Thank heavens for mormon women!

I love how having wonderful women in my life has eliminated my need to have a wedding planner, a baker, a florist, or a seamstress.  My aunt, grandma, mother-in-law, and stepmom have been doing literally everything for my wedding.  AMAZING!  I remember in young womens how Annie and I would get really irritated how every single lesson was on quilting or sewing or something and all we wanted to do was eat cookies and hang out.  HAHA!!  But man, thank heavens for the women who listen during those lessons! My wedding dress was in need of some alterations including the raising of the neckline, shortening of the bottom(im a midget), and having it bustled, and i was not willing to pay hundreds of dollars to have these things done because im a cheapskate but luckily my stepmom stepped in.  She took lace and beading off the bottom and raised it up, then re-beaded it, she took the extra fabric from the bottom, and raised the neckline then beaded that part, and she is going to bustle it for me too!
Here is a picture of the new neckline.

Oh and also, she made my garter.  Well 2 of them actually, one to keep and one to throw.  Needless to say, i love them.

All in all, i just wanted to brag about the amazing women in my life for a minute.  52 Days!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh the stress of planning a wedding!

So we have been planning this for like 2 months now, and i still feel like i have nothing done!  We have the temple reserved, the venue for the reception picked out, and my dress is hanging in my bedroom taking up the whole thing.  Haha.  I dont know what to do with it, but it cant just hang there for the next 107 days and 17 hours!  (yes, both Jesse and I have countdowns on our electronic devices...right down to the seconds.  we're nerds like that.)  Anyway, besides those three things, i feel like i have nothing planned!  Im kinda freaking out.  I spend all of my days looking at wedding blogs waiting for inspiration, but i also have work and online classes(which SUCK, btw).  I have never been one of those girls who has been planning their wedding since they were six.  Thats my little sister, Marissa.  She is seven and she is always giving me advice about how to do my hair and my nails on my wedding day and stuff.  She also looks through my bridal magazines and rips out pictures of her favorite dresses, the majority of which are huge Disney Princess-inspired gowns.  Oh how i love her.  Anyway, thats just not me.  At this point im just wondering what the church's stance is on eloping in Vegas...cause i hear that some of those Elvis impersonators can be pretty romantic.

We're getting married!!

Yep!  We decided to tie the knot.  August 20th, 2011 in the Sacramento, California Temple, we will be sealed for time and all eternity.  Craziness!  We could not be happier, as we are very much in love :) We are eachothers best friends and are excited to remain that way always.

Im not sure how many people know our story, so i thought i would share the cliff notes version real quick lest someone think that we just met and started dating in february and are already engaged.   No no.  We actually met through Jesse's sister, Alicia, who was one of my really good friends up at school at BYU-Idaho, in October of 2007.  We had an immediate connection and started talking shortly thereafter.  We shared our first kiss the following easter.  Actually, Jesse was my first kiss and he will be my last :)  Just a little sidenote there.  Anyway, he left on his mission in january of 2009 and we wrote that whole time.  Im telling you its true what they say, absence makes the heart grow stronger.  Those letters kept us going for 2 years. He got home in February of this year and i booked a flight to oregon before he was even home.  Ball-sy, i know.  haha.  But it worked out well for us.  I was in Portland for exactly a week, but after 2 days we knew we wanted to get married.  We considered ourselves engaged but since there was no ring, we only told family about it. The real engagement came this past weekend when Jesse came out to visit me in California.  This time he had the ring.  Which he got down on one knee and gave to me in the parking garage of the Sacramento airport...haha.  He just couldnt wait!  Silly boy.  3 years after our first kiss, we were engaged :)  

So, there you have it.  Thats our story.  Well, i guess thats only the beginning of our story, isn't it?  The rest of the story will come in installments in the years to come.  And we cant wait to start writing that book of life together!  We're in love, we're in love, and we don't care who knows it!