Whats Next?? Master's Degree! *update- done!*

Now on to travel....

Ryan and I met the summer I started college in 2002- He owned a store and I would come in on my breaks between classes to study and munch :) Ryan started to talk to me and ask what I studied, where I went to school, where I worked etc. Little by little I came in more often and flirted a bit, and he'd come into the bank I worked at to "get change" (even though there was one like a block from his work lol) Then finally, I came in with a friend and handed my "frequent visitor" card to him (with my tons of doodles and stars and bubble name) and he comes out with the best line ever....

"you know, I see your name on here, but you didn't put your number...."

And I gave it to him, with my friend staring at me with her mouth hanging open, hehe! He called me later to ask me to a movie and from then on, we almost literally have seen each other EVERY day for the last 6+ years! (He went on a business trip once for 5 days and that was the longest we have been apart, lol. How sappy are we!)

 The Proposal....

I moved to San Diego after college for a job and Ryan was very supportive. I moved there in October 2006 and Ryan proposed on Dec. 16th 2006, our 4 year anniversary. He had a whole day planned out with activities that reminded us of some of our first few dates, ending with a fancy dinner at Greystone's Steakhouse in downtown San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter. He caught me totally off guard when, after the BEST dessert ever, he dropped to one knee (I thought he was picking up a quarter or tying his shoe) and came out with a ring and popped the question. Obviously I said yes, and he slipped the ring on with the whole team of waiters watching in the back- He told them ahead of time and I later found out that when it started to rain, the head waiter came by to tell him since he had another idea to take me to the outdoor ice-rink and do it there. Luckily, there was a friendly table nearby who snapped a few pictures when they saw what was going on and sent them to us via e-mail :) (thank you!!)

Our engagement shots were taken by a family friend, Meliza Smith- I decided that I really wanted black and white shots because they just looked so much more elegant with the backgrounds we chose. I really liked how they turned out and Ryan was so happy that we didn't have to spend a fortune for them to be great!

My bridal party was planned by my mom and some of her friends and they did an awesome job :) They had one of my youngest sisters friend (14 years old by the way!) made the cake - she is really really good at it, I would have had her do my wedding cake if she wasnt going to be on vacation! My mom knew that we had no room or need for regular b-party gifts so she had everyone go in on gift cards to movies, restaurants, theme parks etc, since we don't always get to do a lot of leisure-fun stuff .... She did an "Entertainment" themed party and since I LOVE scrapbooking she made the centerpeices into scrapbooking supplies and got a polaroid camera so the guests could take pics of us and make me a page to put in my album :) FUN times! (that and the chocolate fountain was the hit of the day!)

So the sis did an awesome job and we had so much fun! The pics give more info than I can! lol

                                                                                   &nb sp;                     MOH with the new Bro (DH) ^

                                    ^ Yayyyy! I have an older sister now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                                         ^ yah. DH totally gave us shots :) fun start!

                  Don't you LOVE my BM's!!!!                                         ohhhhh MOH. lol

                                                                                   &nb sp;                  (Flashback below!)

                                      MOH,3 (sister Joey) BM,3 (friend Rachel) and ME, 5!

      Our colors are black green & white & held at the Lindley Scott House in Azusa CA on August 24, 2008 

                                                          ~* INSPIRATIONS *~

                                                          ~**Bridal Party**~ 

                                       &nbs p;               Both MOH and BM dresses from Ann Taylor 

                                                and the Flower girls... from Davids bridal

My Dress by Jasmine bridal (I originally LOVED the cap sleeve but it just wasnt comfortable so I took it off :)

                                                      ~**Invitations & Save-the-Date**~

Finally!! Our Invites finally posed for me and here they are- They were printed and ordered through Classy Cards in San Diego, but BMs and I assembled. And assembled. And assembled!

Its pocket style, black white and like an avocado green (you can bearly tell b/c my camera suuuuucks!)

                     Our Save the Date was done by *me!* through Vista Print (it was a postcard)    

I took these myself b/c I was bored :) I like them! Ryan wanted a "theme" for the rings, and since he got me my e-ring with a knife-edge band, his and my wedding bands are the same (It was a hassle- all 3 rings are from different companies!!)

                                                                     ~** GETTING READY **~

*** Non Pro Pics :) ***

These girls we've known since I was 5 and its funny that it turned out to be a friend for each one of us-

The mom's in the middle, the oldest next (she and I went to kindergarten together and she got married 2 months before me!! lol- we used to call ourselves M&M.) Then the middles, and the babies. :) oh friends.

Never leave a soldier behind...Especially if its a beer soldier! Check out our GM rescuing someones lone beer from the bench (DURING pictures!)

GMs are just silly all around :)

My garter. It was so cute and sweet, but of course they had to play a joke on me... DH and one of the GMs hid a box under my chair and filled it with a bunch of stuff. Supposed to symbolize my innocense, he says. So he goes under the dress, pulls out a race car toy (one of MINE) a teddy bear, GI Joes, and a football helmet & throws them one by one to the single fellas. HA-HA. Boy was he surprised when there were NFL Saints game tickets stuffed in the garters!! haha joke on you!

The Idea:: Ryan and I were going back and forth and I really wanted really simple, structured flowers (My fave are calla lilies) and Ryan liked the idea of having green as our color since it was going to be a garden ceremony. He came up with the idea of a garden pond for our inspiration (I love him! lol) So, since I really wanted a black and white wedding somehow, we decided on green and white with black accents for our wedding. Heres a little of how it looked (some of the pics are during the set up time) Our table linens were black and white with "avocado" napkins with matching sashes on the chairs (the only thing Ryan was iffy on was that the sash was organza and he wasn't thrilled with the way it ended up looking lighter than the napkins against the white chair cover. oh well, it was too late!)                              

Centerpieces: We had large, low bowls filled with water and black river rocks and added small LED submersible lights (the fireflies!) and our floral designer had floating white and green orchids. We added a medium vase for a little calla lily fountain to our "pond" to make it look more like the flowers that you see springing up in the water of a real pond :)

Boxes (Card Box & Memory Box): (from Ikea for like $3 each! I double-stick-taped the avocado color ribbon on): 

We did a "memory box" b/c I have a "scrapbook box" at home. we decided to put pictures we had of/with our guests on cardstock so they could write in the space and I can make a scrapbook out of them. I bundled them all with a note according to what table they sat at and it made a great conversation piece as people looked through their tables bundle for their pic. I wanted them set up at their tanles so they could take their time and b/c I HATE waiting in line to sign guestbooks lol (the pics of the cards below were actually the ones in my bridal party so we set those out individually on their places)

(We also had disposable cameras on each table- that way pictures of those who we may not have known (like a guests date) or those we didn't have a pic of (like 4 people) could be added to the message they wrote on a blank card later :)

                     We went to Cancun for our Honeymoon (and missed a hurricane by HOURS!)

                                                    Heres some of our fave shots :)

                                                    Ahhhhhh :) Where to next!??

Selling my size 8 Casablanca Dress, style 1770 (http://www.casablancabridal.com/search)

So I was a 2 dress bride- Originally we were going to get married in a casual beachy setting and this dress was on sale (like MAJOR sale lol, the place was going out of business!) My mom got it for me as a "back up" even though I kind of protested. I am willing to sell it for around $200 but I'm totally up for negotiating it out- I got it on sale for a little under $500, not the $800 that the tag says. Never worn, never altered (it fit me PERFECTLY, right down to the length) The bustle button was there with the dress, but I'm sure you can do it differently if you'd like. I keep it at my mom's in the IE but I can definetly show it to you fi you want to try it on first. (I'm in San Diego)

 (front)                                        ;

(back- w/train) 

(back with simple bustle)

(front top showing empire waist beading)

(waist beading details)                                           

                 (train detal)                                      (hemline detail)

:::BLURB:::

What I tested: our New Years Shindig

The Pros: Fast and cheap! $40 total for 23ish pages and I got it in under 5 days. Quality was pretty good to me, I got it on premium paper with the hardcover custom cover. I liked the "collage" pages

The Cons: I could NOT get some pics that I saved from my friends email to me to come up with good resolution. The program told me (with a bright yellow warning sign) that certain pics would not load properly, and therefore would not come out clear. The only ones that worked were those that I uploaded straight to my computer from my camera. Layouts & backgrounds were ok, but kind of few to pick from

The Pics: (excuse my camera, its dumb and sometimes makes a line in my shots lol)

front cover^                                                           back cover^

::PICABOO::

What I tested: Pictures of the girls from the wedding and bachelorette party for BM gifts. 32 pages

Pros: really cute size options. This one is a lot smaller book than the one I did from blurb.com because I want to do it as a gift to the bridemaids :) Its about the size of.... a DVD cover but a little wider and a little taller. It wasn't to expensive- $30 and some change after a "first time customer" coupon and after tax/shipping. It took about a week to get to me. I like the way it looks!!

Cons: I think its the same as the blurb and I'm sure that it will be the same with the rest of the sites, but I think the printing is a tad grainy. Its not bad and I dont think its going to be a deal breaker but I wish I could get them to come out nice and crisp! I think I am ok printing these for the BMs and also maybe I will create one from this site for the parents, but Im going to try ooonnneee more site (mypublisher) to see how that comes out for mine :)

              I LOVE that I could put the same picture in a different color as a background!!! 

I just like ideas!!

If I have a pic of yours, plese let me know because I have spent sooo much time on Google PW the Knot and others, that Im not sure what came from where anymore! lol

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A YELLOW wedding (my sis inspired me)

Green Plum and Cream for a friend's sister...

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For PWer Soon2BWalsh :) Navy Ivory and White wedding

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For PWer MidnyteBlue13- Navy Pearls and Pinks

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For PWer NIKA00- Chocolate, Latte and Red Wedding

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For PWer Starg8zer- Champagne, Black, Fuchsia Wedding

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For PWer MrandMrsFink2B; BLACK & WHITE DEMASK w/ GREEN

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For PWer CaittheGreat, A French Goth Style with Burgundy, Red, Black and Ivory

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For PWer Lina910 and any others inspired by Peacocks- Greens, Blues, Purples, Creams and Browns

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For PWer KazooChair- a Red White and Black Hollywood Theme wedding

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Inspired by a Forum Thread- Butterfly Theme with various colors

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For PWer PSA, a Spring Wedding (gerbera daisy, orange tuilps, and yellows)

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For PWer ASHLEY007, a wedding of blues and purples

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For PWer MrsRaz- A Deep purple with green yellow and white accents

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                                                            INTERIOR DESIGN BOARDS

A PURPLE and GREEN interior idea (for, who knows, my next home!)

GREEN and BROWN interior idea (Because I REALLY like it!)
                            

Inspired by D1rtyMartini :) Martini interiors :)

Dirty martini                                                              Cosmo martini

                                                                        Dry Maritini

For the PINK crowd- interior idea

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                                       &nbs p; GREEN and WHITE wedding inspirations for my big day :)