Carisa and Richard - Married! (Sneak Peek)

This is part of the blog series about Carisa and Richard's wedding planning process up until their wedding on August 31, 2013. In addition to sharing with readers their love story and wedding planning adventures, insights and tips for brides and grooms planning their own wedding will also be shared!

Carisa and Richard are officially MARRIED!

We will share more pictures of their wedding when their photographer has had the chance to sleep, edit, and release the pictures. (Most likely in this order.)

Here is one picture I took of them saying their vows. Congrats you two!! All the best in the many years to come!

~Monica
Owner and Lead Designer @Wishahmon

 

If you missed the first couple of blog posts on Carisa and Richard's wedding planning adventures, you can catch up on how they got engaged, set the date, found a venue, found a marriage commissioner, found a photographer, sent out invitations, took care of out of town guests, found a DJ, found a wedding gown, found a wedding cake, designed their décor, chose their flowers and booked hair and makeup artists, drafting a wedding timeline,  final details, and day before the wedding.

Carisa's Diary: Distance

Carisa is the bride of our new blog series that details Carisa and Richard's wedding planning adventures. Periodically, Carisa will be sharing her thoughts with our readers and her many out-of-town friends and family members. These are Carisa's thoughts, from a bride's perspective.

It is my theory that something always goes wrong when Richard is away. The last time it was the TV that didn’t work.  That wasn’t too bad. 

Sure enough the day after Richard left for his business trip to China this time, I woke up feeling I was in a refrigerator! It wasn’t just cold, it was freezing!   So, I thought it was just the thermostat that wasn’t working.  I tried pressing the up arrow to increase the temperature and tapped a few more buttons on the thermostat hoping the heat would come back.  It didn’t for 2 whole days!  It didn’t help the weather was so cold in Calgary either.  I couldn’t connect with Richard because he was in an remote oil field that had no cell phone reception.  So, I slept in a mountain of blankets, made soup every night, and took a hot shower before I headed to bed.  I honestly didn’t know what to do.

Finally, I got in touch with him on the phone and he told me immediately to go find the furnace in the basement. Furnace, furnace, I had no idea!! Where is the furnace?!!! (seriously, no one has ever shown me where the furnace was…my parents would not have been proud of me!!) After some explanation, I located it.  Over the phone, Richard told me to find the pilot and light it with a lighter.  After an hour on the phone and me sending pictures of the furnace to him over email, I finally lit the correct pilot (I was lighting something else before…thank goodness there was no fire!) And there was heat!!!!

After this, I suddenly realized how much I rely on Richard not just to fix things that don’t work around the house, but he is there to comfort me when I don’t feel well, and to share in my ups and downs.  He is the person I am so happy to see each day after a long day at work and he is the person I share meals with because we both just love to eat! (The only good thing when Richard is away, is I can lose a few pounds-for the wedding dress! )  The distance has truly reminded me of how lucky I am to have him in my life, and to be getting married to him.  Admist all the wedding planning, we can get so lost and caught up in the details- like which font to use for the invitations, to what type of centerpieces to use at the tables (don’t get me wrong, I love weddings!), that we sometimes lose sight of the bigger picture.  A pastor (a patient of mine), who found out I had just been engaged asked me, how long do you think it takes to plan a wedding? I said, “Probably a year or so…”.  He then went on to ask me, how long do you think it takes to plan a marriage? I thought about it and I replied- “Forever”.

As I plan our wedding here on out, I remind myself- don’t sweat the small stuff and just have a good time!!!   

Carisa

Countdown to wedding: 278

Carisa's Diary: We Are Getting Married!!

Carisa is the bride of our new blog series that details Carisa and Richard's wedding planning adventures. Periodically, Carisa will be sharing her thoughts with our readers and her many out-of-town friends and family members. These are Carisa's thoughts, from a bride's perspective.

Richard and I are getting married!!!!! After hiding the engagement ring in his suitcase for three whole months before proposing, we are finally tying the knot on Aug 31, 2013! I can still hardly believe it.  We are definitely counting the days! (Yes, already!)  

We have recently bought a house in Calgary and we are super busy with unpacking and renovating, but at the same time we knew we had to get the wedding planning underway (or else we will never get around to it….) So that’s when we decided we needed a wedding planner to help us along the way.

Fritz Tolentino, our photographer recommended us to Monica, and as luck would have it, we felt very comfortable with her after our initial meeting.   It helped that Monica knew some of our cultural traditions and that she was so open to listening to us.  I still remember she was shocked that I wasn’t one of the brides that brought a whole binder with tagged notes, ideas and pictures of what I wanted in our wedding, but I have since gathered some inspiration online! (I am starting to get organized….!)

Reluctantly, the day after our meeting with Monica, Richard got dragged into coming to the bridal show with me.  We were more than overwhelmed, there was so much to see.  (And in my head, I was thinking – there’s so much to do!!!) From wedding attire, to flowers, to venues, to photography, to decorations, it was everything wedding!  Thank goodness, there were food samples for Richard to try and a fashion show to watch! ; ) We honestly didn’t’ expect there was so many aspects to wedding planning and was so glad and thankful that Monica was on our side!  We feel that some of the stress has been lifted and we are starting to enjoy the whole planning process (even though we are just beginning).  It is fun and we only get to do it once!

Carisa

Countdown to wedding: 284 Days