Hey Hive!

Miss Jet Setter here, so excited to be writing my first post for the 'bee!  I've been lurking in the shadows since '09 when my best friend and MOH K was getting ready to tie the knot and have followed the stories of some great bees before me - I'm so glad to have been chosen as one of the hive!  I received my welcome e-mail from Mrs. Mouse last week just before bed and jumped out of bed (and my skin) to tell Mr. Jet the good news!  Speaking of Mr. Jet, let's see that gorgeous guy, shall we? (All photos personal)
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Spent my birthday last year with my favorite guys - Mr. Jet and the Red Sox. ;)
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The Jets atop the Space Needle back in 2010 - wicked windy up there!
I work in quality assurance (perfectionist much?) for a national leather handbag company based out of Massachusetts and Mr. Jet works in human services as a case manager.  He's also studying to become a licensed therapist.

We are fun-loving, goofy people with a sentimental streak and deep roots in our Southcoast, MA area.  (shoutout to Miss Panda, Ms. P'Chips, Mrs. Zebra, Mrs. Corn, Mrs. Beanstalk, Mrs. Gloss and the rest of my fellow New England brides!)  I love musical theater, karaoke nights, Volkswagens, Harry Potter, quoting 90s Saturday Night Live, the trashiest television you can think of, celebrity gossip, a really great tinted moisturizer, whale boat rowing with my year-round rowing club, anything involving cheese and Elvis Costello.  Mr. Jet is a fantastic local musician and painter with more talent in his little toe than most in their whole bodies!  He loves growing a fabulous beard, the Vine video app, craft beer, vintage guitars, Portuguese food, painting in his little home studio and making me laugh until my sides hurt.  We’re an adventurous and creative couple who love each other to the moon…and back.  I seriously cannot wait to be this guy’s wife, you guys!

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As a bearded Beetlejuice ( Mr. Jet refused to shave it) and Lydia Deetz last Halloween.
We met at a mutual friend's wedding back in May 2007 and slowly found our way to each other by October of that same year.  We're getting married in October of this year, just two days after our 6th anniversary.

We've been co-habitating for almost 5 years with our darling chihuahua-mix, Bruce Banner:
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Bruce is thrilled that mom and dad are finally making it official!
We are planning a rustic barn wedding with modern twists in Westport, MA.  Our families, friends from all walks of life and co-workers make up our 160 guest celebration filled with good food, good wine, good music and good times!  I look forward to sharing all of our planning with the hive!

xo,

Miss Jet

P.S. Why Miss Jet Setter, you ask?  First of all, who doesn't love that cute little suitcase icon??  Secondly, my job ensures that my passport gets quite the workout, traveling at least once a year to Asia with some domestic travel peppered in from time to time to NYC and beyond.  I've also traveled to England (twice!), Hawaii, Seattle, Chicago, all up and down the East Coast and look forward to adding Mexico to the map for our honeymoon!


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Mr. Jet and I after a snorkel in Hanauma Bay on Oahu Island. Ulgh, can someone just transport me back there NOW?!
 
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Image via Someecards
My last name is very unique.  It's also very difficult to spell, pronounce or try to teach someone said spelling and pronunciation.  "D as in David...E as in elephant..."  Growing up, I couldn't stand my eccentric 7-letter last name because even *I* couldn't spell the damn thing at first!  It's even got a crazy accent on it!  When said in its true French pronunciation it sounds absolutely lovely, but unless I decide to defect to Canada or France it really does me no good here.  I always used to say that when I got married, I would be ditching my last name in favor of a married name.  However, the closer I got to marriage the more sentimental my last name became.  

It's the only last name I've ever had.  It's the last name of my father, my uncle, their parents and many other great aunts uncles and extended relatives.  For our little family unit though, my sister, one female cousin, one male cousin and I are the only ones that are able to take our name forward.  That is technically only one person (my male cousin) in my family that will conceivably keep our family name going after our generation. My sister (who got married last year) hyphenated our name with her husband's last name, so a piece of that will continue on with her.  M's last name is fairly common in our region (it's a very Portuguese last name!) and easy to pronounce and spell.  (BONUS: Taking Mr. Jet's last name pushes me to the beginning of the alphabet AND makes my name an alliteration, how cool?!)  I've thought long and hard about what I should do and with only 4+ months left, I keep going around in circles.  Maybe it'll help to see it all on paper...let's see, shall we?

Here are the scenarios I've thought up:

1. "The Feminist" (FIRSTNAME MIDDLENAME MAIDENNAME) - Keep my name entirely.
2. "The KEEP ALL THE NAMES!" (FIRSTNAME MIDDLENAME MAIDENNAME MARRIEDNAME) - Add my current last name as a second middle name.
3. "The Ol'Switcheroo" (FIRSTNAME MAIDENNAME MARRIEDNAME) - Ditch my middle name (which I happen to really love) and move my current last name into that spot.
4. "The Fancy Law Firm" (FIRSTNAME MIDDLENAME MAIDENNAME-MARRIEDNAME) - Keep my middle name and hyphenate two last names.
5. "The Fresh Start" (FIRSTNAME MIDDLENAME MARRIEDNAME) - Drop my maiden name entirely.

I think I've narrowed it down to "The Ol'Switcheroo" and "The Fresh Start" - but I'm not 100% sure yet.  I love the idea of taking Mr. Jet's last name and creating our little family unit, I'm just not sure I can let go of that horribly burdensome last name I've known for 29 years.  Hmm...





 
So the ring came in nearly a month later and, on the night Mr. Jet picked it up, he drops a text on my telling me he has it at band practice and all the guys in the band think it's SooOoOoO pretty....

Jerk.

Now I know he has the ring and he's just torturing me for his sick pleasure!  

A few weeks later, I was packing up for a two-week business trip to China and I shared with Mr. Jet that I was a little relieved he didn't propose before I left - imagine how hard it would be to be proposed to then shipped off to a foreign country for two weeks?!

After a very pregnant pause, Mr. Jet revealed that he was going to propose at the airport in just a few hours when he dropped me off for the trip.

Oh.

He quickly added that he had another, better idea for later down the road but it was too late, I was already in tears claiming, "I RUINED IT!  I RUINED EVERYTHING!  I AM LITERALLY THE WORST!"  (Is anyone else noticing my uncanny resemblance to Lucy van Pelt??)

Thankful for Mr. Jet's uncanny ability to talk me down from any ledge, I finished packing and the we arrived at Logan Airport the next morning before dawn.  

As we hugged goodbye, Mr. Jet told me I hadn't ruined anything at all - and that I was far from the worst.

"Huh?"

No matter the conversation the night before, Mr. Jet was determined to send me off to China has his fiancée - come hell or high (tearful) water!  I, obviously, said yes and spent the next two weeks without a phone or Facebook to share the news. (THERE IS NO FACEBOOK IN CHINA, HOW AWFUL IS THAT?!) I did manage to send out a quick text and photo to my close friends and family and Mark broke the news on his Facebook page. 

The next few weeks in China went by really quickly and I shared the news with all of my colleagues there, however I did feel terribly lonely that I wasn't able to celebrate with my brand new fiancé!  By the time I got to Hong Kong on my way home, I had so many "likes" and "comments" and that lonely hotel room was filled with the love of all of my people back in the States.  I returned to Mr. Jet with the biggest bear hug and plans for a special dinner to celebrate our news.

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The only background I had to use was the carpeting in Logan Airport. Look at that mani though! ;) / Personal photo
 
Okay, so I'm totally crazy and type-A and need everything to be perfect and HATE surprises - that makes me the perfect person to be proposed to, right?

The first few years of dating Mr. Jet, marriage didn't really cross my mind.  We had moved in together after 11 months of dating, and I was serious about him, but being a wife wasn't at the top of my list of priorities just yet.  I was still young and trying to figure out what I could do with a Communications degree and how to buy a new car with nothing to put down.  

We casually talked about "forever" once in a while and I knew pretty early on he was the one for me and I for him.  We just wanted to take things slow and enjoy life as we knew it - raising our chihuahua mix, Bruce Banner, paying our bills on time and exploring our hobbies together and individually.

It wasn't until 4 years into our relationship that I started to get...the fever.  The more we did things like get a joint checking account and invest in furniture together, the more I realized that this WAS forever.  I wanted to keep him forever.  I wanted a proposal from him so that I knew he felt the same way.

In the winter of 2011, I really pushed the issue with Mr. Jet.  I was ready and needed him to know it.  He said he wanted forever too, and it would happen if I was patient.

Me?  Patient?  Has he actually MET me?

One night over a shared scorpion bowl at our favorite Chinese restaurant, I got him to agree to look at rings with me.  We stopped into a local, family-owned jewelry store and I pointed out exactly what I wanted.  (I had been there a few times before with my equally-as-obsessed friend, Chelsea).  Oh, just an Asscher cut diamond, in an antique-style pavé setting in white gold where the diamonds only go half-way around to prevent gunk build-up.  Nothing really particular about that.
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my future precious. / Image via FancyDiamondInc.
Mr. Jet completely surprised me when he came out with this one:

"Okay, let's get it."

"Say whaaaaaa?" says me in a scorpion bowl-induced stupor.

We ordered the ring that night and we left hand-in-hand with a real promise for our future.

 
On a hot, nearly-summer day in 2007, a friend of mine was set to wed a friend of Mr Jet's.  I was single at the time, and not even remotely looking for my Mr. Right.  I unfortunately had a thing for a co-worker who was very much in a relationship at the time, but that was my M.O. - like the guy who's unavailable, unattainable and otherwise off-limits.

Mr. Jet was single as well, hot off a relationship that ended badly for him and left him with a sour taste for the opposite sex.

We were coincidentally seated at the same table, and while he eyed me with his dark beard and brown eyes thinking maybe girls weren't so bad for him,  I wondered what we were having for dinner and where the bar was.

Needless to say, I doubt either of us left a big impression on each other, but future run-ins that summer led me to believe there was something interesting about the bearded man from that wedding.

We casually talked throughout the summer, then one night I got up my (liquid) courage to ask a mutual friend his age.  "He has grey hairs, it could mean he's like...30 or something," my 23-year old self declared.

"I'll find out," said the mutual friend.

"Okay, but don't tell him I'm interested...I just want to know if he's too old for me."

"Yah yah, don't worry."

::cut to mutual friend approaching Mr. Jet::

"How old are you?"

"27, why?"

"Oh, my friend likes you.  She wanted to make sure you weren't too old for her."

"Really?  Who?  The girl with the tattoo of Massachusetts on her arm?"

"Yeah, why?  Do you like her too?"

"Yeah."

The rest, as they say, was history.

We started dating that Fall and are set to be married this Fall, almost exactly 6 years to the day he asked me to be his girlfriend.  That bearded wedding guest was the love of my life, I just didn't know it yet,
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my beautiful sis (MOH J) and I on the day I met Mr. Jet. Lookin' tan and lovely, if I do say so myself! / Personal Photo