Final dress fitting today! Worked on the backyard all weekend. It's getting here, kids, it's getting here. I am ridiculously excited. I have so many lists! I can't wait to post pictures of my wedding dress!!!!!!!! In fact, I can't wait. Here's one. Mwhahaha. I took this today while it was getting one last bead check!!! 
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This is your new blog post. Click here and start typing, or drag in elements from the top bar.  Yesterday at 9am Allie Eugenio arrived at my front door, with two big giant silver cases, ready to do a hair and makeup rehearsal! We started out by looking online at different styles, and then she went to town. We set up in my living room, and she went through everything - I don't want to tell you too much, because, you know, you'll get to SEE it in two weeks, but I really loved the end result! Allie was great - she wasn't trying to sell me anything so she could be honest about what sort of product I might want to buy, that sort of thing. I can't believe what a difference little things made. The end result was that I felt super sparkly, and pretty, and got butterflies all over again!   After my hair and makeup run, my sister Rosie and my mom and I headed down to David's Bridal, where I had my biggest in-public meltdown yet. I was having a very hard time with certain elements of the dress which have now been fixed!!! It was really busy and I was tired and stressed and - we were all saved by David's Bridal employee extraordinaire Connie. Oh my god. She saved my wedding. I was so tired, and SO done of being in that store, that I left and my mom was going to leave too - when Connie told her that they don't let brides leave on the verge of tears, and made us come back and fixed everything. She was seriously amazing. She went above and beyond, and I left happy and with all problems solved. A-Mazing. I need to write them a letter about her, she was that good. While we were at Metro Pointe where the David's Bridal is, Rose and I stopped in at Marshall's to look for my shoes, because that has been a heinous experience so far. Nothing there, but then we decided to go see what sort of store Loehmann's was, and THERE THEY WERE. My shoes! Sitting NEXT to a pair that were $300, were my beautiful, adorable, hot, PURPLE three-times-on-sale wedding heels. I want to marry these shoes and have little purple shoe babies, that's how much I love these shoes. In my wedding vows, I am going to have our officiant say "Do you take Adam and these shoes" they are THAT good. Yay!  I also got the guestbook, started on some of the decorations, emailed our DJ and prepared for Adam's birthday - which is TODAY! This week was also part-two of the bachelorette party goodness, with a showing of Eclipse at Bella Terra, and then Karaoke til 2 in the morning.    Oh my goodness, I can't believe how close the wedding is!!! Totally crazy. We have so much left to do! I went to the flower mart on Saturday EARLY with KJ and Lori and picked out flowers!!!! I really like delphiniums and larkspurs!!! All the boys have their tuxes, I have a hair appt on Saturday, and we rented all the tables/chairs/etc! HAPPENING!!!!   This is Adam getting fitted...when I saw him step out in his tux, I have to say - I got the strongest wedding-related-butterflies I've had yet.  I have also had my wedding shower, my bachelorette party, and our engagement photos taken! I'll sprinkle some of those photos around here too :)   Adam and I have chosen to go to Maui for our honeymoon! I am so so so so so excited. I've never been to Hawaii - neither has he, actually. We're staying at a friend-of-a-friend's condo right on the beach. We're planning to stay there for ten days, rent a car, and do alllll sorts of stuff. I really want to bike down a volcano and go kayaking. Adam really wants to go deep sea fishing and ziplining - so I am pretty sure our honeymoon will be an adventure. Once we run out of money, though, we'll relax on the beach. ;)
I'm really excited about the wedding. I spent today making some of the favors with my aunt, mom, and sisters. We contacted a few officiants last night. We decided on alcohol and sometime in the next few weeks I am going to go pick out flowers! It's all coming together! Wedding plans are slow and steady... I feel like I do nothing for a week, then make a dozen decisions in a 15-minute time span. Today I sent an email to confirm the food! I am so excited about this - we will be having paella made in our backyard!! Paella is a beautiful spanish rice dish that is cooked in a huge pan - made with all sorts of meats and veggies - and importantly, turmeric. It's such a good outdoor-party food. I feel celebratory just thinking about it! This is the website of the people who will be doing our paella:
http://www.paellavalenciana.com/index.html Oh man. The food is going to be so good. We'll have paella, salad, and homemade sangria...and then our almond cake. YUM! I wonder if I can use more than 22 weight watcher points on my wedding day. ;) I'm really starting to be able to picture our wedding now. Details are coming together. I have my dress - which I want to take to get altered soon - my bridesmaids have their dresses (purple and beautiful). The gentlemen need to go get their tuxes, but we've got food, cake, photographers, and rings. We've started buying some twinkly lights and lanterns, and the backyard is going to be so pretty with all of you pretty people in it! We've started doing a lot more research about where we want to honeymoon, and I think we are pretty set on Costa Rica! We're trying to find a good all-inclusive sort of honeymoon package where we get to stay in beautiful places and get to go do tons of fun activities. We are taking our engagement photos on Saturday! We'll be going to Griffith Park. Look for those soon! Oh man, much has happened! Let's see - we WERE going to have the ceremony in my parents backyard and the reception in ours...but after 30 years of letting the bushes in the backyard grow tall and beautiful, the neighbor behind my parents chose this summer to cut them all down. It's hideous!!! Awful. We'd be standing there saying our vows and watching their children splashing in their kiddy pool.
So I panicked for a day and a half, and then decided to have the ceremony and reception in our backyard! I think it will work nicely - no parade over, but more simple, and fewer places to fix up. It'll still be good! I had an exciting hunt for bridesmaid dresses.... sheesh. When Adam proposed to me, all he told me about that dinner was that I should buy a new dress. There were two I wanted - a red one and a purple one. I chose the red, but almost went back three separate times to get the purple one, because I loved it that much. I finally sent my bridesmaids out into the cold cruel world of department stores to find purple dresses - and lo and behold, Jaime sends me a picture message of her wearing THAT dress! I decided it was fate - the dress I was going to wear the night Adam proposed now gets to be the dress my bridesmaids wear! Of course, I'd waited so long that there was only 1 left at that Macy's, and it was on the clearance rack. I then spent a frenzied 3 days calling every Macy's in the entire United States until I finally got 5 of them shipped to me. It's like the Traveling Pants but dress version - looks good on every one of them, and they ALL can wear the same size. It's bizarre. But fantastic! One thing to check off the list! Now that they have their dresses, I can get the boys started on their tuxes.... girls can buy shoes and jewelry, and I can think decorations! I got all of the invitations finished, and then corrected (once we had to change the ceremony location) - so those are waiting to go out this week. I think I found the food! I want to have paella - and there's a wonderful man in San Diego who will come up and cook it for us in our backyard! I'm excited. We have to taste it, but the photos are beautiful. Adam and I are taking engagement photos on the 29th - things are happening! I'm also reading a book called The Conscious Bride - which sounds cheesy (and is) but it's actually really making me think AND feel calmer about everything. My friend and bridesmaid, Marina, sent it to me. It talks about our culture's perseverating on this image of the Perfect Wedding, the Perfect Ring, the Perfect Proposal, the Perfect Marriage - and how that does a lot of damage. There's sadness involved with weddings and getting married, along with the good - separating from the life you had before, changing your identity, and your relationships - and we don't talk about it. So brides have these emotions but stuff them away or transfer them to tangible things ("the linens HAVE TO BE THIS COLOR") instead of acknowledging the dark side of their feelings. It talks about feeling alone as a bride planning a wedding - how many, many people want to know about the details of what you are planning, but very few people if any ask how you are feeling about it. It makes a lot of sense and I would really recommend it to anyone planning a wedding or getting married. I've go This weekend was the first time all of my bridesmaids were in the same place at the same time, since Marina lives in Oregon! We spent all day Sunday together -first practicing putting on my wedding dress at my aunt's house (note to bridesmaids: remember to feed the bride when she gets cranky), then headed to El Torito for brunch, and then to Paseo Nails for manicures and pedicures! I had so much fun having all of them together with me. We talked hairstyles, dress plans, and shoes. I had to take Marina to the airport that afternoon, so the next time we'll all be together again will be in about 117 days at the wedding!!!  I have officially mailed in our wedding photo deposit! I am so excited! We are going with JDweddingphoto.com - a husband and wife team named John and Susan. I really enjoyed meeting with them a few weeks ago, and am so excited to have one more thing crossed off of my wedding to do list!
Marina is visiting this weekend from Portland - for the first time all of my bridesmaids will be in the same place at the same time! We're going to get pedicures and go dress shopping on Sunday. Very excited!!! The invitations are all made, but I ran out of envelopes, so I need to get those before I can do anything else! Worked on the favors, but the resin was cloudy. Talked schedule with my mom, and measured the backyard for the number of people that will fit. Things are moving! In almost exactly 4 months, I will be Mrs. Dedeaux. Craaaazy. I haven't posted on here much, but things sure have been happening. Adam and I have picked out our wedding cake - yum yum yum. We went with Sweet Traders, in Huntington Beach. They had an excellent selection, but both of us went nuts for the almond cake with almond ganache. So there you have it, that's our cake.
We spent one Saturday meeting with 3 different photographers and a caterer, and we've chosen our photographers as well! That's exciting. I like them a lot - JDweddingphoto.com. I've got to send in the contract, but then we're good. We'll take some engagement shots in May. I've sent my bridesmaids out into the wild world of dress shopping solo, now. I'm done with looking at dresses. Five of anything the same standing next to each other doesn't look good - so I want them all to find different purple dresses! Yesterday was a marathon invitation day. 90 invites were made, with the help of my sisters and mom. My shoulder is actually sore from doing that, but I'm very proud of them. Not too formal, not too little-kid-y, but very me. FYI, the little stick on the front is actually from the lemon tree that's in the photo inside. That's all from the wedding front for now! I am getting incredibly excited. Amazing. I have done nothing wedding related today!!! ...except get lost in cell-phone photos of my dress for my whole lunch break. And send emails back and forth with Adam signed "your fiancee." And stare at my ring for a while. But other than that....nothing wedding related! More later!
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