love.

4 DAYS UNTIL THE WEDDING.

2010-05-25T12:37:00.000-07:00

WOW. REALLY?! Time has flown by that FAST?!

I am so excited, confused, happy, in love, and stressed! This has been so surreal and time has gone by so fast. Its apparent since I haven't updated my blog that much. WHOOPS.

We're just assembling all the centerpieces, making sure that my dress is in order, and then off we go!

DOWN TO THE WIRE!

2010-04-28T13:18:00.000-07:00

Not kidding, we have 31 days left before we are married! Hallelujah! I really cannot believe how much goes into a wedding and I thought we were skimming. So for those of you out there who had elaborate weddings, KUDOS TO YOU. We are truly blessed however to know people who love us so much and have helped us get through the planning and assisted us with great accommodations to the wedding. I'm so excited!!

We just had our wedding shower, thanks to the Smarts :) It was a blast!! Fiesta themed and tequila galore :) It was so fun to celebrate with such great friends. There will be pictures posted later :)

Just celebrated Collin's 15th. Yes, 15th! Logan just finished a tournament out in Olympia this past weekend. Dean just had his senior prom at the EMP. Maddy and Devin are just along for the ride. Just kidding. They support their family with open arms and we are blessed to have such great kiddos. But really, we have time to plan for a wedding in all this madness?....
I GUESS SO.

46 Days to go!

2010-04-13T10:54:00.000-07:00

In 46 days I will be Mrs.Daniel Fewkes! Amazing! Wow, time sure has flown by, but I have mentioned that more than once in this blog. Its amazing how life happens and all of a sudden we are here! I can't believe that it's been 7 months since he asked me to be his wife.

In recent events we have been busy with Logan's select baseball team, Maddy and Collin's play, volunteering for Devin's school, prepping for Dean's graduation and getting him through senior year and Collin's soccer team. In all that we still managed to squeeze out a few things for family time :) Not to mention a great gathering for Easter.

So with all that said, I still need to finalize the centerpiece decorations, order the table linens, find a photographer and get the music lined up. Its really all just small stuff but its small stuff that matters! Oh, not to mention finalize flowers, ring bearer accessories, cake, and decorations for the reception hall. Oi vey! It'll all come together though. The first bridal shower will be held in two weekends. I am extremely excited to get together with some good friends and celebrate! This will serve as a really late engagement party as well since we didn't really hold one. Shortly after that, a weekend after the bridal shower, we will have my bachelorette party in downtown Seattle. Oh gosh, I can only see it now. Someone will be going to jail! Just kidding.

65 days to go!!

2010-03-25T00:06:00.000-07:00

65 days to go?! Holy cow! Where did the time fly by?! We are truly getting more and more excited as it gets closer. I have all the little details now to close in. We are sending out the invites this friday, yay! I need to finalize tablecloths, videographer, corsages, and bouquets. Pretty much everything else is set. I can't believe it! Its all coming so fast. We have been so busy lately, it would be nice to just sit down and enjoy each others company for a bit. Before you know it, it'll be the parties, picking up the dress from the cleaners, sticking my jazzy shoes on and walking down the aisle saying our "I dos." WOW.

We get to play hair and makeup this coming week with a couple of the girls. I'm excited about that. I'm more excited to see how my bridesmaids will look on my day. Gorgeous of course. Wine, yummy food and getting gussied up....can't get any better than that with a whole bunch of girlfriends!

I've been contemplating on what our bouquets should look like. I'm thinking the ladies will have something simple like white tulips...

beautiful....

And mine might look something like this...

...but with white tulips instead of phaleonopsis.

beauty on a wedding day...

2010-02-27T23:43:00.000-08:00

I am trying to figure out exactly what I want to have done to my hair on the day of the wedding as vain as that sounds :) Every lady wants a perfect wedding and I hope I can achieve at least the feeling of it..

here are a few ideas:

I love the volume on the top...

This one has a little more of a oomph...love it

elegant, yet sophisticated.

I've been wearing something pretty heavy on my mind and no matter how hard I try to sidetrack myself, I am constantly reminded of how much this wonderful girl's sudden death has reminded me of life, especially with all the hecticness around my life involving wedding, kiddos, employment status and such....

This weekend is a pretty relaxing yet sad one. Last week, we had lost a beautiful girl in the community, Sabrina Roberts, to a heart condition. She was beautiful, talented and loved by family and peers. Her memorial service will be tomorrow and due to the sudden notice of her being gone, it really has reflected upon me how important everyday is and how fragile life can be. Also how fast it can leave as well. Love your family, hug your friends and don't ever go one day without saying I love you...

RIP Sabrina Roberts <3

WOW I'm bad!

2010-02-26T12:53:00.000-08:00

I use this blog to update on the wedding/family but we are so busy that I have no time to ever do it! I promise...I'll be better about it especially since now we are just tying loose ends of the wedding. I am soon off to mail the wedding invitations already! Wowza. Wedding is approaching though. Just about three months away! So exciting! Its time to finalize the table cloths, seating, dress alterations, pickup shoes, get the groom's and groomsmen clothes picked out, and all the table decorations. So I guess we have a few things left to do but we have the majority of all of it done! Venue, catering, photographer, dress, bridesmaids dresses, flowers, and music are all done! This is going to be so much fun! Our engagement shoot will be done next week finally with Randi Swanson! She is amazing and I highly recommend her and her work! We will be shooting at Pike Place Market with the whole family...

I love our city :)

We just had an 18th birthday party with Dean. Dan, I and the kids managed to throw a quick surprise party for Dean at the last minute and had the cousins on my mom's side come out. Some of them Dean hadn't seen in many years so it was a nice reunion :)

We're crazy (and this isn't all of us hehe)

moving along...

2010-02-16T01:08:00.000-08:00

Just a few pictures of what we have made so far at wedding craft party #1! Thank you to all who came and attended!!

the beginning of all the men's boutineers.

Madeline and Alicia modeling off the earrings I made for them (and looking cute!)

9 of the bridesmaids are wearing these earrings

kind of blurry,but 2 others are wearing these!

CJ and Jessica getting crafty with the boutineers!

kinda bright but these are the final boutineers! they have really cute green/yellow ribbon and cute yellow flowers!

Marla came out from Yakima! I miss her and love her so much!

Sonja, Dean, Amber and Marla worked doing tissue flowers that they worked hard on! (p.s. the date on the picture is wrong lol)

Brianna doing karaoke, we couldn't resist!

Sorry Alicia,I had to throw in this one :)

pretty bridesmaids and handsome groomsmen...

2010-02-09T00:30:00.000-08:00

Hiya everybody,

These posts sure do come too far inbetween. I'm telling ya, a family of 7, sure does soak up all the free time. However, I wouldn't change a thing!

A lot has changed this month already. CJ has moved out into her own apartment along with a roommate. So happy for her and to finally get her own space. She was sharing a bedroom here at home and now she can roam free, do what she wants and I am so excited for her! Dean is looking into options for colleges. He just got a new job and will be deciding on attending fire academy in Bellevue first or finishing his pre-reqs at Bellevue College. Either decision we are so proud of! Collin and Maddy are winding down the countdown to their play "Cinderella". It opens up at the beginning of March and I know they are getting antsy! Logan is still hanging in there with The Bandits baseball team. They start practices here soon and they will be on their way to competing! Devin still has his collection of WWE and Webkinz growing. That kid and his imagination. I'm telling you, the next Walt Disney this kid. Dan is still enjoying his job. Working hard to plant those seeds in companies, so if any of you lovely people out there know of companies that need an IT company to help out your servers and computer issues, Dan is the man to call!

We have the bridesmaids all set up in their pretty dresses and shoes. All we have to do now is wait for the dresses to come in and they'll be looking all pretty! Here is one of the dresses they can choose from: I had picked out three styles, that way they can pick out what is most flattering for their figure and hopefully purchase a dress they can wear again. The days of forcing your bridesmaids to wear god awful dresses with silk and taffeta are long gone! ;) And the shoes will be uniform in the color Saffron (yellow) since 9 bridesmaids will be in Truffle (brown) and the Maid of Honor and Jr.Bridesmaid will be in Kelly (green). Hence my three wedding colors.

The groomsmen will be in simple uniform. Khaki pants and a button down shirt, Dan will be picking out the final color and a tie or suspenders :) We want to make this wedding fit out rustic/vintage appeal- I thought the suspenders would be a nice, old-school touch. Lets see how many want to wear those!

We have finished the guys' boutineers. Jessica had designed the first boutineer and we fell in love with it! She is so innovative. We ended up making 15 of those puppies! I finished all of the bridesmaids earrings. They are so cute and this DIY wedding is working out great! Very cost effective :) Now our next project is to make the centerpieces and the corsages for the mothers!

well on our way....

2010-01-26T20:15:00.000-08:00

well, these few weeks have been a SERIOUS blur. we finally have our catering in check. we are truly blessed with who we know and how much our family loves us :) this catering wouldn't have happened if dan didn't have a loving brother who wanted us to have a great reception :)
I also found and got my wedding dress as well. beautiful, graceful and vintage. just how I pictured it. I had gone out to Fremont with a few of my beautiful bridesmaids. we intentionally wanted to make it out to the bridal show held out in seattle but heard from a friend of ours that the wait at the ticket line was ridiculous so we decided to scope out a few things of our own. we stopped into a few vintage shops, grabbed a bite to eat and had one last stop at this vintage store. i tried on this beautiful cotton 70's gown and was set on getting it, altering it and making it my own. while we were checking out, there was a rack behind the checkout counter and there was a piece of fabric peeking out of the plethora of newly admitted clothes on the rack. i asked to see what that was and she brought it out and it SERIOUSLY felt like angels were just about to sing. :) nevertheless, we got the dress and she made her repairs and I feel like Grace Kelly.

dan has been busy making his pipeline for his new job and he loves it. he gets to be downtown seattle everyday and meet new people. he loves to walk downtown and see whats going on around him. very much a city boy at heart. i am so happy for him to have a job that he thoroughly enjoys and he is so much happier everyday in general :) oh how i love him so much.

insomnia and unemployment

2010-01-10T01:50:00.000-08:00

Well fellow bloggers! Here we are. We now have our wedding invitations on its way to finalization, thanks to Miss Whitney (whom I highly recommend when it comes to paper art. She is so good!) We are going with a bird theme for the wedding and I am so happy with the results so far. I am planning to have a craft party at the end of the month to get some decorations and party favors out of the way. I mean, the wedding is in less than five months!!!!
The kids had their week back at school so that gave us some time back during the day to get a few things knocked out. Tomorrow I am meeting with a couple of my bridesmaids and we are going to start planning the two parties, bridal shower and my BACHELORETTE! I am so excited! But I can tell you?...I am also a little frightened. ;) okay not really but still.

We are on our way to normalcy though. We just had a meeting at Dean's school for FAFSA. Yay for free money! Now we have a meeting for Miss Maddy on Monday just for normal check in about her progress. Collin and Maddy have started their rehearsals and it sounds like I will be helping out with choreography. I'm excited about that!! Devin, of course, got a couple new Webkinz and they are two dogs. He named them the most absolute cutest names ever.....Cocker-Daniel (cockerspaniel) and Lei-Poodle (poodle). He had to make them a couple of course. :) Logan is back on schedule for hitting practice. Omaha will creep up and be here before you know it!

I guess its now time to crawl into bed and catch some shuteye. To be continued...good night.

A present from our angel next door...

random, but I love this city.

wow holidays!

2009-12-31T18:36:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time...again. I figure now that the Save the Dates are out and the blog is on the postcard, I feel it is appropriate to update this as much as I can. :) Therefore, what has happened in the last couple of months....
Dan has picked up a great job with Z7 Networks as an account manager/sales rep. They are friends of ours that had decided to take advantage of Dan's great sales experience and bring him onto the team. Yay!!
Dean has applied to Bellevue College and will be taking the Fire Academy program as well to become his lifelong dream job of a Firefighter. We are extremely excited for him to do that!
Madeline and Collin have joined the Cinderella production at their school. Their rehearsals start January 4th. We can't wait for the show in March!
Logan is doing a select baseball team out here in Maple Valley called the Bandits and they start their practices soon here. They have been doing hitting and batting practices but the real deal starts up real soon!
Devin has finished soccer and is now just concentrating on being a typical 9 year old kid. All I can say is....webkinz. Oi Vey!

The holidays have wrapped up and my mother had surprised my siblings and I and decided to fly up for Christmas. That was a nice surprise!! She flew back today though :( The kids thoroughly enjoyed her as did Dan and I.

We have finally buckled down on the wedding planning. Our venue is for sure set in stone. We have our cake situation set out, our colors picked out, my wedding dress will be ordered here soon and the bridesmaid dresses will be picked out as well! Our flowers will be from Pike's Place Market! Unique, beautiful and fresh! Also from the place we love the best :) We have our Photographer! Our lovely friend Andrew Fredrickson, whom by the way does GREAT photos. I highly recommend him! As for the rest, its coming along!

I hope everyone has had a great Christmas and a happy New Year! Here are a few pictures to sum up the last few months and to put a great ending to 2009!! Cheers!

A typical family photoshoot :)

Us at Sarah's wedding (before Deano)

Thanksgiving 09!

Christmas at Linda's here with my mom and Dean

a day in bed...

2009-11-19T13:17:00.001-08:00

I guess while lying in bed sick gives me the excuse to look at options for the wedding. I have run into so many cute ideas! Here is what I found:

Next weekend we are doing a family photoshoot with Randi Swanson (Picture the Memories). She does this as a hobby and is FANTASTIC. We are so excited and so are the kiddos! We decided to shoot at Pikes Place. We are a melting pot of a family so I thought this place would be perfect :) A great way to capture all of the kids' personalities. Her blog is picturethememories.blogspot.com

We are well on our way to getting the details all together for the wedding. We have accomplished venue, catering ideas, save the dates, bridesmaid dresses, craft ideas... I think we are on our way!

okay so maybe im new to the blog world....

2009-11-11T23:43:00.000-08:00

WOW, again its been forever. A little over one month. I am terrible at this. BUT, I gotta be good since the website is on the save the dates!! Which by the way are B-E-A-UTIFUL thanks to my bridesmaid Whitney! So we have confirmed...its a wedding party of TWENTY TWO. Yes, you have read correctly. This is gonna be one big ol' party!

Bridesmaids:
Maddy McFadden
Blythe Anderson
Whitney Maass
Alicia Smart
Jessica Reynolds
Jessica White
Julianne Carey
Blythe Howard
Gina Mckinney
Cecelia Hayes
Amanda Laconte

Groomsmen:
TR Laconte
Collin Fewkes
Logan Fewkes
Devin Fewkes
Dean McFadden
Steve Fewkes
Dave Fewkes
Derek Hess
Dave Danton
Jordan Woods
Chris Gorski

Pictures of them to follow!!

Save the Dates will be out REAL SOON! They got printed thi s week! I am SOOOO STOKED!

xoxo,
Lei

CONFIRMED!

2009-09-29T16:20:00.000-07:00

wow!! Its been a while since I have blogged! We had to change the date due to it being booked on the original date. It has now been changed to May 29th! Set in stone, in concrete, engraved, solidified!! I'm so excited. We checked out the venue. Very rustic, romantic and vintage. May I say that we can do a lot here! Alicia, one of the bridesmaids and also my wedding planner (may I just add that she just had a baby too...superwoman!) checked out the venue with us and her gears are already churning! It may be 8 months away but I hear that time flies! Our save the dates will be coming out soon! Whitney, another bridesmaid who is also doing our invitations and save the dates (she's so awesome!!) is so creative and I am so thankful to have her help out with her beautiful and totally right brained work! I'm getting really excited about this wedding. I want to make sure that everyone else has a great time too to help us celebrate this awesome day in our life. We need support and lots of it! :)

dun dun dun....

2009-09-18T16:19:00.000-07:00

CRAP. so the place where we wanted it has it booked for may 15th!!! so its either change the date or change the venue. can't this be my world and everybody are just the nuts. HA. we'll figure it out. :(

THE DAY!!!

2009-09-09T13:37:00.001-07:00

5-29-10

colors,flowers and fabrics...oh my!

2009-09-08T23:28:00.000-07:00

yay!!! its about time for me to finalize my colors!! so we have decided to go with espresso brown, mango yellow and rich lime green. Very springy!!

Now, the flowers we have decided on are going to be sweet peas and gerbera daisies :)

I am hoping that we can find and get simple fabrics. Think Shabby Chic...country bohemian :) We want this wedding to be cozy, laid back and fun! Just a great day to celebrate a day that commemorates the rest of our lives!

the day they got me....!

2009-09-05T23:10:00.000-07:00

on 8/22/2009...
The beginning....
Dan and his clever ways came up with an idea to write a script. All the while I thought I was having a "normal" birthday gathering at our bunkhouse. Lots of steak, lots of booze and lots of family/friends. It was laid back and casual. Then as people are getting ready to head out, Dan pulls a fast one...which would be a script out of his hands :) He gathers the family around and proceeds to tell all the guests to get into a circle. Right as I am about to sit down, they inform me that I am part of the script. I'm thinking...great here we go, I'm going to have an embarrassing story about something and then a picture of my naked caboose will magically appear on the television screen just to bring in my 24th year. Dan, my two siblings - Dean and Maddy, Dan's three sons- Collin, Logan and Devin and Dan's niece CJ all had their own loving parts in the play, including myself. As they started to read, I noticed that it had a depiction of how each and everyone of us is but in a funny "put a velvet blanket over your head and make it sound pretty" kind of way. As we start to reach the "castle on a sandy beach"...at this point I'm thinking, SCORE! Look Ma, I'm going to Cabo! But it continued into the "castle" without anyone showing up on my doorstep with a big check saying I won a million dollars...wait I was thinking about a trip to Cabo. Anyway....further along the story, a prince with a belly (yes he actually put that in there, it was hilarious!) comes down the winding steps and asks why we are all in his house...and as my character was explaining that we were going to leave, Prince Charming quickly tells the madam in distress not to go! This is where I started shaking and everyone started grabbing cameras and bootys (okay not the latter half). Dan told me that he wanted to get to the happily ever after part and gets down on one knee, says his lovely speech and ends it with me yelping "Absolutely yes!" Ahhh, I am so in love.
p.s. the kids and CJ knew about this for a whole two months and nobody narked! I give such credit to them :)

when two planets collide...(or rather people)

2009-09-05T22:59:00.000-07:00

mars verses venus. mars meets venus. venus meets mars. mars and venus become great friends. mars goes through hard time in life. venus is there for mars. venus realizes how much she cares for mars and same goes for mars. venus not only falls in love with mars but then realizes that she cares for the mini mars.venus' family merges with mars. now mars and venus will become MARNUS (mars venus = marnus) :-P