would you be your own friend?

I was reading my most recent edition of "Glamour" magazine and there was an interesting article posing the question "would you be friends with you?".

Valid question.

i love everything about this...

my dear friend alison is fabulous. she's one of those people who always looks cool and put together, is beautiful, smart, and fun, and has amazing taste.

i just discovered her tumblr account and i'm obsessing.

amazing

don't you wish your life had this soundtrack and the pictures to go with it?

evolve

i needed a hair cut pretty badly after the beating my hair took from the wedding (growing it out and then all that hairspray) and the sun this summer. i usually go to bristles but saw this post on the scout charlottesville blog about the brand new evolve - eco friendly hair design studio right near my office. willow (barbara) was able to fit me in pretty quickly due to a cancellation and i'm enjoying my new do. i asked willow to give me a healthy trim and if she wanted to do something drastic or exciting, i would be open to it. my hair looks much the same as it did when I went in, but much healthier, a little shorter, and better shaped. she recommended we brave some bangs on my next visit.
the salon is beautiful. very sparse and open and quiet - new for a hair place. the geranium oil head massage after the shampoo was quite lovely and i'm sure would be even better after a long day of work than before the day begins.
i do love bristles, so i'll have to see how i feel when i'm due for my next hair cut, but evolve is definitely recommended for a good quality hair cut. standard cuts run ~$55.

some additional vendors

There are some additional people/vendors from our wedding that cannot go without a review/recommendation:

Instead of little knick-knacks as wedding favors, we figured people might want a little bit of deliciousness at the end of the long evening. I contacted Spudnuts in Belmont (blogged about here) months ago to see if they could make enough donuts for all of our guests. Lori, who I think owns the store with her husband, was so lovely to work with. The store actually wasn't open on the 3rd, but she came in early in the morning to bake us 130 donuts and have them ready for our big day. The donuts came out towards the end of the reception and were a huge hit! We had Clifton put individual donuts in wax bags with a sticker saying "Enjoy". People grabbed them up as they were leaving for the night (or grabbed about 20 and brought them down to the pool area). Spudnuts was fabulous!

When I was working at rockpaperscissors, I fell in love with Heather Rolfe's calligraphy. Heather Rolfe of Heather Belle Ink does some of the calligraphy for Monticello (or did at one point) and was able to print escort cards for our wedding. I met Heather down at Caspari and gave her the list of names and the cards. She could not have been sweeter and was even able to print out the text for our program covers. They were beautiful!!!

I had a lot of trouble deciding what to get Charlie as a wedding gift (and to be honest, considered not getting him one). Amy, over at scarpa, has the most amazing painting of her late dog Bruiser. I've been admiring it for quite a while and finally figured out that I should get Charlie a painting of Bayley. The painting of Bruiser was done by Sharon Shapiro. I love her work and contacted to see if she could do the painting of Bayley. Unfortunately, I couldn't afford a Sharon Shapiro painting, but I remembered that my friend Erin knew Kathryn Barton of Skylight Studios and actually had just received a painting as a wedding gift from Kate of her dog, Suki. Kate was so wonderful to work with and the painting of Bayley is awesome. Charlie saw it and fell in love (he may have cried a little).

announcing betsy and charlie murry in charlottesville

charlie and i were married (finally) 3 weeks ago in charlottesville and the celebration could not have gone better. everything was beautiful and we had such a blast.

the rehearsal dinner, ceremony, and reception took place at clifton inn. we've written about clifton inn before and their spectacular food and the wedding was no exception. the food was delicious! the design of the cake was not spectacular (and not close to what we asked for), but it tasted fabulous! the staff was on top of every detail and really took care of things for us. i really could not recommend the venue more especially for a wedding. our guests loved taking advantage of our exclusive use of the property. some people went on hikes around the grounds, played croquet, tennis, and horseshoes, and almost everyone went swimming at some point during the weekend.

our flowers were provided by couture design (formerly patterson's) in crozet. they did an awesome job and for a great price. the roses were spectacular and they even provided the peaches and apricots we used so that charlie and i wouldn't be running around before the wedding. unfortunately we didn't end up with some of the flowers i requested - the boutonnieres were not the correct roses and the cake flowers were wrong, but couture design could not have been more accommodating and ended up doing more centerpieces for us and included them into the negotiated price.

we used john garland as our dj. he had guests up and dancing before dinner even started. granted my friends are absolutely nuts, but regardless john did a phenomenal job. the coordinator at clifton even commented about how on top of things john was in terms of transitions, announcements, etc. he is a super nice guy and we really enjoyed him. highly recommended.

t&n printing printed our ceremony programs and they were perfect. i work with t&n through my job and i love each person who works there that i have had the privilege to meet. they could not have been more helpful, friendly, and wonderful. they even folded to programs for us!

by far, our favorite vendors are unfortunately not local. the parsons photographed our wedding from start to finish. we invited them to our rehearsal dinner as guests so they could get to know our guests and we could get to know them. halfway through the night, charlie came and found me holed up in my guest room with two of my favorite people, meg runion, erin white (formerly known as erin mcdermott), and the parsons rather than hanging out with our other guests. we had a blast with ashley and jeremy and cannot wait to see our pictures.

fry's spring station

my new favorite place in c'ville. fry's spring station opened up across from durty nelly's recently and i had heard great things about it. the pizza is delicious! charlie and i didn't have any of the appetisers or even the beer, but everything looked awesome and we're ready to go back for more.

definitely a regular in the rotation!

l'etoile

we are so behind on posting...

for charlie's birthday earlier this month, we went out for a nice dinner at l'etoile - just a hop, skip, and a jump from our house. it was very nice. charlie started the evening with the foie gras that was garnished with cherries and was rich, decadent, and delicious. i was having trouble deciding between the goat cheese gnocchi (i have heard they are awesome), the scallops, and the tenderloin. on the waitress' recommendation, i had the tenderloin. it was very good. well cooked and nicely flavored, not too rich, and the garnishes were perfect. charlie's duck breast was so delicious that he is de-throning zocalo as the best duck in charlottesville. check out the menu and don't forget that l'etoile has a $30 chef's menu available on wednesdays and thursdays - awesome deal that we will be checking out later on.

Cazon Tropical

Last night we visited Cazon Tropical on the recommendation of a friend. There was no one in the restaurant (off 29 north behind Kohr Brothers) and only 1 more person came in while we were eating. The menu seems pretty authentic - but not being from El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, or Honduras, I don't think I'm the authority on the matter... Their website says "Come and feel like you are eating at any grandmother's house in El Salvador, The Dominican Republic or Honduras, right here in Charlottesville, or just come and feel like you are on vacation, either way you will enjoy fresh natural food with the flavors of ours homes. We take pride in the tropical taste of our cooking and we just want to share with you ." and I feel like this is an accurate description. The food definitely tasted home made and there was nothing fancy or stuffy about it. As a heads up, they don't serve any alcohol, which was kind of a bummer. I would have loved a cold Corona with my dinner. Charlie enjoyed some authentic Pica Pollo and Tostones and we noticed that there weren't many vegetable options on the menu at all. Overall, a fun little discovery.

bashir's taverna

the econ dinner club was at it again this weekend. we haven't met for a while, so charlie and i called an "emergency get together" at bashir's taverna on the downtown mall. number one - i really love when it starts to get warm here and everyone is out on the downtown mall - including the musicians (good or bad). number two - bashir's is a fun place to eat. i think our tables tasted almost everything on the menu. charlie loved the lamb. the moussaka special looked delicious and comforting. the couscous trio served in a tagine looked colorful and delicious. the ham (raved about in the new york times, apparently) was melt-in-your-mouth tasty. not cheap - but the belly-dancing is free!