Married

Just a quick update as I sit in my manhattan hotel room with my husband (!). The wedding was wonderful, full of love, and so relaxing and comfortable. I can't wait to see the photos and share them with you!

perspective

In August, Fiance's stepfather, Dennis, was diagnosed with Stage 4 liver & colon cancer. This man was the picture of health, ate super healthy, exercised all the time, everything about him was in excellent shape, except that he had cancer. Fiance's entire family was incredibly optimistic right out the gate. They have excellent senses of humor and just treated it like something that happened and they would move on. They said to move forward with the wedding, and they are planning a trip to europe in march/april. For me? I was absolutely terrified. Everyone I've ever known who has had cancer, friends and family, haven't survived. In my mind, cancer = death. I literally would just force myself not to think about it, I wouldn't believe it.

And so Dennis went through chemo like a champ, didn't even lose his hair. After Thanksgiving he had surgery where 70% of his liver was removed. While very thin, he was in excellent spirits when we saw him at Christmas. Then he began chemo again in January, this round wasn't going as well and was attacking too much of his healthy cells so they decided to do surgery #2 early. The first week of February he had his surgery in San Francisco and so Fiance's mom wasn't able to make it to my bridal shower. He was supposed to be in the hospital for a week and ended up leaving 2 days early. I just saw him yesterday after coming home to begin wedding preparations and he is doing well. Still recovering, still thin, but still the same Dennis, teasing everyone and playing guitar.

So for me, planning for the past 6 months or so can be reduced down to a simple thought:
As long as Fiance and I are married by the end of the day and Dennis is there to celebrate with us, I don't care about anything else.

There's been a quite a few ideas and projects that have fallen by the wayside and honestly I just don't care. (sorry programs...and out of town bags...) I just want our families together. Even though Dennis can't really stay for the whole reception because that is far too many germs for his low immune system, he'll be at the ceremony. I will have photos of him. and I am so blessed and thankful for that.

status update

We have our luggage.
We have our wedding bands.
Fiance is driving up home on Sunday.
I'm flying up Tuesday night.
We have an appt to pick up our marriage license on Wednesday.
I've been listening to our super awesome spectacular wedding playlist compiled by Fiance.

Now I'm on my way to get my hair done at drybar with my cousin/maid-of-honor then on to my super fun bachelorette party!

mirrors

This time next week I'll be heading to our wedding rehearsal. It's getting more and more surreal.

So I thought I'd touch on some of those beauty issues that I slammed the WIC about in the beginning.

I got a couple facials and invested in some quality skin products. Because I've had less than stellar skin since the minute I turned 13 and, now that I can afford to, it's time I really started taking steps toward improving that. Not only did the facials help my skin a bit, but they're just ridiculously relaxing.

I'm using teeth whitening strips. Because I've never really had white teeth.  Because I've been meaning to whiten my teeth for years now. And $30 Aquafresh strips are worth it to me. Also, they totally work. Especially if you accidentally fall asleep and leave them in for 4 hours instead of 45 minutes. (yeah totally pulled a Ross) My gums were just totally destroyed for a few days...all better now though!

I've been making the effort to eat healthy, lots of veggies and no fast food. But since this all about honesty and stuff, I'll be up front. I'm in the worst shape of my life. Partially because I've been spending 12 hours a day sitting in front of a computer. I've started to enjoy running, but it's dark when I leave in the morning and dark when I get home and I don't have a gym membership. Plus I'm just plain exhausted. So the whole exercising thing has been difficult for me. (my dress still fits though).

BUT.  I'm just so gosh darn happy. I'm so excited about the wedding, I'm so in love with Fiance, I adore my job (despite working all the time). Llife has been so wonderful. Yes, there's little hiccups, yes Fiance and I have had fights within the last month. But looking at the grand scheme of things, life is good.

So. advice for the week before the wedding. Just do stuff that makes you happy. Enjoy everything. Listen to some Billy Joel, buy a dress that makes you feel super pretty, get dressed up for dinner and a movie with the girls, snuggle with Fiance...well at least these all worked for me.

ice cream and cake

So I told you guys my grandma's making the cake. She's quite the baker. She made my parent's wedding cake among many others. Well, when we started planning it out, she brought over these bad boys:

Yes my friends, cake decorating books from the 60s. I'm so in love.

As my mom said, her cakes are so tasty, but she is just as stubborn as every other member of my family. You can give her some suggestions, but she's gonna do whatever the heck she wants. I'm cool with that. {Flavor > looks} in my book when it comes to food.

My cake will probably end up looking something like this, but with real flowers instead of the sugar tulips. pillars and all. Retro yum.

{fun fact: my grandma used to go to tapings of "let's make a deal" with her best friend and dressed up as a baker, complete with a mini cake, every. single. time}

showering

Bridal shower #2 was so wonderful, and...intimate. We clocked in at 8 ladies total and not just because my mom unknowingly scheduled it for super bowl sunday at 1 pm. there was an unfortunate abundance of illness and family emergencies. But nonetheless I still had such a good time.

Mama reserved a room at the Olde Spaghetti Factory. yum yum yum. this place is delish and adorable. Recommendation: Spaghetti with browned butter and mizithra cheese and the pesto ranch for your starter salad. Also the spumoni ice cream (strawberry/chocolate/pistachio). The lighting is very moody, so some of the photos turned out kind of funky, but we were still able to get some good ones. ready for some up close and personal time with little me?

First up: the dessert/gift table

{mini red velvet cupcakes and assorted cookies and homemade lemon bars to the right}

{gorge floral arrangement by ms. suzy, my wedding planner extraordinaire. a sneak peak of the wedding flower decor}

{lavender of course. somehow became the mascot of this wedding. but they're so pretty and smell DIVINE}

{one of those amazing flameless candles, this one is actually made of real wax. to debut at the wedding as well}

{time for some bubbly!}

{Spumanti - Italian sparkling wine}

{mama made the shower kitchen themed and sent out recipe cards in the invites for friends and family to add to my recipe collection}

{little me super psyched about getting our beautiful toasting flutes. the stems are filled with mini pearls!}

{yummy crate and barrel boxes. no wrapping needed. I maybe registered here solely for the boxes? oh also because they have cool stuff inside the boxes...}

{the "ambience" at the good olde sketti factory}

=D

{that book from my mom? it's called p*rn for women. it has photos and captions of men offering to do household chores and bringing breakfast in bed and providing shopping advice. so silly.}

{thanks mama!!! this is a full set of silver plated antique silverware in a velvet lined wooden box. time for dinner parties!!}

Fun, simple, girly. I can't wait for the wedding!!

toasty warm feets

people's generosity continues to amaze me.

today my coworkers threw me a surprise wedding BBQ for lunch. they kept it a secret for a couple weeks. Not only was there hot dogs, burgers (with ALL the fixings you can imagine), baked beans, homemade potato salad, a giant cake, and ice cream...they also pooled together to get a gift off our registry. and not just any gift, but the kitchenaid stand mixer! I'm so excited to play with it! It was such a wonderful surprise, my work is awesome. and the bridal shower paper plates and napkins were a nice touch on a construction site ;D

bridal shower #2 post coming soon. I swear. last week was...rough. I literally flew back from my parents monday morning and drove straight to work. the rest of the week snowballed after that. but the weekend turned around. we took one of our bffs out to a birthday drinks and dinner friday night. Sunday we celebrated valentine's day with lunch at a cute little retro diner and a movie. and one last shopping trip for my rehearsal dinner dress.

Saturday, when fiance went to work I did a little shopping for my trousseau... I'm just going to say it was way fun, slightly awkward and majorly confidence boosting - if all those adjectives can make sense together.



less than 2 weeks away a-peoples! (bonus points for guessing the movie reference there)
still soooo soo excited!