THEE Dress

What is one of the first things that come to mind when you think of a wedding?? THE DRESS!! I have been dreaming of THEE most important dress of my life for as long I can remember. I am an avid "Four Weddings" and "Say Yes To The Dress" viewer so I have been is such anticipation of the day I would try on my first wedding dress! Well on Saturday, the 9th, that day finally came!! I wanted to keep my entourage as small as possible so that I wouldn't be overwhelmed with opinions, so I invited my mom, grandma, Matron of Honor, future sister-in-laws and future mother-in-law and was so happy to have each of them there! Side note (thank you SO MUCH to my amazing Matron of Honor for sticking it out our whole day of shopping even though you were sick as could be! You were such a trooper and I was so thankful to have you with me that day:)

Well of course I wish I could post lots of pictures for you of everything I tried on..but that would of course ruin the surprise! But to give you a feel of our day, we started out at David's Bridal where to be honest, I didn't think I would like much...I was wrong. There were two gowns that were close to what I was looking for but each had something missing, something that didn't make me feel like the bride I have always envisioned. After half a dozen dresses I left with only a business card. After lunch in downtown Campbell we headed to Trudy's. After my consultant took me through their entire store and we searched through each rack, I didn't see anything like the pictures I had brought and I felt a bit discouraged but was open to trying on what she had pulled. I walked out in the first dress with a grimace look on my face..... two words: Big Bird. This is when my mom stepped in as she could tell I was feeling slightly overwhelmed. Two dresses later I walked out with a huge smile on my face. I stepped in front of the mirror and with shocked at how much I LOVED the dress I was in. It was not at all what I expected to fall in love with. It had all the features I was looking for, and that the dresses at the first store had, but this one made me feel like a bride. 

I said yes to the dress but my mom offered me a very wise piece of advice to sit and wait on it a week before purchasing the dress. Im so glad she did because for the next week all I did was stress over if I was sure this was the one. I booked 2 other appointments for the following saturday and went with only mom my and matron of honor to try on some more dresses so that I would 100% confident in my decision. I tried on a dozen different dresses. Some ranging from really similar to the one I had chosen and some extremely different. I was not sold on any of them... there was a dress that I just couldn't stop thinking about. This store just so happened to carry the dress I had selected a week earlier. As soon as I slid into the dress, I no longer had any doubts....this was my dress. 

I am so excited to have the dress I will marry my best friend in and honestly, although stressful, this process was so fun! Thank you so all my lovely ladies who joined me on my outings and I cannot wait to post pictures after our big day, so you can all see this amazing dress I am in LOVE with :)

Be My Bridesmaid?

 Here goes the first wedding related post!

One of the first tasks I wanted to accomplish was selecting and asking my wedding party. I had seen tons of cute ideas on how to ask your bridesmaids to be a crucial part of your big day and came across the idea of creating a box filled with fun things so this is what I ended up with:

I wanted to incorporate the colors and feel of my wedding and give it a special feel. My mom and I spent hours, sanding, painting, and glitterfying these special invitations. I know that being apart of a wedding can require a lot of time and be a huge responsibility so I wanted my maids to feel special :)

I purchased my boxes at Michaels using a 40%  coupon on all seven (download the Michael's app). We sanded the boxes down and painted the outside white and the inside a peach color. I then chose a font online that I liked best and traced "Be my Bridesmaid", "Be my Matron of Honor" and "Be my Flower Girl." Next came my favorite: the glitter. I used a small styrofoam plate as a barrier to keep the glue and glitter where I wanted. The box was finished off with each maids name hand painted on the lid and a quick spray of Matte sealing spray. 

Lastly I went on a shopping spree at Target and filled each box with:

-Socks (with a label I created reading "So no one gets cold feet")

-Bubblegum

-Hershey's Chocolates

-Pencils

-A notebook

-A nail file

-Nail polish

-A hand-made initial ornament

-A note with our wedding date

-A card 

I am so pleased with how everything turned out and am so excited to have such special bridesmaids and a sweet flowergirl :)

With my Matron of Honor Shelby :)

We are ENGAGED!

Well before we get into wedding posts, we better start at the beginning…..

Justin and I attended Church together for years and went to the same high school (he was a senior while I was a freshman) but our paths never crossed until October of 2011 while helping his brother and sister-in-law move into an apartment in Gilroy. I was 18 and he was 21. I never planned on meeting the man I would spend the rest of my life with while wearing grubby paint clothes and a crazy ponytail. We only exchanged “hi’s” and “nice to meet you’s” that evening but by the time I drove home I had a FB friend request from the cutie I just met (so of course the first thing I did was make a giddy phone call to my best friend to tell her the news :) It only took a few messages until I gave him my number and the very next week we were out for the first time alone. For the next 5 months we went on outings to movies, dinner, church, and of course we spent every Monday watching the Bachelor together. Our first date was on Valentines Day and Justin asked me to be his girlfriend under the Disneyland fireworks on March 16^th 2012. Dating and falling in love with Justin has honestly been the most amazing time of my life. He is my absolute best friend that I couldn’t be more in love with.

On October 16^th 2013, I arrived home to meet Justin for a late night picnic in my backyard. Justin led me outside to find candles hanging from the trees and a path of candles surrounding our picnic under the night sky. After eating and talking for a while, Justin handed me a small white gift bag and said he had another gift for me but I needed to stand up for this one. I pulled a black box from the bag as I stood. He took the box from my hands and got down on one knee and said “Victoria, I want to spend the rest of my life with you, will you marry me?” and of course my answer was YES! I couldn’t be MORE excited to spend the rest of my life with my best friend and to be Mrs. Stefani!

We are getting married on August 16^th 2014 in my backyard. Our ceremony with be taking place in the same place that Justin told me he loved me for the first time and where he asked me to marry him. I will be posting updates on our engagement and wedding over the next 9 and ½ months and couldn’t be more excited :)