Season's Greetings!

The wedding has come and gone, and now we have a lot of photos and the hopes of getting a bit creative!

Last year was our first year mailing out holiday greeting cards, and mostly because it was the first year we started receiving them. I found some cute, non-denominational letterpress cards at Target and used those.

But this year's selection is, well, lacking. And for the first time in our relationship history, we have professional pics of ourselves! So why not mail y'all a photo holiday card?

I'm super-psyched for these Shutterfly options:

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/starlight-joy-christmas-5x7-folded-card?sortType=1&storeNode=93491

or

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/pretty-package-holiday-card-5x7-flat?sortType=1&storeNode=93491

perhaps.

Check out your favorite holiday photo cards too! http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards

I made a few photobooks with some of our wedding pics for our flower girls, and was really impressed with Shutterfly's quality. I've ordered mass-greeting cards before from other companies that didn't stack up, so I'm pretty excited to try getting cards this time from a more photo-oriented company.

And... if you're a blogger there's a great promotion. Blog about Shutterfly and get 50 free greeting cards. Just make sure to send me one! Check it out here: http://bit.ly/sfly2010

Happy Thanksgiving!

Pick the Playlist

We have our song requests due to the DJ soon. So while you're all busy RSVP-ing and deciding on what to nosh on, why not let us know a song or two that you'd like to get your groove on to. (Get it? I rhymed two with to!) Seriously, though, we'd love to have the dance floor packed all night long, so if you have "that song" - you know, the song that you feel the need to stop what you're doing and start doing the funky chicken - then please let us know. Post your favorite "must plays" in the comments below and we'll do our best to include it on our playlist. So long as it's not the Macarena.


Los Del Rio - Macarena - Funny blooper videos are here

Check Your Mailboxes

... because the invitations are out! We hope that you will all be able to join us for our wedding, but we need to know one way or the other. Instead of sending out the traditional RSVP cards, we're asking you to RSVP either by phone or online. Hey, we're Generation Y-ers... at least we're not asking you to text and/or facebook message your reply!

(1) Phone - call us at the phone number provided on the RSVP card. If you get our voicemail, feel free to leave a message. For each guest, we'll need to know what you'd like to eat - steak, salmon, or something vegetarian.

(2) RSVP - visit www.jonandtamar.com. Go to the RSVP link:


Then type in your RSVP code that's on your RSVP card (note: it's case sensitive):


The page will generate the names of each person included on your invitation. For each invitee, please list if he/she/you can attend or not, the entree selection (steak, salmon, veggie). Feel free to leave us a message as well!

TTC Trip Planner, Oh Heck Yea!

First and foremost - TTC fares have increased since we first talked about public transit in Toronto. Now it's $3 a ride and $10 for a day pass. Le sigh. Still, much cheaper than driving and paying for parking around Toronto. So we'll still endorse taking public transit while visiting for the wedding.

But here's the point of the post: the TTC is engaging in new technology! Case in point? The TTC Trip Planner. Want to know how to get from the Marriott to the Skydome without consulting our handy dandy map?


View Jon & Tamar's Wedding in a larger map

Then just click here and not only will you know how to get from Point A to Point B - you can also find out what time you gotta head over to the subway station, how long to wait for transfers, and all that good stuff. Maybe there will even be an iPhone app in time for the wedding.

Virgin America... Wha?

Tamar here again. Jon's off studying for his final final exam ever, but will post shortly thereafter.

Way, way back in 1995, my family and I traveled to Europe to attend my cousin Jon's Bar Mitzvah. Jon's family was living in London at the time, but had been living in Paris for a while prior (a lot of my dad's side of the family lives in/around Paris) so they held the Bar Mitzvah in France. My family decided to go to the festivities and then Eurostar it over to London to spend some more time with the fam.

And among the top 5 memories of the trip? Flying home on Virgin Atlantic. I kid you not - my brothers and I talked about this epic flight home for years to come. No crazy Snakes on the Plane or anything like that. Just that they had goody bags (yes, this was before everything was "no frills") and nice flight attendants and everything was so chic.

Since then, I've been quite disillusioned with air travel. Air Canada + Me = Water + Oil. I think that Air Canada sees my name on the passenger's list and then proceeds to cancel that flight. Maybe not that bad. But I have been rather unlucky when it's come to flying to Toronto in December. Air Canada definitely has the most flights from the States to Toronto, but I just get testy with the airline.

But wait! What did I just learn yesterday? Virgin America is expanding service to Toronto. Just in time for our wedding! Starting in June, you can book non-stop flights from LAX to YYZ (Toronto Pearson). And right now the airfare is cheaper than Air Canada (though both are still higher than usual, so wait a bit to book).

A couple of drawbacks...
1. They'll fly LA--> Toronto and back - but not between New York/Toronto or Boston/Toronto. Sorry East Coast family and friends.

2. Only one non-stop flight and one connecting flight per day. So you've gotta have faith that there won't be cancellations.

But otherwise - sweet! I'd recommend using Kayak to check for the lowest priced airfare when booking your flight to Toronto, but definitely check out Virgin America. Toronto

Susur Lee - Toronto's Top Chef?

We've been slacking hard-core on this blogging. Jon's been busy finishing up law school and I've been traveling up and down the state of California for work (can you locate Visalia on a map?). But the good news is that all our down time that has not been spent updating this blog has gone into ensuring that you will have a rockin' good time at our wedding. And now that our invitations are printed, addressed, stamped, and just waiting to be mailed out (next week, perhaps), we should be able to shift some of our attention to this currently unloved blog.

Jon and I are hella (word I picked up in San Francisco) obsessed with Top Chef. For those of you who are unfamiliar, it's like Project Runway but with cooking. And when a chef hella impresses us, we try to visit their restaurant while in their city.

Such as Jamie Lauren's Absinthe in San Francisco.



Or Ludo LeFebvre's Ludo Bites right here in Los Angeles.



(Jon's foie gras beignet. Minus a picture of Jon.)

Right now, Bravo's airing Top Chef Masters, which pits recognized - verging on celebrity - chefs (as opposed to their sous chefs) against each other to compete for their charity of choice. And you know who won this past week's episode? Toronto's Susur Lee.

I first heard of Susur during an hour-long special on Food Network. He has a sort of has an east-meets-west philosophy to food. His first restaurant in Toronto was a twelve-table joint called Lotus. Now he operates Lee, a tapas-style restaurant, near King and Bathurst. And coming in June, his former space Susur will host a new concept restaurant called Madeline's (literally next door to Lee). Both of these spots are super-easy to get to by TTC - just a short walk from the St. Andrew's station. You better believe that Jon & I plan to visit one of these digs while we're up in the T dot.

To make a reservation for either call 416.504.7867. In the meantime, we'll be rooting for Susur on the little screen.

Engagement Party!

Big thanks to Jason & Amanda for throwing us a wicked engagement party. Our LA friends (and Jon's dad) were able to make it out to the shindig. We had finger foods, wine, and a champagne toast. It was great getting to celebrate with our West Coast buddies and appreciate everyone for coming out. Of course we forgot both cameras, so our event coverage is limited.

We've been pretty neglectful of this blog, but we promise to update with more places to go and things to see in Toronto very soon. Perhaps Thanksgiving Day weekend will provide us with some catch-up time!

Flower Girl #1

Flower Girl #2