PUFF! The Magic New Year!

One of my favorite holidays has come to be Chinese New Year. There are multiple reasons. My favorite, beloved professor in college had quite a passion for the holiday and made sure all of us in the communication department acknowledged the holiday. Her excitement over what we saw as an obscure holiday made us love her all the more.

Another reason is two fold. My group of friends began a Chinese New Year's get together tradition a couple of years ago. Most of us are Kentucky-based but our newly married friends near Columbus, OH host the annual celebration. The road trip to their house in the middle of the Buckeye countryside always feels like a mini-retreat. It was on this first Chinese New Year celebration that sparks flew for my husband and I. (There's a reason we've dubbed their house "The Love Shack"...)

This year's celebration was anything but a let down, despite my brothers and hubster having a conflicting event. Our feast was unbelievable and props go to our hostess for planning and prepping the kitchen with all of the necessary supplies! 

The Chinese New Year Menu:

Appetizer
Fried Shrimp Wontons

Spring Rolls

Soup

Miso soup

Main Course

Shanghai Vegetable Fried Rice

Ginger Broccoli

Steamed or Baked Sichuan Duck

Dessert

Chocolate Dragon Cupcake Cake

Almost all of the supplies used for dinner... I believe the spring rolls are missing...
Not to mention the 3 ducks Sara had pre-seasoned for us,
as well as the shrimp stuffing for the wontons she'd prepared.

She checked out a recipe book from the library
and had several authentic Chinese dishes picked out for our feast.

Everyone helped out in the meal prep,
making the 3 1/2 hours in the kitchen extra enjoyable!

We had to stir fry in portions because of the amount we were fixing
in order to feed 12 hungry bellies!

Our Chinese buffet, ready for us to dig in!

Don't forget dessert!! The year of the dragon!

A successful dinner is bound to leave a messy stove top!

The whole gang minus taken by our hostess who took the picture.

My Wedding on a Budget: 9 Days to Go!

SINGLE DIGITS!!!
And I can finally check the 10 day forecast and what's it say....
Aaahhh...so far so good! Let's just hope, hope, hope it stays that way!

It's hard for me to believe we're really so close! There are so many little things to tie up that I feel like I could work non-stop weddingness these last 9 days! I finished my thanks yous tonight and put together my bridesmaids gifts so I can bring them on Saturday. We had dinner with Jerusha and Clay and she was practicing on lemon cupcakes. (baking, icing, seeing how long they'll stay fresh...) I still have quite a few things I want to get done prior to leaving for the bachelorette party on Saturday...!

...Seriously, though... I feel like that weather forecast is too good to be true... It's kind of scaring me!

My Wedding on a Budget: 31 Days to Go!

Special Deliveriessss!
I think I've gotten in just about everything I've ordered now. The second round of cupcake papers came in. Yesterday Holly had my shoes for me. The bridal party jewelry came in while I was away so Jon had that box waiting for me when I arrived home. The room I've been storing stuff in is beginning to have quite the pile of weddingness! Shoes, bags, candles, flip flops, makeup, jewelry, flowers...and on and on!

I talked with both Kara today more about cake to-dos. We were going to taste-test yesterday but I forgot to bring the ribbons for her to decorate with so we can square that away, so we've postponed until next week. She IS going to do one of the cupcake batches, which takes some off of Jerusha's plate, which is a good thing considering how much she's taken on for me! So Kara will do funfetti, Jerusha will do lemon and Michelle will do German chocolate and caramel apple. With the chocolate and caramel icings pretty much being stuck with the brown/tan colors they are, I am thinking I'll do funfetti in purple and lemon in green...and maybe, just maybe, I can still get Jon to help me construct a wood/log piece to place the cake itself on to tie in the browns of the icing. Karen Schafer also has some cupcake stands I'll be able to use from her.

My Wedding on a Budget: 67 Days to go!

I'm taking it pretty easy tonight. I needed that. I've been looking on Etsy for cupcake papers to use. I figure I'll go with green and purple (imagine that) and maybe the patterns like in this picture so we can do each flavor with a different pattern. I'm going to look on some more general bulk sale sites to see if Etsy is the best route or not. These run about $16 for 225 papers.

Holly also introduced me to a site I may look at with Jon for honeymoon options. It's BookIt.com. It seems to be a great place to do last minute trips and get them cheap. My guess is it's resorts and cruises with extra space and when it's so close to that date being passed they'd rather sell it at a cheap rate than make no money at all. I really want Jon to just pick a honeymoon so we can have that decision off our plate!