Publix Italian Days

Anyone who lives in Florida knows - the best grocery store around is Publix. We have 5 of them within a 3 mile radius of our house - I'm guaranteed to be there at least twice a week! Every February, they have a huge sale called Italian Days. It's absolutely the best time of year to stock up on all your Italian needs. From pasta, to tomatoes and even canned vegetables. They always have fabulous sales on these items, lots of BOGOs and coupons. Personally, I LOVE the pasta BOGOs - it's running joke in our house that if the world ever ends, we have at least enough pasta for a year! What can I say? I like to be prepared :)

So, how would you like to win a $25 gift card to Publix? 

To enter just leave a comment!

Please make sure you leave a separate comment for each entry and that I have some way to contact you. Either through your profile, or leave your email in your comment. Giveaway will remain open until 3/15/13. 

Thanks & good luck!

The information, products and General Mills gift pack were provided by General Mills and Publix® through MyBlogSpark.

Pantone Palette!

Ring bowls

Before we even got engaged, I knew I wanted a ring bearer bowl instead of a pillow. Specifically, a ring bearer bowl from Paloma's Nest!
Once we actually got engaged, one of the first things I did was go to the website to order one. And then I saw the prices... $50 for a bowl? Could I really justify that with all the other expenses staring us in the face? Could I make this myself for less? So I did nothing, I had plenty of time.
And then, no joke, with a week I happened to be on zulily.com (which I rarely do, we don't have kids!) - and they had $40 vouchers to Paloma's Nest for $20 - AND I had a $15 credit to zulily! Deciding it was most definitely fate (my $50 bowl would now be $13.50 shipped, when does that happen?!) - I went for it! And then, in true Christina fashion, I waited till the week it expired to order anything. To be fair, I was waffling on whether to pay the extra $10 to get the date put on, the luck we've had with our date made me decide that would jinx it since we haven't paid any deposits...
So, without any further rambling  - check out the adorable package!

And even cuter insides!

And yes, my ring looks awfully good there :)

 

I could not be happier!

Wedding Venues

Wedding planning. Finally.

There's a couple Catholic churches in Sarasota, none of which we're particularly attached to - so we knew the driving force behind most every decision would be reception location.  Enter headache.

Siesta Key would be ideal - 2 miles from home, where we met, and added bonus? It was just voted best beach in the world. Why the headache? There are NO (read, zero, zilch, nada) reception locations on Siesta for more than 100 people. And even 100 is just one place. Most of them are restaurants that have a separate room for up to 70 or so. None are hotels. Realistically, we're going to end up with 100 people, but aren't comfortable enough with the hard cut-off of 100 - what if there's 105? 110? We tell those people to sit outside?

Our first choice was Siesta Dunes. $495 for the space, and they'd waive that if we got people to stay there. Seriously, how fun would this place be?

 

But, yeah... 100 people. Max. Next...

So we looked at The Boatyard Restaurant. Also a gorgeous view! They'd work with our budget, and would let us run a tab instead of paying per head. Nice.

Problem was they'd have a separate room for dining than for dancing. Which is kinda meh. And since they're a casual restaurant/bar - there's budweiser signs hanging from the banisters, and all sorts of beer paraphernalia all over that they wouldn't remove just for our day.

I was ready to give up, really. We contacted caterers for ideas. The Chamber of Commerce. Went to so many wedding shows and put posts on so many internet boards. There just wasn't anything available and I was about to start looking elsewhere...

Through some friends, we heard there was a private clubhouse a little south on Siesta that could hold up to 150 people. They don't DO weddings. It's just a few walls, on the beach. A couple phone calls and we go to check it out. I think maybe we're kinda in love with the space :)

The view:

From Sanderling

Looking back at the building:

From Sanderling

Towards the parking:

From Sanderling

This 'building' would hold the dance floor, cake, dj, bar, etc..

From Sanderling

Gorgeous water:

From Sanderling

Room:

From Sanderling

Upstairs (put the dj up here?)

From Sanderling

So we booked it! And then I went to another wedding show and found two caterers who've worked there before! (wtf why didn't you mention this when I was looking for spaces?!)

I cannot wait.

When I Grow Up, I'm Gonna Be A Blogger

Wouldn't that be fun?

No, really. I just need a space to put pictures of all these things I want to make, both wedding and otherwise.

So this seems like a good place to start :)