Thank God

After many unsuccessful web application submissions, I finally got an email back from ETS's TOEIC rater department. I was expecting just a confirmation that they received my app, but it's a good thing I'm a careful reader! It started:

"Dear approved TOEIC rater..."

How awesome!! The TOEIC is kind of like the TOEFL, but not exactly. And TOEIC raters score spoken or written items at home on a PC (gotta get a new laptop now...).

I'm still in the process of getting my paperwork done, but I'm a bit confused. Do I write that I'm married or single on the W-4? Do I write my future married name or maiden name? :\ confused Ina.

But the best thing about this is that I learned another lesson. (Please bear with my wordiness in this post!) When I first applied to this job a couple weeks ago, I was really confident. "I am so over qualified for this job!" I said to myself. So I waited and heard nothing. Then I found out that my application hadn't gone through. So I applied again. And once again I found out that I had to submit the application for the third time! Unbelievable! So I did it, and then didn't hear from them for a while. My confidence started turning into anxiety, and Cyrus and I talked about applying to more jobs. I even started looking at nanny positions online...

And then I prayed. And lo and behold, I get the acceptance email the next morning.

Not to say that praying was the magic trick that got me the job, but I think God's reminding me that I didn't get this job just because of my qualifications and education, but it's because He allowed it!

I still may need to find another part-time job, but this is a great start. And it's all thanks to the big man upstairs. You're awesome!

Song requests

Okay, guys! Cyrus and I need your help! It's about that time when we need to submit the songs we want to hear at our reception to our DJ.

Let's hear some fun and morally neutral songs that are fun to dance to!

Seriously, please help! :)

Just leave a comment - you don't need to sign up for anything to leave a comment if you have a Google account, which I know almost all of you do. ;-)

Classical music

When my parents told me that they had tickets to BSO's presentation of Beethoven's 9th Symphony at Strathmore Hall, I wasn't sure if Cyrus would want to go.


But we went, and I got to discover how much Cyrus enjoys classical music!


My dad brought his bird-watching binoculars. At first I was kind of embarrassed, but it was pretty interesting to see people's facial expressions as they were playing!

This summer is turning out to be the best EVER!

Deep fryer

My beautiful and generous bridesmaids threw me a bridal shower this past weekend, and it was amazing! So many lovely details and it was a true reflection of how well my bridesmaids know me!

I received so many fantastic gifts, and here's one gift that I know Cyrus will really enjoy...


A deep fryer! :D Thanks, Jane! And thanks EVERYONE for a great time! :D

So help us out - What's your favorite thing to put in the deep fryer?

The list - updated

In a previous post, I made a list of the things that I want to do before leaving the DC area for a while. Turns out that this past week has been far more productive than I thought!

- watch "500 Days of Summer"
- eat at 2 Amys once more (Cyrus saw the list and we met in Cleveland Park to eat some delicious D.O.C. margherita pizza!)
- watch a movie at the Strathmore outdoor film festival
- ride the Metro (Cyrus invited me out to watch his firm's softball game on the Ellipse, and I took the hour and a half trek out there!)
- eat Maryland blue crabs
- eat hand-pounded jja jang myun at Da Rae Won
- eat peppered short ribs at Bob's Noodle House
- get a Georgetown Cupcake (Jin and I have talked about doing this for over a year, and we finally did it! It was worth the hour & fifteen minute drive back!)

What's next?? :D

Best wedding entrance EVARR

The future bro-in-law sent us this amazing video! I wonder if we can pull it off...

So close

30 days to go!

Our musician, Wonho

Meet our musician, Wonho! Wonho and I went to college together and sang in an a cappella group together, too. He likes to make pictures of food more exciting.


He's also a very very talented singer and songwriter. His band, Forget the Girl, is awesome and I love them!


Check out their MySpace page!

GCC

This past Sunday marked my last Sunday at Grace Community Church with responsibilities!


I'm pretty excited to be able to attend four more GCC worship services without having to do praise or play piano for the KM, but...I won't be excited to leave my home church of 27 years!


(I think these photos were taken by Hannah Sohn. Thanks, Hannah!)

Time to hand in my church keys.

E-invitation

I just got an e-invitation from my bridesmaids to my shower this Saturday! I was a little disoriented at the non-Eviteness of it, but the website they used is wayy better than Evite!

Check out pingg.com for your next event. The graphics are way prettier ("worthy of print," they say), the layout of your invitation is sleeker, and it's still free! You can also import guest lists from a previous event (that would've been sooooo helpful with all those GCC events we had!).

Ladies, I can't wait for this weekend! Thank you for all the planning and thought you've put in to this. I know you all are really busy people, so this means so much to me! :D Thank you thank you thank you!

The list

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Things I want to do before leaving the DC area

- watch "500 Days of Summer"
- eat at 2 Amys once more
- watch a movie at the Strathmore outdoor film festival
- ride the Metro
- eat Maryland blue crabs
- eat hand-pounded jja jang myun at Da Rae Won
- eat peppered short ribs at Bob's Noodle House
- get a Georgetown Cupcake

DC, I will miss you...

So little time

Like sand through the hourglass, so are the...

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My schedule for the rest of the summer:

Today-Aug 4: Planning & long-distance job searching at home in Maryland
Aug 4 -13: Set up new apartment in Boston
Aug 14-Aug 21: Finish planning
Aug 22: WEDDING!
Aug 23-30: Honeymoon in Barcelona
August 31: Begin life in Boston

This means...
- In two weeks, I need to have my bags packed for Boston and finish almost all of our wedding planning!
- My time left in Maryland is now a mere 25 days!
- I have 6 weeks to find a job in Boston!

Seriously. Sand through the hourglass.

Cyrus is awesome, Part II

Cyrus wrote an email to some of our RSVP "delinquents," and I am so impressed with his thoroughness. Check out this well-written email!

It is July 15th, our RSVP due date. If you are receiving this e-mail, it is because Ina and I haven't received your RSVP card yet and we're wondering what's going on with you. We definitely want you all there. That's why you're invited. Unfortunately, we'll need concrete answers soon because we need to provide a number to the caterer within the next few days. So, let me try to address concerns you may have.

1. I already sent my thing in. Why are you bothering me about this? We've found that with some of the postcards we've got, part of the address has mysteriously been torn out. It's possible that this happened to your postcard, so if this is the case, please e-mail us and tell us what your response was.

2. You should know that I'm coming. Duh. This may be true, but we need to know how many are in your party, especially if you're a family invite.

3. I don't know who else is going, so I can't decide. Well, first - is the wedding not enough for you? =) If this makes a difference though, e-mail me and I'll send you a list of people you know who have replied so far.

4. Where will I stay? What is there to do? How do I get there? Ina's spent a bunch of time writing all this down on our website at www.weddingwire.com/inaandcyrus. If the website doesn't answer your questions, ask me. I'll try.

5. I want to come, but I'm worried I'm going to be alone at the party. First, the people who are coming are very friendly people. But seriously, if this is a worry, talk to us. We'll work something out.

6. What RSVP card? I never got your invitation. You should have. If you didn't get it, there may have been a typo in the address or it might've got lost in the mail.

7. Can't I just do the equivalent of clicking the "Maybe" button on Evite? There is no maybe button. I cannot help you here.

Maybe something else is the issue? Who knows? Anyway, we'd love for you to be there, so let us know what we can do to be accommodating if there's some hangup. Otherwise, please help us out by responding soon.

Thanks,

Cyrus and Ina

You like that?? NO room for ambiguity! Well done, Cyrus! I'm glad I'm marrying someone with such great email communication! :D LOL~

Wedding etiquette resources

If you've never been to a wedding before, how are you supposed to know the appropriate etiquette? There are so many things you're supposed to know, things you do and things you don't do - but how is someone supposed to figure it out?

Even after having gone to tons of weddings, been a part of half as many weddings and read Martha Stewart Magazines cover-to-cover for the last three years, there are still things that I don't know.

So here are some resources for all of us. (I was reading through some of this stuff, though, and I don't agree with 100% of it...)

- Survive Wedding Season, with 23 entries about etiquette

- Wedding Guests: How to Be a Great One

- Biggest Mistakes Guests Make

- 5 Guest Myths Busted

- Top 8 Etiquette Q&A

Party planning

I started planning my own birthdays after my 24th. My good friends were planning my 24th birthday and asked where I wanted to go. I'd heard a lot about Makoto, but I had no idea that it was THE Japanese restaurant in DC or, more importantly, that it was $80/person! So in we went, the 10 of us in this tiny narrow strip of a restaurant. Of course they didn't let me pay, and of course I felt awwwful.

Some pictures from that very expensive (but fun!) evening...

High rollers at Makoto

Later that evening at Eyebar. Look! My maid of honor and future boyfriend/fiance! Who knew??

So for my following birthday, I decided - no inconvenience, no hassle.

I paid for the food for my 25th birthday and had friends over at our house for an evening under the stars. For my 26th, we went to a National's baseball game, courtesy of Aaron's season tickets. For my 27th, we kept it dirty and went to Paul Kee's Chinese restaurant! Mmm!

Long intro, I know, but my point is that I liked being in control of my parties so that I wouldn't risk putting anyone in an uncomfortable situation, like paying...a LOT.

So when it comes to my bachelorette party, it makes me nervous and excited at the same time that my bridesmaids are in charge. I told the girls my concerns and priorities, and I know and trust that they know what they're doing. It's just an unfamiliar feeling - not knowing.

Ladies, I am truly honored that you've put so much time and thought into this! I'm so excited to see what happens!

Attire

I read about a snazzy new place in DC at the W Hotel called POV. I took a look at their rooftop terrace that overlooks the White House, and it is gorgeous!

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Then I look at the information below, and I furrowed my eyebrows when I saw how they described the attire: "casual sophistication."

What's that?

According to Wikipedia, the popular dress code terms go like this: white tie, black tie, smart casual, business casual, contemporary business casual.

I love this graphic from that page:

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Some people have asked what to wear to our wedding, and I have NOT answered using terms like "casual sophistication," thankavermuch! Cyrus and I just want our guests to be comfortable.

Remember that the ceremony will be outside before the sun sets, and inside AND outside for the reception after the sun sets. So it may be very warm, and it may become very cool. So be comfortable and look good! That's all we ask.

Lost RSVP cards

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We found out that some of our friends' RSVP postcards are getting lost in the mail! But we're not too worried about it - tomorrow's the day we'll begin calling/emailing the "delinquents" (as our planner calls them) to find out if they're coming to the wedding.

And I must mention that there are only 39 days left! Can you believe it? Cyrus and I had a "OMG" moment yesterday. Every once in a while, I get these waves of excitement/anxiety/omgness when I think about how soon it is! Can't wait! :D

Engagement pictures!

Cyrus and I will be taking our engagement pictures next weekend, and I've been going crazy trying to figure out what to wear!

Our photographer from Laura Kay Photography is totally amazing. Here are some of her pictures from e-sessions that might help.

Do we want to be more casual like this couple?

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Or do we want something a bit on the formal side, like the couple below?

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What do you think is more "cyrus&ina"?

Please RSVP by...

...July 15. One week from today.

I didn't realize how soon this was until a couple days ago! And it seems like right NOW is the best time to book tickets. It's a little frustrating that I can't get out information to the masses (like reminders, tips, etc.) like I can on an Evite.

I know I should trust people to make their travel plans and figure out accommodations, car rentals, etc., but it's the control freak in me that wants to make sure everyone is on top of things. I'm always over-planning and overbearing, especially when it comes to travel.

I could use this blog or our wedding website to send out info, but not a lot of our guests seem to know about it...

So I'll just take a deep breath and trust that everything will be okay, as Cyrus always reminds me! :)

Check marks?

One of the most difficult things to deal with in our wedding planning process has to do with cultural differences we've encountered. It's pretty crazy.

I have tons of examples, but the only one I'm comfortable sharing over the internet is the very simple check mark vs. O difference.

I had no idea that Koreans didn't use check marks! Imagine my confusion when someone wrote, "Can't wait to see you in August!" and then wrote this on the front of the RSVP card:


0 people accept with delight?


It looks like five people are coming, but...??

I showed my mom, and she says that these people, though they live in the United States, haven't learned the way of the check mark!

Beware!

Found!

I said earlier that I'd lost my shoes...

My mom and I looked everywhere. I called my seamstress twice to make sure I didn't leave them at her house.

I checked and double-checked, and finally, when I triple-checked under the bed, I found them.

Crisis averted! Shoes found!

RSVP messages

So far, we've received RSVPs from almost half of the households we sent them out to! Pretty exciting stuff! But if you haven't sent yours back yet, you have...GASP! A little more than a week? Did that RSVP window fly by that fast?

Anyway, Cyrus and I have been enjoying the message people write on the RSVP postcards!

Here are some of my favorites!


Let's take a closer look. We have a cow man...


A message written like a 14-year-old Korean girl writing in someone's yearbook... :) (love you, Stella!)


And more drawings!


Keep 'em coming!