Change of Date!

So for 2013, UNLV's spring semester is going a week longer than it has the past 4 years and 2012. The last day is May 18th, also most likely Josh's graduation. We are not insane enough to try to juggle finals and the week prior to our diy wedding in the same week.

We were totally bummed.

So now we are thinking 5/25/13 or 5/27/13. The Saturday or Monday of Memorial Day weekend. Someone just had to be born on the 26th!! :P Leaning more towards the Saturday though.

Does anyone have any weigh in on a Memorial Day weekend wedding?

Help us Win Wedding Stuff!

So for those of you who don't see this on our individual facebook/tumblr pages, right now Lisa and I are entered into a contest where we can win $1000 for our wedding, plus a $500 gift certificate that we can use on our invitations for our wedding. We are really excited that we've made it to the final forty, but we need help. We're a bit behind everyone else, and it would be fantastic to get votes. The links below are the ones we need you guys to follow for us. Any and all help would be appreciated!

http://tinyprints.promotionexpert.com/fbtalentsearchfinalist/ms/entry.jsp?tid=32fd195a02af441ddf4472a4f04ae5f5

http://tinyprints.promotionexpert.com/fbtalentsearchfinalist/ms/entry.jsp?tid=40d607dce0e20d7dfaf0ad53035e25b8

Our first wedding purchase was made today!

Today we bought 4 Glass-looking beverage dispensers for the wedding. A special thank you to my Dad and Megan for helping us take advantage of the sale on Amazon!

No Glass Wedding!

So, we have pretty much decided that Floyd Lamb State Park is THE place for our wedding. But the sad news is that there is no glass what so ever allowed in the park. I had all these fun ideas for decorations and such that I won't be able to use. And we won't be able to have a fancy toast with wine glasses.

This no glass thing is definitely something we can work around. It's just going to take a little more creativity, researching and planning.

New Plans!

So it finally hit me last night. The venue we love, is $9000 just for the venue and food. HOLY COW. And we don't have that kind of money. So I got creative. And searched and searched and searched. And have a new idea.

We are now leaning towards a country chic/ picnic wedding. Of course all of the group areas in Mount Charleston are closed until January 2014, so I found what seems like an awesome park, Floyd Lamb State Park. We'll be checking it out within the next few weeks. It'll be a lot less formal and traditional, but I think I can still make it spectacular and romantic. :)

Date is set!

Hey guys! So we have officially set a date! Sunday, May 19th, 2013! It doesn't hold any hidden significance or anything, just sounds like the perfect date for us. So start saving for your trip to Vegas, baby!

Now with the date set, planning is beginning to solidify a little more. We plan on booking the venue, Rhodes Ranch, in the next few months and then getting things going from there.

Hope you all have a happy holiday season!

Christmas List!

For all you parents and grandparents out there that tend to ask for this :)

Both of Us:
Things/gift cards/money for wedding (May 2013)
Things/gift cards/money for trip to Hawaii (May 2012)
Wii Fit
Board Games-Library Vintage Book Editions from Target
Cheese Slicer
Disney movies on DVD/Blu-Ray
Matching sweaters
Car bike rack
3 Drawer Filing Cabinet
Iron/Ironing Board
Blu-Ray/DVD player

Lisa:
Wood/glass/stone plugs, size 0 (kind of like these: http://onetribe.nu/category/3/)
Waterproof camera case for my Canon Elph 300
Cricut templates
Scrapbooking stuff
Flats (shoes) of any color size 11
Short Ugg boots- Black or Grey size 10
Beach Cruiser bike
Fuzzy Socks
A long fuzzy robe
iPhone FM transmitter/charger for car. (Similar to this one: http://www.amazon.com/Griffin-iTrip-Auto-iPhone-Rating/dp/B003II9MPA - I have the mounted one, and it doesn't work too well)

Josh:
Mountain Bike
Nintendo 3DS
Vinyl Records
Scene It (original)
Projector
Kindle (e-Reader)
Camping Cookware i.e. Portable stove top
Tennis Shoes size 12
DVDs. If you're unsure if I have a movie, ask Lisa.
This: http://www.topatoco.com/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=TO&Product_Code=NED-BEARTATO-SQUISH&Category_Code=NED

Location, Location, Location!

We're pretty confident about the location now. And it's not where we mentioned before. We recently visited Rhodes Ranch and fell in love. The pricing is reasonable; the property is gorgeous and the ceremony and reception can be at the same place now! I can't wait until the one year mark when we can actually start setting things in stone!

http://www.rhodesranchgolf.com

Earning Money for the Wedding

One thing that Lisa didn't mention from this past weekend that went on was that we went to one of the country clubs we were looking at (though have decided is out of our price range) and we won a second round of golf. This round of golf is just for two people, as opposed to the four people for the other round we won. We decided to try to sell it, like the first one, even though we haven't sold the first one yet. We were able to sell it for $150 today, and selling it has gotten me really excited. This is the first big payment that we've put into the savings fund we have going (though we've racked up a decent amount just in change and the occasional small bills) and as much as I am not excited about spending the money, I am excited about what we're doing with the money.

As far as what's happening in the next week for us, we don't have too much wedding related coming up, except for our visit to another location which we might use for the reception. We scheduled a personal appointment at the location, so it'll be interesting to see how it plays out.

Tour of our Apartment!

Some things we're looking into

So I know Spring of 2013 is way far away, but there are just so many things to consider and so many choices out here in Vegas. We've started scoping out some of our options. Here's a few tentative decisions we've made:

Ceremony: At Spring Mountain Ranch. (http://parks.nv.gov/smr.htm) It's outdoors, beautiful and affordable. Some of the downsides are that we can't book it until January 2013, we have to set everything up ourselves and it has a stage and lighting building in the ceremony lawn (which doubles as the Super Summer Theatre during the summer). But Josh and I are pretty sure about this one.

Reception: Is a little more open right now, we are looking into smaller hotels, convention centers and community ballrooms.

Food: We are thinking about having it catered by Olive Garden. The thought is to serve it family style. Have 3-5 pastas on a lazy susan on each table.

Other: We definitely want a photo booth. That will double as guest favors and a way for them to sign in.
We were also thinking of making the centerpieces and having those be given away, along with the pasta bowls. We're thinking neither of those will have to match. I like the thought of the tables looking a little more eclectic rather than super fancy.
There is so much we have to look into, and plan, but these are just a few of the things we think would really work for us.
I'd also like to put out there if you or someone you know does a wedding service (i.e. flowers, D.J., caters, officiant, ANYTHING) and you can help us out, please let us know!
We're open to any suggestions you may have, so feel free to make comments! Just remember, we are trying to do a really nice, fairly big wedding on a small budget. Which, if you know me, I think I can totally accomplish!

Hello World!

For many you, this will be the first post you read from us! Well, welcome! Hope you enjoyed our card! And we better see it on your fridge when we come to visit! just kidding. Anyway, we started blogging early so we could test things out and such before we shared it, so feel free to back track through the blog. To the left you'll find the rest of our engagement pictures, some fun songs and the ability to get our posts emailed to you! We'll mostly be posting about our wedding plans as they are made and about any fun adventures we have. So stayed tuned! Thanks for stopping by.

New Fun Stuff!

So I've been working the past few hours to get some functions added to the sidebar of the blog, and they are now live, I hope. We've added a slideshow of our engagement pictures, which if you click on the slideshow it should take you to the entire album. Lisa and I (very much mostly Lisa) edited them ourselves, and we hope you enjoy them as much as we do. They were taken by Lisa's sister Michelle, and we think she did a wonderful job and we're thankful that she did it for us. We also created a music playlist, full of songs that we love and feel describe our love, so give that a listen, we'll be updating it occasionally. Also, you can follow our blog by email if you wish. Hope you enjoy all the new features.

Wedding Colors!

As you might be able to tell from our background, these are our wedding colors! They are from the Alfred Angelo line: Jade, Lipstick and Champagne. We aren't too sure whats going where or how much of each, but we've got plenty of time to figure that out!

Our first plane ride together!

     Our first plane ride together took us to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. From there, we went to Webster, South Dakota (where Josh is from, if you didn't already know that). The first time at the airport together was a bit stressful, since we both fly rather frequently and each have our own routine, but the way back was a bit smoother. I met the ENTIRE family. :) And we got to celebrate Josh's parents' anniversary, Josh and Russ's (his twin brother) birthday and Megan's (Josh's sister) birthday as well. August is a busy month in the Garry household!
     We enjoyed bike rides, board games and the lake during our trip. It was a really nice vacation, but there are too many bugs out here for me! Now it's time to get home and get to work moving!

The Bridal Show!

So on Sunday, we went to our first bridal show at Green Valley Ranch. I was super excited. We got to see bunch of vendors and venues and we won prizes! We tasted some great food, too. We took quite a few photo booth pictures, as we realized that is a must have for the reception. We also realized that we really like the idea of a country club for the wedding. Another, less happy, realization was the cost of a wedding. From what we are seeing right now, the chances of having a decent wedding for under $10,000 is slim.
On a better note! The things we've won so far (as I'm still getting notifications!):
60-minute in home massage!
Round of golf for 4 at Canyon Gate Country Club (worth $600)
3 day/2 night stay in the Caribbean- Bahamas, Dominican Republic or Mexico
Gift certificate (unknown amount) to Dream Entertainment
$300 gift certificate to American Laser Center
$500 gift card to Amazon!!

About the prizes a little bit, now.
So the vacation prize came with a little, big mistake. To claim our prize, we had to sit through a cooking show for Chef Master. This was both mine and Josh's first attendance to a hard sales pitch. And we fell for it. We bought 4 titanium pots for $1800. BUT! It came with a free professional knife block, a skillet, a lifetime warranty and another 5 day vacation! We got home that night and realized we just spent $1800 on 4 pots! What were we thinking!? So the next morning, we sent in our cancellation notice. Whew!

Although Josh plays golf, I don't and we don't know two other people that do, and we don't have clubs. So our goal is to sell the certificate for about $500, if possible.

I'm sure the Dream Entertainment and American Laser Center are just trying to entice us to us their business and we didn't really win anything there, but I'm still willing to hear what they have to say, see if it is worth it.

The Amazon gift card was by far the best! We got that in the mail yesterday and went on a shopping spree! We both got our school books for the semester and a few other essential items, plus my new camera!!!! Finally! I'm going to have an awesome camera again! Which I'm ecstatic about!

We're thinking if our luck continues likes this, we'll be able to win a good portion of our wedding! So the plan is to attend every bridal show from now until May 2013! But man, I need to print out labels with our information on them, I can't begin to tell you how many times I wrote down our information!

Love is: Saving Money Together

Since weddings cost so much, Lisa and I decided to collect our spare change as part of our savings for our wedding. Lisa had the idea of using a large water jug, and since it was just sit in our room, she decided to decorate it. The picture doesn't do the best job of showing it, since it's missing the stick-figure-us that she drew to the right of our names, and the bows that are tied on the neck. Here's what's written:

Josh & Lisa Love each other a whole ton and want to share it with the world, but sharing something so big with so many people costs lots of money. EVERY PENNY COUNTS.

I think she did a wonderful job decorating the jar.

The background.

Hope this background is appreciated. I just spent over an hour creating the image and adjusting it over and over again.


P.S. That's us! :)

Love is: Remembering our First Kiss

Since Lisa started off remembering a first that I don't remember as much of, rather than give my side of things I'm going to move to a different first. Our first kiss, as pictured.

Now I don't know what Lisa's intent was during this moment. We were goofing around taking pictures, waiting for the fireworks to start at Disneyland, when she tells me to close my eyes, and kiss her on the cheek. The picture seems a bit ambiguous, so I'll clarify that my aim was true, I was going to kiss her cheek, and she was the one who turned.

But I definitely wasn't going to complain. The day before that moment had been special, with hand holding moments on the Indiana Jones ride (for her to feel comfortable, not just because I wanted to, or so I told myself) and on the ferris wheel (because it was my first ferris wheel ride and I was frightened). I did not know at the time how important that day would be to the both of us. Or how much Disneyland influenced our relationship. And that silly ferris wheel.

Love is: Remembering the very first time we met

This seems like a good way to start a blog about our wedding and love. :)
     Well, in the fall 2010 semester, I had a class with these two guys, Alex and Danny. They wanted to hang out one night, so I made my way to UNLV's dorms for the first time ever. I got there and Alex was hanging out with some guy in a Kool-Aid shirt. Both guys were already on a very fun level.
     We were just hanging out, I found out the guy in the Kool-Aid shirt was a boy scout- meaning he was better at interior design than I. We went on a walk to Vons, were the below picture was taken and where the guy in the Kool-Aid shirt knocked over an entire display of Macaroni & Cheese. Needless to say, he made a great first impression.