Vows

So, we've decided that we're going to write our own vows. Now, at first we weren't going to because it's easy and straightforward, but the more we talked about it we thought we should. Writing your own vows makes the wedding more personal and it really gives us a chance to say how we feel about each other. It's also nice to since our real wedding was the basic straightforward stuff.

I have no idea what to say. Although, there is something I really really want to add. That will be kept a secret until the wedding day. Haha. I'm excited for that part too. =) I know how I feel about him, it's just now the fact that I have to find how to say it right. Maybe I shouldn't even plan...just say what I really feel.

Thinking about the vows though brought me back to this really good book, "The Mastery of Love" by Don Miguel Ruiz. The first chapter is called "The Wounded Mind". He wrote, "The fear of not being good enough for someone else is what makes us try to change, what makes us create an image." With Ira, I do have that fear that I'm not good enough for him at times. He's too good to be true, and I do still believe that. But I have never had to "create an image" and pretend to be someone I'm not. The fear of not being good enough has gotten me to learn to take a step back whenever I freak out, and really see what I could change to be a better person, not just for him, but for myself. This also brought me to something else he wrote in the book, which I truly believe. "You cannot change other people. You love them the way they are or you don't. You accept them the way they are, or you don't."

Huh...maybe I've just come up with some of the vows already.

P.S.
This book is highly recommended to read. It's great.

Hotel: Four Points Sheraton

Okay, so I finally found a nice hotel to reserve some rooms for any out of town guests. They also have a really nice room for the bridal party to stay and get ready. I didn't reserve that room yet because I'm not sure if I want to do that yet. Now I have the information to put into the invitations.

Four Points Sheraton in Pleasanton. I'm kind of excited. The hotel is pretty, and even has some nice photo spots for when we're getting ready. They have a gazebo outside and a pool, which will help because it'll be pretty hot.

They also have a really nice restaurant, Faz Restaurant, Bar & Grill. My work always holds their meeting dinners there. I hear it's pretty good, and she said their happy hour is great. =) I haven't tried their food yet, but maybe one day we'll test it out. I'm keeping the restaurant as an option for the wedding rehearsal dinner.

Hair: Bling

I've been thinking about how to wear my hair. I've already decided that I'm most likely not going to have a veil. The main point of the veil is to cover your face and have your new husband be the first to "open the present". I didn't really want to cover my face, and besides, we're already married legally, so that defeats the purpose. Sooo...why not some bling in my hair? Here's what I found so far. Although, it's going to depend on how I choose to wear my hair. The pins may not look the same on some styles. I love Swarovksi Crystals. Lucky for me, the pictures I found are his. =) Game plan, go to the stores in the mall to find it and see how much they cost.

Invitations

Right now, I'm pretty big on making the invitations, place cards, menus, programs, etc. myself. I already know how to use dreamweaver, so I just need to make them and print it out myself. The only issue is I don't know what style to make them. Here's some cute styles I found online so far.

Ira really likes this one. Nice and simple. Not too sure about the dots, but we can always change that.
This is really similar to the first one, but the writing layout is different. Ira liked the vertical style of it but preferred the first one better out of the two.

This one is really cute. I found this at etsy.com. I want to see if I can make it myself. I think the pocket is easy enough to make. It may take me awhile, but that should be okay if I start now.This looks like a bookmark, and it caught my eye cause it's different.

This one was also found on etsy.com. I like the front design a lot. The inside is kinda cute too because it's like a book. Ira wasn't too found of how the RSVP card was placed. Once they take it out, there's technically empty space in the back. We'd have to design something to go behind it.

Either way, I don't know what style to choose. Any thoughts?

Living Will

Ok, it's 4:30am, my brain cannot go to back to bed. We even went to sleep around 11:30pm! Well, I must be crazy, but I started thinking about our will. One requirement for Pastor Church to re-marry us was that we need to make up our will before the second ceremony. (Yes, we had our real one already in April 2009. Small and simple at our new home. The new home being why we couldn't afford the bigger soiree.)

About a month ago, I called Balance. The credit union I work for, 1st United Services Credit Union, partnered with Balance to give our members and employees a place for any financial resources, and how to keep us on track. Well, from one of our meetings I found out they give out free sample will kits. I called them one day and had them send me one. There is a lot to think about!

We don't own too much, but if you want the possessions you own to not be sold by the government or anything, you should really make out a will. As sad as it is to think about, you really never know when you may leave this earth.

Well, me and Ira of course have our house and cars to think about. This morning at 4am, while I was laying in bed, I thought of my red Dooney purse. hahaha. Who will this go to? I'm pretty sure I know who this will go to now. I hope this person takes care of it and enjoys it as much as I do. =)

Registry: Macy's II

Okay, so we failed to go yesterday, but we did go today to register at Macy's in San Francisco. It was very fun, but the lady warned us that their store is huge and we will feel overwhelmed. She was not kidding. We spent over 2 hours in the cellar level picking out kitchen stuff. As expected, Ira didn't like the green Kitchenaid, so we picked out the next best color, the bullet colored one. We got too tired and hungry to really look at the bathroom and bedroom items, so we're going to look online and check out what we didn't get. Once that's done, on to registering at Crate and Barrel.

By the way, the scanner gun is just as fun as you really think. hehe.

Bouquet

I still haven't decided how I want my bouquet to look like, I do have some ideas though. I love orchids and calla lilies. They tend to get pretty expensive, so I'm still debating on what to do. We've decided to save money and just buy our flowers from a warehouse and make them ourselves. That will be a lot of work for us, but that gives us an excuse to hang out with everyone too. Here are some bouquets that I like so far.












I know, they all look basically the same, so I won't have that much of an issue figuring out what I want. I really like the darker bouquet, but that won't match my colors. The one thing I know for sure is what I plan to have tied and hanging around the stem of my bouquet. My wedding is the FIRST wedding that there will be no grandparents. =( It makes me very sad to know that I don't have even one to be there. So to make sure they're with me, I plan to print mini pictures of them and tie it to my bouquet. This idea came from a random wedding book I was flipping through at Michaels; Jo Gartin Wedding. With the pictures, my grandparents can be there with me at all times. I may even make a few squares for my parents.

Shoes: Solemates

I've been debating on nice pretty heels for the wedding, the only problem is that since it's in a vineyard, the ceremony is going to be on grass. Wedges would be a lot better, until I found this nifty little gadget. The Solemate. It fits on your heel to preserve your shoes, as well as avoid sinking into the grass too much. I'm considering buying this so I can wear my pretty heels.thesolemates.com

Hair & Makeup

I'm looking into finding a good person that'll do my hair and makeup. They're all pretty pricey. Stacy has a friend who may be able to do my makeup, not sure how much she costs yet. I could get a free trial with her though to see if I like her.

There's another lady, Ann, from A-List Makeup that's in the area that I really like. I haven't had a trial with her, but she is still a little pricey for our budget. I could get a discount though if I went to her instead of her coming on location. She got 5 stars on Yelp.com. I went there to see more pictures. The website wasn't that helpful to me. $350 for hair and makeup if I go to her studio, plus $150 for the hair and makeup trial. Is that too pricey? Her makeup looks so natural. It's really nice.

Yelp.com

Registry: Macy's

We're getting ready to go to SF Macy's to register. We definitely want to get this out of the way since we have to take a trip to SF, especially since we hate going there. I'm very excited to go because we don't have too much stuff in the house. It will finally be nice when we have a full stocked kitchen. =)

I'm especially excited to register for a Kitchenaid. I really like the green one, but I don't mind the silver one too. Hehe. We'll see if Ira is okay with a green one.
Next up, we'll be registering at Crate and Barrel. We though we'd do at least 2 places to give people more variety to choose from.

Favors

We knew from the very beginning that we wanted to give everyone we both love. Of course, it's food. Gummies. I've been searching for the perfect box to put it in. I told Val that I saw that Target had some cute invitations and other wedding stuff. Me and Ira are both trying to find cute things that we can do on our own budget. On Val's day off, she went to Target and found a great box that we could use. It was even on sale! She got us the last 3 boxes. Now all I have to do is create the monogram and buy the ribbon. Oh, and we can't forget the gummies of course.

The Beginning of Wedding Planning

Whoohoo! I'm really excited to start blogging about the wedding planning. Hearing that Beatrice had done that for her wedding, it really sounded like a good idea to have a place to put all my thoughts together, as well as be able to show my bridesmaids what I'm up to. Ok, more like because half of them live farther away from me. So, thank you for the idea! =)

The wedding is basically 6 months ahead. We do have the bigger items planned, but now it's on to the smaller, more personal items. Yay! Enjoy all my ramblings and pictures. Thank you all for your help and support.