One More Cookie!

I'll admit that I'm not the most die-hard Laker fan. I grew up watching them play on TV and I guess if someone asked me which is my favorite NBA team, I'd probably say the Lakers. But that doesn't mean that I'd cough up $100+ dollars to see a live game at the Staples Center down the street or tune in to every game obsessively during basketball season. If I happen to catch a game, I will root for them though. My brother, on the other hand, roots for the Lakers all the way. I wasn't surprised when he called me last night to ask if I wanted to go watch the Laker parade with him and his girlfriend today...and ask if he could park his car in the guest parking of my building. Aha, I knew there was an ulterior motive! jk.

I was pretty excited about the parade. I'm more into the community aspect of these types of events. I love when there is something exciting going on in the city that draws large crowds, especially if it's free!

Large crowd? Check.

Me and Vanessa+1 (my future niece/nephew is currently gestating!)

Laker girls.

And the crowd.goes.wild.

And the crowd goes WILDER.

Bye-bye Lakers.

I love all of the crazy characters that never fail to come out for these type of events.

"One more cookie!"
My bro is beaming with pride.

The parade certainly made for an exciting afternoon. Go Lakers!

Moving Da Party

Hey readers!

After an unsuccessful attempt to be a weddingbee blogger, I decided to make some changes. I created a new (and improved?) strictly-wedding-related blog where I'll be sharing a lot of the wedding content previously posted on this blog as well as lots of new material! And what do ya know, the boy actually wanted in on this little venture as well! You can find us at Team Claudia y Felipe!

If reading all about weddings is yo thang, then follow us at our new joint blog. And if not, I might keep poking my head in here to share some random life thoughs. Holler!

C
"Miss Tortolita"

BOMB couscous

I picked up a box of Israeli couscous at the market and made some for dinner last night. I usually don't post recipes up in here, but this couscous was pretty bomb (& healthy!) so I had to share. I named it accordingly: BOMB couscous.

Recipe (from the box)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup Israeli couscous
3 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup shallots (regular onions work, too), finely chopped
1/2 cinnamon stick
1 bay leaf
1 3/4 cups chicken broth
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup minced parsley
zest of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup raisins
Black pepper, to taste

Preparation:

-Cook pine nuts with 1 tsp butter until they brown a little.

-Set the pine nuts on the side along with the lemon zest and minced parsley.

-Saute shallots or onions until golden. Add couscous, cinnamon, and bay leaf. Stir often until the couscous browns slightly.

-Add the chicken broth and salt. Bring to a boil.

-Reduce heat to low, cover the pan, and let simmer until liquid is absorbed (about 15-20 minutes).

-Remove the couscous from heat, stir in the parsley, pine nuts, lemon zest, and raisins. Sprinkle on some black pepper to taste.

-Enjoy! It works great as a side dish.

YUMS!!

This wedding is not my first.

...first big party thrown in my honor, that is! Today, I'm taking you back to tha old school.

Imagine all of the traditional elements of a wedding: the ceremony, the white puffy dress, the wedding party, all of your closest friends and family together in celebration. The only thing missing is the groom. In my case, the celebration was nothing related to a wedding; it's a 15th birthday party! That's right my friends, I already had my big day - my Quinceanera!

A Quinceanera is a typical 15th birthday celebration in the Mexican and Latin American cultures. I believe that back in the day, the Quinceanera celebration was a way to present a young woman to society. At 15, she was now of age to marry and her family had to "show her off," if you will. Nowadays, it's not about marrying off your daughter; it's about celebrating her entrance into womanhood. The traditional elements such as a mass and family party are usually still honored, though.

Unfortch, I don't have any fancy pics to share as I'm sure my parents were on a pretty tight budget and everything was put together in a matter of months. But I got some pics that will surely bring the LOLs.

Here I am making my grand entrance for the day, coming down the stairs of my house. My dress was custom made by this lady from the city of El Monte for a whoppin' $400. My grandpa paid for it. He told me if I got straight A's in school, he would buy my dress...DEAL!

My brother escorting me into my fabulous limo. This is how we roll in 1999!

Here I am with my parents at mass. I think I'm doing a reading where I affirm my faith.

The mass was an hour long. Don't my damas (maids) look so excited? By the way - I had 14 damas. 14!!!

....and 14 chambelanes (chamberlains) plus my escort (the one in the white). My godparents sat at the front, too.

I don't remember much about the reception. It's probably because the photographer had me trapped in his makeshift studio he had set up and made me take pictures like this during the reception:

The many faces of a Quinceanera.

This is just ridiculous.

At the reception, a waltz is typically performed by the quinceanera and all her attendants for the guests. I remember that for about 2 months before my Quinceanera, we would have waltz practice at my house every Sunday. It was so much fun! It was like a party with 30 of my friends and cousins once a week, except for the part where we had to learn a choreographed waltz. I dunno how we pulled it off. Don't my little brother and cousin look so confident as they prance down the line?

Finally, my cake made by my mommy. Yums!


Althought I don't have too many pictures left of my Quinceanera, I have plenty of memories (both good and bad). I remember having my moment where I stormed off into the bathroom in tears and had to be consoled by my mom, godmother, and group of damas until I calmed down. A Quinceanera is never drama free! Nonetheless, it is a day I look back at with the fondest of memories. Here I am, ten years later, planning a celebration just as big and meaningful. This time, I got my groom and we have two families to celebrate with! I feel like a giddy 14 year old again counting down the days until her big day!

Do you have any cultural traditions or celebrations that you reflect upon now that you're planning a wedding?

Hair Care

Fact: I only wash my hair 3 times a week (4 at most).

Fact: It isn't gross.

While listening to the radio recently, some DJs were talking about things that turn them off about girls. One of them stated that he hates it when girls don't wash their hair because it's "grosssss." Hah! Ignorant boys. They always have something to say about women's hygiene as if they knew. That's not to say that everyone's hygiene practices are the same. I'm just saying that it is perfectly normal to not wash your hair every day and not be gross. A lot of my close girlfriends don't wash their hair every day. Throughout college my roommates and I would warn each other when we would be washing our hair since we'd be hogging up the bathroom a little big longer. Perfectly normal, bbs.

I thought I'd shed a little light on this topic and my personal hair hygiene through my blog.

Let's start from the top: I used to wash my hair every day until I was about 16 years old. I couldn't go a day without washing it because it would become super oily right away. But at the tender age of 16, peer pressure and comparing yourselves to others is probably at its peak. I would listen to other girls when they talked about not washing their hair every day and how they maintain it. At that age, I didn't heart my oily, wavy, unruly hair and was willing to try out anything else so that it could be sleek, soft, and stylish like everyone else's (sad, I know). I started out by not washing my hair maybe once a week. I hated it, though! I could literally smell the oil in my hair the first morning after not washing it. I didn't understand how these other girls could go days without washing their hair. There had to be some kind of trick. Well, I did some reading and researching about hair maintenance and learned that it was common and, in fact, healthy to not wash your hair every day. I also learned what the trick was: you had to train your hair. This sounded so silly to me. "You mean your hair/scalp actually starts acting differently when you don't give it a constant supply of shampoo and water?" This is true.

I decided to train my hair. I don't exactly remember how long the training period lasted. I know it was several months. It started out with me washing my hair maybe 5 times a week, and I would just decrease the washes every now and then. To my surprise, it worked! My scalp started producing less oil and my hair was becoming more manageable. I found a balance between hair washing/exercise as well (since sweating does increase the need for more washing). Almost ten years later, I've got hair routines pretty much set. Wanna see?

Let's start with Tuesday since I consider this the beginning of my "hair cycle" right now: I go to a one hour bootcamp class early Tuesday morning. It's a pretty intense workout. I don't sweat much, but bootcamp gets me as sweaty as any workout can. I get home, shower, wash my hair, and spend 5 to 10 minutes moussing/spritzing and blowdrying my hair. Use a diffuser for maximum curlation.

Tuesday

Wednesday morning: I go to the gym in the morning for a ~45 minute workout. This is my resistance training day; I work out with heavier weights and do less repetitions than I do during classes. This workout isn't as intense, so I sweat less. I go home, shower, don't wash hair, and get ready for work. An easy fix for the hair is tying up whatever is left of my waves in a ponytail.

Wednesday

Wednesday evening: I shower at night and don't wash the hair. Then, I'll use my flat iron and straighten my hair that night since my waves are pretty much dead by this point.

Thursday morning: I wake up at a normal hour and get ready for work. All I have to do is touch up the hair with the flat iron and keep it down or put it in a ponytail like this.

Thursday

Thursday evening: Hair wash time! Thursday after work, I go to another one hour bootcamp class and then a half-hour core class. I'm pretty much a dead sweaty mess after my workout. The hair is begging for its second wash of the week, so I shower, wash, and blow-dry the hair straight at night.

Friday: I wake up with clean hair - woo hoo! All I gotta do is touch it up with the flat iron or curling iron, and I am on my way to get on with my day.

Friday

By the time Saturday rolls around, I'll only have washed my hair 2 times. Felipe and I try to go hiking at Runyon Canyon on Saturday mornings, so sometimes I'll wash my hair after the hike. If not, I wash my hair on Sunday. Either way, I won't wash it again until the following Tuesday when the "cycle" begins again. Of course, the cycle changes every now and then depending on my week schedule and activities, but you get the idea.

So, do you still think I'm gross? Does anyone else out there follow some kind of hair routine?

Sample Dialogue

Me: Hey, remember when we used to go on romantic getaways like once a month? Or how we used to go out to eat at cool restaurants all the time?
Him: Yeah.
Me: What the heck, man?? How come we don't do that anymore!
Him: Umm. We have a wedding to plan.
Me: Dang.

Ah... I remember those days all too well. We always had a fun weekend activity planned or a trip to look forward to. We had a "to-do" list of places to go and things to see. It was fun, fun, fun. Just me and my man. And then the stupid wedding came along and took away all our leisure time.

Okay, okay! It's not all that bad. Wedding planning is fun, yo! We have entered a new stage in our lives and we are embracing all of the changes it has brought. Yet I can't help to think back and remember all of the free time we used to have and how fun it was. Now, most of our free time is spent cleaning the house, cooking, going to the gym or for a hike, renting a movie, or doing something wedding related. Things that are "budget friendly," ya know? (Well, except for the wedding-related part.) But you know what? I'm really enjoying it! With everything going on right now (work, school, wedding) I am feeling way more productive with my life. There is so much to look forward to, so many new goals that I've set for myself, and many new experiences with my man.

So what if our strict budget doesn't allow us to take random trips or eat out every weekend? There are so many other ways to have fun as a couple and save money at the same time. For example: cooking together is so much fun and a good learning experience for both of us; going for a weekend hike makes for a great opportunity for conversation and reflection; designing wedding stuff on our own (centerpieces, invitations, etc.) builds our relationship as a team and will save us budget money; etc. Although planning the wedding has required a lot of sacrifices, I'm confident it will be worth it all when we are celebrating the day we become Mr. & Mrs. with all of our family and friends.

What kind of sacrifices or changes have you made as a couple in order to plan for your wedding and/or future?

Booked!

jeeeeah! Today marks the beginning of the "vendor booking" stage. We haven't had much progress on this part of the wedding planning, but today I am feeling accomplished! I just sent in a check for something I am sooo excited for. Hey you, Felipe-face, don't go dump me anytime soon. At least not for the next 8 months, k? thx!
(juuuus kidding)

So, do our peoples have a table to sit at and seats to sit on?
Nope.

Do they gots a coordinator person telling them where to go, where to stand, and what to do?
hmm...prolly not.

Food?
FALSE.

But, hey, it's all good in tha hood cuz they have music!!!

Our peoples will be dancing to the sounds of the Susie Hansen Latin Band:


(Source: YouTube)
((Sorry that the video is super long. There's not much out there to share.))

I've heard their name tossed around in the past, but the first time I saw them live and in action was at a BrideWorld show several months ago. I loved them from the start. After months of debating whether we could fit them in our budget, it finally worked out. Everyone has their "splurge," right? I guess this is ours. It's totally worth it for us, though. They will act as our emcees (in both English and Spanish - score!), work with us to create a schedule for the reception and make sure the party is going as planned, and most importantly - keep our peoples entertained.

Anyone who knows me KNOWS that I loooooove dancing. And I looooove salsa/merengue/cumbias/ANY latin music. If allowed, I would be the first person on any dance floor and the last person off regardless of how much of a fool I look. The mister, on the other hand, isn't as crazy about it as I am. It's still all good, tho. I love that he understands my obsessive dancing tendencies when I hear a good jam. He is such a good sport and although he won't admit it, he's a pretty badass dancer. I know we are going to have so much fun partying it up at the reception. woop woop!!

Do you have a wedding splurge? Anything you have got to, got to, got to have??

El Boo-jet Continues

About that boo-jet we were talking about earlier...

Before I go into detail about where it's all going, I think I should mention that Felipe and I made the decision to fund our own wedding. Now, I was never very aware of the whole idea of the bride's family paying for the wedding. Maybe it's a culture thing, but I always thought it was a combined effort between all families involved. Now that I'm more plugged in with wedding planning I've noticed that it is pretty common for the bride's parents to pay for a large chunk, if not all, of the wedding. I guess that's the tradition but it is something that neither I or Felipe would be comfortable with. The way we see it is this: if we made the decision to have the type of party that we are having then we should be responsible for funding it. Our parents have their own financial obligations, too. We would never want to burden them with another one.

I do understand the idea of parents wanting to throw the party for their daughter/son. I think being able to do that for your child is something to be proud of. But in that case, I wouldn't see it as my party. It would be the party that my parents were throwing for me. Along with that comes a potential clashing of opinions, obligations that I would be expected to fulfill, and guests that I wouldn't necessarily know or want at the party. With Felipe and I being the main decision makers, planning a wedding that is 100% us has been so much easier, stress-free, and fun!

Don't think I didn't get any heat from my parents, though. You'd think that being off the financial hook would make them happy, no? Well apparently, they- er, my mom- WANT to help. That's cool with me. I love my mom and I know that this event is just as important for her. She never had the whole church and big reception wedding. She gets to see one of her dreams come true for me. It just makes the day that much more special. So I told her I would love for her to help by continuing to show her support for our marriage, by helping me choose a dress, by coming shopping with me when I need to find a wedding-related item, by having lunch with me while we discuss all the girly wedding details. All the fun stuff! But that is still not enough for her! She keeps insisting that it is their obligation as parents to help contribute. Felipe and I have been really hesitant to accept much, but at the same time I don't want to hurt my parents feelings by not accepting anything. It sounds and feels so weird to me! Hurting someone's feelings by not accepting their money? hah! They should be happy, shouldn't they?

I've been trying to change my perspective on how I view this whole issue. I think that if my parents, brothers, or sister were throwing a big party that was special to them I would love to help out as much as I could. I guess I might be offended if they refused any help from me. I know my parents' situation and I know that they can't contribute much, so I don't want them to worry about helping us out. As of now we agreed to let them help us with little things that we will consider as gifts. I just don't want my parents to feel bad because they can't give us as much they wish they could. Felipe and I would not be anywhere near where we are now without the support that both our parents showed us while we were getting our education on! They have already done enough to raise two responsible people. This wedding is on us. :)

So, tell me...is it weird that we are paying for our own wedding? If parents are helping you out do you feel bad for taking their money?

How I Spent My Weekend

I've mentioned in the past that getting married at our church requires a number of steps. Every Catholic parish has different requirements for their marriage ceremonies, but I'm pretty sure that all require some form of marriage prep or "Pre-Cana" as I've heard it referred to as. Our tasks included collecting copies of our different sacrament certificates, completing an 8-hour marriage preparation course, a weekend "Engaged Encounter" retreat, and meetings with the priest at our church (who will be performing our ceremony). Felipe and I gathered our old sacrament certificates and took our day-long course back in September. We also registered for our Engaged Encounter weekend back then. This weekend (six months later) we finally went on our weekend retreat!

There are three retreat facilities that serve the Southern California area. They are located in Santa Barbara, Montebello, and Malibu. The retreat for the weekend that we chose was held in Malibu at the Serra Retreat Center. The place was gorgeous! I was def not complaining about having to be forced to spend a weekend at a hideaway spot nestled in the hills of Malibu overlooking the ocean.





The retreat activities were facilitated by two married couples. We were handed a book that contained several discussion activities on topics like openness in communication, unity in marriage, decision making in marriage, becoming a family, finances, etc. The majority of the weekend consisted of working through each of the topics in the book. The facilitators would first discuss each topic and give examples in their life as a married couple. Then, the engaged couples would separate for about half an hour to write our thoughts and feelings on each of the topic. After the writing period, we would reunite with our couple and discuss what we wrote. I know it doesn't sound too exciting by my description but it wasn't all that bad. I was always looking forward to see what Felipe wrote for each topic. For the most part, I knew what to expect from him but it is always refreshing to revisit and discuss certain life topics. It helped us to remember where we agree/disagree. The writing activities were broken up with other fun activities where we got to work together, a prayer service, and mass on Sunday.

The Catholic Engaged Encounter is (obviously) endorsed by the Catholic church, but I was relieved that it wasn't overly religious i.e., I didn't feel like I was gettin' my Jesus on all weekend! While they did mention and/or discuss topics encouraged by church (praying together, natural family planning) it didn't feel pushy at all. I'm sure it helped any inter-faith couples present at the retreat to be more comfortable as they were not trying to convert anyone. The only thing that might not "tickle your pickle" was that men and women were housed separately. It sounds weird, I know! A bunch of 20-something to 40-something year olds being separated and given a roommate of the same sex. But it was a Catholic facility, and we had to respect their rules at least during the retreat. We hardly spent any time in the room anyway. And, my roomie was pretty badass. When else can I use long discussions over colors, organza favor bags, and wedding coordinators as bedtime stories?!

Overall, it turned out to be a much better experience than I expected. I already spend most of my weekends with the boy. But there was something really special about this one. We got to focus on each other 100%. None of that usual day-to-day distraction. Just me and my man connecting, bonding, planning for our future and remembering why we fell in love with each other in the first place. I so wish we can just get married NOW! ::sigh::

holllerr! Straight from da 'Bu. MaliBu.

Are you planning to or have you done any type of marriage preparation/premarital counseling?

El Boo-jet

Well folks, we are eight months away from the wedding and we finally got ourselves a budget. Thanks to old Uncle Sam and all that money he takes away from us from each pay check plus a nice 1st time homeowners tax credit that just went into effect, I think we might be able to pull off a decent party. Having a budget is both empowering and scary. It's empowering because now we can actually make things happen. "What, the caterer needs a 10% deposit??? Well let me just pull out my checkbook." hehehe... Yet this budget stuff is pretty scary. Why? Well..umm...the first thing I did when I got home after finalizing our budget was open our guest list spreadsheet and cut more people from the list.


(Photo Source)

Weah! I hate that. I hate not being able to invite everyone near and dear to me who I really really really would love to celebrate our special day with. A part of me dies every time I move a name from the "A list" to the "B list." I have come to realize that budgets and guests lists are enemies. It is a harsh reality. They will never get along.

Felipe and I agreed already that the guest list will probably be the most difficult aspect of our wedding. We both come from large Mexican families and we are pretty close to our aunts and uncles. Even if we try to keep it an intimate event (i.e., parents, siblings, aunts, uncles) we are still working with a very large group. Just to give you an idea, for our engagement party we told each other that we were going to keep it as a close family celebration and only invite a handful of close friends. The total guest count for our "intimate" event was just over 60! Even then, I still received some negative feedback from family members who were hurt because they weren't invited. Sigh... I hate hurting people's feelings! It isn't that I don't love and appreciate my large family. I do! Plus, family gatherings are always fun because there are so many of us. But when it comes to working with a tight budget, it just isn't feasible to invite everyone. We want to throw a nice, fun, and organized party for our guests. In order to do so, we have to keep our guest list on the smaller side.

On top of that, we are pretty social people. We are lucky and blessed to have a great group of friends. I love that there is always something going on - whether it be a birthday party, a night out to go bar hopping, weekend dinners, housewarmings, USC home football games, whatever. We love our friends and want to include them all. In some cases they even know us better as a couple than some of our family members do. Many of them have witness our relationship grow from two timid 18-year-olds to an engaged couple. How can we not include them on the day when we become Mr. and Mrs.?

In a perfect world Felipe and I would be surrounded with all 200+ of our closest friends and family members on our wedding day. We would wine, dine, and entertain them all on a day that they would forever remember with fond memories and love. For now, we are guided by our limited budget and our creativity to maximize whatever what we can get out of it.

Is anyone else having trouble with the ever dreaded guest list? How do you deal with it?

The Wedding Industry Strikes Again

I did it. I tried on wedding dresses for the first time in my life this weekend. It was my second time inside of a bridal boutique (the first was a couple months ago when I went to find a bridesmaid dress for my cousin's wedding.) And, well, a bridal boutique is not the most comfortable place in the world. To me, it is the embodiment of the wedding industry. And a lot of times the wedding industry can be very cruel.

I wish I could say that I had the best time of my life. But honestly it was more of a reminder of how many things associated with weddings will try to suck out everything green from your wallet. I can say that the trying-on-the-dresses part was fun. All those white, flowing, dreamy dresses made me feel pretty. My mom and my sister were there to give me their honest opinions and support. It felt really good to have that woman bonding time. It wasn't really emotional, though. That's probably because I'm not a super emotional person. It was like, well.....trying on dresses. I was (and still am) really really excited, though. Can't wait until I actually have a wedding dress of my own to marry my man in!

I wish I had some pictures to show you but the boutique didn't allow us to take any. Boo! Plus, I haven't decided if I want pictures of me in white dresses populating the internets. A nosy reader who might happen to be marrying me could come across these pictures and I wouldn't be very happy. He can't see me in a fancy white dress before the wedding! Isn't that bad luck or something? Sorry homie, but this is part of the wedding planning that I'm not sharing with you. :P

I'm not going to share the name of the boutique where I went this weekend because I don't want to give it a negative image to anyone who might be reading this. The customer service and attention at the boutique was great. I have no complaints about that. The sales lady that helped me was super nice and didn't seem to be bothered that I had absolutely no idea of the type of dress that I wanted. I don't think I was as prepared as other brides because I went in not having a list of dresses that I wanted to see. I wanted to just try on different styles to see what fit best on me and what I was most comfortable in. When I was asked if I knew what I wanted to try on, I said "No, not really. I kinda want to try on everything." HAH! They must have thought I was crazy. But they tried their best to give me recommendations. And if they were frustrated with me, it didn't show at all! The thing that really surprised me happened at the end of my visit.

After about an hour of playing dress up, I had a couple of favorites. Best of all, the prices for both of them were less than I had imagined. They were def under my budget, and these were just the boutique prices. Being the relatively frugal person that I am, I thought "Hey! I should like go compare prices for the same dress(es) at different boutiques or see if I can find the same ones/same styles online for cheaper. Then I will really be under-budget!" So as I am saying bye to the nice sales lady, I ask her really casually if she can write down the names/styles of those dresses that I liked. She answered me in a way that kind of avoided my question and left me a bit confused. She said something like "Oh well they don't have names. They just have store numbers." She had previously told me who the designers were, so I asked her "well don't they have specific names for the designers?" And she said yes, but they don't keep track of that. Again, they just "went by the store numbers." By this point, I was still confused but I was starting to get the impression that she was not going to give me the designers' names for the dresses. I asked again (very politely) if they can refer to their store numbers to get the original designer names. Certainly they keep that information, no? The lady apologized and said that she could not give me that information. I asked her if that was part of the store policy and she said yes. By now I was thinking to myself "This is a perfect example of the wedding industry gone wrong." I was still nice to the lady. I mean, it's not her fault she isn't allowed to give out dress names so that I can go and find better prices elsewhere. But who knows? Maybe her boutique really did have the best prices for those dresses. It could have been the one! But I most definitely will not go back to that boutique because I do not support that type of competitiveness.

That boutique sent me one very clear message: that they do not have their customers best interest in mind. It proved to me once again that a large chunk of the wedding industry is all about profit and taking advantage of people trying to have their dream wedding by making them believe that they need to pay exorbitant prices in order to do so. Well, wedding industry, I'm here to tell you that I'm not going to play by your rules. If it takes me several extra hours to research the lowest price in my area for a piece of ribbon to tie around my pomanders, so be it! And guess what? If I need to go home and sit in front of my computer for 2 hours on a designer's website clicking one-by-one through every dress picture to find the one that I tried on and liked, then I'm gonna do it! And if we are going to spend lots of our hard-earned money on something in particular, it is something that we know will be worth it.

So there it is. My first dress shopping experience. Fun, yet eye-opening. I can't wait to find my dress for cheaper (and yes - I found the dress names online. Go me!)

Is it just me, or does anyone else think it is very uncool for bridal boutiques to do this? Better yet, has this happened to anyone else?

Nervous Time!

This week has got me nervous. A couple of important events are happening within the next four days. The first one is a visit to the "tax man." It's making me a little uneasy because this visit is going to determine our ultimate wedding budget. That's right- we are using our tax refund to fund our wedding day. It makes me a little bit nervous because that money could easily be applied to paying off so many other things. And what if we don't get as much from the refund as we are expecting? What if we have no budget? ay ay ay... I'm really looking forward to throwing a memorable party for our families and closest friends, but it is such a commitment in terms of money. I've learned to be a lot more realistic in the whole planning process. I've learned that what it really boils down to is that you can pay as much as you want or as less as you want. Want a photographer to follow you around all day? Well it's just as easy to find someone who will follow you around for $10,000 as it is to find someone who will follow you around with a camera for $1,000 or less. I know the results will all be different, but it's up to you to decide what you're willing to pay for: a photographer with 10 years of experience and hundreds of weddings under his belt, or an up and coming photographer with less experience but just as much enthusiasm. I'm leaning towards the latter. I've found myself thinking this way more and more lately.

The other notable event for the week is my first dress searching/trying-on experience. I am more excited about this one, but again I'm nervous about the money issue. I'm already going in with the mindset that I'm not going to buy anything yet. My dress search will be purely to "test the waters." I want to get a feel for the style of dress that looks best on me. Then maybe in a couple weeks I'll go to another boutique and compare dresses & prices. After that I will probably have to do some major internet research and price comparisons. I'm prepared for my dress search to take a while. I am also determined to get the best price out there.

All this thinking and worrying is getting me all riled up. What worries you most about wedding planning?

A Challenge I Do Not Like

Centerpieces. Another one of those overpriced wedding items that I just cannot justify spending so much money on. They are lovely, true that. And tables just don't seem complete without some decorative piece gracing the middle. In fact, right now I have my little potted green plant sitting in the middle of my glass coffee table. No reason for it to be there. No reason at all, other than my table looks naked without it. So now, the important question is what to use as centerpieces for our wedding. Luckily, I kinda knew soon after our engagement what I wanted. Let's rewind back to May 2008.

Felipe had just asked me to be his wife a couple weeks before a trip to Mexico. We were heading to the state of Guanajuato and our itinerary included a visit to the historic town of Dolores Hidalgo. Being the crazy vacation planning freak that I am, I had read several travel guides and books to get an idea of what to expect in every town we were visiting. I kept reading how Dolores Hidalgo was famous for its hand made pottery - "talavera". It became one of the things I was really looking forward to for that trip. I was super excited for all of the handmade goods and was making sure to keep space in my luggage for all the goodies I planned on bringing back. Sure enough, Dolores Hidalgo lived up to its reputation of a "pottery town." Blocks were lined with so many different pottery shops, and the pieces were all so beautiful.

Imagine walking down the streets that looked like this:


And when you walk inside, you see all these beauties:


And just because you're curious you walk down the hall into the back room and find this:




I was in love. I wanted all of it (I still do!) We thought it would be really cool to incorporate some of these goods into our wedding. We weren't really sure what, though, since we had literally only been engaged for like two weeks and had not even talked about decorations or any of those silly wedding details. So we put that thought in the back of our mind as something to consider later in the planning process.

Fast forward to 8 months later and Felipe and I are getting ready to take another trip to Mexico. As I've mentioned before, our latest vacation included a trip to the town of Tlaquepaque. We went there on a mission to find us some talavera at cheap prices. We decided that we want to use talavera vases for our centerpieces and stuff them with fresh flowers. Well, Tlaquepaque did not fail in providing the talavera vases. The only catch was that they did not come cheap. The goods were way more expensive than what we had remembered in the humble family-run shops in the little town of Dolores Hidalgo (where there were practically no foreign tourists.) There was a way cool variety of talavera, though. Check out this gorg piece:

At over $20 per vase, this was way out of our league. But isn't it lovely?

I kid you not that the vases in Dolores Hidalgo did not exceed $10 a piece, so we were not willing to drop double the price of what we knew they really sold at. We gave up searching in Tlaquepaque and decided to hit the road to Tonala, another artisan town near Guadalajara. We had heard that Tonala was a little more low-key & less touristy. Indeed it was. It was like a huge street market. We were able to find some talavera here, but the quality wasn't quite as nice. We found one shop that had a large selection of talavera items, but only a limited quantity of the type of vases we were looking for. We grabbed 4 large vases and a couple smaller ones. At about $7 each, I wasn't complaining. I figured we should just start our collection now. We need at least 20 total. The challenge now is figuring how to get more vases to LA before November. Our current options are: 1) call up shops directly and find out if we can place an order to get shipped to the U.S. (the trouble with this is getting a hold of a good, reputable shop since most of them don't have email or websites); or 2)recruit some family members in Mexico to take a road trip to Guanajuato, buy them for us, and send them. Sigh... Right now our talavera collection is so tiny. Need. More. Vases.


We'll have to make a decision quick since it might take a while to ship if we decide to go that route. For now, I'll show you how lovely these look as a centerpiece. I randomly found this picture on one of my wedding magazines and though "hey that's exactly the type of look we are going for!" Cool, huh?

(Photo source: my Ceremony magazine)

I know this is just one of those many challenges that happen while planning a big party. It is expected though, no? What kind of challenges have you come across?

Today I did an experiment

I'll admit that I never paid much attention to pomanders prior to being introduced to the world of wedding planning. I don't think I even knew exactly what they were. I would have probably defined them as balls of some sorts. When I started considering all of those pretty details that I'd like to include for our day, fresh flower pomanders were definitely in the picture.

As seen on my inspiration board, I found a picture of a pomander that inspired me. I thought it might be nice to have a few of them hanging around maybe as pew decorations in the church or maybe hanging from trees during the reception. Either way, I want them! To be honest, I have no idea how much they cost. But, I do think it is safe to assume that they are one of those unreasonably overpriced items (as per the usual trend in the wedding industry). Ahh...what is one to do when you want something but can't afford it? You MAKE IT.

I found some very basic instructions here. This is how my experiment turned out:

I rounded up my materials: some floral foam I had hanging around from a previous project, chicken wire/poultry netting ($6 for 20 square feet at Home Depot), wire clippers, and ribbon.


Part 2 of the materials: the flowers! I chose Gerber Daisies for this trial ($9 for 20 daisies from the LA Flower Mart).


Step 1 - Cover the flower foam with chicken wire. I think this was the most difficult part. Who knew chicken wire was so hard to work with? And it's sharp when you cut it...ouch! Here the naked floral foam with a freshly cut square of chicken wire.


It took a while to get the chicken wire around the foam. There was a lot of clipping of excessive wire and pokes to the fingers - but it is possible. To secure the wire around the foam, I tied ends of the wire to each other.


Step 2 - Tie your ribbon on. I got 10 yards of white ribbon for $5 from Moskatels in the flower district (btw, best craft store FOR REALS. It deserves its own post..). I call this the baldmander.


Step 3 - Dip in H2O. Your flowers need water to make it through the day, so feed them! I dipped the foam in the water until it was completely submerged then took it out.


Step 4 - Start adding your flowers. I cut the daisy stems so that they were about 1 to 2 inches long. I started at the top and then realized that you need to hang the pom from somewhere to add the bottom flowers. Just add and move the flowers around until it resembles a ball. This part is pretty tricky. I couldn't seem to get a perfect circle..hmmm. I think these pomanders take a bit more practice than I thought.


Step 5 - Admire your finished product. Here it is. My first pomander! Okay okay I know it's nothing great. I'm really not 100% happy with the results. It's a bit lopsided and bald in some areas.



It's not exactly a perfect circle. I think next time I'll try a different type of flower to compare.

A few other things to remember:

-Thread the ribbon through the chicken wire more. I only looped the ribbon around once. Big mistake. The pomander kept tipping to one side.

-Make the floral foam smaller. These balls are heavy!! The foam I used was about one cubic foot. A smaller size would work just fine and there would be less area to cover.

-Wrap floral tape around the stems, or choose a flower with a thicker stem. The daisy stems alone were not cutting it when it came to holding their place or rearranging. Their stems were way too weak.

The pomander took a little over an hour to make, and at about $15 each I ain't gonna complain about the price (considering I still have plenty of chicken wire & ribbon for next time). All I gotta do now is practice making more of these suckers.

Has anyone else made fresh flower pomanders before? Got any tips?

How's the Planning Going?

I know all you brides-to-be be hearing this question all the time. I know I do, and I know you do too. And guess what? It doesn't bother me one bit.

After I got engaged and started stalking the internets for anything wedding related, I came across so many blogs and online discussion boards where future brides were complaining about how they are constantly harassed by this question. I didn't get it. I still don't. And as I began to think about why I feel any different, I started to realize a few things. Maybe I don't mind it because wedding planning has been pretty pleasant so far. Maybe I'm not really into full wedding-planning mode yet. Maybe I'm not even wedding planning at all. Sure, we got the church and reception hall out of the way, but besides that I'm not really stressing over the rest of the details. That doesn't mean that I haven't thought about it or played with ideas. Because I have- I promise! But, you know, we still have several months go to and things will come together wont they? Oh but don't I dare tell that to another Summer/Fall bride-to-be because according to them: "girrrrl you need to be on top of things!!!" And the more I think about it the more I realize that maybe, and most probably, wedding planning is not my life...(Yet?) Yeah, it has been a fun process so far but there are so many other things that I am enjoying and trying to take full advantage of right now - like cleaning or decorating my new home, cooking and experimenting with new recipes, doing well in school, staying healthy, and being a good fiancée!

If you ask me, I think I've done a good deal of wedding planning. In fact, I am most definitely ready to get married NOW. Because now that I think about it, the majority of my planning has really been "marriage planning", which I think is the most integral part of the wedding planning process. In my case, most of my time has been spent pondering over whether I can really be a good wife and what it takes to be so; thinking about what life will be like after Felipe and I are "Mr. & Mrs.;" wondering if I will be a good permanent "roommate" to Felipe; trying to figure out how we can still maintain a strong and loving bond as a couple without losing our individual identities; and of course having discussions about all of this with the man! Shouldn't all of this happen first before you even touch the subjects of cake toppers or what color table runners to use??

Let me tell you that I am so glad that we've had 9 months (and counting!) to mentally prepare ourselves for such a life-changing event. These past months have gone by so quickly. As distant as the next 9 months seem to be, I am positive that they will fly by just as fast. So as ready as I am to be a Mrs. right now, I'm going to savor the next nine and final months of being a fiancée. As far as I'm concerned, that's plenty of time to figure out which flowers to use in our centerpieces and choose a cake flavor. :)

Surely I am not the only one who thinks this way, right? Yay? Nay?

New Year, New Adventures

Hello blog world.

Happy 2009! I hope everyone was able to ring in the new year with their loved ones. I know I'm looking forward to this year and all of the changes that it will be bringing! I continue to be amazed by how quickly years go by, and I guess I always will be. Time does not slow down and I really need to make an effort to truly understand the meaning of "no day like today." Maybe that will be my resolution although I've never been much of a resolution person. But as long as I keep that thought at the back of my mind I'm sure it will have some kind of positive effect.

This year, I was lucky enough to ring in a new year in one of my favorite places - Mexico! I spent an amazing 12 days full of family, adventures in new cities with my man, and really really GOOD FOOD. On to the fotos!

Christmas and the few days after it were spent in the lovely Jerez, Zacatecas. This was my second visit there and this time I got to see it decorated for the holidays.




I stayed with Felipe's family in his grandparents house where a total of about 20 people stayed while we were there! Christmas eve consisted of mass with the family, a massive gift exchange with everyone squished into one room, and lots of homemade fooood! Some of my favorite memories happen in houses packed with family taking up every free corner, and this Christmas was no exception.



Felipe's parents celebrated their 25th anniversary while in Jerez with a mass and reception. Here's the church waiting for them to walk down the aisle again. It's the same church they got married in 25 years ago!


I only wish I could get married in a church half as beautiful as this!


Posing with Felipe's cousin before mass.


Party time..with mariachi of course!



The party continued the next day at Felipe's grandparent's house with tacos and more mariachi.


That night when the party started winding down, Felipe's family surprised Felipe and I with a very touching "celebración para la bienvenida de los esposos" - a kind of traditional Mexican wedding shower. His aunts made us sit in the middle of all of the family while we tried to figure out what the heck was going on. Well it turned out that since this trip will probably be the last time that most of them will see us before the wedding, they wanted to do a special celebration for us. Everyone from the family presented us with a little gift that is supposed to help us get started to form our home, and then they said a reading that explained the symbolism behind each gift. They presented us with things like a bible, rosary, wine, tools, medicine, etc...many of which we couldn't take home, but they still did the celebration for us so that we could have a traditional pre-wedding celebration. It was certainly a very special and unexpected surprise and one of my favorite memories from this trip.

The week following Christmas, Felipe and I jumped on a bus for a 4 hour ride to the beautiful Guadalajara. While there we admired the city decorated for the holidays:




had the most DELISH birria:


at...

ate some traditional & super yummmmmie tortas ahogadas:


enjoyed one of my favorite dishes - enchiladas:


..which are so much better accompanied by a mariachi show under the stars:



I've said it before and I'll say it again - food is one of my main inspirations for travel. Where else can you get the most authentic and delicious food than straight from the source? Mexican food happens to be on the top of my fav food list (of course), and have I told you that food in Mexico is super duper inexpensive? Well it is! So, Mexico is a winner in my book of "places I need to keep traveling to."

Anywho, aside from eating we made time to do some sightseeing.



We rode on the Tequila Express which consisted of a a train ride to the town of Tequila, a tour of the Hacienda Herradura (where they make the tequila), lots of mariachi, and plenty of tequila drinking:


We took a couple of day trips to the nearby artisan towns of Tlaquepaque and Tonala.




...both of which we had ulterior motives for visiting, but I think I'll save that story for another time.

I dunno about everyone else, but I get super sad every time I get back from vacation. I guess that means I had a good time though, no? I am very glad that we were able to make this trip happen. For now, I'm anticipating the happy times that 2009 has to offer. This will be a big year and I'm determined to enjoy it to the fullest!