6 year Anniversary

So Mr. Bear and I have been married 6 years now and have been together 13 years. What an amazing 13 years.

We had a nice little low key anniversary. The evening before, we started off with a movie. We watched 42, then head off for I Love Pie in Claremont for some dessert. Yummy



The evening of our actual anniversary, we had a nice dinner with our girl and our cousin who was staying with us that weekend. Yummy food was had.







My facebook post from that day: "So 13 years ago, I met a boy at a Cinco de Mayo party. He gave me his card and I called him. 7 years later, we were married on Cinco de Mayo. Babe, that was the best phone call I ever made. I love you more and more each day. Here is to a lifetime of Cinco de Mayo's together."

10 years ago I met a boy

Ten years ago today I met a boy at Cinco de Mayo party. Seven years later on Cinco de Mayo I married that boy. After 3 years of marriage and a decade as a couple, we are still smiling and loving each other. Happy Anniversary my love!

Photo by Amy Squires

Procrastination: 2 years later

It has taken me two years to finally get my wedding dress cleaned. As I have been nesting and getting our home ready for baby bear, I realized that my wedding dress (still in a garment bag) was in the corner of the room waiting to be cleaned. I am not usually a procrastinator, I am usually a planner who gets things done right away. But when it came to getting my wedding dress cleaned I just never got around to it. Well, it is finally off to get cleaned and boxed up. It is definitely time. I loved that dress and although I don't expect Baby Bear to ever wear the dress, I do want to keep it for me.

One of my favorite pictures of my dress:

Our Anniversary update

We had a very nice low key anniversary. It was just perfect since we were together. Mr. Bear got me a dozen red roses that were absolutely beautiful and we went to yummy dinner at PF Changs. The food was good and the company was even better. It is hard to believe that not only have we been married for 712 days (Mr. Bear calculated the days), but we met 9 years ago to the day. Mr. Bear said it was a good 9 years and I agree.

At the end of dinner we got our fortune cookies and strangely enough my fortune cookie had two fortunes in it!! It had one for Baby Bear. What are the chance of that? That was pretty cool. It was nice to have Baby Bear with us to celebrate our special day!!

2 years!!

Today we celebrate our 2 year wedding anniversary!! I can't believe how quickly time has gone. I can't believe that in about a month we will add to our family a beautiful little Baby Bear.

We are pretty simple and low key people. With all that is going on, we are just going to have a nice low key anniversary. What matters most is that we are together. Each day is a special important day knowing that he is in my life. I cherish and celebrate every day we have with each other. I am so happy to be Mrs. Bear and I am so thankful to have such a wonderful man in my life who is loving, kind, and caring. I know that he loves me and that I am important to him.

We enter this new journey in our family as parents together. I know that Mr. Bear will be a great father. I see the love and kindness in his eyes. I see the apprehension and worry as well, but I think that all comes with the territory because I feet it too. I know that this will be something that we will do together. We both want to do what is best for our little girl and we both want to provide a loving home for our family. I love who we are together today and I love what we are going to become as a family in the days to come.

Mr. Bear is the best husband and everything I can ever hope for in a husband and life partner. I love him with all my heart and I look forward to many years to come. I am glad that I have him to share in this journey of life together.

Happy 35th Anniversary Mama and Papa Bear

Today my parents celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary! They are so cute together and so in love. I am so fortunate to have such loving and great parents. I only hope that Mr. Bear and I can follow in their footsteps towards a long, loving, and happy marriage.

I love you mom and dad!! Here is to many more anniversaries to come!

Let's Stay Together

One last blog entry reminiscing about the wedding and of course I have to round out the week with one more wedding photo (gotta get my moneys worth from my fabulous photos by Amy Squires).

Our first dance was to Let’s Stay Together by Al Green. In our 7 years of dating, we never had a song. From the time we got engaged, every time I heard a song I would listen to the lyrics to see if it could be our song. I liked Better Together by Jack Johnson, but that was a very popular wedding song, and Mr. Bear didn’t want to go with what was popular.

Mr. Bear probably doesn't remember but he was the one who actually picked out our song. At a friend’s wedding reception, Let’s Stay Together came on and Mr. Bear asked me to dance. As we were dancing underneath the moonlight, we looked at each other and I told him, “This is a great song.” Mr. Bear said, “This is our song.” And so we have it. Several months later, when it came to choosing music for the wedding, I remembered. Of course, Mr. Bear did not remember the conversation but then again there was alcohol involved. :-)

Let’s Stay Together
by Al Green

I’m, I'm so in love with you
Whatever you want to do
Is alright with me
'Cause you make me feel so brand new
I want to spend my life with you

Since, since we've been together
Loving you forever
Is what I need
Let me be the one you come running to
I'll never be untrue

Let’s, let's stay together
Loving you whether, whether
Times are good or bad, happy or sad
Whether times are good or bad, happy or sad

Why, why do people break up
Turn around and make up
I just can't see
You'd never do that to me
Staying around you is all I see

Let's, we ought to stay together
Loving you whether, whether
Times are good or bad, happy or sad

Let's, let's stay together
Loving you whether, whether times are
good or bad, happy or sad

Photo by Amy Squires Photography

Wedding Planning: It doesn’t have to be stressful

Pinyo from Moolanomy is having the Best Wedding Tips and Stories Contest. I figured that since we just celebrated our first anniversary a few days ago that this was a great opportunity to reflect on our wedding and share a few tips.

I can’t believe that it has been one year since our wedding. What a wonderful time that was! I am a planner by nature and I loved every bit of planning my wedding. My wedding day was everything I ever dreamed about.

However, I did experience times when the planning got to me and became stressful. There are so many possibilities and so many choices and let’s face it, we all want our wedding to be special or better than the next person. But planning a wedding doesn't need to be stressful.

Remember the big picture.
Yes, this is one of the most important days of your life, but don't lose sight of what the day is truly about, it is about marriage. It is about marrying your best friend and the love of your life. The wedding is one day but the marriage lasts a lifetime. Luckily, my husband was my rock and reminded me of that when I needed it.

Do your research and hire people you trust.
Get some recommendations for vendors and do your research. But also remember that just because a vendor received rave reviews on a wedding website or from your friends, doesn't necessarily mean that they are the right fit for you. Every bride is different and every bride has a different expectation and vision of what they want, so trust your gut. If a vendor doesn’t feel right to you, then don’t book them. Keep looking; you want to trust your vendors. I interviewed several photographers until I found the right one who was within my budget and who I felt a great connection one. I felt that I could trust her with documenting one of the most important days of my life.

Don't do it all yourself.
Delegate! People will help you if you ask and people do truly want to help you. Accept some help from your wedding party and families and delegate. I had a lot of do-it-yourself projects and wanted things to be perfect. So letting go was hard for me. I realized that I needed help and in the end, hiring a day of coordinator and trusting my vision to them was the absolutely best thing I could have done. There was no way I was going to get everything ready and set up without them. I actually had the chance to sit down and eat food at my wedding. I was so happy at how smoothly the wedding flowed and how all I had to do was enjoy it. You don't have to spend a lot of money, you can even enlist the help of a friend or two (my day of coordinators were actually a couple of friends) to take care of the details the day of the wedding.

No, you don't have to.
With so many wedding resources available to brides such as websites, magazines, and the many reality TV wedding shows; wedding ideas are endless. But the downside to all those resources is the feeling that you have to have everything. You have to have favors, pin tuck table linens, chiavari chairs, you have to do a garter toss, and the list can go on and on. No you don't have to. Decide what is important for you and what will work with your budget. Don’t break your budget over some fancy chairs that no one will remember or even notice.

Enjoy yourself.
Last but not least enjoy yourself. Enjoy the engagement, enjoy the wedding, and enjoy your marriage. You are going to marry the love of your life, be happy and enjoy your engagement and most importantly enjoy some time with your fiancé. Don't get so absorbed into the planning process that you forget about him and neglect him; he is the reason why you are getting married. Take time away from planning to spend time with him. (And dragging him to meet with a vendor is not spending time with him.) Mr. Bear always said he couldn’t wait till the wedding was over so he could have me back. Don’t get so wrapped up in the details on the day of that you fail to enjoy your wedding, remember to delegate and let go. It is only one day so enjoy it while it lasts. And most importantly enjoy your marriage. After the focus is off of you and your husband, enjoy the time you have together.

Photo by Amy Squires Photography

Pooh’s Words of Wisdom Wednesday: Never to live without you

The Best Anniversary Ever

I had no idea what we would be doing for our anniversary. Mr. Bear simply told me not to worry. I came home from work yesterday and Mr. Bear told me we would be going to dinner and that I should dress warm and casual. I had no idea what we would be doing but he said we would be spending time outside. I was really curious and trying to figure it all out. He started driving and at every turn I would think about where we might be heading to and could not figure it out, until he turned onto a street that I knew could only lead to one place. Padua Hills Theater, the location of our wedding! Mr. Bear said that we would stop first at the “scene of the crime” so that we can reminisce about the wedding. I thought that was really sweet and such a wonderful idea! And I figured that afterwards, we would go somewhere close by for dinner. I was very excited to be back to where it all began.

Padua Hills Theater is a truly beautiful historic location. It is nestled on a mesa of olive trees among the hills (for more info on it's history click here). We walked around talked about our wedding day: where the ceremony took place, our first dance, the many people who attended. Then, Mr. Bear started to walk me toward where our sweetheart table was located and then I looked ahead and saw…




A table was set-up in the small gazebo. I couldn’t believe it, he had arranged for us to have our anniversary dinner at Padua Hills Theater, the “scene of the crime.” I was in awe and so surprised. I recognized his mother’s china and he had a cooler with champagne chilling and we toasted to our 1 year anniversary and to the many more to come. WOW!! It was absolutely perfect.




Then a few minutes later, food was delivered. He had food delivered from Macaroni Grill and we had a wonderfully yummy dinner. He had thought of every thing (except he forgot a lighter for the candles. But it was so windy that the candles would not have stayed lit anyways.)




Our dinner menu consisted of Calamari Fritti and Parmesan-Crusted Artichoke Cakes for appetizers, a Caesar Salad, Lobster Ravioli as our main course, and New York Cheesecake for desert. What an absolutely perfect anniversary dinner. So yummy and what a perfect location. It was so special. Mr. Bear was so awesome to come up with all this and make the arrangements for us to have dinner at the “scene of the crime.”



Thank you Mr. Bear for a wonderful anniversary!! I look forward to the many more years of marriage ahead of us! I love you with all my heart and soul.

To Great Family and Friends

I am in awe of all the anniversary wishes that we have received. Of course, our wonderful and loving parents remembered our anniversary. The kindness and love we received from our parents is so amazing. We are just so so lucky. My parents and my in-laws are absolutely just amazing people. My grandmother was so sweet, she called to send us happy wishes and she is just the cutest and sweetest. Plus, so many family and friends have also been so kind in recognizing our anniversary, from shout outs on blogs, text and email messages to cards and phone calls. We are so blessed to have so many people who love us and care so much about us that they have taken the time out of their busy lives to remember us on our special day. It is just so thoughtful. We are so fortunate to have such amazing people in our lives who shared our special day with us just a year ago. Thank you to our family and friends, we love you and we are so appreciative of the love and support you continually provide us. We are better people because of you.

I guess it also helps that it is an easy date to remember, there will always be some kind of party or celebration on Cinco de Mayo! We’re a little sneaky like that, we wanted to make sure no one would forget the date (least of all, Mr. Bear!) and I guess it worked, hehehehe, my plan worked :). I know, sometimes I am such a silly bear.

Photo by Amy Squires Photography

Happily Ever After!

You know what today is… Cinco de Mayo! And you know what that means… Mr. Bear and I celebrate our one year wedding anniversary today!!! It also marks our 8th anniversary. Mr. Bear and I met 8 years ago and 7 years later were married on this date.

How did we meet?

We met at a Cinco de Mayo party back in 2000. Neither of us were planning on going to the party. I didn’t want to go because a guy that I had gone on a date with was attending and I wasn’t really interested, but my best friend, Mrs. Bunny talked me into going. Mr. Bear was spontaneously invited the day of the party when a friend ran into him at the local Circle K. I guess it was serendipity, we were both supposed to be at that party and meet.I remember seeing him at the party playing the congas with the band that was playing and thinking that he was awfully cute. Later in the evening, we got to talking and really hit it off. At the end of the night, he discreetly gave me his business card before he left.
I waited 3 days before calling him; I had never called a guy before so I wrestled with the idea for a while. But he didn’t have any of my information, so if I wanted to see him again, I had to make the first move. I called and we went on our real first date and today we are married! Who knew where that one phone call would lead to? I am glad that I made that phone call!

7 years later

We were married 7 years later, it was a beautiful wedding. Everything was perfect and best of all I married my best friend and my partner for life! It was a beautiful day and definitely the happiest moment of my life. From my beautiful white dress and flowers to the food and even the De La Hoya fight on a big screen (It was the biggest fight of the year, and we Tivoed it so that people could watch it after the main festivities. Otherwise many of the men would have left the venue to find a sports bar nearby, this way everyone was happy). It was a perfect day!

Marriage

I am so lucky to be married to such a wonderful man, he makes me so happy and his love is everything to me. I have truly been enjoying marriage, every bit of it. For better or for worse, I look forward to many more years of happily ever after! I love you Mr. Bear!!

Photo by Amy Squires Photography