THE Dress is in!!

What I thought was going to be a simple trip to the bridal store turned into a small party with my family and Champagne! My wedding dress arrived at the bridal store and I arranged an appointment to try it on. When my mom and I arrived, so did Adrianna, my Aunt Maria, Brooke and Gianna. We walked inside and suddenly my mom pulls out six champagne glasses and a bottle of sparkling Rosè. We had a lovely time trying on every veil with every head piece and belt imaginable! It was so much fun and I am so glad that those lovely ladies were able to be there for the experience. While pretty much all of the pictures from that day had my dress in it, this ONE did not.

(If you look closely you can even spot an idea for wedding nails, Adrianna and I had just gone to try out some ideas at a local salon)

Cheers!

Menu Tasting

Jared and I were invited to a special day at the mansion where they had several different menu options available to try, including giant slices of cake! The menu was vast, but with some perseverance and small portions, we developed a good sense for what we'd like our wedding menu to be! We still have a couple details to establish, but we're definitely headed in the right direction. 

It has been much too long!

Since my last post in October, a great deal has happened! For starters, my cousin, the beautiful Ashley Chapman married the love of her life in Cabo and they are as happy as can be! 

Ashely and Brian Murdock

The other big change is that I started my masters degree! I cannot say that balancing a degree with planning a wedding has been easy, but it has definitely kept me on my toes! Wedding planning has been exciting and a wee bit crazy. As a scrapbooker, I generally understand how long projects take but, designing the invites on Pixelmator, getting our printer to cooperate with various peculiar sizes, cutting all the individual papers and then glue dotting all those papers together was a whole other ball game! The good news is that 109 invitations later, we had survived the task! 

Special Task Force for invitations: Adrianna, Jerod, Gianna, Jared, my dad and (of course) my mom. 

After Invitations had been completed, it was time to assemble the rest of my planning list! My mom and I have been working through task after task and are even getting help from my brother, the master spray painter (bet you didn't know he had such a vast background... CHP and spray paint, really??). We've still got 80+ items on our list, but they are getting done! 

Chad and Cecelia's Wedding

 Aside from one of mine and Jared's great adventures, this weekend came with another life changing event as my cousin, Chad, married the love of his life, Cecelia. While she only became an official member of the Bruno clan on Saturday, I think she's been apart our family for much longer. She and Chad started dating 14 years ago, and she's been to every big (or small) family event during that time. It was a wedding that was much anticipated, and was absolutely beautiful. 

Saturday morning, I was assigned the task of being the photographer while Cecelia was getting ready. It was so much fun being involved in their wedding in that way. The moments you are able to capture, can be pretty breathtaking. I think I understand now, why photography is such an incredible career. If there was one gift that I could give to my cousins, it'd be to give them all of the emotions they felt that day: the happiness Cecelia felt as she looked up and saw her dress hanging on the door frame, the simple moment of overwhelming excitement when she said, "I can't believe the day is finally here", the tears of joy when she saw her dad's face as he looked at her all dressed in white, walking down her burlap aisle, her and Chad's first dance as husband and wife and the immense amount of love they felt that day. It is my hope that the pictures that were taken, are ones that will forever remind them of their special day, and will bring back memories of joy and excitement, love and laughter. 

Chad and Cecelia, I wish you every happiness as you begin your happily ever after. 

Flight Lessons!

Here's a fun fact that many of you may not know: Jared's grandfather was a small craft pilot. He owned three different planes and Jared's mom had the ability to grow up with the magic of the skies. For the past several years, I had heard Jared say, "one of these days... I want to take flight lessons". So, for his birthday this year, I bought him his first flight lesson. It took from June 2nd until Oct 4th to book the lesson, but now that it has been done, I don't know that there is anything quite as incredible as seeing the bay area through the eyes of a pilot. I am not quite sure that Jared or I knew what we were getting into when we signed the waiver on Friday morning, but I can tell you, that it was more than what we bargained for. The trainer took Jared through every detail of his plane, instructing Jared on how to test the fuel (fun fact #2: fuel used in planes is blue) and thoroughly investigate the plane before departure. It was an extremely windy morning, so we definitely felt some turbulence as we headed up the coast of CA, but all in all, I walked away amazed at what I had just seen. If anyone is interested in taking a tour (or a flight lesson), I know that there are quite a few helicopter tours of the bay area and they are completely worth it. There is something remarkable about seeing the streets you drive on, the trails you hike and the beaches you grew up loving from a bird's eye. I am not sure how soon Jared will continue with the path to a pilot's license (though probably not until after our wedding), but I will tell you that just before we were heading out on the runway, a pilot and who I imagine to be his wife, were heading in. I could see them perfectly, through my window; the woman (sitting as a passenger) looked over, smiled and waived as they passed. Could have been entirely coincidence, but in the off chance that the universe is sending me a message from the future... we're definitely naming our plane "Apollo" (or "The Apollo"... something with Apollo) and I'd prefer blue stripes instead of the red ones.