Did you know that through some glitch or other over 50% of couples do not actually get legally married on their wedding day?
How much you wanna bet that's gonna happen to me?
Friday, January 16, 2009
DC Weekend
So Walker and I are going to DC this weekend/next week to do some wedding stuff. How dare you even think that our timing has anything to do with our 44th president being sworn in this Tuesday? That's just a coincidence.
I swear.
Actually, part of the reason we're going is that Walker has never actually seen the location where we are getting married. And I thought it wise to rectify that situation.
We're also meeting with the wedding planner. And that's all I'll say about that. I am not allowed to discuss her various strengths and weaknesses online as per the contract. I kid you not.
We were actually able to secure rooms at the Bethesda Hyatt, which is exciting. It's a snail's pace we're moving at but I'll take what I can get. I mean, there may not be any food and there may not be any music, but at least I'll be wearing a gorgeous Indian-made outfit. Again, I kid you not.
I swear.
Actually, part of the reason we're going is that Walker has never actually seen the location where we are getting married. And I thought it wise to rectify that situation.
We're also meeting with the wedding planner. And that's all I'll say about that. I am not allowed to discuss her various strengths and weaknesses online as per the contract. I kid you not.
We were actually able to secure rooms at the Bethesda Hyatt, which is exciting. It's a snail's pace we're moving at but I'll take what I can get. I mean, there may not be any food and there may not be any music, but at least I'll be wearing a gorgeous Indian-made outfit. Again, I kid you not.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Dress Shopping!
So I did a little bit of bridesmaid dress shopping yesterday morning.
It was kind of impromptu. I was waitlisted at some places that ended up having time free, so at 10am Sonali, Meena and I found ourselves at Simple Silhouettes in Manhattan. (Actually, more accurately, Sonali found herself there at 9:45am, Meena around 10 and me around 10:07.)
It was loads of fun. Mainly because we sat on a couch and told the lady what styles and colors we were interested in and she brought them to us. It was the most painless shopping I have ever done!!
I haven't narrowed it down to one color yet, but I've nailed down the family. And Sonali and Meena have a good idea of the cuts they like. We were there for like 45 minutes. In and out.
Then we went to Jenny Yoo. And that was like the most painFUL shopping I've ever done. Talk about disorganized.
The woman who was "helping" us, was nowhere to be found most of the time. And there was a group across from us that must have had like 12 bridesmaids because there were a million people trying on dresses and all the dresses that we wanted to try on were always "in the other dressing room".
I asked the woman what styles she could suggest. She barely answered my question. They didn't have enough sizes of anything, so there were a ton of things Sonali and Meena simply couldn't try on. I liked a few of the dresses there. I think they may have had better colors, but I can't even deal with trying to process that whole shopping trip because I was so unbelievably frustrated by it. Shake it out. Let it gooooo!
Anyway, I'll post the colors I'm looking at for the bridesmaid dresses soon!
It was kind of impromptu. I was waitlisted at some places that ended up having time free, so at 10am Sonali, Meena and I found ourselves at Simple Silhouettes in Manhattan. (Actually, more accurately, Sonali found herself there at 9:45am, Meena around 10 and me around 10:07.)
It was loads of fun. Mainly because we sat on a couch and told the lady what styles and colors we were interested in and she brought them to us. It was the most painless shopping I have ever done!!
I haven't narrowed it down to one color yet, but I've nailed down the family. And Sonali and Meena have a good idea of the cuts they like. We were there for like 45 minutes. In and out.
Then we went to Jenny Yoo. And that was like the most painFUL shopping I've ever done. Talk about disorganized.
The woman who was "helping" us, was nowhere to be found most of the time. And there was a group across from us that must have had like 12 bridesmaids because there were a million people trying on dresses and all the dresses that we wanted to try on were always "in the other dressing room".
I asked the woman what styles she could suggest. She barely answered my question. They didn't have enough sizes of anything, so there were a ton of things Sonali and Meena simply couldn't try on. I liked a few of the dresses there. I think they may have had better colors, but I can't even deal with trying to process that whole shopping trip because I was so unbelievably frustrated by it. Shake it out. Let it gooooo!
Anyway, I'll post the colors I'm looking at for the bridesmaid dresses soon!
Monday, January 5, 2009
I am more than pleased to announce that we officially have an officiant for our (Western) wedding. My very close friend Michael Rohd will have the honor!
I have known Michael FOREVER. And I'm so excited by the prospect of having him be a central part of the ceremony. I'm totally excited.
Now we just have to figure out how to make it legal for him to do a ceremony in Maryland and what the structure of the ceremony will be.
But for now, I'm just going to be happy about this one thing and let the rest go.
YAY!!
I have known Michael FOREVER. And I'm so excited by the prospect of having him be a central part of the ceremony. I'm totally excited.
Now we just have to figure out how to make it legal for him to do a ceremony in Maryland and what the structure of the ceremony will be.
But for now, I'm just going to be happy about this one thing and let the rest go.
YAY!!
Friday, January 2, 2009
Lehnga pics
For those of you who don't know what a lehnga (traditional indian wedding outfit for the bride), here is what one looks like! Of course, this isn't nearly fancy enough for a bride to wear, but this is style.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
A little wedding humor...
You've got to check out this video that Walker found. It's horrifying and hilarious in the same breath.
http://www.chilloutzone.de/files/08101004.html
So my crazy trip to India is coming to a close. We got A LOT done. I am on my way to getting both my wedding outfits and my reception outfits and a couple extra outfits as well. I'll probably order them all at the end of January after I get my swatches.
And I had a late night skype session with Walker and my wedding planner last night and it was really helpful! (Her first client skype session ever!) I mean it was midnight my time and we were on the phone til about 3am and I had basically just stepped into the apartment after getting off a plane that had been delayed for four hours. But, you know, it was really helpful!
She's doing "partial consulting" with us, so we don't get off scott free on the work, but there will be a lot less aimless searching going on and she her company is totally into being green, so we've been talking about taking the leftover food to a homeless shelter and the leftover flowers to a nursing home, which kind of rocks my world.
Also, she's totally going above and beyond in helping us with the caterer (for those of you who don't know yet, that usually ends up being 50-60% of your budget. FOOD! Do you remember any food that you've ever eaten at a wedding. I have not. You know what that means, right? That means I've never particularly LIKED the food at any wedding, otherwise I WOULD HAVE remembered it. Which is why this whole catering thing is like a big ole thorn in my eye, which, by the way, is way more painful than a thorn in your side. But I digress..) The only thing I'm excited about with this whole catering thing is going to tastings. Mmmm. Free food. Free cake. Mmmm!!!
http://www.chilloutzone.de/files/08101004.html
So my crazy trip to India is coming to a close. We got A LOT done. I am on my way to getting both my wedding outfits and my reception outfits and a couple extra outfits as well. I'll probably order them all at the end of January after I get my swatches.
And I had a late night skype session with Walker and my wedding planner last night and it was really helpful! (Her first client skype session ever!) I mean it was midnight my time and we were on the phone til about 3am and I had basically just stepped into the apartment after getting off a plane that had been delayed for four hours. But, you know, it was really helpful!
She's doing "partial consulting" with us, so we don't get off scott free on the work, but there will be a lot less aimless searching going on and she her company is totally into being green, so we've been talking about taking the leftover food to a homeless shelter and the leftover flowers to a nursing home, which kind of rocks my world.
Also, she's totally going above and beyond in helping us with the caterer (for those of you who don't know yet, that usually ends up being 50-60% of your budget. FOOD! Do you remember any food that you've ever eaten at a wedding. I have not. You know what that means, right? That means I've never particularly LIKED the food at any wedding, otherwise I WOULD HAVE remembered it. Which is why this whole catering thing is like a big ole thorn in my eye, which, by the way, is way more painful than a thorn in your side. But I digress..) The only thing I'm excited about with this whole catering thing is going to tastings. Mmmm. Free food. Free cake. Mmmm!!!
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Maybe Mumbai
Well, actually, this post should be called "definitely Mumbai", but it doesn't have the same ring, does it?
Lemme back up for a second: last thursday, my mom and my dad and i, who had been playing with the idea of going to Bombay to go shopping for clothes because Delhi is hella expensive.
So long story short, my mother and I find ourselves in Bombay staying at a hotel within walking distance of the Taj Mahal and the Oberoi (bioth of which re-opened the day after we left). Talk about a whirlwind trip! We got into the city Friday afternoon around 2pm, checked into the hotel, had lunch and then sped off to our 4:30pm appointment with our resident family designer. I kid, sort of. This woman, Zeenat, rocks. She’s made saris, gagras, lehngas and salwars for my mom, my sister, several of my cousins and aunts and I for various weddings over the years. She is extremely sweet and attentive and knowledgeable about what she does. I repeat: she rocks.
So we spend THREE HOURS at her shop and I try on everything in the store pretty much ad the most amazing thing happens – I find out I’m totally wrong about everything. When I walk in I know exactly what color I want my wedding to be. When I walk out, I’ve chosen something totally different. When I walk in I am totally convinced that I am going to wear a sari for the Indian wedding because all the lehngas I have seen in the stores in delhi are ridiculously over the top and fairly hideous. When I walk out I have chosen not one, but two lehngas during my wedding weekend. (A lehnga, by the way is a short blouse and a skirt – yes the belly is exposed, new york sports club here I come! – and a dupatta or scarf, which, incidentally, I will be using to cover my belly). I’m afraid that’s all the detail I can get into right now because until my wedding day (or days, I should say) the color, style, design etc. of my outfits shall remain a mystery. Mwahahaha!
After three hours in the shop, my mom and I go back to the hotel and have a fantabulous south Indian dinner, then walk to the lobby and do some people watching (there was a sangeet – an Indian wedding function in the hotel that night, so we thought there’d be some outfits to check out, but frankly, it was a pretty poor showing). After that we pretty much passed out.
Next day: Breakfast, then a men’s designer, then a purse shop, the a jewelry shop, then back to the designer for measurements and then back to the airport (which we got to early, only to have our plane delayed by an hour and a half).
The men’s designer was a trip. First, our cab driver gets hopelessly lost on the way (even though the store is like 3 minutes away). We end up passing it twice, while my mom yells at this ridiculously confused cab driver who obviously speaks no a single word of English. Finally I spot the store and my mother and hop out. My mom is still grumbling at this point. Then we walk in and meet the designer/owner of the store and my mom falls silent. Why, you may ask? Because he’s gorgeous an my mom, who usually has 10 million questions, jokes, arguments and statements all of a sudden has nothing to say. So I take the reigns and I’m asking this guy questions. Quickly I realize that this is the type of guy who knows what he wants to sell you as soon as you walk in the store and no matter how many dissenting opinions you have, he keeps leading you back to the same item. So now he’s telling me that Walker is a size XXL and that white people look really good in ivory – better than they do any of the colors I have suggested so far. Ok. That sounds like a bit of a generalization to me. And I’m not convinced, so I take the swatch of the ivory fabric that he wants to use and hightail it out of there. And I make sure to make fun of my mother as soon as the doors close behind us. (Later when we get back to Zeenat’s she takes a look at the swatch and shakes her head. I’ll talk to him, she says. Did I mention this chick rocks?)
Ok, before I sign off I have to tell you about our driver, Martin. You have to have a driver in India because the streets are intraversable Seriously, you couldn’t PAY me to drive in India. Lanes, traffic signals – these are all merely suggestions to drivers. Not to mention you have to make sure not to hit the rickshaws, motorbikes, bicyclists and pedestrians that dodge unpredictably in and out of traffic. (That’s another thing you couldn’t pay me to do in India – cross the street! Ok, ok, I have done it once or twice, but only in dire emergencies.) Now our driver is the sweetest guy in the world. He’s always smiling and cheerful and it just makes you happy. But he’s a terrible driver. He doesn’t know where anything is so he’s always got his map out WHILE HE’S DRIVING. Well I guess that’s not entirely true. There was the one time where he stopped in the middle of traffic to check the map. He wasn’t technically driving that time. Also, he doesn’t look. Perhaps I should clarify. One time he was changing lanes and accidentally side-swiped a tractor. Then there was the time that he switched sides of the street and drove straight into oncoming traffic in order to get around a couple of cars. And there was the time he got out of the car to make sure the trunk was closed and forgot to put the parking brake on, so the car just starts rolling forward with me, my mom and my dad in and we’re all heading straight for a ditch. Luckily, my dad was sitting in the front so he reached over and pulled the parking brake up. My personal favorite, though, was the time he was backing out a parking spot and didn’t look behind him and ended up hitting A PERSON. Ok, he was going like 2 miles an hour, but STILL. Luckily this is India, where cars rule the road so the dude just scowled at him and kept walking.
Ok, that’s all for now! Merry Christmas and I’ll catch you on the flip side.
Lemme back up for a second: last thursday, my mom and my dad and i, who had been playing with the idea of going to Bombay to go shopping for clothes because Delhi is hella expensive.
So long story short, my mother and I find ourselves in Bombay staying at a hotel within walking distance of the Taj Mahal and the Oberoi (bioth of which re-opened the day after we left). Talk about a whirlwind trip! We got into the city Friday afternoon around 2pm, checked into the hotel, had lunch and then sped off to our 4:30pm appointment with our resident family designer. I kid, sort of. This woman, Zeenat, rocks. She’s made saris, gagras, lehngas and salwars for my mom, my sister, several of my cousins and aunts and I for various weddings over the years. She is extremely sweet and attentive and knowledgeable about what she does. I repeat: she rocks.
So we spend THREE HOURS at her shop and I try on everything in the store pretty much ad the most amazing thing happens – I find out I’m totally wrong about everything. When I walk in I know exactly what color I want my wedding to be. When I walk out, I’ve chosen something totally different. When I walk in I am totally convinced that I am going to wear a sari for the Indian wedding because all the lehngas I have seen in the stores in delhi are ridiculously over the top and fairly hideous. When I walk out I have chosen not one, but two lehngas during my wedding weekend. (A lehnga, by the way is a short blouse and a skirt – yes the belly is exposed, new york sports club here I come! – and a dupatta or scarf, which, incidentally, I will be using to cover my belly). I’m afraid that’s all the detail I can get into right now because until my wedding day (or days, I should say) the color, style, design etc. of my outfits shall remain a mystery. Mwahahaha!
After three hours in the shop, my mom and I go back to the hotel and have a fantabulous south Indian dinner, then walk to the lobby and do some people watching (there was a sangeet – an Indian wedding function in the hotel that night, so we thought there’d be some outfits to check out, but frankly, it was a pretty poor showing). After that we pretty much passed out.
Next day: Breakfast, then a men’s designer, then a purse shop, the a jewelry shop, then back to the designer for measurements and then back to the airport (which we got to early, only to have our plane delayed by an hour and a half).
The men’s designer was a trip. First, our cab driver gets hopelessly lost on the way (even though the store is like 3 minutes away). We end up passing it twice, while my mom yells at this ridiculously confused cab driver who obviously speaks no a single word of English. Finally I spot the store and my mother and hop out. My mom is still grumbling at this point. Then we walk in and meet the designer/owner of the store and my mom falls silent. Why, you may ask? Because he’s gorgeous an my mom, who usually has 10 million questions, jokes, arguments and statements all of a sudden has nothing to say. So I take the reigns and I’m asking this guy questions. Quickly I realize that this is the type of guy who knows what he wants to sell you as soon as you walk in the store and no matter how many dissenting opinions you have, he keeps leading you back to the same item. So now he’s telling me that Walker is a size XXL and that white people look really good in ivory – better than they do any of the colors I have suggested so far. Ok. That sounds like a bit of a generalization to me. And I’m not convinced, so I take the swatch of the ivory fabric that he wants to use and hightail it out of there. And I make sure to make fun of my mother as soon as the doors close behind us. (Later when we get back to Zeenat’s she takes a look at the swatch and shakes her head. I’ll talk to him, she says. Did I mention this chick rocks?)
Ok, before I sign off I have to tell you about our driver, Martin. You have to have a driver in India because the streets are intraversable Seriously, you couldn’t PAY me to drive in India. Lanes, traffic signals – these are all merely suggestions to drivers. Not to mention you have to make sure not to hit the rickshaws, motorbikes, bicyclists and pedestrians that dodge unpredictably in and out of traffic. (That’s another thing you couldn’t pay me to do in India – cross the street! Ok, ok, I have done it once or twice, but only in dire emergencies.) Now our driver is the sweetest guy in the world. He’s always smiling and cheerful and it just makes you happy. But he’s a terrible driver. He doesn’t know where anything is so he’s always got his map out WHILE HE’S DRIVING. Well I guess that’s not entirely true. There was the one time where he stopped in the middle of traffic to check the map. He wasn’t technically driving that time. Also, he doesn’t look. Perhaps I should clarify. One time he was changing lanes and accidentally side-swiped a tractor. Then there was the time that he switched sides of the street and drove straight into oncoming traffic in order to get around a couple of cars. And there was the time he got out of the car to make sure the trunk was closed and forgot to put the parking brake on, so the car just starts rolling forward with me, my mom and my dad in and we’re all heading straight for a ditch. Luckily, my dad was sitting in the front so he reached over and pulled the parking brake up. My personal favorite, though, was the time he was backing out a parking spot and didn’t look behind him and ended up hitting A PERSON. Ok, he was going like 2 miles an hour, but STILL. Luckily this is India, where cars rule the road so the dude just scowled at him and kept walking.
Ok, that’s all for now! Merry Christmas and I’ll catch you on the flip side.
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