Literate or Illiterate?

Sometimes after having a "wedding" conversation, I seriously wonder where the heck my "girlie" genes went. Or am I just really wedding illiterate? Remembering certain conversations about the wedding makes me kind of want to crawl into a little ball and not leave my house until I get married...

Friend: So, what kind of flowers do you want?
Me: Not roses, everybody does roses.
F: So what kind do you want?
M: Mm, I like those white ones, with the black middles. Looks like those hawaiian flowers!
F: So you want hibiscus looking flowers?
M: The hawaiian flowers! Not the leafy ones.
F: Hibiscus flowers ARE the hawaiian flowers.
M: But I don't want those ones. Something that looks like that with the black middle!
F: Anemones?
M: Why would I want sea creatures in my bouquet?
F: NO, anemones are those flowers!
M: What did I say about sea creatures?
F: *whips out smartphone and shows pictures of anemone flowers*
M: Oh.

And let's not forget dress shopping..

Sales Lady: So, what do you want to look like on your wedding day?
Mae: Pretty?
SL: Okay... what about elegant? Or classic? Modern?
M: Yeah! All of those!
SL: ...
M: Let's go with elegant?
SL: Okay, so what kind of fit are you looking for?
M: I like corset backs.
SL: No, the fit. What kind of fit? Trumpet? Mermaid?
M: Uh, the fitted top but not too poofy bottom.
SL: So maybe an A-Line, or trumpet or fit and flare?
M: Okay...
SL: So this is a trumpet fit dress.
M: Will I really look like a trumpet?
SL: No, it just means that it's fitted until mid thigh. So it looks like the end part of a trumpet, get it?
M: Won't that just make me fat though?
SL: No, the rouching will make you look really good.
M: Rouching? But I like corset backs.
SL: Okaaaaaaay. Just try it on, you'll see what I mean. *puts dress on*
M: Oh.



Seriously?

My take on the guestlist

Thanks to my jetlag from flying back from Japan, I stayed up most of the night finishing up my first draft of the guest list.

I'm currently 15 people over the "limit"

I'm kind of doing it the reverse of Mae.

- My family was the first to be put on the list. They make up a little over 40 people.

- Then came the the entourage and their signficant others.

- Then the sponsors and their families.

- The rest are friends. No real rules, just if I really want you to be there.

When I was in the Philippines the other week, I think I got some really good advice: "Most of the time if someone is offended that they weren't invited, they weren't that close to you at all. If they really do love and care for you, then they'll understand"

I think/hope there's alot of truth in that.

Epic Guest List No More.

*Disclaimer: This post is not meant to sound conceited, I just so happen to be part of a huge church and them being them.. a lot of the "older" crowd tend to assume they're invited, and a lot of "long lost friends" also assume as well....*


There are going to be rules to help me contain the amount of people I'm inviting.

1. If I haven't talked to you/hung out with you/had a meaningful conversation with you in the past 6 months, you are NOT invited.

2. If I did have conversations/hang out sessions with you (more than once) and did not feel the need to kick you in the face, you ARE invited.

3. If you messaged me out of nowhere just after my engagement just so you can go to NY, you are NOT invited.

4. If I know that I will not be keeping in touch with you after I move, you are NOT invited.

5. If I know when I come back to Vancouver to visit, and you will probably not come out, you are NOT invited.

6. If you have to question your invite status, chances are you are NOT invited.

7. If I did not personally tell you about my engagement, you are probably NOT invited.

8. If you are not part of my family/and I did not tell you specifically, +1's do not apply to you.

9. If you haven't met Ryan yet, chances are slim that you will be invited, unless there were unseen events that prevented you to.

10. If you have to ask to be invited, you are NOT invited.

The reason for these rules is that I'm writing names of my close friends off the top of my head and I'm already at almost 100 people for just my side of the invite list. This does not include the ninangs and ninongs and my very close extended family. Plus, it's not terrible of me to only want people whom I know will continue to support Ryan and I despite the distance. And I know I've been making a huge ruckus about the guest list, but it is a pretty big deal. It's usually the deciding factor on how expensive a wedding can be. *sigh*

Wish us luck.



PS. Special thanks to KA (moh) for being super awesome with me lately. She doesn't know this, but just being around her lets me stress less. Maybe because her issues are faster to resolve with just a push of a button. ;)
PPS. These rules are for those who still asked, even though it's OBVIOUS?

11. If you are in my immediate family, YOU ARE INVITED.
12. If you are part of my bridal party, YOU ARE INVITED.

Sheesh.

One Month

It's been a month (and a day) of our engagement, and we have lots done! Since the wedding will be in September or October of this year, we thought we'd get on top of things and plan everything out. We know the area-ish of where we would live, which cell phone provider we'd use, what kind medical coverage I can get as Ryan's wife, looking into cars sort of, and basically just how we'd get on living together.

What about wedding plans?


Oh yeah.

Epic Guest List is turning into Legendary Guest List

Just when I think that I'm just about ready to finalize my side of the guest list, another name, another face I forgot to add pops into my head and I have to find a way to make it fit. Where the hell did I put that list anyway?

Oh, and question.. can somebody explain to me why these wedding planning books/templates/articles are starting to make me anxious. Only one thing is ticked off... announcing the engagement.



...help.

Epic Guest List is Epic

I think I need to take a cue from Mae and use my notebook to keep a running tab on our guestlist. this is such a headache.

...and the list goes on.. and on.. and on..

I've heard from so many brides-to-be that the deciding factor of most weddings is the guest list. Big wedding vs small wedding. Big stress vs small stress. After just 17 days of engagement bliss, I've learned the true meaning of a headache. Who knew that compiling a list of people would cause so much stress and unwanted feelings inside the pit of my stomach? If there was ever a chance for me to have picked the elopement route, I would have taken that idea and ran without ever looking back. Ever.

Seriously.






To be continued..

THE VIDEO.

Proposal @ High Line Park NYC from Ryan C. on Vimeo.

His Story

To be honest, there's not alot I can really add to Mae's side of the story, she got it pretty much on the mark, except for the part where I was jumping up like a girl...anyway!

Mae really had no idea that I was going to propose in December. Sure we had talked about marriage before then, and yes I even did speak to her parents in September about it, but it wasn't like we ever went ring shopping together or even had a general idea about wedding planning etc. It's true, while I wouldn't call myself a jet setter I do travel alot. When we would talk it really did seem like Mae was resigned to expecting the engagement to happen sometime next year. It was funny too, the topic would come up in reference to our other friends who were getting married, and she would openly wonder about us and start trying to talk about things like that. For my part, it was getting very difficult to say things and not be so specific as to give things away, and I think Mae took that as me not really caring to talk about the subject so much. For my part, I just didn't want to ruin the surprise. So way even before December, I already had the ring. (another story for another time)

When Mae finalized her plans, I started putting mine together. We always end up running around when shes here and theres always a big event going on that takes up alot of our time too. So Tuesday was to be our date night. For a while now, every time Mae comes to town I try to take her somewhere "nice" to eat and shes always down. So I decided on the Spotted Pig for dinner. Dinner check. Now where to propose?

Well I had been thinking about doing this for a while, and I was pretty sure I wanted it to be in NYC. However, I didn't want to do it in any of the usual suspects. That's where the High line comes it. Someone had brought it up in a completely different conversation and a light bulb went on. The park had only been opened since last summer, so it wasn't like people had already been proposing there left and right (there had been a few, I checked google). I'm guess because its still pretty new, and it was never in Sex and the City, or like your generic NYC romantic comedy movie..yet.

So I really stress to Mae that we were going to dinner and then afterwards we're going to check out the High line park. She knew I had never been there yet, and I like taking pictures, so it all worked out. Well, dinner was great, and on the way to the park Mae got to flag down her first taxi.

What was NOT so great was that the cab took so long to get to the park that we literally got there with 10 minutes to spare. Another thing was that it was FREEZING. It doesn't help that the park is near the Hudson river and its elevated. Yikes!

So we're walking around we take a couple pictures together when all too soon, a couple security guards tell us its time to leave. Crap! what am i supposed to do? Weather being as it is, it was still perfect, because basically no one else was there.

So on our way out, I convince Mae to take one more picture of us together before we leave. I mean we did come all this way to see it right? She looked a little (a lot ) annoyed at this point.
So I put the little Canon on a gorrilla pod (these things are awesome) and instead of setting it timer, I put it in Video mode.

Now I have stress also, that at this point, Mae had absolutely NO IDEA what was going on. This was after I said I wanted Tuesday to definitely be our date night and thats all, I was even wearing an oxford dress shirt in her favorite color (purple), I dragged her out to that park in freezing weather...

Anyway, we're standing there and Mae turns to me and says "Hey it didn't flash"

Me: "Oh I think its on video"

Mae: "why is it on video" *starts acting silly in front of the camera

That's when I go in for the kill..

"Mae Aveline Lawson...."

THAT is when she finally knew what was going on.

So she said yes. And I have the proposal on video.


TO BE CONTINUED

Her Story.

Hi. :) Due to the nature of our relationship, I had to delete the past post just in case the wrong eyes saw this. Ex-nay on the ountries-cay. Is that too conspiratory? Is that even a word? Knowing Ryan and his paranoid tendencies, I will have to delete this paragraph of this post anyway, so might as well just get on with it!

Ryan and I thought it would be cool if we told our stories of the proposal. Usually when someone hears about our engagement, they ask about the story. So here it is:

Since I don't usually get to tell the story because a certain somebody gets super excited and starts to blah blah blah, I'm going to give you a little of the back story. Not a lot of you know, or maybe you do know (we all know how word gets around really quick nowadays), Ryan came to Vancouver in September to ask my parents for permission for my hand in marriage. Old fashioned? I know, but my parents are my parents, and we are who we are. Anyway, he never really got to the asking part because my Dad jumped in and told Ryan that he can take me. As you can see, my dad was very fond of me and couldn't ever let me go. :p

So fast forward until December of 2009, at this point I had a feeling that maybe we would be engaged by the end of the year, then as time went on, and Ryan didn't hint at anything, and more importantly, he started making plans for trips in January and February, I figured he wasn't planning on engagement or anything of the sort. Why would he? He's too busy jetsetting and saving money for these trips! So the doubt came in and settled in my gut, and I figured we wouldn't be engaged for a while... or so I thought.

December 22, 2009.
Date day. It seems that every time I visit NY/NJ, I never really get time to spend with Ryan alone, it's always a coffee here, a dinner or lunch there, or a quick hello to someone who's in the area. Not that I don't mind, but on that particular day, Ryan made it a point to spend one full day with just me, just us. We woke up early because Ryan had to be in the city for work, and I walked around a little bit and got lost. (Goes to show how well I'm going to adjust to East Coast life..) We then went to Uniqlo for some shopping and then Balthazar for some yummy brunch. We headed home to Auntie Merci's house to chill before we headed back out into the city. Dinner time. We ate at Spotted Pig (VERY good btw, I recommend it!) and stuffed our faces as per usual. We went to the car to grab Ryan's lens (little did I know), then I waved down my very first taxi (and Ryan got it on video!) to go to highline park. As we got to the park, I did not want to leave the taxi. It was so cold, and highline park is as exposed to the wind as can be. We wandered around and took a couple of pictures and very unexpectedly, two guards came up to us and told us we had to go! Well, to be honest, at this point I was pretty glad, it was too cold and I wanted to get the heck out of the park. As we took the elevator down, Ryan suggested that we stay in the elevator a little bit to warm up a little. A bit strange, but I went with it since I was already distracted by the design of the elevator. All of a sudden, the elevator started moving back to the second floor, and the doors open... viola. The guard again. I bet he thought we were trying to sneak back into the park! So I said that Ryan was taking his time getting his bag that's why we were still in the elevator. Down we went again, and out back into the cold...

Game time.
Ryan suggested that we check out the entrance because he wanted to take pictures. At this moment in time, I really wanted to hit him and tell him I was cold, but because he seemed so determined to go, I went along with it and we went to the entrance. I wish I could say that the entrance had cool decorations and looked really nice, but it was just stairs. Cold and boring concrete stairs. HUH? Why did Ryan want to take pictures here? I was reaching the end of my patience meter when Ryan asks me to stand on the bottom stair for a picture. As I stood there (COLD), he got out his tripod and set up the camera so we could take one last picture. FINALLY! He then sets it up and comes up to stand next to me. Nothing. Uhhh... then I told Ryan that the timer light isn't on. He just stands there and tells me it's on video. OK? Do something about it? So me being me, and since it's on video, I do some sort of kicking thing.. which at the time seemed like the appropriate thing to do. Then Ryan grabs my arm and says, “Mae Aveline Lawson..” AHHHHHHHHH, I know what this is!!!! I then finally realize why Ryan has been acting all strange and I start giggling. The sort of annoying giggling that makes you want to hit someone really hard, namely the one who is giggling. Ryan is clawing at me and trying to make me listen to him. Then he says something about having nothing else to say. My mind is a blur and I really can't believe this is happening.. he then reaches into his pocket and gets down on one knee and opens this little box.

“Will you marry me?”

I say yes, and he gets up and jumps like a little girl. A little girl. Don't believe me? I have proof! Anyway.. he puts the ring on my finger and thumbs up at the camera. WHAT? He got this on camera!?!? He turns off the camera and asks me.. “Aren't you going to look at the ring???” OOPS. Hmmmm, beautiful. Perfect for me. Oooh, shiny.

After a minute of soaking in the engagement status, we headed over to the Apple store to take our engagement photos (haha). We headed on home to spread the good news to our family and loved ones. The end.

Sorry if this is too long of a post, there is just no other way to describe what happened. Well, to me that's what happened, I'm sure Ryan has a completely different story. :p

Oh Snap

[Ry + Mae, keepin it extra classy at the Mac store. This was taken a couple minutes after I officially proposed on December 22, 2009]


Sup Guys! Welcome to our blog. As you've probably figured out by now, we are engaged. We wanted to find a way to help our friends and family keep track of our antics as the "big day" gets closer. Rather than go with a wedding website, we felt a blog was a fun (and free) way to keep everyone updated. (thanks Aileen for the inspiration!) Both Mae and I will do our best to keep it light with the least amount of sap possible. But hey its about us getting ready to spend the rest of our lives together, so it kinda comes with the territory ;p

We'll slowly start filling in all our faithful readers (which will probably end up being Mae and I) on details of the engagement as we go along.

On that note, after seeing the picture above, I'm sure people (girls) are curious as to what kind of ring that is.

Here's a hint. This is a picture I took a couple days before I gave it to her:







TO BE CONTINUED...