maricris07's Xanga

115 days!

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 00:20:27 GMT

Thanks everyone for their input regarding the flowers! In light of all the chaos that I will probably have to contend with in the weeks to come, I decided not to go the DIY route nor the internet route for my flowers.

Instead, I'm getting my flowers from a local florist here & I'm so excited with their work. They came highly recommended by my co-workers & I was surprised to get a fabulous deal (especially since I wanted the callas & orchids). Since I wasn't into having floral centerpieces (I love the romantic lighting of candles ~ so hurricane lamps and lil votive lights galor instead) so that definitely made my floral budget more feasible.

My flowers: Mango calla lillies & cymbydium orchids; arranged in a round bouquet and hand-tied
FH bout: Orchid
Maids' flowers: mango callas & red roses (i saw it in bride's magazine and it was pretty) with green berry fillers; arranged in a round bouquet & also hand-tied
GM bout: calla lillies
My parents: refused flowers because of allergies; maybe i'll get silk flowers from them
His Parents: once i find out FMIL's dress, i'll coordinate something pretty for her and matching for him.

Also booked our limo ~ an H2 Hummer for 5 hours (due to driving btw hotel --> church --> park pics --> hotel).

I still can't believe it's only 115more days!

Still have to book a hair/makeup person.

Details ... details ... details ...

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 22:41:51 GMT

130 days to go!

With a little more than 4 months to go, we really have to get with the program & finalize details regarding flowers, hair/makeup and limos.

Flowers

for budget's sake, I was considering ordering my flowers from online services, such as Costco.com or ProFlowers.com

however, they have limited choices and I am not quite a excited aboutr roses and hydrangeas as a am with "exotic flowers" (ie, calla lilies, orchids), so I'll probably go for a local bridal florist and get the callas ... hopefully it won't be too crazy $$$!

Hair

my hair is fine, straight (easily curled though) and the length is right about bra-line. I'm currently contemplating a half-up or totally down look to go with my pearl & crystal headpiece (more like head band or narrow crown) and arm-length veil (which does include a blusher but I'm probably going to leave it back and not over my face).
I need to book a hairstylist ~ trying to figure out the logistics because we need to be all dressed by 1:30 so we can leave Jersey, take some pics and make it back to my church for the 3pm ceremony. So either we'll head to a salon early in the morning, or have someone come to the hotel.
pictures taken from weddingchannel.com & theknot.com

Makeup -- not sure yet if i will get it personally done? I usually don't wear too much make up & even if I do, I like neutral tones.

Limos -- hmm ... SUVs, limos, or party buses?!? Besides us and our honor attendants, we also have 4 bridesmaids & 4 groomsmen. Plus our parents & my grandparents my need a ride. We need 2 probably since they'll go straight to the reception while we take pictures (there's 3 hrs between the end of the Mass & the beginning of cocktail hr.)

We're famous!

Fri, 16 Feb 2007 00:59:08 GMT

haha

just kidding ... well ... sort of ...

As part of their Valentine's Day special, we were one of three couples featured on NBC's Today in New York's "Romantic Marriage Proposals" segment.

Click for our TV Debut

Since that's the local prequel to the national Today Show, it was on yesterday morning at about 6:45am. I didn't realize a lot of ppl watch it, but apparently a whole bunch of people at work (I'm at a hospital), said they saw it. lol

5.5 months to go!

Wed, 07 Feb 2007 23:14:54 GMT

Actually, more like 162 days to be exact ...

Wedding plans are well underway ... this month's to do list:

check out limo companies
decide on centerpieces

hurricane lamps & candles
vases filled with fruits? preferably apples to go with our red theme

go to our 1st Pre-Cana Session
decide on tuxes

Last month, my bridesmaids & I got together and finally picked out a dress. Ironically it was a new style that I noticed on our trip there (so of course, I had to add it to my list of 5 other dresses ... I'm such a pain ... lol)

I just love this dress! It's Bill Levkoff Style 453. We ordered it in European Red (like a ruby red) with the sash in European Champagne (a slightly lighter taupe than the sash in the picture). I want one too! haha The sample dress was in black & taupe ~ it just looked stunning on everyone.

Three of the bridesmaids are my closest friends from HS and the other two are my sorority sisters. It was great for them to all meet up and get to know each other. We just all hung out for hours after our lil shopping excursion.

Jim & I are psyched for our honeymoon in Riviera Maya at "El Dorado Royale". Located just 20 minutes south of Cancun, it's an all-inclusive SPA resort.

Next post, will probably be sooner, especially in regards to a Valentine's Day Surprise As well as my hair style & make-up inspiration-pics.

204 days! =O

Thu, 28 Dec 2006 01:26:01 GMT

i can't believe that our wedding is in less than seven months!

our "done" list, thus far:

church
reception
dress & accessories (picking it up this wk!)
my wedding band
DJ
photographer
Dress for wedding rehearsal
Dress change for Reception (as much as I LOVE my dress, I couldn't imagine myself wearing it plus all the crinoline and my 4in heels for 12hrs) after the formalities of introduction and dances, i'll probably be changing into my second dress, which is a complete opposite of my gown but I love it none the less.

next up for January:

invitations (narrowed down to 3 choices ... want to order by January so we can send them out by March, hopefully, but we haven't collected all our addresses yet!)
Pre-Cana & all the church documentation
bridesmaid dresses (leaning more toward the Bill Levkoff dresses instead of the David's Bridal dresses.. we'll be checking them out the end of January)
narrow down our choices for honeymoons (we're looking for all inclusive packages) so we'll probably opt for:
- Aruba
- St. Lucia
- Riviera Maya
- Jamaica

i've missed blogging

eventually i'll get around to posting Queen Mary 2 cruise pics and holiday pics...

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas & Happy New Year everyone!

Wedding fashion...

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 00:49:33 GMT

Of course, getting married to your best friend is the best part but the next second best is all the shopping.

Since my dress has the embroidery & beading at the hem (see previous post), I made it a point to find ultra-high shoes because I didn't want to sacrifice the lovely hem.

Even at the hospital, I wear 2-3in shoes, usually with a pointy toe. My co-workers thing I'm crazy, but trust me, if you find a comfy pair (go figure that Naturalizer has stylish shoes) I can run around doing my 12-hr shifts at the hospital

Ironically, I'm quite a klutz ... especially if flat shoes!

Ideally, i wanted a tall shoe that wasn't quite stiletto, in order to provide stability for the whole wedding day. However, I didn't want to be too "arched", otherwise my feet would be killing me by the end of the day.

In the end, I found a fabulous shoe with a slight platform that was comfortable without looking totally 'disco-era':
The Dyeables "Jewel" shoe has a 4inch heel, allowing my 5'1 self to be 5'5 ~ I can't wait! haha

The bridesmaid dress hunt did not go as smoothly. The first time I went, I went with my mom just to get a feel of what was out there. We went to David's Bridal, & I tried on the following dresses (obviously my theme color is red):

~ pretty but I wasn't too keen on the train
~ possible MOH dress
~ not as pretty in person
~ my favorite. with the ruching and the pencil skirt, it gives a nice lean look that's quite flattering
~ was pretty but I wasn't really into the satin top mixed with a chiffon skirt

The 2nd round I went with my MOH at Macy's Bridal and we found several dresses there, though to me, they felt like more "traditional" gowns, therefore, I was more weary of them because I was trying to find dresses that the bridal party could use again for future events (it's all about more 'bang for your buck!' lol). The following were all Bill Levkoff dresses:

My first choice is still the David's Bridal column dress, but we're going in January to order them together, so hopefully it'll be comfortable for them

Only 242 days to go!

The Dress Hunt ...

Fri, 17 Nov 2006 01:46:25 GMT

My friends and bridesmaids (as someone in the medical field, I will not call my ladies 'BMs') were in complete shock that not only was THE dress the 3rd dress I tried on, but I fell in love with it at my 1st dress hunt excursion!

I've always been an organized person and over the years (FYI, FH & I have been together for almost 8yrs), I have had numerous ideas of what my ideal dress would be.

Inspiration:

demetrios ilissa style 909

demetrios ilissa style 898

david's bridal/oleg cassini cv006

demetrios ilissa style 790

demetrios ilissa style 839

Although I found many strapless gowns beautiful, I'm just not comfortable in strapless tops/dresses. I suppose it just makes me very self-conscious. If you can't tell by some of these pictures, the main attractions to the above-mentioned dresses were the embroidery/beading.

At first, I wasn't sure if I was going to like A-line dresses w/ crinoline, in fear that I would look like a marshmallow (I'm only 5'1). But the dress I chose was an ivory halter A-line dress with embroidery at the waist, hem, and train.

Unfortunately, neither my mom, FMIL, or I had brought cameras with us, but here's my dress from the GroupUSA website:

I had envisioned myself in a pure white dress, but came to realize that I looked ghastly in white (actually, on the verge of looking jaundiced). Ivory was a far better choice. Although these pictures are deceiving, the one on the left is "candelight" and the right is "ivory." In reality, my dress is a shade in between the two.

It was perfect for me but in need of minor alterations (re: hem, bustle, etc.)

Out of curiousity, how did YOU know that the dress was "it"? And am I the only one who found it this fast? I know everyone fears "buyer's remorse" and are weary of jumping the gun and buying the dress right away.

A lil intro about us ... (taken from our wedding website)

Wed, 15 Nov 2006 01:22:53 GMT

Jim's version was much too long (who would've known he was so 'wordy' ~ for those who know us, I'm the more talkative of the two )

Every lasting relationship begins with a solid friendship...

It was the beginning of the fall semester (1998) when we met at the University at Buffalo's 1st general meeting of FASA. We spent the remainder of the semester getting to know each other better thru FASA events and our lil lunches at Talbert's & at the Commons. It wasn't until the end of the semester when Jim finally got the courage to ask me out

You think you know but you have no idea ... I can't believe I was punk'd!!!

Jim said that his brother had won tickets from work for a private movie screening. The catch was that it had to be early on Saturday prior to the 1st matinee show. So Jim picked me up early on Saturday and despite the icky weather we were able to get to the theater early. To throw me off, he said some friends were going to meet up with us so we had to wait until 10 to watch the movie, in case they would still be able to make it. I decided to take a nap while waiting for them to arrive. Later, Jim starts nudging me and telling me that the previews were starting. When I looked up, I saw a slideshow about us (in my mind, i was still thinking this was a lil personalized addition to our movie date). Towards the end of the slideshow that's when I was surprised when I saw his family and my parents, each holding a sign stating "Maricris" ... "will" ... "you" ... "marry" ... and the "me" sign was carried by Jim. Of course, I said "YES!" & the rest is history

I need to take a better picture, but here it is ...

My future MIL helped him pick it out ... we also went this wknd to pic out my wedding band! I don't have a picture of them together, but here is one that is similar ...

I'm excited! It's a special order from designer Martin Flyer because my finger is so small (4.75) but it will be arriving at Fortunoff in a couple of wks.

248 days & counting ...

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 01:29:02 GMT

So, onto a new blog to chronicle my days & nights as an engaged woman.

I used to have another xanga account, as well as an LJ account, neither of which I use often.

Well, at least I have this new account that my hunnie doesn't know. lol (in the event I want to post pictures of my dress!)

With a lil more than 8 months to go, at least I have accomplished:

church
reception venue
dress
bridesmaid dresses
wedding band
photographer (narrowed down to two choices)