Monday, August 11, 2008

Well lot's has happened since my last post. I've had time off from Kris Kringle which has allowed me to do many things. I went on vacation with my family and Paul to Ocean Shores, which was a blast. We stayed in a little cottage house, we almost completed the hardest puzzle in the world, and we almost had Paul's mom's van be swallowed by the ocean....

The next weekend, I went to Ocean Shores again, basically* on vacation with Megan and Rachel! This vacation basically consisted of trying to find dates for basically Megan and Rachel--(more importantly, dates with money to take us out to dinner basically...), shopping at basically all the malls on the way and on the way back, and chasing basically every flock of seagulls at the beach with our car! Basically, it was basically a blast. *And basically, they were basically making fun of me for basically just saying basically basic.

Then Paul's older brother Troy got married, and I had the privilege of seeing Paul in a tuxedo with a pink tie and vest, accented with a stylin' top hat---in which he looked exceptionally suave!

Well now, let me back up one day. August 1st. Paul proposed!!! And I am now engaged, soon-to-be-bride, the fiance of my very best friend. Basically, it was the most exciting day of my life. All I could say for the first ten minutes after it happened was, "OMG! OMG! Omg....!!!" It was a surreal experience--the climax of every romantic movie was happening in real life. So I am happy to say I've been engaged for ten days already! hehe :) Whenever I tell people I'm engaged, the first question they ask is "so when's the date???" That is still undecided, but most likely the day will be Aug. 1, 2009.

You may be surprised, but I think it may actually be more fun planning you're wedding before you're engaged then after...and I wish I had been one of those girls that had their entire wedding figured out before they even got into a relationship. The reason being is, there are so many decisions!!! So many. And I think it would be funner (yes, funner) to plan if there wasn't a time limit. Deciding your wedding beforehand is such a good idea, because you don't have the problem I have: I can't decide anything because all I can think about is that this is the only day...I can't have three different styles of weddings, I just get one! So I'm trying to think about all the different options at once, and it probably won't work to mix styles together. But if you do the thinking before you're engaged, you have so much more time, and you can sleep on ideas for longer. So. I highly recommend all you single girls out there to keep dreaming!!!

All that is not to say that I don't like planning my wedding. It's super-duper exciting! But it's also realistic. And I'm not always good about being realistic. Anyway. Here's the direction my dream is going right now:

Think natural. Think comfortable. Paul and I both want to be barefoot. We're thinking an orchard wedding. We're thinking tea party theme. Old teacups on the tables at the reception--a different style teacup at each setting, with unlimited chai tea and coffee. We're thinking as small as possible (without being excluding), because I get nervous in front of lots of people, and we both get drained being around crowds. We're thinking live music--my old violin teacher and her students. Probably no DJ, and for dancing, we're thinking of having everyone learn Contra dancing. This way, it's not the same as every other wedding where the people who don't know how to dance, just sit there bored...but it's all inclusive, and it's easy enough that everyone can learn if they want to. We're also thinking an afternoon wedding, around 2pm, and just serve fruit, cake, and cardamom bread, and assorted yummy things. We want the entire wedding to be fairly short: about 3 hours, and never have a dull moment. Those are our goals so far! Who knows what it'll end up being like! :) The hard part now is finding a good place and if the orchard idea is even possible. Feel free to give me ideas or tips!!

And now the present. I'm in New York right now with Paul's family, at a lake house. We spent the last few days in Connecticut and went to Paul's second cousin's wedding--which was an extremely expensive and ritzy wedding...which is nothing like what either of us would want. Now, we're just chillin' at the lake (which is more like an ocean) and having a real vacation. It's been wonderful. Next Saturday, we will go into the city and see Liz--I am so excited to see you Liz!!! Then we'll come home, frantically try to look at as many wedding places as possible, work for a couple days, and fly out to Taylor--woo hoo!!! It's been a busy summer.

Okay, if you've made it this far, I congratulate you, and you must be a really good friend! lol!

Until next time!! Peace. :)