it's officially been a year!

So it's officially been one year since we got engaged! I can't really believe it's been a year already to be honest. To celebrate we went back to Holiday Matsuri where we got engaged at. It was a great time seeing all our friends again. One of our friends that made the magic happen last year got me all dressed up in a kimono for the dance that evening. It was a lot of fun!

It was a lot of fun during the dance as we hung out with said friends and danced and laughed and watched the shows. At some point during the dance Chris had them play our song again and he pulled out a small gift box for me. It was completely unexpected. Inside was a necklace with an amethyst pendant. He told me it was amethyst because that's February birthstone, which is the month we started dating and the month we will be we'd, and there's a little secret in the back, a D for my new married last name. It was technically an early Christmas gift but he felt like giving it to me at the dance. I was moved. There was more tears and more photos! He's so sneaky.

So on this Christmas day I figured it would be appropriate to share our 1 year anniversary for our engagement on Christmas. ;) Merry Christmas to you and your family! Hope you have a very blessed day!!

Ok...Havent updated in a while:

Guess I have been bad and i haven't updated this blog in a long while! My last update was back in August! Oops! 

In my last post i spoke about finally finding a venue but it not being official...well by now its official! Along with a ton of other things! We finally got our venue, ceremony location, engagement shoot done (which means we have our photographer picked out!), menu finalized, color Scheme, center pieces picked out, invites picked out, D.J. hired, and tons more! And i know there's more i forgot to mention!

Planning a wedding can be crazy hectic, and sometimes as the bride I wanted to scream and cry! Your emotions go all over the place and sometimes you just don't understand it. Like when we had complications with finding a church... the first one never really got back to us, my second choice was awesome right up till they realized they double booked my wedding with a festival on the same day!!! But they came through and found me a beautiful church to get married in! But I have to say this has been an amazing process and I've had so much fun and learned so much!! I've become so much closer with my friends and learned a ton about myself!! I will also note that there is ALWAYS something you did not think to ask about until someone else asks! As much as I want my special day to get here, I'm having so much fun that i kind of DONT want it to get here... So I'm hoping to help my friends out with their wedding's so the wedding fun doesn't have to stop!

I'll try and remember to update more often as the count down slinks closer to the day of!

Unofficially stating...

...That we have a venue picked out!! :) Not saying which one, but i figured id take a quick moment to share my enthusiasm and share a quick picture of the outside of the building!! But again i'm not saying anything more until its more official!

This was a really short entry i know! Not much else to share at the moment! So have a good day!!

THE Dress!

The story of the dress is actually a short one!

I expected because of my size, and lack of shops, that shopping for my wedding dress would be a long drawn out process that i would quickly grow tired and frustrated with. None the less it had to be done so i made an appointment at David's Bridal, figuring that they would have the most selection, sizes, colors and price ranges. I was excited but tried not to get too hyped up because i still feared it would be a battle to find the dress. Once the week of the appointment came, i grew even more and more excited. the day finally came  (5/17/13) and work couldn't pass quickly enough. I raced home, joined mom and Yiya (my mother's god mother) and we raced to Fort Myer's! (there's DB in my town!)

My heart was pounding when we finally got to the store, and once i walked in i was confronted with a wall of white and ivory as far as i could see. i was a little intimidated. None the less my consultant (Andrea i believe her name was... or Anjie one or the other?) came over and quickly was all smiles and talked me through how they kind of go about picking things. I told her i didnt really have anything in mind and was really open. it was my first time in a place like this and i was looking for cut, style, color more then an actual gown at this point. I gave her a rough price point and we started off amongst the rows of gowns. My friend Wendy was also there and helped me get my mind off the fact that i was staring at all these beautiful gowns and more focused on looking at what seemed appealing. I picked about 6 or 7 dresses to try on to start with. 

She put me in a dressing room, instructed me to try on some undergarments, and then she brought in the first dress. she helped me slip it on, and then she went to work closing up the back. There were no mirrors inside the dressing room, so i could only helplessly look around the dressing room walls while she finished closing up the back side of the dress. I stepped out, careful not to step on the edges of the dress and stared out to my mother, Wendy and Yiya. Mom and Yiya smiled, Wendy cried! They loved it. I turned to look at myself in the mirror, and thought i was beautiful. I didnt actually feel much about the dress, but i hung around in it the longest of all i think. Then i tried on a few other gowns. A few of them looked really pretty on me but were too simple or too sparkly and over the top. by the end of the evening everyone was still bent on the first dress. It fit me perfectly other then needing hemming. I went into the dressing room and put it back on and stepped out and looked at myself again and thought this was totally against all the rest, the best!

So i told her yes, that i liked this one and she started gathering things and then stopped in her tracks and said "wait? do you mean this is THE dress?" and i told her yes. She informed me that David's Bridal has a tradition that when a bride picks out THE dress that she makes a wish and rings a bell for everyone to make a wish with her. She handed me the bell, i smiled nervously and i think i had tears well up for a minute...because it wasnt the veil or the mirror... it was kind of the look on my mother and Wendy's face... but it was the bell that made me realized that what i thought was a simple research trip, turned into finding the dress of my dreams! I rang the bell loudly and made a wish! 

I hope my wish comes true! 

(What you thought i'd post a pic of the dress? How will i surprise everyone if i show you guys the dress i bought? :) ) 

The story of the Rings!

This is the story of our Weddings Rings! 

Well you all have seen my engagement ring, so i figured i'd tell you about my wedding band and his. 

My Ring!

Mine is a special band with a ton of history and I like to think that i will be fulfilling a dream that never happened. A few days after my engagement my mother came up to me with a small fabric pouch and from inside she pulled out an old, in pieces, ring. She told me that if i wanted i could have this ring to use as my wedding band. I looked it over and instantly loved it. It is a diamond and sapphire eternity band. She then told me the rings story:

The ring belonged to a woman that my mom's god mother used to take care of named Nena. She never took the ring off and when the Nena passed away, her brother asked my mom's god mother that she could have anything she wanted from Nena's jewelary box since she took such good care of her all the way up to the funeral. (she was there the day she passed away) My mother's god mother said that only thing she really wanted was the ring that Nena never took off, and her brother gifted it to her. Then many years later my mothers god mother gifted my mother with the ring, she used it as her engagement ring. (even though my father did give her a ring as well.) my mother wore it all the time until she was pregnant with me and it had to be cut off. it had been repaired once but the last person to repair it said it shouldn't be worn because it was fragile. The ring had a date of June 1926 or earlier according to my father... and a name. it had since worn off from age and wear. I thought that story was special enough, but mom came back to me a few days later and told me she asked her god mother and she remembered more about the ring. She told us that the ring was Nena's engagement ring! She was engaged to a doctor who fell ill and passed away and she loved him so much she never married and never took his ring off! So i fell even more in love with the ring! It had so much history, and so much love!! I'm so happy to give this ring a second chance of fulfilling its purpose to be a symbol of love and devotion!

A friend of mine told me where i could go to get it safely restored to its original condition. i was skeptical at first because it was a 80+ year old ring, and had already been damaged and badly repaired. But the day i picked my ring up i was so happy to see that they kept it as original as possible! they did remove the date on it... maybe i should have kept it? maybe not. I didnt think it was such a bad thing, as it was like giving the room a new beginning. besides i dont think i will ever forget its story! and i will pass the story on to my children some day!

His Ring!

His ring was a lucky find! I truly believe it was meant to be! I had been looking at rings a few times at the same store that repaired my wedding band. There were several that matched my engagement ring, but nothing that really stood out to me. I had wanted our wedding bands to match, but still be able to stand alone and still look beautiful, but after mom gifted me my ring i figured i would settle with matching finishes. one day looking at rings at the store, mom and i saw a ring that had a diamond and two sapphire's! We got super excited because we were like "That's perfect!" but sadly we soon realized it was Yellow Gold and not white. We countinued shopping around the store and right before we going to leave i decided i wanted to look at the ring anyways. I dont know why i just wanted to hold it in my hands and see how much it was. My eye's must have lit up, as Marilyn (the lovely store clerk) pulled out the ring from the tray. Much to all of our surprise the ring was actually white gold!!! I was so excited and instantly sent him a pic of it and he said he loved it. I had them put it aside for me and the following week i dragged him up to see and officially put it as sold! 

I cant help but feel there is so much about this wedding that is just falling into place and seems like it was meant to be! 

So there you have it! the story of our wedding rings!

I snagged the video...

This is the raw video as taken by Miroku of Anirage with Chris's video camera of the engagement!!

My youtube page

Enjoy!!

This is...

...the story of our engagement!

It was the weekend of December 13 2012, well really the 13th was a Thursday. I couldn't wait for work to be over because right after 5pm we were Orlando, FL. bound for Holiday Matsuri 2012 (a holiday themed anime convention)! When the clock hit 5, i rushed to Chris's house to pick him and his things up and then to my house to pick up my things. We left later then expected because in our excitement we forgot a few things at both his house and my house.  The road trip itself was uneventful for the most part, but it was pleasurable with both of our excitement on a high and the night was sprinkled with cute little Christmas displays here and there. It was a beautiful cold and clear night.

We arrived at the hotel about 9:40pm and checked in. The Hotel itself was beautiful. it had only been open for a few months prior. It was extremely elegant and beautifully decorated. The rooms were fantastic! they were like little suites, that had a seating, dinning area and then a bedroom area. everything was spacious and comfortable. We had a late night snack across the street at a Burger King which was 24 hours, and then came back and went to bed.

Friday morning (Dec 14 2012) we got up and went down to have the free breakfast that was being offered to hotel guests. It was pretty good, and so nice to wake up to a hot meal. We took a quick minute to stand in line to pick up our con badges/tickets, and then were off to see what was open. It was around 10 in the morning, so only the dealers room was open to VIP ticket holders or Founders. We are Founder ticket holders, because the first year the con opened i gifted Chris and myself with the special founders tickets which mean we never have to pay for tickets for this convention ever again. i figured it would be like gifting Chris a convention for his birthday (That being Dec 17th) the day was spent meeting new and old friends, shopping and over all fun! We watched a concert performed by some friends of mine, and i hung out with some other friends while Chris attended some panels of interest. Afterwards we had dinner and went back to the room and the first day ended well enough.

Saturday (Dec 15, 2012) we got up and did pretty much the same thing. there weren't a lot of panels or anything i wanted to see (there usually isnt.) so again i spent the day hanging out with friends and making new ones. Unbeknownst to me Chris was off making plans for the big night, i just thought he was off taking pics of cosplayers and taking videos for his Youtube channel. When in reality he was off nervously checking in with everyone and making sure everyone knew what they had to do. I noticed he was nervous but paid no mind to it really. I spent some time in the afternoon with Katt as she met up with me so i could give her, her wedding veil... because her wedding was going to be the following weekend. We went and had dinner at a little chinesse resturant across the street. it was really quiet and the place was pretty much empty. He of course by this time was very distracted and i couldnt get much conversation wise out of him. I even mentioned about skipping the ball entirely and just relaxing at the hotel and he told me we had to go because they were doing a special viewing for the AMV contest. (Anime Music Video) So after dinner we went back and got dressed up for the ball and then we headed back down to wander around some more.

We stood and line and at this point Chris was coming and going, back and forth. I was wondering whats up but since he gets easily wound up i didnt pay it much mind. We entered the ball, and again he kept leaving me. At one point i was getting annoyed with his aloofness. he wanted me there so badly and then wasnt anywhere to be found. We danced a little, but the ball had a bunch of performances by people so there wasnt a whole lot of dancing. but it was still nice. the ball itself is a benifit ball for Toys for Tots. people bring in a toy as a donation so they can attend the ball. So the ball itself has a lovely purpose. As the ball was wrapping up for the night DJ Shadow Fax said that there was a special announcement, Someone came up to Chris (which at the time i didnt know who it was, but it turns out to be a friend of Chris's who goes by the stage name Miroku.) and asked Chris to come with him. There is a performer who goes by the name of Dancing Kakashi, and he asked Chris on stage. At that point my heart started racing because i kind of knew where this was going. Chris started with thanking all of the Matsuri con staff and all the attendees and then went on to tell a short story about how 4 years ago he met the girl of his dreams and wanted everyone to be witness to him asking that girl of his dreams to be his wife. He got down on one knee and asked if i would come up to the stage. (Fun fact: He said my full name, but was so excited thinking of me as his future wife he called my last name as his own instead.) I walked over to the stage (totally forgetting there were stairs) and he pulled me on stage and then bent down on one knee again, showed me the ring, and i said something to the effect of "absolutly" and they played our song and we danced on stage!! He cried, i cried, and there were tons of ooohhs and ahhh's in the audience. and apperantly there are some girls out there who love a good love story because i have found pics on Tumblr, of our engagement and a even a video on Youtube, that someone else recorded.

YouTube Video of the actual engagement as taken by a guest of the ball (No dancing though)

I'll post the video Chris had recorded whenever he finishes that one

Pics from Tumblr:

So i just want to thank the lovely people who thought this was a special event enough to take pics and to post them to the wide world of the internet so that i could find them! <3 and to Miroku and his lovely wife for video taping for Chris!! <3

Afterwards we ran around finding all the crazy people involved. We thanked DJ Shadow Fax who is a super nice guy and super talented, and Kakashi for being a great host and making the engagement super fun. Then we wandered over to the see the Chalk Twins (A pair of identical twin artists who do large format art with chalk.) apperantly Chris had wandered off to see them at some point to calm down, and we raced to see them and they congratulated us and chris bought me one of their prints and they wrote congrats on it! we stayed a while talking with Miroku's wife who had been proposed to at Metrocon a year or two prior and they got married at a convention too. all the while i was listening to Chris's video log about his adventures of getting my ring and how it took up to the last minute because he had to have the ring re-sized! and then he told me how he left at some point in the ball to give the ring box to one of the vendors (Mike! whose a friend of ours) so i wouldnt get wise to the box in his pocket, and how he stopped off at the radio pod cast booth to get a baggy to put the ring in... and all manners of crazy.

and so for the rest of the weekend (Sunday) we had to thank everyone and everyone was like "Your the couple who got engaged at the ball!!! You guys were so cute! congrats!" and all sorts of stuff.  We were on cloud 9 and i felt like shouting all the time "I'm getting married!" it was super cute and every now and then the happy feelings still hit me! its crazy. Sometimes i cant believe it happened till i watch the video over and over again.

I guess i'll leave this post here for now! It's already longer then i intended it to be! :D