maryly found her suiter

Hello, it's me.

This blog has technically moved, but I wanted a place to document a heartfelt speech I wrote for one of my bests on her wedding day on 12.31.16. It was a magical New Year's. Secretly (well, not so secretly anymore), I love writing wedding speeches for my soul sisters. Especially when they find a love that is oh-so-very-right.

Here goes...

Hi Everyone! I’m Gina Martini, and thanks to Mar and the Ousmans, I’m also referred to as Rose, Suzy Star, Suz, Stevie Nicks, and my personal favorite, Gina Ousman. One year Mimi even sent me my own version of the Ousman family Christmas card. On the front there’s a sibling picture of the four of us, and inside it reads ‘Merry Christmas & Season’s Greetings… Love, The Ousman Family (Mimi, Jim, Jamie, Gina, Maryly, & Nick). Now, I swear I have my own family (who are here), but I think for a while they were seriously concerned I wanted to disown them and become an Ousman! I tell you this just to share just how much I love them and how they’ve always been a second family to me.

I’ve known Mar since we were about 5 years old. Our friendship started carpooling to dance and grew over sour watermelons at Fudge Alley. We’ve been dancing, bump-set-spiking, walking, running, swimming, singing, road tripping, and laughing side by side to each other for nearly 25 years. We’ve truly been through every single life milestone together including our over-plucked eyebrow phase, which is a rite of passage, let’s be honest. Thank gosh that phase is over. When we were 16 we even made up our own secret word called ‘sakoosh,’ to describe a feeling that nobody else could possibly understand but us. (Yes, these were the weird things we did when we were young along with spend way too much of our free time at Linda Evans and eating Yogurt Park). Mar is the person I call about everything in life, good or bad. She’s the best listener I know and sometimes I think she understands me better than I understand myself! One of her many gifts is making life so much fun and I am so lucky to be on the receiving end of her friendship. She’s more than my friend, she’s my sister.

So, Scott, you better believe we’ve been waiting for your arrival for a LONG time. We also spent a lot of our free time choosing who our bridesmaids would be, what our kids names were going to be, and where our vacation houses would be long before a guy was ever in the picture! All I can say is, thank you for finally arriving!

I have one quick story I want to tell about Mar and Scott. I had the pleasure of talking to Mar on her way to meet Scott for their first date. It was a Sunday afternoon in February of 2014. I was living in New York City at the time and doing normal Sunday things like laundry and tootling around the house. Mar calls to chat and tell me that she’s, ‘Going on a date with this guy Scott Suiter that Miriam has been trying to set me up with forever.’ She tells me she’s going to get deli sandwiches and sit at Marina green. ‘Cute first date!’ I tell her, and that she has to let me know how it goes after. So I go about my business on that Sunday afternoon, and before I can even finish folding a load of laundry I get a call back from Mar. It can’t have been more than 45 minutes. ‘Mar?’ I answer. ‘Are you already done with your date?’ Needless to say Scott may have been a liiiitle nervous and they had literally ‘eaten and run.’ ‘I don’t know Gean, he didn’t say much.’

Fast forward about 3 months to June 2014. I did a little digging in the Gchat archives and found a very special conversation between Mar and I. Yes, this is documented. It’s from Monday, June 2nd 2014 at 1:38pm. Mar says, ‘I went to Bottle Rock with Scott yesterday!’ I respond in all caps ‘HOW WAS IT!?’ And Mar responds. ‘Good! I like have a boyfriend I think, Geans.’ Me again (in all caps), ‘STOP IT.’ There’s a couple more chats back and forth saying really sweet things about what a great guy Scott is, and then at 1:39pm on Monday, June 2nd 2014, Mar says to me… ‘And he doesn’t bug me at all!!!!!!!’ With count it… 7 exclamation points.

Scott, I knew you were ‘it’ then. All of us who know and love Mar know that these words had never been uttered from her mouth about any other guy before. It’s one of the biggest compliments you could have possibly received. I’m so glad you got over your nerves and that we’re here now at your wedding weekend and that I get to give this speech and say without a doubt that there’s no one more perfect for my sister, Mar.

You check more boxes than we ever dreamed up when we were little including ‘will drink wine with me on Monday nights while watching the Bachelor and be totally into it.’

I love you both so much and I’m SO happy you found each other. So cheers, to Mar & Scott, to a lifetime of happiness!

Thanks for reading! This day was one for the record books. xo.

we've moved!

hello, loves.

if you still visit this space, i forgot to mention that we've moved! 

come visit: www.fullonhappiness.com 

it's the same soul-nourishing wisdom, but we just have a new home.

xo,
gina

a place to call home.

it's been a long time coming... eight years to be exact. and somehow, someway, it was worth the wait.

hearts so full.

here's the thing, san diego, i always new it was you.

at my college graduation dinner, i announced to my parents, i'm going to move to san diego.

[utter silence. blank stares].

no you're not.

i deflate. well, yes i am.

cue the common retorts that every college grad gets, what are you going to do for work? how are you going to make money?

it seemed so simple at the time. i loved so many things about san diego. i'd move there, get a job, live with my best friend, and the rest would be history.

apparently not. at least not then.

you know how people say everything happens for a reason? well, it's true. instead of being the person who moved to san diego right after college, i became the person who lived in san francisco then new york then san diego. and you know what? i wouldn't have it any other way. i think i saved the best for last.

my life is pretty simple as of late. i run. i do pilates. i soak in the pure goodness of the dearest of friends surrounding me. i embrace this lovely community. i make sure to watch the sunset and check the tide schedule to see if it will affect my daily running route. i worry about things like not burning my roasted veggies and being a good roomie to the two precious souls who have given me the most amazing place to call home.

lets just say my life is so drastically different than it has ever been and i am in absolute bliss. i'll let you in on a little secret, san diego is heaven on earth. my heart is so full, and in turn i'm becoming the person i've always wanted to be.

so that's the update around here. i've been so quiet, i know, but i hope to write more through this glorious transformation. sending you all my full hearted love.

it's the friends you can call up at 4am that matter.

i've been meaning to post this forever, and today feels like the right day since it is exactly one month from 8.9.14... the wedding day of one of my very bests {happy anniversary!}. the one who happens to be saving my life right now in san diego, but that's a different story for a different day.

august was a month of speeches wasn't it? i realized i absolutely love writing them. not winging them, but actually writing meaningful words and sharing them with others. it's one of the most terrifying yet thrilling things i've experienced to date.

so, here goes...

***
hi everyone, i’m gina, and i am lucky enough to be kate’s maid of honor and to have had kate as my partner in crime for the past sixteen years. because i’ve known kate since the very formative age of twelve, i thought what better time than at her wedding to take us on a little trip down memory lane to remind us just how cool she was.

we've always called each other sisters. she's caitlin. i'm vix. we named each other after the two main characters in the book summer sisters by judy blume which was published in 1998, the year we became friends. 

we've always had our own language, kate and i.

we even created a very detailed glossary of code names in our top secret journal so when we'd pass notes back and forth to each other in high school, no one would know who we were talking about. we used nicknames like skittle, air. j, corolla, and lady bug. there was always a rhyme and a reason to how we got to a specific name, and of course no one would ever crack our secret lingo especially when all of our sentences went something like this, 'oh my gosh, vix, did you see skittle today? air j. totally likes you. i hope corolla isn’t mad at me. let’s definitely hangout with lady bug this weekend.' that was kate and i for you.

our summers were spent by our pools in matching striped j.crew swimsuits and lavender platform flip flops. sometimes we'd spend all day doing our hair and makeup and make my mom take model shots of us posing in several different abercrombie outfits in the backyard. we were our own creative directors. our friday nights were filled with aim'ing the boys we had crushes on and making up dances in the study on lowell lane to 'who let the dogs out?' there were family vacations to tahoe where we coined ourselves the 'tahoe twins' dressed in our matching denim jackets and also to hawaii where we wore the same seashell necklaces and, surprise surprise, made susan and john take pictures of us.

the list goes on, but i will spare you.

enter ryan.

though years had passed since kate and i's dance parties in the study, we have those sweet dance moves at a bar in cal poly to thank for the initial attraction between kate and ryan.

good thing we did all that practicing.

ry, when you first arrived, i was skeptical. i thought, who is this boy who's come out of nowhere and is attentive, sweet, and caring. he follows through and does what he says he's going to do, calls when he says he's going to call, and makes a huge effort driving thousands and thousands of miles to visit kate. you were too good to be true.

and what a relief, because, you know us sisters, we have very high standards for each other.

there was something about you that was different from the very beginning. you may have won her over with your sweet dance moves, but you really won her over with your good and selfless heart.

i admire you both so much. i have loved witnessing the bond you two share and being a part of your love story.

and, i just want to end with one last thing about kate. so, most recently, we've been living in different time zones. just a few weeks ago, late on a friday night I called kate and was reminded of this quote, 'it’s the friends you can call up at 4am that matter.' kate has always been my 4am friend. my 2am and 3am one too. it doesn’t matter what time i call her or how much time has passed since we've last talked, she answers. she drops everything she's doing and listens. kate is one of the truest, most compassionate, brightest souls to ever walk this earth. and when she says you're her best friend, she really means it.

ryan, thank you for being everything my best friend deserves.

i love you both with all my heart!

***
...until next speech!

more on my new life soon. xo.

#luudachris

meet margo and chris {oh, you've met margo before}. a couple of weeks ago they tied the knot and threw the best celebration ever in the wine country with over a hundred of their best friends {it also happened to fall on the day after i arrived home from new york, so i secretly pretended it was my very own welcome home party}.

my favorite part about weddings is that they are a true symbol of the life that the couple has created for themselves. there's nothing like having everyone you love in one place at one time showering you with all of their love and adoration and speaking the most genuine words.

i asked my margo if i could say a little something at her rehearsal dinner and, well, this is what came out...

hi everyone, i’m gina and i am lucky enough to be one of margo's 'maids and part of chris and margo's lives for the past 10 years… which, wow, makes me feel like we’re getting really old!
i became friends with margo and chris in college in santa barbara, but it was san francisco where they truly became my family.
margo and chris have this special gift where they are the core of so many great groups of true friends. it’s almost like if you know margo and chris you’re in this exclusive club of genuinely awesome people. they have this unique ability to bring good people together and make you feel like you’re apart of something really special.
i’d like to think that when we all lived in san francisco together we were like the modern day version of friends {we even had a joey!}. we’d spend lazy days on the floral couch watching tv and doing really cool things like filling up the ‘642 things to draw’ book. we’d cook sunday night dinners, make fro yo runs, and fill our weekends adventuring around the bay area generally just enjoying each other’s company and depending on one another like friends do. it was the most natural, easy, and comforting thing in the world.
and that is margo and chris for you. they remind you that the most important thing we have in life is each other.
i am so grateful to know you. when i think of what love should be like i think of you two. thank you for being such a beautiful example of what it means to marry your best friend, to grow together in love, and to create a rich, happy, fulfilling life.
i wish for all of us to have it as good as you two do.
so, with that, cheers to margo and chris! i love you guys with all my heart.

the weekend was practically perfect in every way filled to the brim with happiness and just the best friends anyone could have. i feel so lucky to be a part of such an amazing crew.