Wedding Planning - Oh the Joys!

I've wanted to post a little more often about the process of planning our upcoming wedding (mostly for my personal record) and have simply not done that great of job. The countdown app on my phone now reads 58 days. We are almost halfway through March, and I know Jake and I will be on flights out to D.C. before we know it.

Side note: We did briefly discuss getting married on March 16. That would have been this weekend! Yikes! 

I know I would have moved a lot faster if our wedding date were sooner, but my days are still filled with constant wedding-related thoughts. I am VERY lucky at this point to have a pretty flexible schedule and have the time to dedicated to check things off my to-do list. I am also very lucky to have Jake be involved in everything. And that his school load this semester is a little lighter and allows him to be less stressed with that.

At this moment, (well not at THIS moment since I'm taking a break to blog), I'm finalizing the design for our invitations. Yes, I am designing them. And Jake is on his computer next to me finalizing some wedding odds and ends he can take care of online. He is the best!

So far my LEAST favorite wedding task is finding a dress. I'm not a glitzy, showy person, so I feel really uncomfortable in most dresses. Last week I end up ordering four—yes, four—dresses online from Macy's and Nordstroms. The last two—including my favorite one—are supposed to arrive today. We'll see if I have to venture to stores again. I hope hope hope not.

The first thing we did was find the date and then spent a week or two conversing with our families finding the best option for our reception. Everything has been pretty low-key and so far we've been good at checking things off our to-do lists.

Back in January, Jake and I created an overall list of everything we needed to get done. I compared it with our timeline and added all of our tasks on the appropriate dates with most tasks assigned to a week. Those tasks all show up on Sundays so we usually take a few minutes each week to review what we are focusing on that week.

This week our focus was housing! I've had a Google Doc spreadsheet with options I've found throughout the past several weeks. We've contacted a landlord and, while we are pretty sure we'll get the apartment, we are still waiting about reference approvals and being able to pay a deposit.

I feel like this post is a bit random. But just typing has given me some ideas for other post directions. Hopefully you'll be hearing from me soon!

It's Time for the Proposal Story

I had already started writing this post when I realized today is the 19th...which means Jake and I have been engaged for exactly one month. Wow, that has flown by! Only 11 weeks and 3 days left. Or 80 days. Or 1,931 hours. Or 115,860 minutes. But who's counting, right? 

This story begins, for me, back in January, probably around the 5th. At least, that's when I realized a proposal may be coming soon.

Jake and I were together that evening looking at some calendar items. I saw his birthday on my phone and mentioned something about it. He told me not to make plans that evening and that he wanted to plan a night with just us. That's what got my mind rolling about the idea. Looking back, Jake says that he wasn't thinking about proposing that night. I don't know if I believe that. It seemed so obvious to me.

The next couple weeks, I saw clues popping up everywhere. Mentions of a secret I'd find out about soon. Comments in conversations with friends. Little things here and there that under normal circumstances might not stand out. But PROPOSAL was on my mind, and I saw mention of it everywhere. Jake definitely stepped up his romantic side (he's always great at that anyways) and surprised me with notes, little presents, and a ton of cute comments about me and our relationship.

As his birthday inched closer, Jake expanded his request for me to not make plans to the entire weekend. Don't plan anything all weekend.

On the Wednesday before that weekend, Jake and I were together at his house both on computers doing homework (him) and working on client projects (me) when he asked something along these lines: "If I planned a big date, would you want to know details or would you want to be surprised?"

"Hmm. I'd be ok being surprised."

That satisfied him for a few minutes, but he couldn't hold in the news when he excitedly asked "Want to go to Vegas this weekend?"

Jake served his mission in Vegas, and we had talked about going to visit before. So the idea wasn't completely random. Again, not necessarily suspicious in other circumstances. Jake thought I'd like a little notice to pack and such, rather than surprising me with that. He told me to pack for an evening out, church, and hiking.

We set out on our drive around 6 am Saturday morning. We both really enjoy road trips and had a splendid time talking, listening to music (yes, I made him listen to multiple Taylor Swift albums), joking and having fun. We arrived at the home of a family from his mission where we brought in our bags, chatted, and prepared to head to the strip for the evening. We walked around for just a little bit, watched the Bellagio fountain show, and headed to see the Blue Man Group.

I could tell Jake was waiting for the right moment. And that he had considered popping the question at the fountains, but in the end, he didn't feel that the atmosphere was right for our relationship. I was simply enjoying spending time with my favorite person and trying not to make him any more nervous. As we headed back for the evening, I knew he was a little disappointed and a little stressed about finding the right moment. He was so darn cute. I was trying not to focus on anything and to simply let things happen—or not happen—as they may.

Sunday morning we got dressed up in our church clothes and headed to Calico Basin. Because of schedule conflicts, we opted to enjoy the outdoors with a casual boardwalk stroll instead of a formal hike. The boardwalk makes a big loop around the area. We took things slow, stopping often, chatting, holding hands, kissing...being a really annoying cheesy couple. In the center of the boardwalk, there's a big deck type of area. We made our way there, enjoying the scenery, the weather, and the company.

This was the moment. I knew it.

Jake knew it too. He stops me and looks me in the eye. I will forever remember the intensity on his face. Leading up to this moment, he shared a poem in pieces every few steps. I'll spare you the details, but it was full cheese, expressing love and happiness and the such. Yes, I loved it. As he looks at me, he asks what I want out of life. After my response, he says how much he loves me. He smoothly pulls the ring out of his pocket, gets down on one knee, and asks me to marry him.

I immediately pull him up, kiss him, and say yes. He has to stop me to say, "You've got to put on the ring!" Oh yea. The ring is on. We are engaged.

We continue our little stroll holding hands, being really happy, with me more than occasionally staring at the ring on my finger. We continued the day by attending a ward Jake served in and visiting another family from his mission—their home is where Jake first introduced me as his fiance.

The family whose home we stayed out provided a fantastic meal for dinner and for Jake's birthday. After dinner, we headed back on the road where we made our phone calls to family and began discussing all the splendid planning details that follow an engagement.

If you haven't heard, we are getting married in the Washington, D.C. LDS temple on May 10. Thank you for all your support and excitement!