our engagement party...

...will probably not happen. sorry! since we already announced our engagement to all our important people, and i'm just about ready to start mailing the official save-the-dates, having a party to commemorate our engagement seems unnecessary. yes, it's a great excuse to get together, but, hey, we don't need an excuse to get together if we wanted to, right? it's not that i don't want to plan or budget for the party, but i seriously can't justify why we would have one in the first place. soooo let's just save up and plan for the bridal party/bachelor(ette) parties/whatever else comes our way!

so here's what's up...

church = done. reception = done. photographer = done. videographer = done. bridesmaids = done. a big hi-five to cristalle for getting us to have dinner last night, so i could have the opportunity to wrap up the bridesmaids. :-) francis just needs to get on the ball on asking the rest of his groomsmen, and then we need start bugging people to be our primary and secondary sponsors. but that's something we want to do in person, if possible.

ok, so i said i'd talk about the pre-marriage experience. it was hosted at st. elizabeth ann seton from 8:45am-5pm. the speakers were two couples, and they each shared their marriage and family experiences...how they communicate...what worked and what didn't. there were several couples attending this session, and we'd pull together for small group activities every so often. honestly, i didn't pay attention half the time...so i KNOW francis didn't either. not to be overly critical, but the examples the speakers used were un-relatable. i don't want to disregard what they said, because the core of what they were saying can be applied universally, despite the generation gap. but seriously, the way the topics were presented and the manner in which that content was delivered was not the best approach for the audience. i understand the message they were trying to convey, but it came across as simplistic and idealistic...which is a far cry from what reality is. *shrugs shoulders* doing this was a requirement, and we fulfilled it...so yay for us. but what we "learned" from the session were things that we had already discussed: keep the lines of communication between us open; sometimes we do need some personal space; and love, love, love...we're making a choice to love each other, and it's not going to be an easy road, but we're making that commitment. so it's up to us to make or break it.

sorry!

ok i PROMISE i will update this soon. it's just been crazy the past couple of days. in short, we have reviewed our photography and videography options. we have selected harvard photography for photos (which means we need to get our $50 deposit back from bella pictures) and we're most likely going with robles video for our videography. we're still negotiating with robles, so things are not yet set in stone. i'll also talk about our pre-marriage experience hosted at st. elizabeth ann seton. that day was LONG.

details to come!