Barbie and Ken Get Married

Taken from this article on Glamour's website.  You really should go to the article and see all the photos, too funny!

Wedding Crocs!

I have successfully acquired comfy shoes to dance the night away in and horrify my Mother in one fell swoop!

My first pair of crocs that I have owned are these flat mary jane style which I wear to work all the time. ( I call them my business crocs) ((And even though I am not very fashionable, I wouldn't be caught dead in public in those ugly crocs that are like mules/gardening shoes))  But that being said, they are sooooo comfortable.  And I think these flats are pretty cute if I do say so myself.
I am such a glutton for comfort you guys.  My dear Mom, she is so classy and put together looking always, and she just doesn't understand how I did not inherit this trait.  We got into a tiff just the other day because she was trying to tell me I had to wear panty hose and I didn't want to because I don't think my legs will be exposed at all during the evening.  "When I got married, I wanted to look perfect and polished, I don't understand why you don't want to look your best." - direct Mom quote.  I am not defending it, I know I could use an upgrade in the style department 9 times out of 10.  I guess I just feel like 'me' when I am dressed down and comfortable.  Being a bride is proving additionally challenging, because while I want to look stunning of course, I am most comfortable blending in and not having attention on me.  I mean, I hardly even wear jewelry because I feel like I am being too flashy.  It is silly, but this is how it is with me, lol. 

(source)

Don't look at me. 

So I have the fancy sparkley dress, and fancy shoes to be wed in, but for the party we are bring back the authentic Natalie who wears crocs and doesn't care.  And just for good measure I'll probably spill food on my dress while I am at it!  (...I hope not) 

So I have my business crocs, and now I have my wedding crocs :) 

Holidays!

Hey guys!  It has been a while, I know...

I, along with my Mom, have been working for weeks and hours getting our hand made invitations out so I have had little time for much else!  They have been mailed out, so in a day or two I will do a post on them once they have been received by the guests.  (Didn't want to ruin the surprise!)

Finally addressed and ready to go!

I have been having an awesome holiday however :)

I'll rewind back to the weekend before last, my Mom and I and a few neighbors had a humongous garage sale (sorry I forgot to take any photos) but we didn't pretty fantastically, so that will make a nice addition to the wedding budget - in a positive direction.  So yay for that!

Thanksgiving was pretty great too.  It was a small group, My Mom, brother, Aaron and Ruth and Sam (my step-grandparents).  We had a delicious feast, and Aaron made the most delicious turkey!

My little brother with a comically small whisk

Cutting up the bird!

Ruth and Sam are ready to eat!

We ate until we could eat no more.  Then Aaron and I went and saw the new Muppet movie, and it was great!  I recommend it if you have ever loved the muppets, or like laughing and feel nice movies :)

Friday we decided to sleep rather than wait in lines for super crazy deals, but around 9AM we headed to Macy's because we had some really good coupons.  The mall was pretty tame, so that was nice.  I always say I would gladly pay double to shop in an empty store rather than try to shop and bumping into people all over the place.  

And today (Saturday) it was rainy and I lounged around the house all day and did nothing.  It has been glorious!  

This coming week I have finals at school, so I will be getting those out of the way, then winter break starts!  Which means hyper-wedding mode starts in full force until the big day.  I so cannot believe I will be a married lady in a little over two months!? Wild!! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Wedding Crowns

We ordered our wedding crowns last week, and they have arrived!  We ordered from www.orthodoxweddingcrowns.com, and they came really quickly!  And they are just as beautiful as the picture:

St. Julia-Silver

The “St. Julia-Silver” crowns feature a stunning display of unique design, mixed with traditional qualities. Intricately woven silver thread/wire winds around baby pearls (faux pearls), creating a wonderfully rich design you won’t find anywhere else.

I have the St. Julia crowns attached with double-sided white Satin ribbon, and have been formed into traditional circular, 7” diameter crowns.

Source: www.orthodoxweddingcrowns.com

It was super difficult to decide which style we wanted, they are all gorgeous!  I am happy with our decision though.  We also ordered the small replica crowns to use as our cake topper, then as an ornament on our Christmas tree :)

Here is a nice overview of why the Orthodox wear wedding crowns:

http://www.orthodoxweddingcrowns.com/crownhistory.php

and here

http://orthodoxwiki.org/Marriage

Office of crowning

The second part of the service is the ceremony of coronation, in which the heads of the bridegroom and bride are crowned by the priest. In the Russian tradition, the crowns are gold or silver, while the Greek tradition uses crowns of leaves and flowers.
The crowns are crowns of joy, but also crowns of martyrdom, since marriage involves a self-sacrifice on both sides.
At the end of the service the newly married couple drink from the same cup of wine. This common cup is a symbol of the fact that after this they will share a common life with one another. This also recalls the miracle at the marriage feast of Cana in Galilee.


Yay, I am getting excited, we have just about 2 months to go!  Eeek!

Happy Engage-aversary to us!

It was a year ago exactly  - November 12th, about 11pm, when this crazy adventure started.

For at this time last year, Aaron unexpectedly knocked on my door and proposed.  :)

Source

It was basically just like this.  Magic sparkles and all...

I can't believe it has been a whole year already!  Though sometimes it feels like it has been like 8 years...

Unfortunately Aaron is up in Indiana (Notre Dame to be exact) at a philosophy conference for the weekend.  Maybe we can celebrate this milestone this week sometime.

But for the occasion, I wrote Aaron a love haiku.  I was feeling poetic, lol.

our love had birthday

a year of laughter and smiles

forever seems nice

That was a pretty terrible haiku.  

I love you Aaron!

The Long Walk Down the Aisle

I am happy to report that I have requested my grandpa (Buelo) to escort me down the aisle on the big day.  I am so glad that he is willing and able, and honored even.  :)

::a Natalie and Buelo pic will go here once scanned::

Figuring who to ask was troublesome to say the least.  I really considered walking alone, I mean, I'll be 30 years old by then, I am an independent woman!  Roar!!  lol.

I am glad my Buelo is up to it, but had he not been, my Dad has three wonderful brothers and two brothers in law that I am certain would have been delighted to give me away had I asked.  I just wouldn't know how to begin to decide between them.

And I thought about my little brother.  He would have been a good option too, but he is in the wedding as one of the groomsmen, which I think is the best place for a brother to be.  I just thought it would feel weird to be given away by my little bro, the one I look out for and give unsolicited advice to.

Then I thought about my Mom.  We are best friends.  She was Mom and Dad since I was 11.  She would be the most appropriate to give me away.  But I wanted my actual  Dad to be somehow represented, so Buelo seemed like a better choice.  Plus being Mother of the Bride is an important thing in and of itself.  I want her to have her time to go down the aisle before me and get ooh-ed and ahh-ed and 'doesn't she look lovely-ed' at.  If she walked with me she'd totally steal my thunder!  I am joking, but you get the picture.

For those of you who don't know the story, the reason my Dad isn't around to walk me down the aisle himself is because he passed away back in 1993 from cancer.  It was hard and horrible, but time heals your pain as well as it can.  I miss him so very much, but this whole getting married thing really makes the void so much bigger seeming.  I wonder if he would have liked Aaron.  I wonder what advice he'd give us about marriage.  I wonder what he'd look like as a 59 year old.  I wonder what song we would have danced to.  I know that he is always with me, figuratively speaking.  It is just a bummer with no one to blame.  I think some things you just never get over.  Though if life hadn't unfolded the way it did, who knows what my life would be today.  I can say for sure that I am pretty glad for where I am today, so that is something.

Miss you, Dad.

Night with the girls

I have to tell you about the rest of San Antonio weekend now - all the fun that was had spanned the entire weekend after all :)  Angela, Katrina and I checked into the lovely River Walk  Plaza Hotel after an afternoon of visiting with grandparents, and got ready to hit the town.  It was Halloween weekend, so we knew it was going to be a fun night :)  Luckily we were able to walk to the River Walk and downtown - it was only 2 blocks away, win!

Katrina and Angela

We strolled the River Walk and grabbed some food at a nearby Mexican place.  It seemed like there were a lot of people hanging around (and several in costumes, which was fun) seemingly waiting for something to happen, but we were unsure what?  We soon learned that there was a Halloween parade on the river that night, and we had a pretty decent view from the patio at dinner.  It was very festive :)

After dinner we were looking to find a spot to chill out and drink more margaritas, so we walked the whole river and nothing looked too awesome, so we went up to street level.  After walking around aimlessly for a few blocks we found the neighborhood Pat O'Briens.  This place was actually pretty great, we had three nights out in one place!  We got a table and some cocktails and chatted for a bit, then we went to check out the piano bar area.  The piano bar was really fun and engaging and we sang and drank some more.  And yes, that last picture is my dear Katrina 'making it rain' on the piano player, lol.  We can't take her anywhere...

Once we ran out of monies for piano requests, we went upstairs to the dance club which was fun.  We were full of liquid courage to bust a move at that point, lol.  Earlier in the evening I sent a text to my cousin Chris who lives in SA that we were hanging out downtown if he felt like meeting up, and about now is when he replied that he was headed to another bar in the area.  So we got our googlemaps out and headed that way.

And we passed the Alamo!  Funny story, when we were planning out the evening beforehand at the hotel, I was looking at a map of everything, and where to go.  Angela is our history gal and almost PhD in the subject, so it was necessary for her to see our famous Texas landmark while we were here.  Well at the hotel, I decided that the Alamo was way too far to walk to, and we'd have to take a separate trip in the morning.  There was no way we'd be walking that far... Looks like I ate my words!

Our last stop of the night was at On the Half Shell to meet up with my cousin and his lady friend.  If you are in SA on a Tuesday night, go here and you can see my cousin doing poetry slam.  The dude is nation champion finalist material.  Pretty awesome!  But yes, OTHS was fun and loud, and we got to see their costume contest going on :)  And I got to see my cousin, and that is always fun too!

It was like 2 in the AM by the time our heads hit the pillow.  I had a really fun night, and I was so glad that Katrina and Angela were there to make it so fun.  Guess we old gals still have some late nights in us!  

Shower at The Guenther House

Holy Moly it has been a while!  It is good to be back, and I have much to blog about!  First things first, I had my bridal shower the weekend before last!

Guys, my shower was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!  First off, the Guenther House is the most quaint little historic house/restaurant ever, with gorgeous views of the San Antonio River!  We had the party room on the second floor with the terrace over looking the river.

There were SO MANY family members and friends that came to show their love, it was really great!

We had a fabulous time drinking tea and visiting.  It was a bummer that I didn't have enough time to visit with everyone as much as I liked, I am sure it will be even worse at the wedding!  We had the best food too, little tea sandwiches that were outstanding, brownies in heart shapes which were to die for, and fruits and bars, and so many delicious treats!

Yum!

And because everyone was beyond generous, I got about a billion presents <3

Only half of them fit into the car, we had my Aunt bring the other half the next day!

And a billion hugs go to my Aunt Gloria who hosted the party, I had the best time and cannot thank you enough for everything! <3