229 days...

The holidays brought lots of family love. Andrew and I drove back and forth between all the family gatherings and trying to incorporate as many traditions as possible.

We did find time to start our own little tradition. Andrew and I started dating on Christmas eve last year. But it feels more like we started dating on the 23rd because it was one in the morning by the time Andrew worked up the nerve (he's so cute). So we decided to create a tradition on the 23rd that we could do no matter what city we live in and the weather conditions. So we went and got hot chocolate then drove around and looked at Christmas lights. It was just a really relaxing time in the middle of all the holiday craziness. We also thought it would be good for once we have kids:)

Even with all the Christmas festivities I managed to get some wedding planning done. Andrew and I booked our airfare to Florida and the hotel for the night before the cruise. His parents blessed us by letting us use their reward points. We are going tomorrow to get Andrew is passport and once that is done everything relating to our honeymoon is complete. YAY!

My maid of honor came to town for Christmas. So the day after Christmas we went and I tried on my dress so she could see it. We also took advantage of that time to pick out my veil that my mom is going to make. We also went to babies r us so that Kelly could register for the little addition God is going to bring into their family.

I also sent in our engagement announcement to the oswego review so keep your eye out for that!

236 days

I have now been home from break for about a week. Andrew and I went caking testing on Friday, and got our cake ordered. We are going to have a 4 tier cake. The first level is going to be chocolate chip cake with fudge filling. The second level is lemon poppy seed with Bavarian cream filling. Third level is Banana with Bavarian cream filling. And the top tier is carrot cake with cream cheese filling (Andrew's favorite).

I am feeling really good that we have so much done!
Dj= Done
Location= Done
My dress= Done
Bridesmaids dresses= Done
Cake= Done
Photographer= Done

I mean what else is there to do? haha just kidding i know i know there are a lot of details to work out but seriously we have a lot done and a long time until the wedding.

251 Days...

The dresses came on Friday and they are adorable. The exact color I wanted and my mom says that they are really well made and will be easy to alter if needed. YAY!

I have decided that I want the girls to wear their hair down or half back with a white headband that I will supply. something kind of like the picture. So ladies if you're reading this don't chop off all your hair right before the wedding:)

Finals are almost over! and I will be home for Christmas break. I feel like we have all the major things done... Dress, Venue, Photographer, DJ, Don't need a florist or caterer. Of course I'm sure mom and I will still e busy doing lots of little things. But it feels good to have the big things out of the way.

257 days....

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wow what a full weekend. It began on Wednesday with Andrew's dad's birthday party. Followed by thanksgiving with Andrew's family Thursday afternoon and thanksgiving with my family Thursday evening. Then out to the woodburn outlet mall at 10:00pm, a couple hours of sleep and up again at 6:30 for the doorbuster sales!

The first stop was the most interesting. For the most part black friday shopping was pretty enjoyable. There was not any crazy moms fighting over the last Wii. Everyone I encountered were very pleasant. However, at coastal, while we were waiting at the front of the store for the rest of our group to finish up, we noticed a little comotion by the security detectors. There was a women who had set off the sesors, but she was not carrying a bag, only her purse. The security guard was being very patient with her trying to figure out what could have set it off. The lady just kept kind of dancing in place muttering about how this was absolutely rediculous. They finally narrowed it down to something in her purse. When asked if the security guard could search her purse the lady's face said it all. She vehemently refused. The altercation ended with him escorting her back to the security office. On the bright side I got all of my Christmas shopping done:)

Saturday Seve and I had breakfast then went wedding dress shopping with my mom. We went to Rosewood Bridal. All of you who plan on buying a wedding dress someday go to Rosewood Bridal. They have the best service, the most friendly workers, the most comfotable atmosphere, cute dresses, and they are not much more expensive than david's bridal. Needless to say I FOUND MY DRESS!!! Obviously I am not going to post a picture here but if you want to see it let me know and I will send you a pic.

Then Andrew, he father, and I met with a DJ and booked him. So that is another huge thing crossed off my list.

Then this morning I began looking for Bridesmaids dresses (aided by my sister who is home sick on the couch.) I changed my color for bridesmaids dresses from orange to green because I really like green and it is easier to find than orange. No sooner had I decided this than I found a green dress on target.com for $12.94!!!!! You can't beat that price. So we went ahead and ordered them and my mom is going to spend the next few months playing with them to make them fit each girls just right. Aren't mom's great? What would we do without them?

Catch up

So last weekend my whole family went over to black butte to celebrate thanksgiving. It was so much fun to just to spend the weekend playing domino's and making dinner with the family. We do this because Kelly and Trav can't make it over to the valley and Tygh and Britney have Britney's family. With our family it doesn't matter what day you celebrate the holiday on as long as you are with your family.

Andrew and I also had our first pre-marital counseling that weekend. It was really fun because this first session was just going over our personality profiles. I learned that I am hostile and not as indifferent as people think I am. I am also very logically driven. The tests also showed that andrew and I knew each other pretty well for only dating for 11 mon.

On Sunday we woke up to a few inchs of snow, which was a fun surprise. Andrew made a snow man and we had a snowball fight.

Not a lot...

So wedding planning has been put on hold for the time being on my end, seeing as i am down in Corvallis and focusing on school. Although Andrew and i did complete our first five exercises in saving your marriage before it starts. I don't think that we really discovered anything new about each other... but it's just the beginning.

this weekend we are going to black butte to celebrate thanksgiving with my family. My mom and my sister and i are heading into bend on Saturday to meet with a photographer I am really excited about her. I love the colors in her pictures and i think she will be a really fun person to work with.

Then at some point this weekend Andrew and i will have our first pre-marital counseling session with my dad where he will proceed to tell me about all my personality disorders and how Andrew must be certifiable to want to marry me:) so i will fill you in on how that goes after this weekend

Warning: This could be along one

Last weekend was packed full of wedding planning, and family.

Saturday was my nephew's first birthday and of course (Britney being his mom) this was no small celebration. Kelly came into town from bend so we decided to capitalize on having my MOH in town by scheduling as much wedding stuff as we could.

We started on Friday by dragging Andrew along with us to look at tux styles. We needed to figure out what he likes so that we would have an idea what to look for. This went well and we now know what we want the tuxes to look like.

We then kicked Andrew out and my mom and sister and I went to try on wedding dresses! We went to David's bridal because it is open until 9. I did find a dress I really liked but I wanted to try on other dresses to have something to compare it to.

Saturday morning we woke up early and went to Anna's bridal in Lake Oswego. This was a very different experience than at david's bridal. I didn't really like the lady that was helping me she was kind of pushy. And I got the feeling that she didn't like my mom and sister for giving their opinions. She also made it hard to look at the dress objectively... i don't know it's hard to explain. Anyways I found a dress that I really liked and it fit me really well. However, once I left the store and began to picture my wedding and what I would be wearing I could not see that dress as part of the picture... so the hunt continues...

Saturday afternoon was spent at the children's museum where my adorable little Brae was dressed as Ricky Bobby for his party. It was so much fun to watch him smash his face in the cake and sit on the floors surrounded by all his new toys.
Saturday evening we relaxed from the full weekend and once the trick or treaters stopped coming we changed into our comfies and watched The Proposal.

Honeymoon

Andrew and I booked our honeymoon last night!!!

We are going on a 5 night cruise in the Bahamas. We are going with carnival cruise line and leave on Aug 16th from Jacksonville Florida. We stop in Key West Florida and Nassau Bahamas. Andrew also promised me an excursion where I can swim with the dolphins :)

We still need to get our plane tickets and such but the cruise is booked YAY!

Wedding Party Finalized

So Andrew and I finalized the wedding party:
Matron of Honor:
Kelly (sister of the bride)
Bridesmaids:
Britney Colton (sister-in-law of the bride)
Hayley Dulong (cousin of the bride)
Alyssa McKay (sister of the groom)
Nakalan Buzza (friend of the bride)
Seve Skreen (friend of the bride)
Maggie Saunders (friend of the bride)
Sarah Hutchings (friend of the bride)

Best Man:
Ben McKay (brother of the groom)
Groomsmen:
Tygh Colton (brother of the bride)
Travis Vlach (brother-in-law of the bride)
RJ Strength (friend of the groom)
John Rathjen (friend of the groom)
Josh Baretich (friend of the groom)
Andrew Vulgan (friend of the groom)
Michael Hartenstein (friend of the groom)

Nakalan took our engagement pictures today I am really excited to see how they turn out!!

Personality assessment and Sisters

Last week Andrew and I took the personality assessment for our premarital counseling. As I correctly predicted in the assessment I filled out about Andrew it took him twice as long as me to finish:) I am really anxious to see the results. I'm kind of nervous about what they will reveal. And excited to start this process

I had a dream that Andrew and i got married a year before we were supposed to and nothing was the way I wanted it. We hadn't done pre-marital counseling and we had to wait a year to go on our cruise. This is going to be a long 292 days.

This weekend I was over in bend so I got to hang out with my matron of honor:) We did lots of wedding brainstorming. We talked about what I want my cake to look like.We emailed DJs to get quotes. We also begun planning my bachelorette party, which I am super excited about.

I have not had my ring for the past week because it is getting sized and I want it back. I only wore it for a week and it's amazing how quickly you get used to it being on your finger:) But hopefully I will be getting that back this week and I also plan to buy Andrew's ring this week.

Father's are Funny

So Saturday was spent driving around with Andrew, his mom, and my mom. We started out by looking at the Abernathy center. It was really pretty and while we were standing in the gazebo a huge thunderstorm came through with torrential rain.

After the Abernathy center, we went to the Tumwater room, then the Oregon Golf Club, then Rolling Hills, and finally Langdon Farms.

Langdon Farms was the only place that we actually had an appointment at. We met with Mark Garcia and he showed us around and went over all that they do. It ended up being a total answer to prayer because not only was it the place that andrew and I wanted to most, it ended up being the cheapest place we looked at. We are going to have the ceremony in the orchard and the reception in the big red shed.

My mom and I then went home to tell my dad how excited we were and how we wanted to go back on sunday to put down a deposit. After he reenacted a scene from father of the bride, he came out of his room saying it was fine to put down the deposit only if they threw in two farm cards (a card giving you discounted golf for a year) on would be for him and the other for Bill Towne.

So mom and I went back on Sunday to talk to mark and he agreed to throw in the farm cards so we signed and payed and it's offcial! The wedding is on Aug 14th at Langdon Farms. Since the wedding will be outside at a golf course, there are so many flowers that we won't need to have a flowerst. My mom and grandma are going to plant the flowers that I want and we will make our own bouquets. Also andrew is going to build us a trellis for the alter. He's so great:)

It was really fun on sunday to go to church and see everyone and show off my fiance and my ring. I asked Bill Towne to do part of my ceremony and my dad will do the other part.

All in all a good planning weekend.

Fist Step: Venue

Our date is August 14, 2010. Giving us 304 days to pull everything together. Which seems long when i look at paper chain that stretches across three walls of my room. I am praying that the time passes quickly and that i am able to enjoy every min of this process.

We have Rolling Hills reserved as kind of a back up plan, but this weekend we are going to look at places. The front runner at the moment is Langdon Farms Golf Course.

Andrew likes the barn, i like everything. Another option is Abagail Garden at the Abernathy Center in Oregon City. My mom bought the Bravo wedding guide yesterday so i am sure she has a whole day of looking at places planned out.

My colors are orange and white with different birght colors mixed in... and let it be known i picked orange two years ago before it became the new craze:)

Yesterday the emails were flying between my sisters and me.

Andrew and I are also working on finalizing the wedding party. But obviously Kelly (my sister) is my matron of honor:)

The Proposal

So this last weekend we went camping with a bunch of friends for my birthday. We went to Beverly beach just outside of Newport. On Saturday we went into Newport to go to the Oregon coast aquarium because I had never been and really wanted to go. The last exhibit we went too was the underwater tunnel. It was really crowded so Andrew was trying to wait for the crowd to thin out a bit and it just wasn't happening. So at one point all of our friends just sat down along the walland by doing so kind of created a barrier and Andrew and I ended up by ourselves at one end and a crowd of about 20 or 30 were at the other end.
So he asked me what I was doing for the rest of my life and then got down on one knee and asked if i wouldn't mind marrying him:)

The ring that he gave me belonged to his grandmother.

The beginning

It was suggested to me to start this blog to keep everyone updated on the plans as they happen. Since I am not very good at journaling I thought this would be a good medium to write down my thoughts so I can look back and remember what was happening and what I was learning.


That said please comment on content only and not on any grammar or spelling mistakes because I really don't care and it just makes you sound snobby:)