We’ve been busy lately (rather Erin’s been mostly working on it) getting people booked to do the various things that wedding people do. You know, reception people, cake people, food people, photo people. I’ve never done this before and honestly haven’t had to deal with anyone who has either, there’s a lot of people to involve. Basically, we have to meet these people, see their stuff or in some way interact with them and figure out if they share our vision for the wedding and can do it a way that won’t break the bank.

We both work, about 8-430 Monday through Friday, we can take off early a bit from time to time but I hate to and want to keep things separate as much as possible. Meetings during the week are perfect and we are open to meeting just about anywhere north of Indy, as long as its after work. I figure that since we are going to basically have our wedding planned 9 months early that should leave us plenty of time to work with people and accommodate them as they accommodate us with regard to finding a time to meet. One person cannot and seemingly will not find time to meet with us. A photographer candidate.

We’ve asked to meet on a weekday, not Friday and not Thursday for a while since we are still attending Dave Ramsey’s FPU. The latest email with them, Friday at 445. No way. Not doing it. Can’t make me. When you specify things that aren’t going to work and that’s exactly what they name, I wonder if they will try to force their will upon us on the wedding day when we are trying to turn our vision into a reality, not theirs.

Bottom line, that vendor is not working with us, not going to be part of our special day and won’t be given another chance to prove themselves. I’m a stickler for customer service and trying to find something that is pleasing to the customer and the vendor. They have not done this and gave us meeting times we specifically said no to.

We’ve got our photographer, they meet with us at a time and place that worked for both of us. We talked, not just about the wedding but about life, the Universe and everything, we got to know one another and I felt comfortable with them performing to our expectations.We share a common style of photography that we like and found someone that sees our vision and wants to help us realize it.

They say the wedding business is fierce, my wedding business won’t be hard to get, you just have to want to work with me, not against me. We have a few more vendors to find, I hope they will want to work with us.

Here is a little of what has been going on so far.  I feel we have gotten a lot done already and are a head of the game.  I have a check list I made up years ago to help my friends as they got married, and by sticking to it, I am calmly dealing with everything as it comes and remind myself of when thing need to be done by and keep myself on track.

We have the church picked out; we have to reception location picked out.  We have the invitations picked out and the colors picked out.  We have what some may call a “theme” picked out; while we call it the feel of the reception.  We are meeting with our top pick of photographers today.  We have the wedding party picked out and a general idea of dresses and tuxes.  We have started to register for gifts, which are listed on this site.  We have started to look at menus for the reception, which we have already decides to not do a meal for.  Mike has picked out his footwear (Chucks).  Mike has picked out his ring.  We have the officiant lined up.  I am sure there are other things we have done, I just can’t think of them right now.

I have had some hard choices to make, well in my mind hard, such as picking my bridesmaids.  I had four people I wanted to be bridesmaids.  Mike only wanted two groomsmen and suggested that I try to keep it even.  I finally talked him to into three bridesmaids, but that still left one out.  So I had to figure out who to ask.  I took into account distance, financial strain and time availability.  After all that and knots in my stomach trying to figure out what to do, I figured out who I would ask.  I am sorry to the one I didn’t, I really do feel bad and wish Mike had another friend to make things a little more even, but he doesn’t so I had to make a choice.

On a lighter side, other things are going quite well.  Everything is falling into place and I think it will be a very elegant affair.  Well, I guess that is all for now.  I am going to tell our story, but that will be another day.

Hello everyone, this is the Erin half of Erin and Mike.  Well, Mike has been bugging me to post something, anything, but preferable something about how things are going with the planning of the wedding.  So that is what I am here to do, but first a little heads up.  As you read our different post you will, hopefully, quickly notice the different writing styles between me and mike, but it is those subtle differences between the two of us that make us so great.  For example the fact that he like Country music, and though I can tolerate it and sometimes like it, I prefer other things, even Classical at times.  Well, now that, that is out of the way, let’s get to what I am here for.

I must point out something in the proposal that Mike left out.  The fact that when he rang the door bell, and I came to the door, in a huff as Mike put it, I had a knife in my hand.  Sure it was just a butter knife, but I think it is part of what made our proposal so unique.  I stood there in complete silence, for the first time in my life, and just stared in disbelief.  I couldn’t believe he was finally asking, after all, I had given up on trying to figure out when and how he was going to do it a year or two prior.  He then told me that if I put down the knife I could have the ring.  Which is where the me saying “Are you serious?  This isn’t a joke?” came in.  So I put down the knife and he stepped in to my house, as my dog walked out the front door.  He is all sweep up in the moment of giving me the ring when I start to turn him back to the door in my little way of saying, “go get me dog that you just shut out of my house.”  He let Pepper back into the house and I FINALLY got MY RING.  The funny thing is, it wasn’t till about a half an hour later that I finally said “Yes.”  It wasn’t till after we had called people that he pointed out that I hadn’t answered him.  After that it took about three or four days for it to really sink in for me, that he had FINALLY asked me THE BIG QUESTION.

(Note my style of run on sentences and massive paragraphs as one of the subtle differences between me and Mike.  I am a talker.  Sometimes I get straight to the point and others, I just have to tell a story.)

I’m going to let Erin write “our” story at a later time, but I think that I should be the one to tell the story of how we became engaged. It was September 17th, 2008.  Erin was out with her mom, doing some shopping and generally just running around, I was at her house working on it, there’s still a lot left to finish. I told her to meet me around 7ish at her house and we’d chill for a bit and then I’d go home. At 730 I was starting to get anxious, at 8 when I was told that she was almost back to pick up her car I was getting angry.

She arrived around 915. Angry had arrived shortly before. We both stomped around, nitpicking each other, pushing all the right buttons. I was mad because she was late, I’m pretty sure she was mad because I was mad she was late and kept calling her about it. I stomped out the back door, taking her trash to the alley, wishing her a good night.

I had to do it, I had spent all evening psyching myself up for this. I knew that all the waiting had to end, all the procrastination had to end. Having since put the ring back in my truck, no since in carrying it around after 8pm right? I got into my truck, grabbed the ring and stormed off to her front door. I rang the doorbell and knocked, I had a key and I think the door was unlocked anyway, I wasn’t in the mood to fumble with keys.

She answered the door in a huff, “It was unlocked and you have a key anways!”

“Will you marry me?”

It was all I could mutter. Nothing else could have came from my mouth, for the last 4 years and the last 3 hours that was what was going through my head.

“You’re serious?”

“Of course I’m serious.”

We spent the next hour calling family and friends, telling them the good news. Almost immediatley the next day, the wedding plans started being made, which brings us exactly to here.

Check out the pages on the left, we’ll post details of the ceremony, reception and any other information you might need to be part of our special day.