Let the planning begin!

WOW what a weekend weve had its been major wedding planning mode. We drove in to Austin on Wednesday and met with two photographers one who I'd been dreaming of using for years... I met him and was very disappointed he was nice and his work was good but he just didnt wow me like i thought he would. and he was a little pricey. Guy number 2 who was kind of my backup plan and who I almost cancelled my appointment with is who I think were gonna use, not only are his photgraphy skills amazing but his editing skills are so cool and he was really pumped and excited about all we had planned for our wedding seemed like a really cool guy and his packages include way more than guy #1...so we went with guy #2

Then Thursday we secured the location of our ceremony and reception, we only had one place lined up to look at, the Weston Centre, its actually a bank and is right on the river walk and its so pretty outside and they drape off the bank lobby so you dont even know its a bank and Kat the lady who we worked with was awesome, very excited and loves her job also she responds to my emails instantly which I love. Later that afternoon we met with a caterer no names mentioned as she did not seem willing to work with us at all on our budget she basically had an attitude that I'm sorry unless you plan on spending X dollars per person(waaaay more than we want to spend) then sorry I'm not willing to work with you so yeah moving on in the catering dept.

Friday I was ill, had a little too much fun on thursday night but did I let that hold up our plans NO we met in the morning with a cake person she was so sweet worked out of her house and her cake was very yummy but her prices were a little high. So we went to our second apt. where we put down a deposit and submitted our ideas they man and woman who run the place were awesome the lady has been baking cakes since she was eight and shes probably in her 30's or 40's which means many many years of cake making and I did not try the cake as my stomach would not allow however M said they were AMAZING... WAY better than the first place and they would give us diffrent flavors and fillings for each tier at no extra cost, and they had no problem doing what we wanted them to do. So we put down a deposit and one more check off the list. Then later we met with another catering place. The lady we worked with there was AWESOME she was willing to work with our budget and was very accomodating, we havent received the proposal from her but it looks promising.

And Saturday Duh Duh Duh we went dress shopping SO much fun but So many decisions. At the first place I tried on my dream princess gowns most were ballgowns and some a-line but lots of sparkle, embroidery, and long trains, I loved them




and then we go to the next place and I tried on the most adorable ballgown




and at the mere $5,995.00 price tag it will not be mine

so on we went to the third place where one of my bridesmaids threw me for a loop and picked out a dress I would have never thought to try on but it was BEAUTIFUL! However we couldnt take pictures at that location and i have searched the internet high and low and have yet to find a picture which even resembles it. I wont even mention the last plalce because they didnt have anything that impressed me including their customer service.

I knew going into the day that I wasnt going to buy a dress in San Antonio as I live in Houston and with fittings for alterations and such I thought it would be too much hassle to get a gown in San Antonio, and there are a ton more places to go dress shopping in Houston so the search continues and Ive been told youll just KNOW when you find THE dress and since Im so torn between several of the dresses I've tried on I know that I havent found the one, but I know I will, i know what i love such as ballgowns and dropped waist gowns with full skirts as well as what I hate...the mermaid style BLECH.

one of his many wordisms

Me: SO whats your plan for saving money?

M: I dont know not eating out as much... I think you should work 5 days a week* until were married

Me: Oh really... I bet you do think that

M: Wait... No.. then youd be all all stressed and run down and youd turn into a brideasaurus

Me: ROLLING ON THE FLOOR DYING OF LAUGHTER

M: What is so funny

Me: Did you mean bridezila?

M: Maybe... no I think I meant brideasaurus thats what youd be so dont work 5 days a week

* I'm a nurse who works 12 hour shifts, if I were to work 5 nights a week I would be working 60+ hours due to travel and such not to mention I work night shift so I pretty much would have no life and would be a horrible person to be around, I have worked 5 nights a week befor as a nurse and while the overtime is AMAZING they take way more taxes and it pretty muched sucked majorly, I would be soooo burnt out with nursing if I did it often

The post Ive been dying to write!!!

Officially as of two weeks ago I'M ENGAGED!!!

I'm so beyond excited and suddenly everything has become wedding related even little normally non wedding related things are now wedding related such as going shopping it goes like this "ooh such a cute dress...I think I can wear that to engagement photos or some other wedding related event." Wedding blogs I have always read however now... I'm obsessed i read them and analyze them and think how it could possiby benefit my own situation. Its so fun though and Ive waited so long for this time that I cherish every moment of it.

Last night the Fiance (teehhee I like to say that) and I were out and had met up with some of his very very old friends and he said well good luck from now on I guess your life is gonna be very stressful and way too busy. I told him NO I refuse to let myself be overwhelmed and stressed about it, it's supposed to be a fun time in ones life and I'm going to let it be that, if I find myself getting stressed and overwhelmed that's when I need to step back and take abreath and reassess, life's to short to be stressed about minute details

SO come back in about 8 months and ask me about this post I hope I held myself true to my word.

Now for some pictures of the little beauty that I luuurve, I took some inspiration from a blog I read recently







details on the proposal to follow tomorrow

BELIZE

Ok so WOW where have I been!! I have so many posts I need to post... I was in Belize for 10 days over Easter and came home and life has been a bit of a whirlwind since on top of the fact that our Internet was down until about a week ago.

so here I am lets begin

BELIZE ... wow what an amazing trip

I went with an awesome group based out of Slidell, La called Dos Amigos we flew into Belize City, Belize and then took this microscopic plane to Punta Gorda which is in the Toledo District in Southern Belize. I got to ride in the copilot seat!!! SO exciting although I kinda got freaked out when i look over and the pilot is laughing his head off and talking to someone on his headphone and writing notes on paper etc all the while we are in the air now I know they have autopilot but still kinda crazy.



Once we got to our camp, which by the way was AMAZING, (I got way blessed this year as our living quarters are way nicer than they had been in past trips we had bunk beds and an indoor shower and even a freezer for our water) we had dinner unpacked and prepared for he next day.

Throughout the first 8 days we were there we traveled by yellow school bus to different villages in the area to provide medical/dental/optical/social care to the people. these people don't have much access to dental care and not to mention it can be expensive, so the people would wait outside in 100+ boiling sun with crying babies to get teeth pulled!!

I ended up working in the dental area which is not by any means what I went on the trip planning to do, they needed help and said they needed a nurse, someone who was not squeamish to blood, to help them so I said ok well see how this goes..ends up I LOVED IT!!! I got to pull teeth, give the oral anesthesia injections, and hold many a hand and whisper many a word of encouragement, now of course I was working with a REAL dentist and he would tell me exactly what to do and such but it was so much fun!!!

I cannot begin to explain how we got through those days, only one word will suffice and that is GOD I don't know how I would have ever made it through the working conditions we had such as temps over 100 degrees in little buildings with minimal air circulation, you could just feel the sweat pouring out of every orifice, but it was awesome, God delivered us through it and we got up and did it day after day with smiles on our faces!!! I think something that really made it worth our time was seeing how eager people were to get teeth pulled and they would thank us with bloody gauze filled smiles and some people would ride bikes or walk several miles to come see us at the next camp the next day to have MORE teeth pulled

The trip was truly amazing, and the area was just beautiful as were the people.




That's me giving an injection!!!

Finally the last few days we got to go to Ambergris Caye for a little R&R which was an awesome end to such an awesome trip, we went snorkeling and I got chased by an eagle ray and saw nurse sharks and a baby sea turtle SO COOL!!!



The most special thing about the trip though was that I got to experience something my dear grandmother has loved for the last 12 years and this was her last year to go and my mom went too so we had three generations of women and it was truly special.