T-minus 13 months

Wow, can you believe that we're basically half way through our 24 month engagement? We thought 2 years would be a long time, but boy has time flown by. And in 13 months from today, we will be partying the night away with our family and friends.

The other night we were catching up with our friends who happen to be newly engaged. Their wedding date is a week before ours and already they're having a food tasting. It got me thinking, are we behind in our planning? I found a generic wedding planning checklist and compared our progress against it.

12 - 16 Months before the wedding:

Choose a wedding date - Check, August 20, 2011 

Discuss & Choose the style and formality of your wedding - Done.

Put an announcement of your recent engagement in the local paper - Uhh, yea....we're going to skip this.

Decide on a wedding budget - Yeup, had to start somewhere.

Hire a wedding consultant - Check, check!

Select a ceremony location - Got it.

Select a reception site - Easy peasy, same as ceremony.

Start shopping for a wedding gown - Half a check. The white dress has been taken care of us, but now I have my Chinese dress to worry about.

8 - 10 Months before the wedding:

Select your bridal party and request their participation in your special day - Almost

Interview and Hire the following:

     Wedding officiant - Done. Yay for friendors (friends that are your vendor)

     Reception Caterer -NOPE, still have plenty of time.

     Photographer and Videographer - Photog CHECK. Videographer, still on the fence about.

     Band or DJ - Plenty of time, Paula will tell us when we need to get on this.

Decide on bridesmaids dresses - Leaving this up to the girls, but we'll be going dress shopping for the bonding experience in 2 weeks!

Start compiling names & addresses for the guest list - We started compiling a list of email address. Mailing address will be obtained later via Google documents. 

Sign up for a gift registry - Is there an all cash registry out there? 

Engagement party - I don't think so.

Not to shabby! Of course there is a long list of projects that we are (I am) working on. Things like our website, invitations and other stationary items, the card box, etc. We'll continue to take things easy and take care of the big ticket items as they need to be done.

On a side note, we start dance lessons tonight!

(almost) Heart Attack #1

You would think that a great weight has been lifted off my shoulders after finding and ordering my bridal gown. However, with my personality that was not the case. I worried about the color; is it going to be too white? I worried about the alterations, will taking it in ruin the dress? Is the salon going to order the right dress? Will the manufacturer send the right dress? Paula, our planner, assured me that everything will turn out. She assured me that alterations will be seamless (haha, pun) and that the seamstress is a master at what she does. I breathed a sigh of relief and let my worries slip from my mind. Then I recieved the following voicemail yesterday:

"Hi Celia. This is so-and-so at La Reine Bridal. The gown that you ordered does not come in the length that you need from the company."

*RECORD SCRATCH* 

My heart practically thumped out of my chest as I continued to listen to the message. My mind was racing with thoughts. OHMYGOD, it's only been a month and already things are futzed up?!?!

As it turns out, I could not have my gown made to a specified length by the manufacturer, but the seamstress has seen the sample dress and she said that it would be no problem at all. The salon wanted to give me a heads up so that I didn't flip out when the dress came in and was longer than I had asked for. Thank you, thank you, thank you La Reine. I can't put into words how appreciative I am for this heads up.  

So, no heart attack, but my worries will crop up again. I ordered my dress hallow to hem (length) so that one less alteration would need to be made. I didn't do this be cause of price, the cost is the same whether the manufacturer does it or a seamstress does it. I did so because I figured less alterations means less degradation of the original gown. I'm sure everything will turn out beautifully in the end, but until then...

Related post:

Milestone: White Dress!

Homemade Pizza(r)

Jake: Can we take pictures of the pizza when we're done?
Me: Sure, why?
Jake: I want to post it somewhere... we made dinner like an adult!

Mushrooms (3 types!), pineapple, and basil pizza.

Almost forgot to take a picture of the finished product.

Pretty tasty for a first try. I think we'll be making our own pizza from now on.

Jake's comment is in reference to This is why I'll never be adult.

Happy Anniversary!

Happy anniversary to us! Last weekend we celebrated our 3rd anniversary by seeing Michael Buble! Jake surprised me with tickets back in May for my birthday. The timing couldn't have been more perfect. The show was at Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, CT which is literally down the street from Jake's paren'ts house.

Our friends J and S also went with us to the concert. Lower left picture: dude walked into our shot and then tried to do a matrix move that failed.

The show was warmed up by a group called Naturally 7. If you've never heard of them, you need to! This is a group of 7 guys, originally from New York that is a mesh between a capella and some serious beat boxing. Click here to see them in action (video not by me). These guys have been around since 1999 and they've been opening shows for Michael Buble since 2007.

Michael Buble opened his show with Cry Me a River. I'm kind torn about not having caught the opening act on video. It was amazing to see in person. It was just like his music video. They even had sparks flying at the end. I don't think that I would have enjoyed it as much had I been recording it.

I can't even begin to describe how entertaining Buble is. Not only can he sing (and is easy on the eyes), he's also ridiculously funny. He's all around just a great entertainer. He interacted with the crowd throughout the entire show. I tried to capture a instances of him being hilarious.

Michael Buble: "Go f!@# yourself" (Video by me. Apparently my camera doesn't record sound when  I zoom)

"Nobody makes me bleed my own blood." (Video by me) They had two giant beach balls being thrown around the arena, at one point, one of the balls ricocheted onto the stage hitting the mic stand. This caused the mic to hit Buble, actually cutting him.

Home. This song has been my theme song for the last four years (video by me).

Here are a couple of other videos I captured from the concert. All photos and videos were captured on my point and shoot, Samsung TL225.

Michael Buble - Billy Jean

Michael Buble - Crazy Love

Michael Buble - Just Haven't Met You Yet

Image from closing act: A Song for You.

Here is an review (recap) on Michael Buble's concert in Portland, OR at the Rose Garden. The author does a much better job than I at capturing the feel of the concert.

Milestone: White Dress!

*squeal* I bought MY dress (a month ago)! *squeal* Yay for another milestone completed!

I'm not the type of girl that has been dreaming (and planning) my wedding since I was young. But I will admit that at one point in my life, I did imagine my wedding dress. It was this GIANT poofy thing. What girl doesn't want a princess ballgown? I'll have you know that I'm older, wiser, a touch more mature and thus I didn't not purchase a big poofy dress.

Here's the disclaimer, I will not post any pictures of my dress or any of the dresses I've tried on prior to the wedding for two reasons. 1) Jake reads this blog and wants to be completely surprised on our wedding day. 2) My dress is so awesome (at least I think so) that I want it to be one of the many surprises that we have in store for our guests.

I won't tell you about how I came to find my dress just yet. It probably won't be much fun to read without all the pictures that go with it. You will just have to sit tight for 13.5 months!

Now if only I could just find a seamstress to make my chinese dress. BAH!

This is the dress I imagined as a young girl. Image is captured from 98 Degrees music video for I Do (Cherish You).