journey for the wedding, thanks to my Uncle Alan & Aunt Joy, who accompanied her & made this possible!!!
7. Nick with his sisters (Lindsay & Kim). They made t- shirts to commemorate the event - the front had a picture of Nick from grade school & said “Can you handle this?” and then on the back they put their favorite Nick quotes from childhood. They surprised Nick with these at the rehearsal dinner. They were a BIG hit – I think they even took a few orders from friends who wanted one!! :)
8. Getting acquainted, waiting for the rehearsal to get started…
9. Nick and I at the rehearsal dinner.
10. Nick playing chess the morning of the wedding. Our hotel (Los Abrigados) had an AMAZING area for kids (of all ages) with a life size chess board.
11. Nicks dad Paul *graciously* made me a kit to survive being married to Nick. Included in the kit were: nerf balls for when Nick is sitting on the couch ENGULFED in the tv & not paying attention to me, wall clips to hold Nicks keys - since he is NOTORIOUS for misplacing them (among OTHER things), air fresheners for the car & home for when Nick stinks up the place, ear plugs for when Nick snores, … (I know I am forgetting a couple of them)…
12. m & n open! Paul organized a mini-golf tournament for everyone the morning of the wedding. They all had fun getting out & enjoying the FANTASTIC weather!
Even with all of the hiccups we had to endure, the weekend (and more importantly the wedding!) went off without a hitch BEAUTIFULLY!
stay tuned for more photos from the wedding…
It all started last week when we were uptown and HAPPENED on the filming of Sex & the City 2… After that I came home and did a quick internet search to see if I could find their filming schedule, well it seems that there are people out there that plan their ENTIRE vacations around a movies production schedule (I am not that BAD!). So I made Nick go back uptown with me the next day, Wednesday, to stand around for hours outside of the Plaza Hotel and watch while not too much transpired. They literally spend HOURS setting up a scene with the actors stand-ins, get the lighting & angles right, and then bring in the real acto
Today on our way out to try to see Barack Obama we walked by another location for them shooting, apparently the Coffee Shop that the girls were always at is right around the corner from our building… We were in a hurry to try to see the Presidents speech, so we didn’t stay long, but this locale is definitely better than the uptown one, not as many tourists & a smaller street make it so you have a better vantage point. Hope they shoot more here!
The President spoke down in the Financial District. We tried to get as close as we could but everywhere we turned there were Secret Service & NYPD out in full force! In the bottom picture, look at the shorter building in the distance on the left-hand side, the little things you see on top of the roof are SNIPERS!
When we moved here I had NO IDEA this city was going to be so CAPTIVATING! I am LOVING it! You never know what or WHO you will see. I am looking forward to seeing what the next few months will bring!
Nick’s old law school roommate, Mike, came into town for a week, so we did a lot of sight seeing & touristy things.
terrace on the top of the Met
Coney Island – Nathan’s Hot Dogs (Nick and I both agreed this was one place we NEVER needed to go back to.) Sorry to any of you who come visit, this will not be on the list of things to do! Too many freaks out there!!!
A friend of Nick & Mike’s is living in Brooklyn so one night we took the subway over to eat at Grimaldi’s Pizza & then walked back over to Manhattan via the Brooklyn Bridge. This was my FAVORITE thing we have done since coming to NYC, that was until we happened on the filming of Sex & the City 2 on Tuesday (more on this later…)
Nick had class on Tuesday afternoon, so Mike and I went uptown to to explore one last time before he left on Wednesday. We went to the Guggenheim but only 2 floors were open due to installation of a bunch of exhibits on the remaining 3 or 4 floors, so it only took us about 15 minutes to see all there was to see there! Disappointed at our luck, we decided to walk through Central Park some, but we were both not very excited about that either. So we decided to take a cab uptown and walk around Rockefeller Center. While in the cab on 5th Ave., Mike noticed hoards of people packed onto the sidewalk and looking over at Bergdorf Goodmans, he thought there must be something going on - I looked over and saw SARAH JESSICA PARKER & realized they were filming Sex & the City 2!!! Mike asked, “do you want to get out and watch?” – uh duh?!?! “YES!!!!!!” I can’t figure out how to post the video here, but I have it… (Mike – I stole your pictures from FB, they turned out better than mine!)
Here is the exterior of our homestead for the next 10 months. We are on the 10th floor and have a corner unit so we have lots of natural light filtering in (maybe that’s why it doesn’t feel so small) & great views of the city!! :)
One of the priorities when we got into town was a trip to Ikea, since our boxes were being shipped and were going to take a few days we knew we needed some necessities to hold us over! We got the bare essentials & dragged them back through the subway to our studio… Then the following Wednesday our boxes arrived & our little place started to feel more lik
They say this is the city that NEVER sleeps, but I am shocked at the number of people that are out and about at ALL times of the day & night. It’s kind of nice because you know you are never alone, only problem being is that some of those people that are out – you probably don’t want to associate with! :)
One of our favorite things to do is just go walking ar
I am especially enjoying all of 
On the agenda for this week & weekend… Nick’s roommate from law school is coming into town & Lindsay (Nick’s other sister) is driving in from Boston to spend the day with us & go to brunch on Sunday. Can’t wait to see them both & catch up! I will post more pics next week!
Happy Hump Day!!
Our second stop was in Adare at the Adare Manor just 
itional” Irish Breakfast while here which consisted of: bacon (that wasn’t crunchy like American bacon), sausages, fried eggs, white pudding, brown pudding, toast, potatoes & fried tomatoes along side of a pot of tea & coffee and an assortment of pastries! Can you say Yum – O!?!
The second day in Adare we drove to Bunratty’s 
Castle (the most complete medieval park in Ireland) & Folk Park, about an hour away. While there we discovered the story of Meade, a liquor that was crafted by Irish Monks out of white wine & honey for medicinal purposes. Irish tradition is to give Meade to married couples right after being wed, following the the ceremony the couple is given enough Meade to last for one full moon… this is where we get the term “honeymoon”. We though it only fitting to buy a bottle of this to commemorate our honeymoon in Ireland! :)
Here is one of many a
Our third day in Adare (which by the way was the worst weather-wise) we trekked out to the Aran Islands, 3 little islands off the west coast of Ireland. The Islands are said to be “the place that time forgot”. Our destination was Inishmore, a 12 square mile island where the Irish culture is still rich & they still spea
Our final stop was in the sea-side town of Kinsale w
Our last day in Ireland we drove up from Kinsale back up to Dublin & stopped at the Waterford Crystal Factory (in Waterford, Ireland) to pick up gifts for our parents! This place was INCREDIBLE!!! Nick and I spent almost 2 hours looking around trying to pick out what to get!!!
Thanks to Nick’s mom who talked him out of making the wedding cake and helping Nick plan this FABULOUS surprise honeymoon for us! And to all of our family & friends who traveled to Sedona to share in our special day! We love you all!!! Can’t wait to share the next chapter of our lives with you! :)
