Garden Rose

Last week was bananas on lots of fronts–I worked like a madwoman, did my hair & makeup trial (John teared up!), and we spent every night wishing there were more hours in the day to get it all done. But this weekend, while busy, was the perfect antidote to all that.

By Friday all I could think about was a quiet night in with my guy–luckily we were on the same page, and I was ordering Masala through GrubHub's mobile app on the train home! We cozied up with two Dixies, the beer we'll be serving on the big day and dug into the curries that arrived not long after. But productivity hadn't left us yet, and we spent an hour or two both hard at work before crawling into bed for a few 30 Rock reruns.

It's rare that I'm up before John, but on Saturday morning I practically dragged him out of bed for an early morning trip to the grocery store (you know you're starting your day early when there's still a crew stocking the produce section...). We made our favorite breakfast–poached eggs over avocado toast with roasted potatoes–and settled back into work quickly. John has a big concert two weeks after our vow renewal and an arranging project he wants done well in advance, so he's been hard at it lately, and I love hearing all the progress he makes. We hopped in the car to pick up my dress and grabbed some haloumi for a big watermelon-mint salad. But before supper, we whipped up some cocktails and chose our signature drinks for the big day. With our appetites sufficiently whetted, we fried up some cheese for our fresh summer salad drizzled with a balsamic reduction. And after dinner and a few more productive hours, we crawled into bed early, satisfied with the day's work.

John was up early for a pre-dawn run, and upon his return we soft-scrambled a few eggs to go with cheddar-chive biscuits we'd picked up the day before. Coffee, tea, freshly-squeezed grapefruit juice and strawberries made for a beautiful Sunday morning, and we were delighted to be finished with breakfast before we'd normally drag ourselves out of bed. We've been making a concerted effort to set our internal clocks an hour or so earlier, and it's been working well! After another productive day, including practice and arranging for John and a workout, shopping for wedding week outfits and lots of reading for me, plus a good spring cleaning of our apartment, we headed out to 4505 Meats for barbecue in honor of one of our dearest friends. There was plenty of pulled pork and ribs, and we stayed outside on the patio long after it had grown cold talking about our favorite birthday celebrations and the world today. Back at home, we did a little reading before heading to bed–the perfect Sunday night, as far as I'm concerned!

Tell me, what were you up to this weekend? Doing some spring cleaning perhaps, or booking your summer vacation someplace divine?

Image by Silvana Di Franco, bouquet by A. Hana Designs.