Hey there, I'm Amanda.
Some of this may be repeating myself, but I figured I would blab a little bit about myself and what's going on in life and with the wedding. I'm a second time bride. I used theknot and wedding by color to plan my last wedding. I really enjoyed it. My first wedding was an emotional rollercoaster. Although the bridal party looked great, the wedding just sucked. I don't really want to get into all of it, but my old wedding gown is in my daughter's closet in the bedroom she has at her Grandmother's house. My ex MIL is actually my closest friend. She helps me raise my daughter and we are doing a great job. Her father is also a great father and he has a great girlfriend. No complaints there!
As for the upcoming wedding. I am marrying a very handsome Japanese man that I met by freak chance. Our relationship was a whirlwind at first. He is younger than I am. I am his first relationship, so he took some crappy relationship advice from his college roommates/friends and I almost just walked away. Instead, I laid it out for him that I would not be dealing with the bullsh*t, and he saw the light. Since then he has actually grown into a man and has also become a responsible father. We have a beautiful little boy together.
The hardest part about it all is that he has never held his son. We are working on immigration, since his visa ran out while I was pregnant. We are currently working on his green card and I am working on paying off a huge debt that is preventing me from getting a passport.
We have been long distance for 2 years and 6 months. It was very traumatic at first, very heart wrenching, but we have come to adapt to the situation. We use skype to have family time every day and saturday nights (for me) are date night. It's Sunday during the day in his timezone. I get to spend time with his family and he even brings me to the store with him on skype on his phone. We truly have made this work. I'm surprised we have adapted so well.
Our plans are to get me over to Japan so we can live with his family and our son will have that time to be with all of them. It's mom, dad, grandmother, uncle and dad living in the family house. I've spent the last 2 years studying the culture and I especially love learning about the food. They love to cook! They have a huge garden and run a successful family business in construction. Both of those things support the family.
We have decided not to have the traditional Shinto Buddhist ceremony. Instead my guy has looked into some hotels that offer everything from small to large ceremonies and receptions.
He wants to have a real wedding, but it will be very small. I would be ok with a ceremony under a tree, but I will do what I can to make this fun for him.
There won't be any wedding related parties, just a ceremony and small reception...and then a night on the town if we aren't too tired. He is a musician, so his request is to be able to bring his guitar and play with friends at a club/bar. I'm fine with that.
We are shooting for fall 2017 in Nagoya, Japan. If the date changes to something earlier, I'm also fine with that. I will just switch my gown to something hot weather appropriate. I love dress shopping, so whatever.
That's all for now, and thanks to anyone who cares to read about our stuff going on.
Now I will jump back into the boards and post some pretty stuff.
to you all!