Archive for July, 2009
the party
July 30, 2009
It is Kelly’s Korner day again :) This week is show us your wedding party, flowers, and ceremony:
So first of all, a shout out to the people who made it all possible: our parents
We got married in good ol’ Provo, Utah. We had a choice between getting married in Texas (where Luis is from), Hawaii (where my parents live), or in Utah (where we were both living while going to school). We chose to stay in Utah because that was the only way we would be able to have the vast majority of our family/friends in attendance and it was more important for us to be surrounded by the people we love than it was for us to take pictures at the beach. We thought it would be special to get married at the Provo temple because Luis’ parents got married there. Luis has always really liked this temple, and he didn’t want to get married in one of the other “overcrowded” Utah temples. We knew we would be the only ones there that day, and it was absolutely wonderful. And although, as a child, I always thought the Provo temple was really ugly, I’ve grown to really love it.
We loved that we were able to include most of our very best friends in our wedding party. My bridesmaids included my little sister, one of my best friends from college, 2 great friends from law school, and the three roommates I was living with at the time. With everyone being in different stages of their lives (some in college, others recently graduated, and some unemployed), we didn’t want our wedding to be a financial burden on anyone. So we opted to not get expensive dresses or tuxes so that they could all participate. And it was wonderful being able to have them all there with us :)
I only specified that I wanted the bridesmaids to wear black, short sleeved, tea-length dresses. The rest was up to them. I love that they looked like a cohesive unit and yet each dress matched the girls’ personalities. No one was made to feel stupid wearing their dress, and at least it was something they would be able to wear over and over again.
As for the boys, Luis got a tux (he insisted on getting one with a vest) and we had the rest of the guys just wear their dark church suits that they already owned. We then gave each of them a sage green tie to wear.
Here is one of my favorite pictures that I posted last week of my bouquet and my ring:
When Luis and I decided to get married, both my parents and his parents wanted to do everything they could to help us. Unfortunately, neither of them live anywhere near us. So I was basically handed the money for the wedding and told to do whatever I wanted with it. In the past when I had thought about my wedding, I had always told myself that I would either go all out or not bother to do anything at all. So when it was time to actually plan my wedding, I tried to get the best of both worlds. I tried to be as economical as I could while still having all of the things I had ever wanted for my wedding.
One of my roommates at the time, Robin (third from the left in the bridesmaids pictures), had worked with flowers before and she offered to do all of my flowers for me. Since I didn’t want anything too crazy or over-the-top, I took her up on the offer. Gerbera daisies are my favorite flowers and I was able to find them really inexpensively through Sam’s Club. So the day before my wedding, our house turned into a mini florist shop. There were flowers everywhere, and all of the roommates (along with a few friends), pitched in to help. I absolutely loved the way they turned out. I loved the contrast of the flower’s colors with the bridesmaid’s black dresses.
I was completely uninterested in keeping my bouquet. I know a lot of people keep them and preserve them, but I had no desire to do that. So I didn’t even bother to have a second bouquet made for throwing purposes. So when all of the single girls got together for me to throw the bouquet, I threw my actual bouquet. And I have never regretted it. Plus it was cute because my little sister ended up catching it :)
rewiring my brain
July 30, 2009
Luis and I both have mothers who are (for lack of a better word) neat freaks. I haven’t spent a whole lot of time at Luis’ parents’ house, but at my house, cleaning happened on a daily basis. It was not unheard of for my mom to say, “Can you help clean the living room?” And to receive a response of, “Clean what? Everything is clean already!” As a child, it drove me bonkers to have to vacuum, what to me seemed like imaginary dirt particles. But one thing I knew for sure, if I left my room messy in the morning when I left to go to school, it would be spotless when I got home. I liked that.
Now living in my own home, when I leave my room messy in the morning, it is still messy when I come home. I hate it. I honestly feel so much more stressed when I come home to a mess. And, to be honest, I’ve let my apartment go. For the last two weeks I’ve completely focused my energy on studying and I’ve completely ignored my home (Luis: thank you for picking up the slack). I need to change. That is why for the next 30 days, I’m setting about to rewire my brain. I need to create the habit of staying on top of the cleaning on a daily basis so that it never gets out of control again. Do any of you have tips/schedules for keeping your homes clean and organized?
P.S. For those who may be wondering, the bar went ok (I think). I won’t get my results for 8-10 weeks. I was super nervous the night before the first day of testing, but I woke up feeling good. On the second day I found myself struggling to concentrate. I was soooo bored with the 200 multiple choice questions. But I finished the exam with a good 30 minutes to spare.
thank you thank you thank you
July 29, 2009
To Luis: Thank you for being there by my side through all of those days where I was frustrated, tired, and stressed. You were patient and loving and, most of all, understanding when I needed you to be. Thank you for pushing me when I was being lazy, and for being in my corner when I was so overwhelmed that all I wanted to do was cry. Lets keep our fingers crossed that we won’t have to go through this again.
To My Parents and In-laws: Thank you for always praying for us, for believing in us, and for your financial support through these last few months. Without you, we wouldn’t have made it this far.
To our siblings: Thank you for your prayers and encouragement throughout this process.
And to those of you who have kept up with me on my blog: Thanks for continuing to read even though I’m sure I’ve talked more about the bar than you would have ever cared to know. I will now return to writing about my reentry into the working world (as soon as I find a job), my nieces, groceries, cooking, and whatever random events/thoughts come across my mind at any given time that I sit down to blog.
I’ve decided that I’m taking a personal day tomorrow. One day to sit at home, relax, and indulge myself. Does anyone have any great inexpensive home-spa ideas they could send my way?
age ain’t nuthin’ but a number
July 26, 2009
There are days when I honestly can’t remember how old I am. Take, for example, the other day. I was filling out a form and instead of asking for my birth date (which I never forget), it asked for my age. Um… my age? 24? No, 27? Idk. I then had to think, “Ok, I was born in 1983 and it is 2009 right now. I was 25 in a year that ended with 5+3 (2008). Which means that I’m 26 right now.” I know, complicated huh? I should just be able to say, “I’m still in my 20’s.”
one thing he doesn’t like about me
July 25, 2009
My husband loves me very much. He really does. But he doesn’t love these:
My gaucho yoga pants. Well technically they were my sister’s but she didn’t like them so I stole them a few years ago. (This pic was taken a couple of years ago as I was leaving on a road trip with my friends Ankitha, Jordan, and Jen.) Yes, years ago. I know they have been out of style for a long time. But I don’t usually wear them out in public unless I know I won’t be getting out of the car. This week, after having gone several days of only setting foot outside my house to go get the mail, Luis announced that we were going “out” to eat. I figured we would just use one of our buy-one-get-one-free coupons at a local fast food joint and didn’t bother to change. He took one look at me and said, “You’re not wearing that are you?” What’s wrong with this? “We are going to be going inside to eat, go change!”
Funny, he never had a problem with anything I wore back when we were single (i.e. back when this photo was taken).
my wedding dress
July 24, 2009
For quite some time, I’ve been following Kelly’s Korner. She has been doing “Show Us Where You Live Friday”. I have never participated because my apartment is nothing to brag about. However, this week, the tour is entitled, “Show us your wedding dress!” Now, this one I can do (and I even have a couple of stories to go along with the pics… imagine that). Luis and I are going to be celebrating our 1st anniversary in just a few days and I can’t believe it has been a whole year already.
So, my dress… I went to at least a dozen dress shops searching for the right dress. I always went by myself because I didn’t want to a) annoy anyone with my pickiness or b) have my opinions judged by others’ preferences (the only person I would have taken with me would have been my mom, but she was 3,000 miles away). I went from store to store trying on dresses that were too formal, too frumpy, overly embellished, overly simple, etc. I didn’t make it any easier when I decided that my skin tone looked better in ivory than in white (most stores only had 1 or 2 ivory dresses). Along the way there were a couple of dresses I would have been ok with, but they were way out of my price range. I eventually decided to try out a dress rental place. The great thing about this place was that all of their dresses were 2 pieces made to look like a normal 1 piece dress and you could mix and match to create the perfect style for you. Although I swore up and down that I would not wear a “marshmallow” dress, I absolutely loved this one on me.
One of the great things about the rental was that everything was included in the dress package (petticoat, tiara, veil, etc.). I had no desire to wear a veil but decided to take it along with me just in case I changed my mind (I didn’t). My mom and sister-in-law (who was also my photographer) practically had to beg me to wear the veil for a few pictures. And I’m so glad they did. Although I hated it at the time, I now love the way it looks (and kind of wish I would have been wearing it the whole day). But hey, at least my niece had fun playing with it that day.
I LOVE my ring! As you can see, there is one center diamond with little mini diamonds circling around it and all the way down both sides of the band. My ring got run over by a car that very morning (long story). A couple of the little diamonds fell out so I didn’t want any pictures taken of my hand. This one was captured without my knowledge and it is one of my favorites.
As much as some of the jewelers tried to bully me into buying a wedding band, I liked my engagement ring simply on its own. I decided (way back then) that I would wait until we started having kids to get a wedding band. I figured that once I got pregnant my fingers would get fat and my ring wouldn’t fit anymore. Well, I’m not pregnant, but my ring sure has gotten snug in my first year of marriage.
I used to always wear high heels, but since Luis is only a few inches taller than me, I started wearing more and more flats. Flats are now my go-to shoes for day-to-day wearing. I have grown so accustomed to having feet that don’t hurt, that I couldn’t go with anything else for my wedding day (especially since I knew we would be spending a couple of hours taking pictures on the grass and I didn’t want to have to deal with sinking).
This picture was taken right after Luis tripped on my dress as we were walking out of the temple together. There was a big footprint on the back of the dress for the rest of the day.
Sure there were some mishaps along the way (including when Luis dropped the slice of cake he was feeding me down my dress), but this was absolutely the best day of my life.
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