Wedding Sneak Peak: Craft Projects

Touches of blue and yellow everywhere...
Not only are the Manzanita branches yellow, I also had 2 frames painted yellow to match perfectly. The larger frame will house a picture of my future husband & I, and the smaller frame will be displayed on the bar framing a special drink menu specifically for the ladies. (Prego friends be on the look out for it; there will be a virgin cocktail too!)

Originally, I wanted to keep all the decor for the wedding hidden until the big day, but it's just not as fun since I want to share it with you all now. Plus, some things are small and may not be seen by everyone on the day of.

With a little effort, a hot glue gun and some fun craft pieces look what I made! It's the ring nest that Aryan, our nephew, will be carrying down the aisle. I have blue ribbons to securely hold the wedding bands in place just in case he does happen to drop it. The artificial bird nest and blue ribbon are from Michaels.

If you guys haven't caught onto the theme yet, this may seem odd to you. I won't spoil it if you have yet to figure it out. :)

And moving on, we now have our gift card holder which happens to be a birdcage! Don't you want to feed your envelopes into this or what.

Wedding Sneak Peak: Decor Production

18 days to go! And time to kick the wedding decor production into high gear! For our Monday off, we invited Nirmal & Nisha over for some BBQ food in exchange for some wedding labor. :)

Do these branches below look at all familiar? I posted about them a month ago. Yep, they're Manzanita branches. My main centerpieces have arrived and time to blast them with some color! And what color would that be...

I have recruited Hemal and Nirmal to be my painting guinea pigs! They are trying to look all hardcore like they are true graffiti artists.

And the color being painted is Yellow! No surprise I know.

I let the boys handle the gritty work as I paid much more close attention to details. And here you see me painting our cake topper. You can't see the design just yet! Look for it on our wedding day.

I love my FLOR!

My Saturday task was to install the FLOR system into our utility/laundry room. I wanted to hide the not-so-pleasant vinyl that was in there and wanted something softer on our feet as we do our laundry.

I have always been a fan of the FLOR system for its practical way of cleaning and not being committed to carpet for life. Just lift one tile, clean and replace. What a great concept.

All you need is three things to install: a "T" square ruler to help you get those straight edges, a utility carpet knife, and the FLOR dots to keep the carpet tiles in place.

The FLOR tile that I have chosen is called Mocha, a mix of browns and warm grays, and this particular blend will visually help conceal the dirt. I also chose this carpet tile for its durability for "high traffic" areas.


Not bad, eh? I must admit, installing these FLOR tiles was very easy. You just need a little patience measuring those odd little crook and crannies.

I had some leftover FLOR squares so I decided to use them for our front entry area. These tiles are very versatile and can easily fit in any space. The color I have selected is pretty neutral, but if you go to their site they have some very fun and bold hues that can brighten up any space.

I don't think I ever took a picture of our front hallway with our entry table. This is what you will see when you first enter our front home. Do you see the white branch-like structure, that holds all our keys. I posted about this branch stand once before, it's from Urban Outfitters. It can be used as a jewelry/necklace stand too.

Top Baby Girl Names

Does everyone remember an old post on Baby Girl Names for Nirmal & Nisha. Well, I sort of lost track of time and forgot to do a follow up on it and figured now is the time. The baby girl is do in late June and it's getting real close! I did get a good amount of feedback on baby girl names via blog commenters, emails and through conversation with friends and family.

And here are the TOP three names (in no particular order):

1. Emma
2. Sophia
3. Alina

Thank you everyone for posting and stay tuned on the winning baby girl name TBD on the day of her birth. We a very strong feeling on which one it is. :)

Go Marines!

We had a family outing this last Sunday at the Arlington Park Racetrack. We all went to go see the Marines' marching band and drill team perform. It was pretty cool to see them do their fancy steps in sync and gun tossing tricks.

I wish I had a picture of my fiance's face to show you guys when he was watching the performance. He was quite proud and giddy inside since he was a former Marines.

I do have a pic of the adorable and handsome Aryan though. He finally fits into his first "Cubby" baseball cap that I got him awhile back.

Welcome Baby Shreya

My fiance's cousin, Dhaval (a.k.a. "Duvall" according to me), and his wife, Pinky, have a new baby girl! She gave birth to baby Shreya (prounounced Shra-ya) this past Thursday morning. Not sure if you guys all remember, but we went to their baby shower back in early March.

Another baby that we get to play with! She's a cutie.

Wedding Sneak Peak: Table Decorations

Moving-in clutter out and wedding preparation clutter in.
Everyone is asking me what I am doing for centerpieces since I am doing them myself and not hiring a florist to do the work. Like I have mentioned before, I want to keep a bit of a mystery surrounding the wedding decor, but here are some snapshots to intrigue you.

My wedding color palette is pretty clean & simple and the best way to show off the vibrant yellow and blue hues is to set it against white. I was able to find these "Johnathan Adler" looking white ceramic vases in 2 different sizes at Michaels, and they were discounted 40% off! However, I had to hunt them all down at 5-6 different retail locations.

These are the Adler vases that I am referring to on the tan background. See the similarity; unlike Adler's, my vases are much, much cheaper. ;) After the wedding is all said and done, I plan on selling these on Ebay so someone else can use them for their special function.

{Above image is from johnathanadler.com}

Are you all wondering why is there a birdcage and blue birds on my dining table? Well, this all plays into the fun, rustic-nature inspired theme that are seen on my wedding invites. Just wait and see how they are utilized!

Our Master Boudoir

Our master bedroom is done! Well for now since we are out of the "home" spending fund. However, the key elements are in. Check out our HUGE king-size bed set against long, dark dramatic drapes that keeps all the daylight out for us to sleep in late.

Our bed and nightstand are from the lovely Room & Board furniture store. And our contemporary, white hi-gloss dressers are from CB2 along with the tall standing lamp. Bed linens, throw pillows and the floor mirror are from West Elm.

Our flat panel tv is finally mounted creating a very clean, sophisticated hotel feel which we just love!

Our home is pretty much as clean as it can get for now. All of our trash & boxes from moving in are out on the curb for the garbage man. And now I am starting to get all my decor stuff out for the wedding so our dining is a little cluttered and messy right now.

This Past Weekend – Moving In!

We have finally transitioned into our new place! And we have been sleeping here since this past Saturday, and it feels great. I love our new king-size bed and I just can't seem to get my self out of bed in time to go to the gym in the morning! A not so good thing considering I have a wedding in a month. :)

It's been over a week or two since I last posted pics of our place. Some new things have occurred since then – we have a new couch and fun throw pillows! And a new bed! The picture of our bed is not so good considering all the clothes in trash bags in the foreground.


As we moved all our clothes over from our old place, we discovered that my fiance has tons and tons of clothes! I knew he had a lot, but didn't realize it was this ridiculous. He has more clothes than me, and I am a girl. I tried suggesting donating some clothes, but he was very resistant to the idea. I think I got him to get rid of like 4 things.

The Ringbearer – Aryan Patel

Check out Ari's attire for the wedding! How cute is that. He's going to be sporting a pinstripe short with matching vest and cap. And we can't forget that yellow color. He is getting a custom yellow bow tie made to match our wedding colors. Nisha, his mom, did a great job finding this whole ensemble.

Marcin Harla - Our Wedding Photographer

I was browsing on our wedding photographer's site just to check out what he's doing lately these days since I am always curious and anticipating our wedding day that's just around the corner. Here are some great shots that I liked.

{Images from marcinharla.com}

30 DAYS to go!

Holy crap – we have exactly a month left until the big day. Still a bunch of little things to do. I am trying to get the wedding ball rolling again since we just moved into our place this past Saturday, and we are now finally enjoying our new pad!

I am going to try and post some new updated pics of our place tonight and get some more fun wedding posts going. Sorry for the delay; my life sort of got in the way. :)

Weekend Update: Organizing & Cleaning

That Sunday, after our long day trip to our Indiana wedding shower, it was back to getting our future home in order. We cleared out all of our stored boxes from the parents' home to our new home. The transition has finally begun.

For most of my Sunday, I spent it putting all the shower gifts away, organizing and cleaning. Almost forgot to mention, we have beds and a couch in our new place! As I was working hard cleaning, the boys were already hanging out in our living area. My fiance was enjoying his new couch and the big hi-definition 52" flat panel tv.

And Ari is already breaking in our floors with his toys.

Also, Ari has taken over our new king-size bed too. He is the first one to break it in with his afternoon nap along with Nirmal. :)

Another Weekend Update: Indy Wedding Shower

This past Saturday we went to our 2nd wedding shower, but this time it was mostly my side of the family. This event was hosted by my Aunt Clare and sister and Sharada.

It was certainly a special day for me since I was able to see family and friends that I have not seen in a long time. My 90 year old grandmom was even there. It was nice to mingle with everyone and catch up on each others' lives. Plus, we can't forget the great gifts from everyone to start our future home together.

Also, the food was superbly gourmet-like even though the spread was mostly appetizers. All kinds of great cheeses like Brie with dried fruit intermixed. My Aunt Susan made the best homemade cheesecake that beats any New York style cheesecake that I ever had.

And once again, my sister made another awesome drink for the party. At the last shower in Chicago, her red & white sangrias were a hit, but this time around, she made a special virgin drink to accommodate Nisha during her pregnancy. It was a "Rose" punch, and it had actual rose petals in it too. (Sorry, no picture of it.) And it tasted like and smelled like roses too!! It may sound odd, but everyone has to try it. Email me if you want the recipe!

Time to open gifts! Yay! :)

Closing speech from my Aunt Clare explaining the symbol of the Lotus flower.

Oh wait, it's not over yet. We have one more gift to open from all the Shoaffs. It was an original piece of art for our home.

I want to thank everyone who attended the Indy Wedding Shower and for the very thoughtful gifts. Looking forward to seeing everyone on our big day which is literally around the corner! And thank you Aunt Clare for hosting the event at your lovely home.