Life: My cousin is engaged!!

Engagement, Life, Love, Wedding
I’m so excited because I just found out that my little (okay not so little) cousin proposed to his girlfriend last night. They have been dating for a while now and we knew it was bound to happen sooner or later. We are all extremely happy for them since they are such a beautiful couple.  I can’t wait to hear all the details about their proposal and I can’t wait for their wedding.  

Have I told you guys lately how much I love weddings? I seriously can’t stop smiling since I found out.
Congrats to the newly engaged couple!!

I ❤ you guys!
If you haven’t read my proposal story please take a look at it here!

The Proposal: "There is one way to ask her…"

Engagement, proposal, Wedding

On Thursday, April 5th, 2007 I reluctantly went to work because I had a terrible shift. I decided to call my love during my break and he informed me he was going to go run some errands. I went back into the location and pleaded with my lead to let me go home early. After annoying my lead long enough he agreed but only if I finished serving the tables on my station. I was excited since I knew there was nobody seated at my station. Little did I know that they actually sat a family there when I went inside the restaurant.


This made me worried because the parade was about to begin and I knew they were going to sit there watching it. Meanwhile, Bob, the Operations Manager, entered our location and looked worried as did my best friend Val, a manager. She came in and seemed to be upset and was avoiding me. I left things alone with Bob and Val and went along my way serving the family I had on my station. At this point I kept coming back and forth between the front and the back making sure my guest didn’t need anything but their food was not done yet. As I stood there Patty, the head manager, came up to me and asked me if there was something I should be doing instead of standing back there. For some reason both Patty and Bob kept insisting that I should go outside but I didn’t understand why since my table was fine and they were watching the parade.*

As I stood there facing Patty, my friend Geo began to bang on the counter and told me to pick up my food. At this point I was really annoyed because I am not the type of person who just stood around doing nothing and I felt that everyone was picking on me and really wanted me to go outside. I turned around to tell him once again that it was not my food when I felt a bucket of cold water fall on me. At this point both Patty and Bob were standing next to me as I looked at a very familiar face

Right in front of me was the love of my life in the kitchen wearing a food prep costume with a name tag and everything. At the same time Geo slipped a plate with something on it but I was so astonished to see my boyfriend in front of me that I did not realize it was a jewelry box.





The only thing that came out of my mouth was, “What are you doing here? You are not supposed to be back here!! This is bad show!! Seriously, what are you doing here?!!” I thought I was going to get fired right on the spot because my manager and the operations manager were standing right next to me. As he came around the corner I still did not understand what he was doing there. He did not work there and I thought I was going to get in so much trouble because for some reason he felt adventurous enough to come visit me at work. All that was going through my mind was that he was violating company policy. At first I thought maybe someone died and for some reason he felt he had to tell me in person. Everything became a blur after that all I remember is looking around as took my hands and as I looked around I saw Val and my other friends crying.

He got down in one knee and said, “I met you at Disne
yland, we became friends here, we fell in love here, we had our first kiss here, and I felt it was necessary to ask you to marry me here too.”

Wow!! Now I know what it means for time to hold still. He kept saying beautiful things to me as I replied, “HELL YEAH, I’LL MARRY YOU!!” I really do not like being the center of attention so as I realized that everyone was staring at me I began to hide pulling my head over my sweater. He tried to kiss me but I thought it was bad show and then I looked behind me to find Patty crying and laughing all at once. He had arranged the whole thing with Patty and Bob’s permission. I later found out that he planned on proposing to me on his birthday March 31st but since I had begged Patty to give me the day off so I could cook for him they had to switch my schedule to that terrible mid-shift. The reason he wanted to do it on that day (his birthday) was because he had not asked me for anything but wanted to ask me for my hand in marriage. (Aww… he is too cute sometimes!!)


Oh, it took about 25 minutes for me to realize that I had a table waiting for me. I went out there and apologized and explained to them that they had just proposed to me. The little boy asked his mommy what proposed meant and then they congratulated me and gave me a $25 tip.

*The reason they wanted to get me outside was because he was supposed to propose to me in the patio in front of everyone!! LOL!! My bad!! Oh and the proposal was delayed because they had to rush him through Mainstreet while the parade was going on so that I wouldn’t see him when I was outside serving.


April 8, 2007

We waited on telling our families about the engagement because we wanted to tell them in person. We invited my parents and his parents over for Easter in my Aunt Carmen’s house. He had asked me for the ring because he did not want anyone to notice it before we told them so I gave it to him. As we were all sitting down eating he took my hand and got down in one knee and once again said the most amazing things but this time in Spanish. He proposed to me once again in front of all my family. Everyone was crying!! It was great and I could not have asked for more. I did not expect him to do that so I was just as shocked as everyone else was. We did not tell our parents that he had proposed to me a few days earlier because we did not want take that moment away from them. I do not know of any other girl who has gotten proposed to twice.


FYI: Catholic Ceremony

Catholic Wedding, Engagement, Engagement Encounter, Wedding

These are a few of the things I have learned in planning for a traditional Catholic ceremony.

First you need to make an appointment with your parish to speak with the priest about your intent of getting married at least six months ahead of our ideal wedding date.
(It took me a month to get a priest in my area to meet with us. I had to go to the parish were I was registered at instead of my local parish because the priest would not return my calls. This is why I say at least six months in advance.)


When you finally have an appointment and meet with the priest be prepared to talk about everything. I really mean everything including if you live together, how you meet, what your goals are, and overall what kind of relationship both of you guys have. Once he gets that out of the way then you can talk about the date and the details like what time of day you would like to have it at. In my p
arish they offer the option of some Friday night masses but weddings are mainly held on Saturdays between 9:00am and 2:00pm. This is where you might have to be flexible especially if the time you are looking for is already booked.

Before departing your meeting with the priest he will hand you a substantial amount of paperwork you have to fill out and return before anything is processed.

Another thing you have to do is go to a Catholic Engagement Encounter (CEE). They gave us three choices of ways we could fulfill the engagement encounter hours but we opted to go for a weekend away to Santa Barbara. Once again here be prepared to discuss everything but this time with your fiance. Topics range from finances, children, retirement, religious beliefs, ideals, values, sex, and morals. This weekend is just about you and your fiance and making sure you are ready for the commitment of marriage.

These are a few pictures of our CEE in Santa Barbra:


FYI: If you go for the retreat option you should know that you will be separated from your FI and the rooms are usually dorm style. Oh and if you cannot afford the $250 that they charge per couple you can ask your priest to give you a fee waiver.

Now that we have completed the Encounter we can move on to turning in all the paperwork that has to be in place before being able to walk down the alter.

We need to turn in:
Recent copy of baptismal certificate
Copy of first communion certificate
Engagement Encounter certificate
2 for each pre-nuptial forms which are filed out usually by your parents
Booklet of reading that will be read in the ceremony

Note: According to our parish priest you do not need to have done your confirmation in order to get married.

Oh and we have not even discussed the fees that you have to pay in order to get married in the church.

We need to pay:
Parish wedding planner $$$
Use of Parish $$$
Alter servers (2) $$
Music directer $$$
Cantor $$$
This all together totals a little less than 1k. This does not include the priest donation or what you have to pay for the engagement encounter.