Engagement, year one. Check!

Nick and I have been engaged for one year as of Christmas Eve, and it flew by! We had Christmas in Michigan with the fam, and of course discussed all things wedding-y.

I found the dress! My dress! I'd actually been oogling it for quite some time now, but now it's official. A few shout outs...I checked out Pebbles Bridal, Lili Bridal, Glamour Closet's sample sale...good stuff. Wedding dress shopping is an interesting experience. I've never seen so much poof and giant pieces of fabric in my life. I'm not a poofy dress person, and I truly have zero desire to 1. look like a cupcake, and 2. wear anything that will make me look shorter than I already am. I also didn't really want anything heavy, thick, shiny, scratchy, stiff, excess fabric to carry, skin tight fit so I can't eat, etc. I realized that my options were narrowed down significantly, but not so much that I couldn't find anything.

The dress. Mmm. So pretty. I tried it on, then went back and brought Marissa along with me for a second round of real-life oogling. The dress went back on, and I had to do it. And Cait, who helped me at the store, let us celebrate my find with what, pray tell? Champagne! Mmmm.

What else...most of the save the dates are out...and if you've gotten them already, yay! If not, they're coming.

Another bit if big news- we booked our honeymoon, and Puerto Vallarta it is! We're going the hectic route and leaving the day after the wedding. We're staying at two hotels- first spending luxurious days at the St. Regis Punta Mita, then going further south to the Westin Resort and Spa, Puerto Vallarta for the remaining part of our trip. So excited!!! Nick and I started looking up everything there is to do there last night...fun fun fun!!

countdown: less than one week

six more days until I'm finished with school this semester! This means I'll have a month to focus on wedding goodness (dress and probably a million other little things I never thought I'd have to think about).

The save the dates are ordered at last! I know Nick is simply quivering with excitement over the idea of helping me stuff envelopes.

I think we've decided on a photographer- she's relatively new to the photog business, but I like that in a sense.

We're still trying to decide on a honeymoon...Mexico...or somewhere closer to the Caribbean.

Not too much else to report...we'll letcha know.

All Things...Sort of New...

Man O man, yet again it's been a while. So what's happened since I posted my last ramble?

We have booked a few of the primary vendors we needed to confirm asap. We decided that we definitely wanted to go with a DJ versus band...that way we can definitely shake it! The DJ's name is Lee of Hey Mister DJ. I went to his website once and was hooked as soon as I checked out a few of his sample mixes. We met with him back in August...he's awesome and so nice! He's laid back (but comes super prepared) and I think he'll fit into the relaxed and fun reception we're hoping for.

We also booked our cater, which was not an easy decision. Nick and I met with Nathaniel of Contemporary Catering, sampled some food, chatted, etc. I've been really torn between his company and Auntie Em's catering, whose food and desserts I still drool over. Ultimately we went with Nathaniel- the food still being good, the price better, and we get a food station! Woo! I'm seriously contemplating booking Auntie Em's for the desserts though.

What else...we've met with one photographer, but that has been the most challenging part for us. Nick and I have looked at so many wedding pictures online, and after a while they all start looking the same. My brain is on the verge of imploding. So, I decided a wedding coordinator may save me. Karen recommended that we consider one, and at first I had horrible thoughts of psycho wedding planners taking over everything. I also thought that maybe I could handle most of the wedding planning, but graduate school plus wedding planning equals things not getting done and, as state above, head implosions. I spoke with a few recommended by our DJ, and as of last week, we have our new coordinator Amber! She has loads of experience and is insanely on top of things, but not insane herself, so that's nice :-).

Those are the main things we've done so far. We still need to order our save the dates...Nick and I are so indecisive about things, so everything takes a long time. I've picked colors...that's promising.

Hey Hey Hey

It's been a while since we've posted any wedding updates. That's because there really haven't been any updates!! We definitely took the long engagement route, and that's meant that we can do what we both love to do and excel at...procrastinate!

We had our first food tasting two weeks ago. We started with Auntie Em's Catering, which is located in Eagle Rock. Oh, and by the way, we did book the LA River Center and Gardens as our wedding site, if I didn't post that already.

Auntie Em's was fabulous. Really it is called Auntie Em's Kitchen, but they also cater. It was this small restaurant that felt like it could be a place on 4th Ave back in Tucson- which earned it points from the get-go. We both loved it- the servers were young and funky, the chef super nice, and everyone was laid back. I came armed with little- no clue about the specific foods I wanted, no theme in mind, but I did have a notebook with a single page that simply read, "I love comfort food. I can't even really describe what that means. The only thing I really care about is that the food is good. So good that my dress may start to feel really uncomfortable really fast. Almost.

We decided we're probably going to either do a buffet or food station- the latter being preferable. My initial plan I realized was going to be way too expensive and frankly, way too formal. I thought I wanted a sit-down until Nick pointed out that we'd probably want to walk around and schmooze with everyone. And then I realized that, duh, I talk too much for a sit-down dinner.

So we spoke with the lovely ladies of Auntie Em's, they fed us amazing food and best of all, desserts I raved about for the next week. I left the restaurant tempted to just say, f*ck it, screw looking at other caterers, let's book 'em. It worked out pretty well with the LA River Center and Gardens (although we did check out another wedding site and I did a lot of research online).

Anyhoo, that's the latest. I've calmed down since the tasting, and we are starting to look at the next couple of caterers we'll sample. The process is more tedious than I thought...the list of foods is overwhelming to look at (which is probably why it's taken us so long to get started).

On a more exciting note, I believe we've narrowed down our honeymoon ideas to Spain (I've always wanted to go) or an island with water sports, white beaches, and blue water. At least I think that's what we've narrowed them down to. Recently Nick's had the idea that we try to save up as much vacation time as possible so we can have a two week long honeymoon. If we go that route we'll probably do Europe...if not the island may be more what we lean towards. Who knows.

Step One: Find a Location

So we haven't gotten much planning done...since most of the planning requires having booked a location i.e. set an official date. We did, however, finally get a chance to check out the Los Angeles River Center and Gardens. It's gorgeous! I know we are going to look at other places, but we really like this place.



Within the next few weekends we'll go see a few more...

how he did it...

the Cabo Engagement

Here are the two videos that took place right after Nick proposed!!! We were walking back from the proposal spot on the beach when the filming begins...

A Million plus One

Geez. There is a lot of planning involved for this whole wedding thing. And it seems we can't do much until we've selected a wedding site. Of course, the main question we've been asked is, "Have you set a date?" or, "So when are you getting married?" The question was asked within 20 minutes of our being engaged, and what feels like a million other times since then. So here goes: August SOMETHING, 2011. That's about as far as we've gotten. I think we've given ourselves enough time to plan- 18 months seems really far away, and the few people I've called regarding wedding stuff are all really surprised when they hear about the month and year we have in mind and the fact that I'm calling already. So I think we are good. For the first couple of weeks of our engagement, I'm pretty sure I did the typical thing of a newly engaged female. I bought a bunch of wedding magazines and poured over everything. I'm over it now. I know wedding planning is supposed to be overwhelming, and I am fairly confident I'm not the Bridezilla-type, but geesh, I'm already feeling slightly overwhelmed, and hel-lo, we have over a year and a half to go! I was never the 9 year old who had her dream wedding entirely planned out by age 11. This is what I know about myself so far: 1. I hate poofy dresses; 2. as much as I love champagne, I don't love a champagne fountain, or any fountain intended for guests to drink from or eat; 3. I won't make Nick take dancing lessons; and 4. I don't really want to get married in a church. At this point we have some general ideas...very general. We have a pretty thorough guest list and have a few locations in mind. Of course, being the dessert fiend I am, I already have some thoughts about where the cake's coming from an what kind. This weekend we are going to check out one of the main places we like, and if we're sold may be able to book it next month. Or so the booking people tell us. We'll keep you posted :-)

Oh. My. God.

For those of you who've followed our other blog and well, know us, Nick and I are engaged!!! Holy crap!

It all happened on Christmas Eve. We spent the holidays in Cabo, and it was quite the trip of "firsts": first time not going back to Michigan for Christmas, the first time really NOT celebrating Christmas, my first time in another country (Canada does not count, in my book- up until recently I could get in with my driver's license), and indeed, my first (and if I have it my way, only) time getting engaged.

We were lounging oh so very luxuriously near the infinity pool, glass of some undoubtedly alcoholic beverage in hand, and Nick goes "want to take a walk on the beach?" "Sure," I say, "let me just get my camera."

"Oh, you don't really need to bring that," is his response.

So the two of us walk along, soaking in the amazing views, and headed toward dark rocks protruding from the ocean. We stopped when we could no go further. I turned to the ocean because truly, I was in awe of how gorgeous it the whole scene was! Of course I was rambling away about how much I loved the view. I took a moment of silence and behind me I hear, "Baby?" I turned. And this is when everything went into slow motion- Nick reached into his pocket, and as he's doing so goes down to one knee. My first thought before the words came out was, omg. He pulled out a little black box. My thought: probably just earrings in that box, right? And then he said "will you marry me?" and pops open the little box. Even then I was almost in disbelief. Even when I saw the diamonds glittering away.

"Oh my god. YES! Oh my god. *we hug* Oh my god. Ohhhh my god.