August 2010

Wedding planning has been very fun so far! Kyle and I are both pretty chill about the whole thing and want it to be special and memorable while keeping it simple!

The day after we got engaged was a Sunday and we were able to sit out on my porch for a few hours (I think 4 hours!) and brainstorm ideas. Right away we agreed on doing a Friday evening ceremony with just parents, siblings and grandparents. Including Pastor Tilly and his wife, Pastor Rob and Lindy, 2 musicians, and Michael and Karina (hopefully our photographers!) the total number will be 20 people. It will be on his parent’s porch (with tiki torches!) and we’ll have a meal together following the ceremony. We plan on having that meal catered by Antonio’s in Elkhart, IN.

The following day we’ll have a big reception to invite all of our family and friends to! We’d originally hoped to also have that at his parent’s house (they have a beautiful yard) but after talking about dates more it was clear that the date we wanted (May 7th) would be too early to have it outdoors at their house. We looked at tons of different venues and have now pretty much decided to have the reception at River Oaks Community Church in Goshen, IN. It’s the church his parents attend, and where we went the first 4 months we dated. It’s a beautiful facility, and we think that the Main Lobby would be perfect for what we’d like to do.

Our color ideas are to keep it simple with white and khaki, and then use whatever color flower we choose as the accent color. Our first pick was to use garden roses and garden spray roses in this color:

We both love these, but before we settle on them we need to do some research and see what kind of flowers will be the most available (and therefore more reasonably priced) at the beginning of May.

For food we’d like to do 4 “tapa stations” with simple but tasty food. Also, instead of cake, we’ve decided to do pie! Neither of us like cake very much, and we both love pie, in almost any flavor, so we think a variety of different pies will be really fun! For drinks we want to use containers like this:We’re thinking simple flavored waters (using different combinations of things like mint, lavender, lemon, lime, melon, cucumber, etc…) and we’ll have really good coffee.

Since it’s going to be more open house style with people coming and going, we’ve (well mostly Kyle) has been coming up with fun ideas of things for our guests to do as they mingle, mix and eat. If anyone has ideas, send them our way!

We’d like to have a photo slideshow continuously looping throughout the reception (we’re thinking we can set up an area with the couches/comfy chairs that the church has in the lobby so people can sit and relax while they watch) and I want to try to have it all ready to go, and then be able to stick in a little clip of the ceremony into it the morning of the reception before burning it to DVD and using it.

We were waiting on my parents to officially set a date since we weren’t sure exactly when they’d be able to come back to the states, but they have figured out they should be good to go for coming back in April in time for a May 6th wedding and May 7th reception!

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Kyle and I have also been doing some wedding band and wedding dress shopping! Both have been pretty amusing. Kyle has a little more extravagant taste with wedding bands than I do, which cracks the sales-people up. The more bling the better for him, and I shy away when it gets to blingy We saw one today that we both absolutely love! It’s a guard (bands on both sides) with lots and lots of baguette diamonds. I did some wedding dress shopping on my own yesterday, and then took Kyle with me today. I’d been debating whether I want to buy a real wedding dress, buy a bridesmaid dress in white, or have a dress made. Kyle has a friend who is a talented seamstress/fashion designer, so having it made is still an option, but we did find a dress today that we both love! Not sure which route I’ll go yet…

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In other news, I bought a car! I don’t have it yet, but it’s a 1999 Honda Accord 2-Door Coupe. I’m very excited it about, it’s super well maintained, it has 105,000 miles, and I got it for a great price!

Kyle and I are church-hunting. Trying to find one close to Warsaw that we can get involved in.

We’re also house/apartment hunting! Kyle would like to move closer to the Warsaw area by January so we can get the place ready before we get married and I move in. So far, no luck, but it’s been interesting! Seen a lot of dumpy places, and a lot of tiny places. Kyle seems to think the super tiny places would work, but there’s no way all my clothes would fit in some of the places!

It’s late, definitely time for bed…

I thought I could resurrect the blog for some….. WEDDING PLANNING!! That’s right, I’m engaged!

Kyle and I started dating 5 months ago. It’s been absolutely awesome to see how God brought us together. These past months have been pretty nuts for me and Kyle has constantly encouraged me and supported me! I graduated from college (with Kyle and his parents attending my graduation!), a friend of mine passed away and Kyle was there for me in such a huge way, I started a new job that involves supervising 5 interns and Kyle has been a great resource for me with all of his management experience, I found myself getting very overwhelmed between working full-time and trying to continue with several side-projects and Kyle encouraged me (in such a positive, not pushy way) to evaluate my time/priorities and understand that it’s OK to say no…. I hope that I’ve been able to be a help and a blessing to him the way he has been to me!

So, how did Kyle propose? Here’s the story!

Kyle took 2 of my girlfriends and I out to Fort Wayne to have a belated birthday celebration for my friend Toni. We didn’t get back to Warsaw until really late, and I was exhausted! After we dropped them both off I was being horrible and whiny saying how tired I was and that I just wanted to go home, and I got annoyed when he didn’t make the turn onto Kings Highway and instead drove into the Village. When he parked by the lake and I said once again that I just wanted to go home he said he just needed 10 minutes! Then he said he wanted me to read the e-mail he had written my parents and he handed me an 8-page printout. I knew that he had begun corresponding with my parents 2 weeks ago, but he had downplayed it and I thought they had only emailed back and forth a few times and were just beginning to get to know each other. Well, the email he handed me, which was the first email he had ever sent them, was asking for their blessing to ask for my hand in marriage! So, I read it, was so touched and honored, but still didn’t know that he was asking me, after all, I never guessed that my parents would have given their blessing already! So I said, “It might take them awhile to say yes!” and he said, “Well, they already did say yes, so I would like to know if you would take my hand in marriage?” and I said, “YES!” Then he gave me the ring, which is so pretty and exactly what I wanted! Then I quizzed him for a few minutes because I didn’t believe my parents has said yes, so he showed me the email on his phone where they had J Right after getting their permission he had ordered the ring, and he had just picked it up that night, and was going to ask me Saturday evening, but was worried that with his family knowing and several of his condo neighbors knowing that someone would let the cat out of the bag.

That was it, sweet and quiet and perfect!

Here’s a few pictures of the ring, and then it’s time for me to sign off for the night.