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