A year already...

The most recurring response to our "it's been a year" phrase has been "already?" It's true. It's been a very fast year. We are quite happy in our little home but it already feels like we might be moving soon. Nick and I will probably be starting our search for a house in the next 6 months to a year. (And seeing how quickly this last one passed, it feels like that timeline is much shorter than it sounds.) Things over here are good. Nick is quite busy with work and finding new customers and is happy with his new career. I am enjoying working at the coffee house with Mom and serving on the weekends.

Our anniversary was spent on the beautiful island of Catalina!

The beautiful two-day getaway was our gift from our parents. We thank you all so very much for our vacation! The newly renovated Pavilion Hotel is beyond words. The garden area between the rooms is breathtaking. The chairs are placed around the area in twos and the atmosphere is so relaxing and peaceful. The hummingbirds are addicted to all the purple flowers and

keep flying around the garden. The fire pit was probably our favorite spot to sit. We decided to enjoy our Perrier Jouet Rose around the fire on our anniversary as well!

Another part of our gift was the zip line! You travel over to the west side of the island and they take you up the hill by bus. From there, you are attached into a harness and "zipped" down to the next platform! So beyond amazing and beautiful. So much fun!

This one is Nick taking off.

This is a view of Nick coming in to the platform.

And one of me!

We enjoyed our time away very leisurely. We had almost no timeline we

had to follow and took long strolls along the water. We spent a lovely evening at Avalon Grill where we were given one of the best desserts of my life: Fried Oreo Ice Cream Sandwich... oh my goodness. A deep fried Oreo cookie is the top and bottom of the sandwich with a scoop of Oreo ice cream in the center. Oh, and there's two of them on the plate. I wish I would have taken a picture, but it still wouldn't have done this justice. I'm craving one now.

As if this vacation couldn't have gotten better, Nick surprised me with a beautiful sapphire necklace. His gift is something he's been talking about for months: UCLA vs USC at the Rosebowl in December. Life has been good to us and I hope it is finding you well too!

Love always,

N & N

Still trying to catch up to reality....

Thank you all for the wonderful memories that helped make our day so amazing! Nick and I are still trying to get back into the swing of normal life. We have made the move into a very cute apartment on Ocean Blvd. in Long Beach. We are still working on getting everything moved in and unpacking has been a daily chore. We just ordered our Christmas cards yesterday, so make sure to keep your eye out for them in the next couple weeks. We love you all! Thank you!

Getting close!!!

So we are exactly 2 months out from the wedding... WOW!!!

The last 8 months have flown by sooo quickly! This week will be filled with final decisions on the look of the reception, music to be played, and the wording for the invitations (which will hopefully be going out by early next week)!! We have our first bridal shower this weekend and we're also in the planning stages of all the other fun events! Looking forward to our day and hope you all have a wonderful week!

Engagement Dinner Memories!

So we finally got everybody together for the official "meet and greet" of the families! We all went down to Papadakis Taverna in San Pedro for a whole lot of Greek food and great entertainment! Papadakis is known for its Greek dancing, plate throwing and glass breaking. The belly dancer that came through the dining room accepting tips made for some really great photos! One of their servers had such an amazing opera style voice and they have a resident tap dancer extraordinaire to keep you entertained throughout the evening.

Between the cheese and olive platters, the Tiropita and Spanakopita, the pickled octopus and the stuffed grape leaves, we were all feeling a little stuffed ourselves! And then the server wanted to take our order! Ha! Needless to say, there were quite a few take home boxes that evening. And then came dessert. Let me start off describing the reaction to the beautifully displayed dessert tray that had been brought to the table. No one was hungry. The restaurant had already very kindly brought out a 3 inch cube of carrot cake for Nickos and my engagement that had already made it around the entire table once before the dessert tray had been shown. No one was hungry. Nick then asks the kind gentleman serving us if he would bring out a small sampling of the desserts on the tray.... Before I can even begin to object, the man jets off to the kitchen and leaves me looking at Nick like he's lost his mind. Nick continues to assure me that he asked for "a small sampling of the desserts for everyone to enjoy." To this, I continuously reply that he just ordered a whole piece of everything on that tray. Nick denies this... adamantly. So, when the nice gentleman brings out 2 (yes, 2!) very large trays of desserts for everyone, none of us can believe our eyes. And still, none of us are hungry! So after we eat what we can force on top of the wonderful meals we had already eaten, more to-go boxes were added to everyone's stacks! The food was so good. It was probably too good. We were stuffed.

Thank you again, Dioni. Thank you for everything. You're amazing.

Love always,
Nick and Nikki

Plans coming along nicely!

Well, we're only a little over 6 months out from the big day! 

We got to go and decide on our cake this week! Rossmoor Bakery has some of the most beautiful cakes and their pastry chefs are artists with the frosting and decorating. We got to try samples of six different flavor and color combinations of frostings, cakes and fillings. Butter pecan, strawberry, and bailey's (oh my!), raspberry, and dolce de leche fillings, whipped cream and cream cheese frostings, and white, chocolate, and red velvet cakes. Mom and I decided we weren't hungry for lunch anymore. We're still deciding if we want a tier of sugar free for our one year anniversary cake or if we're going to do something very different but cute and adorable for the big day. You'll just have to wait and see! 

We've also met with and booked the photographer this week and are currently working on deciding the flower arrangements for everything. The bridesmaid dresses are the next shopping day planned and that will help keep the ball rolling. 

-Bear and Boo

One Day Three Rings

Today became a banner day in the lives of N Squared (Nickos and Nikki).  In the morning we decided to just go and look at some wedding rings at the store that Nikki's engagement ring came from.  

When we got there we made an agreement we were just going to look and not going to buy anything.  However, so as life goes, one thing leads into another and you immediately fall in love and have something for the rest of your life.  Now we have wedding rings and we are very happy with them!!

The Bear

(Nickos)

Welcome to our blog!

Hey everyone! 

I've decided to start a blog to keep everyone informed about the newest updates in the life of Nick and Nikki! We are currently getting a lot of the details in order and starting to make good progress in the planning of our wedding! Hope you enjoy hearing about us and please feel free to comment and message back!

Love always, 

Nick and Nikki