1 year (already?!)

This post will be short because I have pictures and will do a full run down when I have time, but I needed to acknowledge our 1 year anniversary somehow!!



We headed to New York for a really quick weekend--saw a show, went to a yummy dinner, had a great bottle of wine (courtesy of my Dad!), hung out with good friends and ate lots of meat.



We also toasted our 1 year with our toasting flutes, ate the top tier of our wedding cake (really not that bad for 1 year frozen cake!) with our cake serving set. The only thing I managed not to force my dear husband of 1 year to do was watch our wedding highlights. Don't get me wrong, I wanted to and had to majorly coax him to even agree to the 7 minute highlight reel, but we were very tired from our whirlwind weekend and I of course needed to watch last week's Hell's Kitchen and the new episode of the Tudors. Maybe I'll "surprise" him one of these days and pop it in. I'm sure he'll love that, ha!



I will post tonight and give you a more detailed recap along with pictures!! I can't even post up a picture from last year because my internet is acting screwy, so stay tuned!

CAK and HJH unite!

This past weekend, the husband and I attended the beautiful wedding of our good friends Christine and Hans at the Willard Intercontinental. The Willard is a gorgeous historic hotel in downtown DC. Christine is the first of our 2009 Knotties to tie the knot and the wedding certainly didn't disappoint!

Since it was the first day of the Cherry Blossom Festival, one of Christine's major themes was obviously cherry blossoms--you could find them on her programs, monograms, altar flowers, etc. We walked into the Willard and wouldn't you know, they had plastered the entrance and the hallways with cherry trees--it was beautiful! (Of course I didn't take a picture, I was too busy admiring).


The ceremony took place in the Crystal Room and was performed by none other than Ken Knapp, the same person who married Belinga and I and Jacqueline and Todd (and Jacqueline's sister Kristen and her husband Ben). We all heart Ken!

The Hubers are married by Ken!

The Essamas almost one year later with Ken!

Everything was great, the food was yummy (beef tenderloin and sea bass) and dessert was a huge hit! We had a trio of sorbet with fresh berries, wedding cake and as if that wasn't enough, there was a crepe station. Oh man those crepes were good. Sorry people, I'm not Mrs. Broad, so I didn't take a picture. Her flowers were to die for, the cake was pretty and they personalized each table with a restaurant that meant something to them and to their guests. We sat at PS7, which is a restaurant that we celebrated their engagement at, along with Maggie and Mitch's. A great time was had by all!

I'm not sure the pictures do the flowers or the cake justice. The flowers were all vibrant shades of pink and the cake looked amazing and smelled (and tasted!) really good!

The gang minus Henrik!

After the wedding, we hit up Shelly's Back Room, one of Hans's favorite places (and Belinga's new favorite) for cigars and bourbon/scotch. Christine also had personalized cigars and matchboxes on hand. No detail was spared here people--she's an uber planner! :-)

Favorite, though blurry, picture of Hans in his element

Congratulations to the Hubers!!

For more of the 9 billion pictures I took, click here.

Happy 30th Blair!

This past weekend, I traveled up to Boston to help my good friend Blair celebrate her 30th birthday in style! We had a blast! Her mom and brother and another good friend, Allison, came up from Miami and there were a lot of Boston friends to her celebrate on Saturday night at Sonsie on Newbury Street.

The festivities started on Thursday evening with a yummy dinner at the Top of the Hub, the restaurant at the top of the Prudential building. The 360 degree views of Boston were awesome and the food was really good!

Friday, we went to see the Shephard Fairey exhibit at the ICA--he's a well-known Boston street artist who did the iconic Obama poster that you saw everywhere during his campaign. Then, during lunch at the Barking Crab, where I had steamers for the first time, we stumbled upon a stroke of genius! We decided to go see Dirty Dancing on stage. Anyone who knows me know I freaking love that movie and have been dying to see it! It was very similar to the movie, but not quite as awesome, but still a good time.

One of Fairey's numerous stickers around Boston

Saturday we had a late lunch, then grabbed balloons and cake and headed over to Sonsie to decorate and setup. Lots of Blair's friends showed up and a good time was had by all!

Yummy cake with awesome candles I got for Blair (please note the awesome "30" confetti on the tables. I LOVE confetti.)

Sunday was major recovery day, we ordered some yummy Thai food, then it was off to bed for my majorly early flight on Monday morning!

Jonathan and Blair

From left, Blair, me, Allison, Cheri, David (Blair's brother)

Happy 2nd Birthday Frank!

Today is Bella's good friend Frank's 2nd birthday! A few months ago, we had the pleasure of pupsitting for Frank while his parents were off playing. Here's a picture of the good friends behind our puppy gate!

Happy 1st Birthday Bella!

Sunday was Bella's 1st birthday! We unfortunately didn't have a puppy party for her, a) because she really only knows 2-3 dogs, and b) because we have no backyard. So we decided to celebrate alone and make hamburgers and cupcakes in honor of our favorite pooch. I also bought her a cute furry pink hat that says "I'm one" which did not please her. But it made for a cute picture!

Happy Birthday Pretty Girl!

Happy Birthday Chin Strap!!

Happy "Big One" to my favorite wearer of Chin Straps and deserter of Northern VA, Caryn! We miss you and wish we were celebrating with you! Hope you have a wonderful start to your 30s!

Congratulations to the Nilsens!

A few big events have taken place that require I resurface from the Land of Non-Bloggery. The Essamas good friends Rachel and Henrik tied the knot on January 23rd in New York, to be followed by a larger celebration on Long Island in October. We are so happy for them and welcome them to the wonderful world of marriage!

Grattis Nilsens!