When my "Baby" was a baby!

Cynthia writes:

We decided to put together a slideshow for the wedding & I am super excited about it! Yesterday we went over to his parents house for my "birthday sushi" (which was absolutely delicious, btw!) and his mom brought out all kinds of baby pictures and I started scanning away! This morning I went through my mom's pictures and started scanning pictures of myself when I was little.



They are all so cute, I wish I could post them all now! But then it wouldn't be much of a surprise at the wedding now would it!? We are going to have so much fun choosing pictures and adding music to the slideshow. This is one of those things that we'll be able to do together (& hopefully not fight over) that doesn't require money or cause stress! The headaches have already begun and Tim will be blogging soon about the "joys" of finding the perfect venue, so stay tuned!

The search for the lost venue...

Tim writes:

Its funny, I recollect several weddings that I've been to in the past and after searching and calling venue after venue, one inescapable truth keeps slapping me in the face. Planning a wedding efing sucks! I swear, it's like you have to take out a loan just to get married or promise your first born as collateral in order to pay for this event.

Happiest day of your life? Yeah all the wedding pics are of happy couples cuz the planning part is all over! The efing photographer never takes a pic of the groom's face while he's getting writers cramp from signing all those checks to different vendors.

So we’ve been engaged for 2 weeks now and Cynthia seems to have the wedding already planned out. “All you have to do is pay for it and show up…” she says. If only it were that easy. So far we’ve been to the PGA West, JW Desert Springs Marriott, the Miramonte Resort, and other places for a reception site. Everything equals out to BIG BUCKS. On average, it’s like $70 to $90 per plate per person! When was the last time you spent $90 bucks like that on yo’ self fo’ food?!

She seems to really like the Miramonte, which I will admit looks really nice. The fact that I can get a free room for the rest of my life on our anniversary date is very appealing, but the ol’ wallet is definitely taking a beating on this one. My mom has offered up her employee discount at the PGA West and Marriott but it’s still kinda steep. We’ll just keep looking and see what we can find out here in the valley. However, just to let everyone know… having the wedding in the Imperial Valley is still an option! It’ll be a last resort, but it’s an option that is still on the table.

Anyways, we’re working out something to where we will be getting a little more creative with paying for the wedding without slashing the guest list down to 12 people. Perhaps writing to Oprah isn’t such a bad idea anymore… Normally, I’d probably pay for things out right and put the rest on a card. However, I don’t really want to start our marriage out in the red if you know what I mean.

Cynthia and I haven’t killed each other over this wedding yet… which is a good sign. But the pressure of throwing and paying for a $20,000 wedding in possibly 11 months or so, on my own is a bit nerve racking. If anyone out there has any special talents such as wedding cake decorating, mariachi, or owns a resort… holla at yo’ boy.

And so it begins…

Cynthia writes:

So we’ve only been engaged for one whole week and the wedding is 16 months away, and already the frustrations begin!!! I asked Tim to print some pictures for me at work & some of those included pictures of wedding dresses. When he came home we began talking about those dresses. I think they were absolutely beautiful, but apparently he wasn’t so impressed. Then he tells me to go to youtube and look up November Rain to look at the dress the girl is wearing. I had never seen the video, so I did as he asked. When I saw the dress I laughed out loud and asked if he was serious. I looked over at him, but he wasn’t laughing! I was like, “wtf, you’re kidding, right?!” He wasn’t kidding! But wait, it gets worse…

Then we started talking about his tux. He wants to wear a zoot suit. This isn’t prom! Holy baby Jesus! What kind of crazy ass wedding would it be if I wore that ugly dress & he wore the zoot suit?!

This was more of what I had in mind!

How we met...

Cynthia writes...

One thing people always want to know is, how we met. At first I would just say, "school", but now that I'm going to marry the guy, it's ok to share the whole story!

I was going through the massage therapy program at Kaplan in Palm Spring. About a month into the program I started seeing an Asian guy in a tie & black glasses walking in the halls. I didn't think anything of it because at the time I had a boyfriend & I wasn't attracted to Azn's! (sorry, baby!) Turns out, he was our new Assistant Director of Education. Then slowly, my relationship with my boyfriend came to an end and I kept seeing the guy with the glasses and I made the mistake of telling my classmates that I thought he was cute. Well, my exact words to Lorena and Jason were, "I'm not into Asians, but there's something about that guy that's teaching our CPR class!" They wasted no time in telling the teacher what I had said, who wasted no time telling Tim!

The next month was a little awkward because I knew that HE knew and the most we ever said to each other was "Hi" when we would pass in the halls. So my last day at Kaplan came and as usual, Tim came into our classroom to eat what we all brought for our potluck. When it was time to go, I hugged all of my friends and teachers good bye. On my way out I was stopped by Tim, who said, "since you are no longer a student, I would like to take you out to dinner on Saturday to celebrate your graduation." By the look on my face he thought I was going to say no, but I said, "I can't, it's my dad's birthday Saturday. How about Friday?!" He agreed and took my number. That Friday he took me to a Japanese restaurant in Palm Desert and we've pretty much been together ever since!

Just to make it clear, I was no longer a student when he asked me out & he no longer works there!

Tim writes:

So after 16 months together, I decided to "piz-op" the question. Luckily for me, Cynthia said..."YES!" I asked her on her 23rd birthday. For those of you that missed it, you can check out the video on Youtube as well as get a nice account from Cynthia's sister Dio; on her blog. http://dioselina.blogspot.com/2010/06/speaking-of-cupcakes.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwNLhU6UXpI

Anyhoo, since being engaged, we have decide to chronicle this part of our lives together through this blog. We will maintain it until the wedding (and maybe a little after as well...). So join us on our misadventures as we go through all the trials and tribulations of planning a wedding (for 398 Mexicans and 2 Japanese parents = 400 people...) that will be a fusion of 2 distinct cultures (Japanese and Mexican). My wallet hurts already...