When you put it like that... 24 days... holy moley!  Luckily, I feel OK... not too overburdened at the moment... a LOT of stuff still to do, but not going super crazy.  My issue with the band is a little better, I finally finally finally finished our seating charts... PHEWWW! 
Yesterday, Aya and I finalized the program fans so they should be ready to send to the printers.  I also gave her the table charts for who's sitting where so we are ready for the escort cards (baseball tickets!) to be printed out too. 
Mom should be putting in the order for 200 big and 215 small apples also.... so that's taken care of.  I also finally finished with the girls jellies!  Holy crap that was a tedious job that was very unexpected... but they are done!  yay!  I need to remember to pack extra glue and rhinestones in case anyone's comes off...in fact I should add that to my list right now.
The girls decided to wear either pearl or diamond studs, which I think will look perfect, and low side buns to the side and a flower in it...or no flower, haven't confirmed that part yet!  I went kinda overboard on the bridesmaids gifts, but they girls have been very helpful to me and I am so grateful, and all the matching things are just tooo fun.  I even got matching boardshorts for all the guys- they are really fun! 
What's not fun is the cost of everything... helloooo all the savings we've struggled with all year, goodbyyyeee money we used to have!!  Hopefully it will all be worth it though! :)

Now back to work!

I swear the things I never thought would be a problem or such an issue are amazing!  So I decided that I wanted sparklers for our "exit" at the end of the night-- the pictures are just awesome... and I talked with my coordinator about them and everything... only to find out that NO one will ship them to Hawaii! :(  I did all my research, finding the best prices online, even found one that I checked out with my credit card, shipping to Hawaii was a decent price, got my confirmation, only to get a call with a mean man saying "we can't ship those on a plane, no one can!"  Well sooooorrry!  How was I supposed to know.  Called USPS too, can't even ship it on a boat!  Sigh....

P.S. TOday marks the one month countdown!!!  Soooo crazy!!!!

So yesterday I started writing and was realllllly stressed out so the entry I had written was moreso to vent than to post... I don't think it would have been appropriate!!  Hahaha... no, really.  So anyway, a few things got switched around or added, so that threw off a few things.  I was working on the seating chart for no joke, about 5 hours yesterday.  I've heard stories about how hard it can be, but didn't really think it would be so bad... boy, was I wrong!  Once you move one person, it throws everything off on that table and then the table you move it to, plus balancing people that know each other vs. people that could get along, plus certain people can't sit with certian people, it's a toughie!  I mix and matched and finally thought I had it, but then realized my cousin Jason was the only person under the age of like 50 on his table...that's not too fun... so then I had to move everything else around which affected like 10 tables, gah!  Finally, I got something, but I must work on it and change it once again-- but at least it's for a good reason--

I was unable to hire Manoa DNA for the cocktail hour because we just didn't have the money as we are already over our budget-- yesterday they emailed me and were inquiring if I still wanted them to play.  I felt so bad, but I had to tell them no... they wrote back and said entire DNA clan was willing to try and help me out because they wanted to make it happen.  Nick and I are pre-school buddies so our parents and families have been friends a long time.  With their generosity along with my awesome dad who offered to chip in and help me have my dream wedding, we now get to have them play!  So although it's going to be a pain to reconfigure the seating chart, I think it's worth it.

I wont' go into detail about the other reason I had to move things around, but let me just say this-- to anyone who gets invited to a wedding-- be courteous of the extreme planning that goes into a wedding and the bride and groom-- send in your reply card on time, be respectful of how many guests (if any) they are allowing you to bring and try to be understanding!!!  I wont' go into detail...but can't stress the importance of this!  It's amazing sometimes- the things that can happen!

And boys are the worst, let me just say--- maybe they don't get it until they get married, maybe it's something in their genetic make-up, IDK!  All I'm gonna say right now is thank goodness some of them have girlfriends... I got more accomplished with the girlfirneds in 2 hours last night than I have with them in the last 7 months- NOT exaggerating!

A big congrats shout out goes to my good friend Jennifer Inouye and her fiance Mike Bruggeman! Sooooo happy for those two!  It's about time! ;-)

And now for my shower pics!

Extremely excited about my "Mrs. Smith" attire that Samantha made me!!!!  Thank you so much to everyone for the great gifts from our registry and the generous monetary gifts for my "shoe fund" hehe... too fun!!!  I was also pretty excited that I could save the super cute poster Aunty Ruby made and use it for my shoe closet =p

I felt it only appropriate that I post my Hawaii shower pictures before I start writing about my California one... It was yesterday and it was SO much fun... the theme was "shoes" hehe...

The decorations were adorable... christian loubiton, prada, manolo blahnik & jimmy choo shoe boxes everywhere with pink, black and white ribbons everywhere... there were also black and pink heels all over for decorations as well as pink roses wrapped with black and white polka dotted ribbons on all the tables... Aunty Bet had a pink "shoe" cake made and shoe cookies were given out as favors.  You can imagine my delight!!! 
All the girls were asked to wear their favorite, fun shoe and one of the games was to stick out your foot and the judges (Aunty Ruby, Denise, Bet) walked around rating everyone's shoes... they had prizes for smallest shoe, most diva shoe, highest heel and most colorful! 
Another game was trivia-- questions such as what do the 4 C's stand for, what is the most popular month for weddings, proposals, what is the average price of an engagement ring, etc. 
Then another game was played, and it was "How Well Do You Know The Bride?" I was very happy that 2 of my bridesmaids won that one-- Casie and Samantha.  I think the funniest part is that when everyone was filling out their answers, Aunty Denise was asking me questions out loud.  They were questions about the Groom and how well I knew him.  Some of them were a little puzzling, but I have to say, I was pretty happy because I think I got all but one right!!!  Some were really easy- favorite color: blue, favorite thing to do: halo, favorite food: sushi....etc.  Some of the trickier ones were- who would Sean be if he could be anyone? I answered Kobe, and was right!  Another one was if he could go anywhere where would he go? I said somewhere tropical, his answer was Bahamas. Also what is his most embarassing moment?  I said- Sean actually doesn't really ever get embarassed.  And she said yes!  He said he didn't have one.  Aunty Denise also asked him what his favorite thing about this wedding process was and he said: spending time together.  Everyone was like "awwww", but Jenny and I were like "what a suck up!!!"  I think I turned bright red and almost cried when she said "your favorite thing about Lauren" and he said: putting herself 2nd.  I know a lot of Sean is sarcastic and jokes, but to hear a sincere answer that couldn't really be a joke, was like wow!  It really caught me off guard!  Another funny thing is that she said if he could have any car he wanted, and it's so weird because I literally just asked him this question out of the blue when we were driving around the other day... of course, you know me and cars, I was like shoot, I think it was a lambourghini and she was like no, porsche-- they all sound the same to me!  Whoops! 

I feel very, very blessed and loved.  Both my showers were amazing and it was really obvious how much work and preparation went into planning them.  I know I am biased, but they were the best showers I've ever been to!  I feel so lucky to have such great friends and family... and to be marrying into such an amazing family as well. 

Thank you Aunty Denise, Ruby and Bet & Samantha for hosting my shower-- and thank you so much to all my friends and family who were able to come out and celebrate :)  Love you all!  Pictures to come!

Such a fun and special day... spent with my friends, family and loved ones.  We played games, had good food, the cake was delicious, Aunty Darene brought mochi from Fukuya... opening presents (slightly embarassing haha) and getting all dressed up-- I'll never forget this day!

Here are a few pictures from later that night... Krazy Karaoke then Paparazzi and Ka for Bachelorette's night out!  Thanks again Shell for arranging all of that!