Hey guys!
Most of you probably won't remember this off of the top of your head because we announced the big news over two months after we had actually tied the knot, but today is our first wedding anniversary!
I have to say, the first year of marriage wasn't as rough as people tend to say it will be. We definitely had our fair share of sickness and health (and also richer and poorer)! In the last year we've dealt with a lot-- Patrick's leg injury, lots of travel, living in a place that made us miserable, the loss of a kitty and the gain of another one, losing my childhood home, watching an 18 year friendship crumble, worrying about sick family members, moving to a different state where we know a total of four people, my hidradenitis: small disasters, large disasters, and little victories, the list goes on and on.
But the one thing that I know I can say for sure is that, like any good couple would, we stood together in the face of everything that came our way. Every relationship and every marriage is different, but I know that we did what was right for us by eloping. If I'm honest, I actually love the cliche that comes with "We got married in Vegas," because I know that if only one Vegas marriage succeeded, it would be ours. We are stronger together after this first year of marriage than we have ever been and I have never been more happy or more in love.
I want to thank those of you who have stood by my/our side during this very long process. Through announcing that I was moving to California, announcing my engagement, and announcing our elopement, I have heard nothing but joy and well wishes from almost all of my family and friends. Of course, some of you (and others, of course, who won't read this) were disappointed that you weren't able to attend our ceremony, but I've thought a lot about it and I know that it was the right decision for us.
Most of all, I want to thank my husband, Patrick, for being there to hold my hand through every walk of life. I obviously couldn't have done this without him because, well, without him there would have been no marriage in the first place.
So, without sounding even more like a sappy love story, I'll end this blog here with a statement that sums it all up:
Patrick, I love you more.
Showing posts with label las vegas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label las vegas. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Friday, January 2, 2015
Why We Eloped: The Decision Making Process
Patrick and I eloped in late October of this year, as I shared in my previous post. I hope you'll all read this post thoroughly before making any judgments or remarks regarding what he and I know was the right decision for us and what will result in a long and happy life together.
Let me be clear and start out by saying that I am not pregnant. This is not the reason that we eloped and postponed our "big wedding." I am including this only because I have had at least two people ask me this question and I would like to get the presumptuous curiosity and speculation out of the way. If you would please read on, you will see the story and reasoning that lead up to our decisions.
When Patrick and I got engaged in February, I was so excited to start planning the wedding of my dreams that would end with my marrying the love of my life. We began to make phone calls, reserve vendors, and invite people to be a part of our special day.
By March or April, we had almost everything planned out and ready for the big day. Everything was in order and only needed execution. We had reserved and paid for the venue in full, we had our wedding parties set up, our invitations designed by our dear friend, and I had been in contact with a caterer in Livonia which I had had high hopes in.
When I went back to Michigan in June, I got to work on getting my bridesmaids their dresses, I toured our venue, and I got 90% of our decorations completed. At this point, I was still as excited as ever.
Then, the trouble started. It seemed that I could not get a hold of our caterer. After trying for over two months, I ended up needing to find another one and start from scratch, and it seemed that relations between my family members were dwindling due to a very messy divorce in the family. Patrick and I started feeling skeptical, like our wedding day would end up being made about people other than ourselves, and I started to stress out to the point where I was starting to have anxiety-induced physical symptoms. We would sometimes joke about wanting to elope, because no normal person needs to go through so much stress!
When Patrick travels, I normally do not go with him, as very few people could afford plane tickets that often, but when he is able to drive to his work I am able to, and I do, go with him. Most of October was a lot of drive-to travel, and when he got the assignment to go to Las Vegas for a business convention, we decided I would go with him since I had never been.
While we were planning our trip, we joked often about how we should elope while we were in Vegas, but we were determined to have our wedding in Michigan on May 9, 2015. However, when we arrived there, we started to seriously discuss getting married in Vegas. We looked at several different venues and, once we had decided that we were absolutely going to get married there, we discussed the terms of our wedding and who we would tell and what we would do about our May wedding in Michigan.
Our final verdict was that we would get married in a small ceremony by ourselves, accompanied by Patrick's boss and his training partner as witnesses, and tell no one about the ceremony. The decision in this was that we didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings by not including them in our special day, but we felt a sort of impending doom that was cast over our May wedding because of all of the snags and bumps we had encountered at that point. We wanted to take the pressure off of ourselves and do something private, because we both agreed that while a wedding is a celebration of two people coming together as one, a marriage is for the two people who have agreed to share their lives together. Once our May wedding was over, which we still planned on having, no one would ever need to have known that we had already gotten married in Vegas because they would have witnessed our wedding in Michigan and seen us get married on that day. Our marriage in Vegas would be a private, intimate moment shared between my husband and I, and no one ever needed to know.
Patrick and I were determined to keep this ceremony to ourselves, but as you are clearly finding out about it now, things did not go as planned.
Without sharing intimate details of my family situation, let me just say that something happened that would ultimately prevent all of my family from being in the same place at once, something that I would not accept for my wedding day. Because these issues would absolutely not have been resolved within the 5-6 months that we had left before the wedding, and I would not have had a big wedding without either of the people involved in the situation, Patrick and I had a long discussion between ourselves and a couple of my family members who are close to the situation, all of whom agreed that it would be in our best interest to postpone our May wedding in order to let the dust settle and hopefully, in the future, have an amicable wedding day that everyone could enjoy.
Because no one knows when that day may be, we did decide that it would be in our best interests to tell our loved ones about our special day in Vegas, as we did not want to pretend to live as an unmarried couple for an undetermined amount of time, instead of just the 5-6 months that we had initially planned.
While I know some of my loved ones are hurt by my decision, I do hope that they respect that this was the best decision for my husband and I, and that we are both extremely happy. Of course I wish that things could have gone as planned and our wedding in May did not have to be postponed, however that is not the case, and, as I said before, I believe that a marriage is between two people and a wedding is a celebration of that with loved ones. We are still determined to have the wedding of my dreams in the future. However, we do not know when that may be and therefore our wedding is postponed until further notice, as the situation may even take up to several years to be resolved, though we would hope that it would not take that long.
Patrick and I know that you will be happy for the two of us and wish us the best, as we are incredibly happy and know that some day we will be able to have the wedding we both hoped for.
Let me be clear and start out by saying that I am not pregnant. This is not the reason that we eloped and postponed our "big wedding." I am including this only because I have had at least two people ask me this question and I would like to get the presumptuous curiosity and speculation out of the way. If you would please read on, you will see the story and reasoning that lead up to our decisions.
When Patrick and I got engaged in February, I was so excited to start planning the wedding of my dreams that would end with my marrying the love of my life. We began to make phone calls, reserve vendors, and invite people to be a part of our special day.
By March or April, we had almost everything planned out and ready for the big day. Everything was in order and only needed execution. We had reserved and paid for the venue in full, we had our wedding parties set up, our invitations designed by our dear friend, and I had been in contact with a caterer in Livonia which I had had high hopes in.
When I went back to Michigan in June, I got to work on getting my bridesmaids their dresses, I toured our venue, and I got 90% of our decorations completed. At this point, I was still as excited as ever.
Then, the trouble started. It seemed that I could not get a hold of our caterer. After trying for over two months, I ended up needing to find another one and start from scratch, and it seemed that relations between my family members were dwindling due to a very messy divorce in the family. Patrick and I started feeling skeptical, like our wedding day would end up being made about people other than ourselves, and I started to stress out to the point where I was starting to have anxiety-induced physical symptoms. We would sometimes joke about wanting to elope, because no normal person needs to go through so much stress!
When Patrick travels, I normally do not go with him, as very few people could afford plane tickets that often, but when he is able to drive to his work I am able to, and I do, go with him. Most of October was a lot of drive-to travel, and when he got the assignment to go to Las Vegas for a business convention, we decided I would go with him since I had never been.
While we were planning our trip, we joked often about how we should elope while we were in Vegas, but we were determined to have our wedding in Michigan on May 9, 2015. However, when we arrived there, we started to seriously discuss getting married in Vegas. We looked at several different venues and, once we had decided that we were absolutely going to get married there, we discussed the terms of our wedding and who we would tell and what we would do about our May wedding in Michigan.
Our final verdict was that we would get married in a small ceremony by ourselves, accompanied by Patrick's boss and his training partner as witnesses, and tell no one about the ceremony. The decision in this was that we didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings by not including them in our special day, but we felt a sort of impending doom that was cast over our May wedding because of all of the snags and bumps we had encountered at that point. We wanted to take the pressure off of ourselves and do something private, because we both agreed that while a wedding is a celebration of two people coming together as one, a marriage is for the two people who have agreed to share their lives together. Once our May wedding was over, which we still planned on having, no one would ever need to have known that we had already gotten married in Vegas because they would have witnessed our wedding in Michigan and seen us get married on that day. Our marriage in Vegas would be a private, intimate moment shared between my husband and I, and no one ever needed to know.
Patrick and I were determined to keep this ceremony to ourselves, but as you are clearly finding out about it now, things did not go as planned.
Without sharing intimate details of my family situation, let me just say that something happened that would ultimately prevent all of my family from being in the same place at once, something that I would not accept for my wedding day. Because these issues would absolutely not have been resolved within the 5-6 months that we had left before the wedding, and I would not have had a big wedding without either of the people involved in the situation, Patrick and I had a long discussion between ourselves and a couple of my family members who are close to the situation, all of whom agreed that it would be in our best interest to postpone our May wedding in order to let the dust settle and hopefully, in the future, have an amicable wedding day that everyone could enjoy.
Because no one knows when that day may be, we did decide that it would be in our best interests to tell our loved ones about our special day in Vegas, as we did not want to pretend to live as an unmarried couple for an undetermined amount of time, instead of just the 5-6 months that we had initially planned.
While I know some of my loved ones are hurt by my decision, I do hope that they respect that this was the best decision for my husband and I, and that we are both extremely happy. Of course I wish that things could have gone as planned and our wedding in May did not have to be postponed, however that is not the case, and, as I said before, I believe that a marriage is between two people and a wedding is a celebration of that with loved ones. We are still determined to have the wedding of my dreams in the future. However, we do not know when that may be and therefore our wedding is postponed until further notice, as the situation may even take up to several years to be resolved, though we would hope that it would not take that long.
Patrick and I know that you will be happy for the two of us and wish us the best, as we are incredibly happy and know that some day we will be able to have the wedding we both hoped for.
Thursday, January 1, 2015
We've Eloped!
Yes, you've read that right: Patrick and I eloped!
While on a business trip in October, Patrick and I decided to take the pressure off of ourselves and our upcoming May wedding, which we still planned on having, and get married at The Luxor Chapel in Las Vegas!
After a couple of days of deliberation, and then a day of shopping, we tied the knot in a small ceremony on October 28th, 2014.
For several unrelated reasons, the original planned wedding, which was scheduled for May 9, 2015, is postponed. It is for this reason that we have decided to share our happy news with everyone.
To keep the tone of this post upbeat, please stay tuned for my next post which will explain our reasons for getting married before our "big wedding" and the reasons why that wedding is postponed until further notice.
Thank you in advance for your love and support in our decision!
While on a business trip in October, Patrick and I decided to take the pressure off of ourselves and our upcoming May wedding, which we still planned on having, and get married at The Luxor Chapel in Las Vegas!
After a couple of days of deliberation, and then a day of shopping, we tied the knot in a small ceremony on October 28th, 2014.
The happiest day of my life
October 28, 2014
Las Vegas, NV
For several unrelated reasons, the original planned wedding, which was scheduled for May 9, 2015, is postponed. It is for this reason that we have decided to share our happy news with everyone.
To keep the tone of this post upbeat, please stay tuned for my next post which will explain our reasons for getting married before our "big wedding" and the reasons why that wedding is postponed until further notice.
Thank you in advance for your love and support in our decision!
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
October, November, and December!
Hey everyone! Once again, I have been a slacker on the blog-front. We've had such a busy couple of months that now that we finally have some down time, neither of us feels like doing anything productive. This post is going to be a bit of a two-parter in order to keep it short and to give proper spotlight to some of the events. After the new year, I'll even have a third post to share with you! Hooray!
Without further adieu, let's get started!
Apartment Update:
We do still love our apartment, as I made it clear in my last post. However, we've discovered some new irritating quirks about it-- namely, our neighbor(s). We have discovered, through great pains, that our upstairs neighbor is very overweight and very heavy footed. There is only so much our complex is willing to do about the situation. Specifically, they want to move us to a top floor (third floor) unit in order to prevent the same thing from happening should we move to another first floor or even second floor unit, but I'm being stubborn about it because I don't think we should be punished when we aren't the ones causing the issue. I think that any other person who moves into the unit we're currently in would have the same problem, and I'm not willing to trudge up two flights of stairs for the next nine months. So we are suffering through our iron-footed neighbor, even though the noise is cutting into our sleep and into Patrick's work. The paintings on our wall rattle, as do the glasses in our kitchen cabinets, and we can tell where he is in the apartment at all times. It's terrible. I'm waiting for the day that plaster starts to fall from the ceiling and he just tumbles into our living room.
October:
October was CRAZY! There were eight Rocky Horror shows scheduled from October 4 through November 1. At the end of the month, we had shows three nights in a row-- one in a different state! The 4th was in Menlo Park, the 17th was in Menlo Park, the 18th was in Cloverdale, the 24th was in Pittsburg, the 25th in SF, the 30th in Reno, the 31st in SF, and the 1st in Menlo Park. Because of Patrick's work schedule, we were only able to make it to six of the eight shows, but it was a blast! I especially had fun doing the Pittsburg, Reno, and Halloween shows. I learned a new skill (doing spotlight), and in doing so I finally found a place on cast where I am particularly useful, because I am really bad at memorizing prop cues.
Our Pittsburg show even got its own article, which you can check out here. Claps to our amazing cast and especially our directors for getting through the craziest month most of us have ever experienced!
Spotlight selfie! I really just love this outfit. I wore it to at least three of the Rocktober shows.
Our Janet (Victoria) and Colombia (Diane) posing with their fans!
Our very own "age ambiguous dancing tree"!
YMCA
Patrick was a mouse (duh!) for Halloween! Actually, he was Karen as a mouse from Mean Girls. We spent weeks looking for the perfect dress, wig, and shoes so that he could look the part but not be as... revealing as the character was in the movie.
I did his makeup for the night, which I am incredibly proud of (it is screen accurate). He makes a real pretty woman, if I do say so myself!
I don't have any good photos of my Halloween costume on actual Halloween, however here it is a few weeks previously at our friends Mandy and Brook's Halloween party! Can you tell what I went as?
In the midst of Rocktober, Patrick and I were also travelling quite a bit. Lately he has been getting business in places that are reasonable distances away, which means that he can drive and I can go with him. In October we were in Burlingame (just a few miles from where we used to live, but too long of a drive for Patrick to have commuted every day), then we went home for a night, then drove straight to Vegas for a work-related convention, and then we drove straight from Vegas to Reno for the Rocky Reno show. From Reno we drove home and we finally got a short break (from work, not from Rocky, as we still had two more shows). Shortly after that, Patrick flew to Texas for work, and when he got home we went straight to Disneyland! Our Disney trip will be in a separate post because it really was magical. Probably the best trip we've ever had. Our Vegas trip will also be in a separate post because there is so much to include!
The view from our room in Reno
November:
Most of November was spent with me at home and Patrick travelling. Not a whole lot happened worth mention except for Thanksgiving. This year, even though it was just the two of us, I was determined to have a full Thanksgiving dinner like I would have had with my family in Michigan. So, Patrick let me cook for once, and I made a very successful Thanksgiving dinner. Having been the first time I've ever made an entire meal by myself, we were both really impressed with the job I did!
Our Menu:
- Ham
- Mashed Garlic Redskin Potatoes
- Green Bean Casserole
- Sweet Potato Casserole
- Cranberry Sauce
- Rolls
- Pumpkin Pie (purchased from Safeway because it was a last minute item... Silly me, I thought having Sweet Potato Casserole was kind of the same thing, but someone complained)
December:
Shortly after Thanksgiving, I was hit with some news that I knew was coming but it took me by surprise all the same. My mother moved and all of my stuff was still at the old house, and when I called her and asked if she had gotten all of the things I had asked her to grab for me, she hadn't. I don't mean to say that I don't trust my mother, but if those things are the only things I have left back in Michigan, I wanted to make sure they got to a safe place before she moved out. So when I found out that she has to be out of our old house in very early January, I knew I had to go back to get my stuff and make sure the job was done myself. Only a week away from when I would fly home, I booked a plane ticket and started to pack. I was lucky to even get a ticket so close to the holidays, and had I not gone back when I did, I would have been travelling DURING the holidays, which would have actually been impossible as there were no flights left. And so I went back to Michigan on December 7 and returned to California on December 17 for a quick, pretty disappointing trip home (which I won't get into here). I did get to visit with a few people and some family and I got to go to the Detroit Zoo, but I'm hoping future trips will be better!
Ella is now five years old!
Christina is now eight!
Me and Zach's Corn Snake, Arbok
A tiny bird that flew into my grandparents' sliding glass door. He was quite dazed and needed some love. (P.S. Rest assured that most of these pictures are of animals, because I love them more than humans)
Seafood pasta, compliments of Chef Grandpa! I can still taste it, and it is so, so good.
Babcia! My favorite woman :) I love you!
Hatching butterflies at the Detroit Zoo! HOW COOL!
The most majestic animals on the face of the earth. Look at those beauties.
Obligatory hippo picture!
Coming Up:
Our outlook for the new year changes almost every day, it seems. Patrick's work schedule is never definite, and often he will be sent to any number of places at a moment's notice. We do know that we will be spending Christmas day together, and then Jackie and Dan will be coming over on Saturday and we will do Christmas with them. New Year's Eve will be spent with our Rocky family at our annual NYE Rocky show, but the coming months are really up in the air as for trips, travel, or events. Of course, we do look forward to spending as much time as possible together!
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