One-Tone Oxfords, Je T'aime

Remember back in February when I was all like, oh man these Tom's Oxfords are killing me with their springy perfectness? Yes, well, I defy you to look down at everyone's feet the next time you're in a public place and tell me how many pairs of Oxfords you spot. Then buy yourself a pair. Here's some of the cutest one-tone Oxfords the web has to offer...

Etsy Find: Joan and David Oxfords

Free People Patent Oxfords

Anthropologie Oxfords

Anthropologie Wingtips

For the record (I am well aware they are NOT Oxfords), I want to wear these all summer long. They're oh so Audrey Hepburn on the banks of the Seine reading a book about the Victorians AND they combine all of Spring/Summers trends into one magical pair of shoes. Beige as the new neutral, check. Jaunty splash of bold color, check (ok they come in other bold colors, back off). A wee bit of Africanspiration via crochet, check! It appears that if Oxfords aren't your thing, these Tory's here are this summer's most perfect shoe.

All Our Kitchen Goodies

One of the best parts of moving into our new home was filling it with all of our wonderful wedding gifts! Although we have a little bitty kitchen, it is chock full of appliances, new dishes, glasses, bake ware and serving platters. It felt like home as soon as we unpacked all of those gifts and thought of all of you. Jonathon and I both love to cook so it has been AWESOME trying everything out. Thank you all so much for being such amazing gift givers! This is only a small sample of the abundance and it is SWEET! :)

So when are you coming over for dinner???

Indian Wells Esmeralda Mini-Moon: Part 2

For the second half of our four-day mini-moon we decided to switch things up and stay at one of Palm Springs' famous nudist resorts...

PSYCH! We saw the sign on our way out of town and I couldn't resist snapping a pic. I bet some people do honeymoon there, but that is a whole different kind of website...

We were very very very happy in our hotel room at the Esmeralda in Indian Wells. I mean, can you beat this view?

Days three and four were pretty much par for the course. There was relaxing, eating, being pampered, the usual. Of course we spent some more time pool-lounging and room-service-ordering.

We felt so special staying at the Esmeralda. Although we were there during Spring Break and it was family-central the staff were so sweet to us. Every time we went in or out they would say "here are our newlyweds!'' We felt like rockstars.

We went out for dinner for our third dinner as husband and wife (I know I'm corny) to Roy's Hawaiian Fusion and if we thought we were treated special at Ruth's Chris, well, Roy could teach Ruth a thing or two. Except the guy outside who took our picture... he could learn a thing or two himself.

We had so much fun. I highly recommend pretty much anything on the menu including the pineapple mojitos. Oh yes. Don't mind our gold rings...

We were pretty excited about our dinners...

And our new wedding rings...

And being newlyweds...

We felt like we were on our tropical island honeymoon after all!

After dinner we decided to test out our hotel's sweet fire pits and cabana chairs by the pool. I'd say the test was a success.



We had a fantastic time on our mini-moon, we really did not want it to end. Although we had to say our good-byes to the Esmeralda and our vacation together, we were ecstatic that it was such a beautiful beginning to our brand new life together.



Because we were married on Palm Sunday, it will always be easy to remember our anniversary as it will be falling one week before Easter every year. Although our honeymoon was officially over, we kept the party alive through the weekend by shopping (hell yes) and seeing the Easter Bunny himself in the fur. It was pretty thrilling.

Hopefully next year we will be seeing the Easter Bunny on some tropical beach on our postponed white-sand-beach-honeymoon. Now that we live in Florida, I imagine finding one of those beaches shouldn't be so hard. In the meantime... Married life is good.

Indian Wells Esmeralda Mini-Moon: Part 1

Although it seems like a lot longer ago than in reality, a month ago, just after our wedding Jonathon and I took a mini-moon to Indian Wells, a small city outside of Palm Desert. As much as we wanted to go on a true white-sand-beach-honeymoon, we knew this big cross country move was ahead of us and we also wanted to make sure we would have a financial cushion while looking for jobs in our new hometown. So, we told ourselves we would venture to further shores within the year (at least by our one-year anniversary, right?) and in the meantime we would enjoy the heck out of being newlyweds no matter where we were.

We had the world's greatest time being surrounded by our family and friends for the wedding week but we were SO stoked to be alone together after so much busyness and mayhem. I really believe it wouldn't have mattered if we were in Tahiti or at our own home, the best part of being on our honeymoon was getting to relax together and discuss all of the craziness of the wedding that just happened. We pretty much just laughed and told stories for four days.

One of the first things we encountered upon arriving at the beautiful Esmeralda Resort for our mini-moon was the "top-tier" of our cake waiting for us in our fantastic room. When we originally ordered our wedding cake we got a little 6" carrot cake as our top tier. We decided not to save it for our one-year anniversary, per tradition, since we knew we would be moving. We both love carrot cake and were excited to enjoy our little secret tier that the Ace Hotel (where we were married) told us they had saved for us.

When we got to our room at the Esmeralda we were quite surprised to find the ENTIRE bottom tier of our cake (which should feed approximately 40 wedding guests) waiting for us. We were so confused as to why the Ace didn't serve this to our guests, where the heck the carrot cake top-tier went, if our guests got enough of the cake that was served, and what the hell to do with this giant cake! We cracked up about it and then promptly called down to the front desk to bring us up an extra mini-fridge, some plates and some saran-wrap. Then we gave cake away to every service person who would take it.

After the cake fiasco, Jonathon and I got to hang out by the pool and relax for an entire day. What a giant luxury after a year of non-stop plans and stress, I am telling you. The Esmeralda is a swanky joint but it is also WAY kid-friendly. The pool definitely had a Sponge-Bob MC that rallied the kids and played some sort of game involving screaming and Nickelodeon slime and the singing of Miley Cyrus. Luckily I am a former teacher and can tune these things out. I doubt we would have care much if we were the only adults on kid-island at that point, we were just happy to lie by the pool, read magazines and drink blendy fruity drinks.

When we returned to our room, waiting for us was a lovely bottle of champagne and some chocolate strawberries. Listen, being on your honeymoon is seriously the best. Can you imagine what a beautiful world this would be if you came home to champagne and chocolate strawberries every day? Like you could be mad about anything! Anyhow, our friend and groomsman Ted had these sent to us with a sweet card and it seriously made our day. He is rad.

What? I don't see anything remotely dorky about this.

Thanks for being awesome Ted!


You may be catching on, but one of the best parts of being on a honeymoon, and I'm pretty sure all our fellow newlyweds out there will agree with me, is all of the delicious indulgent food you get to enjoy and all of the awesome special service you receive. I swear, just start telling people you are on your honeymoon no matter where you are because they will hook you up! :)

For our second dinner together as husband and wife we venture out into the world to Ruth's Chris Steak House baby. AND it was DELICIOUS... and also romantic. Although I'm not a steak person, Jonathon is in a major way and I definitely enjoyed all the non-steak offerings on the menu. Literally, all of them. Just kidding, but what I did have was delish. :)

Check out the newlyweds outside their sweet hotel!

We were definitely having an incredible time and what was really the icing on the cake was... our entire cake! Who needs fancy Ruth's Chris Bread Pudding when you have pound-cake and custard with strawberries wedding cake waiting for you in your hotel room? Apparently us, because we definitely had both. :) We were celebrating!!!

Stick around for the rest of our mini-moon tomorrow!