Preparing for the holidays...and a wedding!

 

Wedding plans have been moving along slowly but surely these past few months of chaos; our 2nd Annual Pumpkin Appreciation Day, Nicks boat races trip, my new career, Matt & Kim concert, appointments, photo shoots, Nicks new Jeep, my training, trip to Fontana, catching up with friends, etc....like I said, chaos...

 

We have just about settled on a ceremony site, which has been a toss up for a while now, save the dates are just about ready to be ordered and sent out to all our loved ones! (in case anyone was curious) :) After save the dates are completed, I will be posting our amazing wedding party attendees and the start of the wedding details!!!

 

Moving on, I am ecstatic to say that bits and pieces have been coming together with great thanks to my great friend Heather, my Mother and Grandma, their contributions really make this wedding that more special and sentimental for us. 

 

A few weeks ago, Nick and I finally got our engagement/save the date pics taken with the help of a friend and her husband, which here is a little preview (I don't want to spoil the actual save the dates;)      

                   

(Got a Nick shot in, haha)

 

We had a lot of fun with this since I was also doing my friends Anniversary pics as well, great compromise for the guys;) Not to mention it was also 40 out that day so we kept warm with some Bailys Irish Creme and hot chocolate, it was necessary, yes, very necessary.

 

Lately, our next step is to book our photographer, which we think we may have found one. This guy is right out of Schaumburg and is very artsy and catches all the right moments that I am looking for (emotions, candids, etc..). But we shall see:)

 

Next week or the following a few girls from my bridal party and I will be continuing the hunt for the perfect set of bridesmaid dresses, pretty excited except for the fact I can't find the unique dresses I am looking for, slightly non traditional (These dresses will seal the deal with my sweet heels purchase, till then my heels await me). *Fingers crossed* we find them;)

 

As for now, next week is Thanksgiving with that being said food, Black Friday, a FOUR day weekend, and Nicks and my traditions of putting up the tree festivities awaits us!! Very excited since we will be spending it with each family this year appose to it just being Nick and I. And I must say we have had so much to be thankful for this year. Next up, my personal fave, CHRISTMAS!!!  

 

   

.....annnnnd we're back in Chicago!!!!

Its officially been 4 months since we have been back in the windy city, and life has been full of so much excitement and chaos! We have been catching up with family, old and new friends, and taking in every moment of being back in our favorite city! We both are going to miss Maryland and our four years worth of memories and relationships made there! That was the entirety of our relationship where we really grew as a couple:) It didn't hit us till our last week there that this really was home for us. We always considered Chicago as home, but we made Maryland our home over time. Many ups and downs, life lessons and much growing up together, crying, laughter, etc. But now we have hit a new chapter in our lives, the wedding is now in full speed of planning and our lives are just starting to take off for the best!!! We have never been happier and more excited:)

Our last morning in our Maryland Apartment :(

Since we have been back Nick and I have both landed great jobs, and I finally completed my years of hard work and dedication with graduating at Columbia College Chicago (WoooHooo!!!). I earned my Bachelors of Arts degree in Fashion Studies. The ceremony was held at the historic Chicago Theatre in downtown chicago! Followed by an amazing celebratory dinner at the Park Grill. I have never felt so overwhelmed with accomplishment in my life, and I am so happy I had Nick and my families love and support by my side through it all! We had quite the evening needless to say:)!!!

Aside from graduating, wedding planning has begun:) My dress was the first thing that initiated the wedding planning itself. My mom took me to a couple places where I tried on numerous dresses, one place where I had thought we might have found the one but I was still unsure. Then my mom took me to Volles Bridal Boutique in Lake Zurich where she and her sister bought there dresses. Literally 3 dresses in I found the one! The dress was/is beautiful and I couldnt imagine a more perfect dress than this to marry the love of my life, my best friend, my rock, the man of my dreams in. I probably stood staring emotionally at me in my dress for a good 45 minutes, till I was pretty much told I can make appointments to come back and stand in it some more when ever I felt like it (haha), maybe try on accessories, lingerie, shoes etc with the dress. At that moment though things began feeling more real, I kept thinking to myself 'I really am getting married! IM IN THE WHITE DRESS!' That day was truly special and I am so happy I had my mom with me to experience it all with!!! Keeping the dress a secret is going to be the biggest challenge EVER! Since that day we have knocked a few big things off of our list, officially:

Wedding Dress

Reception Venue

DJ

Wedding Cake

That might sound very random and soon, but I can't begin to describe how relieved I feel knowing those things are done (and come on, 1 year away, we are on a roll). Now we are looking to find our ceremony site and our photographer which has been quite the adventure to say the least. We both would like to say we wish we could take one month for a break, but a few days after we said that we started discussing our registry, engagement pics, annuoncements, and engagement party. So that break, well we will see.:)

Lastly, with being back we have been busy almost every weekend so far, with everyone wanting to see us and us wanting to do all the things we absolutely missed. Boating with friends, Nick's mom was in, family outtings, air shows, flea market, celebrated our 4 year, bridal shows, birthdays, fantasy football league, ladies night, wedding stuff, trails, etc. This past weekend we went to the Wisconsin State Fair just the two of us. We had such a blast eating more than our bodies could handle, saw some GREAT bands, watched the pig races, walked through the animal barns, ate some more, did the skyline ride, etc. It was the perfect day for it, weather was beautiful and overall it was a great crowd, everyone looking to have just as much fun as you!! We are already planning for next years!!!

Being back so far has been such a blast, and we are so excited to see what this chapter in life will bring for us as newly engaged Nick & Sarah:)







Pinterest Kick...

So the word is out and I am officially announcing that Nick and I are moving to Chicago in two weeks from today. Rumors are true;) We are both super excited to see where the next chapter in our lives takes us!!! With that being said Nick has "grounded" me from any wedding planning, so for the time being it has been placed on hold till we are settled into our new place. With all the excitement around here lately (planning a move, getting engaged and planning a wedding, graduation in May, job hunting, the sad loss of my cousin, etc. you get the idea) its become a little too much, I am not one to take one thing at a time I like to tackle it all at once, but this whole experience has turned into quite the learning experience to say the least; that one needs to identify when the going gets overwhelming things should be handled one thing at a time...UGH. So where does Pinterest, my latest addiction this past year, come in??? Well as we are just about living out boxes at this point, I have dug a little deeper into the site finding new things to put together for our next place...Girls side with me here, a new place means a given reason for new decor and ideas, am I right? So at the moment there are spray cans, various piles of fabric, some odds and ends, etc all over the place, one of my gf's has even been so generous to offer her work space since the itch for creativity has spread like a wild fire to her now too. Yes, I introduced her to the site as well just about a month ago. For those who haven't got a clue what I am talking about, all I can say is go to www.pinterest.com and browse around, you won't understand all the hype till you dipped into it yourself. Below are just a few projects/recipes I have tackled on this past week...

Hamburger Stew...Soooo YUMMY

Created some new thrifty wall art all under $35 

This isn't finished yet, still needs to be studded on the outer trim...

 Aside from all of that chaos lately, I did however do something wedding related in February. I got to attend my first Bridal Expo which was super fun and brain boggling. One day of never ending info was more than enough to get this future bride started. One of my girlfriends came with me and we tried so many different types of cakes (probably my favorite part...hehe), different catering services, looked at various assortments of invitations, saw a Bridal Fashion Show, and so much more. Everything and anything was there, I did get a ton of ideas I would have never imagined out of it, some of which I WILL be using (those of which are hush hush, sorry). But my gosh you go home with aching arms from all the stuff they give you.



Next up hopefulling a IndieWed show...check it out Indiewed.com... For those who know me well I am far from traditional so you will agree this is right up my ally!!!

On that note I gotta go eat dinner and hang out with the dude, hopefully I can squeeze one more blog in before the BIG move...if not, well, I will chat in a few weeks from the midwest;)

Just a little music to leave you with...

And the planning begins....

 

So it has been a while since I last posted something, and I swore to this site I wouldn't ignore it. Tough start. It has been a month now since Nick and I have gotten engaged and I swear Tacori has had my ring longer than I have (hence the overload of pics, I miss it). I took it in almost 4 weeks ago to get it re-sized a second time, this time its a different size so I am hoping it comes back fitting perfectly. Apparently my finger shrunk from a 5 something to a 4 something, hmmmm. It was really neat though, when I brought in my ring the sales woman showed me how I would be able to identify MY diamond among the many others which was rather interesting. She said that my diamond had a very unique character to it so many rare details. I found myself glued to the magnify eyeglass thing, just to be told shortly after "Welcome back to being single!" by the sales woman. Today I received a phone call that it has made its return and is officially ready to be worn and shown off to the world:) Since Nick was never shown nor explained to about all my rings details, we are going in together to pick it up tomorrow. Should be a fun little field trip!!! 

Soooo planning, thanks to Nick's Christmas present to me (Wedding Planner Binder), its been guiding us through an easy and organized start. Aside from that, since the day we got engaged I never knew how many times I would actually be questioned about "The Date". My goodness people!!! Where was the warning for that in my new in depth planner? HAHA!!! But I do think we might have found our date, unfortunately I will not share it yet since its not official...shucks, I know;) Nick and I have been starting on the few things that we can right now:

Guest/Address List

Getting my ring insured

Color Palettes/Themes 

Scoping out Wedding Dresses (W/O him of course)

Contacting Venues/Caterers

Agreeing on a season/date

Etc...

Its a start to a long process, and its going to take a lot of work since I am not your average traditional bride. We do not want a cookie-cutter wedding, period. Thanks to my addictions with Pinterest and Etsy, I have managed to start and prepare for my non-cookie-cutter wedding, which you can scope out my ideas on Pinterest. Our thoughts on a venue so far is keeping away from banquets, we like the idea of a loft wedding in Chicago, which I have managed to find some rather affordable venues, shockingly, its Chicago affordable and Chicago don't typically belong in the same sentence. I couldn't think of a better place to have it than either in or near my most favorite city and home. Why a loft wedding you might ask? I want somewhere with a blank canvas, somewhere I can personalize that represents Nick and I, no funky carpets, wallpaper, clashy colors, etc. (of course sometimes you have to take the bad with the good, I know I know). PLUS I have been watching episodes of Wedded to Perfection and Bridezilla's which Nick claims its a bad influence to early in the game, my defense: Inspiration. Both shows have such great ideas!! And yes Bridezilla's too, these obnoxious nightmare brides actually had some cute ideas for decorating. I'm not ashamed of watching trash tv, I will take all and any inspiration tips I can get. I have even gone through old Crate & Barrel magazines for visual ideas, so that's where we stand right now. 

Lastly, this weekend will be my first bridal expo, should be fun according to some of my girlfriends who have already gone through this so I am rather excited to see what its all about. One of my girlfriends is tagging along so I know it will be a good time either way. And in addition to that this week I have started receiving information about my graduation in May at Columbia College Chicago for my Bachelors (its about time whewww!!), just found out it will be held at the Chicago Theatre, one of my favorite spots in Chicago, so its been nothing but bit by bit of excitement in the Weber Benzo household. I'm excited to see what this next year brings us!!!

We're Engaged!!!

As of December 17th, 2011 Nicholas Benzo and I got engaged, and I thought it was only right to start a Blog pertaining to the exciting new chapter in our lives!!! I am sure you are all wondering how it all went down so I will share our little story that lead all the way up to the moment of popping the question.

First off, I had known that something was up for a while, Nick gets slightly moody like PMS style when huge things are about to happen in his life such as the first time he said "I love you" to me, so I have experience with his mood trends. But for the past couple months something was off about him and I couldn't put my finger on it. Over the summer last year Nick and I were talking and joking around over a few glasses of wine on our deck about him having to propose before 2012 came, nothing serious, right? ;) So as it got closer to the end of the year I started guessing if and when he was going to pop the question and each time I was way wrong. As we entered December I found out I had to work on my Birthday so Nick and I decided to postpone the celebration to the following Saturday. Now each year since we have been together we have gone to Chicago or DC to see the huge Christmas trees, so that Saturday we had a whole evening planned out from dinner to ice skating and later seeing the tree. 

So now the real story starts...

Saturday began rather early, I had a hair appointment for my evening date with Nick, I wanted to look my best since it had been a while since our last date together. As I was getting my hair cut the hair stylist was asking me all about Nick and our families (typical salon gossip) and went on saying how she thought that tonight would be the night he is popping the question, and she went on explaining why she thought so and I kept thinking no way this is our typical tree outing. Afterwards I went straight home just to head out with Nick to purchase our new phones which caused us to run a tiny bit off schedule to heading into DC. Two hours later we arrived back home and quickly got ready for our evening together. Nick threw on a different coat right away and I instantly thought its not happening tonight he didn't grab anything extra and he wasn't acting any different than he normally does. 

That evening was colder than usual and super windy, and since Nick and I were taking the Metro into DC it felt ten times worse. Now normally when I am cold I will stick my hands in Nicks coat pockets because he is like your own personal space heater, but that evening his pockets were off limits. Then we boarded the train and there was no seating to be found, it was jam packed with people heading out to holiday parties so we had to stand. Now normally when we have to stand Nick will let me use him for stability, that evening, NO, and I was miffed. So after a hour on the train due to track closings, we finally made it into DC and thought we would do dinner first. Now Nick and I discovered this great Irish Bar The Elephant & Castle the previous year so we decided to go back there for drinks and dinner this time. Through out dinner nothing seemed different everything was as it always was between us when we went out. After dinner came and a few beers later to prepare us for the cold, we bundled up and found ourselves speed walking to the National Tree. 

When we arrived to the tree there were hundreds of people everywhere getting pictures and oooing and ahhing over the lights, train set, and state trees surrounding it. As we got closer making our way around the circle Nick and I were taking picture after picture. Finally reaching the front Nick had asked a couple to take a picture of us then whispering to the guy that he was going to be taking more than one picture. As I was waiting for Nick to hop into the picture next to me he ended up quickly falling down to one knee and asked me to marry him! I was in utter shock mode which lead to BALLING my eyes out (which I did not expect to cry, I thought I was too much of a tough girl for that stuff, but I did), plus it didn't help that we were surrounded by tons of people watching and clapping and I still hadn't said YES. Moments went by which felt like time had actually stopped and Nick got up and asked if that was a yes because I hadn't said anything (I was speechless...and in shock)(lol), all I could do at the moment was hug him tightly and cry and I finally answered "YES YES YES!!!" and continued on with hugging him. Then he asked me if I wanted my ring because I had handed it back to him haha, and I said yes so he helped me put it on and we finally got our tree picture together:) Afterwards we probably had over a 100 people coming up to us congratulating us people shaking Nicks hand and hugging us, people we didn't even know but had shared our moment with us. 

 After we stepped aside from the tree we both were in such awe that we completely blew off our plans for the evening, we both had a hard time concentrating on anything but spending our lives together! Our smiles were locked! We ended up that evening going back to the The Elephant & Castle talking over beers and still getting congratulated by people at the bar who saw us at the tree. It was an amazing evening and very laid back.

The next day after we talked to our families all morning, we took a little trip out to Bethesda. All week Nick had said he made plans for us that followed Saturday, those plans were an appointment at the jewelers to learn about my ring and get it sized, and the woman wanted to meet me after having dealt with Nick for over 6 months:). Afterwards we went out to lunch still giddy and attempted Christmas shopping which we still couldn't focus on reality so we failed terribly at it.

We have been engaged for a couple weeks now, and I have just been the happiest girl on earth. People say getting engaged doesn't change how you feel, but I disagree, I can't even begin to explain what I am feeling! I have never been so emotional in my life, I get bursts of happiness, nervousness, excitement etc randomly where I have to try and collect myself so I don't tear up in public haha! Although we don't have a date set, we are having a blast looking into all sorts wedding ideas together, Nick has been so interested in helping which makes it even more enjoyable doing this together! Although I think he is mainly excited to use the Seinfeld quote "Wheres my Fianceeee?" (As I posted it)... :)

Maybe the Dingo Ate Your Baby