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!