Archive for December, 2007

Girl’s Weekend 2007!

Monday, December 10th, 2007
We did it again!  Girl’s Weekend was a huge success.  We all met in Chicago this year.  We wanted it to be somewhere with public transportation so no one had to rent a car.  We were a little concerned by the weather in Chicago in November, but it was actually beautiful!  Chilly, but not unpleasant at all.  We did a much better job all arriving and departing near the same time.  I even waited for Jessie at the airport.  The second question out of her mouth was “how is the baby-making going?”  I replied “VERY well!”  She replied “REALLY?!?!?”  She started crying right there in the baggage claim!  It was so neat that I got to tell all the girls in person!  Jessie was impatient for me to tell everyone else, she kept giving me looks at dinner until I finally blurted it out =)  She asked, not so innocently, “Wow, Chrissie, why are you so hungry.”  I responded, “well, it could be the baby!”  =)  So much fun!  We spent a lot of the weekend talking about babies and pregnancy =)  I love our talks, it’s the best part!  We also had a lot to talk about weddings as well, as Jennie and Gavin’s wedding was two weeks away!  We also called Mary.  We really hope she can come next year!  She cried a little about the baby too =) 

 The only slight fiasco this year was that I bought our hotel room on Priceline.com.  Evidently I don’t know how to work priceline.  I only got one room, thinking it would be more fun if we were all together, and as long as we had two beds, just one of us would be on the floor.  But priceline doesn’t let you request two beds, and the hotel was full!  They couldn’t even book me a second room!  So there was going to be five of us in one queen sized bed!  Disaster!  When I got to the hotel though and explained my problem, they offered to upgrade us to a suite!  For less than the price of a second room, we got a King size bed, a sofa bed, and a roll away!  There were even two rooms!  Jessie had brought her air mattress, which was more comfortable than the sofa bed, so everything worked out perfectly!
 Jennie and Alisha enjoyed shopping and wandering around all day Saturday while waiting on the rest of us.  Turned out it was lucky they did because they were able to find everything we wanted to go to!  I never got my bearings, I just followed where they led =)  We had a great dinner the first night (where I enjoyed ketchup, which apparently is the most exciting food that was banned on my diet)  And then we stood in a very long line for some awesome popcorn.  Abbey had heard about Garrett’s popcorn, and taking a page from Jennie’s book, instead of sitting around the hotel we went right out and got some!  We got cheddar and caramel corn, which are very good mixed.  I would never have thought of that!  
The second day we had a huge breakfast at a restaurant that is apparently owned by Cheesecake factory.  It was delicious!  Then we went out to Navy Pier, where we enjoyed wandering through a stained glass museum.  Well, I was fascinated by the glass at least, I don’t think it was anyone else’s favorite.  The pier is probably a lot busier in the summer.  It was still fun to get to see the view from the Pier, the skyline is so pretty!
Image
After that, we went out to Millenium Park.  The highlight of the park is the giant silver bean.  Technically, it’s called the Cloud Bridge.  It’s a very shiny sculpture that is shaped like a humongous bean.  The fun part is that it’s so clear and reflective, it’s like a huge mirror.  I took this group picture of the five of us in the bean.
Image
After that we got pizza, figuring it was something we had to do in Chicago.  Then we went back to the hotel, where I napped on the couch for a good half hour before the girl’s woke me up, saying we had about an hour before all the stores closed, as it was Sunday, and we were on a chocolate mission.  We went to one chocolate store, which turned out to be in Neiman Marcus.  They just had godiva and other things we could get anywhere, so we moved on to Ghirardelli and Hershey’s.  We got all kinds of chocolate and had a taste testing.  I had one square of chocolate in the store, and apparently sugar was so foreign to me that I was jittery all night =)  We also got wine to go with the chocolate, and then we watched Hairspray, which made for the perfect girl’s night!  We even danced spontaneously at the end of the movie.  So much fun!  We had to ask the concierge for a corkscrew though.  The concierge was our best friend this trip.  He told us how to get to the hotel, how to get to the pier, how to get to the Field Museum, provided our bed and the all important corkscrew.  I raved about the concierge to Eric when I got home =)
 Monday was reserved for the Field Museum.  We found our way right there on the excellent bus system.  They had an awesome exhibit on maps that was so interesting!  I saw a map drawn by DaVinci (it was incredibly how tiny those mapmakers could write and draw!)  We also saw some maps that Tolkien drew for his books.  He had amazing details of the tiniest things!  He even knew what time the sun would set at different times of the year!  The most fun map was probably the Map of Imaginary Places.  It had all the Mother Goose and Fairy Tale places all mapped out.  We were bummed that they didn’t have it in the gift store!  Abbey said she wished that we still drew mythical creatures on our maps. 
We also enjoyed looking at the beautiful gemstones and jade.  
Image
This park was outside of the Field Museum.  Jennie climbed to the top!
That afternoon we had just enough time for a quick lunch and a visit to Marshall Field’s before we had to go to the airport.  Marshall Fields is actually Macy’s now, but they do an incredible Christmas display.  They had a two story tree decorated by Martha Stewart that shaded from pale reds and pinks through greens to blues in very soft shades.  There were TONS of ornaments on that tree!  The windows had a nutcracker theme.  Incredible! 

Weddings September-November

Monday, December 10th, 2007
I had four more wonderful weddings that I planned myself!  Here are a few of my favorite things from them:
November
 My last wedding of the year was also one of my favorites!  I spent a lot of time with Nicole working out all the details, and I think it turned out perfect!  She loved everything!  She was so sweet, we had a lot of fun working on her wedding!  Her mom came with her to all of our meetings, and she said I was a pleasure to work with.  I certainly enjoyed working with them. 
ImageImage
Nicole’s bouquet was a mix of dendros, phaels, and cymbidium orchids.  So pretty in that soft blush! The bridesmaids were Milano roses, Black Magic roses, magenta mokara and cyms.  I love this color so much!  And it was gorgeous against their dresses.  I wired a LOT of orchids for her bouquets.  When I opened the box to show the bridesmaid’s bouquets to her, she gasped and said “I love it!”  Then I showed her her own bouquet and she gasped again!
Image
This chuppah is my favorite that I’ve ever done.  I love the magenta and champagne and chocolate mix!  And the custom runner with the magenta on the side looked perfect too!
 ImageImage
 The reception was all rich reds and chocolate browns.  It was the perfect setting!  She wanted a night club feel for the party afterwards, and she had a live band that was so much fun! I used a lot of orchids again for these centerpieces, mostly mokara and james storeii, plus some Red Masaii and Black Magic roses.  The cylinders wrapped in ribbon with the glo-vessels inside were awesome!  I’m so glad she added the coffee as I suggested, I think it was a perfect touch!  And I love the scent =) 

 When I went to strike the wedding, the bride hugged me, her mother hugged me, and even the groom hugged me!  Everything went exactly as I hoped!
October
 ImageImage
My favorite October wedding was at the Fairmont.  This bride went through us for linens and napkins, so I got to order them all, which was fantastic!  I adore specialty linens, they make such a difference!  Her wedding was all reds and golds, very rich.
September
ImageImage
Another of my favorite weddings was in September at Villa Montalvo!  This is a gorgeous site, and the bride chose really beautiful flowers.  I drove to Burlingame to pick up these cylinder vases filled with orchids in green, red, and orange.  She added napkin flowers at the last minute, which I loved!  They really finish a table so beautifully!  And she was so happy!  
Sheryl wrote the nicest review of us on yelp.com.  Check it out! 
 Image
 The first wedding in September was aqua and silver.  We got the most gorgeous white flowers for them, and I mixed in silver dusty miller.  The hydrangea was so lush and beautiful, and the dusty miller was the perfect accent!

Christmas Shoeboxes 2007

Saturday, December 1st, 2007
We hosted Operation Christmas child at our apartment again!  For those of you who don’t know, what we do is fill shoeboxes with toys and gifts, which get shipped all over the world.  It’s a lot of fun!  Patricia, Jack and I went to the dollar store to buy all the stuff.  Then, we have the whole Bible Study group over to sort, decorate, and pack the boxes!  So much fun!
 Image
Here’s Patricia decorating our boxes.  We went for plastic shoeboxes this year!
Image
Juan did all the packing of the boxes.  He’s great at fitting everything in!