hahaha no worries, I don't think you're an alcoholic or something I only had a couple of beers... I believe 5 bottles Didn't drink in almost 7 months tho. I just remembered what Blake once said haha

Thank you Cecile, Pam, Jeroen, Josh and sunny!


That's awesome! Isn't that really quite good for Morocco, too?


I took along:

Copy of original petition
Affidavit of support
Duplicates of all forms I sent to embassy
Two American passport photos
Few more e-mails (this was the only supporting evidence I took of our relationship)
Updated letter of intent to marry from Alex
Police certificates + photocopy
Birth certificates + photocopy

They took from me:

Affidavit of support
Duplicate of form DS-156 (SO glad I took a copy! I had one just in case but didn't realise they would need it!)
Both passport photos
Updated letter of intent to marry from Alex
1 original police certificate (new - definitely get the new type) + 1 photocopy. They handed back the original later and kept the photocopy.
1 original birth certificate + 1 photocopy. They handed back the original later and kept the photocopy.

They did not ask to see anything else. No more photos, e-mails, letters...nothing.

dbears - you were right, Alex's dad's affidavit of support was not needed. Glad I had it, though.

Re. the Affidavit of Support: Alex submitted one tax return, which they didn't seem to count, several pay-stubs, a letter from his employer and his bank statements. His dad also submitted no tax returns. I thought this was going to be a problem at first as the lady wrote down on a form 'No tax returns submitted'. Fortunately it all ended up being okay! So I guess London does not necessarily require tax returns as long as you submit plenty of everything else.

Thanks Rachel!

And no problem Jeroen I just thought it was funny haha!

Ah! I just realised I only have 4 weeks of work left.

Visa will hopefully arrive next week...aaaaah I shall be so tempted to use it earlier than planned. Damn money! Maybe I should start playing the lottery - you never know!

Lucky you!! I still have 6 weeks left.. Have to work until the end of September :'(



Hmm lol that reminds me, i got to cancel the lottery before I leave the country hehe

Well - 4 weeks of work here. Still planning to find temp work once I am back living with my parents.

Feeling so tired and brain-dead at the moment.

We are going to get married on August 27th, in less than 2 weeks!
We also decided that we would not go with the full attire. I will still show him my wedding dress that day but I will go to the courthouse wearing another dress. And same for him, he won't get a tuxedo for it but will still wear nice clothes.

(warning: girl stuff... sorry for the men here...)
Yesterday I went shopping by myself.I drove him to work and then drove to the mall, the interstate road was scary but I managed to drive pretty well (although the other drivers may say something different...) So I went to the mall and started thinking that I need at least a necklace to wear with my "courthouse wedding" dress. And I couldn't find anything that I liked! But today I looked at what I have at home (woohoo I actually called our apartment "home") and found a necklace that will be nice with it. And it's the necklace that Bryan offered me for Valentine's day last year, so it's perfect
But I just realized... I have no idea what I am going to do with my hair!!!!!!! HELP!!!

Hurrah for driving!

The necklace sounds wonderful.

I have no idea what to do with my hair either! I think up can be less troublesome and look more elegant, but I think I would only wear it up if I could cover my shoulders.

Yup I drove with Bryan on my side last weekend, and then alone yesterday... I'm proud of myself even if I missed the exit I was supposed to take

I'd like to put my hair up too, but I'm afraid that it will look too "strict". But up would definitely look better than down, especially since my hair is very long now and looks kind of flat because of its weight. And I'm not a hairdresser, I doubt I'd be able to do a fancy hairstyle. Damn, only a week and a half to find the right one and to practice!

Ooh ok now we into my stuffs heh heh...you all don't know about my gazillions of bookmarks and folders of things I have for our wedding heh heh....have you seen the Friends episode of Monica with her wedding binder? Yeah I got one of them too....LOL.........I am thinking a half up half down look for wedding day and my hair is currently just past shoulders but then I have fringe. My friend who is a hairdresser did mention putting in a hair piece or something so that may be interesting LOL....ok and I am not really that TYPE of bride but yet in a way I am if that makes sense....
Instead of all the efforts to make it a cookie cutter ala The Knot/Modern Bride type of wedding I am putting all the effort into planning a perfectly personalized to us offbeat type of wedding haha....so yeah ask me anything ladies and I have prob come across it in my research haha....
Oh and for cool stuff all around including jewelry visit etsy! It is just etsy.com and it is basically ebay but all artists selling their homemade wares or vintage things so instead of bidding you just outright buy through like paypal or money orders etc...
K I have rambled on enough these poor men haha...

Congratulations, Rachel! I'm very happy to hear that things went smoothly for you - Sorry that you have to wait four more weeks, though.

Sunny, I love that you referenced that show. It was one of my favorites for a very long time, and I totally laughed out loud when you mentioned Monica's big wedding book.

Rachel and Cecile: I'm not sure if these will help, but maybe browse around these two sites for some ideas? --

Brides.com's wedding hair styles - They have a bunch of different options to choose from. Even if you were to select, like, "Updos," there would be a menu off to the side that allows you to narrow your search even further. I thought it was pretty nifty, at least.

Theknot.com's pictures of waiting hair styles - ..This site is just all about weddings, so from what I've seen thus far, it looks like it might be somewhat helpful.

I think you can have your hair up and still have it look classy and casual - It doesn't necessarily have to be the whole "princess" thing with tight ringlet curls and rhinestones in the hair and all that stuff. You could even go half-up, half-down if you want it to be more relaxed-looking, or if you stuck deciding between the two.

I can totally imagine you with your big wedding binder, turning the pages, trying to decide between different shades of colors for the tablecloths! lol
Maybe I'll need one when we start planning the ceremony wedding. just keep yours in case we need some advices


Thanks for the links! I will definitely look at these. And it actually can't be the whole princess thing because I'll have to do it myself!

I love that show, and I trying to imagine yours!
My future mother in law bought me tons of wedding magazines, and I also have a big folder full of bills and others. I added yerterday only 4 lists of things to do, appointements or list of our food!
It is crazy to think all the energy you put into it, and like the day after your wedding, you can put your folder&books in a closet, and probably never look at it again!


I admire you for doing your hair all alone! especially if you have long hair!
I am horrible at that, and never knew how to make my hair look good...

I am the same here, not really know how I will have my hair done for my wedding! Certainly up, like all of you!
My wedding is in like 3 weeks!!! crazy!
When we did our wedding certificate, we decided to keep my last name for both of us! so I am really happy about it!!! Josh have a not easy pronouncing last name , and always hated his, so it is nice to do it that way(we're keeping his lat name after mine though)! Also, in my family, we are 3 girls, so my dad is quite happy to do not see his name disapear!!
Well, for today, my program is going for a run, try to look through AOS papers (that AOS process will give me an headache, for sure... ), and packing to, then, drive 4h tonight, and go see Josh's dad family!! (and wondering if his dad will hate me for the name change!! .)
What about you guys?

Your fiance is going to get your last name? that's something not very common but cool tho and, yeah, I know what you mean when you say you're dad would be happy to see that his name doesn't get lost.. my dad already passed away and I am the last of the family who actually might get a son (my sis is pregnant of a boy but they get her bf's last name), it basically is all up to me to have my family name not disappear (and that while my father came out a big family (8 bro's and sis's)).

Waow!! that's a big family!! Well, hopefully, you will have a son some day, and keep the name going!
What really happened is, we went to get our certificate done, without really thinking of the names, like everybody does, I was going to take his last name.
At night, with some of his family, Josh was saying that he didn't like his last name, and he was sorry I got "stuck with it"! That's when everybody was like, why don't you take her last name, and put yours after? everybody agreed that my name was really "pretty" (I guess because everything who sounds French is cute to Americains! ), and so the next day, we woke up really early, and went down to office at 8 am to get a chance to change the names before it will be sent away!!
Luckily, we had the same lady as the day before, and without paying any other fee, we added my last name in front of his.
Here is my little story!
By the way it is amazing to see you can do almost everything about last names when you get married in the US!!

Well, I'll do it myself for the courthouse wedding but not when we have the ceremony! For the courthouse I won't wear my wedding dress and it isn't going to last very long, so it's kinda pointless to go to a hairdresser "just for that".

GOODY!! You are talking wedding hairstyles here

I like these styles: Click to view attachment Click to view attachmentClick to view attachment

I feel really lucky that my future step daughter is a hairstylist and she already said she's love to do my hair for the wedding.


Cecile: I bet your father love the idea of you keeping his name and your husband doing the same thing. .. in my case, i will be making my father's last name as my middle name and then taking Ricky's surname as my lastname.

hehe that's exactly what my fiancé will do also

Pam- too cool about the last name! Gareth and I have been playing with that idea or combining our too last names as well....You don't think that would affect the AOS process do ya?

Luckily my best friend/Queen Bee of the ceremony will be doing my hair and makeup for free on our wedding day Sooo happy. We are involving flowers (undecided over faux or real though) and maybe even hair pieces to make my hair fuller haha....should be fun!

Just called DOS and we have our LND nubmer WAHOOOO! Gotta love the 8 dates! Approval on 8/8/08 and now LMD number on 8/18/08 heh heh... I also just learned 88 is hugs and kisses in morse code! heeee

Lady at DOS was sooo nice (name was Leslie) she said to go ahead and call back Friday or Monday to see if it arrived in London yet

Aah! That's a wonderful date. 8 is definitely your lucky number! I feel/felt the same way about 11 but unfortunately we can't have our wedding on this date.

dbears - I love those hairstyles!

I think I'd like mine up for photos, at least, but I'd like it to be fairly soft.

lazulineiris - thank you for the congrats! And the 4 weeks don't bother me as I'm not flying out until November anyway...sigh. Still; MONEY! I'm hoping to have enough to pay for wedding food, pay off Alex's credit cards (he's going to owe me ) and pay for a few...extra things.

Ack! My next dilemma is when to buy plane tickets. The prices are only going up...but if I were able to wait a week or so before I wished to fly I could maybe get cut-price tickets. Worth the risk? I have no idea!

Oh - and I am definitely taking Alex's surname. I must admit I like the idea of passing down a good name, too, and Alex is the only son in his family with his surname. My name is horrible and common and there are more than enough males to pass it on down!

Having said that - my dad has two brothers and yet both brothers have only had daughters (6 in total). So it's interesting to see how you can have many children and be very prolific and yet the name can still be in danger of not being passed down!

Hey Rachel! Yeah I like the half up half down type do's myself for weddings although have seen plenty of all up or all down ones that are pretty as well! Ahhh decisions.
And debt don't get me started haha...I am kinda halfway in denial about it all at the moment although I did give Gareth an update on it all this weekend so he wouldn't freak out when he got here and I handed him over the bill book and such to take over haha! I told him he is in total charge of the money as i need to be put on a budget in a BAD way and only him giving me an allowance is going to make me successful at one LOL!

In fact I am getting a new car this week to add to the debt haha! The car I have been driving past year is my parents spare car and is a 1996 and pretty much a piece of junk I have poured over a 1,000 into fixing stuff already on it. Not to mention it was awful last winter. So I decided to be a big girl give back parents car and take on a car payment of my own. So as of hopefully later this week I will be driving a 2005 Mazda3. I am so excited as it is the newest car I have ever owned ever!!!!

I also dyed my hair brown this weekend! I am having mixed feelings about it and most likely will be back blonde for our wedding unless Gareth is used to it and loves it by then haha.....I needed a change though and since Gareth says NO to me hacking it off dying it was next best thing haha

Ooh, a new car! That's going to be so much fun!

I do think you look good blonde! Then again I haven't seen what you look like as a brunette. I enjoy dyeing hair to have a change, too; but other people don't usually appreciate me dyeing my hair various colours. My mother still looks at me inquisitively every time I see her and asks, 'is that your REAL colour?' I only ever used temporary dye but she swore blind for a year after I'd dyed it that she could see some residue!

Alex's debts aren't too bad - less than a month's salary - but we're going to be living on such a tight budget that if I can help clear it then it'll mean we'll actually have an allowance for entertainment - perhaps a new game or pair of cinema tickets, which would be lovely!

Feeling a bit like a fish out of water...... hairstyles, going to have to find a stylist for Olga (note, add to the list).


Congratulations Rachel , I'm glad the interview and all that was easy for you. I've got about 3 weeks until I fly out to Kiev for our interview and we are all set for an apartment and everything else. Then two weeks later I fly out again to bring her home!!!! Then three weeks later the wedding. Yikes, I better get crack'n on this one. Sunny, I need your organization skills.

The good news is that the wedding dress arrived Saturday and it's absolutely lovely. Thanks Sunny for the link (I ordered from China like you).

If I could stop working 12 hour days I might feel like I can get things done, but that's not happening right now. Hopefully soon.....

Dude, That's Wonderful!!!!
I was really worried about your approval, this is fantastic.

I can't believe that we're all getting through this together - and soon!

Hello Blake!

Sorry to hear you're having to work such long hours.

Great news about Olga's dress! I hope we're going to have pictures later.

And yes - it's great that most of us are having our interviews within two months of each other (but sunny needn't worry about being left behind as I'm sure she'll be approved and Gareth will be flying to the US before me!).

I haven't heard anything from Knightsbridge Doctors so I am assuming my medical results were clear. I was 99.99% certain that I didn't have TB, HIV or Syphilis, but it's always nice to have it confirmed!

Ooooohhh photos of the dress please! Did you get from PeriDress then? I seriously am so pleased with mine from them! I mean it was a chance but hey at a fraction of the cost I really LUCKED out!!!
And 3 weeks is gonna go by sooo quickly!! Hooray!

Gosh I hope Gareth is here in October that is my goal I have set for us so we can make an early November wedding happen!!! EEEEEEEEE so nervous and hope it all comes together! Boy is January gonna be a month to breathe after all this haha! Of course then come then we plan on starting the house hunt to hopefully get into our first home by next Spring/Summer! hahaha......and of coruse the whole AOS process too blahhhh!

Wow gone for a couple of days and so much good news!!! Congrats to Rachel and Jeroen I have good news too! My daughter gave birth to her second daughter Friday at 2:45 pm so I'm a grandma again

Aw! Congratulations Heather (And congrats to your daughter too, of course!)

wow congrats in having another granddaughter

I like this topic lately, so many happiness

Well, unless you want me to try it on you'll probably have to wait until the wedding Yes Sunny it was a Peridress - Jasmine collection. I was actually suprised at how nice of a job they did. It really is stunning. The first thing we'll do when Olga's here is get it fitted at the seamstresses just to make sure it's perfect. Talk about a great way to spend the time waiting for approval, Olga and her sister must of had 40 dresses lined up at once. But this is what she finally settled on.

Oh heck, here it is, http://www.peridress.com/shop/product.php?...t=77&page=9








Congrats!!

Blake and/or Steph.. could you tell me how long the delivery times are from PeriDress? My fiance is looking at that site as well since I gave her the link today and she wants to know how much time she should order in advance if she gets it from them hehe... and yah, have to say, those dresses look really good and for a very good price

Blake I hope your house/apartment is really ready for Olga's homecoming... Ricky (poor guy), is almost panicking now with only 2weeks left before our arrival and he is not yet done with all those painting and cleaning up and setting up extra beds.. good thing his mom is pitching in, giving us linens for the beds and extra towels and his mom also took it upon herself to prepare for my son's birthday on September 6, which would be 2days after we get there. (So sweet of my future mother in law really. )

I checked the link to Olga's dress. It's BEAUTIFUL... I can't wait to see Olga in it, I bet she would be a real stunner.



A BABY!!! Congrats to you and to your daughter and her husband.

Rachel, I'm sure your medical result are clear... I just hope you receive the visa soon. Even if you will be flying a few months later, it is always good to have that visa in hand the soonest. I received the visa 3months before our scheduled flight but I felt really good when I finally had it on my hands, it removed less stress on me.


Sunny, hope your papers will reach London soon and hope you will have the interview date soon.

Jeroen, I thought you and Michelle will have an all out hawaiian wedding, wearing hawaiian dress and shirts?

sorry if this is short i scorched my finger tonight and making it hard to type...remember folks do not put finger into refried beans fresh from microwave!!!!!!! OW just cause not hot on outside does not mean they are not on fire from within says my poor pointer finger

Peridress is hit or miss and they have loads of bad reviews BUT if you are realistic and know you are buying a knockoff and not official one as pictured i think u will be heaviy surprised at the quality for the cost... I will try and take pics of my actual dress to post soon...I would say it took maybe 2 months if that to get the dress. You send in your measurements so they come almost perfectly fitted! I dont think I will need anything done to mine except the wrinkles steamed out. It is just http://www.peridress.com I believe....they have the real dresses pictured but u are buying a knockoff so remember that! Simpler the design the better I would say. I plan to give them great review once I have professional pics of me in dress.

ok off to try and exercise with this bum finger!

havent been on here in a while...nice to see everyone moving along the journey line a bit!

we're currently waiting for his interview date. it's only been 10 days since they entered the forms into the system, but hell give us a date already!

he had a medical appt at the end of august, but he's going to change it for early september...i'm starting to have some issues, so I need to go see him for a few days...gonna go ahead & hand him the interview documents too. i wanted to join him for the interview, but don't think it's going to happen that way.

Haha, I'll prolly still wear one but idk about her haha.. we also said it would be very small without relatives and now some ppl might actually come hahaha.. oh well, it doesn't really matter much to me, I'm quite easy in those things

lol sorry to hear about your finger but yah, like you said, not a very smart move

thanks for the info, I'll let Michelle know about it all and see what she says about it ^^

I hope you are able to sort out your issues! And you'll never know when the interview might be, although at this stage it is likely to be in late September. I hope you have a wonderful visit.


Always happens, doesn't it?!

Blake - that dress is gorgeous!

Ooh, and Jeroen - I think Alex and I will have a belated honeymoon in Hawaii sometime next year!

I know it has only been five days since my interview but I am already impatient for my visa to arrive! As dbears says I'll feel much happier once it's in my hand!

lol it sure does ..and I wouldn't be surprised if her mom actually tells us to do a big wedding (she did that with her brother too while they wanted to keep it small haha) but nah, if it is up to me, it will be small with just her mom and a witness and that's it haha.. oh well, we'll see what happens

And cool you guys might go to Hawaii.. I'm pretty sure you'll love it there.. ppl say sometimes it's quite cliché too have a honeymoon in Hawaii but if you ask me, Hawaii is perfectly fit for it ^^ Let me know where you guys plan to go and I might be able to give some pointers of areas that you should see ^^

Thanks! I shall do!

And yes, it's cliché, but like you said, it looks perfect for honeymoons and it's not too far from California, plus it's a US state so we could fly there before I have my greencard in hand!

I soooo know this feeling

They told me they would send out my passport, visa and everything last Friday through registered mail so I checked this weekend on the tracing site of the postal services and found that they didn't send it out... but ok, I thought maybe their thing is broken again (happens more often lately, a few packages seem still to be in Amsterdam while my fiance already has it lol) so I told my mom to stay at my place in the morning so they can sign for it and get my package (that, and she wanted to do some cleaning for the stuffs that I will sell or give away) but newp, nothing yesterday..

Last night I checked agian if they might have registered the mail but again nothing so I was like, maybe they'll send it out on Tuesday, you'll never know.. And while I was at work, chatting a bit with my fiance (bad, I know lol, should be working lol), she told me she heard my doorbell ringing (I guess she was still connected to me on Skype haha) at the time the mailman usually drops by.. lol, I guess that was my package but now I wasn't home to get it from them :S haha.. oh well, they will try again tomorrow and if I'm still not able to open the door, they leave a note telling me to pick it up the next day, or later, from the post office, so I should have it in hand by thursday (that is, if it really was my package, we don't know that for sure yet hahaha).

so true, it is only a 5 - 5.5 hour flight from Cali, so thats pretty doable ^^

And yeah, we actually were thinking to just book a hotel for a few days on the other end of the island haha then again, we could also just camp in her garden lol, it would be lots cheaper haha

About 4-5 weeks - and I told them not to rush. The more I look at the construction of the dress the better decision I think I made (of Course Olga chose the dress ).

Dbears, tell Ricky he's not the only one in a panic. I just finished painting the trim in Olga's son's bedroom last night at midnight. I've go so much still to do I'm not sure how I'm going to get it all done. I told Olga that I'm purposefully leaving whole areas of the house for her to put her decorating touches on (she said "Yeah, right!)

I'm so excited to see Olga in her dress as well - the time is approaching - about 7 weeks to the wedding. Man, I'm so screwed


The other thing about selecting a dress on Peridress - make sure you only select one that has a lot of pictures of it. They are great at copying if they know what it is they are copying. Good Luck!!

Lady I don't blame ya one bit! We will be the same for sure!!!

Ricky actually painted my son's room in something that i couldn't understand (he took pics) he said it is a style and he said it looks really "kwel" but to me it looks like a painting of someone who got tired and just smeared paints here and there. I just told him, I will reserve judgment when I see it in actual.




For sure you will be sunny... the hardest part of waiting for me was the waiting for the visa after the interview. I waited for only 13days but those 13days seemed longer and more frustrating than waiting for NOA1-NOA2-Medical-Interview.. but when I finally received the visa, after the initial exhilaration wore off, it made my impending migration more official and it actually made me sad for awhile, and the kids was also sad. But well, it has been almost 3months now, we (me & the kids) have all come to terms of the fact that we are really leaving our hometown behind soon.

Thanks. the issues are stress related...lately it's been getting the best of me, so hopefully this will help heal a little. it's nice knowing that this visit SHOULD be the last time i have to fly over there...! got my ticket booked today, so i'll be joining him for his medical visit, at least.