Am I getting married today?!

Well my lovelies, today is the day. Or actually tomorrow because I put together some of this post ahead of time and I just came back to add that it is 9:30 pm and I'm back at home in my jammies. The rehearsal lasted about 30 minutes and I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing tomorrow. But I'm sure people will give me directions.

The escort cards turned out all wonky and we are fixing those and we have to assemble the cranes... I can't wait to show them to you.

Everything is going by at light speed and I'm so happy to have this blog as a journal to look back on!

I don't feel nervous but then again my palms aren't normally this sweaty. I'm eager and anxious and so full. OMG just wait until I tell you all about the rehearsal dinner!

While you are reading this I will be getting ready to marry the most amazing man in the world. I'll be at my parents house with my 4 bridesmaids, 2 hair dressers, 1 make-up artist, parents, photographer, videographer and gingerbread.

I have this song to share with you. Some of you are already fans I am sure...



Why? Because I love it. Because I can barely listen to it without crying these days. Because I love Christmas and because Canon in D (the instrumental part) is what will be playing while I walk down the aisle. To marry my best friend. My whole world will be waiting there for me when those doors open.

I'll leave you with a reading from the wedding... and I'll be back soon with tales to tell!

A reading from the letter of St. Paul to the Romans

I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God,
to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship.
Do not conform yourselves to this age
but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,
that you may discern what is the will of God,
what is good and pleasing and perfect.

Let love be sincere;
hate what is evil,
hold on to what is good;
love one another with mutual affection;
anticipate one another in showing honor.

Do not grow slack in zeal,
be fervent in spirit,
serve the Lord.
Rejoice in hope,
endure in affliction,
persevere in prayer.
Contribute to the needs of the holy ones,
exercise hospitality.

Bless those who persecute you,
bless and do not curse them.
Rejoice with those who rejoice,
weep with those who weep.
Have the same regard for one another;
do not be haughty but associate with the lowly;
do not be wise in your own estimation.
Do not repay anyone evil for evil;
be concerned for what is noble in the sight of all.
If possible, on your part, live at peace with all.

The Word of the Lord.

Thank you so much for your well wishes! I just love you all!!

Hours, baby!

We are hours away! Is this what I expected? I have no idea. But I do know I love it. I am literally surrounded by love. I think we should join hands and sing. Or a group hug. Or we should all share something that makes us happy. Or I should just make sure that I don't have too much coffee today.

Its like Christmas eve only better!



My agenda today is to get my nails done and then run around like mad. I honestly still don't have some things.... like underwear. I hate to wear plain beige underwear or I may have to channel Alice and go commando. What?

Whatever I don't have by 1 pm I can do without. Just some last minute details. Thats my deadline. Then I am going to just enjoy the ride. I'm going to eat so much good food! Rehearsal tonight at the church and then dinner at Ruby Palace. 8 courses/dishes. Some pretty interesting Chinese dishes... even for me. B planned the whole thing.

A fantastic surprise..... B's grandma (poh poh) will be able to attend the wedding! We'll keep his grandfather in our prayers. Also, his Aunt Eujania is going to miss the wedding to stay with gung gung. I just think she is amazing and we will miss her dearly but that is just the type of lady she is. She always goes out of her way to make things work for everyone else and to take care of the ones she loves.

We have family in from Puerto Rico, Boston, New York, Chicago and all over California. I cannot wait to see everyone! I also can't wait to share all the details with you. Don't think these wedding posts are going to stop after the wedding. My apologies ahead of time. But after the wedding I'll have pictures to share the details. After the wedding we'll have New Zealand to get ready for.

Whew! I'm going a mile a minute. Lets just get to the wedding before I start planning out the next 10 years.

I am grateful for this amazing time, these amazing people, this amazing man. I'm also so glad I can share it all with you. All you invisible friends of mine. Blogdom is a weird and wonderful small and infinitely large community.

I am getting married, heck yeah!

As you know, I've done away with a lot of the traditional wedding cheesiness. But seriously, there has to be a bit of it. And because I can't be the only one traumatized by pictures of B with a mullet.... here you go.... I'm sorry B.... this is my honest space and I had to put it out there.... we understand... it was the eighties....

Craig & Dawn's montage from Garner Films on Vimeo.

The song "Isn't she lovely" was my dads song for me when I was little. I'm pretty sure my mom will cry when she hears it. Hope you enjoyed my little display of public humiliation!

Um, have you heard I'm getting married tomorrow?!

The day after tomorrow

I marry my spazzy, weird, crazy, mellow fiance. I have never in my life met someone so completely comfortable with themselves. Its contagious. Its adventurous. Its sometimes challenging.

Like when I'm in my crap clothes out and about and he insists on going into Cartier to look at some eye candy. I try and explain you don't just waltz into Cartier in your yoga pants and ask to look at a watch you were admiring in the window. Of course as I'm saying this he is already in the store having a grand conversation with the salesman. The salesman who is his buddy by the time we leave.



When I am with this man we've actually gone into restaurants that are filled with people who don't speak English and look at menus that are not written in English and just point at a random menu item when we order.

This man is spazzy when I am rigid. He makes me laugh when I want to scream. He slows me down when I am too busy rushing forward. He makes me so happy I cry, more often than I would like to admit. He is sneaky though. He is so quiet you don't think he is paying attention. He is totally content sitting in silence.



My crazy fiance chose bright royal blue shoes for the wedding. Royal blue adidas. Royal blue adidas to go with his fancy black tux. So we bought all the groomsmen tennis shoes too. All different kinds in black and white. And I bought myself some royal blue shoes.

This man that tucks me into bed at night is going to be mine forever.

FOR-EV-VER, FOOOR-EEEVV-VVEEEER, FFOOOOORRRRRR-EEEEEVV-VVEEEERRR! (sandlot anyone?)

Forever is such a very long time and yet it doesn't seem long enough.

Excuse me while I become a sappy mess.
~pulling self together, daintily dabbing at eyes~

Do you think it would be weird for me to bring my camera to the wedding and take pictures of all the food? :)

Dum, dum, de-dum...

First off, I'm totally recycling these photos because my laptop and I have decided to take a break from each other. Actually, my laptop decided it needed a vacation and left me stranded and alone. Thank God I have B to fall back on or I don't know what I would do. Its not you, its me, but I hope we can still be friends.

These bouquet shots were from the engagement shoot. Actually, I took these with the bouquet from the shoot. The last shot from the lovely Adrienne.




Things are a changing 'round here! Last minute details. Family coming in. Food to be eaten. Places to go. People to see. I still have things to do on my knot checklist.

Lets talk bouquets for a moment. I have to admit that I'm really not a bouquet catcher. When the bride tosses the bouquet I usually look for the bar and try to sneak out quietly before she starts. I know. I'm sorry. So, when it came to my own wedding I took stalk of the single ladies out there. Was anyone going to miss this? I decided I wasn't going to do it.

I decided I would do a bouquet presentation instead. We were going to have all the married couples get up to dance and then the DJ would start narrowing down the couples during the song. "Will all the couples who have been married for less than a year sit down" until the last couple is standing and we all applaud. Then we were going to mention that there was a couple who has actually been married for over 69 years!

B's grandparents (Poh poh and Gung gung) have been married for 69 years, can you believe that?! We were going to present them with the bouquet and tell them how much we love and appreciate them. Unfortunately, B's grandpa fell ill this past weekend and has been admitted to the hospital. They won't be able to make the trip down for the wedding and we will miss having them there.

Please keep Gung gung in your prayers.



What else? I still don't have:
-underwear (I'm just keeping it real here. I mean, I own underwear but not pretty wedding ones)
-escort cards (we had some formatting issues)
-the cranes (they should get here FRIDAY- good Lord that is cutting it close)
-a cantor (ours had a death in the family)
and

-MY DRESS.... to be picked up later today... I hope...




Besides being exhausted, I am thoroughly excited. We have family coming in from Puerto Rico today and friends coming in from Sacramento tonight. Tomorrow we'll be dropping things at hotels, wiping our sweaty palms on our pants, smiling, sweating, crying, clapping, laughing, eating, talking and generally running in circles.

I'm not nervous, I'm anxious. There is not a doubt in my mind that B is the man for me. Whatever life brings us, we can tackle it. Last night I thought of the moment I knew I was going to marry B. It was the day I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. I wrote about it in 3 parts, the last being the diagnosis. You can read the first one here.

When I look back at that day, I smile. How odd is that? What a great gift he has given me.

3 days until all B's dreams come true..... I mean, until all my dreams come true....

Looking back, looking forward

3 years ago I was working at Roy's Restaurant as a manager. I was working crazy hours, non-stop. Nights, weekends, 60 hour work weeks, food galore. I had my eye on the prize...I would work my way up to partnering my own restaurant. I was living in North Hollywood, eating out at 2 am, staying up all night and working all day and having a grand time doing it.

2 years ago I had almost an inch of hair. I had just completed 6 rounds of chemo and was waiting to start 7 weeks of radiation. I had moved to back to Orange County and spent time adjusting the excel spreadsheet that had my life plan. I was living in a new place, with a new job, and a new view. I had my eye on the prize... I just needed to figure out a way to get a ring on my finger. :) I was happy. I was confident. I felt the most calm, cool and collected I have ever felt in my life.

1 year ago I was newly engaged and beaming. I was a hazard to other cars on the road because I would get easily distracted by the shiny on my finger. I was 5 months out from completing treatment and I was taking medication that gave me what seemed like months long hot flashes. I started a new excel spreadsheet for both the wedding and the honeymoon. I spent a lot of time spontaneously clapping.

Today. What can I say about today?

I am 4 days away from marrying the most wonderful man. He balances me. He gets me. It feels as if the whole world is before me and I can go any direction I want. I'm just trying to slow time, I want to soak it all in. I look forward to our future. A future filled with home cooking....done by B... while I read a book and sip champagne.... after he has bathed the children and put them to bed...and sits down to massage my feet....or you know, something like that. Sorta.

Is it just me or is time literally flying by? I have to go breathe into a paper bag now.

How did you feel days before your wedding?

(First and last shots courtesy of Adrienne Gunde)

Care to help me with my guest books?

We have 7 days to go and I'm starting a little project. I know, I'm shaking my head too. But sometimes an idea strikes you and you just have to go with it.

I bought these fantastic guest books on etsy. Actually, they aren't really guest books. They are vintage books that have been turned into journals. They would also make great personalized gifts!

This journal was found on FancyLamb. There are tons of journals as well as other vintage finds.



Oh how I love books. I love vintage books. I love that these books were given new life. Upcycled. I saw these and I knew I needed to have them for the wedding. Or I needed to have them and the wedding seems a good excuse to buy them. I really wanted a guest book that we would reflect on often and this seemed to be perfect for us.



Our guests will take pictures in the photo booth (black and white prints, of course) and they will receive 2 copies of the pictures. One for them and one to put in our guest book along with a little note.

But you see, I couldn't pick just one book, I somehow ended up with 3. I want to use them all. Actually I really ended up with 4 but the last one doesn't quite blend color wise. However, its called Essays of Our Day and I'm keeping it for something perfect.

Then I decided I would fill pages throughout the books with pictures from the engagement shoot and quotes!

This journal is from ReImagined which features both upcycled and handmade journals. I love the brown paper interior.



This is where you come in. I need quotes, sayings, snippets, lyrics and such. Besides, I'd love to have pieces from you added into our books.

They can be funny or serious. They can be about love, marriage, photos, family, memories, friends, winter or just about anything that would belong in our guest books.

This is from UsefulBooks and features hand marbled paper as well as paper from other vintage books included in the journal itself. I fell in love with the winter scenes.



Here are a few we'll be including:
A good snapshot stops a moment from running away. ~Eudora Welty

When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible. ~Nora Ephron, When Harry Met Sally

Mawage. Mawage is wot bwings us togeder tooday. Mawage, that bwessed awangment, that dweam wifin a dweam...
And wuv, tru wuv, will fowow you foweva...
So tweasure your wuv. ~The Princess Bride

and last but not least

"You know....

you are.....

the only one for me.....

right now."
~B circa 2005ish. My man has a way with words. We will not be writing our own vows.



So brainstorm and leave me a comment and I'll put it in our guest books! I'm thinking I'll just write them in colored pen unless you have a FAST & EASY idea to make it prettier.

Thanks!

Kathleen you're a winner!

Congratulations Kathleen! The winning number is 60 and you are it!

As usual I had a lot of fun doing this giveaway! There will be more freebies soon... like in a week or so.... as I am already behind in my shipping of things... because I'm a bit preoccupied.... my apologies...you'll receive your loot vewy, vewy soon. Kathleen, contact me so I can get your address!

Is there a trick to posting the Random Number Generator? If so, can you please tell me how.