From our tiny family to yours...

Winter Festival of Lights 2010

My most favorite time of the year in Tallahassee is when we have the Winter Festival of Lights. It has become something of a tradition for Sonny and I. We go, we walk around, we eat and then we hang out for the parade. It's so much fun!


This year we had a bunch of firsts: our first festival of lights as a married couple, the first time I did the Jingle Bell Run and the first time we couldn't stay for the entire parade (Sonny had to study.)

Enjoy the pictures!

R.I.P. O' Christmas Tree

Since my husband is at clinicals tonight, I decided to finish the Christmas tree. He had warned me on Saturday that one of the legs on the stand had broken and to be careful... and I thought I was. Clearly I was mistaken. I heard a crack after I put the lights on it and then I quickly caught it before it smashed into the blinds.

This makes me sad because this will be the first time since I can remember that I won't have a Christmas tree to come home to/ look forward to/ lighting/decorating.

Tis NOT the season to go out and buy a new tree, so there we are. A holiday season treeless :(

R.I.P. O' Christmas Tree.

What are you thankful for?

It seems like just yesterday I was planning for my October wedding and here we are today cleaning for Thanksgiving. Mom and dad will arrive on Thursday and will stay until Sunday. The plan is to feast on Thanksgiving, shop on Friday and maybe head to Downtown Get Down, watch the FSU vs. UF football game on Saturday and then clean up after everyone leaves on Sunday. Jacky and some other from Miami are heading up and it'll be nice to see them again!

Thanksgiving is a lovely time because not only is there fabulous food, but it's a wonderful opportunity to sit and reflect on all of the things you are thankful for.

A couple of things that I am thankful for:

• Good health, roofs over our heads and food in our stomachs;
  
• A wonderful family who is always there and always willing to do anything;
• Fantastic friends who are like family;
• A loving husband who puts up with me and goes out of his way to make sure that I am always happy and taken care of;
• Having a job - in this economy I am VERY grateful for this;
• The kindness and generosity of people world wide;
• Our soldiers who help maintain our freedoms;
• The opportunities that surround me;
  
• My mom- as I get older I learn more and more just how thankful I should be for her. Lessons I never quite understood as a younger child are now starting to make sense and I find myself saying things she says and doing things for the reason she did them. Most people cringe when they think that they are becoming their mothers... well me, I'm lucky because I don't mind becoming my mother (I'd just smile more for photos!)

What are you thankful for?

Officially a wife!

Just a sneak peak of some photos from the wedding. Thanks to everyone who was able to make the trip down. We had loads of fun! More pictures later this month from the photographer.

A super big thanks to: Heather, Dave and Rowena, Jacky, Kershni, Octavia, Zach, Danielle, Mom and Dad, Aunty Sav, Aunty Eileen, Div, Jonathan, Raj, Jacques, Grandma, and uncle Cyril.
(If I left someone out, I'm sorry, you can call me out on it!) Thanks for making our wedding lovelier than I could have imagined.

I am now Sarishni Poonen Patel! Thanks to my now husband, Sonny, for bearing through the months of planning and being gracious. It was stressful at times, but it was always fun. If it weren't for my parents, Nan and Harold, none of this would have been possible. Thanks for everything you both do and thanks to my entire family (this includes all of our family friends) for welcoming Sonny into our dysfunction with open arms.

Miami Bridal Shower

Here are just a few fun pics from my Miami shower. Thanks to all the ladies that came out to celebrate and an even bigger thanks to those who made it possible.

Cake Topper

Cake Toppers...I never realized how many options and how creative you can get with them. The ones I fell in love with were RIDICULOUSLY expensive. I couldn't justify us spending over $150 on a piece for the wedding that won't ever be used again.

While I would have loved something from Swarovski, I had to choose something that wasn't so overpriced, but that I loved as well. Something that I always liked, was a simple initial topper. But all the ones that I have found were just a bit plain. So I decided to jazz it up. See below and tell me what you think!

Bouquets

So I have been a bit delayed in picking flowers for my bouquet so I figured the best thing would be to copy one I like. Exhibit A: PS- I really like the first one. Thoughts?

Photos

Ever since becoming engaged my most favorite activity has been looking up wedding photos- my biggest regret has been not saving the images. So in the past three days I have been trying to gather some images I like so taht I can share them with my fabulous wedding photographer Brittany Weaver.

If you have any- pass them along: sarishni_poonen@yahoo.com

It's so soon!

At work this week a couple have people have mentioned to me that my wedding is in a month (technically a couple days more than a month) and I wasn't really concerned about this. It wasn't until I told my co-worker that Sonny and I were going to get our license on the 21st that she said, oh so next Tuesday... at that moment I realized just how soon the wedding actually is! Agh! I have so much to do still.

Yesterday I headed up to Thomasville, GA to pick up my dress with my friend Margie. We grabbed wine and tapas afterward and it was really nice to sit outside and enjoy the pleasantries of Thomaville- wish we had things like that in Tallahassee, but I guess if we did many people would flock to it and it would lose it's appeal.

So I have my dress, and the new shoes I ordered. I ordered some gold ones- the Michael Kors- the burgundy ones- were a bit too tall. These seem perfect.

Today I am going to wrap up as many things as possible and leave the rest for Tuesday. I've decided to take a personal day to finish up everything.- whew!

RSVP's are coming in steadily and that's really good.... yep- it's almost here!!!

Surprises

I just got back from my bachelorette weekend, but this post is not about that (that update deserves it's own post.)

Sonny and I have been pleasantly surprised with how quickly RSVP's have been coming in and we are glad to see that so many people are going to be able to make it.

We also received our wishing tree tags two weeks earlier than expected and they also look fabulous! Not only did our tags come in, but so did our address labels. I must say that when I first ordered them it felt a little bit weird, and exciting at the same time...this was the first thing written that said "Sonny and Sarishni Patel."

But the best surprise has been finding the fabric for our wedding aisle runner. Instead of going with a traditional white or ivory runner, we ventured to Jo-Ann Fabrics and discovered this sari material that works perfectly. Now I just have to get someone to stitch each end together so it doesn't fray.

Bridal Hair

This is what I'm thinking...

My Wishing Tree

This weekend has been incredibly productive. I've finalized all of the schedules for the wedding, secured altar decorations (thanks to my mom and sister), put together all of the invitations, and I completed my wishing tree.

It didn't take a very long time to prune my manzanitas, then I coated them twice with matte gold spray, I secured them into the vase with the moss and natural stones, and I used my mom's old chandelier crystals to accent it. Thank goodness she kept them! It just adds a sense of "chic."

I can't wait to see what this looks like once people start hanging their well wishes on it at the wedding! I still haven't decided on the wishing tags, and everyone likes them both... but I think I may be leaning towards the tag with the one big "S".

What do you think of my tree!?

Wishing Tree

When I first began researching wedding stuff I came across the idea of a wishing tree. I immediately decided that instead of a guest book I wanted a wishing tree. It's different and there are so many possibilities to display it after the wedding! Below are a couple of examples of wishing trees.

Now, I don't know how my wishing tree will turn out exactly, but I think I have found a design for the tags. It took some work, but I like what I created- thoughts?

The point of the wishing tree is for your guests to leave well wishes- what they would traditionally do in a guest book. The plan is for guests to leave their well wishes on the back of the tags. I thought it was a cute idea!