Add to that the Bronte sisters and L.M. Montgomery…any novel (or series) that makes mention of the lovely tradition of shopping for and assembling the trousseau.  With the recently-concluded Jane Austen marathon on PBS, this has been especially in my mind as I figure out what I want to bring on our Italian honeymoon…particularly for the evenings…

(Image from pbs.org)

My lovely MOH is currently in Cairo working on her PhD (when she’s not there, she’s in Oxford), so she hasn’t been physically able to be around to help out with wedding planning.  But she has been more than generous with gifts–last week a little envelope arrived in the mail from a boutique in the Nolita neighborhood in Manhattan, Mixona:

As someone who loves lingerie, being allowed to go crazy in a lingerie store is…well…glorious.  It was almost straight out of one of my favorite episodes of 30 Rock from the first season where Liz, Jenna and Sophie (Jack’s brand-new fiance) go to La Petite Coquette, Jenna drunkenly tries on panties over her jeans, and Liz, upon being suggested she buy a black merrywidow (my guess it’s La Perla), opines:

Yikes!  If I wanted to spend $600 to have my boobs pinched, I would have gone to that fundraiser at the Clintons’ house.  Haha!  (Sophie is not amused).  Come on, that was solid!

I’d post a video clip of it, but it’s not available anywhere on the interwebs.  Boo.

Anyway.

So my one local bridesmaid and I headed down the Metro-North  into the city, and high-tailed it downtown–Midtown was absolutely crazy thanks to the pope visiting and it being an painfully gorgeous day–low 70’s and sunny, sunny sunny.  We had the store completely to ourselves–our salesgirl was helpful but let us browse and comment without trying to shove expensive bras in my face (even though she knew the minimum I was going to spend, which was admittedly a good amount).  We took a good two hours to browse, with Laura throwing out ideas left and right (and I must say, it was fun letting someone else play stylist and “pull” things for me to try on).  I didn’t take any pictures in the store (that would feel a little…seamy…yes?), but I will say that we found many gorgeous things, as well as some that looked better on the hanger than me.

The great thing about shopping with a friend who also happens to know your future husband as well as yourself, especially when all three of you are fairly open about talking about things like lingerie (in the abstract sense at least) is they seem to be much more able to find something that’s a compromise in both of your tastes.  Without getting toographic, I’ll just say that he has a prediliction for corsets, and while I love them, they’re such a hassle to wear.  So when we found a bra from La Perla that incorporates some of that detail yet remains aesthetically within my happy range, it was all too obvious that it would be what I ultimately purchased.

Wanna see?  (Reluctant groom–no peeking!)

(Sorry for the lousy image quality–this picture keeps saving in the wrong orientation)

Total damage?  $220 plus tax, plus a pair of Hanky Panky boyshorts (that I think I will replace with a Cosabella boyshort instead).

Well?  Was I successful? 

So I promised I’d reveal our actual honeymoon destination, but to be honest, I was petrified of doing so until we bought our tickets a few days ago.  There’s one direct flight in and out of Newark on Continental that wasn’t crazy expensive (provided you’re OK flying on Sundays) to our destination, and of course I panicked about not being able to get seats for us in time, and we’d be forced to fly out of somewhere else or on a different carrier.

Needless to say, my fears were groundless (heehee, silly pun) and we have booked two seats each way to fly to…

(Here’s a hint:)

(image from imdb.com)

ITALIA!

Specifically, the Piemonte region.

We knew we wanted to go to Italy long before we made any other wedding plans, damn the dollar-euro exchange rate and all.  And it just so happens that one of my lovely bridesmaids has an aunt and uncle who run a gorgeous B&B in the little town of Acqui Terme, and we got an excellent rate on a room from them for the week.  We booked our reservation months and months ago and since then I have found myself trolling their blog to find out the dirt on all of the awesome renovations they’re working on and their website to salivate over the gorgeous pictures of the property, the town of Acqui Terme, and the surrounding cities and towns of Piemonte.

In fact, here are some pictures for you to salivate over (all photos courtesy of Baur BB):

Baur B&B:

Acqui Terme:

Sigh.

Needless to say, I’m already dreaming up my packing list–The Talented Mr. Ripley (and specifically Gwenyth Paltrow’s wardrobe) is a huge influence on what’s going into my suitcase.  Details to follow…

What made you pick your honeymoon location?  Did you indulge yourselves?

Once upon a time…

This reluctant bride watched far too much VH1.  This period was also known as senior year of college when I lived alone and would leave the television on as background noise (as sometimes I was privy to my neighbors more, ahem, amourous pursuits–oh, who am I kidding, sometimes I’d turn the volume down just to make sure it was what I thought it was…city living and all ).  It was also when they started airing non-stop episodes of The Fabulous Life Of… and I was made privy to all of the crazy things celebrities purchase in order to feel fabulous.  As far as trashy TV goes, it was fairly addictive. During one of the episodes focusing on Jennifer Lopez, it was mentioned that she had nude photographs taken by a major photographer (Steven Meisel, perhaps?) for her “luv-ah” at the time, someone named…Ben Affleck?  Ever heard of him?  Regardless, she spent a pretty penny on this, and at the time I thought “damn, that would be fun, but who actually does that?”

Turns out, plenty of people do.

I’m not a terribly modest person–we have a giant Modigliani print hanging above our bedroom wall (one of our favorites at the Met), and both imaginary French Vogue photoshoots that I like to cast myself in at my other blog involve me rolling around in underwear and little else.  And while it would be amazing to have a professional pose me correctly and make me look my most gorgeous, I feel like this would be more of a fun honeymoon activity, just between my husband and I.  Plus, spending $500 on photos just isn’t in our budget these days.

What do you all think?