{friday cocktail: grapefruit whiskey sour}

It feels really good to be back to relaxing at home with Chris making cocktails after our insane wedding weekend and honeymoon.  This recipe is a simple twist on a whiskey sour using grapefruit instead of lemon and adding an egg white. 

Cheers!

{bridal party gifts}

Giving gifts generally stresses me out which is why I tend to lean towards something home-made because otherwise I find myself for hours in the mall trying to find that absolutely perfect item for the person.   Bridal party gifts definitely take the cake as one of the most difficult gifts to give.  These are your closest friends and you want to thank them properly for all their hardwork and time they are giving to you to celebrate your wedding.  On top of that, you generally want to give everyone the same thing which complicates everything further since usually a group of 6 girls or guys dont always have the same interests or style.

For the girls, I decided to go the safe route and purchase everyone matching robes (including myself) from Plum Pretty Sugar.  I also added in small "love" necklace from one of the jewelry stores in downtown LA.  Although those two things felt like enough, I wanted to include something personalized for each girl.  My friend Carol created a fashion illustration of each girl based on stalking their facebook pages and taking some cues form me about each of theirs interests.  I was so happy with how these turned out!  If you want to order a set of custom illustrations for yourself, you can contact Carol Chavana directly through her online store here.

 {terra}

 {heather}

 {caroline}

 {katie}

 {eva}

 {kay}

The groomsmen also proved to be difficult to decide on the perfect gift.  After debating on tie cases, flasks and the like, we ended up with a classic Timex watch, a striped bowtie from The Tie Bar and socks for their wedding day outfits.

I debated whether or not this post would be interesting/appropriate on the blog, but I felt since we spent so much time trying to decide on the perfect gifts that hopefully it would save someone else's time by sharing what we ultimately decided to give.

{our re-routed honeymoon}

We originally booked our honeymoon waaaaay back in October after doing tons and tons of research. My only requirements for our honeymoon were that we could lay by the beach, drink and relax the whole time.  We had booked our honeymoon for a resort on the East coast of Mexico in Playa del Carmen, until on the Wednesday before the wedding it became clear to us that it was 100% going to rain/thunder/lightening the entire time we were scheduled to be there.  So we decided on Thursday to fully cancel and re-book our honeymoon to another location that would guarantee sun!  After some brief searching on weather.com, it appeared that the west coast of Meixco was pretty much the only area besides Fiji that didnt have rain.

We ended up staying at Pueblo Bonito Pacifica in Cabo San Lucas and we loved every minute of it.  There are 6 different properties under the Pueblo Bonito name, the Pacifica resort is considered the smaller more boutique version since it is only 150 rooms compared to 500 to 600 at the other locations.  It was very secluded and beautiful.  We got to spend 6 sunny days laying on the beach or by the pool.

{a black swan on the property}

{shopping in downtown}

{view of our resort from the hillside}

{coffee on our deck}

{day beds on the beach}

{tequila tasting class}

{drinks at the Martini bar at the next door resort}