Us as Us

I realized that while you may think the potential of this blog is cool (ok, well at least I do...), you still know very little about me. So here's a post to give you a bit more info on who I am, who I'm getting ready to say 'I do' with a little bit about what makes us...us!

ME

Name: Ani

Age: 24

About me: I'm a new graduate pediatric nurse! I work on a general pediatric unit with newborns through 21 year old kids and I love my job! I also write for a nursing blog - ScrubsMag.com - and share my insights into what it's like as a new nurse. I'm an Armenian American - born and raised in Southern California... and yes, I am third generation on my mom's side. Which means my mom was born in this country, and my grandmother was born in this country. I grew up with Armenians very similar to myself, until I went to high school with many who had recently emmigrated; who believed, and made it very clear to me, that I wasn't really Armenian because 1) my dad wasn't Armenian, 2) my family didn't recently move here, 3) I don't speak the language.

I may not speak fluently, but I understand quite a bit. And I know a lot (I mean A LOT) about our culture, traditions, and heritage. But because of feelings like this, I've always felt like I fall sort of in between. I'm not one or the other. 

I'm not just Armenian, and I'm definitely not just American - I'm both and that shapes a lot of how I live my life and, of course, how I plan my wedding.

US

Fiance: Eric

Age: 27

About us: We actually met over 10 years ago at church (our families go back even further - my grandfather used to work for his grandfather over 40 years ago! Flash forward and...).  We attended our youth group together, and while we were friends, I was always a bit closer with his older sister. As years passed, I eventually needed a date to prom, and one night as I was talking it over with my now, future sister in law, she said, "why don't you just take my brother? You know you'll have a good time!"  And... well... the rest is history!  (More on our amazing engagement later...)

Eric comes from an Armenian-American family as well, and for us, family comes first. We value the time spent with our parents and grandparents, especially when that time is spent in the kitchen cooking delicious dishes. We're homebodies in the sense that a movie night at home often sounds a lot more

fun than going out clubbing, but we still know ho

w to have fun. Our Christian faith, culture, traditions, and values are the ribbons that help tie us together in this beautiful relationship.

We want traditional... but not this traditional. This is a typical wedding picture from back in the day, Armenian

Our wedding style: Traditional meets modern. What does that really mean? That's what I am trying to figure out.  We grew up in the church, and it's part of our culture to have our wedding in the Armenian Orthodox Church. It's a ceremony that takes you back centuries and really gets down to the purity of a marriage. There are other little traditions that we do as a part of the wedding and leading up to it, but since we aren't quite a man an woman of the old country, there are some areas I'd love to modernize and make it about US. What will those parts be? That's part of what I want to work out on this blog.

So that's just a glimpse at who we are, what we're planning, and how we might start to get there. For now, we're focusing on making sure we've got everything settled and ready to go before we really hit the ground running with all the wedding plans. Until then, I hope you'll follow us on our journey!

Bacheegs (kisses), Love Ani