Come Fly with Me

No, I am not referring to Frank Sinatra's track or album, or the 1963 movie, or the 2010 TV Series. I am referring to our Wedding Suite Invitation by PostScript Brooklyn. After going back and forth with the proofs for over two months (I am a perfectionist and the pickiest person alive), we finally approved them and they are ready for the printer :)) I can not wait to send them out. I would post pictures, but I want them to be a surprise to my guests. I promise I will post pictures once my guests receive them :) 


I worked with Marcella, and she is amazing and very patient. I guess she had to be having to work with someone like me, who is so detail oriented. For our invitations, unlike the SVTs, we decided to have them in Italian as well. This made the task more complicated. I had chosen a design that would match  that of the SVTs ;) After months and months of internet browsing I came across the PostScript Brooklyn website. Luckily for me they had a design with airplanes (that is all I will say for now :D). It is simple yet classy. I loved it, but the price tag it came with was above the budget I had set to spend on them. You see, I wanted the invitations to be printed using the  letterpress technique, two-color printing, nice heavy paper and it had to come with an RSVP card and a reception card.  I discussed it with Mr.C and, while he acknowledged that the design was unique and it would match our theme, he also pointed out that it was too much to spend on "a piece of paper" that would most likely be tossed away. I had to agree with him on that. So I went back to searching an alternative but I didn't find anything I liked as much as the Come Fly with Me.  After two weeks of  fruitless search I decided to give PostScript Brooklyn a call. I am glad I did, because we were able to find me a package that cut the costs by half. Still more expensive than the average invitation price out there but more doable. I had to give up the letterpress technique and switch to digital printing. That by itself made a big difference. The invitations still look cute and they do not come with a hefty price :-D  Once we sent the down-payment, Marcella contacted me and explained to me the process. I had control over pretty much everything (you can guess how happy I was :)))). So I chose the font format and size, the colors, and the wording. I also made few changes to the design  to make it more US. This was the easiest part.Choosing the invitation wording was a pain, not so much the English though. Translating our beloved invitation from English to Italian proved to be tougher than I imagined. We had to pay attention to every little thing, for instance # had to be converted to N°, the date 09-07-2012 had to be converted to 07-09-2012, ETA/EDA had to be completely removed as there is no equivalent of that in Italian. The hardest of all was the RSVP card. Italians do not include an extra card for the RSVP with their invitations. Usually there is a little note at the end of the invitation where guests are kindly asked to reply within a certain date. There are no instructions as to how. Mr.C and my MIL told me that guests usually tell you if their coming or not over the phone. If they don't, then you start calling them. Hmm that would be a tad complicated seeing how we live on the other side of the Atlantic and there is 6 hrs difference to be taken in account, not to mention the costs of international phone calls. I told them both that we would send the RSVP cards to our Italian guests as well and that they would have to mail it back to us with their response. I was told on several occasions that that would not happen, but I am keeping my fingers crossed that they will mail their responses. To make things easier I had my MIL mail me post stamps from Italy so that I can include them with the RSVP cards and envelopes. Aren't they adorable? :))

Post Stamps

 Now there is no excuse :-D 

The Search for the Perfect Shoe

 

As you all know by now, I love shoes, any kind of shoes from high heels to flats. When it came to wedding shoes I had no idea what I wanted to wear. I knew I wanted a comfortable pair of moderate heel shoes so that I would not kill my legs while going up 126 stairs to reach the entrance of the church. And that is without resting in between stairs, otherwise it brings you bad luck. So I started my search on the internet for the perfect pair of shoes. I was initially drawn to this beautiful pair of Pour La Victoria  Stella that I had seen in Martha Stewart Wedding Magazine last year. They encompassed everything I was looking for in a shoe. A comfy, platform heel in ivory satin with pale blue soles that spell "I DO" in rhinestones - just perfect. I remember doing a quick search back then and saw that Zappos sold them. I could have bought them but I didn't. It was too soon anyways and I hadn't started planning the wedding yet.

Come January, I pulled out the page of the magazine I had saved aside, and searched for them in the internet. To my disappointment they were no where to be found. Sold out EVERYWHERE. I couldn't even find them on Ebay. I spent a month searching for them before reluctantly giving up.

I initially focused on white or ivory bridal shoes. I went from lace, to satin, to tulle bows but none were as cute as the Stella ones. I had almost given up on finding the perfect shoe when I stumbled on these:

Clarice by Kate Spade in Hot Pink

It was Love at first sight. I had to have them. Again my search proved to be fruitless. These shoes were sold out as well. I couldn't believe it. How was this possible? I asked Zappos to notify me when these shoes were available in my size. I didn't have high hopes  on ever finding them, so off I went searching for another pair...until one morning. I woke up to find an email from Zappos letting me know they were back in stock. I almost jumped from excitement. I checked and they did indeed have them in stock, 1 pair in my size. I added them in my cart and submitted my order only to receive a message of error:"We are sorry but the shoes you have chosen are not available in this size and color anymore". NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO this was not happening. I went back to check when the email was sent. It was at 4:30 am ET. I guess I was late, someone else must have bought them before me. What a pity! But I did not give up. For the next 10 days I put the alarm at 4:15am ET and regularly checked my email, until one Saturday morning the most anticipated email from Zappos arrived. They were back in stock and I wasn't about to let them go this time. In record time I placed them in my cart and submitted my order. It took me 48seconds to complete it and Behold the transaction went through and these beauties were mine :)))) I could hardly believe it. Skeptical as I am, I held off on celebrating until their arrival. I have overnight shipping with Zappos, but because of the weekend they did not arrive until Monday afternoon. When UPS delivered the Zappos box, appropriately covered in smiles, I couldn't hold off the excitement. It was like Christmas morning. I took them out of the box, tried them on and loved them even more. Waking up at 4 am every morning had been worth it. I now had the shoes I wanted and they were absolutely stunning :)))  

CHANEL N°5 and Memories of a Time Long Gone 

As it is the case with shoes and bags, I have over the years developed what you would loosely call a perfume addiction.  Now from all the things I am addicted to, this is the only one that Mr.C approves of (well, to be precise, wine tasting is another addiction we seem to share). After all it means that I am always smelling good  :-D and he is big on perfumes too. Now, in my culture giving your girlfriend or fiance a perfume as a present is a bad omen (sign of a break up in the horizon). While I am not superstitious by nature (after all I am a pseudo engineer too), I made it clear right from the start that we were not allowed, under any circumstances, to exchange perfumes, ever in our life ;). I was not about to take chances this time. But  he would have a say on the kind of perfumes I intended on purchasing. You see, this guy has a fine nose, and I do not mean that just esthetically.  

One of the things I remember from the first time we met was his perfume. I can still smell it even today (well he still wears the same one as per request by Moi ;) It is Crave by Calvin Klein; such an appropriate name since I always "crave" him when he is wearing this. There is something about the way this perfume settles on his skin that makes him irresistible and brings back memories of my study abroad in Bologna and our time spent together. And I have made it clear that this is the perfume I want him to wear on our wedding day :)

Now when it comes to me, I wasn't sure whether I wanted to go with any of the never ending stash of perfume bottles already sitting on my vanity desk, or with something completely new. I hadn't made up my mind (those perfume bottles can be quite expensive), and there was no rush since there's plenty of time until September, and there are more important things that require my attention right now, like getting those Invitations finalized for a start ;) But as destiny wants it (I can almost feel the puppy strings of a higher force at work in here :-D), I stumbled on the Chanel counter at Nordstrom a couple weeks ago. I was on my way out of the store, after an unsuccessful search for a bridal bracelet that would fit my tiny wrist, and walked by Chanel. I had almost conquered the need to stop and sniff their awesome fragrances, when all of a sudden, as in a dream, I turned around and walked straight to the counter. It was as if a magnetic force wash pulling me towards the bottles and I couldn't fight it. My body was not mine to control. The lady at the counter, nicely asked me if I needed help. And before I knew it, here I was asking her if she had any recommendation for a wedding day perfume. The voice in my head kept telling me to stay away from Chanel as their perfumes are too expensive and I already have more than 50 perfumes to choose from. The devil in my head responded:"Relax, you don't have to buy it. Just take a sniff. It won't hurt". And guess who I listened too ;) She had me  try first Chanel Chance, and I must say it was amazing and light, it kind of reminded me of Dolce Gabbana Light Blue, which is one of my favorites together with Donna Kara Delicious.  I knew right away that Mr.C would love this one. Then she had my try Chanel N°5 and a swirl of childhood memories came rushing back in.  

My first memories of a flagrance are  associated with these LUX soaps that my mother used to keep in her drawers with her clothes. I loved that smell and I had looked all over the places to find a perfume that smelled just like Lux. Well, I guess I hadn't looked at Chanel, because I must tell you Chanel N°5 smells exactly like these soaps, which are so hard to find nowadays. The lady at the counter (she is Korean), knew exactly what I meant when I mentioned the Lux soap. She told me they used to be big in her country as well :))) This was my first time in America where someone knew about Lux soaps. I was sold right there and then. I knew this was The One. But I also liked the Chance. Hmmm decisions, decisions...The nice lady pointed out that I would also  need a perfume for my Honeymoon and Chance was perfect for that. "Well, she is right."- I thought but I couldn't bring myself to drop $200 in perfumes. But those  retail people can be quite persuasive ;). She mentioned that they were going to have a special event for Mother's Day. If I spent more than $150, I could have my bottle engraved and a shiny pocket mirror to go with it.  Tempting, very tempting. After debating it for a few minutes I decided to go for it. I felt a bit guilty on spending so much money on perfumes, but I justified it by telling myself that I hadn't bought perfumes in over a year.  And my first bottle of Chanel N°5 would also be engraved with our names and the date of our special day. Yayyyyy. So here it is, pictures of my favorite perfume in the world. Now I can't wait to wear it :)))) and I am sure my mom and grandma will love it!!

My personal mirror also engraved :)

To SVT or not to SVT, the Clash of three Cultures.

When I started seriously thinking  about my wedding, I knew right from the start that I wanted to send out the Save the Dates. After all, isn't that what the wedding etiquette requires for a Destination Wedding? Giving your guests enough time to save some money and plan their vacation accordingly?

It made perfect sense to me, especially with the wedding  taking place so far away from home, across the Atlantic, in a foreign country (well for half of us at least).

So I sat down one day to discuss ideas with Mr. C. I remember we were at Starbucks sipping on our Mochas when I first mentioned the SVTs to him. I went on and on about the design I had in mind and how great it would come out until I looked up at him and realized the poor thing had no idea whatsoever as to what I was talking about. He looked so confused that I couldn't help laughing. I then took a few minutes to explain to him what the SVTs were and why they were important. Now Mr.C is a very practical, get to the point kind of guy (I guess it is to be expected from an engineer:D) so his first reaction was: "This is pointless. We have already announced  to everyone that we are getting married in September. Plus we will be sending out the invitations a couple months before the wedding. Why send them twice?" You see in his head SVTs = Invitations. So I took a deep breath and started again, slowly, trying to explain to him that the SVT would make it official and that the guests flying overseas will have enough time to prepare and buy their tickets. He didn't seem so convinced. He insisted that guests would get confused with the double invitations because such things are not custom in Italy. While that was probably true I still insisted that the SVTs were important so that our dear guests in Italy could also arrange to take the day off. Did I mention, our wedding is on a Friday the 7th. We had initially planned to wed on Saturday the 8th but so had the cardinal's niece and she does get some special treatment I guess.

So Mr. C. finally gave me the OK (he loves me so much he can never say no to me :D) so off I went working on them for a month or so. And here is my masterpiece.

Front side of the postcard featuring our church

The back of the postcard

I was very satisfied and ready to send them out. I printed a proof and showed it to my mother and my grandma. I found myself explaining again the meaning of the SVTs, but while my mom and grandma seemed to have grasped the necessity of these postcards fairly easy, they could not understand why I hadn't translated them in Albanian. So they went on and on as to how important it was not to loose touch with your language and culture, etc. etc..To me translating these seemed pointless. All our guests speak/understand some English. Why mess with a masterpiece? Did any of you translate the SVTs or Invitations in another language or did you just use English as the common ground?

A Little Bit About Moi

Saranda at night time

I was born and raised in Saranda, a small town in the South of Albania. For those of you who have never heard of it, Saranda is one of the main touristic attractions in the Albanian riviera. It is also known as the Pearl of Albania, or the city of the Honeymooners, because it used to be the number one honeymoon choice among Albanians before the fall of Communism, when we were not allowed to travel outside our country.

It is a lovely city and I have very fond memories of my childhood years spend in there. I still visit it occasionally, when time and money permits it. Now I want to mention a small historic fact regarding my hometown. It will sound insignificant and totally not related for the moment, but I promise you it will start to make sense soon. (Hint: Title of my Blog ;))

During the World War II, Albania was occupied by the Italians. Benito Mussolini fell in love with this little hidden jewel and changed the name to Porto Edda in honor of his eldest daughter. After the Deceleration of Independence, the city switched back to his old name Saranda.

 

In September of 1999 me and my family immigrated to the States (I will write more about this another time). My mom won the American Green Card Lottery, and my parents decided it was time to leave our dear homeland behind in the hopes of a better future for all of us. You see, the years following the fall of Communism were hard on Albania, both economically and socially. Things got worse in 1996, when the Ponzi schemes operating in Albania failed and a lot of people lost their lifetime savings. The 1997 was one of the worst years of my time in Albania. The economic crisis following the failure of the Ponzi schemes culminated in an armed rebellion. Schools closed for over a month and state of emergency was declared. We couldn't leave the house for fear of being accidentally shot. It was during these exasperated times that I pleaded to my parents to find a better home for us. And so my mom tried her luck with the Green Card Lottery. She won it the first time around, and against all odds we found ourselves moving to the States :)

Now I want to go back in time a little bit and mention a few facts that are important. My parents are both chemical engineers. They went to school together, which is where they met. When I was little, my dad also did his masters in chemical engineering. During that time he also took Italian courses at the university. He started teaching me Italian when I was about 6 years old, but gave up after a month when he found himself struggling to explain me the grammar. Fast-forward few years in the future, once we were allowed to watch foreign channels (during communism it was forbidden), I started watching cartoons in Italian and before I even knew it I could understand and speak Italian better than my dad. He was amazed and confused at how I could do that, seeing that I never studied grammar, but I used to tell him that I learned the language the baby's way. Full immersion :)))

Before my mom won the Green Card Lottery, my dad, who at the time was working for an Italian company, had planned on sending me and my sister to the University of Bologna, Italy. So when I came to the States and started college I learned about the study abroad opportunity. I remember the first thing I did when I started Brown, was to stop by their International Office and collect as much info as I could about their Study Abroad Program in Bologna :) And so in September of 2003, after merely four years in the States, I was ready to face another major cross-Atlantic move, but this time all by myself. It is here in Bologna that I met my best friend and my future husband (This will need a completely new post :D).

And here I am now, after 9 years and two beautiful baby boys, planning an overseas wedding in Rome. Hence the title of my Blog: All Roads Lead to Rome. Which for me, this was literally the case :)))