Engagement Entertainment

My bridesmaids and family are the best! I have really amazing, wonderful friends and family: willing to drive five hours for me, decorate a whole clubhouse for me, and fill the afternoon (four hours straight!) with laughter, games, food, and gifts. Not to mention the fact that it all fit perfectly with a princess-y Beauty and the Beast theme, from the yellow Belle dress cake to the Eiffel Tower wine stand to the homemade bookmarks and "Be Our Guest" treat bags, to the roses on the tables with rose petals surrounding them, to the game of "Disney Charades"! The bridesmaids couldn't wait to see my face when I entered, and I felt a bit like a celebrity while being led into the venue by my Goddaughter to meet a crowd of beautiful ladies all taking photos of my reaction. And my reaction was just awe and happiness at the sight of everything (including pictures of me from throughout the years!). I chose not to eat all day so I could have room for the delicious F

I have to turn in our music selections to our DJ in six days. We've made our selections already--it took a couple of months to finalize everything, but I think we're both pretty pleased with our decisions. While I won't list off everything from our 5-page packet, I just have to mention that our First Dance song, while not necessarily a "classic classic" is a '90s R&B ballad that takes me back to when I was nine years old and got my first Sony Walkman and cassette tapes. For folks born after 1995, a Walkman is like a giant iPod (For folks born after 2003, an iPod is like an iPhone with fewer apps). Basically just picture a device the size of a paperback book (we still have those, right?) and headphones attached. Or go watch Guardians of the Galaxy again. It's the item from childhood that Peter Quill fiercely protects--and I don't blame him. Look how excited it made me: While I was too young to realize that " NatureQuest: Midnight Jazz &

The satin opera gloves I ordered to go with my wedding dress were scheduled to arrive in the mail today. Between satin gloves, shiny shoes, and even a tiara, I was starting to feel a little less stressed and a little more like a princess. I planned to write a blog post this evening about the positivity of dressing up, stressing down, and taking a moment to give yourself the royal treatment. Then something else arrived in the mail, completely unexpected, that made me truly feel like worthy royalty. Perhaps you've heard of Belle, the peasant girl turned princess after marrying a beast turned prince? You know, the one from my favorite movie of all time that's only the inspiration behind my entire wedding? While the character herself is fictional and her actions are pure animation, Belle comes to life in the 1991 classic Disney film through the voice of Paige O'Hara, a real woman, singer, painter, and turns out resident of Henderson, Nevada. We share a zipcode. I actu

What I've mostly discovered about the wedding planning process is that it's quite a fun ride. I love talking about my wedding to anyone willing to listen (bonus points if you bring up the questions first). When I'm having a particularly rough day at work, chatting with my mom on the drive home about centerpieces and choreographed dances lifts my spirits, and it's exciting to come home to my computer to finalize the details of the program that will become my wedding itinerary. My wedding itself. However, if you're reading this blog to gain wedding insight and you happen to be an introvert or suffer from any kind of anxiety, let me be the first to warn you that the process of wedding planning will also involve discomfort. I'm lucky thus far--I haven't received that much discomfort in the wedding planning process (in the grand scheme of things) with the few frustrations I've experienced already written and posted here (see  Controlled Chaos  and Ups a

First fitting! My bridal gown already arrived, but I was not scheduled to try it on until October 11--today! While I admit I was a bit nervous to see what it would look like in my size and color (in person), I couldn't have been more pleased. After work I drove over to the dress shop and was helped into THE DRESS (and a petticoat) to get the full look. The fit and overall appearance was stunning! The gown sparkled and swished like a dream. Scheduled alterations are only slight--a tiny bit of a hem and taken in just a smidge on both sides of the bodice. It was fun getting to see the owner of the dress shop again, and even more fun to practice moving in a heavy but still flexible garment for almost an hour! Plenty of photos were taken of course, but they won't show up here just yet!

So yesterday was filled with just a few wedding ups and downs. The biggest downer: my fiance and I both drove all the way out to the hotel where we're getting married (JW Marriott in Summerlin) to meet our "day-of" wedding coordinator and finalize our wedding timeline. The only problem? Our day-of wedding coordinator neglected to inform us that her office wasn't at the JW Marriott (where we first met her and where she would be coordinating, so, a natural assumption). Instead of getting to meet with her in person, we ended up doing the entire discussion over the phone from the Marriott lobby, leading both my fiance and I to wonder why a face-to-face meeting was scheduled in the first place. It felt like we'd wasted our gas and our time. I kept it together during the phone call, but afterwards more than a little pent up frustration and tears were released in the parking lot of the Marriott. It wasn't just about one missed communication. It was all the wedd

We're currently in a state of waiting. The major decisions have been made (venue, photographer, dinner entrees, etc.), but we can't yet finalize all the little details (like escort cards and donut orders) since we don't yet have a final guest count. But the good news is that our invitations have been mailed and one by one the RSVP cards are coming in! Each time I get a text or call from my mom that another RSVP card arrived in her mailbox I get a little giddy, curious to see who it is, if they'll be able to make it, and what they chose for dinner. It's also a bit of a relief to know that things are moving forward and that my guests are actually really excited to come! We're meeting with one of our wedding coordinators tomorrow to work out a few more details, and should hopefully have our first dance lesson tomorrow too (so more to report soon!), but for today we just sat together in the living room working on songs for the DJ and the approximate program

Remind me for the "next" wedding not to do my own invitations. Sure, when I was 13, I was creating amazing graphic designs using Lucida Calligraphy font and clip art from Corel Print and Photo House (I think we had  this 1997 version from HP). Sure, my colleague advised against having our wedding planner do the invitations because she believed I certainly had the skills to design them myself. Sure, I wanted to maintain some control over the project: include my own designs and not pay the $800 that Minted.com was asking for a complete invitation suite that didn't quite match my vision anyway. But dang, it is a lot of work. Since my last post about the wedding process ( Say Yes to The Dress! ) turned into a rather long story about how I avoided a wedding gown fiasco (and because I don't want my blog to sound like one big rant about the stress of wedding planning), I'll try to keep this one short and sweet. The good: Stickers! There's something almost th