Wait a minute... wasn't she just six years old?

Yes, yes, she was.

Little Kayla, Jenafer's younger sister, whom I still can't believe isn't six-years-old anymore (granted, I was twelve during her six-year-old-ness), had her bridal shower on Sunday. Holy cow! She's six!

Okay, okay, so now she's 20. But still. 

I told her it wasn't fair that she, being a whole five years younger, was getting married before me, and she just hugged me and said, "Think of it as if we're getting married at the same time!"

All right, fine.

So Kayla's shower was adorable. And she was adorable. And Jen was adorable for organizing it.

Also, Jen's amazing at wedding stuff. Like this ribbon bouquet she's already got good to go for the rehearsal. I'm so glad she's on my side in all this wedding business. :)

Kayla was pretty much the cutest thing you've ever seen. She was so stinking excited about everything. And just adorable about every single gift. For instance, this picture here:

She pulled her new pan out of the bag and exclaimed, "This is my everyday pan! I will use it everyday!"

And then made that face. 

I can't handle the cuteness.

Happy bridal shower, Kayla Deyling!

I think the worst part so far of being engaged is making my closest friends pony up tons of money for a dress. It's seriously the worst feeling.  

Boo.

Sorry, guys. 

Disclaimer: This is not the right color. 

(Our color is quarry.)

At least Jenna rocks it.

Awful Blogger Alert

So I am sucking at blogging lately. Believe me, I have millions of things to write about. And I can usually get around to starting an entry. It's finishing it up that is eluding me right now.

So. I'm going to try to release some of these half blogs this weekend. I'll try to spruce them up a bit, but please don't feel sad if the latest entries are not quite up to par.

Well, you can feel a little sad. I'll feel sad.

In the meantime, you should check out the newest blogger to the blogosphere... Melody! She's pretty freaking hilariously fantastic. You'll enjoy her comparisons of cauliflower and broccoli. Enjoy!

The artichoke dip at our wedding will be fabulous.

If you learn nothing else from this simple blog, remember this at least.

We went today to try out the food that will be served at our wedding. The main chef offered a tasting for us at his condo, and we weren't sure what this meant? Were we getting a meal? Were we getting bite-sized pieces of the main dish? Why were we paying $50 for this?

But holy vegetables-that-I-don't-even-like, Batman; that artichoke dip was worth the $50.

We basically got an awesome sit-down lunch at the guys' place, where he served us all the main foods that would be at the wedding. We started out with a couple of the appetizers, mainly the dip and some sausage he had prepared. Then we tried the two different types of chicken he had, though he promised we would pick the second one (we did) and then we try the pasta too. At one point he asked me why I looked so dazed (this guy kept it real, P.S.), and I told him I was trying to figure out how he made this chicken so perfect.

And he told me his secret. Seriously, he did.

But I can't tell you. If I told you, I'd have to kill you.

Okay, I'll tell you part of it. The part about where he gets his chicken. (Drum roll, please.) He gets it at Costco. Apparently the stuff they sell us at the stores is the lowest of the low, and all the restaurants buy from specific wholesale places that serve the real, non Food Inc. chickens, so no matter how awesomely you cook, it will never be as good as something you will find at a restaurant. But apparently Costco does a good job of getting some of this good chicken. And also beef and fish.

So here's what we've learned: Costco chicken good. Vons chicken bad. And artichoke dip is in our future.

The Repentance Story of a Future Wife of a Designer

Get ready, people- this one's gonna be sappy!

In response to my frequent blog rants about the difficulties of being engaged to a designer who likes to design and wishes to design many things and constantly talks about the design of our wedding (and our invitations... and our centerpieces... and our bridesmaid dresses... and my shoes...), my designer fiance has written a rebuttal on his own blog.

If you haven't read it yet, you should. Among other things, he refers to me as a child with ADD. And calls me crazy. And something about the Easter bunny, which is really just ridiculous.

And while, yes, I maintain the fact that it is hard marrying a designer, I have also found the following to be true:

1) I love that Chris is a designer.
2) I love that he is creative and passionate and tries to incorporate both of those traits in everything he does.
3) This includes our wedding.
4) These are traits that I have always admired in him.
5) They are, in fact, the traits that first led me to him.
6) Would I ever want to change that about him?
7) No.

So in these last couple of weeks, as I have lamented the fact that Chris has opinions and wants to make our wedding awesome, I've also realized that I love him so much for it. Even when he's driving me slightly crazy with "the big picture, all the time" and I just want to look at "the little picture, for now, please."

Like he said, love is hard work. Sometimes you have to compromise. Sometimes you have to concede that the bridesmaid dress he picked out is pretty awesome. Sometimes you have to concede that you only bought those yellow shoes to get something accomplished that day. Sometimes you have to take a match and burn that damn Pantone wheel. 


Here's the sap part:

I realized all this last Friday, as I was driving home from work. I was on the 125 in rush hour, and I was doing that thinking and praying simultaneously thing that you sometimes do when you're feeling overwhelmed. Anyone know what I'm talking about? Well, I was feeling overwhelmed with schoolwork, with real work, with the wedding... especially with the wedding, and with Chris, for wanting to put so much work into the planning and the details and the research and the... let's just say it was overwhelming.

And then suddenly I wasn't overwhelmed with all that stuff anymore. It was back burner stuff. Instead, I was hit with the overwhelming blessing Chris is in my life. How he makes me smile, and laughs at the same things I laugh at, and is content to sit for hours with me on our laptops, and appreciates beauty, and appreciates me, and works so hard, and feeds me, and takes care of me, and a million other things that just take my breath away when I pause to think about them.

He is amazing.

And to think that God's given him to me, to stand beside me, and love me, and be my family, it's just so incomprehensible that such a blessing as he is could be given to me.

And I'll admit it. I was crying a little as I drove down that 125 in rush hour. And when he called me two seconds later with a wedding question, I blurted out, "I was just thinking about how much I love you!" And then everything was great.

So marrying a designer is hard work. And marrying a non-designer is hard work.

But I think we're going to make it just fine.

While shopping with my roommates at Barnes & Noble

The following takes place on May 7, between 8:30pm and 8:35pm.


Jordan: That journal cover reminds me of Mandy.

Sonia: Really? I think that one looks more like Jenna.


Jordan: No, when I think of Jenna, I don't think of so many colors. Like maybe three colors. Bright colors. But just three of them.


Jenna: I like that cover. I would get that.


Jordan: No, it looks like Mandy. Look, this is what you look like.

Jordan: Only with pinks.


Jenna: Really? I would think that would look like Mandy. 


Sonia: I think that one looks like Jenna, too.


Jenna: Here's mine! (Holds up a journal entitled Keep Calm and Eat a Cupcake.)


Jordan: No, here's Jenna for sure.

Jenna and Sonia: Oh, yeah...

Jordan: See? Three colors. Oh, here's another one that's totally Jenna!

Sonia: No, that's Jordan!

Jordan: (Looks at the book.) Oh, yeah, you're right.

Yes. This is a true account of a Friday night spent at the mall. We analyzed each other's personalities using journal covers at the bookstore.

I like those girls.

Telling our peeps

The invitations have gone out.

The calls have been made.

And ten lucky contestants have been chosen to play Wedding Party Idol.

Just kidding. There's no contest. We want everyone to just be best friends. 

(And we'd prefer if most of them didn't sing.)

(If your name is Sarah Trementozzi, you can sing.)

Yes, I sent invitations to my bridesmaids. And, yes, they all knew I'd picked them before they got their invitations. I'm all not-good-at-keeping-secrets awesome that way. 

I made the invites with scalloped note cards, envelopes, and ribbon from Joann's Crafts, along with Chris' nifty printer that only ruined three pages by rotating the little card halfway through the printer duct. (Is that the appropriate terminology for the part of the printer where you know something is going terribly wrong and yet your fingers can't reach in to fix it or at least salvage the quickly diminishing numbers of scalloped cards?)

Chris contemplated invitations for his guys, but in the end he settled on the quick and dirty method:

"Hey, Chris*. Want to be in my wedding? Awesome. Hey when do we want to go golfing** next?"

And since I just named off all the guys, here's the list of girls, for those of you who have tiny screens and can't read the girls' names on the picture above (or for those of you who don't know you can click on pictures to enlarge them....): my sister Britt, Chris' sister Sarah, and my amazing roommates Jenna, Sonia, and Mandy.

*Substitute Chris for Kris, Cody, or Ryan.

** Substitute golfing for watching 24 or going to a concert.

Cupcake Tasting

Chris and I got a bunch of stuff done this weekend. We met with Jarrod, who's going to be DJ'ing for us. We took a trip downtown to check out hotels for... you know. Later. We decided on the bridesmaid's dresses. And we went to our first cake sampling.


(Cup)cake that is. We went thinking we'd just buy some to sample. Which we did. Then when we asked about their wedding deals, they gave us four more to sample. 


We are now up to our ears in cupcakes.


But they're really yummy.

Beef with Broccoli = Heaven

Tonight I decided we needed a break from wedding planning and schoolwork.

So for a glorious two hours, I did nothing online. Instead, I went to Vons, got some steak and broccoli, set to making this great recipe, and made Chris turn off his computer for an hour and watch Planet Earth with me while we ate.

It was so nice.

And that beef and broccoli recipe is a-freaking-mazing. Seriously, as soon as I poured the sauce into the pan with the steak it was like heaven broke out in the kitchen. The smell was so intensely mouth-watering, and I basically stood over the pan and picked out pieces while I waited for the rice to hurry up and cook. (Sshhh, don't tell Chris, he thinks we got an equal amount.) And I had the foresight to make more than necessary and we both had a delish lunch to take to work with us today.

Beef and broccoli make Mondays much better, I feel.


We also still had some cupcakes leftover. Sheesh, I thought we'd never finish those things, but here's the last plate full, which we polished off last night for dessert.

And now it's back to school and wedding planning!