Pre-wedding Pow Wows (part 3): Awesome Advance Activities

Thursday dawned with three big events on the horizon. First, Mom, Curby, and I, along with my matrons of honor and Jr. Bridesmaid were going to the Flower Mart in downtown LA to buy the flowers for the wedding, and then in the evening Curby had a bachelor party and I had a lingerie party.

Going to the Flower Mart in the morning was something I had been looking forward to for a long time. I went there a year ago with my faculty advisor, to do the flowers for her daughter's Bat Mitzvah, and was in awe of all the flowers and their great prices. Once Curby and I got engaged, I knew that I wanted to us to do our own flowers and that we would be getting them at the flower mart. :) Kathryn went with me to the market in July, to get some practice flowers and figure out how much we'd have to budget for flowers.  That trip was super fun, on its own.

On the Thursday before the wedding, we all got up early and caravanned to the flower market. It was a special time for me, since I got to have Candice, Karen and Andi there. We didn't have many other times to really visit during the weekend, and Candice got to have some car time getting to know Curby which was really nice, too.

We wandered the market, picking up flowers that mom and I had identified earlier in the week and finding the very best roses, etc, for the bouquets. All in all, we ended up with about 10 dozen or so roses, some Lisanthiams (i think?), Picasso Calla Lilies, Misty Blue Heather, and some Boxwood to use as greenery. It was a lot of fun and we were all in awe of the beauty of the market. A couple collages of pictures are below.

some flower market memories - including some of the very few pics of Candice and I together! 

My handsome (future) husband!

Can you believe what a grown up Andi has become!? I loved having her at the market with us!

While there are no pictures from Curby's Bachelor Party (that I know of, LOL), there are a few photos from the Lingerie Party the girls had later that night. We are super indebted to Mark C (one of Curby's Best Men) for crafting a really fun and special evening for Curby, and to Jessica R, Barb V-M, and Sarah M-W for crafting an entertaining and fun evening for me. The girls and I enjoyed cocktails, sweet and salty snacks, while opening lingerie presents. It was really fun to share this evening with some of my closest friends in LA and from around the country. My bachelorette party was really fun (we did Accomplice: Hollywood - blog post to come!) but this was a really fun way to spend time with the friends and family who were out of town for that event.

(had to show at least one piece of lingerie, right?)

Pre-Wedding Pow-wows (Part 2): Delightful Disneyland Doings

[oh yes, i did just double alliterate you, suckas!]

Wednesday was the first real day of "Wedding Time." We had meticulously planned the week leading up to the wedding to ensure a few very important things:
1) I wanted to be able to not be stressed out during the week - to just be able to enjoy my friends and family that had come into town. After all, many had come from far away - and the Bullards had come all the way from England. I just wanted to be able to see them all.
2) I wanted to be able to have fun events that were not centered around getting ready for the wedding - for example, I wanted Curby and I to be able to go to Disneyland on Wednesday with the Fergasons.

Early in our conversations about their trip out to LA, Curby and I had talked to the Fergasons about going to Disneyland when they were here. The kids started saving up their money for the trip, and Curby and I started planning the wedding week in a way that we could go with them. Our moms agreed to stay at the house, watch Tiny, and finish a few crafts for us. On Tuesday night, I had sewn all the wedding programs (I'll post a picture of one later), but we still had a few things that the moms were going to do for us - like putting together the centerpieces and wrapping the gifts for the wedding party. (Our moms really are champs, people, CHAMPS, I say!)

Early in planning our wedding week and trip to Disney, we had decided that if there were going to be 12 of us - and 6 who were under the age of 14 - we needed matching shirts. So we decided to have shirts made for our whole bridal party (4 of the 14 were fergasons), and for all the fergason family. For those of us who went to Disney, we put a little Mickey iron-on patch and everyone's names on the sleeve. It was really fun to be matching at Disney and its a great memento, still, of the wedding.

The morning of that Wednesday Curby came and picked me up and we drove over to where the Fergs were staying. We ended up caravanning down to Anaheim, and we took two of the older kids - Jared and Ryan - with us. It was fun to visit with them and they had a lot of questions about what to expect at Disney. The day ended up being a big success! We got to ride Star Tours and then a bunch of roller coasters. Later, we all had our own ice cream sundaes, and before Curby and I left them for the day (they stayed till the end of the night), we were able to watch three of the boys participate in the Jedi Training - which was really fun to see.

Overall, we had a great, great time, and would not have missed it for the world! For those of you who are engaged out there, I would totally encourage you to plan your week so that you can have fun things like this in the schedule. The events, like this one and the others that happened later in the week, are the things that really made the week special. And frankly, without some of these events I would not have gotten to see my friends or family hardly at all during the week - at least not outside of "work times." We made some really precious memories on that Wednesday!

Friday Video Fun: When Curby Met Tiffani

I really do want to get back into more regular blogging. But having two blogs is difficult. For now I've decided to keep both blogs, but sometimes I'll either post the same thing on both - or more likely refer people from this blog to that one when I have posted something there I think you'll like. And then you can click and go there. (Alternatively, you could bookmark the tiff and curby blog or add it to your RSS reader)

This is one of those days.

Go to this link immediately: http://tiffandcurby.blogspot.com/2011/12/friday-video-fun-when-curby-met-tiffani.html to see the most awesome video, made by our friends Ryan and Bethany over at Effulgence Photo and Cinema, that we played at our wedding. The video was designed to be a documentary style video - and our inspiration was "When Harry Met Sally" - but I'll be honest.... the Speiers blew our idea out of the water. The video is really amazing and I cry every time I watch it. It will be a great memento for us and for our family over the years.

Enjoy!

Pre-Marital Pow-wows! (part 1)

[Please note: I am an unfortunate victim of awesome alliteration - I just like it, even when it doesn't really "work"... case in point: this blog title!]

There are woefully few pictures of the events of the week before the wedding, leading up to the Thursday night before the wedding... so my memories and recollections will have to do for now. Let me start by saying that it was just an awesome week.

I got back from Wisconsin and had less than a week before Curby's and my mom came into town. Those last few days were marked by a few things:
1) my apartment slowly closing in as Curby had moved much of his stuff into the apartment while I was gone and as wedding paraphenalia took over.
2) wrapping up the final details of my two jobs, so that I could take a full two weeks off of work and voice-mail/email checking.
3) lots of errands and crafty-times.

Those days flew by quickly.

Before I knew it, Curby and I were on our way to LAX to pick up my mom. People, my mom is awesome. Seriously, she arrived at like 4:30pm and we hung out for a bit, then she stayed home to work on crafts (she folded EVERY SINGLE ONE of the program inserts) and Curby and I went out for our "last date as unmarried people."  Right? She is awesome.  So Curby and I left her at home and went out to our date wearing The same outfits we had worn just 8 months before, on our first date. We had a great time at our favorite Mexican restaurant (Paco's Tacos) and then down to the Santa Monica Pier (where we walked to on our first date). We rode the famous ferris wheel for the first time, then wandered to the bench where we sat and talked and where Curby kissed me for the first time. It was a really sweet time and so special to have that night together before everyone came into town and all the wedding happenings started happening.

Our first date picture on the left... "last date" picture on the right.

Curby's mom came into town the next Morning. Mom and I went to church and then spent the rest of the day running errands - I made her go out to the valley to the giant JoAnn Fabrics and Wal-Mart, and then to Michaels and Rite-Aid - yes, seriously, we went to all those places. It was really fun, actually, to have that day with my mom and get to be just the two of us for one last day.

We spent the next two days running errands and doing crafts. On Monday, Mom and I went down to OC to do a "wedding hair" trial and then to the David's Bridal to pick up my dress. I had tried to pick it up the week prior, with my friend Lisa, but they needed to make further adjustments to the bustle. It was pretty fun to go to the bridal store with my hair all done up - and it was really fun to go with my mom. Kimberly Jackson, our pastor's daughter, did my hair for the wedding and she was awesome at both the practice time that Monday and at the wedding. That night Curby moved the last of his things into my apartment and we had a nice dinner with him and his mom.

Tuesday Curby's mom ran a few errands, and mom and I went down to OC (again!) to get my engagement ring super cleaned and pick up a few final things for the wedding (gifts for friends and stuff). That afternoon both the Bullards and the Fergasons arrived into town. I went over to welcome the Fergasons and then John and the kids came back with me to my house to pick up some DVDs and meet Tiny. It was great to have them in town - I was overjoyed to see their faces, hug them and just be in their general chaos. It was great. Additionally, later, there was some hilarity as Tiny accidentally got left outside TWICE during a variety of chaotic moments. Poor dog. I think he must have been very glad later in the week when he got to go off to Jane's house for the week.

Me and Brooki (flower girl) at my apartment

More fun event recaps to come! Stay posted, my friends!