HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Last night, my fantabulous MOH, my BFF, Jenn came over. We had a little holiday celebration of our own with some champagne, Snowtinis, and yummy-licious pupus. We had jalapeno popper spread, cocktail meatballs, sangria skrimps (heehee), and fresh mozarella and avocado stuffed mushrooms... oh dear god, those were heaven. Little does Jenn know, she has to make those for the wedding... hahaha j/k! But they really were delicious and I can't wait to get the recipe. Jenn also gave us a few Christmas gifts, and much to our pleasant surprise, one of the gifts was something off of our wedding registry. WE GOT OUR FIRST WEDDING GIFT! I was so excited, that I actually looked up the registry today to see "fulfilled" next to the item. Cuh-ray-zee, I know, but HEY, it's our first registry gift, SO THERE! But, we just want to send an extremely heartfelt THANK YOU HUG to Jenn. Gifts aside, she has been a phenomenal Maid of Honor... I love you Jenn - now hurry up and buy a ticket out to NY and hang with us! =)

So, before flying off to the frozen tundra, we just want to wish everyone a Happy Holidays and a FABULOUS 2009! I don't know about you, but we certainly cannot wait for 2009. After the new year, it's only four short months til the big day, and we are both so excited... we really can't stop talking about it. I have to say that I am the luckiest bride-to-be to have a groom-to-be who is as much into the wedding, the planning, the details as much as I am... maybe even more! Haha! No new updates as of yet. We have to meet with the cake people and we are scheduled to take our engagement photos next month, so we are stoked on that. We didn't want to do the typical beach pictures that most engaged couples do. We have a few ideas... mostly revolving around the Newport Back Bay area... should be fun! After that, my dress should come in, then the bridesmaids dresses, then all the chaos begins. Really, I'm not freaking out at all...

Anyhoo, again... wish you all WARMTH and happiness this holiday season and into the new year. We love you all!

Cya in 2009!

A little message from Cory:
I am very excited to spend this first of many wonderful holidays with my beautiful fiancee. And I can't wait to spend the holidays with my new and old families!

My Brown-Eyed Girl...

I kinda sorta had an idea when I started dating Cory, that there was this whole other side to him. A side that is a complete 180 from the serious, business minded, all-about-the-company Cory Smith that we've all grown to know and love at Endologix. The day that I dared him to sing the Endologix Fight Song over the company PA system was all too telling about the man that I'm about to marry...



We had our company Holiday Party last Friday. It was in Newport Beach again, on another one of those harbor cruises. We all had a blast. We, of course, found some way to bypass the two ticket drink MAXIMUM that they were TRYING to put on us... and yes, they finally had CHAMPAGNE! This time around, we had a DJ, so they were playing some fun songs for us to shake our money makers to. Some time over the course of the party, my gorgeous fiance was able to show off his skillz as a white boy, which impressed everyone from the VP of Sales to... well... everyone. (Mind you, he was not even drunk) But even better... our CEO, found out that Cory LOVES to sing. How, I have NO IDEA, but that information some how made its way to public knowledge. And just as I thought that Cory couldn't show off his willingness to be a HAM any more... the DJ coerced him into singing "Brown-Eyed Girl"... to me... in front of the entire company. Needless to say, if I wasn't filipino, you'd be able to see some shade of red creep up my neck and onto my face. You know me, I HATE being the center of attention... I have no idea how I'm going to do this wedding thing! But in the end, it was the sweetest thing... and I'm glad that we have proof of it. (Rumor has it - there's a video running around here somewhere) Yet now he seems to think that he can headline the wedding... hm.



Afterwards, when the boat docked, we hit up the Shamrock... AGAIN. Had a BLAST!







Anyhoo... so we've slowed down a little on the wedding plans since it's the holidays. And we pretty much got everything done over the past two months. The only major things we have left are the rehearsal dinner location, the invitations, and we have to book the honeymoon. We are debating on St. Lucia or Tahiti... any suggestions? We just booked the officiant. We were pretty lucky to like the first one we met with. His name is Reverend Christopher Torres... he's got a great personality that will fit the type of upbeat, yet romantic ceremony that we want. And he also gave us some cool ideas of different things to do in the ceremony.

We are heading back east for the holidays! Supa excited! We are doing the big meet of the parents... meaning, our parents are meeting each other for the first time! We're still trying to figure out where, but it will most likely be somewhere in Little Italy. We're flying into DC/Virginia to spend time with my family, then we'll head to Elmhurst and have Christmas with the Smith's, then head to NY for the Meet The Parents... then my aunt is throwing us an engagement party! YAY! Oh yeah, and somewhere in there, we are going to a Christmas party back in PA so I can meet all of Cory's friends! It'll be a busy trip, but fun and well worth it.

We look forward to seeing all of you this holiday season. However if we don't, have a wonderful Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, Christmukah, Festivus, Holiday Season... and a prosperous, healthy, and Happy New Year... YEAH 2009! We love you all!

PS - only 4 1/2 more months to go... HOLY CRAPBALLS! =)

Keep checking our wedding page for updates on the big day!
We've added information on hotels... so definitely check that out. Temecula is a small area with limited hotels, so please make your arrangements as soon as you can!
http://www.theknot.com/ourwedding/AnnalizaVictoria&CorySmith

Gobble Gobble...

Greetings everybody!

We just wanted to tell everyone to have a HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Eat lots... drink lots... have a wonderful 4-day weekend!

We love you all and can't wait to see some of you over the holidays!

BIG HUGS!

Registering for wedding gifts...

Registered for gifts last weekend... Fun, but tiring as all hell, man! It took over three hours just to go through Macy's Home Store at South Coast Plaza, and we still didn't get everything! (But damn, those scanners are fun!)
First we were debating on where to register. I mean, since we've both lived on our own, we have pretty much everything. We still want to register for the new cookware, new bed stuff, your typical fine china, blah blah blah... but really, we don't need much more around the house. So, what do we register for? We were stoked when we found out that you can register at Lowes! We have plans to fix up the ole condo after the wedding... new floors, new paint, new tile in the bathroom, new bath tub, all of that fun stuff! But is that tacky? To register for hard wood floors, paint, bathroom stuff, etc? We even started to debate over registering for the honeymoon, since apparently, that's the thing to do these days. Right?

So... of course, we settled (for now), on the ever popular Macy's, Crate & Barrel, and Target... we've registered for a little here and there at each store. We are still debating on Lowes... what do you guys think?

As far as the rest of the planning... we are doing pretty good! We picked out the bridesmaids dresses a couple of weeks ago. And might I say, MY bridesmaids are going to be undeniably HOT! I know all brides say that about their girls, but no, sorry. Mine take the cake. The dress they picked is INSANE and just brings out the SEXXAY-NESS. Again, DAMN STOKED to have those ladies by my side! I wish I could have a few more to stand by me, and you know who you are, but it would look hilarious with EIGHT girls on one side, to four boys... or would it? =) Also, since the photographer and florist, we have booked the acoustical guitarist (to play while guests walk in, during the ceremony and cocktail hour), the DJ (YEAH DJ KINGSLEY!!!!!), and the baker for the wedding cake. It's all coming together, yet I still find sh*t to stress about. How about that?

Next, the rehearsal dinner, the tuxedos, THE HONEYMOON, and the invitations (place cards, too). Oh yeah, and the officiant... Cory has been the bestest fiance EVER and taken on that task! Have we forgotten anything?

Thanks to all of you who continue to send us your congrats and well wishes! We are both so excited to share this day with you... of course, for our family & friends here in sunny/never-ending-summer/fall-and-winter-will-never-get-here Southern California, but especially those coming from far away!

Before I go, just a quick CONGRATS again to my cousin BJ and my new cousin-in-law Davis! Their wedding was absolutely wonderful, and BJ looked breath taking!


Keep checking our wedding page for updates on the big day!
http://www.theknot.com/ourwedding/AnnalizaVictoria&CorySmith

Miss you Jax!

Our lil one is leaving the nest...

She's leaving us to party it up in north county and become a big girl. I'm sad, but happy for my babygirl, Jax, to live in her first bomb a** apt. Now we have somewhere to crash when we party up there!

But anyhoo, give it up to our lil one... Girl, we still need to do a good-bye/housewarming BBQ!

MUAH!

Save-The-Date

Be on the look out for these bad boys in the mail!!!



So far this planning ish has been nothing but fun! My MOH and bridesmaids ROCK, and I'm excited to go BM dress shopping with them in a couple of weeks! BTW, here's a GREAT pic of my husband-to-be and Jenn, my MOH... aren't they the best?!?!?!



But yeah, planning has been fun, and we're definitely stoked on the accelerated schedule that we are on. I could not imagine doing this over a whole year or more. 6 months is PERFECT! We met with our photographer last week. Her name is Trista Lerit. She is amazing! We found her when we first started doing wedding research. Cory googled "Falkner Winery photography" and her blog popped up with a wedding that she shot at Falkner last year. We immediately fell in love with her work and were excited to meet her. We pretty much knew we were going to book it the minute we set up an appointment! So, we met up last Thursday, spent a couple of hours there just chit chatting, checking out her work and even pics from her own wedding. Our personalities immediately clicked... she's like one of those girls you meet and you say - "She'd totally be one of our friends!"
If you're planning a wedding or need a photographer, definitely check her out:
http://tristalerit.com/

We met up with the florist yesterday. Funny story about how we came across Kristin... in that same blog where we found Trista (our photographer), we loved the floral and decor that we saw in the pictures. At the end of the blog was the name of the florist. The Treasured Petal - in Rancho Santa Margarita. It was a sign!!! We checked out her address, and she is literally across the street from us. So, we contacted her on her website to set up an appt: http://www.thetreasuredpetal.com/
In the meantime, we continued checking out both websites for the photographer and florist. While I was going through some engagement sessions, I noticed that one of the couples looked familiar, at least, the groom did. I looked closer, and I could have SWORN it was Joe Brancaleone... from good old MVHS drumline. Joe had recently found me on facebook. So, I sent him a message on facebook asking if that was him and his wife on Trista's website. When he responded, he said that it was indeed them... then he proceeded to tell me that his wife, Kristin is in the flower business, and if we haven't started looking at florists for our wedding to check out her website. Would you believe the coincidence... it's the same website we found on Trista's blog and had already sent a message to... It was another sign! Long story short, we met up with Kristin last night at Starbucks and went over some ideas. Joe stopped by to say hello, he has not changed at all! What a small world, huh?



Don't forget to check out our wedding page:
http://www.theknot.com/ourwedding/AnnalizaVictoria&CorySmith

I found my dress...

Jocelyn and I went to La Soie in the Tustin Marketplace last week to try on dresses with no intention of buying or liking... I just wanted to get an idea of what I might like based off of what I found online. I really fell in love with Maggie Sottero. Jocelyn also had a Maggie gown for her wedding, I knew of some other girls who had a Maggie gown as well... and after looking at her website dozens of times, I finally figured that I wanted to try some on. So, we went... I brought some pics that I had printed from the Maggie website. I had my heart set on a mermaid style gown, strapless with a sweetheart neckline... tried on my first mermaid and was made blatantly aware of how flat my ass is... (even though I secretly already knew... I'm filipino, we have no ass, THANKS MOM!) I tried on a few of the other ones that I had been eyeing and a few that we saw at the store, and really liked one or two of them. Funny, whenever we were left alone in the changing room, Joc would whip out her camera and snap some quick photos. We thought we were so incognito... come to find out that this store allows the clients to take pictures of the gowns!

Anyhoo, so then Linda, my fabulous bridal consultant, brought in this fitted A-line strapless with a sweetheart neckline. Joc and I were not impressed. On the hanger, this thing looked... well... terrible. Kinda boring, not really what I had envisioned. But she made me try it on, so I did... and I loved. She put a veil on my head and it was all over after that. You know, the stupid cheesy reality t.v. shows, like "Say Yes To The Dress"... where the bride-to-be puts on the gown, she walks out, and her mom and whoever else is there is brought down by gasps and tears... IT'S ALL TRUE! But I decided to bite my lip, not cry, and wait til my mom was with me. So, we made another appt for a week later, where I would bring my mom, Jenn (my MOH), and Jocelyn...

Cut to last night (Tuesday 10/21/08)... my appt was after work. Joc & I left work and met up with my mom and Jenn at the store. I had asked my mom to pick a few more dresses for me to try on so that she could get an idea as to what silhouette she might like on me. We picked a sheath that was on a mannequin, a more traditional A-line, and some others... The first dress I tried on was the sheath that they had to undress the mannequin for... beautiful on the mannequin, not so much on me. It's tough being 5'2" in a 5'10" world...

Then I tried on a Casablanca, more traditional satin A-line, gown. This thing had a heavily beaded bodice, and then the bottom was plain, just satin... and it was GORGEOUS. My mom was SOLD. They made me walk around the store with the veil on my head so they could take pictures... the gown was AMAZING! I automatically knew that at the end of this session, my decision would be between the one from the previous week and the one I had on.

Of course, to give my mom a wide array of looks, we told her that I should try on a few more. I think I tried on like seven dresses... we were all parched and breaking out into a sweat! My mom gave a few tears, but I think it was more out of excitement of what's to come, rather than what I had on at the time. So, we saved the other Maggie Sottero dress for last... when Jenn and my mom saw it on the hanger, I wasn't really getting much of a response from them, so I was worried... but remembered that Joc and I had felt the same way just a week before. I put the dress on and Linda, poor thing, laced the entire thing up. It has a corsetted back (As Rachel would say "GEORGE" - that's French for "GORGEOUS"!! - haha!), so she laced the entire thing up to get the full effect of the dress. I put the shoes on, put my hair up, Joc put the veil on with some earrings... and it was clear what dress I was going to choose. The dress goes with the whole winery, garden, outdoorsy theme... Everybody, including myself, LOVED the one I had on...

So anyways, long story short (too late)... I FOUND MY DRESS!!!

Don't forget to check out our wedding page: http://www.theknot.com/ourwedding/AnnalizaVictoria&CorySmith

WE'RE ENGAGED!!! (October 16, 2008)

Ok, so I've been told to create one of these things to keep everyone informed of all the fun stuff as it's happening...

To start, some of you may have already heard the news... but if not...

WE'RE ENGAGED!!!

Check back here every so often to get the scoop on all the plans!

We are super excited to start planning our lives together and share it with you!

The BIG DAY is May 1, 2009 at Falkner Winery in Temecula, CA.

We love you all!

Go to our wedding website to see info about the engagement and upcoming wedding (it's still under construction, but coming along):

http://www.theknot.com/ourwedding/AnnalizaVictoria&CorySmith