Whoa!  What just happened !?!?!?!?  Did we just.... get married?????   Holy crap!!!!

Seriously though, Vince and I had the time of our lives this past weekend, and we can't thank you all enough for all of your help/love/spirit/spunk/friendship.  Vince still gets all emotional thinking back to Saturday...  We're so happy that we had all of you wonderful people around us to add to the love of day. 

FYI - It's Amanda Wilson Bergado now, sans the hyphen. 

One week to go, holy crap!

It's our last day of work before we take off for up north - thank goodness!  It is getting harder and harder to move in the morning and my cognitive abilities rapidly decline as the work day goes on...   Good news is that Vince and I have nearly everything done here, so it'll be a week of partying, playing with Swedish babies, and hopefully napping during the middle of the day.  

By the way, for those of you who are curious, we'll be in Salinas on Saturday, by mid-morning.  Vince and I are going to multi-task on the drive up to P-town and learn a bit of Italian.  Well, maybe he will learn a bit - I'll probably be sleeping through most of it.   And, we'll be up north through the morning of Tuesday, the 12th.

Time for me to get back to work.   See you all really soon!

52 days to go!!!

Hey everyone!  Sorry that it's been so long since Vince and I have posted!  We have a few updates for everyone, some of which we might have already conveyed to you over the phone.

First update - the ceremony rehersal has  been scheduled for Friday, Sept. 8 at 3:00 pm at the San Carlos Cathedral.  It's not imperative that all of the attendents be present at this, and I know that it might be especially challenging for some of you to get in town as early as Friday afternoon.  However, for those of you who can be there, hurray!

Second update - after the ceremony rehersal, it'd be cool if you could help us decorate the reception hall, which is adjacent to the church.  My mom's been coordinating the decorations for us, and from what what I've heard, it shouldn't take too long to do this.  Lucky for you all, Vince and I have been crafting like mad over the past couple of weeks so we've liberated you from the drudgery of tying a hundreds of bows.

Third update - the rehersal dinner will happen that Friday night, probably around 7:00 pm, at Ho Wah's Restaraunt in Marina (a town about 10 mi. away for those of you who aren't familiar).  It's a Chinese restaraunt, so we'll be grubbing on food much more authentically ethnic than what we're serving on Saturday.

Fourth update - if you're still in town on that Sunday morning, my parents are hosting a day after brunch.  It'll probably happen around 10 or 11 am (whenver Vince and I feel like getting out of bed).   This will be a time to consume even more champagne, share stories from the day before, and open some presents.

Miscellaneous updates-

• Laura Mitchell, who goes way, way back with both Vince and I (long before we knew each other) will be singing during the ceremony.   She sings with the San Diego Opera and at churches down here in San Diego, so we know she's going to do a killer job.
• Our pals, Emily Leach and Chris Sabado, will be doing readings during the ceremony, the requiste readings from the Old & New Testament.  Father Scott is way cool and gave us permission to "edit" the readings as we see fit, which is good because the Bible has some serious gender issues.

That about covers it for now.  I'm stoked that we're getting to see you all very soon!

~Amanda

Hey ladies!  I just wanted to let you know that I scored big this weekend at Macy's and found earring for all of the bridesmaids to wear at the wedding, so that part is covered... Everyone has pierced ears, right?  (I think that Becca barely got hers pierced in the last year at the ripe old age of 18.) 

By the way, I just tried on the chingseom and jacket that Sami had made for me in Beijing and they are awesome!!!  And so is Sami!!!  It's going to be a lot of fun wearing them to the reception.  And they were essentially hand-carried all the way from Beijing to me in San Diego (first her brother brought them to SF, then they were relayed to her family in Salinas, and then Vince's parents brought them down to San Diego).

For those of you who haven't been in the loop, Vince is finally a fully-fledged Catholic as of last Saturday.  After months and months, and months of months of adult Sunday school, Vince finally went through the Rite of Confirmation, which is essentially the last religious hurdle we had to get through for us to get married in the Catholic church.   This Saturday night also marked the end of Lent for us (since we endured the marathon Easter Vigil mass that night), so this means we're back to eating meat again.  Woo hoo!

Ah! Five months to go!

Yowza!  Less than five months to go now...

I just spent a whole HOUR on the phone with a travel agent booking our honeymoon.  Well, actually I exaggerate, it was 56 minutes to be precise, with at least 25 of those spent being on hold. It was a tad bit excruciating, and I found out that the quotes I received last week were off by more than $1000 (argh!) but we FINALLY have our honeymoon booked.  We're spending two full days in Greece, three in Rome, and another two full days in Venice.  If any of you (i.e., Kenny, Samantha, Melissa and/or Sophie) have any advice/recommendations about traveling to this places, then please let us know!

Vince and I bought a little Italian phrase book awhile back and as I was perusing through it last week, I found quite a few funny and seemingly randomly thrown in phrases in it.  I now know how to say "there is no toilet paper" and "do you have any condoms" which can be found in the "Toilet" and "Discotheque" sections, respectively.  I can already tell that this is going to be the best $2.50 that we'll spend towards the wedding...

Anyhow I do have a more genuine update for the ladies in the bridal party.  The lovely Lisa Wasylychyn, who is a professional make up guru, has graciously offered to do everyone's make up for the big day.  She just needs for everyone to have their foundation already picked out and on and she'll take care of the rest.  I'm thinking that all of the girls can get ready with me at my house, at least make up wise, and then we can all caravan over to the church (I think we have to be there by noon, but this is yet to be confirmed).  I've recruited Pati to help find a hair stylist for us all and I've heard that Jamieko can help with this as well.  I haven't decided how I want to do my hair yet and I'm totally fine with each individual girl picking out her own hair style as well.  If any of my 'maids are perfectly adept at styling their own hair, you are more than welcome to do so. 

I think that Vince is similarly thinking that all of the boys could get ready together at his parent's house, unless someone gets a hotel room closer to the church... 

By the way, does anyone need help finding a hotel room?  This is really just directed to Kenny and Nick.  Vince's mom is working on blocking off rooms for folks in his family at the Courtyard Mariott in Salinas, a few miles away from their house, but so far Vince and I have been skeptical about whether it's necessary to block rooms off at any place in Monterey.   So, if you DO want to stay in Monterey, and you DO want us to scope things out for you, then let us know.  Or, if you want to be including in the block of rooms in Salinas (which is about 15 miles from the church and much cheaper), then let us know as well. However, I know that you (or Sophie at least) are particularly talented at snagging deals through websites like Orbitz, so that might still be your best bet.

I think that's everything for now.  Everyone, don't be a stranger!  ~Amanda