life update: wedding planning

the number one question I get these days is: "Soo... how's the wedding planning going?"

 

so I thought I would do a little update on my life. which the only thing my life is right now is wedding planning. and to provide (mostly for myself) comedic relief and entertainment. here it goes folks.

 

wedding planning is a lot of what I thought it would be and a whole lot more of what I totally wasn't expecting. let's make a list.

 

1. Addresses. first off, next time you leave someone your address make sure you put the zip code with it. I think I have now memorized Utah's zip codes.

 

2. setting up a facebook page really is awesome. probably not for the people on the page because then they get a million notifications of people they really don't know at all commenting on the page and facebook thinks they would like to know.

 

3. registering is the best part. I'm serious. it's like Christmas! however I never thought you would need so many little things! I have decided I am going to start a new product. it's called the "I'm new at this thing" box. You get fantastic pots, pans, knifes, plates, cups, silverware, measuring cups and spoons, can opener, well you get the idea. just one big box! plus they will all color coordinate because I guess that's important these days.

 

4. avoid taking your engagement pictures while you are moving. it is possible but it really is quite an adventure. my mom and I share a lot of clothing and she was all packed up. I made sure the whole moving crew of friends and family knew that my room was 100 percent off limits until I said so. it was probably my biggest bridezilla moment so far. I packed my whole room and moved in one day. (okay maybe a day and a half). thank you to Kaeli Levin for making that possible. but still. yikes.

 

5. for some reason once there is a ring on your finger people will say to you, "oh my gosh you look so great!" "wow you look so tiny!" "you must be working really hard to make sure you stay this tiny" I guess I have been small all my life and am used to these comments but I'm telling you the ring does something. I usually just smile and say "oh my thank you! I'm telling you, that Taco Amigo diet I am on works wonders! you should try it."

 

6. wedding cakes. there is so much I could say. WHY?! why is it a thing? why do people like cakes? I could find a great outfit for the money that is spent on that. priorities people....

 

don't worry I ordered a cake.

 

7. pinterest. a best friend and an enemy all at the same time. their "wedding planning" time line? a joke. this is not Disney land. it is crunch time! to the people that come up with these decoration ideas, I want to meet you. how did you think of so many awesome thing?! and lastly never under estimate a "bride to be work out". let me enlighten you. I decided I need to do some form of exercise beside walking up and down some stairs so I found a workout on pinterest that said something like "the best bride to be work out in only 15 minutes" I thought it sounded easy enough. I guess I could wake up 15 minutes earlier and it couldn't be that challenging. well during the lovely work out I worked up quite a sweat. 200 jumping jacks really gets tiring. the next morning I rolled over and just started laughing. I could hardly move. those "this will really get that butt into shape" truly worked. I had to crawl up the stairs. haha. pinterest for the win right?

 

8. ties. are. the. worst. seriously. we don't want to pay a crap load of money but we also don't want them to look like crap. it's an issue that I'm still trying to figure out.

 

9. birth control (tmi? skip to 10) i now cry on a dime. someone getting voted of SYTYCD might has well have just been shot. watching the intros by family members on America's Got Talent, one of those touching videos on facebook, etc. i become a mess! and i just think to myself "alright JanaLe pull yourself together!" but i have no control. it is unbelievable. i better wear some waterproof mascara on the day of my wedding because i already tear up with happy tears thinking of it.

 

10. I'm extremely and i mean extremely grateful I didn't have to try and find a venue. they charge you basically your college fund and your future childrens college fund. thankfully i get to do my reception in my parents new beautiful backyard. pray for good weather. I'm thinking august has been so terrible because September is going to just be gorgeous! we are thinking positive people.

 

11. my bridesmaids are GOLDEN PEOPLE. seriously. i gave them all an assignment (another bridezilla moment?) and they have just been sweet angels to help and do everything i need! some people say you don't really need them but i have been so so grateful for mine. you girls rock.

 

12. the little things. thank heavens i have the most amazing mom ever. yesterday we tried to get a lot of things done and she kept bringing up more and more that i hadn't even thought about! she looked at me and said, "do you want to elope yet?" and trust me it is tempting. but with all that we have planned so far i guess we will just stick with that ;)

 

13. I'm glad Zach doesn't think I'm just absolutely nuts by now. at least I'm hoping that's the case. he just started school this last week and his classes are crazy. the kid spends all day at school! last night he was doing homework while i was putting our addresses in an excel sheet (trust me I wouldn't be that organized but they are printing the addresses for us. bless the heavens) and after a good hour and a half we both looked at each other and Zach said "prison break?" i was all about it. it's our current series that we watch and love. so to all you future brides, remember it's okay to step back and do something else for a while.

 

well i guess i'll stop there. i better get back to my wedding notebook. its probably feeling abandoned since i haven't really looked at it in the past few hours. (you should see this notebook. receipts, sticky notes, check lists, advice, dates to remember, etc. etc.) in all seriousness i can't wait to get married. i really am so excited and wedding planning hasn't been too terrible :)

 

to all the soon to be brides, eat that burger and make sure you get some good fries to go with it. it makes a difference. i recommend Taco Amigo :)

 

 

that's right. i get to marry that guy.

 

thanks for reading :)

the story of zach and jan.

december sixth: i was on a blind date with someone who just happened to be one of zach's friends. for the date we went skating and i was introduced to zach. zach is REALLY good so he was definitely eye catching.

throughout more weekends of december i kept seeing zach at disco skating. we just so happened to both miss the same week and then come to the one disco skating night before new years eve. the next monday at work i was talking to a friend who just so happened to also know zach. at first i couldn't believe it, so we used Facebook to make sure we were both talking about the same person. sure enough we were. i asked her some questions and said, "he's not that type of guy that is looking for a relationship right? i just want to be his best friend. he seems super rad" she didn't think he was looking for anything serious (and he actually probably had the same mind set i did. but not the rad part. ;) ) so i added him. we exchanged phone numbers.

a few days later zach asked me to come over to their vineyard house where they were watching a movie. i just so happened to end up getting out of what i was going to be doing that night and went and joined the party. but let me just paint a picture for you: this house was down a real poorly lit street, after arriving i go around to the basement with zach and go into the family room where there are SO many people. so many couples. everywhere! in the back there is just one little sofa chair. we proceed to walk through a maze of people in the dark because a movie is on, i am sure i stepped on so many people. zach sits down on the chair and says, "well…" and pats on his knee. i first can't believe this is really happening and was wondering what i had gotten myself into, and then sat awkwardly on the arm rest and zach's knee and watched the rest of the movie. truly comical. when the movie was over and people started leaving zach and i just talked. we moved to sit on the couch so it wasn't so awkward (thank heavens) and just talked. for hours. you know those talks that seem to only last a few minutes but really its been hours? it was one of those. and i was living at home for the holidays. yikes. so i go sneaking back into my sister's bedroom in the wee hours of the morning. wake her up (double yikes). katie says, "you did not just get home". caught.

fast forward another few days to the first actual date. i was worried about what to wear because he said dress warm but kept what we were doing a surprise. he comes and picks me up and i awkwardly asked if what i was wearing was going to be okay to which he assured me it would. we drive down to the provo bowl and i find out we were going sledding. it was pretty dark outside and the hill was more ice than snow but it was seriously the best thing. we were FLYING down that hill and since it was dark we had no idea what was ahead. zach wore terrible shoes and at one point as we were walking back up he was struggling and slightly sliding but still holding on and then all at once he goes flying down the hill. i almost peed from laughing so hard. after sledding we went and got hot chocolate. then another surprise. we pulled up to the craft store (at this moment i really had no idea what was going on). it was closed but zach said it was okay because he had all we needed at his house. closet avid crafter? that was my thought. we get to his apartment and he pull out a crochet needle and some yarn. that's real. this guy taught me how to crochet on our first date. pretty great right?

a hat zach made. our friend wanted one too.

after our first date i saw zach almost every day. on another one of our first dates i died by hair pretty dark. and told not a soul. when he picked me up his face was classic. but our relationship continued. we would crochet, talk, and occasionally start country dancing in his apartment. (i'm pretty terrible. i thought clogging would help. i was wrong.) he introduced me to The Porcupine which is TO DIE FOR. if you haven't gone there, go. right now. just get the nachos and split them. it's cheap. nice. and incredible! we kept going disco skating every week, discovered all different places to eat using calendar coupons, and literally became best friends. here's a little side note: one night at disco skating i was trying to learn a new trick and was holding onto zach's arm. his friend came up behind him not knowing what was happening and we took a pretty big fall. i smacked my head on the ground really hard. zach came running over, carried me off, got me ice, looked up all signs of concussion and checked me for each little thing he could find, and was the cutest worried guy i have ever seen. that's when i knew he was going to be something special.

one of the first of many disco nights.

koosharem.

i made a bet with zach that if the heat lost to the jazz at the game we went to, we had to go to disco matching.

skating the park. 

i love photo booths. so after lots of convincing zach finally did one with me.

zach has a few questions he ALWAYS asks. over and over. and over. they are: what kind of bands are you into? how many people have you met? what's your favorite section of the newspaper? and the last two are classic: do you want to fall in love? and want to get married? he asks these questions to everyone. when i first heard the last two questions i was a little taken back. not sure if he was kidding or serious. he thought that was hilarious. as we started getting more and more serious we joked how one day he would ask me those questions and actually be serious and i wouldn't know how to respond. but i figured it out.

katelyn and kinley's wedding. 

zach told my cousins they needed to come skate with us. he's managed to get basically my whole family to come.

katie's graduation.

when i found out i had to stop dancing i went over to zach's and cried and cried. but he supported me until the end.

we are both pretty obsessed with this girl. 

this picture describes us perfectly. zach loves selfies.

hiking the narrows.

seeing the little mermaid with my family.

4th of july in koosharem. jesse dean joined us. him and zach really are the best of friends. i love it. jesse later posted this picture on instagram and said "don't mess with out girl" 

i love four wheelers, he loves dirt bikes. it works pretty well.

before i met zach i had decided i was going to go to ecuador to work in an orphanage. i was going to go last fall but ended up having a change of plans and decided i would go this summer. at first i thought i would go for 3 months or so but after meeting zach i thought two weeks would be just the right amount of time. he teased me about going (typical) but i decided i really wanted to go. i left to ecuador july 9th. remember that cute worried guy in the earlier story? he was back that day. and probably more nervous then ever. and i was too. but i went. the experience i had was incredible. (post coming soon). i missed zach but we face timed every night so that was really nice.

don't mind the greaser in the corner.

at the equator just showing the distance from quito to salt lake. 

 i had sent him pictures of five or six rings i liked just in case he wanted to pick something up while i was gone. :) when i came back to the US of A we went straight up to a cabin in heber to be with my fam. i was running on very little sleep and probably was the worst but it felt so good to be home. the next day sickness hit both of us. hard. we did absolutely nothing. zach slept for basically the whole day and i just tried to keep swallowing even though my throat was on FIRE and scratchy and gross. after trying to eat some food and deciding we would try to go get ice cream with my family, we went out to soak in the nice summer evening. zach mentioned we both smelled really terrible and should probably shower. i really didn't want to. but i did. as i was getting ready i noticed zach looked pretty great to just go get ice cream. as i was doing my hair i kept thinking "maybe it will happen tonight" but then quickly reassured myself that we were going to look at rings on monday so it won't happen. well as i was brushing my teeth my sweet little brother (who is like best friends with zach) came in and set a car key down and told me to look at my phone. i had a notification that zach had tagged me this photo:

"is this real life?!"

i had seen that blanket in his car earlier and went running. yes mid tooth brushing. well i couldn't figure out how to get the trunk open for quite some time but when i did i read the note and went running to the back yard where it had directed me. out on the golf course (with the sun setting i might add) was my cute zach. he was holding a rose and just standing there. no box. so i though well no ring but this is still great! when i got to him he said some cute things (still not pulling out a box) and then got on a knee and pulled a box from his back pocket! i squealed (its like my signature thing to do). he reminded me i actually needed to say yes before he could get up and i could get the ring. people do that? apparently ;) i turned around and all my family was on the deck. it was a pretty special moment and i couldn't stop looking at my hand.

the classic "we are engaged" picture

thankfully we had a few more days in heber and were able to relax and try to not be so sick. he went on the alpine zip line and zach is terrified of heights. classic. and we went swimming. 

notice zach's face. haha poor guy.

swimming and stuff.

since then wedding planning has been in full swing. dress, suit, shoes, ties (who knew they were so hard to find), a belt (the worst), bridesmaid outfits, engagement pictures, flowers, renting reception stuff, getting addresses (if i don't have yours please comment below!) temple information, etc. etc. it's been crazy, especially because my family has been moving. but it has also been so fun. i feel like the luckiest girl and i am so happy. everything has come together so well and i feel so blessed! zach is the best guy out there and i'm so excited i get to spend eternity with him. he has become my best friend and i can't imagine life without him. 

so cheers to weddings and love and all that mushy stuff. i guess it really was love at first skate. and it's only gotten better from there. 

please leave your address below if you haven't done so already. we are so so so excited! it's real life!