lay down this bottle of wine

some random pictures and a link to allll of the pictures at the end! get excited, as becca says. 

this is us at happy hour. 

 the ring pillow before it got bedazzled

so adorable.

andy feeling rough in the first hour of the wedding. it was funny/sad.

john's phone

toasting. but it's more to give you an idea of what the tent actually looked like (while the power was on)

you can look at the whole album right here. and i think you should be able to see the professional pictures too if you're interested. (can someone let me know if that link doesn't work? thanks :)

you will feel no rain

so these are the wedding highlights. it was on saturday; prime hurricane time. we got there at 3pm and it was just kind of like a normal, run of the mill thunderstorm. the nepali ceremony was moved inside.

i feel like you know all of these people by now. friends from high school plus spouses and a girlfriend. 

mango lassi! they passed around indian/nepali hors d'oeuvres between ceremonies. 

i put the cape on for 3 seconds before losing my nerve. all of abha's friends from northwestern were in these really avant garde, chic dresses.. and i just felt too weird in it. plus it wasn't the best for trouncing around in the rain. but i felt pretty in just the dress. 

ring pillow! they hooked on with a loop rather than tying on with a bow. 

the ring bearer and flower girl were very cute. nirav was in the room with them while they were teaching the flower girl how to sprinkle the rose petals, so while they were walking, nirav was whispering 'sprinkle, sprinkle, sprinkle' at the table where we watched from.

abha had a dress picked out, and then it was hemmed too short in alterations, so she ordered 3 more online the week before the wedding. she chose one that was a pippa middleton reproduction. it was very pretty on her.

the reception was outdoors in a big tent, and we lost power a few times. we sang a lionel richie song for their first dance since the DJ had no power. but you could see pretty well thanks to a candle on each table. before the reception, we heard the venue staff talking to abha about candles, and she said to 'buy every candle in the store.' :)

definitely a memorable wedding! they couldn't have handled it with any more grace, and they were so radiant that you didn't even really think about the hurricane outside anyway. 

finally made it

this was such a fun trip! i'm back in austin today, but i'm missing DC. it was so much fun to see so many friends. we really packed quite a bit into a 5 day spread. these are the pictures that aren't the wedding. we'll do wedding tomorrow.

miriam (who came in from NYC) and i met up with one of my friends from the internship for lunch at teaism.. this is miriam eating what i always get, the chicken bento box. so delicious.

bec and i in the park

andy and bec. we were watching people jog by and exercise on the wooden exercise equipment as we lounged. it was beautiful out that day in the mid 80s. 

andy and i in front of the washington monument on the way to see the new MLK memorial. can you spot my birthday purse? it came in so handy. i could fit my camera/umbrella/a book/a sarong/my big wallet in it. 

this is the entrance to the MLK memorial

people were saying it doesn't look like him.. but i think it's pretty close. 

so the MLK statue is on the left, with the mountain on the right, and then there's a wall that runs around the outside with quotes on it.

thursday

wooo, DC! it's really wet and humid here. becca said it rained all morning.. thankfully stopping just in time for me to get from the airport to her apartment, and then it rained all afternoon, which didn't matter a whole lot as we were comfy inside chatting on the couch. we're supposed to get a hurricane this weekend. everyone is really concerned about it. i guess i'll eat my words if something bad happens, but it's just a whole lot of rain and wind. and the metro is underground. how bad could it be?

it's funny to be back here. the odd muffled ding ding the metro reminds me of going to the internship in my gray skirts and black low heels. along with everyone else in their gray, black and navy. that's one thing i definitely don't miss. and the unsmiling strangers. but open city (a cute restaurant/cafe near their house) was a welcome sight. and green grass, and trees.

last night as i was packing, maj and i were talking about how i should make a PDF of a generic packing list, because you always forget silly everyday things. and what's the one thing i didn't pack? a toothbrush. how does that happen.

exciting day tomorrow!

before you go, go

dc tomorrow! my flight is at 8:30 which is before i usually wake up in the morning.. so.. i should go to sleep.

busy week! they just had the earthquake, there's supposed to be a hurricane this weekend. we'll see what happens.

tuesday

i'm not totally sure abha won't come peeking over here before her wedding, so i'm just going to post hints of the ring pillow. 

all i have left to do is find ribbon to tie the rings on with, and sew the back on so i can stuff it. fun project!

xiang pian

these are the pictures from my birthday, and a few more from abha's engagement ceremony. this is the ooonly picture i have of guillermo and i by ourselves.

fun time at lustre pearl.
this was abha's engagement table/altar? i don't know what it's called. but if you look carefully, you can see the laptop in the bottom left behind those flowers.
so colorful! kelly and i were feeling left out in black and white.
once we all had the stuff on our heads.
could they look any happier?!

yesterday we had rain all day from the hurricane moving up from the gulf coast. kind of put a damper on work since the kids had to stay inside an extra hour and a half. craziness definitely ensued, but we made it. this morning is still pretty wet, but it isn't raining yet.