Not exactly rocket science

work updates

2009-03-14T21:05:00.003-05:00

Lately, life has been a lot about work and more work. That is both good and bad. We're thankful to be gainfully employed and NOT recently laid off like many in America, and just thankful we live here, period. We have to remember that there's more to life than work, and that we're to boast in Jesus, first and foremost, and not in our accomplishments. With that said, lots of people are asking how work and etc. are going. Everyone else we know that has a blog seems to be either 1) posting pictures of their cute babies, 2) on an adventure in an exotic place, or 3) in the ministry. While none of those technically apply to us (DC is exotic to some!), I guess our lives are still interesting enough for friends and family to want to read about it. Here are some random updates:

Matt recently did a job transfer and is now doing strategy work with NASA. No, he's not exactly doing rocket scientist stuff every day, but at least it's close!

I am now officially published in a scientific/technical journal. The actual research was from a while back because I put it on hold with getting married, moving and then moving again. Unfortunately, I can't really link to the article, you have to be a subscriber to read it, but you can read the abstract. That is, if you want something to help you sleep.

I passed my LEED exam, which is recognized by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Now that I've got that exam done and over with, I have more studying to do. I am sitting for my P.E. (professional engineer) exam, and this one is a doozy. In fact, I should probably go study some more, instead of procrastinating on this blog.

Lastly, we've decided to change the title of this blog. Any thoughts are welcome.

No pictures, for a while

2009-03-02T23:04:00.002-05:00

So that snow that blanketed most of the northeast and eastern seaboard... ate our camera.

What actually happened is that the camera fell into foot-deep fluffy snow somewhere when we were walking along some hill, getting ready to sled.

We were hoping to finally post a update, but there'll be no pictures for a while, unfortunately. It's especially sad because we were hoping to post pictures from today. It was absolutely lovely! And cold and windy... But we were prepared, for the most part. I looked vaguely like the kid from "A Christmas Story" that was so bundled up he couldn't put his arms down.

Great Falls National Park

2008-08-23T16:32:00.002-05:00

We finally made it to Great Falls National Park. Can't believe it's taken us that long - it's only 15 minutes away from where we live! It's really quite nice, and very accessible - we highly recommend it!

Our friend Kudzai joined us and she had never been hiking before (or pseudo-hiking, like this, since we didn't really go up any mountains). She saw her first deer AND fawn, and we also saw some molted snakeskin.

Almost-Camping @ Peaks of Otter

2008-08-15T21:46:00.000-05:00

We went almost-camping with the family - tons of fun! That means didn't really "rough it" , like the rest of the family; we slept in the lodge and "cheated". :) We still need to buy all the camping gear (we'd prefer not to rent and rather just invest in good gear), and we weren't able to buy them in time for this trip. But we did help where we could - we staked the tents, sat in the pouring rain under the tarp after we barely finished the tents, cooked over real fires (after hard-earned hours of effort with wetted wood), and just hung out all day outside when we weren't hiking or checking out the area.

It was a blessed, fun, and relaxing time. Stephanie saw her first fawn but no bears this time. Of course, this was probably a good thing. Pictures here.

Joe and Emily

2008-08-10T15:58:00.009-05:00

Over the Independence Day weekend, Joe and Emily had their public wedding ceremony (they eloped a few years ago). Some pics are here. Though it was a pretty hectic weekend, it was a beautiful, blessed and splendid time with family.

Matt and I ended up doing all the floral arrangements for the reception, and some passers-by complimented us and asked if we owned a floral shop and did that for a living. Perhaps we can add that to the resumes now? We also had a great time playing with Rian, their son. He's very mobile and explorative for a young 'un, so we helped to keep him amused with lots and lots of bubbles...
Anyway, we're very happy for Joe, Emily, and Rian and wish them all the best!!

Spring in Review

2008-06-29T11:10:00.010-05:00

Ok, so we thought we would be getting back on track, but that obviously did not happen. Sorry for not posting in so long... I can't say to much has changed since last we blogged. Our DC visitor rate increased with the slightly warmer weather this spring. We had two sets of visitors during the Cherry Blossom Festival, as well as a few other random visits from old friends (check out some of Ian & Sara's great night shots of DC). We got to see see the cherry blossoms in all their glory during the National Kite Festival, and we saw thousands of kites, though the pictures couldn't capture it well. This one was our favorite:

There were also THOUSANDS of people, the National Mall was possibly the most crowded that we've seen it.

We also actually went INSIDE of (rather than just driving by and saying, "Yeah, maybe we should visit that sometime") a few DC sites that we had not visited since moving here, like the Holocaust Museum, U.S. Capitol, Smithsonian Castle, Old Post Office Pavilion, and National Museum of the American Indian. We also saw the Stephen Colbert painting, temporarily displayed in the National Portrait Gallery (next to the bathrooms, of course). All good stops, and some better than others. And, we went to our favorite local restaurant almost every time someone visited, so maybe we didn't get the best variety in food! Thanks again to our parents, Frances, Nick, Tom, and Gayle for visiting with us.

Stephanie also ran her first race with her sister (the "Minnie Marathon" 15K) at Disney World and had loads fun with that (lots of pictures here). We heard that Disney World races bring out lots of dedicated fans... it's true - we saw many people in various Minnie, Mickey, and Tinkerbell outfits or just wearing mouse-ears. During that same weekend, we cheered on another friend who ran her first 5K, and also visited another friend's wedding. Definitely a hectic weekend. Later that month, we went to a DC United game and had another trip to Florida for Steph's dad's birthday.

On the work front, things are still very busy and getting interesting! Matt is very excited about working on new aerospace-related projects, and Stephanie is pursuing her LEED professional accreditation (Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design, issued by the U.S. Green Building Council). Unfortunately, this involves lots of studying for a very detailed exam. Stephanie also visited Spokane, Washington and Fairchild Air Force Base for work, and during the evenings, she spent a lot of time exploring the charming downtown, jogging along the riverfront trails, and seeing some cool sites (pics here - unfortunately, she forgot to take pics of the Spokane Falls)... All in all, some busy times for both us. Again, sorry we haven't posted in so long. With summer here, we hope to do more sightseeing and plan to post those pics!

Extended Hiatus

2008-01-14T15:05:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the extended hiatus, we have definitely been lacking in the news department. I'll give you a quick rundown on our recent travails and hopefully delve a little deeper into the topics that seem the most interesting.

- Christmas Vacation: We saw both families, traveling from DC to SC, then to FL. It was a lot of travel, but very rewarding. We had a great time on vacation, but were definitely ready to be home at the end.

- Matt's One Year: Matt has now been at work for a year. It's strange to have been out of school that long when school had played such a prominent role in our lives, but he's enjoying the freedom (and paychecks) that the "real world" provides.

- Pro Bono: Matt and Stephanie are both participating in some pro-bono projects, providing free consulting to non-profit organizations. Needless to say, we're hoping these turn out to be great experiences for us and a warm up for future work.

- House Hunting: OK, so the two of us have finally decided we should look for a place to live on a more permanent basis. We thought we'd found a place, and even put in an offer, but God closed that door and we're still looking. We're trying not to get disheartened, but this area is ridiculously expensive. If you'd like an idea of where we live, go to www.redfin.com and look up our work's area, McLean, VA.

That is our update for now, we'll try to be better about updating. You all know how difficult it can be to post when life infringes on free time. Hope you are all doing well, many of you are in our prayers!

Thanksgiving Roadtrip

2007-11-19T11:45:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone! As we all start heading home for the holidays, I thought you might want to see where the Konopas are heading. If you're on our route, let us know if you'll be around!

We're starting off from Falls Church, VA and heading down to Myrtle Beach, SC on Wednesday, November 21 to spend Thanksgiving with Matt's family. On Saturday, November 24, we are driving to Augusta, GA to attend two friends' wedding. That night, we will stay with Julian Battle and then we'll head back north on Sunday, November 25th.

As you can see, it's shaping up to be a marathon session in the car. We'll stock up on audio books and travel diversion (and snacks, of course!) before heading out on the open road.

We hope you all have a great Thanksgiving, and we hope you're driving shorter distances that us!

Weddings, birthdays, and travels, oh my!

2007-11-02T13:56:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately, we seem to be updating this blog on a monthly basis now... So we've had quite a fun month. Here are a few things that kept us occupied:

We went to see GT vs. Maryland with friends - but we had to separate since they had tix in the Maryland section. You might be able to see them - there are only a few lone yellow shirts in the picture to the right. The game was close and fun but also a big disappointment. We randomly ran into some other old Tech Campus Crusade friends at the game - so unexpected! We also "half-hosted" an impromptu dinner party, compliments of Holly, because our mutual friend Nick was staying with us for the weekend.

Stephanie celebrated a birthday. One year closer to 30!! Unfortunately, we don't have many pictures to share. We went out to dinner with a few friends and just enjoyed each other's company. A few days later, we flew to Georgia to celebrated Cooper's (Matt's best man at our wedding) and Brittany's wedding. The weekend was quite packed and was a family reunion too, since Matt's father helped officiate the ceremony.

groom and blushing bride at the rehearsal dinner

all the the Konopas at the rehearsal dinner

While we were in Atlanta, we stopped by a few old favorites: the Dwarf House (the original Chick-Fil-A) and Figo Pasta (fantastic Italian). It was such a blessing to be able to see some old friends! Stephanie made a pit stop at our favorite, Taqueria del Sol, and but Matt was off at the golf course playing a round of golf for the "bachelor's party". There were many friends we weren't able to see, but we only had a few hours at the beginning and end of the wedding weekend. Next time we know to pad the trip with an extra day or two just to make sure we have time for visiting. One additional treat was being able to meet our friends' beautiful new baby! Hopefully, this one will be 3rd generation Georgia Tech.

Back in D.C., we visited the Solar Decathlon on the National Mall - where university teams build modular houses and compete in engineering/architectural categories. Didn't take many pictures, but you can see pics on their website, solardecathlon.org, and it was extremely cool. Georgia Tech placed 6th overall, too. This was the last day of the decathlon, and there were so many people in line that we decided not to go in any of the homes. We traipsed around some more, snapped shots of the Old Post Office and went window shopping at H&M (You can see the Old P.O. to the left - isn't it pretty?). This time we did not lose our car, fortunately.

We went to our first Halloween party together... as Harry Potter and his first crush, Cho Chang. Yes, VERY cheesy but it was such an easy costume, and we were pleased with the results and response! All we needed were some ties and our old graduation robes (which Stephanie the Packrat saved thinking they'd be useful someday... who would have thought?).

The following day we went swing dancing at Glen Echo for our first time since coming to the area. What a cool place, it's a national park with a ballroom, too! We can't wait to go back - it was was so beautiful and charming, and the all-ages crowd really made for a fun environment. When you come visit us (hint, hint), make sure we take you there on a Saturday night!

Anyway, that's the month in review... Hopefully we'll update before another month passes.

whirlwinds

2007-10-01T22:23:00.000-05:00

Matt and I just had a insanely packed weekend. And it was also full of sweets and cake.

Day 1 was spent with an old friend from high school and a new friend from work; and the day proved to be quite an adventure. It included a walking tour of historic Georgetown; eating French-Belgian-Asian food (our meal included French crepes, bubble tea, and Belgian fries - though we also had British and Indian options); visiting the National Book Festival, which turned out to be a huge event, and while there, snapping a picture with Dr. Sanjay Gutpa and waiting in line for a bit to meet Terry Pratchett (a fave author of ours, known for "Good Omens" and "Going Postal") - but since there were probably a thousand people in line we got tired of waiting and just left; munching on cakes and cupcakes at the Cakelove "Love Cafe"(made famous by the Food Network); going to/playing at a soccer game; watching the GT-Clemson game at an alumni event; and going to a surprise birthday party to eat more food and cake...(breathe)...

Day 2 wasn't as packed but not quite the restful sabbath we were expecting. It started with an 8 am breakfast with an old friend, a lunch get-together with another old friend whom we haven't seen in about 2+ years, buying a new car battery because the SUV battery couldn't be any deader, and finally going to church (a young adults ministry) here - first time in about a month since we've been out of town a lot. All in all, quite a fun and hectic weekend. I realize some people do stuff like this on the weekends all the time and consider it normal - I don't know how they do it! More pics here.

Adventures with Tom

2007-09-23T21:57:00.000-05:00

Nighthawks by Edward Hopper

Our good friend Tom visited us recently. From the beginning to end of the weekend, many, many things went awry, but of course we also had lots of fun. Here are the Top 10 Things That Went Wrong or Not as Planned... (don't worry, we found all of these funny, and if not immediately, then shortly, afterwards... except for #7):

1. Going to the WRONG AIRPORT to pick up Tom.
2. Once at the CORRECT airport, getting pulled over by the police for speeding (no ticket, just a warning).
3. Being unable to find parking spots to go visit the National Gallery of Art - East Wing.
4. Trying to find somewhere to eat that wasn't a hot dog stand.
5. Getting stuck inside a PARADE of anti-war protesters as we try to get back to our car. (it felt like the movies - don't they always somehow get stuck in a parade? we weren't being chased by secret agents in hot pursuit, though...)
6. LOSING OUR CAR!!!!! we found it eventually, after about a 45 minutes of looking.
7. Georgia Tech losing to Boston College. :(
8. Riding on broken rollercoasters at Six Flags... OK, it's not as scary as it sounds. We just got strapped into the ride and then were told to get off. Many of the other rides were closed down right before we got on them, too.
9. Getting lost/mixed up on the way to downtown D.C. when some 2-way roads were converted to 1-way.
10. Losing Tom in downtown D.C.... (partly because of #9).

Six Flags posse

But really, it was a fun and funny weekend. Unfortunately, we forgot to write down the Tom-isms, but here are some highlights of the weekend:

- Tom saw John Ashcroft at the airport.
- The impressive Edward Hopper exhibit. ("Hey, isn't Elvis supposed to be in that picture?")
- Getting to traipse around and explore D.C. more.
- Eating outside at the Navy Memorial and enjoying the amazing weather.
- People-watching the anti-war and pro-war protestors. Observing democracy in action!!
- Finding our car. :)
- Chillin' at home, watching football, and playing Wii tennis and baseball.
- Enjoying Six Flags with old and new friends, for free, compliments of Booz Allen.
- Running into random Georgia Tech people at Six Flags, not knowing they'd be there too.
- Talking about China, world politics, religion, culture, technology, and God with an old friend!

National Gallery and Chinatown arch

Reunions

2007-09-09T08:59:00.000-05:00

Over the past several weeks we've been able to "reunionize" with family and old friends as well as develop new friendships.... good times.

We tried out indoor rock climbing (and tree climbing) with Austin and Jacob. Matt seems to have a knack for it with his lightweight body and long limbs.

And interestingly, we made ANOTHER trip to the Air and Space museum.

Visiting the National Zoo with Thomas and Laura...

Hosting a "catching up" dinner with Katie and Holly...

Spending time with each of our families (and 4 generations of each!)... We enjoyed perfect weather at the beach and also celebrated my nephew's 1st birthday. AND we also got some Guitar Hero and Wii Tennis time (but sorry, no pictures of that).

Not enough time to have all the fun we wanted, but those short-but-sweet-times were still a blessing! Thank you to all that we saw, and if you're not in the group, we hope we'll have a reunion with you soon!

Casablanca and Cake

2007-08-26T22:05:00.000-05:00

For the actual day anniversary, we couldn't take off of work, but we still wanted to go doing something fun and unique. So that evening we went to D.C.'s Screen on the Green with a bunch of coworkers. It was the last SotG of the summer, and we still hadn't gotten a chance to go, so we decided to go for it.

Neither of us had ever seen the movie in its entirety before (I had seen bits and pieces and always wondered what the big deal was). Both of us agreed that the movie really does live up to the hype and it makes much more sense from start to finish. Plus it was pretty impressive seeing it on such a big screen, outdoors, with the Capitol and Washington Monument nearby. So what if Casablanca is filled with cheesy lines and cliches? It really had quite a lot more plot depth and character development than I expected (plus there are so many quotable quotes and famous lines from this one!)... So I now officially am a fan of this film.

I wish we could do stuff like that more often. It was a lot of fun, not to mention hilarious watching and doing the traditional but weird HBO Dance before the movie. Why can't we have Screen on the Green in the fall, when the weather is so nice? The only bad thing was that it was soooo humid, extremely crowded, and I could smell lots of people's stinky feet every time they walked by our blanket. And oh yeah, don't forget the not-so-pleasant smell of marijuana floating by now and then. Aside from these, it was an awesome experience and great way to celebrate. :

Oh yeah, forgot to mention... we did the 1-year wedding cake tradition too! It was actually still delicious! Mad props to Lisa for wrapping it up really well. I think that thick layer of icing helped too (kudos to the pastry chefs).

Can't believe it's been a year and how fast it's flown. What a year it's been!

Shenandoah

2007-08-18T18:19:00.000-05:00

We celebrated our one-year anniversary by having a getaway weekend in Shenandoah National Park. Pictures here.

I know some may think the Appalachian Mountains are boring in comparison to the striking mountain ranges out west and elsewhere, but it's still gorgeous up there. It's just a different brand of scenery, more of a quiet beauty. During our stay, the weather could be described as being at absolute perfection (and actually just a bit chilly at night, which I like). The skies were clear, and it was nice to breathe in the breezy and mountain-crisp air. This was so welcome since hours earlier on Friday we were wearing dress clothes and in the thick of sweltering and record-setting heat. The picture above is of Skyline Drive - it was really fun to drive, and there are tons of overlooks (just don't hit the deer).

We hiked two short but moderate-to-strenuous trails to different waterfalls (Lewis and Dark Hollows) and one short easy trail to Betty's Rock. The hike to Lewis falls was extremely rocky (no real climbing though), but once we got there, it was worth it. Matt wanted to see if we could get past the railing to get a better overhead view of the waterfall. He clambered around and discovered we could climb down several rocks, and then descend down to lean on an angled tree. We could then literally be leaning right over a large part of the waterfall. It was awesome! Unfortunately, our pictures stink, so I did a search and found many others who took better pictures.

This is looking down over Lewis Falls. Not the best pic since I wasn't using the viewfinder and took the picture from my waist while I was hugging the tree. I was nervous about dropping the camera (and about losing my own balance thereby falling 80 feet), so I had strapped it through my belt loop before climbing down and then leaned on the tree. Here's a better picture that someone else took, from the same not-so-secret overlook we found. This is where I was standing when I took the picture.

Dark Hollows Falls were so crowded, it was rather disappointing at first. There were a few dozen people lounging about and kids splashing around in the waterfalls. We then decided to try to climb the falls, especially since the flow of water wasn't strong. We kept thinking we had made it as far as we could go, and then we'd look up and say - hey, let's try to climb up there. The picture to the right is near the top, but not quite. We made it all the way to the top cascade! And after that, we figured out how to climb some more rocks to the main trail, which was right next to one of those signs that said "FALLS CAN KILL".

The last trail we did was really short and a spontaneous side journey. We were driving back from Dark Hollows and decided to pull over at an overlook to take some pictures. Then we saw a sign for "Betty's Rock: 600 ft" or something like that. The trail was very easy and the view was incredibly rewarding. The rock formations were also extremely neat-looking:

It was such a great trip! Another cool thing was that we could see SO many stars at night; the black sky looked cloudy with the stars. I don't know how long it's been since I could see the Milky Way Galaxy.... I was just awestruck. God made a really really massively big universe, and I don't think I'll ever wrap my mind around that. So anyway, enjoying the night sky was just as or even more amazing than hiking in the mountains (or climbing waterfalls). Plus, there was no moonlight that weekend, which made the stars even more incredible. (Incidentally, there was also a Perseid meteor shower that weekend. Anyone get to see it?)

I still can't believe we have such a wonderful national park within a few hours of where we live. We can't wait to go back! More pictures here.

Sunset... (don't worry, those little white dots are just a reflection of a chandelier)

Weekend in Louisiana

2007-08-04T12:42:00.000-05:00

Matt and I went to Santiago and Rebecca's wedding in the Middle of Nowhere, Louisiana. It was a gorgeous wedding and it was refreshing to see some old friends. It was also unbelievably hot and humid!

After flying in to New Orleans, we checked in to our cute little B&B inn, where we we shared a cottage with Ian and Sara (unfortunately, after we got there, we found out that our inn was a few miles away from a prison - eek!). We would have stayed at The Bluffs country club lodge with everyone else, but it was full. So basically, the four of us were "weekend buddies" and it was really wonderful getting to know them. We went to the rehearsal dinner cookout at the bride's parents' home, and they had AMAZING homemade Louisiana and Cajun/Creole food... Best. Jambalaya. Ever. At the close of the evening, they had fireworks! It was quite impressive.

I had a tough time taking fireworks pictures with my little camera but this one turned out well!

After that, the four of us went to a Harry Potter midnight release party in Baton Rouge. This was definitely an interesting experience and a HUGE party (it seemed like a larger-than average Barnes and Noble, too). The B&N was ridiculously crowded, and it only got worse as the evening progressed. Of course, lots of fans were dressed up in costumes, and many news crews were outside and milling about. I wish I had taken some pics of the better costumes. My favorite was the lady dressed up as Umbridge, carrying around plates with pictures of cats on them. Matt and I did not buy a Deathly Hallows book since we had already pre-ordered one. Ian and Sara had reserved two books at that store, though, one for them and the other for the bride and groom to read on their plane trip to the Caribbean. So, we all just passed around the extra book to read a few chapters until we had to hand it over to Rebecca and Santiago on Sunday. :)

Our pictures don't capture how crowded it was, or how many people were dressed up, so I borrowed one from a news site. Ian also picked up some glow-in-the dark Harry glasses.

On Saturday, we just took it easy. Our B&B served really yummy breakfast food, and then we hung out with the other wedding guests during the day (playing golf, reading Harry Potter, eating ice cream, etc.). The wedding and reception on Saturday evening was a blast. Great food and music (live band!) and an open bar all night. And even John was dancing! One cool thing was during part of dinner Matt and I chatted with a WWII veteran who had neat stories and had been to the Philippines. Here's a bunch of pics, sorry I don't have good ones of the bride and groom:

I especially liked the groomscake design.

Pics of us with John, George, Ian and Sara.

A bunch of ASDL rocket scientists getting ready for a picture - I'm not sure what they're looking at.

Not sure what prompted this pose, but I like it!

On Sunday, we spent a few hours in New Orleans before our flight and strolled around the French Quarter. Matt and Sara had never been to Nawlins before, and even though I warned him that he would not like Bourbon Street, it's that obligatory touristy thing you have to do at least once, so we did. It smelled much like it did when I did my obligatory stroll - a hot and humid mix of urine, alcohol, and that tacky-gift-store-shop-smell.

I think there's much more to see in New Orleans outside of, but we since our time was limited, we only had time to have lunch and meet up with John in the French Market district and walk around just a bit more. It was so hot and humid that we were just grateful to eat somewhere with AC!

Jackson Square on a very clear and hot day!

Mississippi River

All in all, it was a fun trip and a good time with friends! We hope that this will remind/urge me and Matt to keep in touch with old and new friends, to treasure those friendships and never take them for granted, to keep them in our prayers, to seek depth in those relationships, and to make sure to make time to enjoy new friendships in our new home here.

Cheers.... :)

P.S. Here is an online album with some more pictures.

The Daily Grind, Part II

2007-07-31T21:36:00.000-05:00

OK, so since starting my new job, I've been SWAMPED. Sorry we haven't posted anything remotely interesting in quite a while! Despite being very busy with work and such, we've managed to go on a few interesting excursions and have some fun times. I promise to post something soon (with pictures!!).

In the meantime, since everyone likes to ask about work (though rarely does anyone's job description sound interesting for more than 10 minutes, aside from maybe James Bond or astronauts), I will divulge just a few snippets about my new job.

- Matt and I work in the same office complex so yes, we commute together (I can hear you say "aww, that's cute!" It's OK. everyone else is saying it...) So far, he's only driven to Maryland for client meetings, and I go into DC using the subway/Metro about every other week.
- Traffic is horrible, but fortunately, we live 2 miles away (so that could be less than 10 minutes or like 45 minutes!).
- I LOVE my laptop computer. I was one lucky duck and got the Thinkpad X60. Tiny screen, but it's sooo lightweight.
- I am enjoying my work but am still adjusting to learning to balance work, sleep, health, down time with God, exercising, blogging, etc. How do you people managed to keep your kids and pets (and plants) alive?!

In the meantime, for any of you dear family and friends that still check in on us, thank you! We miss you and think of you often, even if we don't call. Here is a pic of Matt and Santiago (because I hate to post without a picture!) from the Udvar-Hazy museum trip we took in case you missed it:

Toodles for now... ;-)

Nats Game

2007-06-23T21:54:00.000-05:00

We were able to go see a Washington Nationals game for free this week. It was a lot of fun, and plus we got to hang with new friends. Neither of us are huge baseball fans, but it's nice to go to a ball game now and then. One amusing thing was the mascot (or mascots?). Notice the bald eagle (not so menacing, but more cute and Disney-World-esque) and the giant bobble-head-style Presidents.

I also like how George Washington is a fan of New Balance shoes (click on the photo for a closeup).

The stadium (RFK Memorial Stadium) was kind of in disrepair.... and, well, rather ugly. But that's OK, because it still had some nostalgia and we had a great time. Plus a bigger, better, more beautiful stadium is currently being constructed. In the meantime though, we are looking forward to going to RFK to cheer on DC United at MLS games.

The Daily Grind

2007-06-14T09:21:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone! It is my turn to post again, we have been remiss in keeping everybody up-to-date.

Stephanie officially started her job May 29, and we are still adjusting! They loaded her down with plenty of reading to get up to speed on the many projects in which she will be involved. She's got some very interesting projects, such as helping write environmental impacts for important buildings, such as the Capitol Buildings! Also, she will get to travel to Colorado and possibly Montana in the course of her work... Makes Aberdeen, MD seem a little less exotic for me. :p

I had gotten used to having Stephanie at home to take care of details like errands or house-duties, so it is definitely an adjustment for both of us to be working. We're starting to recover, and it's actually pretty fun to drive around and do errands together. It means we get to see each other more, even if it is in a car in traffic. I think we're back to eating decent meals (a lot of takeout/fast food at first), and we're finding we have a little more energy in the evenings. One of our next goals is to work out at night. Wish us luck!

So we're dealing with the daily grind, but fortunately we're finding it's refining us a little, pushing us to limit our wasted time (like TV), and help us be more productive. OK, maybe we still waste time some, but now I iron and steph works while the TV's on.

Hope you're not too bored by this insight into the grind, we'll try to take some more cool trips to put up on the blog soon!

Memorial Day

2007-06-02T11:06:00.000-05:00

Matt and I had the privilege of seeing the National Memorial Day Parade in our nation's capital. Though the heat was rather sweltering, it was worth it (more pictures here). All in all, not a visually spectacular parade but still a good one. We didn't get to see Gary Sinise because we were late but we did see Pat Boone.

Best moment? Seeing World War I veteran, Frank Buckles (you should read that link - it's a very good article on him). Another man on a megaphone announceed him and stated his age - 106 years old! He was 16 when he enlisted. He is now one of only 3 living American veterans of WWI. Amazing.

We also stopped by to visit the recently built WWII memorial - I had never seen it up close before. Unfortunately the camera was out of batteries so we took only one picture. It was truly touching. Since it was Memorial Day, there were more people milling about and who had left flowers, wreaths and notes for loved ones.

The WWII memorial is altogether a very unique and different type of memorial, with many different components, quotes, sections and themes. You can tell much thought and care went into designing it. Though it's not this singular beautiful structure it's still effective, and sombering and uplifting at the same time. One of the most striking things was the "field of stars" or "wall of freedom" with 4048 stars on it, each representing 100 Americans killed in the war... Here we mark the price of freedom.

Thank you, to all of you who have sacrificed to protect and preserve our freedoms.

Familial Visits and Little Saigon

2007-06-01T15:41:00.000-05:00

When my parents visited last week, we didn't do the typical DC sightseeing since they've been there/done that, and my dad wasn't up for doing a lot of walking. So we just drove around a lot. Plus, my folks just wanted to ride around in our "new" hybrid. We saw DC's Chinatown and drove through scenic Rock Creek Parkway - just to see the gorgeous stone bridges. Then, we got hungry and decided to have Vietnamese for lunch.

Little did we know that where we ended up going is the Vietnamese cultural hub of the region: Eden Center. It was quite remarkable and HUGE and nearly everything's Vietnamese. There were probably 50+ restaurants alone, not to mention supermarkets and music, clothing and jewelry stores. So, of course we had pho for lunch at a cool restaurant**, bought some unique Vietnamese desserts at a bakery, and my mom got a durian milkshake (a very popular fruit in the Philippines too).

We also spent a lot of time just relaxing at home. Mom and Dad tried out playing the Nintendo Wii and they actually enjoyed it! I wish I had a picture of that!

Anyway, here are a few pics from the trip.

**This restaurant was interesting - there was a wall full of books - mostly history, politics and philosophy, and quite a lot of Asian and Vietnamese books too. My dad postulated that whoever owned or started the restaurant was probably an intellectual that needed to flee the communist regime. Interesting, huh?

Employed

2007-05-17T07:06:00.000-05:00

So I finally accepted a job offer! ... I'll be working at Booz Allen Hamilton as an environmental consultant. Which means, I need to go shopping for new work attire and shoes, because I am supposed to wear a suit every day and I only have two suits plus a couple of old blazers. I start in less than two weeks, and yes, I'm really excited. :)

"New" Air & Space Museum

2007-05-13T22:26:00.000-05:00

We visited the new super-hangar-addition to the National Air & Space Museum near Dulles airport (it's called the Udvar-Hazy Center, but that's hard to remember) with one of Matt's old aerospace engineering friends.

This place was amazing. That is, you would love it if you have any love for man-made things that fly. They have awesome exhibits of military and sports aircraft, commercial planes, historic planes, space flight, satellites, rockets and the like. Beautiful stuff that made Matt and Santiago drool. I am not kidding. They were as happy and giddy as children on Christmas day.

And the funny thing was that each of us was carrying around a camera, snapping away.

There was just sooo much stuff to see. Apparently, Smithsonian had been wanting something like this for a long time but could never fit it all in the DC museum location, so they built this huge place. Some of the highlights were a Concorde, a SR-71 Blackbird, the Enterprise space shuttle, the actual Enola Gay, and a Joint Strike Fighter XF-35.

We've posted some pics here, and are in the process of adding more. Matt and I will add commentary and explanations soon too. Enjoy!

This one is us in front of the SR-71:

This one is in front of a Joint Strike Fighter:

National Symphony!!

2007-05-11T10:42:00.000-05:00

Matt won tickets for a National Symphony Orchestra concert at the Kennedy Center, so we had the privilege of going to see a show there, and it was awesome. And actually funny. The theme was "Serious Fun" so there was a lot of humor injected here and there. We had fantastic seats ("Premium" is what it said on the tickets!), ones we normally would not pick because of price.

I got scolded by an usher for taking pictures, so we did not take many. Above is a picture of the Concert Hall but apparently there is a separate Opera House and another large theater, all at the Kennedy Center! We'd like to go to more shows, but since tickets are expensive, we can go to free ones for now...

One (not free) concert that looks particularly interesting is "Video Games Live" and apparently they've sold out almost every where. It's supposed to have a lot of visual effects and high-tech opera stuff going on, all done to the tune of video game music. I won't recognize all the music, I'm sure, but I still think this sounds like a neat idea.

Ice Cream & Bluegrass

2007-05-10T15:16:00.000-05:00

To celebrate the gorgeous, non-drizzling, spring weather, Matt and I wanted to spend time reading outside in a park. On the way, we got sidetracked by two very wonderful things: ice cream and bluegrass music. We stopped at this quintessential ice cream joint full of families with toddlers and teenagers hanging out. They only accepted cash but all we had were 3 dollar bills and 3 silver dollars. A lady overheard us mentioning our Sacagawea silver dollars, and she asked us if she could trade with them since her husband collects coins. Only in a small town! (OK, we're not really in a small town, but almost...)

Anyway, the ice cream was fantastic.

After we left the library with our newfound books, we walked to a park... but we smelled something grilling and heard some commotion, so we followed our noses and ears. Lo and behold, there were several groups of people, standing around and jamming together on their banjoes, guitars, mandolins, upright basses. Apparently the DC Bluegrass Union was having a big get-together. (We also saw an unusual tree and could not find an explanation for the holes in it - any one want to venture a guess?)

The music all sounded wonderful, and I've always loved bluegrass. We took some time to soak that all in, but we did not want to interrupt their party too much, so we went in search of another park to read our books. I finally started reading Harry Potter, too. All in all, a lovely Sunday afternoon.

Our first tourist-y weekend

2007-05-08T10:39:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone,

So Stephanie finally decided we would take advantage of our proximity to the District and go sightseeing. We took a few pictures, although when it's drizzling outside, you tend not to take out the technology as much.

Saturday we took METRO (DC's superior version of MARTA) down to the Capitol and got off near the Library of Congress. We had every intention of finally fulfilling Matt's 10-year quest to get a Library Card, but the lines were horrible. Apparently, every school in a 50-mile radius wanted to go to the LoC. So we decided to move on to other sights.

Next we walked over to the National Gallery of Art, seeing a few cool fountains and the Supreme Court building on the way. We forgot to take pictures of the art, unfortunately. Then we went to the National Archives to look for a treasure map behind the Declaration of Independence. We had dinner near Union Station and contemplated seeing Spiderman 3 at that theater but the $10 tickets made the decision easier.

Anyway, here are some pictures of our adventures if you're interested.

Moving pics, finally

2007-05-04T09:54:00.000-05:00

I never put up moving/transition pictures on the picasa/google albums, and I finally did. I don't like Flickr anymore because they put limits on the number of albums. Here are some of the pictures from moving and our new apartment. This picture here is taken at the beloved Basement. Notice the short Hobbit-sized door...

The Hunt...

2007-05-03T14:49:00.000-05:00

I am in near the end of my job hunt. I have two good offers on the table for jobs that I would enjoy. And another two companies I should hear from next week. I am excited, but I'm apprehensive about turning down an offer because it makes me feel like I'm being ungrateful or something like that. I just wish I had enough money to go start a company in China or some other developing nation... :)

In the meantime, here's a link to Matt's new company. And the cool Jamestown 200-year-anniversary stuff going on. I doubt I'll get to meet the Queen of England though, who arrived today.

Wedding contest tax update

2007-04-30T14:02:00.000-05:00

I know some of you were curious as to how much we ended up paying in taxes for the wedding contest we won last year (for those of you who don't know, yes, that was counted as income so we had to pay taxes on it). The checks we ended up sending off to The Gub-ment totaled about $8 K. Add that to the other approximately $6K we paid out of pocket for other expenses. So our wedding and honeymoon ending up costing approximately $14,000. Not bad for a fairly fancy, albeit small, wedding.

That is a very discounted price to pay for what was declared as being a $41,000 wedding.

Our new baby

2007-04-16T17:29:00.000-05:00

OK, OK, I'm not talking about a real baby. That will be a long time coming. And it's not even a real pet, although I like playing with other people's puppies and kittens. This is not a bonsai tree (it died), or a cactus (wouldn't do well in this weather), or even a venus fly trap (though I've always wanted one of those!)....

We are getting our "new" car tomorrow! Yippee! Along with a car loan (booo!) ... but it's with a credit union so we got a great rate - yay!

Anyway, we are both really excited because the car is a 2003 Civic hybrid, and we got a fantastic deal on it (2K below the Kelley Blue Book price).

Anyway, we missed a chance to buy an authentic "granny car" last month (someone else snatched it up), so we prayed for an even better situation. We weren't expecting to buy a car for another month or two, but we couldn't pass up this opportunity. Here's our new "baby":

Matt won't stop telling people that it gets 48 mpg and that gas prices might top $4.00/gallon this summer.

Anyway, we can't wait to drive it tomorrow! We will post reviews eventually.

Now in NoVA

2007-04-07T21:56:00.000-05:00

So as of the last time I updated this, a lot has happened, such as the holidays, graduating, moving, being in a friend's wedding, quitting a job, Matt starting a job, blah blah blah. (some pics of that stuff here).

The long story short is that even after a whirlwind of life changes and events (like getting married!) we apparently needed to throw in extra excitement (like moving again) to get it all done at once. :)

Matt also graduated and then accepted a job offer near DC so we moved to northern Virginia. It's been a crazy couple months, and now we're just about settled into our new apartment. We're having fun here but we really miss our family, friends and of course the warmer climates...

Here are some pics of our snow adventures. And actually, it snowed today (as in yes, in April, the middle of springtime). Hopefully I'll get to update soon!

leavin' on a jet plane

2006-10-12T11:27:00.000-05:00

OK, we're actually driving, not flying, to my hometown this weekend, so unfortunately that adds several hours of travel time. Maybe we'll get to visit the beach - yippee! And maybe I'll have time for that much-needed haircut.

good news!

2006-10-05T19:47:00.000-05:00

matt got his first job offer!! woohoo!

Saving Space and Saving $$

2006-10-03T10:31:00.000-05:00

Since we live in a basement we have limited closet space and are still figuring out where to put everything to get settled in. Because we have no linen closets I didn't want to get any new comforters yet - we wouldn't know where to put them!

Most of you know that I am fairly frugal and also hate wastefulness (which is why I recycle almost everything...). So, now I must rave about something I am now a big fan of: duvets and duvet covers.

I did not even know what a duvet was until maybe 2 years ago. Maybe because I always grew up with warm weather and barely slept with blankets anyway.

Anyway, a duvet is a no-frills comforter (usually filled with down), and you can change the cover on it much more easily than changing/washing your comforter. So, it takes up less storage space, the covers can be washed more frequently, and the covers are usually much cheaper.

Because I am really cheap, I didn't even buy a duvet - I just bought an inexpensive duvet cover from IKEA and put it on our old comforter. I was getting really tired of those little flowers.... So, voila! I feel like I am in a new room, and for maybe a tenth of what it could have cost.

Top 10 "tastes & smells" of our wedding weekend

2006-09-30T20:02:00.000-05:00

Here is another top 10 list I wrote a while ago but haven't posted till now. I thought it'd be fun to share. Psychologists say that tastes and smells are often associated with memories more strongly than visual things. So here goes:

1. The rehearsal dinner food – the lemon-cucumber chilled soup was very different but very good, and the steak melted in your mouth…
2. The smell of rain around rehearsal time.
3. The "diner smell" (a la Waffle House, IHOP, etc.). We made a late night run to Steak and Shake after everyone got to the hotel. I shared a chocolate chip cookie dough milkshake. YUM!
4. The print shop where we got our first set of programs done – I love the smell of new paper.
5. Hair spray. Maybe it made me slightly high, there was so much of it. I actually really liked the smell, so I didn’t wash my hair the next morning, and it lingered for a long time.
6. The stephanotis flowers on the guys’ boutonnieres had a wonderful, sweet aroma.
7. The mojitos were one of our signature drinks at the reception. We were told they were the best mojitos ever! You could really taste and smell the fresh mint...
8. The reception dinner – it was awesome, but I could only taste a little, but what I could taste was great, especially the steak au jus.
9. The strawberry smoothie - I had one on both Saturday and Sunday!
10. The smell of the leather seats in the limousine mixed with the air freshener. It was weird, but distinct, and it made us feel comfortable and luxurious.

Video Clip!... and Carl House website

2006-09-25T17:38:00.000-05:00

Fun news!... So I was checking the Carl House website to see if they put any updates on their other wedding(s) they graciously gave away...***

They revamped their website and I found that our wedding photos are all over the website! It weirded me out at first, but now I think it's exciting and cool (anything that says "liana.tv" is by our awesome photographer). A part of me wishes I paid that extra 500 bucks to get nice linens and chair covers, especially after seeing the other gorgeous weddings and then seeing our pictures with the boring-looking chairs. But, no regrets! They're just chair covers, for crying out loud! :) And that money would be better spent on paying off our student loans, or better yet, going towards a homeless ministry or something.

Then, I found that a short video clip from the TV show's wedding-related finale is on their site! I have not seen any of the finale show yet... mainly because neither I nor any of our friends have DVRs or TiVos. :) You can watch it here. Please excuse me for looking really stupid because I keep looking at the video screen to look at the wedding pictures (the screen was facing us). But it looks like I keep looking at the camera. Oh well. :)

***(... Yes, they gave away 2 weddings this fall plus a rehearsal dinnner!! Crazy... But awesome!! and KUDOS to them for giving back to the community and for their creative marketing. One contest was through Carl House and was highlighted on Get Married Atlanta, they are also giving away a rehearsal dinner through the AJC , and one through the local NBC show, the latter being ours, which I actually heard about through atlantabridal.com...)

Top 10 wedding-related-but-slightly-different visual memories

2006-09-24T13:24:00.000-05:00

I've keep starting these top 10 lists, but keep forgetting to finish and then post them!

A lot of these things on this list I didn’t get a picture of – and they wouldn't typically end up in a picture frame or in your average wedding album. But, they are still memorable images just the same, and they are from my perspective, not so much the wedding-day photographers.

1. The assembly line of our relatives putting together the wedding programs, TWICE (because the first set had the wrong date). People were folding, punching holes, measuring/cutting ribbon, looping ribbon, tying ribbon, and re-pressing the programs. Plus they were assembling the the little favors (honey jars) in satchels.
2. The rehearsal dinner before everyone sat down – it looked heavenly and took my breath away. Calla lilies and hydrangeas everywhere. Plus we used the flowers the next day for the wedding reception!
3. Putting on the veil with my hair all done for the first time and seeing it in the mirror. This was during the hair trial at the salon. Very weird but neat feeling, my heart fluttered for a second!
4. The out-of-town gift bags. They were cute and the guests enjoyed them. Andrea put them together; Romain, Matt and I did the shopping, and Matt and I made the bags of jelly beans – the best part!
5. The hotel room decorations. After the rehearsal, my sis and I walked in to the hotel and were taken aback by all the sweet little touches the hotel staff did in decorating (candles, streamers, balloons, confetti, etc). They also decorated the guys’ room! So sweet! Then, my sis used some of the decorations to put on our door.
6. The extra flowers in the hotel, sitting around while the Annie, Debi, Katie, and others put together the extra boutonnieres and bouquets.
7. The horrible mess of an apartment I left when I went to the hotel to see my family. I don’t really want to remember it, but it was pretty funny.
8. Camera flashes everywhere as we walked down the aisle.
9. Seeing everybody dancing. A grandfather doing the twist, an uncle moonwalking, friends shakin’ their booties… all hilarious, and even more so when put together. Priceless!
10. Bubbles from our perspective. I was very impressed with clouds of bubbles created by the remaining guests for our sendoff. ;-)

2 updates

2006-09-21T13:16:00.000-05:00

1. We had a great time on the recap TV show 2 weeks ago. I didn't have any good pictures, so I am snagging one from Liana's blog. It was really fun. The show went by so fast, though, and I didn't get to even say "Thank You" to all the sponsors, the show, or the viewers who voted for me and Matt.

2. I am now an AUNT!!! Healthy beautiful, baby boy, Rian... He's so little!!

Pictage pics are almost all ready

2006-09-19T09:21:00.000-05:00

Pictage (pronounced pik - TAHZ) has now 550+ extra pics up now for the wedding, minus one photographer's pics. The extras are under the category "additional pics". I'm really happy to see pics of things that I hadn't seen many pictures of yet, like the beautiful grooms' cake, the guys getting ready, the wedding favors, the processional, last dance, etc.

http://www.pictage.com/186263

If you want to order any of them, do so through that website. Unfortunately, Pictage prints are very expensive. If you wait a little while, they may do another discount or 2-for-1 deal. Let me know if you have any questions!!

Also, I forgot to mention - Matt and I LOVE our wedding album and our dvd video! Thanks again to Scott Smith (from Spectrum) and Liana Lehman!!!

250 new wedding pics up online

2006-09-11T20:21:00.000-05:00

OK, over 250 new professional wedding pics are up! Yay! One of the photographers, Huy, posted a few nice ones on his blog too.

I love the one with our ring bearer doing the "spiderman" hand!... and the one of the guys playing on computers while the girls are getting ready, heheh!

Go here for the whole album.

Here are 2 from his blog:

quick update

2006-09-05T14:11:00.000-05:00

The TV segment today was a lot of fun and it was really sweet seeing a lot of folks we hadn't seen in a while...

We also got the completed wedding DVD (from Spectrum) and the album and a framed photo (from Liana) today as a surprise! We can't wait to share them with you guys!!

In the meantime, I found some more photos for ya'll to peruse. I found another photographer's blog (Christy) where she posted some of the wedding pictures. Yay! There are some way cute ones of the kiddies.

Here's the link.

Honeymoon pictures

2006-09-04T11:55:00.000-05:00

We didn't take very many pictures because we kept forgetting... but fortunately we have some, thanks to Annie (she loaned us her digital camera!). Here is the link.

another TV post

2006-09-01T12:55:00.000-05:00

The Atlanta and Company show actually is doing a recap on Sept. 1 (today - I didn't know about it!), 4, and 5 - the latter being the live session with me, Matt, and several of the sponsors.

I also learned that the "regular" weekly contest voters numbered about 2,000. That number sounds a little high in my opinion... What I am really curious about how many people voted for the couples in the first vote!

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy your Labor Day weekend. If you're in the Atlanta area and are bored at 11 am on Monday and Tuesday, you can watch. Also, I encourage you guys to support these cool businesses that are willing to do creative marketing and participate in contests like this. Plus, they all offered fantastic customer service and were great to work with. (No, they didn't pay me to say that.)

top 10 cool wedding moments

2006-08-29T10:44:00.000-05:00

Don't know if these are really the top 10. There are too many to name, but here's a sampling:

1. Andrea bringing me a smoothie because I couldn’t chew food. If you don't know why, read this post. Then, after it got thrown away, Denise (wedding coordinator) brought me another smoothie.
2. Matt’s dad (officiant) dramatically saying “and now… my SON… you may now… kiss …. YOUR bride”.
3. Everybody actually dancing… they did the Conga line to the Harry Belafonte song (Jump in Line/Shake, shake senora)!
4. The extra flowers from the rehearsal dinner were made into gorgeous bouquets and centerpieces of hydrangeas and calla lilies. WOW! ((thanks to Annie, Debi, Katie, and Katie and others!)
5. The mother/groom dance. That was some serious dancing. Let’s hope we got that on video.
6. The special dedication a cappella song done by my relatives during the reception. They rocked!
7. Hernando (who is a big commitment-phobe) catching the garter.
8. The toasts. Teared up for Cooper’s toast, and sis made me cry.
9. The late night family and friend pow-wows after the wedding (at the hotel). Got to visit and just have a special time with mostly everyone.
10. Annie had an EXTRA digital camera that we could borrow while on the honeymoon. Yay we actually have pictures! (those are coming soon).

On TV next Tues Sept. 5 @ 11 am

2006-08-28T16:33:00.000-05:00

Tune in if you want to laugh at us.... on the local (Atlanta) NBC station, 11Alive, Sept 5 at 11 am. For some reason it's channel 6, not 11 on most TV cable providers. (Why is this often the case?...)

The TV show is called Atlanta and Company. It is on every day at 11 am. Here's the link to the contest page.

It's a recap show, and all the business sponsors are invited. I am not sure what to expect. It should be fun though! Does anyone have TiVo? Can you record it for us?

What is interesting is that Carl House did another free wedding giveaway that took place this past weekend (featured on the Get Married Atlanta TV show on PAXTV - I've never seen it, just seen the website). I think it might have been a little more fancy than our wedding giveaway (they got a harpist, more flowers, nice linens, and a rolls royce for the getaway), but we had more perks over all - like a fancy rehearsal dinner, the wedding dress, bridesmaid dresses, and honeymoon. The rehearsal dinner, dress, and honeymoon were some of the biggest donations too, outside of photography, food and facility rental.

Anyway, we figured crashing that wedding wouldn't work, since the staff would recognize me and Matt.... ;-) I just want to eat the food!

more pics up

2006-08-27T05:53:00.000-05:00

A TON of pics are up on Pictage. There will be more in the next few days since not all of the photographers have loaded theirs. If you need the link, email me.

The photos are really really good except for when I'm getting dressed and ready and look way goofy. :)

... So seeing all the pictures made me really, really sad again when I re-remembered that I have no pictures with my grandparents, matt's parents, cousins, bro/sis, etc. Matt and I have only a few pics together too. We meant to take some after the ceremony since we were running late for the ceremony. Argh, how could I forget?! Perhaps everyone was having so much fun at the reception that we all forgot. Fortunately, I got some pictures with my girlfriends b/c a few had to leave early and they said - hey let's take our pictures now.

Anyway, enjoy the pics!!

a few more sneak peek pics

2006-08-25T08:25:00.000-05:00

Jasmine, one of the wedding photographers, also has some cool pictures on her blog:

http://jasminestarphotography.blogspot.com/2006/08/stephanie-and-matt.html

There are some really cute ones of the flower girls!

Top 10 wedding mishaps :)

2006-08-20T11:28:00.000-05:00

The wedding (and entire weekend) were absolutely amazing. It seems that everyone had a blast and people say that the ceremony was beautiful, sweet, and Christ-centered. (Here's a link to some pics).

However, there are so many behind-the-scenes funny stories and other mishaps which I probably don't even know the half of... We need to share at least a few, so here are some, in no particular order (coming soon will be the best wedding surprises and moments!):

1. SMILES - One of my FRONT TEETH fell out! OK, not my real tooth, but my porcelain crown/veneer popped out while I bit on a slice of pizza for lunch. It's almost the entire tooth, so I look pretty goofy without it. My dad rushed to the Walmart to buy some Fixodent to last me a few hours, and I didn't eat almost anything all day - if I did it was very, very carefully. The tooth stayed put until 11 pm that day! Whew!!

2. PROGRAMS - The wedding programs had the WRONG YEAR printed on them - all spelled out, as in "two thousand and five". We realized this after they were all folded and ribbons were tied. We mad-rush-fixed it on Saturday.

3. SLEEPY FLOWER GIRLS - The girls were so tired that they had to nap on the drive up to the venue. But, their hair was already done in mini-updos and looked beautiful, and no one wanted it messed up. So during the long drive, two grandmothers held up the little girls' heads in the backseat as they slept.

4. FRIENDS - ... are funny. One friend thought the wedding was on Saturday instead of Sunday, and fortunately she showed up to our rehearsal while we were all there, and she joined us in time for the rehearsal dinner.

5. TOAST- When making the toast, Cooper (best man) said my last name instead of Matt's.

6. BOUQUET - I used the wrong bouquet to carry down the aisle - I realized it when I saw that the bouquet I was going to toss to the ladies was about three times the size of the bouquet I was already carrying.

7. CANDLE - My mom couldn't light her candle for the unity candle ceremony after multiple tries and lighters.

8. FATHERS, VEILS AND KISSES - My dad responded "her father and I" by accident when he was giving me away. It was really funny. :) It took him a few nudgings to correct himself, and this really threw him off guard, so then he forget to take off my blusher veil and give me a kiss on the cheek. This was fine b/c Matt just undid the blusher when he gave me the kiss!

9. PICTURES - Because of #1, we were running late, so we forgot to take a lot of the traditional pictures with family, sponsors, etc. This made a lot of us very sad!! I don't have any pics with Matt's parents and vice versa, etc... :(

10. OTHER LITTLE THINGS ... like,
- Matt's sister's cell phone didn't work in Atlanta so I couldn't get a hold of her or find her so she could ride the limo with the rest of the girls. Our little Bible bearer rode with us instead as the lone male in the car.
- Matt wasn't able to get his ring from the jeweler until Saturday night right before the rehearsal dinner.
- At the hotel, I couldn't find my bro to give my car keys so I gave them to my sweet friend Amanda instead, whom I ran into in the hallway. (We needed someone to drive my car)
- Another sweet friend, Andrea, bought me a smoothie so I could actually eat something without losing my tooth again but one of the servers threw the smoothie away during the ceremony!
- I was so busy that weekend that I didn't get a chance to get my nails done, so we TRIED using clear nail polish instead - but something was wrong with it and it started to peel off and look all flaky.
- The sendoff bubbles were missing and we didn't realize it until 15 minutes before the sendoff. My sis and John found them in my car just in time.
- Most people forgot to take the favors home with them, so we had over a hundred little jars of honey left...
- My sister poked my eye pretty bad at one point while doing my makeup, so we laughed about the possibility of me walking down the aisle with an eyepatch and missing tooth.

Anyway, if you have a good story to tell from the weekend that I completely missed, please email it to me or send it my way!

back from jamaica!

2006-08-20T11:03:00.000-05:00

OK, so Jamaica and Couples Ocho Rios were awesome. We'll post pics on that later.

We also plan to write some thorough reviews of all the vendors and sponsors, and I'd like to write about the funny things that went wrong at the wedding and the best things about the weekend. I don't have wedding pictures yet, but for a sneak peek of some cool pictures you can visit Liana's blog. If you have any pics please don't forget to email me too. :)

Lastly, I think we're supposed to be on TV again (Sept. 5) for a recap/finale show if you want to catch in on NBC-11Alive.

Wedding times

2006-08-10T16:09:00.000-05:00

Woohoo, the wedding is almost here! There are a few major and minor things left to do, but the final tasks are basically done.

Many folks are asking how long it will last. Our departure/sendoff time is scheduled for approximately 8:30 pm. I understand that a lot of people will have to leave early so I hope there are enough folks left to give us a decent sendoff! :)

Music raves

2006-08-07T00:19:00.000-05:00

Last week, I couldn't stop listening to Largo for Xerxes (full orchestra version) by Handel. It's part of an opera, called "Xerxes" or "Serses", and the specific song is "Ombra mai fu" in Latin. Now I can't stop listening to Mat Kearney, a musician who gets regular pop-radio air time now. And it's cool that both men are Christians - the former best known for the Hallelujah Chorus and latter with most people not knowing that he's a Christian.

yelps and more shoutouts

2006-08-05T09:59:00.000-05:00

My porcelain crown/veneer popped out again. Gotta go back to the dentist - they just fixed it last week. Argh!

Another shoutout- this company from whom I'm ordering some wedding favors and supplies is awesome, cheap, and fast- www.cudge.net. I just have to say they had great customer service - I got an email reply to my question within a couple hours on a FRIDAY night.

Veil shout-out

2006-08-03T08:01:00.000-05:00

I had no idea veils could be so complicated. And expensive. So I have to give mad props to a local veil-maker, Olena, who is really sweet and is making me a custom veil-and-a-half for a great price and at the very last minute. It's 1.5 because it is a blusher, cathedral length tier and elbow length tier.

The sash on the dress extends further than the train of the dress. So I don't know if a cathedral train will look right. I asked her to make a detachable/attachable cathedral veil and additional tier that is waist length and also detachable. That way, I can take both to the final fitting with the dress alterationist and then decide which option is best.

Also, she does most of her business via ebay and occasionally meets with Atlanta brides on Saturdays. But, she is letting me meet with her during the week. What great customer service!! I just had to rave!

whether the weather will be nice

2006-08-02T08:28:00.000-05:00

Good news, the current forecast for next weekend says the high will be 87 (rather than a high of 97 like today). We need more hurricanes (mild, please) to bring us rain and cool air. :) And I hope there are no big hurricanes hitting Jamaica after the wedding either...

cementing those details

2006-08-01T09:14:00.000-05:00

Today I got my tooth cemented back in! I can smile now without being self- conscious! Basically, I've had what I called "my fang" for the last few weeks because my porcelain crown/veneer popped out. Long story. Feel free to ask about it if you want to laugh at me. :)

So we got our marriage license (yay!) and had our "3-week" planning and payment meeting with Carl House (good but also a bummer because we had to fork over the cash). Fortunately the figure was much less than the one we had at the initial planning meeting. We also visited the jeweler (Ross-Simons), had our last premarital counseling session, and spoke with the limo people and rehearsal dinner folks.

We have the music planning session with the DJ this week, and we need to make the ceremony programs and wedding favors. The last stretch, woohoo!...

flowers...

2006-07-25T22:39:00.000-05:00

The flower options are all beautiful! I can't decide betwen the all white and the partly blue one - the all-white one b/c it's so simply elegant, and the pink speckles in the orchids might go with the sash on the dress. But the blue bouquet (hydrangeas, calla lilies and roses) really goes well with the BM dresses. Whatever... I'm sure whatever flowers we have will be gorgeous. Vote for the one you like best! :) I am speaking with the florist tomorrow and I'll let y'all know what I find out in terms of colors and requirements...

I'm excited to meet the florist and chat with her. Kayla (our ever-resourceful contact at the TV station who was able to find a florist!) said Sunni really sweet. Dunwoody Flowers by Bourgeois is the company name, and I hope they get a lot of business from the TV segment. You can watch the video segment and vote. I think this is the last round of voting, so this is your last chance to be another little part of our amazing journey this summer.

On Wednesday, the limousine service is being highlighted but there will be no voting. I still kinda wish we could ride off in the Ramblin Reck! :)

Ocho Rios, yay

2006-07-25T08:47:00.000-05:00

So it's confirmed, we're going to Ocho Rios! Thanks for voting!

Honeymoon choices?!

2006-07-21T15:41:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone! We really appreciate your interest in what we want for honeymoons! Also, we're sorry it's taken so long to put up our preference. Right now, we're leaving it up to you guys to decide between these two:

-Sans Souci
-Ocho Rios

Either one seems good, so please, help make our decision easier! In case you forgot, you can go vote here.

Ring bling

2006-07-18T08:50:00.000-05:00

THANKS VERY MUCH to everyone who voted for the rings - ring #3 won for both me and Matt. The ring is rather important since we have to wear them for years, unlike the tux or dress which we'd wear for just one day. We're very glad with the end result and are happy to know we will not be sporting too much bling. Besides, I could get a silver tooth instead.

This week we vote for the first dance song... but Chris, one of the DJs from Spectrum, said that 1) they already know which song will win (and I agree), and 2) if we don't want to use that for our first dance we're not required to or anything like that.

So I am just curious what the voting margin would be - so just pick your favorite song if you want to still vote.

One month!

2006-07-13T11:57:00.000-05:00

The wedding is one month away. :) I can't wait to have a blast at the wedding, go on a dream vacation, and finally live with my best friend! Anyway, regarding that wedding planning stuff... I still can't believe how much work there is when so much has already been decided through the contest. And I still can't believe we won a wedding. It really hits me from time to time.

So for those of you that want a general update, here's some good news and wedding-related updates:

The florist, transportation, and videographers were all booked this past week by the ever-resourceful Kayla, from the TV station. Woohoo!!
Rehearsal dinner time details were more finalized this week, looking forward to seeing the place next week.
We finally booked our flights to Jamaica! They were cheap AND are DIRECT flights so we can maximize our time there as well as get back in time for a wedding the following Saturday.
Second fitting with the alterationist went well - and I am really pleased with how she is going to design the bustle. I may decide to change from my 3-inch heels, though... I'm leaning more towards bathroom slippers or flip-flops, now. :)

Some things we have left to do include geting a marriage license, veil & accessories, wedding favors & bubbles, and bridesmaid/groomsmen gifts. We also should decide on Friday night plans, call up all the people who have not RSVP-ed, and create a schedule for the wedding day. More importantly, we have to plan out the ceremony (the reason there is a reception is because of the marriage!!!). Also, we're finishing up our pre-marital counseling which is going well, and I need to make visits to the doctor, optometrist, and dentist. Other less urgent things we need to do but can wait until August include scanning those baby pictures for a slideshow, making out-of-towner welcome bags, making ceremony programs, doing a bridal photoshoot, and getting the name-change forms. All that little stuff. Whew!!

And, did you know that you can request a note of congratulations for weddings and baby's births from the White House? Kinda cheesy, but still neat!

pink sash blues

2006-07-12T18:30:00.000-05:00

Below is a blog entry I wrote a while back but forgot to post, so I am posting it now. So I am OK now with the sash being cut off (no more "blues"). I'm still unsure what color the sash is. :) It changes color in the light. Here are two pictures I took, one with a flash and one without.

AND, neither picture really shows what it looks like in real life. It really looks like ivory-champagne. Weird, huh? Anyway, I think I have decided to wear the sash without the "bow" and just have it hang like a knot in the back. I am going to the second fitting tomorrow, and we'll discuss what to do with the sash. Here's a few pics of sash dresses that have no bow (I got them from theknot.com Sash_Brides community bio).

Maybe later I'll post some pics of sash dress bustles. They are actually very hard to find!!
..
..

-------Previously written-----------
I got the wedding gown's sash from the alterationist. It's so pretty! I couldn't stop staring at the detailing and embroidery. I picked it up b/c we're gonna try to match Matt's tux vest with it. I know it's called "rum pink" but it looks more like ivory, off-white, or even champagne to me.

Anyway, what made me sad is that the alterationist cut the sash off from the dress. We had talked about it at the first fitting, and she said we'd probably have to cut it off because it was just so large that tying it on the wedding day would take forever (it's not like a ribbon, it's a heavy satin material). She suggested that she cut it, create a bow, and then hook it onto the dress. It would make bustling the sash a much easier too. I agreed - but I was under the impression that we would wait to until after the 2nd fitting to see if we really needed to do it. Oh well. In the end, it's just a piece of cloth, and it will look the same.

Hopefully it will be worth it and the bustling WILL be easier...and my sister will not go crazy trying to figure it out. I had no idea bustles in general could be so complicated and expensive, and that adding a sash just makes more difficult. I found some pictures online if any of you are interested:
- theknot.com "sash bride" community website.
- theknot.com bustling site bustles website - there are sash gowns at the very bottom of the page.

wedding bands

2006-07-10T21:34:00.000-05:00

So they revealed the wedding bands Monday on the TV show instead of Tuesday for some reason. Today we also visited Ross-Simons to try the rings on and see them in person. They all look much nicer in person than in the pictures. Matt and I both like option # 3 for the men's and women's bands. For him, #1 was too much bling, and #2 was titanium, so it was very cool and high-tech sounding but maybe too trendy and also dangerous if he ever breaks that finger (the metal is so hard that it can't be cut off!).

For me, # 1 was just too big and #2 was beautiful but maybe a little too much bling as well. I think the third option (pictured here from a different angle) was a little more understated but still very lovely. I am surprised they didn't offer even one wedding band without diamonds. Weird. What's also funny is that the men's wedding ring without diamonds is worth as much as this one with the diamonds! I think it must be the "satin finish". Anyway, we're really happy with the rings! I'm excited! More and more things are falling into place!

Vote here.

newspapers...

2006-07-09T16:36:00.000-05:00

the engagement announcement is up in my hometown newspaper. yay. i wonder if anyone that i've lost touch with might notice it?

Hotel block, finally!

2006-07-05T21:34:00.000-05:00

Hotel info is now on our BBB and weddingchannel websites: Wellesley Inn at Gwinnett Mall (map). The best part is that it's right next to a putt-putt golf course! :)

Registry Information

2006-07-04T12:17:00.000-05:00

Stephanie and I have begun registering for the wedding, and we thought this would be a good spot to spread the word. Right now we're registered at 3 places: Bed, Bath, and Beyond, Macy*s, and Home Depot.

Home Depot

Bed, Bath, & Beyond

Macy*s

We've been told that we should register for tons of stuff so everyone has options on gifts, so we'll try to add more over time, but there is a limit to what we need/want and how much time we have to visit all these stores!

90 days to nowhere

2006-06-30T10:06:00.000-05:00

So if we were planning this wedding in a typical time frame, we would have at a minimum: an initial planning meeting (did this in May), a 90-day meeting (until the event) and 3-week meeting. We had our "90-day meeting" yesterday even though the wedding is only 1.5 months away. It went well - I got to meet our wedding consultant/director who was really sweet, and I learned that we can have free centerpieces w/candles and silk flowers on the tables (instead of buying flower centerpieces - one less thing to worry about!). Also, since not many of our friends and family drink much, we'll probably opt out of the open beer & wine bar, and just have a soda bar with a signature cocktail drink (such as mimosas), and that should help us save some money too. Those folks at are just so nice. Anyway, it was a really encouraging meeting! I'm so grateful that they can help me with a lot of the details. AND, I'm getting more excited about it being at Carl House, even if it's in the middle of nowhere...

more food!

2006-06-30T09:16:00.000-05:00

For those of you that want to vote for the rehearsal dinner menus, Matt and I prefer Menus #2 or #3 (Surf & Turf and Asian Style). All three options sound DELICIOUS, but the reception meal will already be Southern-themed so it might be nice to try something different, at least for the entree (incidentally, I think option #1 has my favorite appetizer and salad) . I'm sure I'll be delighted with any meal with these folks - and I was impressed to find out they've catered for the President of the U.S.!! I am also looking forward to just seeing the food - I'm sure the presentation and artistry should be beautiful. And of course I'm more excited about spending the evening with our families. ;-)

Old Pavilion

2006-06-28T00:54:00.001-05:00

The rehearsal dinner is officially booked now at the Old Pavilion in Vinings. Yay! The menus are up for voting this week (watch here) and all three sound amazing! I do, however, feel sad - because we have to keep the wedding and rehearsal dinner numbers fairly small. Anyway, now that the place is chosen, we can move forward with hotel blocks and stuff like that.

new wedding website

2006-06-27T18:36:00.000-05:00

So we decided to do our registries with Macy's and Bed Bath & Beyond. We may decide to add others like Home Depot and Williams-Sonoma. Since we set up a registry with BBB, we started using using their website creation tool. It looks nicer than other free websites, but you have to go through BBB's site to get to it. It uses Flash and takes a little longer to load, sorry! Two months ago we made very minimalistic ones via theknot.com and weddingchannel.com. Here's the link, and hopefully we'll update it fully very soon: Our Wedding Website.

Guest book

2006-06-25T13:14:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone!

Sorry it's been so long since our last post. We've been pretty swamped with working on invitations and starting the registries.

The photography segment was on TV this past week, and it was really good and informative. You can see our photographer, Liana, on the contest website, or on her website. Voting was on three different guest books styles, and all three options were lovely (you can also read some commentary on her blog). I think the third one is my favorite. Unfortunately, the voting is already taken down on the website, so you can't go vote.

I'm even more excited about the final wedding albums, because I got a sneak peek at some albums she did for two other weddings, and they were just gorgeous. Of course we need to finish a lot of the decision-making and planning so we can actually have the wedding for Liana to take pictures! :)

This week, Matt will try on his tux and vest to double check that everything matches and I'll go to my second fitting. We will also be meeting with our wedding director at Carl House and begin our pre-marital counseling with one of our church's pastors. All this plus trying to schedule appointments with the dentist, doctor, and optician. Hopefully we'll get everything done before 4th of July weekend!

p.s. Stephanie/Joy wrote this, not Matt - I was signed in on his account, oops!

Tux Choices

2006-06-16T20:20:00.000-05:00

Stephanie tells me that oodles of you are asking for our preference of tuxedo. Since I'm the one wearing it, the choice falls to me.

I'm sure everyone thinks I'd go for the traditionaly black tux, being the straight-laced person I am. After looking at each tux in person, I definitely prefer the pinstripe! I would go with the solid if this were an evening wedding, but I think the pinstripe just comes out looking better, and it really seems to have a crisper, hipper look.

Thank you all for voting, hopefully the pinstripe comes through as the winner!

Blue!

2006-06-12T13:56:00.000-05:00

Because of the nice folks at Bridesmaids' Bow-tique and fortuitous circumstances, the dresses will look different than the ones that were voted on last week (those ranged from $230-300 per dress - VERY pretty but WAY pricey!). Basically, the gift certificate they were donating could cover only one dress.

However, she had 5 of these blue dresses in stock due to a manufacturer's shipping error, and she offered to sell them to me for super cheap. They're very pretty, would match the wedding dress style better (they're satin instead of chiffon), and are in the right sizes for my bridesmaids! Also Matt and I really like the color (the picture here is a little off - it should be more "periwinkle and powder blue"). So, it looks like we have picked at least one of the wedding colors (or rather, it was picked for us).

This is yet another thing that God has allowed to fall into place wonderfully... what a blessing!

another cake note

2006-06-08T15:33:00.000-05:00

I have no real preference for the cake style... I think I like #3 the best because it's the most unique-looking, but I don't feel strongly - basically I will be excited about free cake, if it's yummy (and because we already tasted samples, we know the cake will be "masarap-sarap", which means "delicious" in Tagalog).

I do think Matt prefers cake #2 (shown here). It's also not too "girly" looking, so maybe that's why. :) If you haven't voted yet, please pick #2. Plus, it's 4 tiers, so that means more cake to eat!

Cake update

2006-06-06T15:45:00.000-05:00

The cake tasting and "wedding-planning-update" interview today went well and the pastry chef/baker lady, Nancy, was really nice. She brought more than enough cake samples for the whole TV show crew - that's how I justified eating two of each ;-) ... very yummy, moist, and flavorful but not too sweet.

These are the basic flavor and frosting combinations to choose from (you don't vote for these on the website - just tell me which one you might like), and yes they were all DELICIOUS:

1) white cake with peach mousse,
2) white cake with strawberry butterceam,
3) chocolate cake with raspberry buttercream and chocolate ganache.

Let me know which you might like, and we will definitely take it into consideration! Nancy may make some changes to the style and flavors, but so far this is what we have to choose from. You can still vote for cake styles too. Pick whichever one you like. :)

You can see the cake tasting segment online but not our interview:

Yummy cakes on TV

2006-06-01T12:38:00.000-05:00

We were invited by the TV station to come to the segment tomorrow. Why? So we can taste some cakes! This is probably one of the best ones to be invited for. Woohoo! If you want to see it it will be on at 11 am tomorrow.

They asked us if there are any cake flavors we love or hate, but I'm not sure. So what about you guys? I like a lot of flavors except for Christmas-themed fruitcake.

Now for the fun part!

2006-05-29T23:22:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately you can't see all the cool details the awesome staff at the salon put into the hair styles (mainly b/c my hair is so dark). I liked all three hairdos and was ready to go hit the town after each one. The ladies at Kathy Adams Salon were fantastic and said they'd do something I loved, regardless of which hairdo is picked. They also need to work in a veil on the top of my head somewhere, and all three styles can achieve that.

So I am curious which hairdo people might like the most. :) Vote here.

**Update** - If you want to watch it, here is the TV segment. If you're in the Atlanta area, you can watch it every week on NBC/11Alive/WXIA at 11 am - the TV show is called Atlanta and Company.

Whirlwind

2006-05-26T11:12:00.000-05:00

WHEW- it's been a whirlwind of a week! We got a lot accomplished - visited Carl House, picked up the dress, got the first fitting, and visited Savvi Formalwear. All good trips and fantastic people, yet again. Also, we got to see some engagement photo shoot pics and I was really impressed and excited about how they turned out. Here's a sneak peek with a few pictures and commentary on Liana's blog.

bridesmaids' dresses

2006-05-23T09:12:00.000-05:00

Ok so it doesn't really matter to me so much which dress wins, because: 1) I won't be wearing it, 2) Matt and I can still pick the colors, and 3) I am getting a gift certificate from the dress boutique, so I have been told by the TV station that we can just apply the certificate to almost any dress (but this is not confirmed).

So why don't you guys help me out and pick which one you think is best? A few more notes on the dresses... The black and peach look similar except that the black is a v-halter and the peach is not. The brown dress is adorable but maybe too formal - it looks like the kind of dress you can never wear again. Black and peach both look more practical.

Remember, you're voting for style and not color. Vote for your favorite here!

A little late, but Invitations

2006-05-23T08:25:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone,

Since a lot of people visiting this site won't be able to come to the wedding, I thought you'd like to know what the wedding invitations will look like. The invitations aren't taken care of by the contest, so Stephanie and I spent a Sunday going to Columbia, SC to visit my grandmother. She works at an invitation shop and had all sorts of books for us to look through.

We're excited because this is one of the places where we have free reign to do what we please. After making it through quite a few books, a couple of things became evident:
1) Stephanie really liked the idea of having a black and white picture on the invitations
2) I did not like having pictures on them, and in fact wanted the most boring style around

From this, we moved on to some fun books, and the picture below is a close approximation of what we ended up with.Our invitations will be more block font with only our names in script. Also, we'll have a cross at the top. The actual wording is still being decided, but hopefully that'll be done soon.

Oh, that color is called "celadon", and the text will be done in silver. I can't believe I'm this excited about writing on a sheet of paper. :p

-Matt

Friday adventures

2006-05-21T11:57:00.000-05:00

My trip to the salon was a great experience (Kathy Adams Salon). I had to drive all the way to the Mall of Georgia (about an hour), but the staff was wonderful and at least it will be close to Carl House. I loved all three hairdos they did on me - it was too bad I had to take each one down! The makeup job was a little too much for an outdoor engagement photo shoot, so I took it all off and just went natural for the evening, but my hair still had curly/wavy remnants of going to the salon (in the past I called that post-prom hair, because prom was the last time I went to the salon for an "updo"). The engagement shoot was a lot of fun but slightly awkward because we're not used to having our own paparazzi . I really liked the photographer too, she was really nice and great to work with. Her style is also a little different for weddings (photojournalism) and I am excited about it - see some of her cool work here.

Rehearsal dinner voting and cakes

2006-05-16T12:58:00.000-05:00

Voting is now up for the rehearsal dinner "theme". I wish I knew the location of the dinner before picking one... Maybe it's also at the Carl House? I'll find out soon. Right now I am leaning towards option #2, because having an outdoor evening dinner in the middle of August will result in about 23 mosquito bites on me... per hour.

Decision making and planning are starting to pick up speed. This Friday I am going to the salon to try out hairdos and then go for an engagement photo shoot with Matt. I will be scheduling a sit-down meeting with the Carl House folks soon, and we need to select three cakes for you all to choose from. All of them look pretty impressive. If you want to see a sampling of their cakes, go to their website.

Dress update, other decisions, and prayer requests

2006-05-15T15:41:00.000-05:00

So it's official - dress #2 won! Thanks to everyone who voted for it (or at least didn't vote for #1) !! I'm looking forward to wearing it, especially when it fits. When I tried it on, it was a size 10 or 12 and we had to use clips on the back of the dress, so hopefully the one they are ordering will come in sooner than later (they said possibly the first week of August, which would give the alterationist only one week or so to do her thing).

This weekend, Matt and I made progress in decision-making and picked out invitations! His grandmother and mom were incredibly helpful, especially since Grandmother works in an invitation store, which means she not only knew the best brands and companies to go with, but also got us a sweet discount! :) This is yet another example of how God is taking care of us and blessing us - invitations are one of the few things the TV show is not sponsoring.

This week, the website for voting will be the rehearsal dinner, not invitations or bridesmaids' dresses. Sorry for any confusions. Pics and descriptions for that should be up by Tuesday.

Matt and I want to make a decision on a color scheme as soon as possible. It will be probably be either a shade of green or a shade somewhere between red and pink. We figure it might be too hard to match the "rum pink" sash on the dress, but we'll look into that too.

Lastly, some of you have asked how you can be praying for us. Well, here are some ways... Please pray that we would:

glorify God in this process,
grow closer to each other, our families, our friends and to Christ,
grow and learn from any conflicts and struggles,
have and take opportunities to share Christ's love with
everyone we encounter,
be very grateful, appreciative, and courteous to all the
people and sponsors who are helping us out.

The Wedding Dress, part 2

2006-05-12T15:48:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone,

I'm pretty sure now I want dress #2 (so please go vote for that one). But again, I won't be upset if #3 is chosen. You can see the TV segment showcasing the dresses (on mannequins) here: http://www.atlantaandcompany.com/article.aspx?storyid=79490.

If you watch the video segment, you can see the dresses up close.

Again, you can vote for the dresses here.

We'll find out on Monday which one wins!

Menu # 1 & the wedding dress

2006-05-09T13:18:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone. Well, menu #1 won the vote. yum.

The dresses are on the website now for voting. Everyone is asking me what my preferences are. I tried them all on last week, and they all looked pretty good. I still would rather not wear #1, since it is more appropriate for a beach wedding. I really like #2 and #3; both are gorgeous dresses which look even better in person. I think I like #2 better (it's more comfortable and it's better for dancing!) but I am not sure anymore because it does have a pink sash. I suppose I could change the color. I was thinking of #3 because it is more regal and classic-looking. But its train is super long and it is just a really heavy dress.

I'm thinking of just letting you all decide and then I can let it be surprise. If I change my mind I'll be sure to let you all know.

To see the dresses in bigger pictures:
The Beatrice dress
The Anzhelina dress

What to Vote For!

2006-05-05T09:55:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone!

Stephanie and I are getting a crazy number of calls asking what we want you to vote for in all thse wedding details. We decided to go ahead and start this site to let you all know as easily as possible with a minimum of cell phone overage minutes ;)

We'll update as time goes by, but for now, we would prefer option #1 for the reception!

Matt

We'll write more later, we promise. It's moving time right now.

Welcome!

2006-05-03T18:20:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone, this is Stephanie (or Joy to some of you). For those of you that do not know, Matt and I...

1. Were engaged recently in the Philippines.
2. Entered into a free wedding contest offered by a local TV station.
3. WON the contest and were totally blessed with a (mostly) free wedding.

Our families, Matt and I are just elated about the free wedding. Of course, Matt and I are just excited to be getting married but are so grateful that many of the headaches associated with wedding planning will be eliminated.

We'd like for our friends to help us out and vote for parts of the wedding (you do have to register to vote). Every Monday the voting begins for a new aspect (i.e. cake, flowers, rings, dress) and then ends on Sunday night. If you are in the Atlanta area, you can watch the TV show segment every Tuesday on Atlanta & Company at 11 am.

Thanks for visiting our site, for helping us win the wedding, and for being interested in our preference for voting. We really appreciate it!