The day is almost here

2 more days! I can't believe how fast the days have gone by. I remember talking with Nelson and saying how there's 100 and something days till the wedding and now we're down to 2. I think we're pretty much set. We had the wedding rehersal last Monday night, and everything went well. The bridesmaids have their dresses, I got my dress back from Lori, I made more copies of the program, Nelson got the apple cider and Nelson and a few of the other groomsmen are waiting to get their tux measurements fixed. Nelson and I are making our final payments to vendors/services this week.

I enjoyed decorating the church alongside some of the sisters last monday for the rehersal. Nelson picked an awesome week to get married; since it's holiday week there are no ministries going on which meant the church was free all week, which saved us a lot of time. I was able to see how the cermony was going to look, and honestly that was when it all started to kick in for me. I'm sure having the flowers there and and everyone dressed up will give it the full effect too.

Praise God that a lot got done in four months. I don't think a long engagement to plan a wedding is worth it, since everything can get done within months.

Anyway, I haven't packed yet for Maui and I don't think i'll be able to today because I have work tonight until midnight. Yet another year for me to work during New Years eve countdown! Oh well.

My sister is coming in today with her fiance tonight, my dad will be picking them up at the airport. She still needs to see Lori tomorrow to pick up her bridesmaid dress.

I think tomorrow i'm going to try to finally be able to pack for our honeymoon and move in my stuff at Nelson's house. Nelson made me a really nice green house key for me last night at Wal-Mart! Like I always tell Nelson, i'm looking foward to our slumber partys each night where we can watch movies late and eat popcorn! =D

Biggest Loser

I am the biggest, and I am the loser. I guess the holidays weren't kind to me. As of this morning, I'm officially putting an end to this contest. My final result:

206

Ouch! So after all is said and done, after the months of eating healthy (yeah, right) and exercising (well, at least a little bit), I ended up with a net gain of two pounds. In the words of Jennifer Aniston, "that's not cool." Anyway, I guess it's not bad... but it's not good. Probably the only positive that I can take from this is that I now have a "pre-wedding weight." Months and years from now, I'll have a goal that I can shoot for.

Oh, by the way, did you realize that the wedding is...

FOUR DAYS FROM NOW!!!

Numbers

Having a job as an accountant, I see lots of numbers throughout my day. Here are a few numbers for you:

16 - days left till our wedding. Can you believe it?
17 - days till we're in Hawaii for our honeymoon. Definitely much warmer over there.
8 - days till Christmas
7 - days left for me to start and finish my Christmas shopping
14 - days since we've last posted a blog entry. Sorry guys; it's been busy.
63 - days since I've posted an entry in my own blog. Slacker.
204 - my weight in pounds when we started our Wedding Weigh-In weight loss challenge
198 - my lowest weight in pounds during our challenge (about two weeks ago)
203 - argh... my weight in pounds the last time I checked (about a week ago)
124 - Cy's weight in pounds when we started the challenge
118 - Cy's lowest weight during our challenge (two or so weeks ago)
? - Cy's current weight
9 - days till our challenge is over
290 - guests (ourselves included) attending our wedding
260 - guests our reception hall can accommodate (in a dining setting). Um... you do the math.
48 - degrees (F) that my thermostat read inside my house when I woke up this morning. Once I get married, I can't be as cheap... er.... cost-conscious when it comes to turning on the heater to keep the house warm.

Christmas Cards

Nelson and I made our very first Christmas card together at Costco, not as a married couple though but as an engaged couple. Watch out for that.

Where We Are

Wedding Weigh-in Week 5

11/26/08
Nelson - 201
Cyryl - 121

What happened to week 4? Whoops! Anyway, here's where we are.

FYI, I weighed myself on the Friday after Thanksgiving, and it's not looking so good. BUT... it's not official till we both weigh in, so we'll wait till week 6.

BTW, can you believe it's only 34 more days away?

NO MORE EATING OUT!

I've been pretty unhappy with my weight lately, i guess the fact that I know that the wedding is like a month and a half away is making it worse. I made a promise to myself this week that I'm no longer going to eat out (as much) anymore, maybe at the most once a week. I also started counting calories today. Hopefully this dedication and hard work will pay off in the long when i beat Nelson!

Centerpieces

After a bit of procastination, i finally ordered the centerpieces for the wedding reception! I thought of getting these bamboo fountain centerpieces to go with our bamboo theme (i needed something to match with the bamboo in front of our wedding invitations). It's pretty cool because it's cordless and works on two double A batteries, u just add water and a tealight and you're set! I know people usually use flower centerpieces for weddings but Nelson and I wanted something else that was more original.

Favor

Our wedding favors came in the mail a couple weeks ago, so all we needed to do was add a little personal touch to it. My parents offered to help in the assembling of it, so we passed it off to them. Major props to them, because they are more than 2/3 the way through with it. I thought it would take a lot longer, but they have been plugging away at it.

Progress?

Wedding Weigh-In Week 3

Nelson - 202
Cyryl - 124

Hmm... progress? Sure doesn't look like it. I guess we slipped a little this week. But maybe this isn't the case. We've been eating pretty conservatively and have been in the gym pretty regularly. Well, you know that I'm in the gym pretty much every day, but Cy has been there a couple times this week already. I can't make any excuses for me, but Cy has probably put on a little muscle, which reflects the gain in weight. Still, she hasn't gained any more than when we first started. And as long as we're feeling more fit, that's all that matters, right?

Wedding Weigh-In Week 2

Ok... update on where we are:

Nelson - 201
Cyryl - 122

In all fairness, Cy has been sick these past couple of days, so she hasn't been able to work out as much. We've been watching what we're eating, but it'll get tougher as the holidays approach. The contest continues...

Two To Go

Two months to go? You've got to be kidding. Nope. Two months (ok, 59 days) left till 129. We're still on track with everything. We've enlisted the aid of Leilani to help and manage the reception. We're done scanning our pictures, and we passed them on to Tim who's helping us with our slide show. We picked our song for our first dance, and we're pretty sure of the music that we've selected for the ceremony. Most of the invitations went out this weekend; we'll send the remainder through the mail or hand deliver them within the next couple of days. Cy's bridal shower invitations went out as well. (Hmm... I guess I need to get my bachelor party planned, huh? Time to ask my groomsmen to set that up for me.) HUGE props to Amy P for the wedding invitations and bridal shower invitations - nothing but complements on these. We picked up our plates, utensils, and napkins at my favorite store; we're seriously there at least a couple of times each week. Drinks are almost all taken care of. Time to make arrangements for appetizers (probably from my favorite store again), and we'll probably order the rest of the food pretty soon too. Wedding favors have arrived, and we need to add some personal touches to it. We picked up our marriage license a couple weeks ago; we're officially married... just kidding. The marriage license gives us permission to get married by someone who is legally able to perform a ceremony.

So, just a few little details left. That's a good thing, because we're running out of weekends. Thanksgiving, Christmas, snowboarding... it's getting busy. (Ok... snowboarding may have to take a back seat... I said it MAY have to.)

It's almost here. We're so excited! Continue to keep us in your prayers. God has been faithful to sustain us, and He continues to do so.

Wedding Weigh-in Week 1

Nelson and I just began a competition against eachother to see who can be the most fit by the time of our wedding. We've gone to the gym together twice this week and we're trying hard to watch what we eat. 2 months left!

So far, i'm in the lead!

Monday 10.27.08 (1st day) weigh in.
Nelson: 203 lbs.
Cyryl: 124 lbs.

Saturday 11.1.08 weigh in.
Nelson: 202 lbs.
Cyryl: 121 lbs.

Engagement Pictures

Thanks to Tammy Bicknell for taking our engagement pictures, the pictures came out great! She took the pictures at Nut Tree Theme Park up in Vacaville.

Hit Up

Get ready to get hit up for your assistance. We've already asked a few of you for assistance on specific things for the wedding ceremony and reception. We met with Vivian earlier in the week for a second time regarding the wedding planning. There's a lot of us stuff that needs to get taken care of for this tremendous event that's going to take place 78 days from now. Praise God for the body and all the support that people have been giving us - the counsel, advice, prayers, and offerings to help in any way. For those of you who have offered to help, we're gonna take you up on that offer very soon. And for those of you who haven't, we're gonna ask you anyway. Haha! Seriously though, God has gifted many in our local body with particular skills and talents, and He uses each of us to minister to one another. Amazing, the church body! As the years have gone by, I've had the privilege of helping out in several weddings in several different capacities. Now, it's neat to be on the receiving end of that service. I can now see how God was able to use me to minister to my other brothers and sisters on their special days.

Details

Now that all the big things are taken care of by the groom, it's up to the bride to work on the details!

The wedding invitations are coming out soon, but Amy is working on the final touches. I have to go to the post office and get one of them weighed to approximate the cost of postage for the reply cards.

I was able to purchase the cupcake tower last night from cupcaketree.com. I'm really excited to customize it to fit our colors. For the cupcake tower..I was unable to have Aileen Bagalso create the top cake because I was uninformed that she will be expecting at the time of our wedding. First off, I didn't know she was even pregnant! That was a surprise. But anyway, my search came to a close today because my friend Charmaine from school is really good at making cakes, I asked her today and she said yes. Mission accomplished.

The girls were able to get measured by Lori Elfman from church for the bridesmaid dresses. I even had her take a look at my bridal gown to see what she could do to alter it.

In the next few weeks i'm going to be looking for a florist (i'm not really sure on the color/style I want ) and the linens (chairs with sashes and table linens) for the reception hall.

On Our Way

It's been awhile (again) since I posted. Most of the major things are taken care of. As I mentioned, I already booked the honeymoon. The reception spot is set, and I've paid the remaining balance on it. The church building is set for the ceremony. We figured out how we're gonna do food at the reception. After a bit of research, we booked our photographer. We got a DJ. We have our emcees. We started up our registries at Target and Wal-Mart. I picked up Cy's wedding band from Blue Nile. We're well on our way. Next thing for me is to find tuxes for myself and the groomsmen.

Wedding Tower

Nelson and I fell in love with Walter and Kristine's cupcake tower idea at their wedding instead of a traditional wedding cake that we decided to have the same, except customized to our colors and style. I love the idea of not having to cut the cake for the guests, and everyone having the same size cakes too. As of now, Chona will be doing the cupcakes but we'll be asking someone else to make the top cake for the tower (the one that we're going to cut for the pictures)..but I think we have someone in mind =D

Invitations

Amy Pulanco will be designing our wedding invitations for us. It is currently in the works as of now and will be getting handed out/shipped out to people soon. =D

Wedding band for him

So after we finally found out Nelson's ring size...we began to start our lil adventure to look for a ring for him. I guess we really do think alike, when I was looking up ring ideas online I came across ones with milgrain on it and thought that it would suit his personality and taste..and surprisingly, that was something Nelson was looking for. After going to so many jewelry stores with him and looking online, he found one he liked at Kay Jewelers. Good thing about it was that it was on sale! So I was able to purchase his ring there last Friday. They were unable to order one that came in the size 9 3/4 but they told me that they could have their display resized and polished and everything. I never really thought about it, but wedding bands for guys are like the only piece of jewelry a guy will ever wear his entire life. I can't wait till he gets the wear it!

It's Back!

Cy's ring came back today. That was super quick. We brought it to the UPS store last Wednesday, overnighted it, they worked on it for a couple of days, and now it's back on her hand. Yes! Fits like a glove... uh... like a ring. All I had to pay for was shipping (about 30 bucks). Those guys at Blue Nile are the best.

Etiquette

Who knew that there was so much etiquette in writing an invitation? Mr, Mrs, Miss, Ms; references to parents; writing out the dates, times, street names; RSVPs; details; etc. Here's a big one, how do you ask for gifts? and is it ok to ask for cash as gifts? As most of you know, I already have a house and most of the stuff that goes along with it - appliances, dinnerware, decorations, etc. I know that gifts aren't required at a wedding, and I, by no means, am asking people to get us stuff. But if people do decide to get us something, cash or gift cards would probably be preferable, because there's hardly anything that we really, really need. Whatever we get will probably be used in helping paying for our honeymoon as well as for our every day needs at our usual stores (Costco, Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot, etc). Have I broken etiquette by even mentioning this on our blog? Probably, but oh well. (Do you like how I plugged in all of our favorite stores? More broken etiquette, I'm sure.)

It's Gone!

Where did it go? If you take a look at Cy's hand you'll notice that her engagement ring is gone. Don't be alarmed; we're just getting it re-sized. She mentioned (after some sly, casual conversation) that she was a 5, so that's what I got her. When I proposed and put the ring on her finger, it fit fine. But after a couple of weeks of wearing, we're realizing that it's a tad bit too big, so we're getting it re-sized to a 4 3/4. So we're saying goodbye to it for a week or so; see you soon.

Getting Maui'd

As the days go by and as we continue to make more plans, the reality starts to sink in: we're getting Maui'd; uh, I mean, we're getting married. Ceremony in Vallejo. Reception in Suisun. And... honeymoon in Maui. Aloha! I booked the flight and car rental today. I normally find the best prices at Expedia, but since I made separate hotel arrangements, I shopped around and found that AAA had better prices. BTW, thanks to a brother, we got a pretty good deal on our accommodations. So... Maui, here we come. First things first - make it to 129.

dress to impress

Today I went to David's Bridal in Pinole to take advantage of their 99 dollar dress sale they are having until the 22nd. First thing I told the consultant was "Point me to the sale rack"..but there was barely anything that fit me. I'm usually a size 3 dress size, one thing i didn't know is that bridal dress sizes runs a lot differently then regular dress sizes. I found out that i'm a size 10!
I was lucky, the second dress I tried on was "the one" but it was a little too small (it was a size 4) and I wasn't able to get it zipped up all the way in the back so the consultant got me a bigger size which I thought was going to be too big for me (a size 10) but it fit! It was just a little too long. Anyway, today I was able to purchase everything i'm going to wear from head to toe for the big day and I was able to get a few things like gloves and necklaces for all the bridesmaids.

The Spot

We've been engaged for only a week, and the pressures of planning a wedding are already upon us. All the things that need to get done, getting those things done at the proper time, there isn't a lot of time... the pressure is mounting. We really need to pace ourselves. We need to take care of the things that are right in front of us and not be concerned with the things that are too far ahead of us. This not only is in regards to wedding planning but also in all of life. Whether we're concerned about planning, school, work, ministry, family, etc., God has it all worked out. We can't worry about what's going to happen tomorrow; we need to focus on where God has us today. "So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."(Matthew 6:34)

So where are we today? It looks like we have a reception spot picked out. The first spot we picked out (the Benicia Clocktower) was surprisingly already reserved. I say "surprisingly" because I would think that it wouldn't be busy on a Friday and also on a day after a holiday. This, however, was the case for this option. So we checked some other options. We looked at Gaia in American Canyon, the community center in Fairfield, and even the Jelly Belly in Fairfield (which was a very realistic option). In the end, however, we decided that the community center in Suisun would best fit our needs. (FYI, the pic above is not at the community center, but it is a few miles away, still in Suisun.)

In my mind, this was probably the biggest thing that I wanted to get taken care of. Knowing that we have the spot set and reserved, we can move on to other things... all at the proper time.

Poll: Let the Music Play

I have a good sized collection of music, and as the years have gone by, I'd listen to some songs and say, "Hey, that would be a good song for a wedding." Then I'd listen to more music, find some other songs, but forget to write them down. So, I thought I'd start a poll and take suggestions on songs that you think would be good for a wedding. They could be songs of various types - songs for a first dance, background dinner music, songs to play while you're dancing-dancing, songs to play during the ceremony, congregational songs to sing in the ceremony, etc. What do you guys think? Suggestions, please.

Blessing

To add to "Just The Beginning," God (using His means) really convicted me in wanting to make sure that everything was ok with Cyryl's parents. Even though I expressed to them on day one that the purpose of me and Cy dating was to get married, it was a bit of a shocker to them that we were engaged. I jumped the gun a little in not telling her dad specifically when I was going to ask and also in making certain that I had his blessing in this. Culturally (and biblically too, in numerous old testament examples) it would have been more proper for me to have talked to him first. He is, after all, giving me his daughter in marriage. To make a long story short, I sat down and talked with him yesterday and asked for his forgiveness if I had offended him in any way. God was very gracious to me. Both her parents were not at all offended. We talked a few more minutes about some of the logistics of the wedding, and then we left with smiles on our faces. They truly are happy for us and have given us their blessing. Phew! Praise God, again, for His grace and for showing mercy to me.

Just the beginning

Yes, so I heard by many that we might have beaten everyone when it came to pace of engagement but like I told Nelson...when you know, you know. Nelson and I had such a great friendship to begin with that when we got together it was a matter of time until we were going to get engaged since we already knew almost everything about eachtother.

Just a month after Nelson spoke to my parents with his intentions to pursue me he had to talk to my parents again about how he had proposed to me earlier in the day. We had to get the nerves to talk to them about our plans. When we went up to them I showed them the ring and told them "Nelson and I are getting married!" and my mom see's the ring and says, "What! You got married!?" and Nelson reassured her "No...we're GOING to get married". Both she and my dad got really quiet after we told them the news and I really thought they were angry with the pace..we were litterally just standing there waiting for any type of response..and I went "Pa.? Well, what do you think?" and he said.. "Well, if you want to get married, then you should get married" - this coming from a man who proposed to my mom a month or 2 after they started dating =D

Praise God! Now we have my parent's blessings in this. I'm happy. Nelson called his parents on their cruise to Alaska and told them the news and they were happy for us too. When they get back we will be introducing them to my parents and we can start planning the wedding from there.

Ring 'em

Every time I see Cy gaze at the engagement ring that I gave her, it gives me chills. She loves it, and the fact that she does makes me so happy. I've got nothing but compliments on it. Everybody says I did good. I guess. I had no clue what style of ring she wanted. I just picked something that I thought she'd like, and something that I thought looked pretty nice. I am so happy that she likes it. Major props to Blue Nile. I was a bit apprehensive to purchase a ring online without seeing it in person, but after reading lots of positive reviews from very reputable sources, I decided to take a risk. By the reaction that she's gotten and that she's given, it was well worth it. FYI, I ordered it on a Tuesday, it arrived on Friday, and I popped the question on Saturday. Yes... it can happen that quick.

Interstate 968

(This post is a re-post of This Story. which is on my blog.) Ok. If that picture didn't paint a thousand words again, let me tell you how this story goes. We started off the day by visiting our friend, Susan, who was participating in a walk for breast cancer (you go, Susan!) in Sausalito. After we walked with her for a little bit, we made our way over to another part of Sausalito to a spot overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. We were actually a little further up from the spot where the bridge was, so we had a view of the Point Bonita Lighthouse. So we enjoyed the view, talked, and spent some time in prayer. After a little bit, I brought up the idea of playing a game that we played a couple of days earlier. This was a game that Cy came up, and it's basically a get to know you game by asking questions. So, Cy asked her question (I honestly forgot what it was), and so it was time for my question. I told her that I had just one question. It was a question that I had five weeks earlier (when we first started dating) and I was sure that I wanted to ask, but I couldn't ask it then because I just needed some time to pass. I told her that the question involved one thing, and as I reached toward my pocket, she gasped, "oh my gosh!" I pulled out the box, showed her the ring, and asked her very slowly, "Will you... marry... me?..." She told me that I already knew the answer, but I told her that I wanted to hear it from her mouth, and she told me that of course she would marry me. Woohoo! So I took the ring, slipped it on her finger, and it fit like a glove.

Pretty smooth, huh? Uh... not quite. I guess it took me a second (a brief second, I tell you) to figure out which finger was her ring finger. I had to take a look at her whole hand, find her thumb, get a reference point, and I think she pointed to where the ring finger was. So, not super smooth, but it was a moment that we'll never forget.

We spent the rest of the day in SF. We had lunch at a hawaiian restaurant which had some live entertainment. Then we went over to Ocean Beach and biked up and down the coast line.As we made our way back home, we visited some dear friends to share the news, and then we went back to my place. My roomie had made plans earlier in the day to invite some people over to the house, so it worked perfectly. Little did he know that he was planning our engagement party. We got there, kept it hush-hush for a couple of hours, and once most everybody was there, I gathered everyone's attention: "I have an announcement. I asked Cyryl to marry me, and she said yes!" Lots of screaming and hugs of congratulations. As the news continues to spread in the days to come, I'm sure the screaming and hugging will continue.

Praise God for such a memorable day and for bringing us to this point. As we look forward to the wedding day and to our life in marriage, continue to keep us in your prayers. Praise God for the grace He gives - the grace that allows us to get through each day - day by day.

Highway 818

(FYI, this is just a repost of How The Story Goes from my blog.)

Ok, if the picture didn't paint a thousand words, then let me just tell you how the story goes. I'm gonna keep this short, because most of you already know how most of it has gone. I'm pretty transparent, so you could see this coming. The interest between Cy and I has been apparent for quite some time now, so it was all a matter of timing - God's timing. So after much waiting, praying, seeking counsel, and growing, God has pushed us forward to this next step in our relationship. Continue to keep us in your prayers and pray that God would be magnified, glorified, and reflected in our relationship with one another.

So, how did it all come about? Again, after much counsel and much wisdom especially from our disciplers, like I said, God pushed us forward. I didn't really have anything formal planned. We kind of just played it by ear. A few days earlier, I mentioned to Cy that I hadn't seen Dark Knight (Batman) yet, and neither did she. (Thanks a lot, guys, to those of you who didn't invite us to see it; some friends you are... JUST KIDDING. It's absolutely God's providence.) Anyway, she gets back to me and asks if I'm still going to see it. I told her yes, invited her to go, and she accepted. It's pretty obvious at this point where this is going, because whenever we go out, it's always in a group setting; in this instance, it was just us. So we're on the way to the theater in Vacaville and we planned on stopping at Fenton's for some ice cream beforehand. BTW, the "picture" is from Fenton's, and this is before we even "talked." So we enjoyed our ice cream and then went over to the theater to watch the Dark Knight.

I was joking around with a brother and we were saying that if you thought Dark Knight was the summer blockbuster and the ending was incredible, this ending is even better. I have to say that it was probably the most picture perfect night weather-wise. It was probably midnight and it was warm outside and there was no wind. What a night!

When we were done with the movie, we decided to go out and eat a little because I hadn't had dinner yet. Even though it was pretty late and I would've been content with my ice cream dinner (yes, I've had plenty of those), we decided to go to BJ's, and I was glad to do so. It was at this point where we talked and discussed where we wanted our relationship to go.

Ok, ok... I wasn't super smooth or anything like that. I did have a bit of the nerves trying to say the right words and finding the right time, but it wasn't difficult because it was previous obvious where we both wanted to go. God has allowed us to patiently wait, He's brought us to this point, and He will continue to lead and direct us. If you noticed how I labelled this line of posts, it's "Waiting On God." That's where we've been, and that's where we will continue to be.

Thanks to those who have prayed for us, and again we covet your prayers as we continue to grow and wait on God.