Damanda Days

Are there TWO lines on that stick??

2011-10-23T18:24:00.000-07:00

YEP!! IT'S OFFICIAL THERE IS A BABY DAMANDA ON THE WAY!!!

September 18th 2011 was a day Dan & I had been looking forward to for a while, and it turned out more memorable than either of us had planned. We were celebrating our 1st Anniversary, and had a few ideas of things that would be fun to do that day.

It was a Sunday and also the weekend of Stake Conference, so we got up and went to the church. While we there I began to feel VERY tired.. which is pretty normal for me, but this was a different kind of tired - (and I may or may not have been weirdly cranky too - I might have snapped at Dan and told him to "hurry and just find a chair and sit down!" he gave me a weird look.. I'm not usually like that). This was the kind of tired that I just wanted to curl up on the floor of the cultural hall and fall asleep next to the kid that was doing that in our row.

We finally (when you're that tired, yes, 2 hours does feel like FINALLY) got home and I thought "I might be pregnant." We had been trying for a few months and so most anything during the past few months felt like "symptoms" but I thought we might as well just check. So I took out a test I had bought a few weeks before and peed on the stick. We waited the three minutes then saw what seemed to be a positive line in the "your pregnant" box.

We both had a hard time believing this, and wanted to be certain that it actually was positive, so we jumped in the car and went to buy a test that was a little more obvious. We ended up getting one that would tell us either "pregnant" or "not pregnant". Fortunately, I had no problem peeing again (I am sure you can guess why), and sure enough, it read "PREGNANT". We both started crying and hugging. We could hardly believe it! It was the BY FAR the BEST 1st ANNIVERSARY EVER!!

Endowed & Sealed for All Eternity

2011-10-22T10:08:00.000-07:00

It was the weekend of Friday Sep 23, 2011, and it started with Amanda’s endowment session. We awoke on Friday morning, and after many last-minute preparations such as packing, getting lunch together, etc, we left a little before 11am. We arrived at the San Diego temple with a few minutes to spare before 12:30pm, since Amanda’s endowment session was at 2pm. As we approached, Amanda remarked how she was really starting to feel the butterflies; I felt a little nervous too. As always, the temple was beautiful and majestic as we pulled up, helping to calm us. We took a few deep breaths before getting out of the car. We were ready.

Amanda’s mom, Kris, was already there, waiting to be Amanda’s escort. We all entered the temple and went through the necessary paperwork for Amanda’s first time. Then, before I knew it, she was taken away from me – in good hands, however, between her mom and the temple workers. I waited for a temple worker to come for me, who escorted me to the men’s locker room. I did some temple work for a little while, then the time was upon us.

Joining us for the endowment session was many of our family and close friends – Mom & Dad Smith, Mom & Dad Eichten, Allison & Hector, Brittney, Andrew & Jen, my friend Matt Sandberg, and our friend Lynn Rothey. It was so great to see them. It felt so good to see them there – a joyous reunion. Alas, my brother Eric could not be there due to work, but he did arrive later in the evening.

I remember seeing my wife Amanda in the temple – she looked beautiful and pure, more so than I had ever seen her. She was smiling and glowing. It warmed my heart. The endowment session was phenomenal, the Spirit was so strong, and it touched us deeply to share it with our family and friends.

Afterwards, Amanda and I quick went to check in to our hotel room at the Sheraton, then headed on over to PF Chang’s for our post-endowment family and friends dinner. More loved ones joined us - Garth, Sherri, & Olivia, my brother Eric, Todd & Dena, Brittney’s baby Oliver, and Amanda & Nathan. The food was fantastic – it was a great time.

Amanda and I eventually headed back to the Sheraton. We wanted a good night sleep for the next day – a huge one in our lives, even our eternal lives. We pre-ordered room service breakfast. We didn’t need to get up that early – we just needed to be at the temple by 9am, for our sealing was scheduled for 10am.

I approached our temple sealing not necessarily with nervousness, but more with a sense of anticipation and excitement. It was a feeling of finally arriving home, a feeling of accomplishing that which must be, which I always knew must be. I had simply been waiting for it, patiently waiting. And now it was here, and I was ready.

All systems were smooth in the morning, and we arrived at the temple on time. Kris came with us in the car from the hotel – she was again to be Amanda’s escort. My Dad met us at the temple – he was to be my escort. Again, we (Amanda, Kris, and I – there was only room for three in the little room) went through paperwork with a temple worker, after which I met up again with my Dad and a new temple worker – a young guy who was to be my official temple escort. He was a really good guy. We went up into the men's locker room. In the meantime, Amanda and her mom were doing the same – it was a little different for them because she had a special bride’s room to get ready in, with her mom helping, while I just had the plain locker room. Hmm… inequality? Haha, j/k.

When Amanda and I were both ready, my Dad and Kris were taken to the temple sealing waiting room, while Amanda and I were escorted into the celestial room. We were lucky to have a few moments in that beautiful room together, alone. The celestial room in the San Diego temple is truly amazing, and the Spirit was so strong. We heard someone softly crying for joy in the room, which was moving to us. We spoke together, thought, prayed – it was a wonderful moment.

Eventually brother Romulo Casos, our sealer, came in and met with us in the celestial room. He talked to us for a little while, getting to know us better, and us him. He was a caring, warm-hearted man from Peru, with full, white hair and a kindly smile. We really liked him. He explained to us exactly what would happen in the sealing ceremony, so that we knew what to do. He departed, we waited a few more minutes, then they came to get us. It was time.

They escorted us to the beautiful large sealing room close by. I remember entering and seeing so many familiar faces of family and friends turn to us – it made me so happy to see everyone. Amanda and I sat down next to each other with Amanda on my left. Her mom was next to her, and my mom next to me. The sealing ceremony was beautiful. Brother Casos spoke about using the example of Christ to help guide our marriage and our relationship. He spoke of charity, and referred to Moroni 7. Brother Casos was without guile, very sincere, and such a nice man.

The sealing ordinance was performed, with such a powerful Spirit and emotion in the room. It was truly a moment we shall never forget, as we got sealed together, looking into each other’s eyes, soul to soul.

After the sealing was completed, Brother Casos invited our family and then friends to come up and greet us and hug us. It was such an awesome experience to greet my family and friends in that way, in the presence of such a Spirit and joy. Thank you thank you to all you loved ones who were there to support us and share that moment!

On the temple grounds all our friends and family were waiting. We took pictures, and then many went to a picnic we held at nearby Nobel Park, where we served sandwiches, drinks, and a cake. The cake! :

It was a beautiful day, and such a great time to be able to interact and have fun with everyone.

It finally came to an end. What a truly exceptional event in our lives. In the space of 27 hours – from the time we left Huntington Beach to the end of the picnic – our lives changed deeply and eternally. What a blessing it is to Amanda and me to be sealed together forever, for her to be endowed, and for us to be starting our eternal family. We thank God every day for our blessings. He has led us to each other, has guided our path along the way, and will continue to be with us and our family always.

And we are STILL ALIVE!

2011-05-09T11:13:00.000-07:00

I know, I know I am sooo horrible at posting! When we were dating I thought there would be so many cool and exciting things to post about once we got married and I was wrong.. ha it's just like normal life.. only we live in the same house and sleep in the same bed. Since my last post there have been a few exciting things that happened tho! I did end up getting a new job (3 months ago.. ha I'm awful I know!) It's at a new dental office in Costa Mesa so ALOT closer to home! (15 min compared to an hour and 15 min..) Which helps ALOT especially with not having to pay $4 a day to take the toll road and gas prices these days. The V8 & Hemi don't help with that either. Dan & I have planned a few little weekend trips coming up that we are really looking forward to! We want to be able to do some of these little "get aways" before we have one "on the way". We have been told by countless people to get little trips in before we start trying to have any kids because it makes it alot more difficult once they are here, and with only one income. So this weekend we are headed to PALM SPRINGS!! It's only about 2 hours away but about 20 degrees hotter!! I'm so excited!! Then Memorial Day weekend I will be going to Minnesota to meet my new nephew (who will hopefully make his grand appearance in the next day or 2!!) After I get back the next weekend we will be heading to VEGAS!! I love Vegas! (which again in about 20 degrees warmer than here). The next weekend Dan is going to Atlanta for work. Then in July we are going to the East coast for 10 days! I am SOOO looking forward to this trip!! I have been to New York twice but once was for New Years and once for Christmas so it was COLD & I didn't get the full New York experience! So we are staying with Dan's parents in New Jersey and making some trips up to New York to see Ellis Island, ground zero and times square & go to a Yankees game at the new stadium!! YESS DEREK JETER!!! Then we will be driving down to DC for the 4th to watch the fireworks at the Monument. I've heard of a few people doing this and decided we MUST do this!! I'm sooo excited!! I LOVE the fourth of July!! Then in August we are wanting to go up to San Francisco.. it's not planned yet so we'll see.. But once we do all these trips hopefully I will post about them.. no promises. ;)
Anyway on another note I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day yesterday! I am so thankful for both my Amazing Mother & Mother-in-law! I feel so blessed to have those two wonderful women in my life, and so look forward to the day when I have children & will know they have the best Grandmas ever!! Saturday Dan took me to a "non" Mother's Day dinner, we went to this place at the South Coast Plaza called Anqi. It was AMAZING! We had some fillet pot stickers to start and then I had the rack of lamb with marble potatoes and a golden curry sauce, and Dan had short ribs with sweet potato polenta and plum sauce. It was so so good! Then at church on Sunday they had the men take over for the women in Primary so Dan, with one of our our home teachers, taught my Ctr 4 class. He had so much fun with them, and like a little mom I missed them like crazy and ran from the relief society room to class room so I could see them before they left, so silly I know!
ONE last exciting piece of info! DAN & I SET OUR TEMPLE SEALING DATE!! We will be sealed September 24, 2011 in the San Diego temple!! We can't wait!!
I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day and I will try to be better at posting!!

We're ALIVE!! ;)

2011-01-19T18:08:00.001-08:00

Whoa I can't believe it's ALREADY 2011!! 3 words: THAT-CAME-FAST!! 2010 was such an amazing blur for us but we have a lot of really wonderful moments to look back on, and things we will remember for the rest of our lives.. #1 being the WEDDING!! I can't believe it's already been 4 months, and things are finally starting to settle down a little.

Well, I feel we should do a little catch up and then hopefully I can get better at posting more! Dan is still working as a product manager for Experian and loving it!! It's a great job and we are so blessed that he has it!! He hasn't had a lot of time (and the weather hasn't cooperated very well) to do one of the thing he loves most, if anyone knows Dan they know what it is! Cycling!! He was able to go out last weekend and had such a great time and from what he says he wants to do the Century ride again down to San Diego (over 100 miles! GO BABE GO!). This brings back a few memories because the first night we started talking was after he did that back in 2009. He has the summer to prepare and his wife as his little cheerleader on the side.
I right now am no longer working at the dental office in Laguna Hills. My last day was last Thursday and in no way is that depressing. I decided to look for something closer to home and something that I felt I could see myself at longer. So I am currently a stay at home wife. It's quite boring for me.. so hopefully I will be able to come across something soon that seems like a good fit for me! Also I am the new primary CTR 4 teacher at church. That's right, 4, as in 4 year olds. After I received the calling Dan and I are sitting in sacrament and I turn to him and asked, "What does a 4 year old look like?" For those of you who don't know, SMALL is the answer! They are sooo little!! But I am already starting to fall in love with them! They are so sweet and have such amazing spirits! I know this calling is more for me than for them!
So between everything we are just working on building our humble little apartment into a home. It's slowly getting there!! On Monday our newest addition arrived!! (My new favorite thing!) Our kitchen table!! We had a folding table up and some bar stools up to the counter but it's just not the same. We also just finished our last week of our temple prep class! When we decided to get married on the beach our goal was the following year to get sealed. So this September (maybe October we still have to pick a date) we will be sealed in the San Diego temple! We are so excited and I personally can't wait for it get here!!
We hope everyone is doing well and had a great holiday! I promise we will work harder on posting.. please don't delete us yet!! ;)

"THE WEDDING"

2010-10-14T11:14:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay in posting! As we were wedding planning I kept thinking, "Man, what did we ever do with our time before we were planning this wedding, and what are we going to do with our time AFTER we get married?" I didn't realize that right away you have a about 92,000 things you have to do and take care of! So now things have settle a little it's on to the posting. And we will be turning this into our "Family Blog" now so stay connected! :) ((& I promise we will try to be better at posting more often!!))

First off here are a couple links for you!! This first one HERE is a video that my new cousin Shelly's husband, Kevin (did that make sense??) captured on his Iphone and edited and put to a beautiful song for us. It was sooo awesome for him to do for us! We got home from our honeymoon and hadn't seen any pictures except for the ones the photographer had on his slide show from the ceremony. So It was an amazing surprise to come home too! We watched it 3 times the night we got in and went through about 20 tissues!

This next link HERE is the slide show our photographer put together for us with some of the photos he took from the wedding and reception. He did such an GREAT job and we are sooo glad we chose him!! He is excellent!!

Alright on to some details! We got married on the beach at Corona Del Mar (which the first time I saw it I told Dan that was where I wanted to get married!) Now if you've been there before you know how beautiful it is and how long of a ramp you have to go down to get to the beach. So Dan was at the bottom on the sand with the bishop and everyone waiting for his beautiful bride (that's me!) ;) So once it was time I went and stood on this little platform with my 2 brothers who walked me down the isle where he couldn't see me but I was able to look down and watch everything happen. So first my cute little nephew Brecken starts walking down the isle, and then I watch as all of my bridesmaids and his groomsmen start walking down.. I began to get nervous and excited all at once! It was so cool to watch all of that happening from up above and know it was all for us! Then we had our reception at the Radisson in Newport Beach, it turned out great! It was so much fun! I received the same piece of advise from multiple people not to stress and just enjoy the day because it goes so fast.. which it did!! So that's exactly what I did.. after the reception line and the first dances, the DJ cranked up some jams and I hit the dance floor! It was soo fun!! Then at the very end my bridesmaids thought it would be cool to jump in the pool! I was all for this!! So I grabbed my photographer and I pretended to jump and the actually did jump in the pool! It was soo awesome I had the best bridesmaids ever!! Then Dan and I headed off for Jamaica!! ((to be continued..)

This is me walking my brothers down the isle lol I was to focused on holding on the my dress and bouquet that I didn't realize that it looks like I'm walking them down the isle.. I was READY!

Our Bishop married us, he just got called this summer and it was his first wedding but he did an EXCELLENT job! It was very beautiful!

MR. & MRS. SMITH!!

My BEAUTIFUL flower girls and adorable new nieces Abby & Aubri! I adore them!

The girls: Allison, Destany, Brittney, Aubri, Abby, Me, Heather, Amanda, & Angela

Our families!

Walking in for our first dance!

Our first dance: "Everything" by Lifehouse

And I had to throw in this picture of our AMAZING cupcakes.. they were sooo yummy!!

Marriage License Makes it Almost Official

2010-08-15T17:02:00.000-07:00

ALMOST official. Recently Amanda and I took a next step in advancing our upcoming marriage to civic officialdom. We bought our marriage license!

On a morning that Amanda didn't start work until a little later than usual, and I could go in a little later than usual, we embarked on a 2-car convoy to the Laguna Hills Civic Center very near to her work. The convoy:

The beautiful Civic Center:

Here is Amanda walking into the Orange County Clerk-Recorder office at the Civic Center:

We entered armed with our valid forms of identification, a check for $61.50, and our high spirits. We had reserved a time via their online scheduling time reserving tool, and thus moved straight to the front of the line. I guess I was expecting a little more fanfare about the whole marriage license process, but it was simply a quick trip to the same counter that everyone else used. Here we are at the counter:

The guy (I don't remember his name - you can see him in the background) had us fill out some info, entered said info into the computer, then had us raise our right hands. He said his official shpeil, we verbally agreed, paid our $61.50, and then he gave us the official form with said info on it, along with a manila envelope. The official form turned out to be the "License and Certificate of Marriage!" He instructed us that it was valid for 90 days, and to send it in after we are married. And to have a good day, we could leave. Done and done.

So we left. And we were thinking: was that it? It was somewhat anti-climatic, to be honest. Where was the judge in the gown? The cheers from the crowd? The pomp? The glamor? Well, I guess that comes later. You've got to walk before you run, right? For now, we'll have to be content with our manila envelope. :)

Invitations “R” Us!

2010-07-15T23:32:00.000-07:00

The next major milestone in our Road to the Wedding was completed last week – the wedding invitations! Let me first say how thankful we are to Jessica Sandberg, our good friend and incredibly talented designer. Jessica is the one who designed our amazing invitations. They came out better than we could ever imagine – we are so pleased with them, and thankful to her. She had made a Christmas card we loved, and the very night we got engaged, Amanda proclaimed that she wanted Jessica to design our invitations. Lo and behold, Jessica volunteered to do so, for which we are forever grateful.

We are also thankful to all you who have told us how beautiful, original, unique, gorgeous, cool (etc) the invitations are. We must tell you – we concur!! And we thank you… thanks for taking the time to tell us that – each of your comments makes our day; we’ve received so many supportive comments, and we’re very, very thankful to you. And we must deflect those compliments to Jessica and her creativity & talents, and to our photographer Alex Morgan and his incredible skills – without them, those invitations do not exist.

How about some invitation pictures and fun info? We ended up sending out 360+ invitations… and counting! First, we folded all the invitations (they have 3 folds each). Then Amanda addressed each and every one of those invitation envelopes by hand! I was amazed at the amount of time and focus she put into it – she was relentless. One Saturday, she spent about 6 hours just addressing invitations! Her perseverance was very impressive.

Here is my tenacious honey, deep in the throes of invitation addressing:

After all the addressing was finished, and Amanda’s hand stopped cramping (ok, it didn’t actually cramp), we had a raucous envelope-stuffing party. Stamp, return address label, glue… stamp, return address label, glue… over and over. We took turns on the different jobs. It actually went pretty quickly, and it was fun – we listened to music and got to see all your names and think of you individually as we put the envelopes together… a nice trip down memory lane.

The invitation motherload, before its next stop at the post office:

Displaying the fruits of our labor:

I took all the invitations to the local Huntington Beach post office (yes, the one on Atlanta, Mom :) ) before work last Friday, and dropped them off, some going as far away as England, Chile, and Tahiti. Bon voyage, little invitations! We are still putting some together and sending more out as more addresses come in to us.

What a wonderful experience the whole wedding invitation process was! Once in a lifetime moments, and we made the most of them and cherished them.

PICTURES!! (with link to slide show!)

2010-06-23T12:58:00.000-07:00

One of the biggest decisions you have to make when planning your wedding is who your photographer is going to be. Pictures are what you take and have with you forever! We spent hours looking through portfolios and websites looking for a photographer! We found A LOT of good ones, but good wasn't what we were looking for. A lot of people can be good photographer but it takes someone special to be an excellent one, to not just have style and creativity, but also an artistic eye that can see things other people can't.

Then we found Alex!

We loved his work. I sent over an email and he quickly called me back. After talking with him, I booked him for wedding and engagements! Dan and I were very excited, and on June 6th we went out with Alex and did our engagement shoot. After getting my hair and make up done, we met up with Alex in Laguna Beach. We started off at Victoria Beach. Dan and I had never been there before, but it was a really awesome spot and we will definitely be going back in the future.

After doing some shots there, we went to downtown Laguna and walked around with Alex following us. Someone made a comment to me after they had seen the slide show that it just looked like there was someone following us around as we lived life, which is what it felt like. He gave direction at times but a lot of it was just us doing our thing. One of the things we loved the most about Alex was he wasn't afraid to do what to took to get the shot he wanted, like laying in the sand, sitting on the side of the road, etc.

Then after downtown, we walked down to another beach in Laguna to get a few more beach shots. The sun hadn't come out at all and it was pretty cold. I wanted to get some pictures of us in the water and Dan had already told me that he wouldn't be doing that. (he does not like to be cold) After we got down there and he knew how much it meant to me he agreed and we went playing in the water! IT WAS COLD!! But we are so glad we did because we were able to get some really great shots! Then within a few days Alex quickly got them turned around and put our slide show together for us! So here is our slide show.. (make sure you turn up the volume and listen to the words) Hope you enjoy it!

Also, I just want to tell Dan how much I love him. He is the best thing that has ever happened to me! I love that man with all of my heart and NEVER in a million years did I ever think there would be someone out there as amazing, sweet, caring, and kind as he is to me! He truly is MY EVERYTHING! I love you so much, FOREVER!

Let there be CAKE!!.. ((& cupcakes!!))

2010-06-17T21:39:00.000-07:00

Over the past month and a half Dan and I have discovered many exciting activities that come along with wedding planning. Recently I discovered that cake tasting was among my favorites!

Dan and I decided we wanted to do the traditional "cake cutting" at our wedding, but what we really wanted was mini cupcakes. So we decided on a cupcake tower with a small cake at the top and mini cupcakes on the tiers. I began searching the Internet for bakeries that had mini cupcakes and did wedding cakes as well, but to no avail.

Then one day I remembered that about a year and a half ago (maybe a little longer) I really started getting into cooking and LOVED looking at cooking blogs. I added a few to the side bar on my blog page, one of them being My Sweet and Saucy. The baker/blog writer, Melody, didn't have recipes for me to try like my other cooking blogs but she had picture upon picture of gorgeous cakes and cupcakes and mini pies and cake ball pops and candies and cookies etc. So to gather some more ideas, I decided to go to her website and get some ideas on some cakes and cupcakes for our wedding.

I began looking through post after post on her blog and got some really good ideas and saw a few things I really liked. Then I saw a tab at the top that said Sweet and Saucy Shop! I clicked it wondering if maybe they could ship or something?? I didn't expect that at all, just high hopes I guess. So once in there I hit the contact button to see where they were located, and about jumped up and down and all around when I saw LONG BEACH, CA!! If you're not to familiar with So Cal, it is neighbors with Huntington Beach. The shop was only about 15-20 min from my house! I text Dan and emailed them right away. They got back to me with an appointment time to come in for a TASTING! ((this is the fun, and VERY yummy part))

I already knew I loved Melody's work, we just wanted to make sure it tasted good too. (and who can really turn up a chance of eating cupcake upon cupcake with the thought that you NEED to be doing this right now for the benefit of you wedding?) So we drove down there and met with her assitant, Hayley, who gave us about 8 different cupcakes to try. There were so many flavors and icings and designs to choose from and taste. We found many that we loved, and some.. not so much. Dan's favorites were.. well if you know Dan, you know his favorites were any that had chocolate. Mine was the Candy Bar and the Red Velvet! They were sooo delicious! The Candy Bar was by far the best! ((I won't tell you all of the flavors we chose but I will say if you come to our wedding, you will be able to try the candy bar cupcake))

After all of the fun of devouring the cupcakes and trying all of the flavors we got to talk about the design for the cake. She had a fun ipad i got to play with and look through pictures and tell her exactly what I want so they could start coming up with sketches for my cake! It was all so much fun and very delicious! I think about our little cupcakes often and get very excited for our wedding day, just to eat more of those amazing little treats!

A Shinoda Afternoon - Centerpieces Galore!

2010-06-08T21:50:00.000-07:00

So every Saturday of late seems to be occupied with wedding stuff... like, hours of wedding stuff. ;) This last Saturday was no exception. Amanda and I took a journey to Shinoda Design Center, located in a not-too-praiseworthy part of Santa Ana. We've gone to a few different places looking for materials for the reception centerpieces, but haven't found the quality and quantity we needed. I personally didn't have very high expectations of Shinoda.

I was proven wrong. Yet again. (Much to my dismay, this seems to be happening quite often in this wedding process. However, the silver lining to that dark cloud is that if I am wrong, that usually means Amanda is right, which makes me happy too. So really, there are no losers here).

It turns out Shinoda is, in fact, the "Design Center." This place is like the Costco of decorating, design, and crafts goodies: vases, silk flowers, fake foliage, ribbons, containers, candles, fake food... you name it, you can find it at Shinoda. And it's all set up like a big Costco-type warehouse; it's really quite amazing:

Rows and rows and rows of design & decorating materials. We kept remarking how this was a dream place for our sisters and mothers - indeed, Amanda found it quite dreamy. She didn't want to leave. She kept finding new things she loved every 5 steps; plus, we were having too much fun...

Here she is stalking a fake bear amongst the fake trees:

Here she is being chased by said fake bear:

I made friends with a fake bear:

Eventually, we stopped fooling around, got serious, and got down to the business of finding and selecting the perfect items for our centerpieces, then spending money. We found everything we needed - it was truly ideal. (Again, that's the part where I was proven wrong.)

So we went up to the registers to pay only to learn that Shinoda is in fact a business-to-business member's club, and in order to be part of this club, you must be a business owner and present your business license to the crabby old lady behind the customer service counter. Or to the crabby young lady behind the other customer service counter. We love California customer service.

Neither of us have a business license, and couldn't pretend that we did. We were about to give up when the very nice lady in front of me in line offered to let us use her membership! It was incredibly kind of her. We took her up on her offer and bought a very respectable haul. Hopefully she got some membership frequent flier points, or something like that - she deserves them. Thank you, kind lady, wherever you are.

We weren't intending to buy all the stuff we did, but it was a fortunate opportunity and we made the most of it. Out in the parking lot, we encountered a challenge loading up our new treasures into my little 2-seater car. In the end, we stuffed my trunk totally full and were forced to spill a few items into the passenger's side. Poor Amanda was a little cramped:

Ah, but another item checked off our wedding list! Amanda found everything her little heart desired for the centerpieces, which are going to look very cool, by the way. I am forbidden by my more beautiful half to post any pictures of the centerpiece - you'll just have to come to the reception to see them! :)

We're Registered!!

2010-06-04T10:29:00.000-07:00

So much has been happening SOO fast!! First things first! If you haven't noticed we added some little links to our sidebar!! We got our registering done!! We are offically registered at Macy's, Target, and Sandals! It was so much fun to go in and pick out things we wanted and use the little scan gun.

Target: one weekend we went to Target and registered there. We got really excited about a few things we picked: I was really excited about a patio set, and Dan couldn't decide what he was more excited about - the shredder or the safe box (His job at Experian/Protectmyid.com fits him well). Here is our Target registry (you can just search by our names).

My first scan:

Dan's first scan:

Macy's: the next weekend we spent registering at Macy's - picking out dishes, cooking utensils and some home decor! We ended up going to two different Macy's and spending almost 6 hours there! They've got a lot of great stuff. Macy's even gave us a snazzy red Victorinox bag for free! Here is our Macy's registry (you can just search by our names).

Sandals: our third and final place we registered was Sandals. You see, we booked our honeymoon at a Sandals resort ((there will be a post about that coming up soon.. we have been VERY busy this week)) and they offer a registry there. Dan and I would love to do a few tours & activities, a spa session, a romantic candlelight dinner on the beach... and the Sandal's registery is a very cool way to help us make these memories on our honeymoon! Here is our Sandal's registry (you can just search by our names).

It was so fun registering; I think it helped us realize, WOW after this big wedding we will be MARRIED! Haha you already know that, but once you're picking things for your home together and talking about what colors to do your bathroom, it all kind of sinks in a little more!

Returning to the Scene of the Crime

2010-05-16T19:59:00.000-07:00

Just a couple of weeks into our engagement and we returned yesterday to the "scene of the crime" - Robbin's Bros, "the World's Largest Engagement Ring Store", where Dan bought Amanda's ring - to meet Dan's co-conspirator, Mary Ann, the diamond ring guru. Dan was very excited to have Amanda meet Mary Ann, who was so instrumental in picking out our beautiful diamond ring. He also wanted to show Amanda where all the ring-selecting action unfolded.

After free water, a cup of hot chocolate (for Dan), and some Hershey's kisses, Amanda was able to inspect her diamond ring up close and personal under the microscope! After seeing her ring in magnified detail, she was truly amazed by not just the ring in general but by the beauty and quality of the diamond itself. She was also amazed by what her fingernail looked like under that power of magnification. :) Anyway, it was really cool for Amanda to experience a little of what Dan experienced when he bought the ring almost 2 months ago.

Mary Ann was incredibly nice and helpful, as always. One goal of the visit was for Dan to pick out his wedding band. He found exactly what he wanted - a classy, solid white gold band, no frills or designs. He is giddily excited about his ring. He can't wait to be the White Gold Wielder. (50 pts to anyone who knows what he's referring to).

Another goal of the visit was to get Amanda's ring re-sized. Her ring is size 4.5, which if you can believe it, is too large. We discovered size 4 really suits her better. But we would need to send the ring back to Tacori (the manufacturer) for the best re-sizing job, and that will take 3-4 weeks. We're going to wait until July to do that. In the meantime, Mary Ann, the savvy and professional salesperson, suggested that Amanda consider getting a simple, nice wedding band to wear in place of her wedding ring during the re-sizing period, as well as during our honeymoon - we don't want to bring her bling out of the country (a word of advice given to us by many people).

So, like a good fiance, Dan went ahead and bought Amanda a very pretty wedding band that will be ready in time for the re-sizing so that she doesn't have to pretend to be un-engaged. :) Amanda was very stoked and had a lot of fun picking it out.

Finally, after all this, Mary Ann had a wonderful surprise up her sleeve (almost literally). She brought out a very cool handmade bead bracelet that she made, and gave it to Amanda, who loved it. It was extremely cool of her. Very sweet. Anyone want to place an order? :)

Dan's wedding ring picked out... Amanda's ring re-sizing set up... Amanda's new wedding band purchased... the gift of a new bead bracelet... All in all, the return to Robbin's Bros was a success!

Reception Place [check]!!

2010-05-16T13:57:00.000-07:00

Dan and I have been CRAZY busy trying to get everything together for the wedding. I didn't realize how much work went into wedding planning. The past 2 weekends have been very productive. We had been searching for a place to have our reception, and it seemed like every place I called was already booked for our wedding day.

Well, I found the Newport Beach Radisson through theknot.com, and they had an outdoor pavilion that we really liked. So I called and talked to the woman in charge of events and catering, Linda. She, like everyone else I'd talked to, said that September 18th was already booked. She was trying to offer different days, and then I asked if it was booked all day. She said that it was actually open during the day - it was only booked after 7pm. I told her we would think about it and get back to her. Dan and I played around with the idea of having an afternoon reception and we decided that it was actually a great idea and that we wanted to do it.

So last Saturday, May 8th, we went and took a look at it - it was bright and airy and a good fit for what we were looking for. Linda ended up giving us a very good deal. Needless to say we booked it!! It's official - our afternoon reception will be on Sep 18, 2010 in the Pavilion at the Radisson Newport Beach. Here it is:

Also the Radisson is giving a special discount to our out of town guests! They are offering anyone that is coming from out of town for our wedding a discount on a room. It will be $99 per night without breakfast or $109 a night with breakfast (normally it's $159 a night without breakfast). How to book: just call the Radisson (949-833-0570) and let them know you are booking under the Hillman/Smith wedding.

The Radisson is 0.5 miles from the Orange County- John Wayne (SNA) airport, on the corner of MacArthur and Birch. If you have any questions, you can call either Dan or me. We are getting very excited and want to thank everyone again for all your love and support!

Welcome to our wedding blog!

2010-05-02T12:02:00.000-07:00

Dan and Amanda have chosen to be married on Saturday, September 18, 2010! The wedding and reception will be in Southern California, with an open house in Minnesota shortly thereafter (date tbd). We will be updating this blog with all pertinent wedding and reception/open house information to keep everyone informed and in the loop.

Follow our blog to stay abreast of any new developments, important info, and other exciting things related to our big day! Feel free to comment and send us any questions. Our new email is damandasmith2010(at)gmail.com!

Thank you for your love and support! We can't wait to see all of our family and friends during this special time!