Welcome to our Wedding Blog!

THE PROPOSAL
On the luckiest day of the century (7/7/07), I went out to a Birthday Dinner at a romantic restaurant in Manhattan Beach, CA, called Bora Bora. We shared a delicious meal of ceviche, fillet mignon, and wine. After dinner the Mr. suggested that they take a walk on the beach. We walking along the beach at dusk on a beautiful Southern California evening, when suddenly he dropped to one knee and asked me to marry him. My response? "OF COURSE!"

ABOUT THE WEDDING
We were married on August 16, 2008 at the San Diego Hilton Resort on Mission Bay in San Diego, California. The Ceremony took place outdoors at North Lawn followed by Cocktail Hour at the Garden on the Bay. Then the party moved to the Sorrento Ballroom for Dinner, Dancing, and Wedding Reception.

THE HONEYMOON
We honeymooned for one week at the Grand Wailea Resort in Maui Hawaii.

WEDDING PICTURES
Click on the links below to see wedding pictures...

Before the Wedding

• Engagement Pictures
• Bridal Shower
• Wedding Weekend Festivities (Bridesmaid Brunch, Rehearsal, Rehearsal Dinner)

The Wedding

• Getting Ready
• The Ceremony
• Cocktail Hour
• Family, Bridesmaids, Groomsmen
• Wedding Reception

After the Wedding

• Post-Wedding Brunch
• Honeymoon

All

• Wedding Highlights
• All Wedding Albums

Use the slide bar to navigate and read more about us, wedding planning, and the BIG DAY!

The Dangers of Wedding Blogging and eWeddings

Some people have asked, “why did you blog about your wedding?” There are many reasons:

1. I was inspired by the likes of Style Me Pretty and Snippet and Ink and I wanted an outlet to share my creative ideas and wedding details.
2. People would often ask me, how is the wedding planning going? To which I could refer them to the blog.
3. At heart, I’m a writer. I love to write (granted, maybe I’m not the best at it), but it’s something I’m passionate about. For years I’ve written stories, kept journals, and done scrapbooking. I enjoy documenting my life and reflecting back on it.
4. I wanted to help others. I hoped there were other turquoise brides, and San Diego brides, and just brides in general who could benefit from my ideas and wisdom from going through it. Because, to be honest, without passing on the knowledge I gained from the hundreds of hours I spent planning, the whole thing felt a little meaningless and selfish.

I decided that since I wanted my blog to be a place where family and friends could see what I was up to, I would not blog anonymously. I’d use my real name, real wedding date, real everything and would not use a pen-name like the ladies over at WeddingBee.

But as a result, several times the blog came back to bite in my butt:

• First it was the Workers Union that found my blog via Google and intentionally targeted my Wedding because they were able to see the exact date, time, and location of the Wedding and knew they could hurt the Hilton by targeting a big wedding weekend (the worst thing that happend as a result of the blog)
• Next a bridesmaid asked me to remove references to her on the blog/website because associates of hers were finding her via google and she didn’t like the attention
• Finally a vendor contacted me a regarding a vendor review, one that wasn’t even negative, saying that they were misrepresented

I hope that my story can be a bit of a cautionary tale to Brides before they broadcast the details of their wedding and life for the world to see on websites and blog. So that they know that potentially, bad things can happen because of it.

Part of me thinks maybe it was stupid to blog so personally and honestly. But you know what? I had the balls to blog under my real name as opposed to writinng anonymous reviews or post on TheKnot or Bridal Insider. And I’m proud of myself for that.

I’ve had an absolute blast writing this blog. It’s been fun, cathartic, and encouraging. I’m getting my posts made into a Blurb Book so I will have it for years to come.

To my friends and readers, thank you for reading and cheering me on. Sadly this will be my last post because:

1. The wedding is over. I don’t want to go on talking/blogging about my Wedding forever (cue song “Glory Days”)
2. I’m a bit discouraged by the negative things that have happened as a result of my blogging and want a break

Fear not, I know I’ll be reincarnated in the blog world with a brand new topic (but this time likely under a pseudonym). Because, let’s be honest, I’m addicted. Until then, good night and God bless. Xoxo.

San Diego Wedding Vendors Review

Vendors are huge part of planning and executing a perfect Wedding and overall I had a great team a vendors. So without further ado here is our review of our wedding vendors:

(Quick note: the vendors are graded like a college class from A to F with no A+s or A++s. I tried to not have "grade inflation", either, so a B is a OK grade)

Item: Wedding Cake
Vendor: Grove Pastry Shop
Grade: A
Rationale: Great little bakery with great prices. Made a beautiful cake based on my design in delicious flavors. Was easy to work with and I loved the cake.
Would hire again: Yes

Item: Ceremony Music
Vendor: Camelot Strings
Grade: B+
Rationale: Played great music for the ceremony. Were a little hard to work with prior to the wedding which its what took them down from an A to B+.
Would hire again: Yes

Item: Flowers
Vendor: Flowers by Erin
Grade: A
Rationale: Erin is a total sweetheart and made gorgeous arrangements for a great price. She even added on some ceremony flowers when our arch changed at the last minute.
Would hire again: Yes



Item: Invitations
Vendor: DayDreams
Grade: B
Rationale: Daydreams did my invitations which were beautiful but expensive (as are many wedding stationary items). When I went back for Menus/ Programs the prices were even more outrageous. They make great stuff, but given what I realized a person can do at Kinkos, I’m not sure if it’s worth it.
Would hire again: Maybe -- knowing what I know now, I may have done DIY invitation

Item: Photography
Vendor: Kim Irons Photography
Grade: A
Rationale: Kim is fantastic! She has great prices, does amazing work, and is so fun to work with. My only wish (and my Mom's wish) is that we'd gotten more "traditional wedding” shots -- but that's not really what I wanted anyway when I hired Kim because I think a lot of traditional shots are boring and Kim does not do boring shots. We got some really cool candid photos and lots super interesting shots of Jonathan and me. But my favorite thing she did was our engagement pictures. So beautiful and natural.
Would hire again: Yes. When we decide to start a family, I'd definitely have her do our family photos. :-)


Item: Reception Music
Vendor: The Ultratones
Grade: A
Rationale: The Ultratones are a fantastic Wedding Dance Band. They played great music and kept people dancing all night long.
Would hire again: Yes

Item: Rehearsal Dinner Catering
Vendor: Gerardos Catering
Grade: A
Rationale: Delicious catering at amazing prices. Authentic Mexican cuisine.
Would hire again: Yes

Item: Tuxedos and Wedding Dress
Vendor: Bridal and Tuxedo Galleria
Grade: D
Rationale: The only reason I did not give them an F is that did my Wedding Dress and the Groom's/Groomen's Tuxes, and the Wedding Dress experience was OK. The Tuxes were horrible. They were totally disorganized, tried to overcharge us, and tuxes were ill fitting.
Would hire again: No

Item: Wedding Ceremony and Reception Venue (including catering)
Vendor: Hilton San Diego Resort on Mission Bay
Grade: C-
Rationale: I can't summarize my feelings about the Hilton in one post only. I could write pages. The venue is beautiful. The food is good. The rooms are lovely. Their Banquet Coordinator/Wedding Planner is awful. He's unresponsive, uncreative, and handled the Union situation horribly. At the end of the day I feel ripped off by the Hilton because we paid for this beautiful, expensive ceremony site and didn't really get to use it because the Hilton was in the midst of Labor Dispute (that apparently they had known about for months which would have given us ample time to think of contingency scenarios).
Would hire again: No

Item: Videography
Vendor: Jason Johnson of Bandini Productions
Grade: B+
Rationale: Jason did a good video at a great price. He doesn’t do HD or any kind of cinematography but does a great Wedding Video for the price he charges. While the angles he shot were not incredible, the editing was really good -- some really neat montages.
Would hire again: Yes

Item: Wedding Coordination
Vendor: Carlee Jiminez from Events by La Bella
Grade: A
Rationale: Carlee ROCKS! She pulled off a flawless wedding and is total sweetheart. Some major drama occurred the week before the wedding and Carlee handled it amazingly! I'm a huge stickler for details and Carlee covered every detail for the big day. She threw in a bunch of "extras" as well that made the day even better.
Would hire again: Yes

Item: Morning-after Brunch Catering
Vendor: Bekkers Catering
Grade: B+
Rationale: Very good brunch, but nothing earth-shatterng. A bit expensive, but oh well, all caterers are expensive.

Item: Bridesmaid Dresses

Vendor: Nordstrom.com
Grade: A
Rationale: Ordered the $98 Maggie London dresses online. Nordstom.com had plenty of sizes and the dresses came promptly. And they looked fantastic on the day of.
Would hire again: Yes

(All images are from Kim Irons or my personal camera)

Wedding Horror Story: What's a Wedding Without a Union Protest?

It seem that everyone has their Wedding horror story. Rain. Cakes falling over. Pastors not showing up. Or worse. Well here is mine:

The Monday before our Wedding I get a call from the Hilton San Diego Resort on Mission Bay -- The Local 30, Unite Here Service Workers Union is staging a protest on the Beach and Boardwalk the day of my Wedding to protest the Hilton not signing a contract with them. In fact, they may have targeted that day because they like to disrupt weddings because it puts the maximum hurt on the hotel. They were planning for upwards of 30 protestors with mega-phones, drums, and other noise-makers.

Complete hysteria and rage pretty much summed up my feelings at the time. I could not believe that the Union would use my wedding as pawn in their labor dispute. AND more over they were likely targeting me after finding my website/blog.

The protest threatened to totally disrupt my Wedding Ceremony, Cocktail hour, our pictures, and the enjoyment of our guests at the hotel. But was I was most worried about was our beautiful Ceremony planned at the “Garden on the Bay” right on the Mission Bay Beach and Boardwalk (where the protestors planned to be).

This is a picture of another wedding at the Hilton San Diego Resort's beautiful “Garden on the Bay"... Our ceremony site that never was:


What makes matters worse is that my Hilton Banquet Coordinator was rather unsympathetic and inattentive about the whole thing. He acted like it was NOT a big deal – like we can just move all of it in doors. Our answer? “NO freaking way! We didn’t pay for a beachside venue to not be on the dang beach.”

My parents got a meeting with the Hilton General Manager who was nice and came up with some more viable contingency scenarios – moving the site back a bit, having extra speakers, etc.
This is the site we ended up with:



My Dad also put in calls to some of his Democratic political friends to put some heat on the Union. And he ended up talking to the head of the union who was kind enough (and politically savvy enough) to leave the wedding alone. Thank goodness! They did protest on the property all day long away from our Wedding site and as a result many of guests got money off of their rooms.

In the end the only drawback was having to move our Ceremony site back to a less-attractive, more sunny site (and I think the pictures would have been a lot prettier at the other site). The Hilton rented us another Arbor as some compensation – but in my opinion our Ceremony site was not worth the money we paid for it. However, the emotional trauma was far reaching...

I can honestly say the week before the wedding was one of the most stressful and unhappy weeks of my life. I can only liken it to the week before my Grandma died or the week after my uncle had a heart attack/stroke. My Mom was physically ill. I had a resting heart rate of over 100 bpm. Every time I thought of all my hard work and beautiful plans being ruined my protestors, I just felt incredibly sad. All that time and money wasted. Stressing about the protestors is one of the reason I didn’t get ready earlier or get any pictures with my Bridesmaids on the Boardwalk.

This is what some of the many protestors looked like on the day of (this is 100 yards away from our Wedding site):

It definitely could have been worse. Does anyone else have any real-life wedding horror stories?

Wedding Pictures Posted

I posted my favorite Wedding Pictures to Facebook -- I need to post the rest to Picasa. I'm lazy.

Here's the link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2295399&l=2592c&id=3401493

Another photo collage:

Top 5 Things I Loved Most About Our Wedding

Like I said a couple of posts ago, I got our Wedding Pictures. I'm still going through them trying to pick out the ones I like best to post and share. But looking at them really helped to remind me what I loved most about our wedding. Here are the top 5:

1. The guy I married

Duh. What kind of wife would I be if I didn't say that? But really, he is the best. When he said his vows to me, it was one of the best moments of my life.

2. Our Ceremony

I loved the whole thing. I loved the readings, the music, the Pastor, the message, our attendants, our vows, the view, the San Diego summer air. I loved how we involved our faith and our families in the ceremony.

I loved All. Of. It.

(I promise to write a whole post about it later)

3. My Dress

I LOVE that dress. Can I please please wear it again? For anything?

4. The Band and Danceing the Night Away

I wanted a dance party and I got a dance party. The Ultratones rocked and I literally danced until the last song.





5. The UpLighting in the Ballroom

I know this is a random thing to love. But just $400 turned an ordinary ballroom into a spectacular tangerine and turquoise paradise. The uplighting was the most ambiance-changing decor item we did.

Wedding Retrospective: What I'm Glad I Did and Wish I'd done Differently

This post beings my "Wedding Retrospective" series on the wedding. This post is the full list of "Things I’m glad I did", "Things I wish I’d done differently", and "Things I have mixed feeling about" now that I'm looking back on our Wedding. You have to tell me which one(s) from each category you want to hear more about and I will do another post about the top ones and explain them in detail...

Things I’m glad I did:

• Had a Day Of Coordinator (with a detailed agenda/checklist)
• Had a Videographer
• Saw each other before hand and did pictures
• Had a girlfriend stay at my parent’s house with me nights before the wedding
• Had live music and danced until the end of the reception
• Hired a photographer that let me own my digital negatives
• Did DIY stationary for all of the wedding ceremony/reception itesm
• Did not do chair covers/ chair upgrades (because the stock chairs were fine)
• Had a Smashed Potato Bar at Midnight (so fun!)
• Involved our faith and families in our wedding ceremony
• Had beautiful turquoise and tangerine uplighting in the ball room
• Had a day-after brunch (did not leave for our Honeymoon right away)
• Did charity favors for wedding favors
• Had simple elegant centerpieces
• Had bouquets without a lot of greenery
• Gave each other wedding gifts (besides rings)
• Made out-of-town gift bags/buckets for the guests
• Did dance lessons for our first dance
• Did our own vows
• Actually ate our food at the wedding
• Had a Sweetheart table (let attendants sit with their family/boyfriends/wives/etc.)
• Created a "Play" and "Do Not Play" list for the Band
• Changed into sandals for the reception
• Put out pictures of us and our families
• Gave the band an iPod to play at breaks
• Had my dad make me a big omelet the AM of the wedding
• Had beautiful bright bridesmaid dresses and flowers
• Did a Bridesmaid Brunch and Mani/Pedi the day before
• Did the Rehearsal Dinner at my parents house
• Did assinged seats/escort cards

Things I wish I’d done differently. I wish I’d:

• Got ready earlier
• Had them box the cake to take it to go
• Had more group pictures – USC people, HS people, me with each bridesmaid, etc. and more photos of guests
• Bought a professional makeup mirror to check my makeup in
• Not ordered cake for every guest
• Reapplied makeup before the reception after being out in the sun/wind for hours
• Paid more attention to the guys tuxes and not gotten the ugly cheap ones
• Not stressed out so much morning of the wedding
• Told my bridesmaids/groomsmen exactly how to enter the ballroom
• Instructed the cake servers of how to serve the 3 flavors of cake
• Gotten a few more “traditional” photography shots to add to all the creative ones we have

Things I have mixed feeling about:

• Getting married at a hotel
• Doing my own makeup
• Not doing a receiving line, instead doing table rounds
• Doing a big, expensive wedding
• Wedding blogging

Did I Pull it Off?

As you likely know, I poured over wedding website after wedding website to find the wedding details to build my inspiration boards.

I just got my photos back from my photographer (I'll post more later). Since I have my photos now, knew my first order of business was to build a "real wedding" inspiration board of my ACTUAL turquoise and tangerine wedding details. Without further ado, my wedding:




Here was my final inspiration board a few months before the big day:



So what do you think? Did I pull it off?

Wedding Picture Teaser!

Kim Irons posted some pics of us on her blog! Which means we'll get the prints soon! Yay!

Here's a snapshot of some of them:


View more at: http://kimironsphotography.blogspot.com/2008/09/jon-and-kirsten.html

Bridesmaid and Groomsmen Gifts

This is definitely something I could not blog about before the wedding... the Bridesmaid and Groomsmen Gifts.

Here's a picture of the gifts all wrapped up... can you guess what they are?

The Groomsmen got mongramed money clips/wallets that be bought on theknot.com. You can never tell with guys, but I think the guys liked them.

The Bridesmaids got engraved wine decanters from Crate & Barrel. The engraving was a small "8.16.08" on the back. I also wrote each girl a letter. I think the girls really liked them as well and hopefully they get some good use out of them.

My Maid of Honor was a special case since she's leaving for the Peace Corps very soon and really has no need for wine decanter. So I bought her a water-purifying water bottle from Katadyn. I think it is pretty slick and it could definitely come handy while hiking or serving in the Peace Corps in South America.

Out of Town Gift Bags

Something I added on near the ended of my wedding planning was the Out of Town Gift Bags -- but once I realized we had 30 rooms of guests booked at the Hilton I knew it would be worth the effort to give my guests a fun check-in present with items for the weekend.

We found ADORABLE plastic buckets at Michaels that totally fit the beach theme AND were on sale. We filled the buckets with water, chips, candy, granola bars, advil, tums, sunscreen, and chapstick. I think the water, tums, and advil definitely came in handy for some people after the wedding. :)

We also wrote a letter to welcome all of the guests and gave them key information about wedding events and things to do in San Diego.

They turned out awesome. Here they all are at the Hilton, all set to go!

Maui'ed - Honeymoon Recap

For our Honeymoon we went to Maui for one week. We stayed at the beautiful Grand Wailea Resort.


Here are some pictures from the week:

The highlights of the trip:

• Hanging out the Grand Wailea (amazing pools, slides, Jacuzzis, etc.) and we got an upgraded Ocean-View room
• Biking down Haleakala and tasting Maui wine which tastes like Boone's Farm- Sunset Booze Cruise
• Awesome Dinners at Mama's, Ruth Chris, and at the Main restaurant at the Grand Wailea (Humuhumu)
• Snorkeling (fed fish and saw some amazing fish including turtles, morey eels and what I thought was a sea snake but turns out it was almost certainly another eel)
• Grand Wailea Spa with Roman and Japanese baths and a hot lava stone massage

Wedding Reading: The Unbroken Circle of Love

From the moment we started planning our Wedding Ceremony we knew we wanted our families heavily involved in it. We ended up with my Dad doing a song, my Mom doing a Reading, Jonathan's Dad doing a Scripture Reading, and both of our Moms participating in the Sand Ceremony.

I'll do posts on the other parts of the ceremony later, but I wanted to start with my Mom's Reading entitled The Unbroken Circle of Love: We… We & She … She & He… He… We



The reading was actually a mix of several abriged readings including:
On Children by Kahlil Gibran
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
The Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Linbergh
Jerry McGuire
Love You Forever by Robert Munsch

And it turned out great! We loved it and our guests did too.

You can check out the full text of the reading here:
http://docs.google.com/View?docID=dhmdd69g_45cmbdg8ct&revision=_latest

Incorporating Photos into our Wedding

I LOVE photos. I always have. I've made bulletin boards, scrapbooks, and collages out of my photos for years. I knew I wanted to incorporate photos into the wedding without being over-the-top or cheesy.

I ended up making 3 poster boards of Photos to put on easels at the entrance to the reception. One featured Jonathan and me as babies, one featured pictures of Jonathan and I as a couple, and one featured our Parents' Wedding Photos. I love the way they turned out and I think the guests did too.

I'm not 100% sure what's going on here... but I think the bridesmaids liked the photos as well:

My DIY Pride & Joy: The Programs

My favorite DIY project and the one I'm most proud of are my Programs.

I got a bid for programs from Daydreams, the stationary store who did my invites, for programs and it came out to about $700. I thought to myself, "I can do that for less". And I did. When it was all said and done, with paper, printing, and ribbon, it was about $100.

I designed the programs in Word using a mix of Honey Script and Century Gothic fonts. I had them printed up and cut at Kinkos. I used a blue cardstock for the cover and a ivory resume paper for the contents. We bound them together with two colors of orange ribbon.

Here are some shots of the inside of the program:

The contents were:

- Cover

- Page 1: Welcome

- Page 2 & 3: Wedding Party

- Page 4 & 5: Ceremony Program

- Page 6: Picture

- Page 7: Wedding Weekend Agenda

I admit it, I'm completely in love with my programs and way to proud of myself.

Message me if you want my template. :-)

DIY Projects - Escort Cards and Favors

Two of the biggest DIY projects that I undertook in the weeks leading up to the wedding were my the Escort Cards and Favors.

The Sunday before the Wedding I held a "Wine & Wedding Crafts" Party and with help from my Mom, Laurel, Pat, Sarah, Michelle, and Nikki we got a ton of wedding DIY stuff done. It was a great time and the products turned out great.

Escort Cards



The Escort Cards were 3 inch White Pencil Starfish With business card sied tags indicating the person's name and table. The turquoise or tangerine ribbon indicated their meal selection (crepes or salmon). I made the cards in Word using Honey Script font and had them printed on ivory cardstock at Kinkos. I really like the way they turned out!

Favors



Instead of favors we did donations to Alzheimer's Association and gave people a Sand dollar to signify that donation at their place setting.


The text read:
"A dollar for them, a dollar for you
For each of our wedding guests we've donated a dollar to Alzheimer's Association. We chose Alzheimer's Association in memory of Kirsten's Grandpa Jack and in support of Jonathan's Fraternity Philanthropy.
Thank you for being a part of our lives and for sharing our special day with us."

We also had these printed up at Kinkos and they looked beautiful on the cyan card stock. I bought the Sand Dollars from qualityshells.com and we tied the tags to them with raffia ribbon.

We're now Mr. & Mrs!

It's been a while since I blogged -- but don't worry I'm back with DIY Details, Pre-Wedding Drama Storiues, Wedding Pictures, Honeymoon Pictures, Vendor Reviews, and more!

I'll explain the drama that occured the week before the wedding that prevented me from blogging in a future post. It's a good story, trust me.

I will say that the wedding was fantastic. I really was one of the best days of my life and our ceremony was amazing -- one of the most spiritual and emotional experiences I've ever had.


Here's a teaser pic of Jonathan and I and some members our our Wedding Party:




Stay tuned!

My Bachelorette Party in Santa Barbara

I can only write so much here without violating the non-disclosure agreement (kidding)... but last weekend I had an amazing time celebrating the end of my single-girl life in Santa Barbara with my favorite ladies in the world!

We went on a wine tasting limo tour of Santa Ynez on Saturday AM/early afternoon. Saturday afternoon we played games at the Fess Parker Doubletree. Saturday night we hit State Street for a bar crawl. And Sunday AM we capped it off with Brunch at Sharkeez. It was an awesome time.

Here are some pics of the weekend:

Some inside jokes for the ladies who were there: Dolphin, "full bar", 30-point turn, clown on a bike, road side pit stop, overheating, what IS Fiesta, spills, limo cabs, and"is the bride pretty in to it?"

LOVE YOU ALL!

License to Wed

Today we got our marriage license! It was actually surprisingly easy. I filled out an online application and then we had to pick up the License at a Registrar-Recorder County Clerk office.

The closest Recorder to us was the Florence/Firestone Recorder's Office in Compton (7807 Compton Avenue). It neighborhood was pretty ghetto, but the office was nice and the staff was friendly. We were the only white people in the place, but we live in Long Beach so we're used to that. And Compton doesn't intimidate us since we spent the best four years of our lives in South Central LA (Go Trojans!).

The highlight was that the license cost $70 and they didn't take credit cards so while standing in line Jonathan and I managed to come up for $70 in mainly $1s, $5s, and a couple of $10s (don't ask why we had so many small bills). The Recorder must have thought we were run-a-ways emptying our piggy banks to pay for the license... but I'm sure she's seen stranger things working in Compton.

So the State of California officially says we can wed! Now the license just needs to be signed by the Pastor and we're officially hitched! It's really happening...

Here's the happy couple with the Marriage License in Compton:

New Obsession: Manically tracking the weather until the Wedding

It's officially August and we're getting married in 15 days! Which means our wedding date is very close to being part of the "10 day forecast." Here is the month forecast:


Given the trending this year is should be in the mid-70s. After my Mom and I went venue-hunting on August 14th last year is was about 90 degrees and she was really worried. But my worry is that it will be cloudy, or worse, rainy! I just want it to be Sunny!

PS- It's going to be a full moon! Cool!

Mini-Bachelorette Party

I mentioned before that I work with the coolest people in the world, but I have to keep bragging about their awesomeness. On Tuesday night the ladies I work with threw me a mini-Bachelorette Party at Santana Row in San Jose. We went to a wine bar and had AMAZING Cakebread Chardonnay. Then we had a delicious dinner at Maggianos. They even got me a crown and a sash (which definitnely drew some attention... especially on a Tuesday night). Here are some pics of me and my beautiful, thoughtful, Accenture ladies:

My Wedding Band

I decided on the Micropave Ring. I like how it's dainty and can even be worn on its own for traveling or events where a big engagement ring is not appropriate.

Here's a close up of my beautiful new ring. I can't wait to wear it!

I Think I have Emotional Issues

Maybe it’s the stress or the fact that getting married is an emotional time in a girls life, but I flew to Chicago this weekend and on the plane I wrote letters to my bridesmaids and my parents to give to them at the rehearsal dinner. I got pretty choked up writing my letter to Laurel (my MOH) and I full-on cried writing my letter my Mom and Dad. I know that I’m a crier (which is getting worse with age, not better!), but this is ridiculous.

I guess emotional issues run in the family. My Mom cries at sentimental commercials and don’t even get me started about her during a sad movie). My Dad told me already that my Grandma is going to cry non-stop at the wedding and he’s worried he’s gonna cry during his song.

I’m worried that I’m going to bawling during my wedding ceremony. My one saving grace is that adrenaline makes it hard to cry and I think I’ll have a ton of adrenaline pumping during my wedding. If I do cry I hope I don’t make an “ugly cry face”. See example below (courtesy of Mrs. Lovebug from Weddingbee.com):



Any suggestions for how NOT to cry at my wedding?