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[ Friday, June 17, 2005 ]
Um... 85 DAYS!!
So I have now officially recovered from my FIRST COMPLETE YEAR OF GRAD SCHOOL! Can you believe it!? I can't believe how fast time has gone by. 1down, 2 to go. I would like to take the opportunity to thank anyone that has experienced Nina the bride-zilla over the last month and a half. Towards the end of the quarter the flowers, dresses, menus, travel and hotel info for India, house landscaping, work and finals ultimately took over. Thank you to everyone that listened to me whine :). Sorry if I was snappy! I would also like to thank the bridesmaids that got me a massage gift certificate last Christmas...I finally used it the weekend before finals and it made a world of difference with the stress level and helped me focus. The only other time I have been this physically exhausted was when we were going through the "2004 wedding tour" (Kavita, Mandy, Avanti, Gary, Jonie, Dave) plus grad school apps, house purchase, and move-in merge and purge.
So here we are at 85 days left. I went for my first dress fitting a week ago. That was pretty crazy. I went by myself which apparently people don't do because they were shocked that I didn't bring any friends or family. Next time. All the weight that I lost meant that a lot need to be taken in but the dress still looked really pretty.
Tonight Chris and I fly to Rhode Island for my east coast bridal shower and his east coast bachelor party. I'll be there for 29 hours then I'll get right back on a plane to LA. Chris will be off to NYC for licensing show. In the short time we are there we have a meeting with the florist, a meeting with the hotel my family is staying with, the bridal shower, a visit with Uncle Mike and Aunt Mary, the bachelor party, a dinner with my Aunt Dena from Chicago and her daughter (bridesmaid and cousin) Kristina from North Carolina, and a meeting with the Church...oh my. Did I mention I haven't met the new Cowart baby yet? I need to play with her and my two little flower girls! There dresses are in! Can't wait to see them try them on!
So that's the latest. School starts up again in a few weeks. One more class before the wedding. We have TONS more to do but it seem manageable at the moment. Hopefully the hard part is over but only time will tell!
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[ Monday, March 14, 2005 ]
180 days....AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
I just realized that I haven't updated anyone almost all of winter quarter!!
I am officially procrastinating now...I think I am just burnt out from studying for finals.
So what has happened since I last wrote you all...
We have chosen our videographer, FINALLY (just kidding Chris), with a little help from Sony friend Kristin Whithers. Chris needed a little bump from an outside professional :).
The invitations are proving to be a little bit of a challenge because of course we are looking for something a little different and fun and when it comes right down to it, we just aren't doing a very good job of conveying what we want to the designer. We'll see how that turns out. I think we are just nervous about stifling her creativity... I have taken on a fun little task called designing all the other things that will match the invites (programs, gift bags, menus, place cards.) I'm sure I will be needing help with that. GLUE PARTY!!
My dress came in last week but I'm too scared to go in and look at it. Hermin at Saks told me when I got measured back in December, "Don't gain weight." I wish I could convey that in her cool French accent. "DOOOhn' GAAAAin WAAAeight." So of course I signed up for weight-watchers and I'm not going back until I'm down 10lbs. So far so good.
The bridesmaid's dresses are still a little bit of a concern. I'm supposed to call back in a week to see what the status is. They are so pretty. I'll be devastated if they can't seem to get the sizes right! GRR!!
The bridal registry was another pain in the booteh which is finally complete. Someone should really tell you that it's not fun! All of you married people lied to me! Chris and I finally ended up going to a few of those bridal registry parties that stores hold to get you to register with them. That ended up being the way to go. A little food and little champagne (yum)...luckily Susan White tipped me off about those. How does she find out about these things! I went to one at Bloomeys and took a co-worker of mine with me. She ended up winning a blender/food processor and gave it to me when we left! Turns out it was the one on our registry!
Other than that, we are focusing on getting details to the peoples that have bought their tickets to India. 21 people so far! I can't even believe it... It's going to be so crazy to have us all trying to get on elephants to get up the hill to the Amber Palace in Jaipur. I can't wait!
I also had a sad thought last week on the way to work. I heard some radio show host talking about the after-the-wedding-is-over-period of the marriage and how you adjust to not having this big fun thing to plan...it made me sad because I know with school and work and all the rest, the wedding will be here before we know it and it will be over before we know it. Chris told me now to worry because we could go right into planning a vacation to Italy for the fall of 2006! :) Thank goodness for starwood miles!
Love you all!posted by Nina
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[ Wednesday, January 12, 2005 ]
241 days until we are married...
So I have officially survived my first set of Anderson Business School finals. A big thanks to my girls for pulling me through the last few weeks of wedding, school, house and work breakdowns. Chris also gets a big hug and a kiss for not getting too mad that I did absolutely NO house cleaning for 11 weeks. LOVE ME!! I think this quarter will be much easier since I have now adjusted to the not having a social life thing - I think Chris has adjusted as well... :)
The wedding plans are moving along. I dragged Chris to a wedding expo in the OC a few weekends back. I think he was more into collecting pamphlets than I was ...I was more interested in the cake samples. So much for the squeezing into the dress thing. (I have time right?) So we got our invitation and honeymoon info and entered a million drawings - realizing that they were all a scam to get our mailing address, but hoping that we might win that 7 day/8 night all expense paid honeymoon.
We seemed to have forgotten to focus on the videographer portion of our vendor list and are now second in line to the two cool videographers we were interested in. That might present a problem but I'm sure it will be fine. We're not really looking for a Spielberg production...ok, maybe Chris is!
Besides that we are focusing on getting the India wedding details together. Hope that lots of people can come! It's going to be such an adventure...
Don't forget to book your hotel rooms! Our wedding weekend is a popular time for travel to Newport!
posted by Nina
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[ Wednesday, October 13, 2004 ]
332 Days until we are married....
Just a little scoop. I found my dress!!!! WHOOPPPPIEEEE!!! It's champagne in color and really really soft. My parents are so excited, Chris is anxious because we told him it had a pink hue. If you want more scoop call me because Chris has this interesting knack for being about to pry into info on the internet and possibly email....you can't be too careful. ;) It's absolutely killing me not being able to show him a picture because I'm not used to keeping things from him. Even birthdays and Christmas don't last. Once the package arrives I can hardly wait to give it to him!
My family and Chris will be going to NYC over the Thanksgiving holiday and taking a little detour for a few days to Rhode Island. We will have Thanksgiving dinner at the Cerbo household and then visit the wedding location and meet with a few vendors; the florist, the cake designer and a few photographers. Should be a busy little trip.
We are also working on the save the dates and the wedding website. The India leg of the wedding is taking on a life of its own. There are so many concerns to address with international travel. We don't want anyone to be nervous about going there because it's a fantastic place with so much to see and do!
I don't think I mentioned in the last email that my parents returned from India with all kinds of fun things for the wedding. My mom had a blast shopping (so did my dad even though he pretends my mom was the only one enjoying herself.) So far the secret is out that my outfit for the Indian wedding has already been picked out. Of course, I won't get to see if for a while. Mom tried to pretend she had no idea what I was talking about but my dad was very excited about sharing the dress details with the shop keepers at the American bridal boutiques...hee hee.
That's all for now.. I attached the photo that will be in this Friday's Pasadena Star News announcing our engagement..3 months after it happened...sigh...so much to do.
More to come!
posted by Nina
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[ Monday, August 23, 2004 ]
383 Days until the wedding...
Hello all!!
So this weekend was so very productive! On Friday, Chris and I visited Bird Design, the agency he worked for before Sony, to talk about concepts for our invitations. We brought in a whole mess of magazine clippings and we think we might end up with something really cool. More on that later.
Then on Saturday, Deborah, who flew down from SF for the weekend, Mandy, Chris, Mom, Dad and I drove over to Cerritos to check out Lehngas at Sona Chaandi dress shop. Amazingly, the first dress that Deborah tried on ended up being Mandy and Deb's favorite! All we did was change the color. So the dresses are ordered and it will take 6-10 weeks for the fabric to be dyed and the embroidery to start.
A little history on the lehnga
http://www.indiaprofile.com/fashion/lehngas.htm
And in case anyone wanted to read about it...A little history about the Sari as well
http://www.nikhaarcreations.com/legend.htm
Finally on Sunday, Chris and I took our engagement photos. We started at the Disney Concert Hall in downtown LA. One of the guards actually stopped our photographer because they thought we were taking commercial shots :). Then we headed over to Leo Carrillo beach, just north of Malibu and hopefully captured the most AMAZING sunset. We should get those back in a week or two. Hopefully some of them come out ok. Chris spent most of the shoot readjusting my hair because of the wind :)
That's all for now. Next steps are my dress, floral ideas and getting the save the dates together and shipped out!
posted by Nina
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[ Friday, August 06, 2004 ]
404 Days until we are married....
So 404 days out...here's a little update...
I was out in Boston for a cable conference a few weeks back and took a little detour down to Rhode Island to check out a few locations for the wedding. Chris and I were getting a little worried because one of the places that we had thought would be really fun to have the wedding had been booked last JANUARY!! YIKES! Chris' mom was nice enough to set up a whole day of location hopping, so with question list in hand, his mom and I headed out to Newport in the thick thick morning fog...8 meetings later I was torn. The Astors Beechwood Mansion, clearly my favorite, was booked for the only weekend that made sense for us between available church dates, school breaks, and Newport boat shows.
Chris called to see how the day had gone and I could barely speak I was so upset. I didn't know what to do! Chris arrived the next day to check out the places. Did we opt for the Hyatt which was ok but not intimate at all and sort of just another hotel. Or did we go for OceanCliff, an inn with a really pretty waterside view that fit a few less people. By the end of the day, I could tell Chris was having just as tough a time deciding. So we drove back over the bridge to have dinner with his family and mull things over. Then we got the brilliant idea that we would go back and check the place out at night during another wedding that the event staff had told us was happening that night. Sneaky sneaky. Chris' brother-in-law suggested that we get dressed up and walk right in. You know taste the food, dance a little to the band... ;) Not a bad idea...but we didn't do it!
So we went over there and it seemed to be a swinging party! So we booked it! AND we booked the band! YAY!
September 10, 2005 - American Wedding
OceanCliff - Newport's Premiere Mansion Hotel
http://www.newportexperience.com/oceancliff.htm
Unfortunately they do 5 weddings a weekend there and the Sunday Bride booked all the rooms except two. We booked one for us just in case. Phew. But that leaves a little research to be done on room blocks at other hotels. The nice part is that this place caters and does the cake and linens/tables/chairs so those are a few things we won't have to search for vendors for.
Next steps:
Out of Towner Save the Dates
Guest List
Photographer research
Flower research
Trip to little India to look at fabrics and stuff
Figure out this little Indian Wedding thing :)
I attached photos so you know who everyone in the party is :)
Bridesmaids - American Wedding
Ms. Deborah McCrimmon - Bestest Friend
Mrs. Marissa Alwag - Sorority Sister
Mrs. Jennifer Lynne Cowart - Sister of the Groom
Mrs. Mandy Van Sluis - College Friend
Ms. Dana Washington - Friend from year abroad
Ms. Jessica Wise - Sorority Sister
Flower Girls - American Wedding
Ms. Caroline Rose Cowart
Ms. Elizabeth Anne Cowart
Bridesmaids - Indian Wedding
Mrs. Kavita Sahai
Ms. Kristina McDonald
Mrs. Avanti Frick
Groomsmen -
That'll be part of the next update ;) Gotta keep you wanting more!
I love you all!! Can't wait for the fun!
posted by Nina
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