Oh Hai.

Guess what?

Kevin and James asked me to marry them yesterday. :)

I was totally surprised. Kevin had said all weekend that he had wanted to go to the arboreteum on Sunday. I was slow in getting up on Sunday, so I got to our new place late. Like 2:30. And then of course, everyone was hungry, so we got arby's drive through, and found a picnic table. We ate our arby's, and once we finished up, Kevin took James to throw away the trash.

At this point, I still have no idea. So when Kevin comes back and sits next to me, and James is like on a light pole blushing and putting his fingers in his ears, I suddenly realized waht was up. So he said that James and him loves me tons, and they don't want to be without me, and would I marry them. I said yes, of course, and James comes running up midway through and jumps us with hugs. And he said we'd be a family. Which made me bawl.

James approved of the bawling, Kevin was like "I want you happy, but not this happy". hee.

It was perfect. It was totally me.

We ordered my ring - I'll take a picture when it comes. :)

So we're thinking Fall, maybe in Las Vegas. I know that my mom is against las vegas, but I think we can do it up, non cheesy style.

So that's it!

Okay, if we go to the UK for our honeymoon, we're going to the Shetland Isles so that we can go OTTER WATCHING!!!!

http://www.shetlandotters.com/

A tour is 80 pounds a couple! For otters!

I wrote Never Teh Bride, who blogs at Manolo Brides, about my shoe problem. She suggested these shoes, but also said I should write the Manolo.

Anyone want to help write the letter so that it is fun and amusing? :)

Endless Love by Kenneth Cole
http://www.bridalshoes.com/endlesslove.htm

Cynthia Rowley's Twilight
http://www.zappos.com/n/p/dp/11990718/c/933.html

Girlthing by Stuart Weitzman
http://www.jildorshoes.com/product.cfm/hurl/Girlthing_White_Satin_Pump/PI=14787

Sumatra by Stuart Weitzman
http://www.jildorshoes.com/product.cfm/hurl/Girlthing_White_Satin_Pump/PI=14787

And these Vera Wangs
http://www.zappos.com/n/p/dp/11990621/c/3528.html

Oh, and these are my current shoes. I didn't pay that price - I got them on clearance:

http://www.zappos.com/n/p/product_id/7131257.html

Is it sad that the first centerpieces that I could actually envision at my own wedding were found on a website of some sort of mennonite?

http://www.lambzown.com/prep.htm

Scroll down. The wheaty ones. I wouldn't want those exactly, but that's the feeling I want.

You can see bits of the other kind of centerpiece here:

http://www.lambzown.com/reception.htm

Scroll all the way down to the bottom - its the pictures with the rings. Would it be weird to email them and ask if they have clearer pictures of the centerpieces? Heh.

I found them while looking at info for the Great Lakes Fiber and Wool festival. They are one of the vendors. They raise sheepies and alpacas! Unfortunately, its 7 hours away from me, because otherwise I'd be there, given the fact that Kevin will be doing WoW stuff that same weekend.

So, I decided I better start thinking about who to book for music at the wedding. We wanted a string trio/quartet for the ceremony, and then I invisioned also having them play during dinner. However, that might get a bit expensive, based on a quote like this:

For 3 hours, the lowest I can go for 2 musicians is $800. Here is the break down:
$150 per musician for the first hour, $125 for every hour after that.

This is our current schedule:

Ceremony: 5:30-6

Cocktail Hour: 6-7

Announcements/Toasts/Dinner: 7-8:30
Open Bar: 8:00-11:00 (KLM requires the bar to close ½ before cleanup time)

We're not having dancing, and I'm not sure anyone would stay until 11pm, without dancing. What do you all think?

Maybe if I had music from 5:15 until 9:15, that would cover the wedding and dinner (we're going to have them play a damn song during the ceremony, that's for sure, if I'm paying 300 bucks an hour for 2 musicians! Hee), and then we could pop in some mix CDs (the site has decent sound system and will play CDs for us) for after that. That would put me at 1050, if I can do the math right.

And I'm not even sure if that's in the budget or is worth it. I do want live music during the ceremony. ARGH.

(Here's one of the places I'm looking at:

http://www.dolcestrings.com )

I"m wearing my new leather blazer today. People keep telling me I look awesome. It's weird. I'm feeling like I have a bit too much cleavage going on, but that's just because I'm boring.

Anyways, the scale said 153 today. Scale, I love you! I need to make an appointment at the bridal salon me and the crazy knitters are going to - luckily, one of them has been married twice, so she knows the perfect place:

http://www.wolsfelts.com/

I'm still worried about how I'm a size 14 on top, while being 4'10. Ribcage, I hate you! Tummy, bad!

We met with Reverend Rebecca last night, and we were both comfortable with her. She's against the illegal wiretapping, after all. She's big into having folks design their own ceremony, but also got that while we want it to be meaningful to us, we don't want it to feel foreign or way out there. Kevin said "Traditional, but not cliched", and she said she loved that idea.

So, I need to finish filling out the contract and mail it today. She costs 500 dollars plus milage, since we're getting married outside the city of Chicago.

We also got the contract for the photographer in the mail, and I need to finish filling that out. Kevin wrote the first installment for that one. :) If you want to see her work - this a link to her actual proofs, you can go here:

http://carter.photodeposit.com/eventgalleries.aspx?src=ev

This photographer seems awesome:

http://www.kristinacarterphotography.com/index.htm

Of course, hiring a professional is fairly big bucks. Bah. (She starts out at 1400. Other places are even more.)

I wonder if these people would make me a wide variety of ice animals.

Like ice wolverines and polar bears and seals fleeing from the polar bears and kitties!

http://www.artbelowzero.biz/icegallery/index.htm

That would _rock_. People wouldn't mind eating homemade chex mix if they got that, would they?

This is actually a cool web site:

http://www.revreb.com/

Parts of it get a bit crazy perhaps, but at the root of it, she talks about what I believe - that what we say and how we say it are critical and important.