Time To Get Married

I went to the hospital and had an ultrasound. It's official, I'm a mommy.

That blurry black dot in the uterus is at about 3 weeks 5 days.

I've picked out the names McKaela Elizabeth or Will Allen.

You may be asking, oh wow, what now?
To be honest, I have no freaking idea.
I think the best thing to do is get married
as soon as possible before my mother finds
out and FLIPS A SHITake mushroom.

So far, this is what I've done.

• hired Kerline from Joie de Vie wedding planning services $1750
• tried on seven dresses and picked one: Cabo by Watters $1900

Dave bought me two pairs of Louboutins
because I couldn't decide between them: $1500

My colors are going to be sand, white and hot pink.

I booked Costa d'Este Resort venue because

I am having a barefoot beach themed wedding

so I don't want it to be a far walk. This beach is

less than an hour from my house so I thought

it would be the perfect location. Hopefully,

I'm going to have less than 50 guests. $8000

I'm having Bryan Taylor from Tagas entertainment DJ for me.
He's also doing lighting. The total package was $1500.
I heard good things about his work.

I have my fingers crossed for Alice in Flowerland
to be my florist but she hasn't gotten back to me yet.
I'm currently looking for photographers. I really love
Misty Miotto's work but I only need 4 hours and she
only does 6-8 hour packages. I might hire her but
$2500 seems a lot for such a small wedding.

So far Dave has spent $3000 on invitations and decor
but I expect it to snowball to $5000:

I'm sending out invitations as a message in a bottle.
I might do menus this way too if I like the invitations.
I get them in custom fit cardboard boxes next week.

Dave and I decided to do a funny invite:

This isn't the actual one but looks just like it. My wedding will actually be on September 11th.

We're going to stay at the St. Regis in Bora Bora for our honeymoon!
It's going to be about a 30 hour flight but it's worth it! $7500

I want an acoustic guitar player for the ceremony.
When Dave proposed to me in December,
he did it via song that he wrote
and had recorded in L.A. by
a musician named Scott Peterson.
We're thinking about hiring him. $500

Here are the bridesmaid's bouquets and my bouquet: $300

As you can see, I love stargazer lilies.

My bestie/maid of honor, Lily, is in fashion school right now.
She's making my veil for me. We chose a lace tulle and an ivory
lily to much my dress. I love the 1920's glam birdcage veils.

I picked this dress for my flower girl. $50

I'm having a hard time choosing between cakes.

Here are the candidates: $1000

I'm having my calligraphy done by SamiraGast.com

Not only is she talented but she's beautiful too. $300

The officiant will be from Sensational Ceremonies. $300

Dave and I are getting our teeth whitened before the wedding $300

We're hiring a local dance company to do first dance choreography. $300

I bought a pack of wavy 20" extensions in 1B so I'll be dying my hair black. $300

Here are my chosen wedding vows:

I, Cynthia, take you, Dave, to be my husband, secure in the knowledge that you will be my constant friend, my faithful partner, and my one true love. On this special day, may our hearts beat together as one as I look with joy down the path of our tomorrow's knowing we will walk it together side by side, hand in hand and heart to heart. I affirm to you in the presence of all our loved ones in attendance, my sacred promise to stay by your side as your faithful wife in sickness and in health, in joy and in sorrow, as well as through all of the uncertainties and trials of the present and future. Whatever lies ahead, we will face together. May we build a home that is compassionate to all, forever filled with peace, happiness and love. I promise to love you without reservation, to respect you, protect you, comfort you in times of distress, encourage you to achieve all of your goals, laugh with you and cry with you, grow with you in mind and spirit, always be open and honest with you, and cherish you for as long as we both shall live and may my constant devotion nourish and sustain you until the end of time.

I have other ideas for the wedding that haven't gone into play yet. I need to come up with a pretty beach themed decorative box with a lock that guests can put their gifts into. I also need to make an amenities basket filled with sunscreen, bug spray, ice cold drinks and beach towels for the guests to use during the ceremony. I'm thinking about renting a photobooth but it might be pointless to have both that AND a photographer. I need to buy waterproof makeup for the wedding because I absolutely know I will be crying my eyes out. I'm having my mom's ex boyfriend, Ryan walk me down the aisle since my dad passed away a few years ago. Ryan was always there for us when we needed him, even after he and my mom broke up.

Here are some visuals I like that I want to incorporate
into the wedding but haven't bought the stuff yet:

Now for the centerpiece, I'm really indecisive about. Here are candidates:

I want the wedding to be pretty of course, but I'm trying to control myself

with the pink flowers so that it's more about Dave and I, not just me.

Everything I've planned, everyone I've hired, and everything we've

bought so far has been done over the last 3 days. I'm rushing this

because I only have two months to plan this wedding before

the baby starts to show on me. I'll keep y'all updated!

I'm Back From Cancun

So This is going to be a long post with mostly pictures of my trip to Cancun, Mexico and at the end, I have news of epic proportions. Stay tuned :)

So the last four days was spent at La Amada hotel, a five star resort in Playa Mujeres, 20 minutes north of downtown Cancun on a girls only trip with my bestie, Lily. We booked it on Orbitz and a three night trip plus flight only costed $600 each. If asked to described the closest place to this hotel, it would be heaven. The decor was very modern and somewhat feminine. Everything was very clean cut and neutral toned. Everywhere you went, there were outdoor beds to lounge on and harp music playing. Even in the midst of hurricane Alex, this place still maintained warm beauty and peaceful splendor.

Here is the lobby. As soon as we walked in, our bags were swept up by bell boys and we were served a glass of champagne with cherries.

This is the stairway leading up to the spa. I got the Amada Specialty massage. Every treatment starts off with Aqua Viva which is a treatment that prepares you for the massage. First you go into this really hot steam room and it's kind of hard to breathe because the air is concentrated with this vapor rub smelling stuff. We had to breath through our mouths because it stung our nose. We were given a glass of chlorophyll water which is supposedly really good for you. It helped neutralize the stinging. Next, you take an ice cold rinse in this shower that shot at you from 100 different directions. Then, you had to walk down steps into this hot jacuzzi and submerge your head, walk up the steps and down the steps of an ice cold jacuzzi and then walk up the steps into a really warm sauna. Next, you had to swim into the spa pool and they had 3 different jet streams in different parts of the pool to massage your muscles. Then, you have to sit in this ice room and they literally rub handfulls of crushed ice on your entire body. Needless to say, this was very similar to torture but it's supposedly really good for your muscles when you are exposed to extreme temperatures. We were then laid in a form fitting, butt warming lounge chair and given scalp, neck, chest and shoulder massage. It was amazing. We finally were brought into the final room and given an amazing 80 minute massage and went on our way.

This is the view of the pool from our suite.

Lily and I

our back porch

the view of our room from the other side of the pool

me laying by the pool

our room

HUGE shower

lovely bathroom, all L'occitane products

bar

for some reason I really love that the room came with our own jacuzzi

especially because you can open the glass doors that lead onto the porch

Lily and I came already buzzed from getting unlimited drinks flying first class. Then we drank more complimentary champagne in the lobby. I smiled at the bar manager as he passed by and he told the bartenders to let us drink half off. Let's just say, the first day was kind of a blur.

It was a really relaxing vacation but not a far cry from how my ordinary life already is.

Because hurricane Alex was somewhere in the Yucatan peninsula, the beach was very windy. We only spent a few hours there during the whole trip because we had sand blown on us and it hurt.

There were so many cute blue crabs on the beach.

They had little villas like the one in this picture for sale or rent. I'm going to take Dave here and convince him to buy one.

Lily likes to make her pictures look candid.

We went to La Isla Grill for lunch.

Every time I open the menus, I would get price shocked and then I remember the prices are in pesos and laugh it off.

This is me at Senor Frogs. The waiters were trying to flirt with us and made us name tags like "horny" and "sex machine."

This is what I had for lunch.

This is Loren and I at the fancy hotel restaurant, La Aroma.

I took this picture to send to Big Bear (Dave).

I had the duck. Lily had a rack of lamb.

We came back from dinner and I got a surprise. Big Bear called the concierge and had a bottle of Moet and a huge bouquet delivered to my room while I was gone. He also ordered room service and red wine. I missed him so much and it made me happy that he missed me too!

We went for a late night swim.

I usually don't wear make up to swim, we had just came back from dinner.

Lily in the lobby. On the last day, we went to Isla Mujeres to go snorkeling with whale sharks and turtles.

There was an acoustic guitar singer on the ferry singing 80's songs like Karma Chameleon by Boy George.

Mayan ruins

a street vender trying to sell me a gift for Big Bear

LMAO

I spent about $900 on the trip, $1500 if you include the hotel and flight. A good tip when traveling out of the country is to download Skype app if you have an iPhone and have the people you want to call download Skype on their iPhone or computer. This way, you can connect to the hotel wi-fi and chat with them with good signal connection for cheap. In my case it was free since wi-fi is free at La Amada.

On the flight home, Lily and I got stuck sitting near this girl that had the most annoying voice in the world. She talked loudly the whole time to this guy sitting next her about how bad her trip was. Maybe next time she should stay at a five star hotel... Her stupidity was ruining our flight. Lily and I made fun of her, loud enough for her to hear. She finally shut up. Then when the plane landed and was taxi-ing to the gate, she called everyone she knew and continued to complain. Everyone on the plane was turned around, death staring at her.

On the trip I had a drop of blood in my undies on the first day and I thought I started my period but then it just completely stopped. I got worried and thought it was implantation bleeding and that I was pregnant. I called Big Bear and told him and he said it was very unlikely since I just had a miscarriage four weeks ago. When I got home this morning, I took a pregnancy test again.

FML I was supposed to start my birth control as soon as my next period came and it never did. Dave got me pregnant TWICE IN ONE MONTH. I haven't gotten an ultrasound yet so I'm still in denial. This time, I was calm about the situation and I don't plan on freaking out again and considering abortion or adoption. I guess I am meant to be a mommy. Either that or Dave has been slipping fertility meds in my water lol. Anyway, I have to work on a philosophy paper. I'm going to do a products haul about Kronos hair care and other cool stuff I got in the mail the next time I have time to blog.