a year ago today..

a year ago today, randy edward joe proposed to me <3

it totally blows my mind that we have been engaged for a whole year! i would say i remember it like it was yesterday, but soooo many things have happened in the past year, not to mention a crap load of wedding planning, that on one hand, it totally feels like an entire year has already gone by. the part i can't believe is how close the wedding is getting!

so here we are - randy and alaina :) getting married in 3 and a half months, and so much in love. i will tell you, i can definitely see how so many couples break up because of wedding planning - it is so much stress, there's so much to do, and if it's your first time, planning a wedding is nothing like you could ever imagine, regardless of how many times you've seen bride wars or 27 dresses.

but luckily for us, i think this engagement has brought us much closer together. i can't wait to see what the next few months bring, i definitely cannot wait to see what our wedding day is like, and of course, can't wait to spend the rest of my life being mrs. joe <3

 

wedding wednesday

so for today's wedding wednesday, i'm going to switch it up a bit..

i had seen this 'boyfriend tag' going around facebook, and thought it would be fun for randy and i to do!

here are randy's answers about me:

1. she's sitting in front of the tv, what is on the screen?
teen mom or beverly hills housewives
(this is true)

2. you go out to eat, what kind of dressing does she get on her salad?
cesar
(true for a cesar salad, but if it's a garden salad i'll get vinegrette)

3. what's one food she doesn't like?
barbeque
(true)

4. you go out to eat, what does she order?
pasta
(sure, among other things)

5. what size shoe does she wear?
9 or 8 1/2
(more often 9)

6. if she was collecting anything, what would it be?
nail polish
(haha, sadly true)

7. what is her favorite type of sandwich?
caprese...?
(while those are delicious, my favorite sandwich is turkey & brie cheese from this place called olives)

8. what would she eat every day if she could?
cereal
(absolutely)

9. what is her favorite cereal?
cheerios
(right again!)

10. what's her favorite music?
indie
(i also enjoy some hip hop/rap and pop)

11. what's her favorite sports team?
san francisco giants
(thanks to randy)

12. who's her best friend?
lilly
(hahahaha, but yes. but if we're talking people, i'd say carmella)

13. what's something you do that she wishes you didn't?
mess with lilly
(totally)

14. you bake her a cake for her birthday, what kind of cake is it?
vanilla.. but an oreo cookie cake is pretty good
(haha, he's saying this because carmella made me an oreo cake for my birthday. it would have been cute if he'd said funfetti, because we used to make funfetti cakes together when we first dated)
*we just made a funfetti cake together again on valentine's day!

15. did she play any sports?
no
(i danced in high school, but apparently that doesn't count..)

16. what's one unique talent she has?
painting nails
(haha, thanks babe..)


here are my answers about randy:

1. he's sitting in front of the tv, what is on the screen?
sports, either a game of some sort or espn
(true)

2. you go out to eat, what kind of dressing does he get on his salad?
balsamic vinegrette
(true)

3. what's one food he doesn't like?
mushrooms
(true)

4. you go out to eat, what does he order?
pasta or steak
(true)

5. what size shoe does he wear?
10 - 10 1/2
(actually 9 or 9 1/2)

6. if he was collecting anything, what would it be?
games on his iphone
(i guess so, i was collecting something i'd pick baseball cards)

7. what is his favorite type of sandwich?
philly cheese steak
(eh.. turkey club maybe? meatball?)

8. what would he eat every day if he could?
steak
(oh yeah)

9. what is his favorite cereal?
he's not allowed to eat cereal because milk upsets his stomach

(smart start)

10. what's his favorite music?
house music, like on the jersey shore
(ehhhhh.. hip hop and house)

11. what's his favorite sports team?
san francisco giants
(yes)

12. who's his best friend?
andrew
(no.. alaina?)

13. what's something you do that he wishes you didn't?
yell, and hit him
(yes)

14. you bake him a cake for his birthday, what kind of cake is it?
a pie because he doesn't like cake

(ice cream cake)

15. did he play any sports?
football and baseball

(and golf)

16. what's one unique talent he has?
being a good car salesman

(sure)

tips for saving money successfully

i am a horrible money saver. terrible. before i got engaged, i had zero savings.

but today? i have $1,243 in my savings account. in 2 months. not. too. shabby.

here are some helpful things i've discovered while on my savings 'journey..'

1. have a goal, and make it an important one
i know this one makes sense, but it's the truth. if you reallyreallyreally want something, you'll save for it. i want a nice wedding, so i've been an awesome saver. while it's great to save for 'a rainy day' or 'for the next 10 years,' vague goals don't make you feel as bad when you pull from your savings for a new coach bag or a new set of golf clubs. but if you're putting yourself further away from your dream home or sending little randy to college, you'll develop a sense of desire for those things that will help keep your sticky fingers out of the cookie jar.. i mean savings account.

2. be realistic.
one thing i would do before is try to save too much money. for example:

say i would get paid $500 dollars.

if i had $200 in bills, that leaves $300.

i would put $250 in my savings account,

which would leave me with $50 for two weeks until i got paid again.

obviously, you can't survive on $50 for two weeks with gas, food, extras, blah blah. so pick an amount that will realistically allow you to be comfortable in between paychecks. if your checks are pretty consistent, transfer the same amount into your checking every pay period. it's even better if you have direct-deposit, because then you've got no excuse and you might not even realize that the money is gone. but again, if you still leave yourself enough to get through until your next check, you won't need to pull money from your safety account.

3. treat unexpected money like it's invisible
you check the mail and there's a card from your aunt who lives in minnesota wishing you a happy groundhog day. surprise, there's a $25 check inside. put it right into your savings account and forget you ever checked your mail that day.

4. even if it's not unexpected, put any extraneous money right into your savings
this includes: birthday money, holiday cash bonuses, inheritances, being repaid by a friend who borrowed money from you 3 years ago, tax returns, finding $50 in a purse you took to vegas last year, couch change..

5. start saving visually
it's true these days that there's an app for everything! i use one called wedding savings. you input how much you would like to save, the date you started saving, and your deadline. it then shows you how many more days you have left until your goal, how much you've saved vs. how much you have left to save, and how much you need to save per day and per week to meet your goal. it is the most rewarding feeling to update the app every 2 weeks and see how my savings is growing. while a wedding maybe isn't the reason you're trying to save, i'm positive they have generic savings apps you can download.

happy saving!

4 years ago today..

this photo was taken on january 26, 2008. just after midnight on this night, randy asked, "will you be my girlfriend?"

and i said, "of course!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~

then, on november 28, 2011, randy asked, "will you marry me?"

and i said, "maybe" (and then said yes!)

click here* to read our engagement story!

randy: i love you with all of me, and i cannot wait to be your wife! and no matter what comes our way, we will always make the absolute best of it, together <3

wedding wednesday

now that the holidays are calming down (just a little bit..), randy and i are having the great engagement party debacle!

to be honest, randy and i will be engaged for a long time. realistically, we probably won't get married until the latter part of 2013 - for financial reasons and for the fact that we know a gazillion and one couples who are getting married in 2012, so we kind of want to ride all that out first.

so now we're debating whether or not to have an engagement party, just to celebrate the fact that we're engaged.

i have to be honest, one of the biggest reasons i want to have one is because i've found so many awesome party invitations!

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if we do end up having an engagement bash, i'm thinking a small cocktail party with some sweet treats. we've talked about maybe combining the party with one of our birthdays, but i just want something quiet and lovely as an excuse to spend time with our most favorite people!

wedding wednesday

as a novice photographer, i've thought a lot about whether or not i want to have engagement portraits taken of randy and me.

i love engagement portraits that have a lot of character!

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my favorite engagement photos to shoot & to look at are ones that really communicate something fun or personal about the couple. the photo above might look weird to you, but it means a lot once you know that jackie works in the financial and banking industry and that thomas is a bio major that works in a tech lab..

at this point i don't really know what i'd want the theme of our photos to be, though i think randy and i have decided that we would like one of our friends who dabbles in photography to take our pics (skylar: let steve know he's got a job waiting for him!). if it was based on hobbies, it would be randy playing video games while i'm in the background begging him to turn it off!

one thing's for sure.. lilly will definitely be in our engagement pics if we take any!


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alaina

2011 favorites

there are 12 days until 2012! (disclaimer: not counting today..)

to commemorate another passing year, i thought i would share my 12 favorite posts from 2011..



feb 18; a fashion profile on my dad, tim



march 20; a recap of how we celebrated randy's 26th birthday

 

may 17; a post for lilly's 2nd birthday <3



may 28; our norcal road trip for a friend's wedding, family time, and a giants game

june 17; the very first what i wore post



june 29; my post on body image



july 19; my explanation of the slow-carb diet. i've lost almost 15 pounds this year, and i think this helped..

july 21; the first (and apparently only) thyme to cook with carey

sept 23; my first posting of pictures from carmella's wedding on baby a

 

oct 1; sharing the start of my arm piece with you

oct 26: the best haunted house in long beach - that i was a part of!

  

dec 5; sharing our engagement story (november 28)



 

alaina

the proposal

randy and i have officially been engaged for one week!

so.. how did it happen??

i'm pretty selfish when it comes to the time that i get to spend with randy. when he's working, randy doesn't get home until well after 9 pm, so on his days off, i really covet being able to eat dinner together and just hang out.

when i got home from work last monday, randy wasn't home. i texted him to see what the deal was, and he said he was out shopping for golf balls (he was going golfing with a friend the next day). an hour later, i get a text saying he ended up at andrew's (the friend) and was playing video games. he said he was leaving soon and would pick up dinner on his way home. another hour goes by, so i decide i should text him and see where he is. long story short, he didn't end up getting home until around 8, and i was a little peeved. actually, probably a lot peeved. unfortunately for him, randy came home to a pouty girlfriend and a speech about how he sees andrew every day, he was going to be seeing him the next day, and how the evenings that we get to spend time together are important. each time i would bring it up, he would apologize, but there would be a slight smirk on his face or a little laugh in his voice. that should have been my first clue..

after we finished eating, randy wanted to go in the room to relax and watch friends, as we do on a pretty nightly basis. i didn't really feel like just packing it in, so i said i wanted to stay at the table. randy went in the room anyway, and took lilly with him. about a minute later, he comes out with lil, and she is running around like a crazy woman. i see him try and grab at her, which only makes her run faster around the living room because now she thinks it's a game. randy finally entices her with a treat and picks her up. he comes over and says, "here, you take her," putting her down in my lap. she has sat in my lap at the table before, but we have a bar-height table and chairs, so it's super high up and just a little awkward for lilly. not to mention, randy doesn't usually pick up our dog just to put her in my lap, so i found that a little odd.

then, randy turns lilly's collar around on her neck, and i see the ring. i look up at him, and he has the biggest smile on his face. to be honest, the next few moments are a blur in my head with a mix of "i can't believe this is finally happening" and "oh my god, this is really happening!" randy gets on one knee, in true traditional proposal fashion, and i'm pretty sure he tells me he loves me. then i hear, "baby, will you marry me?" to which i cleverly say, "maybe." he starts taking lilly's collar off so he can get the ring. i say, "of course i will marry you" and he slips it onto my finger. then we kissed each other like it was for the very first time.

i got up from the chair and we hugged and kissed some more. because the first time was a little blurry and i was so overwhelmed, i asked him to say the words again, just so they'd be a little clearer in my memory. so randy said, "will you marry me? you're exactly what i've been looking for." and me, being me, said, "i hope you stopped looking a while ago! because here i am!"

and the rest is history in the making <3

do i feel bad for being upset with him when he first got home? yes and no. after almost 4 years together, randy knows exactly how crazy i can be, and for some reason he still loves me - both in spite of and for the things that would drive another person crazy about me. i'm not at all sad that he didn't have it written in the sky or that it wasn't at some fancy-schmance dinner in front of a bunch of strangers.. it was just how it should have been - just us (and of course, lilly) <3 it was perfect.

oh, and randy never was at andrew's - he was picking up the ring! totally fooled me..!!

alaina

special news!

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**our engagement story will be posted on monday 12/5!

alaina