One Week To Go!

Last night, I had another bad wedding nightmare.

In this one, somehow I was getting married on a pier, which was confusing because it wasn't the venue I had planned. I get there and I see the bridesmaids and I freaked out because all but one (Julianna, still wearing her planned dress) was wearing a red bridesmaid dress. I demand to know “What the heck are you all wearing!? These aren’t the Disney dresses we planned for you to wear!” Someone says that “The Network gave us these and we thought you wanted us to wear them…” and I’m like “Noooo!” Julianna is like “See, I told you guys she would want us in the dresses she made.”

Somehow, the dream proceeds and I’m at the point where I’m supposed to walk down the aisle, but my dad is in the audience instead of beside me, thinking that he’s not supposed to walk me down the aisle at all, and to my left, is a small boom box. Apparently, I was supposed to press play to play the music I was supposed to walk down the aisle to. I press play, and something comes on that is NOT the music I had planned to perform down the aisle to. Someone’s like “You should just go anyway. You can sing your song to this song!” So I start to perform down the aisle, singing, and halfway down, I freak out and I’m like “I can’t do this. I know I said I wasn’t going to do this when the real wedding happened, but everyone just go home and await further instructions. We will reconvene when it is finally correct.”

Everyone starts to mill about slightly confused. Someone finds me and convinces me that the whole purpose of this whole thing is that I can marry Josh, and that I should just do it. So I find Josh and we just get married.

Later, I’m biking around the neighborhood I grew up in going to see my grandparents, and my friend Diana, who couldn’t make it to my wedding, and I’m giving them a copy of the dvd from the wedding so that they could watch the whole thing. It’s actually all on two disks. I end up sitting down to watch a copy with my friend Diana, and as it starts, it has Meryl Streep playing me, in a different dress, and all the bridesmaids in red, and it’s at a church, and the whole thing runs very smoothly. Apparently, the network (who, in the dream, wanted to make a TV production of my wedding) took some creative licensing with my wedding. I really wanted Diana to see the actual wedding, the true mess that it was, and I remember that I had my friends Ben and Lynae live streaming it on Facebook and Instagram, and Facebook saves their live streams, so I go to hunt down those copies for her, and my grandparents to see.

First wedding nightmare that I actually go through with it in spite of everything that went wrong. I can only attribute this to my cousin Nadia repeatedly giving me “The Talk” about how I’m going to handle it at my wedding when things go wrong—smile and keep going. She has done this so much at this point, no wonder it’s made it into my dreams.

I knew, when I took the half pill of the Tylenol PM, that I was asking for a nightmare, but I was so desperate for sleep that I did it. I had taken several Melatonin’s with no results yet and that was the thing that did it. I’m one of those people that, every time I take the typical sleep aid (not Melatonin), I get nightmares. I don’t know why, but it’s a sure way to get them for me.

Real Problems:
1. Lost our Photographer & Videographer

Speaking of wedding nightmares—last weekend, we discovered that we had somehow managed to not properly book our photographer and videographer that we thought we had. Our wedding coordinator sent me an e-mail with the wedding day agenda and advised that I forward it to our vendors, so I did. The guy got back to me and told me they didn’t have us down on their calendar. He said he never received the reservation form!

So I frantically go looking through my e-mails and discover that it appears what happened was that, even though I had spoken to him on the phone and confirmed everything, and even though we had multiple e-mail’s, he had told me he was going to send me a reservation form that I needed to fill out and get back to him. After the phone call, I had sent him two e-mails waiting on this reservation form, and then he finally sent it, but I somehow never got it back to him!

I quickly filled it out and e-mailed it back, but at this point, it was too late—he was already going on vacation that weekend, and his partner had another booking.

So I proceeded to quickly freak out about not having a photographer and videographer, but my cousin Mary was actually able to find someone for us, and Josh’s brother Kyle’s friend does videography, and we were able to book both for our wedding, thankfully.

2. Sent only two 13 in cake pillars

Wednesday, I drove down to Vegas to drop off decorations and stuff at the venue. When I got there, I asked the venue if they had received the cake supplies I had ordered and requested be sent there. They showed me the box and I discovered that Wilton.com had only sent me TWO 13 inch cake pillars! It doesn’t say how many pillars they are selling on the listing, I had to look in the comments below to see how many people said were in the listing. People said it was four pillars, so I had only bought one order of them.

It took several weeks for the wedding venue to get this order, so I had to have Josh quickly purchase a rush order of another order of the cake pillars, which is more expensive than regular shipping. I’m very not happy about this and plan on writing an unhappy letter to Wilton.com about this—Who can do anything with only two cake pillars anyway!? That’s not going to hold anything up! Ug!

3. Still haven’t received our Unity Ceremony…

 I specifically asked the Etsy vendor if she could get it to us by the 25^th, so that we could have it when we leave in the order message, but she just got it shipped yesterday, so I’m not sure that’s going to happen. Ug.

Things that have fallen into place:

The favors are done! They are so cool, I can’t wait for everyone to get them—they are a surprise though.

The programs are done! Also super cool!

I finally got the shoes I ordered from a site called milanoo.com, even though it took so long, we ordered another pair of shoes, but these shoes came in the next day, so we canceled that order. Also, I’m pretty sure the site deleted my account, so I would not recommend using this site…

My friend Gage helped me choreograph the ceremony dances for the bridal party! That’s pretty cool.

Only one week to go! This time next week, I will be freaking out about my wedding that will be happening in a few hours! I can’t believe it!

West Coast Bridal Shower, Wedding Photo Shoot, and 21 Days To Go!

Yesterday, I casually asked Josh if he wanted to postpone the wedding another year or two. He asked why I would want that, and the truth is, I'm running out of time to be excited about it. In a short amount of time, the whole experience that I've waited my whole life for will be over!

Here are some updates:

July 1st, West Coast Bridal Shower!

My cousin, Nadia, and my sister, Julie, came together to throw me a beautiful bridal shower! It was held at the house of my third grade teacher, Mrs. Smith, or as I am now transitioning to calling her, Vickie. :) It was so much fun! It was a beautiful shower and people really came together to make it special for me. I even had a few out of state friends in attendance! 

I was asked to wait in the room, while they set up the shower as a surprise. :) I got some time to read my autographed wedding present from one of my favorite authors, Meg Cabot! :) <3 

Mr. Turtle is an enormous tortoise who really stole the show at my shower! Everyone loved him! He was also the teeny tiny turtle who was my third grade class pet! Crazy world! 

Julie and I before the shower. Sister pic! 

Michael, Arlene, Nadia, Styles, and Lynessa.

Lyndrea, Lynae, Joy, Brianna, Cynthia, and Joanna

Dianna, Me, Susanna, and Aunt Amy

Julie and Nadia, the two shower hosts! 

Nadia hosted a bridal shower game that was a huge hit--Toilet Paper Bridal Gowns! Here, Lynae and Joanna make Michael into a beautiful bride! 

Everyone making up their bride!

Lyndrea and Lynessa dress up Susanna

Cynthia strutting her stuff for the judge!

The Brides! 

Here are the contestants walking the runway for our judge, Grandma! She had something fun to say about each one. :) 

Presents time! Emily gave us beautiful wine glasses that said "Prince Josh" and "Princess Tina"! 

Most of the people who came to the shower! :)
L-R, Back Row: Nadia, Arlene, Emily, Jennifer, Grandma, Joanna, Lynae, Lyndrea, Lynessa, Julie, Michael, Vickie
Front Row: Dianna, Linda, Me, Susanna, Brianna, Diana, Aunt Amy, and Cynthia

Nadine and I at the shower!

Diana and I went swimming--it was a Bridal Shower Pool Party!

My third grade teacher and I. <3 Though it's been years, we have remained friends. She hosted the bridal shower at her house! 

Wedding Photo Shoot

The day after the bridal shower, my amazing step-mom, Nga, paid for Josh and I to have a wedding photo shoot! Julie came along to help out and she took a few behind the scenes photos. It was a crazy day! These are just a few pics Julie took from the beach shoot, we also did a park shoot. 

It says: "Live Stream Josh and Tina's Disney Musical Wedding Extravaganza Saturday, July 29th, 2017, 6 pm PST on Tina's Instagram or Facebook:
Instagram: musicalgirl89
Facebook: Tina Elise
#RadDisneyWedding2017

Fun story about this shoot, as we were heading down to the beach, the lifeguard said that the tide is still pretty high and that we may want to wait another hour. We had paid a parking meter for two hours and we did not have a ton of time to wait left, so the photographer went down to investigate. He came back and told us that it would be ok, and we could get some great pictures, but that my dress would get wet. He seemed to be find with that. He worked for L'amai Bridal, the place that was renting us the outfits and put together the whole shoot. I expressed concern for the dress and he told me not to worry about it, that they would have the dress cleaned, and that it's not a big deal, so down we went. 

We started and got some really great shots up on some rocks. The bottom of the dress got a little wet, but I controlled my freak out and we carried on. Eventually, he asked Josh and I to go out and stand on a rock a bit out in the water, not too far, but enough that there was still water around the rock, especially when the waves came in. Out we went, and we took a few pictures, but then a fairly big wave came and hit us! I tried so hard to stay upright, but with the water lapping against us, it pulled me back and I fell. The dress was completely soaked and covered in sand. The lifeguard saw what was happening and came out to help rescue me, as did the photographer and Josh. Josh could not figure out why I wasn't standing up, "Another wave is coming..." he warned me. Well, that dress had so many layers, when I tried to stand, the layers were under my feet and I just couldn't. Eventually, they got me up and to shore. No more in the waves pictures, I guess. 

He took a few more pictures (he said he could edit out the sand on my dress), and we headed back. 

All this time, there were people around watching us, even taking pictures of us. One guy even asked if he could take pictures of us while we did our shoot. I thought it was flattering. Didn't know him, but sure, take my picture! It made me feel beautiful. :) Later when I fell in the water, he got a picture too and Snap Chatted it. I kind of wish someone had gotten that on tape, I would have loved to have a copy! 

Things I am Still Working On

Cynthia and I finished an amazing card box for the bridal shower and wedding! I may have told you about the beautiful Cinderella carriage card holder I got off of Etsy--paid a good amount for it and discovered after it arrived that it would hold a few, very small, cards. No where near the size and volume it would need to hold for a wedding! So I decided to make a back up box, which is looking like will be our main box, it turned out so well! It has Disney couples all around the sides and Josh and I on the top! Cynthia and I drew it and painted it, and it looks really great! I can't wait for everyone to see it! 

I am in the process of making the wedding favors--I don't want to say what they are, but the process takes a long time. I hope everyone loves them! 

I still need to buy a few things before the wedding! I am worried if I get them online, that they won't arrive in time! I still need to get a few cake supplies, the main things that we will be using for our unity ceremony, the Disney Wedding Music CD for the opening songs. 

I also need to choreograph a few things--this is a MUSICAL wedding, after all. I feel like I am running out of time to do all these things! I could use more than 21 days, or an assistant, or a choreographer... 

I'm sure we will figure it out.