My Best Friend's Wedding in Punta Cana (Part II)

Hello ladies and gents,

Here I am with part II of my short but phenomenal 4 day vacation a couple of weeks ago. Check out Part I if you missed it.

Today I am sharing the pics of the days prior to the wedding-- including a fun night clubbing (our first night at the resort) and bridal shower the day after (when we moved to the nicer resort). And here you have it.

First day shenanigans-

Getting our first drink at the bar:

Picture by the beach at night (before getting ready for dinner + partying):

Getting "warmed up":

Cheers!

Asked the bartender to take this picture before all 'hell' broke loose (kidding):

The next day I woke up as early as possible to enjoy the day. Had some breakfast and then went for a nice walk by the beach. These pics dont do it justice. Day was absolutely gorgeous:

Finally we packed our bags and moved over to the other hotel where the wedding was taking place (if you are wondering why we switched hotels, we were able to get a better deal by breaking it up between two places):

We then proceeded to attend the bridal shower (soooo much fun):

Lejla (the bride) made these lip scrubs for all the girls. Loved it.

Table filled with delicious cookies made by the maid of honor (Lejla's sisiter) and some blue M&Ms. My sweet tooth was doing back flips it was so happy. 

The bride and I.

Lets just say she got lingerie to last her until her 20th wedding anniversary.

Here is a sneak peak- the most "decent" item she got. Ha! :) (everything was so beautiful and delicate):

More pictures with the girls:

Now all I need is the fiance (universe, are you listening? :)...)

After the bridal shower we went over to check out our new room. I fell in love! The decor was super cute and everything felt so fancy and nice (huge difference from the first resort, however, this place was also a lot more expensive). This was at NOW Larimar:

After we relaxed and rested for a bit, it was time to head over to the rehearsal dinner.

The wedding activities took place in about 2 days so everything was kind of back to back. We didn't mind thought. All activities fell perfectly in to place.

Random selfies on our way to the dinner:

The gorgeous bride:

If you ever go to the Dominican Republic make sure you try Mama Juana. You're welcome.

Couple of pictures after the delicious dinner (sorry no food photos. Was too busy getting to know the other guest but i believe I had a ymmy salmon dish):

After the dinner we all lounged near one of the bars and had some drinks with some nice music in the background. Shortly after midnight we all agreed to go back to our rooms and relax for the next day-- the wedding day!!!

To be continued...

Tell me, have you ever tried Mama Juana? can you take a wild guess of what it is? :)

Love,

Mabelle

Celebrating Birthdays: Dinner at GoodFellas, L.E.S (NYC)

One of my closest/best friends Dr. Lopez celebrated a “milestone” birthday last week and I just wanted to share some of the happenings of her day. As per her request, we had a “low key” celebration consisting of happy-hour wine and dinner at this amazing spot down by the Lower East Side which I will elaborate more on below. Before meeting for wine, she had an eventful day consisting of a nice massage and cupcake-shopping (yes there is such a thing! ha!). She got herself a dozen cupcakes from a popular spot downtown (cant remember the name) but check these out:

 

There were called "banana boat" flavor or something like that. I have no idea. All I know is that I got' a taste, died, went to heaven and came back. I was going to "save" it for next day but I nearly inhaled it that never happened. And yea, by the way--- it was so hot that day that the poor icing was melting so that's why they look a little "off". And, dont panic! she bought the cupcakes to share  with friends and family not all for her. Not that there's anything wrong with that. 

***

After my shift at jail work ended, I met up with her sister, and her sister’s husband to continue the celebration. Just a quick recap on our friendship: I mentioned this recently on the blog but I’ve known this girl since freshman year of high school. She was part of my “high school clique”. We then ended up going away to college very close to each other which kinda’ made us each other’s “support system”. 

We’ve been through so many ups and downs and pretty much several “friendship cycles”: periods of being tied to the hip and periods of not talking to each other for months! We knew each other before first kisses, first dates, first heartbreaks, first crushes, first real jobs, career changes, coming of age events and everything in between. We know too much about each other to ever be enemies LOL (joking). Anyways, I love this girl to death and she is definitely in my “friend for a lifetime” list (if there is such a thing!).

So, after having some nice wine at a nice spot called "Inoteca" we then walked over to the restaurant portion of the night: A placed called “Goodfellas “. It was my first time there and it was recommended by my friend’s sister. We were immediately served some complementary (and yummy) olive-oil and nice Italian bread while we chatted and browsed the menu:

I  made up my mind to go for something I would truly enjoy (not something that simply looked “healthy” which is what I am used to doing). After a whole lot of browsing I opted for the veggie delight pizza topped with fresh mozzarella, plum tomato, broccoli, zucchini, and seasoned mushrooms..

…O.M.G. What a delight! I knew I made the right choice as soon as I took the first bite. Out of habit, I am used to “blotting” my pizza with a napkin before eating it but I immediately realize there was no blotting necessary. The pizza had absolutely zero “random grease” hanging around (for lack of a better word) and was simply topped with delicious cheeses, mushrooms, and other veggie-type delicatessens. No complaints.

It looks big but it was more of a "personal size" pie. I ate a little less than half of this rich and satisfying dish and paired it up with some cool chardonnay. It was perfect. I took the rest to go for lunch/dinner the next day. I also had a taste of my friend’s chicken parm with penne which was also to die for. Cant wait to go back that spot!

As it is tradition with all birthdays, we embarrassed her with a loud and obnoxious happy-birthday chant and then we enjoyed a nice slice of cheesecake on the house:

Also amazing. 

And here we are (bday girl is the one on the left):

 

Cheers to life-long friendships, delicious food and delicious-looking restaurant owners! By the way, our server (which apparently was also the owner) was super nice and super HOT. Did I mention hot? like, model hot? ok. I'm done :D

Tell me--- whats your favorite Italian restaurant and/or Italian dish?

Hungover on a Wednesday

Random side note: this is post number 275^th! Ive always had an affinity with the number 5 or multiples of 5. Just thought u should know ;)

So, Hello blog world!

This morning I woke up feeling like I had spent the last week drinking and wondering whether it was Saturday or Sunday. When my alarm went off I was immediately smacked in the face with the cruel reality that it is only Wednesday and I have a job so off I went to get ready.

Why the hangover status? Well, last night I went to dinner with a really good friend of mine. Lets call him Mr. R; Hi R! J. We went to one of my favorite places:

It is a tex-mex/Mexican spot with affordable food and super strong drinks. I ended up drinking 1.5 cups of something they like to call “the white flower” which is a mix of white wine sangria and some sort of alcohol that may or may not include tequila. I had to share the 2^nd half of my 2^nd drink with my friend because it was just too much. For food I had a “Mexican chicken wrap” which was amazing. I also had a salad on the side. I love Mexican food no matter how you slice it! I got caught up in the conversation and drinks and forgot to take a picture. Sorry!

My friend and I talked about everything under the sun (as usual) and then somehow managed to walk out of the place without falling on our way to the door. Fun times for sure! That’s one thing I really enjoy about our friendship—we can chat about anything, act silly and then pretend we are normal after all that. Haha

(Random note: my friend found my blog by mistake last year and this is one of his infamous comments about it: “You are very photogenic”  (huh? What is that supposed to mean? Lol)

Anyways, I managed to make it home around 12 ish. Thankfully my favorite bus driver was on shift and dropped me off right on the corner of my apartment (not an official bus stop). He is always super nice. I hope he didn’t notice my drunken status when I suddenly got up and asked if he minded leaving me “at the corner”. He jokingly (or half joking?) offered to drop me off in front of my building. That would have been pretty hilarious.  

Yesterday was day 2 of my “30 day shred” Jillian workout DVD series. I have to say the first day was rough but I am getting used to the workouts and once again loving her exercises. You know you are doing something right when you actually see results on your body. I was also super excited to know she’s back on the biggest loser. I am such a big fan of hers now!

So the last couple of days I’ve been having overnight oats (inspired by my Greek yogurt expiration date of 12/31). I had an empty peanut butter jar which I used yesterday. No jar for today so I used a regular container for this morning’s breakfast.

Today:

 

Either way, soo good! I added raisins and cinnamon to the mixture. I also had my café w/ soy milk. Can’t go wrong with the Greeks for breakfast.

…And here’s today’s work outfit/accessories:

H&M cardigan, express skirt, NY&C bracelet, regular black shoes/print stockings.



Happy Hump Day!

Question: Have you ever been to a Blockheads? Do you like Mexican food?

Dried Meat and Card To a Friend

Happy Humpday everyone! Im super excited today because my office is putting up xmass decorations. My favorite holiday is the Christmas season (Beginning with Thanksgiving Day—which I consider part of the season) and my favorite day of every year is December 31^st! I am pretty sure I’ve mentioned this more than once since I started the blog but just in case anyone forgot!

Also, we get to dress down at the office until the end of November so this is what I am wearing today:

Yesterday was busy as usual. I had work and then class until 8:45 which meant I got home close to 10 ish. I wanted a quick dinner so I reached for my favorite item: sweet potato. I had some left over from the other day. I quickly sliced it and placed it in the oven while I put my pre-made tilapia and a piece of left over turkey in my little oven. In the meantime I went to take a quick shower and began doing something on the computer that by the time I removed my fish and turkey from the over it was super dry!!! Have you ever over-heated meat to point of it borderline getting burnt? Well, that’s what happened. Thankfully my sweet potatoes were okay. Dinner overall was good and satisfying. No complaints.

Yesterdays Elf4Health challenge was to send a handwritten card to someone. I choose my friend Ana whom ive known since high school. She has two kids, is a part time grad student AND works full time. I have no clue how she does it but whenever I feel like school is too much and I want to give up, I think of her. Despite the lack of communication at times; whenever we reunite is like time never passed. She is one of those friends that falls in to the “lifetime” category. Love ya Anita.

This was placed in the mail this morning:

…Oh yeah, and this is what happens when you try to multi-task while painting your nails:

Lesson Learned. Thankfully I was able to save my floor!!!

Enjoy the rest of you day!

Question: Whats your favorite holiday? Im still searching for boots by the way!