where it's at.

We have our venue! Our good friend Pat Murphy has a beautiful home on a big property in Long Beach that he rents out for weddings often and he has offered to let us have ours there! It is so perfect for us. It has a huge lawn in the front, lots of trees, and a beautiful courtyard in the back. The layout of the property could not be more perfect for a wedding and he was so generous in offering it up to us! Here are just a few pictures I was able to snap of the place the last time we visited. 

We are so grateful for all these great things that keep falling into place for our wedding. We are so blessed, and we definitely see God's hand in it all!

the asking!

At the engagement party I asked some of my best girls to be my bridesmaids. Have any of you seen the movie bridesmaids? I think I may have saw it 8 times in just the theatre alone, God only knows how many times outside of it. There is a scene when Kristen Wig opens an invitation to the bridal shower that one of the over-the-top bridesmaids is throwing. It is hilarious & ridiculous & was my inspiration for the "asking". Heres the clip: 

It became my mission to find live butterflies that I could purchase in southern california. Well I found a guy who raises butterflies to use as a release for weddings, so naturally I ordered 4 of them. It was kind of like "silence of the lambs" walking into the house where I picked them up but at least I came out with my butterflies! ha!

I found parisian style boxes at michaels, just like in the movie! I filled it with ghirardelli chocolates, a small bottle of pink champagne, and a DVD copy of the movie! Each one also contained a cute "will you be my bridesmaid" card! I put a butterfly in each of the boxes right before passing them out. I do have to admit that none of the butterflies actually flew out of the box. They were all alive but just kind of sat there, so we'll just pretend they did. ha! Regardless, it still ended up being pretty funny! 

Only 4 of my 5 bridesmaids were able to make it to the party. My friend Niki lives in Arizona and was unable to so I mailed her scrabble pieces that she had to unscramble to read the message! 

This was the text reply I got from her! 

SO FUN!

It all turned out wonderful & I am very excited to be able to share this journey with these girls who are so close & dear to my heart. I couldn't imagine saying "i do" without them beside me. 

swooning.

Our first valentines day was definitely one for the books. I woke up super early to surprise Todd & make him a Valentines breakfast. He was confused when he woke up thinking there was a robber in the house making noise downstairs. (I probably should've thought that part through, but it was worth it. HA!)

I also snuck into his car and left him a surprise lunch. (his favorite kraft mac-n-cheese, i know, he eats like a 5 year old) It was complete with a card explaining what I had planned for the night!

I then went to my bible study as I do every friday morning. Little did I know he had a surprise waiting for me there! Balloons, roses, and the sweetest card were there waiting for me when I walked in the door! 

It was the sweetest! 

So as I am sitting there with the girls talking before bible study Todd calls me and has me go on a little scavenger hunt to find my present that was hidden in the china cabinet!

    (please ignore the fact that I look like quasimodo in this pic. It was early & i was crying.)

In there was the perfect pair of rose gold diamond earrings waiting for me! As if my flowers & balloons weren't enough! This man never ceases to amaze me with his wonderful gifts given to me in the most thoughtful ways. 

I am so blessed by this man!!

So after bible study I rushed to Todds house to prepare for my little surprise!

 I most definitely did not want to go out that night. As if trying to go to dinner or a movie isn't already a daunting task on a friday night without it being V-day! So I planned a romantic dinner for him when he came home. Even though we couldn't be at a restaurant I wanted it to still feel like we were, so I had the table set up fancy.

I made his favorite fettucine alfredo & breadsticks from scratch with a side caesar salad. Of course my bread had to be in the shape of a heart as well, i mean it is valentines day.

For dessert I made homemade smore sundaes & chocolate covered strawberries in the shape of a, you guessed it!, heart. ha!

One of Todd's gifts  he opened that night was the movie Captain Phillips for us to watch. It was the perfect night in! 

The whole day was simple, romantic, and full of surprises! 

I said yes to the dress!

As pretty as some of the dresses I've seen are, I knew that I definitely did NOT want your typical strapless wedding dress. I wanted my dress to be different and something that fits my personality. Not to mention there is no strapless dress in the world that could support the chest I was cursed/blessed with (depending on your point of view. ha!) So thanks to pinterest I found a picture of my DREAM dress, although most of you know that what you see on there is not usually found in real life. & that was my problem. 

     I ended up calling about 20 different stores just to see if they had anything like it. All of them said no. Majority of them only had strapless dresses! So knowing this I made an appointment at The Wedding Day just to try on some different styles to see what fit I liked best so that I could have my dress custom made by a seamstress. Plus who doesn't like to get the whole trying on wedding dresses with your family experience?! 

I had my mom, my aunt deb, and my maids of honor come with me. I tried on about 4 dresses & then much to my surprise I found almost the exact dress I wanted for half the price I thought I was going to pay! They were able to take one of their dresses & add on/alter it to exactly what I had envisioned! I got so lucky!! For all of you brides out there I highly recommend this place. They were so friendly, not at all pushy, & extremely helpful!

I would love to post a picture on here but I don't think Todd would be able to keep from peeking at it so you will just have to wait til November 8th (; 

Instead heres a picture of us toasting to the find...So much fun!

living the dream.

I got an email from my wonderful fiancé with the confirmation that our honeymoon is booked for November 10th!! Bora Bora here we come!!! We will be spending 8 wonderful nights in one of these beauties at the St. Regis! Complete with massages, shark feedings, sting ray interactions, and more. 

Don't mind me over here....Im just living the dream! 

the ultimate toast.

For those of you who don't know my father, he is the most kind, innocent, conservative, caring, jesus loving man I know. Never has been drunk, never has touched drugs, and definitely does not even swear. He doesn't like conflict and is always quick to forgive and looking for resolve in every dispute. He is kind to everyone he meets & is the first to say sorry for anything he may have said that might have been offensive. Look at this text he sent me the other day: 

I mean how cute is that!? 

 
Always making sure that his jokes don't come across mean. He's the sweetest. 

So at the engagement party he decided to make a toast for Todd & I. It was thoughtful, encouraging, and completely shocking! The perfect balance between funny & sweet. It could not have been more perfect. 

He had the entire room crying, laughing, and crying from laughter. Thanks dad for your support, encouragement, love & sense of humor! This will always be something I can go to on rough days. I love you dearly.

party time.

One of the best things about getting married is all the celebrations that come with it! My sister (carly), my mom (clara), my aunt (deb), and my cousin (hailey) all were so sweet enough to throw us an engagement party to congratulate us! So of course I was excited to get in on the planning! 

I was inspired by a post on Pinterest so I wanted to make the party black and gold with a splash of color. We didn't want to spend a lot of money on the party so we ended up doing a lot of DIY stuff. 

One of my favorite things about 
the party was the invites!
Invites can be so expensive so we decided to get creative and make them ourselves. We all went and picked out black & gold paper. I worked on the template for what the invites would say & had it printed on the paper we wanted at staples. It was so cheap! My sister, aunt & cousin all cut, glued, and layered the black and gold paper. This is how they turned out! I thought they came out pretty great!

I had a bunch of leftover vases from the anniversary party I threw my parents so we all spray painted the vases gold. 

Hailey & I went to costco the morning of the party and picked out some colorful flowers & some light pink roses to arrange in the vases we made. The flowers were a great price and came out so pretty!

My talented aunt deb went with me to Joanns to pick out some fabric and she made the table cloths! We got lucky and found a cute black & white chevron pattern. 

We also ordered some balloons black & light pink as decor from party city. With the left over paint we had we all painted some of the balloons half way up so that they had a "gold dipped" look. With the rest of the black balloons I took a gold pen and wrote different sayings on them like "love is sweet" "eat drink & be married" or "todd & amanda 11-8-14". Unfortunately I didn't get a good picture of the balloons.

For the cocktail tables we wanted to keep it simple because they are so small. So we decided to decorate them with a candle and a framed picture of Todd & I. We were going to spray paint some of the left over frames we had lying around but instead we got lucky and found some gold frames from dollar tree! You'd be surprised how much stuff they have there! Who knew?!

My dad & todd cleared out the living room so that we would have more space for some of the cocktail tables to be inside. & We were so blessed to have my uncle ray. He was a life saver! He ended up getting us canopies, heaters, & lights for the backyard! He  also brought a huge speaker set up & Todd created some fun playlists for us so we saved money on a DJ but still had the same effect! 

My amazing cook of a mother made almost all of the appetizers for the party! We had all sorts of finger foods, even homemade cheese balls that were delicious. 

For the dessert station we ordered from Anna's cupcakes. They are the best cupcakes you will ever eat & a great price! Everybody raved about them!! My mom also made chocolate covered strawberries & cheesecake bites.

My absolute favorite thing about the party was the champagne bar. We  had mixers such as orange juice, cranberry juice & chambord! We also has frozen fruit like strawberries, raspberries, &  blueberries to keep your drink cold & add more flavor. But my favorite thing was we set out orange sorbet to scoop into your glass to make a dessert mimosa. It was so delicious & a lot of fun. 

The party turned out so wonderful & we had such a great time! Thank you everyone who came out to help us celebrate!

oh! & a special thanks to my dear friend Cyndy. I was so caught up in everything I forgot to take pictures of it all! She was so thoughtful and went around & took pictures of everything for me! So blessed she did this, otherwise id have no pictures! 

the engagement!

I wanted to share the story of our engagement because it could not have been more perfect! Todd was the lead, Danny Zuko, in his high school play of Grease. I for one was completely tickled when I found this out & never really let him live it down. I was constantly asking for a copy of the video to see it! (I did finally get that and I must say it was nothing short of GOLD) So Todd used this to his advantage.  

On New Years Eve we went to a place called Piano, Piano in Claremont. Its a fun dueling piano bar. So Todd secretly asked one of the entertainers to play "summer lovin" and call him on stage knowing that our table would push him up there! We had no idea it was a set up!

Also, Todd had went to my parents house earlier in the day to ask my dad for my hand in marriage. So my dad (being the only other person on the planet who knew) brought his video camera to record the whole thing! & this was the result.  

It was funny, sweet, romantic, a little embarrassing & a complete surprise. Everything I could have ever asked for!


And can we talk about my Beyoncé(ring) for a second?!

Not only did he shock me with the proposal but he shocked me with how spot on the ring was! My favorite thing ever is rose gold & I love round diamonds! Its so dainty & unique & so ME! I named her Beyoncé (; 

I could not be happier with it! 

lets get real for a minute.

I know that Todd & I are definitely not your most conventional couple. Im sure you can tell that just by looking at our picture, due to the fact that he is 20 years my senior. 

Todd & I have known each other for quite some time now. He was married to one of my moms best friends, & one of our families closest friends, Lorri. Because of Lorri our families became very close. We all spent a lot of time together, whether it be church, family vacations, or just watching the bachelor together on monday nights. Lorri was dear to my heart. She was the kind of woman who turned everything she touched into gold. I loved her dearly. EVERYBODY loved Lorri.   

Unfortunately Lorri suffered a brain aneurysm & left us to go home to Jesus in 2012. It was a difficult loss for us all. One that left us all completely heartbroken. 

Todd then started spending more time with my family. We were always making sure he was busy and doing things, making sure he had meals, etc. Todd & I started to become closer and a special bond started to form between us. We shared a love of many things, one of them being music & attended many concerts together. We were both hesitant at first to share the news of our relationship with anyone, besides our close family. We wanted to be sure it was not a "rebound" or not just my "nurturing instincts" kicking in. It was a confusing time for us all but with the support of my parents we worked through it. I was constantly in prayer. Asking God for guidance & questioning if this was the right direction for our relationship. I would ask God to give me signs that this wasn't his will for my life. But to my surprise He kept showing me otherwise. 

Grief is a crazy thing & to find love in the midst of it seemed even crazier. 

I'd be lying if I said that this is never how I pictured my life. & I'd be lying if i said that it wasn't really hard sometimes. I know that marriage is hard without all the added baggage that we have. I know that the odds are stacked against us but I also know that we have a loving God who is working for our good. We make a good team & we communicate well. We make each other really happy. 

Todd always has me laughing, even when I'm mad at him, and he is so thoughtful in every little thing that he does for me. He is constantly surprising me with things I love. He listens to me in detail & always proves it by the smallest act of kindness. Things that I didn't even realize I needed until it was done. He even carries extra sweaters for me in his car cause he knows Im always cold. He is one of the strongest & kindest men I know & I could not be more blessed to have him in my life. 

As strange as our story is & as weird as it can be sometimes I am grateful for it. & I am forever grateful for Lorri. For the person she was, for the man she helped Todd become, and for the blessings that she gave us both. 

This is the happiest I have ever been in my life & even though our story is unusual I know that it was not by accident. God always has a plan for us. I wouldn't have it any other way. 

its been awhile...

I have decided to start blogging again so that I can create a memoir of this exciting time in my life! If you know me you know that I LOVE to plan parties, events, and especially WEDDINGS. I love creating beautiful & fun environments to help people celebrate the most incredible days of their lives. So now that its actually my turn to experience it all, I decided to share the fun & creative process of my journey with you! 

In just 9 short months I get to marry this wonderful man.

I. can't. wait.  November 8th, come fast!