The Halfway Mark

At 21 weeks, taken 2 weeks ago. Sunset in NoviSad, Serbia.

 

This is definitely a "Love before Sight" feeling!

We love you, sweet baby, our LILI. We love you more than anything!

Tree planting for the first time & flowers of spring

Yey, I witnessed something new today!

Another cherry tree in our collection, that one day in 40 yrs we will enjoy with our kids and grandchildren :D

The weather was acting up since last week until mid day today :(( We would wake up with rain and the nights are so cold like autumn that we started making fire again. Frustrating. It's so erratic that we had to cancel two engagement shoots and everyday I'd wake up praying for sunshine. But this is Spring.. as they say. And every year it's like this, sometimes sunny in the day, and chilly in the night. During these days, believe me I truly miss Manila.

But about late afternoon today the sun showed up a little, and I just had to take some shots of our pretty garden. Radisa, Ivan's father asked us too if we wanted to plant a tree. And we thought it was a nice idea. So we did, he planted it, Ivan assisted him, and I took some photos. Ivan even suggested we plant one more tree on our wedding day, & I really think that's a great thing to do :))

Ivan watering the newly-planted tree

View of our home from where we planted the tree. Still gloomy, eh?

And these are some of our tulips; I read that it's one of the easiest type of flowers to grow.

Tulips, dandelions and cherry trees; our garden bursting w/ color because of these flowers!

Thank God, for the beautiful spring!

Before I DO, & everything in between

One thing is for sure, we will have a non-traditional Serbian wedding celebration. Simple, I hope, that will truly reflect our personalities.

First, we had planned for a very private wedding celebration involving only 17 people, then we agreed to maybe inviting around 25. But now, that my future in-laws are involved in it, the guest list has increased to almost 50. OKAY. But still, that's a conservative number. I don't think I can go beyond that. Because to be quite honest, I'm quite shy to be around let's say 100 ppl. A typical Serbian wedding involves 250-500-1000 guests. Super dami! Definitely not my type of wedding.

Our civil wedding is happening middle of June in our home. A GARDEN WEDDING (Weeeeeeeee!!!!!) Just like what I dreamed of. Nothing's final yet, but it's more or less happening in our garden, next to the river, next to the bridge. And while Ivan is more involved in dealing w/ suppliers, I am more particular (and worried) about certain details & everything else, that he always asks me why I am so worried about something :/ 'Guess that's just how I really am.

... it's so non-traditional that I will have a Man-of-Honor instead of a Bridesmaid. I also designed my own dress (not the fluffy kind, just a simple long dress, and it's not white). This actually scares me the most since we bought the fabric and brought it to the tailor the other day, and she said it will be done in 5 days (that's like in Thursday this week I'm scared how it will turn out somehow eeekkkk). The reason for designing my own dress is that I want to keep my dress since Serbian brides rent their wedding dresses. They are "too expensive" to be bought I suppose. Mine was cheaper due to the DIY nature of the design. Ivan also has this cute idea to shoot my "trash the dress" so I'd rather trash my own wedding dress, you know! :D

Okay, so I am really addicted to anything pretty & personalized, and we're quite blessed that Ivan's mom, Stojanka is creative in her own way. She may actually just take care of my bouquet.

Isn't she the cutest thing? I don't plan to look hippie for my wedding. My peg is FRESH. :))) But I ADORE completely the bouquet! I WANT something like this SO BAD!!!! (Photo grabbed online)

Here's what I'm sharing so far! There's tons of ideas that we really have in mind! Ivan's aunt will make our cake, AND yes, we will wear sneakers at one point. AND yes, I'll have my nails done like this... :))))) I bought the nail polish last week, the same day that Ivan proposed. What a coincidence, yeah? (Photos grabbed online) HAAAAYYYY... I could be a wedding planner on my next life!

Another bride issue haha: I went thru so many hairstyles and trimmed it down to 4. I am more keen to have #4 only because my face shape is round, closer to Toni Gonzaga's.. But I am still undecided :/

Thought I'd share this since I can't really contain my excitement sometimes, uhmmm, sige na nga, most of the time. HAHA! This is the time I really wish I had my family or bestfriends with me to plan all this :/ But more than anything, I truly appreciate Ivan for being the best fiance', for all his support, love, and patience... he's so many things to me, but most of all he's just amazing!