Quite a surprise

Apparently, my little piece o' blog-estate has been noticed readers and a panel of 5 judges*, who have determined that it is one of the Top 50 Wedding Blogs**.

Wow.  Thanks, folks.  I'm honored that someone took time to notice this little blog, and commend it... 'specially since I haven't been so on top of posting lately.

I've added a neat-o badge over there on the right to commemorate this auspicious day in the life of my blog. (We're growing up, honey.  Survived that first year, got past the post-wedding doldrums.  And now our persistence and pluckiness has been recognized. The sky's the limit!)

This is good motivation to get back onto a regular posting schedule, too.  After all, we can't rest on our laurels.  Got to live up to our new rep.  With that in mind, I've got an awesome oh-so-sustainable wedding to share with you, as well as some updates about my jaunts this summer (you can see a lot of the world when you're not obsessed with wedding planning!).

*This award is given by Online Schools, which appears to be a clearinghouse for information about what we in the academic world call "distance education," a topic about which I have mixed feelings, as my department considers how we might expand in this area.  Online Schools also sees "individual blogs as classes, and the posts as courses, and the bloggers as professors."  So, welcome to class!  Although academia doesn't tend to value this kind of informal writing (heaven forefend if my department knew I blogged about something as commonplace as weddings), the Intertubes do, and I'm glad to have this outlet.


**Yeah, even your personally-biased author here knows that's a bit of a stretch, but it's nice to be mentioned in the same breath with the big girls, like A Practical Wedding, Wedding Cabaret, Offbeat Bride and SMP. Holy cow!  Thanks again!

Summertime Heaven: Homemade Lemon Gelato

Take Meyer lemons, handpicked from the tree out back.

Heat cream and eggs 'til steamy.

Stir in sugar and vanilla.

Cool, then...

Whirl in one of these:

KitchenAid, at Williams-Sonoma

Add you've got a little slice of summer heaven. Can't get enough of the stuff.

I was going into withdrawal after we returned from Italy, where we were on the constant lookout for the best gelato - which meant tasting many different varieties. Grom was declared the winner. Oh, you lucky New Yorkers - you've got one nearby!

We'll have make do with the recipe I found here.

So far, the ice cream maker might be our most-used wedding gift. Every time I use it, I remember the sushi and ice cream dinners my friend and I used to have. Could there be two more perfect foods?


This post has no affiliation with KitchenAid or Williams-Sonoma. I just love homemade ice cream.

Patagonian Honeymoon, Part II

Patagonian Icecap

After drinking our fill of Pisco sours on the estancia, and touring the glaciers and fjords, we met up with four friends from home who were hiking the Circuit in Torres del Paine National Park. The Circuit, which requires more than a week, traverses wild Patagonian backcountry, and sees relatively few visitors.

We joined our friends for the "W", along the "front" of the Paine massif, where you can hike from lodge to lodge, sleeping in comfort. We didn't need to carry sleeping bags, tent, stove, or food. At the refugios, we got hot showers and hot meals at the end of the day. We were even able to order glasses of Chilean wine - or Pisco sours - for a civilized toast at the end of each day. When we set out the next morning, the lodge staff provided a packed lunch - sandwich, fruit, chips, drink, cookie - for the next days' hike. This was luxury backpacking! Meanwhile, our hardcore friends were camped out in the incessant Patagonia wind, heating up freeze dried food with their tiny gas stoves.

A rare moment of sun outside Lodge Paine Grande

At most of the refugios, we stayed in bunk rooms with four to six other people - not exactly the most romantic honeymoon setting! However, in addition to the bunk rooms, Refugio Los Cuernos had several small private cabins, with views of milky blue Lago Nordenskjöld below, and, through a skylight, the jagged Cuernos (horns) del Paine, above.

Even better, though, was the open-air wood fired hottub. After four hours of stoking the fire, the water was finally warm. On one of the few clear nights, we luxuriated under the stars, letting the heat soak exhaustion out of our muscles.

views of Los Cuernos from Valle Frances

On the final day of the hike, Eric and I rose at 4:00 am to climb a few thousand feet to the top of the ridge, where we could watch the sun illuminate the park's namesake Torres. The images of these iconic peaks had seered in my mind from the mountaineering literature that I consumed voraciously during college and after - stories of rock and ice, early starts, howling winds, and harrowing ascents.

Though Eric and I have nowhere near the technical skill - or, after experiencing the atrocious Patagonian weather, the desire - to climb these peaks, they remained lodged in my mind as one of the Natural Wonders of the World, like Half Dome or the Everest region, that I simply had to see.

The view did not disappoint. After bearing with weather that changed on a whim, even in the austral summer, from clouds to rain, to wind, to sleet, to wind, to snow, to clouds, to sun, to rain, during our two weeks in Patagonia, we were suddenly blessed with a brief respite of sun.*

The golden beams graced the Towers right at sunrise...
... just before another snow storm blew in.





*Being near Antarctica, Patagonia is reknowned for some of the worst weather on the planet. The winds are so strong that some town plazas and sidewalks have ropes for people to grab to avoid being blown into the streets.

Biodiversity for your neighborhood

Too many bland, boring pigeons in your neighborhood? Would you like to see more colorful birds? Or maybe even release rainbow-hued birds instead of doves at your wedding?

Artist Laurel Roth, who uses "art as a medium to examine biological ramifications of human behavior," has you covered - literally.



She's crocheted these vibrant "Biodiversity Reclamation Suits for Urban Pigeons," which come complete with a "hand carved pigeon mannequin [and] walnut stand."

She'll even help you bring back the long-extinct Dodo


Like Artemis, who sent the link, I don't know whether to laugh or cry...

This Ring's the Shizzle!

Rings - plural - actually.

Four - count 'em - four! Such a statement!

Probably not what my niece had in mind, when she told me to request rings for every finger upon my engagement, but perfect for those days when you're feeling less demure debutante and more shit-kicking suffragette.

Wendy Brandes, via Fashion for Nerds.

Our wedding on Green Wedding Shoes!!!

Wow, wow, wow!

I've been reading Green Wedding Shoes for ages, seeking inspiration and admiring all the stylish, sophisticated weddings featured there -- and now we get to join that exalted company!

Aiii-yiiii! Go check it!

I am so honored that our our efforts toward an environmentally and socially responsible wedding inspired photographer Kate Harrison to create a new promotion. She wrote to me:

[Y]our amazing & close to your heart (and mine!) efforts to have a
sustainable and organic wedding really knocked my socks off and fired me up. ... your wedding inspired me to create "bee-green", which encourages couples to incorporate five eco elements into their wedding for 5% off their photography.

How cool is that??? I couldn't be more pleased that Kate is encouraging other brides to consider sustainable, organic, local and reusable options! What a great way to share the joy, while stepping lightly on the planet. Now, go forth, and bee green!

Obsess much?

They say you learn a lot about yourself and your partner planning a wedding. The more reflective books, like The Conscious Bride*, suggest that the period of engagement is a liminal time, when one is betwixt and between, neither single nor married, moving through a passage that leads to a new stage of life.

This is all true. I've learned a lot lately. With the myriad of changes in process: doctoral candidate to graduate, student to faculty, single to married, I've turned all my attention to appearance. I obsess about what to wear. It seems to run in the family, too, because nine out of ten conversations I've had with my mom are on that same topic.

Now that the dress, shoes and earrings are under control, I've turned my attention to bracelets. Necessary for the wedding? Not really. Ok, not at all.
The current object of my obsession? Most definitely.

The wave-like design of this cuff would be perfect next to the ocean... but I'm wondering if an order from Thailand, from a vendor with no reviews, would arrive in time for the wedding.


These pearls pick up the ocean theme pretty well, too. And they'd look great with my earrings. But is it a little 1980s?


Love the organic shapes of this! I could see wearing it all the time to teach.


More organic shapes... that echo our invitations! I might have to get it just for that reason.


Totally cosmic! Again, probably more day wear than wedding wear, though.


This mesh cuff rocks my world! Tough and tender at the same time, elegant and architectural. Kind of like my dress. It may be the one....


Then there's this. My original wedding bracelet inspiration. I love the vines, the organic feel. I've been worshiping Beth Cyr's jewelery for a while. It was The One until I saw...


This incredible Mexican lace-style cuff in the Sundance catalog. It's got it all: silver, vines, pearls. But, at $500, it costs as much as some wedding dresses!

So, bridal fashionistas, help me put another obsession to rest. (I really need to be working on the play list and ceremony! ) Which one do you like best???



*It's worthwhile getting a used one on Amazon - just one cent, plus shipping. $4.00 to unravel the mysteries of Wed Head. And the wobbles that come after the wedding. Dr. Cowgirl's got dibs on my copy.

Right before we ran...

near Lake George in the eastern Sierra

Mammoth, California

The mama bear said GGGRRRRROOOOOOOWWWWLLLLLL!

We were in the Sierra for the wedding of my friend BootCamp: wedding in the Forest Chapel at 9000 feet; drinks on top of Mammoth Mountain (11,000 feet, where you're already a bit lightheaded); dinner and dancing partway down the mountain at 10,000 feet.

Running from bears at any elevation: priceless.

I am humbled

No more complaining about the difficulty of planning a wedding and finishing my dissertation at the same time.

This girl graduated fourth in her class, and got accepted to Harvard (and 19 other top-flight colleges and universities), while being homeless and attending 12 schools in 12 years.

Pure grit, and totally inspirational. Go read her story.

A new trend?

Another amazing Save The Date video, via Brooklyn Bride, from these uber creative folks.

Some kind of wonderful

The Before, via Veiled Vows:



And the Ever After, via Broke-Ass Bride:
(Dana and Hunter killed it! What an outrageously talented duo!)

Fresh Hubby of LA from Digital Princess on Vimeo.

Quick, who's got an opener?

Six minutes of enlightenment

I dare you to keep a straight face. I don't think it's possible.

via Adventures of a Barefoot Princess.

To cement your vows...

Concrete rings.

From designboom.

All You Need

Get it here.