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"