Tag Archives: party

americano…..

15 Jan

new citizen

its been a long time coming, 8 years in the making to be exact. but the day has finally come!!!!!

my handsome husband is officially an american citizen!

hooray!!!!!!

it was a proud day for the both of us. starting with a small ceremony at the court-house,

with some inspirational speakers that made for a memorable day.

so over the weekend to celebrate this great honor, i decided to throw an all american party,

including, sliders, hotdogs, all the traditional sides,

an american flag cake, root beer floats, and some of our lovely guests brought

apple pie and donuts.

doesn’t get much more american than that.

we couldn’t be more thankful for all the people who shared in our celebration,

and i couldn’t be more proud of my husband

carmine giuseppe conte! aka:husby

the americano!!!!

thanks everyone, we love you!

envelope #8! coincidence? i think not!it's not our lucky number for nothing.

envelope #8! coincidence? i think not!
it’s not our lucky number for nothing.

happy

proud

congratzburgers n dogssilly stringsilly stringsilly string

root beer floats

with the ladies

peace

flag cake

celebrate

a birthday… oh yeah, and a wedding thrown in too, surprise!!!

19 Sep

talk about throwing something together last-minute,  and by last-minute i mean about 40 hours before.

so on friday afternoon i get a message from my brother’s girlfriend nikki, asking when i would be alone to talk about some very classified information. as luck would have it, i was free at that very moment. (thank goodness…. less than 40 hours to prepare would have been nuts)  so she came over with this grin on her face, that only a little kid would have when you know they have a secret, like stealing a cookie or something. she prefaced the conversation by making me swear with one hand over my heart, that i would not tell a soul what she was about to divulge to me. and with that, she blurted out, ” me and your brother want to get married this sunday!” i smiled from ear to ear and said, “WHAT?????!!!!!”  i think we even did a little party dance too. ( it’s hard to remember the details at such an exciting moment, lol!) so  since nikki had already planned a full weekend of birthday fun for my brother, everyone was already set to be at their house on sunday for a bbq. with no spare time for her to plan the surprise wedding of the year, she looked no further then your truly to do the planning.  for anyone who knows me, you know that party planning and weddings, and any gathering for that matter is my most favoriteist thing in life!  so i was definitely up for the challenge. luckily i had saved a substantial amount of stuff from my own wedding, so there was little to buy, but much to do. to throw into the mix of things, i also had a work meeting that night and a full book at the salon the next day, so the small window of time that i and to decorate was going to be saturday night after work. we’re talking about 5 hours to be exact. along with the help of my mother, i blew up balloons, hung paper lanterns, arranged flowers, lined up chairs, fluffed tulle, and streamered everything else. all that was left to do was waiting to reveal the secret to everyone else the next day. the day had arrived and  everyone started to show up as expected, but as the anticipation started to rise in mimmo and nikki, they didn’t want to wait any longer, and asked me to deliver the exciting news.  so i gathered everyone into the kitchen.  i started by saying how we had all come together to celebrate mimmo’s birthday, but that wasn’t the only reason we were here! nikki raised her left hand revealing the engagement ring that mimmo had proposed to her with just the night before. the room went crazy with excitement!! it took me a minute to quite them all done, just long enough to say, but that’s still not the only reason we are all here ….. we are also having a wedding…… TODAY!!!! no one could believe it. we drew open the blinds to reveal the decorated backyard, and the reality was starting to settle in. the excitement and tears in the room was overwhelming. our friend nina performed a sweet little ceremony and we partied the night away! it truly was a perfect day and a perfect little wedding. we are couldn’t be happier to be a part of this special day, and even more happy to have nikki officially join our family ( which of course she always has been because she’s the amazing mother of my amazing nephew) congratualtions you guys, we love you

xoxo, gina and giuseppe!! 

oh yeah, happy birthday too! (i almost forgot with all this excitement)

her’s some pictures of the birthday/wedding day bliss!!

a game of dice…..

14 Sep

So every first thursday of the month, me and 11 other girls get together to play a dice game called bunco. the only problem with this game, is that it requires a little focus and therefore, leaves little time to talk. you can imagine that when you get 12 girls together, the main thing they are interested in is of course, talking!  so let’s just say, we take a little longer to plan than most people. september was my month to host, which mean you provide the food and booze for that month. here’s a little look at bunco night at my house!!

let the games begin….

the last supper…

3 Sep

i imagine that when you’re pregnant, time seems to go by very slow, and it’s not until the very end, that it seems to come too fast. i say this because my dear friend genevieve is going through just that. what seemed to be months and months of her being pregnant, has now turned into just days remaining. so things that someone would usually treat as something grand , loses its importance when compared to the arrival of a baby. and by grand, i mean birthdays! genevieve just wanted a simple dinner with her family, but in my head i was thinking, this could be “the last supper” pre baby, pre chaos and just all together for that matter. so i turned the  simple dinner into balloons, confetti and sparklers!! here’s some pics of genevieve’s grand  birthday!!

happy birthday genevieve!!!

… a shower …

1 Aug

i can’t think of a better way to celebrate the growth of a new life then with a shower, and that’s exactly what we did this past weekend.  my dear friend genevieve is a little less then 8 weeks away from meeting the newest addition to her family, and if the anticipation of this little ones arrive wasn’t enough, the lovely couple has decided to keep the sex of the baby a surprise. ahhhhh!!! what a lovely shower we did have though.  the natural and organic theme was the perfect backdrop to this sweet little party.

some of my favorite moments of the day:

  1. the birthday wishes filled out by each guest, to be opened each year on the babies birthday
  2. genevieve asking how she will know what nipples to use with what bottle and when
  3. listening to everyones reactions to the impossibly perfect baby room
  4. the table scape that housed the most charming party favors
  5. all the itsy bitsy baby clothes that i can’t wait to see on this secret little baby
  6.  the nap i got that afternoon after three days of preparing what i think was the most inspired shower i’ve ever seen

our dear friends and the happy expecting couple

the charming favors i was talking about. little tree’s to plant and watch grow, as their little one grows

the spread

this is the cake i practiced for at my birthday.

ombre

see the birthday ombre cake here

thanks genevieve for letting me help you and your family throw an amazing shower,

and for allowing me to blog about it!!!

…..

… and now, a room just for baby …

…soiree…

12 Jun

…..

sunday afternoon we celebrated my birthday with family and close friends.

we had what one friend called, “adult kid food”

pizza, coonies (pork and veal hot dogs), fruit cups, and of course birthday cake!

(there was much more, we’re italian, so we always over do it)

it was really nice just relaxing outside on what turned out to be the most perfect day.

the kiddos played on a mini water slide, while the adults chit chatted on cozy patio furniture.

we finished the evening with card games and scrabble.

(genevieve kicked our butts)

i am so thankful for having such an amazing family and friends, and i could not imagine sharing my special day with anybody else.

… just wish my mom could have been there…

so thank you to all who came to celebrate with me.

i love you guys!!

…..

bacon wrapped dated made by genevieve

panzanella salad

ombre birthday cake made my me and genevieve