Jealousy

I have been a little down lately. I have been reading a bunch of wedding related stuff and I see all these women and couples having amazing engagement parties and bridal showers and I can’t help but feel jealous because I am not going to have any of them. Engagement parties and bridal showers are almost non- existent in Japan and I won’t be spending enough time in America to have one. I haven’t even been able to show off my ring as much as I would like either. Engagements in Japan are quite short- 2 to 3 months -so everyone already assumes Masa and I are already married.  I know that this is incredibly shallow and superficial. So far being engaged has been the happiest time of my life and its wrong for me to want extra attention.

But, this pity party gives me to post a video with the same title of this post.

My all time favorite band- Jem and the Holograms!!!

 

Fighting With Your Fiance

Early on in my engagement a few friends told me to not worry if  Mr. G and I got into arguments more during the wedding planning process because it would be normal and inevitable. I did worry a little bit and felt lucky when I stumbled upon a podcast called Say Yes to the Dress: Monte’s Take. (Sadly, the podcast doesn’t air any new episodes but they can still be found on iTunes.)

Monte and his co- host Candace Keener (formerly of the Stuff You Missed in History Class podcast) did a podcast on involving the groom in wedding planning and Monte gave some great advice: narrow down any question or concept you have to three choices and present them to your fiancé. This piece of advice has probably saved me from a few arguments with Mr G. Instead of hassling asking him with any new idea, I would take a moment to present it in a way that was more “yay” or “nay” or “Which do you prefer out of these three?” than “What do you think?”

Of course, Mr. G and I have had a few arguments during wedding planning. The biggest fight to date has been about wedding dresses. I wanted Mr. G to have a definite preference about what wedding dress would look good on me and Mr. G has no preferences about wedding dresses whatsoever. It made me super frustrated. Why couldn’t he pick a wedding dress silohuette that was right for me? Why was he not more like Monte from Say to the Dress?! We fought for a good 15 minutes until I realized that I was being pretty crazy and probably having a bridezilla moment.

Besides that we haven’t been fighting much and I have been using the “Which do you like out of these three?” approach. Flowers and invitations are not his thing but he does like to voice his opinion on other options.

I am hoping that our wedding planning journey will not get any crazier and that we don’t fight too much.

Pillow fights are always okay though!

Have you been fighting with your fiancé more now that you are engaged?
Did you ever get into any stupid fights during your wedding planning?

Getting Healthy

Masa and I have started going to the gym! No, this is not due to our upcoming wedding. It is completely and totally due to us wanting to be more healthy. Masa is an amazing cook and since we have started living together Masa has done most of the cooking (before we moved in together Masa lived with his parents and his mother did all of the cooking).  Masa’s cooking is so amazing that both he and I have gone up a dress(well for Masa, a pant) size.

A very cute omelette Masa made for me.

We now go to the gym twice a week. We usually get home after work, change into our track suits, and go to the gym for about 30-40 minutes. Afterwards, Masa and I eat dinner and watch some TV. I must say that I am really proud of us and very proud of Masa. He not only has quit smoking but is also exercising.

Here is a countdown chart from when Masa was working his way to 40 days without smoking.

 

I am so proud!!

Wedding Wednesday

I have started to confine all of wedding planning insanity to one day of the week- my own personal Wedding Wednesday. Before Wedding Wednesdays I would spend every moment of my commute thinking about weddings, looking at wedding websites, and listening to wedding podcasts. It was getting to be too much for me so now I try my best to confine it all to Wednesday. I have been doing it for about three weeks now and it’s been working well. I am sending wedding- related emails out only on Wednesday so I am not always in front of the computer. I also try to not talk about wedding details with Masa unless its on Wednesday (I wonder if he thinks that”s true). Last Wednesday, I listened to an old episode of Say Yes to the Dress:Monte’s Take Podcast and just relished in thinking about the wedding and the planning. It was much more enjoyable since its a once a week thing rather than a constant stream of wedding stuff.

Last week’s Wedding Wednesday task- finishing the 50 origami place card holders I plan on using for the American wedding.

Origami Cranes

Origami card holder with fake place card

You can get the tutorial for the place card holders here.

By the way, origami cranes were one of the things that I vowed I would not have at my wedding and now I am having one on every plate. I am so ashamed of myself.

 

Anyone else doing wedding Wednesdays?

Deciding on a Color Palette

When Mr. Gondola and I started talking about our color scheme for the wedding one thing he said flat out was that he did not want too much pink. My favorite color is yellow and Mr. G’s is green so we figured we would have green and white for the American wedding and yellow and white for the Japanese wedding (Yay for double weddings! Mr. G and I can both get our way!)
Now, I am a typical girly- girl, but even I knew that a lot of pink would be too feminine and not really describe the both of us so I agreed until two things happened. One, I found the most adorable pink teapots that would look so cute on the table. Two, I kept seeing all of these gorgeous pink and gold color palette pins online

Image via everylastdetailblog.com Photo by Twila’s Photography Event by Creative Designs & Events

Images via www.weddingchicks.com
Photography by Jessica Lewis Photography

Yellow and white turned into yellow and white with hints of pink- which turned into cream, yellow, white, and pink with hints of gold. It started to feel unbalanced so I went to The Perfect Palette and clicked on all the palettes that I liked to see if I could find a balance.

As you can see a lot of the same colors keep popping up so I condensed it into this palette.

The condensed version of the palettes

Obviously this palette is insane and I need to really cut it down to something more reasonable. I’m leaning toward this:

and I am hoping Mr. Gondola will be okay with it.

I never ever thought I would be the girl who would mull about color palettes or get excited about teapots. Since the engagement I feel like I’ve turned into this:

 

Image via www.bbc.co.uk

How did you choose your color palette? Did your fiance agree with it?

Anyone else love Little Britain? This is by far one of my favorite sketches!