Wedding video

Looking back to the year that is coming to an end (and what an year!), it is quite easy to pick my favorite day.

Here's a sneak peak of the twenty-second-of-July.

A different break

After debating whether I should go with my INSEAD friends to Iceland, the UK, Italy, or elsewhere in the world, I ended up deciding to spend the P4-P5 break at home. I had an endless to do list, Gorda and the rest of the family missed me, money is slowly running out our account. It would make no sense to have spent it elsewhere.

So how did I spend my break? Wanna see my (checked) to do list?

• Visited our new house a couple of times to monitor the progress of the construction work and to come up with decor ideas

• Picked the layette (bed sheets, edredon, pillows, and so on) for our new home as Mom's and Dad's wedding present

• Prepared our list of wedding presents, based on what I decided in terms of decoration

• Gathered all the necessary info for our friend and designer Zedi to upload the wedding present list on our website (still in progress)

• Filled in hundreds of envelops with wedding invites and wrote names and addresses of all our guests

• Started handing in a few invitations - all the others will be sent via mail later this week

• Checked kids’ stores to try to come up with an outfit for the two babies getting in the church with me

• Met with a priest to formalise our wedding papers

• Tried the manicure and face cleasing services that I will use on my wedding day

• Add a dancing class with Gorda, Mom and Dad to get ready for the big day

• Met with our wedding planners to decide upon flowers and disposition of tables

• Filled my tax papers

• Helped my bridesmaid and bride Perry in her wedding dress developments

• Attended Perry’s engagement party

• Caught up with some reading

• Had a few more interviews

• Attended quite a few dinner events with my friends

• Briefly showed Lisbon to a few INSEAD friends in town

• Had a family lunch with the Bentos and a family snack with the Amorins to celebrate Mother’s Day

• Babysit for my (dog-)niece Cookie for a day

• AND MORE

It has been an incredibly productive week, but very tiring too. Tonight, I slept 9 hours - something that rarely happens to me. Now it is time to kick two weeks of classes, before another 2.5-week break. I managed to front load most of my classes. It seems that P5 will be kind of a joke.

Will write a post about P4 very, very soon. Keep in touch!

Say yes to fatty

Last weekend was my official bachelorette party and I just had the most amazing time with my most amazing friends. Literally.

By 3:30 pm, Calha and I left INSEAD towards a supposedly secret location that was not so secret anymore. In mid February, Luísa got so excited when she watched a movie of me dancing funk like a true Brazilian that she shouted "You're so ready for Barcelona!!!”. Hahaha. But that was all I knew about the weekend. I had no idea about what we were going to do nor who would be there. My dear bridesmaids (Alice, Calha, Lu, Maria and Perry) organized it all.

Leaving Fontainebleau with Calha was great. It had been over 2 years (since she moved to the US) that we had not spent quality time together, just the two of us, without rushing. We chatted endlessly - in the taxi, at the airport, in the airplane, at home, and over dinner. We had planned to do all our readings for INSEAD in the plane but could not help enjoying each other’s company. When we arrived in Barcelona, it was under a wild tropical rain. This is how we looked after a 3-min run from the reception to our apartment:

After 15 minutes to get ready (and look good) and around 45 minutes trying to find a cab, we head to the restaurant. Guess which cuisine? Mexican! And what a cool Mexican. My bridesmaids know me well… One margarita down, some guacamole, another margarita down, no hope that the other girls would arrive on time for dinner, some tacos, nachos, more guacamole, more margaritas… And around 1 am the girls arrived. Alice, Maria, Perry and Grizi. Apart from Lu (who could not leave the US) and Carolina Almeida Pires, I had pretty much all my favorite girlfriends with me.

The first night was fun. Already tipsy from the margaritas night with Calha, we moved to one of Barcelona’s best nightclubs: Sutton. The music was great and very danceable. We were all happy. And I performed well. At some point, I was so tired that we went home. Before going to bed, it was still time for some presents:

- Sweaters saying “Fatty & Oldie. MT. #sayyestofatty”

- A veil

- A board with 10 challenges to wear on my neck

- A corny shot cup to wear on my neck as well

On Saturday, we woke up late for a surprise from Lu. She arranged home delivery of healthy food for us: cold pressed juices, healthy granola, yogurt, fruit, and so on. How cute can a bridesmaid be?

We left home around 12:30 and walked through the cities of Barcelona until Federal Café, where we stopped for brunch. From avocado toasts to eggs Benedict, from turmeric latte to cappuccinos, we had it all and it was yummy. Also, it was the only thing that I managed to pay the entire weekend, and it was because I was sneaky and the girls did not realize that I stood up from the table. After that, we wandered around Las Ramblas, Bairo Gotico, the Marina, and Mercado San Jose. By 7 pm, we were back home with a few drinks, ready for a typical bachelorette game. I had to answer very particular questions about Gorda. For every correct answer, I would get a present. For every wrong one, I had to drink a sip of wine. The questions were hard but I did a damn good job answering them. About 6 questions before the end (there were 30 questions in total), there were no presents left. My bridesmaids were expecting me to know Gorda less well. Hehehe.

After the game and the presents, which included from panties to lipstick and from face mask to hair bands, we got ready to rock another night out. We had an amazing Spanish dinner at Pez Vela (YUM) and then went clubbing in Bling Bling. I manage to check all the challenges, and it was fun. Lots of fun.

On Sunday, we rushed out of our apartment around 11 am and had the best brunch ever at Flax&Kale, not before a very needed manicure session. To finish the weekend in style, we went for a walk and small photo session at Park Guell, and then moved to the airport all together, happy but extremely happy.

The weekend could have hardly been better. It was cosy, intimate, and fun. I will be forever grateful to my girls for all the organization, sponsoring and love during the weekend. What a lucky girl…

Below you can find the non-censored pictures of the weekend: 

Other than studying and traveling...

... There is a wedding to be prepared.

Yesterday was an important day. We sent a Save the Date to all our (way too many) guests. It is getting real!!!!!

Can wait for the 22 of July to come...