79 days

79 days left. What's going through my mind? Honestly? LET SCHOOL BE OVER! Everything will be "over" for me on the 28th, then I'll be able to throw myself more fully into wedding planning. I scheduled trial hair and makeup so I'm thrilled about that. I have to figure out how to do my hair. Honestly though I'm most excited about having my makeup professionally done. I'm extremely cheap, if it's not under 20 bucks I don't want it. What I once thought to be a good thing has come back to haunt me as I try to plan my wedding and realize that weddings cost money..more than 20 bucks. lol.

My mom has reminded me constantly when I have at first been tempted to go the cheap route.."Natalie, it's your wedding day, it's a one time event!" and with those simple words I have had a complete change of heart. Now if something is really nice but is not "cheap" I'll actually seriously consider buying it, and sometimes I do. I'm trying to change some of these habits that I've always had.

Another big one is clutter. I am the clutter QUEEN. Or maybe it's that my room is too small? Or maybe it's because I don't grow so I keep things from highschool? Who knows! Either way, I hold on to things that i really should be getting rid of. I have shoes and clothes from freshman year of highschool. I have clothes that I bought because it was on sale..but have never worn. I can proudly say that as I get ready to start moving my stuff into our apartment (we're not actually moving in until we get married) I want to start fresh without the clutter. I've already gotten rid of bags of things that simply needed to disappear! I'm not taking too much when I move, I want to start fresh. I will bring clothes, accessories..and books. That's about it. Oh, and of course shoes. I'm leaving a lot to my sister.

I realize that it's a new season that will be starting and I'm excited. There is also going to be a new addition to the family, my sister-in-law and brother are preggers. Gabby is five months pregnant! Whee!

As soon as the wedding is over I'll be planning a babyshower! Needless to say..I'm excited and happy for them. More laterr.

The Hectic Life

Senior year of college, student teaching full time and planning a wedding? one word to describe it all - crazy!

My schedule during the week is student teaching full time 7-3:30. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I work until six. Tuesday and Thursday I have biology at night until about 8:30. Saturday night is worship practice from 7:30-9 p.m. and Sunday service until about 1 p.m. When I have any spare time I'm usually doing some type of school related work. It can be veryyy hectic. Sometimes I just want to relax and not have anything to do. I really just want to be able to devote more time to wedding planning and all the details!

Don't get me wrong, if I could say I'm most excited about anything I would say it's getting married. Yeah graduating is awesome and all but still I'm wayy more excited about getting married to my Jose! Things are starting slow down in the school realm because I only have the rest of this month to student teach and then it's over.

I scheduled my trial appointment for June. Here are some of the wedding hair possibilities. I honestly have noo clue what I'd like to do.

Wedding Styles

Things left -
Flowergirl dresses
Grooms tuxes!

I plan on taking advantage of the week I have off of spring break to take care of some of the details. I still have to get jewelry as well. Until then...97 days!

Sometimes it makes you wanna shout!

I can't believe that the wedding is three months away. Time is FLYING by. I know I start every entry similar (all four..lol). Today I had my first wedding meltdown moment. Thank God for my Mom. I was stressing out about wedding details and school and graduating and just EVERYTHING. I really needed a "mommy" moment. Yeah, I'm 22 but who the heck cares. I needed my mom.

It started with me going up to her room and just talking to her about my stresses. I kept saying over and over again "I don't know how we're going to do this..." and then just bursting into tears. Don't get me wrong, I'm sooo excited about marrying my sweetheart and the guy who makes my heart smile. It's all the little details and all of that that makes my head want to spin. There is a decision about everything. Plus, a wedding can start to add up. We have a place to live though for when we get married and I'm pumped about that. I just wish I could sort of fast forward to the actual day. I just want to get there already. This was my first, and hopefully my last, meltdown. i don't do the whole crying because I'm stressed thing. But I think a good cry once and awhile can be a good stress reliever.

I'm really grateful for all of the things God has done in my life. He really is amazing. He continues to surprise me everyday. His mercies are forever, his blessings are awesome. I really do owe it all to Him.

I'm excited because the bridesmaids dresses have been ordered (finally..) and we're well on our way. I just have to figure out a dress for the flowergirls. I've been searching around but still coming up short.I've gotta make a decsion on that soon. Hopefully this week or next! I'm glad that the major things are taken care of, especially our place to live. That was a big thing but I'm glad that we were able to lease our own nice apartment. It's got about three rooms, which is great because I really want to have El and Joselyn (my fiance's siblings) stay over sometimes. And of course my best friend Steph! We always joke that she's going to have her own room. Plus it'll be neat to have my brothers come over, and my sister-in-law Gabby. It's going to be a really neat experience. Enough blabbing on...the days are coming closer..!

It's creeping up on me!

It's February 22, 2009...I can't believe that time is going by so quickly! I know I sound extremely redundant..but it really is insane. One year ago (Feb. 15th to be exact) I was engaged and now here I am wedding day soon approaching. It's really crazy.

I still have some important things left to do:
- Do I want/need a videographer? Is it worth the money? If so, who should I pick?
- BRIDESMAIDS DRESSES! AHHHH! I'm actually going this Saturday with Stephanie to pick something out once and for all. Gabby getting pregnant kind of threw me for a loop because I will be picking a dress that will have to flatter a pregnant tummy! My gabster. Lord help me!
- Where shall we live?! Again..so many possibilities! Do we want to rent? Buy? Start off in an apartment? Start off in a house? Time is ticking away, we're definitley looking into this one.
- Hair for wedding. Up? Down? both? HMM.
- Registery? We will be registering in the month of March! We have two places in mind. Any additional suggestions?



Important things done;
- we FINALLY got our plane tickets, which makes it official! We're going to Mexico. I was extremely indecisive and couldn't decide where on earth I wanted to go! I asked Jose to pick, but he sweetly responded "It doesn't matter where I go, I'll be with you" (awwww..lol, predictable but still cute). I drove him crazy (and probably my travel agent as well) because I kept changing my mind...from Florida, to Las Vegas, to Jamaica, to the Domincan Republic...we finally went back to our first choice - Mexico. In my mind I picture white sands and blue waters, relaxing and not having to leave the hotel premises unless we want to. Mission accomplished!

- Jose's ring! This was drama in itself. We originally ordered one from Zales, it was really nice with crosses engraved and all. We ordered it on Black Friday..and didn't even hear about it until February! We got really bad service at the Zales over here..so we decided to get our money back and start fresh. We finally picked out his ring from Littman's. His band matches mine, something that Jose really wanted (me? I don't mind either way).

So far many of the major things are out of the way, but we still have some loose ends to tie up. We're both looking forward to starting our life together. There will be so many new experiences we will go through together. I personally look forward to being Mrs. Lopez...though I'll miss my semi-unique last name, I'm proud to be taking on a new title.

Ohmygoodness...6 MONTHS!

From here on out it's only blue skies!

Yes, Jose and I have officially reached the six month mark! I cannot believe it's actually six months until our wedding..it's insanity to me. But nonetheless, I'm super excited. I now have a wonderful addition to the wedding team, the super cool and super awesome Angela Malicki. She'll be helping me with decor and wedding coordination which is great. She's my HERO. She helps keep me organized, she's super nice and friendly, she's great working with budgets, and she's wonderfully creative so yes..if you ever need a planner for an event..check out her website angelamalickievents.com. She's awesome.



So on the agenda today, we checked out the hall once more to get more ideas for decor and to meet with the head honcho. We checked out a rental place and we checked out the church too. I'm excited about what everything is going to look like and most of all I'm excited about getting married to my Jose. The road seemed like it would never end but we finally made it here, thank the Lord.



I still have a lot to do but I'm glad that I have the most important things taken care of. I also have to decide if I'm going to use a videographer or not (not sure..should I?) and to finalize honeymoon plans. Otherwise, I'm on a good track (thanks angela!).



What is most nerve wrecking is the fact that on Tuesday I start student teaching, my schedule will be 8-6 everyday of the week not including church (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday practice, Sunday) so I'm very anxious about it...but of course I remind myself about the verse that says "be anxious for nothing." I know God is with me, it's just going to be a crazy several months. I will be student teaching, going to college full time, working, ministry AND planning a wedding!! It's so nuts! But nonetheless it will also be a great time and before I know it we will be walking down the aisle and I'll see my lovely Jose waiting for me at the end of the road. I can't wait!

Dress Fitting # 2 - cancelled..again!

SOOO, tonight I was supposed to go and have my second dress fitting tonight and guess what? They called and asked to re-schedule..again! This happened last week too. I was grateful for last week's cancellation because I had a lot to tend to in the evening...and then today I wasn't feeling good so I was slightly relieved (maybe God's trying to help me out?!). I also needed to get a particular under garment for the dress. The place wanted to charge me 80 dollars for the one they sell. To me that's just a little ridiculous. Unless it's made of gold..I'll pass. lol. So it worked out in a way because it gives me a week to try to go to Macy's and get one.

I still need to figure out what dress style I will have for my lovely bridesmaids. I was hoping to have them try on some dresses tonight when we went..but to no avail because of the cancellation. I told the lady I would call her tommorow and reschedule, this time to MYYY convenience! I want my dress. She was sweet about it and I was polite..but still. It's not cool to cancel twice in a row.

I still spent time with some of my bridesmaids, but needless to say we didn't really get to tackle the bridesmaids dresses like I had originally intended.

Honeymoon wise...Jose and I are thrilled with the fact that flight tickets are so low at the moment. Our travel agent has advised us to continue to play around with the prices to see if they will drop more before we book. This makes us both nervous with how unstable the economy has been lately. So we're hoping to book our flight tickets this week. I'm excited!! Only 231 more days to go until I say I do to the guy who holds my heart. Fast forward please!

Veil and shoes pick up

Sooooo...!

So far I have my wedding dress. After two trips to the same store I finally found my dream dress. I had been browsing all over, catalogues, magazines...anything and everything but still couldn't find my DREAM dress. Well finally, I found it about one month ago ;)

Stephanie, my maid of honor, came with me to my dress fitting last Saturday. The fitting took forever. The dress is designed for petite's but they still had some hemming to do since I'm pretty short. They also made the bustle for when I dance. I picked out my shoes as well.

Today I picked up my shoes and my veil with my mom. It's becoming more real than ever...I'm getting married! A crazy but exciting time. What we have done so far...

- Reception hall and church
- Photographer
- Wedding Dress
- Officiant
- DJ
- Catering
- Booked honeymoon

Next on the list is the limo, bridesmaids dresses and all that good stuff. I'm relieved that all the main stuff is taken care of. I want to have the majority of everything done before December so that when spring rolls around I can attempt to breathe easy. We'll see what happens!