Holiday Cheer

I am trying to look at the bright side of this economic downfall- SALES!!!!

While, I didn't have any fabulous holiday parties this year that I needed to buy a holiday dress for- I do have a wedding coming up, and I noticed a lot of the stuff on sale for the holidays that could easily be purchased for wedding purposes. Here are a few dresses and accessories that I love. All of them are on sale!!

How perfect would this dress from Banana be for a rehearsal dinner:

Or this fab number:


And of course, I can't forget J. Crew!! This number is on sale for $89.99 and up. It would be a perfect Rehearsal Dinner or City Hall wedding dress!

And this is a great bridesmaid dress for $129:



And I just found out that this necklace and matching bracelet are currently 50% off on Etsy. If only I was wearing gold and not silver!!


This necklace is also divine at Nordstrom for 40% off!



What about this great pink clutch at 40% off to add a hint of color for you or your bridesmaid?

It even has a matching shoe on sale!!

And of course, I had to add a sparkling peep toe to the holiday set! No holiday (or wedding outfit) would be complete without some sparkle! Sorry, this shoe isn't on sale (yet).



Have you found any holiday sales to be helpful for wedding purchases?

Tis the season to become engaged...*

Since getting engaged over a year ago, I started thinking about the next round of brides out there who are waiting for a proposal as we speak.

With the holidays approaching, there has to be a few grooms-to-be holding onto a ring waiting for the right moment. And then I found this article. It's a few years old, but it states that 26% of couples get engaged between November to December. And according to this wiki, another 10% get engaged on Valentine's Day.

Source.

And then I started thinking about the economy, and I started to wonder if the number of proposals will shrink due to the fiscal crisis. A couple of months ago I asked a vendor if the economy has started to affect them. She said no, the weddings have actually gotten bigger! I gasped. I can't imagine that the wedding industry hasn't been hit by the economy!? I know that Mr. Spice and I were officially hit last week.

So, I wanted to write this post to welcome the newly engaged couples to the hive! And I wanted to know: are there couples out there who are waiting for the economy to improve to officially become engaged?? Or have your bridal budgets been hit since becoming engaged?

*Yes, I stole the title of my post from this article.

Chrismukkah with Sugar and Mr. Spice

Mr. Spice and I are a 'mixed' family. No, not ethnically mixed, we come from mixed religious backgrounds.

He grew up with Hanukkah, Yom Kippor, Rosh Hashanah and a bazzillion more Jewish holidays that I am still trying to wrap my head around. While I grew up with Christmas and Easter.

I promise to write another post discussing all the religious facets for our interfaith relationship, but with Christmas and Hanukkah coming up I want to focus on the cultural celebration in our household: Chrismukkah!!!!

Some of you might recognize the term from the oh so bad, but totally good O.C.


For Mr. Spice and I's first holiday season together, we found an amazing website for all things Chrismukkah: www.chrismukkah.com, and we immediately bought this book:



Hilarious and fabulous would be how I would describe the book and our first Christmukkah together. We had a travel menorah that we carried from house to house, we even lit it while babysitting my niece, and we were both embarrassed on Christmas morning when Mr. Spice had no idea what a stocking stuff was (totally my bad for not explaining, but who doesn't know what a stocking stuffer is??).

Our second holiday season together we took a little more seriously. We enrolled in a class at the San Francisco Jewish Community Center on Interfaith Holiday Celebrations. It was quite possibly the most enriching afternoon we have spent together as a couple. By discussing what the holiday's symbols, colors, and traditions meant to us individually, we provided the ground work for how we discuss our religious differences to this day. Mr. Spice thought everyone ate ham on Christmas, he wasn't comfortable with green and red, and the tradition of trimming a tree was important to me, just as lighting a menorah was important to him.

We had to discuss what we each thought about each others holiday, what we were comfortable with, and what aspects of the holiday were important to each of us.

We decided then and there that what matter would be our own traditions.

We decided that I could decorate, but I'd use neutral colors and symbols, e.g silver and snowflakes.

We went out and bought a menorah and stockings that symbolized us, and we display them both equally on the mantel.

Here's a picture of our mantel from the first night of Chrismukkah last year.

We also decided that we would exchange gifts on the first night of Hanukkah and on Christmas morning. And that if one gift was BIGGER than the other, it didn't matter which day you gave it on.

We also found some Christmas music that Mr. Spice actually now requests! And we decided that one day around the Holidays- we would spend the day cooking a meaningful holiday meal to incorporate both holiday traditions.

We also realized that while both holidays mean different things religiously, culturally, they were about bringing family together, appreciating what you have, and celebrating joy, peace and happiness!!

So this weekend, Mr. Spice and I are going to buy our first Chrismukkah tree together and eat some latkes (Trader Joe's has some surprisingly good ones) and some Christmas cookies!!

Have you changed the way you celebrate the holidays due to your love? And have you adopted your own holiday traditions as a couple??

She said what?? A non-wedding, wedding.

Shortly after Mr. Spice and I were engaged we went to LA-LA land for the Holidays. Both Mr. Spice and I have family in LA, so our trips down there are often whirlwind adventures where we bounce from family to family, and if we are lucky we get to see our friends.

This holiday season was even more busy. We went to LA to celebrate Christmas with my folks and on the 26th we jetted off to Hawaii for an amazing trip with his fam.

Here I am enjoying the magic of Christmas with my niece:

And here we are relaxing a day later in Hawaii with a post engagement glow (I so wish I were on vacation right now):


In between these two pics, Mama Sugar asked me how I envisioned our wedding. While I hadn't really thought of what I wanted until a few days before, I had attended and participated in both my brother and sister's weddings six and five years previously, so I felt like I kinda knew what to expect. Nothing crazy elaborate, but a super fun day with all of our family and friends. I was envisioning something woodsy and organic with about 150 people in the Bay Area. And of course, a full bar (just because I love the environment doesn't mean I don't like to party)!!

Well, Mama Sugar had other ideas. She knew that Mr. Spice and I are on pretty tight budgets, so she suggested putting the money towards a down payment and then just throwing an afternoon open house.

She said what? While my head said, that's a great idea and that I should be oh so grateful for all of their generosity and support.

The little girl inside my heart said, wait- how would Poppy Sugar walk me down the aisle at an open house party? And does she know how much a down payment on a house is in the Bay Area0- let alone one big enough to host 150 people (remember this is before the housing bust)???

In the picture above I am wearing sunglasses because I had cried all night saying good-bye to the wedding dreams I had created in the ten days I had been engaged.

But as you can tell I am smiling ear to ear in the picture because early the next morning Mr. Spice reminded me why I was marrying him. Because he understands me, neurosis and all.

He found the perfect compromise, holding a small wedding with just those nearest and dearest to us. Allowing us to keep the cost to a minimum, save the rest for a house in the future, all the while creating a meaningful intimate affair. He even suggested our favorite restaurant in Carmel, Casanova. Who wouldn't want to marry here:

So we flew off to Hawaii with all our problems solved to enjoy a relaxing vacation.
And that's why we decided to throw an intimate wedding!! If only the location were that easy, up next: location, location, location.
How did you decide how many people you would have at your wedding? And did you have to re-vision your wedding once you started planning it??