Wedding Registries Should be a Chaperoned Event

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I remember being very excited to register for our wedding.  After the husband and I moved in together we did the whole merging of the worlds exercise.  For example, we kept his couches, but I got to keep my bedroom set.  Deciding what to keep vs. discard was a fairly easy process for us.  However, nothing in our apartment was really “ours”.  For example our kitchen dishes were handed down to me from my mother when she redid the kitchen — this was back when I was still in college.  They have got to be at least 10 years old. The dishes have really held up well, but we wanted dishes that we had chosen together.

Side Note – I think this is officially my second blog post with no pictures.  The problem is I didn’t take pictures when we went on these registry excursions.  I was going to take pictures of our wedding gifts, but didn’t think that would be fun to look at LOL.  In any event I hope you enjoy the post and I promise to have pictures in the next post! :)

The husband I scheduled an evening to do our first round of registering.  Off to Crate and Barrel we went.  Despite sitting in traffic for an hour to get the big Tyson’s Corner store instead of going to the smaller store in DC I was in great spirits.  We walked up to the counter “hi we need to register”, which was followed by the whole, congrats, when is the wedding and here’s how you work your scanning gun.  Okay now where do we start?  I had done a little pre-shopping online and we had agreed on some glasses. Scan – enter quantity.  Ummm how many do we need?  I had no idea and my husband looked at me smiled and shrugged his shoulders.  After just sort of staring at each other for 30 seconds he reminds me we can update the quantity online.  Okay great we can do that later so there is no need to worry.  Now what?

Imagine walking around the store for over an hour and randomly choosing things.  We had no idea what we needed or how much.  There were also a few items we couldn’t agree upon.  We left the store a bit defeated, okay maybe a lot defeated!  I thought registering would be easy and fun … not so much.  As we returned our scanner they gave us two heart shaped champagne glasses as a gift!  At least there was a little reward at the end of our attempt to choose things for the registry.

As we drove home I texted one of my bridesmaids, who also recently got married, and reported our less than successful registry experience.  She had some great advice for us … take a parent (or parents) with you to register.  The parents are able to help with how many of an item you need, what stuff  you will want to have that you might not be aware of and when needed the parent can mediate the choosing process. =)

This is exactly what we need!!  My mother (more than) happily agreed to accompany us to the next store and provide us with her expert advice!  A few weeks later when the husband and I were visiting my parents we headed to Bloomingdale’s with my mom.  We were a lot more successful the second time around and both found her suggestions extremely helpful.

So there you have it … our wedding registry experience in a nutshell.  Do you have any tidbits from registering that might help a current/future bride to be??

Happy planning!

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Expanding the Pantry

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While doing “married things” {phrase coined by the husband} we ended up at The Container Store.  Clearly this is one of those places like Target or Bed Bath and Beyond, where I find things I never knew I needed but while we are there I think I really do NEED them.  I mean there is no reason we should have spent 1+ hours at The Container Store when it was sunny and 80 plus degrees outside.  But anyways, while walking up and down each aisle we ended up with quite the large cart of stuff we “needed”.

One of the many items in our cart was elfa kitchen storage.  Our condo is the first place I’ve lived where I haven’t had to use cabinets to store food.  The pantry is great and has really come in handy for storing items not eatable as well like batteries, lunch boxes, cook books and dish towels.  As a result our pantry has been pretty much over full since moving in.  We were hoping the elfa storage would expand the pantry a little bit.

Installation was very easy.  Hold the long rod up to the back of the door and mark the places where the screws go.  We went ahead and drilled the holes a little to get it started and make the screw go in easier.

We held up the rod and put two screws into the door to hold the rod in place.  Before fulling anchoring it to the door we ensured it was level.  It was so we put all the screws securely into the door, clipped on the baskets and we were done.  The great part about the baskets are they come in standard and narrow.  We purchased the narrow baskets to ensure they wouldn’t hit the shelving in the pantry.

Initially we purchased 4 baskets.  We were pleased to see there was plenty of room for 2-3 more baskets.  Back to the container store we went and purchased two additional baskets.  We are loving the new storage and the way the baskets help with organization!!

What do you think of our new expanded pantry?

Happy home improvements!

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Top of the Husband’s To Do List

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Long before we moved into our new place, let alone closed on the condo, my husband was furiously searching for a wall mount for the tv.  He had a number of requires, but at the top of the list the mount had an arm that would allow the tv to swing out.  This would enable us to watch tv while cooking in the kitchen.  Thank goodness for our open floor plan or the swing out arm would have been a moot point.

Being the sweet man that my husband is, I was consulted numerous times on which mount I liked the best.  I really didn’t care and told him to choose and purchase whatever he thought was best.  After much search and deliberation he decided on a Cheetah Wall Mount.  Two days later the mount arrived … yay for Amazon Prime’s two day shipping.

Above is our before picture.  The tv stand was purchased from Pier 1 Imports and the dvd rack from Best Buy back when I was in college. I would say they’ve both seen better days and it is about time we replace them.  Installing the tv wall mount was the perfect first step.

First step was to find two studs.  Luckily we are in possession of a stud finder.  We marked where the center of the studs were and then we measured and drill four holes for the screws.  The wall mount is A LOT heavier than we imagined it would be.  The husband held up the wall mount while I screwed in the washer with the screw.

Then we went ahead and screwed the arms onto the back of the tv and hung it. The cool part about the wall mount is it has a built in level “bubble”.

After a few tweaks it was leveled and hanging on the wall!  We also took the plunge and invested in a new tv stand to use with our new fancy wall mounted tv.  The living room is finally coming together … so exciting!

To celebrate our newly mounted tv we cooked dinner and rented a movie on demand. :)

Happy home improvements!

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Place You Put Your Clothes

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Despite having his and her closets in the master bedroom we didn’t have a place to hang our clothes for the first 3 weeks we lived in our new place.

The husband took out the existing rod and shelf from both closets the weekend before we moved in while we were painting the bedroom.  It took some brute force and a little finessing,  but in the end the closet lost it’s “builder” look.

Here’s a helpful video I found one how to pull out builder closets if you have questions. I made the husband watch the video and concurs with the process.

Then we used putty that goes on pink and drys white. This way we knew that it was 100% dry before sanding it down.

After puttying, letting it dry and then sanding it down we were ready to paint.  We used the Origami White to paint the inside of the closets.  The closets took a lot more paint than I ever would have thought of so we ended up having to buy an extra quart to finish it off. I’m not going to lie, we totally hit the ceiling in a couple places and didn’t bother to touch it up.  I mean really, who looks in your closet, up at the ceiling and then stares looking for slight imperfections – no one, therefore no touch-ups hahaha.

Despite being ready to install our new closet organizers, we hadn’t actually purchased anything.  I considered pulling the trigger on a ClosetMaid and a Rubbermaid closet organizer.  I was having trouble deciding on how to design the closets, which was very much impacting my ability to purchase anything.

Memorial day weekend we FINALLY pulled the trigger and purchased our closet organizers.  After delivery, installation and a little unpacking of the clothes we are all set up with his and her closets!!!

Here’s the thing, my husband’s stuff just doesn’t take up the whole closet.  AND since we don’t have a linen closet, my husband graciously agreed to allow me to put a few additional shelves in his closet for the towels, sheets and extra pillows/blankets.  So of course, back to the store we went to return stuff we didn’t need and purchased a few extra shelves.  Although I wish we had them installed prior to move in, I am absolutely loving our closet organizers!!

His and her closets are complete:

Happy home improvements!

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Rome, Italy: Honeymoon Part IV

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Previously on our honeymoon series: Positano, Sorrento and Cinque Terre. Now that you are all caught up let’s talk ROME!

After another extremely long train ride we arrived in Rome!  I feel like our last stop was the most cultural.  Rome was a great way to spend our last few days in Italy and on our honeymoon.  We stayed in downtown Rome and within walking distance of the at the Artemide Hotel.  On the evening we arrived we were starving after checking into the hotel.  We walked down the street to a local bar.  We had a little food as well as a drink and just people watched for a while.

Heading to Rome? Here is a sample itinerary for what to do if you have a few days in Rome, Italy. Honeymoon travel guide

Day 10: Colosseum, Palatine Hill and Roman Forum

After breakfast, at the hotel, we headed to the Colosseum.  We packed plenty of water and suntan lotion into our backpack as well as the camera.  Rome in mid-August is HOT HOT HOT!  The ticket line at the Colosseum was super long.

In order to skip the line we decided to join a tour.  This was a bad idea.  Although they got us into the Colosseum rather quickly, the tour really didn’t provide any substantial information.  The time spent within the Colosseum was very limited before they tried rushing us off to the next two locations – Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum.

There was no reentry to the Colosseum and we weren’t done exploring so we opted to stay behind and really soak it all in.  The tour guide didn’t give us our tickets so we wouldn’t be able to get into Palatine Hill without being with the group.  Saying behind meant we would need to purchase tickets again to gain entrance to the other sites.  Tourist fail and we absolutely felt like we had been scammed, but it was the only issue we encountered the entire time we were in Italy.  Lesson learned!

After walking around the Colosseum we headed over to the  Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum.  The line was SO short.  After getting our fill of tourist stuff we headed back to the hotel to relax and get ready for dinner.

TIP – Go to Palatine Hill and buy tickets there for the Colosseum.  The lines at Palatine Hill/Forum are SO much shorter the Colosseum.

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Restaurant Romantico came highly recommended so we made a reservation through Facebook.  The ambience and food did NOT disappoint!  The restaurant was quaint and very romantic … perfect for a honeymoon.

Restaurant Romantico Rome, Italy

Restaurant Romantico Rome, Italy

Day 11:  Capital Hill, Pantheon, Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain

We had trouble deciding what to do on our last day.  Torn between the Vatican and a self guided tour around Rome to see a bunch of sites.  In the end a self guided walking tour won out.  Although we really wanted to see the Vatican we also weren’t excited about missing all the other great sites around the city.  Our guided tour went like this:  Capital Hill, Pantheon,  lunch at Life Pizzeria, Spanish Steps to the Trevi Fountain.

Things to do in Rome

Our last dinner in Rome was at La Pentolaccia.  The owner of the restaurant suggested a fabulous bottle of wine and helped us choose great meals.  After dinner he suggested we get have some of their homemade limoncello.  It was delicious and the meal was a great bookend to our honeymoon!

La Pentolaccia Restaurant in Rome, Italy

Side Note:  The wine in this picture is actually sold at Costco in VA!  When I told the husband I found a wine from our honeymoon at Costco he didn’t believe me.  Luckily I took a picture of the bottle and was able to PROVE to him it was in fact a “honeymoon” wine. :)  Every time we buy the wine we reminisce a little about our trip.

Day 12: Heading Home

We took an EARLY cab ride to the airport and checked our flight back to the states.  Does anyone remember that crazy hurricane from last summer?  Well we do!  When we arrived at the airport a number of flights to New York and New Jersey were already cancelled.  We were fortunate and our flight from Rome to Boston to DC was still on schedule.

Apparently when we were already inflight to Boston our connecting flight to DC was cancelled.  This was actually not a big deal since my parents live in MA so we had a place to stay.  PLUS they had been watching Sophi so we got to be with our puppy too!  After a couple nights with my parents and sister we flew back to DC with the dog and started our life in DC as husband and wife!

Have you been to Rome?  What was your favorite restaurant or thing to do?

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