The Open Love Letter :: May 2008

Dear Adam,

I can’t believe April is already over. It flew by so quickly just like a blur. I think I was definitely right when I predicted a month ago that it was the calm before the storm. It’s definitely quite “stormy” at the moment. This is going to be a long letter…

Just right now, you went home after spending the whole weekend with me. An eventful one at that, but you helped me all weekend with packing and cleaning up this apartment of mine. Thank you. I know I already told you several times, but I wanted to say it again because even though I know you despise all “my stuff,” you still chose to help me and make this whole moving process smoother and easier for me. Thank you.

The first weekend of the month we had our invitations work party. I am so thankful that we have such great friends that are willing to come and be tortured by pink paper, stamps, double-sided tape, ribbon, envelopes and boxes. You were the cutest stamper. And you took my gentle, loving criticism very well about how you were doing with stamping. It was great to finally see what I’ve been envisioning in my mind for months finally come to fruition. They turned out great and finally sending them out was such a relief! Now we just have to wait for reply cards and I love that you’ve been keeping me informed almost everyday about who is coming and who is not. This wedding is actually happening!


(Invitations Work Party Friends :: April 2008)











Early this month, my wedding gown finally arrived. I was super nervous to go see it because I’d be trying on MY dress. The one I’M going to wear. When I tried it on, Dexie was so super surprised that it was kind of big on me. So when she measured me and found out that I had lost two inches in almost all my measurements she was so impressed! So was I! I didn’t know what I was more excited about… the fact my dress finally arrived OR the fact that I lost weight! I think it honestly might be the latter. I have to say that I cannot wait for you to see me in that dress. I have such a hard time keeping surprises from you that it’s taking just about all my strength to keep from not showing you what it looks like. I hope you’ll like it. It really is so pretty.

Your car got towed this month. That was an experience all in itself. After over a year of parking the fire lane whenever you dropped by real quick, your Subaru was towed away. I felt absolutely horrible because you had come to visit me. It was also infuriating that they towed it… were they just waiting for you to leave your car? You really only had visited me for less then 15 minutes. Boo. Finally after midnight and several hundred dollars later, you got your car back from the tow yard. Needless to say, we learned our lesson.

This month, I took a 4-week intensive at The Rock Harbor Church in Costa Mesa put on by Dane Sanders, Jessica Claire and Mike Colon. It was such an incredible blessing in my life to be able to go to this and I had an amazing time each week. A part of our assignment was to try to take 100 pictures everyday. This was somehow magically interpreted as “try to take as many photos of Adam everyday without him getting mad at me and see if I can get close to 100 of them.” You were quite gracious about it for probably the first 20. I did get some nice shots of you this month and I am still on cloud nine because Mike Colon said that my photo of you was interesting.


(Missional Photography Workshop :: April 2008)


(Mike Colon :: April 2008)


(My "Interesting" Photo :: April 2008)

We started to receive gifts from our registry this month in large numbers. It’s weird that the items we spent days scanning in January are sitting in your house (and your parents’ house) right now. I guess it never really sunk in that people would actually BUY these things for us. I feel incredibly blessed and grateful that people have been so very generous. Opening presents has been super fun with you. Your expressions are priceless.


(Opening gifts :: April 2008)


(More priceless expressions :: April 2008)


(My own expression :: April 2008)


(Fragile: Handle with Care :: April 2008)

We celebrated our 6-year anniversary this month. I cannot believe it’s been 6 whole years with you. When I look back and think about just how much we’ve been through, I find it challenging to wrap my head around it all and fully comprehend just how much God has blessed us. You left the sweetest card on my car on our anniversary that brought me to tears. I bought you some pajamas pants because the ones I borrowed from you that “mysteriously” walked away from your home and has found its way into my apt might not return… Here’s hoping that God gives us many, many more anniversaries to celebrate in the years to come.


(Anniversary :: April 2008)

We had a bridal shower frenzy-filled weekend April 11th-13th. Your sister Lauren and your mom’s friend Mrs. Bolos both threw bridal showers up in the Bay Area. All in one weekend! We flew Virgin America and it was so much fun! From the cool mood lights, to the interactive LCD screens, to the super cool remote control… it was so much fun. I don’t think I ever want to fly Southwest again. *wink*


(Feet at the airport :: April 2008)










(Virgin America :: April 2008)

The bridal showers were amazing. Lauren’s was in Sacramento at a restaurant in the Sheraton hotel. The food was great and the company was wonderful. Oh… and the cake… AMAZING. Yum. It was nice that you got to spend time one-on-one with your grandpa while the ladies were out “showering” me. It is always a pleasure to see your family and I love that they are becoming more and more, MY family too.






(Lauren's Shower :: April 2008)


(Hanging out with family in Sacramento :: April 2008)

Mrs. Bolos’ shower was also very fun. She has a beautiful patio/deck that overlooks the city where the tables were set up. The food again was delicious and it was nice to meet your mom’s friends. We played a game where we had to figure out the identity of all these different white powders. By the end of it, I was guessing that everything was sugar. Hehe. We also played the toilet paper bridal gown game. Your sister helped make a really beautiful one on Allison. At both showers, I was glad that you had the chance to say hello and watching you re-open the gifts back at your parents’ house was fun.






(Mrs. Bolos' Shower :: April 2008)




(Opening gifts :: April 2008)

That weekend was definitely a crazy one, but it definitely gave us a taste of what to expect. People said the sweetest things about us and had the nicest best wishes for us. It really excites me to see everyone in July at the wedding.








(SFO International Airport :: April 2008)

The weekend after that, Jackie and Jeffrey came to visit us for a weekend since they were both on Spring Break. You were gracious enough to share me that weekend. We also had our engagement session that Saturday with Jenetta. It was so much fun! Who knew? It was kind of a gloomy day, but Jenetta took some amazing shots of us and it was really nice to get some professional photos done of us. She found such sweet spots around UCSD and I love the photos so much. It was nice to have someone capture moments between you and me that normally aren’t captured on film to remember for always. That same weekend, Jackie and Jeffrey helped us to finish our invitations and we finally sent them off! YAY!


(My fave of the engagement photos :: April 2008)

And the last weekend of the month, I shot my first wedding as a “fourth shooter” with Jen Harris, Melissa McClure and Jared Slack. It was an amazing experience and I learned SO much from them. And I realized that I think I would actually really enjoy shooting weddings. It was so much fun to shoot with them and they were so nice about answering questions and sharing equipment. God couldn’t have blessed me with better friends. I still have lots to learn, but I’m so excited right now! It was quite an exhausting day and when I went home that night, it was such a sweet surprise to have you be there with soup for me to eat. And on top of that, you massaged my feet, which I totally needed that night. I could get used to this, you know.


(My fave shot from the wedding :: April 2008)

*exhale* Phew… that was an amazing month. I didn’t even include EVERYTHING we did, but man… this storm is sure brewing up and it doesn’t look like it’ll be going away until maybe after the wedding. We’ll be moving into our new apt this Friday and I don’t think it’ll make sense until weeks from now that we’ve got a home of our own now.

Amidst all the madness though, I’m glad that I’ve got you by my side. You are my rock. You really are. You keep me centered when I go about on my own antics and stress myself out about all the things I find myself doing. You are so mild and even keel… and I’m not. I’m up and down and all around. But still, you love me. When I feel like there’s absolutely no reason for you to love me, you tell me you do and all is right in the universe. When it’s just you and me in the world, I feel everything just melts away and I can take on anything because I’ve got you by my side. Thank you for lifting me up so I could shine this month. I needed that and you were there to help me.

It’ll be exactly two months tomorrow until our wedding. I cannot wait to be your wife, Adam. Thank you for choosing me. I love you!

With all my heart,
Jasmine