Our Wedding Invites

Here they are! – our wedding invites. For those who haven't had the chance to see what they look like, here is a glimpse of the final product. Isn't it quite yellow or what!? I just couldn't help myself. :)

On the main invite cover, are our names, and they are featured with our personal passport photos from our native country, India and Thailand. And on the ribbon held by a bird and butterfly, it says, "You're invited to our wedding on June 12, 2009".

The RSVP card is a self-mailer postcard that continues the kitschy wedding theme & color. And can't forget the fun custom map that I have designed for our wedding guests.

{Designed by Chontichar}

I think I was able to capture the whimsical, rustic elegance through my invite design, what do you guys think?

Snow in Late March!

Isn't this suppose to be Spring already? I woke up this morning thinking to get my day started early by going to some home stores to finish up the kitchen in our new place and this is what I see... freakin' snow! Won't it just go away.

I guess I have to bust out my Ugg boots out of storage and start truckin' through my day. I hope you friends out there in Florida and California have nice day. (Much sarcasm here.) :)

Wedding Invites are OUT!

It's been a little hectic for me this past week so I apologize for the lack of interesting posts. Work, wedding planning and now prepping the new house for our big move in. However, I can say we did accomplish something very important today. A little late... but wedding invites are done, printed, and have been mailed out FINALLY! Look for them at your nearest mailbox.

My fiance loves the wedding invite design and so do I since I designed it, of course. Check out our stack of invites. Well, it's not really a stack. We have a small wedding list. :)

The Chicago Wedding Shower

Another busy weekend for us, but a very enjoyable one. Yesterday, Hemal and I had our very first wedding shower with our Chicago area friends, and this wasn't your traditional bridal shower with only females. The boys were present too, although they felt skeptical about their role at a wedding shower. Simply, we wanted to enjoy drinks, food and celebrate our future with our close friends; and can't forget the gifts too!

The wedding shower was organized by my sister, Sharada, and my future sister-in-law, Nisha, and held at Nirmal & Nisha's lovely home. As you can see, they had a very cute Asian theme. My sister had a custom Japanese style cherry blossom banner printed that was mounted on the front door to greet our friends.

Here is a pic of Hemal and I just before the party began. We were eager to start eating and drinking since everything looked soo good. The menu for the afternoon included sushi, edamame, Thai-style pizza, spring rolls, pad thai, and pineapple basil fried rice. And for dessert we had a mango tart, homemade vanilla bean cupcakes, and coconut ice cream in a crispy pastry cup with mango strawberry salsa. Also can't forget the freshly made sangria with an Asian twist– a white Shangri-La sangria with coconut milk & pineapple and a red sangria with a mix of mango & oranges. Everything was perfect and delicious!

To continue the Asian theme, the hostesses had "lucky bamboo" plants as "thank you" favors for our guests who attended. And red and yellow paper lanterns were hung throughout the home.

Here is Nirmal giving a toast to Hemal and I and to our future together. And he graciously said, "It's about time! It only took a decade for you guys to do it." (slightly paraphrased)

My sister and her boyfriend, Jason. You guys finally made it on my blog! They drove in from Indianapolis, IN.

All the boys congregating and enjoying their champagne and clueless to what is about to happen. It's a shower and aren't there games with a wedding shower? :) ... the tables were turned. Lucky Hemal was the target of the game vs. me. He became the center of attention by being the bride.

The huge group of boys were divided into four teams and were competing against each other to construct the perfect bridal gown on Hemal out of toilet paper.

Boy Team #1
There was some sort of weird extension to the bridal attire, maybe a veil?

Boy Team #2

The veil was much better here, and they gave Hemal some curves – breasts.

Boy Team #3
They were pretty conservative. No clear vision.

Boy Team #4

This last team was quite spunky with their gown. Bootylicious I think you call it.

I must say, all the boys really got into the game and were good sports about participating. When I had to announce the winner which was Team #2, the other teams were quite disappointed for bragging rights. :)

I want to thank everyone for coming to our shower and making it a memorable one. And thank you for all the wonderful gifts that will help get our future home started.

The Perfect Housewife

I remember seeing a forward in my email a while back showing an article "The Good Wife's Guide" from the 1930's to being the perfect housewife. As I read it, I can assure you not much of that is practiced in today's society. I couldn't help but laugh internally as I read it. Read it for yourself if you have yet to read it. It's quite amusing; my favorite is "Don't ask him questions about his actions or question his judgment or integrity."

Click here to read full article from the 1930's. And it was written by a woman!

One thing that I noticed in these type of ads, tv shows and commercials targeted at woman back in the 30's and 40's, the woman always seemed to be wearing aprons. And I thought if you want to look & play the part of being the perfect housewife, these aprons can help you do it!


These swanky, hip aprons from The Merry Martini can help you host the perfect party. The cupcake print and red polk-a-dot prints are too cute! These aprons can be a great bridal shower or housewarming gift. What husband wouldn't love coming home to a warm, cooked meal and see his wife in one of these retro, flirty aprons.

{Images from themerrymartini.com}

In case you guys were thinking that I don't believe in making a happy home and pleasing your husband, I certainly do. But not everything in this article is necessary with today's modern woman. Sorry Hemal to ruin your dreams of the perfect housewife. ;)

Beautiful Ties for Men

I remember back in the day when Hemal use to wear very mundane and the always conservative navy blue tie. And I always tried to convince him to try Pinks! Yellows! and Bright Greens! He wouldn't dare listen to me. But one day, something switched in his head. Who knows what did it, but all he wears now are very fashionable, colorful patterned ties. Just like a man – doesn't listen to the woman the first time. ;)

I love men in ties. It says something about their character by their selection of a patterned tie. Vera Bradley has a great line of ties called the Baekgaard Collection that are 100% silk. She has a wonderful range of bold color and prints. I wish I would've found her Yellow Foulard Print tie before I bought Hemal's for the wedding.

{Images from verabradley.com}

Where I did find Hemal's wedding tie and the groomsmen ties are from BoardroomTies.com. They carry a wide selection of brands like Calvin Klein, BCBG and many more. They have also started their own line of ties called "Boardroom" which feature the diagonally-wide college stripes in several color combinations.

{Images from boardroomties.com}

I think the bold, colorful college striped ties work wonderfully for "wedding" ties. They will add that great burst of color in your wedding photography especially if it coordinates with your wedding color palette.

Our New Home

Here it is everyone – our very own home. Much bigger than our current condo situation. :) The pictures can somewhat give you an idea of our townhome layout. The furniture isn't ours, of course. It is the previous owners. We are getting all new stuff!

This is Hemal's first signature of many. To the right, that is our lawyer & friend, Sameer.

I had to blur out our numbers to our place. You never know, my blog is open to the world-wide web. I will send you all our new address eventually.

Here are our first steps into our very first home. We have a red door!

Our front courtyard!

The breakfast nook to the left and the kitchen to the back. Dining room isn't viewable from this angle.

Our living room from upstairs, the back deck (for BBQs) and a fireplace.

The second level that houses the loft, master bedroom and guest room along with the two full baths.

The loft – already designated to be Hemal's office area even though he doesn't really work from home.

The master bedroom.

And master bath. Eventually we will host little gatherings for everyone as soon as we get furniture. We are totally starting from scratch. It's going to be a hectic few months until the wedding day. What more can I add to my plate... :)

Woohoo! We have a home.

We are closing on our new home today! Stay tuned for pics of us in our place. :)

Baby Girl Names Anyone?

Alright people. We want votes!! and suggestions from everyone for baby girl names for Nisha and Nirmal Patel. They are having an on-going battle on baby names and can't settle on the same one so we are opening it to the public.

Here are our top picks of names to go with the Patel last name. Any with * indicate our faves so far.

1. Anna*
2. Emma*
3. Sophia
4. Victoria
5. Jada
6. Alexis
7. Riley*
8. Madison*
9. Chloe
   

In a month or so, we will pick the winning name. Please vote or comment!!

Our Wedding Cake Tasting

Okay, so the cake tasting went quicker than we thought, in total about 20 minutes. It took us longer to get there in the Chicago traffic (50 minutes). Once we got there, we both expected to be served a bunch of different, glorious layered cakes bursting with flavors of all sorts. And just maybe, a glass of bubbly champagne in one hand with a fresh slice of strawberry to top it off. Well, we guessed wrong. :( I think the movies blurred our perception of a true cake tasting.

Also, I thought I would be working with a sketch/chef artist to help my vision come to life. Or at least, possibly a computer rendering to see what my final product will look like. And again, I was wrong. No creative collaboration what-so-ever!! They pretty much went off what I told them. Good thing I came prepared with printouts of designs that I liked and my yellow & blue color palette for reference.

Anyway, here are pics of what we did have. Two plates – one plate was covered with all sorts of cake filling & fruit preserves and the other was heart-shaped cake breads. We essentially tore up the two plates trying to find the perfect combination.

And here's what we are going with... a 3-layer cake. The bottom and top cake are going to be a fluffy, chocolate bread with white chocolate mousse and fresh mixed berries. The middle layer is almond cake with only white mousse to counterbalance the sweet almond flavor. As for the design, you will have to wait and see like us cuz we have no clue what it will exactly look like until the actual date! The outside design will be sculpted out of buttercream to form the design though.

This is a picture of us on sugar overload. I can't even hold the camera phone straight.

For any of you newbie wedding couples out there, unless you are going to spend oodles of money on your cake, don't expect what we expected because it's not true. :) Our cake tasting was the "norm" according to other people that we talked to.

Tell us your experience if you felt the same way as us going into it...

One More Patel in the World

Big news and a big surprise from the brother-in-law and wife! My future sister-in-law, Nisha, is having another baby and she is due practically a week after our wedding. This time around it's a baby girl surprisingly. We are all excited to see the new baby girl which is literally around the corner. Congratulations to Nirmal & Nisha!

This is the first photo of the new baby girl, just over 5 mths.

This is our nephew, Aryan, Nirmal & Nisha's first son. I call him my little "bug-a-boo." He's sooo cute. These photos that you see of him are professionally shot by Marmalade Photography, a baby photographer that I was able to find for Nirmal & Nisha. I think her photography is quite stunning, and she captures those unforgettable moments of children.

I call this one "the little Indian prince." The red sari material makes Ari look very regal as it is wrapped around his delicate body. Don't you just love these images? :)

{©2009 Marmalade Photography}

And I just love this black and white photo, great use of select focus. The black fabric that Ari is on makes him look like he is floating.

Hmmmm...cake!

We have our cake tasting appointment today. Stay tuned for pics of us eating glorious, sugarry cake. :)

Mix'n Match Pillow & Textures

I am in the process of picking decor for our new future bedroom & living room. And what helps me in the process of designing a look for a room are pillows!! Find a pillow, or several pillows, that carry the essence that you want through color, character and texture. Pillows are always a good starting point to help people design their own rooms.

Here are some color combos that I have montaged together through several pillows. As you can see, I am all about mixing patterns & texture, and the element that unifies all these pillows together is the color.

The color blocks on the left is the working color palette for the rest of the room. Maybe the main wall behind the bed headboard is yellow and the grey hue can come through long, dramatic heavy fabric curtains. This is a great clean and fresh color combo that is very modern.


Black and white I think can sometimes be boring, but how about throwing some hip patterns and geometric shapes into it. Mix'n match, I say!

{Images from allmodern.com}

I didn't put this last board together, but I do love the color combination going on here. The indigo and orange hues have a contemporary Moroccan feel to them.

If you love these pillows, I found them all on allmodern.com. They have a huge selection of pillows, bedding and furniture that is all modern! I think I found my throw pillows for my bed and couch already. Oh, and they have "Hassle free shipping and free returns." (A minimum order is required.)

INSIGHT & IDEAS: These color combos and patterns can easily be transformed into a wedding color palette for your invites, florals, accessories and reception linens.

Jonathan Adler for the Home

Jonathan Adler's manifesto "believe[s] that your home should make you happy." If I had some of his designs in my home, it surely would make me happy. All of his work have a great retro-chic and modern look to them.

And I am truly in love with his quirky pottery. The fish salt & pepper shakers, the darjeeling teapot, and whale butter dish are too adorable. They are pieces of art too that make a simple little statement on your tabletop.

His lighting fixtures are so bold & clean. I want them in my home!

His textile designs are also very bold. These green and blue colors are so crisp & clean that it will definitely add that extra pop of color in your living room.

{Images from www.jonathanadler.com}

Twist Jewelry

On the day of your wedding, I say splurge! and throw a twist in your wedding accessory. Visit Twist and see their unique collection of jewelry designed by artists. Truly each object of jewelry can be seen as a meaningful piece of art.

The red coral, gold bracelet on the right would work nicely for a beach wedding with "Red" being your main wedding color.


The pink tourmaline ring below is sooo gorgeous, but has a good price attached to it too!

{Images from twistonline.com}

Did someone say MOO?

I did – I love MOO.com. They are a great resource for possible Save The Date cards, a gift to a family member, or "thank you" note cards to your wedding guests. They are an online vendor that custom print business cards, MiniCards, greeting cards, stickers and postcards. And the price tag attached to this kind of custom printing isn't that bad at all.

You can upload your own personal photos and crop them accordingly yourself. On their site, they give an array of fun things you can do with your MiniCards or photos.

For the bride and groom, how about collecting all your memorable pics from your past and present into one big frame that all your guests can see on the day of your wedding. (frame is available at moo.com)

I think I may just do this for the day of our wedding. Hemal and I love photos.

{Images from moo.com}

Another idea. After your wedding is all said and done, take one of your favorite wedding pics and get custom note cards or postcards done to be your "thank you" cards to your guests. And don't forget to write that personal message on the back. Even a honeymoon picture would work nicely too! I may have to do this one too for ours. :)