it ain't over!

we're married, bitches!!

yep, that's right. and i've got so much to share from the wedding. but first, due to popular demand, i want to post the vows we exchanged. enjoy!

my vows....

Marco,

On this day, I think of all the reasons

I am honored to become your wife:

In you I’ve found more than I could have ever hoped,

more than I dreamed a man could be.

In your arms, I am happy and safe.

You’re my hero, my protector, my love.

We are alike and different in many ways.

Our similarities bond us together,

and our differences are complements that make us stronger.

There is nothing we cannot do when we stand together.

No matter what,

you love me for who I am, 

and free me to sing my own song.

I am so grateful for that.

The many things that you do to make me happy

touch me more than you know.

You see and know me through and through,

and always make me feel beautiful.

I love you; I respect you; I trust you;

We’ve had many great memories together,

and as we start a new chapter in the story of our lives,

I know that we still have so much ahead:

a lifetime of love, more milestones, and more wonderful memories.

Continue to be no one else but yourself.

You are my partner, my friend, my love, my life.

Now and always, I promise to be faithful and supportive 

and to make your love and happiness my priority.

I promise to be honest and communicate fully and fearlessly.

I promise to have the patience that love demands. 

No matter what changes we go through,

we will grow together.

I will always be with you.

his vows...

Aniyia,

I love you. When I found you, I found the part of me that I didn't know

was missing. You are my light when it's dark. When it's cold, you make

me warm. You make me happier than I knew I could be.

There are so many reasons I fell in love with you. Your joy is

contagious, and affects everyone around you. 

You have so much heart that there's room for everyone. 

But you keep a special place for me. You help

me see the best in this world and in myself. When I'm with you, I want

to be the best man I can be, so that I deserve someone as beautiful as

you by my side.

It's hard to explain the things you do for me. I feel I've found my best

friend, and I want to share everything with you. You keep me out of

trouble. You take care of me. You push me when I need to go forward, and

you pull me when I'm afraid I'll slide back. When we're together, we can

accomplish anything.

These years with you have been the happiest of my life. And when I look

ahead, I see even greater things. I see love and laughter and family.

But no matter where the road leads, I know I want you to be there with

me. I know wherever we are, it will feel like home. I take all of you as

you are. And I give you all of me.

Now and always, I promise to be faithful and supportive  and to make

your love and happiness my priority. I promise to be honest and

communicate fully and fearlessly. I promise to have the patience that

love demands. No matter what changes we go through, we will grow

together. I will always be with you.

helping hands

with all the work and details that go into planning a wedding, a person get stressed, stressed and more stressed.

i've found that there is an ever-growing list of things to do and always tough decisions to make. for me, it has been absolutely essential and a consistent lifesaver to be able get help from friends and family.

having schniz as my wedding goddess along the way has been invaluable. she's been my wedding planner extraordinaire, she threw an unforgettable bachelorette party for this girl in the big apple, and even politely nudges me when the wedding blog gets a little dusty. or a lot dusty.

i am so grateful for awesome helping hands.

i want to give a shout out to schniz, les for helping get hotels in order, bebe for her help with caterer choices, shan for going on our caterer tasting, donna for getting us out and wedding dress shopping, my family who helped me find THE dress in atlanta, furrlo for help making our honeymoon dreams come true, michelle for throwing me a left coast bridal shower, polotek for being my rock above all else, and everyone else who chipped in their time (this goes for the past, present AND future), advice and words of wisdom. 


i love you all.

the natural bride...part ii

i have so much info to share on the wedding front, but since i'm up at 6am thinking about it, i'm gonna start with a hair update. it's now been 7 months since i wrote this post about how i'll style my wedding mane, but i don't know how much progress i've made in coming to a decision.

womp, womp.

i have pretty solidly decided on natural style, but i haven't really established a special 'do that's really above and beyond how i wear my hair on a normal day.

maybe i'm making this too big of a thing? maybe i should just do something super simple and get a really cool headpiece? as it is, i've talked with schniz about putting orchids in my hair. {ooh! more info to come about orchidssss!} but no style has really settled in as THE thing.

i can't say that i've made no progress, though. i have managed to pull off two major successes that could play into the big (day) picture! both of them were inspired by videos i've watched by naptural85. i have to thank miss jericabella for the recommendation to start following her blog! naptural85 has been a great hairspiration for me!

ok, two successes (and i gots some photos!).

#1 is the two-strand flat twist. with a side puff. this is my new favorite hairstyle. even if i can only twist it well on the left side of my head....i've got that side mastered! i love the look though. it's super simple and classy. but maybe too casual for a bride? the verdict is still out on that one. here's a pic of the look -- this is me and schniz at my east coast bachelorette (!!!) party:

i heart my wedding goddess!

#2 is buying and trying curlformers. i have only attempted it once, and i mostly consider that time a success, but imperfect in a few key ways that i can improve for the future.

1. i need more curlformers (which sucks because those snitches ain't cheap) to really achieve the fuller curly look i want.

2. i need to trim my gross, knotty ends before my next solid attempt at this.

3. sleeping in those suckers is a NO NO. oh jeebus was that one of the worst nights of sleep! next time, the bonnet dryer will be in effect!

4. setting lotion / flaxseed gel or something with holding power is a must. and probably a solid spray of anti-humectant at the end, just to be on the safe side. i thought i could get away with only using a shea butter pomade on my hair. well, the finished product was cute for most of day one...but day two -- oh dear. well, the best way that i can describe how it looked was 'poop doodles'. not a fan! i hate poop.

check out the process in photos. first i had to put those puppies in, which was both easier and harder than i thought it would be, but still faster than my usual hand twisting.

yeah. SUPER attractive.

i'm smiling in that picture above because it's BEFORE i went to sleep. not so many smiles after that 'til i took 'em out the next morning. see pics below for the fresh unraveling! i was surprised i could achieve a curl like that with NO HEAT! and i did break the curls up for more volume after these pics, but would love to have to do that as little as possible next time...

later that day i was out and about with polotek. he loves to smile for the camera.

alright, peeps. tell me what you think! weigh in!

wedding jetsetting.

a quick update here:

(1) looks like a honeymoon is happening for these two kids! we were happy to discover that we will be getting some money back from uncle sam this year, and are going to put it toward our honeymoon. more details to come on how the planning for that shakes out, but we have decided on the location....
we're going to tahiti! aaaaand moorea and also maybe bora bora. either way, we'll be in french polynesia enjoying post-nuptial bliss this september. ahhh...yes.

in case you were wondering....

paradise, anyone?

so. frickin' excited.

and speaking of excited....

(2) my east coast bachelorette party will be this weekend in new york city! i'm pumped. my wedding goddess has taken care of everything, and i can't wait to see my besties in the big apple for a night of mayhem classy celebration around town! many details are being kept top secret, but knowing schniz, this will be a night i'll never forget! i love all my ladies and am SOOO looking forward to toasting with you this weekend!

check out these amazing invites! so perfect.

in the beginning, there was...facebook.

this morning, in putting together a few plans to host a little birthday gathering for polotek's birthday at the end of the month, i forwarded him a message through facebook and stumbled across our FIRST message exchange!! funny that i have not seen this since we sent them, as i completely forgot that facebook even had the history stored, and he and i have not facebook messaged each other since april 2008!

LOVE IT!!!

if you remember, in my 'how we met' blog post, i describe that we were first introduced by my jewish aunt on facebook. these are THE messages that we first sent each other, little did we know we would be together forever after that.... <3

AWWW, sappy-love-stuffs!

enjoy, my friends!

perhaps i should have put a disclaimer at the beginning that i may be the only person on earth who cares about this. haha either way, i loooooove it!

st. francis hall.

oh, how i love thee.

polotek and i got to visit the site during our east coast tour with schniz.
 :::sings the song from top gun::: "take my breath awaaaaaay..."

i'm definitely excited about the venue. and things are really coming together -- the venue is beautiful. our caterer has a relationship with the venue. our minister is also familiar with the venue. happiness abounds.

they really don't do it justice, but here's a couple rough photos i took with my iphizzle....

view from the front

to the right of the hall is the franciscan monastery with drop dead gorgeous arches that we WILL be taking photos under!!! this photo was taken from the parking lot across the street. so there is accessible parking for people that want to drive and it's also metro accessible. 

first glance into the hall

the ceremony will happen on the lawn outside (unless the weather is no bueno), but when you walk into the hall (where the reception/party will be) you see this lovely open space! it may seem a bit lackluster with the empty tables and stacked chairs, but if you use a little bit of imagination, this can be reeeeeally cool once decorated. helloooo, tall centerpieces!