Juju

Do you believe in it?

Not this kind of JuJu...
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This kind...Source

If my silence hasn't given it away, perhaps you can guess that the whole shoe delivery debacle did not end well. What we thought would be an easy fix turned out to be a massive effort.

The shoes were not at the apartment complex office. So where were they? My mom and I each spent hours on the phone, going back and forth with Endless and UPS and my old apartment complex, trying to figure out the answer to that question. By the end of the day Thursday, I had reached the point where I didn't even care about the shoes anymore. It turns out, the new tenant of our apartment not only had the shoes but she had every intention of keeping them for herself. WTF? When I got the phone call from my old complex saying that the new tenant had finally surrendered the shoes, it's sad but I wasn't really that excited. I was like, "eh, okay." To be honest, the drama had become too much.
Who would've thought that these pretties could bring anything but happiness?!
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I was explaining the situation to some girls at work and they flat out told me, "You cannot wear those shoes! Those shoes are cursed! They aren't meant to be!" (They even went into the discussion of the Latin American curse "Ojo" which, very basically, is when you have something someone else wants, and they are a bearer of the Evil Eye, they can curse that item. [Side note: back when I first learned about the Ojo, I was at work and saw a girl with a plate of brownies. I said in my head 'Wow those look good!' and two seconds later...SPLAT! The brownies fell to the ground. It took my co-workers a good week to convince me I didn't have the "Ojo".] Learn more here.

At first I blew it off. How could I not wear the pair of shoes that I had half of San Antonio looking for? But then I really began to think about how much effort it had taken to track them down and how much stress they caused. I then began to hate the shoes. Did I really think they were cursed? No. But do I really want to wear a pair of shoes that are full of negativity on a day that is supposed to be so happy and joyous? No, again.

So I sent them back. I'm still in l-o-v-e with this style but I think I'm going to start fresh and order them from another site. Hopefully *knock on wood* there will be no shipping issues this time and me and Randee can start our relationship off on a better foot. (Pun intended.)

Am I crazy? Any crazy superstitious things go on when planning your wedding?

Delivery FAIL

A recently married friend said it best: "Get ready to have a deep and serious relationship with your postman, UPS guy, and Fedex worker! Towards the end, I would run out there like it was the damn ice cream truck!"

To me, one of the most annoying parts of planning a wedding is the fact that you have to order so much stuff and then wait for it to be delivered. I'm more of an "instant gratification" person (read: I may be a bit spoiled and want what I want, when I want it. Hey, admitting it is the first step, right?).

The little "Track Your Package" link has so much power over me. My Ctrl+R keys are going to be worn out by the time April 30th rolls around, considering how many times I refresh the UPS and FedEx tracking pages. The worst part has to be when you refresh the page and finally see that your package has been delivered...at 10:21am...and you're at work until 5:00! (I may or may not have I know someone who may or may not have used the excuse "I think I left my stove on!" to run home and check out our their Save The Dates. Can you believe some people?)

So yesterday I knew I would have two, possibly three, packages waiting for me when I got home...

- Our Save the Dates (We'll get into how I feel about VistaPrint a little later...)
- Some DELICIOUS shoes to wear on my wedding day!
- A white BCBG dress my mom bought for me for our Engagement Pictures

Thanks to stalking tracking, I knew the first two were to be delivered yesterday. The dress was a crapshoot that I was just hoping would show up. When I got to the top of the stairs, I was greeted by this!Thank you, delivery man, for your inconspicuous placement of my packages.


Beneath the mat? Two packages, score!


My handy sidekick, Lily, investigated the first one.


Inside package #1...Our Save the Dates! And they're FINALLY perfect! Unfortunately, they're not ready for their big debut yet. But soon enough!

Inside package #2...
A stupid Coors Light Cooler I'd forgotten I ordered off Ebay for the Mr.'s birhday.So where were my shoes!?!? (and the better question...who writes "FRAGILE" on a box holding a soft sided cooler?!?!)

I decided to let the missing shoes go for the night since I had my STDs to play with (hehe). But today, the shoes were still not here. So I decided to call up my friendly Endless customer service girl, Amanda.
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(So, she isn't actually MY customer service girl, I was randomly assigned to her. And this is what she looks like in my head.)

To make a long story short...Endless made a mistake a left my apartment number off the shipping label. When UPS got to my complex, rather than going into the office to inquire, they thought, "Hey! We have this other address on file for her because she orders shoes and clothes non-stop randomly, let's bring the shoes there even though we have no idea if she lives there!"

What address would that be? My old apartment across town, where someone else now lives. So someone randomly had a pair of Badgley Mischka shoes delivered to them today, for FREE. It was like my dream came true. To some other person.

After speaking with UPS customer service, an alert was sent out for the closest driver to go to my old apartment complex and find.these.shoes. Why were they going to such lengths? Because Endless informed me that this shoe was now out of stock, making these missing shoes the fashion world's equivalent to Saving Private Ryan.A nice Mr. UPS man went to my old apartment, knocked on the door and asked for the package that had been delivered earlier. The new tenant swore no such package had been delivered. So unless the person in my old apartment is a shiesty biotch trying to steal my shoes, they are safely in the apartment office, where I will go tomorrow at the break of dawn to rescue them.

The situation kinda stinks but I'm very impressed with the customer service at both Endless and UPS.

I know there's a song that goes "Two outta three ain't bad." I don't know about that but I do know that "One outta three BLOWS!"

Has your life day ever been ruined by a snafu caused by the postal service?

Going Postal

I'm expecting at least two, possibly three, amazing deliveries from the ol' Postal Service today. As I described to a friend last night, the receipt of the deliveries could either go very good.

Or they could go very bad.

Keep the wine on deck, I may need it! I'll keep you posted.

Heh, heh.

Have a great day!

Not Wedding Related - Blog Design!

I know most people probably get here by way of the ol' Google Reader BUT if you have a couple minutes to spare, I did design a fun lil blog header so check it out! :)

Vendor Search: Catering Tasting #1 (aka I Don't Have To Cook Dinner)

The Mr. loves to eat. Luckily, I love to cook so it's a match made in heaven! He made it clear from the get-go that, while he wouldn't be next to me pondering "Hydrangeas or Roses?", he absolutely wanted to be involved in picking the food. Especially once he found out that we got to taste the food before we chose our caterer.

"For real...they're going to feed us? Like, real food?"

No, they're going to feed us fake food.

Since we're on a budget, we're exploring as many options as possible so as to get the most mouth-watering bang for our buck. Our venue has a list of approved caterers that we cannot stray from. So the day after we signed on the dotted line at The Witte, I picked up my phone and started to make my way down the list. After about the 3rd conversation - that was identical to the first two - I realized I might be better off - and save some time - if I just drafted a generic email explaining what I wanted and shot it off to the remaining caterers.

And you would not believe the giddiness I experienced once the initial proposals started rolling in. So exciting!

One of the first to respond was Jessica with Spice of Life catering. She was super nice and, compared to the other proposals we received, theirs was the most unique. Not only would we get our main dish, steak and chicken fajitas, but they had also included an action station option, something we had both wanted but were pretty sure wouldn't fit into the budget. The bottom line was within the budget parameters so after the super fun task of finding room in the Mr.'s 80-hour work week schedule (mad props to them because they stayed late just for us!), we had scheduled our first tasting!

Having never done a catering tasting before, we weren't too sure what to expect. Would we just get a bite or two or get to hoss out completely? I can (happily!) say now with experience that it was definitely the latter!

When we arrived, we were shown to a nice table and served this *heavenly* citrus iced tea. I mean it was AMAZING! We each went through about 6 glasses of the stuff and neither of us are tea drinkers.

Prior to our tasting, Jessica had asked me to select a couple appetizers to taste. I chose the Chorizo and Queso Stuffed Mushroom and the Blue Crab Topped Blue Corn Chip. Unfortunately, I'm a lot better at eating said appetizers than taking pictures of them. Case In Point
But, they were both absolutely delicious and we were huge fans!!

Luckily, I was much better at photographing everything else I'd say I deserve a C+. I'll do better next time.

Our original proposal including us selecting two salads from a group of choices. None of them really tickled my fancy so I asked instead if we could do a Southwest-ish Caesar Salad. They made my idea come to life better than I could have expected!The salad had mixed greens with sun-dried tomatoes and masa croutons with a zesty Caesar dressing with just the right amount of kick!

Next up came the main event...the FAJITAS! We were so surprised when they brought out a giant platter of chicken, steak and all the fixins!(This was after we had already dug in. Told you...this is purely C+ work). We were served moist, delicious chicken and steak plus sour cream, guacamole, pico de gallo and salsa for garnishes. On the side were (definitely homemade) spanish rice and AMAZING refried beans. Yeah these were not from an Old El Paso can.

We then got to sample one of the action station items - the Baja Fish Tacos with Grilled Mahi Mahi, Pickled Red Onions and a Cabbage Slaw. Again, I was so in love with these I forgot to take a picture. This is almost exactly what they looked like:Source
These were great as well. We would really love to be able to give a variety of TexMex foods, not just the stereotypical tacos and fajitas.

All in all, we were so impressed. And not just I was impressed, the Mr. was too. We really liked that Jessica and Mike, the chef and owner, brought the food out to us and then let us be so we could enjoy it (or not enjoy it!) alone. But not only that, we really felt like we clicked with them (which is actually something I felt almost immediately after the first email). We all talked about our different options after the meal was over. We let them know that we were just beginning our search and wanted to at least explore our other options but that we would stay in touch and let them know what we decide. And then we rolled ourselves out of there.

As this was almost two weeks ago, where does that leave us now?

Well, the Mr. just left to go up to another hospital about 2.5 hours away, where he'll remain for the next 4 weeks. Unless we can find another caterer willing to work with us on a weekend (not easy so far) we'll have to put our search on hold til October.

But really, I'm okay with that, seriously, no problem at all, I promise, I really mean it.

(Note: all photos the result of my creative genius cell phone unless otherwise noted. You're welcome.)

Think Outside The Bun

A little fact about me: I have a deep love for Taco Bell (I'm careful not to admit that out loud in San Antonio). Taco Bell was the first place I drove when I got my drivers' license. I always said Taco Bell would cater my wedding. Sadly, I can't have our family and friends travel 1500 miles to chow down on Gorditas and Cinnamon Twists. Klassy.

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But as luck would have it, we can come close. Since our goal is to cram as much San Antonio down our guests' throats as we possibly can in a single weekend, we can design our reception menu around one of our town's specialties - TexMex!

This is a win pretty much across the board...
- Most people like TexMex
- TexMex is usually pretty cost-effective, which will help us stay on budget
- It's kinda hard to mess up (knock on wood!)
- The Mr. and I both love it!
- I get to semi live out my dream of having Taco Bell at my wedding

Our venue has a list of approved caterers that we can't stray from. We plan on meeting with a wide variety of them to make sure we get not only delicious food but also a great presentation to wow our wonderful guests. The main dish we want to serve is pretty traditional but our ideal caterer will have some unique ideas as well.

Sadly, knowing my luck, I'll end up with a giant smear of salsa down the front of my dress within 20 minutes but I'll take one for the team.

Did you/would you plan your menu around one of your favorite foods or a food your area is known for?

Vendor Search: The Venue Part Deux

So when we last left off, I was having a nervous breakdown about finding the perfect venue handling the venue search like any other mature, rational adult would – by opening up a bottle of Yellowtail, sticking a straw in it and consoling myself with profound television like Kourtney & Khloe Take Miami.

I felt like I had tirelessly gone over the list of possibilities. None of them made the cut - kinda like me and all school sports teams growing up. People would ask me where we were having the wedding and I would tell them that we'd exhausted every option and had no luck. The general response was, "Have you tried The _____ yet?" Well...no, I hadn't. Most couldn't believe it and some practically forced the phone in my hands. But I wouldn't call.

The ______. Oh The ________ how I loved it so. This was the place I would drive by, wondering “Which organ would garner more cash on the Black Market so I can have my wedding here – kidney or lung?” I just knew it wouldn't fit within our budget. But I was at the end of my rope. So I did what I should have done a long time ago and…wait for it…are you ready? I…picked up the phone, called and ASKED! Talk about tons of effort, right? (Well, at least the mistakes I make now will save me lots of time the next time I get married. Kidding!)

I talked to the Director of Sales and Catering who quoted me prices that made my jaw drop - in a good way. I was so mad at myself for assuming the place was out of the question budget-wise before even checking to make sure. (Does this make me a “glass half empty” kinda girl?) She sent over a copy of their Rental Package which I perused during my lunch break. I wasn’t even 5 minutes into said break before I had already flooded the Mr.’s inbox with texts that may have resembled OMFGICANTBELIEVEITWTFWHYAMIANIDIOT OHMYGAHHHHH!!!$%$%^!!!!! Might as well throw in a few voicemails of just me squealing for good measure.

It turns out they were just what we were looking for and they were within our budget. As luck would have it, our date was open! My parents just happened to be coming into town for a visit the next week so I asked the Sales Manager to put a two week hold on the date for us until we came to check it out.

That’s right. I put a hold. On a venue. For my our wedding. Holy shiz.

When the parentals got to the land of salsa, we went and met with one of the Event Planners who showed us around the entire place. It was even better than in pictures! The four of us knew it was THE place for our wedding!

So where is this magical venue that I have made seem like it’s dripping with gumdrops and candy icicles and lollipop trees? Without further adieu, I present to you – our wedding venue!
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The Witte Museum is San Antonio's premier museum focusing on South Texas history, science and water resources. It has so many awesome features and we plan to take advantage of each one!

Our ceremony will be held here in the Native Plant Garden:
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Guests will then make their way to the cocktail hour will be held along the banks of the San Antonio River, intermingled with the Log Cabin Exhibit in the background (one of the Mr's only requests...I had to oblige even though log cabins just...well...they aren't my thing). To give you an idea of the layout, the Native Plant Garden is on the other side of the building on the right.Source
And dinner, dancing and grubbin' will take place here (dinner under the tree, dancing and grub on the surrounding covered patios):Source
The Witte is without a doubt the right place for us. It's so unique and has TONS of spaces separated into sections so we can have the ceremony, cocktail hour and dinner & dancing all at the same place, without our guests feeling like they are being shuffled from one identical space to the next. It's also located on the river (the same river that feeds the Riverwalk) so, if we're lucky, maybe a groomsman or two will fall in after a few too many beers and give us all some added entertainment - free of charge! SCORE!

Since our wedding is 100% outdoors, one thing the venue needed to have was a rain plan that didn't blow. It's not going to rain so we aren't going to use it BUT just in case we maybe perhaps had an instance where we needed to use a rain plan, we have one. And the Mr and I both agreed...if it rains, we're doing our ceremony right in front of this homeboy:

That's right...if it rains, we're gonna say "Eff it!" and get married in front of a dinosaur. For the win! But, it's not going to rain.

The pictures absolutely do NOT do it justice! I have some pictures of the venue all set up for a wedding and I'll save those for a rainy day since this has obviously been a ridiculously long post.