Turkish wine charms

After going on a real scavenger hunt for materials, starting at Michael's, leading to Bead Need, Tuesday Morning, and then AC Moore, we finally were able to get started last night on our little wine charm project. Here are some photos of the progress. We have just finished up about 90 of the little charms in six different colors. We are not certain about the final design on the charms, but tentatively they will be as pictured (perhaps with gold accent beads, or beads all around). What a fun project!

The memory wire and turquoise color beads. The word turqoise is believed to have originated from the French word for "Turkish," describing the beautiful blue waters of the Mediterranean shores of Turkey.

We found these Ottoman-looking beads at AC Moore.

Putting together the charms

Artisan at work (my mom)

The six different colors of charms: Turquoise, deep purple, pink, green, gold, and chocolate brown

A completed sample design

Head. Spinning. Need. Sleep.

I finally have a chance to write! I arrived safely in Florida late Wednesday night and have been going nonstop with my mom ever since. I am the luckiest girl in the world to be marrying my prince, the one I love with all my heart. I just wanted to say that before I go into the mundane details of wedding planning because it is really all about our life and future together... not the color of the favors or the flowers or the dress that I wear. Anyway, I am having so much fun (of course, missing my sweetheart and talking to him as much as possible).

On Friday, I tried on my first wedding dresses. It was such an amazing feeling to see myself as a bride! I also tried on a few dresses today, and I may have found the one. It is somewhat difficult to decide because most of them look pretty to me. Also, it's been kind of funny in the stores - other people in the stores ask when the wedding is, and when I say July they say, "This July?!!!" I suppose it is not customary here to plan a wedding in a few months, whereas it seems to be the norm in Istanbul. Of course they ask where the wedding is as well, and one lady was too funny with her southern accent saying, "ISS-tan-bull?! Why'd you wanna do that?" Besides that, I am also trying to buy a dress off the rack, as they say. I had some idea that dresses take a while, but most of them take months to order! This industry is ridiculousness. So, I have cut my selection down a lot (which is actually a good thing since I have the worst indecision disease). We will also be checking out Miracle Mile down in Coral Gables this week, and then I will have to decide.

We have just been running around to all different stores looking for little things like favor boxes, envelopes, thank you cards, flower girl baskets, little beads and parts for these wine charms we are making... my mom and I stayed up until 1am tonight making the little dangle charms for them. We took a few photos but I have no energy to plug the cable into the computer and turn on the camera and... yeah. Not happening now. Anyway, I think they are going to be a beautiful little accent at the tables. I know I am the only one that cares, but it's fine with me :).

Yesterday was my mom's birthday also, though we still spent all day running around for wedding stuff. Then we ate at Brio's, a delicious Tuscan restaurant, with delicious non-Tuscan bread and a variety of Italian dishes. I certainly can say that it has been nice to have such a variety of food (and variety of everything, actually). We have variety in Turkey, but not like here.

That's all folks. I am off to bed...

The hairdresser didn't make the cut

This morning started with a phone traffic. Making a wedding guests list is a tough job! I talked to my mom, uncle and grandma to finalize it. After an hour of discussion we came up with the final list.

Normally, Turkish weddings are huge. I mean HUGE. Two years ago my friend's wedding had 235 people. Last year my other friend's wedding pulled 285 guests. This is pretty much the average amount of guests at a Turkish wedding. You might think that is a lot of guests, but listen to this: My brother's friend is having a wedding this summer and one thousand guests are invited!

We even talked about inviting my mom's doctor and the hairdresser to our wedding. (My mom's doctor made the cut.) Another issue with making the list is the chain. If you invite this specific person, you need to invite others. Then if you invite those people, you have to invite some more people. When I thought I was done with the list, grandma added eight more people (and she already told most of them they were invited). Luckily my mom removed two of them. I will still have some people that I have never seen in my life in my wedding. Well, you need to make your family happy too.

The Today Show

I just arrived in Florida late last night and my mom woke me up to tell me that Matt Lauer is broadcasting live from Istanbul this morning! It is day four of his "Where in the World is Matt Lauer?" segments on the Today Show. Here are the links:

Videos:
Where in the world is Matt Lauer?
Lauer takes a quickie tour of Istanbul
Istanbul: What you need to know
Fascinating facts about Turkey
In the Blue Mosque of Istanbul
A whirlwind tour of Turkey
Tempting Turkish dishes
How to go to Istanbul

Slideshow: Where in the World is Matt Lauer?

Text: Istanbul: Where East Meets West

Big round belly

Since Jen is going to Florida tomorrow, today was busy. We went to see two wedding organization places to check out what they had for the decor. Then we went to pick up the invitations. We love them! However, there was one thing wrong. The ribbon on it was 1mm thinner than the sample one they showed us and supposedly there is a color difference that I cannot see. YES! Jen caught these details (and I thought I was anal). Imagine the next three months... GOD HELP ME! We also went to pick up the ring (after having it resized) and ate an out-of-this-world beyti kebab at a nearby kebab (kebap in Turkish) restaurant. The owner of the restaurant loves to talk and read Turkish coffee fortunes. It will sound weird but he is a cute man with a big round belly.

From there to here by kayak

Bebek, Istanbul

We are SO excited to hear that some of you are actually considering the trip for the wedding! It will certainly be good times. After I get an idea of who is definitely coming I'll have more information as far as what type of stuff we can do (sightseeing, eating, lodging, etc.). I would love to spend some time to show everyone around the city and make it a memorable time. One night to mention that is already in the works is the Henna Night (Kına Gecesi), which will be the Saturday before the wedding and hosted by Celal's mom. More details about that will be posted soon.


For flights, I have found that Kayak.com is usually the best. The main airport here is Istanbul Ataturk International Airport (IST). From NY, both Delta and Turkish Airlines have direct flights (about 10 hours), which are listed at $1368 right now (however, just last week I checked and there was a direct Turkish Airlines flight for $760!). There are a few cheaper 1-stop flights as well, starting at about $1200. From FL, flights are about $1400, though there are no direct flights. A few one-stop options are British Airways and Alitalia, but Alitalia sucks. From CA, I haven't done too much research, but I believe the tickets are about the same, and there is also a one-stop flight through British Airways and probably others from LAX.


Unfortunately, the summer months are the most popular and most expensive, and it costs about half as much in the winter time, as is generally the case with travel to any European country. Unfortunately, I'm just not a winter wedding kind of gal. For those that are going crazy about oil prices, the ticket prices haven't changed too much in the past few weeks, surprisingly enough. (In addition, gas here is about $10/gallon. Cars are also 2.5x more expensive than the States. And traffic is still worse than LA.)

That's all for now folks! Hasta luego!

Iznik tiles, Topkapı Palace

Strawberry Jell-O

Turkish School: Celal

I am sure most of you have no clue how to pronounce my name and even Jen is still perfecting the correct pronunciation of her future husband's name. So, here is a little lesson.

I have heard so many versions of it such as Chela, Cecil, Silal...

Here is the proper way:

Celal (JE-lal) Yes, kind of like J. Lo
Celo (my nickname) (Jello) Yes, like strawberry Jell-O

You want to know how to say my last name? You will need to pass few classes with at least a "B" first.

Wedding Wednesday

A few good reasons we are having the wedding on a Wednesday...

1. WEDnesday.

2. We don't have to oblige to a minimum of 200 people at the wedding. Do you know how many cheek kisses that is?

3. I cried like a little baby to have a good photographer. We researched till the wee hours of the morning trying to find one in Istanbul. We fell upon a few that were mediocre, but most of the styles were cheesy and look like they were shot by a drunk uncle with his 3.2 MP digital point-and-shoot. I decided for us that we wanted a wedding photojournalist and thus narrowed the selection even further. We searched and searched on WPJA's site and fell in love with Bartosz Jastal, a Polish photographer. He ended up being booked every weekend this summer, so we decided on a Wednesday. There you have it. Our photographer and his assistant are flying from Poland for our wedding! We are so excited!

A princess forest!

After nearly exhausting an ever-shrinking list of outdoor venues for the wedding, we decided to drive over and see Cemile Sultan Korusu. The photos online looked decent and we had a few other places to see that Saturday, but since it was the closest to our house we decided to check it out first. As we gayly sang in unison to George Harrison's "I've Got My Mind Set on You" on the radio, we just had a feeling about it, and we were right. It has a beautiful view overlooking the Bosphorus, the second bridge, and Rumeli Hisari (a medieval fortress). It has a beautiful breeze. There are rolling hills of grass and winding roads through the wood and rainbows and unicorns. The pictures do not do it justice. So, we decided then and there.

We later fell upon an interesting story about the property. The gist of it is that Cemile Sultan was a princess (one of 37 children!) born in 1843. When her dad became a Sultan, he bought a palace for her on the Bosphorus. Korusu means "grove" in Turkish, and it describes the property behind the once-existing palace. Unfortunately, they destroyed the seaside palace in 1914 because the taxes were too high and the large mansion in the grove burned down in the 1952 and was not rebuilt. Well, after it has been sold from owner to owner, the property is now rented by the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce and is used as a members-only social club (pool, tennis courts, park areas, restaurant, etc.). We can't wait!

Turkish school: Four eyes

Dört gözle bekliyoruz (dirt GOES-lay BEK-lee-your-ooze) - We can't wait!
(literally - "We are waiting with four eyes!")

Hoş geldiniz!

Welcome to our super fantastic wedding blog! We plan on posting here throughout the next few months before the wedding with rants, raves, and other useful information for our national and international guests and fans. We are already in the whirlwind of wedding planning and are just finishing up the invitations, so if you're on the list you'll get one in the next two weeks.

Turkish school: Welcome!

Hoş geldiniz! (hoesh GELL-diniz) - Welcome!
(literally - "You come with coziness")

Hoş bulduk! (hoesh BULL-dook) - Thanks!
(in response - means "We find coziness here")

Thanks for visiting our blog and please check often for updates on our insanity.

With love,
Jen & Celal