Becki & Erick's VR PJ- Updated 4/9WDW Trip delayed until Sept., but we're still goin

[Skylersmommy5]

Hi Everyone. I thought I would start and introduce my DH and I. I am Becki and my DH is Erick. We have been married since June 1, 2007 in a JOP office in in Virginia (where we live) and a month and later before we welcomed our little love, our DS named Skyler. Erick and I are in the beginning stages of starting to save up and plan little by little our DFTW VR. We know this is going to take us a couple of years to save up as we are planning a Wishes VR for 100-115 guests. Any tips and suggestions you have will greatly be appreciated. Quite a few of you have already helped me out a bit, thank you so much I look foward to connecting with as many other Dis Brides and Grooms on! here who are also planning your DFTW or VRs. I will let you know more about us in more posts.

Right now all we have is our Cinderella and Prince Charming Cake Topper (sad and pathetic I know). I am having trouble posting pictures from photobucket as my computer (even plugged in) doesn't like to stay on long enough for me to do so. I have an idea of dresses I love for me and for my Bridesmaids. We do know we will be hiring my dear friends from High School who lives in South Florida, Lindsay Moretti of Lindsay Brynn Photography to be our Photographer for our VR. We are also thinking of seeking my old Cantor from the Temple I attended as a child Cantor Karen Blum to be our Officiate.

Thank you all for reading and I look foward to updating often as we plan!

 

[BecBennett]

Wow, you're going to have a huge VR!! Can't wait to follow along.

Just a thought with your computer, mine was doing that before, and it turned out the fan was full of dust and hair and stuff, so it wasn't turning and keeping the computer cool, so every time it over heated it would turn off. Sometimes within a matter of seconds of turning it on.

I opened it up and we used an air compressor with an air dryer (yes air, not hair ) to blow everything out of it. It has worked perfectly since then.

Just something you might want to try if it's not the battery or anything like that - that's what I thought was the problem with mine.

 

[padisneyfour]

welcome and have fun planning

 

[Skylersmommy5]

Wow, you're going to have a huge VR!! Can't wait to follow along.

Just a thought with your computer, mine was doing that before, and it turned out the fan was full of dust and hair and stuff, so it wasn't turning and keeping the computer cool, so every time it over heated it would turn off. Sometimes within a matter of seconds of turning it on.

I opened it up and we used an air compressor with an air dryer (yes air, not hair ) to blow everything out of it. It has worked perfectly since then.

Just something you might want to try if it's not the battery or anything like that - that's what I thought was the problem with mine.

First of all thank you for stopping by and welcoming us to the boards and following along with us. Thank you so much for the tip for my computer. I will
have to see if my DFil has an air dryer and see if that may do the trick. Luckily I have an iPhone and can access the boards on here when my computer acts up. It also is a lot easier for me to use my phone since our son thinks every computer is his. We've also learned recently about problems
Windows Vista has, and unfortunately that's what our laptop runs on and it crashes so much on us, which is unfortunate.

 

[Skylersmommy5]

welcome and have fun planning

Thank you so much.

 

[Bride-to-be]

Wow it sounds like its going to be huge!!! I am so glad that you are going to get your dream wedding.

Have you thought at all about which venues you want to use? How do you picture your perfect day?

 

[MainStMandy]

Yay you started a PJ!! Congratulations...and post some pictures!!!

 

[ChocoKat]

Welcome!!
DH and I are planning our 10 year VR for 2011. It looks like yours will be an incredible party! Can't wait to hear all about it

 

[Lorelei528]

Subbing to my fellow Orange fan's PJ!!!!

 

[Skylersmommy5]

Thank you all, and Thank you Lori. We actually talked last night and we kind of thought 125 guests price wise is going to be out of our reach, especially since I want to either treat he Ladies to Tea in the GF or Lunch at CRT, and let Erick have time with his guys, especially since it has been so hard for him to see his best 2 guy friends. One of them was in jail for a few years followed by house arrest(long story, but I understand his story and I have too much of a heart of gold to judge him for going to jail, especially if it's for defending a family member) and his other best guy friend is over in Kuait as a
Firefighter. Also on our actual wedding day it
was hard for us not having Erick's brother
Mike with us as he was sent to Iraq for the
War(he just got out of the ARMY in one piece
but partially deaf from a bomb going off in
his ear).

Last night I suggested we plan either an
Escape VR or DCL(and which ever location we
don't choose to be the site we will have the
other as a mini family vacation just Erick,
Skyler, & I). He liked my idea of 10-13 of us
and make it fun amongst our best and
closest friends and our son.

A little bit about how Erick & I met. We
actually both went to a very tiny college in
Southern Vermont called Landmark College. It only hosts about 400-500 students and it is specifically for students with learning
dissabilities. I appologize if my PJ and TR
may seem all over the place, but it would be
my ADD Brain for you. Erick came into
Landmark my 2nd year(they don't go by
classifications of Freshman, Sopphomore,
etc. there) and it was his first year, and
believe it or not we lived 2 rooms away from
eachother. We met in our friends Kat & Jen's room when my roommate Courtney(she will be one of my Bridesmaids) kicked me out of our room so she could spend time with her boyfriend in our room alone. I happily obliged. Erick and his girlfriend Kate came over and we became friends and were pretty much in the same circle of friends that whole year. I left Ladmark and even 4 years later Erick & I were still extremely close friends. Erick helped me
overcome something horrible that happened to me at Landmark and was always there I had an anxiety attack in the middle of the night.

Erick Aldo helped me realize I could be trated much better by him than my Ex-fiancé was treating me, and he has been everything and more I could have ever dreamed of in a Husband and Father.

 

[Skylersmommy5]

Our Engagement Story:

Erick had planned when he was working at Target Full Time in 2006 and once his Culinary Arts Course he was taking he was going to use his saved Vacation time to come and visit me in the Boston Area where I was living at the time. He knew before we started dating that I not only was looking for Hubby Material but Father Material since my Biological Clock is ticking(sorry for that bit of info, sad reality Early Menopause runs in my family an happens in the early 30's) and knew I wanted kids of my own.

Erick drove up to Boston a few days early while I was in Syracuse for my little sister & now DBil's Graduations and it just happene to be during the Monsoon. Erick left home early to drive in the monsoon. Don't worry he didn't have to sleep in his car, I left him a key to my apartment so he could have my
nice & comfy warm bed to himself. I returned
after the last day of the Graduation Events and sadly most of Erick's trip was so rainy
but we made it fun. We started dating May
15, 2006 and got Engaged May 19, 2006 (a
very short 4 days later). Erick got to meet
my little brother Matt, my sister Pam, our now Bil Joe, my dad & stepmom. Sadly he
missed meeting my Grandparents. We later took the Subway into Downtown Boston and I took him for a stroll aroud Harvard Yard, then the next stop was to take him to see
Fenway Park(home of my beloved Boston
Red Sox). We had just started walking down
Yawkey Way (this is where most of the
pregame events happen right outside the
stadium) and out of nowhere and completely
unplanned Erick says to me "I promise to
marry you one day and have kids with you
when the time is right". Much to my
excitement it made the rest of his stay feel
so unreal and hard to believe. I then took
Erick to Fanuel Hall and we had a very
relaxing dinner at the famous Cheers! Later
we got back to my apartment and we were
having fun writing on eachother's backs with
our fingers. Erick tried writing "Will You
Marry Me?" on my back and he couldn't quite
spell it out. He then got one one knee and
popped the question. He knew my answer
would never be a no so he was just as
excited as I was. To end his trip, the night
before he left he cooked me the most
delicious candle lit dinner(which was baked
chicken Parmesan and speghetti, it was
missing some garlic bread and salad, but still
very delicious, and a nice bottle of wine and
some beautiful roses from Erick. Erick went
back to Virginia, but came for a day in
June/July when my sister was moving to
Houston, TX for Grad School, and then
moved in with me in Aug.

We were waiting until after my sister's
wedding set foe 7/5/08 and my Brother's Bar
Mitzvah on 11/7/09 for us to plan a wedding, until we got the news in Dec. 2006 we were expecting a baby. Eeryone in my family was completely miffed with us(but all but my dad got over it) and my mom kept urging us to go ahead and get married. She seemed surprised I didn't tell my dad we needed to plan a wedding, but Erick & I knew from the get go we would be paying for our wedding and my dad not contributing a penny toward it. The only extremely heavy expense that went toward our JOP Wedding were our rings, all 3 of them bought at the same time including a Promise Ring(since all the Engagement Rings were out of our price range). We bought them all 2 weeks before we got married but at least had rings to exchange.

Up Next: The Many Adventures of our Little Wedding Day, with a Bridezilla Moment. If you've seen the movie Adventures in Babysitting, our Wedding Day kind of felt like that.

 

[Skylersmommy5]

I have stollen some pictures via my phone from my Myspace Page, so as soon as I can get them loaded into my Photobucket account, I'll attach links to them(sorry I don't know how to post pictures or even resize them). Our computer still int working abd we're still waiting on buying our new one.

 

[Bride-to-be]

You have such a cute story!

I am sorry your dad was not supportive. I know thats always hard.

I can't wait to see pictures. If you upload them into photobucket, click on the picture to open it then if you run your cursor over the picture a bar will appear at the top. One of the tabs is resize. Just beware that if you shrink a photo you can't expand it again you can only make it smaller.

 

[Petals & Pixie Dust]

Definitely hopping on to this one! Love your story...can't wait to see the details!

 

[Skylersmommy5]

You have such a cute story!

I am sorry your dad was not supportive. I know thats always hard.

I can't wait to see pictures. If you upload them into photobucket, click on the picture to open it then if you run your cursor over the picture a bar will appear at the top. One of the tabs is resize. Just beware that if you shrink a photo you can't expand it again you can only make it smaller.

Thank you so much Cassie for letting me know how to re-size the pictures on photo bucket. And thank you so much. My dad is a bit much, and that's the nice way of describing him. I am his oldest, but not a Daddy's Girl. He did something to me a few years ago, just to save me many anxiety attacks & tears from him, we don't have a relationship anymore.

 

[Skylersmommy5]

I wish I could reply to each and everyone of you. My little guy has me on a backwards sleep schedule, so I am going to try to get an update in here beore I fall a sleep and don't wake up until later.

Sadly my pictures I tried e-mailing from my myspace page never came into my inbox, so I am so sorry I am going to have to attach links for you to click on, but it's the best I can do picture wise right now without a computer(thank goodness for my phone).

Here's a mini-update. We were actually supposed to go to WDW this year for our Anniversary and treat it as a Familymoon,
and one day dedicated solely to Skyler for his
3rd Birthday, since his actual Birthday is July
3rd. We ran into the problem where The
company Erick works for through the State
Department was supposed to merge different
locations into one and it was supposed to
happen during our trip, so he was afraid to
book anything since he thought his boss
would deny his vacation request. We have
been thinking of what else to do around here
since it falls the day after Memorial Day this
year.
While we were watching Wrestlemania(Erick
& his parents are huge Wrestling fans, and
they got me sucked into the Wrestling bubble) last night, my DFil mentioned the
Red Sox coming out here soon to play the Baltimore Orioles, and as luck would have it,
The Red Sox are in town a few days after our Anniversary! Yay! So if I can't be in Disney, catching the Red Sox is my other happy place. I think we're going to try to go to one of their 3 games that weekend, and he can enjoy me making and wearing a custom shirt that says "Ortiz Girl...Enough Said" on it. It serves a double meaning though, since our last name is Ortiz and the Red Sox have a
player David Ortiz aka Big Papi. We love
David Ortiz, so at least his jerseys means we
don't have to order custom ones. Erick
actually laughed pretty hard when I told him
about the Ortiz Girl shirt. We also found out hat even the most expensive tickets close to the fuel and by the visiting team's dugout were extremely reasonable price(by far less than what we were going to pay for a game at Fenway Park after my sister's wedding). If I forgot to mention, Erick actually wanted to pop the question at Fenway Park during a home game against the New York Yankees, but those tickets are so hard to come by and pretty pricy. I think I would have had a heart attack if he did that since I know my family watch the Red Sox games and would have asked why they were't clues in on it.

I will admit I was bummed our Disney trip
fell through, since it has been 10 years since I have been to Disney, and our last trip wasn't very long(my sister had a HS cheerleading competition at WWoS) so our only day at MK was a Hal a day spent on all the slow/train type rides per our then 3 1/2 year old brother's request which he slept through each and every one.

I truely appreciate you all reading along. I promise I will get in another update or two later. One will be about our actual wedding day, and one will be how and Why I decided I wanted to have a Disney Wedding/VR.

Tomorrow might be hard for me to get on during the day since I ran into one of my friends in Florida who went to pre-school wig me and now lives in Virginia and we're meeting up for lunch. She actually works in
the closest Jessica McClintock store to where I live and is goin to help me findone of their dresses that will hopefully be my gown. If not I've seen a few others I love that I think will help hide my mommy extra weight(Erik keeps finding all these gorgeous dresses e loves, but I think he forgets sometimes that I need to look at what will most flatter my body, not something I will kill myself to try to fit into, but I love his thought and effort).

 

[Skylersmommy5]

I appologize, my myspace account is beig difficicult letting me copy and paste the links for my pictures.

So the update about our Wedding day:

Erick's and my Wedding date was kind of chosen randomly, but it has more significance to me than it does to Erick. I was trying to get Erick to request off the Friday closest to the year anniversary of when we were engaged at his part tine Job at Home Depot(he forgot), so the next Friday off was June First. It was pay day for us both, and I had every Friday off from my job at an Infiniti Car Dealerhip(got laid ff due to the Economy). June 1, 1994 was the day my mom's dad passed away. He suffered from Prostdate Cancer and 2 strokes and nobody expected him to live 16 years after that. He was very fortunate my grandmother never put him in a nursing home and he had all 6 of his daughters and most of his 12 grandchildren who were more than happy to help take care of him.
So our Wedding date not only changed a sad day to a happy one again, but his memorry is most certainly always with me on our Anniversary.

Being pregnant on my Wedding day came with needing to have a scheduled doctors appointment(not my choice, they're darn schedule), because they needed to do the Glucosamine Test to make sure I wassnt's and Skyler wasn't a Diabetic(I have a heart for all you others who live through diabetes every day of your lives. It runs on both sides of mine & Erick's families so this was a huge fear of mine). I absolutely hate needles and remembered as a child the finger prick. When they mentioned pricking my finger for the
test I lost it. Here's where my Bridezilla moment came in, they wanted to prick my Wedding Ring Finger. I told them under no circumstances could that finger especially that day could be pricked, since I wasn't goingto be wearing a bandaid on my finger my soon-to-be hubby would be putting on my finger in a few hours. I did however ask them nicely if they could prick the other instead. In my defense my Wedding Finger had to look pretty on my Wedding Day. I didn't buy a big Wedding Dress, just a cute white maternity sun dress. Erick's mom & I had to race to go get Erick from work(we didn't have a car at he time since Erick accidentally totalled his car and my dad decided to be a jerk and confiscate mine. Don't worry I got my car back), race backto the house for me to change into my dress and Erick to change out of his sweaty clothes from work(another Bridezilla moment, I made Erick change into a clean pair of pants and one of his shirts I love, he thought he was fine in a polo shirt and pants in holes in them), I grabbed some hair accessories, my make up, our rings, marriage license, the JOP Fee and Tip which were enclosed in a Thank you card. We race to get DMil to work, and then get stuck in traffic getting into the JOP office. Our ceremony was only 5 minutes long, however we were really dissappointed she wouldn't let us say our own vows and wouldn't incorporate an important Jewish Wedding Ceremony Tradition of breaking the glass, which Erick had promised me religious ceremony or not, that was one thing he was happy to do for me. Well it didn't happen. After our ceremony was over we race to my work to pick up my pay check, ad I did get everyone asking me "Isn't this your wedding day? Why are you here?" and then onto Home Depot for Erick to show his mom his ring and his paycheck which she got from the office for him so he wouldn't be spotted and be asked to work. Luckily checks got deposited ontime, andin our way driving to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner, Erick nearly loses his ring out the car window on a very busy street while we're in gridlock traffic. He had his hand out the window for a second and his ring was too big. So off to the Jeweler before dinner o have it resized a second time for him(he wouldn't have his band for a week) and then to dinner.
Dinner was great with no wait until our server didn't show back up after taking drink orders and sent out every other server to take our orders, bring out drinks, and bring us our check. Neither of us drank alcohol on our wedding day(well I couldn't and Erick chose not to). I was kind of dissappointed everyhing on their menu I could eat while pregnant they were out of and our cheesecake orders eitherthey were out of it or it was still too frozen that they couldn't serve it. Our dinner was a very generous gift from one of my co-workers to ensure we had a nice dinner at the very least on our Wedding night.

Erick's dissappointment was not seeig me in a wedding gown and the fact that nobody asked us if we were celebrating anything special, and wante to somehow have something a little Just Married on the Car. Erick also forgot to request off the rest of our Wedding Weekend, soboth of us were back to work the day after.

Up next pictures if they will cooperate and us figuring out why we wanted a Disney Weddig/VR.

 

[Skylersmommy5]

Sorry left this part out about our Wedding day, but I did have a few hilights. Now I know I mentioned my mom's dad, but my dad's father passed away in April 2007, only a few months before we got married. I could feel both of their spirits with us on our Wedding Day. Skyler also gave me a gentle kick in the stomach, kind of a "Mommy & Daddy" get married already kind of kick. BTW we had no idea were expecting a baby boy(so our something blue was in my tummy all along). We wanted it to be a surprise until the baby came( I blew it 2 weeks before his arrival and the Ultrasound Tech that day had a clear shot of his little buddy and asked me if I wanted to guess what I was having. I guessed a girl at first and she went all silent and said guess again. Although we were hoping for a baby girl, I was more happy to have a boy so that I meant I got to name him after my Grandpa(dad's dad in his memory). Skyler would have been his 1st Great Grandchild which he was very excited to have. Sadly Grandpa never got to meet Erick or Skyler, but I am reminded constantly of him by Erick & Skyler.

 

[Petals & Pixie Dust]

What a great story! No worries...when we got legally married-it was done by my Religion Professor! I had to work the next day too...and we didn't get a good dinner until the night after...which my DH made ressies for as a kind of wedding gift!
Sometimes the little stories when we look back on it are the ones that warm our hearts the most!

 

[Skylersmommy5]

Wow it sounds like its going to be huge!!! I am so glad that you are going to get your dream wedding.

Have you thought at all about which venues you want to use? How do you picture your perfect day?

Thank you so much Cassie. I absolutely love the WP. Erick absolutely wants something looking churchlike, and I fell in love with the WP 5-6 years ago during my previous engagement. If not I absolutely love the beach area by the WP too(and hopefully the WP will be our back up if it rains). We're re-thinking our colors since Erick won't go for pastel pink, lilac, and baby blue(you would think a guy wouldn't complain about baby blue), so I'm trying to think of what he and the guys won't complain over. I can't get him to not think Lilly Pulitzer dresses aren't the right style for my Bridesmaids(like you I love Lilly and think the girls can get more wear out of them than something that might just sit on a hanger in their closet).

Since we are pretty much a laid back, jeans & a t-shirt, sports loving kind of a
couple, it is going to be more casual than dressy, however I will get my Wedding Gown this time! Erick knows that part is important to me especially since I never got to go Prom Dress Shopping(I missed both proms since I was practically homeschooled my Jr. & Sr. Years of HS and graduated early). I have found some dresses I love with no train on them.

I know I mentioned a few posts ago that we were thinking of cutting it to a few friends, well I think our immediate families are going to be included with just the Grandparents(and hopefully both of my Grandmas' and my last living Grandfather, yes I had 3 Grandfaters as my dad's mom was remarried before I was born, and Erick's dad's dad-they're all pretty Elderly will still be around to enjoy this day with us). I'm not trying to say the rest of our families and friends are uniportant to us, but we need to do something affordable to us.

We've had to rethink budget but what I have in mind and what Erick has in mind are complete opposites. Erick did think 100-125 price range is way too much, but maybe after reading Carrie(Lurkyloo's PJ) and many other's maybe we can do a Wishes instead of Escape and keep it to the bare minimum for
under 50 people.

We are having a Welcome Party of some sort, BBQ or Pizza Party if a Illuminations DP with Appetizers is out of our budget, and besides a sit down lunch and DP. We will also have a Farewell Brunch (even if it is Muffins, bagels, and other pastries) as Farewell Brunches are a Tradition in our Family.

The reception location is still up in the air, but I do love the Attic and Narcoosee. I hope The Attic isn't too much of a hike for ou elderly grandparents. Erick & I still have to come up with a compromise on the Bar situation since he wants open bar and I think soft drinks, beer and wine for the drinkers(I don't drink much if rarely) is addequate. So we're trying to come up with a solution.

I have some inspiration boards made up, however copying those into here is
also been a little difficult. We are not having the guys wear tuxedos. Erick is just too uncomfortable in them and I want him to be comfy, not itching to get out of "The Monkey Suit" as he calls them.

Flowers & the cake we're still deciding on, but I am thinking roses or tulips, possibly orchids.

Centerpieces and favors are a whole other story I am still deciding on too, without them being too girley for Erik's taste.