Let the planning begin!!

First, let me say that I have had such a whirl-wind week. Between getting engaged and having a birthday yesterday, it's been amazing and I am so appreciative of everyone who has played a part in that!

Well, we are starting to kick around tons of ideas. Most of them are not conventional wedding ideas. It seems that Dave and I both have the same thoughts about what we want our wedding to be and that is so cool. To vibe with someone in such an honest way is so, so perfect. We are going to head to St. Augusting maybe next weekend so that we will have some time to look around and enjoy ourselves. Looking for a location is going to be like mini-vacations on their own -- something that we need after long weeks.

My mom is in Houston for the International Quilt Market. I hope she has so much fun! I was supposed to go - but I am inundated with school work this week. My government professor (who had to take the class over approximatley week 4) has been doing a bang up job of trying to get the class organized, but often we have assignments thrown at us from left field. So, tomorrow will be my class catch up day. It's supposed to be pretty rainy here tomorrow - so I won't be able to do my usual Saturday ritual - mowing the lawn. I always go to the grocery store on Saturday - but other than that....school work. And..here's just a random photo of my not-so-little brother. For no reason other than ..I love him!

It's A Beach Thing...

So, we are officially in wedding planning mode, and I have to say -- it's pretty cool! I have never been the girl that has planned her wedding since she was little...maybe my cousin and I forced Barbie to marry Ken - but beyond that - nothing. So, I am completely shocked at the number of websites, books and magazines available for us to plan!
We have pretty much decided on an October/November wedding over near Clearwater!
My goal is to have a fun. relaxing wedding where everyone who attends enjoy themselves. I would also like for each element to be something meaningful to Dave and I. Clearwater is such a special place for us. It's a place where we go to de-stress, take our families, and just to sit and talk and watch the sunset. It's an amazing and magical place.
Hopefully, we will have a date by this weekend so we can at least give a small heads up to our out of town families. Once we have the date, I will collect the wish guest list from the 3 (yes! 3 families) and then start whittling them down and making the main list including addresses. Then. fun save the date cards can go out sometime soon after that! There's alot of work, but coming from event planning as my past career -- I think I am up for the task!

We're ENGAGED!!!

Well, as Penny's husband would say....Dave's made an honest woman of me! You know, we both have been through the ringer when it comes to love lives and dating. It is so reassuring to finally find someone that treats the other like they should be treated. We both have such a great respect for each other - as a person and a partner. We rely on each other and take good care of each other. We both have found our other half.

So, it went like this:

We usually don't go out to eat on Saturday nights. This night, it sounded like Dave needed to get out o f the house and eat a good meal. We are both adventurous when it comes to food, so we decided to eat at this new Pizza place that we discovered a couple of weeks ago. The place, Pasta Vino, is a small place with maybe 10 tables..max. It's in downtown Clermont and the downtown area itself is beautiful....it is the typical small town downtown with some very cool eateries and several street front businesses. I digress...so we go and eat at the pizza place and then Dave realzied that there is a huge lake just a couple of blocks away. He asked me if I wanted to take a walk around the lake - nothing unusual for us. So we found a very cool pier over the lake and we just sat out on the pier talking. After about 15 minutes, he turned me around and (I am still oblivious at this point) got down on one knee and asked me to marry him! Of course, we joke the part that will most stand out in this story is that I said "Are you kidding me?"...I said "OF Course!" and he had to remind me that we needed to put the ring on my finger. It fit perfectly...Everything fell in to place for our proposal. We got in the car and called family and then before we got home, we stopped by so I could show my mom the ring...she cried. I expected that!

So now, a couple of days later - it is still settling in and I am ready to start planning. I am so excited about this process and true to our form - I hope to use my event planning skills to plan a wedding that is relaxing and enjoyable for our family, friends and most importantly - ourselves.

Everyone who is reading this hopefully will find the blog fun and a way of you all that live far away (and nearby) to keep up with our adventures and fun! So enjoy reading!! And here's to us!

Here's a picture of the ring: