New Woman

Today is a much better day!
I feel like things are coming together and I just need to be patient. Our wedding planners, Christina and Alisa, have been wonderful! Christina is so great about responding to my 100 emails a day, lets me whine to her and understands all my worries. Mike probably appreciates them even more b/c they are keeping me slightly sane :)

Christina and I went to look at a venue this morning. It was fantastic but it might be a bit too expensive for our britches. We are looking at our final venue on Monday afternoon then Tuesday will be DECISION DAY!
After the venue visit, we talked about colors. I told Christina my color idea and she ran with it. Right when she got home, she emailed me with ideas and an inspiration board. I was so happy with it and the colors we are going with!!!

imagine a little more Carolina blues & Appalachian yellows:)

Another Year, Another Letter

The Myrtle Ave house hosted their annual Letter themed Halloween Party. The chosen letter this year was B.

I'm not a big fan of dressing up (probably b/c I'm not creative), but I LOVE seeing how much thought others put into it. We had so much fun last night and had lots of laughs at a few costumes. Since Mike & I are on a budget due to the little fact that we are getting married next year, we decide to be lame and cheap with our costumes. I wore a veil and brought my bride bag and was a "bride to be". Mike bought some silver balloons and was "balloon boy" aka Falcon.

(Beach babe, Bride to Be, Bump in the Road, Bingo, Breakfast Club, Bollywood, Batman, Boxes of cereal that made up the breakfast club)

Adele has her beer stash in her beach bag!

Isn't the bachelor such a stud?!?! Kat is workin it too

Bronzer much?!?! I asked them to dress like this to my wedding

Caroline & Will were HILARIOUS! I loved Caroline's shoulder pads

Bed wetter and the bump in the road...way to be a trooper E!

Banana, Beach bum, Balloon boy & beer pong!

Can't wait to see what the letter will be next year!

Laundromat

We haven't booked a reception site yet and places are starting to book up. We found out yesterday that our favorite place got booked late last week. bummer!
I was having a "woe is me moment" and Mike tried to cheer me up this afternoon. He sent me this link and said we could always do what this couple did.
Click Here

Yes, I am judging and will NOT get married in a laundromat!
Cross your fingers we have a reception site booked by this time next week. If not, we might just call it a day and elope (sorry mom but I will if I have to)!

Sweet Friends

I seriously have the best friends ever (that includes my sisters)! There have been so many sweet messages, emails, phone calls, cards and gifts since we have gotten engaged. The planning has been a bit overwhelming and it has been a blessing to have so many people willing to help and share in our excitement.

Kel passed on her "bride" bag to me, the bible study girls gave me tons of wedding magazines and lotion and Whitney made us "wedding planning" crowns!

Thank you for making us feel so loved and encouraged :)

Picture recap

I know I'm behind on blogging but this wedding stuff is getting in the way!
I would love to blog about everything we saw and did but that would take way too much time. It was an amazing experience and it was even better that I got to share it with my future husband.

My only advice is to visit the Cinque Terre if you ever have the chance. We hiked through the 5 towns and it was more beautiful than I could have imagined.
Here are a few of my top favorite pictures...

Do you know what you are getting into

That is the phrase I have said to Mike a lot over the last week. Poor guy...does he really know what he has signed up for?!?!

Well he officially signed up for it last Sunday when he got on one knee and asked me share the rest of my life with him. I was in complete shock but said YES before he could finish asking me.

Mike has been planning this proposal for the last 6 months and did a great job of playing "dumb". He was successful in getting the ring through security all the way to Europe. Sunday morning we were getting ready to head into Munich for Oktoberfest with his brother and sister in-law. Before we left, Mike and I walked up the hill to an old fort that overlooked the surrounding villages. It was a gorgeous view and the weather was perfect. I had no clue what was about to happen because I was convinced he would not propose in Europe (and I was in a slightly pissy mood because we were running late).
Mike handed me his ipod and told me to watch this video he made for me. It was a sweet video of all our pictures over the last year and a half. There was music playing all during the video and at the end were the lyrics to the song...THAT MIKE WROTE! My sweet boyfriend wrote a song and played it on the piano.
When I looked up, he was on one knee with the ring box open. He said some really nice things that I don't remember (b/c I was in shock and shaking). After I said yes and started hugging him, the church bells started going off. It was totally not planned but it was so awesome!!!!!

Having so many great pictures of the proposal, thanks to his brother, means the world to me. I am so grateful for every picture and have loved looking through them (all 98 of them).

After a week of just being engaged and enjoying our vacation, we are back home and have started the planning process. Let the fun begin!

and we're off...

We are getting ready to head to the airport for our European adventure. I promised Lora I wouldn't come home early and Mike will make sure of that! I have no intentions of reliving my "Roughing it backpacking mini Europe vacation" that I had with Kelly after we graduated. No hostels, no cold weather, no backpacks, more clothes and much more prepared :)

We are actually really excited about being away from work for 10 days and just exploring new cities together. I am slightly nervous about not having my computer or cell phone for 10 days. I have already downloaded everything I need on Mike's phone so its not like I will cut off from the world :)
Lora & Em have bets that I will come back with 1000+ pictures. Hopefully I will get some good pictures at all these places we are going...