I have a wedding dress!

So yesterday, I went to The Silver Hanger in Katy, Texas with my mom in search of a wedding dress. After trying on about ten dresses, we narrowed it down to five that we liked. And then we narrowed it down to two or three, and finally I selected MY dress. We then selected my veil, and we found a lovely one. We also got some shoes for me. 

It was a productive day. It was also exhausting. Who knew that trying on wedding dresses could be so exhausting? But I am so glad I have my dress! It is so gorgeous! It's simple but absolutely stunning. When my mom pulled it off the rack, she didn't think it would look good on me because of some of the lines, but what was the harm in trying it on? When my mom zipped me up, we were shocked! We got out of the dressing room to see it in its full glory, and it was amazing! The dress didn't cost a fortune either. Now, we do have to get it altered. The skirt needs to be hemmed and the sleeves are too tight for comfort, so we're getting new sleeves. We also need to have the train bustled so I can wear it in the temple and so I can walk around at the reception. The train is rather long, but it's only going to be for pictures. I'll probably ask Brittney (my sister-in-law) to carry my train around for pictures. 

Who's going to do the alterations? My mom. So for those of you who think I'm a terrible person for not having my mom make my dress, this should console you. We're saving a lot of money by having her do the alterations. We are also talking about having her make my temple dress for when I get my endowments and for when I do sessions at the temple after I'm married. I know a lot of girls just wear their temple dress for the sealing ceremony, but I want to actually get married in my wedding dress. That's why I made sure I got a wedding dress I could wear for the sealing. 

What kind of shoes did I get? Well, I was hesitant to get white heels because I don't wear white heels on a regular basis, so I felt that I would be wasting money on them. I thought about getting purple shoes, but I NEVER wear colored shoes so those would go to waste too. So, I decided on white ballet flats. I know Stephan is 6'3", but he can bend his neck to kiss me, as if he doesn't already have to do that. However, I can wear the ballet flats in the temple and I can use them for my temple shoes after I'm married. Problem solved!

Oh, and yesterday was my parents' thirtieth wedding anniversary. And I got my wedding dress on that day! How cool is that? 

home for a holiday

I got home yesterday. What a day! Our Uncle Vernon took us to the airport at 7:30 in the morning. I was up late packing; I could have started sooner, but I was too happy being done with finals to do so. Needless to say, I forgot a few things. My scriptures, my iPod, my phone charger....yeah. But I'm not complaining too much. We have scriptures at home for me to read. I can survive without my iPod for a few days. And I discovered the wonders of Skype last night, so I can talk to Stephan without using up the charge on my phone. If you don't have Skype, I HIGHLY recommend it. I used to think you had to have a WebCam, but you don't. The WebCam is just a perk, though I wouldn't mind having one. Skype is especially for those who are in long distance relationships. 

After I got home, Scott and I accompanied our mom to the youth talent show being put on in the ward. My mom spent the evening shoving my left hand into people's faces. But I got many congratulations. A lot of people seemed shocked that I'm engaged. I think it's because when I came home at Christmas, there was no talk of a boyfriend. I mean, I had met Stephan by that point but we weren't in a relationship. So, I leave Houston with no boyfriend and come back a few months later engaged. 

I got my haircut this morning. Our hairdresser said that he has cut away ALL of the damage that had been wrought upon my hair by our previous hairdresser. It has taken nearly three years of Scott (the hairdresser, not my brother) to completely cut away the damage. That's how much damage there was. Sometimes I wonder if I should have had my head shaven, I could have gotten rid of it faster. But I'm pretty happy. Battling frizz is no fun. I was also given some ideas of what to do with my hair on the wedding day. 

After that, we went for Japanese food. Mmm....sushi. Yes, I know you are grossed out, but I don't care. I love it. My mother craved it when she was pregnant. 

I just watched Star Wars Episode III. It's a good movie, but it's depressing. That's why I don't watch it that often. Though I have a former friend who watched it incessantly when he got back from his mission. His parents had to ground him from it. Umm, creepy?

Tomorrow, I am going wedding dress shopping with my mom! I'm excited. Wanna know some irony? My parents' 30th wedding anniversary is tomorrow. And my mom is taking me wedding dress shopping. Now, how does that sound? Of course, my mom is delighted. 

One day more

One day more until I fly home to Houston! I just have to take one final today and I can take it whenever I want. Then it's packing time. My uncle is going to take Scott and me to the airport tomorrow morning. 

I'm excited to get home mainly because I get to see my family. I think it's going to be the last time I visit them as an unmarried woman. I'm also excited because (a) I'm getting my hair cut. My hair is getting really tangly, which means it's time for a haircut. (b) I get to go wedding dress shopping with my mom. I REALLY hope that I find my dress! (c) I get to relax a little. I'm also going to the dentist--I am not looking forward to that. 

While I am excited to go home, I'm sad because I'm not going to see Stephan until next Tuesday. He can't take me to the airport because he has class and it's crunch time for him. He can't pick me up from the airport either because he has to work. Finals week is a big time for the math lab. But somehow we'll see each other next Tuesday. 

I'm also excited for spring and summer. It's going to be stressful with wedding prep and classes, but it's just going to be Jessica and me who are going to be here, as far as we know. We're going to miss Jenny and Amy, but we're excited for the summer. We get our own rooms. A whole lot more storage space. More refrigerator space (ha ha). We are also making some health goals and we're going to motivate each other (yeah!). I'll also practice cooking on her. Hey, I'm getting married, I need the practice. 

bridal shower and what not

My bridal shower was last night. There was a modest turnout, but I was kind of expecting that because of finals. Stephan's mom and sisters came, my cousins Anika and Rachel were there, my cousin-in-law Camille was there, two of my roommates were there, my visiting teaching companion was there, my friends Natalie and Rachel came, and my cousin Rachel's sister-in-law was there It was a lot of fun. I only had to chew four pieces of gum. But they were big pieces of gum. I do not like gum. But oh well. 

I got some good gifts. Games, cleaning supplies, pajama pants (haha), a book about FHE for newlyweds, a gift card to Coldstone, etc. 

All in all, a good time was had by all. 

In other news: I finished my Early Modern English final yesterday! Hooray!!! No longer do I need to worry about that class! I only have two more finals I have to take, and I'm not super worried about them. 

The photographer got my deposit check. We are good to go for August 15! I am so excited. 

end of semester....wha?!

So today was the last day of classes. However, I do not have classes on Tuesdays, so yesterday was my last day. Yay? Well, I still had stuff to do today. I needed to write up my report for my capstone class and I need to take some online quizzes for my Music 202 class before midnight. Right now, my brain is FRIED.

Today marks exactly one month since Stephan proposed :) And tomorrow will mark four months until the wedding. Yay! It doesn't seem so forever away now. We got some more planning done! Happiness! Stephan has tentatively planned our honeymoon and I approved of it. We have also decided where we're going to have the family dinner/my graduation dinner the night before. I know most people call it a rehearsal dinner, but we're getting married in the temple, what's there to rehearse? So I call it the family dinner, and it's just our immediate families with the possible inclusion of grandparents. Or I could call it "the dinner where our families attempt to like each other", ha ha. Nah, I'm sure they'll get along just fine.

I'm going home next week after finals, just for a few days. I'm hoping to get some more wedding planning done, including getting a dress! I know what you're thinking: you're going to look for a dress in Houston? Well, there's actually a modest wedding dress shop in Katy. One of my friends got her dress there and said that they have good deals there. This also gives my mom her chance to go wedding dress shopping with me, since I'm in Utah and she's in Houston. Plus, my mom has a really good eye and will be able to tell what looks good on me and what doesn't. Thank heavens for a mother who's a seamstress. People have been asking me if my mom is going to make my dress and the answer is no. Fittings would be impossible with the distance. And we've been having a hard time finding patterns that look good on me. I have a different shape than she does.

And it's cold and rainy...

photographer! yay!

After searching for a month, Stephan and I have found a wedding photographer! It took a month because the photographers we kept looking at were either too expensive or one of us didn't like the pictures (mostly Stephan). But one day, in the facebook ad section, I found JarvieDigital. I decided to look at his site, and I liked his work and the price tag wasn't too shabby. I still looked at other photographers, but I kept coming back to his site and looking at his blog. I showed the blog and the site to Stephan and he REALLY liked it. On Thursday night, I e-mailed the photographer (Scott Jarvie, if you're wondering) and on Friday he e-mailed me back informing me that August 15 was still available and asked if he could call sometime about the particulars. I said he could, and last night, he called me. Talk about reliability.

I mailed a deposit check today and once he gets it, which should be soon since he lives in Provo, we have a photographer! Hooray!

And get this: August 15 was the one free Saturday he had in the month of August. After he gets my deposit, that will no longer be the case...ha ha ha. I got lucky!

Here's his site if you want to look at it:

JarvieDigital

He does amazing work. He's also a really friendly, easy-going guy.

slow week

Is it only Wednesday? Gee, this week is going sooo slowly.

And yet, I can't believe that the semester is almost over.

According to my countdown clock, I'm almost down to the exact four month mark until the wedding. Whoo!

Scott's almost done with his mission papers. Just a dentist appointment and appointments with the bishop and stake president and his papers will be submitted. After that, it will be the wait. And we'll be taking bets as to where he's going. Stephan has already betted that Scott will go Chinese-speaking.

In my last post, I forgot to talk about the weekend.

General Conference was great. Scott, Stephan, and I went up to Salt Lake for the Saturday morning session. It was cold and rainy, but we got there. After conference was over, we stuck around for a little bit, taking pictures on the outside balcony and then wandering around temple square. When traffic lightened up, we drove Scott back to Provo and then went back to Pleasant Grove and listened to the afternoon session there. Then came the Priesthood session--Anderson men left the house leaving the women behind. I used that time to call my mom, since I don't call her as much these days...heh heh.

Then, the men came home and we ate a late, light supper. Then it was time to take me home. The next morning, Stephan picked me up and we went to his house again. We ate breakfast (crepes...mmmm). His sister came with her husband and their ADORABLE two children: Ginny (almost 3) and Tavin (9.5 months). Ginny has started calling me "Aunt Lala". It is so cute. Then we listened to conference. After the sessions were over, there were dinner and games. And there was some wedding planning. And baby Tavin bit me on the shoulder. Ouch! I scared the poor thing when I screamed. I wasn't expecting a baby to have such a hard bite!

So, yeah, that was my weekend.

I woke up Monday morning without the ability to breathe because I was congested. The congestion has been waking me up for the last few mornings (at not-so-good hours), unfortunately. I guess spring is here. I wish they didn't put decongestants behind glass...grr. Stupid meth addicts for making it so the rest of us law-abiding citizens have to suffer for their addiction.

I went to a dinner for Stephan's job last night. It was pretty good--it was a luau themed dinner. The barbequed chicken was amazing. Mmm. After the dinner, we hung around the UVU campus for a little while. We talked about what we have left in wedding planning. We are dreading addressing invitations because we know that we have to send out A LOT. And we haven't even gotten engagement pictures taken yet!

So, that's what's going on so far. I'm going home for a few days after the semester is over.

wedding planning progress

So, today I have made progress on my wedding planning. Here's what I've gotten done:

• Wedding cake. I chose the design for my wedding cake. It turns out I picked one that will be very easy for Kathy, and yet it does not look plain. Far from it. But it doesn't look too fancy to eat. My pet peeve with a lot of wedding cake is that it is too fancy. I mean, come on, it's going to be eaten! I wish I could post a picture of it, but oh well. It's going to have lavender and cream fondant.
  
• List of people to invite to the sealing. I booked the largest sealing room in the temple, which holds 55. We managed to draft a list of people to invite to the sealing. It's going to be mainly family. Yeah, that's how big our families are.
  
• Possible places to have the family dinner the night before.
  

There's still a lot more to do: engagement pictures, wedding announcements, food for the wedding reception, wedding dress (knowing me, you would probably think I'd already have that, right?), my bouquet and Stephan's boutennier, photographer...need I go on? But I'm not stressing too much about wedding planning, except about how to get people to agree with my ideas...ha ha.

I'm not really stressing about when/where I'm getting my endowments because that will get done, no matter what.

It's raining...yay!

I prefer rain to snow. Of course, I don't care to walk around in the rain, but the fact it's raining reminds me that it's spring. But there is nothing like a Texas thunderstorm. I miss those. Ah well.

I went to Le Jardin (where my reception is going to be) yesterday with my Visiting Teacher. It was great because she's getting married too, although her wedding is in June (lucky). We talked about our wedding plans, our fiances, etc. It's funny because her fiance (Cody) lives in American Fork and is going to UVU in the fall. Stephan lives in Pleasant Grove (not far from AF) and goes to UVU. We also realized that both fiances declared their love for us on the same day: Valentine's Day. And we're all getting married in the same temple, though on different days. We also started dating around the same time and got engaged around the same time as well. Amazing. Double dates? I think so!

Anyway. I went to Le Jardin so I could pick out my linens and centerpieces. Ivory linens, purple hydrangea centerpieces, and purple organza sashes around the chairs. Pretty. Yeah, I know my color is lavender, but I wanted something bright for the reception.

This was the first time I had been to this place in about three years--the last time I was there was for my brother's mission companion's wedding reception. It was more beautiful than I remembered! You see, it's an indoor garden with all these fountains and benches. It's gorgeous. And we save money on flowers. Decorations done by God himself (in my mother's words).

I was also given a vendor list. That should help narrow down some stuff.

Oh yeah, I was at Anika's yesterday, and I used my ring as a hypnotic device on my one-year-old cousin Darren. It worked until he tried to grab it. He really seemed to like that ring. Well, not surprising--the diamond is VERY shiny.

Before I conclude, happy conference weekend to my fellow Mormons! I'm going to the morning session tomorrow in Salt Lake with Stephan and Scott. And then I get to spend all of conference weekend with Stephan's family. Not the sleeping part, duh!

April Fool's...

I'll say that the weather is playing a cruel joke on us. Snow? Come on! I'm getting tired of it. I want SPRING!!!!

Of course, it seems like there's bad weather right around General Conference. I have to wonder if it's an attempt to keep as many of the anti-Mormon protestors away as possible. I'm going to the Saturday morning session of General Conference in Salt Lake with Stephan and Scott. The other sessions I will spend with Stephan's family *smiles*

So, I got my ring yesterday. No joke about it. It's gorgeous.


























I was wrong about the carat size. It's actually just under 1/3 carat. It looks a little bigger than that, but that's because Hearts on Fire cuts them just a little shallow so the circumference of the diamond is bigger. The diamond is GORGEOUS. No picture can do it justice, at least not with my camera. The diamond shines like no other. The metal is palladium, like I said. It's set in a double prong cathedral setting. I can hold Stephan's hand without cutting him. That makes him happy.

But I'm happy with my ring too. I also paid for his ring yesterday and they are ordering it :)