Our Wedding Rings

Time is flying by since June and my wedding is creeping up sooner and sooner as each day goes by. I sent out wedding invitations last week and have already started to get back RSVP's. I get so excited opening the mail to see those cute little response envelopes and guessing who it is from. But that is another post I will do soon. Today I am so happy to report that our wedding rings have been ordered/purchased. I really hoped to get this done last month but we just got done with it all yesterday.

My Ring

I knew right away that I wanted a ring that would match well with my engagement ring because I would like to wear both of them together. So I decided that an eternity band would work best. I decided against an eternity band with diamonds all around because 1) I am told by many people that the stones on the bottom tend to fall out and need repair from hitting it against tables, opening doors and just every day wear and tear.  2) because if it has stones all around it you cannot resize it. So you are stuck with one size which if you gain weight or lose weight could become a problem.  I chose to have my eternity band with half band of stones and bottom half just plain 14k white gold. I also wanted a very slim and tiny band that wouldn't take away from the engagement ring which is my bling bling ring (lol!).  I started looking for what I wanted online and comparing prices. We are definitely on a wedding budget and had a certain number in mind of what we wanted to spend for both rings.  As we looked in different jewelry stores it was pretty obvious I would either have to plunk out more money than expected or I had to choose something I wasn't crazy about. Enter my mother to the rescue! She has truly been amazing and came up with a wonderful solution. My parents have been divorced for some time now. However, on their 10 yr anniversary she got a beautiful diamond ring with lots of larger sized stones.  Since she is no longer married and doesn't wear the ring she was so kind and thoughtful enough to offer to give me half of the stones in the ring to have my jeweler create an eternity band for me. This saved me lots of money because I just had to pay for the gold and the work to make it. Aside from saving lots of money this way, I was touched by the sentimental value of those stones and how unselfishly my mother gave me them. She will save the rest of the stones for my sister if she wants them for her own wedding or for another piece of jewelry.  I love it. I am so excited to pick it up. I am so excited for my wedding!

This is exactly what I was looking for.  Something simple and very thin

This is essentially what my rings will look like once its completed only slightly larger stones (thanks momma!) :) 

Peter's Ring

Peter debated for a while about what he wanted for his ring but he knew right away he didn't want any stones in his and wanted it on the plainer side.  The first ring that we saw for him was a beautiful two tone ring with white gold inside lined with yellow gold and mil grain detail on the edges.  But then he started leaning toward a solid yellow gold band on our second trip to look at rings and decided against any type of mil grain or textured finish.  BUT THEN he saw a really nice white gold band with a brushed texture with polished white gold on the edges and I was sure he was going to go with that one.  BUT THEN he changed his mind again at the last minute and ultimately decided to go with a simple white gold band.  We pick it up in 2 weeks because it needs to be resized and polished. Once we pick it up I am planning to get it engraved with our first initials and our wedding date ♡

Pete's ring will look just like this one.. 14K WG

The wedding is so close. I will have so many things to discuss in the upcoming weeks as everything starts to really kick off. Thanks to everyone who has read my blog and followed my journey to the altar. I love blogging and hope to continue blogging about my life as a married woman! Only 68 days til that happens!! 

Til next time,

Michelle 

Planning Our Interfaith Ceremony

When Pete and I began our relationhip one ofis the f Roman Catholic (with communion and confirmation pics to prove it) and Pete is Jewish (converted, bar mitzvah'd and all). Throughout the years of our relationship we have worked together to keep balance between relationship and religion. We always try to be respectful of both faiths.  We spend most Jewish holidays with his family and Catholic ones with my family. So far it's worked out well for us.

When we got engaged we realized quickly that planning a ceremony would be a little different than what I had always imagined or expected.  Growing up I always thought I would be married in church by a priest. I never thought I would marry someone who was from a different religion and so I had to come to terms with the fact that we could not get married in church by a priest.  It bothered me a little bit at first but I got over it and now I am glad that we can do our ceremony at the same place as the reception. It makes it much easier for our guests who won't have to travel in between ceremony and reception.  It will be a nice easy transition from ceremony to cocktail hour and then reception. 

Finding a suitable wedding officiant proved to be a little tricky. This is a wedding so the most important aspect of it is the marriage ceremony. We wanted to find an officiant who would know how to blend both our faiths into one ceremony that reflected how we feel about eachother and reflects our religions without feeling too Catholic or too Jewish. We wanted a balance of the religions. The issue we found was finding an officiant who understood that.

Since I am pretty much the first in my group of friends to get married (same goes for Pete) we had no recommendations for an officiant so I had to scout one myself. I read weddingwire.com reviews for officiants near me. I found a few officiants and scheduled appointments to meet with each of them in person. The issue I found with many of these interfaith officiants is that 1. They either knew more about one religion and not enough about the other OR 2. Everything was too general/generic sounding meaning they didn't really touch on any religion's aspect at all. 

Some tips for finding your officiant

1. Start early...the sooner the better. This allows for plenty of time to find the best fit and more likely the officiant still has that day open. This is a very personal and special moment. Make sure you find someone who takes the time to get to know you. Ask friends and family for recommendations if they have already gone down this route.

2. Meeting in person is a must. We met with 3 different officiants before choosing one. Make sure you feel comfortable and that they understand exactly what you want. If you don't feel a connection keep looking until you find someone who "gets you." Someone can look great on paper and on their website but then seem very different in person. Meet them, discuss your vision and make sure they know how to deliver.

3. Come prepared and know what you want (or at least an idea). The first officiant we met asked us what we wanted in our ceremony and we drew a total blank. We wanted an interfaith ceremony but had no idea how much or how little of each we wanted to include, did we want a unity ceremony?, did we want everyone to wear a yarmulke? , did we want to include hebrew prayers?, etc. So needless to say we came a little ill prepared for our first officiant meeting. Before you meet with anyone make sure you are first meeting with eachother and discussing these details.

4. Shop around for the right fit. This kind of goes hand in hand with meeting in person. Do not feel pressured to make a decision and book the first officiant you meet unless you feel absolutely sure this is the perfect officiant for you. We waited til we found someone who we felt comfortable with and who understood our vision.

When we met with the third officiant we were very happy that we found someone who understood what we were looking for and could easily piece together an outline of our ceremony that we thought worked well.  This is what we came up with: 

Rough Outline of The Ceremony 

1. Groom walks down with both parents (Jewish tradition)

2. Bridal party walks down 

3. Bride walks down with father only (Catholic tradition)

4. Opening remarks

5. Blessing of wine and hebrew prayers (Jewish)

6. Bible verse new testament (Catholic)

7. Unity ceremony (either sand or candle lighting)

8. Vows

9. Presentation of married couple

10. Break the glass (Jewish)

*We will also be marrying under a chuppah 

I am really happy with what we came up with and it is a pretty well balanced ceremony without it being "too Catholic" or "too Jewish" for lack of better terms. Hopefully if you are reading this and planning your own interfaith wedding you can take use this as a starting point! :) But remember at the end of the day this is YOUR wedding ceremony...make sure it feels right and reflects your love. 

Til my next post,

Michelle

p.s. only 150 days left!!! 

New Beginnings + Engagement Pics!

Happy 2014!! It is hard to believe it is already January and another year is here.  I have so many things to look forward to this year.  It is exciting, stressful, overwhelming and a little surreal sometimes to think I am planning my wedding but I am loving the ride.  We took a break from doing any serious planning but now that the new year is here we are ready to get back into full gear!  More on that soon...!  

I have been wanting to do a blog post months ago but due to my moving to a new apartment and holiday stuff I had to push it back. Our engagement photos have officially been in for awhile but we are just recently starting to share them. We had such a nice time taking the photos and we got to meet and work with the photographer doing our wedding photos.  It was a great time and we were lucky to get a picture perfect day.  The weather, the sky, the breeze was just perfect.  I can only hope we get an equally beautiful wedding day. 

What we wore

For engagement photos our photography company suggested that we dress in complimenting outfits as if from the same catalogue without being too matchy matchy. In order to do that we bought clothes from the same store so that the colors and style would mesh well. Pete and I love the store Express and since they carry both men and women's clothes we picked outfits from this store for the photos.

Here is a photo of our outfits! We chose classic fall colors like gray, black and camel.

Michelle: Black Dress (H&M-old but Express literally had the exact same dress this season) , Cardigan (Express-old), Belt (Express), Bandolino boots (Macy's)

Pete: Black sweater (Express), Gray pants (Express), Black loafers (Journeys)

Our Favorite Shots

I expected to wait a few weeks before we got our proofs back but I was surprised that we got them back only 1 week later!! They came out beautiful and we are very happy with them!! Below I have posted a few of our favorite shots!! I'm planning to order a few prints to hang up around our apartment and we will also choose an image from the shoot to use on our save the date announcement.
  

One of the first shots of the day!

My favorite shot of us walking. 

Just you and me <3

Modeling like pros!

Love <3

The Cloisters

Perfect end to a  beautiful day <3

<3

XO,
Michelle G

P.S. Only 255 days til the big day!

Bridal Trend: Trash the Dress (TTD) - what are your thoughts?

I am nowhere close to finding my wedding dress. In fact, I am not really even planning on starting to look for it until sometime this fall but I have been reading up on the Trash the Dress (TTD) trend and had to write a post!

So just in case you are reading this and have no clue what I am talking about let me just briefly let you know about this growing trend. From what I have gathered online, it was started by a photographer in Las Vegas over 10 years ago but has only recently gotten popular in the last 5 yrs. Basically at another time after your wedding you stage another photoshoot where the bride wears her wedding dress again and purposely ruins it during the shoot. Some brides will jump into the pool or frolick around a beach. Others run around in mud and dirt, or shred it up. I have seen brides who threw paint on their dress and even a very controversial shoot where the bride burned her dress (while still wearing it!).

FYI I believe this is a photoshopped TTD which might be a good alternative

From what I understand, the point of TTD is supposed to be a fun, different take on traditional wedding photos. It allows the bride to have fun with her dress, have different kinds of poses and change things up. One site I read said that it symbolizes your devotion to your husband since you can't wear the dress again. And as one former bride I know who has done a TTD shoot said "Since you only get married once its not like you will ever wear it again. So why not?". 

So what do you think of this trend? Would you do it? I certainly can understand the appeal and reasoning behind the TTD trend. And it definitely does look very fun but this is a trend that I personally will be skipping and this is why: 

1. I'm too sentimental: I still have the dress I wore in my Quinceanera (Sweet 15). My mom still has my baptism and communion dress. I come from a family who holds onto this type of stuff. For me, this is a very special dress that I want to keep perfect and show my children someday. It is sacred and important because of the commitment I made wearing it.  To spend so much money on a beautiful dress only to purposely ruin it seems to be a waste of money and disrespectful to the sanctity of the dress (to me at least).

2. Unforeseen dangers: Maybe I am being a little pessimistic but I have read about the bride who drowned wearing her dress in the river or the one who burned her dress while wearing it. The possibility that my safety can potentially be compromised for a photo is a huge red flag!

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this post.  The next few posts will be coming soon as we near our 12 month countdown to the wedding.  I'm so excited and glad to know that this is just the beginning.

xo,

Michelle G

Engagement + Our Story

Beyond excited and blessed to be able to share such a wonderful announcement.  A few weeks ago I got engaged to my best friend, Peter.  We are so happy and excited to begin this new chapter in our lives together.  We have been through so much over the years and through all the ups and downs we have continued to make our relationship a priority.  I love him so much and I am ready to see what our future has in store.  

OUR STORY

I met Peter one evening in a restaurant about 7 years ago.  It was June and I was a few weeks into my summer break from college.  I had been working all day taking care of kids.  I was tired, messy and ready to spend my evening at home taking a nap.  My 2 friends invited me to get dinner at one of our favorite casual spots.  Since it was a casual hangout spot I didn't think to change my clothes (or put on more makeup).  I just went looking like a total mess.  

We got to the restaurant and sat down.  As soon as our waiter came to take our order I regretted not changing or fixing myself up.  As soon as I saw him I felt an instant attraction to him and I felt that I liked him right away.  I looked at his name tag, it read 'Peter.'  He immediately smiled and was very outgoing.  He said hello to my girl-friend, Keisha.  They happened to know each other from school.  They small talked for a bit (while I tried not to stare at him) and then he took our order.  From the get go I could tell he was really easy going, friendly and easy to talk to.  I secretly cursed myself for not having changed my clothes, combed my hair and freshened up.  Since when did this restaurant hire cute waiters?!  When he started flirting with Keisha, I figured I didn't have a shot.  So I just admired him while he served our food and refilled my drink.  I never thought anything would ever come from this encounter.  And nothing really did, but it was the first time our paths crossed and the first time we ever met.  

Pete in his waiter uniform.  This is basically exactly what he looked like the day we met.  

It might have been a few days or maybe a week later that I returned to the same restaurant with Keisha and another friend.  It just so happened that Peter was working there again that day and we happened to get seated in his section again.  This time I had come looking a bit more presentable.  Of course he started flirting with Keisha but then he also talked a bit with me as well.  He was so nice and friendly and I really liked him.  Keisha wasn't interested but I sure was.  At the end of our meal he left us a card with a link to his MySpace (this was back in the old days of social networking).  I'm not sure if he left it for Keisha or if he left it for me but I took it and friended him on MySpace.  I didn't think anything would come of this but I figured if anything maybe I could make a buddy to give me free ice cream lol. He messaged me right away that he recognized me from the restaurant and from there we started talking online, then on the phone until he asked me on our first date.  As they always say...the rest is history!

Me & My Love

He is my best friend.  I can tell him anything and share everything with him.  He loves me and accepts me.  I can be myself with him.  I feel safe and secure with him.  He makes me laugh, he helps me with anything I need.  If I have a problem, he is there trying to fix it with me.  He loves me and he loves my family.  He loves my dog too :)  He is a wonderful person and I am so blessed that I met him.

How Pete popped the question!

I have always said that I would never want a public engagement meaning I would never want other people to be present during such an intimate and special moment in your life.  This is just my own preference.  So places like a restaurant, sporting event or holiday parties are not my thing. Pete picked the best spot near our house to ask me to marry him.  When the weather is nice, Pete and I love to go to our favorite little park to have picnics and just relax and enjoy nature.  He took me for a walk to our favorite park and as we stood by our spot he had a guitar player come and start playing Bruno Mars "Marry You" in the background while he asked me.  It was low key, private and sweet.  The best part was that it was in our park at our favorite spot which made it very sentimental and thoughtful.  Of all the places near my house, this spot was the most appropriate I think.  And he did an amazing job picking out the ring!!

My gorgeous engagement ring!  I love the personalized birthstone added underneath! Aquamarine <3

I am just in the early planning stages of our wedding.  I am overwhelmed but also very excited to plan this important day with Pete.  I think I will be blogging alot more in the next few months as I make preparations for everything.  I hope to be able to share my journey.

xoxo,
Michelle G