While on our honeymoon last week (more on that to come, I have lots of pictures to share!) I was sunning myself by the pool at the Viceroy Palm Springs and perusing the lunch menu from  my lounge chair. I noticed a tasty sounding Mediterranean steak pita sandwich on the list, and though I wasn’t hungry at the time, I kept thinking about the combination long after we left. I attempted to recreate the dish for dinner this week: Grilled steak and red onions, seasoned with olive oil, salt and pepper on top of butter lettuce and chopped kalamata olives in a pita with a light aioli seasoned with lots of oregano and lemon zest. It was the perfect summery weeknight meal!

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I’m dying to share pictures of the wedding, but in the meantime, I thought I’d share a few of the details from our rehearsal dinner. My lovely in-laws hosted a dinner at a waterfront restaurant near our wedding venue, and it was a perfect evening filled with all of my favorite things: fragrant peonies, gold polka-dot details, and lots and lots of nautical anchor motifs! Plus an amazing view out into the shipyards where our tasty dinner was freshly caught! Oh and did I mention the world’s best family and bridal party? DSC_0062DSC_0056

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And … we’re back. That is, if anyone is still reading this blog after my month-long hiatus! Life was busy over the past few weeks with things like getting married and heading out on a cross-country honeymoon. But I’m ready to get back into blog-mode and share all of the fun details that I’ve been storing up since. Stay tuned: tomorrow, a peek at our rehearsal dinner!

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The wedding festivities continue: in between seating charts and dress fittings I squeezed in an amazing weekend with my girlfriends in Newport, RI for my bachelorette party. My friends have mastered the planning of a successful girls weekend: we hit up a local winery, toured the vineyards, and had a decadent picnic after a wine tasting. We walked around Newport to do some shopping and take advantage of the preppy wares; and we topped the night off with some dancing and quite a few cocktails. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have to go through dozens of pictures to find a few ‘blog-appropriate’ versions to share. But hey, that’s what a bachelorette party is all about, right? Now that I’m nearly recovered from the debauchery we’re in the final countdown: just under 3 weeks ’til we say I do!

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It seems almost like this was already months ago, but it was just last week that I spent a few days in San Francisco (my first time!) for work. I have to say, it may be one of my favorite cities I’ve ever visited. Of course it helped that right after stepping off the plane I made my way to the Ferry Building and discovered the macarons and sea-salted caramels at Miette; one bite and anyone would have fallen love! Another highlight of the trip? Playing tourist and seeing two equally important landmarks: the Golden Gate bridge and of course the row of painted ladies houses from the opening of Full House (a childhood dream come true seeing them in real life!).  I promise I got some work done while I was there too!

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I shared a few sneak peeks last week, but absolutely could not wait to post all of the amazing pictures my bridesmaid and bestie Taz took of my bridal shower. Am I not the luckiest girl in the world? I have the most talented friends — from the candy bar to the flowers, to the handmade tassel garland, I walked around the room with my jaw-dropped at how much effort they had into throwing me the prettiest bridal shower I’ve ever seen.

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All photos by Bring to Light Photography

It’s a real testament to our wedding photographer that I’m even sharing these pictures — I rarely post photos of myself here! At first I was very hesitant to even do engagement pictures, we both hate having our picture taken, and I was overwhelmed by all of the ‘themes’ I was seeing on Pinterest  (us bloggers put a lot of pressure on ourselves!). But our awesome wedding photography Ruthie encouraged us to give it a shot, if for nothing else than that it would be great practice for our wedding day. I’m so glad we listened to her because not only do I love the pictures, but I know that we’ll be much more comfortable in front of the camera come the ‘big day’ — plus, after four years of blogging, Mike finally gets to make his DomestiKatedLife debut!

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I love a good high-low collaboration, and right now Jonathan Adler and Conran have just that — two new collections at JC Penney. What’s interesting is how perfectly the two collections work with each other! I pulled together a few of my favorite items below, that couch is a major deal, and I’m eyeing the knit pillow and greek key tumblers (just $6!). What do you think? Time to redecorate?
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Clockwise from top left: Nightstand, Greek Key Mug, Pillow, Bookends, Lamp, Pitcher, Tumblers, Pom Pom Pillow, Couch

With all of my recent wedding planning tasks, I nearly let the opportunity to do some decorating for the rehearsal dinner slip through my fingers. Until of course, I stumbled upon these pink, red, and orange napkins with metallic foil polka dots and decided they were begging for a spot at the dinner. And the kicker? They’re on sale, a set of 4 for $5. You can get them here, and you’d be crazy not to.

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With all of the craziness in Boston and some last-minute wedding planning, I took an unintentional two-week blogging hiatus, oops!  But I’m back in action with some very cute pictures to share, a few sneak peeks of the amazing bridal shower my best friends and sister threw for me over the weekend. I can not wait to share all of the gorgeous pictures of their hard work but in the meantime I had to post a few snapshots from my phone of the decorated mantel that I opened presents in front of, and of course the money shot: a giant stack of ombre macarons on the dessert table. 

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