Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Welcome Lauren Elizabeth!

Hello everyone! I just wanted to share some exciting news in the life of my family.

My sister and brother-in-law just welcomed their second child: Lauren Elizabeth into our family on Friday, February 20th! She was born 8 pounds exactly and that was at 3 weeks early!

Please don't be confused... this is not my 16-year old sister Sara who I have spoken about often, but rather my other sister Jenny who is 1 year and 9 months younger than me.

Here are some sweet photos of my daughter meeting Lauren for the first time (that is my mom in the picture with them):


And since we are talking about my sister and babies, this might be a fun time to share another cool story with you:

I am a born planner and this is true in my personal life as well as business. So, when I decided I wanted to start a family, I got out my calendar and started marking down dates. I did my research and figured out the best times to... well, you know. I all but kept an Excel spreadsheet to plot it all out.

So the waiting game began. I was so anxious to see if my body cooperated with all that planning and research. So, when I counted the days and was sure that I was 'late' I took a test: Negative.

The next day, I was over at Jenny's house and I told her that I was late, but that the test came up negative. She was intrigued and said that she happen to have a test in the house and said I should give it another try.

After taking the test we both stood over it eagerly as the two little lines became very clear: PREGNANT! Hooray! We were both so excited, but Jenny insisted that she go out and buy another test just to be sure.

So, she came back from the drug store with a 2-pack, just in case. Second try - Same results: PREGNANT!

We spent the next hour daydreaming about whether it would be a boy or a girl and what names we liked. Then I decided I should probably go home and let my husband in on the big news.

As I was driving home, I received a call from Jenny who was frantically asking me to come back! Why? What happened?! She told me that she decided to take the other pregnancy test just to "get it out of the house" and sure enough, her results were identical to mine: PREGNANT!

No way. That can't be.

So, she ran to the same drug store to buy another 2-pack. (I would love to know what was going through the mind of THAT clerk! Can you imagine?) Sure enough, she took the second test and the answer came back the same.

We were both pregnant for the first time and found out on the same day. Isn't that crazy cool? And to top it all off, we were due within days of each other.

As it turns out, Jenny was not really trying to have a baby, but she wasn't really trying to prevent it. So, this was not intentional. It was pure exciting coincidence.

Here is a shot of us on Christmas 2006 (that's me on the left in green):

We were so excited to have MelissaJill Photography do our maternity photos. There were a TON of really amazing shot and I will share more of those with you in another post, but here is my favorite one:

My daughter Ella Kathryn was born March 9, 2007 and Jenny's son Daniel Jacob was born 3 days later. Delivered by the same doctor in the same delivery room no less.

Here are a few photos of our little munchkins together:




They are already the best of friends and we are so excited about incorporating our new precious addition of Lauren to our clan. What a blessing!

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Brides Give Back


February 19, 2009

Grab your heels and your hubby-to-be and head to Villa Siena's Post Valentine's Day Wedding Soiree.

Enjoy tasty treats, refreshing facials, mini makeovers, and the opportunity to set the price on Arizona's top wedding vendors in our silent and live auctions.

All proceeds benefit the local domestic violence shelter, Faith House. Find out more and get tickets at http://www.bridesgiveback.com/.

(Wording taken directly from the event's save-the-date)

Monday, February 9, 2009

Photoshoot with David de Dios

I am sure by now (if you have been following my blog) you have both seen and read about my little sister Sara, who helps me out at my booth at bridal shows. She absolutely loves modeling and has a true talent for it too. (You can read more about her in the post I just recently did about her Next Top Model Sweet Sixteen Party.)

Well, at the last couple of shows, my buddy David of De Dios Photography has stopped by my booth to say hello and when he saw Sara, he told us that he loved her look and wanted to do a photoshoot with her to market another avenue of photography: Senior portraits. He wants to offer seniors something a little more fun and hip in place of that standard studio portrait session.

David is an amazing photographer and specializes in weddings. I love the way he captures an essence of drama and romance in his shots. This photoshoot may have been a departure from weddings, but I am sure his photos of Sara will be incredible and I can't wait to see how they turned out.

In the meantime, I thought I would share some of the shots I got from my little Point-and-Shoot Canon PowerShot...








I will keep you posted when the final photos are done. I am sure they will be nothing short of amazing. In the meantime, please check out David's website at http://www.daviddedios.com/.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Winner of 2009 Bride's Choice Award


WeddingWire, the nation’s leading wedding technology company, just announced that Your Heart's Desire has won the 2009 Bride’s Choice Awards™!

In its inaugural year, the Bride’s Choice Awards recognizes and honors vendors from the WeddingWire Network that demonstrate excellent quality of service, responsiveness, professionalism, value of cost and flexibility. This year’s recipients represent the top three percent of WeddingWire’s vendor community, which includes over 100,000 wedding vendors from across the US. That means Your Heart's Desire is one of the very best Wedding Planners!

Unlike other awards in which winners are selected by the company, the Bride’s Choice Awards are determined exclusively by recent newlyweds through surveys and reviews.

“We are excited to launch this annual award program to honor high-performing vendors based solely on the experiences of our WeddingWire community,” according to Timothy Chi, WeddingWire’s Chief Executive Officer. “This year’s recipients have set the bar high, exhibiting excellent service and expertise in the wedding industry.”

Your Heart's Desire would like to thank our past clients for speaking on our behalf and helping us win the 2009 Bride’s Choice Award!