200 Days!

Today marks 200 days to the wedding! Terry and I are knee-deep in holiday festivities (not to mention decorations and wrapping paper), and we are so excited that next Christmas we will be celebrating our first holiday season as a married couple.

This year will be Christmas with the Heinrichs, followed by a few nights up north with my family. I'm really excited to experience Christmas Eve and Christmas day with Terry's family and to learn about their traditions. Christmas at the Lanier house will definitely be different this year, but my family has lots to celebrate, especially my mom's retirement after 33 years with Menlo Park Police Department. We are so proud of her, and Terry and I are especially excited at the thought of my parents coming down to visit us more!

Terry recently finished up his third-to-last quarter in his Master's program. While he still has work this week, we're both excited to finalize our invitation design and figure out our printing options. Hopefully the process will work out beautifully, but no matter what it will have a very personal touch. I've been looking forward to the invitations and other paper products, because there is so much room for creativity and unique designs. I can't wait to see Terry's finished product and then to assemble everything!

Another exciting event: Our menu tasting at Palm Event Center is coming up in January! A few months ago, I asked Terry what he is most excited for in the wedding planning process; not surprisingly, he responded, "The tastings..." Well, here it is! Unfortunately, our venue only offers tastings on Wednesdays, so we have to fly up midday on a Wednesday and back to LA at the break of dawn on Thursday, but it'll be worth it!

While we're up north next week, we have a few exciting meetings. First, we're finally doing our engagement session with our wedding photographer, Rhee Bevere, and we are so anxious to get to know her better and to learn more about her photography style. Secondly, we're meeting with our DJ, Rob Mutzl, to work out some details and hear more of his ideas.

If I could give one piece of advice (pre-wedding, sure, but I've learned a thing or two about wedding planning), here it is: Choose vendors who have worked with your venue! Our vendors know the staff at the Palm Event Center, plus they have a million ideas that can work at the place. The great thing about choosing such awesome vendors is that we feel we can completely trust their expertise; we know for certain that they will incorporate ideas into what they know works at the Palm.

So with 200 days left to go, we are ready to start the details. We want our wedding to feel like our wedding, and we know that personal touches are the way to do it. We look forward to making the magic happen!

Seven Months to Go!

We missed the seven month mark in blog world, but we celebrated with some wonderful Christmas cheer. Last week, Terry and I found our first Christmas tree, and we spent the week decorating our apartment for the holiday. We don't have much in the way of decor yet, but we started a lovely tradition this year. From now on, every year, we will find a tree, listen to Christmas music while decorating, and watch Love Actually together. Terry will likely get tired of hearing me sing Christmas songs, and I will enjoy watching Terry chase the cat out from under the tree.

Hope you're enjoying the holiday season as much as we are!