Well it's been awhile...

But I've been away for a good reason and I'm back to share all the good news.

We're getting married!

That's right. After 8.5 years, Chris completely surprised me with a proposal on a rainy Monday evening before I went to 6th grade camp. While it sounds totally random, we we're supposed to have pictures taken in Forest Park but they got cancelled due to the unbelievable amount of rain we had (seriously, it hadn't rained like that in weeks!) He had even secretly talked with the photographer about the whole thing but he had to scrap it all.

He ended up coming up with something on his way home from work. I had literally been on the couch since about 2pm, napping, when he came home. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. He said he was going to go try on some clothes downstairs and that he'd be back up in a little bit. About 15 minutes later he called upstairs asking me to come help him. I begrudgingly got up to trudge down the stairs, I think I was muttering, "Seriously?" as I walked through the kitchen. As I turned the corner to head downstairs, I was startled by Chris at the bottom of the stairs, on one knee, with something real sparkly in his hands.

I immediately started crying. I'm a bit of a crier.

After that, I really don't know what he said or what I did. I do know I made it to the bottom of the stairs, agreed to whatever he said, and now have a very pretty ring on my finger.

We celebrated by calling our parents and an indulgent dinner out to Maggiano's - fried mozzarella, pasta, cheesecake, champagne...the works. We said to hell with gluten free for the night (well worth it!)



So now it's been almost a month and after exhaustively searching for a venue available on 10/10/2015 - the only date in October my church had available in October (and wasn't available again til May 2016!) we finally have a venue.

I swear if I hear, "October is the new June" or "October is our busiest month!" one more freaking time, I'm going to lose it. I just picked October because it (most likely) won't be a million degrees in St. Louis and it was one year away..a manageable amount of time. I've waited long enough!

We're getting married at the parish I grew up in and partying the night away at Windows on Washington. I'm honestly stunned that we got Windows - it's pretty fancy, but it ended up being the perfect place out of the choices we had. We are definitely pumped up!

I can say that my head is already spinning trying to think about all that comes with planning a wedding - I can definitely say I have been less than productive in the evenings once I get home from work. My Pin-It button has been workin' ovah-time!

Most importantly I need to stay focused on the fact that I'm getting married to Chris - something I've known I would do pretty much a week after we met...there was just something about him. I can't get caught up in all the silly details. My goal for this next year is to just roll with the punches and not sweat the small stuff (something I am notoriously horrible at!) It is going to be tough but I want to enjoy every minute of this next year.

My plan is to try and write a little more frequently - it will be cathartic to get it all out on the blog, instead of constantly talking Chris' or mom's ear off. Or my coworkers. Or just about anyone who will listen.

So what say you? Give me your best wedding/getting married advice. What must I absolutely do? What shouldn't I waste my time on? Give it up people!

Well I'm off to order some napkins that are on super sale on a party website - and so it begins!