and the ball is rolling yet again!

since my last post i'm happy and excited to say that the wedding plans have picked up speed again. i took a temporary hiatus due to the busy schedule that all teachers go through in the beginning of the year. things have somewhat calmed down, and i can refocus on getting stuff done for the wedding.

one of the major things i did was compile a wedding planning timeline and checklist of things to do before the big day. i've been searching for templates of master timelines and checklists and was able to come across one that i could work with on weddingbee. i tailored it to fit my own needs, and i think it's going to be a "sanity saver" in the end! it has breakdowns of everything that needs to get done, by when and by whom. knowing me, i'd be willing to bet that as much as i'd love to stay on target with this timeline...i won't. i guess just having it makes me feel better, though.

i'm still finalizing things with our videographer due to a possible conflict in his schedule. he may have to be in a wedding the same weekend as ours, so he's going to have to check on that. if we don't end up booking him, the search for a videographer will have to start from the beginning yet again.

we were also planning on booking this really awesome and talented band we heard play at the tonga room at the fairmont hotel in sf. they do cover songs, are a 4-man band but sound so full when they play. they are also quite entertaining! unfortunately, they charge a bit too much for our pockets. we'd have to pay $2,500 for them to play for 3 hours during the cocktail hour and reception. i tried negotiating the price but they wouldn't budge. oh well! do you think passion or gabe b. does weddings?

so, right now i'm pretty busy with trying to find a dj for the reception, finalize the budget and guestlist, and design our STD's. i needed some inspiration this morning, so i busied myself with a new website i found that allows you to make collages/inspiration boards using fashionable clothing and accessories! here are the fruits of my creative labor:



i think this inspiration board is gearing more toward the feel i'd like to have for our wedding party -- dressy, yet fun, with a little bit of bling. it was cool to see the colors i want come together. i still don't know what the names are of the colors i am using! aqua? teal? turquoise? green? chartreuse? all the resources i find call them different color names!

i've decided that i must must must pick my dress by december. i've been putting it off for too long, so december is the deadline i set for myself. let the search for a dress begin (again)!

speaking of dresses, that reminds me. another thing that i should be starting up again is my workout. i've stopped going to the gym, again, because i got busy. i think i should stop using that as an excuse. there's probably lots of busy people that make time go to the gym. well that's going to be me! if i'm going to order a dress by december, i better be ok with the way i look in it!

wish me luck...

standstill

since i started preparing for this new school year a month ago, wedding plans have come to a standstill. i spent most of the summer researching the internet for ideas and resources, and definitely came up with some really creative ways to make our wedding special. now that things have gotten busier for me, i haven't accomplished as much as i would have hoped to have accomplished at this point in the whole process.

luckily, i have the help of a wedding planner and friend, good ol' francia. during her visit to the bay, we were able to spend almost one whole day driving around sf on wedding-related errands. we took a visit to the reception venue and scoped out the area for decoration ideas and logistics. i actually started to visualize what it may look like on that day! we also went to the church and realized that the parking situation may present some problems -- mainly, there is no parking lot next to the church. my guests will have to park at the garage on the corner (unless by some miracle a metered spot opens up) and walk across to the church. it's not a far walk at all, and the church is visible if you're at the parking lot. i just hope people don't get confused. because if i was a guest coming to my wedding, i think i would get lost. then again, i get lost driving home from work sometimes.

after visiting the church and reception venues, we ran around searching for paper for my invites. we come up with an invitation suite and its color scheme! and, fabulous francia even put together a mock invite and sent it to me a few days ago. seeing our names on that paper was sort of a trip. anyway, we have a general idea now of how the invitations are going to look.

here's my list of to-do's for the next month or so...

• create and put together our STD's
• finalize our videographer
• contact our band (we're in negotiations right now. not even sure we'll have them.)
• find a DJ
• ask a few more close friends to be a part of our ceremony
• contact our new catering manager at the hotel to introduce myself and ask more questions(we're really sad about this! :( our previous catering manager was moved to the long beach hyatt. and she was one of the reasons we chose that hotel!)
• decide whether or not we will be using a florist
• make plans to order barongs
• look for bridesmaids dresses
• find a dress

the last one i'm not so excited about. in fact, i'm not really looking forward to it. i've been to two dress shops so far and have had pretty good experiences. why so hesitent now, you may ask? i think it's because i'm not comfortable with the way i physically look in any wedding dress at this time. i'm planning on losing weight before the big day, and people keep telling me just to try on dresses and just have them take it in later. that's probably what i'm going to end up doing. however, i just feel as though i dislike every dress i try on because of my body size. oh well, we'll just have to see.

by the way, is it too soon to be thinking about the bachelorette party? my girlfriends keep asking me what i want to do and i get so excited thinking about it! vegas, anyone?!

a couple weeks ago at happy hour with the faculty at my school, one of my coworkers asked me what i'm most looking forward when it comes or our wedding and our married life. to the first question my answer was our ceremony. as much as i am looking forward to having a smashing reception, nothing excites me more than thinking about saying our vows before God and our family and friends. as for what i'm looking forward to most about married life, it is definitely having a family. i simply cannot wait!

oh, photographer update: we've booked with the very talented caroline tran! she's the one that took the pics in my previous post. david and i met with her last month when they were here shooting a wedding in napa. see, she's located in socal so we'll have to fly her up for our wedding day. but, we're taking engagement photos in socal. we got such a good vibe from her and could tell right away that we would get along. she is also a uci alumnus and so we know so many people in common! how cool is that?

and the best news of all...i asked father pat to celebrate our wedding and he said...MAYBE! :D he didn't say "no", he said "MAYBE"! i was 99% expected him to say no right off the bat, but everyone was encouraging us to just ask him and see what happens. i'm so glad i did.

...photographer break-up PART 2.

since i got engaged last october, i started my wedding research online. the internet has been my primary source for all ideas, vendors, and advice. since i'm the first person in my immediate group of friends to get married, i didn't have anyone located in the bay area to help me, and therefore the 'net soon became my best friend for all things wedding related.

i became a frequent visitor of theknot, which is the biggest website for anything and everything about weddings. they have forums on there as well, which, depending on the type of posts you read, can be quite informative. so, last week i decided to vent about my photographer qualms on the northern california board, just to ask the advice of other brides like me and see if i was stupid to trip about that vendor or if my feelings were justified.

lo and behold, i come to find that i was not alone when it came to my dealings with the vendor. i hadn't even posted her name in my original post, and i had people already call her out and know who i was talking about as they had similar experiences with her! there were 3 others like me, and then another one that posted on this blog! that made me so upset! i posted a review about her on yelp that night, for no other reason than to inform others like me about the experience i went through. i only spoke about my dealings with her on my review, and in my opinion i wasn't negative at all, save for one little part where i sarcastically mentioned that she does 60 weddings a year (she quoted this number), which is like 4x the amount of any other professional photographer. i even had my brother, who is always able to step out the situation and give me an objective perspective, read the review to make sure it wasn't mean.

the photographer calls me the next morning. on my cell phone. (i guess she still had my number from our previous dealings?) she tells me that my post was mean and that she couldn't understand how i could write that review, and that she was upset about it because she felt like it was a personal attack on her. i told her that those were just my opinions and that i was only commenting about our business interactions, not her as a person. to make a long story short, i apologized to her if i made her feel bad, but that the review stated my honest opinions about what happened. i felt like others, like me, that do all their vendor research online should have this sort of information at their disposal.

since then, i checked her website twice, and each time her prices were higher than the last. the first time i checked, her price went up a couple hundred dollars. this last time i checked, it went up by $900. she now states that her increase in prices is due to the fact that she wants to do less weddings next year so that she can spend more time focusing on her clients. good for her.

because i'm the type of person i am, i can't help but feel bad that i made her feel the way she felt. however, as a consumer i have to be honest when i say that customer service and professionalism should be #1 in the business world. when dealing with vendors for our wedding, david refuses to work with anyone who he even gets a bad vibe from! and who can blame him? when you are shelling out so much money (not to mention, faith) for certain services, who wouldn't want only the best?

with that said, i am happy to say that we found another potential photographer to work with. she's actually from socal and she's flying up next week for a wedding. her flight comes in late in the evening and she still wanted to meet with us! we've been emailing back and forth and she's been very professional and straight up in our conversations. i'm really excited to meet with her, and once everything is settled i'll post more about her.

for now, here's a teaser! ;)



a million points for those that can name the celebrity in the first pic and the location of the second! welcome to the good life, indeed! i think it's a sign...

too good to be true.

our photographer broke up with us today. :(

from the beginning, i always had this feeling inside that she was too good to be true. she was cheap, and we were going to get an engagment session and trash the dress along with the wedding day coverage, all for under $3K.

well, we met with her a few weeks ago and the feeling inside grew slightly worse. she's young and energetic, but somewhat unprofessional. david and i pretty much led the meeting as she just waited for us to ask questions instead of telling us about her services. she had to meet with another client after us, so when we were done she pulled out a scrappy piece of paper that had scribbles on it out of her back pocket and read the name outoud, then told us that she forgets the names of her clients sometimes. when i emailed her the next day to tell her we wanted to book her, she emailed back with a "i forgot to tell you i charge $100 for travel fees to burlingame" message. um, $100 for a 16-mile (20 minute) drive? ooookay. well, it would still be only $2700, so david and i agreed even though we didn't think that it was necessary. i was very tempted to tell her i'd pick her up myself.

i then noticed she increased her prices on her website by $200. so, i made sure that she would only charge us for the price she verbally quoted us during our meeting. luckily, she agreed. she said that she'd email us a contract by last friday. well, tuesday rolls around and still nothing. so, i emailed her to remind her and she then sends over a contract. i'm not a lawyer or anything, but the contract itself was pretty sparse, and there were all sorts of typos. the bad feeling starts to increase.

well, i get an email this morning saying that her cousin is having a wedding on the same day as we are and she "just found out." i'm trying to believe her and give her the benefit of the doubt, but given the feeling i get from her and my interactions with her, she seems a little sketchy.

i can't pretend i'm not disappointed and that i don't care, because i am and i do. but this is the way things go, and sometimes you can't help how things plan out. luckily for us, it's still somewhat early in the game and i can still have our pick of photographers. at least she didn't bail on us a few months before the wedding! unluckily for us, we're probably going to spend more for photography now. which means less money for other things.

she did offer us a free day-after shoot. however, given the circumstances should i even believe her? should i get my hopes up once again, only to be let down when the time comes? i don't know...is it worth it to still try and work with her?

this is soooo cute!

some parts are kind of freaky, but overall very cute!

See more funny videos at CollegeHumor

what a steal!

seeing as though photography is david's "hobby of the moment," we spent a lot of time researching potential photographers for our wedding. in the beginning, we quickly fell in love with photographers whose names have saturated the wedding industry for many years.

jessica claire

gene higa



apertura

we drooled over the fine art of these pictures and spent much time viewing slideshows of their work. this was before we even thought of our ceremony or reception, before we settled on a budget, before we realized that the rates of the photographers above started at $10K. wow. so, the search began again for great photographers under $10K. we did find a couple:

ed pingol

lisa + james

we actually met the two husband and wife teams above at a a bridal show many months ago. both were really friendly and had a lot to offer. unfortunately, we decided that $6K+ was still too much to pay for photography. i knew that there were many photographers out on the market that we could potentially afford, but because we are so picky about photography i wasn't sure we'd be able to find one of our liking.

one day i was browsing the boards at weddingbee, a blog i frequently visit during my planning and research, and stumbled upon a post where someone was in search of photographers around the $2K range in the bay area. perfect! this was right up my alley. i followed the directions of the posters who gave their advice and came upon the website and blog of erica berger.

we met with her earlier today at a coffee shop in the city. her most expensive package is $2,600 and that includes an engagement session and 8 hours the day of the wedding and a trash the dress session, which is her specialty! i believe the reason why her prices are so competitive is because she is only a year old in the wedding photography business. she's quite young, but very hip and down for anything. we got along great with her and are excited to start working with her.

with an engagement shoot lined up in the next few months, i really better start taking my workout up a notch!

one year from today...

the double d's will be getting married! :) can't you just feel the excitement? i sure can...

i've been a a blogging hiatus for quite some time now due to various reasons. first, i'm enjoying my summer way too much! secondly, david and i kept going back and forth between where and when to have our wedding. due to the house hunt we had to put wedding plans on hold, and were seriously considering having a destination wedding in hawaii (hence, the pictures in the previous post). we have so many friends and family we want to share our day with, but on a limited budget we couldn't justify inviting everyone we wanted to. we thought that the only way to save money would be to have a small wedding outside the bay area.

after doing some research, we found that while getting married in hawaii may be cheaper for us, our guests would have to pay a whopping $700+ to go at this time of the year. that's double what we paid a few years ago. now, that figure may not be so bad for some families, but for ours, it's a little steep. some of our closest family members seemed hesitant when we told them. it's not that they didn't want to go, but they have families and responsibilities of their own. plus, logistically it would be extremely difficult to plan a wedding without being able to check out the venue and various vendors. i also started having flashbacks of what it was like to travel to vegas with a big family in tow...yikes.

so, on a random day we set out to see if maybe, just maybe, we could afford to have our wedding in a nice venue close-by. we knew that our guest list was going to be cut in half, and that we needed a venue with a reasonable minimum revenue for the day we chose. our previous hotel's minimum revenue was $30K...no matter how many people you choose to invite. that's just for food and beverages, people! luckily, we happen to stumble upon a hotel that we drive by nearly every week -- a hotel that for some reason never made the list. and, it was there that we found our venue.

Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport

when we first walked in, we were impressed by the atrium and its grandness.

we were directed promptly to the catering manager who asked us several questions about our event. after determining the number of guests we would be expecting, she led us to the Poolside Pavilion, which is actually a permanent tent outdoors, alongside their pool! we walked in and really fell in love with the space.





the tent is fully equipped with A/C (though, who really uses that in the bay?!) and a heater. they allow the cocktail reception to take place by the pool area. what really sold it was david's reaction to the place. he was impressed by the manager that was showing us around (perhaps even more so due to the fact that 20 minutes beforehand i told him about another hotel lady that laughed at me when i requested to see their ballroom this far in advance of our wedding. your loss, lady!) who was extremely professional and knowledgeable, and he really felt like the outdoor tent was unique and beautiful. it has an "outdoorsy" vibe without feeling like you're in the country. plus, their minimum revenue wasn't all that bad, especially since we are having it on a Friday to save us a few grand. david and i both walked away from the hotel with our decision already made. alleluia.

so, with the church booked already, the signing of our venue contract next week, and a meeting with our prospective photographer also next week, things are slowly starting to become real.

are you getting excited yet?

hmmm...

decisions, decisions, decisions. i really dislike being an indecisive person. *sigh*

the most expensive day...

a couple weeks ago, david and i met with our first (potential) vendor for our wedding: Sofitel San Francisco Bay. we've known for quite some time that we wanted this hotel for our reception, and we've been in casual contact with the catering manager over there since our engagement. we finally had a formal meeting together where we discussed some questions we had about the facilities and banquet options. at some point we realized that we severely underbudgeted for our reception...by like, almost 50%. we were working off the prices from their regular reception menu not knowing that they had a wedding reception menu that listed totally different prices. sadly, we left the hotel feeling somewhat unaccomplished and, once again, trying to figure out how we are going to pay for the most expensive day of our lives.

see, we've tentatively decided to go through with trying to purchase a home sometime in the near future. the market right now is really good for buyers, and in trying to take advantage of that we're running into a few problems. i know that david and i will eventually figure this all out -- it's just a matter of readjusting everything and reworking the numbers. in the meantime, i've been trying to figure out ways to cut down the cost of our wedding. here's what i came up with:

1. hiring just a videographer that can freeze video shots and turn them into photos instead of hiring a photographer. we'd have my cousin (a photographer just entering the wedding world) take photographs.
2. forget about the chivari chairs i would kill to have. ($8-$10/chair)
3. have my wedding dress made instead of buying it.
4. have a family friend do the flowers (i'm not so into her style of design, but she won't charge us for labor, just the flowers)
5. rethink our initial desire of paying for all 14 of our wedding party's attire (sorry guys...=( )
6. forgetting about our honeymoon
7. cutting down our guestlist

the latter 2 i really hope we don't have to do, but those 2 options are probably the ones that are going to save us the most money, especially cutting down our guestlist. i've spoken to so many people that wished they could have invited more guests to their wedding. every part of me just wants all the people that have touched our lives in some way to be able to celebrate with us, after all community is something david and i identify so greatly with. i guess we'll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it.

how long is too long?

if i had the money to hire a ridiculously high-priced wedding planner/event designer who could arrange every little detail for me -- and get me married in a month -- i'd do it. i've only been engaged for just over 5 months now and am already restless. sure, wedding planning is fun and has slowly taken over my life, but there's a huge part of me that simply wants to be married to the man i love so that we can start our lives together. patience is a virtue, i know, and i realize i should heed my own advice and savor every minute of our engagement. i guess i just have those moments where i'm so anxious for our lives to "officially" begin.

when we do tie the knot we would have been engaged for a year and 8 months. that's a lot of time to plan a wedding. a bit too long to be engaged, in my opinion. but, if you're trying to save up for your future, much time is needed.

on another note, i am happy to say that we were able to find our favors in the philippines! at a whopping P2.75 (that equals about $0.07 if i did my calculations correctly) apiece, our favors were a steal! needless to say, david was ecstatic. i don't even think he took a close look at the favors -- the price spoke for itself! (just kidding, david!) i'll post pictures once i put the favors all together. alone, they look quite cheap (hey, what can i say, they're from pinas!). but paired with some nice ribbon and filled with tiny goodies, they'll be a hit. one can only hope...

the evolution of a color palette

i wanted to generate a color palette from the photo that i found a couple nights ago so that i could have something concrete and visual to carry around with me and have for a reference when buying stuff for the wedding. so, i visited this site's palette generator and had them generate colors from the picture. it was a very simple process:

first, i uploaded the picture onto the website. the generator came up with these colors:



i liked what it came up with, but the generator left out the color green. so then i headed over to colourlovers and used their free program to come up with the exact colors i wanted. i had both windows open so that i could recreate the colors as closely as possible:


finally, after some tinkering and experimentation, i came up with the end result:





voila! so, what do you think? i think it's perfect. i think i can finally start making some concrete decisions when it comes to the wedding details. how exciting!

survival of the fittest

i wish i lived in ny. for this reason only:

Find more videos like this on www.truveo.com.

that is insane. i think i'd want to go this route just so that i could say to my kids one day, "your mommy got her wedding dress by running with a bunch of crazy ladies!" haha...just kidding. i hear somewhere that the dresses that they have retail for up to $10,000 but are priced between $250-$600 at that particular store. that's a pretty hefty markdown, especially for those on a strict budget. i guess the craziness would be worth it, and the experience itself would be pretty cool.

the search has ended (for now...)

one of the first things i did when starting the wedding planning process was to try and pick colors for our wedding. it seemed like a logical starting point from which all other decisions would be made. so, i began my search on the web.

at first, i really wanted to have a black, white & _____ theme:

(image from Jennifer Skog)

(image from Miss Chickadee from Weddingbee)

then, when we decided to have our wedding take place in the summer, i thought that this might be a bit too dark for that time of year. furthermore, it may have set a "super-formal" tone for the wedding, which i didn't really want. it also didn't help that david, my mom and sister weren't really into the b&w thing.


i'm really drawn to blues and greens, so i started to search for ideas with that color combo. seeing as gray is to be the new chocolate brown for weddings, i thought that adding it into the blue and green mix would be a nice compromise to not having any b&w. it wasn't until today that i stumbled upon the following image while on the Weddingwire blog:




it was exactly what i was looking for! i was suuuper excited to finally find the perfect combination. now i just have to approve with the other half of d&d -- you know how into "colors" he really is! you would think that guys wouldn't care much for this stuff...but not david! :)

this in an S.O.S

CALLING ALL FRIENDS AND FAMILY!

one of our favorite photographers (we have many!), apertura, is holding a contest for a free engagement shoot! we really want to book these guys for our wedding, but they are super expensive -- and for good reason. their work is amazing. so, we have a favor to ask of you. if you find yourself bored on a rainy day within the next couple weeks or so, could you please send them a story/short essay and photo of david and i as an entry to their "blogstalkers unite" contest (click the link for details!). they're going to pick the best story/couple and announce the winner on their blog. we thought that enlisting the help of a few of our blog readers would fit perfectly with the theme of their contest.

the photo above and below can be found on their blog. aren't they stunning? so, would you consider helping us out? david and i would be eternally grateful. thanks, friends!

which one comes first?

the good life wedding '09 may be taking a very different turn soon.

for the past month or so, d&d have been discussing the option of taking advantage of the housing market and purchasing a home/condo. we have been driving around our area checking out some properties, and david has been doing some heavy internet research trying to find some good deals for us to begin our life together.

...which brings us to our dilemma. how exactly are we supposed to begin our lives -- with a home, or with our dream wedding?

almost everyone around us has been telling us that if they were in our position, they would purchase a home before getting married. being the somewhat "traditional" gal that i am, i always envisioned it being the other way around -- wedding first, then the house. because of the nature of the economy right now, i am beginning to change my mind about the whole thing.

of course, we always have the option of having a small, family only wedding (which may end up not being too "small" due to the size of our families), purchasing a home, and then having the big party a few years later. there's just something about having 2 weddings that doesn't appeal to me. at the same time, having a home with david seems pretty sweet, too.

david, who is always providing for everything that i need, told me last night that he's going to try to give me a wedding and a house by working his butt off and saving as much as he can. how lucky am i to have someone that would sacrifice his time and efforts to entertain my dreams? :)

so, we're slowly approaching the crossroads right now and will soon need to decide what road we will take to decide our future. until then i will continue my wedding planning and david will continue the house hunt. it'll be interesting to see where life is going to take us.

feeling consumed.

before getting engaged i had absolutely no clue about weddings except that in 2005 it seemed like everyone was having one. (or was it 2004? i don't remember...) now that i am planning for my own, i've come to realize that this wedding business is serious.

there are so many details here and there that one can be utterly consumed with if one is not careful. escort cards vs. place cards? hair up or down? chair covers or chivari? blue vs. green? oh, the list is endless! i suppose i can understand, given that this is supposed to be the best day of your life, and for me, i only plan on doing this once. i just have to keep reminding myself that this day is about the love that david and i share, and the promise we will make in front of the people we care about. nevertheless, it's going to be one heck of a party.

big decisions

since our first option was out of the question, david and i embarked on a search for another church for our wedding ceremony. yes, i am fully aware that as catholics we are not supposed to search for churches for our wedding day, but given that we know we are going to have lots of guests from out-of-town, we thought it would be nice to have get married in a church that had historical significance to san francisco. about a week-and-a-half ago we made an appoint with the secretary and put our names down to get married at st. patrick's catholic church in the city.



the excerpt at the bottom of their bulletin reads,

St. Patrick's is uniquely a sign of God's loving presence. It was here when the miners left for the gold county, it served the Irish immigrants, withstood the great fire and earthquake of 1906, continued to serve the Irish, then the Spanish-speaking, now the Filipino community, the numerous tourists and conventioneers and always the business world by which it is surrounded. Now it exists in a neighborhood undergoing redevelopment. Unchanged in the midst of change, it still repeats for all the message of Him who is the resurrection and the life.

my aunt and uncle were married in this church over 15 years ago as well, so it does have some family significance. we're ecstatic that we've already booked a date for our wedding, which still seems so far off from now. everyone keeps saying that it'll go by fast, but i'm not so sure about that.

as for our reception venue, we did do a bit of researching for that. there are so many awesome places to have a reception in the bay area -- hotels are in abundance, outdoor weddings by the beach are definitely doable, and receptions in the wine country are quite common. price wise, your options may be limited if you are on a strict budget. after looking around and making a few quick decisions, we've narrowed it down to Hotel Sofitel in Redwood City. this hotel is outside of SF, but still accessible and fitting to our needs. my cousin, stephanie, had her 18th birthday there and i worked closely with their event coordinator, who is willing to give me a good deal for the reception.



i've had dreams about having my reception here, here, here, and here. but, alas, our nurse-teacher budget does not allow for those kinds of lavish environments. a girl can dream, right?

a perfect proposal

i was recently watching a tv show where a man enlisted the help of a company that helps prepare the perfect proposal -- everything from the location, set-up, props, and help from "extras" needed to pull it off are arranged for you -- for a small fee, of course. youtube even hosted marriage-proposal contests this past valentine's day, and offered winners wedding-related packages and prizes.

so what makes up the perfect proposal? is it the creativity that wins one over? the size of the rock, the corny-ness, the romantic ambiance?

or, is it the man? i'd say it was the latter.

* * *

it was the day of my birthday, and i had woken up with a hangover. yes, a hangover. the night before, david, pj, my girlfriends, and i went to club icon in the city to celebrate me turning 26. certain circumstances would turn the night into a disaster. there were fights (verbal & nonverbal) and tears. we got kicked out of the club and locked out of my friends loft. i was crying in the cold while david chilled in the car with my friend's boyfriend, both laughing at how emotional my friends and me became when we were a little tipsy. little did i know that the actual day of my birthday would turn out to be so special.

we discussed going to church together, and david suggests that we attend mass at st. ignatius church in the city. we often went there to pray together during our school days at usf, and it was a special church to both of us. it is probably the most beautiful church i've ever been to. i told him that i needed to tell my parents so that they could go with us. he seemed hesitant to invite them, but i didn't think anything of it. david said that there was a 2pm mass that sunday, which caused me to think twice (whoever heard of a 2pm sunday mass?!). again, i didn't think anything of it. my parents ended up refusing, saying that they would not be ready in time and would just go to mass later that evening.

we headed over to the church and went inside. i was ahead of david, and i noticed right away that the church was empty. i turned to david and annoyingly asked him if he checked the mass schedule. he replied that he had, and that he knew there wasn't going to be mass -- he just wanted to spend some alone time with me for my birthday. this was not out-of-the-ordinary for david, and i thought it was a really thoughtful birthday "gift." he took my hand and led me to the open side chapel, mother mary's chapel, and we knelt down to pray.

after a while, i began to feel dizzy. (remember, i still had a hangover) i told david that i was going to sit down, and after looking a bit confused he agreed and we both sat down in the chairs in front of the altar. sometime in between our arrival and the moment he proposed, the thought of him proposing that day had quickly crossed my mind. i dismissed the thought, because he had convinced me that we would not be able to get engaged until the end of 2007 for financial reasons. we continued to sit together, with him silently thinking/praying and me falling in and out of sleep. finally, he motioned me back to the altar to kneel down.

he said lots of kind things to me (ask me directly if you want details! :D), and at this point i knew in my heart what he was going to ask, but i didn't allow myself to confirm the thoughts yet so that i wouldn't be disappointed if he didn't pop the question. finally, he said, "our relationship began in the church, and i want it to continue in the church. will you marry me?" he was holding out the ring in a red heart box and crying by this point, and i was so taken aback that i hugged him and forgot to give him an answer. he had to pull me away from him and ask again, "will you accept this ring?" i held out my hand, and i don't think i ever verbally said, "yes!" i think the nonverbal gesture of holding out my hand sufficed.

i asked him if he told my family, and he said "why don't you tell them yourself. they're right behind us." i turned around and saw my brother sitting far away in the pews behind us. (later my brother would tell us that he saw us turn around and wasn't sure if david had proposed yet, so he froze and thought to himself that if he didn't move, maybe we wouldn't notice him. but, have you seen my brother lately?) my parents and grandpa were further behind, and my sister popped out slowly from behind one of the columns and was holding a video camera. (she only caught the very end because she had forgotten the memory stick and had to run to the car to get it.)

we celebrated that evening with mass and dinner at chevy's (classy, i know!). all in all, it truly was the perfect proposal. but it wasn't the church, or david's words, or even my family being present. you could take all of that away, and just have david and i together anywhere, and it would have been perfect, because what we share together constitutes more than the grandeur of any marriage proposal. it's about the love, and without that we have nothing.

david and me, kneeling in front of mother mary.
(taken by my brother, pretending to be a statue.)

newly engaged!
(you can't see my ring clearly, but it's crooked because the size was too big!)

a new addition to the haw-clan.
(this is right after my mom gave the "we're not losing a daughter but gaining a son" speech and when my brother told my dad, "it's ok. you still have nathalie.")

if i would have known i was going to be the future mrs. v on that day, i would have definitely picked a better outfit and combed my hair. oh well, here's to the "natural" look! isn't the church beautiful? you can see a little bit of it in the pictures, but if you're ever in town we'll definitely take you there. it's so pretty. david and i really, really wanted to have our ceremony there. the church is open to marriages where at least one member of the couple is a usf alumnus or an employee of the school, or a registered parishioner, so we would fit the bill. however, the church does NOT allow you to have your own choir/singer(s). we were willing to pay the $2K+ in ceremony fees, and forgo flowers so as to abide by their rules, but we just couldn't get past the music thing. that's something we just couldn't compromise on.

boy this is a long post. coming up: the double d's new ceremony site and proposed reception venues!

when i met you

...i wasn't planning on falling in love.

i wasn't planning on feeling so attracted to someone,
but you awakened feelings inside of me
that i'd forgotten existed.

when i met you, i didn't realize
how much our love would grow --
that the attraction that first brought us together
would reach beyond passion
to the comfort of knowing
i have someone very special,
someone who is not only my lover
but my close friend.

when i met you, i had no idea
where our relationship would lead us,
how beautiful you would make my world.
but now i know without a doubt...
the luckiest day of my life
was the day that i met you.

r. duvall

i remember the very first day i met david. that's saying a lot since i'm the type of person that forgets what happened 3 hours ago. he walked into interfaith early for tuesday night's meeting. that's david for you -- always on time for everything.

i cannot believe it has been 5 years since then. now here we are, preparing to celebrate one of the most sacred sacraments of our faith. what a journey it has been.

so, here it is...our blog that will chronicle the events leading up to that special day. it'll be a long journey -- almost two years from the day we got engaged! but i'm planning to enjoy (my word for 2008) every minute of it.

...when i'm not too busy being bridezilla, that is. ;P

on this valentine's day, i am reminded of just how much i am in love with my future husband. he gave me a card with the poem above, and we both agree that it speaks the truth about our first moments together. it just goes to show you that the plans God has for us are always more beautiful than our own.