Graduation, Now What?

Graduation

Two weekends ago, I graduated from NAU with my Bachelors Degree in Education. It was a very exciting day--my family all came out for it, for which I am very grateful! The part where the people on stage tell you to turn and look at the people who helped you make it this far and acknowledge them, I looked at Josh and cried. I also cried later when I hugged him--he supported me these past four years and I never would have made it without him. He's amazing.

And What About A Job? 

Everyone keeps asking me if I've gotten a job yet, or where I'm going to be teaching next semester. I'm not exactly a fan of interviews, in fact, I find them quite stressful, although I have been going to a fair share of them. 

I went to a job fair at NAU over a month ago and got three job offers from rural school districts--pretty far places. I've had to turn them down due to the distance unfortunately.

I finally got a job offer at the school I did my service learning at last semester--a really nice charter school I would have LOVED to work at. 

Here's the catch though--when we planned my wedding, I thought I was doing good getting married at the end of July. In CA, schools start towards the middle/end of August to mid September. With this, I would have been set, but apparently, schools start as early as mid/late July out here. I only found this out after we had booked our wedding venue and set up everything.

When I explained this to the school, I also explained that I still believed it could work--I could write lesson plans for a sub, and just have my salary pro-rated. Still, I believe this kind of killed it. 

I keep being told by friends and family to just postpone my honeymoon till December or something. 

This is something I have been waiting my whole life for--my wedding and honeymoon. There are so many reasons why I don't want to do that: 

• It's already paid for and would cost money to postpone.
• Josh already has time off. Employers are more understanding when you're actually getting married and need time off than when you want to take a random vacation and call it a honeymoon. 
• It won't feel like a honeymoon if we don't do it right after the wedding. I'm only doing this once and I want to do it right. 
• It might not happen if we postpone it. It won't feel as special anyway, so why bother? 

I've already accepted that I might be a sub next year, which is fine! I've talked to multiple subs, and they seem to love it: no lesson planning, no grading papers. I'll still be teaching, so that's fine. Also, this would allow me to have the wedding and honeymoon I've always wanted, which is exceedingly important to me. 

So Now What?

I was debating several job ideas during the summer--babysitting, waitressing, and working at a call center. The prospect of people yelling at me is exceedingly daunting though. I signed up for Care.com, which wants you to get a background check and First Aid & CPR certification for a fee, which I don't presently have, so I wasn't getting any jobs on there--only scam offers. 

Then, amazingly, a really great, part time babysitting job kind of fell into my lap, watching the two children of a friend. I get to pick them up from school and do fun stuff with them; it's great! It also allows me to continue to sew and work on my other two business ventures. 

Business Venture #1: Etsy

Not only do I enjoy making costumes, but as you may have seen, this wedding has allowed me many opportunities to DIY: bouquets/corsages/boutonnieres, flower girl basket, ring bearer pillow... probably more things I haven't even thought of yet! I've been told I should sell this stuff on Etsy, so I've started an Etsy selling shop. I know I shouldn't be showing you this, but check out this amazing flower girl basket I made--I could make more of these in other colors and sell them! 

I went to Goodwill the other day and bought eight more eligible baskets for bedazzeling. You can check out my Etsy site here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/PrincessWeddingLove 

Not much there yet, but I plan to add more. 

Business Venture #2: Princessing

I have so many princess dresses anyway, I figured why not start my own princess party business? I've tried to get in on some local princess party businesses, but that hasn't worked out. I finally just figured why not do it on my own? I already have two friends who are interested in princessing with me! Sure, I need to make a few more dresses, buy a few wigs and some face paint, but I've seen several of my friends create businesses like this, so why can't I? 

I just need to get some parties! I have a plan for this: I'll get my friends to go with me to several promotional events dressed up as princesses, and we'll hand out business cards there! (Of course, first I need to get some business cards...) We'll do some free promotional events and spread the word, then hopefully get more business. 

Here's the facebook site: https://www.facebook.com/TinasPrincesses/?notif_t=page_fan&notif_id=1495673471326472 

In any case, we'll see where it all goes. I'm excited for what this summer holds! Josh took me out for a really nice date for my graduation and told me he would support me, whatever I wanted to do, whether that's teach, or just stay home and sew princess dresses. I love him--he's amazing. <3 

104 Days to go

As the wedding continues to creep up on us, there is still so much we need to do! It's crazy how much--I have two "TO-DO" whiteboards in my room with a list that is still quite extensive.

Beauty & the Beast Movie

Josh & I were SO EXCITED to see the new B&TB movie! We had tickets for the night before it came out officially at SMG and we went dressed as Belle and the Prince. Everyone started clapping when we walked in the theatre--it was pretty magical! 

Bridal Shower Plans

My amazing cousin Nadia is taking the lead on the bridal shower with my friend Cynthia. We ordered some BEAUTIFUL Disney Princess invites off of Etsy that I absolutely LOVE! It's going to be a Bridal Shower Pool Party, so that should be fun! I'm excited. 

Bridal Shower Planning Brunch!

Wedding Photo Shoot Dress Day

My amazing step-mother, Nga, is arranging for Josh and I to have a special wedding photo shoot before our wedding. It won't be with our actual outfits, but we get to wear several different wedding outfits for the shoot and we are very excited! 

Julie and I got to hang out with Nga and my step-sister, Vy, and try on dresses for a day, which was so much fun! So glad I got to experience that with them. 

Julie, Vy, and I. I love that dress! 

This one was a little like Ariel's pink dress! 

This one reminded me of Belle!

I totally felt like Rapunzel in this dress! 

Graduation

I graduate next month! May 13th from NAU with a Bachelor's in teaching. I got some very nice graduation announcements which I sent to a few people. I didn't think many would be too thrilled with my graduating since I'm getting married a few months later--this really is the biggest year of my life. Here's a few of the pictures though, from my announcements!

Another Dress Down

I've been super sick these past few days, but in spite of that, I still finished another of the bridesmaids/Princess-in-Waiting dresses! I have to say, this one is probably my best work yet. I love it 100 times more than my own of that princess that I also made. I can't wait for that person, and all of you, to see it! I don't want to give any hints on here, so you'll just have to wait and see, but it is absolutely stunning.

I'm still working on another of the dresses, and I'm planning on starting the flower girl and ring bearer outfits soon. Once I am done with the outfits, that will be one big thing that I've accomplished, although we still need to get on top of what the groomsmen are wearing! Sadly, they won't be princes, for several reasons. At the top of the list is Josh, putting his foot down on me commandeering the whole wedding myself. He said I can decide what the girls are wearing, but not what the guys are wearing, so... oh well I guess.

Job Offers

A few weekends ago, I went up to the NAU Flagstaff campus and attended the TARIAT conference, and also a job fair. I got three offers for teaching positions, however they are all far away. That makes it a little difficult, but still exciting none the less.

NAU's beautiful Flagstaff campus! 

My future is pretty up in the air at this point. I would LOVE to be a theatre teacher, but I have yet to take the theatre teacher test. In spite of my vast theatre knowledge, I still believe it would be a very difficult test, one that I would need to study for extensively. What I've already passed is the social studies test, so I can be a social studies teacher. I went to another interview last week, which was stressful.

One of the things that is weighing on me is the time of the wedding in relation to schools starting. Coming from CA, our schools there started late August/early September. I came here and learned that their schools start earlier than that. I thought I was doing good when I picked July 29th as my wedding date, but apparently that doesn't work very well either! Our honeymoon is 14 days, so we get back around August 15th. By this time, schools have already been in session a week, not to mention the training and preparation days before schools start. I'm not sure when or how to bring this up in the job interview/hiring process. I know I will obviously tell them before I get hired, and I firmly believe that I can still work around this and do a good job in spite of not being there at the very beginning! I can write LP's and set up before the wedding, and come in strong when I get back, but I do figure this might be a deal breaker for some schools. The way I see it, if I don't get a job this first year, I can just sub for a year. I'm sure it will be alright.

People tell me that I should just postpone my honeymoon, and that may work for some people, but there are several reasons why I'm not down to do that. 1. I've waited my whole life for this! I'm only planning on doing this once, and I want it to be spectacular. 2. If we wait, who knows how long it would be before we have our honeymoon? It could get pushed to the side and it might not happen. 3. It won't feel as special if we wait. We won't be "newlyweds" anymore. 4. Jobs are more understanding if you're getting married, but if you get married, then wait awhile, then tell them, "Oh, we're taking our honeymoon now.", they might be less inclined to allow time off."

This wedding and honeymoon is important to us. This is how we want to do it. We are exceedingly excited, and I understand what I might have to do in order to make this work.

Anyway, life is exciting and busy around here! I'll try to keep you posted.

One Night In . . . . .

THAILAND!!!! 

Or should I say fourteen? With several nights in Bangkok. ;) 

Honestly, getting to this point was a challenge. Josh and I could not agree! I had really wanted to go to Europe, but my most important thing was to have a long honeymoon. I really wanted two weeks, but the lowest I would go was 10 days. 

Josh said we couldn't do that--he was looking at one week deals. We kept going on Groupon--we couldn't agree on any of them. None of them were a good enough deal for us, nor could we agree. Josh kept suggesting "7 Days in _____" and I would be like "Too short." 

I explained my dilemma to my sister, Julie (MOH), and she said "Why don't you guys try Thailand? I've heard it's super cheap to go there." So I started looking into it. I knew Josh had always wanted to go to Puckett (because of the way it's spelled... it looks like one of his favorite phrases...), so I wondered if this might work. I was willing to consider it because I really wanted to go to a place where I could make a music video to a song about a place (Worst Pies in London, What's New, Buenos Aries, etc.) This worked for me thanks to the song "One Night in Bangkok," from the musical Chess. I immediately started envisioning our music video. I got this idea thanks to the amazing music video to "Africa" that Kristen Bell and Dax Shephard made. 

I loved this video! I had several thoughts about it:

1. What a cute couple! I totally think these people are people Josh and I could totally be couple friends with if we ever met. They're so cool. 

2. It's a really amazing way to document your trip! 

3. I bet all their friends were jelly of their coolness. I know I was. 

After months and months of not agreeing on a honeymoon, Josh saving, and me finally feeling the pressure of running out of time, we sat down one night and decided to figure it out. Fortunately, Groupon had an incredible deal at the time for 14 days in Thailand! We also found a good one for Dublin, London, and Paris that we were considering. It came down to these two. Josh was willing to consider Europe, but when I told him that I could totally do "Worst Pies in London" and videotape myself chasing him around, trying to get him to eat a pie while we were site seeing, he was not interested. He said that our time in London would be too short and there's way too much to see to have any time to make music videos. I tried to make him see that my music video plans could be done during our site seeing, and it wouldn't interfere, but he was hard set against that. He said that he REALLY doesn't want to do a music video, and there is NO WAY he would do both the place I wanted to go (Europe) and my CrAzY mUsIc ViDeO idea. At least, if we went to Thailand, it would be going somewhere he always wanted to go, and he could deal with the music video, so that is what we decided on. It's official! We paid for it today! 

THAILAND, HERE WE COME!!! 

Flowers and Invites

Student teaching has been so busy! The good news is, I'm finally done with my one long paper I have to write for student teaching! I'm actually on the downhill part now, but I still have some classroom management skills I need to work on. At the end of the month, I'm going to a job fair at Flagstaff and the TARIAT (There's A Reason I'm A Teacher) conference, so we will see if that yields any jobs. I would really love to get a job at a middle school close to where we live, but we will see. :) 

Flowers

Last Saturday, Gage (one of our amazing groomsmen), Josh, and I finally sat down and put together the remaining bouquets, boutonnieres, and corsages. It was a lot of work, but I did enjoy doing it! I watched a YouTube video on how to create a cascading bouquet, but that used real flowers, and their technique didn't really work for me, so I tried something different, and I must say, it was pretty successful! My bouquet is HUGE and beautiful. I asked our friend Ben how much he thought it weighed and he said 50 lbs, so that's pretty awesome! I'm excited about that. I looked up pictures of Princess Diana's bouquet, and mine is even bigger than hers! Crazy. 

Here are some pictures of us putting together bouquets on flower day! It seriously took all day to do this, and this wasn't even the first time we worked on it! It was when we got it done though, so I'm excited for you guys to see the results! 

I swear, I am getting so much experience with everything regarding weddings! It makes me want to be a wedding planner/bridal gown designer/wedding bouquet-corsage-boutonniere maker/wedding cake maker/calligrapher/anything and everything to do with weddings doing person! I seriously think I could do all of these things, and would love doing it. 

Invites

We deliberated on which invites to get to best save money. We ultimately decided on purchasing several designs from an Etsy artist, then printing them ourselves. In the end, we didn't actually save money, but I am still exceedingly happy with the results, and Josh is too! Our invitations are BEAUTIFUL!!!! There are three different designs. I would have done all the Disney couples, but Josh was not a huge fan of some of them, and I let him pick his three favorites. They are very nice, and guests will all be receiving one of three different Disney couple themed invitations! 

Last night, we had an invite packing party--which was actually a lot more involved and a lot more work than I had imagined it would be... You have to stamp our return address on the back, then take an invite and RSVP card and put them in an addressed envelope, then put a stamp on it, then use the hot wax and press the seal in, then rub the silver on the seal. This activity took four people all evening (Daniel and Cynthia were helping!) 

I thought it was fun though, and today, I FINALLY MAILED THEM!!! It took us so long to actually get them out, I was worried we weren't going to give our guests enough time to RSVP! We are asking for RSVP's by mid April (that's what Josh wanted.) Ultimately, most of our guests should have a little over a month to RSVP, so I hope they do so! :) 

Here are a few pictures of the invite packing party! Things are really starting to move faster. It's a little scary! 

My sister, Julie, says that we should consider having a bouncer at our wedding because she says everyone she speaks to says they really want to go, and she can imagine people trying to come who weren't invited! That is a little nerve wracking. We are considering doing this to keep people from coming who weren't invited, because that's not cool. We are paying for this ourselves and weddings are expensive! Imagine if someone did that to you! It is causing us a bit of worry, but we will handle it. I'm sure it will be fine. :) 

It's Spring Break, so hoping to accomplish more wedding stuff this week! :) So much excitement, but I'll sign off for now.

My Big Fat Stressful Wedding

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. I've started my student teaching and that has been pretty time consuming so far. I'm in a 7th grade social studies classroom and I really like it so far, but Friday was my first day teaching solo, with my observing teacher strictly observing me, and it was harder than anticipated. I also have this big paper that I've been working on that I have to do over the next few weeks that's also pretty heavy.

Anyway, that's not why I got on here to write! So much has been happening--it's actually a lot more stressful than I thought it all would be.

To start, I have switched out a Princess in Waiting. I have one friend who has become very busy with her own life and it kind of felt like we were drifting apart. It was hard to do, but I think it was the right choice, and less pressure. My brother Daniel's girlfriend, Cynthia, is going to be taking her place. This does mean that I need to make another dress, and get everything set up for her, but she's going to be helping, so that's good!

There's also all this unanticipated stress for other aspects. There are a lot of ways to offend people when having a wedding unfortunately.

I have come to realize that organizing a wedding is one of the most stressful things I think I will ever do in my life. Quite possibly, the most stressful.

We haven't even ordered our invitations yet! We need to get on that.

Josh and I have different opinions on a lot of things. It's been hard finding ways to compromise. We've been reading this book, "Things I Wish I'd Known Before I Got Married," by Gary Chapman. We need to follow that, it has some great suggestions.

I've been trying to do Uber on the weekends sometimes to make a little extra money to help pay for the wedding, but after a long week of student teaching, sometimes I'm just not up for it.

I keep telling myself that I just need to get through this semester. I hope I can do this!

Bridal Party Bouquets

If you're in the bridal party, please don't read this post--I really want to surprise you!

If not, proceed. :)

So, I started making the bouquets and boutonnieres for the bridal party! They look SO GOOD!!! I've gotten great deals on flowers from Walmart, Dollar Tree, and wayfair.com and making your own bridal party actually seems like a really great way to go! I found this amazing video on how to do it on youtube.

I've been following this to make mine and they've turned out really well! They're super cute and I'm very excited! I've only done three so far, but I love them all so much! <3 <3 <3 

Me making the handle for one of the bouquets! 

I've been super excited to do this for a long time, so when I finally got to start this weekend, I was super pumped! Can't wait for everyone to see them! 

Groomsmen Proposals (Josh Post)

Groomsmen Proposals

Adam

Joel

Kyle

Daniel

Gage

       Well I've been promising Tina for a long time I would participate in the blog and I can no longer find a decent excuse to hold her off with, So hello everyone :-) This is Tina's groom Josh speaking. And I would like to endeavor upon today the grueling journey towards securing all the necessary 8 groomsman. As you can see by all of the wonderful photos and faces in said photos that have been provided above all of us had a lot of fun with it. From hanging out and drinking to smoking to white water rafting and maybe or maybe not smuggling drugs through customs at the border it has been quite the adventure. I have to say that I couldn't have found a better group of groomsman than Zack, Tommy, Kyle, James, Gage, Adam, Joel, and Daniel, I'm looking forward to going through all the craziness with you guys!