Cat and Joe

So realization for me has finally set in…after over a year of being engaged and wedding planning, it has finally hit me that I’ll be hopping on a plane and getting married in a little over 2 weeks! I’ve always looked at my countdown clock that Karen gave me and saw the days pass but still think of our wedding day to be in far future — but now there’s no more months to countdown, just days…yikes!

Much has happened since my last blog…let’s see — we had both our wedding showers, up north in the Bay Area (thanks family for a great time!) and at the UCI Pub (thanks everyone that could make it, it was soooo much fun!) Both our showers had really fun games…Family Feud (always a hit!), Win, Lose or Draw and a fun but tiring scavenger hunt game around our college campus. It was great to spend time with our family and friends which makes us really excited about going to Maui.

Our shower in the Bay was also the same weekend as my bachelorette party in the City (that’s San Francisco for all you non-bay areaians, there’s only 1 city for us ha ha). We started off with heading to the City and checking in to our hotel downtown to get ready. Then we hit up CIRCA for a light dinner (since we ate our way through the day at our wedding shower). If you ever go there, make sure you order the Lobster Corndogs and say hi to Chef Eric (who was apparently a contestant on Top Chef, but sorry to say I don’t watch the show!) After dinner, we made our way to Apartment 24 where the debauchery began. One of my bridesmaids, Mimi faciliated a scavenger hunt game that broke us up into 2 teams for the evening. Each team had a list of tasks that we had to accomplish throughout the evening to gain points for your “Diva” team. Each girl had a “Diva” name…of course the bride to be’s Eva the Diva’s team won! After a couple bottles of table service, we were definitely having a good time, and by the end of the night, the alcohol won and I lost. But it was totally worth it and such a memorable time. The next day we spent relaxing and recovering at Anna’s condo at One Rincon Hill  — thank you Jesus the hospitality suite had a nice couch for me to lay down on and nurse my hangover. Thanks to my MoH, bridesmaids, Ana and Sherie for a wonderful and memorable time! I’ll spare the crazy details on here, but I will tell you from the photos we had a lot of fun and I was definitely that girl that night. A special thanks to my cousin Michelle for taking the spill for me not once, but twice! And one of the best presents I have ever received, the girls created the fastest scrapbook known to man during our recovery day at Anna’s with loads of pictures, sentiments and memories of my bachelorette night. Ahhh…good times.

But it looked like everything had taken a toll on me…the constant craziness at work, all the wedding planning, the stress, the traveling, wedding festivities…because I got really sick last week…for the ENTIRE week. I was literally out of commission. My body just had it with me and my busy life. I came down with some bronchial infection and had a fever for 4 days! I hadn’t been that sick in years. Needless to say, I’m glad that there’s still 2 weeks til my wedding, hopefully enough time to be back at 110%! I’m feeling a lot better this week although, still nursing a sinus headache. Don’t have too much going on this weekend so hopefully I can continue to rest and recover!

Yesterday was my final fitting for my wedding dress. Mom and I drove up to LA to get fitted one last time and with all my stuff that I’ll be wearing on wedding day. And I was happily pleased to see it all come together. I remember the first time I put the dress on I was half way through tears of joy, now I’m just really excited that the feeling of becoming a bride is starting to resonate.

After my fitting and working for a few hours I hit up more wedding planning — got myself organized, flushing out more logistics, transitioning things over to Ops Mode as we would call it at work. I got a lot accomplished yesterday and it makes me feel a lot better and hopefully shorten the list of things to do before Hawaii. Because once I’m in Hawaii…its vacation and wedding time and I have made a promise to myself to enjoy every moment of it and not get bogged down with anymore logistics or planning. The wedding mantra “It is what it is” will become my motto and not that I won’t care, I just won’t let things get to me *crossing fingers* I keep this promise to myself!!! So whoever is coming to celebrate with us in Maui, please make sure I don’t let myself down! =)

With just two weeks left there are a few things I’m still working on: finalizing the music/playlist for our reception; finalizing and printing programs; assembling last of the paper pieces; tying up loose ends with our church coordinator; coordinating guest information and growing our pile of things to bring to Maui so we can start the packing process! All in all, we are in good shape if I do say so myself (*invisible pat on my own back*)  Really, at this point I’m kinda over planning, sometimes when another thing comes up that I need to plan I painly moan to myself and can’t wait til all the planning is done and the celebrating and partying begins! After 14 months of planning our special day will finally come to fruition — it’ll be amazing no matter what because Joe and I will finally be married!