OFF TO MEXICO...TO GET MARRIED!!

We are finally off to MEXICO!

I cannot believe the day is finally here #holycrap. We are so excited to lounge around all week with our family & friends. This week will be absolutely incredible.

Soon after, we throw on our backpacks and leave for our 6-month Asian adventure. 

Wedding craziness. RTW trip craziness. Getting used to not being in Amsterdam craziness. I hope to be back ASAP to provide a little update but no guarantees ;) we will be soaking up these next few weeks as much as possible.

Lately, I've been enjoying this beautiful lil love snap Emma took of us a couple months ago during our Parisian picnic ;). 

Check our Denis and Emma's blog here for some ridiculously awesome travel posts.

You can also follow me on Instagram for snippets of our wedding week in Mexico and of the first stop on our Asia trip: NEPAL!

And to Denis & Emma: wish you guys were here but SEE YOU IN BANGKOK!!! 

Eeeeeeeep!

Amsterdam Family

My gosh, how time has been flying! We are now down to our last 10 days living in beautiful Amsterdam. Am I getting excited for California? The wedding? The big trip? Everything coming up?! Absolutely! But lately, I can't help but focus on just how sad I am to leave Amsterdam--my most favorite city in the world. But it's not just that, it's also leaving the life we created here--the life we created from scratch. Not knowing anyone, not having work experience or a paycheck, not having a favorite bar or restaurant, not knowing even who I was to become in the years I have been living here. I've conjured up such great friends who have become my overseas family. How lucky I feel to have so many close friends who have contributed to my years in Amsterdam--people from Hungary, Slovenia, Italy, Australia, England, and so many other places as well as from the good ol' US of A! Tangent: but on the other hand, I wonder the world of possibility/friends/good times which is waiting for us over on the West Coast? Hmm..food for thought and perhaps worthy of a separate post, I'd say!

Something I never imagined was feeling a pull between two places--from my home in California and now feeling the pull from my home in Amsterdam. It's the limbo between California and Amsterdam and leaving a piece of my heart in each place.

I saw the above quote on Pinterest around the time I started feeling this way--and it cleared things up a bit. But will I ever feel fully at home again? Maybe. Maybe not. But if I don't, then atleast I know I will always have family in both places :). Encouraging me, laughing with me, drinking with me, celebrating me, consoling me and enjoying life with me.

Last week I joined a couple friends who are a part of this 'Amsterdam family' at one of our sneaky spots along the Amstel river. It's incredible how much fun a random Thursday night can be when you combine a couple of friends, a sunset, some bottles of prosecco, a tripod and a city view. I'm looking forward to filling up these last 10 days with each of the friends I've come to know and love in Europe...and savor every. single. minute with them. Miss you already, friends!

Holla at ya, Lily Wanderlust!

My Very Magical Bridal Shower

A few weeks ago was a monumental occasion. My twin sis, mom (and fellow Harry Potter enthusiasts), and bridesmaids threw me the most magical, unique bridal shower EVER.

Yes, HARRY POTTER themed.

We had all been Harry Potter fans since we were teenagers when we were curious what all the fuss was about with these Harry Potter books—from the first book, we were hooked (as was most of the world)...nerd alert! We even spent our 25th birthday at the Harry Potter theme park in Orlando…which seemed so hilarious and quirky at the same time.

The theme was kept secret from me until moments before the shower started. For weeks, my sister and friends were telling me how much I was going to love it--what could it be?? I had NO idea. I had strict instructions to be out of the house the entire day of the bridal shower. Fortunately jet lag got me out of bed early and I started off the day with breakfast with a couple of friends then bounced from hair appointment to nail appointment to lunch with dad while my sister and her posse prepped for the party.  

As we were driving back to my parents house, my dad handed me an envelope:

What?! No she didn’t! Yes she did! OMG! For all you non-Harry Potter fans, this is the official invitation to Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft & Wizardry! And ofcourse Julie made sure the address AND font was identical to Harry’s Hogwarts invitation in the first book.

I walked towards the house and saw a sign that read ‘Platform 9 ¾’ pointing towards the front door. As soon as I walked through the door, I was IN AWE! Nearly the entire house was transformed into a mix of magical candles, treats, and unbelievably creative details.

The living room was converted to The Great Hall with 2 long tables topped with centerpieces made up of Harry Potter books and candles in wax-dripped bottles. Above the tables, candles were floating in midair (well electric candles were suspended from the ceilings). It was AMAZING! Owl cut-outs and candles dotted the book cases and mini ‘dementors’ were strung to the ceiling fans as if they were flying through the air.  

Every part of the room was separated into sections. The ‘Potions class’ table had bottles filled with multi-colored bottles next to my bridal shower guest book. Julie put a ‘quill’, or feathered-pen, on top of the guest book for people to write well wishes—next to it was a sign that read ‘Rachael’s Book of Spells’.

Next to that was Honeydukes Candy Shop. There were Snitch cake pops, Mandrake cupcakes and chocolate frogs (don’t worry, not real ones!) and candies of all sorts. A snitch was hovering  from the ceiling up above.

On the other side of the room was The Three Broomsticks, otherwise known as the bar. Bottled water, flavored iced tea and white wine were on hand but my favorite beverage for the night was spiked butterbeer (Harry’s favorite drink which takes kind of like butterscotch). I was AMAZED when my sister showed me the Elvish-made wine. She poured me a glass and (with the help of a few drops of food coloring in each glass), the white wine changed to blue wine. Everyone who had wine held various glasses of blue, green and red liquids. AMAZING!

In the next room, the seating room was converted into the Gryffindor common room as well as The Owlery (and place for all of my amazing gifts). The mantle was lined with all types of paper and plush owls. Julie set up a table with appetizers including homemade avocado puff pastries, sausage stuffed mushrooms and small finger foods to hold us over until dinner. Even the bathroom mirror had the words ‘Moaning Myrtle was here’ and instructions to flush to get to the Ministry of Magic (sounds weird…Harry Potter fans get it!).

As soon as everyone arrived and a few drinks were poured, my twin sis started walking around with THE SORTING HAT! Hahaha. Each person had to choose a paper from the hat to see which house they were a part of—Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff or Slytherin. I was designated an automatic Gryffindor :). We all sat for dinner under the floating candles according to our assignment from The Sorting Hat. The food was a feast for the eyes—greek salad, tri-tip, ravioli cream sauce with veggies.

Julie had moved the couches outside so we could play games and open gifts in the open air. I felt so much joy and was overwhelmed with an obscene amount of gifts and love. And just after gifts were opened, she busted out the ping pong table and proposed we get started with Quidditch beer pong!

I could go on and on and on about how magical this bridal shower was and still cannot fully describe every detail. Not just the Harry Potter details, but the incredible feeling of love from the 30 girls and moms that joined to celebrate me being a bride. I am incredibly lucky to have had such a unique celebration and my twin sis nailed the theme. I’m so excited that she is also the driving force behind our wedding decorations/planning and if the wedding is anything as magical as the bridal shower, then this wedding will look extra incredible.

To the best twinnie ever...THANKS for making my wizarding dreams come true! 

{Mini broomstick napkin holders}

{Dinner served in The Great Hall}

{Talented host, party planner extraordinaire, matron of honor & twin sis, Julie!}

{Mother of the bride!}

{With some of my best friends and bridesmaids: Julia, Sara and Julie}

Maastricht Wedding!

Oy oy oy...after a full-day of wedding festivities in and around Maastricht last Friday, Christian and I slept the weekend away. The wedding was so beautiful and gezellig (that's 'cozy' in Dutch!), we got to see every bit from beginning to end.

Gorgeous wedding. Awesome couple. Intimate family dinner in a Belgian B&B. And a party with family and friends that lasted until the early morning hours!

Here are some of my favorite pics!! Which increasingly got more blurry as the evening continued...I blame it on the open bar ;)...I love Dutch weddings!

{Christian's nieces are the cutest! And are twins...we have twins too...weird twin thing goin on!}

{Brothers of the groom!}

Wedding Bells in Maastricht!

Yay yay yay! My twin sis got married last year and now Christian’s twin brother is getting married tomorrow!! I first met these two lovebirds a few weeks after I met Christian in Finland in 2007 when they came to visit him. We went cross-country skiing (it was -25 outside, people!), lounged in a Finnish sauna and walked on snowy frozen lakes. We’ve done a lot of cool stuff with these two: celebrated Carnival in Maastricht, spent weekends in Amsterdam, roadtripped around the southwest of the US, showed them their first American-style Thanksgiving with my family in California, city-tripped to Istanbul, etc.

Christian and I are so damn excited that we’ve been dancing around the house to this song all week.  It will be a full day of family and wedding activities in Maastricht (in the south of the Netherlands) which will culminate in a big party at a farmhouse just across the border in Belgium. Francois and Danielle are travel nuts too and will honeymoon in New Zealand for a month after this upcoming wedding weekend (I'm so jealous, they know how to plan amazing holidays, too). I'm pretty excited that they will now be my family too!

In about an hour we’re off to Limburg to kick off the festivities!! 

{Night out with the soon-to-be-newlyweds in Finland after I first met them! And still my favorite picture of them}

{The four of us cross-country skiing in Finland}

{The four of us a few years later in Istanbul, Turkey}

Mother’s Day in Paris & a Guest Post!

So while my dad is at home in California smitten over his new Father’s Day iPad (which was very affordably split 8 ways between my 7 siblings and I…yep 7 sibs!), my mom is still smitten over how we spent her Mother’s Day in Paris. After we ventured up to Normandy and before we jetset off to Tuscany, we managed to squeeze in a quick two days running around Paris—which just so happened to be on Mother’s Day!

Ofcourse, my mom loved the idea of Mother’s Day in Paris. She enjoyed her favorite wine on our Parisian hotel balcony upon arrival and we dined at a random Parisian brasserie before hopping aboard the Bateaux Mouche just in time for sunset. My mom was a happy camper especially because she thought we could never beat last year’s Mother’s Day in Venice—well we did! The next day we spent the morning in the Louvre, ate macaroons for lunch and spent the afternoon walking around Montmarte admiring artists and eating French onion soup.

Unexpectedly we were able to spend our last night in Paris with some friends Christian and I studied with in Finland, Denis and Emma. Like us, these two lovebirds (him a Frenchy and her a Finn!) are travel fanatics, understand the necessity of a good bottle of wine and we were lucky enough to go island-hopping with them in Greece last year. It’s no surprise that they picked out an amazing local wine shop, 5e Cru, for us to meet and have a few drinks. Well just a few drinks turned in to a few bottles and plates of cheeses and cured meats. Our parents tagged along too and their plan to turn in early for the night obviously didn’t happen—this wine cellar was amazing with bottles lined from floor to ceiling and a free aperitif before we left! Denis and Emma always pick the good spots and are too much fun to hang around with! Which is exactly why we’re headed off to Croatia with them for yet another trip in just a few weeks ;)…

**AAAAND, I’m guest-posting over at Alla Fiorentina today for her Travel Tuesday series :). Check out all my favorite summer things to do in Amsterdam here!**