Congratulations: Minnie & Ben

It's Monday! And as always I'm procrastinating at work. ha ha! Actually I'm still trying to recuperate from this weekend. My good friend Minnie got married on Friday (2/27/2009) at the Laguna Hills Civic Center. With my help and the knowledge I gained from theknot, we were able to pull off this fun, small & intimate wedding in a matter of two weeks. Here are a few photos I took:

What do you think of the photos? Overall, I'm actually quite pleased, and I'm my own worst critic. Practice make perfect. Once my wedding madness is over, I will be able to devout more time towards my hobby. =)

Happy Valentine's Day!

****Updated**** includes photos!!! And road trip recap.

I know I'm day late. But yesterday was such a busy day. Here's just a quick recap of the day in bullet forms:

• Woke up to beautiful red roses sitting in my room, along with a small gift.

Aren't the flowers gorgeous?! The Fiance is always soo sweet and thoughtful!

My beautiful diamond necklace I received for Valentine's Day!

And here is what I got J. A heart shaped brownie cake. Unfortunately, I have to say I bought it from a bakery, and it's not self made. Trust me, you wouldn't want to eat anything I bake.

• Went on a 8 mile run
• Cake Tasting at It's All About The Cake ~ Two Words: Simply Delish! Our cake is going to be a combination of these two looks.

The cake will consists of four tiers, and we're having the following flavor:
1st tier ~ Vanilla cake with fresh strawberries and strawberry mousse.
2nd tier ~ Red Velvet cake with strawberry mousse
3rd tier ~ white/vanilla cake with raspberry gel and french bean vanilla cream
4th tier - marble cake - layer one chocolate mouse, layer two, raspberry gel w/french bean vanilla cream

• Bought wedding band for the soon to be Hubby

Fiance was soo excited that we got his ring, he had to immediately take photo of the ring with his phone. Too Cute!!

• Picked up my Wedding Dress - Wooohooo!!!!!

Admiring my dress in the mirror

• Valentine's Dinner at my favorite Sushi place, then a movie.

Let's just say it was one busy day. But fun and exciting as well. I will post photos of everything tonight and will elaborate more on my V-Day. In addition, to that I still have to give everyone a recap of the move - and the road trip from MT to CA. Stay tuned! =)

****Fiance's move to California recap****

Here's a photos of me and my sweetie, from last weekend.

For some reason this is the only photo we took, while driving down to CA.

As you all know, we had to move the fiance down from the Northwest to California. It took us two days to make the trek to CA, and I'm glad I don't have to do that again. Along with way we met up with J.'s old friend Noah and his wife Stephanie in Utah. I had heard so much about Noah. It was great to finally put a face to a name. Noah and his wife Stephy are such fun couple. Can't wait to hang out with them again, and see them at our wedding.
During our stop in Las Vegas, we also decided to meet up with two of my best friends, Marlith and Dani for lunch. Unfortunately, Dani couldn't meet us at her favorite restaurant Bahama Breeze, since she had to work. It was still great seeing Marlith, especially since I hadn't seen her since Dani's wedding in November. Not to mention, that she's expecting her first child. It's Baby Boy!!!
Of course, when we get together time just flies by and J. and I had to get back on the road. However, Marlith will be moving to San Diego soon, since her hubby Spencer got stationed in San Diego again. She'll just be a car ride away. Yippie!!! Normally, I would post a photo of us, but for some reason Marlith and I both forgot to take pictures...guess we were soo excited to see each other, that we simply forgot!!!
Literally 5 minutes later, we call each other all upset that we didn't document our fun lunch with a photo. Oh well! I wanted to photshop Marlith into the above photo, but it just looked creep.y So instead, I'll just post one of her and her pregnant belly.

Marlith and her baby belly

Geez....I'm exhausted now! What a long post. Ha Ha!

Shoes

Completely forgot to mention - I finally found some super cute wedding shoes. And they were on sale. Woohoo!!!! Now, I can afford to purchase these super cute, ultra fab Kate Spade shoes. Simply adore them.

The Countdown...

In exactly 94 days, is the BIG DAY! Crazy, I didn't even realize I was down to the double digits. Slowly but surely I'm feeling the stress. Still haven't had a huge freak out yet, but who knows how long that will last. Actually, to be completely honest I did have mini freak out last Friday. But in my defense, I think I'm justified.
Some of you have heard about my dress problem already, since I shared my frustration on theknot message boards. But for those who haven't here's the story:
Last September I ordered my wedding dress from Neiman Marcus. When I placed my ordered my dress consultant said and I quote: "You should be receiving your dress the end of December."
Well, it's the beginning of February and I still do NOT have my dress. December is such a busy month with all the holidays and stuff, so I did not make much attention whether I had received a phone call from Neiman Marcus. January is just as hectic for me. But finally mid-January I took the time to call inquire on the status of my dress, and to schedule an appointment as to when I could pick up the dress, and have my first fitting.
To my surprise, the dress had not come in yet. Even after the sales lady looked up my order, she seemed clueless as to when my dress would arrive. So naturally, I wasn't to confident in her answer next week. Ok fine, no big deal right?!?!
At that point, I still think I have plenty of time and I will just give them a call next week again. No need to stress, right!! Boy was I wrong!! A week later, I called Neiman Marcus again to see if my dress had arrived. Anyone want to take a guess what I was told? Yup, my dress has not come in yet and wouldn't arrive until the following week. Wait?! That was the same response I received the previous week, when I made my first call to the store to inquire about the status.
This time I was a bit peeved, since I was promised a delivery date in December. Surprisingly, I still did not freak out yet at this point...perhaps because I had so much going on, I just didn't have the time and couldn't follow up on my dress status until last Friday. Of course, my dress wasn't in yet! But this time, I finally got my dress consultant on the phone! She informed my that my dress is in production, and she wouldn't hear back from my dress designer until Monday?
In production?? What the hell? I ordered my dress in September. My dress should have been place in production back in September, right?? Furthermore she explained, it would take another 3-5 days for my dress to arrive, since my dress will be shipped from New York. For that reason, she had not called me, because she didn't know exactly as to when my dress would arrive. But my consultant promised to call me on Monday to let me know the status regardless. Well Monday rolls around and I did not hear from them all day. So finally around 4:45 I call them. Of course, they didn't have any new information for me, since they hadn't heard from the designer. But by Wednesday they definitely would know more!!! Ya right! Oh and they would call me on Wedneday!! Naturally, by now I was bit irritated, upset, annoyed....you name it! As politely as possible, I told them that I moved up my wedding date up to March. Therefore I need my dress this month still, since I still need alterations. Ugh! My bridal consultant tried to assure me that I would have my dress in time for my wedding. But she wasn't very convincing and by now I don't believe a word they say anyway.
So far, I have not received a call from them yet. If tNeiman Marcus does not call me by 5pm. They will have one un-happy Bride on their hands. And I will have to unlease the BRIDEZILLA!! Beside the dress issue everything else is coming along fine. I just placed my invitation order. Super excited about the invitations!!! I just know The Paper Stylilst will create a fabulous invitation suite for me. Can't wait to see what she comes up with.

Which will it be...???

Who knew it would be so difficult to decide on a First Dance Song. Since the soon to be hubby and I don't have a song together, we basically could chose any song. Naturally, we wanted the lyrics of the song to fit us as well.
Finally! After search high and low, we narrowed it down to the following songs:

• You and Me by Lifehouse (acoustic version)
• Follow Through by Gavin DeGraw (song is a bit fast, but hoping to find an acoustic version of it)
  

"You and Me" has been favorite of mine, since I first heard it on the radio. And just recently, I stumbled upon the Gavin DeGraw song, and absolutely fell in love with it. Lyrically both songs speaks to us, which makes the decision even harder.

Excerpts from my song choices:

Follow Through
Oh, this is the start of something good
Don't you agree?
I haven't felt like this in so many moons
You know what I mean?
And we can build through this destruction
As we are standing on our feet
So, since you want to be with me
You'll have to follow through
With every word you say

And I , all I really want is you
You to stick around
I;ll see you everyday
But you have to follow through
You have to follow through
...

You and Me

What day is it? And in what month?
This clock never seemed so alive
I can't keep up and I can't back down
I've been losing so much time

Cause it's you and me and all of the people with nothing to do
Nothing to lose
And it's you and me and all of the people
And I don't know why, I can't keep my eyes off of you
...

Waiting on the World to change...

The World has changed. America has changed. Change has come. Today Barrack Obama is/was sworn in as our 44th President. I was fortunate enough to watch the swearing in on TV. It was quite amazing to see and hear his fantastic Inauguration Speech.

"...On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord. On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics."

The entire speech can be found here.

Ceremony Readings

My two readings I chose for the wedding. What do you guys think? Simply adore this poem by Pablo Neruda.

Love Sonnet XVII
I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz, or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off. I you as certain dark things are to be loved in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers; thanks
to your love a certain solid fragrance, risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or why, or from where. I love you straightforwardly, without
complexities or pride; so I love you because I know no other way.

than this: where I does not exist, nor you, so close that your hand on my chest is my hand, so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

My second reading come from the Bible. It's commonly used for weddings, but still love it nonetheless.

1 Corinthian 13:1-13
I speak in tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I have nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patients, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keep no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. but where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues they will be stilled, where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned lie a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Most likely I will just use excerpts of the poem and the bible passage. Have not quite decided just yet.