Family in Town

From July 9th to the 22nd my mom and my best friend and maid of honor Lydia were in town. My brother was also here for part of that time. We had a lot of fun going to all the St. Louis landmarks. They say their favorite thing about St. Louis was the Botanical Gardens, but I think that DSW shoes is a close second. My brother, Ryan, Dave (best man) and I ran the MLB All-Star 5K on June 12 and afterwards we celebrated Ryan and my mom's birthday with a party at Ryan's partent's home.

Showing off our race medals.

Mom, brother and sister.

My mom's birthday is July 12 and Ryan's is July 13th!

With my mom and Lydia

My mom, Lydia, and my brother went with me to see Gaby for a fitting for the wedding dress. This has been a great experience and it was really special to be able to share it with them. The dress is very lovely and should be ready very soon!!! We also found the perfect shoes to go with the dress. I finally picked a wedding color: SANGRIA! It is the perfect color as it is exactly the color of the orchids I had picked for my flowers. So Lydia picked her dress and Jill (Ryan's sister) got hers. Jill will make her daugther Ava's (flower girl) dress. Ryan's mom Colleen also found a great dress. So everything is coming together quite nicely.

Finally, Sisi and Maggie hosted a bridal shower for me. It was a very special night and both Sisi and Maggie did an amazing job organazing an unforgetable night. It was also really special to have all my St. Louis friends together with my my mom and Lydia.

with hosts Maggie and Sisi

everyone

Say yes to the dress...

My friend Gaby is designing and making my wedding dress. She is a Fashion Design major from WashU and now she is working on her master's degree in Textile Design at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. Gaby and I met about 5 years ago while she was doing my make up for Carnaval, the Latin American cultural production at WashU.

It has been really hard for me to pick a dress... I've tried on about 30 dresses since getting engaged, to the point where it is not fun anymore. Gaby offered to desing and make the dress and finally today she showed me some designs and I think she really nailed it. She had a great ability to put my style on paper and came up with an amazing design that I absolutely love. Today we went to get fabric and this week I will try on a practice dress. I'm really excited to share this process with her and to learn all about the world of fashion. Of, course I won't reveal the design here, but I will keep you updated on the process.

Gaby and I at a San Fancisco Cable Car earlier this year.