Wedding Wednesday!

Great thing about getting married, GIFTS! Just kidding, but it has been fun unwrapping the packages that have been arriving. My parents are hosting an engagement party for MMB and I at the end of October in New York! We are very excited, it should be lots of fun! During the past couple of weeks we have started to receive engagement gifts, which means it was time to start writing thank you notes! I decided I wanted a thank you note that was a special design for us. Of course, Ashley Brooke Designs would have to be the one to create this original design. I simply love her work, she is so so so talented. Not to mention, her superb customer service, I emailed her during the afternoon and by that evening, she had emailed me back with design options! AMAZING. Ashley created the wonderfully nautical inspired thank you notes for us. I am in LOVE. Ashley also whipped up our engagement party favor tags, I might just have to feature those next week!

*Special thanks to Ashley for her wonderful help! Can't wait until the cards arrive in the mail!

Ashley Brooke Designs!

Rent The Runway!

Have you all heard of Rent The Runway? It's amazing. Basically you can rent designer dresses and accessories for 90% off retail prices! You "rent" a dress or accessory for about 4 days. Both of my sisters who live in NYC have been using RTR for a while now and absolutely LOVE it. I have a few weddings this Fall and I just do not want to buy another dress that I am only going to use once! I think Rent The Runway could be the perfect solution. Here are 3 of the dresses I am interested in renting. PS - send me an email if you would like an invite to Rent The Runway!

Love this Shoshanna dress,

reminds me of my other Shoshanna I wore a ton this summer!

How can you not love a bow on a dress?!

Amazing! Maybe for my engagement party this October?!

Perfect Sunday = Chili & Football!

We are having a lovely little Sunday here in Boston.

Enjoying some football and MMB's delicious chili!

Happy Sunday!

MMB's famous Chili!

Of course, you have to add some shredded cheese...

Delish!

Wedding Wednesday!

We are having custom Save The Dates designed, however, I am sending the designer some inspiration ideas. Some of my favorites are below, so many choices!

Decisions, decisions, decisions!

Of course the map would be of Long Island instead of the Carribean...

What did your Save The Date look like?!

Hearting Lululemon!

As I have mentioned, I am back on the workout train! The upcoming engagement party and, of course, the wedding have me really motivated! I have a trainer and she has been kicking my (out of shape) butt! I am also loving some of my new workout gear. Lululemon is amazing, I love wearing it to workout or to just run errands. It is a bit pricey but totally worth it, amazing quality. What do you wear to workout?

Remix Lulu Hoodie

Rock Out Pants!

Boogie Crop

Witch Cupcakes!

I HEART the Fall, and I especially love making Halloween inspired treats. I was so excited when I was flipping through this month's issue of Country Living and saw these Witch Cupcakes. The directions seem pretty easy to follow, so I hoping to try to make them sometime soon. How cute?!

Witch Cupcakes

Believe it or not, these silhouettes were created with rubber stamps ($25 for two, Rubber Stamps; 212-675- 1180). Using a cookie cutter or a glass, cut fondant into circles and leave out overnight to stiffen. Paint a clean rubber stamp with black food coloring and press image onto the circles. If needed, fill in bare spots with a small paintbrush dipped in food coloring. Just before serving, place the circles on top of cupcakes with buttercream frosting.

Castaway Clothing!

The fiance MMB just received an awesome email from a fan who wore Castaway Clothing to his wedding. He wore the pink pants with embroidered navy whales. How awesome?! Love that Castaway is continuing to grow. For all you die hard preppies out their, check out Castaway Clothing for your upcoming nuptials!

Love the pants!

Castaway Clothing is actually in Maine right now, shooting looks for their Holiday catalog.

Be sure to sign up for their catalog!

They also have an amazing sale going on right now too, up to 40% OFF!

Wedding Wednesday!

We are starting to think about honeymoons.

One of our options is Positano, Italy!

Ahh, decisions, decisions, decisions!

Breathtaking!

Engagement Photo Looks!

As I have mentioned before, MMB and I are having our engagement photos taken on October 2nd! I am so excited. However, I am having serious wardrobe dilemmas - I just feel so much pressure to have the perfect outfit. I knew I had to enlist the help of a very stylish person, so I reached out to my fabulous friend C of Chic Geek. This girl should seriously be a stylist, she always looks amazing and I just knew she would have awesome ideas for my engagement photo shoot. Well needless to say she did not let me down, she created the 3 inspiration boards (seen below) for me! Such great looks, thanks again C! You all should totally check out her blog, such amazing ideas!

Shabby Apple Dresses

Love that C put my engagement ring on this inspiration board!

Will be wearing this outfit this week!

You can view more of Chic Geek's looks here!

Never Forget: 9-11-01

“Time is passing. Yet, for the United States of America, there will be no forgetting September the 11th. We will remember every rescuer who died in honor. We will remember every family that lives in grief. We will remember the fire and ash, the last phone calls, the funerals of the children. “

- President George W. Bush

NEVER FORGET!

Fall Holidays!

Like many of you, I love any reason to send someone a card in the mail! I have also LOVED Jack Cards since they launched and was so excited when they sent out an email listing the Fall Holidays! Lots of reasons to send out cards this season.

SEPTEMBER

9 Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year)

10 Eid al Fitr (Eid, End of Ramadan)

11 Patriot Day

12 Grandparents Day

18 Yom Kippur

23 First Day of Autumn

OCTOBER

10 Clergy Appreciation Day

10 National Children's Day

11 Columbus Day

16 National Boss Day (observed Oct 15)

16 Sweetest Day

31 Halloween

NOVEMBER

2 Election Day Election Day

5 Diwali (Festival of Lights)

11 Veterans Day

25 Thanksgiving

DECEMBER

2 Hanukkah

21 First Day of Winter

25 Christmas

26 Kwanzaa

31 New Year's Eve

Pantry List!

Do you use a pantry list? I have never even thought of creating one until I met this wonderful woman over labor day weekend, actually I am convinced she was Martha Stewart in disguise! Anywho, we got to chatting at an amazing cocktail party she was hosting and she mentioned her "pantry list". I was confused and not sure what she was talking about. She said I must have one since I am soon to be a wife! HA! MMB is more of the cook in our home. Well, two days later she emailed me her pantry list. It is wonderful and very thorough --

and I know it will come in very useful in my kitchen.

If you would like a copy of this pantry list,

send me an email (monogramsmartinis@gmail.com) and I will send one your way!

Pantry List!

Wedding Wednesday!

I thought I would share some eye candy from my ever growing collection of wedding inspiration pictures. Here is what I am LOVING this Wedding Wednesday!

I HEART this look for our rehearsal dinner.

We are doing a clam back on the beach!

Might just have to steal this idea for our wedding!

How perfect?!

Would love to have lanterns like this, hanging from the tent.

Not a fan of long tables but I am loving the colors and natural style.

Amazing!

EARL on Nantucket!

Well Earl came and went and luckily Nantucket wasn't really touched! However, there was a lot of hype on the Island this past Friday while people began to prepare for the storm.

Murray's has been here for generations and decided not to board up for the storm, it was a good move because as it turned out there was nothing to board up for!!!

Some of the stores on Main Street

Ready for EARL!

The waves at Cisco were huge, it was cool to check them out

Cisco Beach, Nantucket ~ Friday September 3rd!

A. Tierney Discount and Blogger Meet Up Pics!

It's back to school shopping time! As many of you know, A. Tierney is one of my favorite accessory brands and they are offering a back-to-school discount code! Enter BACK at checkout and receive 20% off your entire purchase!

On Wednesday, I was so lucky and was able to meet up with 3 other Boston Bloggers!

It was so great to finally meet these lovely ladies!

We all had a wonderful time and I hope to do it again soon.

Me and Beantown Prep!

Pink Maple and Black Labs & Lilly!

Well I am writing from Nantucket and I am now off to help batten down the hatches

before Earl hits us tonight!

Wishing everyone a wonderful Labor Day Weekend!

Wedding Wednesday: Decisions!

As I have posted before, we are having our wedding at my summer house on Long Island. This is awesome, wonderful, special AND AMAZING AMOUNTS of WORK! Having a wedding at home is not easy and it means you have to bring everything in. Now that we have the tent squared away, we have moved onto RENTALS - ahh the joy. Decisions, decisions, decisions! We have to rent tables, chairs, linens, china, glassware, you name it - we need it. My mom and I headed out to begin to tackle this huge task and get some ideas.

Here are some pictures I snapped!

Cute Table!

Like this country look...

My Mother loved the square table, I think I am still liking round tables more!

We have decided to go with the Bamboo chair look -

not sure which color yet!

Getting some ideas for place settings...

Love the rim of this charger - it's abalone shell

I think it's very appropriate for a Hampton's wedding!