My very own Marcha....

I'm 100% Spanish but was born and raised in the US. We can trace our family to northern Castillian regions of Spain so it's understandable how pale I am. I don't speak Spanish and can't stand anything spicy or hot. Both of my parents were born here too... and so on and so forth. With our family being so Americanized, old Spanish traditions have died or changed up over the decades. No longer do you see coins given from a groom to a bride during the ceremony or the bride wearing any black. But one of the things that never died (but did morph) was our marcha boda aka wedding march.

Our marcha usually starts with a couple who have been married for sometime. The Bride and groom will stand behind that couple and just follow their lead (its a symbol of passing and sharing the joy and happiness of the married couple to the newlyweds). After them, other members of the wedding party will follow behind them and then the rest of the reception will join in behind them, making one long line.

The lead couple will start zig-zagging around the dance floor until they meet up with the end form on gigantic circle. Once they do that, the entire line turns and makes a tunnel for the bride and groom to go under (a symbol of their blessing of the union). Once the couple gets to the end, they start dancing by themselves and in the middle of the circles.

This is one of the few things I always dreamt about on my wedding is the marcha. Even thinking about it with 152 days to go I'm tearing up. To me, I think this is going to be the best moment of the entire day. To me, it solidifies our wedding to each other, and to our families. I've danced in many marchas for others, and this time, it will be just for us!

Do you have any traditions you are looking forward to?

Looking at other traditions

Yesterday I posted about my friend's Greek upcoming wedding. Today I figured I wanted to learn more about another type of wedding. Muslim Weddings.

Three Days of a Traditional Indian Muslim Wedding

Muslim weddings throughout the subcontinent have developed specifically Asian traditions while maintaining Islamic marriage requirements.

Pre-wedding rituals

* Mehndi ceremony

The Mehndi ceremony is held at the home of the bride on the eve of the wedding ceremony or a couple of days before it. The female relatives of the girl anoint her with turmeric paste to bring out the glow in her complexion. A relative or a mehndiwali applies mehndi on the hands and feet of the bride. The event has a festive feel to it with the women singing traditional songs. The bride wears sober clothes. According to custom she must not step out of the house for the next few days until her marriage. The bride's cousins sometimes apply a dot of mehndi on the palm of the groom. ...read more here

Another religious ceremony very different from mine (Roman-Catholic). Reading the entire article and all the photos I realized how amazing, extravagent, and rich in tradition their weddings are. I found some other quick references to customs:

In the Muslim world, marriage customs and traditions vary as much as the colors in a rainbow.

All retain the Islamic obligatory acts, which make a marriage valid and include other practices, which are individual to their surrounding cultures.

There are many different customs from some parts of the Muslim world. Note: not all Muslim marriage customs are necessarily in line with Islamic values.

Source

Now, that's love...

Getting everything together for my engagement party weekend, I knew I had to stop by Home Depot to pick up some buckets for my trek to the Flower district this weekend. It was 930 last night when my FI brought up that we hadn't bought them yet. Me being the tired sour-puss, he said he'll go by himself. Fifthteen minutes later he comes back with two bright orange buckets for my purrrrty flowers.

That's love when you are too tired to do something and the other will!

Engagement Party Flowers

...more to come in two days after my trek to the flower district! Yippee!

Your place or mine...

One of the hardest decisions right after having kids or getting married is buying a home. Some people wait for after the nuptuals are all said and done, others... (like us)... do it before you get married. Planning a wedding is hard, but to be honest, it's cake compared to buying a home. You look and look and fall in love with a place, put in a offer, haggle with the price, realize you are not only going to sign your life away to a residence, but this is where you'll probably raise kids and grow old and etc etc etc. Once the offer gets accepted, you go through countless inspections and if all goes well, great, if not, offer falls through and you are back to square one.

Guess where we are, we're back to square one. Lucky for me I didn't fall in love with the house. But we found another house, and I did the unthinkable... MENTALLY MOVED IN AND NOW ALREADY SEEING MY FUTURE RUGRATS RUNNING AROUND THE HOUSE!!! Why is that unthinkable? Because the offer hasn't been accepted yet and we just have to sit tight and play the waiting game. Yes, that house is THAT FANTASTIC!!!!

Anyhow, I'm getting off topic of what this post was suppose to be about. I found a great resource guide if you are buying a home. Lots of tips, quizes, Q&A's, and much much more! Gotta love The Nest!

Inspirations Part 2

Growing up, my mom loved to decorate the table with the latest holiday attire. Whether it being Flags or autumn leaves or but ol clovers, it was dressed to the nines, for holiday style that is. Browsing through Martha Stewart.com, I found some that reminds me of my mom's tables.

Enjoy!

How-to's



How-to's


How-to's


How-to's

Maybe we all can find inspirations on these place settings and incorporate them for our reception tables or showers!

Weddings from around the world...

One of my BMs is Greek and planning her wedding as well. It's soo interesting to learn about other people's traditions. I never knew they didn't say vows, but in a way, it's sounds so romantic.... before I blow the ending, here's the jist of it:

A Greek Orthodox Wedding

The Greek Orthodox wedding ceremony is an ancient and beautiful service. A unique part of the ceremony is that the Bride and Groom do not say any vows. The ceremony itself shows the couples willingness to come forward and be married, and accept God into their new home.

The ceremony consists of two parts: The Service of Betrothal and the Ceremony of the Sacrament of Marriage. Each part of the ceremony has a special meaning and is significant in the joining of husband and wife. The ceremony starts as the Bride and Groom are each handed white candles to symbolize their willingness to accept Christ into their lives.

Some important elements of the GO ceremony include that the couple must have a religious sponsor(s). They are called Koumbaro (male) or Koumbara (Female). They serve as an important witness to the union. Also, during the ceremony, certain acts and phrases are repeated three times. This represents the Holy Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Source

Are you having a cultural/religous/traditional wedding?

Drink and Be Married...

After last weekend's wedding, I asked my FI what he'd do differently. He asked if we could give wine as favors?

...Wine? as in 750ML of of adult grape juice? I would LOVE to... but wine isn't cheap.


We came up with a solution. Give one bottle per couple and for families we give sparkling cider. So now the search begins for cheap good wine. (is there such a thing?)
Our first trek to Trader Joe's came up with some JW Morris Napa Wine. At 2.99$ a bottle, how could we not taste it. We taped off the labels so we can choose blindly and see how well we really did know our wine. First one decent, the other two: BAD. The next day we trekked over to BevMo for 2.49$ wine. One SOOO BAD, one pretty decent. A new front-runner! Now, I'm going to do one more trek over to BevMo and see if I can find something alot better for a little more. We shall see.

With this new idea of favors we wanted to personalize the bottles, AKA rip off the labels and stick our own on them. Looking at professionally printing them, it was a little to pricey so we found a place online we could buy blank labels and print them ourselves. HOORAY, another DIY project!!! We have our logo... but how do I incorporate that onto a wine label. I want it to look authentic... I guess I'll have to tool around a bit and see what I come up with.

Are you doing anything unique for your favors because of where/when you are getting married?


source of photo

Inspirations

While rummaging through TheNest.com I found some great place settings one can use for a party whether it being reception, shower, or just dinner. Enjoy!!!










Source

Photography

For some reason while it was extremely important to find a good photog we really wanted someone who would let us just be us. I scoured sites in my area and neighboring areas to find the style I loved the most before I presented my top 3 to my FI. Around the same time, I got an email from a close friend of mine who had a friend who was starting out. DING DING DING!!! We have a winner, not only was his style what I loved, he was young and my close friend's best friend, and was just starting out we happen to get a great deal.

When we first met up for our engagement photos, he put us at ease and was very standoff-ish. He let us walk back and forth on the beach and goof off. He stole some shots of us just cuddling when we thought he wasn't around and what we got later was in not other words: SPECTACULAR! Below are some of our favorites!

High Tech color

I was visiting my friend's wedding site and he posted how they choose their colors. They went to Kuler Adobe and created a palette specifically to their liking.

What an easy way to choose colors that are pleasant to the eyeballs? It's also a great tool for picking colors for your house too!

Indulging Visually

It's the moment your guests walk into your reception area, every bride regardless of how little they care about flowers or the food, they want their guests to gasp with excitement of how incredible everything looks. For me, that gasp is the thing driving me to turn up the pizazz of the area and just pay for one of the unnecceary expenses. Chair-covers. Yup. Do you really need fabric draping over every chair? no. Do you really need a bow on each of them making life harder for the people who are setting up or breaking down your reception area? NO. Will I still order them? YUP.

One thing I've noticed of all the photos of receptions, is how color moved around the room. The chairs, when not all "matchy matchy," became a puncuation mark that the table decoration ended there. In the photos with them, it brought a decadence to the room.

So, who's with me and jumping on this bandwagon?

Photo Source

It's Tuesday, you know what that means.........

IT's WEDDING TV NIGHT!!!!

My secret obsession came one day when I was stranded on the couch with a cold about a year ago. I knew about Bridezillas but it didn't show the design elements of event planning like Who's Wedding is it Anyway?!

What's your favorite wedding show?

I didn't know there were rules...

Found on Wedding Details.com

1. Never both be angry at the same time.


2. Never yell at each other unless the house is on fire.


3. If one of you HAS to win an argument, let it be your mate.


4. If you have to criticize, do it lovingly.


5. Never bring up mistakes of the past.


6. Neglect the whole world rather than each other.


7. Never go to sleep with an argument unsettled.


8. At least once every day try to say one kind or complimentary thing to your life's partner.


9. When you have done something wrong, be ready to admit it and ask for forgiveness.


10. It takes two to make a quarrel, and the one in the wrong is the one who does the most talking.

Lights....

I found this great easy DIY project on Martha Stewart today.

You'll need 8 1/2-by-11-inch sheets of vellum paper in the color of your choice, chopsticks, and 7-day candles in glass vessels (sold at supermarkets). Sandwich the candle between 2 sheets of vellum, clipping the sheets together with 2 sets of unseparated wooden chopsticks 1 inch in from edges.

I don't know where I'd use them but I think this would be a great way to light up walk ways that's more unique than the typical paper bag.

Perhaps you can add some pizazz and print out your logo on the vellum and so it POPS!

Where were you?

I was sitting on his couch watching him make dinner and minding my own business when he said something lame and funny and that is when it hit me,

I LOVE HIM and I'M GOING TO SPEND THE REST OF MY LIFE WITH HIM.

I turned bright red and smiled like I've never smiled before and felt this amazing-warm feeling deep inside my gut.

He noticed something about me and asked "what?"

My response, oh nothing whilst thinking to myself,

"I love you, I love you, I love you!"

I smiled and just let a sigh out...and realized, I finally found my home!

Where were you when you realized he/she was the one?

HONEYMOON...

With life moving a rapid pace you start to realize there is so much of the world you might never get to see. I guess that's one of the reasons we choice our destination: Bali.

Bali is so picturesque that you could be fooled into thinking it was a painted backdrop: rice paddies trip down hillsides like giant steps, volcanoes soar through the clouds, the forests are lush and tropical, and the beaches are lapped by the warm waters of the Indian Ocean.

Recent tragic events have scared away many of those who simply saw Bali as a place for cheap beer. While the Bintang is still tasty and plentiful, Bali's temples, ceremonies, beaches, mountains and passion for life are undiminished and more easily enjoyed than ever.
--Lonely Planet

I think the idea of travelling diminishes once you have children. It's harder to justify a 23 hour flight just so you can have an hour massage for 13 USD.

Because we are travelling on Singapore Airlines, they stop in Singapore and we were allowed to add a few days (FOR FREE) there to see another country we've heard so much about.

Singapore has traded in its rough-and-ready opium dens and pearl luggers for towers of concrete and glass, and its steamy rickshaw image for hi-tech wizardry, but you can still recapture the colonial era with a Singapore Sling under the languorous ceiling fans at Raffles Hotel.

At first glance, Singapore appears shockingly modern and anonymous, but this is an undeniably Asian city with Chinese, Malay and Indian traditions from feng shui to ancestor worship creating part of the everyday landscape. It's these contrasts that bring the city to life.
--Lonely Planet

In both locations we will be staying at the Conrad. On our to do list other than shopping (which we be doing A LOT of), shark diving, elephant safari, trapeze flying on Sentosa Island, white water rafting down the Ayung River, snorkeling and lots of spa treatments! Like most honeymoons that are memorable, I think with all the fun and love and excitement we'll have, it will be downright permanently sketched into our noggins!

Where are you going for your honeymoon?

Better than a pot or pan!

Looking for something different to register? Why not pick of charity and ask for donations?

Just Give is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to connect people with the charities and causes they care about and to increase overall giving.

Here you can go and create a wedding registry that isn't just about those pretty China you always wanted. It's about helping others in need and saving our world!

They even an area where you can donate for our guests in lieu of a photo frame or trinket.

You learn something new everyday!!!

Why "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue"? The "old" was usually a personal gift from mother to daughter, a symbolic piece of wisdom for married life. "Something new" symbolized the new family formed by the couple. "Borrowing" is especially important, since it is to come from a happily married woman, thereby lending the bride some of her own marital bliss to carry into the new union. Blue has two traditions: Pagan Roman maidens wore blue on the borders of their robes to denote love, modesty and fidelity, while Christians associate it with the purity of the Virgin Mary.

Source

Black is BACK

I'm BIG on color and when it was time to dress up the wedding party, I wanted them to WOW the "audience." So in a surprise move, they are wearing ALL BLACK! The bridal party picked out their own bridesmaids dresses, in black, with black shoes. The groomsmen are wearing black suits, black shirts, black ties, and black vests.
Now, how am I making them pop? Well, with the accents. The ladies are easy, it'll be their bouquets. For the gentlemen, we added some color with their boutonnieres and their handkerchiefs. Now with my makeshift pretend groomsman standing next to my fake bridesmaid, I wonder if it's too much black....



Luckily I won't get the OMG... "THEY LOOK LIKE THEY ARE GOING TO A FUNERAL"... since it's more accessible to use black as a "color." But did I take it too far? What do you think?

Wedding dress Saga

I'm a girl who knows what she wants. I knew at the beginning there were a few things I wanted to do when it came shopping for my wedding dress. I wanted to order it at the beginning of the engagement (so I had a few months to get alterations), I wanted it to be lacy, and I wanted to keep my price down as much as possible. Like every other bride, I ripped out pictures in magazines and then did an analysis of what was similar that I loved so when I went to buy the dress, I'd only have to try on a few.

I also did a search on the web to see find prices and I stumbled onto a wedding salon based in a different state that sold the designers I wanted online. Prices were extremely reasonable and I figured I had so much time that I'd be okay ordering from them. I knew I was going to miss out on all the fuss but really, that fussy stuff isn't for me. Once I found the site where I was going to order, my last step was to try on the dresses. I found a little salon near my home town, tried on five dresses and was done with it. Next day I ordered my dress and my veil. Barely one month into the engagement and I was able to check off what most brides take months to do. I felt elated that it was easy and just had to play the waiting game for four months until my dress arrived on my doorstep.

Well... my dress arrived on my doorstep last night! Excited and bursting at the seams, I carefully ripped open the box and saw my dress in it's package and my little veil it's package. Though the presentation left something to be desired I told myself, 'this is why you didn't buy it at a salon, they would have charged more to make it look pretty for you.' Giggly and all smiles i picked up my dress and something was wrong... it felt lighter than I remembered. I peaked at the dress (it was inside out) and couldn't quite figure it out. I ran to the computer and pulled up the photo, studied it, then back to the dress. I did this a few times, when it hit me: THEY SENT THE WRONG DRESS. I called my mom about a million times... just needing to talk. I wanted to laugh but felt weird I wasn't sad about it. I mean, this was why I wanted to order it early, in case something happened to it. Well, something happened to it.

I gently placed the dress back in it's box and taped it up. I called the store and left a message and decided well, let's try on the veil just for kicks. I pulled it out and it wasn't what I imagined. Not saying I got the wrong veil, I just thought it would sit differently, and to my surprise I LOVED IT. I danced around my apartment filled with boxes, stealing glances of myself in the mirrored closet doors while my cat watched in bewilderment. And for the first time, I felt truly like a bride!

Today I'll be returning the dress to UPS to ship it back and will wait with delight when my dress will find it's way home to me. I could be mad and angry, but what's the point. People make mistakes. If this is the worst thing that can happen to me with my dress, I'll be relieved. Did you have any wedding dress horrors when you finally saw your dress for the first time?

Something Borrowed!

Every gal needs to have Something new, something blue and something borrowed. Bag Borrow or Steal is a great website to borrow those beautiful brooches and earrings that your otherwise couldn't afford! They even carry Vera Wang!!!

How many bars can one person have!

Not only are we having a Wine Tasting bar, a full service Alcoholic Bar, a cigar bar, and a coffee bar, I realized there was nothing for the non-drinking/non-smoking/anti-espresso guests. So we added another bar! A Candy Bar. Scouring the Internet for the best deals in glassware, I found lots of different restaurant companies carrying them, then a light bulb went on and I stumpled over to Ikea! Before we found them at Ikea, the glassware was giving me a minor coronary because of the costs. Now, we can breathe easy and get more varieties of candy to pick from. The Sota jars come in three differnet sizes: 1qt, 2qt, and 5qt ranging from 2.99$ to 5.99$. Such an amazing deal!

For the candy portion of the bar, I found this fantastic website called Bulk Foods.com. They have a variety of chocolates, candies, and nuts to choose from that you can buy in large quantities.

Anyone find great deals for their candy bar?

Edible Jenga?

While we love wedding cakes my FI and I opted to go the cupcake route with a small cake in the shape of a cupcake for us to cut. This has put our creative parts of the 'ol noggin to work. The weddings we went to that had cupcakes only used a three tier stand that held about a fourth of the little yummy delights. I found a few photos of how we can showcase them but am toying with the idea of building my own little cupcake skyscraper. I'm just afraid that when the servers go to unload the cupcakes from the tower, cupcake chaos will ensure!


How did you showcase your wedding desserts if you didn't have the traditional wedding cake?

Seeing the light

I'm in love with the idea of light design. The play of light and color on walls and the flicker of a candle makes me giddy inside! Because of my venue is outdoors, I played with tons of ideas of a billion (okay... not a billion, more like a few hundred) candles on the tables throughout the estate. But I kept finding myself wanting more. I'm not incorporating color into the site other than flowers and the table chargers, so I think I can justify bringing in Paper Lanterns. I found great deals on Paper Lantern Store as well as Luna Bazaar. I think Red ones hanging above the table would add another element that can compliment my venue. Did anyone do anything special with lights to add some pizazz to their venue?

Pew by Pew

One of the nice things about having your ceremony at a different location than your reception is that you can get away with two different color schemes. With our reception, we really wanted to focus on reds while our ceremony, we wanted a white theme for all our flowers. With so many different ideas for pew decorations, there were some things we just didn't want or couldn't have. Here are two ideas we want to do for our pew decorations. With the first photo showcasing beautiful full hydrangeas. The second showcasing the cone bottom that the flowers will be in so you don't see bottom of the stems.
Now, being the little savvy beast that I am, I found a great site to teach me how to make those little cone pew markers so I don't kill my florists with my random demands (and to save a few bucks too! :P)

Now, to pick flowers. Here are some of my favorite choices. Of course the Calla Lily and the rose are there but I also love love love hydrangeas too!



Did you do two different styles for your ceremony and reception?

Favors

To incorparate our yellow theme of the engagement party, I wanted to make little bags filled with lemon drops.

1. I took Glassine Bags I bought at Micheals and created a label in MS Paint. Printed them and cut them.


2. Next i filled the bags with lemon drops.


3. Then I took one of the labels and folded it in half and placed it over the bag.


4. Finally, make two hole punches and use yellow ribbon to tie a little bow!

Wha-la! Super bright favors that are fun and easy to make for any occasion!

Monogram = Logo

Riding the latest trend of customizing weddings with your signature monogram, I wanted to go a little further and take the monogram and some pizazz and make it our logo. We scoured over 1,000's of monograms to find ideas and throw in some little details such as our vineyard reception theme. After a few weeks of going back and forth with my incredibly artistic brother, he came up with this and we LOVED it!!!

We are finding so many uses for it, on our water bottles, invitations, menus, programs, gift bags, save-the-date stickers, favors, etc etc etc. If it's part of our wedding, it'll have this logo on it. Are you doing anything unique to your mongram?

Postage

To Spruce up any envelope, you can create your own personalized Postage. For us, we decided to use Zazzle.com because of their price as well as their easy to use editing tools.




Another site that offers personalized stamps is Stamps.com.

Pretty pretty Flowers

My favorite part about a wedding that I knew I didn't want to skimp on was flowers... Here are some photos from Theknot.com and other misc wedding resources:

Shout out

To my mom,

Thank you... for everything!

love,

your kid

Hey Mister, SAVE THAT DATE!!!

Before I was engaged I knew I wanted to do Save-the-Date's and now it was time to finally get to live my dream! Already, I had a fridge full of magnets and was a little shy about the thought my face on everyone's fridge to see for the next 8 months. I saw a little article on in Martha Stewart Weddings about calendar stickers and like lightning striking my pretty little head, I visualized my Save-the-cards!


My supplies:

1. Custom Stickers from Zazzle to give it more a polished look


2. Notecards and envelopes from EnvelopeMall


3. Vellum paper from Staples Office Supply Stores


4. Photo corners from Michael's Craft Stores


5. Double-stick tape

With a few of my bridesmaid's help, we put all of them together in about two hours.

So, what do you think?

BLING BLING

When you have so much time between your wedding and the present time, you start to scanning the web to find new ways to make your wedding stand out from others. First you want the lighting to be this way, then you think about linens and colors, next is flowers, and that's when you stumble onto something so you SOO don't need but you "oh so want."

That is my feelings and "need" to have Acrylic Diamond Table Confetti. Seeing how I love the idea of sparkles and shine of my rock on my hand and even more so in candlelight, I thought how amazing the prisms would be with these beauties!!!

I'm sold!

Frick or Frack...

The next big decision we had to make was probably the hardest decision of them all...where to have the reception.

My parents came down for the weekend to scout out receptions sites. Going into the whole selection process I was very leery of costs. I knew how much everything costs but I don't think my parents quite knew the blow to their pocketbooks it would be. I kept my thoughts to myself and decided to go with what they liked the most. Who knew it would be so hard!

The first place we looked at was a banquet hall made a living on throwing lavish parties. Problem with this place was it wasn't lavish at all. Though on the low spectrum of the dollar signs, my parents quickly gutted this idea from their cognitive heads and moved on. The next place was a home estate. Beautiful Victorian estate that had acres of gardens and trees. Downfall was there were no bathrooms. YES YOU READ THAT RIGHT! NO BATHROOMS. I ask this, how can a family who rents out their estate for weddings have no bathrooms? Well, it's called a Portapotty. I guess they rent "fancy" ones that flush. Once we heard this, we politely took the information and ran.

Feeling a little down in the dumps, I knew I had to find something and only had two more places to go. Both I thought would be completely out of the question for price. We drove up in the hill to the Country Club and parked in the wrap around drive way. Memories of childhood flooded my brain. I hadn't been back in ages and here I am, in front of the club I used to spend my summers goofing off by the pool. We walked in and were greeted by an older gentleman who gave us the tour. Looking over the golf course, our guests could mingle on our own private terrace and move into the dining room for dinner and dancing later on. The price was quite reasonable and it all seemed to be working out. My feelings quickly turned around and already picturing myself and my FI taking portraits by the lake while our guests gape at us from a distance.
The last and final place was at vineyard that I secretly loved. It was relatively new to the wedding reception circuit and still in the parameters of what my father deemed appropriate for our guests to drive. When we drove up, we were greeted by Kimberly, one of the owners of the establishment. Her and her husband live in the restored Victorian home and was extremely helpful and polite. As we walked through her gardens, envisioning a wedding here was easy. The immaculate lawns, the elaborate outdoor fireplace crackling, the vines draping the hills in the distance would make any person feel at peace. You feel a world away from the hustle and bustle of the city. While Kimberly chatted away, I looked hard for something to not love. I felt disappointed at myself for falling in love with a place that I thought was too much, until we saw the price tag... as I watched my parents go over the numbers I held my breathe and uttered reassurance that the country club would be okay and that's when they sprung it on us, it was our choice.

Price wise, both were very reasonable. But the main issue was what type of wedding celebration would we have. Were we going to have the typical indoor banquet reception or would we dance under the stars while drinking fine wine. We spent the day debating it, indoor or outdoor, this or that... frick or frack. And then my dad said something I never forgot, he said that I unique and couldn't picture me dancing in a ordinary country club when we could be loving life and celebrating my wedding day under the Full Moon. And at that moment, the decision was made.

Picking the church...

Some parts of the whole wedding you tend to second guess, others parts, well, it was just a given. For me it was the church.

I grew up in a small Southern Californian town minutes away from the beach. We dealt with June-Gloom and usually never saw the mercury hit about 85. My town was in the middle of vegatable fields and at one point was known as the Lima Bean Capital of the World! In this little town was a little chapel that was a foundation of the school and a big congregation. Every Monday growing up, my class would attend Mass and I'd marvel in the beautiful Italian Imported marbel and German Stained-Glass windows. I awed at the mysterous mauseleum that was under the chapel and relished the beautiful gardens on the side. Every Monday I walked in I knew one day I would be married there.

In January, when talking to my FI about where to say "I DO" the little chapel of my dreams popped into my head... and well, the rest is history.

Welcome to my little blog

When I first got engaged I thought how easy a wedding would be. I thought, you pick a church, you pick a reception site, you pick a dress and TADA, you are done. WRONG.

Well, here I am to document my every project and decision so at the end of it, I can see what truly went into planning for one day that allows you to enter into another world of marriage.

Enjoy!