Our wedding ceremony

Hey everyone! Since we are still unpacking from our move on Saturday, I decided to continue posting wedding pictures, why not?

Love is having three ridiculously handsome groomsmen. I love these guys.

Love is having your best friend tell you that you looked like a pug walking down the aisle! LOL! I couldn't agree with her more! Look at that cryface.

Tiffany (my best friend and Maid of Honor) spent a ridiculous amount of time making these placecards by hand.

I loved the chocolate brown against the green grass.

The aisle.

Our wedding ceremony was beautiful. I hate trying to sum it up in one word but if I had to...beautiful would do the trick. I was so overcome with emotion not only because I was about to marry the love of my life, but I was surrounded by people that loved me. I have such a supportive family and wonderful friends. People came to California from as far away as Chicago!

I thought our florist did a great job matching the girl's bouquets to their dresses. Each bridesmaid had a different accent color.

Here I am walking down the aisle with both parents. I cried like a baby! So did my mom....I loved being able to walk down with both of them. I figure, they both raised me so they should both "give me away." I have always had a close relationship with my parents and I wanted them both to know how important their blessing was to me. (Who am I kidding? They were begging Andy to take me away from them!)

Andy waiting at the end of the aisle. We opted for a first look so he actually saw me before this! I will post those pictures soon. If you can handle the lovefest.

Andy cried at the ceremony as well. A lot. Just one of the many reasons why I love him.

All pictures taken by Chelsea Elizabeth Photography.

Zoozacrackers at the Wynn Las Vegas

Ah, Paris. I had to post a picture of Paris! This is my favorite hotel in Vegas.

Andy and I wanted to head over to the Wynn for some lunch. After a lot of wandering around, we decided on Zoozacrackers Deli. Andy ordered a reuben. I love how the marbled rye looks.

I stole a couple bites, it was very good. I liked that it wasn't super greasy like other reubens I've had before.

I ordered a cobb salad. I cannot resist fresh avocado, blue cheese crumbles and bacon.



My salad was so good! I loved that it didn't need any dressing. I had some honey mustard on the side but only found myself dipping into it once or twice.


And of course we ordered some coffee. The Wynn has the best coffee in Vegas.



Zoozacrackers is located inside the Wynn Casino area in Las Vegas, Nv.

P.S. The move is going very well. We are both exhausted and sore from moving all of our stuff up 2 flights of stairs!

Good luck to our best friends Mike & Ashley who are also moving. They move today! Wish you guys luck!

Moving day! Plus Serendipity 3

While in Vegas, Andy and I spotted this gigantic frozen hot chocolate. I instantly knew there was a Serendipity 3 in Vegas. Considering the fact that I have NEVER been to New York, I was quite excited to try this out. And yes, I am a dork and obsessed with the movie Serendipity. This made me think of it.


Here's a silly picture of us in Vegas, before dining at Craftsteak. But that is another blog post entirely.



At Serendipity 3, we decided to split a sundae. We ordered the Strawberry Cheesecake sundae. (oh yes, this definitely explains my 2 lb gain from 2 weeks ago.) 4 scoops of strawberry ice cream, whipped cream, strawberries, strawberry syrup and a fat slice of cheesecake. We were both in heaven! I'm really not a huge fan of chocolate so this was the perfect sundae for me.


But really it was huge. Enjoyable on a HOT, dry Vegas summer day.

Serendipity 3 is located in front of Caesar's Palace. They have a lunch/dinner menu here as well but I think I'm sticking with the desserts once a year!

Moving!

Andy and I are moving to a new apartment on Saturday so I will most likely be enjoying dinners out for a couple days. This isn't ideal but you know how it is.

Wish us luck with the move, we need it! Luckily we're only moving 15 miles away :)

Food blogging makes me happy

Today's been interesting. I didn't go to my weigh in because of how crappy I feel. I am going to go on Thursday. Blah. I am tired and exhausted! I figured I should blog because it always manages to perk my mood up.




I was craving eggplant today but didn't bring a lunch so I grabbed a frozen meal from the grocery store. Cedarlane's Eggplant Parmesan. I also grabbed an unsweetened black ice tea from Starbucks, I'm crazy about un-sweet tea! It quenches my thrist, gives me a caffeine boost and cools me down on hot days. What's not to love?




The nutritional stats weren't too bad either. 7 ww pts for the entire box. I love how low it is in sugar.




I also ate a banana. It was huge. 2 ww points. It towers over my tea!!!!




The eggplant. It isn't pretty out of the box but I swear it was delicious! I'm thinking about buying it again tomorrow, no joke!

It frustrates me that this meal was 9 ww pts. I get about 24 pts per day and I feel like I use them up so quickly. For example, my breakfast of a small nf cappucino, a whole wheat english muffin and 1 tbsp of peanut butter was 5 pts. So I have ten points left for dinner....it just makes me feel like I'm always hungry. I guess I have to get used to it! Luckily veggies are usually 0 points.

Do you have any suggestions for low-calorie, low-fat foods that will also fill me up?

p.s. crossing fingers that the Foodbuzz Food Blogger Festival works out! Check out the Festival website

Breakfast is the best meal of the day

Sunday morning breakfasts at Eggs 'n' Things is my favorite. I love how they serve the flavored coffee in a rooster mug. I got hawaiian hazelnut coffee. Delish

Andy ordered a breakfast burrito. He had half of it. This thing is huge!

I ordered the Eggs and Things omelette with avocado and a side of fruit. I never seem to finish the omelette but I still find myself full until dinnertime. The Eggs 'N' Things omelette comes with bacon, avocado, sour cream and green ortega chilies. It isn't healthy at all, I'm sure but it's amazing. I opted for fruit instead of potatoes but just picked out the pineapple and blueberries.

Speaking of healthy, cross your fingers that I lose weight at my weigh in tomorrow! Obviously I went out to breakfast. Not entirely sure how good I did. :

Redondo Beach's Chez Melange

Recently Andy attended a teaching conference in Redondo Beach. I decided to take a few days off work to come visit him. While Andy was at the conference I consulted Yelp to see if I could find a cute restaurant to take him to.

All signs pointed towards Chez Melange. Check out their reviews on Yelp if you're interested.

We walked in right around opening time. The staff was friendly and helpful showing us the menu and highlighting the specials. Andy and I were both in the mood for a cocktail so we started the evening out right.



I ordered a pom-tini. What else is new?



Andy ordered a cheese plate for us to share. It came with honey, pears, crumbly 7 year cheddar, goat cheese and a strong stilton.



I got a pear and gorgonzola salad which we also split. I wish this picture was bigger so you could see how beautifully the salad was plated.



Some baked chips and dips. The dips were great and a fun alternative to the usual bread and butter starter at restaurants.



For my entree, I had the roasted pork with cheesy grits and green beans. I rarely ever eat pork and certainly could not finish this huge meal but it was delicious! The pork had so much flavor. The cheesy grits were good but I was already stuffed to the gills from the salad, cheese and pom-tini!





Andy ordered gnocchi with lamb. He says he enjoyed this dish. I'll let him post more about it in the comments. If he so desires!

We ended the evening with a foamy cappucino and creme brulee. The creme brulee had cacao nibs in it. YUM! We'd definitely love to check out Chez Melange again if we are ever around Redondo Beach. The staff was so nice! The owner even walked over to our table and chatted with us about the meal. I told him about how we found his place on yelp. I left the restaurant with a warm and fuzzy feeling, love that!

I am working on figuring out how to code html or use window's live writer. Any blogging tips?

Bridal Party Portraits

While the girls and I got ourselves pretty; the second shooter took some great shots of the boys.



Love this pose.



My new husband <3



With my bridesmaids.



I loved our bouquets. I had a vision of dark purples, greens, whites and pinks and it just came together so nicely! I'm thankful for all of the appointments with the florist and the frequenting of wedding blogs.



With my maid of honor, Tiffany. Tiffany and I have been inseparable since 7th grade!



With Sarah. I've known Sarah since middle school as well. We met when we were both in a Hanson fan club. Go ahead and laugh, you know you have a guilty pleasure too!



Ashley is Andy's best friend Mike's girlfriend. She is fantastic. Like me, she has a food blog. I love her.



Tiffany (Yes, there were 2 Tiffany's) flew all the fly from Wisconsin to be in our wedding. I met Tiffany through Andy. They've been friends for a very long time. She needs to live closer.

I have about 6,000 pictures to post so the wedding series will continue for awhile. I hope you enjoy!

P.S. Foodbuzz's Food Blogger Festival in San Francisco?????? I am 100% in.

so the weigh-in

Wasn't good. I gained!!!!

I had a sad moment but remembered all of the cosmos, wine and beers I consumed while in Las Vegas. Of course I gained after drinking that. I've got to remember that drink calories are empty calories.

Here's to a better week!

Weigh-in Day

I weigh in at Weight Watchers every Tuesday night. (Yes, at night. It's my only option unfortunately.) Every Tuesday morning I stress out about "weigh-in" day. I eat light and drink an incredible amount of water. I literally do everything in my power to make sure I lose weight. But why on just tuesdays? I've noticed lately that I do not try as hard on the other days of the week.

Why am I sabotaging myself? This week was tough. Last Tuesday after my ww meeting, I drove out to Redondo beach to be with Andy. He went to a conference/seminar and I decided to go along. I spent Wednesday and Thursday in the car. I tried to eat healthy but it was a challenge. Friday-Sunday we went to Las Vegas. That was also a challenge. We managed to avoid buffets but I still enjoyed my favorite alcoholic beverage---the Cosmo! According to several websites the average cosmo has 150 cals. I drank 3! Bah!

So excuses aside, I am determined to get back on track. I'm hoping the blog and the dreaded weigh in will help motivate me.

Do any of you do weight watchers? What are your thoughts?

Getting ready to get married!

I have no good food blogs posts for you today so I decided to post some wedding pictures. This is the 1st in the series. Expect more soon!



Here I am getting ready. I was totally weirded out by the idea of me in a wedding dress.



Bridesmaid Tiffany helps me get ready.



One of my sister's nosegays.



Cute bridesmaids! Bridesmaid Ashley in the middle writes the blog, "On the Rocks"



Drinking water before the ceremony. At least I *think* it was water!



Figuring out how to put on my birdcage veil. I wore the birdcage after the ceremony.



my bridal portrait.



sans glasses. I'm glad I wore my glasses. I feel much more "me" with them on.



lip glossin' it up.