Signing off for a week or so...

...because I got married over the weekend, and we leave for our honeymoon soon!  We're heading to Moorea (an island off the coast of Tahiti).  We'll be staying in an overwater bungalow, and I'm a HUUUGE fan of swimming and snorkeling, so I'm super excited!  Here's an aerial of our resort:

source
The Hilton Moorea, AKA home for the next week and a half!

It wouldn't be an AllDressedUp post if it didn't mention fashion somewhere, so here's what I wore to our rehearsal dinner:

Dress: Calvin Klein via Nordstrom
Necklace: Vintage

Last, but not least, our awesome photographer posted a couple of preview pictures on her blog for us already, so I'll leave you with those until we get back!

Macy's Sip 'n Scan: OOTD

My fiance and I went to our first wedding registry event last week at what Macy's likes to call a "Sip 'n Scan."  Macy's brings in a local catering company, a DJ, a makeup artist, a cookware specialist, and anyone else they can dig up to represent the services needed at a wedding.  Not a bad idea, really.  We got to eat yummy food, sip some punch, listen to fun music, and play Charlie's Angels with the registry gun.

Initially, I was really excited, but when we had been pointing and shooting for about 25 minutes, I had a slight emotional breakdown.  The idea of asking people for anything always really bothers me.  Everyone in our lives is extremely kind, but it was still unnerving to register for a $399 KitchenAid Mixer and a $600 Dyson vacuum (both of which I fully plan on buying myself after the wedding using the post-wedding registry discount).  We registered for lots of much less expensive items, too, but I just felt really uneasy about it all.  It didn't help that we're registering for most of our bigger items through Macy's, and then using Crate and Barrel and Target for our smaller, less expensive items.  Perhaps we should have started there instead to avoid my mini-psychosis.

I eventually recovered, we registered for a few more items, and we headed home with food in our bellies and smiles on our faces.  Here's what I wore:

Blouse:  J.Crew Blythe blouse, size 2

Scarf:  Simply Vera by Vera Wang, a gift from my future mother-in-law

Jeans:  Joe's Jeans, Anthropologie, size 28

Bag:  Prada

Shoes:  Cole Haan Air Lyric heels, size 7.5

I have a feeling this is going to be one of my favorite outfits for the transition to fall (although the weather the past few days here in western PA have made it pretty clear that there is no longer a transition happening...fall, along with its cold temperatures, wind, and rain, has arrived.).  I love the look of a blouse tucked into flared jeans with a fun accessory and heels.  I've worn variations of this look several times over the past few weeks as the weather has become cooler, and it's just effortless and polished. 

Have a wonderful day, everyone!

A Garden Wedding

Soon-to-be Mr. AllDressedUp and I went to a beautiful garden wedding this past weekend at Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh.  It was such a gorgeous setting that I thought I'd share a couple of pictures.  And maybe brag about share a great deal I got on a dress to wear to the wedding.  ;) 

One of the corridors within the conservatory



The Broderie Room, where the wedding took place.  A gorgeous setting, yes?

The above picture is the view exactly as wedding guests saw it.  There was an intimate group of about 30 of us.  The bride and groom stood at the center of the room.  The groom, who is a childhood friend of the fiance, was absolutely glowing as he waited for his bride to come down the aisle.

A glass sculpture by Dale Chihuly, an artist who has had his work featured at Phipps

The fiance and I after the nuptials

Here's the outfit:

Sunglasses: Marc Jacobs

Dress: Simply Vera by Vera Wang

Bangle: J.Lo (remember when she had a jewelry line?)

Shoes: Shoedazzle

Okay, now for a brief tangent.  I have to tell you guys about that dress.  The fiance and I took a trip into Kohl's to look for some shoes for him to wear to school (he's a teacher, too).  I did a quick sweep through the misses department, and a pretty pattern on the sale rack caught my attention.  I started digging, and I found this dress.  In my size.  For $5.  BOOYAH.  I was so excited!  I plan on wearing it again for my friend's rehearsal dinner in a couple of weeks.  I was also excited to get home and find that I have three cardigans that match it perfectly (one J.Crew Jackie in a light coral, one from Loft in a dark coral, and one from Target in a navy).  There were plenty sizes of this dress left on the sale rack, and I'm really not sure why.  I almost felt wrong buying it for $5, when I think the original price was somewhere around $65-$70.  I wondered what could possibly be wrong with the dress that there were so many left at such a great price.  I wore it for 8 or 9 hours, and I couldn't find anything wrong with it at all.  /endtangent.

After the ceremony, we went to a reception at a restaurant across town.  We had a yummy dinner followed by even yummier cheesecake.  It was really heartwarming to see friends we hadn't seen for a while, catch up with the groom, and meet his adorable bride.  If my parents and fiance would have let me, I'd have loved to have a small, intimate garden wedding just like this one! 

OOTD August 5 and some wedding chatter

Top: Loft Basic Tee

Pants: J.Crew Collection Cafe Capri

Necklace: J.Crew

Belt: J.Crew Outlet

Shoes: Cole Haan Air Lyric Ballet Flat

After I got my coveted pink pants, I couldn't wait for just the right opportunity to wear them.  After all, no matter how fabulous a girl may feel on any given day, she should be aware that not every occasion is suited for shiny pink pants.  So, when my fiance and I took his parents to tour our wedding venue, I knew this would be the perfect time to test out the pants.  I just wasn't sure how to wear them for a relatively casual, hot day.  Then, I remembered a post by the lovely DaniBP aptly titled Pink Pants, and I was inspired.  She wears her gorgeous blush pink capris with a black cashmere tee, and the result is a look that is classic and can be worn anytime.  When I wear this outfit to school (shudder) in the coming weeks, I'll probably wear my Cole Haan Air peep toes, but for this day, I knew we'd be doing quite a bit of walking in the city, and my poor tootsies were still recovering from ultimate frisbee on the beach.

So, I can't just mention my our (Sorry, love!) wedding venue without telling you guys about it.  The day we first chose our venue, we had planned to tour two places.  We went to the first place, which was actually my first choice before the tours, and we were a bit disenchanted by it.  It was a beautiful venue, but it didn't come furnished with anything.  Tables, chairs, linens, wait staff, catering, etc. had to be brought in by separate vendors.  For our rather large guest list, it didn't seem like that was going to be the way we wanted to go. 

I was bummed, and we trudged off to our second appointment of the day discussing our options.  Then, we met Heather at Pittsburgh's Grand Hall at the Priory, and our spirits lifted.  We toured the hotel attached to the grand ballroom (which once was a Catholic church that was remodeled into a beautiful banquet hall), and when Heather opened the doors into the grand ballroom, this is what we saw:

BTW, this photo is taken by the absoutely amazing Leeann Marie at Leeann Marie Photography, who also happens to be our wedding photographer. ;)

So, my fiance, my mom, my dad, Heather, and I walked into the Grand Hall, and I got tears in my eyes.  I turned to my fiance and said, "This is where we're going to get married."  It was a done deal.  The venue has a gorgeous courtyard where guests can hang out during cocktail hour,  and it also has a beautiful and newly redone garden that will be awesome for pictures.

A wedding in the courtyard, also from Leeann Marie Photography

A shot of our venue from the garden, from our venue's blog

Over the next ten months or so, you guys might just have to humor me.  I'll probably blog about wedding-related things every once in a while.  Can you tell I'm just a little excited?  :)

The last year of my life condensed into one blog post

I promised a "life update" post (if anyone is even still reading my blog at this point), so here we go.  Yes, it's in bullet form.  I thought that might make it a little easier to read.

• Teaching became extremely time-consuming at the beginning of the school year last year.  Our English department became the target of a district-wide standardized test improvement plan.  This meant six observations instead of four, mandatory meetings every month, daily two-page lesson plans for every class we teach, and extreme restructuring of curriculum.  I also personally acquired two journalism classes and the school newspaper.  With a year of all of that extra responsibility under my belt, I should have more posting time this upcoming year.
• Health-wise, I ran into big-time knee problems when I started training for a half-marathon this past September.  I struggled until March, when my doctor finally decided I needed surgery.  The recovery was longer than it should have been, and I didn't get back to working out until May.  Because I was sort of out of commission physically from September to May, I gained back about 10 of the 30 pounds I had previously lost.  This was frustrating and infuriating, to say the least, especially when it came to clothes.  Since then, I have traded running for circuit training, dancing, and yoga, and I seem to be back on track.  I've even lost about five pounds!
• Fashion took somewhat of a back seat until this past spring.  I was sort of just going through the motions of getting dressed every day because of my knee situation, my weight-gain, and my added work load at school. 
• My love life flourished somehow, through everything going on in my professional and personal life.  My boyfriend went to doctors appointments, listened to me vent, and encouraged me to stay positive.  On December 3rd, 2010, my boyfriend became my fiancé.  :)  We had our engagement pictures taken last week, and our amazing photographer, Leeann from Leeann Marie Photography, posted a sneak peek of our session on her blog:

Yes, that's a Harry Potter book.  :)  We did a literary-themed engagement session to go with our literary-themed wedding that we're having next June.  We both teach high school (he's history, I'm English), and we're both avid readers, so it's only fitting.

Once I get the rest of our pictures, I plan on doing a post about what I wore for our session.  In this sneak peek, I'm wearing a costume pearl necklace that was my grandmother's at one point (I'm pretty sure I stole it out of my mom's jewelry box years ago and never gave it back...sorry Mama) and a vintage dress I bought in high school at a store that has since closed.  It's one of my favorite vintage pieces, and I was thrilled to get the chance to wear it.

So, that's my life over the past year in a nutshell.  What have you all been up to?  Any new, exciting news that I missed during my blogging hiatus?