June TWO! (Jin Tew)

So it is official!  We are married!!! :)  And it is WONDERFUL!


I'll take some time in the near future to write about the whole day, but for now I'll just post some photos! 

Is This Real Life?

I'm not entirely sure how this happened, but we're now in the final stretch.  The last time I posted I was amazed that we were sixty days away.  Today is Nine. NINE?!  I keep checking the calendar assuming that it must be off by a few months.

The past few weeks, months even, have been a blur.  We've been busy getting things ready, filling out paperwork, and trying to enjoy some relaxation time before the craziness sets in.  I've come to terms with many things potentially going wrong on the day of the wedding.  My mentality is, as long as we have good food, good drink, good music and good people... how can it go wrong?! 

There's a lot of excitement in the air!  It's been such a long time coming and I think Rude and I are both very happy that it is finally here!  We will be spending the week of having lots of fun with our friends and family and just enjoying the whole week (and time off work!).  All of our hard work is definitely going to start to pay off! Yay!

I picked up my dress last week and it is perfect.  I couldn't have asked for a better dress, I'm obsessed with it.   It's one of the things I'm most excited for... to see Rudy's face up that aisle when I walk out of the doors.  I am a terrible secret keeper and that dress has been in our house for over a year and I've still not showed him!  (I'm super proud of myself for this!)  There are a few other little surprises for him that I've organized that I really am excited for as well! 

Mom has been so helpful in these last few weeks/months.  She's really gone above and beyond to make some things happen.  It just takes so much off of my shoulders and you just can't put a price on that!  I've also gotten a few phone calls through the last few weeks asking me how I'm holding up.  With the exception of yesterday (in which I may have had a mini anxiety attack of sorts, or something like it) I've been feeling really good.  I'm hyper and excited but at the same time I feel as if I can sit back and really enjoy things.  I've set myself up for this.  I've done so much work and organized things in such a way that I can truly sit back and enjoy the week, and especially the day.  You can't put a price on that either. 

I think while the point of this whole things is for the two of us to be married at the end of the day, we've both gotten a lot more out of the experience already.  I've really learned to let go of some things and allow other people to take care of things for me.  I've learned to relax (for the most part) and let things happen.  We've both had some tough days through the stress of wedding planning, but I believe it's only made us stronger as individuals and as a couple. 

I seriously doubt I will have much time to blog between now and June 2nd, so I'm signing off until after I am Mrs. Colaizzi.  :)  

Here are some photos of our relaxing time over the last few weeks:

Parties in Pittsburgh

Wow.  Sixty days?  Where did all of that time go?  Here's the update on our trip to Pittsburgh.

Meetings

We had all of our preliminary meetings with all of our vendors that required we meet in person.  We started with the Pastor.  He is a dear family friend of my step-father's and we're very blessed to have him marrying us.  He's the sweetest most chill pastor I think I've ever met.  We went over our vows and ceremony schedule.  It was a pleasant meeting and I feel that we'll be very well taken care of under his wing.  Next was a stop at Lincoln Bakery where FH finally got to try their cake.  It was delicious and made for a fantastic breakfast (chased with Marburger's chocolate milk of course).  We then visited Siba Cucina where our rehearsal dinner will be held.  We did not have a meeting set up whatsoever but we were in the area and had a free slot of time.  The staff was super accommodating and the event coordinator there met with us and showed us the space within minutes of our arrival.  The place is beautiful.  This was another pleasant surprise as we'd booked the restaurant without ever visiting! Then we headed to McCandless Floral who I just love visiting.  Another successful meeting.  Finally we had our tasting at Fresco's for the reception meal choices and our reception meeting.  For the tasting we had the entire restaurant to ourselves which was pretty neat. 

Rudy's mom met us at the end of our meeting as Rudy was spending the evening in the city with her and his sister.  She made a super sweet box of things for me like childhood photos of Rudy, a key to her house, a ring that was his grandmothers, and a heartfelt letter.  Needless to say I was crying quite a bit.  It was so meaningful coming from my future mother in law.  Very sweet.

Friday - Shower & Parties

Friday morning Lynn and I headed to the salon for my hair and makeup trials.  Having her there was great.  She kept me sane, made me laugh and made sure I didn't forget things (like my veil).  We had some fun getting pretty there and then headed to Station Square.  The moment we walked into the Grand Concourse I felt it.  This was all really happening.  I got extremely nervous all of the sudden!  After I walked into the room I felt much more at ease.  About 25 of my closest friends and family were there (looking fabulous might I add) smiling as I walked in the door!  The whole afternoon was like a dream. The windows in our room were right along the river and you could see the downtown skyline.  It was gorgeous.  The food was delicious and the company was even better!  After the shower was over, I was escorted to The Sheraton Hotel also in Station Square.  The girls made me wait in the hall.  Once the door opened the first thing I saw was a can of Miller Lite opened and lots of pink!  They had the room decorated in all kinds of crazy pink things!  It was a beautiful room with four beautiful ladies to greet me in it!  We were on the 8th floor so the view was fabulous.  I could see Heinz Field from the room!!!  It was more than I could have ever imagined.  We went to dinner later at Busca and then bar-hopped all evening!  It was an amazing time.  Considering I have girls from many different states in the bridal party, they all made the trip (from Charlotte & Tampa!!!). 

Rudy and the guys went to Seven Springs for trap shooting and had a cabin for the evening.  He has not had so much fun and laughed so much since he can remember!  The guys, particularly Jon, his best man went out of their way to make sure the weekend was awesome for him.  He had a blast.

Blessed.

The weekend was legitimately the best weekend in my whole life to date.  I've never felt so blessed.  Rudy and I both can't even begin to thank the girls and guys that made our weekend possible.  We are so very lucky to have such amazing friends and family. 

60 days...

Dancing Queens 

One Hundred and Nine.

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of decisions, setting up meetings and excitement. 

Showered...

Two weeks ago I received an invitation to a shower in my honor.  Let's just say I was blown away.  My fabulous girls have booked The Grand Concourse for the shower.  I knew nothing during the planning process so this was a huge surprise for me, and what a great one!  I feel as if they've already out-done themselves and it's still a month away! :)  I am a complete and self acknowledged control freak so for me to let go was harder than it would be for most people.  But I really let go of any and all planning for the shower as the girls did ALL of the work and weren't sharing any information. ;)  I can say wholeheartedly that this was the best decision I made within the last few months, they have completely stunned me with this lavish shower they've planned.  I know the girls are capable, and my cousin/friend/MOH Stacey is more than capable as an event planner (she does it for a living) but my gosh, she really just blew me away.  I cannot wait to attend the shower and spend some QT with my girlfriends that whole day.  I feel lucky, spoiled and blessed by these ladies.  It's going to be a fabulous weekend, and a beautiful shower.

3rd floor, Menswear....

Rudy and I have decided to alter the guys' looks.  We were kind of forced into a green that I wasn't crazy about called pistachio.  They key lime was closer to what we wanted but too bright/flashy/yellowish.  After much deliberation and some help from fiancée we decided the guys will wear the grey tux with a green tie that is NOT from Men's Warehouse.  This way we get the right green color and the look we were looking for.  Win!  No vests either.  Just ties.  Very classy.

Up in the gym just workin' on our fitness...

FH joined the gym, finally!  He's so motivated and I always appreciate having a work out buddy.  We encourage each other and have been going regularly 3 days a week.  We're supposed to increase it to 4 soon (yikes).  My abs have never seen so much work!

January 4, Twenty Twelve

Happy New Year!  As the clock struck 12 and the noise blowers sounded I kissed my fiancée and smiled thinking that this is our year.  2012 seemed so far away back in September of 2010.  But it's here and I'm ready to hit the ground running! 

Since my last entry, I visited Pennsylvania, turned 27 years old, and have completely lost my voice.  Since I can't talk I figured writing an entry would help me feel as if I've communicated a little bit today.  :)

The next few months I really need to get moving on some tiny details that I've been putting off.  Silly things like place cards, dresses for the shower and bachelorette parties, and paperwork for our vendors.  If I stop and really think about what needs to be done, I start to panic a little.  I feel like cloud of overwhelming tasks over my head.  But if I take them one at a time without overloading myself, I think it will be just fine.  This might sound silly but I really feel like I've grown a lot in the last few months.  Things that I would normally let get under my skin, or really upset me, I've pushed aside or let roll off my shoulders. I've watched enough TLC and WE TV to know what NOT to do.  If I want to be a good wife, I've got to keep my cool and keep things organized and under control.

The visit to Pa was wonderful.  I got to surprise my mom with an early arrival (added bonus, she didn't have to drive to the airport on Christmas Eve like she thought she did!) thanks to Lynn, Eddie and Nick helping me out.  I got to see a lot of especially awesome people during my visit and I'm thankful for that.  No snow during the 6 days I was there, so hopefully that doesn't mean there will be snow when we go in March!   I Skyped Rudy and the dogs on Christmas morning and watched them open their presents from Santa.  It was our first Christmas apart since we've been together.  Next year, we're staying in Florida!  I look forward to our first married Christmas at home together. 

For my birthday he took me to my favorite restaurant on St. Pete Beach The Hurricane.  We had a nice meal there, and even got some marital advice from the owner along with a free piece of key lime for my birthday!  Then he gave me my gift which was Apple TV.  I didn't know what it was but assured him that if it's Apple I'll probably love it.  After a few hours of tinkering around with it, I realized how much i do love it!  Great gift.  Then when we came home Pat & Gina and the kids came over with DQ cake.  They are my family here and I love having them around. Overall it was a great birthday!

Six Month Mark

Well Happy December kids!  It's officially almost Christmas!  This is the time of year that always flies by and I have a feeling it will pass me even faster this year.  I am planning a short trip to Pennsylvania to visit family and friends.  This will be the last visit that won't be stricly for wedding related meetings and events.  I plan on relaxing and enjoying the company while I'm there this time.  My brother will be in town as well and I do not get the opportunity to see him often, so this will be a great trip I'm sure!

Planning is going well and as I've told anyone who asks, we're just about finished with all of the major stuff.  However, there are ten times as many small things that need to be planned.  Music, per my previous post, has been complicated.  I think Rudy & I's major issue is that we love music, period.  We love just about every genre there is.  And while we have a few differences in taste, our shared favorites make up a wide variety still.  There are so many songs that will be played (and engraved in our memories forever) that day and they need to mean something and also be something we love.

First Dance-  I think we've got this one almost nailed down. Unless we change our minds again
Bridal Dance- No clue
Father/Daughter Dance- Pretty sure
Mother/Son Dance- No clue
Reception Entrance- Nope, but we want something crazy good.  Any thoughts?
Last Dance- No clue but we have a few ideas.

Ceremony music is a whole new beast.  We have some neat things in store here, and while I won't share them and spoil any surprises, I think our guests are going to enjoy the music throughly!  The one I'm (obviously) most excited about, is the processional.  I'll only be sharing this with my dad and mom and I hope they're as psyched as I am!

I think music would be much easier if we weren't both known for our love and involvement of/in music.  High expectations I think!

Rudy's also chosen the tuxedos and I must say he's going to look pretty snazzy!  We also picked out our rings.  We've really been working a little bit on the small things and not overwhelming ourselves.  We have found a rehearsal dinner spot, which proved to be more of a challenge than I assumed it would be. 

Besides wedding things we've been working a lot on getting the house ready for Christmas.  Rudy decorated the outside of the house, and I the inside.  We upgraded from our 4 foot pre-lit tree (from my college apartment days) to a beautiful 7.5 foot tree.  We used LED lights and it really just looks beautiful.  That portion of decorating we did together.  Here are the pups posing in front of the tree. They do this each year and they start posing as soon as we put the tree up.

<3

We can Swim any day in November

I somehow missed October entirely.  It seems like it came and went so swiftly that I missed it.

Less than 7 months away from 'I Do' and I think I should stick to the number of days away, it seems farther that way!  The past year just flew by.  While we have most of the major things planned out and booked, there is still work to be done!  Since our whirlwind weekend of showers, meetings and bachelor/bachelorette parties is in March, we've ordered everything we can for the invitations now.  That way dad can take his time writing out all of the envelopes.  Thank God he's got great penmanship, Rude and I both write like ten year olds.  This will allow us time to get everything together and then order the response cards after choosing what dishes we will offer.  Planning ahead, it's what I'm good at!

After hours of outlet shopping in two states, 1 Steve Madden order & weeks of online shopping I finally found shoes!  As anyone who knows me is aware, I am a creature of comfort.  If I could wear no shoes and still appear classy, I would do it in a heartbeat. But finding comfortable flats that are fancy enough to wear with my gown was a challenge.  I finally settled on these.  They're not Louboutin or Badgley Mischka but I don't care!  (No offense to Brides who wear these)  I simply cannot justify spending hundreds of dollars on shoes I'll wear once UNDER a ball gown.  It just doesn't make sense.  These are comfortable and I think they're beautiful. :)

Engaged life is still treating us well, 14 months almost!  It seems like it was yesterday.  As previously mentioned, our dear friends Jon and Tif are getting married next year as well.  They've both asked us to be in their wedding and we couldn't be more excited.  It's fun chatting with them as they're going through a lot of the same things we are.  It helps to share the experience with such good friends. 

I almost forgot!  Our biggest challenge so far (I think) has been music.  We've hired an amazing DJ who I am fully confident will rock everyone's socks off and keep the party going. However, we are so stuck on a 'first dance' song.  We love such a wide variety of music, but we're not super traditional.  So we've been on the hunt for something dear to both of us, without being too traditional.  We've never really had a song we called 'our song'.  This project is much harder than I thought it would be!

Here's a photo of the pups.  We bought a Christmas tree early this year, and my engineer fiancee couldn't wait to put it up. :)  So it's just waiting to be decorated!