Finally, a date!

So planning a wedding can be frustrating, but also exciting! We FINALLY set a date. October 23, 2010 will be our very special day. We plan to marry on Mexico Beach at around 4 PM and have our reception after at the Callaway arts and conference center. This may change if we find another place for the reception, but for now this seems to be the way to go. We're hoping to have a man at Chris's church cater the wedding. Besides that, we haven't really gotten a lot of plans nailed down yet. There are just a lot of ideas that we've been researching. We have looked at rings, which was really fun. Chris likes the hammered yellow gold look, and I like the wrap rings that my engagement ring will fit inside. Kay's has the perfect ones so we're going to start with that.

Our colors are persimmon and berry (reddish orange and deep purple) with gerber daisies for our flowers. We're going to mix the flowers with seashells to combine the themes. One thing I'm not sure about is where the girls go before the wedding ceremony? With the wedding on the beach I need to figure out a way for us to be close to the beach to get ready and wait for the ceremony to begin. I'm going to look into renting a beach house or a hotel room close by.

Also, we're taking our engagement pictures on Monday! I'm so very excited about this. Our photography is a friend that works with Chris at the clinic, Brandy. She is really sweet and extremely talented. We are going to take the Harley out and get some pics with it. We're also going to Pier Park (which has shops and by the beach) and the fire station. It'll be really fun. I just have to figure out outfits :)

That's all for now. If you have any ideas let me know!

Ideas in my head

Sometimes a wedding can be stressful. There are so many things to plan, and put together for that one day of your life. The one day you'll remember the rest of your life. On the other hand, its so much fun! Every time something pops in my head, I either write it down or I research it online. This wedding has a very low budget, which can add to the stress. My mom gave me some great advice though. She said to make it into a game. My whole life I've gotten a thrill out of looking for a great deal on EVERYTHING! I can now use that skill with my wedding. Chris's mom and her best friend, Karen have been great at handing out ideas to make this happen. The favors we'll be doing are going to be handmade sand dollars. I saw an idea of getting a large box, filling it with sand and sticking the favors inside it in rows. Its going to be super cute. I've been looking at cake ideas, and plan to either have a friend make one or go to Publix. They have amazing cakes. I have already started on a list of songs for the wedding as well. We already have an awesome DJ. Its a hilarious and fun guy that works with Chris.

PS. I think I've found my dress. I'm going to try it on for my girls and Charlotte, to get a final verdict.

The Proposal

Thanksgiving morning I woke up early to start helping prepare the food for the feast we would be enjoying that night. My parents came down to spend the holiday with me, Chris and his family. With 7 people staying in one house, we all had to take turns in the shower at half hour intervals of time to save the hot water. When I jumped in the shower little did I know that the secrecy of events had begun! Chris asked my Dad if they could chat outside. My Dad must have known something was up. This was when Chris asked my Dad for my hand in marriage. My Dad of course agreed and that was the end of the conversation. These are men I'm talking about. A short conversation was about all they could muster up. My Dad came inside and immediately told my Mom. My Mom started jumping for joy and yelled, "Yay!!!!" and my Dad had to quickly shush her. While this was going on, Chris's mom Betty was safely hiding the ring in the turkey. For some reason when this part of the story is told, everyone always thinks they literally stuck the ring by itself inside the turkey. Give Chris and Betty more credit than that! They had the ring inside the box, which was wrapped in a ziploc bag and then placed inside the turkey. Pretty creative, huh?

The events of the day had been pretty much laid out from the beginning. We'd all get up, have a big breakfast, cook for thanksgiving dinner, Chris would fry a turkey breast in the fryer for lunch (something he absolutely insisted on doing), we would eat lunch, take my parents to No Name beach so they could enjoy the gulf (my mom had never seen it before), show them the beautiful houses on the beach, come home to help prepare more food and then finally eat dinner at around 5 with the whole family.

Before we had lunch, Chris's mom insisted that I took part in something that was a "family tradition." She told me over the years she had taught Chris and Tiffany (his little sister) to baste the turkey. I'm going to be honest, I wasn't excited about this at all. Sticking my hand up a turkey's butt to put butter inside it, isn't exactly my idea of a great family tradition. Chris told everyone they needed to have their cameras out to document this occasion. I should have realized something was up, because Chris never uses his camera. In fact that morning he told me to make sure I had my camera battery charged to take pics from the weekend to put in my scrapbook. Hindsight is always 20/20 right?

Everyone gathered around me in the kitchen as I prepared to butter up the turkey. I sliced the butter and began to take out the insides of the turkey. I thought it was kind of strange that everything was neatly placed inside a ziploc bag. "Wow, these people are organized!" I was thinking to myself as a pulled out the bag and placed it to the side. I placed the butter in the turkey and thought I was done. Chris's mom yelled, "Well whats in the bag? Don't just lay it to the side!" I opened the bag and saw a small box. This was when I started freaking out. I opened the box and found the most beautiful ring in the world inside! I turned around to Chris, and all I could say was "Oh... My... Gosh!!!!" He looked at me and said, "Will you marry me?" I hugged him and replied, "Of Course!" Everyone started cheering. Chris put the ring on my finger and the flashes of the cameras started going off like crazy. Chris's mom and dad welcomed me into the family officially.

The rest of the day is a bit of a blur. We followed through on all our plans and took pictures throughout the way. That was day I will never forget. That was the day the wedding planning began. This is my journey that I intend to document along the way. The ups and downs of putting together a day that takes a year to plan and a few hours to experience.