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...

This weekend I successfully finished asking my closest "sisters" to be my bridesmaids! It took a little longer than I had planned due to schedules and stomach pains that delayed some of the planning, but I wanted to do it in person if I could. I'm so happy to at last have my squad! Given our Beauty and the Beast theme, I could see no other way to ask someone to be a bridesmaid than with a single red rose. As a pretty and personal touch, I also included a monogrammed necklace with their initials on each pendant (gold in color to match our wedding color too)! Unlike, The Bachelor , everyone received a rose--except for one bridesmaid who was not able to travel. Instead, I mailed rose petals for her daughters to practice with (flower girls in training)! The best part of asking was seeing the reactions of my friends. It reminded me of their reactions when I first told them the news that I was engaged. These are just some of my favorites from that announceme...

I've been to conferences, conventions, collectible shows, toy shows, and rock shows (that's rocks and minerals, not rock concerts). My dad has a lot of interests, and he often brought me along to conventions throughout my childhood until his hobbies became my hobbies (not the rock shows so much, but I'm still big into comic book conventions). Many of these events took place right at Cashmen Convention Center in Las Vegas, so I was familiar with the location of the Bridal Spectacular Bridal Show I'd seen advertised on Facebook and websites. I never thought I'd get a chance to go to a bridal show. And though I knew the general structure of a convention "show" (you walk past people's booths or tables as they convince you to buy things or show off the neat stuff they offer) I really didn't know what a "bridal show" was all about. As luck would have it, though most of the Vegas bridal shows are in January ( after my December wedding date...

Is it bad luck to see the groom in his tux before the wedding? I sure hope not, because you can bet I wanted to be there to see my dear fiance try on tuxedos. In addition to helping him pick the right one for our (my) vision, it's always fun to see him get dressed to the nines. Basically what I was hoping for was a blue tuxedo--navy blue classy. Something that would match our color scheme and make him stand out a bit from the crowd and the rest of his groomsmen. He likes blue, and the navy display tuxes were on point, so he didn't object to trying on a few different styles in that color: one with a necktie, one with a bow tie and tuxedo jacket, and one with a suit jacket. I can't tell you which one we picked because even we haven't decided yet (I have my leanings, and he probably has a favorite that he's not telling me so I can choose unbiased, but nothing has been ordered). While I haven't officially finalized my bridesmaid dresses e...