Got a DJ finally!

I guess 3rd time really is the charm! originally we were going to use the same DJ a friend of ours had at their wedding, but he is doing a band thing now and wasn't available on our date. So we didn't worry much about it because at the time we still had alot of time. Later a neighbor's co-worker did DJ-ing and a band on the side and we met with him. He seemed nice enough and knew what he was doing. He couldn't give me a quote until he knew how many hours he was going to be there, so he gave me his email and I emailed him the plan of events, a kind of timeline so he knew what to expect and he was suppose to email me back. He never did. So I called Sandee, she owns and runs the place where we are having the ceremony and reception. She recommended a DJ to us, his name is Fernando. We met with him, and we both really like him. We gave him a deposit to save the date and he signed a contract saying he will be there on our day. He gave 4 or 5 CD with popular songs for the first dance, father/daughter dance, mother/ son dance, wedding party marches, wedding marches and so on. It is really helpful. So I am happy I can cross that off my list of the many things I still need to do. It's also good the this DJ and my lady, Sandee have worked together many times so he know the area and where to set up and how things work at that venue. One less thing for me to worry about.

Merry be-lated Christmas!

Hope everyone's Christmas was a good one! It was nice to be stress-free for a while and to relax and enjoy time with friends and family! Andy was home and it was nice to see him! He's back to S.F. now until New years Eve (Summer is with him and we are dog sitting) Then he goes back to S.F. on Jan. 3rd and will be shipped off to Kuwait sometime after the 3rd for about 9 months, or so they say. Please pray for him and his troop and our family.

wedding update:

we got the Bridal shower invites (the manteca shower) sent out in the first week of December and the shower is the 9th of January. It's coming up soon. Crystal, My Matron of Honor (megan is my Maid of Honor--my sister) made the invitations and they were really cute. I will take a picture and post on here later. I don't want to give away what she's making for favors, but its something to hold some chocolate kisses in and they are very cute!
I got all the wedding invitations printed up, and all the response cards printed up. I am going to print the address on the envelopes, I've done one already. This way no one's hands will be aching later. I bought some paper to use to make some place cards. We aren't going to have place cards for everyone just make a few that will say "reserved for the brides family" or grooms family or something like that. Again trying to prevent aching hands. I'm going to try to get all invitations sent out soon, hopefully by the first week of the year. I'm still gathering all the addresses. There aren't many that I'm missing. Tomorrow I will print up all the envelopes. I still need to figure out how to put together the directions insert. Dad wrote up some driving directions to the venue coming from different areas and he was a bit long winded (He wrote a whole page!) so I need to edit that! We bought some return address labels so hopefully those will come fast, we will need those before we can send the invitations out!

Don't think I mentioned it before, but we booked our honeymoon! we are going to go on a 2 week cruise to Hawaii with a stop to Mexico on one of the last days. It is a Princess Cruise and Aunt Char says that Uncle George loves Princess. Hopefully we will too! Russell ordered his Passport and should recieve it in Febuary. I already have one from when I went the cruise to Alaska with my parents, megan, and Aunt Char. We will be leaving on our honeymoon the very next day. We board the boat between 1-3pm. The boat leaves from LA, so we will be leaving after the wedding and driving at least part way or possibly the whole way and sleeping in in the morning. We've already discussed it and he's driving so it depends on when and where he stops.

All my bridesmaids now have there dresses and shoes, I finally picked out some shoes for my girls! I bought a sash/bow thing for the flowergirl, the color I wanted wasn't in the store so I had to order it, and it will come in at the end of Febuary. I Still need to get a flower girl dress. I was told a store to look at for the flowergirl dress that I will be looking at later on.

The Napa shower will be on Febuary 6th at Aunt Char's house and next time Char comes to manteca Megan and I will help her do the invitations.

On one of my wedding websites it has a countdown of how many days I have left, and I have 74 days left. That doesn't seem like that many days..its getting really close! I still have a lot to do, but today I feel like I got a lot done. So for now I am satisfied.

Registered at Macy's yesterday

Went Registering at Macy's yesterday with Megan. She told me I was scan-happy. It's fun! Almost ready to send out invitations soon, same with bridal shower invites. There will be 2, one in Manteca and one in Napa at Aunt Char's place. I have a possible DJ. possible, because it depends on how much he's going to charge, he's suppose to email me a quote soon. I don't think I mentioned before that Russell and I met with the Cake guy, and planned out the whole cake. PLUS we got to eat cake! He made 3 small cakes- one white, one yellow, and one chocolate- with different fillings, frostings, they were all delicious and he was able to duplicate a design I liked from a plate pattern I saw (and registered for at Macy's!). I'm very happy with what I saw and ate! I still need to get alot done, it's getting really close! I have 2 more weeks left of this semester, so hopefully after that I will be able to get more done and focus more on planning the wedding! Wish me luck for finals! I'm going to need it!!

Flowers and ect.

I found out what the flowers are called from the florist I went to in Manteca.

yelloween lilies :

buplurum (the greenery stuff-its got some yellow in it too):

white roses (I'm sure most everyone has seen a white rose before!)

lisianthus (this is the poofy rose look-alikes)

not sure what a stock flower is but thats on the list too. Maybe that just means whatever is in stock at the time at the shop.

I also asked if she could add some real light blue flowers of some kind. My dress has some really light blue beading on the front and I think it would look nice if I had some blue in my bouquet.

The bridesmaids will have yelloween clusters with buplurum tied off with satan ripon that will match their dresses.

The Groom's boutonniere will have cream lisianthus and stock accented with buplurum.

The Fathers with wear a single with rose accented with buplurum.

The Photographer (mother of the grooms boyfriend) will wear a single carnation with greenery

Mothers wear pin-on corsage made of yellow freesia, white roses accented with sheer cream ribbon

Freesia:

And Russell's Granmother and my Aunt Char =) will wear a single carnation with sheer ribon!

That's everything. At least it's the rough estimate of what I want for flowers, at least for now. I want to go to at least one more florist to compare prices and flowers, now that I have an idea of what I want. We'll see.

Another update:

Russell, Aunt Char and I went to Target about 2 weeks ago and we registered for gifts! Boy was the fun! and it really wiped me out too! we still have yet to add some items to the list. We need to register for one more store and I'm torn. I'm not sure what other store to pick. Any suggestions? Macy's is an option, so is JCPenney's, Kohl's...Russell wants to Register at Best Buy but I told him to dream on.

Also this saturday morning Russell and I are going to meet with the cake guy for a cake tasting. He's going to show us the different kinds of frosting and types of cakes he can make. Russell is more interested in the taste and Im more interested in the look. I saw a wedding plate set at a Bridal show with a very nice swirly kind of design on them that he will try to duplicate for on the cake. I don't think he will have an example of that, at least not this time. This time is just on the tasting.

Things are getting slowly marked off my long to-do list!

4 months and 9 days until the wedding and still alot to do!

The florist hasn't called yet

Well I went to the florist, she was supposed to call back, monday with a price, but she hasn't. I would like to know the price before going on to another florist. I wil call on thursday. I have a test thursday so I'm not getting much else done besides studying before thursday. For my bouquet I was going to have all kinds of different flowers, I can't name any of them because I don't remember any of the names exept lillies. And something that looks like a rose, but isn't a rose, its a little fluffier. I think it started with a G. There was also this greenery with a little yellow in it too. I had white, yellow, cream and blue in my bouquet and the girls were going to have lillies and if I remember right they were going to have greenery stuff too. The boutineers were going to be the rose-look a like flowers with greenery stuff behind it. I am awful with flowers, I don't know what anything is called or how to explain any of it. here's a picture of a yellow lilly similar to the ones she showed us:

I haven't gotten anything else done for the wedding yet. Russell and I started talking about honeymoon locations and Hawaii is a possible. Maybe a cruise to Hawaii. Maybe a cruise to anywhere. I had a friend that went to Hawaii for her honeymoon and she went swimming with dolphins and I want to do that, too. I know Hawaii will have warm weather any time of the year, so march isn't a problem. There are alot of options, its hard to pick one. Since it will be march we don't want to go somwhere with cold weather or somewhere with a possibility of a hurricane. I would like to go somewhere fun and hopefully warm.

Also here are some pictures of cakes the 'cake guy' made (Greg):

He made the lillies, they aren't real flowers. The heart shaped cake-the flowers are made of whipped cream. The other 3 cakes ( the ducks, the green and the pink/orange) I really like the pipping swirls on them.

flowers tomorrow

So now all 3 of my bridesmaids have been sized and ordered their bridesmaid dresses. So there's one big check mark. I went to a small bridal fair last sunday with my mom, megan, and Russell's mom, Debbie. I got some nice ideas for flowers and where to register, and there were lots of things to look at I got a bag full of pamphlets, handouts and business cards. It was fun. Megan and I got to ride in a carriage like Cinderella's! That part was really fun! It was drawn by 2 black horses with flowers in their mane and tail and the guy had a cute Jack Russell terrier up front with him. The carriage part was shaped like a pumpkin like Cinderella's! I took some pictures with my cell phone, but I don't know how to load those onto the computer...otherwise I'd put them on to show off. He told us he charges 575 for 2 hours. A bit pricey and I don't think It would really work for us, because the location is right off 120, I don't think that would be very wise to have horses travel down the highway. At the end there was a fashion show of bridal gowns, tuxes and some bridesmaids dresses and a few monther of the bride dresses. It was cute. There were gifts given away from different booth for free items or services. Debbie won a free tux for us! And we visited the booth again after and they carry the color of the bridesmaids dresses (serene)! So that's good to know. Even if the groomsmen don't end up going there to get the tuxes, my dad could get his there. It's free so were defintely going to use that for someone! Tomorrow at 2 I'm going to Manteca Floral, the local florist, to look at the different flowers they offer and the prices. My mom and Russell's mom are coming. I'm kinda clueless at the flowers. I did see some flowers at a booth that I liked. I saw some blue orchids I liked and light blue hydrengas. I liked them all really. I know I want colorful boquets. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

House hunting continues

Well, that house I thought we had a good chance of getting, went pending before our offer went in. So we're still looking, please pray for us!

My new blog, plus an update

On the other one, other people couldn't respond, so after searching around I figured out how to create my own blog. Like I mentioned before I'm not much of a blogger, so it took a while for me to figure this out. I just copied and pasted a few of my other posts from the other site.

Since the last time I posted:

I am down a bridesmaid, a groomsmen and a ring bearer.

The was-groomsmen might be joining the military before the year is up, so by march he might be stationed elsewhere in the country or even out of country. and since the was-bridesmaid is his fiance and the was-ring bearer is their son, they would go with him. Plus they are going to be to be getting married before he joins so they can have the benefits. So things are busy for them and I understand. So at least we are down one bridesmaid AND one groomsmen, this way our numbers are still equal. The ring bearer though, I don't know what to do. I have a few ideas. Russell's cousin is have a baby that is due in October, its going to be a boy, but i think that might be too young. he will be a newborn still and the parents might not be comfortable with that, which i wouldn't blame them. Then I thought I could just have the flowergirl, she'll be 11 mo old and I was thinking she could walk down with her mom, who is a bridesmaid, since she will probably be wobbly walking still. I am almost positive she will be walking since she is 5 mo. now and is crawling and can sit up on her own and can hold her bottle. After talking to Jessica, the flowergirl's mom and a bridesmaid, she suggested that Bella, the flowergirl, could even have the rings in her basket or tied to the basket so she could be an all-in-one flowergirl/ring bearer. I think thats a cute idea.

On Monday I went to David's bridal with Megan and Jessica, 2 of the 3 bridesmaids to narrow down/pick a bridesmaid dress. I chose one and it the shorter one that I posted a picture of. this one:

Didn't pick shoes yet for the bridesmaids. The shoes are kinda expensive there, so i was going to look around still. The dresses take 12 weeks to come in, so they will arrive the second week of december. That gives time for any alterations that might need to be done or if there is any problems. This upcoming monday, my other bridesmaid, crystal, has the day off work and we will be heading down to david's bridal to order her dress too.

I made an appointment for October 3, a saturday, to go the local florist. I don't have any idea what kind of flowers I want, I do know I want yellow to be incorporated in the wedding parties flowers. I would like my boquet to have color in it too, I think all white flowers is too boring. Im finally going to be getting started on the flowers! Im getting more and more crossed off of my list! I still need to get a lot of little things done, like buy invitations, register for gifts, figure out the favors. I have an idea of what I want to do, but Im not sure yet. Also I have to figure out the seating arrangements. Soon Russell and I will have to start meeting with the pastor before the wedding. If I remember right he said he likes to meet with couples around 7-8 times before the wedding. Hopefully I can put that off until after this sememster is over, that way I won't get too overwhelmed.

We are still house hunting, we just put an offer on a house and we're hoping this is the one. It is however out of town, about 25-30 minutes from home. We fell in love witht he house though and we are willing to drive the extra miles. It would only add time to my commute to school and it would be about the same for Russell's commute to work. Hopefully this one works out because we are ready to be done with this part.

From the very begining

Russell and I met somewhere around 7-8 years ago through mutual friends, after several months we began dating on March 13, 2002. Did I mention I was 14 and he was 18? Yes, I know I was young, but we've been together ever since, and we're both very happy. On May 23, 2009 we went to San Francisco for a belated birthday trip for me, at least that was the reason he told me. When we got there we walked on the beach, it was windy and I was hungry and didn't have much interest of walking on the beach at the time, but he convinced me to since we were there already. As I was ready to walk back to the car, he told me to sit with him on a rock under this tree, before I knew it he was on one knee and hold a ring. It was a big suprise and very romantic. We now have a tree. He wants to get married on our annerversary, March 13. As Russell put it, it's been a lucky date for us so far.

So I had approxamitely 9-10 months to plan a wedding. (Now i only have 6 months, and it's fast approaching.)
Not even a week later I got my wedding dress at David's bridal. The dress I fell in love with was discontinued so it was even cheaper! a big plus!
I found a color I like for bridesmaid dresses that I really like, its called serene. It's a kind of blue-ish green. sort of. I am debating between 2 dresses that I like, one is long and one goes to about knee length. I'm not sure which would be better for march. The weather has been weird lately, so you never know if it will be hot or cold.

We secured the place for the ceremony and reception in the middle of June. The place is called Wilbure House. It is a lady's house named Sandee, she live out in the country of Manteca she has a huge and gorgeous property and she holds weddings in her backyard. She provides the place, the food, the servers, tables, linens, plates and silverware, decorations excluding flowers, security, bartender, ect..I think thats it. So we will need to provide the minister, which we are going to use my parents pastor. A D.J., who is a friend of a friend. A photographer, who is Russell's mom's boyfriend. He is not a professional in the technical sense, but it is a hobby and talent of his and he is great, I've seen many of his picture and I love them. We are very happy to have him do our photos. We still need to look into the florist. Since the wedding will be outside we don't want to have very many flowers, just bouquets, and the guys one that I don't know how to spell..boutineers? Possibly some small decorations on the ends of rows of chairs. The centerpeices will be candles. We will also need to provide the cake, which is yet to come too.
We've scheduled for my hairdresser to come to my house in the morning of the wedding to do my hair and the bridesmaids hair. Not sure yet about makeup...my hairdresser doesn't do make-up, i dont' think. i need to double check that. Maybe I will use the lady Summer(my sister-in law --Andy's wife) used at her wedding. I need to remember to ask summer about that.
We were thinking about having an afternoon wedding, around 3pm. The photographer, Randy, has given us his approval on that time of day.
I haven't yet talked to the 'cake guy', but Russell's mom, Debbie, she works with a lady who's husband does wedding cakes and specialty cakes. I just got a CD with pictures of previous cakes he's done. I really like them, most of which are the style i like. I will add photos later.
I haven't done much lately, as far as wedding plans go. I am taking 2 hard science classes at the moment, Microbiology and Physiology. We are also looking to buy a house. We have put 5 offers on houses with no luck so far. We are waiting to find out about the last one, but we are pretty sure it's a no since its been several days. I'm going to call our lady, pam, tomorrow about the house. Hoping for good news, but prepared for bad news. Russell wants to get the house before the year is up so we can get the 8,000 dollar credit for first time house owners in Ca. Since we aren't married yet we would both get the 8,000. 16,000 dollars to put towards the wedding and honeymoon! we need to get a house first. It's been rather stressful and very discouraging. There isn't very many good houses out there. Once there listed the are bought within 2 of 3 days. Also investors are picking up alot of houses. In our area there are what seems like a million short-sale houses, which we aren't going to do.
After we get a house, god willing that will be soon. We will get going with the wedding plans again. We need to buy the invitations, and register for gifts soon. I also need to decide which dress I like better so the girls can order them soon.
Next week mom and I plan to go see a florists to get an idea of prices and narrow down my flower choices. I want to have yellow as an accent color, so i think yellow boutineers would be nice and the girls bouquets to have yellow flowers in them. not sure what kind of flowers, though.
So hopefully that's caught everyone up on where Russell and I are at on wedding plans and house hunting. Please pray that we will be lucky enought to get a house this year.

new to this

I'm giving this wedding blog thing a try, so i can keep everyone up to date. I've never been much of a blogger, so we'll see how it goes. I have another wedding website, but that one doesn't have a blog. The link:

http://russellandkelly31310.ourweddingday.com/index.aspx