THE FINAL COUNTDOWN!

It has been a LONG time since we posted on this blog! Too long! But we've been so busy with our wedding preparations, keeping our heads screwed on right, breathing, and trying to find a moment in between with one another!

So much has happened! So much is happening! We're almost there! Only 12 more days until the wedding! I feel like my heart and my head will burst into a million pieces!!

86 days and counting!!

My beautiful peony 

Hello everyone!

The ninety days until our wedding mark has come and gone! We were so excited we didn't even blog about it.

SO many exciting, fun things have been happening!!!

We have gotten almost ALL of the vendors contracted. There's one last thing we're working on getting a contract for. SO it's way down to the wire but we've gotten tons done and we're almost at the finish line.

We've ordered and received our invitations! They're absolutely fabulous! We're working on packaging and addressing them which may take a while. Expect them the end of June or the very very beginning of July.

I've dropped my dress off for alterations, picked my hair and makeup person, ordered my jewelry, and am continuing my search of old or borrowed things. My entire look the day of is pulling together!

Adam's suit has been in the making for awhile now. Hopefully it'll be done soon!

Now we're just pounding out arts and crafts / DIY decorations! It's a lot of work and we don't have as much time but we can't wait!

I'll try to blog more about all the different and fun things we've got going on!

Registered!

Registering for our wedding sounded like a lot of fun, so we were really looking forward to it. Little did we know, it would be SO tiring!!

After considering several options such as internet registries, honeymoon registries, and various stores, we decided to go with Macy's. We figured they would have almost everything we need/want and would be accessible to everyone. We're planning on moving after the wedding so we decided to register for all new household items. (Most of the appliances we've inherited from our parents are practically breaking down, broken, or missing items). We also tried to make sure to pick items that we'd be 100% sure to use in various price brackets. Although, when you register with Macy's, after the wedding, whatever isn't purchased we can purchase on our own with a discount! So we threw in a couple of really expensive things we've always wanted so we can buy it for ourselves after the wedding, such as a stand mixer and a fancy set of china.

Even though it took all day and was exhausting, we still had a lot of fun at Macy's. We got to walk around for hours with the scanner, picturing our new home and new married life. It was pretty exciting and made the future seem very real and very near. We can't wait and I get giddy just thinking about it.

To visit our registry online go HERE.

Or check out our website with registry info HERE.

ALSO!! 116 days left until the wedding!!!!!!!!

Mamas!

Adam & I are incredibly lucky that we now have not just one super hot mama but two super hot awesome mamas!

They're funny, hip, supportive, and super cool.

Last week or so The Moms and I went out for a little shopping day! We had lunch (complete with skinny models walking around showing off clothes, brioche, and strawberry butter) at neiman marcus and then wandered around Union Square for awhile.

I don't know about everyone else but I had a blast. It was much easier than bridesmaid shopping, that's for sure. So, there's plenty of time for them to find "MoB" and "MoG" gowns/dresses so no purchases were yet made. But, they got a good idea of what they want and we had lots of fun hanging out together.

As for our plans today? Today we plan to honor and celebrate our moms! We're cooking, baking, flowering, and showering with love and attention!

Don't they look good?!

So Happy Mother's Day to all of our friends, grandmothers, and aunts that read this! Hope you have a great day filled with as much fun and love as you've given to your kids!

Wedding Planning Update

We both officially have our bands in! It's all really happening! It takes all of our will power to not just start wearing them now. Adam hid his in his closet to take away the temptation of wearing it every day. Mine is cozily sitting in my jewelry box, awaiting the magical day. I'll try to make a blog entry about the rings specifically.

Tomorrow we're heading down to the central coast, yet again. We have a couple cake tasting appointments! Everyone always says wedding cake tastes bad anyways, so hopefully we'll find something good for everyone to enjoy.

I also have my hair and makeup trial! I have no idea how I want either of those, so hopefully with the artist we can figure something out. I'm mostly just excited about getting the chance to wear my veil. It's been waiting so patiently for me and I find myself thinking of it quite often.

While we're down in the area and my hair and makeup all done, Adam and I are gonna go on a little date night. We have date night pretty much every weekend, but it's still fun and special.

Last weekend we spent the day in Bodega Bay! Maybe I'll post pictures of our little excursion.

Hey! Less than a handful of months to go!!!! We have SO many more decorations to make!!

Have you made your reservation yet? Have you checked out our website?

http://sydneyandadam.com

'Ring it in!

Adam's wedding band came in last week and mine will ship this upcoming tuesday!!

I'm SOOOOO excited!!!!!!!!

Our list of "Wedding things to do" is getting shorter and shorter!!!

Have you all checked out our wedding website already?

http://sydneyandadam.com

We just put up new hotel info! Be sure to make your hotel reservations early!!

To splurge or not to splurge, that is the question.

Luxury wedding invitations - worthwhile or not?

On one hand, Adam and I will probably be the only ones to notice/appreciate/care. So it isn't REALLY worth it.

On the other hand, if WE (the official wedding couple) are going to notice/appreciate/care, isn't that enough? If we'll love it, isn't it worth it?

Decisions, decisions...
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Name Change

As most of you probably know, Adam and I aren't a very traditional couple. A great thing about modern marriage is that it's open for us to define. We create the rules of our relationship and we shape what marriage is to us.

Part of that will be a name change. Adam and I have both decided, after we get married to change our last names.

We'll both hyphenate our names to be "Tan-Ceja" so that way neither of us is giving up our identities or our name ties to our family but we'll still have the traditional same family name. Both of us are really happy and excited with this decision.

Maybe we're just lucky that we both have such short last names. Can you imagine if they were long names? We'd end up having a ten syllable name!

To go along with all of this, the entire reason I've explained all of this, is because we recently bought services to a new website called MissnowMrs.com. They have all of the forms necessary for changing a last name based on marriage. You answer all of their questions and they put all the info into the forms, you print it out, send it, and ta-da! A formerly pain in the butt hassle of a process simplified! And did you know that there are only 8 US states that accept a man changing his last name due to marriage? That sounds a little unfair, if you ask me. But thankfully, California is one of those 8!

I can't wait until we get married and can change our names. A sort of strange thing to be looking forward to...

Ring Around

I spend most of my free time throughout the day fantasizing about getting my ring in the mail.

Just thought I'd share.

Our website!!!

We've set up our wedding website!!

It has information regarding hotels and travelling.

In the future we'll have registry information and you'll be able to RSVP online!

<3 OUR WEDDING WEBSITE <3

March ends

We've been busy little wedding planner bees!

We've even finally gotten something done!

We've ordered our wedding bands! It's SO exciting! Maybe one of my favorite things we've done so far. They're both custom so they won't be here until around May. So much waiting! I can't waaaaiiiit!

We've finalized plans with our florist. We're planning lush, beautiful, and varied arrangements of roses, sweet peas, and lisianthus. I can't wait to see what they have for us. It's bound to be beautiful!

We're STILL in the final stages of catering contracts but hopefully that'll be taken care of eventually. We're currently debating the endless source of food that comes with a buffet vs. the fancier feel of a served dinner. Plus the cost of rentals. So it's a more involved process that has a lot of smaller details. It will be the last BIG thing about planning for us to get done. After that it's all small details!

We've started searching into "month of" planners too!

Adam and both Miguels have gone on two suit shopping excursions. All that's left is to order them!

The girls and I have gone bridesmaid shopping which was a semi-disaster. But that's a whole other blog entry...

Time is counting down and we're getting really really close!

Our Lives Stilled

When we took our engagement pictures we compiled a bunch of stuff that we thought, would not only look cool, but would represent who we are. I thought I'd share what we brought to let everyone know our little inside information.

As many people know, Adam and I love going to different antique faires and antique-ing around. Some old antique-d stuff:

• The little, round, white table
• The glass bottle dated somewhere around the 1880's

I also threw in there two little teacups. We have an ever growing collection in our house of fancy mis-matched tea cups I like. I admit we don't use them that often because I'm always afraid they'll break. I've had these particular two since around 2009 when Adam and I first moved in together and first got engaged.

In the glass bottle are three of Adam's oil painting brushes.

My OneStep Polaroid camera that I use fairly often (I bought it for only $5 at an antique fair!)

We also brought a typewriter! It was my first ever purchase from ebay like 6 years ago. Adam helped me while I very carefully took it apart, sanded down the old paint, and repainted it one of my favorite baby blue colors. We spray painted a bunch of stuff that day.

We also brought three books:

• A journal of handmade paper made in Spain Adam brought back for me when he was in Paris.
• A first edition of a signed Gabriel Garcia Marquez book Adam bought as a Christmas gift for me a couple of years ago.
• My copy of 100 Love Sonnets by Pablo Neruda. This book means the most to us. It's been with us on every vacation we've gone on. We've both read it in English and Spanish together and by ourselves. The poems and this book will be used throughout our wedding!

Planning Planners

I have a question.

How the heck does one choose a wedding day of / month of planner??

We aren't going to be able to go down to SLO and meet ALL of them.

Do we choose by who has the nicest website? Who is the fastest email responder? Who has the best price?

None of these factors ensure a good planner.

What are the right questions to ask a possible planner?

Sneak Peak!

In case anyone couldn't contain their excitement I thought I'd share this picture I found while browsing around on the internet:

Did you know that our venue is so cool there's a wikipedia page about it? oh yeah!

Planning updates:

• We have a tasting with a caterer in a couple weeks.
• We're getting into the low down nitty gritty of picking and contracting or florist. Hopefully that'll be done with by the middle of next week.
• We're currently browsing planners in the SLO area checking package prices and what's included.
• We're almost done with the Save-The-Dates so hopefully those'll go out soon.
• Final stages of ordering our wedding bands (Yay!! I'm so excited for this part!!)
• Bridesmaid dress shopping
• Suit shopping for Adam and co.

Things I personally am currently working on:

• Stop making five million To-Do lists with little to no progress.
• Stop trying to wedding plan after 8 pm.
• Start sleeping.
• Stop stressing out right before bed about things I can't do until tomorrow or weeks from now.
• Being calm enough to actually get things done rather than plan to plan to plan to get things done.

Good night! Stay tuned for losing my sanity!

This is what Planning looks like

While I'm waiting for my dentist appointment I figured I'd start in on a little planning.

This is what's going on:

- Month view calendar opened with almost every weekend booked.
-Planning milestone guide from a magazine that is actually a 12 month professionally made to do list.
- three different To-Do lists: one of things that need to be done in the immediate, one of things to be done by the end of the month, and one for things that I need to keep on my mental radar because they need to be done in the next 2 months or so. These lists are constantly changing and being updated.

I'm trying not to feel overwhelmed and crazy but we're at the sort of planning pinnacle right now. If we can get through the next 2 months then like, 80 - 90 % of planning is done. Then it's all easy street.

Here's what's on deck:

- finalizing florist
- finalizing caterer
- finishing and mailing save-the-dates
- planner
- DJ
- registry
- accommodations

And then once those are done:

- invitations
- cake
- hair & makeup
- official wedding website
- honeymoon planning

The cooler head I can keep the more things get done.

SIX MONTHS!!

Today not only marks the official SIX MONTHS UNTIL OUR WEDDING!!  date which induces some panic, anxiety, and stress.

But it's also our 8-and-a-half-versary! When we get married it will be our 9 year anniversary and on our first wedding anniversary it'll be our TEN year anniversary.

We picked our anniversary as our wedding date for obvious reasons but also because:

1. I don't know how people rationalize picking a random saturday in the summer to celebrate for the rest of their lives. I started getting all nutty about it, wanting even numbers or other OCDlike thoughts.
2. I don't understand what people celebrate: when they first met/started dating or when they were married and how they're ranked in importance of each other. I think most people only celebrate their wedding anniversaries and half remember their dating anniversaries. We've been dating so long that the day has grown in importance and I didn't want it to be forgotten or overshadowed by our wedding day.
3. What better way is there to celebrate our love than to get married??

We've spent the last 8.5 years growing up together. I can't wait to keep growing closer together and grow old with each other.

Our Engagement Pictures

By the wonderful Yuna Leonard !!

At Paramount Ranch on Agoura Hills

 

Confession

Wedding planning... takes time. And patience.

It's a been a 100% learning process for me, and without Sydney's ideas, vision, and hours upon hours of hard work, this wedding would be leading up to a pizza party in a garage. 

Also, many of you know that me and sydney have been together for quite some time. It'll be 9 years on the day we're married. And we've been through a lot together. But each day, month and year of being together, i've known that what we have is special, and will never be less. But keep growing and changing as we grow and change. 

Now that being said, I'm not the type of guy to act "tough," nor am i an overly sensitive guy. But wedding planning brings out a lot of things in you that your not always ready for. Specifically, i'm talking about something that happened over our big wedding planning trip this weekend. We were sitting and talking with a florist in a small room that stood alone from the the florist main house. The sun was shinning, the doors and windows wide open, birds chirping and the smell of fresh flowers was unavoidable. And we're picking flower that ultimately for the bouquet that Sydney will carry down the aisle on our wedding day. 

And that's when occurred to me that we're getting married. 

And it was a feeling of deep and total happiness. And I know, after 9 years, it's only the beginning.  

<3

Planning

Well,

After the cream on thursday (which was a ton of fun) and our engagement pictures friday, the actual planning-planning for the weekend has begun.

We left LA early this morning and drove the three and a half hrs to make our 11 am appointment.

We've just finished meeting back to back with two florists. They were both really great and nice and have a lot to offer. We'll just wait a week or so to hear back from them with their proposals. Hopefully then we'll finally have our florist!!

We're currently in the parking lot (as pictured). We're waiting for our next appointment, a catering tasting, to start.

I can't wait to have everything in place! Stay tuned for more wedding updates!! They should be coming really fast now that our wedding is so quickly approaching!!!

Engagement pictures!!!!

Today we went out to Paramount Ranch in Agoura Hills (southern ca) to take our engagement pictures with Yuna.

We dressed our snazziest but I bet you all of the pictures turned out just as good as these ones we just took at the hotel using Adam's computer.... We're really good at looking natural for the camera.

It was mostly a lot of really awkward posturing and me (sydney) feeling really gawky while Adam tried to feel really cool. Hopefully Yuna will be able to work her photographic magic and we'll get at least a few where I'm not making a dumb face....

We should get them in a week or so and we'll be sure to share them!!

Photo session

We've. Got something fancy to do today!

Our goodies!

We bought a couple things at the Cream event! A bow tie for me and shoe chips for Sydney

Our goodies bags

Get down boys playin'

The dance floor!!!

FlashDance DJs
Geronimo Balloons
Found Rentals

Lasagna Cupcakes!!!

We've had quite a lot of yummy snacks here tonight!!

If our tasting tomorrow doesn't work out, I'm excited that we'll have already tasted a ton of back-up caterers!

It's pretty amazing here...

The Rue section. Features Heath Ceramics!

Tied

Adam getting tips on how to tie a bow tie!

Cream

Hanging out at the Cream event!

The Cream Event

We're currently waiting to go to into The Cream!

It's a sort of fabulous wedding expo!

Stay tuned for more pictures from both Adam and me!!

And tomorrow? Our engagement photo session!!!

Thematic

The closer we get to our wedding the less interested I find myself in wedding blogs. When once I was absolutely addicted and trolled around at least a dozen wedding blogs on a daily basis, I now check one or two once a week.

I think it's because my "vision" for our wedding is becoming more and more singular. I know the look and feel I want. I know what small details we want. I understand my wedding more. I'm still interested in inspiration but I'm more interested in precisely defining the beautiful ideas we already have.

I don't know if everyone knows this but we're planning to make almost all of the decorations and knick knacks for our wedding. It will be a long and exciting process. It's actually become it's own sort of theme!

March!!

We have a lot of exciting new things coming up!! We have so many plans for March!!

All this month (aside from Valentines day of course) will be spent preparing for March!!

First, actually on March 1st, we'll be attending The Cream Event LA. It's similar to a wedding expo but rather than walking around to booths getting brochures or shit you don't need, it's a big almost wedding like event put on by the best of the best vendors. They show you, through this planned and carefully curated party, what each vendor has to offer. For over a year I've known about this event and have eagerly been awaiting our chance to go. It looks like a fun, beautiful, and exciting event! (Now hopefully for once in my life I can learn to relax and have fun and enjoy myself in a social setting!)

SECOND! 

Taking place on the second, we're going to have our engagement photo session!!! This will be the first time either of us will have professional pictures of us taken. So we're a little nervous. We'll spend two hours in the hills in or around LA posing like models, trying not to make too many silly faces, and pretending to be super cool. Thankfully we have a  wonderful photographer who takes beautiful pictures so it can't go wrong!

(So we'll spend all month looking for possible props, picking favorite outfits, practicing my hair and makeup, and learning how not to make silly faces)

The Place we'll be taking out photographs

And Third!!!

You guessed it, taking place on the third: We'll be in San Luis Obispo meeting with florists and having tastings with catering companies. I hope we'll get our vendors for those two picked out and contracted by the end of March. (Or I'll go crazy with worry!!)

Also coming up in March: We're going to find out more about The Wedding Experience where we make our own wedding rings. The Wedding Experience is when you spend a whole day at the workshop being taught by a professional jeweler and making each other wedding bands rather than buying them or having them custom made by someone else. This way, it's not only custom, but it's a pre-wedding experience we get to share.

I can't wait for March!!!!! Until then, this weekend we're going to the Antique Fair to look for wedding decor and engagement session props and shopping for possible new engagement session outfits. I need a haircut, we have to get at least one more caterer tasting appointment, and we need a hotel for going down south.

Stay tuned for our Valentine's Day Adventure!!! I can't wait to give Adam the gift I got for him. 

Planning

Lately I have spent many a sleepless night fretting over our wedding. Time passes by so fast yet so frustratingly slow! We have SO much more to do and so little time to do it! I feel very rushed for the first time, as if the clock has finally begun ticking down the time.

There are 8 months left until our wedding!!

We've made a list of Things Still Needed that reaches all the way to the bottom of the page!

The end of February will hopefully find us in a much better planning place with our caterer and florist down. And then March will be a busy busy month of getting down a lot of the details.

And then the next 6 months will be spent crafting, readying and bracing ourselves!!

Who would have known so much would go into an event that is really quite short?

Exciiiiited!!!

Today we got in our (free) samples for invitations from the stunning Bella Figura!!

They sure know what they're doing. They sent a bunch of little sample things. And maaaaaaannnn, once you have it in hand it's so hard to turn away from it. And Adam, ever the demanding diva, WANTS them! It's a LITTLE bit over our allotted budget depending on what options we pick (and can be just at budget depending on options). He keeps saying "We're getting them! These are it!!" I'm trying to be the stricter harder decision maker but it's hard! Cause I want them too!!

We'll see how we decide in the next couple of weeks.

In other news,

- We are way ahead in planning than all the "ultimate wedding planning guides" suggest we be. We're at about the "4 - 6 months before" time frame even though we're about 9/8 months away.
- This morning I played dress up and put on the entire ensemble. Gown, shoes, late night coverup/sweater, hair accessories.
- finding catering has turned out to be a total pain in the butt.
- We recently got matching journals for writing drafts and such of our vows and love letters to read after the wedding.
- we have both agreed, we're sick of waiting around and want to just have our wedding now.

Time passes SO slowly when you have an even like this to look forward to.

Merry Christmas!!! (Belated)

Hope everyone had absolutely wonderful holidays!!

We were incredibly busy during the entire holiday season (like always) but we had a wonderful time! We were happy to see so much of our family and only wish we could have spent more time and seen EVERYONE. On Christmas Eve we started out the day at Reina's house in South City and ended the evening at my mom's house in Half Moon Bay. On Christmas day we headed back to Reina's for brunch and exchanging gifts. In the afternoon we headed to my aunt's house in Pleasaton.

Adam and I were bad and exchanged gifts a little early: Christmas eve day afternoon. But it wasn't TOO early!!! Only a little...

If anyone's interested, for Christmas Adam got me a new dress I wore Christmas Eve, an Angry Bird, a dancing video game, and a pair of earrings. I got him a Bear Grylls machete (what was I thinking?!), a gourd for mate (South American tea), and a little family portrait. (Which is what the video is made from). We were both happy and felt extremely spoiled. And it's a little cheesy and our favorite part of Christmas is just spending time with each other. Even if the drive is far, we're running from one party to another, we aren't spending enough time with parents or siblings or cousins, at least we're together.

Now, less than NINE MONTHS UNTIL THE WEDDING!!!!!!!!!!! The stress is starting to press in. We're hoping if we ignore it, maybe it'll just plan itself!

Merry Belated Christmas!!