Sigh. Every time I think about my engagement I am whisked away to La La land. Literally actually, since my fiancé surprised me with a trip to Los Angeles, where he proposed. I still can’t believe it!

The Fairytale Story

I’ll save the detailed version of my proposal story for a video post, but the quick(-ish) version is, he set up a scavenger hunt-like adventure for me, complete with written clues left in my apartment! I opened up the clues one at a time (as instructed) early Saturday morning and was led to everything from my favorite breakfast restaurant (one of the clues contained a gift card and told me to go eat there) to a manicure/pedicure appointment that he had set up and paid for ahead of time!

The morning/afternoon got really romantic, however, when one of the clues instructed me to drive to the airport rental car place, where he said he’s be waiting for me with a fancy rental car to take me on a road trip. I get to the airport, speed like a crazy woman to get to the rental car place, only to open up the next clue which tells me to look in my glove compartment. I look in my glove compartment and what do I find?A boarding pass to LA!!!

Me at the airport!

I then parked my car, took the shuttle to the terminal, and boarded a plane with nothing but the clothes on my back and my purse. When I landed in LA, he had a driver in a black Escalade waiting for me outside the airport waiting to take me to the hotel. When I arrived at the hotel and picked up the keys from the front desk (they were expecting me apparently), I went up to the room to find a packed bag with my clothes and an old picture of us on the bed with a note telling me to get dress and hurry downstairs for dinner. I did as instructed (I had been following orders written on little slips of paper all day!) and met my lovely soon-to-be fiancé downstairs, where he was waiting for me with a fancy rental car after all. He then took me to dinner in Beverly Hills and then to the Griffith Observatory that evening where he got on a bended knee and asked me to spend the rest of my life with him. I still sigh thinking about it.

The dress I got engaged in

Dinner

View from the deck at the Griffith Observatory, overlooking the valley of LA!

Bam! My ring :-)

I’m going to be somebody’s wife!

Back to the Real World

While the thought of getting married certainly inspired images of roses, white dresses, and exotic, far away islands, I am quickly learning that there is a less dazzling “behind the scenes” component to it all — someone has to plan (and pay!) for all that stuff! And while my fiancé and I, along with my parents, are splitting the bill on this wedding the "make sure it comes together" part of this wedding has fallen 100% on me. Just call me J. Lo because yours truly is The Wedding Planner.

While there are a lot of truly important things to consider when planning a wedding, the three things that I am most preoccupied with personally are:

• My Hair (duh!)
• My Diet
• The Budget

Not in that order actually, because budget truly is the most important but you get the idea. My hair, figure and wallet better be in tip-top shape by the time I jump over that broom. (Yes, we’re having a broom!) Take a walk with me as I share my thought process…

Hair

It goes without saying that I prefer to wear my hair natural for my wedding. That said, if I opt for a natural ’do, I really need a natural wedding style that fits in with my 1940’s hollywood theme and transitions well to the honeymoon (we are thinking about Brazil…hot and humid!). So far, I have been entertaining a big, beautiful, soft, roller set, maybe tucked or pinned to the side or in a low bun.

In addition to wearing my hair natural, I have been loosely flirting with doing it myself to (1) save money and (2) ensure my hair looks the way I want. I haven’t been to stylist in ages and the leg work in terms of finding one you trust is so tedious and takes so long that I’d honestly just rather do it myself. My mom, on the other hand, will have a fit at the mere thought of me doing my own hair, I already know it, so I’m open to getting my hair professionally styled, of course. It just has to be the right stylist with the right level of skill.

Diet

My diet has been influx for maybe a year now. Ever since I started working out seriously two-ish years ago, I of course changed my eating habits. My first big cut was processed foods and eating organic whenever possible, but if you follow me on instagram then you might have noticed that lately, I’ve been dining at a lot of vegan establishments, too. I have no moral qualms about eating meat and I don’t want to be a 100% vegetarian or vegan, but I do desire to be a mostly vegetarian, because I do think a plant-based diet is healthier. Not only do I think its easier to manage weight if you eat vegetarian most of the time, I think your are likely to be healthier overall.My entire life, I’ve had mild but nevertheless weird issues with my digestion. It seemed as if no matter what I ate, I was always bloated or suffering from random bouts of constipation. Now that I’m getting married, I just want to be a heathy, fit, toned, radiant bride and new wife. I want glowing, healthy skin, strong hair and nails, a calm stomach, lots of energy (I want a lot of stuff!) and I believe a plant-based diet (i.e. pseudo-vegetarianism) can help me get there.To accomplish this I’ve been reading a lot of books and trying to plan a detox to get me jump started. Here’s what I’ve been reading:Books:

• By Any Greens Necessary
• Fast Food Nation
• The Ethnic Vegetarian
• Cook without a Book
• Veganomicon
• Post Punk Kitchen (blog to Veganomicon)

Budget

Last but certainly not least (as I said before, money is actually my number one consideration for this wedding) my budget has been top of mind. Ever since I started working full-time out of college, I’ve enjoyed a steady biweekly paycheck that has allowed me to save money, pay my bills, shop a little bit, go out with my friends, and just generally have fun. Nothing is wrong with any of those things but weddings are insanely expensive, especially when you have a large family you need to invite as both me and my fiancé do.The toughest thing I’ve had to deal with has been (1) diverting all that money I worked so hard to save up right out of college to my wedding fund and (2) cutting out all extras. I have radically reduced my shopping and product-junkie habits. While on one hand, this makes me feel annoyed, like I’m back to being that broke college student I just was, on the other hand, I’m grateful for the opportunity because honestly, I have gotten a little lax now that I have more money coming in.Looking back to when I was in college, I really admire the things I was able to do and come up with while living on minimum wage and going to school full-time. Though my situation has improved, I never wanted to lose my sense of frugality and I think I have lost it a little bit since becoming a salaried employee. Hunkering down and saving for this wedding is allowing me to revisit my super-saving ways and learn some new ways to save in the process.Right now I’m learning how to “extreme coupon” (on a much smaller scale of course. Those people on that show are crazy!) for household items, makeup, and personal care products in order to save money and its kind of fun! I’m also reconnecting with my entrepreneurial spirit (it never left actually but more on that in a future post) to come up with different ways to make money on the side. All those are skills that will serve me well beyond my wedding day, so I’m looking at the bright side.

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Are any of you married or newlyweds? How did you wear your hair on your wedding? Did you change your diet before walking down the aisle? How did you manage to save for you big day? Share you tips with a sista, I need all the help I can get!P.S. -Follow me on pinterest to check out all of my wedding pins!