Wedding Update!

Here's a bouquet update! It's almost done. I just have to finish the bottom.



Here's a taste of our attempt at a vintage engagement shoot with the fabulous hat given to me by my amazing cousin Rachael. Thanks Rachie!

The Bouquet

So here’s the gist of how I’m attempting to create a vintage brooch bouquet.

First, Dennis and I had a blast collecting the flowers, well maybe I had a blast and he willingly supported me! We rummaged through hordes of jewelry, searching for any piece that had a usable flower on it. In addition to some lovely brooches, I ended up taking apart necklaces, bracelets and rings to complete the collection.

This spread is only a small part of the compilation, but you get the picture.

Next I attached wire to each flower to create a stem of sorts. This picture shows my first attempt with some pretty thick wire. I later switched them all to a thinner floral wire, which was much easier to work with and created a tighter stem that didn’t allow the flower to move around.

I have almost finished wiring all of the flowers and have started sticking them in a foam ball to begin playing around with different arrangements.

I’ve done so much since I have taken these pictures that I really should repost an update soon, but at least this is a start!

Monday, February 1, 2010

Livin La Vida Loca....Literally

Holy Guacamole! It has been far too long since I have last blogged! Life as of late has literally been INSANE!! Between working 3 jobs, trying to magnify my rather large Church calling and planning a wedding, blogging opportunities have become rather sparse. But other than life being outrageously occupied, it is wonderful and of course Dennis has been a gem, as usual. There has not been any toilet seat blow drying, but there have been plenty of other amazingly generous acts! So here's the run down. I am doing my student teaching this semester, yes, the day has finally come and it has been amazing so far! I could not have been more blessed in my placement with my Mentor Teacher, she is wonderful and we get along great. I am teaching Junior High (7th-9th grade) Spanish and I seriously adore it. I could not be more sure that I was predestined to be a teacher. I have sooo much fun with the kids. They make me laugh all the time. Though those of you who know me well, you will understand the serious hardship I'm having with this whole student teaching thing when I say, that I have to leave my house at 6:50am every morning. I AM NOT A MORNING PERSON! I despise it. But once I've breached the arduous hurdle of actually getting out of bed, it's pretty smooth sailing from there on out.

So once I get done with Student Teaching around 3:00pm, its time to head from the job I get to pay BYU to do, to my money making job in athletics. I was working that job till 9:00pm everynight... but that only lasted 3 weeks when I realized I was going to shoot someone if I didn't get more sleep. Now I only stay until 7:00pm, which has made a world of difference.

Then after that, I have been working for the Chinese Department again! At the beginning of the semester, the Professor who I worked with over the summer contacted me about doing some more work on his Cantonese book. His publishers liked the book so much they wanted to make a tapescript of it so they could create an audio version. And I was the lucky winner for that job! It's actually super interesting to me, and I was glad they thought of me to do, I can always use more money. Though Dennis ended up helping me a ton since I was so overwhelmed with everything else! We finished the whole book last week and it felt amazing to turn it all in. And now that that project is done, they have asked me to make an index for the book. Which is perfect timing since I only working till 7:00 now.

In addition to that, I have been doing a little bit of wedding planning here and there...well, I take that back, I have been doing A LOT of wedding planning. I think we pretty much have a plan for everything, now we just need to put those plans into action. The first project I have decided to tackle is my bouquet. Instead of doing real flowers, I am doing flower brooches and rings and such. This was my inspiration. I think I have finally collected all of the flowers, and have started putting it all together. I will post a DIY blog about that soon with other wedding details as well! So stay tuned, I am officially back into the blogging world!

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Yes, yes, and yes again!

It's official! As of the evening of 12/12/09 Dennis and I are engaged and I could not be happier and more sure that he is the man for me!

So here's the story. After Dennis and I had finished doing Sealings at the temple, I came out to find Dennis waiting for me in the first lobby, which is unusual because I am ALWAYS ready before he is. He was sitting there looking at some of the paintings on the wall and asked me to come sit with him. As I sat down he asked me, "So how did you feel about us while we were in the temple?" To which I hesitantly responded, "uh....good".
We've been dating for 9 months, we know how we feel about one another, so I found the question a little odd.
Then he solemnly proceeds to ask if I have any reservations or concerns about us. At this point I'm starting to freak out a little, but respond with an, "uh......no, why?" He starts to tell me that there has just been so much going on lately, and that I'm the most amazing girl he's ever dated, but....this is going to be really hard for me to say. By now, my eyes are watering and I'm preparing to be crushed. Then he repeats him self and says, this is really hard for me to say, but..... then gets down on one knee and says, "Danielle, will you marry me!"
YES YES YES!!!
I burst into full on tears, "Of course I will!!!"
Now you may think this was very cruel of him to make me think he was breaking up with me, which let's me honest, it kind of was! But the only thing I asked of him for the proposal was that I be surprised. If he had taken me to some nice restaurant, or on a walk in the forest, I would have know. But this TOTALLY threw me off! I had NO idea he even had the ring yet! I loved it. And I love him.

Why I said Yes
*He has done my laundry for me for the last 5 months or so
*After the first snow, I went out to clean off my car only to find that Dennis had already done it on his way to work at 5:30am!
*He makes me laugh everyday
*He not only helps me make sugar cookies, he'll decorate them with me, and help me deliver them
*He makes scary phone calls for me and gets WAY more accomplished on one of those phone calls than I have making those same calls for over a year!
*He can drive REALLY well with one hand, leaving the other hand free to hold mine
*He plays Barbies with his nieces and will dress up like a dragon for their princess birthday party
*He is just plain kind.
*The list really goes on and on. He is the sweetest man I have ever met, and now he is officially all mine! WOohoo!

Monday, December 7, 2009

Best Sunday Ever

At the risk of sounding a little cheesy, I just have to tell you all about the most wonderfully special Sunday ever. The day started out great. I got to my meetings early and had the chance to play Christmas songs on the piano for awhile before we got started. Then Fast and Testimony meeting was incredible. I felt like everyone focused on the Atonement and it just filled my heart with happiness! And then there was our amazing Relief Society Lesson about the miracles of Christ (favorite quote from the lesson: "In the absence of any other proof, the thumb alone would convince me of God's existence." - Isaac Newton).
After church Dennis told me that his friend from work had some extra tickets to the Christmas Devotional in Salt Lake. I'm not usually too keen on going to the conference center because you end up sitting so far away that you end up watching it on the big screens anyway, and you have to deal with all the traffic, parking, and freezing-ness of Salt Lake in December. But we decided to go anyways.
We agreed to meet Dennis' co-worker at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building at 5:30 for the Devotional that started at 6:00. We got there at about 5:25 and found that the JSMB was closed....and it was absolutely frigid outside! I mean bitter cold. So we walked over to the Conference Center to wait outside our assigned door. I was dying to go inside, but we had to wait for our friend because he had the tickets. So we waited... and waited... 5:40pm rolled around, then 5:50pm and Dennis' friend still hadn't showed up. By this point, I can't feel my toes or ears and a positive attitude was hard to maintain. Then it was 5:51, 2, 3, 4, 5, they announce that they will be closing the doors. 5:56, the doors start closing, 5:57, all doors are closed but one, and then....our friends come running around the corner with our tickets. We quickly ran into the one door that was still open and proceeded through the metal detectors, only to get beeped and have to go get scanned again in another scanner on the side.
Since these events are first come first serve as far as seating is concerned, we figure we'd be in the very back of the balcony, and that we probably wouldn't get to sit together. Then as I was being checked in the second metal detector, one of those cute little old-man ushers, came and asked if we wanted good seats....Umm.....YES PLEASE!! We're thinking, "Yes! We won't be in the balcony!" But to our surprise, he lead us all the way down to section B. That is SEVEN, yes SEVEN rows from the prophet!! The whole first presidency was right there in front of us, they could look into our faces we were that close! We felt like a million bucks walking down to those seats.
Needless to say we were ecstatic. We spent the next hour in utter awe as we listened to the messages given and were overwhelmed with the Spirit as the choir sang the most moving songs. I just couldn't get over how amazing it was to hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir live, singing Handel's Messiah, For unto us a child is born. It literally took my breath away. I got chills every time they sang, "Wonderful, Counselor!"
When the meeting was over, we all stood up, ready to start our long journey back up the stairs to the main exits, as we began to realize that we were surrounded by general authorities! There was Sister Allred, Elder Cook, the Young Women's Presidency. Some of them were even sitting BEHIND us! Again, we were in awe! Dennis' shook some of their hands and I greeted them.
And THEN... because of where we were sitting, they began ushering us out the front of the conference center into the tunnels! We kept looking at each other like, Is this for real! So there were were, walking shoulder to shoulder with ALL of the Apostles and other general authorities! It was nuts! The apostles were picked up in little golf carts and slowly drove 2 feet away from us as they were escorted out, they waved at us and smiled and said hello, but several of the other general authorities walked with us through the long winding tunnel that lead us under the conference center, under the street, then under the temple, where we finally ended up coming out at the Church Office Building.
It was the most special night ever. Dennis and I couldn't stop smiling. It was the perfect finish to a perfect day.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Tru Wuv

Normally when I leave my apartment, even though it's winter, I turn off the heat to try and save a few dollars. This means, that when I come home, my humble little abode is pretty darn cold and takes a while to warm up. Yesterday was no exception, except this time when Dennis and I got there, I had to "use the potty". Needless to say I was trying to avoid having to, because I knew the toilet seat would be FREEZING! So after awkwardly dancing around the apartment for a bit, Dennis asked what in the world I was doing and I filled him in on the frozen toilet dilemma, then when about straightening the kitchen. Moments later I came back into the other room to find Dennis blow drying my toilet seat. If that isn't love, I don't know what is!