My Big Fat Mexican Wedding Post

Okay, okay, so this post has very little to do with my being Mexican but I'm not Greek, so I had to improvise. I have created a timeline with pictures to show the progression of the wedding planning process. In making my timeline, I realized that we have been very industrious. Without further ado, here it is:

August 22: Engagement!! Best day ever! The picture to the left is the ring and the Facebook mobile upload that started it all! How my phone didn't explode that night, I have yet to discover. It went off almost non-stop for 4 hours. I was so ridiculously happy that day and have amazing friends and family who dropped everything to celebrate with us.

August 23: My dad, brother, Ash, and Slade came up to have an engagement lunch with us. Dad brought my mom's wedding dress up from Victorville with him. We unpacked it and saw that it was amazingly preserved 28 (almost) years later. I decided if possible, I'd like to use my mom's veil. Well, once it's updated a bit.

September 4: Engagement party with Gram and Grandpa Tom

September 5: Bought my wedding dress!! Amazing day with amazing friends. Sorry, no pictures. Stephen sees this :)

September 13: Stephen, Mom, and I toured the Historic Hotel Woodland as a possible venue. Very pretty, food looked great.

September 19: Mom, Dad, and I toured the Chateau. It was GORGEOUS. I fell in love with the place. Stephen wasn't able to go because of work, but he told me that he'd know by my reaction that it was the place. Mom and I cried in the car when we went to leave because we both knew this was it. I knew I am going to walk down that aisle and marry Stephen. It's SO gorgeous there. And the people were friendly and very helpful and the lake is less than 5 minutes away and the whole atmosphere is just lovely.

September 22: Bridesmaid dress shopping with 5 out of 6 bridesmaids (Rebekah is in Colorado, so it's a little harder for her to come). Two of the girls ordered their dresses and the others have good ideas of what they want to get. Very successful trip.

September 24: Dad signed the contract and paid the deposit for the Chateau. It's officially ours on our wedding date: April 18, 2010. I also made us a wedding website this day. Our Wedding Website

September 25: Stephen and his mom went to meet with my dream photographer Charlotte Geary. I am so lucky to have a fiance who loves me so much that he works hard to see that I get what I really want, even if I've kind of given up on it. She's AMAZING. I've been following her work online longer than I've known Stephen and have always wanted her to take my wedding pictures. I figured between the cost of photos and travel expenses it'd be impossible, but Stephen always takes care of me and we're going to make it happen.

September 30: Due to the amazing generosity of my Aunt Lori and Uncle Bill, Stephen and I booked the lodging for our honeymoon. They gave us a week for a wedding present at the condo of our choice through their timeshare company. We'll be honeymooning in Kauai :) We're both very excited to go somewhere beautiful and tropical and relaxing. And for a whole week!! How lucky are we?

October 1: Signed the contract with Charlotte Geary and paid the retainer fee. Our wedding pictures are officially going to be the most amazing ever.

October 2: Stephen and I take a trip to Incline Village. He finally gets to see the Chateau in person and he loves it too. We also got our marriage license while we were there (!!!!!), researched some beachfront picture places, checked out where we plan to stay our wedding night, and met a florist. On the way home, we stopped in Roseville at Shane Co. and selected our wedding bands. They're on layaway :)

October 5: Mom and I went on the hunt for our cake topper. Operation Cake Topper was a success. Stephen got off work and we quickly got down to business building it :)

October 9: Stephen and I registered at Target. It was lots of fun. Mom was at Women's Retreat with church and bought me a hair comb to attach my (her) veil to. I gave it to Carol (who works with me and is awesome and crafty) the following Monday to take it off the Juliet cap Mom used and attach it to the comb Mom bought.

October 17: Stephen and I went to Men's Wearhouse and picked out the tuxes for the guys and set up our group account. The tux style is two button notch lapel. They'll be wearing black of course. The vests will be different, though and they will all have normal ties, not bowties. The groomsmen will have apple vests and ties. Stephen will have a white vest and black tie. The fathers will have a dark shade of silver vests and ties. We'll see what we can find for Slade, the unofficial member of the wedding party. He'll no doubt be up there, he just doesn't have an official job besides being ridiculously cute. Baby tuxes are pretty much adorable no matter what colors they are.

We also had a very busy ordering day that day! We ordered our toasting flutes and cake servers, my shoes, my slip, favor tags, and a sample of the invitation we're thinking of getting. We have since received the flutes, servers, and favor tags.

The toasting flutes say "Mr." on one and "Mrs." on the other in between the bands. The cake cutter and server say "Mr. and Mrs." down the handles. The shoes say MrsRabon on the red stripe :) I love them.

October 18: Mom, Ash, and I went shopping for her mother of the bride dress. She ordered it. She looks amazing in it and is sooooo cute. I love it!! And she loves it. Which is really important.

Other than that, we asked all of the members of our bridal party during this time. We also have an appointment with Charlotte for engagement portraits on November 7th at Garden of the Gods. I'm really excited for that.

There is breakfast calling my name (thanks Mom!) so I'll make a wedding party post sometime in the near future. This took me a very long time. Getting the html right was somewhat annoying.

As a side note, I did a 2.03 mile run yesterday. This makes my totals:
Since Restart: 6.29 miles
Since April 10: 100.58 miles