Our Wedding Rehearsal & Dinner at French 75!

It is NOW that my dream of marrying my soul-mate becomes reality!! After the most beautiful luncheon, we went home and rested for a bit and then got ready for our Wedding Rehearsal! Ry and I, our wedding party, close family, Father Vaughn and wedding planner Kathy Jo met at the Pacific Rotunda where our ceremony will be held TOMORROW!! Oh my gosh, I can't believe it!

Kathy Jo told us all what to do and gave us a recap of how the ceremony will go.

Everyone listened patiently and did a great job rehearsing... I know everyone will do great! After our final run through, Ry got to "mock" kiss the bride... definitely my favorite part!

Then it was off to French 75 in Laguna Beach for our Rehearsal Dinner... Marty and Cliff did the most AMAZING job hosting this special dinner... we had had the entire patio cordoned to our entire family and wedding party and it was just magical.

We had a delicious 4 course dinner and my most favorite wine ever, Rombauer, was being free-poured... thank you to the best mother-in-law-to-be EVER!!

Words cannot express how special this night was and how special it was to be spending time with the people we love most.

We had many toasts and we had the most beautiful speeches from our family members and best friends. We were SO extremely touched and are SO thankful for all these amazing people God has blessed us with.

And then the Rombauer started to really kick in haha! Things started to get blurry and the picture above pretty much sums up the end of the night!! Needless to say, we all had a BLAST and my daddy had to drive the bride-to-be home so she could get her beauty rest for tomorrow... don't know how much beauty will come of this!!

My Bridal Luncheon at The Loft

The day before our WEDDING... I am feeling SO excited and READY! The start to our celebrations began on December 29th at The Loft restaurant in the stunning Montage Resort in Laguna Beach. My soon-to-be mother-in-law and her lovely friends put on this most amazing luncheon for the closest women in my life and I!

Our soon-to-be family girl unit :)

We had an amazing 3 course lunch and toasted to all these special women that came out for our most special day and the success of our wedding tomorrow!

I love my girls so much, I am SO lucky!

One of my maid-of-honors... I am so thankful for all her planning and hard work. Our wedding rehearsal and dinner is up next, I can't wait!

Ry Comes Home for Christmas 2006!

My Cutie Batutie comes home to have Christmas with my family AND to marry me!! I am BEYOND excited... SEVEN DAY COUNT-DOWN!

My Bachelorette Party!

Less than three weeks and I'll be marrying the love of my life! A major celebration was in order so my most favorite girls planned the best Bachelorette Party for me! We all met at my mom's and a limo picked us up and whisked us away to Temecula Wine Country.

In the limo, we popped open some bubbly and were in Temecula in no time! We started off at Callaway Winery, where we had a delicious lunch on their patio.

Then we headed off to Wilson Creek for their Almond Joy's... my absolute favorite... their chocolate port served in chocolate liquor cups and topped off with their Almond Champagne. Ry and I love this Almond Champagne so much that we'll be serving it at our wedding!

Nothing is better than spending the day with the girls you love most, I am thankful for each and every one of these girls and am honored to have them in my wedding!

After Wilson Creek, we hit up Maurice Carie and lastly we did Ponte.. and yes, by that time we were definitely having a GREAT time haha!

After stumbling back to the limo, we had a blast driving back home... lots of music, dancing and laughter... thankfully we didn't distract the driver too much and made it back home safe! My precious mom had set up a pizza dinner for all of us when we got back and the girls had a lingerie party for me! Needless to say, I got some fancy-shmancy articles to be modeling soon... ;) Afterwards, we had dessert and then had a slumber party at my mom's. What a day and night to remember, I love these girls SO much and can't wait to share my wedding day with all of them!

Our First Thanksgiving in Sacramento 2004!

We flew to Sacramento for our first Thanksgiving at Ryan's parents' home. We spent Thanksgiving Day cooking up a delicious feast...

And then gobbling it all down... it's amazing the effort Ryan's mom put into these dinners... I was so impressed!

We had a beautiful Thanksgiving weekend in Sacramento and are ecstatic to be getting married in a little over a month!! Let the countdown begin!!

My Bridal Shower & Our Parents Meet!

I can't believe it was time for my Bridal Shower! The very first event to kick-off our wedding in December. It was a big weekend, Ryan's sweet parents flew into Orange County so that they could meet my parents for the first time and for Marty to come to my shower. Saturday morning my mom and I picked up Marty at their hotel and drove to Megan's home, who was SO gracious to host my shower. Ry took our dad's out for the day to R&D Cafe and Fashion Island, how cute is that? Our mom's got along perfectly, as to be expected... they are so similar! I had the most amazing bridal shower, my friends are the BEST and I felt so loved. Everyone was SO generous and I got some really fun things off my registry- all will be put into great use! After my lovely shower, we headed home to rest and then we got ready for dinner and all met at Opah in Aliso Viejo. We had a great dinner and Ry and I loved having our parents finally together. On Sunday we met with our potential florist, we picked out beautiful red roses for our bouquets as well as our centerpieces, no green just all red. I think it will look so classy with our black-tie formal wedding. Afterwards we all went to Sun Dried Tomato Cafe in San Juan for a nice lunch and then we went to St. Regis to show Cliff and Marty our wedding venue. It was so fun to show them the Botanical Garden where we will have the ceremony (if it doesn't rain) and the wine room where we will have our reception. We got parental approval on all of our ideas so Ry and I were thrilled! What a wonderful weekend, I can really hear the wedding bells approaching now and I couldn't be more excited. Ry and I are so thankful to our parents, who are making all of this happen and so soon! We are the luckiest husband and wife to-be and we are cherishing every moment during this once in a life time process!

Visiting My Love in Evanston

My first time visiting Ry in Evanston... I flew out on Thursday night and Ry showed me a little around the adorable town and then he showed off his cute apartment- I loved everything about it!

Since Ry had to work Friday, he surprised me with a Gift Card to get Starbucks in the morning and then a spa day at the nicest little spa in Evanston- the Egea Spa. I felt so pampered and special! I met Ryan back at the apartment after he got home from work and we got dressed up to head to Chicago to dinner... he took me to Cite, an amazing French restaurant on top of the Lake Pointe Tower (where Oprah resides). We had the BEST dinner and best time just being together.

Saturday we spent all day in Chicago, explored Michigan Avenue and the Water Tower. I LOVE this city! At dusk, Ry took me to the Signature Lounge at the John Hancock Building, where we had drinks overlooking the beautiful sunset... it was perfect. Then we went to MK for dinner, which was SO amazing that it even topped last nights! We talked about how we didn't want to be apart and that it would be SO fun to live here together... the only thing is that we are not married! So we devised a plan to see if we could get married early so that we can soak up Chicago together!

Sunday we went to church in Evanston and got breakfast and coffee and then we headed to Chicago to spend time in the city before my dreaded departure. We went to this swanky wine bar in the House of Blues called Bin 36. We did wine flights and had a light lunch, so delicious. Afterwards we headed to the airport, I had the most amazing weekend and I didn't want to leave!! Hopefully we can convince our parents to get married in December...

Our Story!

Welcome to our Blog! Ry and I first met at a group Birthday party that my Pepperdine college friends gave me at Benihana, Santa Monica in March of 2003. Although there was instant chemistry, we were both under the impression that we were already "taken" so we had a great night and left it at that... although my friends decided that it was funny to continuously bring up the fact that we are perfect for each other and need to get married! A couple months later, we saw each other again at a group dinner at Jerry's Famous Deli... since Ry was joking the night away with his friends, I became to think he was "a little off" but excused him since I knew he was letting off steam from the rigours of USC Dental School! An entire year later, our mutual friend was having a New Years party in Palm Springs and apparently my presence was requested by the dentist-to-be... needless to say, I don't think I ever evaluated my outfit that much and going into it, I had massive butterflies! That night we instantly hit it off and from that day on we began our wonderful journey together. We dated throughout the last six months of our Senior years, mine at Pepperdine and his at USC, and during that time Ry announced that he had enlisted in the Navy for a 3 year commitment as a Dentist. Things between us were too perfect for words and as we got closer to the summer, we started to never want to be apart. After graduation, Ry went to Naval training on the East Coast and it is there he made the decision that he didn't want to continue his journey without me by his side! So he came home and asked my parents for my hand in marriage and in August of 2006, Ry took me on a surprise date to Laguna Beach where he pampered me with a massage, took me on a beautiful sunset beach walk and then checked us into the most beautiful ocean-view room at the Surf & Sand Hotel. We got dressed up for a dinner at Splashes and that night, dessert arrived in a heart-shaped chocolate box and inside was a diamond ring!! Soon enough, Ry was on his knee asked me to marry him! YES OF COURSE! In the beginning of September, Ry got stationed in Great Lakes, Chicago for his first year in the Navy. We committed to see each other at least twice a month and hoped that year would go by fast with a year-long engagement. Little did I know that the first time I came out to visit Ry in Evanston, I fell in love with Chicago and soon enough we were planning that I come out to live there... one dilemma however, we were not married yet! So after almost giving our parents a heart-attack, we decided to work around the dilemma and bump up our wedding to December 30, 2006! We planned our wedding in THREE months and had an intimate ceremony at the St. Regis in Monarch Beach, followed by a black-tie formal dinner in the St. Regis' Wine Room. It was everything we had dreamed of and more, so perfectly special. Afterwards, we jetted off to Tahiti and Moorea for our Honeymoon and then settled down in Evanston, Illinois as newlyweds! So here is the beginning for Our Story and we want this blog to allow us to share with friends and family our blessed journey and life together... so please come along for ride!