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Dear Familia,

My recent visit home to AZ was very productive wedding wise. Zane and his Mom flew out for a weekend and we got busy! We decided on a reception venue, booked a rehearsal dinner site, took Zane and his Mom to see our Church, found a house for Zane and his groomsmen to rent, updated our wedding website with accommodation information, and looked at houses for Zane's family to rent. I'm really excited to work on the details of the wedding now that we have the big things set. The best part of the weekend was having Zane's Mom meet the Garcia clan. It gave me a little taste of what the wedding will be like...bringing all our family and friends together for a once in a lifetime event :)

My trip home was also great because I spent a lot of time with my siblings. We watched a ton of movies, ate a lot of junk food, and tried to keep cool in the AZ heat. Unfortunately there was not a lot of picture taking happening, but it was very fun. Kaiya had her first birthday while I was visiting. On her actually birthday, Tara and I went to get her first pedicure and then out for a birthday cupcake. A couple of days later, on my last day home, she had a pool party. Definitely a great way to end my visit!

Birthday girl and her Mom in the pedi chair :)

Toes all done

Cupcakes by Roberta!

"Reading" her card, precious!

Love,

Jem

PS Zane actually did an incredible amount of work for the wedding, but I loved that picture and had to post it <3

This Weekend

Dear Familia,

Sorry for the long absence. It's been a crazy past few days! I've been doing Apple stuff everyday since Thursday and it was Zane's Dad's 60th birthday on Saturday. Zane's Mom did an awesome job throwing him a big surprise party and we all had a great time. It was catered by a lebanese restaurant and the food was delicious. I will post a follow up just on the food. Oh and we had our marriage prep class! It was all about finances which I think may have been uncomfortable for some people. We had some great facilitators though that made things pretty fun.

I fly to AZ on Friday for a 10 day wedding planning extravaganza and Tara and Kaiya's birthdays :) Zane and his Mom are flying out for the holiday weekend to check on reception venue possibilities as well as where guests can stay. Should be very fun and I will hopefully have some exciting updates to the wedding website when I get back.

Love,

Jem

The Ring

Dear Familia,

I've had lots of requests pertaining to the ring, so I thought I would give you some fun details.

1. The ring was custom made from a designer Zane found on Etsy*. Her name is Kate Szaabone and you can click on her name to see more of her work.

2. Knowing how much it would mean to me, Zane looked for a ring with a conflict-free stone. This one happens to be moissanite which is said to have "been born from the stars" and was originally found in a meteor crater in Arizona!

3. I'm not really a jewelry kind of girl, but Zane wanted me to have something special and he really just did an amazing job finding a ring that I love.

*I will have to do a different post about Etsy one of these days because I am obsessed.

The first three photos are courtesy of the jeweler and the last one is courtesy of yours truly :)

Paz,

Jem

Pinterest

Source: thebridesguide.marthastewartweddings.com via Jeramia on Pinterest

Dear Ladies in my Life (LIML),

Ok, I am definitely obsessed with this site. Basically anything you see on the internet, you can "pin" onto one of your "boards" for future reference. For example, I have some wedding boards set up so when I see something I like for the wedding, I "pin" it onto the appropriate board and later on down the line I can refer back to the board to remember what I liked. It is the eco-friendly way to keep an inspiration binder :)

Click here to check mine out:

Paz,

Jem

Viva la Raza!

Check out Style Me Pretty's Shoot Here

Dear Familia,

Happy 5 de Mayo everyone! Although most people don't know the actual reason for the holiday (the Mexican defeat of the French in the Battle of Puebla and not Mexico's Independence Day which is September 16th), it is a fantastic way to celebrate Mexican pride and eat amazingly delicious food.

This year it was especially fun to see some of the wedding blogs feature some hispanic flavor in their posts today and reminded me of all of the great details I'll be able to use at my wedding!

Paz,

Jem

Wedding Questions

Dear Familia,

Since we've only been engaged 3 days, we still do not have a lot of the details ironed out. However, we do know that there is a 99% chance that it will be at All Saints Roman Catholic Parish in Mesa, Arizona in 2012 ;) What, not enough details for you?? Haha.

As some of you may know, I am currently waiting anxiously to hear back from Georgetown Law regarding my admission off their wait-list (and thus into the dual MPP/JD program with the public policy school). Their seat deposits are due today so I should find out in the next couple of weeks if I am in or not. Until then, it is hard to nail down the date which in turn makes it hard to nail down pretty much anything else. We have a list of 9 possible dates (compiled by my amazing fiance using my academic calendar) and I will let everyone know as soon as we choose one! Expect a wedding website to be up and running by June 1st.

Paz,

Jem

Engaged! (a recap of the bday weekend)

Dear Familia,

My birthday festivities started at midnight on April 29th and continued right through till Sunday morning! On Saturday afternoon Sam and Sarah, Tara and her family, Roberta, and Sari and her kids came over for the Grilled Cheese Party. It was great to have everyone over, especially because Zane made a birthday toast that turned into a proposal that I happily accepted!! He got down on one knee and everything :) After the party, Auntie Lisa invited us out to Queen Creek for a celebratory sushi dinner that was delicious and so fun. Then we had breakfast with Auntie Lucy on Sunday morning before Zane flew back to DC. It was an incredible weekend to say the least! Unfortunately only cell phone pics were taken of us after the engagement, but I will make sure we have some beauties on our wedding website!

Paz,

Jem

Kaiya's 1st Steps

Dear Tara,

Does this seem like she was auditioning for "flower girl" or what? Taking her first steps just a few minutes before Zane proposes, how ridiculously cute :)

Paz,

Tia Mia

Royal Wedding

Dear Roberta,

Since you have a fondness in your heart for “the other side of the pond,” I thought you would appreciate this….Seriously the first thing I did this morning was spring out of bed and check out some Royal Wedding pics (This pic via nytimes). Kate’s veil was gorgeous

and her dress was very Grace Kelley-esque. I thought as the possible future Queen of England, she might go a more dramatic route, but she stuck with simple and timeless. I caught a glimpse of the MOH’s (her sister) dress and it looked pretty fantastic. I actually saw a few articles saying she had upstaged the bride! I can’t wait to get home and check out more coverage on the big day!

I am obsessed with royal wedding fashion. It’s so classic and elegant. Seriously.

Paz,

Jem