Engagement Entertainment

I was going to post this week about my experiences and challenges with the wedding invitation process, but that post can wait. There are a lot of emotions that you experience with wedding planning--I didn't expect grief to be one of them. Sadly, over the course of just one month, I lost three people from my guest list. Three people who were so important to me that I wanted them to be a part of this day, that I'd sent Save the Date Cards, that I now have to move from the list of invitations to the list for the "In Memoriam" table. On September 16, my Godmother and aunt passed away in South Carolina. She was the one who held me in her arms and baptized me as a baby. I was going to ask her to be a sponsor for our cord/veil/coins ceremony. She was going to stand when the Godparents are asked to stand and be recognized. I was looking forward to seeing her again since she lived so far away, looking forward to hearing her laugh. On September 24, my dear friend who called...

Of course I chose my wedding dress months ago. I had to, considering how long they typically take to come in. I wanted to plan a wedding in six months. That's apparently "last minute" in the wedding dress industry. I'm not even kidding--most wedding books and websites recommend purchasing the gown "nine months or earlier." As luck would have it, I received a call yesterday that my dress, ordered June 29 (just 17 days after I got engaged) had arrived! That still gives me two and a half months to get it fitted and finalized. The road to get here was a fun one (yay, playing dress up!), but certainly not an easy path. I think I may have even dodged a train wreck along the way: It started out with my initial dress shopping. Almost immediately after I got engaged in June I started visiting the local bridal shops I knew (Alfred Angelo and David's Bridal ) to schedule an appointment for trying on dresses. After waiting five years to get engaged, you ca...

Another milestone in the wedding planning process is meeting with and deciding on an officiant. If you're getting married in a church, this is typically your parish priest. If you're getting married in an outside venue, like we are, you need to find an officiant to perform the ceremony. This can be anyone from an ordained friend to someone who runs an officiant business, to Elvis (we are in Vegas, so there are plenty of ordained Elvis-es). It can even be a reverend, pastor, or other religious figure who is able to perform wedding ceremonies outside the church. Our list of criteria was not very long. We wanted someone who was familiar with the Mexican and Filipino traditions of the lasso/cord and arras coins, someone who would be both religious and secular, and who was friendly without being too much of a joker (you may have been to a ceremony where the officiant kept pulling one-liner after one-liner. Not really our thing). Unfortunately, Internet searches did not pull up t...

This post is partially about my own wedding preparations, but it's actually about a different wedding. This weekend I had the pleasure of attending the marriage of my fiance's cousin! It was a beautiful affair, and definitely a fun night, but it also made me realize how different it is attending a wedding when you're engaged compared to attending a wedding when you're not planning to get married yourself. First, when you're a guest at a wedding and a bride to be, you cry more. As the bride walks down the aisle and as the officiant talks about the meaning of love, you stroke your fiance's hand and look at him. You're both thinking the same thing: this will be us. You both feel that same love. You both imagine saying those same words. You both know yours is going to be forever too. During the reception, you take pictures of everything --from the guestbook table sign to the macaron party favors. You think, "I love that idea of having facts about the...