A Chocolate Lover's Confessions

A Sad Time

2011-07-20T07:48:00.000-07:00

A lot has been going on here and while Mr. Milk and I are doing well, the island is in a bit of chaos.

Last week, several containers of ammunition – part of a stockpile of 98 containers confiscated in 2009 from an Iranian ship heading for Syria – exploded at the navy base near a coastal town. Thirteen men were killed including twin brothers who were helping their commander and six firemen put out a fire that was threatening the containers. The naval base was destroyed, and the brand new power station right next door – responsible for delivering over 50% of Cyprus's electrical power – was so badly damaged that it will have to be rebuilt and this will take months. Nearby houses and villages were extensively damaged and sixty-two people were injured, one remains critical.

Despite numerous reports from the Base Commander and other senior officers stating that the containers were deteriorating and that urgent action needed to be taken, nothing was done. And a brush fire, so common during these hot summer days, triggered a catastrophe. Due to the integrity of the base commander, who ordered hundreds of conscripts packed into trucks and evacuated rather than sending them out to fight the fire, the early hour of the morning, leading to a nearly empty motorway rather than one packed with commuters, and that it was not a weekend, packed with people at the beach and local fish taverns, this tragedy is still not as bad as it could have been.

Everyone here is angry. This being such a small country, most people somehow know someone who was affected by this. Even if you weren't directly affected, the wipe out of the new power station means that the entire island is being rationed electricity because the two remaining power stations are old and cannot keep up. We have our electricity cut one to two times a day, for 2hour time periods each time. Some areas have cuts more frequently. For us this is just an inconvenience. These are the hottest months of the year, with temperatures easily reaching well over 100F, and obviously the power cuts occur at times where air-conditioning is most in demand. Business are also affected as the power cuts are unpredictable and half way through their day they are rendered useless, as so much of what we do is dependent on electricity. Not to mention what this is doing to the economy, which up until this point was doing relatively ok all things considered. For the families that lost loved ones or have had people injured, the power cuts are a reminder of what took place a week ago, and the stupidity of the people who placed these 98 containers right next to the biggest power station and the naval base, and left them unprotected in the smoldering heat for 3 years!

Every night there are protests at the presidential palace asking for the president and his ministers to resign. For the most part these are happening peacefully, but every now and again some asshole ruins it for the rest by throwing stones at police or setting trash cans on fire.

Here are some pictures of the area before the accident:

And after the accident...

The area marked with the white square is where most of the damage is. The charcoal colored mark in the left half of the square is where the containers were and now is a 160 foot deep crater.

For the meantime we are trying to stay cool without using airconditioning and are waiting it out to see what happens. Luckily we are going on vacation soon and will be out of this heat and in a place with electricity!

Thank You Nadal

2011-06-07T06:46:00.000-07:00

Why, might you ask, am I thanking Rafael Nadal? Well, because of this...

Steak Diane

King prawns and crab

Rib eye with twice baked potato and spinach

So the hubs, my sister, and I all had a bet on who was going to win the French Open final, Nadal or Federer. Mr. Milk went out on a limb and bet for Federer while my sister and I played it safe and went for Nadal. The bet? The loser prepares dinner. But this was too much work for Mr. Milk, so he decided that if he lost, he would take us out. Taking advantage of his vulnerable position, we opted for a classy steak house! Initially we were joking about the location, but since Mr. Milk is a bigger steak fan than my sister and I put together (yes she had prawns and crab!) he started to enjoy the fact that he was losing! So after a little debate on how we should just go somewhere more casual and cheaper, we ended up here...

Columbia Steak House

Very nice restaurant and very, very good food! Even my sister who didn't initially want steak ended up finishing off mine! We toasted Nadal over and over :)

Remnants of dessert! Key lime pie and chocolate volcano!

We had intended of getting before pictures too, but once they came we all dived in! Needless to say we debated getting dessert initially and some of us played hard to get (Mr. Milk!)!

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2011-05-30T06:49:00.000-07:00

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Trying To Go Meatless

2011-05-25T06:33:00.000-07:00

In an attempt to be more informed consumers and more conscious about the things that come into our home, Mr. Milk and I have decided to limit our meat/poultry consumption to at most twice a week, including weekends. I've always tried to buy locally grown produce (and with the sun out 80% of the year, we really have no excuse not to have local produce!) but we haven't always paid as much attention to the meat/poultry that we buy. So I've committed to buy only free range eggs, and I'm always looking for free range chicken, which isn't as readily available. Luckily we aren't big meat eaters, and living on island gives us the opportunity to have fresh fish more than average, but even this requires more effort, meaning going to the fish market instead of buying it conveniently from the grocery store.

So this meat-only-twice-a-week business is trickier than what I thought it would be! It's not always easy to find alternatives and it's sooo easy to to turn to sweets and carbs when you want a snack! A well stocked fridge and pantry are in order if we are to avoid snacking on choc-chip cookies and having pasta for dinner every night! And like any habit changing attempt, it's easy to forget and go about your business as usual. For example, the other day I went out to grab a sandwich for lunch while doing a grocery run. Even though I filled the cart up with fruits, vegetables, legumes, and beans, I just as easily picked up a chicken avocado sandwich! Not until I had taken the first bite had I realized what I'd done. While telling Mr. Milk this later in the day, he quite arrogantly pointed out that even though he had the option of putting chicken on his salad at lunch, he hadn't. Only to later realize that he had added ham to make it a "more balanced meal!" :)

So needless to say we both need to work on this before it becomes second nature, but in the meantime, I am discovering new dishes to make that will satisfy us and help us not miss chicken and meat!

Like this pizza! With roasted eggplant, onions, pesto, and ricotta cheese :) Of course if you ladies have any favorite veggie recipes, please feel free to share! We can use all the help we can get!

Summer Is Just Around The Corner!

2011-05-23T05:59:00.000-07:00

As the weather gets better, Mr. Milk and I are reminded of why we decided to move back home in the first place. The sun is out and the temperature is going up and we can spend so much more time outdoors. We've uncovered our patio furniture and I just spent this morning working from my balcony!

I love this season as there are so many fresh fruits and vegetables around that cooking and grilling have become fun again! We are spending more time with friends and have even taken up jogging (we'll see how long this one lasts!). Best of all? My summer clothes! Oh how I have missed those! And soon enough we'll be able to laze on the beach or by a pool somewhere and get some color!

Do you guys enjoy the summer season? What's your favorite part?

Off To England

2011-05-13T06:33:00.000-07:00

Mr. Milk and I are taking off to Manchester, England for the weekend! Why you might ask? Because this lovely couple is getting married!

Neither Mr. Milk nor I have been to a full English wedding before so we are very excited about this trip. C and G we wish you all the best! Enjoy your special day and thanks for letting us share it with you.

A Party To Remember: Next Day Location Shoot (Part 4)

2011-05-11T06:45:00.000-07:00

Ok ladies, this is it. I have (finally) come to the end of the wedding recaps! OMG it took forever! Thanks to all of you who stuck around! I know I haven't been the best blogger these last few months, but life has taken over so much that the blog had to be put on the back burner.

While I'm sad that the wedding part is over (after all, that's why I began this blog and got to "meet" all of you) I am excited to have the freedom of blogging about whats going on in our lives. Just to give you a bit of info about what's been going on in the Chocolate Milk household, we've been house hunting, I have started my own business, and we've even been on a few trips! But before I get to all of that, let me share my last wedding recap post.

So our final location was the salt lake right next to the airport. The timing was perfect because the sun was starting to set as we got there. Our photog was able to capture some beautiful shoots. Take a look for yourselves...

So after a second long day of wearing the dress, it's fair to say that I started getting a little fed up of lugging it around. And just as I was kicking it up, our photographer decided it was a good time to become trigger happy! Mr. Milk and I are both walking towards the salt lake, not realizing that we were being photographed. All of a sudden our photographer bursts out laughing and wouldn't tell us why. Now I know! :)

Doesn't the salt look a little like snow?

He lay down flat on the ground in the damp salt to get this shot!

Sunset

Mr. Milk having a revelation about what he got himself into the night before :)

Last pic of the day

Click to enlarge this one! A bunch of shots of us goofing around :)

Up next: Life!

I also just wanted to take a moment to thank you all for following this super important journey of ours. I have loved every minute of planning this wedding, and while plenty of things went wrong on the day, none of those really affected the outcome or memories of our day, so I've chosen to focus on the thousands of things that went right and I want to cherish. I've loved following your journeys and will continue to do so as we all embark on the next chapters of our lives.

A Party To Remember: Next Day Location Shoot (Part 3)

2011-05-09T06:49:00.000-07:00

This next location is an ancient amphitheater named Kourion. It can hold around 2000 people and was used for gladiator fights. Nowadays it is used for beautiful outdoor concerts and plays in the summer. There are also some mosaics and ruins of public baths in the area. The theater dates back to the 2nd or 3rd century AD.

It was a truly beautiful view

Standing in the middle of the amphitheater

Mr. Milk helping me get a fly out of the layers of my dress! Poor thing was trapped in there and couldn't get out.

Goofing around

Here you get a better view of the entire amphitheater.

Up next: Final location

Happy Birthday Honey!

2011-05-08T07:01:00.000-07:00

It's Mr. Milk's birthday everyone!

source

Hope you have a fantastic day babe! Love you!

xoxox

A Party To Remember: Next Day Location Shoot (Part 2)

2011-05-04T06:40:00.000-07:00

I love the area of our next location. It is a small, quiet road lined with huge pine trees. We were able to walk in the street more or less with out the interruption of passing cars. We were also able to find a pretty orange orchard that we snuck into and took some shots.

Dancing in the street

Smelling the orange blossoms

No need to tell you how filthy my dress was after all this :)

Up next: Another location

A Party To Remember: Next Day Location Shoot (Part 1)

2011-05-02T06:47:00.000-07:00

We went to four different locations for our next day shoot. Basically we made our way from the hotel location to the airport where we had to drop off our photographer. Basically we made a trip that typically takes about an hour and a half into about 6 hours! Our photog and his wife were fantastic to agree to this!

So the first stop was Aphrodite's birthplace. Those of you who like Greek mythology might be aware of the story of Aphrodite and how she was born from the foams of the water of the Mediterranean sea. Our hotel was just above this spot so was naturally the perfect place to start off.

Day one and Mr. Milk is already trying to jump overboard!

Gorgeous gorgeous shoes I heart thee

Love this one

The rock you see in the background is Aphrodite's birthplace :)

Ice-cream anyone?

Bride on a harley. And who does the harley belong to?

These guys! :)

Up next: More location shoot

A Party To Remember: The Honeymoon Suite

2011-04-29T07:12:00.000-07:00

So the very next day after our wedding we had to get ready again and go for our location shoot, and since we didn't get to bed till after 4am, well it wasn't a priority to take pics of the suite. Therefore there are only these few pictures of the wonderful room we stayed in for our first 2 days as newly weds.

Yes we had our own private pool! Unfortunately there was no time to use it!

View of the golf course and the Mediterranean Sea!

The suite. Just the bottom floor is ours

The bathroom...

With tub and shower!

Newlywed's champagne breakfast! YUM!

By the pool of course

Eggs, asparagus, smoked salmon... deeeeelish!

Cheers!

Up next: Pictures from our location shoot!

A Party To Remember: Dancing The Night Away Part 2

2011-04-27T06:50:00.000-07:00

Like I said, plenty of party pics. So here's some more :)

Mr. Milk's solo greek dance! Many people gathered around to clap him on

Best man also solo dances

Kissing the bride

And off to dance some more :)

This guy was so good he has nicknamed the pro-dancer!

Father's in law dancing :)

The dance floor from afar :)

Up next: Ok, now that all these are over, time to check out our honeymoon suite!

A Party To Remember: Dancing The Night Away Part 1

2011-04-25T06:48:00.000-07:00

There are so many pictures of the dancing that I had to break it up into two posts. All I can say is that we had a fantastic time and I would gladly do it all over again anytime! This was by far the party of our lives and our friends and family made it such a special day. The pictures speak for themselves mostly so I'll just let you see for yourselves

Love this one!

Mr. Milk and his 92 year old grandmother!

Some Greek dancing (more to come)

Love this one too! Whiskey in one hand, cigar in the other!

Up next: More dancing!

A Party To Remember: Best Man's 30th Birthday Surprise

2011-04-20T06:43:00.000-07:00

So if you recall, waaaaay back when I was planning this wedding, I asked you ladies for help with our best man's 30th birthday. Kristy over at I'm gonna marry you someday had an awesome suggestion! She recommend that we have 30 girls give him a kiss each! I loved the idea as did Mr. Milk and so aside from cake we asked for 30 female volunteers to come up to the dance floor. Only a couple of people knew what we were up to, so that they could take part and encourage others to come too. We handed the ladies flowers and then Mr. Milk announced that it was our best man's birthday and we wanted to wish him a very happy birthday and a great start to his 30th year with 30 kisses from all these wonderful volunteers, which also included his mom :)

Mr. Milk handing out flowers

Making sure his girlfriend gets one!

Birthday wishes

Cake!

Collecting flowers and kisses

A final hug from Mr. Milk :)

Up next: Dancing the night away

A Party To Remember: Bouquet Toss

2011-04-18T06:53:00.000-07:00

And now time for the ladies! Needless to say, and maybe even a little cliche now, the song of choice was Beyonce "All the single ladies" :)

Bouquet in hand ready to be caught by its rightful owner

Ladies are ready!

Here we go...

And the winner is...

One of my dear friends!

A few weeks later at another friends wedding, she caught the bouquet there too! ;)

Up next: Best-man's suprise

A Party To Remember: Garter Toss

2011-04-13T06:43:00.000-07:00

This was one of my favorite moments of the night. I was worried that the guys would shy away and not want to partake in this, but there was such a big group of them around Mr. Milk and I, that it ended up being a blast. Mr. Milk picked Queen's "Another one bites the dust" for the garter toss :)

Showing off a few moves :)

And down he goes...

Trying to find the darn thing :)

Got it!

Hmm.. now what to do...

Throw it of course!

Maybe not! Mr. Milk and I decided that it would be more fun (for us) if he were to hand it over to his big brother instead :)

Brotherly love

Mr. Milk was proud of himself! :)

A funny story came out of this too. My cousin's little girl (about 4 or 5 years old) and one of the few kids at our wedding, witnessed the whole event and the next day kept asking her mom why Mr. Milk had taken off my underwear! Whenever someone asked her what she'd been up to, she told the the story of how she went to a wedding and the groom took off the brides underwear. Hahaha. Thankfully her parents found this amusing! ;)

Up next: Bouquet toss

A Party To Remember: Father-Daughter, Mother-Son Dance

2011-04-11T06:45:00.000-07:00

After our first dance it was time for our dance with our respective parents. We decided to choose one song and do a joint dance, Mr. Milk with his mom and me with my dad. What was funny, was that neither of us could easily find our parents! My dad was at least nearby at a table saying hello to his family, but Mr. Milk's mom was no where to be seen. It took poor Mr. Milk about half the song before he was able to track her down! Ironically he had told her that after our dance he would look for her for theirs! Oh well :)

Up next: Garter toss!

6 Month Anniversary

2011-03-25T06:45:00.000-07:00

Wow, 6 months already! Time flies! It's been a fantastic first 6 months of married life and I hope that we continue this way for many many more!

source

Happy Anniversary to us :)

A Party To Remember: Our First Dance

2011-03-21T06:44:00.000-07:00

So after Mr. Milk's super sweet surprise, it was time to head onto the dance floor for our first dance as husband and wife. We had taken one very last-minute dance class, as our chosen song (Michael Buble's Everything) was a little tricky to dance to. But the dance class was a waste of time :) On the actual day we decided to just wing it and enjoy the moment :)

Our lighting guy did a great job that night! So glad we added him in to the budget last minute.

Love the colors in the smoke

My favorite one of all!

All Photos courtesy of Petros Sordinas Photography

Up next: Father/daughter, mother/son dances.

A Party To Remember: Mr. Milk's Surprise

2011-03-09T06:44:00.000-08:00

Hey ladies! Sorry to be MIA on you all, but for the last few weeks Mr. Milk and I have been house-hunting, and it is taking away far too much time from everything else. Most time I now spend on the computer is looking at houses. It is an exciting and frustrating process all at once! I'm sure many of you who have already gone through this can relate. I will hopefully be back to reading and commenting on your blogs very soon!

But I am ripping myself away from the real estate websites to tell you about my hubby's surprise at our wedding! I thought I knew everything that was to take place at the wedding, but clearly I was mistaken!

While I'm sitting there trying to eat my dinner, I see these two walking towards me

Mr. Milk, who was sitting next to me, takes off his jacket, grabs his violin, and goes around the table to join our best man and their friend. Now, Mr. Milk hasn't touched the violin in about 10 years!

At which point I realize that my hubs is serenading me, and the tears come. Again.

He melts my heart

They had the whole room captivated!

Love

They then moved on to stroll through the guests, playing different songs. They must have been up there for 15 mins or so.

These three lovelies used to do this exact same thing back in their late teens! They were called the strolling musicians and played at a hotel to earn extra cash.

One of my faves! People wouldn't leave them alone! They kept throwing out requests! Many people at our wedding have said that this was the highlight of the evening.

All Photos courtesy of Petros Sordinas Photography

I wish I had the video to show you guys! Might just have to do posts at a later point with some vids.

Up Next: Our first dance.

A Party To Remember: Greeting Our Guests

2011-03-01T06:17:00.000-08:00

Once we finished our meal, Mr. Milk and I went around and said hi to all of our guests. We took our champagne flutes and went round all the tables, clinking our glasses and thanking them for coming. There are a ton of pictures so I'll only show you a few so you can get the idea.

Good friends! The two on the left are getting married in May!

Our best man and his gf.

More good friends!

Mr. Milk's Canadian boss giving us some advice :)

Mr. Milk's uncle

Part of the bridal party

Close family friends

My parents!

Oh, and this guy! Who figured it was more important to listen to the football game! LOL

All Photos courtesy of Petros Sordinas Photography

Up next: Mr. Milk's surprise!

Need Your Advice

2011-02-21T06:47:00.000-08:00

Hi ladies (and guys if there are any of you reading this)! I wanted to interrupt the wedding recaps to ask for your advice on a wedding/etiquette related matter. Mr. Milk and I were recently talking about this issue, and although we don't have to make a decision immediately, I thought it would be interesting to get your input. So here goes...

We have been invited to a wedding of a first cousin of mine that will be taking place in June. While the couple and their families (i.e. my aunt and uncle) live abroad, they are having the wedding here, since the majority of the extended family lives here.

These family members were invited to our wedding. Between our invitation being sent out and the actual wedding date, my cousin got engaged. So I made sure that they knew that her new fiance (I had no idea she was in a relationship at all) was also invited to the wedding, even tough his name wasn't on the original invitation. I need to mention that we are not close. I haven't seen them in years and years, and we have always lived in different countries. Only my aunt came to our wedding. We heard nothing from either of my two cousins, even though we had phone and email contact written on our invitation.

We have four weddings to go to between May and Sept of this year, all of close friends and family that attended our wedding also. My cousin is holding her wedding in a remote location where hotel accommodation is extremely expensive, and driving back home after a long night is not really ideal.

So here comes our dilemma. Should we attend this wedding? Yes it's family but to be honest, I personally feel no obligation to be there. When we take a step back and look at all the expenses of the four weddings we are already going to attend (one is in the UK), its a heck of a lot of money! And for people that made zero effort when it came to our wedding (I mean even just an email, forget paying to come out here for it) I'm leaning towards a no. The catch is that it is first line family, and our absence will be noticeable since mostly everyone else (I think) will be there.

What are your thoughts? What would you do?

A Party To Remember: The Details

2011-02-15T06:41:00.000-08:00

So time for the nitty gritty! I love detail shots! As people say, love is in the details... If I've already posted some of these pictures, please forgive me. There are just too many to keep track!

Our wedding invitations, which Mr. Milk designed, along with our wedding bands

The bubbles, tossing flowers, and signs for Mr. Milk :)

My SHOES!

Details on the dress

I doooooo

My colorful bouquet

Aisle arrangements

Part of our food buffet

More food!

The executive chef at the InterContinental is a sweetheart! We have become friends with him! Even though we had such an extensive buffet at the wedding, he personally went to the kitchen and created this plate of fillet steak just for us!

Dessert and fruit buffet

The ballroom! I get giddy every time I see these pics!

More ballroom!

On half of our tables we had candelabra's. They looked so pretty when the lights reflected off them.

On the other half we had these flower arrangements.

Here's a shot with the lighting we had

These were on our head table

The place setting with the favors

Close-up of our favors. The contained a dense lava cake and a small bottle of wine.

Cake, champagne, and flutes

I love our champagne flutes!

And finally the pic of the head table.

All Photos courtesy of Petros Sordinas Photography

Up next: Greeting our guests.

A Party To Remember: Our Entrance and Cake Cutting

2011-02-07T06:42:00.000-08:00

I was hoping to be able to show you guys a video of our entrance, but that requires Mr. Milk's help, and unfortunately the poor guy is so busy with work he hasn't even had the chance to do any of the editing he wanted to for the wedding footage. So as soon as he has the time, I will come back with some video footage. In the meantime, here are some of the pics of our entrance and cake cutting.

So here we are :) Our entrance song was a remix of the Black Eyed Peas song I Gotta Feeling.

I love that the ballroom was pitch black other than that one spotlight on us

Cutting...

Still cutting...

Failed at cutting and so needed the help of the hotel experts! To our defense, the knife was crap :)

Our cake was nothing wow. In face, the 2 bottom layers are fake. Since our wedding favor was so rich, and we had a dessert buffet that was out of this world, we decided that the cake itself was more for the tradition and pics than anything else. The top tier was a chocolate/biscuit cake, which we fed each other and then had the waiters take away. A lot of people later asked about why the cake hadn't been served :)

A little worried that I would get cake in the face. I didn't thankfully!

Toasting our guests

Drinking our champagne...

Downing our champagne :) After taking a sip and uncrossing our arms, Mr. Milk whispered to me "down it!" So I did :)

I love this picture! Sitting down after the cake cutting and getting ready for the dinner and party to start!

All Photos courtesy of Petros Sordinas Photography

Up next: Some detail shots

A Party To Remember: Fun With The Wedding Party

2011-01-31T06:51:00.000-08:00

So after the wedding ceremony, we gathered hectically outside the church to take some group pictures.

These were the only ones we managed! The first one with our parents and the second one with our friends from the US and Canada, who came all the way out here for our wedding!

Well, as for the rest of the pictures, lets just say that our formals weren't very...formal! Observe... :)

One of my favorite ones of us!

The entire wedding party

I love the look on Mr. Milk's face in this pic! He looks very pleased with himself and his harem!

My turn!

The boys hated that I made them do this! And our photographer duly noted that I had been reading too many blogs! :)

Hanging out :)

And now the fun begins! Or is this the first indication of domestic violence?! (joke people!). Oh, if you are wondering what we are doing digging around in my bust, we are removing flower petals that got stuck between the 2 layers of fabric when people threw them at us.

Clearly this next series of photos was the boys idea...

Finally I've had enough and shoo him away!

Have I mentioned how much I loved all the colors! And the ladies white hydrangea bouquets against their colorful dresses!

Someone at some point here said something funny...

And we ended up like this!

This next series of pictures is one of my faves (yes, I have A LOT of favorites). If you enlarge the picture, you will see that BM in teal is grabbing MOH in magenta by the hair! There was a lot of pushing and shoving for this bouquet...

But...

with the flowers in the air...

A clear winner emerged! As you can see, only my MOH really wanted this bouquet! She is getting married in may 2012!

And I couldn't have the photographer leave without the "must-have" pic of our shoes! Poor guy actually almost fell down a flight of stairs while taking this! Sorry Petro!

All Photos courtesy of Petros Sordinas Photography

Up next: the party gets in full swing!

A Party To Remember: The Wedding Ceremony

2011-01-24T06:51:00.000-08:00

So now we are ready to get into this small church of ours and make this official!

Lets do this...

Doesn't our priest look like Richard Gere! He was so handsome!

At this point Mr. Milk whispered something in my ear that I didn't hear. While I thought he was saying something sweet, he was actually making fun! When the priest said something about the virgin Mary, he turned around and asked if I was a virgin! Boys will be boys!

A view of the entire church. I love how this angel makes it look larger than it actually is! Even though we had TWO airconditions working, because one door was left open so that the guests outside could hear and see, and because the tiny church was packed, it was boiling inside! My poor maid of honor felt faint for most of the ceremony :(

The holy bible with our rings placed on it to be blessed. They are each wrapped with a red ribbon.

Holy communion, ready to be given to us by the priest in the goblet.

The exchange of rings. In the Greek-Orthodox tradition, the bestman and maid of honor exchange the rings between the couple three times. They are also placed on the right hand instead of the left.

SInce it was warm in the church, our bestman and maid of honor were really attentive and would wipe off any sweat with a hankie. Mr. Milk saw that our bestman was starting to get a little hot under the collar and decide to return the favor! I love how proud of himself he is in the second pic!

The priest blessing our crowns and then placing them on our heads. This indicates our unity, as they are connected with a long ribbon.

All crowned :)

During the reading from the Apostle's book, there is a saying, which directly translated reads "and the woman must be afraid of the man". This is a misunderstanding of sorts, since the holy books were written in ancient Greek, and the word for "afraid" actually meant respect. What typically happens at this point, is the couple tries to step on each others foot! The first to accomplish this will have the upper hand in the marriage :) We had decided with Mr. Milk that this tradition was not for us. A few minutes before this part was to come up, the priest approached us and said "I can't imagine you want to step on each other?" We both said no, and he said, "I would rather you give each other a kiss!" What can I say, he was handsome and sweet! Here is the pic of this kiss at that point in the ceremony :)

Communion. The bread is dunked in the wine and is fed to us three times each.

Then we had to take three sips of the wine.

And then we take our first steps as a married couple! Lead by the priest, we circle the alter three times, with our bestman and maid of honor in tow. Each time we come to the front of the alter, we kiss the bible.

I love this picture!

Final blessing from the priest, he kisses our crowns.

We cannot take them off ourselves, so our bestman did that.

Another photo I love! My ladies waiting outside the church for us to come out!

Here we come!

Confetti, petals, and streamers!

First kiss as husband and wife!

All Photos courtesy of Petros Sordinas Photography

Up next: Formals!

A Party To Remember: Heading To The Church

2011-01-17T06:46:00.000-08:00

Mr. Milk arrived at the wedding venue a few hours before the time of the wedding. He checked in, was taken to our suite, freshened up, and waited for the time to come so he could do this...

Walking to the church with his side of the wedding party and friends and family

He looks happy to be doing this :)

Best Man, FIL, Mr. Milk checking his phone :) We were probably texting each other at this point. It is traditional for the groom to hold the brides bouquet and hand it to her when they meet outside the church for the first time.

So the groom waits outside the church with his best man and parent, for the bride to arrive and be handed over to him. The couple walks into the church, to the alter, together.

Have I mentioned how much I love my bouquet? A LOT!

Outside the church. The church was tiny, it only fit 40 people, so had about another 80 seats outside.

Guests have started to gather, seeking some shade from the heat of the day.

More guests!

And the bride's entourage has arrived! Waiting for everyone to gather at the hotel lobby before we head up to the church.

See some friends and family that I hadn't seen earlier.

And we're off!

Seconds before walking down the aisle, everyone takes their places, ready for the surprise to come :)

So I completely stole this idea from my gal pal Stacey over at All Consumed Bride, who had made a sign for her groom. I decided to make a small sign for each of the girls to present to Mr. Milk as they walked past him. The first one reads "Run Mr. Milk, Run!"

Second one reads "Still Here?!" giving him another opportunity to rethink it all

He is given one "Last Chance...". Unfortunately my Maid of Honor walked too fast and to close the other bridesmaid and the photographer didn't have a chance to take a picture of the last sign, which read "Too Late!" :)

And here comes the bride! I decided that I wanted to walk down the aisle with both my parents.

Our first meeting! I love this shot of us hugging as the two dads looking on :)

Last kiss as an engaged couple!

And of course more tears for me :)

All Photos courtesy of Petros Sordinas Photography

Up next: The wedding ceremony

A Party To Remember: The Bride Gets Ready

2011-01-12T06:45:00.000-08:00

So unlike Mr. Milk, I was not a fan of doing this the traditional way. I've never been one for doing things just because tradition says to, and despite my parents disappointment, I chose to get ready without a lot of pomp and circumstance.

I got up in the morning, showered, and headed to the hairdresser with my maid of honor and one of the bridesmaids. It took about 3.5 hours and was probably the least enjoyable part of my day. By the time I got back to my parents house, very close friends and family had started to gather, including my bridesmaids, maid of honor, and the make-up artist. But just before we were about to begin, my sister called me into the tv room...

She had created a slideshow with pics from when I was a baby all the way till now. It was really sweet and the beginning to what was going to be a day full of tears and laughter for this bride :)

The silver tray on the left contains the things we need to take to the church. This is the brides duty. Mostly because, I think, if you rely on the men, there will be no wedding ;) It contains our marriage license, a small silver bowl with jordan almonds (again for luck and fertility) and small pieces of red ribbon. Tradition says, that if single ladies take a piece of the red ribbon after the ceremony (since it has been blessed) they will dream of the man they are to marry. I forgot to check with my lady friends if any of them had sweet dreams that night :)

Also in the tray are our rings, also tired with red ribbon, our crowns linked by a long white ribbon, a bottle of red wine, known as commandaria, for holy communion, and a glass for the communion.

In the basket to the right you see the bubbles ready to be distributed once the ceremony is over, flowers for tossing, and some mysterious sign that will be explained in a later post :)

And the "getting ready" part begins!

I loved the colors we picked for eyeshadow!

Throughout the entire time I was getting ready, we were constantly horsing around, as is evidenced by my bridesmaid's reaction in this picture!

This is one of my favorite shots (click to enlarge)! In the top right hand corner is my sister getting her makeup done in her bedroom, while I get mine done downstairs.

A ton of mascara to last the whole night...

Testing out the bubbles...

Another favorite! My sister looks on from the other room.

The makeup artist covered me in a light oil and then rubbed a shimmering powder on my arms, back and chest. I was super shiny!

Makeup done! Lets head on up and get this dress on!

Maid of honor helping me get into my dress

I love all the little buttons! I doubt she was as impressed by them at this point :)

The ladies all help in trying to figure out the bustle...

I love these two shots!

Help with the garter...

And the shoes...

Leads to an over-worked maid of honor :)

Bride is ready!

Mother of the bride and sister/bridesmaid are also ready!

Crying episode no. 2 and I haven't even left the house yet! This is a very close family friend of ours, who I grew up with. She came in, opened her arms, and started singing traditional wedding songs to me, and we both lost it.

Aaaand off we go!

All Photos courtesy of Petros Sordinas Photography

Next up: Heading to the church!

A Party To Remember: Mr. Milk Gets Ready. The Traditional Way

2011-01-10T06:47:00.000-08:00

So I think its about time we got this party started!! We've had our pro pics on dvd ever since we got back from Rome and I've only been through them a couple hundred times! We have over 1000 pics in total so narrowing down to show you guys has been almost impossible!

Well, lets start at the very beginning! Mr. Milk got ready first at his parents house. He decided to go the traditional route and did the whole shebang with violin, laouto (lute), incense, and red sash! Don't worry, all will be explained in the pics that follow...

Mr. Milk getting his clothes ready...

Groomsmen's ties

A traditional basket with Mr. Milk's clothes and accessories. You will see in the pics to follow what all these items are used for...

Here is a close-up. Shaving kit, belt, cufflinks, red sash, after-shave.

Mr. Milk is ready for the whole ritual to begin. The guy in the corner is obviously the violinist, and also a good friend of Mr. Milk's. The guy next to him is playing the laouto, or lute, and singing traditional songs that describe what is taking place.

Just before they get started, Mr. Milk opens his gift from me :) He really wanted his old coffee machine that we had in Canada, so I got it for him.

So here is how it all begins (click image to enlarge). The best man starts off the ritual by taking the basket full of the grooms things and dancing with them around the groom. This is accompanied by the violinist, the lute player and traditional song. The best man then hands the basket to the grooms parents, siblings, grandparents, wedding party, and whoever else wants to partake in the ritual. I posted a few pics just so you get the idea.

Once everyone has had their turn, it's time for the best man to shave the groom. As you can see he goes through the whole routine. Iconically :) While it used to happen for real in the olden days, now no groom trusts his friends enough to let them shave him for real! There was no blade on the razor and Mr. Milk had already shaved that morning :)

Once the shaving is complete, it is time for the best man to help the groom dress. He helps him with his shirt, belt, cuff links, tie, and suit jacket. Since we had a larger than normal wedding party, all the groomsmen took part in this ritual and helped Mr. Milk get dressed. Click on image to enlarge.

Once the groom is all spiffy looking, the ritual with the red sash begins. All close friends and family partake in this. They start by wrapping the sash around his waist three times (as in the first pic), and then crossing it in front of him three times (as in the second pic). This is done as a symbol/blessing of fertility and, some say, luck.

Then comes the blessing with incense. This is used constantly in the Greek-Orthodox church, as an offering to god. It is circled three times over the grooms head, representing the holly trinity. Again, close family and friends take part in this ritual.

And once all the rituals are done, it's time to start the party! Mr. Milk danced with his family and friends, along to the songs of the violinist and the lute player!

Even his 94 year old grandmother got in on the dancing :)

All Photos courtesy of Petros Sordinas Photography

Up next: The bride gets ready...

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T06:03:00.000-08:00

source

We hope the new year brings everyone love, peace, happiness, and health!

Chocolate Lover + Mr. Milk

Merry Christmas Everyone!

2010-12-25T06:53:00.000-08:00

To all of you:

source

This has been such a blessed year for us and making the journey with all of you has been even more special. We hope you have a wonderful holiday season with your loved ones! Wishing you love, laughter, and health!

Chocolate Lover + Mr. Milk

xxx

Updates

2010-12-20T06:35:00.000-08:00

Hello lovelies! I know I have been in and out of the loop the last few months, but that's mostly because I have been waiting for our pro pics to arrive. There has been a lot going on around here, but I wanted to finish off all the wedding related stuff first, before continuing with everything else.

As you might notice from my updated profile pic, our photos are ready! They are in the mail as we speak heading to us. We were able to see our over 1000(!!!) pics and slideshow on our photogs website, but I figure putting the password and link up on the blog for everyone to see might not be such a great idea. So a little more patience is in order and all will be revealed! I cannot express how over the moon I am about our photos! They are everything I wanted and so much more. Not only did Petros take beautiful photos, he and his wife are sweethearts! We had a fantastic time with both of them, especially on our location shoot! And just to keep you interested, here are a couple of pics I saved using screen shot:

All photos courtesy of Petros Sordinas | Photographer

In other news, Mr. Milk and I will be heading to Rome on Wednesday! We will be meeting one of our groomsmen and his gf there. We've had this trip booked for a couple of months now and we are so excited to be spending Christmas in Rome! We will be taking plenty of pics to share with you all, and I am almost certain a fair share of them will be of food!

I hope all of you have fantastic holidays with your loved ones! And come January, the recaps of our wedding will be in full swing!

Honeymoon Recaps: Male

2010-12-06T06:52:00.000-08:00

We spent one day of our honeymoon not lazying around like bums, and actually doing something! We took a day trip to the capital of the Maldives, Male, which is of course an entire island, and we even had a private tour guide arranged by the hotel. It was fun to see the history of this span of islands, that only became known in the 70's.

I forget what the building in the background is. Some type of government building I think. But the flag of the Maldives was huge.

Here we are outside the President's Office. It faces the water and there are a fleet of navy vessels "parked" outside.

Male was packed with scooters. There were very few cars mostly because one would have to pay 100% tax on a car brought to the Maldives!

This is an ancient cemetery for royalty. The large, pointy stones are for men, the rounded ones for women, and the small one for kids.

And this is the Presidential Palace. There was a newer one built a few years ago on an island a few minutes away, but the current president has chosen to live here we were told.

This is their museum in Sultan Park. It was built with China Aid and hence the building reminds you a little of Chinese culture.

This is their largest mosque and one of the only ones that can be visited by tourists inside.

My favorite part is visiting the markets. In this particular one, locals were only allowed to sell local products. The dynamite looking packages are a mixture of crushed coconut and brown sugar. Really yum!

Lots and lots of bananas! Makes you think about the gigantic things we buy at the store!

Betel leaves. Good for aiding digestion apparently.

Betel nut.

Local fishermen in their boats.

More boats.

Beautiful tuna from the fish market

And finally a souvenir shop. We got some beautiful pieces from in here.

We spent about 4 hours on the island and I feel like there was a lot more to see. If we had the time I would have gladly gone back and just walked around on our own.

So thats it for the honeymoon ladies! We had a great time and would love to go back to the Maldives again at some point. Next time I post will be about the wedding! Should be getting our pro pics any day now and I can't wait!

Honeymoon Recaps - The Wildlife

2010-11-25T06:45:00.000-08:00

I don't think I have ever been to a place that had as much free-running wildlife as the Maldives! There were birds and reptiles and of course water creatures. So I thought it only fitting to give them some attention here, since both Mr. Milk and I gave them a ton of attention while we were there (what can I say, we are both animal lovers).

This grey heron really got around! We saw him everywhere. And every evening he would fly off, not sure where he was heading, but sure enough the next day he was back on the beach.

I fell in love with these little guys! They were just so adorable shuffling around in the sand, ducking their heads in their shell whenever you would walk past.

Now these ghost crabs were amazing. They would come out at dusk and spend the entire night digging holes in the sand in search for food.

It took a whole lot of patience and standing still in order to get some pics.

We were even able to capture some video of them but Mr. Milk accidentally deleted it :(

Stingrays were everywhere.

As you can see, this little guys (it was a baby stingray) was right along the shore. His eyes are even popping out of the water here.

Here's a bigger one, further into the water.

What you can see hanging onto the tree is a fruit bat! Those things are huge! It looks like a medium sized bird with bat-wings.

Here you can see it in mid-flight.

And these guys were by far my favorite. I small family of birds that hung around our villa every day. We felt like we had adopted them.

I love this photo. The mommy bird is feeding the chicks some coconut.

There was a bunch more underwater wildlife that we saw while we were snorkeling, but unfortunately we didn't have an underwater camera to capture it all. But as one of the hotel staff said, you could see the entire cast of Finding Nemo in there!

Honeymoon Recaps - My 30th Birthday

2010-11-10T06:44:00.000-08:00

One of the other reasons we decided to splurge on our honeymoon with a trip to the Maldives was that it was a double celebration. While on our trip, I would be turning 30. Some very good friends of us have a "tradition" of doing something big on big birthdays, and we really liked this idea and decided to steal it :). For Mr. Milk's 30th we took a week long trip to Kauai, and it was one of the best vacations we had.

So my day started off with a surprise from my hubby: he had arranged for a private breakfast on our patio.

While we were still sleeping, the lovely hotel staff started to set up our breakfast table outside

By the time we got up and ready, our food was out there waiting for us. We had fruit, waffles, pancakes, omelets, hashbrowns, toast, croissants and other pastries, juice, and coffee. It was delicious!

Mr. Milk had asked the staff at the hotel for some flowers, and since there is no store on the island, they arranged to have a bouquet brought over from Male (the capital) the evening before.

We spent the day by the beach and then after lunch we went for a couples treatment at the spa. We had our own over-water bungalow treatment room and both got scrubs and massages. It was so relaxing. Unfortunately we didn't take a camera so I have no pics of that :(

For dinner we went to the teppanyaki restaurant that was also over the water.

We ordered sushi to start off with...

...and then some veggies, rice, shrimp, and lobster! Our chef was great and the food was amazing!

I love how vivid these pics are!

And of course no birthday is complete without birthday cake! Mr. Milk was able to arrange to have a small chocolate cake made just for me. As you can see, I turned 2 ;)

Again, we were having such a great time with the food that we forgot to get a picture of ourselves that day! Oh well...

Honeymoon Recaps - Around the Island

2010-11-08T06:51:00.000-08:00

Like I said, our island was tiny. Mr. Milk and I spent most of our days in the Maldives being lazy! And that is exactly what we wanted! Our days therefore looked very similar (with a few exceptions): we would wake up in the morning, go down to the restaurant to have breakfast, come back to our room, change into our swimwear, grab a book and other beach necessities, and head over to our beach loungers. At some point before lunch, someone would pass by with cold towels and skewers of fresh fruit rolled in coconut, yum! Since we were staying on a half-board basis, we would grab some snacks and a drink around 2-3pm and then would have dinner at around 8pm. In the meantime we read, swam, snorkeled, walked around the island, and just spent time with each other.

So here is a selection of photos from our trip. We took about 1500 and I managed to narrow it down to about 50 for this post, and I still think some of them are repetitive! The scenery was just so stunning that we kept taking photos of it over and over and over again!

Near the bar and pool area

Towards the spa

More over-water bungalows. We thought about upgrading to one of these but loved our beach villa so much that we decided to stay put.

Dinner our first night there.

Mr. Milk's sand-art

My sand-art - our wedding date

The newlyweds :)

Waiting to watch the sunset

One of the many gorgeous sunsets we saw

Fresh coconuts right of the tree! It's great being at the right at the right time!

Mr. Milk lookin tough :)

None of these are photoshopped by the way! Just taken with a good camera.

Mr. Milk took a scuba lesson and loved it!

Another gorgeous sunset

I love how the sun looks like its melting into the ocean

On the last day I get a little photo nuts, snapping everything in site in an attempt to take a small piece of the Maldives back home with us.

Hubby

The Chill bar

The island resort opposite ours

Doesn't this look like a postcard!?

The teppanyaki restaurant we ate at a few times

What we would walk through every single day!

Honeymoon Recaps - Our Hotel

2010-11-03T06:51:00.000-07:00

Since we are waiting for the pro pics of the wedding, I figure I'll start backwards and do recaps of our honeymoon while we are waiting. As you may recall, Mr. Milk and I were super excited about our trip to the Maldives. We had wanted to go to the Maldives ever since we had seen a brochure of a hotel at a wedding show I attended back in early 2009. The photos were just magnificent. And let me tell you, the real thing does not disappoint!!

I don't think I have been to a more beautiful place in my life! The Maldives consists of about 1000 little islands spread along the Indian Ocean. Typically, each little island is a resort of its own. With nothing else there. And I mean nothing. It's just the hotel, restaurants of the hotel, the beach, sand, sun, and tourists. There are no roads, no cars, no signs, nothing. If you want to get away and relax then this is the place to be! Maldivians rely mainly of tourism for their income and thus treat tourists with a whole lot of respect. Mr. Milk and I are still amazed by the quality of service we received there! We would highly highly recommend a trip there!

Anyway, we arrived early in the morning after a red-eye flight, that actually wasn't too bad. We were upgraded to business class for the first leg of our trip, and since we were flying with Emirates, this was definitely an experience. And to start it all off right, we ordered a champagne cocktail :) Unfortunately the few pictures I took of the flight are on Mr. Milk's phone.

When we arrived in Male, the capital city/island of the Maldives, we were greeted by hotel staff who helped us with our luggage and escorted us to the speedboat that would take us to our hotel. Once on the boat we were given cold towels and drinks and we were off to the Velassaru.

The island was tiny! It took us about 15 mins to walk around it at a leisurely pace! The first night both Mr. Milk and I were thinking "what will we do here for a week! There's nothing!" It took us about a day to get over that and then we didn't want to leave!

This was the lobby of the hotel. What do you notice? NO WALLS!!

The entrance to the lobby area. That's the spa in the distance

The pool area. I love infinity pools. As you swam all you saw was the ocean.

The jetty where our boat docked to let us onto the island. We were greeted by the hotel staff and offered a non-alcoholic mojito! Delish!

The lobby at night. As you can see, the floor is covered in sand! Mr. Milk and I spent the entire week either barefoot or in flip-flops.

And this was our beach villa! Room 201. Love it!

Our bed on arrival

The rest of the room

And the best part? The outdoor bathroom! We were in love with this idea!

A close up of the outdoor shower. The resort consists of 127 villas and there is nothing taller than that so no one could peer into your bathroom.

Our porch and private garden

Our own private loungers! What a view!

Over water bungalows to the right of us and a small bar called Chill which was packed at sunset!

Our view on the left. This was definitely my idea of a relaxing holiday!

Bacheloretter Party Recap!

2010-11-01T06:52:00.000-07:00

I had an awesome time at my bachelorette party! It was so much more than I could have asked for and the ladies did an amazing job planning it all! There were a few bumps along the way, but nothing that got in the way of us having a blast!

As you may recall, we rented a villa at the same resort as we are getting married, so all the girls could be together and just hang out. Here's what our villa looked like...

Our pool. But we ended up not being able to use it cause it wasn't clean when we got there. We complained and they told us someone would come the next day. When they did, they dumped so many chemicals that we couldn't use the pool. Ironically, the pool water never cleaned up. We called the resort office and complained and they gave us a day pass to all the hotel facilities. We ended up using the hotel pool for the entire second day.

The vila from the back. It was a really nice 3 bedroom place

We were right on the golf course :)

Friday night we basically decided to stay in. Most of the girls were working and so we arrived at different times. We all brought stuff from home and had dinner at the villa.

We lit lanterns around the pool

And the girls brought me a cake decked with mini men's parts and sparklers :)

Here's me and my maid of honor

With my gifts. Lots of men's parts items: playing cards, straws, "jack in the box", and a bunch of sexy undies to go with it all

We drank, ate, laughed, drank some more, and decided that the next day would be a lazy day spent by the pool.

Who could really complain about our own pool being dirty when this was our alternative!

Lounging around in the sun, reading, chatting, and sipping cocktails! Aaa this is the life!

In the evening we had dinner reservations at an italian restaurant and we were supposed to be there at 8.30. We had fun getting ready all together. Reminded me of being in high school.

With my maid of honor and sister

Having a cocktail before we go out to dinner, or so I thought. I was a delay tactic on the girls part for what was to come...

My sister and cousin (both in the bridal party)

Again, clueless me thinking that they just want to take pics. What they were actually delaying for was...

The stripper!! They had sat me down just before he knocked on the door and started feeding me some very touching BS about how much they loved me, and that they went to some acquaintance of theirs and got a cd made of music he wrote for me and blah blah blah. At some point there was a knock on the door and I got o open, only to find a guy standing there with a police hat, sunglasses (it was 8.30 at night mind you), and t-shirt that said police on it. Not a very convincing police outfit so I was on to them right away! He said something about a noise complaint and then the music started (yes the cd that they had music written for me was actually the strippers music). Male strippers are hard to come by in Cyprus (unlike female ones) and so I thought the chances of having one were very very slim. It was a blast. He danced with all the girls and then sat down and had a drink with us at the end.

We finally made it to dinner (the girls had called and changed the reservation without my knowledge).

And then we went clubbing! As you might notice I am wearing a different dress in this pic. Thats because my colorful one in the other pics somehow managed to get a huge rip all the way down the back seam! Luckily there was something else to change into and we went back to the house after dinner!

The next day (Sunday) was a spa day. Most of us didn't sleep before 4am and we had to get up at 10am for check out. But the spa has a lovely pool so we went there early and used their facilities. Unfortunately there aren't many pics of the spa as none of us were carrying our cameras with us in our robes.

Me outside the spa

The spa pool

Some of us in the pool

Last picture of the weekend. We placed my camera on a little ledge across the entrance of the spa and set it to automatically take 3 pics. As we are waiting there, posing for the pic, my maid of honor blurts out "imagine how stupid we look to someone passing by who can't see the camera." We all thought it was hilarious, and so were the 3 pictures we took!

I really couldn't have asked for a better group of friends to have my bachelorette party with! I had a fantastic time the entire weekend!

Hi Again!

2010-10-29T06:45:00.000-07:00

Wow! I can't believe it's been a month since I lasted posted! I think thats the longest period I have been away from the blogs! I know I have missed a ton of what has been going on with you guys. Some of you are married by now too! I will do my best to catch up on your blogs, promise!

So what has been going on with us... Well we had a fabulous wedding, of course with some glitches, we enjoyed spending time with our North American friends, and we had a fantastic honeymoon in the Maldives! We have been back a couple of weeks now and Mr. Milk is very busy with work, while I have been trying to secure a job with one of the universities here. Our apartment is finally starting to feel like a home and we are even thinking of having a house-warming party in the next few weeks. All thats left to come is our bed because of some miscommunication between us, the store, and the catalogue (will explain fully) but we are hoping to have that soon as well.

We are still waiting for our pro pics so will start recaps once we get those. We got our video of the wedding and boy are we both glad we decided to get a videographer! For all of you thinking of cutting that out like we were, think again! I've seen the whole 3-4 hours of our wedding about five times till now and I can't get enough of it! The more I watch it the more I want to relive our wedding day all over again! For us the video became even more important for Mr. Milk's mom. She lost her mother 5 days before our wedding and even though she was a great sport and looked like she had a great time at the wedding, she didn't remember much and felt like she had a mask on the whole time. When she watched the dvd with us the other day, she became teary eyed several times and at the end told us that she only just realized that we got married!

Anyway, I think I will start with recaps from my bachelorette party since I never covered those, and then we'll see where we are as far as pro pics go. In the meantime, here are a few pics friends took of our day...

Mr. Milk waiting for me at the Church

During our ceremony

MARRIED

With our parents

Outside the church

Cake cutting

Cake feeding!

Toasting our guests

My beautiful centerpieces

Mr. Milk's surprise :) (more to come)

Paaaartttyyyyyy

Happy...

2010-09-26T16:33:00.001-07:00

The wedding was fantastic! It turned out to be so much more than I ever imagined! We even had our location shoot today and it was a blast! I can't wait to see our pictures (hint hint Petro ;)). It's hard to belive it's over. I thought I would feel some sadness after the event was over, kind of like the way you feel when you finish a good book, but I'm not. Of course there were some glitches along the way but nothing that couldn't be fixed. The next week will consist of showing our guests around and spending time with them. The week after that we go on our honeymoon!

Morning Ladies!!

2010-09-24T23:53:00.001-07:00

I know for most of you it's the middle of the night, but over here it's 9.30am and I'm at the hairdresser getting my hair done! So since all I have to do is sit here, I've decided to blog :) plus being distracted keeps the nerves at bay! I managed to sleep some last night which I am very surprised about. Granted I got up at 7 instead of 8 when the alarm was going to go off but big deal. So I open the door to head to the shower and there is a wrapped box in front of me. I pick it up and head to my mom's room thinking it's from my family. I open it up and it's the anniversary glass bowl from kitchenaid! I love that bowl! So I'm thinking my family has heard me talk about this so much that they went out and bought it for me. But they were clueless. So I call Mr. Milk and sure enough it's from him! I'm all giddy about the bowl and ask when we can get the mixer. He's all cool and like "oh not just yet, it's kind of pricey blah blah blah". And then I go downstairs and there it is in all it's glory!! A beautiful silver kitchenaid!! I love my hubby-to-be! About a half hour later the door bell rings. I get a delivery of a gorgeous bouquet of roses with good morning written on the outside of the card. His card brought my to tears! Which enabled my sister to win a bet that I would be the first person to cry. Who was I kidding! So anyway, now I'm getting my hair done with my best lady and one of my bridesmaids. Let's see how the rest of the day unfolds...

See You On The Other Side

2010-09-24T14:11:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow is our big day! I can't believe it! Something that felt so far away is so near! We are each at our parents homes, waiting to see each other again outside the chapel. I will try to blog or tweat a bit as the day unfolds. Right now I am going to try get some beauty sleep. As far as tomorrow goes, I can't wait to marry my Mr. Milk! Love you babe!

Sad...

2010-09-22T05:51:00.001-07:00

Mr. Milk's grandmother passed away last night. She has been in and out of the hospital the past three months or so and was 94 years old. We knew that this was a very real possibility. Mr. Milk was even planning on passing by the hospital the day of the wedding to see her.

She wasn't very responsive the past month and would just stare at you without saying a word. Her condition took a turn for the worse this past Sunday. Mr. Milk is pretty sad but I think also feels some relief that she is finally at peace. She'd had a very difficult time.

The funeral will be held on Thursday and the wedding will take place as planned. FMIL is trying to do everything in her power to make sure our wedding is affected as little as possible, and for that we are both grateful.

We Fired Our Videographer...

2010-09-21T06:34:00.000-07:00

5 days before the wedding!!!

Ok so we meet with this guy and I am on the fence from the moment I see him! Sometimes you just know! And I knew this would not work out, despite Mr. Milk's frequent attempts to assure me that things would be ok!

To begin with, we meet with this guy at his video store / ice cream parlor / semi convenience store! Professional huh? Then he goes on to tell us that during the day he works for the power company and spends saturdays doing video. Since we are meeting at his multi-functional store, you can imagine that he is getting up every 10mins or so to help a customer. It is in those times that Mr. Milk is trying to put me at ease with what we are getting ourselves into.

My first real strike was when he wanted to place a 2000watt flood light in our tiny, pretty church, staring at us! In Cyprus! With 95 degree weather! All I could picture was me in my heavy wedding dress melting away! So then he says he can reduce this to half, but can't do it without lights. That's still ridiculously hot in my book!

Then there was an issue with the time we were going to start. To cut a long story short, he wanted us to start 2 hours later than what our schedule was, and when we said that this couldn't happen, he said we would have to talk to the photographer he is contracted through to re-discuss the price. Keep in mind that we had already been upfront with both of them about the time we needed to start (because the distances between Mr. Milk's house, my house, and the venue is significant). So at this point we pause, saying that we'll need to talk to the photog in the morning, and go on to discuss what Mr. Milk and I want.

Strike three came when we were discussing our first dance. We have been to a couple of weddings recently, where the videographer was literally circling the couple with his camera as they were doing their first dance. So in essence it was the newlywed couple and the camera dude sharing this special moment! No thank you. So we go on to tell him that we don't want him on the dance floor during our first dance. He appears a little shocked but willing to comply and says he'll just focus in using the camera zoom, although this will not be equal to the effect he would get if he were closer... Oooookkkaaayyyyy. At some point later in the conversation, he comes back to this topic on his own and states that, since we want the first dance to be "private" he'll even turn off his halogen lamps. Halogen lamps??? What do you mean??? He was planning of placing those things on either side of our dance floor! So much for ambient lighting!

Well at this point he was out. Needless to say that this 20min meeting turned into an hour affair because he kept getting up to help customers. We left it saying that we would talk to the photog in the morning to figure out the time thing.

As soon as we got in the car, Mr. Milk started frantically calling a guy he had just met the previous week who have done a video thing for his work. He has never done a wedding before but Mr. Milk had liked his work, and since we weren't all that invested in having video at the wedding, we were more than willing to give him a shot. So after a few calls back and forth, everyone was in agreement AND we got a better price than what we would have been paying!

Needless to say, the next day when we called the photographer about the time situation he asked for more money. We basically said thanks but no thanks and were out of there. He didn't appear too fussed to have lost a client (i.e. he did not try to negotiate or talk it out) and we weren't bothered either because he had not asked for a downpayment!

So now we are working with two young guys who get us and what we want from our wedding day. They may be inexperienced but at least they won't make our ballroom look like an operating room and won't hold a vigil around us when we are dancing our first dance!

I've Changed My Mind...

2010-09-20T06:43:00.000-07:00

...About my shoes!

Initially I was going to wear these shoes:

As you can see, I even bought bling for them! And posted about it! But way back when we were in Montreal, I saw and fell in love with another pair of beauties. And my heart was torn! But as the days get closer, I am convinced that I will be wearing these beauties...

Here's a better view.

And like many others, I tracked down some I Do stickers and stuck them on the soles...

Obviously I will make sure to get a much better pic of the shoes and the "I Do" on the actual day with our wonderful photographer!

So what do you think? Good change or not so much?

Our Wedding Song

2010-09-16T06:49:00.000-07:00

Mr. Milk and I are not one of those lucky couples that have a song. Choosing a wedding song has been a long process, which involved trying to find something that wasn't overly romantic and sappy, but that had a fun feeling to it. I really liked this song...

But clearly the lyrics are not for a wedding! But then we came across this...

Everything by Michael Buble

We both like the lyrics and the fact that its a more up-beat, happy song. Now all we need to do is figure out how to dance to it! I think a dance class is in order...

Hair Trials

2010-09-15T06:50:00.000-07:00

In the past 2 weeks I have had 3 hair trials. Each one lasts about 2 hours and other than this last one today, they have gone well.

You might recall that I had an impromptu hair trial while back in Vancouver, with the friend that used to cut my hair. I just explained to her what I wanted and she came up with what you see in those pics. I was very happy with it! I took these photos and this Carrie Underwood one...

...and explained to the stylist what I wanted. The first trial was more of a "get-to-know-my-head" session. He played around with my hair, not really making anything solid, but trying to get an idea of what would look good. This is how it turned out...

The back I liked but the front, well, not so much.

Here it is from the other side.

Like I said it was very casually taken up so he could get a sense of things. Neither he nor I were happy with the front, of which I don't have a picture to show you, but it did nothing for me. So a week later when I went back, I asked him to make the curls thicker (which he had already thought of) and to make it neater and more compact. He took my hair up much easier and quicker the second time around, giving us more time to play with the front. And here's what we came up with

As you can see, its a little neater and, I think, more elegant looking than the first trial

I took my flower clip to try out too and loved the way it looked!

Again I don't have a good picture of the front, but he took my now too-long bangs and swept them back and slightly to the side. I was really happy with how the overall style turned out, and was happy stopping there with the trials. He wanted to try one more though and so I went back today. This is all I have to share:

Me looking like something out of star wars! hahaha

I didn't take any pictures of this last trial because I didn't like the style at all. It was too pulled back, too tight, and gave me a headache. So as things stand, I am going with the style he created during the second trial. I am very happy with it and hopefully all will go well with recreating it on the actual day!

Fingers crossed!

Welcome Baskets

2010-09-14T11:13:00.000-07:00

For our international guests, I decided to... hang on a sec. International guests! GO AWAY! You can find out whats in the darn baskets when you get here!
As I was saying, I decided to add a number of treats, some water, and some information on what there is to do on the island.

For snacks I added a bag of salted lays, a packet of mixed nuts and raisins, a bag of pretzels, a granola bar, 2 bars of chocolate, and a packet of thin, plain cookies. I figured these were things that were easily transportable, and they could take them on trips they'll take on their own as well.

Here's what the look like for the time being:

Sorry about the grainy pics, they're from my phone. I am planning on adding a personalized note to each one, and also making a small welcome sign, in our wedding colors, that will be tied around the front of the basket, just to make it a little prettier.

What do you guys think? Anything else you would add?

We Have Marriage License!

2010-09-13T07:44:00.001-07:00

This weekend Mr. Milk and I went down to the church office to get our marriage license. And as is customary, here is our pic

Make-up Trial Part One

2010-09-10T06:37:00.001-07:00

Just had my first makeup trial and it went great. The beautician, Elli, was very cooperative and receptive to my feedback. She loves what she does and is willing to have as many trials as I want till we get it right. Today we started out with shades of purple. Although I love the colors and the look, I'm going to wait to see more before committing. Here's some pics for you to see, although keep in mind that I took them myself with the iPhone :) Feedback welcome

And here's a close up of the eye makeup

So what do you ladies think? How many trials did it take before you knew what you wanted? 15 days to go!!!

Let The Fun Begin!!!

2010-09-03T06:25:00.000-07:00

I am off to my bachelorette weekend today!! I can't tell you how excited I am! Three days of lounging in a gorgeous villa, by the pool, at the spa, and spending the evenings with good friends, good food, and perhaps a wild night out!

While I am in the dark about the details of the weekend, I know that my gals have some fun plans up their sleeves. I will be taking plenty of pictures to share with you all!

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Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

Wedding Favors

2010-09-02T06:44:00.000-07:00

If you are attending our wedding, you need to go away right now!! This post is NOT for your eyes!! I still want some things to be a surprise! Thx, ok, goodbye!

If you are a guest and clicked on the read more button, you are in trouble!!!

Hi ladies! :) I have been dying to share our wedding favors with you all!! I am getting soooo fed up of this no internet business! Luckily one of our neighbors has not password protected their wireless and every now and again I have some access and can read your blogs!

I decided a loooooong time ago that I wanted edible favors. I wanted something our guests could enjoy and not have to figure out what to do with. Non-edible favors are just not for me. I generally don't like receiving them and so don't want to give them (no offense to those who went down this path, its just a personal preference).

So needless to say, the whole time I was thinking about what these should be, I kept coming back to the idea of chocolate. Shocking I know! :) The problem with chocolate in Cyprus is the damn temperature! Its so hot here, even in late September, that everyone was concerned that bars of chocolate or truffles would just melt. Another problem is that its difficult to find good quality chocolate here. And as yours truly is a chocolate and food snob, this was becoming an obstacle. That is, until my wonderful hubby-to-be swooped in and saved the day!!

Mr. Milk has wanted me to check out a relatively new patisserie here in Nicosia, from which he had tried chocolate pralines while we were here last Christmas. When we finally got around to going together I was over the moon! Here are some pics from the place just so you get an idea

Look at all those savory pies (drool)

All photos from Kalopesas

But the highlight came when we walked into his store and saw these...

Lava cakes!!! Individual ones!!! Made with some of my favorite chocolate on the planet: Valrhona

You can't imagine how excited I was! We set up an appointment with the owner to see if he could make a bulk order and what the price would be. We ironed out the details and my desire became a reality. These little beauties will be placed in gold-ish wedding favor bags along with an individual sized bottle of this:

A Rose wine from Portugal.

Wine and chocolate! What else could a gal want! Obviously some people don't like chocolate and others don't like wine, but we can't please everyone, and we are ok with that.

Bachelorette Party!!

2010-08-26T06:48:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned earlier, my bachelorette party will take place at the same resort as the one we are getting married at. We looked at many options with the ladies, and this was not only the best value for money but also the one that would be the most fun since we are renting a 3 bedroom villa with a private pool for 3 days!! Not only will we all get to hang out together during the day and laze around by the pool, but we get to have a slumber party like we did when we were younger! I love girls weekends!

The villa could look something like this (click to enlarge)

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Or like this:

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Or this:

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The ladies are planning things that they are not informing me about, and while I usually hate knowing that there is something being planned without knowing details, I am excited about this one! We will be away from the 3rd of September till the 5th. There is a spa at the hotel as well and I plan on relaxing there and getting some body treatments! Mr. Milk is going away with the boys the same weekend, but he is going to Budapest!

I promise to take plenty of pictures to share with you ladies!

Where did you ladies have your bachelorette parties? Or where are you planning on having it?

One Month To Go!!

2010-08-25T06:49:00.000-07:00

OMG!!!!! I can't believe that there is only ONE month left till the wedding! I have absolutely no idea where the time has gone and we still have a bunch of things left to do. But OMG!

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We still have invitations to give out and flowers to sort out and favors to purchase and the music list for the dj, but I think these are the big things that are left! Oh I also need to book make-up trials with the esthetician and go get a facial or two! The rest are taken care of I think. I'm sure we'll think of other things along the way that need to get done.

I will apologize in advance for my absence in the next weeks. Not only do we not have internet, which makes it sooooooo difficult to keep in touch with you all, but there will be a lot of running around for the wedding. I hope you will bare with me!