a break from wedding talk with the creepiest picture of me ever

i love audrey tautou.

i promise i do.

she's adorable.

but i kind of like to make fun of the face she always makes.

this one:

so here is me, doing my audrey tautou face...looking really really creepy:

i'm a weirdo.

my dress!!! (levi, DO NOT read this post!)

levi really doesn't want to see my dress before i walk down the aisle, so if you know him, don't show him any pictures! :)

i started shopping last weekend and found my dress on tuesday!

i thought it would take me FOREVER.

but as soon as i put it on, i knew. i thought people were full of crap before when they said that, but you really do just get a feeling. and you may even cry...

my dress search started at mon amie in costa mesa with my mom, sister, and one of my bridesmaids, kathleen. nina helped me there. she was fantastic. i seriously loved her. she let me try on a $14,000 st. pucchi just for fun! ask for her if you go there. she's awesome.

i found a look that i LOVED there, but wanted to keep looking...especially since the look i loved was expensive.

next, i tried one night affair on tuesday with my mom & sister. yuck! i really hated this experience. it's a store where you can rent your wedding dress. i honestly wouldn't mind renting my dress, but all the ones i tried on were so beat up looking. and i wasn't exactly getting personalized attention. not fun.

i was a bit depressed after that store. i have a tendency to go into hopeless, discouraged, eeyore mode pretty quickly. so we made a quick stop at my favorite place in the world, paulette, for some macarons.

then we headed over to glamour closet. i highly recommend this place. it was clean, nice, and pretty. the selection was good. the prices were heavily discounted (they sell sample dresses from tons of designers and get new shipments in monthly). the dresses were in great condition. the salesgirls were nice and gave me personalized attention. they were organized. it was fantastic. and that's where i found my perfect dress! (for more than half off the original retail price!)

the sash is black velvet. very elegant and very wintery. keep in mind - the dress is huge and sliding off. please note: the jumper cables holding it on in the back. i may add straps to the dress because i always said i didn't want to wear a strapless wedding dress. i will definitely add a bolero. i found one i love, but it's soooo expensive. we'll see. and i will definitely wear a cathedral length veil with a blusher. i didn't think i wanted a blusher 'til i tried one on. don't you just wish we could wear wedding veils all day, every day?? i love them.

(i might be crying in the photo above.....)

me and caitlin, my sales consultant. she was really sweet and very helpful. she was the one who chose my dress for me after getting an idea of what i wanted!

i love this picture of my mom looking at me in the wedding dress she bought for me. it makes me tear up a little bit. thank you so much for my beautiful dream dress, momma. i feel like a bride. i can't wait to marry levi in this thing!

levi's proposal

the day levi proposed - monday, 17 may, 2010

that morning, we woke up late and took a walk to get coffee and breakfast. it's one of my favorite things to do.

then, i put on what i like to call the "world's happiest outfit." it has everything - yellow, polka dots, ruffles, sparkle, a big flower, tights. it's almost obscenely cheerful. i love it.

next stop - the grocery store to pick up food for a picnic.

then we parked our car in our old neighborhood downtown & walked to the bus stop.

we took the bus to the queen mary like we used to do in the olden (super poor) days.

next up, picnic on one of the decks. we basically took the whole thing over & acted like we owned the place. there wasn't really anyone there. levi had his iPod out playing music. it was really fun.

we read our bible together after our picnic.

followed by a little dancing & goofing around.

then we walked around the ship, taking pictures, playing, being silly.

we ended up in a really scenic part of the boat. there was no one around. it was a really gloomy, cold day (my favorite weather actually).

i was taking pictures of us, and i noticed levi was breathing kind of funny. i had a bit of an idea what was about to happen, so i gave him the camera back to put in his pocket. he started saying really sweet things. then he pulled my ring out of his pocket (some advil came out with it too - haha!), got down on one knee, and asked me to marry him. i, of course, said yes! i pulled him back up to hug and kiss me. then i pushed him back down so he could put the ring on my finger. :) a really nice man walked by after and asked if we wanted him to take our picture. this is the picture he took:

if you look closely, you can see that both our eyelashes are wet from crying.

afterwards, we drank champagne at the observation bar and called everyone. then it was time to get back on the bus and go celebrate with my family.

(we took this picture right after i finished doing the "all the single ladies" dance, flashing my ring all over the place.)

it was perfect. i can't believe we've only been engaged for a week! it feels like forever.

a favor, please?

good morning!

i was wondering if any of you could send me any winter wedding magazines that you'd be willing to part with?

all of the spring & summer wedding magazines out right now are making me long for a spring wedding. i need some winter inspiration for our january wedding!

i am, of course, looking at wedding blogs & websites constantly, but there's just something about a physical magazine. i love them.

i would be so grateful!

thank you!

oh hey

did i mention that levi caught the garter at kathleen & john's wedding?

(all photos by ohana)

the laughter in this one may be due to my reaction...

here she comes....

and there she is.

thanks, john. i owe you one.

scatter brained

when you get engaged, you...

...forget to put deodorant on...before dance class. :/

...can't stop looking at your engagement ring.

...check yourself out in windows, mirrors, basically any reflective surface to see how the ring looks in various poses.

...lose track of time because you're daydreaming about your wedding.

...want to kiss your super sexy fiancé all the time.

...smile so much that your face hurts.

...suddenly become dyslexic.

...drive everyone nuts by only blogging about your engagement.

...make lists like this one when you're supposed to be studying for your french final.

rings and things

first of all, wow.

thank you sooo much to all of you who sent us their congratulations yesterday. it means so much. levi & i have worked really hard to get to this point. we love each other so much, & we are so ready to be husband & wife. it feels amazing to both of us to know that there are so many people out there who are genuinely happy for us. thank you.

second, i promise to share more details soon. it's finals week (not that i'm getting much studying done. i can't concentrate!), so when things settle down, i'll upload the rest of my photos from the day & tell you all a little story! :)

and finally, my ring!!!

i love my ring. i think it's the most beautiful, unique thing i've ever seen. i would never have been able to imagine something like it, but it is absolutely perfect for me in every way.

the back story:

as i have mentioned on here before, levi lost his mother to brain cancer when he was 19 years old. his mother, julee, was an amazing, beautiful woman with a heart of gold. levi loved her very much. right before she died, she gave levi her wedding ring. it has become his most treasured possession.

levi's dad proposed to his mom with that ring in 1973. and that's the ring that levi gave to me on monday when he asked me to be his wife.

i am so honored to wear this ring. i hope i can do it justice and become the kind of mrs. myers that julee myers was.

my biggest news ever

levi asked me to marry him last night.

and i said yes.

i'm gonna be his wife!!!!!

i'm gonna be jasmine myers.

woah, that looks weird.

good thing i'll have the rest of my life to get used to my new name.

silly animal video

this is gretel playing the piano. she was very unhappy about it. you can kind of see the irritation on her face, and she was growling at me. (you can't hear the growling on the video.) she actually growls at me fairly frequently. i'm always provoking her. she's a good little girl though. she never retaliates. she just lets me know when she's annoyed.

disposable cameras at weddings are fun.

here are some more pictures from kathleen & john's wedding.

this one's great because i have no idea what was going on. i basically just walked by and crashed the photo.

i tried to pick just one of these...but i like them both. :) also, i miss film! it looks so much different than digital photos. i like it.

this photo is amazing and let me tell you why. kathleen was walking down the aisle, and everyone is still standing. i was bawling. like weeping. if you look closely, or maybe if you enlarge this one by clicking on it, you can see my lower lip jutting out. haha!

i wish i could go to the wedding of a good friend at least once a month. they're too much fun.

ummm

all the music on my iPod just disappeared.

and it isn't in my iTunes because all my iTunes library disappeared when my hard drive crashed in february. and i don't own any cds anymore because i gave them all away, thinking "who needs them when i have a computer & an iPod?"

i don't even know where to start.

my heart is broken.

why CAN'T i have my cake & eat it too?

one day (in less than two weeks), school and finals will be over.

i will let out a huge sigh of relief.

i will run and leap and twirl with joy and excitement.

then, about five minutes later, i'll get sad and start to miss my classes, all my great teachers, the wonderful girls i've made friends with, and dancing four days a week.

(on a completely unrelated note, i finally got a camera!!!!!!! that works!!!!!!! but my memory card reader broke. i ordered a new one on ebay, so as soon as that sucker gets here, this blog will be photographic once again! oh! annnnd i also finally ordered more film more my instax mini, seen here almost a year ago...took me long enough. sheesh.)

happy mother's day, moms!

this is the weed bouquet that levi picked, all by himself, for his mom when he was 5 years old.

isn't that just the sweetest thing?

today we are going to celebrate mother's day with my lovely momma and remember what a beautiful woman and mother levi's mom was.

happy mother's day to all you moms out there!

light

i'm really sick and a little bit stressed.

i haven't been able to breathe for three days, and i wasn't able to dance in a showcase performance at school last night as a result. i was really looking forward to it and had been working really hard for the last month so that i could do it. i almost just did it anyway, but whilst dancing with a fever in modern yesterday, i decided it wasn't the best idea. i probably would have ended up falling over, and that's not really fun in front of an audience.

and then this morning, we discovered that we are very overdrawn in our checking account.

and we found a big, fat parking ticket on our car.

needless to say, i'm not having the best day....

...BUT...

wanna hear something cool?

i'm not devastated. i'm not falling apart. my world is not unraveling.

in the pre-medication, pre-therapy days, these things would have sent me into a tailspin of despair, anxiety, and self-loathing.

but today, i'm kind of seeing things in perspective.

and i'm hopeful.

i know things are just fine and that i have everything i need.

kathleen & john tie the knot!

we went to a wedding sunday evening.

it was the beautiful wedding of my gorgeous friend, kathleen and her husband, john.

we had a great time.

the bride & the groom:

some cheesy posing during cocktail hour:

we smuggled some "juice boxes" into the reception (mini wines in a box from target - classy, i know)

i love weddings.

**update: john is a lying bastard. :( but kathleen is awesome.