As much as a girl may know the big question is coming at some point in the near future, it may be months down the road, she doesn’t want to know when it is going to happen!  I for one wanted to be as surprised as possible, and Javier definitely got me!  I have to say, there were a few things leading up to his proposal that made me stop and think, including the slightest slip from Javy himself, but I completely talked myself out of it.  He’s a planner, three weeks, let alone one week prior to going to Victoria, no way was it happening yet.  He hadn’t asked for my parents blessing, bought a ring, it wasn’t happening for months.  I was completely surprised and completely unprepared when he proposed.  Obviously, little had I known, he had met with my parents weeks before, and was carrying the ring in his back pack on the plane and then in his jacket pocket the whole day!!

We had decided to go on vacation to Seattle to visit his sister and one of his best friends.  We bought our plane tickets three weeks before and planned to go for about 5 days.  About a week before we were leaving he mentioned taking a ferry from Seattle to Victoria, BC.  I was all for it and it was set.

We landed in Seattle late, his friend Adam picked us up, then his sister Belinda picked us up in the morning to drop us at the ferry.  He told me they didn’t mind, we’d have three days to spend with them and tour Seattle.  Also, we had never taken any vacation with just the two of us, so it would be nice to go some place for just a couple days alone.  We arrived in Victoria, BC about noon on Wednesday, March 23, 2011.  From there we rented a car and checked into a hotel, then drove up to this beautiful, well known 55-acre garden, Butchart Gardens.  We had a brilliant, sunny day and walked all around the gardens enjoying the day, the sights, and each other.  As we came to the end of the tour of the gardens, Javy asked “is that the end already?!?!”  I answered, “I guess so, that was faster than I thought.”  His response was to rip open the map they gave us as we entered and sit down to look it over and make sure we had seen it all.  I went along with it.  Javier said his favorite spot was the first place we saw, The Sunken Gardens.  We should go back there for a bit.  I agreed as it was my favorite spot too!

It was getting close to the park’s closing time, so many of the visitors had left.  We had the Sunken Gardens to ourselves and took a seat on top of the hill on one of the two benches.  (P.S. I was pretty sick, sniffling, coughing, not much of a voice, very attractive at this point)   As we sat there, randomly chatting, I just kept thinking how beautiful and peaceful it was, with the trees, waterfall, flowers.  An elderly couple walked up and sat on the bench next to us.  Javy asked me if I wanted to take some pictures.  My response, ‘oh, I already got some the first time.’  He asked to get one of the two of us up here, so I said okay.  He asked the couple to take our picture and the man told us to just show him what button to push and he’d be happy to.  As I was turning to the man to get ready to pose and smile, Javy said, “I have to ask you a question.”  Immediately I knew and as I turned to face him he was dropping to one knee!!!!

Of course I said yes!!  I think, I’m not actually sure what came out of my mouth at first.  I think I hugged him & kissed him before I was sure I got yes out.  And before even really seeing the beautiful ring!  The older lady just kept saying, Oh My God!  She was laughing and smiling.  Javier and I both got teary.  Well, I should say, I was bawling!  And laughing!  And shaking!  All at once.

So, the pictures you see here are not staged!  This was the actual moment Javy made me the happiest woman!!  Thank you to that couple, and the man especially, for snapping away!  We will remember them always, as I’m sure they will probably always remember us.

We plan to go the The Wynkoop Brewery in downtown Denver Saturday night (11/5) around 6pm.  It’s a big space upstairs with pool tables, shuffleboard, etc.  We thought it could be fun to kind of take over a portion of the restaurant upstairs and play games, eat, and have some drinks.  It is a local brewery and has good food.  We don’t have anything planned, so you can come and go as you like.  We plan to hang out for a couple hours.  Just another chance to catch up with all our distant family and friends. 

Wynkoop is located on 18th & Wynkoop.  You can walk if it’s nice, take a really inexpensive cab ride, or even better…Walk one block to 16th Street and jump on the Free 16th Street Shuttle.  Ride it all the way to Wynkoop, hop off and walk up to 18th.

Well, many of you know that next weekend, Saturday, August 27th is our wedding shower.

Susan and I really don’t know what the plan is other then we are hosting a Mexican Fiesta theme.

Invitations went out a few weeks ago, and many people have already RSVP’d or will shortly.

Susan’s Maid of Honor is Melissa and she’s organizing the event, along with her friends — Jessi, Janice, Monica & Kenni.  If I left someone out, please don’t blame the Husband-T0-Be, as he’s just trying to send an update while Susan sleeps.

We are expecting about 35 to 40 people in attendance.

All of the girls will be inside playing games and doing girl stuff… which I have no clue what that involves…  While the boys will be outside playing Washers, Horse Balls (Ladder Ball), Corn Hole, and whatever else we can imagine.  We’ll also be grilling burgers and bratwursts, drinking a few cold one’s and just hanging.

If you are planning on attending the Wedding Shower, please contact Melissa ASAP, so she can give us a headcount on who is attending.

We look forward to seeing everyone at our home!

Javier & Susan

So, with that said, here’s the latest updates!

Wedding Hotels

We’ve decided to go with two different hotels.

Magnolia Hotel Denver

They are offering the following discounted rates when you mention the Lozano/Schaiberger wedding

Single King Bed – $129/night
Two Queen Beds – $139/night
Standard Suites (floors 1-3) – $139/night
Signature Suites (floors 4-7) – $149/night
Fireplace Suites (floors 8-12) – $159/night

Denver Marriott City Center

All rooms will be $129/night

If you plan on attending the wedding, please reserve your room as soon as possible, so you can guarantee a room during our wedding night.

Reception Food

Though we don’t want to ruin what we will be served during our wedding, we did two tastings with a couple of catering companies.

We plan on making a final decision in the next few days, and then moving forward from there.

Can’t wait to grub on the food though!

Wedding Invations

The wedding invitations have been ordered and came in a few weeks ago.  Susan and I were very impressed on the design and how they came out, and we can’t wait to mail them.  We just need to get the rest of our friends and families mailing addresses before we send out the invitations.

Keep an eye out for our invitations around July/August 2011.

Save The Dates

Our Save The Dates will be going out via email, instead of mail.  So, if you feel like someone has been stalking you via FaceBook, it was Susan…

Center Pieces

Last weekend, we went to Wal-Mart to shop for a few things… during our journey through Wally World, we decided to go through fake flowers and vases section.

To our amazement, we actually found some really nice vases to use as center pieces.  I won’t go into details on the design, but it should look really fun and different.

Anyways, over the next few weeks, we will be in the garage working on various looks and designs for the center pieces.  It should be fun!

If you are a blogger, or want more updates on how the wedding planning is going, please feel free to subscribe to our blog, through the Entries RSS feed.

Or, just visit this site frequently!

So what have we done so far?

Well, we’ve got a location, the Grant-Humphreys Mansion, and we are working on a Hotel — preferably the Burnsley Hotel, which is just minutes from the wedding sight.

We have a few catering companies that offer a great variety of food for the wedding.  Once we’ve gotten it down to 3 catering venders, we will do some taste testing and decide from there.

Save-The-Dates will be coming out shortly, but we will be emailing them instead.  Please keep an eye out for them.  Wedding Invitations will follow shortly.  So, once you’ve received the wedding invitations, please mail in the RSVP and go to our RSVP Page to reserve your spot there.  This will help us get everything organized correctly.

Anyways, that’s all from me.  I’m sure Susan will be posting things on here frequently.

Javier