Jun 23, 2010 Posted on Jun 23, 2010 in awesomeness | 9 comments

A Love Letter from the DMV

One year ago today we got engaged on our rooftop in downtown Los Angeles, and spent the day celebrating with champagne, sunshine, and friends.

Today I’m sitting at the DMV waiting to change my name, and thinking about our wedding day, which once seemed FOREVERandadayaway, but is really happening in just a few short months now. Yowza! Yippee! Yikes! Mostly yippee though!

It’s been a crazy year of living, thinking, and planning.  A year of thoughtful transition and (sometimes) difficult conversation as we plan this wedding, and more importantly, as we plan our life together. A good, joyful, hard year.

We’ve lived and planned a wedding on one income, raised a special needs puppy, moved to a house with a (potential) veggie garden, started new jobs, quit said jobs when they failed to EVER pay for four months of work, nearly foiling our wedding plans (LA residents beware: Mendocino Farms doesn’t pay their employees) and somehow managed not to kill each other. Although we’ve come close a few times.

And that’s okay too.

Because I’ve learned that arguments aren’t about winning. Sometimes they are about our egos, our insecurities, or just our bad day.  You can let them go, or even be the one to apologize without being the loser.

And I’ve learned to say yes. Yes to this relationship. Yes to things that are important to C, even when they aren’t initially important to me. Yes to making those things important to me too.  And I want to move into our married life together saying yes to each other and making the things that matter to each of us a priority for us both. yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes!

And I’ve realized that most of my favorite moments with C aren’t big or complicated. I truly hope that our wedding, our marriage, and our life together reflect that perfect simplicity.

Here’s a look at our last year as single(ish) ladies:

Engagement Day ‘09:

PRIDE ‘09:

AT HOME w/CAT TAIL:

HAPPY:

AND ALL GLAMMED UP (FOR OUR RIGHTS!):

source

And here’s to looking far far into the future. Like FOREVERandaday far.

I love you baby. I think you’re awesome. And I’m over being engaged. Let’s get married already, mkay?

Any other loooooong engagements out there? Are you savoring the moments or are you ready to move on to married life already too?

Jan 19, 2010 Posted on Jan 19, 2010 in how it all began | 1 comment

REWIND/FAST FORWARD: Little Known Facts.

Well I made it through my first day as a bee and it was pretty awesome!  I think we were both secretly a little afraid of negative comments raining on our love-fest and the absolute opposite proved true- we were overwhelmed by awesome and encouraging comments all day!

Crisis averted.  Fear Subsides. The Hive is awesome.

By way of introductions, I wrote this little ‘ol post to share over there, and then realized it contained some info I’d never shared here on Ms. Awesome. So have at it.

I interrupt our usual blue skies, unicorns and the show tunes that define gay wedding planning, to give you a few more random facts than you ever needed.  Come on you know you wanna know this stuff!

Here goes.  Let’s play finish that sentence.

We met on Match.com  Ain’t no shame in that right?

Okay. Okay. I’ll admit we’ve been known to say we met through a friend of a friend or some such nonsense on more than one occasion, but it’s a big fat lie!  Fiancee stripes winked at me, I shot her an email, and the rest is just below for your reading pleasure.

Our first date was awesome!  We met for wine at Banquette, my local wine/coffee house, then we walked to the Downtown Independant and saw Persepolis, and then we knocked back some whiskey, made fun of people, and made out at Bar 107.  We finished the night with some tender (ha!) kisses in the rain. Cue music. Sigh.

Our Second date consisted of a trip to the Getty, a picnic lunch, and wine in a thermos.  Wine in a thermos?! Another sigh.  Clearly a girl after my own heart.  I don’t remember any of the art.

Fast Forward Six Months and in true lezzyBEE fashion she moved in!

Marriage and kids and all that jazz have always been a part of our dialogue and so the next bit might seem a bit surprising.  It’s actually one of my deep dark secrets here in wedding world.

See C proposed first and I freaked the f#$k out!  Seriously I’m lucky she stuck around seeing as I pretty much pulled a Carrie Bradshaw and wore the ring in an, ahem, untraditional style (read on my right hand).

It was just too much, too fast and even though I wanted to marry her (desperately) I couldn’t bear to slide that ring on my left finger and be an “engaged” lady just yet.  This is a pretty clear example of the planning/spontaneity dynamic we have going on.  Luckily she stuck around, I worked through my issues, and our dog Oscar took care of the ring.  He ate it.  And that was that.

Fast Forward Two Years and here we are, chronicling our adventures for you as we plan our awesome wedding!  A lot has happened, that’s for sure!  We’ve traveled many miles (Paris, New York, The Bahamas, Miami, and Vancouver), made a home together, added to our furry family (now 2 dogs, 1 cat), laughed, cried, and danced.

To sum it up (or break it down)

We’re just two girls who love books, food, dance parties and each other.

*We also love whiskey in combo with any of the above!

So grab a glass, sit back, and join us as we return to our regularly scheduled programming (blue skies, unicorns, show tunes) and continue exploring the question How the hell did we get here?

I know it’s a little bit of an odd “getting to know you” to post as my very first one over on the hive, but I think that it’s important to keep our heads on straight (hee hee) in this whole wedding planning business and realize that our lives and relationship trajectories don’t have to be perfect to make for great relationships, wedding planning, and yes, even marriage.

What about you?  How’d you get to the place you are now in your relationship?  Any premature proposals or bumps along the way?

Oct 31, 2009 Posted on Oct 31, 2009 in how it all began | 1 comment

Proposal Stories Part III: She Says Yes!!!

I’ve got chili on the stove, a cold stella in my hand, and just enough time before dinner to tell you all about the best part of the proposal story- the part where she said yes!!!

First a little back story- you remember there was the search, there was the perfect ring, and now the proposal.

And in between there were secret emails, best friend approvals, and a very complicated financial transaction.  See I was in a tiny, tiny, tiny ski town in Canada working after ski season.  We could barely find an open grocery store or restaurant, let alone a bank that could do a wire transfer.  Finally I worked it all out and the ring was mailed to Lil’ Stripe.  She didn’t break it to me until a few days before I came home though that she thought maybe a tiny, tiny diamond was missing! AUGH!

It was.  And so the ring went back to Fay Cullen, and was promptly returned, all diamonds intact, to wait in my jewelry box until the perfect morning.

June 23 was that morning.  I woke up super early and very nervous!  I had plans to take our little bistro table/chairs out onto our roof where I would have breakfast and coffee ready, and the champagne (for mimosas of course) chillin’ in the fridge.

I’d bought us these special coffee cups.

I set a really cute table and perched the little box on the side of the saucer.

I couldn’t find my camera (too nervous) so I had to take pics with my phone…

Finally I knocked on our bedroom window (which goes out onto the roof).

Soon-to-be-Fiancee-Stripes came out, excited to be released from her prison.  Oops! She’d woken up at some point and I’d insisted she stay in our bedroom so she didn’t ruin my breakfast surprise. Luckily she wasn’t too grumpy at having been locked in our room all morning!

I nervously sat down across from her and waited (it seemed like forever) for her to notice the little box.  She finally looked down- and then back at me and I probably smiled like an asshole.

Then I got down on one knee, and spit out a pathetic “Baby will you marry me?”  Seriously, all the super romantic, meaningful things I’d been planning to say just disappeared!  There were some kisses in there somewhere, and a yes (thank god!) and then I went back to my seat while she admired her bling.  I was shaking so badly I couldn’t even enjoy my coffee for a while- and man do I love my coffee! LOL.

Huge sigh of relief.  That was scary and awesome and amazing all at once!

We laughed and talked and admired her ring and drank champagne in the sunshine.  Our cat Piper even got in on the action.

Then we started calling/texting all our friends and eventually we walked down to Banquette to meet them and drink wine.  Yum!  As you all know I’m all about afternoon drinks!  And being engaged!  We headed to another downtown establishment for a few more drinks and various friends met up with us throughout the day as we celebrated our engagement late into the night.

What about you?  Any other at home proposals or were you all on the side of a mountain in a foreign country frolicking with unicorns when your SO proposed?  Any ladies out there that did the proposing themselves?