11.5.11

WE HAVE A VENUE AND A DATE OFFICIALLY!!!!

Sorry if the large capital letters caught you off guard, I know sometimes it reads like yelling, which is exactly how I intended it here :) I am seriously considering climbing on top of my little cottage to shout it out. But alas I am far too tired from today's excitement. And man oh man was there excitement. 

If I have spoken with you within the last two weeks my tone regarding the wedding may have been slightly stressed. There had been several occurrences outside of my realm of control that had kind of rained on my parade, and honestly as much as I tried to fight it, I felt so uninspired. And I love to be inspired. So this was a bummer. 

But fast forward to today and many of those issues have been resolved and I was ready to be back on track. I hit the trail again looking for venues mostly online feeling a sure feeling I had found many wonderful venues but not mine. We found places that would have been great, beautiful, fun, but there was a certain something missing, I had NO idea what that something was, but I knew it was out there. I can't remember if it was Tuesday or Wednesday when I was laying on the couch recovering from my accident that I'll write about here later, that I found IT.  The arsenal in Benicia, Ca. It was so unique, quirky, charming, and just flat out rad. Looking at it I just knew that had to be where Brett and I get married. Looking at the prices my heart was all a flutter, not only was it wonderful it was so in our budget!!!!! I called and made an appointment to check it out and this morning Stef and I piled in the bug and hit the road. Samie met us there and before our official tour started we knew the looking was finally over! The only bummer our original date 11.11.11 was taken (sniff sniff but not surprising) but the Saturday before was available so we snatched it up!! Our date is now 11.5.11 at 5 in the afternoon!!

So without further ado here are some photos of the amazing place we are to be wed....

So this staircase is in the ceremony room and my bridesmaids and I will make our entrance down them with our escorts waiting at the bottom! I think it is SO cool :)

 The blank white wall is a little drab but it will be the home of a rockin arch/altar/something awesome we'll stand under :)

 Random door in the ceremony room that when closed a curtain is draped over, this is also a possibility for the recital of the vows

 My beautiful MOH this is the cool entrance to the ceremony room

 This is the room the reception will be held in. It was pretty awesome that there was going to be a wedding later in the day because we got to see how all the chairs and tables will look all set up 

 Doorway to the bar!

 The bar room where drinks and cocktail hour will happen. I'm so giddy just looking at these again.

 Momma Stef hanging out behind the bar

I hope that you love this as much as I do!! Or at least see a little bit of the potential it has :) I think this is going to be so stinkin perfect and when its all decked out it is going to be the most amazing thing! But that is not all today held in store. 

We did a little shopping in Benicia and if you haven't before your missing out! There was this awesome little shop/studio right next to the arsenal called Hip Chick Designs. This store seriously rocked my socks and the owner Carrie, is super rad! She was so much fun and had so much energy and great stuff!! So great in fact that we may be featuring her at our wedding by renting a bunch of her goodies! 

Stef bought this wooden ironing board for us from her and it is seriously one of the coolest pieces in my house right now. I'm dreaming it will be the guestbook sign in table :)

 And this is the fabulous Carrie. If your haven't clicked the link above do it now. You won't regret it.

Love really does make this world go round.

Wherever With You

So no pictures yet...and I just can't bring myself to post the proposal story (for those of you who haven't heard me recant it numerous times now) without the pictures.

I mostly just wanted to write down some of my thoughts at this point...we are now officially two weeks into planning our perfect November wedding.

I had been engaged for three days when a sweet friend said "when you are engaged your life moves at warp speed." And man oh man was she right. Sometimes my head feels like it is literally spinning because I'm thinking about so much at the same time I am trying to focus on other aspects of my life. It lends itself to a feeling of insanity at times. Now to clarify, this is not me complaining. I am having a blast amongst the chaos. Reveling in it really. But I have been treasuring the sweet, quiet moments with Brett amongst the madness when I look over at him or he grabs my hand and I remember none of these details really matter at all. All that matters at the end is that he's waiting for me at the end of the aisle as I step into my new role as his wife, his partner in all that we do.

Brett catches me off guard from time to time when he calls me his wife to be or future wife. I have tried to picture him saying those things for a while, but I could have never anticipated the way it made me feel. This man will be my husband and I will be his wife. Our homes will forever be in each others hearts. I have said from pretty early on that one of the reasons I fell in love with him is because I have never felt more at home then when I am with him. It doesn't matter where we physically are, as long as we are together, that is where I want to be.

This song is pure perfection.

 

Things are clicking along so well for it being such a short amount of time. My mom bought my wedding dress this past weekend and it is breath taking. I can't wait to walk out and see the look on Brett's face, I think he's going to be blown away! My aunt will be catering, Brett's aunt will be our florist, our photographer is set and the connection there is so special too, our venue is back and forth at the moment :) but regardless we've got it, Friday I'm taking the majority of my bridesmaids to try on the dress I think I am sold on. 

This is the insanity I was talking about earlier. Things are moving so fast, but they are moving so right. I just can't believe how easy this has been. My mom always said it would be easy when it was right. Apparently momma knew what she was talking about. 

The beginning of a great thing...

My goal for this blog is to document the planning and creating process of the next 5 months. Mostly for Brett and myself, I think it will be neat to look back through a kind of journal of this whirlwind time, but also for my family and friends that want to follow along and share in this exciting time! I believe we are planning a wedding but I also believe we are creating SO much more then that, this is a time filled with love excitement creativity fun love and family, and I know that there will be memories made that we will never forget!

So I have been waiting oh so hard to wait to start this blog until I received the edited proposal pictures but the anticipation is making me crazy :) So I thought I'd start it early and give a little history of our relationship...

Our road to engagement has not necessarily been a long one, but it has been absolutely meaningful. I really believe that I have found my best friend and partner in life with Brett. We met through Valley Church's college and young adult Bible study in August of 2010, and sparks flew pretty quickly.

To be honest when I met Brett, I brushed him off pretty quickly, he seemed nice enough and was certainly cute, but I assumed he was younger then me and I told myself dating wasn't what I needed my focus on so I didn't think twice about him. A week or two later he friend requested me on facebook so I did what I do best on facebook, I snooped. Well first thing first I checked his info section and he was in fact not younger then me but 2 years older then me, hm interesting. Scrolling down the info section and things stood out to me. He was strong in proclaiming his faith, seemed to have a good sense of humor, looked like he had a solid job, and some education....not too shabby. Then I made my way to the pictures. Well. Cute was an understatement, he was seriously good looking. There were lots of fun pictures with his family, he seemed to always be doing adventerous things outside, and all of this led to the beginning of a serious crush.

I still find it hilarious that I learned all of this via facebook after having had a one line conversation with him two weeks prior...and the majority of findings were true.

I spent some time thinking about having a crush and considering if I wanted to re-consider dating :) After thinking and praying I decided that I believed I was ready to open myself up to that possibility, but I also had a very strong sense that if we dated it was going to be serious.

Well facebook flirting for a few weeks led to another face to face at Real Life where I entertained a real conversation with him. We talked and laughed for a while between ourselves and a group of friends. Next thing I knew I was planning on going rock climbing with a group the following Friday with Brett and some friends that were there, including Michael. Not too long after Michael realized Friday wouldn't work and the group resolved to meet up another Friday. The Sunday night Bible study was wrapping up and before I left Brett asked if I would still be interested in climbing Friday night, because he still wanted to go. So we made plans to drive up together and meet up with the rest of the group that would be going.

Friday came and a long hot drive through traffic ended up being great. We talked and laughed the two of us, with Dodger in the back of clunky all the way there. We had some mutual friends and similar life experiences that allowed conversation to flow easily and enjoyably. The rest of the night was great we climbing with a group of great people and went out to dinner after, and by the time he dropped me off in Dixon, we had plans to hang out again on Monday.

Over the next few weeks we had so much fun hanging out, meeting friends, talking until all hours of the night, and really seeing that there was more then just an awesome friendship there. We have both agreed time and time again, that it has been so easy and fun from the beginning. I met his sister three weeks after seeing each other and a week later I met his parents. And the same night after meeting his parents our dating became "official" :) We have had so much fun since then. We have enjoyed adventures, family, life, stress, joy, and faith together. And so far it has been the greatest time. I have been blessed by Brett's family and the love they have for each other. And I have loved becoming closer with his family. Even before a proposal, they made me feel like part of the family, and I can't wait to legally become part of it.

I am still in awe of the beauty of our relationship, and am so thankful for the blessing he has been in my life the past nine months. I have been at ease with him since day one and I trust him with my life. There is a likeness between us that makes it feel like we have known each other our entire lives.

Not to say our relationship has been perfect, we have experienced growing pains of growing together, and we know that this is just the beginning. But we also know that the love we have is worth preserving through refining times in the future.

I can't wait to share the proposal story and pictures with everyone soon!! And I promise to not type so much, well at least I promise to try :)