Wedding

My apologies for the delay lovelies... Following some trauma, my laptop was rushed to emergency surgery Tuesday morning. Turns out it needs a hard drive transplant (sad face). The IT surgeons tell me it won't be back until early next week, maybe. Meh.

But back to business... the wedding!

We did not have a full-out, typical wedding, but it was perfect all the same. We only got engaged on July 1. It was important to us to be married when we embarked on our new chapter in Pittsburgh, so we had to plan our big day before our big move. We're also a poor couple of kids - he's a student and I'm a dancer and a writer. Thank God for our amazing family and friends! Without them, there is no way we would've pulled it off.

Bestie hugs

People immediately stepped up, offering their time and services. Friends and fam made and brought food, organized details, decorated the park where we held our party, and helped make things like my bouquet and hair piece. My dress? I bought it at Marshalls. My shoes at DSW (I l-o-v-e my shoes, btw, and will be wearing them again and again). My colors/decor theme: peacock feathers. Love!

The ceremony was very small, including close family and friends only. We held it at the CSU Annual Trial Flower Gardens, which is across the street from the University Center for the Arts, where I've been studying dance over the last five or so years. It's a beautiful place!

We did it!

After, we headed to my friends' neighborhood park for our party. We wanted it to be both a wedding celebration and a farewell party, since we were leaving the state the very next day. The weather was a perfect sunshiney, not-a-cloud-in-the-sky Colorado summer day. There was dancing, lots of thank-you-for-coming hugs, and just good ol' fun. We were happy and exhausted by the time we made our grand exit (I thought since it was a low-key, nontraditional affair, we would be immune to being wiped out at the end... silly Jessi).

Oh, not to forget... It was important that we included elements of my hubby's culture into our celebration. In addition to Persian music and dance - we made our Mr. and Mrs. entrance to the party a dance to a traditional Persian wedding song - we also added a variation to the cake-cutting. Following the cake, we each dipped one of our pinky fingers in a small dish of honey and fed that to each other. It symbolizes the promise of providing a sweet life to the other. I like little personal touches like that.

My friend Melissa Mullins was our photographer and she did an amazing job! Check out more pics on her site. So good. I really mean that. Out of all the planning details for a wedding, good photography has always been my biggest priority and concern. Mel completely delivered! Thanks friend!

Hooray for getting hitched... and for Andy Warhol's art! (Mr. Warhol's hometown is the 'Burgh, btw)

All pics by Melissa Mullins Photography, all rights reserved.

Up next: apartment hunting adventures in the 'Burgh!

Happy Friday lovelies!!

xoxo

J

Birthday Bash

I almost forgot to post my birthday party pics!

My party was two Saturday's ago and my actual birthday was last week. It was a fabulous birthday, probably one of the best! Between my nephew's arrival and an amazing party, I was quite happy. It was exactly what I hoped for and more!

"Happy birthday to you..."

Make a wish!

It's not a true party without dancing!

Breakin'

Pretty girls

My Russian mafia

SO happy

xoxo
J

Fridaylicious!

Friday feels sooooooo good, and it's especially sweet after my week of Bad Funkiness. I won't claim that the Bad Funk has dissipated, but at least my spirits are a couple notches higher than they've been recently.

The appearance of the sun helped a lot... I was surprised to see it this morning, and was even more [pleasantly] surprised that it stuck around as long as it did today... the work lunch barbecue at work was a go and boy was I happy that I got to eat lunch outside.

Other little nuggets of goodness that are helping lighten my mood:

* LOTS of social time this weekend, starting with [another!] barbecue this evening, and then I'll head downtown for this month's First Friday Gallery Walk. Besides getting to walk around and enjoy the galleries in Old Town FoCo, the Imagination Fair is also taking place. I must say, for a small city, FoCo has some awesome arts and cultural events. Tomorrow I'll go watch my swing crew perform at our Pride in the Park festival (ranked #5 in the country for small-town Pride events by gay.com - woot, woot, FoCo!). Then to a friend's graduation party, and then to another friend's cocktail party. I can't freakin' wait.

* Between all my social play time tomorrow, I get to get my hair cut, f-i-n-a-l-l-y! I'm a couple months overdue, and since my hair doesn't want to do anything beyond a ponytail anymore, I'm not feeling the prettiest these days. My cute bangs shall soon return!

* I plan to bike to most of the above activities, defiantly armed with my rain jacket. Suck on it, gloomy weather!! Let me add that I HEART my bike, and I'm trying to save money by driving less, if possible, now that it's summer and the weather is [supposed to be] nice.

* Hip hop hooray on Sunday! Even though every Sunday night I get my butt absolutely whooped by the hip hop teacher, I LOVE Sundays. I'm getting stronger, my arms are nice and defined, and those two-and-half-hours of intensity are pure CHURCH for me. I leave excited for life and being a dancer.

That's all for now... Time to get my barbecue on.

Happy Friday, everyone!