Philly GTG

Last Saturday I drove down to Philly to meet up with some wonderful knotties from TK's DW board.

We meet at this cute restaurant called Jones. The place was really nice and the food... yummy!

One of the most wonderful thing about being engage has been finding The Knot and being part of the DW board. There I've found wonderful ladies going through the same things, whether is FIL's drama or deciding on doing Boudoir pictures or just getting opinions on those small details that our guests will never even notice. Those ladies sure know how to help each other through the planning process.

Not many knotties get to go to what we call knotties GTG (get together). I, in another note, have gotten the opportunity to attend 2 one in NYC and this one in Philly. I also had the pleasure of meeting a former knottie who referred me to my now wedding photographer Julia Azcona and to her husband Gabriel who did an awesome job with our STDs and who will also be recording our wedding (more on that coming soon). I feel so grateful to have found TK and to have the opportunity to be part of their little destination wedding community :).

Here you have Amanda, Laura, Vanessa, and myself at Jones.
Showing off our bling (with the exception of Laura who had dropped off her ring to get clean and the wonderful Nessi designed a ring from sugar packets lol)

and here you have Laura, myself, and Amanda

I had so much fun with you girls and I'm looking forward on hearing about your weddings in just a few months.

I also look forward on attending other knottie GTG!

Have a great rest of the weekend!

Jewerly

My wonderful and amazing mother surprised me a couple of weeks before Christmas with this gorgeous pearl necklace and earrings.

I always wanted to wear pearls on my wedding day because to me, no bride can't go wrong by wearing pearls on their special day. Especially since we're having a beach wedding and pearls come from the ocean =)

Well, one day my mom and I were talking about the wedding. I had mention that I wanted to wear pearls but I wasn't too sure yet. She told me not to worry about that she would go shopping with me and help me decide. I told her that that would be great.

Back in December, 2 weeks before Christmas, she had told me that she needed to speak with me she was trying to persuade me into going to her house early morning during the week. I had woken up late and was already having a horrible day so I said that I couldn't that I would try to stop by later that day. She kept going on about how important it was and how I was not going to regret it, still I said I just couldn't go at that time.

A few hours later my mother shows up at my job and tells me she has something for me. I told her that she was crazy for coming all the way to my job that she should of just waited for me to get out of work. She just blew me off and told me to close my eyes. I'm like "mom, seriously? I'm at work". And she's like "just close your eyes Pamela". So I did. After I opened my eyes again I noticed she had placed a Macy's bag on top of my desk. My eyes opened up so wide! I couldn't believe what was sitting right in front of me. I'm like "mom, you didn't!" and she said "just open it up already". When I opened the bag and the black suede boxes inside the bag I see this

and this.

I was just like Mami! you shouldn't have. They were perfect!

I was debating whether to buy white gold or yellow gold jewelry because in my mind I could see my dress with yellow gold but my ring is white. After seeing that she had bought pearls with both, yellow and white gold she had made the decision for me.

My mother has been short of wonderful to me when it comes on helping me with this wedding.

I asked her why she didn't wait until Christmas to give it to me and her exact words were "Yo no podia aguantarme las ganas de sorprenderte y ver tu cara", which basically means she couldn't wait any longer to surprise me and see my face. lol. How cute it she :)

So there you have it. 2 things to be checked off my list, necklace and earrings. All I need is my bracelet and shoes and I'll have my wedding day attire complete.

Happy Hump Day!

5 months to go!

Yippeeeeee!

Just a few more months to go. How exciting is that!

This is the time where I start to pull my hair and start tackling down all the small details so that nothing surpasses me. I also have to finish up my DIY projects before it gets any closer to the wedding and I start stressing.

I hope you all had a great weekend. Have a very good night =)

Back to school!

Today I start class again. I'm not too excited about having to start class but I'm kind of looking forward to it if that makes any sense.

For those that don't know I'm majoring in nursing, my love for nursing goes way beyond your imagination. I started college back in late fall of 2008. I register with one online class and ever since I've been taking 2-3 classes a semester. I have to admit that its been hard joggling school, a home, my son, FI, and a full time job not to mention planning this wedding but I'm determine to keep up the good work and finish my career while having a life of my own, even if it takes me double the years.

This semester I'm taking one class, Anatomy & Physiology II, and I'm kind of excited for it. I decided to take only one class because last semester I was taking 2 and had just started planning the wedding and it was horrible. Knowing that we only had 6 months before the wedding I decided to just take this one class and put all my effort into it that way I'm not running around like a chicken without a head =)

Lets get this show started!

In need of motivation

Every middle of the week I realize that my wedding is getting closer and closer and every middle of the week I say that this weekend will be the last weekend I stuff my face and don't work out.

Is obvious that I have zero motivation to work out and eat healthy. I love food! Food is too good for one not to eat it. Or for one to eat it with no flavor. At least that's what I think about when I think of eat healthy.

FI is the complete opposite. He goes to the gym everyday, eats healthy everyday, he can even stay in a "no carbs" "protein only" diet for a long long time. He'll go to the gym even when he has a fever so when he doesn't go I know he has to be really sick. You would think that living with a person that is so motivated would rub off a little. Nope... not really. I've tried every video imaginable, a gym membership (I even paid for an extra membership to take my mom or sister with me so that I won't go alone), I got the C25K app for my iPhone, yoga, the wii and nothing. I bet with all the money I've spent trying to get motivated I would have had a good portion of our wedding budget saved just like that.

About 2 weeks ago I ordered some bathing suits from VS, after they arrived I tried them on and I was not pleased with how I looked with them on. I wanted to cry :( and in all seriousness I'm not overweight or anything, my weight is fine for my height and age and to be honest I like how I look now. I just want to tighten up my abs and define my shape a little more. Something like Beyonce or Rihanna or even Halle Berry that's not too much to ask for is it?

Well, all I'm saying is that I need to get serious about this and not only because I'll be getting marry in a beach in under 6 months but for the simple fact that it'll be healthy for my body in the long run.

Yesterday I decided to get this thing started and I ended up with horrible cramps so I postponed the exercise for today. I got up early morning and got ready for work, ate a small bowl of cereal for breakfast, took some grapes and a small tangerine and put it with my lunch and guess what? I left home without my lunch :( Is this a sign telling me that I don't need to worry about living healthy? lol I don't know but I'm not giving up that quickly.

They say that to create a routine you have to repeatedly do something (whatever it may be that you want to turn in to a routine such as waking up at a certain time or eating at certain times, etc) for 21 days before your body gets used to it and you start doing it as part of your daily activities. So this is the plan.

I will start doing my pilates and yoga videos 3 days a week and my Jillian Michael video 4 days a week. Once it gets warmer outside I'll use my C25K app to go running and since the college I go to has a gym I can use for free I will go to the gym 2 days a week and do some running for the time being. I will also keep a schedule for eating. I will eat a slightly heavier breakfast, portion out my lunch and dinner, and eat snacks in between such as fruits or granola bars.

I will check back in on February 6 to see how I'm adjusting to this routine and to check my progress. I will need all the motivation I can get so please keep me in mind.

Happy Monday!

A Perfect Color Scheme!

I don't think I've discussed my color scheme here in my blog yet. And today feels just right to do so.

Since the beginning stages of planning this wedding I knew I didn't want to have pink, purple, light blue, etc as my colors for the simple fact that almost every bio I saw included those colors. Don't get me wrong those colors are beautiful and the way they were put together in other weddings made me want to use those same colors. However, to me those colors didn't represent who I was. Those weren't colors I had in my closet or that I would wear often.

I'm more of a black color person. Until recently if you had looked through my closet or drawers you would find that most of my clothes where black, brown or grey. Why? I have no clue. What I do know is that every color is beautiful and it was very hard narrowing them down to the top 3. So this is how it happened.

FI's favorite color is royal blue, our wedding is a destination wedding and is going to be on the beach, and I had already ruled out girly colors. So I went in search for the perfect shade of royal blue (if there is such a thing). After searching and searching and searching blue was growing in me. I never knew blue was such a beautiful color and how many shades of it there is. Loving all the shades of blue that I found I first decided that I wanted my BMs to each wear a different shade of blue.

What was I thinking???! They were going to look like a blue rainbow standing in the altar lol. Thank God I got over that.

Once I decided that I wanted Caribbean blue to be our main color I started matching other shades of blue next to it to see which one looked better with it. The one I liked the most was turquoise. So that was easy. Then the hardest part came. We had to decide what third color we wanted to use to be part of our dream wedding. Honestly I don't know how we decided on that. All I remember is that I wanted a color that was rarely used and that's when yellow came in. I never was a fan of yellow, to me that color along with orange was just to bright for my liking but one thing was true, it was a color I hardly ever saw being used. So I went with it. After discovering that yellow doesn't necessarily mean bright I was the happiest girl on earth. Who knew I was so clueless on colors.

Back in June 2010 I went to Michaels to buy card stock to work on my "will you be my bridesmaid" cards. I bought 2 packs of card stock that had 2 different kind of royal blue, 2 shades of turquoise, and 2 shades of yellow. That's when I first saw my colors together hand in hand. I loved them! No other colors said "Pamela and Steven are going to the beach" better than those colors did.

As the months passed by I was getting discourage on the colors that we had chosen because it was hard for me to find things that I wanted for the wedding in those colors. Especially shoes! shoes that I loved anyways.

Just on Monday after deciding on bridesmaid dresses, and seeing them in what I call Caribbean Blue and Malibu, the love for our wedding colors came back to me. It was the perfect color scheme! Now I have my parasols in the color I want, the BMs dresses in the color I want and some of the wedding decor in the colors I want. All I need is my shoes and I'll be a happy bride =)

Here are my colors.

The funny thing is that as a little girl I always thought that when I got married everything was going to be in pink and purple. My dream car was going to be pink, When I worked as a lawyer my outfits were going to be black with pink and purple lol. Is funny how dreams change as the years pass.

Happy Friday!

Bridesmaid Dresses

On Sunday two of my bridesmaids, Yessenia and Zoila, and I went to DBs in search of bridesmaid dresses. I had no idea what I was looking for but I did know that I wanted a dress that said "We're going to the beach!" and a dress that my girls are able to wear again sometime in the future. That being said we entered DBs opened minded. Right away we started explaining to the girl helping us what we were looking for. She decided to give us 2 short dresses with a beachy feel to try on. Right away we knew which dress we wanted. It was love at first sight!

Here you have it. Flowy, beachy, blue what more can a girl ask for?! This dress spoke its mind. It was perfect! All of my girls have different body types and after they tried it on it look good on everyone. We couldn't be more pleased.

We decided to return to DBs on Monday with the other girls that were missing. Unfortunately one of them couldn't make it so only three went.

Zoila (BM) This is my other color. Is called Malibu, isn't it gorgeous???

Yessenia (BM)

Veronica (MOH)



I'm more than happy about all my girls agreeing on this dress without any issues. This process was so easy and fast compared to what I had envisioned and just like my dress shopping experience. I decided on the first dress I tried on and my girls decided on the first dress they tried on. Do you think that means something? I do! I think it means that we decided on the perfect dress :)

So this is what I'm thinking. We'll have the maid of honor wear the horizon blue and the bridesmaid wear the Malibu blue. My other MOH, Priscilla, who is FI's sister mentioned that it might also look good if Veronica and herself would wear a Malibu sash to match the bridesmaids. I'm not sure if that's a definite but is an idea we have. There'll be more on this closer to the wedding date.




My girls are wild and daring but I love them lol. I showed them one of my must take pictures where the bridal party jumps up in the air with excitement while the bride and groom stand in the middle kissing. Right away Zoila says " come on girls lets practice with our dresses on" lol and there you have them. I'm no photographer so this picture is really bad but you get the idea right?



LOL what would I do without these girls. They make my life so much more entertaining ;)

Wedding Registry

This past Saturday we went to BBB to register for our wedding. I couldn't be more pleased with the way things turned out. We walked through the door without knowing what to expect. We've never been married and the only time we did a registry was when we were expecting our baby boy. It was very similar yet so different. There are so many different types of cookware sets and towels and let me not get started on bed sheets... Seriously???

Well lucky for us when we first arrived our sale consultant specialized on fine dinning. She helped us decide on the perfect dinnerware and flatware among other things. Shortly after her shift was over and we had to go with a different sales consultant who specialized in cookware, electrics, etc. Best part was that he stayed with us helping us decide, giving us opinions and best of all making sure we found everything we were looking for. Yes you read correctly it was a male who helped us lol. He was so nice and sweet, I felt so bad for dragging him all over the store with us but hey he wasn't complaining :) in fact he was having fun too.


FI in the other hand surprised me. I thought he would be anxious wanting to leave right away, letting me make all the decisions and blah blah blah (like I've heard many times from my now married friends about their experience registering) but no, not my future husband. He gave me his honest opinion, helped me decide between option one and option two. This experience was memorable and I wouldn't change a thing about it. A special thanks goes to my husband-to-be for making it this so special. I know, I sound like a weirdo being all excited about registering but you know what that's just you getting to know the real me.

Happy Tuesday!

Happy Happy Happy!!!

There's a lot of things happening today and tomorrow. For starters, my mother is on her way to Dreams Resort as I write. She left to DR on 12/31 for a month long vacation, and I asked that if she had time I would appreciate her stopping by dreams to check out the resort for me and take lots of pictures (I'm not able to take a trip to PC myself because FI and I are going to California in early April for his sister, my other MOH, first child birth). Being the wonderful mother that she is, a week after her arrival in DR she headed down to Punta Cana to check out the resort for me. Isn't she the best? =) I hope she gets to meet the WC and has nothing but wonderful things to say about dreams. If not I'm going to be very disappointed.



Today we're going to register. I've been wanting to do this since we decided on a date but obviously it was too early for it, I hear that registering is a lot of fun :). Finally today I'm going with my Fiance to register for wedding gifts and to have lots of fun lol. I was talking to one of my BMs last night and from what it sounds they already started planning my bridal shower which to me that's really exciting. Knowing that all these events are finally happening is like a reality check that I'm really getting marry.



OMG I'M GETTING MARRY...!!!!!!



Lastly, tomorrow 3 of my BMs and I are going to DB to look for their dresses. No one agreed on a date so I had to take charge, choose a date, and hope that they were all able to make it and guess what? Yup! It worked. Everyone except my MOH is able to go, so the BMs are going Sunday and my MOH is going Monday. I really have no idea what I'm looking for. I originally wanted short dresses but now I'm not sure. I saw wedding pictures of a lovely knottie that her BMs had long dresses and the girls looked fabulous and now I'm unsure of what I want. I hope that while the girls are trying on the dresses one of them pops out and say "Hi Pam! I've been expecting you" lol.


Happy Saturday!

Happy New Year!

Happy 2011!

Can you believe is 2011 already??? I can! :)

This is my year, the year that I have anxiously waited for since our engagement. Sooo... lets drink to that jejeje jk, only if you want to ;) I wish you all a fabulous and prosperous new year.

Blessings!