Another Wedding NIghtmare

This time, I think the setting was actually the venue that we got. The woman who manages the place was there.

The last time that we talked to her in real life, we asked about a dress rehearsal. She said that we didn't need one because she would be there and would tell everyone when it was their turn to walk down the aisle. I told her that since our wedding was a musical, with singing and dancing, it would be good if we had a dress rehearsal and she saw my point. She said that we could have one for an hour the day before, which is great and exactly what we needed.

In the dream, she was there telling the bridal party to "Go! Go! Go!" as if she were telling them to parachute off an airplane--like in the movies. It wasn't relaxing, it was very stressful.

So the bridal party is pretty much racing down the aisle.

Finally, I come out, and am crying because no only did no one do all the singing and dancing I had planned, but also, there was no photographer or videographer. No one was documenting our wedding--so it was going to be like it never happened. The whole thing was not at all what I had planned and wanted. I was so upset, I (again--I always do this in these dreams) tell everyone to go home, and we will try this again, another time. A THIRD TIME. In this dream, this was the second attempt at a wedding--probably a sequel to one of my other many wedding nightmares.

This dream is obviously playing off my insecurities. No, we haven't booked a photographer or videographer yet, but that's ok! We have time. The wedding is 11 months away now (as Nadine pointed out to me yesterday). We don't want to jump into hiring someone super expensive. We want to be as reasonable as we can, but still get what we want.

In regards to the singing and dancing, I've been thinking about that lately. I found karaoke versions of the songs, and I've been choreographing it in my mind (not on paper, but I have ideas!) I need to do that though, because the sooner I can, the sooner they all can start practicing, so that they can be ready when the time comes. It's hard since we are all in different places, so far away. :(

I am definitely going to try to get the guys to do a little singing and dancing too. It's not a ton--none of it is unmanageable for any of them! About one and a half songs is all I'm really asking. Josh says that he won't make his guys do anything they don't want to do, but I'm the bride. I feel like they will naturally just want to make me happy--or at least I hope that is the case.

Speaking of the guys--Josh is finally doing that! I am so glad. He really needed to get on that; it's only taken him over a year... he's doing it now though. And we are going to get all their headshots and bios for the wedding site! And we are going to have two more photo shoots! And by the end of September, our goal is to have all our Save the Date's out. :)

I also never told you about the dance classes! Josh and I have started taking dance classes at Fred Astaire Dance Studios. We have an instructor, Bo, who is super fun to work with! He has been teaching us waltz, swing, fox trot, and rumba, and we are getting pretty good! We just had our third lesson last Monday! I can't wait to go to my cousin Teresa, and my friend Nadine's weddings in November and show off our amazing dance moves!

So exciting that things are finally moving along!

PA Vaca

I've wanted to write so many times this vacation, but there was just so much to say, and so little time! I did post the pictures from the shower, which was wonderful! Here is a breakdown of the whole trip. :)

Bridal Shower - August 12th, 2016

The shower was amazing! It was hosted by my mom and cousin Liz, who went to school with my mom and married my cousin Kevin (making her my cousin by marriage.) It was beautiful! Liz made the centerpieces, which completely blew me away! Three Cinderella ones, a Rapunzel, an Ariel, and a Belle. She gave them to me to keep, which I love, and we can use at the shower that Julie will throw me before the wedding. I have heard so many good things about them from a lot of people.

The food was delicious, made largely by Liz, and her mother, and my mom also. It was a ham dinner, and my mom purchased two platters of fancy cookies! The cake had Disney Princesses on it. It said "Congratulations Josh and Tina!" and the Sam's Club staff called mom to verify that it was, in fact, the cake that she wanted for what appeared to be an engagement. She told them that yes, she had selected the correct cake. (lol) 

We played a candy wedding match game, "Over & Under"--a Little Mermaid game where guests guess if the number provided is over, or under what is true, Pass the Gift, and a "Name that Bride" game that was played at my mom's bridal shower! What was really interesting is that my mom's bridal shower was at that same place when she married my dad! 

I designed the candy bar favors, which were very tasty! 

Everyone LOVED my dress (shorter 2015 Cinderella) that I was wearing that I made! No one could believe that I had made it. :) I wore my glass slippers until I got blisters, then I put on my $5 man sandals from Walmart.

It was so nice to see so many of my friends and family! I felt so loved and supported! I got some very special gifts, and a lot of cash gifts and gift cards. I deposited all the money in Josh & I's house savings account. 

Towards the end, after the gifts, someone said "Speech!", so I started with the "Four score and seven years ago..." speech, but that's as far as I got, because I honestly don't remember the whole thing. If I kept going, I knew they would figure that out quickly, so I transitioned into my real speech, which was definitely not planned, but I was just really happy and grateful for my shower. 

Family Reunion - August 13th, 2016

The family reunion was great! I loved seeing so many of my relatives in one place. It was a nice opportunity to catch up with many of them, and to meet some people I had never met!

Some of it was sad because my uncle George has cancer, and they believe this will be his last visit. They had a sing along and his sons led everyone in singing a song called "This Old House". That was sad. 

Josh had a great time visiting with the aunts and cousins, and regaled them all with the tale of our first date, and getting engaged. They all loved him--he was a hit! Josh did so great, I was very proud of him.

There was a silent auction, and Josh and I bid on and won the Istanbul basket that my cousin Kathy put together--that was pretty cool!

After the reunion was winding down, my cousin Jake and his family invited us to go jump off "the cliffs" (some big rocks at a deep creek). Josh had never done this, so we decided to go. It was cold at first, but a lot of fun!

Day with Mom - August 14th, 2016

Sunday, the guys left. They ended up being able to give up their seats for $500 + airline money, which was amazing, and super exciting! The downside--they spent their day at the Pittsburgh airport, but they were fine. For $500? So worth it.

Mom and I went down to Altoona and spent the day going to David's Bridal to look at potential Mother of the Bride dresses for her, we went to the bookstore (an activity we both love!), had dinner at Olive Garden, and ended the day at home, watching episodes of Outlander, Season 2. It was a great  day. 

Styx Concert - August 15th, 2016

 Monday, mom and I got ready and drove to Lancaster for a Styx concert! We had dinner at Shady Maple--the Disneyland of buffets. I cannot say enough wonderful things about Shady Maple. It is about the size of a hotel, and they have so many different types of AMAZING food.

For desert, I got a few different things, but I decided to be daring and try something with a weird name that I had never been bold enough to try before--Shoo Fly Pie. Turned out to be the best desert there. I loved it! It made me wish I wasn't super stuffed, so that I could have more of it. I did get the recipe on a post card from the gift shop though, so I can make it someday! 

Speaking of their gift shop... it is also huge. It has so many different aspects, and items, my mind can't even comprehend. My favorite things there were the Disney Princess figurines! Of course, I wanted to buy them all, but of course, they were way too expensive. My next thought, was to buy one (the princess of each of my Princesses in Waiting) for each of my bridesmaids, but again, too expensive... They also had Disney Princesses as BRIDES. I went nuts over this. They even had a few of the Disney Princess cake toppers I have been obsessing over online, however I decided not to purchase any at this time for financial reasons. 

I also loved the Thomas Kinkade square paintings of all the Disney Princesses for $90! That was an amazing deal, although I did not purchase any. Loved looking at them though! They have three for 2015 Cinderella, that I loved! 

After we managed to pull ourselves away from the gift shop, we went to the Styx concert. We had FIFTH ROW CENTER SEATS!!!! Mind blowing. I loved it so much! I was standing, rocking out, most of the show. Unfortunately, I did figure out that when the band members were flicking their pics into the audience, they mostly only went as far as the 3rd or 4th row, however, after the show, I went to the stage and asked a roadie for a pic and he gave me a TOMMY SHAW PIC!!! My mom has always loved Tommy Shaw, and I'll admit, that kinda spilled over to me too.

Mom and I both got shirts, and after the show, we waited out back for the band. I met a nice girl named Erin, who also loved Styx, and she helped me get Lawrence and Ricky's signature on my shirt, but the rest of the band didn't come out while I was there.

We left and started driving up to New York, but we were getting tired. When we started looking for a hotel, we stopped at three that were either sold out, too expensive, or both. Ironically, when we looked at where we were, we realized that we were only about 20 minutes away from where my Aunt Ruth lived. We called her at 1 am and she answered and said we could come stay with her, so we headed over. Their new house was very nice and had a huge basement, full of nice rooms. We got to stay there--it was so nice to finally crash! They were very gracious hosts, and the next morning, they gave us breakfast before we headed off to NYC! 

NYC - August 16th, 2016

The first thing I did that morning was enter us in the online Hamilton lottery--both mom and me. We spent all day holding our breath for the drawing at 4pm, but in the meantime, in NYC, we bought some backup tickets. We went to the TKTS booth in the center of Time Square to get some discounted tickets. If we weren't going to see Hamilton, I was open to any show mom wanted to see, so we got tickets to On Your Feet--The Gloria and Emilio Estefan Musical. 

While we waited for word on Hamilton, and our show, we went to Madam Tussauds Wax Museum and took a ton of pictures with some of our favorite celebrities! We did that on our first NYC visit, and it was really nice to do it again. While waiting in line for our turn to sit in the oval office with the Obamas, we learned that we did not win Hamilton. I was heartbroken, but decided that, in order to do my best for the country, I must carry on. We'll just see it when it goes on tour. 

We had a nice (EXPENSIVE) dinner of appetizers at the Applebee's next door before we headed over to our show. 

The show was actually a lot of fun! I recognized a few of the songs, and right before intermission, for the "Conga" song, the cast came into the audience, and since we were orchestra, aisle seats, they pulled me into the aisle to conga with them! Of course, being an awkward white girl who had no idea what she was doing, my conga was rather less than impressive, but it was still a lot of fun!

Bushkill Falls - August 17th, 2016

After the show, we decided to leave the city to try to get a better priced hotel. We had been planning on going to Bushkill Falls on the way back, so I found a hotel called "Bushkill Falls Inn" and booked us a room there. It was $100, and mom asked me if I didn't want to check around before I booked it. It was a pretty good deal, and I was not up for trying multiple places. 

We made it there only to discover that we made a really great decision to stay there. It was kind of a resort, and the room we got had a beautiful Jacuzzi! We were in love! Unfortunately, the walls weren't as thick as we might have liked, and the people next door were clomping around like small elephants early in the morning--ug. Other than that though, we hit the jackpot!

We got a nice breakfast and went and hiked Bushkill Falls! We had done this on our last visit to NYC, so it was really nice to do it again. The last time we did it, I had taken a picture that had won me 1st place in the photo contest at work, so that was a good memory!

After the hike, we drove home and got my favorite PA pizza at Italian Village Pizza, and watched some more Outlander. 

Flight to Vegas - August 18th, 2016

The next day, mom drove me down to the airport. I barely made my flight, but it was ok because there were 30 available seats and I wouldn't have been able to give up my seat anyway. :/ Hey, at least the guys were able to. I had a safe flight to Vegas, where my Aunt Annette and cousin Joey picked me up from the airport. 

Spa Day - August 19th, 2016

Josh was going to drive down and meet me Friday evening, and the plan was to spend time with my cousins, Teresa and Mary, but sadly, their dad died and they had to drive down to CA. I was alone, but they set up a beautiful schedule for me, that they completely covered, including a massage, facial, mani & pedi, breakfast, lunch, and a nap. <3 It was amazing and I had a wonderful day of relaxation.

Around 3 pm, my cousin Christy picked me up and I spent the evening with her and her beautiful family. This was nice because I had never really gotten to spend quality time with them. They were babysitting her nephew, Liam, a nine month old who was six days older than her son Ezra. I got to play with them, and her two-year-old daughter, Emma. They were wonderful little kids and I enjoyed spending time with them. Emma even helped me do the dishes! I was super impressed because she actually really helped--not that thing that happens when you are letting little kids pretend to help, she was really helpful! 

We watched Zootopia, and Christy's husband, Aaron took me back to Mary's apt, where Josh and I were staying. I watched some Netflix until Josh got there and we went to sleep. 

Bridal Show - August 20th, 2016

We woke up and got ready the next morning, then I took Josh to the wonderful breakfast restaurant that Mary had me go to the day before for my spa day--Egg Works. I got the biscuits and gravy (same as the day before) again, and it was delicious (again). Josh really liked it too!

Then, we drove over to the show, and were one of the first ones in, so we got a free bag! It was so nice to see our venue there: The Ritz of Las Vegas. We explained to Gloria what we were there for (photography, videography, and hair & makeup), and she introduced us to a wonderful vendor for the hair and makeup--great deal. Excited to use her. Gloria also said to write to her today (Monday, which I just did), and get the info for a photographer & videographer that she knows.

We waited around because we were entered in a contest, so we waited till after the fashion show--we didn't win, but oh well. 

Found some good deals on suits, if Josh decides to have his guys do that. Of course, I would love them all to be Disney Princes, but if I were to make those, it would be a lot of work. :/ Also, Josh isn't too keen on that idea. He said he wouldn't make his guys do that if they didn't want to. He also said I could be in charge of my side, but he was in charge of his side, and he got to make those decisions. Ok, I guess, but I would love, bare minimum, to have them do the Superhero shirts under their tux's--that would be cool. Princesses & Superheros, I could deal with. :) 

We went and got some boba tea after that, hung out, got dinner. Mary got home late and it was nice to spend some time with her--she's one of my Princesses in Waiting.

We left the next day--back from our wonderful vacation to our real lives. 

It's ok though because there are many things to look forward to in the future. :)


P.S. I almost forgot to mention the best part of my trip! It's this little treasure right here:

She lights up my life. <3 Her name is Chupakaya and I love her SO MUCH. 

The Best Laid Plans (Part 1)

The reason why this post is (Part 1) is because, with so many big events coming up, I would like to reserve the right to use this title again on a future post.

I'm finally in PA! The big east coast shower is tomorrow and I am SO EXCITED!!!

Today we were supposed to take round two of the engagement pictures. Before we did so, we had planned to go to a water park out here with mom during the day, pictures in the evening. It was planned to go smoothly, here is how it went.

We all get ready and head over to the water park. We buy our ticket and walk in. As we are walking through the gate, it starts to rain, and within minutes, before we even encounter any of the water park rides, a voice comes over the loud speakers advising everyone to leave the pools, and that they will re-open 30 minutes after the last lightening.

Well, we were not happy. We go straight back to the woman who sold us our tickets and requested a refund, since we were only going to be able to be there two hours anyway (before we have to go home and get ready for the engagement pictures), and they tell us we have to go to guest relations, but they don't think they do that.

We go to guest relations, and they say they can't do that. They call a manager over, who was very disconnected and just intent on telling us no, and that they plan to re-open the rides shortly anyway. We waited around for another hour and the rain did not let up, but only got worse. Josh, Daniel, and mom tried to make the best of it by talking and sharing stories, but I was rather upset. I felt bad because the water park was kind of my idea, and I shouldn't have even pushed it when it was looking like we could only be there two hours anyway.

They eventually acknowledged that it wasn't going to get better, and gave us passes to come back. Sadly, Daniel and Josh won't be able to make it again this trip, but mom and I might. I don't know yet, we'll see what happens.

We did go and pick up the princess cake for my shower instead, then we went home.

I spent several hours curling my hair and getting dolled up. The rain had stopped, and the forecast said it wasn't supposed to be raining when we scheduled the pictures for that evening.

We stopped at Sheetz on the way to the photo shoot location.

I love Sheetz. That place is like the Disney World of gas stations. I took this pic of Josh and I in the car--I thought it was a pretty good teaser of our upcoming pictures.

Well, we get to the location, and it starts to rain. The photographer takes one picture, and then it starts to pour. We are all hiding in what little bit of cover we can as we all proceed to get soaking wet. As we try to remain dry, we make plans with the photographer to meet tomorrow morning, early, and try for the pictures again.

All that time spent on my hair--wasted. I sure hope it doesn't rain again tomorrow!

August 3rd, 2016

So much continues to happen since I last posted! It's interesting, giving ourselves two years to plan this thing--it allows us to be more casual and laid back about it. Here are some updates!

Anniversary! 

Josh and I had our -1 anniversary on Friday! Some people were confused by this, let me explain. In one year (from July 29th, 2016), we will get married, making it our 0 anniversary. One year from that, we will have our 1 year anniversary, etc. That makes this, our -1 anniversary.  To celebrate (and also to celebrate the fact that I finally, after studying all summer, passed all of the tests I need to pass to be a middle school teacher!) we went out to this fabulous new pizza place we discovered, Nello's. Their pizza is as good as CPK!

It was there that I gave him the presents I had been saving for him for a special occasion! I had redeemed my "Well-Bucks" at work for a few things he might like... Ok, honestly, it was one thing I KNEW he would like (a Cuisinart pan), and two things that I thought might be useful to all of us (a sandwich maker, and an apple peeler). Him and Daniel got a good laugh out of it since they thought the presents were really bad.

I know I will probably get him something much nicer for one of our future anniversaries--we have so many!

September 5th, 2011: the day became boyfriend and girlfriend
October 5th, 2011: the day we met
August 28th, 2015: the day he proposed to me at Disney World
July 29th, 2017: the day (in the future) we get married

It's nice to have so many reasons to celebrate! It gives us more opportunities to get anniversary presents from restaurants for free.

Dresses

I finished Katelin's dress! Katelin is one of Josh's sisters. It's gorgeous, I can't stop looking at it! When she came down for the baby shower of Josh's other sister, Joelle, she tried it on, and loved it!! There were a few things I needed to fix, which I did surprisingly quickly! It's good to go now, and I'm so excited. I'm holding it for her till she visits again in December. 

I finished Nadine's dress. It's so gorgeous, I can't stop looking at it! I look forward to her trying it on. This dress will definitely be the hottest dress--which may be hard since we're getting married in July in Vegas, but hopefully it won't be too bad since we'll be inside most of the time. 

Nadia's is still waiting for the sewing to start, but it is cut. Susanna's is actually getting pretty close to being finished. I think we just need one more sewing day to be done! I'm very excited to finish hers. Mary and Michael are having theirs made, Julie's needs to be fixed, but other than that, is good, and we have to wait until after Joelle has the baby to figure out what we are going to do for her dress. 

Bridal Party

Josh finally asked the first of his guys--Daniel, my brother! It was really awesome, he took him out to a really awesome comic book store and asked him. I made these really awesome labels for him to use. 

He put the lables on these bottles of alcohol he's going to give some of his guys. He has a few guys he might do something different for, but I thought the idea was super cute. I told him--you can't just ASK, you have to give them a cute present too! (I did!) 

We asked my cousin, Stephen, and Josh's cousin, Sarah, to be our usher and usherette. We want them to dress in our colors, and to be included. 

 

We asked my little girl cousin, R., and are going to ask my step-brother, Darian, to read a passage during the ceremony, and to hand out bubbles at the reception. We also want them to dress in our colors and be included. 

We asked Josh's little cousins, Madison and AJ, to be our flower girl and ring bearer. These two will go along with our Disney theme, they're very excited!! 

 

East Coast Shower

My East Coast Bridal Shower that my mom is throwing me is next week! We go visit her a week from today--I'm so excited! 

I was really unsure what I would wear--first, I thought I would find something and a thrift shop, but when I was in the mood to shop for this, no one was able to go with me, so that never came to fruition. Then, I had the idea that I could just wear the white dress I used as a bridal gown for my April Fools Day pictures years ago, but that is in Josh's parent's rental storage place. It would probably be a bit of a pain to go find it. 

I finally decided to just make it. I thought I would make a knee length kind of version of the 2015 Cinderella (blue) dress. I thought it would come out as kind of a cute, tea dress kind of thing--I was wrong. It's VERY poofy, and VERY glittery. The guys HATE the glitter. They say it is all over the house. Daniel has taken to regularly showing me the glitter on his feet, and counting the large ones. 

Finishing  it made me kind of sad that I didn't make it full length. I put in so much work, and it's not even the full costume, however it's still very poofy. Not what I expected, but still pretty. I also looked up a video of how to do her hair from the movie--it's pretty easy. :) I'm excited to see what people think of it. I will post pictures of the shower when it happens.

Pictures

In May, Julie did our first photo shoot. I can't remember if I told you, but Josh and I are (were) doing pictures as all the Disney couples, as I made the costumes, and we were going to send out different save the dates to everyone featuring a different Disney couple. 

After our first shoot, Josh put his foot down. He said he is only going to do three more shoots. I really wanted to do all of them, but who knows, maybe we can do more down the line. I'm thinking I might be able to talk him into one Disney couple photo shoot a year....

Anyway, our next one is next week! I won't tell you who we're doing, but it's exciting! I found someone for at least our 3rd shoot, quite possibly our 4th, and he seems to want to do our wedding too, so who knows--maybe we found our wedding photographer? 

I am still working on Josh's outfits for the 3rd and 4th shoot. Josh needs to buy a belt and shoes for our shoot next week--I really hope he remembers to do that! 

Josh wants to get out our Save the Dates probably in October. We started collecting addresses and actually got quite a lot, so that's good! 

Anyway, I think that's a pretty great update for now! I will let you know as more exciting updates develop. :) 

<3 Tina