"You know I don't do contracts, but my word is stronger than oak."

...Well, Matt Cushman in Jerry Maguire may not do contracts, but we most certainly do - and we did, this weekend! We signed our very first wedding contracts...well actually, the first contracts of any kind that have both of our names on it. We were quite excited about our Wynn contracts, so much so that we even took pictures to share our excitement with all of you. We don't get out much, okay? Yes, this was the highlight of our weekend - signing contracts at 11pm on a Saturday night. Don't judge.

You can't tell, but I am signing with a Hilton Garden Inn pen (where we first met). Yes it was intentional. :)



Pete may - or may not - have worn this shirt exclusively for this photo...



This was my favorite part - seeing "M***** and Mc**** Wedding" (edited for internet privacy of course) and our names listed as Bride and Groom. It gave me all these happy fuzzy feelings that I shouldn't admit in public.



Someday we'll have house contracts and insurance contracts and plenty of other things that will have both our names on it, and we probably won't care at all, so I'm glad we took this moment to be happy about our legally binding documents just once.

13 Months.

Yes, our wedding is 13 months away. I agree, this is a long time and I wish it were not so far away, but it is what it is for many reasons.

As I mentioned in my previos post, there are certain people in my family who are questioning why we have to wait so long, and when I give them the most obvious answer, which is that we need time to save money and plan the whole thing, they then question why we have to have an expensive wedding at all. "Why don't you just elope in Vegas?" "Why don't you just go to the courthouse?" My response to this now is, "why can't we celebrate one of the happiest and momentous occasions of our life with the people who are most important to us??" I don't believe there is anything wrong with that...and the only downside of it is the reality that, in our society, celebrating with family and friends = money. BUT, for the record, we are having a very small, intimate wedding which will cost about 1/4 the cost of the average American wedding.

So yes, our wedding is going to cost some money and it will take a collaboration of ourselves, our families and friends to make it happen...but this is just how the world works. Weddings cost money, food costs money, everything costs money. Yes, we could chuck all the plans out the window and run down to the courthouse without spending more than $60 for the marriage liscence. And for some people that is an excellent choice and fits them and their relationship very well. But not us. And this is why:

We see marriage as a very sacred, very important step in our lives. As everyone knows, Pete and I already live together. We already have a life and family together. Getting married will not change any of this. We are choosing to get married because we both value the importance and sacredness of making vows to each other that solidify our love and our family for the rest of our lives. And we both feel that those vows deserve to be witnessed by the people who love us. We have already made plans for our future together, we have already promised to love each other through thick and thin no matter what. But we feel that our promises of marriage deserve to be shouted to the world and celebrated. That is what weddings are all about.

I won't lie...I have questioned Pete several times in the midst of "wedding stress" if we should just elope. We have discussed it and considered it greatly. But every time, we come back to the same sentiments that I just wrote above. We don't want an overpriced meal, pointless flowers and an enoumous guest list that will forget about our cookie-cutter wedding a year later. We want a true celebration of our marriage, and that is worth every penny in our eyes (more to come about the celebration in the "Why Vegas?" post).

So why 13 months?
Well, why not?? I know many of my family members are uncomfortable or ashamed of teh fact that Pete and I live together without being married. But it's been reality for a long time, so what does it matter if it stays reality for one more year compared to the entire lifetime we have ahead of us as husband and wife? But aside for the "why not?" reasoning, let me give you some of the real reasons why we chose next May:
1. We have to have time to save money and plan the whole thing (yeah I already said that.)
2. We cannot get married before I file next year's FAFSA (in february), or else I will risk losing a huge chunk of my financial aid for my senior year of school due to the change in marital status and combined income.
3. I only have two breaks from school every year - spring break and summer break. Those are my ONLY options for getting married, and obviously this summer is not going to happen, and if we do it over spring break I would have no time for a honeymoon and would most likely be doing nothing but homework the day after our wedding. So that leaves May of 2011.


The last thing I would like to say, for certain people who are hopefully reading, is to pose a question: If this were my first marriage, would you be questioning why I want to have a wedding? Would you be questioning why I want to wear a beautiful dress, walk down the isle and live out the fantasy that I acted out a hundred times as a little girl in my dress-up clothes? I do not believe you would. So please, do not treat this any differently than you would if I had never been married before. You all know that, in the end, that marriage was not at all worth celebrating. But this is. THIS is the one, the ONLY one that matters. End of story.

So please, if you are one of the people who have asked why we are not just eloping, please stop asking, because you now have the answers. Please take the opportunity to celebrate with us as we look forward to the next 13 months. And take a moment to think of how special you are, because, apparently, we would not want to do this without you there. :)

"Hey Baby let's go to Vegas, kiss the single life goodbye..."

Today is a very exciting day! The date has been set, and the ceremony location has been chosen! Say Hello to May 2011!

For privacy/security reasons, I will not publicly post the date here, but for those of you who are actually friends and family, you can visit our wedding website for more specifics:

www.mywedding.com/peteandgina

And, big surprise (not really), we will be tying the knot here:



At the Wynn Resort and Casino in Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada. The same place where Pete asked me to marry him five weeks ago! Yes, we are romantic and cheesy, thank you very much.

Now...it's time for some honesty.

Pete and I both expected, for quite some time, that we would have to explain and defend our reasoning for choosing Las Vegas to our families. We have been planning speeches and suggestions and even lists of shows to help ease the explanations for quite some time. We both come from conservative, religious backgrounds, and seeing as how Vegas is still outdatedly and inaccurately labeled as "Sin City" to some people, we expected there might be a bit of struggle. Luckily enough, though, there hasn't been as much of a struggle with the location as we expected (smile!)...

However, what we didn't expect, was that certain people would, (instead of questioning Vegas), question why we are even having a wedding celebration at all. I have to be honest and say that I have had just about all I can take of hearing people's opinions that we should just run off to Vegas and elope, and get it over and done with. This hurts my feelings. And it now brings me to the decision to not only publicly explain our choice of Vegas, but also our choice of a long engagement, and our choice to celebrate our marriage with our families and friends in a way that is, unfortunately, going to cost a large chunk of change.

Instead of one huge post, I am going to break it up into segments...so for those of you who care (and if you have at all voiced your opinion about our wedding plans, then apparently, YOU CARE), please stay tuned for my next couple posts that will hopefully make our plans and intentions more clear.

In the meantime, I hope you are all just as excited as we are, as we giddily look forward to next May. :D

Lastly, for the record, the modern name for Las Vegas is the "City of Entertainment." Look it up. And really, who doesn't want to be entertained?

"...Hey Baby let's got to Vegas, bet on love and let it fly." -Faith Hill

I may not have a wedding date, but I have an awesome date for my wedding.

My "date", of course, would be my future hubby, Peter.
He makes me so happy. I just had to share a tidbit of why I am such a lucky woman to be marrying him...

I worked from 8 am to 3 pm yesterday, then I hopped on the campus shuttle for my ride downtown, was in class until 7:30, and I came home at 8:30 to Pete and little Ryan getting things out of grocery bags to make dinner. Ryan screamed his way to bed (it was a temper tantrum kind of night), Yummy yummy BBQ chicken followed (which of course Pete made, because the most I could manage was putting honey in the sweet potatoes), and then he set off to clean the disaster zone we call a kitchen while I headed to my computer to try to work on some homework. Well, apparently I fell asleep (and did no homework, mind you) and did not wake until 5 something this morning, in a panic over the fact that I had no alarm set.

Well, there was my phone, alarm set, plugged in next to my bed. Thanks, honey.

Then at 7:30 am while rushing out the door (late of course) I am handed my breakfast-to-go, and a packed lunch. My laptop had also been plugged in to charge after it died under me on the bed. Thanks again, honey.

At noon today, I pull out my lunch to find a sandwich, adorable little 100-calorie cookies and cheese and crackers, and a note that says: "I love you very much. I felt bad that you fell asleep while I cleaned the kitchen, so I went to the store and got the stuff necessary to make your lunch. I love you and will see you when you get home!"

Okay seriously, where did this man come from??

I love him so much it's ridiculous.

In the past 4 weeks I have repeated the words "we don't have a date yet" so many times it has become my LEAST favorite phrase ever. Over the past 2 weeks, I have pretty much completely stopped talking about the wedding at all, due to the overwhelming stress I have found comes with simply trying to figure out how to pay for it. Yes, the truth is Pete and I have been planning what we want for our wedding for the past 6 months...but all of the "wishing" becomes an entirely different ballgame once there's a ring on your finger and it's time to put down a deposit to book the date.

So, No, we don't have a date yet. No, we have not decided where it will be, either. And YES, I do cry when I think of how much I wish we could just figure it all out right now and move on the much more fun aspects of planning a wedding.

BUT...
I do have the most wonderful fiance...one who packs my lunch, and listens to my rants about how much weddings cost, and even does my homework for me when I'm completely beyond exhausted and cannot write one more paper (shhh don't tell anyone). So whenever, and wherever our wedding will be, the absolute best part is that it will all be happening with this guy by my side.

I fell in love. With the veil.

One week ago today, I made my first trek to the place that has all the wedding dresses.
It was not a planned outing...I was having brunch with my Godmother, Mary Jo, and I mentioned that it was the last weekend of the $99 sale at David's Bridal. She said she would go look with me, and eventually we found ourselves surrounded by women, manikins, poofey gowns and some annoying teenagers shopping for prom.
I (ahem...I should say WE, as in both Pete and I - yes I have the one fiance in the world who looks at dresses for me and even makes phone calls to random shops in California to ask about a certain style...but that's another story) have been looking at dresses online for a few months now. I had a general idea of what I was looking for: a pick-up or draped skirt, a trumpet cut, a black sash. But apparently, it's almost impossible for all three of these things to exist in one gown. So we started with two out of three (I won't say which, because I know Pete will be reading this). To put it plainly, I loved it. Took-a-picture-and-sent-it-to my-best-friend-loved-it. Mary Jo even loved it, even though she didn't think she would at all. It was almost perfect...but it was only the first one I had tried on, so it couldn't possibly be THE dress, right?
So I moved on to the next dress. Too traditional (or, as I named it, the "Catholic church dress"). The next one was what I liked to call "cupcakey", meaning it was a bit too poofey and princess-y...but it was kind of artsy, and I just so happened to love it too. The next one was "too boring" at first...but after a few pick-up pins from the seamstress, I was yet again loving it. Anyone noticing a pattern here? Yeah I pretty much liked every dress, but there seemed to be something I didn't like about ALL of them too...except the first one. So I put the first dress on again. Then they added a necklace. Then they added a broach. Then...they added a veil.
Ah, the cathedral length veil. I. was. in. love. Cathedral length veils are pretty much the most dramatic statement a girl can make on her wedding day, and let's face it, I'm a drama queen.
So I'm standing there, in love with the veil, while Mary Jo is discussing the price tag of the dress and two different saleswomen were fussing over various sash and ribbon options, when a certain song starts playing on the radio.
(For those unfamiliar, listen here. Please excuse the cheesy early 90's video - it's the lyrics that should be payed attention to.)

garth brooks-its your song
- Watch more Music Videos at Vodpod.

Your Song. By Garth Brooks. It's a song that, I swear, was written for my mother, as I'm sure my brothers would agree. I never hear this song without thinking of my mom, who has been missing from my life for the past nine years. And apparently, when this song comes on the radio while I'm staring in the mirror at a girl in a wedding dress and cathedral length veil...things get a bit emotional. A girl always dreams of shopping for wedding dresses with her mom...and although I'm pretty sure dress shopping with my mom would actually result in quite a bit of fighting and arguing (we had many battles over our "style" differences), I still wished so much that she were there. There were quite a few tears, and a moment where I was convinced that apparently, this had to be THE dress.
But I couldn't commit.
The tears started blurring together with exclamations of "but I wasn't supposed to actually find a dress today! It's way too early! I've only been engaged for 11 days! I'm supposed to have a whole girly day of shopping with my bridesmaids and sisters-in-law before I find the dress!"
The emotional moment passed and I moved on to another dress. And another one. Then back to a few of the first ones again. At this point, I was exhausted. The more dresses I put on, the more it seemed like none of them were what I was looking for...not even the first one. My mind was fried, and I was dizzy from beading. It was time to go home.
In a couple months I plan on going back and trying the first dress again. And in the meantime I must soothe myself over the fact that I found the most perfect dress in the world at a shop in California for a price I could never justify spending, even if I could afford it, which of course, I cannot, and dream of my fabulous cathedral length veil.
All I can say now is, Girls (meaning Brittany, Mandi, Mariah, Angela, Mary Jo, and whoever else tags along in the future), brace yourselves. This is going to be a very bumpy search. Bring kleenex. And please, don't kill the overly-picky bride.