One Month and Counting!

Alright folks, we are thirty days away! Yes, you read that right, exactly one month from today! Can you believe it? It seems like just yesterday that M and I were trying to decide on a date.

June slipped right through my fingers and so much has happened since my last post due to the busy-ness of my psycho Spanish test, teaching, finals, both graduations, summer classes, job hunting, not to mention going out of my mind because I'm a control freak perfectionist trying to plan a wedding!

Big things happened in June.  I guess we should start with my frenemy: flowers.  We decided on centerpieces AND bouquets AND boutonnieres AND corsages BAM.  They are going to be mostly white flowers with some purple to add color and excitement.  We (I...) ended up loving the look of ruffly flowers like hydrangeas and carnations which will both be making an appearance on the day.  Here's my inspiration, hopefully the real things is just as gorgeous!

Bride Bouquet^

Bridesmaid Bouquet^

Oh so pretty^

Boutonniere Option 1^

Boutonniere Option 2^

Mom's and Grandma's corsages^

Another big part of June was the clothing! The girls dresses are all picked up and hanging in their closets beautifully, Michael has a dashing new suit, dad has a new suit, grandparents outfits are accounted for, now we are just waiting on the boys to get shirts and shoes and mom to decide on one of the many dresses she has tried on, all lovely but we haven't found 'the one' yet.

Another note on clothing, I had my first and second dress fittings with Chiarra and we are going on an adventure on Monday to get more supplies!  Luckily she didn't have to change the hem because it is the perfect length, which is possibly the first time in my whole life something has been the right length (how someone over 5'4" wears my dress baffles me... but no complaints here!) But she did take four inches out of the waist, I know all of those bootcamp sessions would pay off!  Another special touch we are adding is taking the buttons from my grandma Ann's wedding dress which my mom also wore and adding them to mine.  Although I have my own brand spanking new dress (eeeee!), over the 4th of July at the cabin, we decided to take a trip down memory lane, heres how it turned out:

Surprisingly mom and grandma's dress fit like a glove and it in pretty good condition for an over 50 year old dress that has been crammed in a trunk in a shed for the last 25.

Good preservation of your gown mom. :)

The next item of business is hair, a few weeks ago on the day of my friend Claire and my long lost cousin John's wedding, Nehala and I went for a small jaunt to Newport to get my hair trial done.  Although it was a short little trip, its always a blast spending time with the lovely ladies in my life :)  My hair turned out great, not exactly how I wanted, but close enough that with a few minor changes it will be faboo! but as with my wedding attire, its a secret so no pictures today!

On to food which is quickly becoming frenemy number two, only at least I can devour it which I cannot do to the flowers.  I guess now is a good time to tell everyone, well everyone who reads my silly blog at least, that we are not having an actual dinner at the wedding.

...pause for shock value... 

BUT we are having some delicious food and there will be plenty for everyone to eat!  We decided that rather than have a sit down dinner of dry chicken or fish that gets cold on its way to you or standing in a line holding your plate (not that plated dinner and buffet's are bad options because I've been to some weddings with dang good food recently, *shout out to the Cary family and Claire* its just not us.) that we were going to do a cocktail style reception.  This means (assuming everything goes according to plan) that there will be plenty of seating, but there will also be standing tables and food horderves/appetizers/snacks/treats/whatever-you-want-to-call-them-small-foods throughout the room and more substantial soups for those who actually want to sit and eat a full meal.  

Personally I've never loved the feeling of getting dressed up in some dress with spanx that cut off circulation to my brain but make my dress smooth so its worth it heels and then stuffing myself with dinner and needing to sit the rest of the night, so I didn't want our guests to feel that way either.  While we haven't finalized the menu yet, actually we've barely started, I can tell you that there will be a variety of things to taste! If you have any ideas or special requests for something that you think would be delicious for a crowd of 150, facebook me or text me and let me know! 

Here's some examples of things that you might see there...

So now that I've told you my June life story, any questions? 

I'm a big kid now.

This is in no way wedding related but I just wanted to share with everyone that I officially have a teaching job for Fall!

At the beginning of April I went to an education Job Fair in Portland thinking that I would just go for the experience and get an idea of what was out there.  I ended up with an interview with the Salem/Keizer school district but didn't think much of it because there were so many people at the job fair.  While I was waiting for my interview, the man I talked to at the booth walked up and actually got me in an interview to talk to his supervisor for the school rather than someone else from the school district (they were conducting mass interviews, not necessarily for individual schools).  I left the interview feeling good about my answers but still skeptical because of the low chances of getting a job at the fair.

A few days later I received a call from McNary High School saying that they were impressed with me at the job fair and asking me to come for an second interview at the school.  I immediately agreed and went up the next day.  The interview consisted of the Principal, Vice Principal, and the other spanish teacher at the school.  Again, I left the interview feeling good about my questions and answers but still not confident in my chances of actually getting a job.

Well a few days later I got another call saying that I was one of the top two candidates and that they wanted me to send a video of one of my classes for them to watch.  This is when I started to get excited about the possibility of having a real job.  I sent my video and waited for a response.

Well, on the Monday before my bridal shower, I got a call from Human Resources for the Salem/Keizer school district offering me the job! I decided to sleep on it for a few nights and talk it over with Michael but on the Friday of my bridal shower (May 10) I actually accepted the job!  I am so excited and nervous, but I will be teaching Spanish full time at McNary High School next school year!  Yay!

Ladies Weekend

Last weekend many of the lovely ladies in my life all gathered in Corvallis for my bridal shower! It was so much fun and I was so happy to see everyone!  Kelly flew in all the way from Oklahoma for the occasion which was very special and between her and my mom, they created a wonderful party for all of us.  They hung puff ball flowers from the ceiling, made cute little wedding dress favors, set up a drink station with all sorts of tasty treats AND mom even created a purple cocktail to match the wedding colors that she likes to call the "purple lolo."  We played a few games such as "how well do you know the bride?" and breaking into groups to create the best toilet paper wedding dress. Overall it was a great evening with a wonderful group of women who I can't thank enough for their love and help during this crazy planning period.  

Also in this crazy weekend of activities, the bridesmaids and I all piled into the car and drove to Keizer to order their dresses!  They all look so fantastic in their lovely plum dresses and I'm so excited to see them at the wedding and have them stand next to me.  They also tried on their wedding shoes which I bought for them without them trying them on and guess what? They all fit perfectly!  

Here's some pictures from the weekend! 

100 DAYS!

Today is May 2, 2013 and there is officially 100 days until the wedding! 

That means: 

• We are SUPER excited!
• annnddd We need to get our butts in gear and get some stuff done!

Want to know what is still on my list? Here goes...

• dress alterations
• ACCESSORIES!
• suit for the man
• order the ladies dresses (t-minus two weeks!)
• reception decor
• ceremony decor
• ceremony (what the heck are we going to say?!)
• send invitations (might be good to make sure people actually show up...)
• finish registry
• reception food and drinks
• RENT ALL TE TINGS!
• songs (ceremony, first dance, other dances etc.)
• get a marriage license
• figure out wedding day looks
• figure out how in the world we are going to fit everyone in the room...
• get Michael a ring
• parties!
• and last but not least... my continual nemesis... flowers.

I'm sure thats not all we've got, but its the abridged version. Who knew there were so many things to take into consideration!? Well, actually I did, and chose to pretend it wasn't so... Overall I am extremely happyexcitedelatedstressedpumped but I know that the next three months are going to be crazy (freak out mode has officially engaged). Bridezilla might need to be restrained. Wish us luck!

Music... and other business

Its been a while since the last time I posted so I wanted to update everyone on whats going on!  We officially have a DJ for the par-tay part of the evening although we haven't actually decided on any music or what songs we want for anything... but you know, baby steps.

Flowers are still my nemesis and I have no idea what to do with them.  Why are they so difficult? Maybe because there are too many options? Also because they are so expensive and yet die the next week... Well whatever the reason, we still haven't decided although possibly something resembling ikebana (just google it and then imagine less doingy and more pretty).

Finally, between the whirl of school, student teaching, working and everything else, we got engagement pictures taken! Now, I never win anything. Ever. So I was really excited when I got a call from a woman in Portland saying that I had won a free engagement picture session (her wedding photography packages START at $2000... yeah right...)  Well, we got all glammed up and headed up to Portland for a photo shoot in the Pearl district.  We haven't gotten any pictures back yet but you can bet that when I do I will post them immediately!

Thats all for now folks, new updates soon!

Boys: Part Two

As many of you know, searching for suits for the boys has not been easy. In fact its been sort of a nightmare.  Well that nightmare has officially been put to rest! Everyone has suits!  

After searching high and low for a gray, wool, price conscious suit Ryan spotted one on sale at Kohls.  He went on a scouting mission to the store to try it on and see if it fit well or even looked nice (which it did).  So spur of the moment we piled everyone, minus Owen who lives in nowhere-a-go-go land, in the car and went to buy them.  The boys looked awesome in their three piece (yes I FINALLY convinced Michael that they were wearing vests. boom roasted.) medium gray suits!

Exhibit A: Ryan's "model" face... also cute socks...

Exhibit B: Mom rockin' something similar to what Michael will be in. Aren't they dashing?

That's awesome, you might say, it was so easy, you might also say. WRONG! Did we find everyone a suit? yes. Does everyone look fabulous? yes. Did we have to scour every store in Oregon? yes. WHAT?! Apparently they physically don't make a jacket in the right size for Owen.  How is that possible? He wears a 42 long which seems like a pretty dang standard size but no, doesn't exist. SO we were stuck between a rock and a hard place. Do we get him the bigger jacket and have it taken in or do we get the smaller jacket and hope the sleeves can be lengthened enough? 

Well after buying him all the wrong sizes in all three pieces, returning, exchanging, and trying to keep the discounted sale price we talked to a seamstress who brought us to the conclusion that we needed the big jacket.  All in all its been exhausting trying to find something that shouldn't be so difficult BUT it was worth it, they are all going to look awesome AND they can keep them instead of returning them the day after the wedding. 

Please join us next time for "Flowers, my (beautiful) nemesis."

Decisions to Make

One of the biggest things about planing a wedding is the amount of decisions you have to make.  What flavor cake, what style dress, do you want white or ivory, do you hire a band, do you hire a dj, do you want a videographer, what colors are you going to use, are you having a theme, what shoes are you going to wear, and so on.

Well these are a few of the problem decisions we have been trying to figure out the last few weeks.  We met with a DJ from Portland who seems like a really cool guy who runs his own business and absolutely knows what he is doing. The question is, is it worth it to hire a DJ rather than doing music ourselves and playing an iPod? Well I really don't know the answer to that question.  On one hand hiring a DJ will make everything flow much nicer, keep the party going, and be in charge of any announcements.  On the other hand, is it really that big of a deal, and what about the cost?

The other decision that we are wallowing in is what colors to use.  We started out with dark purple and green, but almost every wedding I've been to recently has used green and purple as their colors. Also, green is a really hard color to use because everything is either lime, apple, or forest which are not my cup of tea. So we changed the colors to dark purple and gray.  I love it, but its kind of wintery and dark. So here we are stuck trying to think of a color that can match dark purple but not look like barbie or cotton candy.

Finally... flowers. My nemesis. I love flowers, I think they are very wonderful (except roses... I don't love those...), but I don't know anything about them except that they are way the heck more expensive than they ever should be.  We have gone back and forth between tall centerpieces, low, alternating, fluffly flowers, streamlined lilies and back again. Who ever thought flowers could be so pretty and yet so evil? 

Ah the petty problems of planning a wedding. Feel free to leave me any thoughts or suggestions!