This drink's on us!

Thanks to the help of your votes, Hive, we were able to narrow down our list of choices to our top 5 choices that we would serve for our signature cocktail tasting/birthday party.  We took the top 3 choices from the votes, and then I picked my favorite, and Mr. Ly picked his favorite.  The top three choices were: Poinsettia, Kir Royale, & French 75. I chose a Pimm's Royale - because I love Pimm's Cups, and I thought I would really like a Pimm's Royale.  Mr. Ly actually went from the comments section and chose Hive member mholden's suggestion, the Honey Badger (I think he just liked the name!).

After a delicious and fun dinner with many of my closest friends, family, and their significant others, we headed back to the Lyre residence where we had our champagne chilled, liquor bought, glasses all set up, we were ready to go.

Our drink supplies for the night (minus the champagne) 

Vintage style champagne glasses 

However, most of the guys would rather play Cards Against Humanity.

Inappropriate game play over champagne cocktails? C'mon guys! 

Not being swayed, I got to work mixing champagne cocktails.  First up was the Kir Royale which is 1/2 oz of Creme de Cassis and champagne.  It was a lovely red color, and tasted very sweet. 

I was able to pull some guys away for a quick tasting, but it was short lived. 

The general consensus was that this drink was very tasty, but very sweet.  No one didn't like it, so the Kir Royale was off to a good start.  

Next up was the French 75.  This is made up of 1.5 oz of dry gin, lemon juice, and a 1/2 tsp of powdered sugar, topped off with champagne.  

Not a favorite, but not terrible.  The last picture is our "not impressed" face - a la McKayla Maroney

As you can see, it wasn't a group favorite, and as our signature drink it didn't have the wide appeal that we would want for all of our guests.  I know you can't please everyone, but this didn't please enough at our party of 15, it probably wouldn't be a favorite at our party of 175.  I thought it was ok, but Mr. Ly (as you can see by his reaction) was not a fan. 

Our third drink was the Poinsettia.  Aptly named for the winter, and an easy drink of 1/2 oz of cranberry juice, 1/4 oz of triple sec, topped with champagne. 

Everyone tried this drink, but for some reason, we only have pictures of us drinking.  By this point, things were getting fuzzy... 

This was an immediate hit with the group, it was fruity and easy to drink, not too sweet.  At the time this was the group's favorite choice, and it should be noted that this was also the Hive's #1 pick.  

Then we moved on to our personal choices.  I chose to the make the Pimm's Royale first.  

The color was off putting, and the taste was not well received. 

This was the least favorite of the group.  I think we made only two glasses of this, and we probably had almost all of those glasses left before we dumped them.  No one besides me would drink a full glass of this, so there's no way we could have it at the wedding. Oh well. At least I have lots of Pimm's left over to make myself a Pimm's cup whenever I want!

Last we had the Honey Badger.  Everyone was looking forward to this drink, mostly due to the name, but also because this drink sounded delicious! 

Again, everyone tried it, but we didn't get a shot of anyone else drinking it! 

This drink is delicious, the honey syrup was so easy to make, and St. Germain is soooooo good. The general consensus is that this drink is good, really really good.  But more than one of these might be too much sweetness for our drink. I think it can be adjusted, less honey, more tasty goodness.  

After that we had chocolate Nutella cupcakes, with salted caramel frosting, and celebrated my latest spin around the sun. 

When we meet with our caterer to discuss our menu and drink selections, we'll see what options we have. We are torn between the Poinsettia and a (slightly less sweet)  Honey Badger, but we'd really be happy with either of these options.  

The rest of my birthday weekend was just amazing. Mr. Ly surprised me a with a trip to Brooklyn in a fabulous AirBnB apartment, complete with dinner at my favorite restaurant with my favorite Brooklyn (and NJ) friends. Mr. Ly managed to surprise me, finally(!!) and I had the best birthday weekend! 

Beautiful views of Brooklyn in our beautiful AirBnB apartment + great friends + mimosas on a porch on a beautiful sunny morning = happiest birthday girl, ever. 

So that was how I spent my last birthday as an unmarried lady! Anyone else do anything exciting for their last birthday as a single lady? 

Getting Better With Age

This past weekend was THE weekend - obviously not my wedding weekend - but my birthday.  That's right, Hive.  I am now the age I will be at my wedding. 32.  Before I share with you all the fun I had with my nearest and dearest selecting our signature drink, and revealing which one we picked, I thought I would talk about being an "older" bride and how I got here. To be fair, I don't feel old. I don't think I'm an old bride, but according to statistics, I'm well over the national average age for a first time marriage. I've never felt criticized for my age (which I think is something a lot of younger brides face more than older brides), and I think getting married at 32 is perfect - for me.  However, I do remember when I was much younger (20), my best friend and I were slightly horrified that her older sister was just getting married at 30, and we surely would be married by the time we were 30. Spoiler Alert: Both of us are over 30, and neither of us are married. Yet. I guess the joke's on us, huh?

Age is a super sensitive subject when it comes to getting married.  Because there is no magic age when it suddenly becomes acceptable to get married, it's different for everyone. There will always be someone who has something to say about your marriage choices - either you're too old (why aren't you married yet?), too young (don't you think you should wait awhile, what's the rush?), or question the validity of getting married all together (why get married, you already live together? What's the difference?).  I've learned to let criticisms like these roll off my back.  I have long since come to terms with my own struggles of age and marriage, and when and why it is right for me. 

 Some bees have written about being a young bride, and some older and wiser bees have posted about being an older bride, and I have to admit, I used to let my age stress me out.  I may have told Mr. Ly that I would prefer it if we were married before I turned 33 (purely for TTC reasons - not because I think that age is significant!).  When I was 20 - and scoffing at my friend's sister for getting married at 30 - I couldn't imagine that in ten years I wouldn't be married. And if I had wanted to just get married, I could have been married by the time I was 25.  I had two very serious relationships in my twenties that both were leading to marriage.  But when the thought of either of those previous boyfriends proposing to me made me momentarily break out in hives or bring on a panic attack, I knew it was time to bail.  I want to marry the right person for me, not just get married. This realization was a defining moment of my twenties.  It allowed me to put my age aside, and just trust that it would happen, when it happened.   

Dropping my life's plan was the smartest thing I ever did for myself.  Go to college, meet the man of my dreams, get engaged, get married, start a family.  This was my plan for my early twenties, and when my plan deviated - I definitely had those thoughts of "Oh my god, I'm never going to get married."  Pushing out those thoughts as often as possible, allowed me to have the most amazing adventures - live where I want, travel where I want, date who I want - just living my life instead of waiting for it to catch up with my plan.  At the ripe old age of 29, just months before my 30th birthday (where according to the original timeline - I should have been married with some kids under my belt already!), I finally met the person I want to spend the rest of my life, not because I just want to get married already, but because I want to be Mr. Ly's wife - forever.  

We joke that we'll never be the last couple on the dance floor during an anniversary dance, and it makes me really sad to think that we may not live to see our 60th wedding anniversary together like my grandparents did. If I had met Mr. Ly when I was 20 or not until I was 40, I would chose him to spend the rest of my days with, and regardless of how old we are on the day we say "I do," we will have a lifetime of love that will get better with age. 

I know I'm not alone in this, who else has struggled with age throughout their wedding plans? 

Madly in Love: E-Pics Part 2

So where I last left you, we had finished our Mad Men themed hotel pictures and were heading back to our room to change into our second look for the day. This was by far the best thing about having a room where we were taking pictures - no changing in public places for us - and it gave me the chance to completely revamp my look.

For the second look, I decided to wear my hair down, and I just retouched it a bit with a curling iron, put on some red lipstick (a much better choice than my first look which wore off almost instantly!), and we checked out of the hotel.  Our photographer was super patient throughout all of this - checking out was a bit of a fiasco - but finally we were ready for our shoot - part 2.

All photos by Mike Landis Photographer

One of my favorites from the day!

What's a photo shoot without the shoe shot? Mike was actually laying on the boards for this one! 

Another favorite! 

I have so much love for this picture, too! 

If you look closely, you can see my owl earrings! 

Once we finished shooting on the boardwalk, we walked down past the Chelsea to their annex hotel, which has this restaurant - modeled after a diner from the 1950s.  What a perfect place to continue our shoot. As luck would have it, it was relatively slow when we went in, there was no one seated at the counter, and they graciously allowed us to take some photos!  We did order a milkshake - because who doesn't love a prop that you can actually enjoy - but they didn't actually require us to buy anything to take pictures.  

The outside of the diner

While we were waiting for the milkshake, Mike told us to just talk and act natural.  I am constantly twirling my hair when I talk, and this is a very typical Lyre face. Usually Mr. Ly has said something ridiculous, and this is the face he gets:

Probably the most serious I looked all day! 

Once the milkshake arrived, we got to enjoy a tasty treat and get some really great shots!

In the diner, we also did a few of these forehead to forehead shots:

The following shot is what we thought was going to be our last one of us for the day... Mike told me it was OK to kiss Mr. Ly for real (I kept getting red lipstick ALL over him - so I had been faking it!):

But then Mr. Ly pulls out one more stop for our pictures.  He brought with him our mustache monocles, which he had purchased from Geek Chic at a video game conference (PAX East for all you gamers out there) this past April.  He has been known to just sneak these in every once in a while, when he thinks I'll least expect it.  A friend's wedding over the summer, his sister's derby party, and now our engagement pictures.

We were sitting (my feet hurt!), while Mike was photographing my ring, so we started posing with them. And once again, Mr. Ly gets the last photos in, that he wants.

We had so many great photos to choose from, I had a really hard timing selecting which ones to share - I can not imagine how difficult it will be to recap after the wedding!! Our photographer did an amazing job capturing the theme we wanted for the first part of the shoot, and then more casual ones of just us with a bit of a retro flair for the second part.  While I love the first half of the shoot, and put so much time into planning it - my favorite shots definitely came from the pictures of us, being us.  There's something to be said for just being yourself in your photos, and that really shines through here.

Would you ever consider doing a themed shoot? Did anyone else's fiance have specific shots they wanted?

Madly in Love: E-Pics Part 1

Finally!! I have e-pics to share with you.  As you may recall, we were going for a Mad Men themed photo shoot for our e-pics, and I really couldn't be happier with them.  We have so many to choose from, and the two different looks really are like two totally different shoots.  This one is definitely more Mad Men-esque, while the rest were more laid back, more traditional e-pics.

I was going for a Joan Halloway look - like this:

Christina Hendricks as Joan Holloway / Image via AMC

This is how it turned out:
(all images below by Mike Landis Photographer)

I'm pretty pleased with how the hair & makeup turned out, although I'm mad I didn't go for the long lasting lipstick, after just a few kissing photos - it was totally gone. I need to find a good one for the wedding.

We started the photo shoot in the hotel room.  As I mentioned before, we had gotten a great deal on a penthouse room at the Chelsea Hotel in Atlantic City, which would serve as the backdrop for most of our photos.

Our next stop was the lounge bar:

A cool wall:

(a better shot at the wall/divider)

The lobby:

This couch is SUPER purple, but I love how it looks in this photo.  The one without the filter - it's almost blinding!

 Even the hallway provided a great backdrop. Mr. Ly really wanted to get a "wall" shot.  To him this is quintessentially Mad Men. 

One thing that I learned doing a themed photo shoot - it never turns out 100% how you imagine it in your mind. Which I think is good to remember going into the wedding - it's never going to be exactly how I plan it to be, but as long as we're having fun - who cares?

Next up:  We change into our casual outfits (seen here!) and hit the boardwalk!

With these rings,

we will be wed!

Over the holiday weekend, Mr. Ly and I decided it would be a good time to get an idea of what we wanted for our wedding bands. We both had some ideas, but we wanted to see them in person to be sure. The halo of my engagement ring isn't raised, so if I wanted a ring to lay flush, I would have to get a curved band. I don't want a curved band, so I am embracing the gap.  Although right now I can't imagine not wanting to wear my engagement ring, but if there does come the time, I want to be able to wear my wedding ring by itself.

When Mr. Ly and I first went to look at engagement rings, my mom recommended a jeweler that one of her friend's sons used to buy his fiance's engagement ring.  Little did we know that this jeweler would become one of our favorite vendors to work with.  From the moment we met Tom, we felt welcomed like we had been customers there for years, not just a couple of kids looking for rings for the very first time. We were treated so well, and Tom was nothing but helpful, letting me try on and try to describe the ring of my dreams. I was so pleased when I found out Mr. Ly actually bought my engagement ring there, and there was no question in our mind that we would go back to Anthony's Jewelers when it was time to purchase our wedding bands.  I strongly recommend them to any South Jersey bees who may be looking for a piece of jewelry - no matter how big or small - just ask for Tom!

That's Tom, our new family jeweler (how cool is it to have a jeweler??)

Originally, the ring I thought I wanted was very similar to my e-ring, except the split shank, isn't split.  I can't find the actual image but it's something like this, except I wouldn't want diamonds all the way around:

Endless Love Eternity Band / Image via Ritani 

And, I still like this look, but the actual one I saw on a previous trip to the jeweler's wasn't in stock.  So, instead of letting Mr. Ly have all the fun, I kept looking at other options!  I found a new lovely, that I haven't been able to stop thinking about since:

Image via Anthony's Jewelers

I love everything about this ring - especially the details on the side.  It's a bit pricier than the original band I was looking at, but this is the ring I will wear forever.  I don't think a few hundred dollars should be the deciding factor.

Mr. Ly found that he liked something different than what he thought he wanted as well.  First and foremost, he definitely wants an alternative metal ring. Originally Mr. Ly was drawn towards dark metals like tungsten and titanium.  His brother, both his brother-in-laws, & most of our friends all have titanium or tungsten rings and are mostly dark in color. So, he originally thought he wanted that too.

Mr. Ly wearing a tungsten ring (and showing off his quirky tee - we haven't seen one of those in a while!)

 But he found that as much as he liked the dark ring, he wanted something... different. So he tried on a lighter metal.

Mr. Ly trying on a chrome cobalt ring with the tungsten ring

Much to his surprise, he found he liked the shinier, brighter metal. After this discovery, he did try on some white gold rings, and some pricier metals. I have no photographic evidence of this because my ring had just come back from being cleaned and I was way too distracted taking pictures of this, instead:

I'm easily distracted by my clean, shiny ring! 

Mr. Ly eventually decided that the chrome cobalt ring was his favorite, and we had made our decisions. Our shopping trip was successful, but we each found something different than we thought we wanted.  We haven't actually purchased them yet, but in a few weeks we're planning on going back to Anthony's to make it official!

Our rings! Don't the look nice together? 

Anyone else get some wedding related shopping done over the long holiday weekend? 

Breaking Etiquette

We are planning our wedding to be a very formal affair. We want all the formalities of a black tie event usually reserved for Saturday nights, only ours will be Sunday afternoon.  So, we are kind of breaking some etiquette rules here.

On our invitations, we have specified that our event will be Black Tie Optional.  Sunday afternoons don't usually come across to guests as formal, and we want our guests to be aware that our wedding is going to be the kind of event where they can break out their fancy clothes and dancing shoes, and we are inviting them dress their best.  Our bridal party ladies will be wearing long formal dresses and we want our guys to be just as sharp in tuxedos. 

However, upon reading up on etiquette, black tie traditionally means a tuxedo that is black or navy.  Despite being one of our wedding colors, Mr. Ly isn't exactly very fond of the color navy (that's how much he loves me!).  So that leaves us with black tuxedos, and I have this thing about black and navy that stems from something kind of dumb back in high school from my junior prom - it's kind of a long story. I know they look fine together, and it doesn't matter, but I would prefer that the guys wear something other than black.  But it was more important to me that the guys would be in tuxedos, if we couldn't find a suitable alternative - black tuxedos with gray vests would have won. But modern formal wear has come a long way. Enter: the gray tuxedo.  While it doesn't fit the etiquette criteria of "black tie optional," it does fit our colors.  

Men's Warehouse has these new gray tuxedos by Vera Wang:  

BLACK by Vera Wang, image via Men's Warehouse

This is exactly what I want for our wedding, maybe a tad darker. But this fit the bill.  We do like working with local vendors where we can, and try to avoid large chains.  If we couldn't find another option, we definitely would have gone this route, but we wanted to shop around locally to see what we could find. 

We began working with a local tuxedo company, and when I first told them that we were looking for either gray or navy, they showed us a very light gray tuxedo, and didn't have dark gray or navy available. We were told that the darker gray and navy had been around but were discontinued.  I was so disappointed, but I knew there was still the option of the Men's Warehouse Vera Wang gray tuxedo. The salesman we are working with, however, has been very amenable and has sought out more options for us than he originally thought possible.  

This is the first option he found for us, which was the one they had in the store, but was much too light. 

Grey Savoy Tuxedo / Image via Jim's Formal Wear

I didn't think this was the best option for our wedding.  I was very disappointed but willing to make concessions if need be. I let him know that I would prefer a darker color, and he went straight to work on finding us some options.  He sent us the following two options:

Midnight Blue Suit / Image via Jim's Formal Wear

Since Mr. Ly would rather not wear navy (he would if there wasn't a suitable gray option), we put this one aside.  Thankfully, we had just one more option.

Steel Grey Savoy Tuxedo / Image via Jim's Formal Wear

This is exactly the color and style we are looking for. We are planning on going will the matching full back vest, and a navy tie. 

Full Back Steel Grey Vest / Image via Jim's Formal Wear

I'm think this will tie together the look of the girls in their shades of blues and grays, and will still come across with the formality that we are planning on with our black tie wedding. 

Our tuxedo vendor has really shown us that he is dedicated to finding us the tuxedos to suit our needs (pun, intended), and we love the personal touch that comes with working a small company rather than a large chain.  We (hopefully) will end up with exactly what we want, and Mr. Ly and his men will be dressed to impress.  

So even though there may be not any actual black ties at our wedding, do you think these gray tuxes will be an appropriate substitution?