Honoring the Past Part 2

You guys might recall this post I made awhile ago. At the time you may have remarked what I said about a "special surprise" as a way of honoring my family. Well I finally got the word last weekend that this special surprise is HAPPENING!!!

So what is it you're probably all asking?

Well, you see, my uncle passed away a few years ago. He was a wonderful man and a fantastic uncle to all of my cousins and myself. He was also a "car guy" so one year, he treated himself to...

It's a convertible pick-up truck! One of the coolest cars I've ever seen! And... it's going to be our "just married" car! Which means that we are going to be able to get pictures like this:

But more than just the awesome pictures, it'll be a way to have my uncle with me on Mishka and my special day. My uncle was an amazing man, and when people see our pictures with the car, their eyes will be drawn to it. And so in that way, attention will be on my uncle's memory. All my aunts have told me their going to cry when we move from the receiving line to climb into my uncle's car. And who knows, I may cry to. In which case Mishka will have to drive. I'm sure my uncle will be there watching over us, so I have no worries about getting into any accidents.

It's just one more way our special day is going to be that much more special :-D.

Our Save the Dates Are In!!!

And OH MY GOODNESS are they awesome. I am SO happy with our choice. My MOH G saw the package before I did and I've been told she said "Wow, this is definitely a "Mishka and Ang" Save The Date." And she's right. It's whimsical and very cute, but it's also relatively simple and understated. In a word, it's perfect.

But you don't get to the perfect Save the Date after one try. In fact, we went through a number of Save the Date drafts before we finally came up with our final version. So let's take a walk down save the date memory lane shall we?

This first version is one I threw together on picnik.com before we were even engaged. It was back in the days when Mishka and I knew we were getting married, but we hadn't been able to get engaged yet. It doesn't even say Save the Date or any information so we moved on quite quickly. But Mishka really loved my little design so I thought I'd share it:

This second one was also made on picnik.com, but I made it in the actual format of a Save the Date. In fact, Picnik has templates for Save the Dates. I found them on Google Weddings. For awhile I thought this format was going to be our official Save the Date, but once we did a bit more in-depth searching we realized there was some better stuff out there. But to share our second picnik draft with you... here you go!

We eventually found a site where we felt the save the dates were both beautiful and affordable. Weddingpaperdivas.com. At first we really liked the idea of having a Save the Date with out pictures on it. We picked our favorite one, personalized it to fit our names, date, and supply a bit of information on the back. But...no matter how pretty it was, or how wonderful the picture selections, we both knew it wasn't "the one" (yup, "the one" can be used to talk about anything):

And, after realizing that there were some legitimate issues with the previous design, we moved on to what ended up being "the Save-The-Date". We had both thought it was really cute when we were first perusing the site, but it had seemed really important that we have our faces on the save the date. Turns out that was not at all a necessity and I am so happy we got through that "needs our pictures" phase. Because I truly could not be happier with our final product!

Aren't they cute? Obviously "name" "name" and "church" are replaced with the actual things. And there aren't those ugly black boxes... I just am not that talented at paint.

Wedding Day Look

Much to my surprise, my FMIL called me the other day to discuss make-up options. She had found a beautiful Lancome eye make-up palette and, since it was limited edition she needed to know if the colors were what I was thinking for my wedding-day look. I had mentioned that I liked blue, but there are a lot of different shades of blue!

Luckily, I loved the palette, and her ideas for how to incorporate the different shades I think were really interesting. Its a summer palette, but I think with the right shade of lipstick can take this from an ocean-side evening look to a new years eve look. And no one would be able to do that better than my FMIL! I told you how gorgeous I thought my make-up was for FSIL Katerina's wedding. I can only imagine it'll be even more beautiful on my wedding day :-D.

So without further ado, here's the palette:

Isn't it so pretty? They have a picture of a model wearing it:

Obviously, that's a summer lip. But with a different choice, those dramatic eyes (mine are brown so it will have a bit more contrast) will look gorgeous come December 31st. And it might be something I could bring on our honeymoon to warmer climates ;). Extra versatile!

Our Bridal Party - Bridesamaid Katerina

That beautiful bride there on the left is my FSIL Katerina. I gave a recap of her wedding during my first few posts on this blog. I thought it fitting to use a picture from her wedding as her bridesmaid introduction picture since I was a bridesmaid at her wedding. You can't see me, but I am standing at the top of that staircase and around the corner, waiting for my turn to walk down with Mishka.

While I helped her with her wedding planning we became quite close. In fact we talk quite frequently over gmail chat, even though she is a busy NYC business analyst and I am (or should be) doing my homework.

She is also my only bridesmaid who has actually been in/planned a wedding before. She may not have ever been a bridesmaid before, but having been a bride before and having planned a wedding before makes her even more valuable I think! And I have been pumping her for advice more often than I'd like to admit. And she's been a saint about putting up with it :).

I am super excited to have her in my bridal party because she is also very genuinely interested in all the details of wedding planning since it's a world she's so familiar with. In fact, she's the one who encouraged me to start this blog. She had one of her own, and told me how happy she is to have a journal of the process of her planning that she can look back on for years to come. Just another piece of good advice :).

Our Bridal Party - Bridesmaid C

Man are my bridesmaid gorgeous right? Do you know my sister C was actually chased down in a mall for a modeling competition show? Unfortunately, she was too young to participate, but isn't that so COOL! I have a "model" bridesmaid :-D.

C is also one of the most hardcore people I have ever known. She rock climbs, camps, plays softball, and works out a TON. Her body now is what I would be shooting for with my "wedding workout". That's how awesomely fit she is. She has no natural curves.. all her curves are muscles.

Though C has always been closer to her twin K than she has with me, we have always had a refreshingly honest relationship with each other. If there is anyone who would be there to keep me grounded and give me an alternate point of view on something, it would be her. So hearing her acknowledge that marrying Mishka at an admittedly young age is the right choice for us means a lot to me. Because she is not big on relationships in general. So having her excited about my wedding and talking about how she's glad she will have plenty of time to help me with preparations in the month before our wedding makes me happier than I can say.

So in conclusion... if you haven't gotten the sense from my last 3 posts... I LOVE my sisters!

Our Bridal Party - Bridesmaid K

My sister closest to me in age, even if she is only 2 minutes closer than her twin sister. She is probably the funniest, most likable person you will ever meet. In fact, she usually has at least 4 men head over heels in love with her at any given time (though she'd never admit to that fact ;-D).

She is also my only other sister in a serious relationship. So when I want to gush about the "perfect" surprise Mishka gave me, or when I need to talk to someone about a relationship related difficulty, she's the one who will understand. And it goes the same for her. Our openness with each other has been an invaluable bond as we are both discovering new thing about ourselves as we made our way through our first serious relationships. Whether or not I will one day be a bridesmaid in her and her current BFs wedding remains to be seen, but if I am I cannot WAIT to give my toast ;).

K is an amazing individual and is one of the reasons why school breaks are always filled with laughter and fun. She is also an extremely talented amateur photographer who recently received a high quality camera as a gift. So she has enthusiastically agreed to photograph my wedding (in addition to our professional photographer) as well as do a preliminary engagement shoot with Mishka and me over winter break. I know she'll do a great job :).

Our Bridal Party - My MOH G

It blows my mind how gorgeous my sisters are. Like seriously. I mean look at that face? And this isn't just me talking. She once smiled her way backstage at Hairspray to meet all the stars and get a free autographed can of "ultra-clutch".

This is my littlest sister G. Even though she's 5 years my junior, we have always had a special bond. My other two sisters are twins and therefore have their own special bond. So G and I have been close, basically since she was old enough to talk.

Besides our relationship, she is also the perfect choice for my Maid-of-Honor because... she's basically the IDEAL maid-of-honor. She is ridiculously organized, has a talent for party planning, and LOVES weddings. She is a huge fan of wedding planning shows (Say Yes to the Dress and whatever other shows are on Style and TLC). So, no, I don't worry that my MOH is still in high school.

Though of course, I've told her that if she ever feels she's too busy just to let me know. I don't want to overwork her. So far I haven't had much of a problem handling wedding tasks and hopefully that trend will continue.

I could go on and on about how crazy I am about this girl. She has a smile that could stop wars and a heart so big she couldn't intentionally hurt anyone. She is also tough as nails and rivals stereotypical drill sergeants when it comes to being "in charge". So I have no worries at all about delegating last minute details on my special day to her because she will make sure what needs to be get done gets done. I love her :).