Thank you!

We did it! Finally, married!

Yesterday was an amazing day! It was full of love and happiness and we are so thankful to everyone who was there to help us celebrate, especially all of you who flew in from the mainland. We could feel all of the love and support from our guests. If you'd like to see a few photos from yesterday, log on to Instagram and search #meaganandpete62213. 

We'd like to send a special thanks to Waynette, our wedding coordinator, who helped us pull everything together over the last couple of weeks. She is the reason why everything went so smoothly yesterday and we are so grateful!

We'd also like to thank Edee who made all of the beautiful bouquets and gorgeous table arrangements. I am so impressed with what she came up with when all I told her was to use tropical flowers and greens and to have pops of color, such as orange, yellow and pink. I could not have been happier with the outcome!

Thank you to the members of our wedding party: Spike, Lauren, Leigh and Mollee. They all traveled from the mainland to be a part of our special day. We appreciate your love and support and for everything you all did to help make our wedding day so memorable.

We'd also like to thank Brandon and Brent for being our ushers and greeting our guests at the church. Thanks also to Uncle Ed and Uncle Dave for giving the readings. Your participation meant a lot to us!

Thanks to Fr. Gary for presiding over our ceremony and for giving a beautiful homily. We also appreciate your counsel over the last couple of years.

I'd like to thank Natalie for doing such an amazing job with hair and make-up for me, my mom and my bridesmaids. Your work is gorgeous!

Thank you to our photographer, Christie, for capturing the special moments (big and small). We had so much fun working with you and we can't wait to see the photos!

Thanks also to Manoa Productions for filming our ceremony, as well as the special details throughout the day. We look forward to seeing the finished product!

A special thank you to the Flipbooks Hawaii and InstaBooth Hawaii teams for helping make our reception so much fun. Our guests really enjoyed your interactive booths. The flipbooks and photos were the perfect favors!

Last, but certainly not least, a HUGE thank you to our parents: Sterling & Joy and Jay & Kathy. Yesterday would not have been possible without you. We love you and we are so excited to officially be part of each other's families!

Much Love,

M & P

Friendly Reminders for Visitors!

Aloha!

We're very excited to see our guests beginning to arrive! We realize that many of you will be utilizing rental cars to get around the island, and we wanted to take this opportunity to give you some friendly guidance on the maybe-not-so-familiar traffic laws of the state of Hawaii. Many of these rules are in place in most states across the mainland, but they are very strictly enforced here on the island:

1) It is illegal to talk or text on your phone while driving.

2) All people who are riding in a vehicle must be wearing a seat belt. It is a $95 fine PER PERSON not wearing a seat belt. This includes those riding in the back seats.

3) When making a turn at an intersection and there are pedestrians in the crosswalk, you must wait until all pedestrians are out of the half of the crosswalk that corresponds to your lane. This is also a $95 fine.

4) Jay-walking. There are out-of-uniform policeman on many street corners (particularly Waikiki), that wait to corral groups of people who jay-walk and will issue tickets to everyone in the group.

5) My favorite (not really!): Unless you are in imminent danger of hitting someone or being hit, it is illegal to blow your horn. For instance, if someone is in front of you at a traffic light and they just sit when the light turns green, you can't blow your horn at them. Bummer ;)

TRAFFIC IN HONOLULU. Generally you should allow yourself about 15-30 minutes in addition to how long it would normally take as noted by Google Maps. Traffic is generally very congested at most times of the day, particularly on the H-1 freeway, King Street, Beretania Street, and Kapiolani Boulevard. Additionally, Kalakaua Avenue, which is the main street that runs through Waikiki, is particularly busy this time of year and there are lots of pedestrians who are out and about.

If anyone has any questions, please do not hesitate to ask us. We are looking forward to seeing everyone in the coming days, and we hope you have a pleasant flight into the island.

Also, don't forget to TAKE PICTURES of your trip here and your adventures while you are here. Remember that you can upload your pictures to Instagram when taking pictures with your smart phone and tag the photos with the hash tag: #meaganandpete62213 
When you arrive at our reception on Saturday, you will be able to view all of the photos that have been marked with our hash tag and you will able to select photos to print right there on the spot.

Mahalo and see you soon!

Hawaii Must-Eats

While we know that some people are more adventurous eaters than others, we hope that our mainland guests will have an open mind about food. Try something new, you never know, you may end up with a new favorite dish! We have added a tab to this blog called "Must-Eats" and we hope that you will try some of our favorite restaurants. Hawaii has a lot of multi-cultural food, but you can also find great American restaurants too. If you need any more tips or advice about food definitely let us know!

I am dedicating this post to my grandpa, who passed away on Friday. I miss him already and I know that he will be missed even more on our wedding day, but I take comfort in knowing that he will be watching us from heaven with all of our other grandparents. I like to think that they will be having their own party that day as we celebrate.

Over the last 10 years since I've moved to the mainland, my trips home have been filled with many delicious meals with Gramps. He loved taking my sister and I out to eat at restaurants where we got to enjoy all of our favorite local style food. He also loved to insist that we save room for dessert. And how could we resist? Tempura ice cream at Noboru in Kailua was one dessert he enjoyed watching us eat, while he savored his two scoops of green tea ice cream.

When Gramps first met P, he was curious to see how P would handle some of Hawaii's more exotic dishes. Much to his surprise and delight, P is an adventurous eater. One of my favorite memories was the first time Gramps took P to Genki Sushi and dared him to eat the sushi with squid on top. P loved it and Gramps was thrilled! He was amazed that P tried the sushi with absolutely no hesitation. Gramps also marveled at the amount of food P consumes during any given meal.

Meals with Gramps were always so much fun and we will miss going out to eat with him. Every time we visit one of his favorite restaurants, we will think of him and all the times he took us there. We will cherish those memories forever.

Gramps, thanks for taking us to all of your favorite restaurants where we enjoyed such ono food! We love you and miss you!

<3,
M & P

Gramps & me

Enjoying his mochi ice cream

Yum, mochi ice cream!

Genki Sushi

Another Milestone Achieved!

I'm so happy and proud to announce that P has graduated with his MBA! 2 years of hard work has certainly paid off. We are so excited to move to Cincinnati this summer, where P will be working for Procter & Gamble.

P and his proud parents 

Soon-to-be Family

Let the hashtagging begin!

Yesterday we posted our first 2 Instagram photos using our hashtag (#meaganandpete62213)! I have my Instagram account linked to my Facebook account so most of you probably saw the photos with the hashtag on my FB timeline. We are looking forward to documenting our journey over the next several weeks. If you have an Instagram account, you should follow us (mnyee and pjs2765)!

We are so excited about everything we have planned over the next 4 weeks. P graduates with his MBA this weekend. We've been having so much fun participating in all of the grad week events that the business school planned. 

Friday, May 17th

There was a kickoff event at the Ithaca Farmers Market. We had dinner on the water and enjoyed hanging out with friends. 

Dinner on the water!

Saturday, May 18th

We had dinner with a friend who is from Italy. He gave us some great recommendations about things to do and see while on our honeymoon. He is so excited that we get to spend a week in his country and we are so grateful for his advice.

Sunday, May 19th

We went to one of the MBA hang-out spots, a bar called Level B. Most people were still recovering from the pub crawl from the night before (which we ended up skipping), but we had fun enjoying a drink with those who showed up. 

Monday, May 20th

We went on a cruise on Cayuga Lake. It was so nice to be on the water and the weather was perfect! 

Enjoying the sunshine!

The MBA uniform, apparently

Tuesday, May 21st

We went on a winery tour to 4 wineries and a distillery. I'll be honest, we were both a little disappointed with the wines. Too many of them were way too sweet! Our first stop of the tour was to a distillery, which was one of P's favorite stops because he got to taste whiskey and brandy. The other stop that we both really enjoyed was Wagner, where we not only tasted wine, but also some beer. The beer was much better than the wine. 

Wine Tasting Group!

I am not a fan of grappa

P at the distillery

Wagner Winery and Brewery

Wednesday, May 22nd

Last night was the semi-formal dance. Everyone took advantage of the free drinks and the dancing and partying went all night. It was so much fun! 

All dressed up for the semi-formal

Today we are taking a much needed break and just chilling at home. Tomorrow is the last event of grad week, the Dean's Brunch, hosted by the Dean at Cornell Plantations. It'll be a nice way to cap off what has been a great week! Saturday is the Johnson School graduation ceremony and Sunday is the University graduation ceremony. We can't believe how quickly the last 2 years have gone by! This year, especially, has seemed to just fly by.

After graduation we plan to spend a few days in NYC before heading to back Pittsburgh for a few days. Then we're off to Honolulu to begin the wedding festivities! Stay tuned as we get closer to the big day. And as you begin to prepare for your trip to Hawaii remember to take photos and upload them to Instagram (or Twitter) with our hashtag!

<3,

M 

An Interactive Wedding Activity: #meaganandpete62213

The information in this post is relevant to all of our wedding guests, regardless of whether you will be joining us in Hawaii or not. So even if you will not be joining us in Hawaii, please read this post.

We are so excited and thrilled to announce that we will be having InstaBooth Hawaii at our wedding! It is a brand new photo booth company. Many of you probably have not heard of InstaBooth Hawaii, so let me give you a quick summary.

InstaBooth Hawaii is a locally owned photo booth company. It's actually owned by the same great people who own Flipbooks Hawaii. They offer a photo booth with a modern twist. Take photos on your smartphone or tablet. Use Instagram or your favorite photo editing app to edit your photos and upload them with our unique hashtag to Instagram or Twitter. Then visit the touch screen monitor kiosk that will be set up at our reception to view a slideshow of all uploaded photos (including those taken by other guests). Select your favorite photos and print them right there on the spot! You will be able to print as many photos as you want. We think that this is SO cool and we are extremely excited to have InstaBooth Hawaii at our wedding. For more detailed information, click here to visit the InstaBooth Hawaii website or click here to watch the Hawaii News Now Sunrise segment featuring the company.

How to get started:

1. Photos need to be taken on a smartphone (such as an iPhone) or tablet (such as an iPad). If you don't have any of these types of devices, InstaBooth Hawaii will have 2 iPad Minis that can be signed out and used during the reception.

2. You need to have an Instagram or Twitter account. One or the other will suffice, you do not need both. If you don't have an account with either company, we suggest getting an Instagram account. Both services are free.

3. To create an Instagram account, visit www.instagram.com.

4. During the wedding reception, make sure that your Instagram and/or Twitter privacy settings are set to "Public" so that your photos can be uploaded to the InstaBooth Hawaii server. Once all your photos have been uploaded, you can change your privacy settings back to your normal settings.

And now the really important information:

1. Our unique hashtag is: #meaganandpete62213

Spelling matters, so make sure you spell my name correctly! When uploading your photos to Instagram or Twitter include our hashtag in the photo caption. The InstaBooth Hawaii software uses the hashtag to identify the photos that are associated with our wedding, so it is extremely important that you include this hashtag and that it is spelled correctly.

Below is an example of a photo I recently uploaded to Instagram. Notice I wrote a caption ("Cayuga Lake cruise!") and ended the caption with some hashtags (#cayugalake #ithaca #mbagradweek).

2. For those of you who are traveling from the mainland, we would love it if you would start taking photos as you begin to prepare for your trip. For example, packing beach essentials or wedding essentials or boarding your flight, etc. Upload the photos to Instagram or Twitter and remember to use our hashtag (#meaganandpete62213).

3. In addition to taking photos during our big day, we encourage you to take photos during any events leading up to the big day and upload these photos to Instagram or Twitter with our hashtag (#meaganandpete62213). For example, photos from our rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, or bachelor/bachelorette parties.

4. For guests who are unable to join us in Hawaii, we don't want you to feel left out and would love to have you take a photo of yourself (doing whatever it is you may be doing on the day of our wedding) and share it with us on Instagram or Twitter by using our hashtag (#meaganandpete62213). In order for us to be able to view it on the InstaBooth kiosk you will need to have your Instagram and/or Twitter privacy settings set to "Public". Hawaii is 6 hours behind east coast time, so you may want to keep your settings public until the morning of June 23rd to give us enough time to download your photos. Alternatively, if you do not want your account to be public for that long, you can email your photos to the InstaBooth Hawaii Event email account.

We hope that you will help us collect as many memories as we can from our wedding and the week leading up to it. If you have any questions or concerns about InstaBooth or how to upload your photos with our hashtag please let us know. We'd be happy to walk you through the process.

Happy Instagramming and hashtagging (#meaganandpete62213)! We look forward to seeing our big day and the events leading up to it through your eyes!

<3,
M

Fitness Friday

From the Pure Barre Cincinnati Facebook Page

With the big day quickly approaching, I have really started to feel the pressure to maintain my fitness routine. I'll have to be honest, moving to Ithaca originally threw me for a loop and my fitness and eating habits changed drastically. One of the things I missed most about IU was my student access to the gym and group exercise classes. P and I have been pretty good about going to the gym regularly, but I missed the fun and challenge of the group exercise classes.

Some of the women I met here in Ithaca, told me about a yoga studio that they all take classes from. I was hesitant at first because I've never done yoga before, but then I learned about barre classes. These classes incorporate ballet barre exercises and pilates mat exercises into one full body workout. I had no idea what I was getting myself into! My first class kicked my butt (literally) and I hurt in places I didn't even know I had muscle! Oddly enough, despite the pain, I could not wait to get back to the studio for another class. And this was the beginning of my love-hate relationship with barre class. I quickly developed an addiction to the class and I have been going to classes 2 to 3 times a week. I have actually learned to love the pain, knowing that it means I'm sculpting muscle and burning a lot of calories. After just 3 or 4 classes I started to see the results: less flab and more lean muscle. I still go to the gym to do interval workouts on the elliptical to get my cardio workouts in, but I have to admit barre class is my new favorite workout! I have started looking for studios in Cincinnati that offer barre classes because I am just THAT addicted! Luckily, I have found several different options and I'm looking forward to continuing this awesome workout. For those of you who enjoy a good physical challenge, I encourage you to try this type of class. It is amazing!

After several barre classes, I ventured more outside of my comfort zone and took my first pilates mat class. This class has been a very humbling experience, as it has taken me weeks to master (or somewhat  master) moves that sound like they should be easy, but in reality are incredibly difficult. What I love about this class is that it has helped me strengthen my core. I was in a car accident almost 2 years ago and my ribs got really messed up from the seatbelt (which saved my life, so always wear a seatbelt!). After many trips to the chiropractor and a massage therapist to try to realign my back and ribs, I had accepted the fact that my body would never be quite the same. Pilates has been awesome, though, and I am finally feeling like I've attained and exceeded my previous core strength. The amount of focus and control that is needed to do a lot of the moves makes this class extremely meditative too. At the end of class I usually feel clear-headed and rejuvenated.

The best part about moving to Ithaca (aside from moving in with P) has been my discovery of barre and pilates. Both have been so good for the mind, body and soul, as cheesy as that may sound. I love knowing that I'm staying physically fit and helping my body heal from the trauma of the car accident while also alleviating stress. Since wedding planning can be stressful, it's nice knowing that I can leave that stress behind at the barre or on the pilates mat.

Happy Friday!

<3,
M

How to Make a Monogram

When I first created this blog, I used our initials simply because I wanted to keep the blog name relatively short while still making it easy for people to identify it as ours. In keeping with the theme of using our initials, I decided to create a monogram that we could use on our ceremony program, favors, and other wedding related items. 

A few months ago, I found a pin on Pinterest with instructions on how to make a monogram. All I needed was a computer with Microsoft Word and some creativity. It seemed easy enough and in one afternoon I was able to create the first version of our monogram, which consisted of just our initials and the date of the wedding. 

To make the monogram a little more interesting, I decided to add some tropical flair to it. I found some nice hibiscus images on the web, however I wasn't thrilled with the colors. Normally, people use Photoshop or other fancy photo editing programs to alter images, but unfortunately I do not have any of these. Luckily, one of the things I learned in grad school was how to change the color of images in Word and since I'm not terribly picky this method worked just fine for what I needed. Several hours later, I had a re-vamped tropical themed monogram. I even went a little crazy and created a few other themed images that we can incorporate into various items for our wedding.

If you are interested in how to easily create a monogram using Microsoft Word, click here for the instructions. 

<3,

M

Travel Tips Update

Hello wedding guests! As our RSVP date approaches, we know that many of you are still looking into costs for travel and accommodations.

We've been doing a lot of research on hotels to try to make this as easy for you as we can. Again, you should consider looking at booking.com. They have GREAT deals on hotel rates. One good thing about this website is that they will give you a total cost for the number of nights that you need, rather than giving you the per night rate. This can be confusing at first because you might see $441 and automatically assume it is the per night rate, but really it's total amount for a 3 night stay.

We know that it can be very overwhelming to look for a decent hotel so below is a list of some of the hotels with good rates on booking.com and their TripAdvisor ratings. This information can also be found under the Where To Stay tab at the top of this page.

TripAdvisor Rating: 3.5
Pacific Beach Hotel
Queen Kapiolani Hotel
Aston Pacific Monarch
Aston at the Waikiki Banyan

TripAdvisor Rating: 4
Aqua Aloha Surf Waikiki
Aqua Waikiki Pearl
Aqua Palms Waikiki
Aqua Waikiki Wave
Aqua Bamboo Waikiki
Park Shore Waikiki
Aston Waikiki Beach Hotel - I know people who have stayed here and love it!

TripAdvisor Rating: 4.5
Aqua Skyline at Island Colony

We strongly suggest that you read the reviews carefully, and maybe even look at reviews on other websites (like Yelp or Expedia) before making a decision. Keep in mind that many of the hotels on our list have great rates, but there are drawbacks, such as being in a noisy location or having small rooms. Of course, if you don't plan to spend too much time in the hotel room (and you shouldn't, you should be sight-seeing and enjoying the beach!), then space may not be a huge concern for you.

Email or call us if you have any questions or concerns. And remember to RSVP!

<3,
M

Progress & Some BM Dress Drama

I can't believe it's February! January was a month of accomplishments and progress. For one, P had a great trip to China. While he was climbing the Great Wall, touring the Forbidden City, and eating some interesting food (pig brain, anyone?), I was moving full steam ahead with the wedding planning. By the time P and I returned to the east coast we had completed everything on our winter break to-do list:

final meeting with the priest
meet with coordinators at the country club
finalize reception menu and wedding cake
meet with photographer
talk to the dj/mc
hire a wedding coordinator
decide on flowers and center pieces
reserve a place for the rehearsal dinner and finalize the menu
find a make-up artist
decide on favors
buy wedding rings
find & reserve suits for the men
get wedding gown altered and hemmed
finalize invitation wording and place order

Like I said, we were very busy during our trip to Honolulu. But, I feel so much better now that we have accomplished all of that!

I was also extremely happy that my BMs finally received their dresses last week. I am not happy that one of the dresses arrived with a black ink stain on the front. I am about to unleash my inner bridezilla. I was told that one of workers was supposed to have checked the dresses before shipping them to the MOH and BMs. If that was the case, I do not understand how they could have missed a black ink stain on the front of a pink dress. I am even more frustrated that they did not treat my BM very well when she called to tell them about the stain. My understanding is that they were skeptical that the dress arrived that way, insinuating that she may have gotten the dress soiled and is trying to blame them for it. Are you kidding me?!? Luckily, she was smart enough not to remove the dress from the plastic and sent them a picture of the stain through the clear plastic. After seeing the picture, they reluctantly allowed her to send the dress back to them. I'm interested in seeing what they can do about this. I hope they can get the stain out or find a way to re-position the pleats to hide it. I will be really pissed if they end up having to re-order the dress. Since the dresses are pink and the fabric for all 3 needs to come off the same bolt to ensure they are all exactly the same shade, my guess is that if they have to replace this dress, they will have replace all 3. Ugh...let's hope this is not the case. Our original orders were placed back in August and the dresses did not arrive until late January. Their slowness makes me very nervous and the whole point of us ordering the dresses so early was to try to avoid feeling rushed. So here's hoping...

This month we are working on some of the details of the wedding (i.e., booking our flights to HNL, wedding day transportation, hotel suite for night before and night of the wedding, send out invitations) as well as finalizing our honeymoon plans. We have decided to go to France and we would love to hear any advice or suggestions from those of you who have been there!

<3,
M

Happy 2013!

We rung in the new year with my parents here in Honolulu. It was so much fun to introduce P to some of our NYE and new year's day traditions. My mom made noodles, which according to Chinese belief, brings long life. We burned traditional Chinese fire crackers, which is thought to bring good luck into the new year by scaring away evil spirits. And on new year's day, we ate kinako mochi, which the Japanese believe brings luck for the new year. In 2013, we are looking forward to P's graduation from business school, our marriage, and our move to Cincinnati, where P will be working for Procter & Gamble. It's going to be a year full of changes and we are excited for the new adventures that lie ahead!

With the holidays behind us, we are now in full wedding planning mode. Our trip here to Honolulu has been crammed with many appointments and meetings. By the time we return to the east coast on the 18th, we will have most (if not all) of the big items checked off of our list. 

Wedding guests, expect to see more travel information on this blog in the coming weeks. One thing we are currently working on is reserving a block of hotel rooms at a discounted group rate. In the meantime, we advise you to start looking at vacation package prices. I still think that it may turn out to be cheaper to purchase an all-inclusive vacation package (airfare, hotel, rental car) than to purchase things a la carte. I also have a feeling that even if we are able to reserve a block of hotel rooms at a discounted rate, it may still be cheaper to buy a vacation package that includes a hotel room. 

For example, one of the discounted hotel rates we have been quoted is $150 per night. Roundtrip airfare by itself (from the east coast) may cost anywhere from $900-$1200. This means that you could be spending roughly $2000 for airfare and hotel. Keep in mind that you will need a rental car, so the total cost would be over $2000 for airfare, hotel and car rental. Compare that to the price of a vacation package. I was able to find a vacation package with round-trip travel from Pittsburgh and that included hotel and rental car, for $1500 per person. As you can see, the vacation package is a much better deal. For more information and resources, click on the "Getting to Honolulu" and "Where to Stay" tabs at the top of this blog. If you are interested in sharing a vacation condo or home feel free to email me so that I may put you in touch with other guests who have the same interests. 

Stay tuned for updates as we get closer to June!

<3,

M