Weston's Birthday

I really wanted to make Weston's birthday special this year. I requested off work so we could have the whole day together. I have a problem with present buying. I tend to want to buy a lot of gifts for birthdays. We are very blessed right now with our jobs and I was able to buy Weston some large gifts this year. I told him it probably won't ever be this big again. I got him a transformer pinata, a new book he wanted, a gun cleaning kit, earmuffs, and a 12 gauge shotgun. I was very against buying a gun because I grew up with no guns in my home. I think because I can't say no to Weston I caved and bought him one. The only condition is that he has to keep it at his parents when we have children. For breakfast, at 11:30am since we both slept in, we went to Hash House A Go Go. I had heard it was really good and wanted to try something new. It didn't really impress either of us as much as I was hoping, but it was still fun to experience it. I bought two all day passes on Groupon for Gameworks a month ago and decided we would spend our day there for Weston's birthday. He told me in the past that he really liked to play there so I did my best to enjoy all the shooting games. We were getting a little tired and still had a couple hours before dinner so we went to the Fashion Show mall to look at some shoes Weston has been wanting since his mission. He found his Puma Ducatis at the Puma store. They were a little over the limit I had set, but I gave in since it was his birthday and he got a free backpack with them. We headed over to the Hilton for dinner at Benihana. Weston wanted to try something he never had before for his birthday dinner. It was a little pricey, but such a fun experience! After dinner we headed over to the Luxor to see the Bodies Exhibition. Weston had commented about wanted to see it and even though I already had it was fun to see it again. We went to dessert at Serendipity 3 at Ceasars Palace for their frozen hot chocolate. Weston loves to get frozen hot chocolate at Dairy Queen so I thought it would be fun to try it there since we were already on the strip. It was a long day, but worth it because my husband was happy.

Newport

Every year Weston's family goes to Newport Beach to vacation at his grandparents' timeshare. It was fun to see everyone from the Milne side the of family and have a week to relax in the sun.

Wedding

The day before the wedding Weston and I went down to San Diego to get our marriage license. It was strange to see all the people dressed in everyday clothes there to get married by a justice of the peace. I was grateful that we were only there to be licensed. I wondered if some of those people got married that way because they didn't have the money to have a nice wedding. Then I thought about how lucky I am to be LDS and have temple free of charge to have a beautiful ceremony in.

We met up with Uncle David, Aunt Karyn, Sabrina and David at their hotel in La Jolla to take bridals. Sabrina was amazing and offered to come down to San Diego to do my hair and makeup for bridals and the day of the wedding. It was a beautiful sunny day in La Jolla, which definitely took a toll on my eyes. I think because I have light eyes I am overly sensitive to the sun. I could barely open them and when I did it was only for a few seconds for Uncle David to get a good shot. After a couple of hours we hoped we got enough pictures of my not squinting.

The day of the wedding Weston and I took the bride and groom pictures in the morning, before our sealing, so our families wouldn't have to stand around for those pictures. We were sealed at 1pm by Grandpa Dougherty. It was such a feeling of calm when Gramps pronounced us husband and wife. I cried the entire time, mostly because I was watching pop cry while he looked at me.

After the sealing we went to a church to have the luncheon. The Milne's had it catered by a guy in Kara's stake who does a lot of their church events. It was delicious food and we were definitely ready to get out of there by the time we were done.

I love to see the temple

The wednesday before the wedding I went through the temple to receive my endowments. Since Weston's brother Jace was going to be leaving on his mission a month later, we decided to do it the same night. It was a wonderful experience I will never forget. I know I was always meant to be married in the temple.

Pre Wedding preparations

DISCLAIMER: contains TMI according to mom


The week of the wedding I wanted to do some manicuring so I would feel good on the wedding day. Weston and mom thought I wouldn't look like myself because of all the things I wanted to do. I was convinced by my fiance not to get a spray tan in the off chance I turned orange.

The first of the preparations was a brazilian bikini wax. I don't know what I was thinking when I decided to do this. I have had my bikini line done before and it was an awful experience. I have no idea why I thought getting everything waxed off would be any better. I went to a place in town called the Pretty Kitty. I think because I work in the medical field, and see pretty much every body part, that this experience wasn't as uncomfortable as it could have been. I removed everything from the waste down and laid on the table with everything out in the open. Still pretty awkward. The lady came in and started putting wax on right away. It hurt so bad! I kept thinking through the entire thing, why and how do women do this every month!? I was sore the rest of the night and the next couple of days were not pretty. I got bumps pretty badly and was hoping they would calm down by the wedding night.

The second prep I had done was my nails. I have been biting my nails since I was 2. Mom tells me she tried everything and I remember her putting that nasty nail polish on them when I little. I would just bite right through it though. I was determined to grow out my nails before the wedding. It went pretty well until all the crap hit the fan about my hair lady and I went to town on my fingernails. I have since then given up the attempt to break my habit and how soon I will be able to kick it. I had pink acrylic nails put on my fingers and my toes painted french tip.

The third prep I had done was eyelash extensions. I have a couple of friends who have them and I thought it would be fun to get them for the wedding. I had to lay on a table for almost two hours with my lower lashes taped down while a light was shown in my face. It was not something I would do every month just for fun. It is a really expensive habit and I just can't bring myself to be vain enough to want fake eyelashes. The plus side was that I never had to put on mascara in the morning.

After the wedding I kept thinking about the money and pain I went through in order to look 'better' on my wedding day. Totally not worth it.

Wedding Drama

I know everyone always says planning a wedding is stressful and I agree now. I am lucky to have a mother and mother-in-law who are working really hard to give me my dream wedding. The first thing that stressed me out was finding fabric for my dress and bridesmaid dresses. Everywhere I looked here in Vegas didn't have the right color for bridesmaid dresses or price for my dress fabric. Finally at 8 weeks before the wedding I asked Pop if he would drive me to the fashion district in LA to see if they had the fabric I needed. He said yes of course and I felt so spoiled that he rented a car just so we could go down for the day. At the last minute mom decided to go down with us and I am glad she did! If she wouldn't have been there to help me I would have been so lost because there are so many fabric stores down there! We went to a bunch of shops to price fabric for my dress and finally decided on one that would give us a deal on all the lining fabric as well. I looked all day for charcoal gray fabric for my bridesmaid dresses and only found one I kind of liked. So, I asked Pop if we could drive 20 minutes away to Mood Fabrics to see if they had anything. The only fabric I liked in there colorwise would not have been good on anyone's body type so we went back to the fashion district. There was a hole in the wall shop that we had seen some fabric at earlier in the day that we went back to. I was looking around the satins and found a charcoal gray! I was so excited because it was the perfect color. They sold it to us for $1.75 a yard too! I was so grateful we spent the day down there and found everything I needed. The second stressful thing was figuring out how to do a drop ceiling for the reception. I wanted it a certain way and, the other day, finally decided doing it an easier way would be better. We have people that are willing to help us and now I am just not thinking about it. The third stressful thing was finding a soft serve ice cream company. At first I thought we might be able to use Golden Spoon since Weston's parents know someone that owns a store. It was really expensive to have them come for two hours and I didn't want to use their cups and spoons. I just felt it was tacky to advertise that type of thing at a reception. I spent all day at work one day looking up and calling companies that might rent out machines. I couldn't find anything! Finally, the next day I found a company that does the maintenance on soft serve machines at the hotel buffets. They rent out machines from their warehouse as well. Pop and Mom have been trying to get in touch with the guy who is supposed to bring the machine that night. It hasn't been easy confirming anything with him so I am hoping I walk into my reception and have a soft serve machine. The biggest drama thus far has been finding someone to do my hair and makeup in San Diego. I started talking to a girl that one of my sisters recommended before I was even engaged to make sure I had that covered. We confirmed about a month and a half ago for her to do my hair and makeup the Friday before my wedding for my bridals. I was just going to have Kylie and Emily do my hair makeup Saturday morning. Kylie was afraid I would be upset if I hated my hair so I asked this lady if she could do just my hair the day of the wedding. She already had an appointment that day so we would do it early in the morning. A few days after we confirmed, she emailed me and said she booked someone else's party of 6 when I was supposed to get my hair and makeup done on Friday. She "forgot" I was scheduled that day and asked if I could do mine ealier. Weston and I are driving down to San Diego that morning to get our license so I couldn't do any earlier. I was really upset to say the least. She then emailed me again and basically said it is better business for her to do six girls versus one. I cried the whole way home from work that day. I couldn't believe anyone could be so rude. I understand someone wanting more money, but I had this confirmed more than a month ago and I thought it was bad business practice and unprofessional! Needless to say I started asking everyone I knew if they knew anyone in San Diego that did hair and makeup. Everywhere I would call was really expensive. It is like because you are getting married people take advantage of you and make you pay more than you would on any other day. Mom reminded me that my cousin Sabrina does hair and makeup in Southern Californina. I decided to email her and see if she was available those two days. She emailed me back about a week later and said she would love to be there, but had to discuss it with her family. This morning she text me and said she will be there! I am so grateful for her and her family for being willing to come up to San Diego to do my hair and makeup. That is one thing I no longer have to stress over and I will never be able to thank Sabrina enough! I know this is a long post, but lastly I just want to say how thankful I am for Weston. He is the kindest, calmest, most loving person I could have ever asked for. He tells me the truth when I am overreacting, which I appreciate. He calms me down when I am upset and always knows how to make me feel better. I know neither of us will be perfect in this marriage, but I know I will always have someone who mellows me out and makes sure I am happy.

I'M ENGAGED!!!

I am officially engaged! Weston and I have been talking about getting married since December (crazy since we started dating in December). I always said I wouldn't be one of those girls that got engaged in a month or two and that you need to date for at least six months before you talk about marriage. Well, I am definitely one of those girls now. Everyone says when you know, you know and I completely agree now. When the topic first came up, Weston and I agreed we needed to date for 6 months before we got married. Then we fell in love and realized we would only be dating that long because in the world's eyes we needed to.

The first week in January we decided to start looking for rings. We went to probably 6 different places and I was really frustrated. All the mall stores had nothing I even liked and they just seemed dirty. I found a ring at M.J. Christensen, but it was way more expensive than I would let Weston spend. When we got home his mom told us that her uncle might be able to make my ring since her also did Weston's sister's ring. We looked up the ring online and he emailed his uncle all the details of what I wanted, which of course was a lot of details.

We went up to Provo this past weekend for the UNLV vs. BYU basketball game and were supposed to pick up the ring. Weston told me while we were up there that his uncle had to go to a jewelry convention in Arizona so the ring wouldn't be ready. I was a little bummed because it was just more waiting I would have to do. I asked if he was lying to me so I wouldn't know when i was getting the ring and he told me he wasn't. He said his uncle would mail him the ring when it was ready.

This Tuesday, February 8, was our 2 month anniversary. Weston told me when we first started dating that he is a romantic. Well, last week I told him that even though he says he is, he hasn't really shown me a lot of romance. He told me not to make plans on our anniversay because he was going to prove he can be romantic. After work I met him at his house and we went to P.F. Changs for dinner since we both have been wanting to go there. He wanted the second part of the date to be a surprise, but needed a little help figuring out how to get to the Flamingo Hotel. I realized when he asked me that, that we were probably going to the Donny and Marie show :) I asked him if his dad helped him get those tickets, since Marie is in his ward and he said yes. I was actually really excited to see the show even though I haven't acted like that in past. We sat in a V.I.P. booth with a few other people. It was a funny show and Marie Osmond's voice is so beautiful! During the show I started to wonder if Weston was going to propose and that I hoped he wouldn't do it on stage. I tried feeling his pockets without him noticing to see if I felt a jewelry box, which I didn't. We went to a meet and greet after the show and got to take pictures with Donny and Marie. Their manager told us that our pictures would be Comped, but we would have to wait about 30 min for them to be ready. I told Weston I wanted an ice cream cone so we went out onto the strip to see if there was a McDonald's nearby. There wasn't, but Weston loves frozen hot chocolate and Serendipity's was across the street. We walked over there and they were closed so we walked back across to the Flamingo. We both have bad sweet tooths for ice cream so we decided to share a milkshake from Johnny Rocket's. By the time we got our shake it was time to pick up our photos. Ew one of them I look like I have a double chin! It was really nice of them to give the pictures to us for free though. We got back to the car around 10:30 and I told Weston I was sad because by the time we got back to his house we would only have half an hour to hang out before I needed to get to bed. He just brushed it off and said we could still hang out. On the car ride home my legs were itching really bad because I was wearing skinny jeans and I asked Weston if I could change into some of his PJs when we got back to his house. I was on the phone with Mom when we walked inside the house, but apparently his mom asked what he was doing because he was supposed to take me through the backyard. I changed into his Santa Claus golfing pajamas and when I came out I heard his mom tell him there were blankets outside. I glanced outside and saw some lights near the spa. Right then I thought either he was really trying to be romantic or I might be getting proposed to. He walked down the stairs and told me to put his slippers on. When we went into the backyard there were candles all around the spa and the firepit was lit. I told him he was so romantic and he handed me two dozen hot pink roses when I sat down. He asked if I wanted to make s'mores and I said sure even though I was still really full from the milkshake. He started eating his really fast and after he put eveything back int he bag I noticed his hand by his side. I glanced up at the house and saw someone watching us from upstairs, so I thought maybe it really was going to be the proposal. He said, "Chelsea I love you." So, I said, "I love you too." Then he said, "I will always love you." He stood up next to me then got on one knee and asked if I would marry him! I told him of course I would! It was so exciting and the ring was more than I could have imagined. I know that Weston is the man I am supposed to marry and I am so grateful I found him! The wedding will be May 7 in San Diego and our reception will be May 21 in Las Vegas.