Oahu is a small island. It only takes a few hours to drive the entire circumference, but you wouldn't  by sheer amount of activity and people in Waikiki. It is a bustling city with an immense amount of restaurants, sights, and things to do. We took our trip in October, which was off-season for travel. Our plane tickets were less than $300 a piece, after taxes and the weather was still great. It rained a bit off and on, but the weather was warm and sunny for the duration of our trip.

The best part of Oahu was the food. There were so many fabulous places to eat on Oahu, and many of them are reasonably priced. We ate and ate, and then ate some more. I probably gained five pounds on my honeymoon. Chalk it up as more to loooove.

Day #5: On our first day, we rented a convertible, the perfect Hawaii cruising car. Unfortunately, just as we started driving with the top down to our hotel, it started raining! I know drivers were probably looking over at us and thinking, "Those tourists."

We checked into the Westin Moana Surfrider. It's a beautiful resort right in the center of Waikiki that encompasses a Victorian style mansion. When we were there, the hotel was being remodeled. They had just finished working on our wing, so we stayed in newly remodeled rooms. With the Starwood American Express, we were upgraded from city view to partial ocean. The rooms were smaller than our accommodations on Kauai, but understandable since the hotels are older and more compact. Much care was taken to enhance the ambiance of the Moana Surfrider. Each day when we walked into the lobby, the fresh scent of gardenias filled the air. Now, when I smell gardenias, I always remember our honeymoon.

Here's a tip for you guys: Mr. Eggplant has a corporate Starwood rewards account and I have the Starwood American Express. When we checked into our hotel, he gave them his corporate Starwood rewards number and I charged the hotel on my Starwood Amex. We ended up getting quadruple Starwood points (double points for charging the rooms on my Starwood, plus double points for his corporate rewards account). The points are transferable between people, so we accrued enough points to use for a future mini trip.

After we got settled, we took a walk along Waikiki Beach. Mr. Eggplant is wearing his "chocolate" shirt from our wedding programs.

You absolutely cannot leave Oahu without having Leonard's Malasadas (Portugese donuts). We ate them almost every day. They come in regular, cinnamon, chocolate filled, custard filled, and more. There are a few places in the bay area that make them but none are as good as Leonard's. These little guys seriously melt in your mouth. Way better than Krispy Kreme, in my opinion.

We ended our first night with a romantic walk on the beach right in front of our hotel.

Day #6: You've heard of wedding crashers, right? Well, what about honeymoon crashers? My brother and his girlfriend were vacationing in Hawaii during the same week as my honeymoon. Mr. Eggplant and I hung out with them for a day at the Polynesian Cultural Center. This photo was taken out the window during the drive up to the park.

With Tarzan-like grunts, Mr. Eggplant and Brother Eggplant honed their hunting and gathering skills.

Sure there are other fish in the sea, but there's only one fish for me!

Our tickets to the Polynesian Cultural Center included a luau dinner buffet with lots of lomi lomi, kailua pork, and a purple taro bun.

While we ate, hula dancers entertained us. 


I'm a coffee snob, I admit. I have a love affair with good coffee. Hawaii has some of the best beans available, and coffee is a great gift to bring home since it travels well. Personally, I like deep roasted coffees better than light roasts, but the baristas at Honolulu Coffee Company, made me a great drink with their light/medium roast coffees. Just look at the leaf pattern in the foam! I found that Honolulu Coffee Company serves some of the best, albiet priciest, coffee on the island.

And of course, more malasadas for Mr. Eggplant.  I'm telling you, these things are soooo.... good.... mmmm....

The rest of our Hawaii trip will be finished in one last post, I didn't want to overwhelm you guys with too many pictures at once.

Aloha!  This is my very belated honeymoon post! It has been almost two months since our trip to the Hawaiian Islands, but I still wish we were back there!

Mr. Eggplant and I had a WONDERFUL time. We visited the islands of Kauai and Oahu, which were as different as night and day.
Kauai: Beautiful, quiet, relaxing, quiet, peaceful, and did I mention quiet?
Oahu: Upbeat, bustling, and tons of shopping everywhere. It's like a mini Hong Kong, but with lots of Japanese tourists who love to shop, I tell ya. I've been to Oahu before, but it has definitely expanded in the last five years.


As we were traveling to the airport, I realized that I forgot my wedding rings! But it turned out to be the best non-decision ever, because I didn't have to worry about them getting lost or dirty from all the sandy beaches we visited. I picked up a place holder ring at Wal-Mart once we arrived on Kauai.


We checked into the Sheraton Kauai which was a lovely hotel. For the price per night, I recommend it. They have different onsite activities for the guests, including a totally romantic "movie under the stars" night.


Night #1, we walked around Old Kailua Town and made some friends.


Mr. Eggplant is quite the affectionate one.


Day #2: Mr Eggplant surprised me with a helicopter tour of the island. So fun! However, I took some dramamine in the morning to curb the motion sickness. It worked so well that it knocked me out for the rest of the day, and that was the non-drowsy formula.


We had our second dinner at Roy's Poipu Bar & Grill. The one thing I didn't like about Kauai was that late night eating options were totally limited. We resorted to eating expensive hotel and restaurant food for most meals.

Day #3: We drove up from Poipu (southern part of the island) to Princeville (northern part of the island). Mr. Eggplant planned a spa day for us at the Princeville Resort, an absolutely breathtaking five-star retreat. It was too expensive for us to actually afford a room there, so we took a day trip instead. I always tell people that Princeville must be one of the most beautiful places in the U.S.

Princeville is also a wonderful golfing spot... that is, if you can afford it.  We couldn't, but Mr. Eggplant took an imaginary swing with his imaginary clubs.

Here's another view of the gorgeous, gorgeous golf course.

Yes, Princeville is postcard perfect. *sigh*

 
Is Mr. Eggplant gazing pensively into the evening? Or imagining he's a Banana Republic model?  

Since there weren't many restaurants in Princeville, we ended up eating at Cafe Hanalei again for dinner. I didn't mind. I mean, who would complain with a sunset view like this?

Day #4: We're off to the airport for our Oahu adventures!

I (finally) ordered our thank you cards! Mr. Eggplant and I were married on October 20th, so it looks like I just may make the two-month etiquette deadline for sending out thank you cards (that is, if I can get myself to sit down and pound them out this week ).


Here is the front of our cards.

To design them, I used a combination of photos taken from both our photographers and our friends. The pictures were edited in Adobe Photoshop and the layout was done in InDesign. I desaturated a handful of the photographs because I only wanted a few to stand out in color. I also used the magic wand tool to make my bouquet pop in pink (top right). Of course, I couldn't send them off for print without adding a bit of our floral swirl motif.


On the back, I gave credit to our photographers and our friends who took the photos. I also linked our wed-site, which Mr. Eggplant will be updating with some of our wedding pictures. We're also thinking of using the site to start our family blog.

I don't have a picture of the inside, but the card simply says, "thanks so much!"

 
Here is a screen shot of the front-side file that I uploaded for printing. The cards were purchased from PS Print, which I would definitely recommend to others.

I uploaded the files in PDF format and made all my selections online. PS Print is located in Oakland so I was able to drive over and pick up my job, saving myself the shipping costs. The PS Print site was very intuitive and easy to use. Last week they had a 30% sale, so I purchased the greeting cards for a reasonable price. For just a little extra, I also bought perfectly sized envelopes from PS Print. The only qualm I have is that the smallest job that PS print produces is a batch of 250. I have about 125 cards to send out and I don't know what I'll do with the extra. However, with the 30% discount, my job cost the same amount as it would've cost to print a 150 card job at other web-based printing companies, which is why I decided to go with a local company.

During the wedding process I used four different printing companies for all of our stationary needs. I used Vista Print for our save-the-date postcards, Fong Brothers for our invitations, Overnight Prints for our menu cards (which I'll post soon), and PS Print for our thank you cards. Each company had their strengths, but overall I was very happy with PS Print for our thank you cards. I really liked the finish on the greeting cards, because it wasn't the super glossy coating that is similar to what a photograph looks like when printed. Instead, it was a matte gloss finish that made our cards look very professional.

So I have a thank you card question for you all: Who wrote your thank you cards? Did you both write in them or just one person? And what if only one of you knows the recipient? Would you both write in them anyway? Thanks in advance for the answers!

So, obviously I'm married already and this entry is waaaay, super belated, but I wanted to document my LA bachelorette weekend!

Originally when my girlfriends asked me where I wanted to go for my bachelorette, I had something calm and relaxing in mind, like a weekend spa retreat in Calistoga or Napa. But I soon remembered that marriage = joint bank accounts and I'd better do some major shopping while I still could! I've quit shopping almost cold turkey since the wedding, but it was nice to get some last minute splurges in. My friends organized a shopping extravaganza/ yogurt eating weekend in where else, but the City of Angels!

The very first thing we did when we got into LA was stop to get some yummy-in-my-tummy yogurt at Red Mango in Westwood.

LA is the perfect city to drive a red convertible. 

Saturday morning we had brunch at The Farm and did a little shopping around Beverly Hills.

I found a totally cute winter jacket at Club Monacco, where we ran into Lawrence Fishburne. I lived in LA for two years and rarely saw anyone famous. There would be some see stars on the movie lot where I worked, but I never ran into anyone in public places. During my bachelorette weekend, semi-famous people were everywhere, although they were mostly C-list celebs.  I think the only people that I would actually get star struck over would be John Mayer, because I think he is just AWESOME on the guitar, and Chris Martin, because I am Coldplay's biggest fan.

After Beverly Hills, we hit up Melrose for some shopping. The girls that couldn't hang with my eight-hour shopping marathon went to get their nails done.

Fred Segal was having a sale--50% off almost everything in their store! I scored a few cute shirts for next to nothing.

We couldn't NOT eat Pinkberry. I don't understand my strange inclination towards Pinkberry. It's really not that great, yet I still crave eating it.

Here, Cousin Eggplant and I are both enjoying an afternoon refresher.

We had dinner and cocktails at Katana over on Sunset Blvd.

Darn, and I thought I would get away with not wearing a veil the whole weekend.

After Sunday's church service, we ate at this super yummy Korean restaurant. I forgot what it's called, but three months later, I'm still craving their.

I wish I could find this style of Korean food up in norcal! I've never seen any restaurants that serve the thin Korean rice paper wrap with BBQed meat.   It was SO FREAKIN' GOOD. *drools* If any norcal folks know where I can eat this up in the bay area, I will love you forever.

And that's my bachelorette weekend in a nutshell!

On my wedding day, I did not have "something old" to wear with my "something new" or "something blue." The Eggplant family just doesn't have any of those neat little traditions that other families have, like old lockets or vintage necklaces that are passed down from generation to generation.

Well, on the morning of my wedding, my very thoughtful cousin gave me a sweet gift that will hopefully start a new tradition within our family.

She wrapped the present in this beautiful Paper Source box.

When I opened it up, I saw a stack of note cards. The first one read, "Dearest Kelly..."

"Pass this on to the next female who marries within our family, embroider the hankie with the next couple's initials and their wedding date."

"Eventually our generation of females will all be married with all your names on the hankie."

"So who gets it after that? The first of our children to marry. "

"I hope that this is a special tradition that can be kept amongst our family."

"I love you. Cousin Eggplant"

And here is the hankie with Mr. Eggplant and my wedding date, embroidered in pink to match our wedding colors.

What a thoughtful and meaningful gift! I love that I get to be the first in my family to start a tradition. I would've worked this into my bouquet if I had received it earlier. Hopefully my cousin is next in line to get married so that she can be #2 on the hankie.

What are some wedding traditions that run in your family?

Many people instructed me to make half as many wedding programs as guests. They were absolutely right. I had 180 guests at the wedding and I crafted 110 wedding programs, yet still ended up with a handful left over. I remember right before I walked down the aisle, I passed by my basket of wedding programs and saw that it was still half full, which made me very sad. All that hard work and no takers.  Well, people must have taken them home as keepsakes after the ceremony was over because when our coordinator gave us back our supplies, there were only five programs left!

The process of making our programs was so fun! I edited the graphics in Adobe Illustrator and used InDesign for the page layout, which made everything a breeze. Our family and bridal party all got involved and it was truly a labor of love.


Here, our friends are lovingly helping us assemble everything during the week before the wedding. That's my dad's guitar on the right. He loves playing and collecting guitars. I think he has six in  his collection so far.


Here, Mr. Eggplant is lovingly punching holes and tying the programs together. Unfortunately he tied them together with all of the pages out of order.


And here, I am lovingly undoing and fixing all of Mr. Eggplant's hard work.


These were the covers of our programs, stamped and embossed.


All of my wedding projects were birthed from previous bees. I knew I wanted to use vellum in my programs but didn't know how, until I saw Mrs. Emerald's gorgeous programs. She had the wonderful idea of using vellum as an overlay for her engagement picture. Perfect!


Papa Eggplant took this picture of us. Mr. Eggplant made the shirts for us a long time ago for one of our annual trips to Disneyland. His shirt says "chocolate" and mine, "mango." Long story, but chocolate mango is a running analogy for us. It was born during a conversation we had while on a date at an ice cream shop. We were eating chocolate and mango gelato flavors at the time.


First spread: Our program included a letter to our guests that opened with, "Dear beloved friends and family, In case you did not know, today, October 20th, 2007 is a national holiday. It's called 'The Sweetest Day,' an occasion that is celebrated every third Saturday in October." I thought it was so cute that our wedding day happened to fall on The Sweetest Day. We didn't plan it at all when we booked the date and only found out a few months before the wedding. It was a very sweet surprise that became a mini theme for our candy buffet and favors.


Second spread: The wedding participants.


Third spread: The order of the ceremony. This was a bit hard for me. I referred back to many programs from other weddings that I had attended to create our timeline. If you guys want a copy of our timeline as an example, let me know and I'll post it up.


Fourth spread: The song lyrics for our worship selections.


Fifth spread: We had an hour and a half break between the ceremony and cocktail hour. I didn't want our guests to be bored, so I created a walking map of downtown Palo Alto and listed some things to do. Included were ice cream shops, cafes, and my favorite boutiques. The map actually came in handy because our guests visited some of our recommendations before cocktail hour.


Sixth spread: We gave thanks to all the wedding helpers on the left page. On the right we outlined the order of formal portraits to be taken after the ceremony. Very helpful!


And here is the last page with the back of our shirts. Mine says "loves chocolate" and his says "loves mango."

While I'm waiting for the DVD of pro pics from our Saturday wedding, I thought I'd share the pics from our crazy, pink Chinese banquet. The person who documented the day was our videographer from our Saturday wedding. In the artistic sense, his pictures leave much to be desired. I was frustrated by the end of the night because we were asked to take about a billion cheesy, posed pictures. But now that we have the photographs back, I'm happy that we at least had someone there to document the event. He even made his way around the room to get table pictures of the guests during dinner.

The banquet was VERY different than our wedding on Saturday. It was loud, crowded, and pretty crazy. I mentioned before that I'm an introvert. Well, all the commotion was a little overwhelming to me. I found myself hiding in a the "bridal suite" (aka, a dark closet upstairs) for the first hour of the event. Guests ate dinner and left as quickly as possible. In fact, many of the attendees didn't pay attention to the speeches or slideshow, grabbed more than one wedding favor out of the baskets, and left before dinner ended. It just felt like some just didn't care much to be there. I predict it's probably because most of the guests were our parents' or grandparents' friends and they have never met Mr. Eggplant or me before. It's hard to care about a wedding when you don't know the bride or groom.

Anyway, onto the pictures!

Reduce, reuse, recycle! We brought over a few flower balls from our Saturday wedding to reuse them in our decor. We also reused our signage and candy buffet.

I had no control over the decisions made for our Chinese banquet. The color scheme was pink and my mom rented this very fuzzy, very pink money box from a wedding shop in the Sunset district of SF.

Here's a shot of our red sign-in cloth, a traditional Chinese wedding keepsake.

The the banquet room was set up with white chair covers, pink chair sashes, and pink napkins.

Before dinner, a traditional Chinese tea ceremony was performed. Here, Mr. Eggplant's grandma is presenting me with some gold jewelry.

The photographer told us to stand and pretend to serve tea to my parents. Then he had us repeat fifty times. We have about a billion of these posed shots, but rotating with different people on the right.

Here's something gross about the tea ceremony: The teacups used for the ceremony were being rinsed and reused for each participant. But they were being rinsed in the same bowl of dirty water over and over again. By the end of the ceremony, there were several shades of lipstick on the rim of each cup. Ew!

My mom and my cousin handled all the check-in craziness.

Our wedding invitations noted dinner was to start at 6pm. Of course, we were running on Chinese banquet time, which meant that guests didn't start meandering in until 7:30pm.

Mr. Eggplant decided to dress for the occasion and purchased a silk Chinese shirt.

My dad, Mr. Toastmaster of the Year, giving his speech. He's a really great speech writer. He used to be terrified of public speaking until he forced himself to join Toastmasters, and now he's a pro.

Another cheesy pose. Our photographer told us to pretend to toast, and then proceeded to have us repeat the action with 50 other groups. 

Our wedding cake with a Precious Moments cake topper that matched our money box.

I just LOVE the expression on my face in this picture. Our photog asked Mr. Eggplant and me to do a "entangled arm" toast together, but we couldn't find champagne. We poured red wine into our toasting flutes instead, hence the unsightly, dark liquid in our glasses. Can you tell I did *not* want to take that entangled arm picture?

We had karaoke at the banquet and our bridal party surprised us with a sweet and funny serenade.

Mr. Eggplant's cousins also serenaded us with a very memorable a capella rendition of a Kelly Clarkson ballad.

My mom and dad.

My mom and my dad at their wedding.  My mom's dress had a fuschia phoenix down the front. Since I couldn't fit her dress, I had one made with fuschia peonies.

Me and my MOH. She's so much taller than me. She's almost as tall as Mr. Eggplant while I'm a mere 5'2".

Mr. Eggplant's groomsman and his girlfriend. I posted this one up because I think it's funny how our heads make a nice ski slope.

We stuck our bridal party and their dates all at the same table for dinner. I'm happy that they all had a blast at the Chinese banquet because I was worried they would be bored.

 
These are the very pink and frilly wedding favors that our parents picked out... I just know these will end up in a dusty drawer somewhere.  Oh well.

We also had a very red version of a wedding favor. Mr. Eggplant and I were arguing over which figurine is the guy and which is the girl. But I guess it doesn't matter since these will probably be sitting a drawer somewhere too.

And before I go, one last shot of our Precious Moments cake topper, which is now on display at my parents' house.

Shame on me! It has been a month since my wedding and this is what I've done with my dress:

The poor thing is laying on my bedroom floor, uncleaned and neglected.

It's actually still pristine, minus a little dirt along the hemline.

The truth is, I haven't sent it to the cleaners yet because I secretly am hoping that Mr. Eggplant will let me do a post-wedding bridal shoot. He wants me to wait until we get our proofs back before I decide. The real reason I want to do a second shoot is simply that I am still in love with my gown and just want an excuse to dress up, feel beautiful, and wear the darned thing one last time.  I love my dress way too much to trash it, so no TTD beach sessions for this bride. But I think it would be neat to get dolled up and play around in an old abandoned warehouse or perhaps wander along a desert road somewhere.  The problem is, my photographers are based in southern California and it's not exactly feasible to arrange a six-hour road trip for a photo shoot.

I've done a little research and I'm hesitant to contact photographers about post-wedding shoots. This is mainly because I know that photographers make the bulk of their earnings from their wedding packages. Separate shoots, like engagement or bridal sessions, are usually thrown in so that  a photographer can get a feel for working with the bride and groom before the big wedding day. I don't know how willing someone would be to take time and do a bridal shoot with me since I won't be purchasing a wedding package.

Has anyone else done a post-wedding photo shoot with someone other than your wedding photographer? Any tips or resources to share?

I LOVE coffee. Ever since I was a child, I've loved coffee flavored everything... cakes, ice cream, even coffee-flavored short ribs. The hubs doesn't like coffee at all, but he calls me a coffee snob. I admit, I'm VERY particular about my coffee. Ever since I've been exposed to the good stuff, I can't go back to drinking the tasteless, brown dirt-water that S-Bux considers coffee.

This week, I picked myself up a new burr grinder. I gave the same grinder to my parents as a Christmas gift last year and it's the best gift I ever purchased for them. They use it every single day. I was debating between buying the Capresso or the Gaggia, but since I make my coffee with a French press, I decided to save $100 and go with the Capresso.

If you're a coffee lover and haven't yet tried a cup-a-joe made with a French press, you must try it. A French press is the single best method to brew non-espresso coffee and it's very quick and easy. The reason that press pot brewing is recommended over drip, is because the coffee is not brewed through a paper filter so you don't lose any of the good flavors that get stuck in the filter or pick up any weird paper flavors. I'm an espresso lover myself, but I don't have the luxury of owning a machine. French press satisfies my cravings for a good cup just as much as a latte. I taught my parents how to brew with a press and now they are converts. All they drink is French press.

Anyway, here is Kel's method on how to make a single serving of deliciously brewed coffee using a French press:

This is my coffee brewing equipment: A canister to store the whole beans, a 2 tbsp metal measuring spoon, my burr grinder, and a 12oz Bodum press pot.


Many people don't know this, but coffee quickly loses it's aroma and flavor once it's ground. To optimize the coffee freshness, beans should be stored in an airtight container and ground right before brewing.

I really love how oily and aromatic beans are when they're freshly roasted. Yum.  In the picture, I'm holding a handful of Peet's Guatamala San Sebastian.

For a 6oz cup of coffee, measure a heaping two tablespoon amount of whole beans.


Make sure that your grinder is set on coarse and grind the beans. If you have a blade grinder like a Krupps, then simply pulse the blade for 8-10 seconds until the beans are coarsely ground. Make sure not to grind the beans too finely or the grinds will clog the press pot screen.

Pour the grounds into your press pot.

 
Next, heat 6 oz of cold, filtered water to around 195F to 205F. To reach this temperature, simply bring the water to a boil, remove it from heat, and let it rest for 30 seconds. Pour the water into the press pot ensuring that all the grounds are covered. If you want, you can stir up the grounds a bit to make sure that the water is saturating them. Press the filter of the press pot down until it is resting just under the surface of the water and wait about three minutes.

While you're waiting, you can fill your cup with your preference of milk, soy milk, half and half, sugar, etc. Personally, I prefer Coffeemate to half and half or milk. It gives the coffee a nice consistency.

Once three minutes have passed, press the filter all the way to the bottom.

Pour the freshly brewed coffee into your mug...

And enjoy!

I can't believe it has already been a month of marriage!

Mr. Eggplant surprised me yesterday and took me out to celebrate our first month of newlywed bliss. We had a delicious meal at Clementine, a wonderful little French restaurant in the Richmond district of San Francisco. The food and service was excellent. We'll definitely be visiting again soon.

Mr. Eggplant snapped a picture of me while we were waiting for our food.

This is my goofball of a husband.

Our appetizer was marinated salmon and tuna tartar with sliced almonds and hazelnut oil. It was SO GOOD. I could eat a bowl of this everyday.

Mr. Eggplant ordered the soup, a tasty cream of cauliflower.

My entree was sautéed day boat scallops, lobster risotto, fried potatoes, all in lobster sauce. YUM.

I kind of liked Mr. Eggplant's dish a little better than mine. Why does food always taste better when it's on someone else's plate? He had roasted duck breast with caper and savoy cabbage ragoût and black mission figs. It was one of the best duck dishes I've had.

Dessert was caramelized French toast topped with hazelnut ice cream. SO GOOD. I should've ordered three.

Lately people have been asking us what it's like to be married. I tell them it's like living with my best friend. It's a wonderful feeling to know that someone will be walking through the rest of my life with me. Honestly, there have been some adjustments that we've both had to make. Put any two people together and differences will always be apparent. I went to a marriage conference once where the speaker said, "I'm not impressed when a couple claims that they never argue. This just means that one person is being a doormat. A strong marriage is not evident in how infrequently you argue, but rather how the arguments are handled." I'll admit that Mr. Eggplant and I argue about once every two weeks. Usually it's over little things, like whether we should spend $100 or $1000 on a new bed. But sometimes deeper topics arise, like one of us feeling distant from the other for various reasons. I've definitely learned to be more compromising in just the last month alone. I've also discovered that I'm a lot more "princessy" than I thought I was.

Personality-wise, Mr. Eggplant and I are very different in many ways. We have the same core values, but we're one of those unlikely couples that wouldn't typically match because our personalities are so opposite. With a lot of grace and forgiveness, we've vowed to work hard at keeping an honest and loving marriage. Just this week, we were arguing because Mr. Eggplant felt like we weren't spending enough time together. One of his love languages is quality time, so when we don't spend time together, he doesn't feel loved or appreciated by me. To address his concerns, I instated a new rule in the house: On weekdays, TVs, laptops, and video game systems may not be turned on until Mr. Eggplant and I have finished cooking, eating, and cleaning up dinner together. So far, this rule has been extremely effective because instead of coming home and plopping down in front of the tube, we now get at least two hours of daily quality time.

In my brief one month of wedded-ness, I don't think marriage is easy. But I think if two people are willing to invest in their relationship as #1 priority, it will work. And the rewards will be far more than just a happy marriage.

What are some things that you and your significant other do to maintain a healthy relationship?