New Blog

New Blog:
A New Grace
I decided to start up a new blog for me & Tim. I'll probably still be the one writing in it, but I included him in the name just in case. heh Y'know.. the whole sharing thing - part of the gig, I guess. =)

Wow!

It's June already! And I haven't written in awhile... and many things have definitely happened =)

Tim & I got married! It's incredible. Our wedding was on May 16th in Salt Lake City. It was absolutely perfect. I loved having our family and friends there for a long weekend. The weather was perfect. Our families stayed at these gorgeous suites at The Silver Baron Lodge and it was soo fun hanging out there. It was so cute to see the little kids play in the suite. Lily and Samara definitely had fun hanging out in their new "house." =)

The wedding ceremony was so gorgeous. A Greek Orthodox wedding ceremony is filled with many symbols - it was beautiful. A lot of the symbols had a parallel version in a Catholic Filipino wedding ceremony. It was sweet. It was nice to make some things for the ceremony myself, like our wedding crowns and the candles. I like making stuff. =) I made stained glass stars as gifts for our siblings who we picked for our primary sponsors (a Filipino tradition). I made cute purple bracelets (different for each girl) for all of my bridesmaids. I also made the lavender bundle name cards for our guests (a lot of people helped me with this!) =) They turned out pretty cute & chic. The reception at Snow Park Lodge looked so amazing. I loved it. And all of the food was so delicious =) Deer Valley is great - service and food. It's a great place to have a reception. The people of Deer Valley were great. We also had a photobooth at our reception and it was a lot of fun. (I love those things, hehe) The centerpieces/flowers were perfect. Our wedding cake was beautiful. I loved it so much. Everything about our wedding and reception turned out perfectly. =) We had a lot of fun throughout the day and night =) I'm so thankful to everyone who attended the ceremony & reception. I'm also very grateful to our families and friends who helped out throughout the whole weekend. It was such a memorable night.

Dancing at our wedding reception

Me and my beautiful bridesmaids after getting ready at our suite

After the ceremony, we had wedding photos taken with our families.. here are our flowers girls & ring bearer. (adorable!!)

i loved our wedding cake. it was so delicious too!

A little over a week...

Things are definitely changing.. and changing fast. I have a handful of days left of working at American Express. That in itself is a big change. I have been here for two and a half years. It's going to feel so different not going there every day. I have met so many amazing people here - friendships that will last a lifetime. And it's going to be so hard to say good bye to them..

Lately, my apartment has been super clean to super hectic/cluttered in such a short time period. I've been trying to sell a lot of my stuff so that there's less to move.. So, I cleaned up my place to show some people my living room set, dining set, etc etc. But after that, I started working on wedding stuff.. from the wedding crowns to the name cards.. my apartment has become chaotic in a blink of an eye. I'm trying to remain relaxed.. but I am definitely busy now. It's weird to think that I won't have my living room set anymore... that was my pride and joy, heh.=) I put it together myself. As well as a bunch of other stuff in my apartment. And now they're someone else's property. =P

So.. there's 11 days to the wedding pretty much.. and I'm very excited. I'm excited to see all of my family and friends again. And of course, I'm excited to see Tim. (we're getting married!) Wow. Time really flew by. The bachelorette weekend in Miami with the girls feels like forever already.

Speaking of.. here are some pictures of the Girls from that weekend. Love 'em!

These 5 girls are my bridesmaids <3

Rainy Day

I hope everyone had a nice Easter.. I spent Easter weekend with my friends Mike & Tom. We headed down to Mesquite, NV.. and even got to hang out in Vegas on Saturday. We picked up Carla too! It's pretty cool that we got to see each other this weekend. I wanted Mike & Tom to try some filipino food, so we had a big lunch at Goldilocks. It was yummmy and we were definitely full at the end of the meal! We got a bunch of Filipino pastries to go too.. =)

During the drive down to Nevada.. we stopped at this one gas station with a huge rocking chair in front. So here I am: haha It's been so rainy today .. and lately, really. The weather has been so funky all over the country, I guess. Here in Salt Lake, it'd be rainy one day, 70 degrees and sunny, snow the next, and then rainy again. Just a mishmash of all sorts of weather. I wonder how the weather will be during the wedding weekend... I can't believe it's pretty much next month! =) Exciting exciting. Did another round of cake tasting tonight.. and we decided on our cake flavor. =) I'm full. =P My friend Marysol went with me to try out the cakes.. heh, pseudo-Timmy, and we tasted 6 different flavors. Really yummy cakes. Hard to decide.

People are sending in their RSVPs for the wedding.. so exciting to hear about =) They're all going to Timmy.. If you haven't sent our your RSVP to accept or decline, please do so! hehehehe

Woww... one more month...

Wedding Shower Weekend Recap

My ma made such cute fruit arrangements for the shower

I left for Michigan on Thursday.. worked a half day and flew out in the afternoon. My brother Herman picked me up at the airport and we did our usual after airport routine of eating dinner at National Coney Island - my usual Hani Special and a side of chili cheese fries. hehe Yummm.

We went to my oldest brother Warlito's house and hung out with the rest of the family there. I got to see the little kids!!! Super super super cute! It was so fun to play with them. My nieces are hilarious, precious, and such smarties. My nephew is so frickin' cute and adorable, you just want to nibble him up. hehehe Lots of fun. After that, we went to a salsa club in Royal Oak called Sky Bar. It was fun to salsa. =)

Friday: Hung out some more with the family. And I also got to hang out with some of my girl friends. We even got our nails done at a beauty school. heh That was fun. We hung out at Partridge Creek Mall. Nice place, lots of good stores. Nice to walk around it. At night, my family and I all went to a different mall, Somerset Mall and just pretty much played with the kids there. It was really cute to watch Lily & Samara just run around. They were so precious. We finally decided on where to eat dinner... drove to Royal Oak for some Thai food at Rexy's Bangkok Cuisine. Yummy yummy food. Tim got into town in perfect timing to join us for dinner =)

Saturday: Everyone woke up pretty early. My sister in law and my ma did a lot of running around in the morning to get some things ready for the shower later that day. I hung out with Tim and the little kids for most of the day. Fun times. Dinner time was the shower. It was at Ike's Restaurant. It was SO NICE! I walked in and my friends were there helping set up. My family was there doing the same. It was sooo nice to see the banquet hall. The center pieces... the advice cards and pen giveaways... sooo nice! The cupcake tower! So pretty. I was honestly touched by the work my family and friends did for us. And throughout the night, with the games and everything else they did, I thought I was going to start tearing up. I am so very grateful for my family and friends. They are such amazing people. I am the luckiest person in the world to have them in my life. It was a wonderful night. The food was really good and everyone seem to have a good time. I loved it so much. They got cupcakes from my favorite bakery in Michigan =) Mannino's Bakery. (I'm all about linking restaurants and places in this entry huh?!) =) But anyway, those cupcakes were delicious and deliciously cute. I couldn't ask for a better shower. It was so much more than I could ever imagine. Seriously. =) It was so nice of everyone to do that for us. (I'll post pictures soon)

Sunday: My whole family stayed at my oldest brother's house throughout the weekend, except for my brother Herman - he would go home to the condo. (Ran out of room at the house, heh) That was fun to have everyone there. Cute to see the kids in the morning time. We just relaxed on Sunday, looked at pictures and watched videos from the shower. Fun times!! =) My nieces were so cute and talkative. Lily is so good at talking. She's a very smart sponge! hehe Samara definitely got more vocal with having another little kid to play with. Super super cute. My family left in the afternoon for California. The house got so quiet when they all left. I left later at night. My flight got delayed because of the weather. But anyway.. The weekend was so perfect. I couldn't ask for a better weekend. I'm so happy. And I'm really really excited for the wedding in May when we're all together again =) (!!!)

PICTURES (added on 03/31):

So excited!

Short entry tonight..

But I just wanted to say that I'm excited to go to Michigan tomorrow! The wedding/couples shower is this Saturday and I'm really excited. I can't wait to see my family and friends. And I'm pumped go to the shower =) It's so nice of my cousin and sister in law to plan it. Sooo nice! hehe I can't wait to see my nieces and nephew!! I can't wait to see the girls!! GaHh! I'm just full on giddy. Seriously.

Another exciting thing ... I picked up my wedding dress from the bridal shop today!! Yuppp.. I officially have my wedding dress in my hands. It's so pretty =) I still love it. Before my fitting last month, I kind of forgot how it looked exactly. hah I'm excited to wear in less than 2 months!! hehe

One more thing.. it's been raining here a lot... and snowing a ton in the mountains. I have a feeling that there will still be snow on the ground up in the mountains during the wedding weekend. heh So that'll be neat to see. Maybe even get some spring skiing/snowboarding in. hah

March is going by so quickly!

This month is going by very very quickly. It's so weird to think that next week, March will be pretty much over. It's been a busy month, for sure. I've had visitors throughout the month =) Tim and my friends, Carla and David, all visited me this month. Fun times. Good food and snowboarding. Great combination. I only went a couple of times, but Carla & David went a lot more. It was fun having housemates this month =)

Next week, I'm flying out to Michigan for the Wedding Shower. I'm very excited. Things are definitely becoming more and more real =) I'm picking up my wedding dress on Tuesday too. (!!!) I'm excited to see my family and friends next week, I think it'll be a fun time. I want to see all of the little kiddies! =)

Different topic... our wedding website got updated today and it has a lot more useful information about the hotels & rental cars/vans. Check it out =) It also has a bunch of our Engagement Photos taken from our photo shoot taken in January =)

Dress Fitting

Today, I had my appointment for my dress fitting in the morning. A couple of my friends came with me to the bridal store, that was really nice. I didn't have anyone with me when I looked around for dresses, and picked one out. So, it was sweet to have friends with me today. Melanie took pictures during, but I'm not gonna post 'em on here =P I tried on my dress, and .. I didn't need any alterations! That was cool. =) I'm just getting a couple of bustling buttons put on, but I knew that was gonna happen. So, I'm happy that I don't need it altered, aka, more things to pay for =P

The weather was beautiful today. Sunny all day, the wind was pretty cold though. I hung out at the Gateway mall after the dress fitting with Melanie. It was nice to just walk around. Had a chai latte and cupcake "date" with my friend Carla. =) She's in Pittsburgh, and she was having coffee & a cupcake too. So, that was a nice touch to the afternoon too.

just around the corner

Feelin' Legit

More and more things are getting checked off the list!

I picked up our invitations on Thursday. They processed our order so quickly after our approval! I was very impressed. They turned out really nice in my opinion =) Tim & I also got our digital proofs online for our engagement photo session. We're really happy with how they turned out. I'm very excited for our photographer to take pictures during the wedding and reception. She's a such a cool and nice lady. Very talented. Here's an example of her work (not in the best quality format):

The wedding definitely feels real by having the invitations at my apartment =) hehe And now, I have the fun job of writing out evvverrrryyyy name and address. Good times good times. I think I'll start working on them tomorrow.
That's my mini wedding planning update!

Been very busy with everything else in life too - work especially. But I also started taking Salsa dance classes earlier this week with a friend of mine =) hehe So, that's a nice busy. I'm so not good at dancing. haha oh well, it's fun.

This wedding is coming up fast!

Our Wedding Website

Our friend made us our wedding website. (I really love it!) It's continuously being updated, but a lot of information is up there now. It's exciting, at least for me, to see our progress. We'll probably send out invitations mid next month! Tim & I have been working hard on planning this wedding. We hope that everyone who comes out to Utah to celebrate with us has a great time. Exciting exciting =)

Busy Weekend with Timmy

Tim flew in to SLC on Thursday night. We had a lot of wedding-related activities to do this weekend and I think we did pretty well on completing each thing. Friday, we met with our Priest - it was Tim's first time meeting him. That was really nice - good conversation =) Afterward, we met up with a guy Tim knows from work for lunch. We ate at Settebello, one of my fave restaurants. Then, we spent hours at Bed Bath & Beyond. Doing a registry is pretty interesting - harder than it seems. Heh But that was a nice time for me & Tim. We're not done with our registries at all..will work on it some more online. We can't decide what cookware to put on the registry =) After hours of doing that, we were pretty hungry so we ate at Simply Sushi. It's an all you can eat sushi restaurant. Pretty good sushi =) This blog post will be all about wedding stuff & food, I swear. haha

Saturday morning.. we had our engagement photos taken in downtown SLC. That was pretty fun. We walked all around downtown and got a lot of different backgrounds for our pictures. I wonder how they turned out =) Exciting exciting. I really like our photographer, she's really cool. It was a bit weird to get that many photos taken of us. hehe But it was really fun though. We got really lucky too, because while we were walking back to our car after the photo shoot, it started to sprinkle. And pretty much the rest of the weekend was wet (either rain or snow or both)The weather was definitely on our side for the photo shoot. Right after the engagement photos, we drove straight to Deer Valley Resort in Park City to do our Food Tasting. THAT was a lot of fun, and very delicious. =)

We ate a lot of good food and we decided on the entrees we'll have for our guests to choose from. Our coordinator at the lodge packed 3 huge slices of cake for us to try later, 'cause she knew we would be too full to try it at the restaurant. (She was definitely right) I'm very very excited for the wedding and reception! =) We hung out at the lodge for a bit. I people-watched the skiiers, and there were a couple of ladies performing (singing & playing the guitar) at the lodge. Very relaxing. Tim even fell asleep on his chair (the photo shoot wore him out, hehe) I'm so excited for the reception to be at Deer Valley. I think it's pretty up there. I hope people like it as much as I do. For dinner that night, Tim & I met up with a couple of my friends at the Red Iguana, another good restaurant to try out over here. (Lots of food this weekend, I know) =P hehe

Sunday morning.. we went to mass at the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral downtown. It was Tim's first time inside the church, so that was good that he saw it. I really like that church, it's very pretty inside and out. In less than 4 months, we'll be getting married there! =) =) Afterward, we chitchatted a little bit more with the Priest, and also the lady playing the organ. She'll be helping us with the wedding rehearsal too. =) Nice lady. Greek Orthodox masses are pretty long, so we ate breakfast afterward at Eggs in the City. Yummmmy. And that was pretty much our weekend. Food and wedding planning. hah We had a lot of fun and got a number of things done. =) Good times good times. Now it's time to work out this week! haha!

Only the 1st week Back?!

This week felt so full & busy. And Christmas feels like a million days ago. So crazy. I've been pretty busy at work which is probably why it feels like so much time has already passed. The weather has been nice here, but colder than California for sure. I still can't believe it's 2009 already. Time flies so fast! The wedding is coming up really quickly! Some changes happened with the wedding planning during Christmas break, but nothing to stop our world from turning =)

Time for random pictures and a video once it uploads (my computer is a slow one, so i'll probably post the video later):

This is what I see each day...

...probably 15 mins after taking the previous picture.

I made pizza the other night and so I decided to take a picture of it. hehe It was pretty yummy.

Vacation: Complete

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I flew back in to SLC last night. I'm so glad I did - I couldn't imagine how I'd be if I came back today and I had to go to work tomorrow =P heh It's good to have a day to get myself back into the swing of things here. My vacation was really nice. I had a great Christmas and New Year's with my family. It was great to relax with all of them and just be around the little kids. Now, my days of watching YouTube videos of Jingle Bells, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Makulay Ang Buhay (a Filipino commercial that Lily loves), ABC, etc are now done. I won't hear "Hi Ninang Grace! or "Be Nice Ninang Grace!!" from Lily for awhile - I guess I can hear it on the phone (not the same).

So sad, I miss the noise. I miss my family. I love spending time with Lily & Ian. So cute!! This was the longest I spent with any of my nieces/nephew and I'm really glad I had a chance to do that. I don't think I've had as much baby spit up in my life than in these 2 weeks. hah! ah well. And Lily amazes me with all of the little things she does (annoying or not) hehe She's such a smart cookie. She knows so much and talks/sings all the time. I'm excited to see allll of my family again in March in Michigan. woo hoo! =) I miss my other niece, Samara. I didn't get to see her this Christmas... =\

Here are some more pictures from my California trip: