My wedding venue: Pravda Studios

I've been so excited to do this post! Here it is: my weddinve venue, Pravda Studios on Capitol Hill here in Seattle.


I wanted a really huge, unique and dramatic space and this fit the bill perfectly. It's a 5,000 sq. ft. NYC loft-style studio with 14 foot ceilings and natural hardwood floors windows everywhere that gives it that "urban-chic" feeling (and they have air-conditioning, of course!). I really wanted the wedding here in Seattle since about 90% of the people who will be coming live here in the city and I LOVE my city, and of course wanted to be married in the heart of it.



They don't just do weddings though, they actually are a film/photography studio. Neiman Marcus and Zac Posen recently did a runway show here and Francis Ford Coppola a held a private party here too (so perfect for my Italian family!)






They have five caterers I can choose from (all look delicious) and the wedding coordinator I met with there, Callie, was fabulous. I'm excited to work with her.


And the reason I chose to do this post today - it is exactly a year from my wedding date, July 31, 2010! My friend Deanna (who was married July 30, 2005, so we'll have the same "wedding weekend") wrote me a facebook note saying happy -1 anniversary!



Feel free to post any comments or creative ideas you have for the space! It's a totally open plan so I choose exactly how I want it set up.

And on that note, have a wonderful weekend! Nick and I will be out on the water all weekend to celebrate Seafair here in Seattle and watch the Blue Angels! Love them!

images: Pravda Studios

Tyler and Christine's wedding

On Saturday Nick and I went to the wedding of our good friends Tyler and Christine. Tyler and Nick were in the same fraternity, and Christine and I became instant friends once we met.

She is three years younger than me and I see her as somewhat of my little sister. I absolutely adore her more than I could put into words, she is stunningly beautiful and such a genuinely kind person that seriously would not hurt a fly.

Tyler is a fantastic, hilarious and hard working guy that has been a wonderful friend to Nick over the years and I couldn't be more happy for them. And best of all, they only live about 5 minutes from us!!!

The wedding was held at a lovely spot called Lord Hill Farms in Snohomish, WA. About 45 minutes from Seattle. Everything was so beautiful (as I knew it would be, we had lots of fun times on The Knot together) and she did a wonderful job planning everything



Here are some pictures of the outdoor ceremony. We were so lucky, about 5 minutes after we went inside for the reception, it started pouring!

Love this picture of Sam, Michael and Matt

Took lots of pictures with friends...

Me and Jackie before heading out to the wedding

Nicole, me and Jackie

We are next!!

And of course some pictures of the wonderful couple...

they are so happy!

The guys did a wonderful job of decorating Tyler's truck for the sendoff...




And some more pictures of her beautiful dress (but seriously, she would have looked good in a white potatoe sack)...

Love the back of it too

And of course Christine and I...


All the boys sang one of their fraternity songs to Christine. A little off key, but they still did pretty good...




And party time...

The Jacksons

Nolan, Michael and Michael dancing the night away

deep in conversation, probably talking about finance or the stock market
(or their wonderful wife, fiancee and girlfriend)

Christine showing Nolan and CK her moves

rocking out to their fave AC/DC song they used to play in the fraternity house

And then they were off! Congrats you guys, we love you both so much and had a wonderful time celebrating!

Hot, hot, hot in Seattle

Seattle may hit an all time record tempture today: 101! Thank goodness for iced tea, air conditioning at work, and a gelato shop across the street!

image: KING-TV

Weekend update

We had a hot weekend here in Seattle and I loved every minute of it! Unfortunately I started off the weekend under the weather with a cold and horrible sinus headaches, but luckily rest and some Tylenol cold did the trick and I was feeling better by the highlight of the weekend: Tyler and Christine's wedding on Saturday!

me and the beautiful bride

I can't wait to post more of the pictures (it will take me a while to sort through them all), we had such a wonderful time celebrating with all our friends and I am so happy for them.

It was also an exciting weekend for two other people, my friend Courtney's older sister Kristen also got married and my cousin Bill graduated from nursing school from John Hopkins University. I'm happy there were so many exciting things going on this weekend, and I only wish I would have been able to be in three places (and two different coasts) at once!

thank goodness for technology, my dad sent me this picture of
Bill's graduation from his iphone so it was like I was there

Sunday was another beautiful day so Isaac, Meghan, Brynn and I spend the day at the Country Club relaxing, catching up over a delicious lunch and cooling off in the pool. I also finished the Omnivore's Dilemma (book review coming up this week) and started The Outliers (love it so far)!

view from my lounge chair at the Country Club, overlooking the lake and pool. Perfect Sunday!

Bunco in the park

Since our Seattle weather has been absolutely beautiful, we decided to do our July Bunco game at Volunteer Park on Capitol Hill. Meghan and Alicia hosted, with some yummy Italian food and we played on blankets under the park.

bunco blankets

Meghan and me

me and Brynn

Brynn and Alicia

Michael and me

Megan, Megan and Theanne

Meghan and Isaac

For dessert, Meghan and Brynn make the mini burger cupcakes I had on my blog a few weeks ago! They turned out so well and they said it really wasn't that hard to make, it just took a while to assemble. I love them!

sugar cookie "fries" and cupcake "sliders"

I of course didn't win a prize (still have never won anything, even the loser prize)! One of the best prizes of the night though, went to Rory who got 2nd place: a Snuggie! We had a pretty good photo shoot with the Snuggie and everyone in the park was probably wondering what we were doing!

Rory transformed from 5' 2'' to about 11 feet.....

...with the help of Meghan

Katy and I are hosting for August! Maybe we'll do it outside again.