Vaca Recap

I hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving with those you love -
I know I did! Unfortunately, I had to be in the office this morning
and I'm wishing I was still in bed with the hubs and the pups, but
I keep telling myself it'll be over soon. ;)

So to beat the sleepiness and laziness that comes along with a
belly full of turkey, I am here to keep you entertained (at least
for a few minutes) with a slideshow of pictures from our first
anniversary trip!


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Have a fabulous weekend!
♥

ps; The first few images on the slideshow are videos, so ignore those! Hehe.

Happy day of Turks.

I wish all of my readers and their families a very happy, safe &
gluttonous Thanksgiving! Remember everything you are thankful for -
it is amazing all the things we take for granted.

Gobble gobble!
♥

Sexiest Man Alive

This year, the Sexiest Man Alive prize went to perhaps my
#1 fictional boyfriend: Hugh Jackman! How do you like that,
Clooney?

You may have a turdy movie coming out that will surely tank
in the box office, but at least you have your looks!!!

And of course, Origins, which is going to be flipping
ridiculous.

Back to life; back to reality

And we're back!!!!
Technically we got back on Sunday night, but things have
been pretty hectic since our return so I hadn't been able
to post until tonight.

We had such a great time on our cruise and thank everyone
that sent us all the happy anniversary wishes via email,
facebook and text messages. We are very lucky to be able
to share our love with so many amazing people!

I am going to try my best to put together all my photos and
videos from the trip and make a fun post during the holiday
weekend.

♥!

Bon Voyage!!!

Augi and I will be sailing the high seas for the next week so this blog
will be inactive until our return! I hope you all are having a great
weekend and have a fantastic week to come. We'll bring back a lot of
fabulous pictures and great videos - promise!

Who knows? Maybe I'll have a {vacation week} next! ;)

♥ you all!

{wedding week}: Pro Pictures!

And it's a wrap! Today marks the end of wedding week and I really hope you
all enjoyed it. It seems like you all did from the results on my latest poll
and that makes me immensely happy. I'm always worried this blog is boring and
that no one is reading, but seeing people actually voting (& positively at that!)
has definitely given me an ego boost in regards to my little space in the
blogosphere!

Anyways, back to my final wedding related post:
My wedding day was absolutely fantastic. I could not have asked for a better
day/night. I wish I could relive it over and over again. It was so full of love
and happiness, which in reality is all you need in life. I hope these pictures
reflect all the wonderful emotions we felt that day as well as the love that
Augi and I share with one another. It really is so special and I feel so lucky
to be married to my best friend and the most amazing man in my little universe.

This has been the most wonderful year and I cannot wait for all the rest to come!!!
We ship out Sunday morning to celebrate no longer being newlyweds (or are we still?)
on our Southern Caribbean cruise and will definitely return with stories, pictures,
and your basic regularly scheduled Meli-isms.

See you then!
♥


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.
*All photo credits go to Maloman Photographers.

{wedding week}: Rehearsal Dinner

I remember how surreal the day/night of my rehearsal dinner was. I
could not believe that my wedding was that weekend. All our family
and friends were in town, we were running around doing last minute
errands and I was trying my best not to freak out! Actually, I was
pretty proud of myself for being so mellow (something I am usually
not).

The weather was amazing - very cool, breezy and sunny. I couldn't
have asked for better weather for an outdoor wedding.


Being a ham.


Although I was trying my best to be a goofball during this practice
down the aisle, inside I could not believe it was happening after TWO
years of planning.

Quickly after rehearsal, we headed to my father-in-law's home, where
both my in-laws were hosting the dinner. When I walked in through the
door, I was blown away. I don't know how many times I just gasped and
thanked them over and over again. The decor was stunning, everyone
commented that we should get married right there because everything
looked amazing!


Gorgeous table set up's with photo votives of us through the years!


Another shot of the longer tables.


The lounge area - cool or what???


The flying V groom's cake I ordered for Augi - how awesome did it turn
out? It was the hit of the party!


My gorgeous bridesmaids!


My gorgeous hubby-to-be! ;)

{wedding week}: Details!

Well, I think it's pretty obvious that I tend to focus on the details when
planning something from my previous posts, so I decided to give my wedding
details their own personal wedding week post!

The hubs and I did a lot of DIY projects throughout the course of our
wedding planning and although it was very stressful and tiring, I wouldn't
have had it any other way! We were able to personalize our wedding in a way
that would have been impossible with store bought items.

So without further ado, here were my glorious details:


Both his&hers CD favors with our favorite love songs.


Our menu's that the hubs designed and we printed ourselves.


MR & MRS letters that I bought and painted from Michael's for our sweetheart
table.


Our placecards that we also designed and printed ourselves.


Our ceremony programs that again, we designed and printed.


Petal cones that I put together myself so we could get pretty pretty petals
slapped in our faces ;)


Quite possibly my favorite detail: our guitar sign-in. Since my hubs is a
musician and we are both huge music fans, we figured it would be fitting.
The best part is that this was a wedding gift his mother gave his father on
their wedding day. It was a perfect way to retire it.

{wedding week}: Bridal Shower

I really really enjoy throwing parties. If you know me personally,
this is something you cannot deny. I love being around people, I love
making them happy and I just really really enjoy social events (with
people I like, of course). However, "showers" always turn me off. I
am not the girly type that enjoys opening present over present in front
of a crowd "ooooing" and "ahhhing." And don't get me started on stupid
games. So when it came time to plan my bridal shower, I wanted something
different.

I know it is not very traditional for the bride to plan her own bridal
shower, but I did. And I'm so glad I did. I was in control and I loved
it! I decided to have it at my father-in-law's amazing Italian restaurant
and kept the guest list under 30 to make it more intimate. I worked very
hard on making the afternoon very special and unique mostly due to all my
little details to fit my flower theme.



Delicious menu choices :)



Personalized Jello injectors - a family tradition.



Flower box favors with yummy M&M's inside.



Flowered guava cupcakes that were oh-so-delish!



My gorgeous centerpieces!



A wish bowl set-up for guests to leave me their well wishes.



A scrapbook of Augi & I's relationship made by my sister.


A very un-cheesy game of Meli Trivia!

All photos courtesy of Studio By Carmen.

{wedding week}: Decor

I scoured through many magazines, Knot bio's and watched plenty of
wedding shows during my engagement just to get some sort of idea of
the look I wanted to achieve for my own big day.

We went through various color schemes before deciding on light pink
and chocolate brown as our palette for the wedding.



It wasn't long after that we decided on a "look" for our wedding. We
are both not very flashy people and really liked the whole Asian
minimalistic feel that I kept spotting around my wedding blogs. Plus
I loved the juxtaposition of an extremely modern wedding at a historical
ancient venue.

These were our inspiration photos:

{wedding week}: "The Look"

Every bride knows that the best part of planning a wedding is getting
to go shopping for your gorgeous gown and I was no exception! Probably
a month after I got engaged, I started shopping with my fabulous
girlfriends. I knew I was ridiculous, but I didn't care. I love shopping,
I love fashion, so this was a dream come true. I tried on so many
ridiculously beautiful gowns (and ridiculously horrible ones) before
choosing "the one" at Chic Parisien on Miracle Mile, a very
popular wedding dress destination.

As I was walking around the store, the saleswoman kept grabbing all these
dresses she thought fit "my style," but as I passed by another bride
looking at herself in the mirror, I couldn't tear my eyes away from her
beautiful gown.
"I want to try on that one."

And the rest as they say, was history.



She was Monique Lhuillier's Nadia and she was stunning. I felt like a
princess yet still like me, which fit the feel I wanted to acheive.


I added an oatmeal colored sash and a gorgeous crystal and pearl brooch,
which was a gift from my mother to complete the outfit.

And finally to complete the entire bridal look, I wanted a loose and messy
updo with dramatic eyes and pale lips. These were my inspiration photos:



The final look the day of the wedding couldn't have come together more
perfectly had I tried! My hairdresser is always extremely talented, but I
felt like that day she had sprinkled some special fairy dust on those magic
hands of hers! My hair was truly a work of art.





And my gown was more gorgeous than I had remembered. Unfortunately, I have no real
bridal portraits to speak of from my wedding day, which is a bummer, but my hubs
reminds me every day of how beautiful I looked on November 17th and every day
that has followed.

{wedding week}: The Venue

So to celebrate the week leading up to our one year (!!!) wedding anniversary,
I decided to take a page in the book of Bryn, one of my favorite all-around bloggers. I will
be posting little tidbits and details from our November 17th, 2007 wedding
as the week progresses and before we head out for our Caribbean cruise!

I had to start with our amazingly gorgeous venue, The Ancient Spanish Monastery.
There was no way I was going to say no to this place! Ever since I was a little
girl I dreamed of getting married at the monastery. It was so beautiful and
different. It didn't feel like you were in Miami and that would probably
be because the monastery was relocated in wooden crates and rebuilt stone by
stone in the 1950's. The place is amazing.

Only a few short weeks after our engagement in late 2005, I hightailed it over
to the monastery to book a date. They were not available until 2007! I could not
believe it. I had to decide whether to get married on a Sunday or to make our
engagement a very long one. After sitting down with the hubs, we decided to wait
it out and booked a date in late 2007: November 17th to be exact. The monastery
was definitely more popular than I thought!

The day of the wedding, I couldn't have asked for a better setting. All our guests
raved that they did not feel like they were in the United States, much less Florida!
I did not do any uplighting or any heavy decor (I'll go into that later), I thought
the venue was beautiful on its own and did not need to be cluttered. And I think it
worked out perfectly!


We had our reception in the Cloisters.

And our ceremony outside at the stunning and underrated Loggia.

And here's what to expect for the rest of {wedding week}:
Today/Day 1 - Venue
Day 2 - "The Look"
Day 3 - Decor
Day 4 - Bridal Shower
Day 5 - Details
Day 6 - Rehearsal Dinner
Day 7 - Pro Pictures

More congratulations are in order

A huge congratulations to Nathan, from Bravo's Top Design,
for winning last night!!! I'm a sucker for all things Bravo
and this show was no exception. I loved all of Nathan's
designs (except for that kind of boring Master bedroom) so
I am extremely happy he won. I admit that I was an Eddie
Ross fan, but if he couldn't win, I couldn't think of a better
runner up!

ps; If you were an Eddie fan as well, check out his amazing
blog here! It is chock-ful of fabulous ideas :)

A new day

Congratulations to Barack Obama for being the first
African American president of the United States of
America! It feels amazing to know that I took part
in something so momentous in US history.

Election Day

Well, here it is!
Election day!
Hasn't it felt like this race has lasted forever?

May the best man win and all that jazz, but now to something way more important for your peepers:

GAVIN PLAYING TENNIS!




Now wasn't that a nice break from politics?
Me thinks so.


ps; Melificent has a new look! Tell me what you think :)

After a hiatus

I am back!
OK, so I didn't mention said hiatus, but I decided to take one because things were busy busy. I have decided that I am becoming more and more like my husband in that I am acquiring all these new hobbies and I just can't keep up!

- blogging
- digital scrapbooking
- project 365
- new PS3 (not a hobby but definitely a distraction)

OK, so that's not so many but paired with working full time, constantly checking in on my thesis process, registering for school (again!) for the spring semester and an always buzzing social life, I am wiped out! Plus the Holidays are coming. Ugh, how I dread Christmas.

The good news is that we will be celebrating our first year of marriage in exactly 2 weeks from today! Unbelievable! I remember our wedding day like it was just yesterday...and because of that, I will be posting random details from our wedding on the blog until we leave on our anniversary cruise next weekend!

And so I leave my readers with something worthwhile, I recommend all of you check out this extremely talented musician: Santogold.



She reminds me of someone in between MIA and Gwen Stefani, which of course equals brilliance. I've enjoyed listening to her self-titled CD for a couple of weeks now while driving with my windows down. Is there really anything better in life than love, music and sunshine? I don't think so.

Have a kick a** week!
♥