Wedding Party Member of the Week #12

This week, we are proud to announce our third groomsman…..

Andy Hernandez!



Andy is my good friend from working with the City of Irvine. We have both been working for the City at the same park for more than 5 years! We have moved up the ranks together after starting as low men on the totem pole. We are now Leader III’s and rule the world! Okay not quite, but we’re pretty awesome.

About a year after he started working at the park, Andy got a set of golf clubs for Christmas. The rest is history. Our first round was at Willowick and I’ll never forget it: he must have shot like a 120; he was hitting trees, throwing clubs, and putting with mud on his ball! About three years later he shot a 69 at the same course.



This is a picture of his hole in one on a 200+ yard par 3 at Oak Creek.

That pretty much sums up Andy! If he puts his mind to something, he will obsess; practice like there is no tomorrow, and end up being awesome at it. This guy played competitive ice hockey as a kid. He played high school football. He was a major rock star in high school. He can play the drums, guitar, piano, and I’m sure a bunch of other instruments, too! He’s terrific at our job with the City, and I’m sure a terrific worker with his church.



Andy is currently taking classes at Cal State Fullerton, majoring in Human Services to one day be a marriage and family therapist. He is a great guy, and a great friend. We are so stoked that he agreed to be in our wedding!

RAIN, RAIN GO AWAY

I'm taking a break from building my ark so I thought I might as well blog! For our out of town blog fans, we are getting absolutely drenched here in southern California. It has literally been raining for almost four straight days, yikes! So although the past few weeks have been insanely busy, thanks to this weather, my school was let out early today because of the flooded roads and pouring rain. A little ridiculous? yes. Incredibly awesome? Oh yes! So this gives me a little extra time to update you guys on some exciting wedding news!

Save-the-Dates: We are currently gluing, stuffing and sealing our save-the-dates and cannot wait to send them out! My cousin Stephanie designed them for us and they look amazing! We love them and we are so thankful for Stephanie! Be on the lookout for yours coming soon :)

Bridesmaid Dresses: I have been looking everywhere for bridesmaid dresses. I couldn't find anything that I liked at all, especially at a reasonable price. I was beginning to lose hope and thought I would have to wait it out for spring (yay pink!). Then, about two weeks ago I was searching randomly and found IT! I have to say it was almost as exciting as finding my dress :) I quickly contacted some key players in the wedding and happily received a stamp of approval from every single one of them! Not to mention, they were very reasonably priced AND are from Nordstroms who totally rock at everything. We went ahead and ordered them and I received the first two in the mail yesterday! My mother graciously modeled one of them, and it looked amazing! Such a relief to get that checked off the list.

Pre-Marital Counseling: Our church requires us to participate in a ten week program to prepare us for the journey that lies ahead. Our first group session was this past Tuesday and it was great. We were both a little nervous going in to it, especially since we each had to take an individual survey to "evaluate" our relationship. Although the first session wasn't that scary, we found out they definitely aren't going to sugar coat anything. Marriage is a lot of work, but we know it is worth it :) Our results weren't very scary either. We found out our strengths are spiritual beliefs, financial management and parenting which we think are very good things to be good at. We also found out our area of weakness is conflict resolution, which most people who know us could have told us that :). We are excited for the challenge and to gain some great tools for our marriage.

Also, a few tiny things are going on as well. We have officially scheduled our next meeting with our caterer for next Saturday. We are also bringing along my good friend Erin who has just started a wedding and event planning company with a friend of hers. We are so excited that they have agreed to help us out with the wedding! Erin has also put us in contact with her brother who is putting together his photography portfolio and has volunteered to take a second round of engagement pictures for us. Also, stay tuned for the official release of our wedding website!!!!

Whoo! That is a lot of updates! We have officially passed the six month mark so things are really taking off. Hold on to your hats folks! Have a great rest of the week and stay dry!

WPMW #11

This week we are so excited to introduce our absolutely fabulous bridesmaid....

Emily!!!

Emily, aka e-willy or bff, is one of my bestest friends in the whole wide world! We met during my freshman year of college at Chapman and immediately hit it off. We were pretty much attached at the hip for most of our time at Chapman. My junior year we even became roommates at the 7-2-9 and definitely learned a lot about each other and ourselves.

Although Emily is a friend, I always looked to her like she was a big sister and followed in her footsteps. She convinced me to become a TV and Broadcast Journalism major just like her. She also convinced me to become an Orientation Assistant and Nightcap cohost at Chapman just like her. And most importantly she convinced me to become a Delta Gamma so we could be lifelong sisters!

Emily and I had such a blast going through college together and may have actually had a little too much fun at times. Emily has such a fun spirit and is always coming up with crazy and entertaining things to do. There is never a dull moment with her!

Emily has also always been so supportive of Justin and I's relationship. Emily has made such an effort to get to know Justin and always made him feel welcome (although I think we drove him nuts most of the time). The three of us all traveled to Europe together almost four years ago. We made so many memories traveling the world and creating quite a ruckus over there.

Emily is such a talented person and we can't wait to see what she does in the world. In college, she actually beat out hundreds of applicants and sixteen other contestants to win KTLA's College Audition. We were so proud of her! She is currently up in LA rocking the whole entertainment industry. She has appeared on the OC, 90210 and many other popular shows. She also recently starred in a brand new MTV series, Disaster Date. It is such a blast to watch her on TV, she is absolutely hilarious.

Despite our distance now and busy schedules, we don't get to see each other very often, but when we do we pick up right where we left off. I couldn't imagine her not being a part of our wedding!

Now one thing you must know about Emily and I, we love to take pictures....see below

Wedding Party Member of the Week #10

This week, we are announcing another groomsmam ... Michael Landolina!



“Lando” is one of my best friends from my years in college at Chapman. Our friendship started freshman year when we were making fun of a high maintenance girl in our T.V. Production class. It continued as we shared our love of sports in different classes, and then finally decided to buy season tickets to the Ducks together. We both missed hockey so much that we just had to get season tickets the first year it came back after the lockout. We shared seats for one year, before he backed out due to a lack of interest in hockey in Orange County.



He got his fill of hockey, and now hates the Ducks (he’s a Sharks fan). He probably hates them even more since they won the Stanley Cup the year after he gave up his ticket. GO DUCKS!



I told him I would post a link to his Sharks blog: www.bladesofteal.com

Unlike myself, Lando is actually trying to use his college degree to break into the sports broadcasting business. He’s worked for the San Diego Chargers, San Francisco Giants, and the Golden State Warriors. So if anyone has any connections, let me know, so I can help out our groomsman! Also not like myself, Lando is a terrific golfer. He played golf at Chapman and was kind enough to take me out for a couple rounds at Tustin Ranch, a beautiful (and pricey) golf course down the street from my house. T-Ranch is the home course for Chapman.



Lando is the commissioner of the fantasy sports leagues I participate in. What’s awesome about them is that we don’t spend a penny on the leagues, but they are all for pride. Only die hard baseball and hockey fans allowed! It’s great, and Lando is a terrific commissioner. We are honored to have a great guy, and one of the funniest and passionate people we know in our wedding!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

So I realize I am a little late, but I blame my mother. She had all of the pictures from the holidays on her camera which she "lost" for a few days. Now that her camera has returned to us safely, I can return to the blogging world. Thank goodness, right? :) We had a wonderful vacation (which I am still enjoying haha). Justin and I were finally able to spend time together and we got to see each other on Christmas again!

Where to start, where to start....I guess I will begin with our long overdue annual anniversary Charger game which we attended on December 20th (almost exactly two months past our actual anniversary). Not only was it a great game against the Bengals, but we also won, clinched the AFC West AND Santa was there!

Christmas Eve was spent at my Beach Grandparents (aka dad's side of the family). We had a great dinner with everyone and then of course made it back home in time for a little "Night Before Christmas" entertainment from my father.


Justin and I each spent time with our families on Christmas morning before he made the trek down to San Diego with us. I must admit, Engaged Christmas was a blast! It was so much fun seeing presents that said 'Justin and Brittany.' And we received so much fun married stuff! Justin's parents sent us a Marriage Bible and they sent me a super cute wedding themed wine glass for my bachelorette party :) My mom bought us a blanket (my favorite!) that she is going to have embroidered for us. She also gave us our very own advent calendar and some adorable Christmas decorations, including a personal ornament for our first married Christmas. We (well honestly probably just me) can't wait to decorate for Christmas next year! As I have joked to many of you, we will probably have to decorate for Christmas all year long since we lack any sort of normal household decorations (or furniture).

New Years Eve was pretty uneventful for us considering Justin was up all night with food poisoning only 48 hours before. We were both so tired we missed the ball drop and had to rewind it. Thank goodness for technology!

New Years Day was a blast! We had a great brunch with family at one of our favorite places on the beach. It was the most beautiful day, even though it did get a little warm. Can you believe we were actually sweating on January 1st?! Only in the best state in the country :) After that we went on a bike ride in Mission Beach, right down the street from our wedding venue!!


Now that the holidays are over we are all getting back to the grind and back to blogging on a regular basis. Make sure you check out our first WPMW of 2010! Have a wonderful week!

Wedding Party Member of the Week #9

Welcome back to the blog! We hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year with your families. This week, we are super excited to announce our 2nd bridesmaid, and another sister of mine…



Ashley!!!

Ashley is one of my millions of siblings, and thousands of sisters. She is an awesome person, and an even better sister. Ashley and I share a lot of the same interests. Before Brittany came along and introduced me to the wonderful world of country music, we both were obsessed with our poppy punk! But most of all, we’re both soccer people. I’ve watched her go from working her tail off in AYSO, all the way to playing for a Silver Elite club team, and now in college!



That’s right, Ashley is playing college soccer at Irvine Valley College!!! I’m so proud of her for how far she’s come and how hard she has worked to get there. She also played on the Varsity team at Tustin High, where I coach the JV team. She is a freshman at IVC, where she just recently began her higher education journey towards a career in nursing.

Ashley is a free spirit, very laid back who just goes with the flow. She loves animals, soccer, and most of all, her boy toy James!




They’ve been dating for like a million years now (actually only 2 and some change), and they are a perfect match. I wasn’t so sure about this guy early on, but he’s grown on me, and I know he loves my sister, so I guess he can stay ☺ ! He puts up with the whole family calling him Jamesy-Poo, so I guess he deserves it.





Stay tuned for next week's WPMW, another one of the men standing next to the groom!

God bless,

Justin and Brittany