We heart NY!

So you know by now that this month of March is absolutely CRAZY!  Part of the reason is because Mr. Hess and I are getting opportunities to travel A LOT this month, which can put wedding planning a little bit on the back burner.  At first, I was having a hard time letting go of my silly "TO DO" list for March and was getting nervous that not everything will get done this month.  Then we actually landed in NJ and I got over it - quickly!

A BIG part of wedding planning is making sure you enjoy it, and in order for Mr. Hess and I to not feel a little burnt out at this point, taking a vacation was DEFINITELY needed.  It's amazing what taking a few "us" days can do for our relationship, and now we are refreshed and actually excited about getting back to some planning.  Now that you know how hard it was for me to leave Orlando, I'm going to share with you how much FUN I had in NY!!!!! I'm probably confusing you with this whole NY/NJ thing so here's the reason I keep mentioning BOTH states:

Mr. Hess was traveling up to New Jersey to work a NJ Nets Basketball game on Friday.  We thought this was the perfect opportunity for me to take a few days off, travel up there with him, and spend a few nights in New York City before the game!  Well, turns out - that's exactly what I needed, and boy am I glad we did.

Last night in NJ/NY - what a great trip!

I haven't mentioned anything about this on my posts before, but Mr. Hess has always had a thing for NY.  We both love Orlando, and personally I have never lived anywhere else besides here, with the exception of my 4 years in Tampa for college.  I have always viewed NYC is very busy, loud, and no place to settle down and raise a family.  I knew I liked to visit there, just that I would never want to move to a place with so much "citylife."  Mr. Hess on the other hand, LOVES the hussle and bussle of the city and would love any kind of opportunity to move up there.  Before this trip, I said there was absolutely NO way I would move up north for two reasons: 1) I would be too far away from my family and 2) It's too freaking cold up there!!!! But, after our few nights in the City, I am now closer to the same page as Mr. Hess.  And for the record, I said closer, not ON! ;)

Straight from the plane, Mr. Hess and I made our way from Newark to Secaucus and trained over to Penn Station.  From there, we made our 10 block walk (suitcases and all) to meet my dear friend Lauren to get her keys since we were staying with her.  From there, we walked to 42nd Street and rode the Subway for about 20 minutes to her place.  I can't believe we made it all that way - two Floridians with luggage - sans problems!  Kudos to you Mr. Hess for your ability to read Subway maps and lead the way.  I found out my specialty turns out to be reading street names and figuring out the streets and avenues.  We did a pretty good job of disguising we were tourists, and actually enjoyed walking and riding from place to place during our stay!

From our first walk on the streets of NYC, I could tell Mr. Hess was enjoying every second of it.  I guess being from a small town in Arkansas, this could be like a dream to live in such a busy and urban place.  We walked from street to avenue and avenue to street, and passed a lot of the Fashion district.  I'm not even exaggerating when I say Mr. Hess was like a kid in a candy store - not so much into fashion, but more for entertainment purposes.  There were so many specialty stores, fabric stores, accessories, and bling in such a small radius, it was almost too much to take in!  I should have gotten pictures of this, because every two seconds both of us would be like "WOWWW, OMIGOSH LOOK!" SO COOL!

Attempting to take a picture of the citylife while dashing across the street!

Actually stopped to take this one, but not much better.

We found a great spot to play games like chess, ping pong, pool and listen to live music.

Our friend Jessica met us out in the City!

We also got to see a friend from home, who now lives in NY!

 
After our second night in NYC, I realized I didn't take as many pictures as I should have to document our trip - but half of that reason is because it was SO cold, windy, and rainy that night.  I was worried about getting from point A to point B as fast as possible! Not to mention, we kept commuting back and forth from NJ to NY, which didn't leave much time to walk around during the daytime and explore the city.  But, I have to say, Mr. Hess and I got prettttttty good at the whole Subway and train situation - which can get very confusing.  By the end of the trip, we had figured out the maps and were able to pick Subway over cab for the majority of the stay! :)

You might also say that we enjoyed eating a lot of NY's specialties including Pizza and crepes!

Enjoying a late night snack.

This crepe was coconut, banana, and nutella - AMAZING!

A good way to describe our trip would be EAT, DRINK & BE MERRY! I am now "okay" with the possibility of someday moving up there, since it's secretly one of Mr. Hess's dreams, and I'm looking forward to going back up there sometime soon.  I feel like we have a lot more "city" to see, and I would love to actually enjoy a stroll in Central Park when it's not rainy and cold outside!

Advice to any bride-to-be that's feeling overwhelmed and not as excited as they should be about planning detail after detail for a little bit? Take a weekend getaway. Mr. Hess and I couldn't be happier as a couple, we're now eager to get back to planning, and I am enjoying being back in FL getting ready for work tomorrow - weird!  I guess everyone needs a little NEWWWWWWWW YORRRRRRRRRRRRK every once in a while...that was my broadway voice singing Frank Sinatra if you couldn't pick that up! ;)

This week's focus? Booking that CATERER! We actually talked about this a lot on the trip about which way we want to go and are SOOOO close, so stay tuned for reading more about that!

Until next time,

Presh

Wedding Hint #4

If you have been catching the color hints in previous blogs by the pictures (it was almost a dead giveaway in my Wedding Notebook Makeover post), you could have probably guessed this. But, without further adieu, here are the official colors added to the  
PINK that will be present on our BIG DAY!

Not everything about this picture will be seen at our wedding, but if you add pink to that color scheme, it hits it right on.  SO EXCITED to start decorating our venue in the next couple of months!

138 days to go...

Presh

Our Claddagh Rings

March is here!!! What does that mean to Mr. Hess and I? It's the month of ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!!

It may sound kind of silly, but this is one of our favorite holidays because Mr. Hess has Irish routes.  We always celebrate by eating a traditional Irish meal, usually followed by enjoying the night at an Irish pub (imagine that!) I love the shamrocks, the green carnations, leprechauns (well, the ones that aren't creepy), and celebrating the Irish culture in general.  I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to talk about this since March is now here, and St. Patty's day will be here before we know it!

I explain more in the video, but originally Mr. Hess and I wanted to theme our wedding around St. Patrick's Day and have an Irish wedding.  We wanted it to be in March (OMG that would be NOW) and wanted it to be GREEN and white.  I LOVED this idea, because it kind of felt like I would be joining the Irish culture, through marriage - and I've never felt a connection to any kind of culture before.  Here some of my thoughts below...and oh, ignore the middle of the video where 2 random things happen: Mr. Hess asks me for directions on where we are going and then the audio sounds like it's going to blow up! Those both will pass...lol.

Well, you've figured out by now, this theme didn't happen and it's for two reasons: 1) Timing - IMPOSSIBLE! We are only about 2/3 done with our regular work season and 2) Half of our guests or even wedding party members wouldn't be able to be a part of it if it wasn't during the off-season or summer.  Plus, this gave me 4 extra months of planning time....and boyyyyyyyy do we need that!!!!  So, we didn't incorporate the whole Irish theme into our wedding, but we might throw a hint of it in here in there - so look out for it!

With all of that said, you will now understand why Mr. Hess and I originally wanted to purchase claddagh rings for wedding bands!  A WHAT?! A claddagh ring!  I'm sure you've seen one before...the design features two hands clasping a heart, and usually topped with a crown. The elements of this symbol are often said to correspond to the qualities of LOVE (the heart), FRIENDSHIP (the hands), and LOYALTY (the crown).

The traditional gold claddagh ring - pictured here as a men's and women's set

Claddagh rings may be used as friendship, relationship, eternity, engagement, or wedding rings depending on the intention of wearer, or the intention of the giver if the ring if it is a gift. There are three traditionally accepted ways of wearing the ring which may signal someone's relationship status:

1. When worn on the right ring finger with the heart pointing to the fingertip, the wearer is free of any attachment.
2. On the same finger with the ring turned around, it suggests someone is romantically involved.
3. When the ring is on the left hand wedding ring finger it means the person is married or engaged.

You can even have your claddagh rings personalized with your birthstones and names.  This is more of a girly version, and something I would like to have!

Clearly, you can guess which way Mr. Hess would wear his ring, but I on the other hand had a challenge.  I have a beautiful engagement ring, and would have to wear the claddagh ring on my right hand, which would be a different meaning than his.  So, we've decided - we STILL want claddagh rings, but will purchase them on our 1 year anniversary.  The only way Mr. Hess agreed to this is because I threw in this gem of an idea: "How about we go to Ireland for our 1 year anniversary and purchase authentic claddagh rings there!" Perfect right? Well, he went for it....YAY! So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we can make that happen!

For now, our next ring adventure will be purchasing our actual WEDDING BANDS!!!! How freaking excited am I?! Yup - you guessed it...pretty excited.  I'll keep you updated on how that search is going, but I'll leave you with a few ideas of what kind of claddagh ring I will hopefully be wearing a little under a year and a half from now.  There are SO many options - but I'm pretty sure I would go with something like one of the following...and of course, the first one is pink:

OR...a little more blinged out:

OR - I REALLY like the modern day look of the claddagh ring...

The different variations and ways you can personalize this ring are endless! I don't know the best link to give out to find these rings, but there are some great pictures and information about this ring if you simply goggle claddagh ring.  I will have more information on this later, when I actually research on getting OUR claddagh ringhs! And like I said before, my dream would be to actually pick up a set of these babies if we actually get to GO to Ireland for our 1 year anniversary there.  It's going to be hard not to purchase one of these before then, because I think they are adorable and I really like the meaning behind them.  I'm looking forward to learning more about the Irish culture with Mr. Hess and starting our own claddagh ring collection!

A year and 141 days until that anniversary trip happens!

Until Next Time,

Presh

March Madness

HELLOOOOOOO MARCH!

Can't believe you're here, but I'm happy to see you! 

February really felt like it came and went with the snap of a finger, but I also felt like Mr. Hess and I got the ball rolling on some important projects - and the most important one being CATERING! We have gotten our final proposal from the last catering company we met with today, so we will be spending the remainder of the week crunching numbers and comparing everything to see which one will give us what we want and also give us the most for our money!  It's all about weighing your options, especially when it comes to choosing something as HUGE as catering.  By far, this is the most expensive factor of our entire wedding!

But enough about that, I'm sure there will be an entire blog post dedicated to it when we finally decide who we're going to go with and determine the menu!

So here we are, MARCH.  And boyyyy are Mr. Hess and I BUSY this month! Not only with our wedding plans, but with life in general...so I know it will fly by faster than February did!  Let's see...here's a little bit of a preview of what our month will consist of and an idea about what a handful of the next blog posts will most likely be about:

• Mr. Hess and I travel to New Jersey the 9-12th.  He will be going for work and I will be going to help and to get a mini vacation!
• My friend Melanie is getting married March 20th in St. Augustine!  I will be traveling up there for the day and coming back the same night. So excited for her!!! <3
• Mr. Hess and I travel to Chicago the 21-24th, again for work.  Here I will be assisting him more, but will also enjoy a few fun nights out I'm sure (it's about time!)
• My friend (and bridesmaid) Court is expecting a baby in April and her baby shower is right after the Chicago trip!

Fit in work, other work, planning, and appointments and WHEW there went March - see what I mean?

But you know what?  At least I know ahead of time what I'm dealing with here.  My goal is to stay on track and get alllll of our March TO-DO's checked off of our wedding planning list, even though we will be busier than normal.  If we can do that I will thoroughly be impressed, especially with YOU Mr. Hess!!!!  

So with that said, here are some things you can look forward to hearing and reading about hopefully by the end of this month:

• Booking Catering & Determining Menu
• Invitations
• Ceremony Music
• Gift Registry (AHHH!) :)
• Booking our Honeymoon! (OMG - might be my favorite!)
• Tuxes (Groom and Groomsmen)
• Wedding Rings!!!! (Okay, I lied, THIS might be my favorite!)

And I think that's ENOUGH...I'm sure this will keep our hands more than full for now.  Trying to take one day at a time and not let myself get overwhelmed.  It actually seems like we are getting more into the FUN stuff now that all of the hard decisions are made: date, venue, colors, vendors, etc.  Once we get through this heavy TO-DO month it seems like it might start to slow down a little....or will it?! I guess only time will tell...

Hope you enjoyed the preview, hold on to your traveling pants Mr. Hess...we're going to be ON THE MOVE this month!

HAPPY MARCH EVERYONE! 

142 days and counting...

Presh