5 ways you know you're planning a wedding.....

[as if I needed a reminder]

1. when you can't just say the weather, you can only give the weather in relation to it being a wedding day. For example: "Man, this would be a beautiful day for a wedding." or "I'm so glad my wedding day isn't today."

2. when your mom knows every bridal dress designer ever. She can just look at a dress and say that is such and such designer. It's really a talent that she needs to market.

3. when you know all these random Friday and Saturday dates throughout the next year. This year, Sept 11 falls on a Friday and October 31 falls on a saturday. Who would get married on Halloween?

4. when you can't work at all. I used to consider myself highly productive, now I spend more time surfing the web for wedding ideas than I do actually working.

5. when your dad mentions that he was on theknot.com the other day. true story.

From daily planner to legal notepad

Throughout high school, college, and until last week, I have always used a small planner. You can see the whole week at a glance and each day had about 10 lines. It wasn't tons of room, but it worked. It got me through high school college, and teaching. I carried it everywhere. It even fits in my new cute coach purse. I take it eveywhere. I have to know my schedule and it just worked. But recently, it hasn't been enough room. I was running out of room in my planner! This has never happened to me. I didn't know what to do, so I started adding sticky notes to my planner, which sounds like it would be a good idea, but it really wasn't. There were sticky notes all over the week..."jaclyn's wedding gift" "grocery list" "packing list for Austin." It was actually a big mess. Just yesterday one of my students said "Ms. Oropeza, don't forget to turn in the cell phone." I was like what? He says "I found your sticky note. Don't forget. " They were everywhere, so I had to find an alternate way. And that is how I got to the legal pad....pages and pages of endless lines...Each day is a new page and each day I fill it up with lists and lists of things to do. I feel so accomplished when I cross something off.

I tell Brad that I run a business...well, really I co-run a major business with my mom. I call it the Oropeza-Snead wedding business :) If you've planned a wedding you know its no simple job. and the details are outrageous! I knew 3 flowers before I planned this wedding: roses, peonies, renunculus. Before brad, I only knew roses, and now I have all kinds of info in my head and on legal pads. Call caterer, cake person, musicians, etc...

so whats the big deal with the legal pad? You're probably saying "it's just a legal pad, lauren...stop killing trees." But for me it's symbolic. My life used to be enough to put on a small aggie planner, but now it's bigger...it's expanding... now i have more responsibility...

...and that is how I know I'm growing up....from daily planner to legal pad. In less than 5 months I will be a wife and who knows where i'll go after the legal pad, but I'm excited about what life will bring us.

funny moment of the day.

student 1: ms oropeza, you are always smiling
student 2: yeah, you never get mad
student 3: it's because you're getting married

HAHAH

The Aruba Daily

(disclaimer: I wrote this like a month ago and am just now posting it...oops)

If I could put background music on this posting, I would make you all
listen to N'Sync's "Celebrity." But just the part where they sing
"Celebrity, celebrity"...I can already here Justin Timberlake now....

So celebrities you ask? Why yes, Brad and I have become Arubian
celebrities. Well, only if getting on page 7 of the Aruba Daily makes
you celebrities. But in our eyes it does :)

Remember when we had the greatest engagement ever? Well, the Bucuti
Resort wanted to write an article about us. It was still their
way of marketing to the Arubian public, but still I thought, man
that's cool. Then it took forever to hear back from them so I didn't
even know if they were still going to do it, but they did! What
follows is the true story of Brad and Lauren as it is seen in the
Aruba Daily! So cool! It's like a dream..it doesn't even seem like
real life. The president of the Bucuti Resort basically wrote our love
story and it's so sweet! I can't wait to show little Lawrence and
Bradina our article! :)

Hope you enjoy it as much as we did! ( You may want to click on it and open it up...it's very small here)

Ice, ice, baby.

The following is a true story of a conversation that happened in my class. And proof that high schoolers are hilarious!

Student: Mrs. O, are you married?
Me: Not yet
Student: oh, are you engaged?
me: yes.
Student: how long?
me: about 1 and 1/2 months
Student: Oh, that make sense, because I never saw your ice before.


HAHA ....ice....he said ice. In case you don't know it's kind of like bling or "jewelry" for those of you who are old school.

Just wanted to share how funny these kids are.

We are going private.....

I am going to privatize my blog. You know how there are so many creepy people out there. But for all you non-creepy people, I still want you to read about my life! So for all my 4 readers...send me your email address and you will be on my special list. Email me: loropeza@gmail.com

And....there is lots I want to share with you so don't delay.... :)

Thanks and gigem'

The Engagement

When I set out to write this blog Thursday night it turned into a 5 page documentary about Lauren and Brad. It is a very sweet piece of work if I should say so myself, however I can’t imagine that the average blog reader would want to read that much about our lives. I mean I can name a few people that would (my parents, Brittany Kay, etc) , but I know you have lives of your own too. So instead of “Brad and Lauren: uncut and unplugged” (which may be available upon request) I bring you…

Brad and Lauren: The proposal of a lifetime (The abridged version)

So here goes…..

Brad’s extended family takes a trip about once a year and for Christmas break all 17 of us went to Aruba. Yes, I know. 17? Yeah. Isn’t it cool how a family that big goes on vacas together and wants to be together. It’s a cool deal. They’re a neat family. So anyway, Monday, Dec 29 we flew out to Aruba. Our flight left Austin at 5 am. Yeah, I’m pretty sure that we slept like 3 hours. That and a few other factors made me a grouchy little Lauren, but I’ll spare you the ugly details. So, we got there, had dinner and just hung out around the hotel. We were exhausted and Brad and I talked on the beach until late that night. While we were walking back to our room Brad said “you’re going to hate me, but I made sunrise breakfast reservations. Do you still want to go?” Of course I said yes. Three of my fave things: Sunrises, breakfast, and Brad. So even though I hadn’t slept, I wanted to get up and besides about a week before I had told Brad that I wanted to do this. Little did I know that he had already planned it. :) So we get up at 5:30 and our reservations were at 6 am at the Bucuti Resort. We walked up and the hostess says “are you here for a romantic breakfast on the beach?” Brad said yes. Wow, I thought. So we got taken to this private hut on the beach. It was dark and no one was there and there were rose pedals on the floor. Well done, Brad, well done I thought. And even then I didn’t know he was proposing. He does sweet things like that. I mean, just this morning he had flowers delivered to my classroom for my birthday. He had a janitor sign off on them and place them on my desk. He’s sweet like that. So back to the story…we sit down, they bring us menus. It’s very romantic. We take pictures and look at everything and at one point I turn around and there’s Mr. Wayne Snead (Brad’s dad) trying to get behind a bush. I turn to Brad and say “Uhhh is that you’re dad” I don’t know how Brad did it but somehow I still wasn’t convinced that he was going to propose. I really thought he hadn’t been ring shopping and I knew he wouldn’t do it without my parents. So then we just had small talk and he tries to tell me all these sweet things. And then at one point he says “ I know my dad is in the bush, but I’m going to do it anyway” and he pulls a ring out of his pocket. Bradley Wayne has a ring! I couldn’t believe it. So he says other things…like I love your family and you and I want to give you a home and …Lauren Elise Oropeza, will you marry me? I cried some more and said yes and cried some more. We talked some more and hugged. Then he said I could turn around and as I did my parents were walking towards me. I couldn’t believe it. Hello…we are in Aruba….another country! I cried a lot more. Have you ever seen Hope Floats?There’s a part in there where she’s really happy and she says “My cup overfloweth” That’s how I felt. My cup overfloweth. I couldn’t begin to express how I felt and how grateful I was that my parents were there. That meant the world to me. My parents, his parents and Brad and I all had breakfast together and celebrated. And then both families vacationed together for the rest of the week.

And that’s how Lauren and Brad became engaged. I tried to make it as abridged as possible, but you know how I am.

Here are some pictures. Wear glasses when you see the ring. It’s a bright shiny beauty.