So tomorrow...

Is 30 Rock for me! Since we're spending all day at Disney, I won't be able to post this tomorrow, so I'm posting it today.

You didn't think he'd be the only one with a cool poster, did you? hehe =)

Happy Birthday!!

It's been quite a busy day today and this is the first chance that I've gotten to get to a computer, but better late than never!

Happy 30th birthday to my wonderful husband! I love you! =)

So true...

I'm interrupting my wedding recaps. I saw this video on That Wife's blog. It SO sums up some of the clients that I've seen come through my work office looking for design work. They expect Mona Lisa quality work for a Polaroid price...



I want to start doing more freelance and I need to remember to stop underselling myself!!

Backtracking: Part 5 - Just a day, just an ordinary day

That's what July 17th has been for us until now. How did we end up deciding that July 17th would be THE day?

After Katie tuned me in to The Winter Park Farmers Market, I downloaded all of the brochures that their website had. I found out that it was affordable, considering that Winter Park is known to be a pretty expensive area. I decided to inquire more about availability and contacted Janet at the WP Civic Center.

Janet promptly replied to my e-mail with a more detailed pricing and rules and regulations. She was super nice and accommodating. I actually wanted to do it on a Thursday [waaayy cheaper to do it on a weekday, if y'all don't know that yet]. But Chuck thought we need to have it on a Saturday so that our guests wouldn't have to worry about having to rush to our party after they got off work, only to have to to go home early to go to work the next day. Made sense...

So I decided to call Janet and check on availability dates for a Saturday in August. I figured an August date would give us enough time to space vendor payments out [since it was early June already] and not have to be strapped. Janet got back to me with two available Saturdays in August and she was kind enough to put a 1-week courtesy hold on those dates while I discussed things with Chuck.

Silly me... I was so excited about the dates that I totally overlooked the fact that there was a chance Honolulu would call in August. [D'oh!] Chuck pointed that out so back to Janet to see if there were any Saturdays available in July. She told me there were none, but she had 2 Friday dates available--July 17 and July 24. I told her to transfer my hold for those dates instead of the August dates.

[FYI: If you're considering hosting your venue at any of the City of WP locations, DO IT! Their customer service is AWESOME!]

So I told Chuck about the 17th and the 24th. The 24th was his regularly scheduled shift and he was trying to save as much of his vacation days that were still available in case of HI. So the 17th it was then!

At this point, I had only been corresponding with Janet through e-mail and Phone conversations. Nothing had been signed yet and Chuck had never really been to the Farmers Market building before. If you go back to this post, you'll recall how we signed the contract and set our date that same day those pictures were taken.

That day, I told my boss that I was taking a longer lunch to look at our possible engagement party venue. I met Chuck and Jen #1 there and after the contract signing, I went back to work and Chuck left to run some errands.

Ok, see this picture?
My awesome parents...super precious!
This is my dad's all-time favorite picture of the two of them. It hung in the living room of our old house. When my dad died, this was the picture that I chose to be blown up and framed and showcased at his funeral. That larger framed copy is now what's hanging in our new house on the wall that's right by the front door.

What's the significance of this picture, you ask? Well... When I got home that day from work, Chuck was already home and was sitting in the living room. He asked me how the rest of my day went and then he said: "You wanna know what makes me even more happy now about July 17th?"

"What?" I smiled and said. And he got up, and walked me over to the picture. He said that he came home and he placed his hand on the wall where the picture was. He was trying to hold himself up while he was taking his shoes off and something told him to look up at the picture.

Scroll back up and see if you see what's coming up next.... Don't see it? Well, I didn't either at first until Chuck pointed this out to me:

See that? Hidden in plain sight over by mom's arm. My father's favorite photo, taken on a July 17th way back in 1988. I welled up (and STILL do every time I tell this!) and tears came. Chuck hugged me and told me that he took it as my dad's way of telling us that he's happy for us and was giving us his blessing. I also love the fact that Chuck was the one to notice it. Like dad was talking just to him. I've always told Chuck how much dad liked him and now I think Chuck knows for sure.

We knew then that it wasn't a mere coincidence about our special day. God had already written this for us and all the things that led up to it was just His way of making us realize how even more amazing He really is.

We wanted to honor dad on our day. I put several of my little tea lights at the table where my mom would be sitting, a special place right next to her. We incorporated the picture and placed it prominently by our cake table. BIG thanks to Jen & Gretchen for making the table so lovely!

Photo by my bro, Lawr

In case you're just tuning in, here's what's happened so far:
- How this all came to be
- Who we told
- How we fed & entertained our guests
- Will you marry us?

Stay tuned for more wedding details! =)

Backtracking: Part 4 - Will you marry us?

We worked so hard to make our day as personal to us as possible. We both knew that we didn't want a "normal" wedding ceremony. We both knew that we wanted all the important things but without all the ceremony that went along with the ceremony... Does that make sense?

I was born and raised in the Catholic church and I have been to MANY of my cousins' and friends' Catholic weddings. Don't get me wrong, I believe that Catholic weddings--or any weddings in a church, for that matter--are truly beautiful and joyous... But I knew even before I met Chuck that I didn't want a "church wedding." But even though I didn't want a church wedding, I still wanted a Christian ceremony. Because ultimately, a wedding is two people's vows to each other and to God.

So no church wedding, but who would give us the ceremony that best fit us? I couldn't think of anyone better than this lady right here:

Meet awesome Jenn #2 =)
I met Jenn through my good friend and bridesmaid, Katie. They were roomies for 6 years! How they met is amazing and you can read about it briefly here in Katie's own words...Seriously a God thing, no doubt about it.

Everyone knows Jenn, and I guarantee you that ANY one of those people will tell you that Jenn is utterly amazing. She is a Status pastor at Discovery Church.

I had just finished having another IM conversation with Katie and she was telling me that Jenn just got done officiating the wedding of one of their former roommates. She gushed about how awesome of a job Jenn did. So I knew that she was THE perfect choice for our officiant. God knew, too.

[side note: I will never get tired of telling this story =) ]

So as soon as we decided to ask Jenn, I texted her that I needed to ask her something and to give me a call as soon as she could. Well, being the Director of Operations and a pastor for a large ministry, you can only imagine how busy she is. So I knew that her "as soon as she could" would probably take a bit.

So a week went by and I still had not heard from her. I decided to call her and I left her a message. She called me back not too long after. I'm always so happy to hear from Jenn, since we don't see each other as often. I was especially happy this time since I was about to ask her for a HUGE favor!

We chit chatted about how much we hadn't seen each other in so long and then she says: "I had a dream about you last night, but I don't want to tell you about it yet until you ask me your question."

"Hmm..." I thought and said: "If you dreamt about what I'm about to ask you, I'm gonna freak..."

So Jenn says: "Go ahead, ask me."

So I said: "Jenn, will you marry us?"

To which Jenn replied: "That was my dream."

OH. EM. GEE.

Had I not been at the office, I probably would've flipped out more than I did! She and I were both SO excited and she proceeded to tell me a little more about her dream. She didn't want to tell me beforehand, in case it wasn't what I called to ask her.

Here's where it gets even more interesting...

She dreamt that she was in a brick building (um, hello!) with people gathered (double hello!). It was just a bunch of people standing around like it was a party. She then realized that she was officiating a wedding, she just didn't know exactly WHO'S wedding it was yet. Then all of a sudden, Chuck was standing up there with her. So she knew now exactly what was happening and then the crowd parted and I came down the aisle. She then started the ceremony and said "Surprise!"

I wish I had someone else in the office with me video taping or taking a picture of my reaction because I must have just been standing there dumbfounded! I didn't even tell her yet that we were planning a surprise wedding! I had heard of Jenn's premonition-like dreams before, but this was unreal!

Needless to say, she accepted and agreed to be our officiant. And she did the amazing and wonderful job that I knew she would!


Photos by Lori
In case you're just tuning in, here's what's happened so far:
- How this all came to be
- Who we told
- How we fed & entertained our guests

Next up... Why July 17th?