18 Days...

So how many of you are tired of my countdown? Well, it's almost here and I'm still shaking my head wondering where all the time has gone? It's flying by and yet it seems like it's at a standstill. 

Let's see, I am the first to admit I made mistakes in planning and budgeting. Somehow we ended up with 340 people RSVPing. It seems hard to believe that many people want to come. I think it's crazy. I'm sad that many of the people I really want to come to the wedding cannot come, but I understand why many of you cannot come. 

We nearly doubled our guests and went over budget by a number I am horrified to even admit, but it will be ok. My dress is finished and gorgeous. I have a couple of bridesmaids who still need to have their dresses altered. They ordered them from the David's Bridal store here, which closed over the holidays. I am hoping they find someone to get their dresses altered. It has me a bit worried but not to the point that I'm going to stress out about it. It will be what it will be and they'll figure something out. 

I ordered and paid for our cake. Hopefully it will feed enough people. I ordered Bischochitos and Mexican Wedding Cookies from Chocolate Maven to give away as favors. I might order another couple dozen just in case I need a few more, but as of Friday, we'll have a final tally on guests and that's it... no more people can come. I feel like making a ranting post about RSVPs and how upsetting it is when people don't respond, don't even think twice about bringing a handful of guests and I could go on and on but I won't. 

I picked out the music for the ceremony.  I picked out stuff that is accessible and that my priest/pastor would approve of. Everything is in the missal we use at the parish, and I even think he'd be happy that we're picking Ubi Caritas for Communion. Our vocalist can sing it alone. My childhood friend is playing the piano at the wedding and she's bringing a vocalist she works with to sing. Suzette, the vocalist has a beautiful voice. 

I need to get a list to the photographer of shots we want. We have to pay him by this weekend. We have to pay the band soon. The florist is cool and wants his money the day before the wedding. The flowers are going to be beautiful. I think it's expected that the arrangements we use at church stay there-- so, I'm debating whether to get two more arrangements for the gift table and the guestbook table/place card table. What would you do? Would it be tacky to take the arrangements from church and have someone bring them back early the next morning for 7:30 Mass? Would anyone really do that? That is the question.

Saturday, David and I are being treated out to a night on the town. His best man has arranged his dinner and my maid of honor has arranged mine. i hope this heartburn thing clears up by then, because we're going to The Shed, which is really the only place I like to eat New Mexican Food. I'll eat at a few other places, but never red chile. No one makes red chile like my mom/family does other than The Shed. We have a rehearsal dinner the following weekend, even though the rehearsal isn't until the night before the wedding. We'll give our gifts to the bridal party, make toasts and whatever else happens at a dinner like that. It will be small and intimate. It's actually going to be a potluck at the maid of honor's house. It will be better to do it that night than the night before the wedding. I want everyone to rest that night. I'm not even sure how I'm going to do it, but we want to have a mellow night before. 

21 Days To Go

I finally got around to making a few announcements, one to the news paper and the other to St. Mike's. The newspaper announcement was rather generic, but I included this picture with it.

Roman and Theresa Salazar of Santa Fe, announce the engagement of their daughter, María Feliz Salazar to David Duran. David is the son of J. David Duran and the late Charlotte Duran of Santa Fe. The couple first met as students at St. Michael’s High School where they graduated in 1986, but had not seen each other since college where they both attended the University of New Mexico.  Last year, it was through the magic of Facebook they reconnected and are now engaged.

They plan to marry February 12 at Santa María de la Paz Catholic Community. 

This went to St. Michael's.

Imagine what happens when classmates and fellow graduates from the Class of ’86 suddenly find each other again on Facebook? For some, old friendships rekindle, for others new friendships are born and for one particular couple romance is found.

María Feliz Salazar and David Duran were graduates of the Class of ’86 and hadn’t seen each other since the days when they were both students at the University of New Mexico. They didn’t run in the same social circles in high school, but they always remembered each other fondly. They’d see each other on campus at UNM from time to time, but they didn’t hang out together.

A couple of years ago, María received a Facebook Friend Request from David. At first, communication between them was brief.

They exchanged a few comments on each other’s walls, but nothing much beyond that until David left a quick comment of condolence for María after the death of a family member she mentioned. That comment turned into a long conversation and lead to a lot of reminiscing on María’s wall. That sparked other conversations, which lead to a poke here and there, then they sent smiles to each other and even  left notes for each other in the game Farmville. Eventually, that lead to private chats, long private messages and the start of some innocent online flirting.

 As they continued to communicate, a romance started to blossom but there was one problem. María and David had yet to see each other in person. David lived in Jemez Springs and María in Santa Fe.

On Columbus Day, 2009, they met for the first time after twenty-some years. They immediately felt comfortable with each other, like they were old friends and the attraction was obvious. They started dating and fell in love. David proposed June 12, 2010 after a romantic weekend in Jemez Springs. On Feb. 12, they will marry at the Santa María de la Paz Catholic Community.

So what started out as a simple friend request on Facebook blossomed into love and marriage.

They will make their home in Santa Fe. David works at LANL and María works in real estate and continues to write the stories her characters tell her to write. She’s still hoping to publish a novel one day.

Registry Help

Emily Post and Miss Manners and I think even Martha Stewart talk about where you can and cannot put registry information. My mother is another etiquette stickler, so that is why there was no information in the invitations about where we are registered for the wedding. I imagine this annoyed some of the guests coming to the wedding. Sorry about that. I am the product of my mother, "Auntie Martha" and Zeta Sisterhood, which has ingrained what to do and not to do when planning a formal affair. I have broken the no white after Labor Day Rule many times though. 


That is also why we put "other info" notes in the invitations to direct people here.

Anyway, registry info is supposed to be disseminated by word of mouth or listed on websites and web blogs, which is what we've done. There are links on the side of this blog, but they seem to be a bit troublesome, Dillard's especially.


On the Dillard's Registry home page, there is a section to the left that says shop a registry. There you can enter mine or David's name, the state of NM or the registry #  of 124761552  to get to the registry. You can also go into the store and print out a registry list at one of the kiosks in the store.


Anything off the Nambe Registry maybe purchased online and in any store. You might even find some of the items in a local department store. At the Nambe shop, they can look up the registry information but they cannot indicate if something has been purchased in the store. So, I'm trying to keep that registry as up to date as possible.


Kohl's seems to work directly.

30 Days....

Happy Anniversary.

In one month we will be married. 

I can't wait. 

Thirty Three

What a big number for a myriad of reasons but in this case it means 33 days to the wedding!