Newlyweds

We'll we've been married for a little over three weeks now. Many people have asked if it feels any different. To be honest it doesn't feel different, just better.

The entire wedding was beautiful. Josh and I are so happy with the way everything went. Our DJ was wonderful and made the reception worry and stress free. The reception hall was beautiful and the ceremony was priceless.

I've included a few pictures of the day and will hopefully upload some slide shows at a later point. Most of our pictures are from other people since we haven't seen the professional ones yet.

We are also waiting for the video from the wedding and I hope to be able to load it on here so that people that couldn't join us can still see what our special day was like.

Here is our church alter

My dad walking my down this aisle

My grandpa and me posing

My family

The bridal party

Josh and me in the limo heading to the reception hall

Our very yummy cake that Josh designed

Josh and my dad talking before the grand entrance to the reception hall

Josh and me doing the grand entrance

Josh and me while telling each other why we're perfect for one another

There are a ton more pictures, but they are not organized or anything. Mostly they are jumbled randomly in my picture folder and on photobucket. My goal is to organize them and create a slide show of the wedding, the reception and then the honeymoon.

Eventually we will have professional photos and we will share those too. Keep checking back!

Wedding Day

Today is our wedding day. Josh and I are so excited to be joined together at husband and wife. We hope that if you can't be there with us today that you will keep us in your hearts as we announce our love and pledge our vows for one another.

Pictures of the rehearsal as well as the ceremony will be forth coming.

Less than 3 days to go

We have been busy bees preparing for the wedding day!

Josh met with the church yesterday and finalized music and programs

This is the front and back of the program. The announcement is obviously the front and the scripture is the back.

This is the inside with the bridal party and the ceremony details.

We are putting things together for Friday as we are setting up the reception hall the afternoon before the wedding. We have several tubs full of decorations, center pieces, and favors. We are going to manage to put the reception hall together in two hours and then make it to the Church for the rehearsal.

Besides preparing for the big day Josh and I each had our respective bachelor/bachelorette parties this last weekend.

Josh and about 10 of his friends got together and went formula 1 racing then ate massive amounts of pizza and played poker until 2 am

I had my party and Dave and Busters. There were about 8 of us total. We snacked, drank, and played games until they closed.

We each had a great last weekend as "single" people.

Now we are working as hard as we can to finish up our respective college courses so that we can be stress free on our honeymoon.

It's hard to believe that in 3 days we will be husband and wife finally. It's such a joyous occasion that we are both looking forward to. We are so happy to be celebrating it in our church with our family and friends and to have the opportunity to see so many loved ones at once while we express our love for each other.

Mexican Fiesta Bridal Shower

Saturday was my bridal shower. My best friend and Matron of Honor, Tracy threw the party for me with the help of my mom and sister. Since Joshua and I are going on a cruise to Ensenada, Mexico Tracy cooked up an amazing party with a Mexican theme. She paid attention to the tiniest details including the invitations!

How cleaver of her to use my face right on the front of the invitation. She, my mom and sister showed up at my house around 10:30 and were quick to rush me out so I wouldn't be tempted to help set up.

When I returned home my downstairs was transformed! A blend of music set the mood as well as the great decorations. There was even a slide show of me on the TV!

The yummy food was catered by Qudoba, along with homemade mexican wedding cookies, and homemade truffles and chili-chocolates! My mom made margaritas and Tracy created sangria with chunks of fresh fruit to garnish!

Shower games included a raffle, which Kelly won.

A 20 question quiz about Josh and me; naturally my sister was the winner. And a purfume making contest, which I judged and Sandi won!

(Judging the perfume contest)

(Sandi, Andi, Kelly)

The perfume doubled as a neat favor for each guest, not to mention the great flowers hair clips that Tracy made by hand!

No bridal shower would be complete without the bride becoming completly embarassed! If you know me, then you know how easily red I become. My mom filled my gift box full of individual personal lube, which I had to move out of the way before I found the actual gift, a road map of California and a picture of Six Flags, which represented the tickets my parents bought us toward our honeymoon registry.

The embarassment didn't stop there as I open gifts from my sister which included lacy thongs in my wedding colors and foreplay bathsalts!

I was very touched by my guests' thoughtful gifts. Many people contributed to our honeymoon registry, which will help Joshua and I have a wonderful honeymoon!

(My Godson, Thomas James)

The party went so well and I am forever greatful to my wonderful MOH Tracy. Not only for the wonderful things she has done as my matron of honor, but for introducing me to Joshua in the first place. No one could ask for a better friend!

Less than a month!

We have 24 days until the wedding!

We are working on several projects including seating arrangements. That means if you haven't sent in your RSVP then we need you to do it ASAP! The RSVP by date is Friday September 19th, that's this Friday! We have to let the catering company know about a head count by the 26th, so if we haven't heard from you by Friday I guess we'll be making phone calls!

My dress fittings are coming along well. I had the first fitting done and the seamstress wasn't in the store when I went in last week. They had to take quite a bit in on the sides and it's still too big so I have to have it taken in again. I go down on Friday to have that worked on. They did complete the bustle and it looks great!

Three under and three over! They numbered the under bustles for my mom and MOH so that it makes it easy the day of. Sorry, but I don't have any more pictures. You'll have to be at the church or wait until after the photographer sends us pictures to see the rest! We hope that you'll be at the church though!

Tomorrow we are going to pick up a marriage licence so that we are legally united on October 11th. Saturday is my bridal shower, being hosted by my wondering MOH, mother, and sister. I will post pictures of the shower including the awesome invitation that Tracy made. While I'm at the shower Josh is going to get fitted for his tux and work on getting his passport. We have so much to look forward to!

Wedding Musing

The first dress fitting was on Saturday. Of course I forgot the camera! Oops! All but two bridesmaids also came to have their dresses fitted. Naturally Lindsey didn't need to have hers altered at all, not even the hem line!

There was much jealously from the other girls.

Putting on my dress really made me feel excited about the wedding. It was the first time I put on my actual dress since I bought it. I've tried on the floor model at the store but it didn't feel the same as when I put mine on for the first time.

The alterations needed on my dress are the hem line (If you know my mom then you understand why!) and the sides. The hem needs to be raised about 2-3 inches and I have to have 1.5-2 inch taken in on each side. I also had breast cups inserted so I wouldn't have to wear a strapless bra or one of those medieval torturing devices called a corset.

The bustle is the complicated part. My train is chapel length and it is non detachable. There is also detailing on the back of the gown that I want to be visible.

After several attempts that were not flattering or simply didn't look right we finally found a style that works, but requires 6 separate bustles. I'll wear it down at the church but will bustle it at the reception.

They will call me to set up my second fitting and maybe I'll remember the camera, or maybe I'll hold off and make everyone wait until the wedding to see the completed work.

Also, the shop owner had me put my veil on with my dress and it does look very nice with it. It completes the look, so I'm not so upset that I have to wear the veil after all.

Center Pieces and Favors

Today my kitchen table looked like this:

It was the day to put together the center pieces and the favors. Josh and I decided to make our own so that we could express our own style and save some money. IKEA was a big help as all of the vases and candle holders were purchased from there. All the ribbon, flowers, and candles were purchased at Hobby Lobby and a few other craft stores.

About a month prior Tracy, my MOH, came over and help me cut all of the flowers so that they wouldn't be too long. Unfortunately she was ill and wasn't able to make it today. She really helped cut the day by 3 hours by helping cut the flowers previously.

This was definitely not a one-man-job. We all started by putting the bouquets together and wrapping them with ribbon. I couldn't have done it all without the help of several people!

Joshua was wonderful and made several trips to Hobby Lobby for supplies. We first didn't have enough ribbon. Then we didn't have enough flowers! Twice he ran out without complaint to pick up items for us.

Josh's mom came over and made a run to wal-mart and helped cut flowers, ribbons, and stickers. We started by putting flowers together and binding them with ribbon. We put large stickers at the bottom of the vases, with the backing still on them so that people would be able to pull them out after the wedding.

Initially they were going to go on the outside, but ended up being too big to place on the vase so my mom and sister thought of the idea of putting them in the bottom of the vase that way when people finish the chocolate kisses that they would see our label and realize who in fact gave them the tummy ache from all the dark chocolate!

After much hot gluing of ribbon around flowers and around the vases we filled them with dark chocolate kisses. Above Amy (bridesmaid) is arranging kisses into the vase to properly hold the flowers up.

Michi (wife of Nai, an usher, not to mention fabulous friend) came to the rescue and not only helped hot glue ribbon around flowers and vases, but added purple accents to all of our black wedding accessories.

My mom and my sister came up with the idea of wrapping ribbon around the favors and adding the stickers I had printed up at Zazzle.com.

My mom is wrapping ribbon around the candle holders to make a lovely design.

My sister carefully applied stickers to the front of the favors. And then applied tiny black bows, which I tied, with hot glue.

My sister refused to be photographed further than this picture. She was mortified that I posted the pictures of her in the bridesmaid dress back in June.

When the favors are placed on the tables they will have tea light candles in them. Unfortunately the reception hall won't allow them to be lit, but that's o.k. The still make a nice visual!

The army of center pieces! Each table will have one vase and my mom has a fun idea for how to send them home with people at the end of the party! We were only short 4 vases' worth of flowers and kisses. We also ran out of ribbon again and have 40 more favors to make.

A final picture of what we did today. We started at 1 pm and my mom and sister left around 10:30 pm. Over all it was a great day and we got a lot accomplished!

Next weekend, the first fitting for my wedding gown!

56 Days

Josh and I are getting married in 56 days. That is less than 2 months. We are feeling very excited for our big day.

We've paid the reception hall this month and that only leaves us balances for the linens and the catering. We need a more finalized guest list before we pay them because the balanced is determined by the number of guests.

We started invitations last weekend but came to a snag in the process. It was our first "crisis" concerning the wedding.

We took one invitation to the post office to purchase the proper postage for them and the post office told us they would not mail them.

Folded they look like this. You are suppose to address and stamp the invitation and then send it as is. We choose this style to eliminate paper waste not to mention envelope stuffing. Apparently they will get stuck in the machines at the post office and they can not guarantee they will arrive intact. It was suggested that we put them in envelopes.

I thought I was going to have a heart attack, but felt fortunate that we hadn't already addressed all the invitations and put postage on them. We made several phone calls to family to find suggestions. We looked at office supply stores but the only envelopes they had were the basic legal size, not ones that would fit or look nice.

We called the wedding store we purchased the invites through and they could order envelopes but not in enough time to send them out. They were puzzled by the post office as they've sold this style with no problems before.

We finally found a stationary store that sold us envelopes. The owner had stock for her personal card printing use and felt bad after we told her the situation. The envelops are white but are fancy enough to look as though they came with the invitations.

We decided to use the printer to print the addresses on but have not gotten that far yet.

Last weekend we placed postage on the response cards and envelops. We also printed out labels with our wedding website. Josh registered our blog for the next two years so people can find us at http://joshuaandvictoria.com . We plan on posting pictures and stories about our honeymoon adventure as well as random updates of our married life together.

We hope that this weekend we will get the envelopes printed and the invitations out in the mail on Monday. The respond by date is September 19th and it will be helpful to have a general idea of how many guests plan to attend so that we can work on catering and linens.

Church seal of approval

Josh and I finished our pre-marriage counseling yesterday.

We were able to do one session a week. We used the book The Marriage Journey by Linda Grenz and Dilbert Glover. We choose the four topics that we found most interesting and read the topics and discussed them with our Priest.

Our sessions were light, fun, and open. We really enjoyed spending some one on one time with Reverend Fortner and really found that we are very much on the same page when it comes to our marriage, friends, fighting, and children.

Marian was very pleased with us and told us on several occasions that she was very excited for us to embark on our married lives together.

Pre-Marriage counseling days always means a lunch date with Josh and coffee before or after our session. It was nice just to spend some quality time with Josh away from work, school, and life in general. We both feel that we really need that time with one another to keep up going as strong as we are.

We now have less than 3 months until our wedding day and we are getting close to sending out our invitations.

We really fell in love with these invitations because they wouldn't cause us to have to use envelopes.

These invitations just fold up and seal with a sticker. The response cards are perforated and mail just like postcards.

We loved the idea of saving paper and not needing to stuff invitations.

We are going against etiquette and are using printed mailing labels instead of hand writing addresses. It's just easier for us as neither one of us are proud of our penmanship. These will go out within the next 3 weeks. I just need to find the time to get them taken care of!

Other projects that I'm working on include our center pieces and favors. Tracy, my MOH, is coming over on Friday to help me trim the stems off of the artificial calla lilies we are using in the center pieces. Once that job is done putting them together will be effortless!

Pre-marital counseling

Josh and I are confirmed Episcopalians. We were confirmed and became members of All Saints in May 2007.

Even before we became engaged we knew that we would get married in our church in front of our family and friends by our favorite Priest, Reverend Marian Fortner.

As required by our church we must have pre-marital counseling prior to the ceremony. We will have four sessions on the following topics:

The Sacrament of Marriage

- A review of marriage in the Christian Church and in the Episcopal tradition from the Book of Common Prayer. Consider scripture selections.

Being with Others

- Dealing with differences in needs for other friendships and relationships; balancing time with spouse and others; healthy and unhealthy boundaries.

Fighting Fair

- Unfair fights; good fights; identifying abuse; distinguishing between complaints, criticism and contempt; understanding differences, stress and traditions.

The Gift of Children

- To have or not to have; children from previous relationships; maintaining balance; raising children.

We had our first session last week and we covered the sacrament of marriage. We discussed what type of ceremony we would have and what that would entail and what kinds of reading we would have.

It was very exciting to talk about. We decided we would have a traditional service which includes a Eucharist.

Josh will walk down the isle with Rev. Fortner and then the bridal party will descend and then I will follow being escorted by my father.

It will begin with "Dearly beloved;" and then the declaration of consent. The ministry of the word will take place. We will have readings from the old testament, new testament and a Gospel. We chose Tobit 8: 6-8, 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 and John 15:9-12. After the readings will be the marriage and prayers then the blessing of the marriage and the peace, where Josh will be able to kiss his bride. To bring the ceremony to an end there will be a Eucharist and a post communion prayer. Afterwards the wedding party will leave and their will be a receiving line.

It seems like a lot, but it will only be about an hour long. Having a Eucharist is very important to the both of us. No one is required to partake in the Eucharist, but everyone is welcomed to. There are no rules like in the Catholic church.

Being able to talk about the ceremony and knowing what will happen is so exciting.

Tomorrow we meet again with Rev. Fortner to talk about being with others. We want to be able to have strong connections with friends while still respecting our marriage together. We'll also be able to set up appointments for the final two meetings where we will talk about fair fighting and children.

Neither one of us are anxious about the topics because we hardly argue as it is and we both want children, but not sure how many. Being able to talk about it will be good for us.

Bridal party attire

Joshua and I chose purple and black as our wedding colors. We are naturally earth tone individuals. When you walk into our home there are tans, browns, reds and greens with various accents of black.

For our wedding we wanted to go outside of our comfort zone.

Ever since I was a child purple had always been my favorite color, so that was my first suggestion. We paired it with black and it was the look that we both wanted.

To start our theme we first looked at what the wedding party would wear. After getting the color done the rest was easy. I knew the designer that I wanted for the bridesmaid dresses so I hopped on the Alfred Angelo website and started browsing for styles.


I had a couple of styles in mind and took my sister Andi and my brother's fiance Kelly to a bridal shop who carried each of the designs. The ones I liked the most were tea length and strapless, but just didn't quite look right.

I spent some more time envisioning the wedding and determined that I wanted long dresses so I started looking for other styles when I found the perfect dress for the girls.


I took my sister and my Matron of honor down with me to look at the dress in person and knew that it was the one for the bridal party. It looked flattering on both of them and knew it would be perfect for all of the girls.


It took 3 months for the dress to come in and we went to pick them up last Friday. We have a total of 5 bridesmaids and a flower girl.

Unfortunately not all the bridesmaids could come with due to conflicting schedules.

Hannah, Josh's niece, is our flower girl. You'll notice in the group picture she is in a Jr. bridesmaid dress. We choose to go this route because my dress isn't a stark white and finding a flower girl dress that is in her size was just very difficult, not to mention I couldn't find a dress that I liked.

Tracy is my Matron of Honor. She is the entire reason that Joshua and I met in the first place. Her and her husband, who is also a groomsmen, insisted on a double date and we hit it off from the start. They are the match makers in our little romance.



Kelly is my brother Rusty's Fiance and just like a sister to me. If possible she would be the female version of my brother.

My sister Andi, who puts up with all of my craziness tried on a dozen dresses before I found this one. I promised her no butt bows or ugly dresses. The only problem she has this this dress is that it has a low cut back which means she, and the other girls, will need special bras to wear underneath.

While the girls were trying on their dresses I couldn't fight the urge to put on the sample dress again. It was a lot of fun to walk around with the girls in our dresses. The contrast their colors bring to my dress is just beautiful.

I wish that Amy and Lindsey could have been there, then the Bride's party would be complete.

All of the girls have to have alterations done to their dresses. As you can tell by the pooling fabric on the floor.
Most of them will also have to have their dresses taken in some. Thank goodness for alterations!

On Saturday Joshua and I went out to pick out the formal wear for the men in his party. Josh will also have 5 groomsmen. Chris is his best man, with James , Bruce, Alain, and my brother Rusty as the groomsmen. His nephew John-John will be the ring bearer and he will have Nai and Greg usher. All the men, including my father and his father will be in a tux.

Josh picked out the style of the suit, which has three buttons. The store did not have an exact match to the bridesmaid dresses in a vest so we choose one that had another shade we are using for accents. The vest will be worn with a black shirt and the longer neck tie rather than the bow. To incorporate the main purple color we purchases pocket silks that do match the eggplant color of the dresses.