The NY Times does cookies!

[Rich chocolate cookies; ginger cookies; Norwegian Hanukkah cookies; honey-gingerbread houses; all recipes on the NY Times]

If you are a cookie fanatic like me, then you'll enjoy the cookie feature on the NY Times today. Readers submitted recipes and photos, and the best of the batch were chosen. They all look delicious. Happy baking!

I have just one more day at work and some more presents to finish and then we're off up the I-5 with a full tank of gas, four audiobooks, some caffeine, and each other's company. Safe travels to anyone in transit the next couple days, and to everyone in the Northeast, I'm sending some sunshine from San Diego. *whoosh* {that's the sound of sunshine}

I Heart Emma Pillsbury

[Oh Emma...if only I could have your flower necklaces, t-straps and embroidered sweaters in my closet]

While watching the last episode of Glee I almost cried at the end (I won't spoil it for any of you who haven't seen it,) and now that I am ALMOST done with my deadlines, I think I am going to treat myself to some Emma Pillsbury-esque purchases. In case you're thinking...Emma-who? then check out one of my new favorite blogs: What Would Emma Pillsbury Wear?

What should I add to my wardrobe this season?

A chunky necklace

[Ombre pearl cluster necklace from JCrew]

An embroidered cardigan

[From the Green cardi from Anthropologie]

Anything with a bow

[Valentino deep rose clutch at bluefly]

A hot green dress (if Emma Pillsbury goes on a hot date)

[Tannenbaum dress from Modcloth]

All of the above, yes?

One More Thing To Look Forward To...

[Visit The Professional Bridesmaid's blog here]

This holiday season I get to meet the infamous Professional Bridesmaid! I am really excited as we have become close blog buddies and she has offered me sage advice and fun blog posts to read. She will also be the very first person I have met in blog world in the real world. Everyone else who reads this blog has either never met me or has known me pre-blog. It will be so nice to meet someone that understands and doesn't think I'm nuts after I explain my obsession hobby.

Have you met people in blog world in the real world? Any suggestions for eateries in the OC we will enjoy? I am OC-clueless.

Relatives Say the Darndest Things

"You're going back to school? For what? What's that? Oh...well, you'll always have a chance to get your MBA later."

...10 minutes later

(pats back sympathetically)

"How's the boy? Is he finished with *insert whatever deadline he's working on*? What is he planning on studying in *insert whatever course of study is next up for him*? Wow, that's really great, can he give advice to *insert relative's name here*.

...10 minutes later

"Where do you work again?"

"Wow, you look different, how much weight have you gained?"

...10 minutes later

"You're not eating enough! Here, try some of this." (splat!)

...and at a different family function...

"You eat like a bird."

...10 minutes later

"Seconds?? Wow, you must really like that dish a lot."

I promise that for the most part they are nice people. But, seriously, is it just me, or do other people get really annoying comments about eating during the holidays? I swear I get told that 1. I am not eating enough, please eat more prime rib, while also being told that 2. I am eating too much, and need to watch my weight. I have a feeling it's a combination of 1. people not knowing what else to say to you, and 2. people trying to be good hosts and feed you so that you are happy and in turn they are happy.

Or maybe this is just an evil societal plot against us all to make us feel even worse about what we're eating (or not eating).

Maybe if I get my MBA I'll feel better.

10 Things to Look Forward to after the 21st

1. A break from work-work: Oy.

2. A break from school-work: Whose idea was it to go back to school while working full-time? Hmmmmm? 'Fess up!

Oh, crud, I think that was me?

3. The Monterey Bay Aquarium with my niece and sisters: My baby niece has started talking, and I can't wait to go have fun with her at the aquarium.

[I adore aquariums, and this one is incredible.]

4. Cookies: Admittedly I can have cookies now, I just like to mention them whenever I get the chance. Especially when they look this pretty!

[This book looks tasty!]

5. Going home to see family and friends. We are driving up north (I-5, here I come!) which is always a long and boring process since it takes 8 hours. Perhaps if we consume enough coffee and eat some McDonald's along the way, we'll have enough energy to keep each other entertained.

6. Cheongsam shopping with my Mom. We're going to try out Ling's Bridal in Oakland. I'm looking forward to it because my Mom never went wedding dress shopping with me, so this is to make up some lost time. It's unfortunate that if I find something I'll be fitted during my chubbiest time of the year. After I eat all those cookies.

7. Sleep! One of my favorite things to do!

8. Food in the Bay Area: Fried siu loong bao, good pizza, and if we have time and money, a restaurant to splurge on.

9. An actual date with the boy in which we can both be at ease. It's been a long time since there has been no anxiety over a test, or a paper, or a work deadline, or a conference. I think the last time we had a true honest to goodness break in which neither one of us was tied up in deadlines or stress was Disneyland. Didn't we look happy on that day?

10. Time to do some wedding planning! Some things I've been looking into/thinking about: live music during the ceremony and cocktail hour, an ipod reception, ordering goodies for dessert, and of course...a honeymoon in Japan! I think we're thisclose to making that decision, we just have to figure out the logistics! In the meantime, I've been getting more pumped up by revisiting some of my favorite movies as a kid, Kiki's Delivery Service and My Neighbor Totoro. I couldn't understand either of these movies as a kid, but I still watched them a hundred times over.

What are you looking forward to this holiday season?

Remember Me?

I wish I had a juicy excuse for being gone almost an entire week, like, I won a trip to Hawaii and just left all my responsibilities behind, or the boy and I decided to elope and left our laptops and cell phones at home only to be contacted by carrier pigeon.

Unfortunately neither of these scenarios happened. I just got a terrible cold that is still lingering, and I was in bed, partially drugged up from Nyquil/Sudafed and watching Biggest Loser re-runs. I'm slowly getting back in the swing of things, and coughing less. I missed my blog.

In wedding news, the boy and I are spending hours researching and debating what to do about our honeymoon. Cake toppers, honeymoons, we're really good at being picky. Or as my mother said (my loose translation from Cantonese,) "so fussy!" The basic gist of our debate is that he wants a jam-packed site-seeing trip in a city. I would like something more relaxed, with little time spent in a city. He doesn't mind expensive destinations, I would like to go somewhere less expensive, and so would our bank account. His latest idea is Tokyo/Kyoto which is not budget-friendly and would take some time to save money for. I'm torn since it's so expensive, but I would like to visit the Studio Ghibli Museum and eat authentic food. Plus, neither one of us have been to Japan.

Where will we end up? I don't know, but wherever it is I hope we don't go broke getting there.

If I Can Cook a Turkey, So Can You!

[All sealed up in the brine! We used two XL Ziploc bags to soak the turkey.]

[We had to clear our fridge out, then squashed one of our drawers against the turkey so that it would be completely submerged by the brine.]

[12 hours of brining and 3 hours in the oven...hooray! We didn't burn it!]

[Ta-dah!]

[The aftermath]

I want to give a big thank you to everyone who gave me advice on how to cook a turkey last week. We took dethbakin's advice and followed Alton Brown's recipe, and as you can see, it came out alright! The second day turkey kicked the just-carved turkey's butt. It just tasted so much juicier, and made a good feast for breakfast on black Friday.

Now I am so sick of turkey! We used it on pizza, in pesto pasta, and sandwiches. I'm starting to run out of ideas.

Roasting the turkey together with the boy was also a great bonding experience. Both of us had no clue what we were doing and we were so proud when we took it out of that oven that we hugged in joy.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday!

Crafty Tree

Just wanted to share this tree I made for the children's section at my local library. I used tissue paper, construction paper, crayola white paint, string, and ribbon. It was a lot of fun to make and didn't cost much money, just a lot of colorful paper and a stapler. The most expensive item up there is the ribbon, which I wish just went on forever because it was so sparkly and pretty. =D

Help with Lanterns!

So...my post over at EAD isn't getting much love, except from honey (thanks honey!) so I thought I'd bring the question over here.

Which lanterns do I get??

If you have two minutes to procrastinate, visit the post here and let me know what you think either here or at EAD!

=)

Turkey Advice

[from bon appetit]

Has anyone successfully cooked a turkey before? I have to cook one. I have a big ol' bird sitting in my fridge that says I have to. Any words of wisdom so I don't burn it and/or it tastes like cardboard? For the third year since I moved to Southern California, I won't be seeing my family but will be spending it with the boy. The turkey is for all of our friends who won't be making it home either. I'm being adventurous this year and cooking instead of going out.

What are your plans for this day of thanks?

Wedding Meltdown Update

Thanks for all the support bloggers! You all made me feel better, and reminded me that no one is safe from folding chairs, lovebirds, poor date choices, or the dentist (ugh, sorry to anyone who is a dentist or in dental school out there! Or anyone just really protective of dentists.)

Throughout my obsessive dedicated years to blogging, I would read about people stepping away from the high gloss wedding blogs and wedding magazines because all the gorgeous pictures make you go NUTS from wanting to attain the perfect/but look like you didn't try too hard perfect/and you spent pennies and constructed this chandelier from cardboard/and have a printmaker as your fiance who will magically make all the printed products/and the whole shebang looks like it's from Martha Stewart Magazine/but no one actually from MS helped you because you are THAT GOOD/high five! No, no, that won't be me, I read plenty of blogs of real people, and I know that things go wrong. I'm cool. Not gonna happen. My wedding isn't a contest. I TOTALLY understand and will not be phased by all the hullabaloo or pain myself to stress about the little things. Nope, not me.

Two words: cake topper.

I've come to a point in the planning where it stresses me out to look at really pretty, lushly planned events, and I steadily have stopped looking at them as religiously. Le sigh.

High five!

Wedding Meltdowns

Have you had one? Because I had one big time this weekend. Stress, lack of sleep, too much work, and feeling neglected all manifested itself into one big "it's my party and I'll cry if I want to" behavior, which, the poor boy had to endure for a good two to three hours while the cat sat in my lap bewildered. 

I won't go into the gorey details, but all of the emotions and frustrations from the week exploded into one topic: a cake topper. That's right, out of all the things in the world to pick on, I chose to blame everything on the boy not wanting a cake topper. No actual, emotion wrenching, heart aching or traumatic problems. No one died, no one is sick, no one lost a job, no one is without food or a roof over their heads. That's right. A cake topper. I'm like a five-year-old. 

"I'm so tired...*hiccup*...and I have jury duty this week and...and it starts at 7:45...*hiccup*...and next week I have a dentist appointment and they like ALWAYS make me pay for x-rays...*hiccup*...and I haven't bought my ticket to go home and prices are rising and I HATE going to the airport during the holidays...*hiccup*...and...and...and...*hiccup*...you don't want a cake topper!!"

Not my proudest moment, but to cut through more hiccuping and annoying banter, when I came out of my irrational Mo wedding meltdown mode, I came to a conclusion (mostly because the boy just wasn't caring too much about it.) 

We're just not going to buy a cake topper. Problem solved! I still want a single cake to cut, so we might just get some flowers to decorate it. Like this beauty from Maple Sugar (I LOVE all the pictures on this blog!): 

[Image from Maple Sugar]

I hope to have no more temper tantrums or wedding meltdowns. For at least 2 months. 

Weekend Recap

[Anatomy of a birthday hot fudge sundae from Roppongi]

[Tiramisu cake at birthday party #2]

We like to do celebrations in twos. This weekend was the boy's birthday, and we celebrated with friends and then had a dinner with just the two of us at Roppongi. They surprised us with the free gelato hot fudge sundae seen above!

It was a crazy, very busy weekend, and it just feels so nice to sit down and write in my blog. I'm so tired I can feel my body sink into the chair. Did you have a good weekend?

Paper Place Mats

[Personalized place mats by Hello Lucky! via love made visible]

[Holiday place mat from Whimsy Press]

Before I dive into my rant about decor, I notice I have a lot more followers recently! Love must be in the air! Thank you for following, I hope I get to "see" you around the blog. If you're new, feel free to leave a comment and tell us about yourself.

Ok now onto the rant.

Everything at the reception will be white. White linens, white plates, white napkins, clear glasses, white tent. This wasn't so much a choice as it was the cheapeast option available, but I see it as a good thing--this way we can spice it up with some inexpensive color! I mentioned napkin rings and spray painted potted plants in the past, both of which I believe we are doing, and now my latest idea is to have paper place mats to add some color. The personalized place mats designed by Hello Lucky! in the first picture is so cute. I'm thinking I could design some using the flower/polka dot theme I made from our website and save the date and print them on matte 11 x 17 paper.

My initial thought was "oh! I could totally just collect the place mats after and add them to my craft box for future projects!" but then I realized that people will be eating off of them, and the whole point of the place mat is to catch food from getting the linens dirty. Duh. 

Maybe I can still save some of them so they serve a double purpose. 

How I Found Blogging

Once upon time at the Gender Equity Resource Center at UC Berkeley, they were giving away free books to students who had worked on the women's conference. Yours truly was there, sifting through the sparkly advance copies. I picked up a book by Sabrina Ward Harrison and asked my group members "anyone want this one?" Everyone shook their heads, so I stuffed it in my bag next to my reader for Death and Dying in Medieval Art (an entire class about memento mori) and my textbook on De Stijl.

You can probably guess which book I grabbed when I went to the coffee shop that afternoon.

Anyway, I checked out Sabrina Ward Harrison's website soon after, which was designed by Christine Castro of Darling Design. Reading Christine's blog on Darling Design was my first taste of a design blog. I was totally and completely hooked. How did I not know about this before?? Why am I looking at skulls and primary colors when I could be looking at flowers, polka dots, and the color pink?

From Darling Design, I found Oh Joy! which was linked on Christine's page. When Joy started blogging about her wedding in 2006, that's when the wedding blog world opened up and swallowed me whole. I'm still swimming around in its stomach, having a fine time.

I can't believe blogging has absorbed so much of my attention for the past four, almost five years. It has been a constant source of information and inspiration, from photography to writing to design to how to deal with wedding drama.

May 2010 will mark 5 years since I picked up that free copy of Sabrina Ward Harrison's book. I think blogging and I should celebrate.

How did you start blogging?

Temperley in L.A.

Whoops, I suppose today is the 6th--no worries, if you're interested in this trunk show, you have another chance tomorrow!

Trunk Show!

12 PM-5 PM, 11/6 and 11/7

Temperley London Boutique

8452 Melrose Place, Los Angeles

I'll be studying for midterms and starting work on my final paper. Please go dress shopping for me!

Clay Flowers

I fell in love with DK Designs when Mrs. Pineapple featured them on Weddingbee. I think the flowers Diane makes are amazing!

I keep thinking that I'll have a fabric flower (like these) in my hair, but then I saw this gorgeous anemone.

[Clay anemone by DK Designs]

She also makes very pretty gardenias that would look pretty in my Mom's, sisters', or FMIL's hair.

[Clay gardenia by DK Designs]

Has anyone used clay flowers before? What are you wearing/wore in your hair for your wedding?

5? You mean 5:45, right?

Everyone in my family is notorious for being tardy. When I was itty bitty, an entire wedding banquet was held up because they insisted my Uncle be there before they start the speeches and food. He arrived two hours later.

Our friends are notorious for being late. For the boy's last birthday party, everyone came on time for the reservation, except for his nearest and dearest. They came about an hour and a half later, because y'know, the closer they are to us, the later they arrive.

The boy is horribly late all. the. time. I have gotten used to it over the years, but oh man. It's always been an issue. I can't tell you how many times I would show up at his work, only to have to wait another hour or two at his computer station before he was actually ready. Now you all know where I find the time to blog. :)

Me? I'm the girl waiting at the airport an hour beforehand and the one who arrives too early to interviews and decides to circle the building a few times before going in.

Here's how this is all related to weddings: we only have 5 hours at the vineyard for our party, and I don't want to waste any time so we can start food and dancing early to get the most out of our space. I want the ceremony to start at 5:15 at the latest, but knowing my family and our friends, I'm not sure if this will happen if I write "5 PM" on the invitation.

Obviously there are going to be people who arrive late. I can't really control that. But maybe I can control it an eensy weensy bit if I ask them arrive at "4:45"?

I don't know, what do you all think? Do you think people see "5 PM" and automatically know to get there early?

[Now that I've written this post for all the Internet to witness, it's inevitable that I will be the one who is late on that day.]

8 Months

We're 8 months out as of yesterday. 8 months sounds like a loooong time, but considering I have done very little for the wedding in the past two, I have a feeling it's going to go by fast.

Some fun updates:

+We decided to order dresses from Saja in jade (above)! The sisters just have to try on the silhouettes and order by December so that it ships in time for any alterations.

I think we've had two other game plans prior to this one, but I hope this one sticks because I'm in love with that color (and we have to order soon!)

Bridesmaid dresses...99% check!

+My Mom and Grandmother are flying down in January to go cheongsam shopping with me and to browse stores in L.A., Orange County, and San Diego for their own wedding outfits.

Does anyone have any recommendations on where to go in L.A. for a cheongsam? I tried Yelp, but nothing looked very promising. When they visit we'll be 5 months out! Eek!

Still need...

+a suit (there's a whole saga behind the suit, but when it's resolved, I'll share!)

+a music plan

+cake/desserts/candy

+a ceremony

+a license

+decorations (this would probably require its own list...)

+invitations/rsvp card

+a honeymoon plan

+ties for fathers and brother

+gameplan for where we are getting ready and staying that night

...man, I was just writing the "still need" part because I was so proud of how much we've done, but apparently the still need list is kinda long!

Can you think of anything else to add to the list? Got any store recommendations for a cheongsam in L.A.?

Halloween!

I LOVE carving pumpkins. I had a couple of girlfriends come over and carve them with me. I'm really slow, mine is in the middle, next to theirs which were finished way before mine.

So I stayed outside for another hour or so to finish my pumpkin. My heart sank when the boy came in and said "ohhh, that's a really cool jack-o-lantern. Where are the eyes?" 

Please tell me you can tell it's an owl. You can tell, right? 

At work we had our annual costume contest, the prize being a half day at work. Everyone gets the half day, so it's all in good fun. 

I made a jelly fish costume out of an umbrella and some plastic bags around the house. This is how it came out: 

There is an entire Flickr pool devoted to jelly fish costumes here. Totally fun to "swish" around in, and best of all, it cost nothing!

I can sense us getting older when I would rather go eat a pumpkin-themed French dinner than head over to the university's annual bash with free alcohol. If we decide to go out tomorrow, I might have to purchase that hot pink dress I saw at Target today to go with the jelly fish. 

Otherwise, I'll take pictures of the pumpkin dinner and post them for all of you. 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Bridesmaid Dresses from Saja

[All images from Saja Wedding]

I got an email from Saja today informing  me that they launched their new weddings website!

I visited Saja last year on our trip to New York. It was the first place I went to try on dresses.  I wasn't even engaged yet, but they were so nice and helpful. Plus, I loved all of the dresses!  

When I opened the website today, I became super excited that they have these kelly green bridesmaid dresses! Sister 2 is also a Saja fan, so these dresses are likely candidates! You can see them "in action" in the last photo. 

If you're looking for your wedding dress and want to stay below the $1,000 mark, I highly suggest giving Saja a try. You can view all their beautiful wedding gowns here.

To see real live people wearing them, go here. 

My Dress Arrived + Updates

+Thank you so much to everyone and your suggestions on where to go on our honeymoon. There were many places mentioned that I had not even thought of, so I really appreciate the time everyone took to lend me some advice. We're still debating, one of these days we'll make a decision and then I can go crazy planning all of the fun sites we'll see and good food we'll eat.  

+Thank you also to everyone who gave me advice regarding my mom. I told her that we have a cat and that basically clinched it. "Ooooh yeah. I forgot you had a pet. Never mind!" Now I'm looking for an apartment/condo to rent close to us the week of our wedding. Anyone willing to give up their La Jolla apartment for my parents?

+If you notice on the sidebar, that vendor list is getting pretty full. We have cake left, and music. I'm looking for a good bakery/baker in San Diego County. Thank you to reader Larissa who has already given me three places to try out in the next month!

As for music, we're going to talk to our venue about a sound system for an ipod/laptop set-up. For ceremony music, we want live music, just haven't figured out who will be playing!

+I picked up my dress this weekend. (!!!!) Thank you to my friend Jenny, who was kind enough to accompany me, help me put my shoes on, and take pictures. 

It is sitting in my closet, taunting me, and won't be altered until May. The shoulders have to be taken up a lot, and I really hope keeping the dress up won't be a problem. They showed me a photo of a bride who had ties added to the back so that it would stay up, and I immediately cried "nooooo! The back is the best part!"

It also felt really tight, and when I mentioned it at the store, the associate told me "don't worry, this is how it's supposed to fit--pain is beauty!" 

Oh yay.

[PS: I brought the shoes with me!]

Giving (or not giving) gifts

The boy's birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks, and as we were sitting trying to figure out where to go to dinner on his special day, I realized that it's been a very long time since I bought him a present that he didn't pick out for himself. We just don't give gifts to one another unless 1. the other person says "I want that please buy it for me." or 2. a friend tells one of us "he/she wants that, you should get it for her/his birthday." 

I'm pretty sure neither one of us will be giving each other gifts the day of the wedding, but I was curious if that's really popular among other couples. Are you planning to give your SO a gift, or did you give your SO a gift on the wedding day? Have you fallen into the 'we don't buy gifts for each other' category like us? 

Our florist+mismatching bridesmaids dresses

[Flowers by Rae Florae, photos by Susan Yee of En Pointe Photography]

We booked the very talented Paula Rae of Rae Florae to make the bouquets, bouts, and aisle decor. I requested a lot of flowers that I originally thought would not be in season, but Paula made my day by saying we might be able to grab some that bloom late--including peonies! Our requested flower list included peonies, dahlias, ranunculus, anemones, and sweet peas.

For the centerpieces, my sister and I are going to do potted plants/flowers. Paula alerted me of this awesome non-profit that will deliver our flowers to hospitals, senior centers, hospice centers, homeless shelters, and rehabilitation centers. It is San Diego-based and called Blooms From The Heart. Now we don't have to worry if people will bring them home or not!

I fell in love with these yellow bridesmaid bouquets, and the awesome mismatched dresses! Aren't they great? I love the pop of color and hope our wedding is filled with such beautiful bright hues.

Help with my paper

[CHOW]

Well, this isn't wedding-related, only Mo-related, but perhaps some of you out there have 10 minutes to kill and want to answer my questions? Yes? 

Do you use CHOW? If so, I'd love to chat with you and ask you a few questions for my paper. Just leave me a comment if you'd like me bothering you. 

=D

Temperley London Trunk Show

Ah New Yorkers. I like to skip around taunting all of you about San Diego's steady, dry 75 degree weather, but really, deep down inside I'm crying because of all of your fashion resources. So while I make fun of you for all the effort you go through to go grocery shopping, you can go to the Temperley Trunk Show and admire these GORGEOUS dresses. I'm pretty much in love with the first two.

Temperley Fall Trunk Show

Temperley London Boutique, NYC

453 Broome Street, 2nd Floor

New York City

November 7th & 8th

12 PM-5 PM

Other vendors will also be in attendance (in case you are planning a New York wedding,) and you can also enter your name into a raffle for a whole bucket full of bridal treats:

• $400 Temperley London Gift Card valid towards wedding gown purchase
• $250 Ceci Gift Card valid towards wedding invitation design
• $750 Christian Oth engagement photoshoot
• $250 Visions Floral Design Bridal Bouquet
• Full set of MAC Make-up brushes

See the Temperley London Bridal Collection here.

Conversations with my mother

Her: Hey, so, I was thinking about your wedding, and you know how my friends are coming all the way from Hong Kong for your wedding?

Me: Uh-huh.

Her: Well, tell me what you think, I was thinking it would be much easier if we gave your apartment to them, because we have so many people, and I will pay for a hotel room for you guys for a few days.

Me: Why don't you just pay for the hotel room for them to stay?

Her: Because we can't all fit in one hotel room! Crazy! What will they do, sleep on the floor?

Me: Mom, my apartment has one bedroom. How much more privacy will that give 5 people? One of them will have to sleep on the floor! And, we might even spend the night before apart, we haven't decided on what to do yet.

Her: Ok then I'll pay for two hotel rooms. Or, oh I know, you can just stay with a friend! Why don't you do that?

Me: This makes no sense, why don't you use that money to rent a condo for the week or get them two hotel rooms?

Her: Think about it, ok? Ok. I have to go, cooking dinner.

*click, dial tone*

Would you give up your apartment a few days before the wedding and move to a hotel room? I really really don't want to, especially since I know our apartment will be a dumping ground for all our diy and random wedding stuff. I just don't want to tell my mother that. Here, I'll give you her phone number. You can call her.

Honeymooning: where would you go?

[Taken on our trip to Paris in 2006]

I am posting this question on EAD, but I thought I'd open it up to Pink Argyle too.

We have no idea what to do about our honeymoon. Here are some issues:

1. We are having a Chinese banquet one week after our San Diego wedding. That immediately rules out skipping town right after wedding #1.

2. We probably have to wait to have our honeymoon because of work and school commitments. Until when...I have no idea. I hope it's not too long after. =/

3. We'd like to be able to pay for it without selling all of our possessions or begging our parents. Australia was on our list, but looking at airfare and hotel, it just looks like it's going to be too expensive to go down under. It's still a possibility, we'll just really have to budget and probably wait longer to have our vacation.

Places we have been: Paris, London, Rome, Florence, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Bangkok, Hong Kong

We want to go somewhere that we have never been to before with really good food and beautiful scenery. South America and Africa don't thrill the boy. He's a big fan of Europe, I suppose I'm ambivalent and a little scared of how much money Europe will be since I'd like to stay somewhere decent and not the hostel I stayed at when I was 20.

Perhaps you have ideas that we have not thought of yet! Where would you go?