Final Phase

This past weekend, Mark and I have been extremely busy that I'm kind of glad it's over! Our weekend consisted of: invitations-2nd cake tasting-registry-dan's party-registry-brunch with the bro-registry-invitations.

Over the last few days (Thursday-Monday) I've been working on all phases of our invitations, trying to figure out the most efficient way to put them together. On top of that, I've also been going to bed after midnight and waking up early for work and for our weekend meetings. Considering how I usually spend 4+ hours on invitations with my head constantly down and very little breaks, I ended up with a stiff neck! It hurt to the point where I needed to put the T.E.N.S unit on my neck to help alleviate the pain.


CAKE
Mark and I met with our cake vendor for our second meeting. Initially, Mark and I were disappointed on the front end because they had lost/misplaced our paperwork! We were able to come up with our own concoction since they gave us multiple spoons of different icing flavors, cakes, and preservatives. After two hours of tastings, we finally came closer to making our decisions! we have a third tasting this Tuesday to finalize our contract and cake flavor!


REGISTRY
For most couples, the registry is usually the best part of the wedding planning. Mark and I have pushed the registry to the side since we've been occupied with the other aspects of the wedding. On Saturday after our cake tasting, we went to Macy's and decided to go to work with the "gun." Since we don't have a place of our own, it's difficult to figure out what to put on the list, especially since we have limited storage at both our parent's houses. Of course we put items on the list that we definitely need once we get a place, but a lot of the smaller items (baking/cooking utensils, butter trays, etc) have been put on hold. On Sunday, we registered at Crate and Barrel. The hardest part of doing our registry is trying to figure out where we would put everything!

INVITATIONS
I saved the best for last! The past couple days have been slightly difficult, because of my strict deadline that I have set for myself. I worked myself so hard that my neck became so stiff! It's gotten a lot better but between Friday and Saturday, I could barely move it from side to side without aching. It still hurts but I'm doing a lot better! I digress, The invitations were split into different phases since Mark and I created our invitations from scratch. The wonderful monogram was made by our friend Charlene, while our friend Camilo formatted and set our content. While I marked all the invitations and stuffed our pocket folds, Mark worked on our "ribbon." It took up a lot of time to set and put together. it's meant to slide up and down to open our invitations. Here are some pictures of our phases and the final product.

Phase 1: Score the Large sheet (the main pocketfold)

Phase 2: Mount the lavender sheet on the pocket fold

Phase 3: Mount the main content and place the information in the pocket fold

Phase 4: Fold the pocket fold and place the seal around it.
Phase 5: stuff our invitations and place proper postage on the envelopes.

WE SENT THE FIRST BATCH! we still have our second batch of invitations that will go out sometime this week. Mark's been ill these past few days and I feel that whatever he has is slowly catching up to me. Depending on how I'm feeling, the second batch should go out no later than Friday! =]

Ultimate DIY Bride

Over the course of our engagement, I've taken on multiple projects that have been time consuming because of the need to have everything done a certain way. I guess you can say I am the ultimate DIY bride! With the help of Mark, we've created our entire invitation from scratch, from the blank sheet of paper to the final product. We've spent numerous hours finding the right ribbon, picking out the right font and color, working with our friends who have made our monogram and the layout of our content. Not to mention are awesome favors we're giving away at our wedding, people who really know me will understand why we're giving it away.

RECENT PROJECT
Week 1 of practice: don't judge, wait til you get the real thing! [picture to the right] Over the past few weeks, I've been learning calligraphy. Rather than having our invitations printed out and although it would be perfect, I wanted to add a personal touch by hand-writing every invitation. Grant, we could have paid someone to do it, but I thought it would be fun! The calligraphy might not be perfect, seeing how I just picked it up as a hobby but I'm pretty proud. I've been practicing for 2-3 weeks! So once you receive your invitation, know that a lot of work went behind every aspect of what you're getting.[envelopes and everything inside of them!]

WHAT TO TAKE FROM OUR WEDDING
From the beginning of the planning process, we wanted our guest to understand the dynamics of who we are. Anything that has our "stamp" of approval, we will make sure we back it 110%. We've been working very hard to make the "bigger picture" perfect, to mine and Mark's standards, but what makes up the bigger picture? It's the details. Each event that is prior and after the wedding is a reflection of who we are as an individual and more importantly, who we are as a couple. Everything has a meaning behind it and if you ask, I'd love to tell you..maybe with the exception of the plates and utensils. lol. I'm almost positive, people will just see the event as the bigger picture, but if you chose to dissect each section, you'll notice small things we've done to personalize it as our own.

With a little more than 2 months on the countdown, my excitement continue to grows!

Honeymoon

During the past year, Mark and I have been trying to decide which island to go to for our honeymoon. Although, touring Europe would have been sweet, we knew it would be a lot of walking around and sight seeing[we wanted a more relaxing honeymoon, perhaps for our one year anniversary!] We knew we wanted to go somewhere with a beautiful beach and relax; a place where we could get massages on the beach and sip on fresh coconuts. Some places we were thinking about were, but not limited: Philippines (more me than him), Bora Bora, Tahiti, Hawaii, St. Lucia, Antigua. After having an initial consultation with a travel agent, we decided we wouldn't go to any of the islands in the pacific because of the amount of traveling that is involved and only staying for 8-10 days wouldn't be worth it.

ST. LUCIA FTW
We decided to go with St. Lucia because it would be in the same time zone so traveling wouldn't be difficult and we also wanted to stay in this amazing hotel that reminded us of where the "lost boys" lived, from the movie "Hook!" haha, sounds right, honeymoon with my "Rufio." lol
We have decided to spend a night in Miami, we get in at 1pm so we have an entire day+evening there! The following day, we fly into St. Lucia and we check into our amazing hotel, it's three walls and we have a beautiful view. I was a bit hesitant because of my fear of bugs, but the scenic overview outweighed my fear. We are currently looking at different excursions and will probably do a hike by the volcano, snorkeling, boating, touring a chocolate plantation, and swim by the waterfall. The following 4 days, we're checking into a hotel in the heart of St. Lucia. Our hotel is situated on the beach and walking distance to all the popular restaurants/nightlife places. We decided to do split hotels so that we could experience everything St. Lucia had to offer.

PLANE TICKETS
For the past few weeks, I've been monitoring plane tickets, I've seen it go as low as $1010 for both and as high as $1440. Keep in mind that was for the same exact flight! It went up over $400 in one day. Rather than going into panic mode, I consulted with Mark about our next step. Option 1: Do we buy the tickets before prices continue to rise or Option 2: wait it out and see if prices drop. Of course there are consequences to both actions. Mark said that he trusted my judgement [since I book all our flights] and told me to make the decision, he wouldn't be upset with me if I chose the wrong option.
I decided to wait it out and continue to check on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. This past Tuesday at 7pm, the price dropped back to $1009. AmericanAirlines allows you to "hold" flight reservations for 24 hours and guarantees the flight and seats you've chosen. We did that, literally 1 hour later, prices increased. Mark and I decided to purchase them. The following day at 9am, prices went back down but not at the price we purchased them for.


Honeymoon Final Thoughts:
I'm excited about our trip. Our honeymoon is completely booked and now I just need to wait for 2 months for our awesome vacation!

Flowers Galore

Over the past weekend, Mark and I had one of our "final" vendor appointments. It's a great time to finalize all of our arrangements since we were 3 months away from the wedding. I've been working with Andrea at Bell Flowers to create a splendid master piece. Although flowers weren't exactly my forte, with very little direction (only giving her examples of the flowers i want) she was able to create exactly what I wanted. It's as if she was looking through my eyes.

CHURCH

At the church, she'll be hanging 16 flower arrangements from the pews.

She has to distribute 12 groups (52 people) their flower arrangements without messing them up.

RECEPTION

The flower arrangements are slightly complex, but they're stunning! I'm looking forward to seeing the final product. During the meeting she had an initial center piece, but after tweeking it as we spoke, it was exactly what I wanted. It has spring written all over it. It's elegant without being overwhelming! Everyone will be in awe with how gorgeous they'll be!

BOUQUET

I'm in love with my bouquet. There are no words that I can use to describe how beautiful they are! Andrea did an amazing job! I can't wait to see the fullness of the bouquet with the ribbon that wraps around the stems.

I would put pictures up, but i figured I'd leave it a surprise to everyone during the day of.

2 MONTHS LEFT!

Plain and Simple

Over the past few months, many people have approached me regarding invitations. Mind you, I've been concentrating on the details of the wedding [bridal shower dates, local bachelorette dates, dimensions of card inserts, ribbon textures, matching colors, etc.] that I have not even looked back at our guest list [spreadsheet].

It seems like more than a few people are curious to see if they will be receiving an invitation and those who do, will they be getting a plus one. For those who are not invited, please don't take it personal! Mark and I come from large families and to us, they come first on our guest list. Since we are paying for our wedding ourselves, we decided to keep it under a certain number; of course everyone is welcome to party and celebrate with us during our after party, which will be held immediately following our reception. Music will be played, food will be served, and we will have a cash bar available, not to mention our special guest DJ will be performing a set.

People who will be receiving a plus one are for those who fall into the following criteria:

1. Don't know that many attendees. Reason: we want everyone to have a good time and we don't want people to feel uncomfortable
   
2. Part of the Bridal Party. Reason: because those were the rules we set from the beginning
   
3. Have met and spent time with BOTH me and Mark. Reason: we're sentimental people, if you don't really know one of us, why is it important for you to be at the most important day of our lives?
   
4. In a relationship for 8+months consecutively, that doesn't include breaks in between. Reason: since we will constantly look back at our wedding photos, we don't want pictures with people who will [possibly] break up in the future
5. People who are engaged or married. Reason: self explanatory. They're apart of you, one entity.
6. People we like. Reason: If you fall into number 3 and 4 but we don't like your significant other, you're not getting the plus one.
   

At the end of the day, this is our wedding. We've planned it and we're paying for it. Although, it's unnecessary for me to write or explain myself, I felt like this needed to be said. With the amount of people who have approached me regarding this topic, I felt like this would be easier to read. You'll know if you have a plus one the moment you open your invitation.

Wedding Planning

Back to the wedding planning! Since I had so much going on last month, I decided to take a break (definitely ahead of schedule) but once January hit, I've been on a roll with all the planning!

HAIR
I have set up an appointment for a hair trial this March but might move it to the end of February(just in case i need to find someone else) and so that I can be pretty for my guy's Birthday <3 haha. Lame but at least I won't have to do my hair! The lady who I have scheduled an appointment with has been doing hair for about 14 years and specializes with up-do's. I feel very confident with her abilities.

MAKE UP
One of my girlfriends will be doing my make up, she's an extremely talented make-up artists and she knows how to highlight my features without "caking" my face. We're doing multiple make-up dates/trials to see what I like best. I'm definitely an "all natural" type of girl so my make-up won't be extreme. Most likely on the natural palate.

FOOD
Mark and I will have our food tasting at the end of February. Food is definitely something Mark and I are very particular [picky] with. We definitely want our guest to have an incredible experience and I find that the music and food definitely contribute greatly to it!

FLORISTS
I'm still looking through magazines/online photos to see if I can get inspiration for a specific look. We sat down with Andrea from Bell Flowers a while back and have chosen our center pieces, bouquets, etc. In March and April we have our last appointment with her to finalize all arrangements.

DRESS
I have another dress fitting at the end of this month, this time I have my wedding shoes, so now we can work on altering the length. I absolutely LOVE my dress and I can't wait until it's perfect. I'm not picking up my dress until the May 18th, but final alterations will be done well before that.

last but not least...

SHOES

I have spent months trying to find the perfect wedding shoes. For all those who know me, I love my shoes! The past few years has been a struggle to wear heels because of the healing process and obstacles I had to overcome with my back. With my back healed, I'm ready to find the perfect shoe, unfortunately, many department stores don't have them on the shelf until late winter [since it's not wedding/spring season]. I've bought a total of 4 shoes and figured I'd return the ones that I didn't end up choosing. I have tiny feet and coming across a size 5 can be rare(especially for designer shoes since they're constantly sold out). If you find it, buy it. Well I can honestly say I'm happy with the pair I decided to go with. I bought two pairs, both similar in ways but yet really different. There's a 14 day return policy with this one particular brand, I figured I'd suck up the shipping cost, if I liked the other shoes more. Neiman Marcus back ordered my shoe and won't get here until late January/early February [which would mean I couldn't return the first pair]. It's okay, because those were the pair I was leaning towards =]

Tis the Season

Now that the holidays are over, I can finally focus on the wedding planning and begin to blog again. Over the month of December, I've been busy with a bunch of events: Bachelorette Party(12.9-12), Holiday company parties x2(12.17 & 12.21), back to back family Christmas parties (12.23 - 23.25), then my birthday (12.26).

BACHELORETTE PARTY!
My Bachelorette party was a success with my MoH's and Bridesmaids. We went on a cruise to Nassau, Bahamas and they surprised me with a Dolphin encounter. The cruise itself was filled with motion sickness, dancing, food, and just being able to lay out in the sun. It was a good break from the cold back home. My biggest concern was having 6 of my bridesmaids come together and not getting along, but that ended up being the least of my worries. Everyone got along and were able to laugh together. It was great having my two MoHs(Noreen and Jamie) and my four bridesmaids(Elle, Char, Timi, and Lauren) all together before the big day. Seeing how one lives in California, the other is finishing her master's program, the other is in her pharm rotations, and the rest of the girls work, I was fortunate to have had them all there.
CHRISTMAS

Words cannot describe my family Christmas Parties
I absolutely adore my family! I look forward to the Narciso Christmas party every single year!
I don't know any other family party that begins at 6pm and ends at 1030am the next day. For the most part, everyone is awake and we play games, dance, sing around, go through presents, and of course our annual "secret santa" exchange. Since [we] a good amount of my cousins are no longer "eligible" for Christmas presents from the adults, we do a secret santa which allows us to receive one present that night. It usually ends in laughs since we have to either act as the person or describe them.

Once the huge party comes to an end, we go home to open presents with my immediate family, presents with the brothers and parents are always fun because my mom usually cooks up a sweet after breakfast-breakfast! After taking an hour or two nap, then Mark and I head up to MD to spend with the Cabellons. Although the Indy Cabellons were unable to come for Christmas, it's great having technology and being able to use a webcam to spend part of our evening with them (as we do our gift exchange)
This is the 4th Christmas Mark and I are spending together and our last one as "boyfriend-girlfriend"