Rehearsal Day--July 28th, 2017

The Bachelorette Party was amazing. I wrote it all down, though I shouldn't share it with anyone--the epic night will remain between the people who got to experience it.

I can tell you about the day before the wedding though--I'm calling it, Rehearsal Day.

We woke up to Nadia having made breakfast that morning.

Our official rehearsal was moved to two pm, which put the rehearsal linner at around 3:30 pm. We had another mini-rehearsal that morning so that people had another chance to practice the singing and dancing for the wedding. We didn’t have that many of the bridal party yet, but everyone knew to teach the people who didn’t know.

The dance was supposed to go “Goin’ to the chapel and we’re (dip), going to get married (turn)” and it’s just “Step Step Dip, Step Step Turn” the whole song, till they get to the front, and then just sway together.

We may have also gone swimming that morning in the gorgeous pool for a bit. I did want all the girls to wear their princess bridesmaid shirts that I had ordered for them off of Etsy to the official rehearsal--most of them did!

Anyway, we end up with a TON of people at the venue at 2 pm. We got there and most of them (almost none of the groomsmen though) were there already. Mom and my cousin Liz were there already, Dad was there, he had brought the giant picture and photo album that Nga had gotten Josh and I from our wedding photo shoot. The flower girl and ring bearer were there, Joelle, Julie, Katelin, Michael, Kathy’s family. Let’s just say there were a lot of people there.

Claudia, Gloria’s sister, and co-wedding coordinator was there and we talked over a lot of last minute details. I explained that Michael would be singing the opening of the song as I walked down the aisle and that he would need a microphone. Honestly, I was super stressed going over all this stuff because I knew we only had (less than) an hour there for the rehearsal because Gloria said if we kept it under an hour, she wouldn’t charge us.

I finally got everyone rounded up and outside--it was exceedingly hot and no one wanted to be out there long. The groomsmen finally showed up from picking up their tux’s. Daniel had also been out picking up his official paperwork from the city to marry us.

When the groomsmen were all there, I had them walk down the aisle, then then I had the girl kind of practice, so they knew what to expect. I think I explained to my dad what was going to happen with me walking down the aisle--he would walk me a little ways for the opening of the song, then we would hug, and Michael would give me the mic and I would sing. He was to have a seat near the front of the aisle.

I explained to Daniel where he would put his Gandalf outfit and when he would be able to change into it. We didn’t have him give his wedding speech to marry us, we just basically went over the basics of when each thing would happen. We had Z. and R. come up and read their reading from I Corinthians, so they had an idea of when they would be going.

We had them really quickly practice their choreography for Kiss the Girl as well.

We went over the exit. It was really hard directing the whole thing while also trying to be the bride.

My cousin Liz was taking pictures with my camera the whole time, I had asked her to and she was very helpful.

Liz and my mom.

I explained to our ushers, Josh’s cousin Sarah and my cousin Joey, where everyone was to be sat, and the special people who would be sat in special places.

Claudia suggested we take a pic of the bridal party and us, so we did, then everyone started wanting to have all kinds of photos taken--just the guys, and just the girls, the bride’s family, just siblings, etc.

My side.

Josh's side.

Flower Girl and Ring Bearer.

Josh and Sibs.

Me and sibs. 

Everyone who came to the dress rehearsal. 

Claudia asked shortly after that if we could clear out so they could get the place ready, so I announced to everyone to head over to the bridal party house for the rehearsal linner that Josh’s parents had been preparing.

Everyone took off in their cars, I ended up driving Joey’s car with a few people inside.

We met back at the bridal party house and Josh’s parents had prepared a beautiful barbeque for everyone, with a margarita machine that was making virgin (with optional alcohol addition) strawberry margaritas.

Kyle and Shelly

Everyone seemed to be having a good time socializing, and once it felt like everyone had eaten, I asked all our bridal party and our ushers and readers to meet in the living room. Many others came as well. Someone videoed the whole thing and took pictures for me.

Josh was with me and we announced how grateful we were to our bridal party, ushers, and readers, for all they had done, and that we had a little something for each to say thank you. Mary wasn’t there, unfortunately, nor was Nadia I believe. Both came later.

One by one, we handed out all their presents. Bridesmaids got a tiara that looked like a crown that their princess would wear. Groomsmen got flasks with their name on them. Male ushers and readers got a pocket watch with their name on it, and female ushers and readers got a tiara and a sapphire necklace. Everyone seemed really grateful and excited for their presents.

That all was a nice little moment, and then we went swimming. We also played Dominion later. I know Josh’s guys kind of had plans for that evening, but I had never finalized any real concrete plans with my side. I had kind of figured we would have a bridal sleepover, and watch a princess/bride/both movie or something, but everyone just kind of floated around and did whatever that evening.

We hung out at the bridal party house. My dad was there, hanging out too.

I taught Tommy, James, Cheyanne, Susanna, and Zach how to play Dominion, and Joey and Adam played as well. Dad joined us for a round. Everyone picked it up pretty quickly. Susanna even won a round!

Joey, Dad, and Michael (so funny now to think that Dad threatened Michael with a gun when he first met him. :)

Playing Dominion!

Cheyenne and Susanna sat next to each other and started talking. It’s interesting because Cheyenne degree is in the same kind of area Susanna wants to get one in. Cheyenne works in fish farming, and those two just really hit it off. Cheyenne gave Susanna all kinds of advice about school, and she seemed to listen and enjoy talking to her. It was just very interesting and kind of perfect that they became friends.

Chey and Susanna.

Cheyenne told dad that she teaches dance classes at Comic Con. He said he needs to learn and practice dancing for his dance with me at the wedding.

She ended up helping dad learn to dance that evening. When I explained that the dance was a rumba to “My Girl”, she very positively stated that she could definitely teach dad how to dance this, which she did, which was great! It looked like he learned it too.

I then practiced walking down the aisle with my dad. Right together, left together. It was special practicing that with him. It felt very momentous.

Anyway, somehow, I got all my bridesmaids that were there up into the Master Bedroom that evening for the night before dress trying on and to show them my dress and accessories. In the room was Mary, Nadia, Susanna, Cheyanne, Cynthia, Katelin and Joelle. They loved my dress and fawned over it for a bit--I felt super special. I tried it on, with all the accessories and everything! We took a picture and were just generally excited about the following big day.

As I’m beginning to wind things up, I notice a small pimple on my chin--this wasn’t even a huge, deep, painful one. Just a tiny pimple. Me, in all my glorious brilliance, decides it would be a good idea to try to pop this tiny thing with my enormous new nail/claws. (I actually thought it would be easier with these.) Long story short, I end up digging an enormous hole in my chin, and what would have been completely invisible with a little makeup the next day turns into a gaping crater that was completely avoidable and I kind of hate myself.

Nadia comes in and sees me doing this (even after the crater appeared, I continued to pursue attempting to pop the stupid little thing) and wants to know “What are you doing!?!?”
She stops me, and takes me to the master bathroom for an intense cleaning routine that involves expensive facial oil cleanser, etc. She tells me to leave it alone and hopefully it will be better by the next day.

After receiving Nadia’s assistance, I try not to think about it the rest of the night.

Julie came soon and we settled down and went to bed. She slept in Josh and I’s room with me. We had stayed up super late, and it was after midnight, as we were getting ready for bed that Josh tried to come in the bedroom to try to give me a goodnight kiss, and Julie turned him away saying that he couldn’t see the bride the day of the wedding!

Josh hadn’t realized that it was already the wedding day and said that “Fiala’s are sticklers for the rules.” He was a little sad, but he got it.

I didn’t find out till much later that there was a great debacle as to where Josh would sleep in the house, if Julie and I took the room he was normally staying in. He almost ended up sleeping on the couch the night before his wedding! Apparently, Nadia and Zach slept on the couch so that Josh could have a bed, which was super kind of them.

All of this I found out later though.

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.