Philly Represent!

I've mentioned on here once or twice the deep love Marrv has for Philadelphia, his "adopted" home. He started coming to the suburbs of Philly back when he was still in university. He'd come for the summers to coach golf at a rather prestigious summer camp. Upon finishing Uni back in the UK, the same camp offered to employ him full time here as director of the golf coaches. So he packed his bags and set off by himself to move to a new country. He's been here ever since (2005). We could have an entirely different and long discussion about what it takes to even make that move - but suffice to say, those same necessary characteristics are some of the ones I admire and respect about him and make me love him every day.

I grew up outside of Philly and have lived in the city on and off for the past 10 years (wow. nothing like putting it down on "paper" to make yourself feel old!). And although I wander away every few years, and plan to wander away together in our future, it will always be home.

It's funny because we've been calling the night before the wedding 'International Night' as it is when both sides are meeting for the first time. But we thought our "rehearsal" dinner would actually be the perfect place to highlight our city - through its food. As a way to maximize mingling (and keep costs down!), we are having everyone to our home the Saturday night before the wedding. Now, with a small guest list (35 in total) it makes it a little more doable, even with a city apartment!

We made our calls over the past few days to order the food and we're both so psyched. The menu is Philly to the core.

A Place to Celebrate!

As mentioned previously, a few weekends ago, Marrvelous and I checked out yet another restaurant location as possibility for hosting our brunch reception. We had a long list of places to consider (Philly really is a great food town), but I think we were holding this one out for last just to be able to confirm to ourselves that this was the right choice.

From the get-go, the owner has been brilliant to work with - quick replies, creating multiple personalized proposals for menus, and just an overall attitude of being sincerely happy to host our celebration.

I knew I needed a place that had good food. Our city has too many fabulous restaurants to settle for anything less than deliciousness. Although I admit, I was a bit worried that even though we are going the brunch route, some restaurants may be out of our budget. But with those personalized proposals, the owner has also provided us several different pricing options as well. And as far as the food goes, all I have to say is that the menu will have jumbo lumb crab eggs benedict on it and so this going to be one happy little bride!

Finally, not only is the location perfect (just about 6 blocks from our ceremony venue and those 6 blocks take us straight through our favorite park which will be perfect for photos) but the look of the restaurant is spot on. We are taking over the 2nd floor, and the ceiling is made up of three extra-large skylights - so we'll have tons of light (fingers crossed for a bright wintery day - or even snow!) and you can also see the restaurant's gardens atop the skylights (from which they pull their vegetables and herbs).

So without further ado...please meet the restaurant where we will be toasting, laughing, and basking in the love and support from our family and friends...

Summer 2010 Girls Getaway #1 (or the weekend I got heatstroke)

Every summer for the past 5 years, a group of girlfriends and I pick a weekend to get out of the city and go camping. The campsites have varied over the years from middle PA to the past two years when we were in Henlopen State Park in Delaware. This was the ideal spot because it also had beach access! Not sure how many of you have camped before (and no, we're not badass and doing backwoods camping - I'm talking car camping where you drive up to your spot and pitch up your tent), but it's always ideal to have something to spend your day doing so that it's not just 48 hours of sitting by your tents. So Henlopen was great - we could be on the beach during the day, it's a state park so there was some hiking around too, cook our dinner over the fire back at the site, sometimes they'd have nightly ranger talks (though we pretty much got kicked out of the one we went to) and then a little midnight moonlight beach trip as well. Good times.