Love at first sight does exist.

The most beautiful clutch known to man.

The new Valentino line is sick, I love it so bad.  (I'm even using slang I never use!) See all of them here...

Oh, if only I had an extra $1000+ dollars lying around! 

Enjoy Your Stay

Crowne Plaza Houston River Oaks

I thought trying to get a block of hotel rooms at a reasonable price in this neighborhood was going to be a waste of time.  For some reason everything 'in the loop' of Houston is overpriced.  There are plenty of 'reasonably' priced hotels in the area, but they are kind of gross looking.  Most of my family is coming from San Antonio/Austin area, so they may need a place for a night, maybe 2 - so my mom suggested something under 100 would be good.  Well when you check travelocity/hotels.com/etc., all the area hotels that aren't gross are like $120.  So I am thinking, if this is from a 'discount' website, that is probably the best I am going to get.  Plus a lot of my relatives have hookups or want reward points from their hotel brand of choice - Marriott, or Hilton, whatever - so they may not want to even bother with my room-block.  But then I think of the cost for all of A's family and friends, coming from at least 3 states away, mainly Nevada.  I know not everyone will be able to come, but those who do will have a plane ticket, probably a car rental, and a couple nights in a hotel - that adds up crazy fast.  Long story short, I emailed the top 6 non gross hotels closest to the church (because staying downtown would be more annoying to navigate probably) and said - looking for a group rate for our wedding weekend.  Some gave an ok discount, like $99 instead of $119.  But the Crowne Plaza gave us $69 per night instead of the $109 rate.  Hello 40% off!  So I am glad my efforts were rewarded!  And it is a great location, and close by to a bunch of cool stuff.  Yay!

A is the Hotel
B is the Church
C is the Petroleum Club

Getting excited!

Registered!

Keeping Martha Stewart in Business.

Registering is so much fun, you guys!  This comes as no surprise to me, because one of my favorite things to do that keeps my spending in check is to add stuff to my amazon.com wishlist.  It sometimes feels like actually buying it...lol.  But needless to say, my wishlist stands at about 17 pages.  I figure I will buy all that stuff eventually!  I was delighted that A had as much fun as I did scanning housewares all around Macy's.  We only went to the actual Macy's store to for the registering.  Stores these days make it so easy to register online, so that is just what I did!  I was sort of torn between which stores to choose.  We figured a low priced place and a moderately priced place.  I knew I wanted Macy's because A and I are obsessed with Martha Stewart (I don't know why, we just are.) and her line is exclusive to Macy's.  Target seemed like a good lower cost place, but I had reservations because I have heard their return policy isn't that great, and A pretty much owns everything he wants from Target already - so we decided to go with amazon instead (and the universal registry button is awesome!).  But then everything I was reading says you need to register for 2-3 gifts per person you are inviting.  That is like 500 things or more?!  We just don't need that much stuff.  But I tried to stretch it out and got on board with Crate and Barrel and Pottery Barn for little decorative stuff.  It is difficult because A and I don't even know where we are going to live after we get married yet, so no telling how much space we will have for a million kitchen gadgets, or what we will be working with as far as decorating stuff needed.  If you are reading this - please know that your attendance is gift enough for us!  But in case you are curious, here is what we picked out:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wedding/H8FHNQI6Z67N 

http://www1.macys.com/registry/wedding/guest/?registryId=443873

http://www.crateandbarrel.com/Gift-Registry/Guest/View-Registry.aspx?grid=4697904

http://www.potterybarn.com/registry/2702146/registry-list.html

Moving Right Along

Source

Only kidding, it isn't that serious.  I have been referring back to my short term To-Do list, and I am making some pretty good progress.  It feels like this is the only area of my life making much progress though!  School and work are going ok, I just don't feel like giving them the 100% that I usually do.  I feel like everything is getting a solid 70%.  But actually, looking at the to-do list, most things are almost all done or halfway done.  I have 3/4 bridesmaids confirmed, we have 0 groomsmen or ushers confirmed, we have a theme and colors, and the website is just about done, and we are almost done registering once A does research on the best knives to get, and we have the guest list just about together.  We are making headway!

In wedding news not related to myself, I am going to a wedding shower for my friend J tomorrow - so excited!  And me and the team need to get cracking on Ag's shower which is happening at the end of May.  I am so looking forward to that weekend - we are going to Las Vegas (A's hometown) so that I can meet his family, we can celebrate his 30th Birthday with his friends, and throw Ag a wedding shower!  So much fun, and I am ready for a vacation!

Texas > Everywhere

Yee Haw!

It is hard not to be prideful when a line of nailpolish is inspired by your state... ;)

Catechism Update

My homeboy, Jesus.

I just realized that I have not talked about catechism class yet!  So far I have been to two classes, so it is still fairly new to me.  It is cool meeting people in the church.  A knows a bunch of them, but he has trouble in the friendliness department on Sundays (and add to that the fact that 'everyone has their own agenda' - per new friend Olga)  So due to all the new people meeting, I am beginning to get a much better sense of community at church, which is cool.  Class is fairly interesting.  Week one, A tagged along with me and we just went over basic things about God and Orthodox Christianity.  It was a little all over the place, so we touched on creation, and demons, and all kinds of random things.  Week two was better as far as knowing what is going on and what we are learning about.  Week two was mostly about sin, and what the Orthodox view is on the matter.  And I also learned that I should believe that animals don't have souls.  They have a life force/energy, but not an immortal soul like people.  So that's why there is a separate heaven for dogs.  I was always confused on the matter.  **Also, please note that I am only rehashing what I am learning in this class.  I respect you completely if you believe in something different or nothing at all.  I am no theologian, I just work here!

So yeah, class is good.  I am really looking forward to this week's class because we are going to talk about the different stuff that happens during liturgy (Sunday church service).  Because I am totally lost in that area - I only can kind of tell what is going on about 64% of the time.  Yay for clarity! 

Engagement Photo Thoughts

It is a scam created by photographers!  Only kidding.

I think, back in the day, you only took an engagement photo (singular) for your announcement in the newspaper...
I really love looking at engagement photos of other people.  I think that they are far more interesting than wedding photos usually.  Like 'here's us with my grandparents' 'here's us with the wedding party'...  Totally special to you (the couple) sure, but for your average facebook stalker friend - yawn.  I guess engagement photos these days are much more fun and personalized, and you can wear whatever you want and take them whereever you want.  The only downside I see to these is that a lot of photographers get super mushy and have all these pics of you and your guy kissing and stuff.  I don't really want to look at that framed in my living room.  And I certainly don't want to send it to my Mom, or my Aunts and Uncles!  So aside from putting said photos on flickr and facebook for people to ooh and aah over, I don't much see a practical point for them.  And I don't know, the whole thing seems better suited for more attractive people than A and I.  We are total trolls.  (kidding.)
But yeah, the super deal I got on save the dates are ones that require a few pictures.  Ugh.  And since I decided a while back that I didn't want to carve out any of our budget for engagement photos, I am going to improvise. 
I have a digital camera, and a perfectly good little brother.
So at some point A and I may go buy a new outfit or two and take a few family friendly photos together.  Nothing too mushy though.  lol 

Save the Dates!

But we are going to have different pictures....lol

www.peartreegreetings.com

AND there is a groupon-esque deal to be had @ www.plumdistrict.com!

Etsy Inspiration

I am on a color quest, y'all.

Esty.com

So far I am loving navy/deep blues.  Navy will be the new black, mark my words!  I think blue would also be a good color if I decide to go with a winter theme.

The venue has a lot of black and gold going on, and the church is also pretty decked out in gold, so maybe an ivory or pearl color - because gold would be too matchy-matchy.

And maybe pink - I like pink flowers at least

But I have to keep in mind that it is A's wedding too, and he may not want a pink foofoo party...
He loooooves orange.  Since we are not having an autumn or summer wedding where orange is more appropriate, I could compromise with peach.

And I love greys.  Silver is like the fancy version of grey, so that could also work.  It would be a good winter color.

How on earth will I decide???

Any faves?  I'd love comments!

Time to get Orthodoxed

I misspelled on my calendar, my bad.

Tonight at 7pm, I start catechism.  I am kind of stoked.  I mean, I am excited to learn about the Orthodox faith, so maybe I don't feel like such an outsider when I go to church with A.  This whole converting thing is what makes all of this seem for real to me.  But anyway.  The Orthodox faith is partially similar to Catholicism - which is what my family is - and the other part of it is totally foreign, and ...looking for a nice word to say weird...I don't know.  I mean, I know Catholicism is weird to people who don't know how it goes - so I am trying to keep an open mind and let myself get used to it.  As it goes, I am particularly frazzled because of Lent.  In the Catholic church, when Lent comes around you just pick something you want to give up, and try really hard not to have it for the 40 days ( The forty days represent the time that, according to the Bible, Jesus spent in the desert before the beginning of his public ministry, where he endured temptation by Satan.)  ((And yes, I know it is sad, but I had to look that up in wikipedia.))  But yeah, I try at first, but I am lucky if I last a week.  So in short, it is nothing that I took all that seriously.  Lent was just a time to chow down on Cadbury Eggs until Easter.



<3



Lent in Orthodoxy is bigtime.  They fast for 40 days (actually it is 49 this year, but who's counting?) So that means A and I are sort of vegans.  No Meat, Fish, Dairy, Oil.  (Some days you can have oil)  We can eat shellfish though, so that is something.  Actually, I love shrimp a lot, and once I said to my bestie Kat that I wish I could eat shrimp everyday.  She said that I was an adult and I could if I wanted to, to which I replied yeah, but it would get expensive and I might get mercury poisoning over time, so it isn't feasible.  But looks like my dreams are somewhat coming true.  lol.  But yeah, this time in the Church is very serious and like spiritually cleansing I think.  So I guess during this time, Fr. S thought it is the perfect time to convert myself and a few other interested parties into Orthodoxy. 

The weird thing happened yesterday, which when I think more about it, is kind of nice I suppose, but man.  I was given zero warning about what the Forgiveness Sunday vespers was all about.  We had the church service, and then we had to line up and ask forgiveness of everyone in the church.  Individually.  And kiss them on the cheek.  A threw this at me as a 'by the way...' as we were lining up.  Had I mentally perpared a bit, I think things would have gone better, but I was like in panic mode supreme.  I don't have social anxiety to the point where I need a therapist or anything - but I am not a big fan of getting in personal space of those I don't know.  And I definitely am not a happy camper when I am put in a situation of impending uncomfortableness.  A made a fair point that noone really likes kissing strangers and stuff, but the meaning behind it is nice, so we should focus on that.  So I was a trooper, and I asked/gave forgiveness to 60 or so different strangers while my face was hot and my palms were sweating profusely.  A assured me that Forgiveness Sunday is as weird as it gets, but I don't know if I can trust him now, lol.  A is going to come with me tonight for the first class so it will be a little less scary.  

The Forgiveness Sunday is the kickoff of the Great Lent fast, and I usually will go veg with A during this time to show solidarity.  But I imagine Fr. S will think it is a good idea to participate.  I mean, this is going to be my life now, so may as well get it going.  I went through a vegetarian/vegan stage in college, so I totally am not worried about not sticking with it.  But yeah, besides the church incident yesterday, I am mostly excited about the process and looking forward to all I will be learning during catechism and also during this Lenten season.  Only 48 more days until Cadbury Eggs! ;)

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Lent

Orthodox Lent has its own Wikioedia page if you are interested in reading more!