Less than 6 weeks!

I'm late with this week's post, but that's for very good reason! I was able to come home for the holidays last Friday, and ever since I've been busy with wedding preparations. I've accomplished a lot so far, but there is still a lot to take care of before heading back to Minnesota!

I'll update everyone on my progress as soon as this crazy busy week is over!

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

7 weeks...

You guessed it....there are now only 7 weeks until our wedding! It may sound like we still have plenty of time to finish planning, but with it being the holidays I feel like the time is just going to fly. I have to admit that I'm starting to feel nervous/stressed about all the details coming together for the wedding day, but I have to remember to enjoy the process, because I've ALWAYS looked forward to this big day!

I have a few updates on Franchesco and his family that I forgot to share with my last update. Franchesco received a letter from the USCIS with a date that he has been scheduled to go and do some fingerprints. It is one step in the process to getting his green card, but we were pleasantly surprised that we heard from them only about 2-3 months after submitting all the paperwork. From what a friend has told us, once Franchesco gets the fingerprints taken, it could only be another month or so until his interview for his green card. Although waiting for the green card is not nearly as hard as waiting for his visa (because we can be together while we wait!), it will still be great once Franchesco finally has his green card and we no longer have to worry about it. In other good news -- Franchesco's family received tourist visas to be able to come for our wedding!! They interviewed a couple weeks ago and received their visas, so they've booked their flights and are ready to come for the wedding :) So far it sounds like about 8 of his friends/family will be coming to the wedding from Brazil, but we are still waiting to hear for sure about a couple others. I'm so glad that they'll be able to share this special day with us!!

As far as wedding planning goes, my wedding dress is being altered right now, and I've been shopping around for shoes and accesories. I've found several pairs of shoes that I love, but I'm having a hard time deciding if I want to go with Ivory to match my dress, purple to match the bridesmaids dresses, or blue to be my "something blue." Any thoughts from readers out there? All along I've wanted to do purple, but now I think I'm leaning more towards blue...

I also need to work on collecting pictures of cakes, hairstyles, decorations, etc. that I bring with me to appointments that I have set up for the week after Christmas. I definitely have a lot of shopping to do while I'm home as well. I still haven't gone shopping with my flower girl, Madison, for her flower girl dress...and of course there are TONS of other details and little things to buy. I made a long list, but I won't bore you by sharing it here :)

RSVPs have started rolling in, so I'm getting more and more excited the closer we get!

But first things first...I should probably work on finishing my Christmas shopping.....

Love these websites!

2 websites I'm obsessed with lately:

etsy.com
A website where you can buy tons of handmade stuff - they have everything! I've been looking for a sash to wear with my wedding gown :)

pinterest.com
A place to organize and share all your favorite things by saving pictures straight from other websites. My favorite use is obviously to collect pictures and ideas for our wedding, but the site can also be used to find/share recipes, re-decorate your home, etc. Thanks Angeli for introducing me!! If you haven't checked it out, you should! (I get the feeling that for some reason it's more of a girl thing...)
(Follow me at http://pinterest.com/jnf5000/)

8 weeks to go!

There are only 8 weeks left until our wedding, and I'm going to try to commit myself to updating our blog each week until the wedding. I have so many updates since the last time I wrote...where to begin?!

The New Normal
Franchesco and I are settling into our new life now, since getting back from Brazil at the beginning of August and moving into our new apartment at the end of September. Everything is new...new jobs, new cars, new apartment, new furniture...but we're settling in just fine! Most couples have big life adjustments to make after their wedding, so I guess we're just getting a head start ;) My only complaint would be that Franchesco and I have almost no time together because of our opposite work schedules. His only day off is Monday, and every other day he works until later in the evening and doesn't get home until close to the time I go to bed. We are able to have breakfast together sometimes on the weekends, depending on when Franchesco wakes up, and we can have dinner together on Monday nights. That's about the extent of our time together. It's hard not having much time to spend together, but I guess that's just something we'll have to live with for a while...

Wedding Dress
I changed my mind about the wedding dress I bought last February, and decided to keep shopping around to find the perfect dress for our wedding. Alicia came to visit us the week before Thanksgiving, and I was very thankful to have her help shopping for wedding dresses! We found a beautiful dress that I'm very excited to wear on our wedding day! Now I just have to start shopping for accessories, and I have an appointment for alterations tomorrow. I'd share a picture, but then it wouldn't be a surprise on the wedding day!

Wedding Invitations
I was very lucky to have Angeli offer to do some beautiful calligraphy on our wedding envelopes! Everything for the invitations is now done, and they were sent out in the mail yesterday!!

Wedding Music
I had a lovely Skype conversation with my good friend, Sarah, about music for our wedding ceremony! Sarah will be playing flute along with my good friend, Carina, on piano and Franchesco's cousin, Emilio, on violin. I'm very excited about the songs we've chosen, and I'm so thankful to have friends that will be playing for our wedding!

Wedding Rings
Franchesco and I have been shopping around for wedding rings, and will be buying them in the next month or so. This might be one of the only times we will ever shop for something we will wear our whole lives!

Parties, Parties
My mom and Alicia are planning a bridal shower for me while I'm home for Christmas. It's actually going to be in the morning of New Year's Eve. Very festive, I'm sure! We are also planning to do a Bachelorette party in D.C. on Saturday, January 28th. So many fun things to look forward to!

Honeymoon
We booked our honeymoon for February 20th, about 2 weeks after the wedding! We're going on a cruise from Tampa, Florida to the Cayman Islands and Cozumel, Mexico. Can't wait for the warm weather!

Other Wedding Plans
I'll be home for Christmas from 12/23 to 12/31, and that week I'll be doing a lot of the final preparations for our wedding. I have meetings with vendors (photographer, florist, deejay, etc.) and also a meeting at The Cork Factory Hotel to finalize our dinner menu and do a cake tasting! I'm sure it will be a very busy week, but also very fun!

I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and are enjoying the Christmas season! I'll be seeing many of you very soon :)

Wedding Dreams (or Nightmares!)

Last night I had my first, of what I think will be many, dreams about our upcoming wedding. It's a sign to me that the big day is getting closer and the stress will likely continue to increase in the coming weeks. It may be odd that I'm sharing the details of this strange dream I had, but I thought it was funny and so I just had to share!

In my dream, we had just finished up our wedding ceremony and our guests were supposed to be headed to the cocktail reception before the dinner started. However, there was another wedding ceremony that was starting just after ours ended, and our guests decided to stick around and watch the next wedding too. I was upset that everyone was staying to watch the next wedding (isn't it bad luck to see another bride on your wedding day?) and so I talked with my parents to see if they could coax everyone into the other room for the cocktail hour. So the guests started getting up from their chairs, and they began to leave one by one! I was really upset that we were losing people before the reception had even begun!

Meanwhile, I was on my way back to my hotel room with Alicia because I realized I had forgotten to shave before the wedding day! I was so shocked that I had forgotten before such a big, important day! It was like the wedding day snuck up on me before I had time to prepare (which was pretty realistic, considering I had the dream about the wedding day when in real life I should still have 2-3 months to finish planning!) I was even nervous about going to the reception, not knowing what the final product would end up looking like, if I would have the lighting that I wanted in the room, etc.

I did, however, get a glance at the ballroom just before I woke up, and the lighting I had my heart set on was there :) Now that I know how important that lighting is to me, it will be easy to let the rental company know about my final decision. Ironically, they emailed me back today with a quote of what the lighting will cost and the layout of the lighting in the ballroom :)

I will also be sure to tell EVERYONE about the plans for the wedding day so everyone will know about the cocktail hour and the reception, and nobody will leave when the ceremony is done! It's a very unlikely scenario (the reception is the best part!), but it can't hurt to be extra clear about the day's plans :)

Eleven Eleven Eleven

If you can remember back to when I started this blog after Franchesco and I got engaged, you might remember that we were originally considering 11/11/11 to be the date of our wedding. It would be so crazy if the big day had been today! I'm feeling grateful for the extra couple months to finish planning :)

I've finally uploaded the majority of our engagment photos to facebook! Check them out here if you haven't already:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/set=a.10101731646563294.3704027.9310995&type=1&l=aee74a5ce9

 

 

 

3 Months!

As of today, there are only 3 more months until our wedding! I'm getting really excited, but also much more busy with planning!

Updates:

• We booked our videographer! I was delaying making my decision because my favorite videographer also happened to be the most expensive (no surprise there...), but finally decided to go with the one I liked the best. We are going to be using Christopher Lee Films and his videos are amazing! Check out some of his wedding highlight reels:

http://vimeo.com/28371138

http://vimeo.com/26222545

• I've also finally decided on bridemaid dresses! We went shopping a few weeks ago, and everyone agreed on the same dress (I think I posted a picture). Well, the other day I was in a local David's Bridal store to buy one of the dresses for Franchesco's sister in Brazil, and I saw the same dress - but in a long style instead of short! I was so excited, because the long dress will be so much more appropriate for the time of year and the formality of the wedding. And to top it off, the dress is on sale and is $20 cheaper than the short dress. So I've changed my mind and we'll be going with the long dress instead of the short one!
• Angeli is going to do calligraphy for us on the invitation envelopes. I'm so excited to see it when it's all done! We'll be sending invitations probably the end of November or the beginning of December, so start getting excited about that!
• At the end of October we got all of Franchesco's paperwork sent it to apply for his green card. We don't know how long the process will take, but at least our part is done (for now!)
• Next up we'll be making arrangements for our honeymoon, and also working on planning the rehearsal dinner.

I'm sure there will be more updates over the next 3 months as the wedding gets closer and closer! Enjoy the weekend!

99 days :)

Only 99 days until our wedding! Last time I wrote, I promised some updates on what we've been up to lately, so I'll try to post more at some point this weekend.

Enjoy the weekend - and check back soon!

Invitations ordered!

I ordered our wedding invitations this evening! I had to order them a little early so that we could get them sent out to Franchesco's family in Brazil in time for their Visa interviews. The rest of you should see your invitations sometime in November or December.

We ended up going with a little bit of a unique design so that we could incorporate both English and Portuguese :) I don't want to give everything away, but they are going to look a little something like this:

In other news:

- We received the rest of our engagement photos from Brianna, so I'll be posting those soon!

- We bought a new car last night! We got a 2008 Toyota Camry a few weeks ago, and now it was time for our second car (since we don't live downtown anymore so we both have to drive to work). We got a new 2011 Jeep Compass. I'll share more details later!

- We are also getting more serious about our honeymoon plans, most likely going to do a cruise about 2 weeks after the wedding (Franchesco's family will be staying to visit with us in the weeks following the wedding, so we're going to do the honeymoon just a little bit later.)

- Last, but not least, we have about 2 weeks left until we have to submit more paperwork for Franchesco's green card. At the end of this month it will already be 90 days since Franchesco entered the country, so we've got another $1,000 and lots of paperwork to submit to the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services). Wish us luck with that process!

Goodnight :)

Website Updated!

Our wedding website has been updated to include registry and hotel information. Check it out!

www.theknot.com/ourwedding/JacquelineFarrell&FranchescoBorges

Ceremony Plans

I had my first phone conversation last night with Pastor Dave Robinson (Mom's cousin-in-law), who has agreed to be the officiant for our wedding. Looking forward to planning out the ceremony over the next couple of months!

Special thanks to Dave and Niki for being a part of our special day :)

WiFi Wedding

I'm sitting at Panera down the street from my hotel, nearly 2 hours after finishing my meal, using the free WiFi internet :)

It's amazing how many wedding planning tasks can be done online! I'm currently researching & emailing videographers, checking travel ideas for our honeymoon and checking flights to head back to PA for Thanksgiving and Christmas...not only to spend the holidays at home, but also to finalize wedding plans the last couple of times I will be home before February.

What would we do without the internet?!

4 Months to go!

Only 4 months until the wedding, and I'm really hoping for October to be a great month!

I started my new job this week and I'm doing training in Orrville, OH until Friday. We've also been living in our new apartment for about a week now (I'll post pictures soon). Besides all of the new things in our lives right now, I'm really hoping to make a lot of progress on wedding planning this month before we get into the busy holiday season. Wish us luck!

Happy October :)

Home

I was going to write a blog post on my birthday. And entitle it "26." And talk about all the exciting things that will be happening in my life over the next year; new apartment, new job, new husband, etc.

But then the events of today really shifted my mind to other things. Our family dog, Bailey, passed away this morning. He would've been 11 years old next month. After hearing the sad news, I spent some of the afternoon cleaning up my old apartment, where I lived for 2 years, and packing the last of my belongings in the car. I started to think about the concept of "home." These two events probably don't seem to be related just yet, but bear with me.

Many of us have lived in multiple houses, starting out living with our parents, then maybe living in several temporary dorms or apartments throughout college, and finally making it out on our own. To me, home has always seemed like a relative term, depending on where I am living at the time. But there is no doubt that there's a little bit of pain involved with saying goodbye to a place you've called "home," whether you lived there for a couple months, a couple years, or a lifetime. For the last couple of years, I have prided myself on my bravery in moving away from home and living in other places. It was difficult at first; moving away to college for the first time, studying abroad in Spain; but after the first couple times it has gotten easier. I moved to Minneapolis right after graduating college, and lived in 2 different apartments within the same year. I also picked up, left my job and moved to Brazil for a couple months this past summer. I guess you could say I've grown into the type of person who prefers to look forward and make plans and be excited about the future more than I like to look back and reflect on what I'm leaving behind.

Needless to say, I've been very excited about moving into my new apartment and have spent the last couple weeks packing, preparing and making mental maps of where I want my furniture to go in the new place. I was feeling very surprised at the fact that I wasn't feeling sad about leaving the old apartment, despite the great memories I have from my 2 years living there and starting a new life with Franchesco there after our return from Brazil.

I don't know if it was just because I was feeling sad about Bailey this morning, but as I went to clean out the old apartment I started feeling very sad and emotional about leaving my old home behind. Then it hit me...none of us are really ever at home on this earth. We are not living the life the God intended for us to live. We should be spending every moment in this life preparing ourselves to go home with God when it's all over. I know that not everyone will share my beliefs on this matter, but I truly do believe that there is something better waiting for us, and that animals are no exception.

Although seemingly wonderful at times, this is not the way that life was meant to be. So if you're sad...no wonder. Hang in there! If you're happy...just wait, it will only get better!

"In this world you will have trouble. But in me you will have peace." - John 16:33

"Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy." - John 16:22

"I am still confident of this:
   I will see the goodness of the Lord
   in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord;
   be strong and take heart
   and wait for the Lord." - Psalm 27:13-14



Dear Bailey,
I hope your new home is better than the last!

Love,
Jacqueline



138 To Do's

Like I said, there are still plenty of things to do for the wedding! I have a checklist on my account at http://www.theknot.com/ and today it's telling me I have 138 items to complete on my to-do list, and 138 days until our wedding. I guess I better start by completing 1 task each day from now until the wedding :)

On another note, tonight I didn't get any wedding tasks done because Franchesco and I went to Benihana for my birthday-week dinner! Did you know that Benihana gives you $30 off your meal during the month of your birthday? (You just have to sign up for their email list). Totally worth it! $30 will get you a very big, very free meal :) I even got free ice cream, and I have enough food leftover for another meal tomorrow!

September

It's amazing to me that we are nearing the end of September, and how fast this engagement period goes. There are less than 5 months until our wedding, and I really want to soak in the joy of this chapter of my life. Planning my wedding is something I have dreamed about for years, and the only thing sad about it is how fast it flies by. I don't want to take anything for granted, and I want to have as much fun as possible during these last few months of wedding planning :) Luckily for me, there is still plenty left to do!

September 3rd, 2011 was a big day for us -- and the lovely Brianna Millett (http://briannacolleen.com/) helped us to capture all the special moments :) Here is a sneak peak of some of our engagment photos, and there will be more to come in a couple weeks!

I also had the pleasure of going dress shopping with 3 of my beautiful bridesmaids - Alicia, Allie and Rachel - last weekend. So far, all the girls like the same dress so we may choose to go with just 1 style rather than the girls wearing different styles in the same color. We've chosen the below style in the color shown - "Lapis." We liked the shorter dress styles better than the longer ones. I hope the girls aren't too cold in February!



I also thought I'd throw in a picture of this pair of shoes that I love, also in Lapis. I'm thinking I might wear these with my wedding gown :)

It's been really fun working at David's Bridal over the past month. I'm getting lots of great ideas for my own wedding and it's really fun to help other brides find a wedding gown and bridesmaid dresses! Speaking of working, I also got a new full-time job (just found out on Monday) working for the J.M. Smucker Company as a Category Development Analyst. Once again, I'll be working with the buyers at Target doing sales analysis for Smucker's product categories (peanut butter & jelly, baking mixes, oils, coffee, etc.) I start on October 3rd and I'm very excited!! I also plan to continue helping out at David's Bridal on a part-time basis after I start my full-time job.

In addition to the new job, Franchesco and I are also planning to move to a new apartment next week! It will be a little bigger than the apartment we're in right now, 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, and it's just a little bit outside of downtown Minneapolis. It's going to be an exciting fall and of course winter as well with the wedding and everything. We're very excited about all the positive changes in our lives! Thanks for being part of it :)

August

I realized today that it's been quite a while since I've updated our blog! Things have been crazy since we got back to Minneapolis...but in a good way! Franchesco started working at Fogo de Chao, the Brazilian restaurant in downtown Minneapolis, and I'm working part-time at David's Bridal while also searching and interviewing for full-time positions. We bought our very first car last week...it's a 2008 Toyota Camry in dark slate (the exact color I wanted!)

Things are going well and we are very happy to be back. Feeling a bit unorganized though because most of my stuff is still in boxes because we have to move into our new apartment unit next week. Busy busy!

Saturday will be a big day too, we're having engagement photos taken :)

First Dance

I LOVE this song...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-Gg8HH1UzM&feature=related

Engagement Photos

P.S. - The photographer we chose to do our engagement photos is Brianna Colleen Photography. She is awesome! I met her at my church's spring retreat, and I'm so excited for her to do our photos!

Check out some of her photos on her website:
http://briannacolleen.com/

Wedding To-Do List

Well, we've been back in Minneapolis for a little over a week now and we're starting to get more settled. Within the first couple of days we rented a truck to get all of my stuff out of storage, so it feels great to have everything back in the apartment. Last weekend our friend Elis invited us over for an awesome Brazilian dinner at her house, and she graciously lent us her car so that we can use that to drive around to get groceries and look at some cars to buy, etc. Thank you so much Elis!!!

We've had the opportunity to catch up with a couple of good friends (Michelle and Robert to name a couple!) and I'm looking forward to seeing a few more friends this weekend. Franchesco and I have both had a couple of interviews in the last week, and now we're just waiting to hear back...hopefully today! Wish us luck in finding new jobs quickly :)

In other news, I'm also proud to say that I've made some headway with our wedding to-do list! I got our guest list straightened out and got the remaining addresses that I needed, and we even got all of our Save-the-Dates addressed and in the mail this week! I also reserved some blocks of hotel rooms in Lancaster for any wedding guests that are coming from out of town, and scheduled to have engagement pictures taken on September 3rd. Last, but not least, we started working on our wedding registry at Macy's on Wednesday.

Completed Save-the-Date Cards!

Here's a few other things on the list for the next month or two:

• Hire a videographer -- I've been looking at Christopher Lee Films, an awesome videographer in Central PA. He filmed Mickey Shuler's wedding this past summer, which I thought was neat to watch (Mickey went to my high school and played football for Penn State and the Minnesota Vikings). Check out some of Christopher Lee's highlight reels at: http://www.christopherleefilms.com/Wedding_Reels.html
• Plan our wedding ceremony
• Start planning our honeymoon
• Continue to fill out wedding registry -- We are planning to register at Macy's, Target and maybe Crate & Barrel
• Research/purchase wedding insurance -- This is important since we are planning a winter wedding and there's no way to know what the weather will do!
• Begin planning rehearsal dinner -- As of now I'm thinking this will take place in Lancaster, but to avoid people having to drive all the way to Lancaster 2 days in a row, I might look for some alternative locations closer to home.
• Finalize invitation wording -- We definitely want to do a bi-lingual invitation in English and Portuguese! I've found a design that I like (matches our Save-the-Dates) that will allow us to do multiple pages, one in English and one in Portuguese. Franchesco's sister helped us yesterday to do some translating for the wedding invitation :)

That's most of the big stuff we're working on for now! I hope that you've enjoyed our updates :) I can't wait until our engagement pictures are done so we can share them with all of you on the blog!

Back in the USA!

We are back in the USA and Franchesco and I couldn't be happier! We spent a few days in Pennsylvania before flying back to Minneapolis. Thanks to everyone who came out for our engagement party last Friday! We had a great time and I'm so glad that Franchesco finally got to meet everyone!

Now that we're back home in Minneapolis, we've only got 6 months to go until the wedding! I'll keep everyone posted as the wedding plans continue :)

200 days to go until our wedding :)

Our days are numbered...

Well, Franchesco physically has his visa in hand (after 8 months...it feels like a miracle!) and in another 10 days we'll be making our way back to the United States!

We'll be spending this upcoming week in Araxa, and next Monday we'll be flying to Sao Paulo to spend the last couple of days there visiting with friends. Our flights leave from Sao Paulo to New York on Wednesday 7/27, and we arrive in New York on the morning of the 28th. Unfortunately we have to go on separate flights, since the flight I originally booked before coming to Brazil is now ridiculously expensive...like 'close-to-three-thousand-dollars' expensive! We're planning to rent a car at JFK airport and spend the day in/around NYC, and then drive back to PA that evening. Hopefully we're not too tired from the overnight flight!

Engagement party is planned for that weekend while we're back in PA :)

Save-the-Dates and lots of stamps have been ordered and will be going out in the mail the first week of August when we get back home to Minneapolis, at which point there will only be 6 months until the wedding!

Things I'm looking forward to about being back in MN:

• Bringing my kitty Gabby back home (BIG shout out to Alicia, Amanda and Steph for taking care of her for me the past couple of months and for letting her stay at your apartment! I wouldn't have been able to take this trip without you - I owe you!!) --- also Happy Birthday to Gabby!! She turns 2 today :)
• Getting settled back into my old apartment and getting all my things out of storage and organized
• HAVING FRANCHESCO BACK WITH ME :) :) :) :) :)
• Using my cell phone again!
• Finding a new job
• Buying a car
• Enjoying the beautiful Minnesota summer weather! (Yes, I've been in Brazil the last couple of months...and the weather is nice here, but it's winter. Average temps are in the 70's during the day and much cooler at night...jeans and sweatshirt weather...not summer shorts and tank top weather)
• More wedding planning! And I miss my wedding books/magazines so I can't wait to look at all those again...

That's all for now but I'm sure I can come up with more later :)

VISA APPROVED!!!

We just got back from our interview, and Franchesco's visa was approved! We are so happy!! :)

The whole process only took about 2 hours, a lot less than I was expecting. Our hotel is about a 5 minute walk from the US Embassy (we didn't even realize that when we booked the hotel, so we got lucky!) We arrived around 6:45am and waited outside until it was a little closer to our 7:15 appointment and the security guards allowed us to go inside. Turns out we were the only people there for a fiance visa today, so we immediately got to go in a small room to have one of the officers check that we had all of the required documents. We had to fill out a couple of new papers and check that all the forms were in the correct order for the officer to review them.

After they checked our papers, we thought it would be just a very short wait until our interview, but we sat in the waiting room for about an hour or maybe a little longer. Finally Franchesco's name was called for us to go into the interview room. We went inside and they took Franchesco's fingerprints, and then he was asked if he swears to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth; to which he answered "Yup." I have to say his first response was starting to make me nervous about the upcoming questions!

The officer then asked how Franchesco and I met, what Franchesco studied at the University of Minnesota, where he plans to work when he's back in the US, and also asked me about my job and what I plan to do when we're back in Minnesota. Just 4 questions....and then he said we were APPROVED!

Such a relief! Now we just have to wait a maximum of 10 business days for Franchesco's passport and visa to come in the mail, and he's free to enter the United States anytime :)

These past 8 months have been a long wait, but definitely worth it!

INTERVIEW TOMORROW!!!!!

Our interview for Franchesco's visa is tomorrow at 7:15am! I can't believe it! We thought this day would never come! We've been waiting over 8 months and now we're almost there.

We should have an answer tomorrow, so I'll update everyone as soon as the interview is done, but we will most likely be at the U.S. Embassy all morning.

US Embassy in Rio de Janeiro

Sooo excited but also feeling nervous!
Wish us luck :)

Message Boards

Today I discovered the Central Pennsylvania message boards on http://www.theknot.com/. I could REALLY spend a lot of time there! Everything from venue/vendor recommendations to items for sale from past weddings. So fun!

Another random thought, but I LOVE this eye makeup for my bridesmaids. I think it would look lovely with purple bridesmaids dresses, what do you think?!

1 Month Left

Only 1 more month until we're back in Pennsylvania...

p.s. - Check out this picture of us from Valentine's Day that was posted on a local website here in Araxa:
http://www.agitoaraxa.com.br/coberturas/copa-bar-e-restaurante/1647

On my mind - Part II

Update on wedding plans...
Where to begin? Well, the past day or so I've been starting to stress a little bit about travel plans for Franchesco's family and friends in Brazil. We need to try to figure out who/how many people are coming, when they are coming, where they are visiting (Pennsylvania, New York, Minnesota) and how long they are staying, etc. Not very easy stuff to figure out! Franchesco and I talked about it all yesterday and started looking at flights, so we're working on it but I'm sure it'll be a while until all the details are nailed down. As if wedding planning wasn't difficult enough, throw in international guests and long-distance planning from Minnesota! I'm confident we'll figure it all out eventually!

After we know when and where our guests will be traveling, we can start to figure out the dates and locations for other events like the bachelor/bachelorette parties and the rehearsal dinner. We also need to figure out invitations, but I think we've decided that we will get all the invitations printed in English, but include additional information with a translation and flight information for everyone in Brazil. Speaking of invitations -- I should be ready to order Save-the-Dates any day now, and I'll be sending them once we're back in the US :)

Another detail we're still working on is the ceremony location, but I'm definitely leaning toward doing both the ceremony and the reception at The Cork Factory Hotel. It just seems to make sense since we don't have a connection to a church in the area, and it's going to be winter and would be so nice if everyone could go inside and stay inside for the entire evening. I think it would be really beautiful if we lined the aisle with candles for the ceremony, perfect for a winter evening!

I swear that I had more things on my mind earlier today, but I think I've forgotten some of them :) I'll leave you with this for now, but expect to see more updates soon!

On my mind - Part I

I feel like I've had 1,727,526 things on my mind the past couple of days! I think it's a sign that I should keep up with my blog posts more often so that I can gets things out :)

What we've been up to...
I've been in Brazil about 7 weeks now, and I only have a month left. It's so hard to believe! I know it will be sad when we are leaving Brazil and saying goodbye to friends & family here, but I'm also very excited for Franchesco and I to begin our "new" life in the USA :) We'll be heading back to Pennsylvania on 7/27 and will be spending a couple of days there before we fly back to Minneapolis on 8/2. I'm so excited for my friends and family to meet and get to know Franchesco! I've also been feeling a lot of nostalgia for Hersheypark, so I hope that we're able to spend a day there too!

We will both need to find new jobs once we get back to Minneapolis, but we've got our living arrangements figured out already so that's great. We'll be going back to the same apartment I was living in before I left, and when the lease ends in September we'll be moving into a newer, remodeled apartment unit on the 29th floor of the same building. I'm so excited! We'll have an even better view of downtown Minneapolis than we do from my old apartment :)



The Churchill - Minneapolis, MN

 I've been occupying my time by trying to do the things that I will have less time for once we get back to Minneapolis and start working. I've been working out, studying Portuguese, and studying to take the GMAT exam (needed to apply for an MBA program) at some point in the near future. I've also been teaching more English classes over the past week or so. Last week I taught 6 classes and I have 6 more this week. Franchesco is still taking jiu jitsu classes on Monday/Wednesday/Friday and Saturday, and he hopes that he can continue taking classes in the US or maybe even teach some classes. Outside of all that, this weekend we celebrated a holiday in Brazil called "Festa Junina." Among all the other decorations and festivities, we also performed a short play involving a wedding where Franchesco and I played the bride and groom. I had to recite some lines in Portuguese and I think everyone was very entertained :)

Festa Junina

This blog post is beginning to get very long...I told you there's been a lot on my mind. I'll finish writing a "Part II" later to tell give you updates on wedding plans.

Tchau!

Feliz Dia dos Namorados!

Today is Valentine's Day here in Brazil, so we celebrated by going out to dinner last night with Franchesco's sister (Francielle) & brother-in-law (Raphael), and 2 other couples. There was a band playing at the restaurant, and I found out that the lead singer will be one of my English students starting this week! I had a really good time, and I'm so glad that Franchesco and I were able to spend at least one Valentine's Day together this year :)

In addition to being  "Dia dos Namorados," today was also Franchesco's big jiu-jitsu championship. I have to admit, I don't really enjoy watching...earlier this week he came home from jiu-jitsu class with a bloody lip, and today he has a nasty red/purple mark over his eye. Let's just say I'm glad it's over (along with his mom and his sister!)

I'm still studying Portuguese, in fact I finally finished Level 1 of my Rosetta Stone course. I bought all 3 levels, so I still have 2 more to go! I also will be teaching my first English class (I have 3 students) tomorrow evening from 7-9pm. Wish me luck!

Tonight, Franchesco and I are going to Francielle's house to have dinner and play cards. I volunteered to make dinner for everyone...I'm thinking something typical American or maybe I'll make something Italian. Please leave a comment if you have any good ideas of something I can make for them! I'm also planning to make chocolate chip cookies, which are not common here. I don't think they've ever had homemade chocolate chip cookies before! That's a crime!

Have a great evening everyone! Happy Valentine's Day :)

O Tempo Esta Voando!

Wow...time really does fly! I've been in Brazil for one month now, and it really doesn't seem that long. I promised everyone I'd keep up with updates and emails, and I have to admit I've been very bad at that so far. I keep thinking "I can send postcards tomorrow" or "I'll send that email tomorrow" or "I'll update the blog tomorrow"....but before I know it, it's going to be time to come back home!

The next month will be busier than the first, because we've only got one month to get everything ready for the visa interview. We have lots of papers to fill out and information to gather, so I'm sure it will be a lot of work. Another thing that's going to occupy some of my time while I'm here in Brazil - I'm an English teacher :) I'm going to begin teaching a conversational English class or two at a language school called Park Idiomas here in Araxa. I'm also planning on spending the weekends in a nearby city living with a family (friends of Franchesco's family) that have 2 kids who are studying English. They want me to go with them places and take them shopping etc, all while speaking to them in English and reinforcing what they've been learning in school. I'm excited that I now have 2 jobs :)

Last, but not least, we've got less than 8 months now until the wedding! I'm still busy thinking about wedding plans on a regular basis, and yesterday I was lucky enough to come across a great deal on the invitations I've been wanting! I got an email from http://www.weddingchannel.com/ advertising a deal for $75 off a $150 purchase from http://www.minted.com/ (a website where I found invitations I love!) I was able to buy 2 of the coupons myself, and I had Franchesco order 2 as well, so that means we're going to save a total of $300 on our wedding stationery. That made my day :)

Now if I could only figure out where we are going to have our wedding ceremony...  (thanks Iheart4th for the tip...I'll definitely check out the chapel you mentioned!)

http://deals.weddingchannel.com/deal/national-deals/minted?utm_medium=email

Visa Interview Date!!

The U.S. Embassy in Rio de Janeiro has received our approved visa petition and has FINALLY assigned us with an interview date:

JULY 8th, 2011!!!!!!

We are SO excited! Franchesco should have his visa in hand just a few days after that and will finally be able to come back to the United States! :) :) :)

First Two Weeks

Hi everyone! Tudo bem?!

I've been in Brazil for 2 weeks now and I've been very happy here :) Life here is more relaxed, the people are very friendly and family-oriented, and of course I love being close to Franchesco again!

Franchesco and I spent the first few days in Sao Paulo visiting with some of his friends and mostly taking it easy. We were also able to get some of the visa paperwork out of the way -- Franchesco had to see a doctor who is certified for the visa process (he couldn't do this in his city, so we're lucky he was able to take care of everything while we were in Sao Paulo), and get a few shots before he comes back to the United States. After Sao Paulo, we spent a week in Rio de Janeiro. The weather was cloudy/rainy most of the week, but we still got a couple good days of beach time at Copacabana and Ipanema beach :)

Cafe com leite at a famous padaria (bakery/cafe) in Sao Paulo -- Bella Paulista. You can see some traditional Brazilian foods in the glass case in the background :)



Enjoying coconut water at Ipanema beach -- Rio de Janeiro

After our week in Rio, Franchesco and I traveled to his city of Araxa in a state called Minas Gerais. His sister and brother-in-law picked us up at the airport and we arrived to his house close to 1am Saturday night/Sunday morning, where we were greeted by his parents. We all had a snack and coffee/hot chocolate before going to bed. Not only were we greeted by Franchesco's parents, but we also got to meet a new addition to the family, a little kitten 46 days old that they got just a couple of days before I arrived :) :) :) They told me that I could name her, so after a couple days of thinking we went with the name "Peach" since she kind of looks like a fuzzy round peach! As an added bonus, now everyone knows the English name for the fruit! She's smaller than she looks -- the hair is deceiving!



"Peach" -- also fondly known as "the baby," "bolinha de pelo (little ball of hair) and "fofinha (fluffy)"

 As I said, everyone here is very family oriented. The first day I was here, we went to a birthday party for Franchesco's cousin's daughter (Alicia, 5 years). The party was at his uncle's farm, it's common for families in his town to have another house a little further outside of town where they have a small farm with plants and animals. I got to see avocado trees, coffee, pineapple, mango, sugar cane and more...it was pretty cool! My favorite were the avocados (they are huge here!)...I wanted to bring them all home with me! Aside from the party we have spent the last couple of days hanging out around Franchesco's house. His sister and brother-in-law come over to the house everyday for lunch during their break from work, and they come over in the evening sometimes to hang out too. The other day they taught me a card game that is very popular here...I'm looking forward to playing again!

Avocado tree :) Mmmmmm

This was a pretty quick update of what we've been up to, but I promise to update everyone with more details and pictures later. Tchau!