Engagement photos

This weekend was a beautiful weekend up at our house. It was in the mid-70's and sunny! What a great time for engagement photos. We are very fortunate to have Nick's uncle, Larry, be our photographer for our wedding! Larry has taken gorgeous pictures throughout the years. He has been on many hikes and captured the morning sunrise just right on the lake, morning dew on a fully bloomed flower, etc. He was thrilled when we asked if he would be our wedding photographer. On Sunday, Larry came over and had us do all sorts of fun and cute poses. Unfortunately, I did not have too many ideas for engagement photo poses, so we were all trying to think of past engagement photos we had seen and imitated them. I wore three different outfits: a blue dress, jean capris with a blue and white silk shirt, and a burgandy formal evening dress. The photos took a course of 5 hours, with a few breaks in between (dinner, watching of the health bill discussions), but I think we got some quality shots. I will post the pictures when we receive them from Larry. My total evaluation of the day: Nick looks awesome in blue, engagement photos are tiring, and I am so grateful that spring has sprung!

Caterers

Wedding planning. So fun! So much to do! People have said numerous times that simply saying "wedding" in front of catering equals instant price increase! Finding a caterer has been difficult for us. We have tried a few places, each one seeming pretty good. The one we really like is located in the East Bay, so we would be charged an extra $400 just to pay for everyone to drive from the East Bay to the coast (anyone ever heard of carpooling?). Then, a place in San Mateo called Espostos seems like it has a fair price point, good food, and friendly staff, but people on Yelp say differently. The reviewers say that the food was dry, the service staff was lazy, and they were running a bit late. Even with these bad reviews, this place still offers the best price point. Maybe there's a reason for that... Then another service contacted me today. They are priced high, but all 15 reviews on Yelp gave them 5 stars and rave about the quality of the food and the service. We shall see what price they quote us.

At the venue, you don't even have to have a caterer, but it would make it so much easier....

Sorry to keep you waiting...

Sorry to make you all wait. What has happened? four holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and Valentine's day).. most importantly, the engagement! To find out the information about our wedding, please visit our website http://www.theknot.com/ourwedding/EmilyAdams&NickZontos
Other than that, life has been busy with work, school, and wedding planning. Venue is booked, dress is purchased, veil is borrowed, rings are chosen, caterers have been sampled (but no decisions yet), etc. Fun Fun Fun. We are also doing a race on April 11 in Santa Cruz. Although it may be only a 10K for us, it is our first race!
Stay tuned for more info!

Birthday week

It's that time of year again!! My birthday! Yay. Although 26 is no milestone, it is still my birthday. How great is it to have one day where you can say "you have to buy me something" and not have someone laugh in your face? Ha ha just kidding....
Today was the start of festivities. I went to IHOP for breakfast with my boss and my coworker. I had some delicious pumpkin pancakes with bacon and eggs. While tasty, I always think about how nobody can ever make over-easy eggs as well as my grandpa could. I sure miss him! Well now I'm back at work for a couple of hours before heading up to Burlingame to have lunch with the other admins and our DBO (the head honcho at our SSF office) then off to Go Kart racing!! After that fun event, I get to go home to pick up my honey then off to the city to see "Wicked". I have been dropping subtle hints for months that I've been wanting to see that. Nick took the bait and is taking me to it for my b-day! I am ecstatic. Then tomorrow (my actual birthday) I get to do some damage at the Nordstrom half yearly sale. Then mom and I are going to get pedicures and lunch. After that.. it is unknown for a few hours until I get to have my birthday dinner. I took the plunge and invited different groups of friends, and they all accepted. Although it took some convincing of the hostess, I was able to make a reservation on a Friday night at 7 for 16 people at Los Altos Grill. I'm so excited. Well, that's it for now. Stay tuned for the actual events of my birthday weekend!

New Car

Hello again! Exciting news.

I have been looking for about 3 months for a new, four door car. I currently had a two door, 2007, Honda Civic. This was a great, reliable car that only had the problems of needing brakes replaced every 8 months, and constant checkpoint checks (hey, I thought Honda's were supposed to be cheap). The main problem was that I had 38 months left on the loan, my monthly payments were at least $475 a months, and my car insurance was $100 a month. Plus, If I plan on having children in the next 5 years, I would like to have a 4 door car that has been paid off (since babies are expensive enough). I've looked at Honda's, Toyota's, Mazda's, Dodge's, etc. I thought I found a great day in San Jose for a Mazda Tribute. Such a cute car and worth the price. While driving to San Jose on a Thursday afternoon, I found out that my car was starting to make some disturbing sounds. Not only was it making a high squeeling noise when accelerating, it was also making the familiar squeeking sound that brakes make when the brake pads are running thin. This, to me, meant that I would be paying a lot of money for car repairs in the near future. Long story short, I went all the way to San Jose Mazda just to find out that they had sold my Tribute 15 minutes before I got there. I ended up going across the street to the Subaru dealership. I have had rave reviews about Subaru's, but they were always above my price range. I was able to talk down the dealer $4k and was able to make a deal that now I save money: My loan period was only extended 6 months, I was paying a lower APR, my payments dropped over $120 a month, and my car insurance dropped $30/month. I ended up getting the 2007 Subaru Forrester (please view the picture below). I am so happy with my purchase and it will better serve me up in the mountains then my civic. I have heard many good things about Subaru and it looks like it will last me well past my 4 year loan. :)

2 months

Wow. Embarrasing. It's been two months since I've written? Some great blogger I am. Let's see if I can remember all that happened that were milestones.

Art Fair- Nick did great in the art fair. He sold many paintings and even got commissioned on new jobs. I am so proud of him.

School- I started my Bachelor degree program. Instead of having two classes every 9 week like the AA program, I have one class every 5 weeks. Aside from these short classes, we also have to do group projects with at least 3 other class mates. This is challenging because I never meet these people face to face and we are in different time zones. Also, we are from different age groups, so ego's come in to play. I had a poor encounter with one class mate that chose that his ego was more important than looking out for the best of the group. Usually, classmates change each class, but I discovered in my next class that he would most likely be in all my classes for the next 15 months. Maturity tells me to suck it up and hope I don't get the guy in my group again. I hope I can endure til I graduate in 2011.

Family- Nick's parents went to Italy for two weeks and had a great time. While they were gone, I quite enjoyed driving Nick to work every morning. The only bad mornings was when he was dealing with his sprained ankle. He was coming out of a restaurant on Sunday and he stepped off the high curb. He didn't land correctly so he twisted his ankle. The swelling and bruising started immediately. We were able to wrap and ice his foot. Now, a week later, he is able to walk on it and is slightly bruised, but it is still tender. I have been lucky enough to spend time with my parents and other family members. I love them and feel so lucky that I am able to live close to a lot of my family members. I will especially miss Rachel when she moves to Georgia! Thank goodness for free national calling charges. :)

This is the end of this post. Now to a more current day.

2 major events coming up

Holy cow! I can't believe it is already August! Time sure flies. It has been exceptionally difficult to keep track of what month it is due to the crazy weather! The last few days have been scorchers, though!

What we are looking forward to are 2 big events. On September 5-7, Nick is showing his art work in the Kings Mountain Art Fair again. This is the third time he has been in the art fair. Hopefully the weather this year will be good!

Secondly, Nick gets to meet my dad for the first time on September 17! This involves a trip to SLC. Unfortunately, airlines do not consider SLC a place to have cheap tickets to. While flights from SFO to LA or Las Vegas are about $49 each, the flights from SFO to SLC are about $99 each. Oh well, it will be worth it to see my dad. I haven't seen him in over 2 years!

I am looking forward to this month. Hopefully all will go well!