Dress Shopping

Last Saturday I had the luxury of picking out the bridesmaid dresses with almost all of my bridesmaids! My sisters were back in town for fall break, Krystal came down from Michigan, Lauren came up from St. Louis, and Jen being here was able to come as well. We definitely missed Bethanny and Andrea who are in San Diego and Minneapolis though. All of the girls initially picked out styles they personally liked, tried them on, then from there we made the final decision. I was glad to let my girls have the initial say in the dress, and with the choice we made, hopefully they can wear it again :) At the end of the appointment, I found out the dress was by the same designer as my gown, and it was made specifically to go with my gown- looks like we made the perfect choice without even trying!

Back 2 Blonde

After over a year of dying my hair dark brown, I have decided to back to the light side. I thought it would take some getting used to, but I have yet to do a double take in the mirror- I feel like me again! I have yet to decide which I like better...I've never been a person that switches their hair color around on a consistent basis, but I have a feeling I might be switching it up from now on!

Honeymoon!

Nate and I have decided to go to.......FIJI! Beqa Island to be exact. We are staying at an all inclusive resort meant for only couples, and only 10 couples at a time, so it is very romantic and private. The package includes a Honeymoon villa by the water, a spa treatment, a private candlelight dinner on the pier, several island activities such as kayaking and snorkeling, and of course all the food and drinks we can handle!

Fiji has always fascinated me since I was a girl, so I am SO excited to finally be going there with the love of my life! It can't come soon enough!

Happy Weight: Truth or Tale?

I have heard of this for years- this supposed "happy" layer of weight that someone can put on in the couple of months following them getting into a relationship. A 10-15 pound gain that people get because they are I guess "happy" or content or whatever. I have heard friends say it has happened to them, celebrities have said so during their interviews-

I never believed it before. It all seems a little backwards to me. To me I always thought, when I was single there was no one around to impress but myself, so what if I gained a few? When I had a relationship that was when I would actually have to watch myself and get those extra workouts in, in order to keep my man thinking I was beautiful.

Well, ladies and gents, I hate to say it but here I sit, 8 months later and about 10 pounds heavier-- when before I was with Nate I was an avid gym-goer and kept an extremely watchful eye on my food intake. At first I thought it was my imagination, I even went to the extremes of blaming my ever-getting-tigher-pants to my mom's dryer shrinking them. But alas, I think my waist has just expanded a bit. What gives? I always thought that after I got into a serious relationship that I would try extra hard to be healthy and make sure I always looked my best for the other person.

After some serious thought over my activity the last yearish, I came up with a few reasons I think this might happen:

1. Dinners out. Drinks. Dessert. I never realized how much couples do these things when getting to know one another! In the midst of the awesome conversation, staring into one another's eyes and all that jazz, before I know it, we have had dinner, a drink or two and dessert- every weekend, REPEAT! When in doubt, when making date plans, it usually is a safe bet that dinner will be included. Sigh.

2. Loss of personal time. When single, you have more free time to work out, cook for yourself, to go out and do things for yourself. Being in a long distance relationship, I see my guy on the weekends which usually means, no work out time. This also means I need to get all my important stuff done on week nights when I don't work, so that cuts into gym time as well. Also, this means I am getting food on the go a lot and making quick, less healthy meals for myself. Blarg. No good.

3. And most importantly- Comfort level/Feeling happy! Nate has always been the type to tell me I am beautiful and gorgeous and all that great stuff every single day. He tells me he loves me no matter what, and that it will never change. The other day when I asked him if he HONESTLY (please please tell me the truth!) thought I looked any bigger, he of course answered "no not at all, you are beautiful as ever). Sigh, such a great guy. But really thinking about it, being so wrapped up, happy, content, being in love, and hearing these words over the last few months has made me convinced- the "happy weight" happens!

It certainly has snuck up on me and now with a wedding coming up, I am in need of a plan to get healthy and back on track with diet and exercise! Not just to lose those pesky 10 pounds but to really get a healthy mindset and in order to feel good about myself and what I am doing for my body on a daily basis. Now that I am aware of the subtle changes that have taken place in my behavior over the last few months, I can make steps towards changing them.

Breaking and Entering

Well as I have learned in the past, it would not be my life without a little drama every now and then. Last night Nate and I had come back to my condo from a lovely dinner at my parents house, just wanting to relax and enjoy the last bit of the evening before he headed to Indy in the morning for his interview (Yay Nate good luck!)

However, when we got home, while trying to open the front door, the key just would not work. It would go in, but wouldn't even turn. It was weird, considering it hadn't been giving me any problems that day or the day before. Nate's key didn't work either, so we were baffled. My roomate was out to dinner but guessing since my key and Nate's key didn't work- neither would hers. I started to panic as I started to hear my cat crying inside and wanting out/us let in. I thought about not being able to get to work in the morning seeing as my computer and everything else important was inside. Nate managed to calm me down somewhat and started calling some locksmiths. None answered. Then I remembered I had left my (TWO STORY) window open and thought we could get in that way. Well the window was way higher than I though it would be but Nate began scheming how he could climb up there anyways. I told him I didn't need a broken legged fiance....

Soooo as a last resort I called my parents house reluctantly because I knew they were in bed and wanted to prove I could handle being locked out like a big girl. My dad proposed bringing over a ladder for us to get in to the upstairs window. So he comes to my condo at 10pm last night in his pajamas with a huge 12 foot ladder hanging out of the back of their SUV. It was quite comical. We looked like a bunch of criminals breaking into my apartment but we managed to get through the window and viola we were in.

Nate, being the amazing guy he is, got up at 6:45 this morning to go to Lowes to buy me a new lock, came over to my apartment to install it all before I had to get to work. So we have a functioning lock with working keys....for now...

Blessed

Nate, my adorable soon to be nephew Evan, and I

Recently, I have been overwhelmed with feelings of gratitude and extreme thankfulness for how blessed I am. I am all moved into my condo and couldn't have done it without my wonderful family and help from Nate! This is the seventh August in a row that I have moved- into either a dorm, an apartment, back to my house, condo, etc. Whew, thanks family for being patient and helpful during all of my moves.

I just got back from Wisconsin Dells with Nate's family and it was a great time with my future in-laws. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful family who is strong in their faith to marry into. It was great to get to know them better and I was able to ask my future sister-in-law, Andrea, to be a bridesmaid!

Speaking of bridesmaids, I have officially asked them all to be in the wedding, and they have all accepted! I can't wait! Each girl has a very special place in my heart and in my life- each being from a different "time period" in my life. Childhood will be represented by my two lovely sisters, Audra and Kaley, who will both serve as my maids of honor. Technically, by the time I get married Audra will be the "matron" of honor! Next is grade school and middle school which I spent in California, and will be represented by my wonderful friend Bethanny Johnson, whom I have remained close to over the years despite the distance. Next is high school, and will be represented by the amazing Jennifer Smith, whom I met on the very first day of 9th grade when I was new and scared and we've been close friends ever since. Then comes college, where I met Lauren Hubbard in our awful psych class, and I admired her "where's waldo" sweater, and we bonded over our strange math teacher and other interesting characters in her dorm cafeteria. Moving on to grad school, I met the bubbly Krystal Fritcher in my stats class, and she quickly became one of my closest friends in such a short amount of time, which I find amazing and rare! And last but certainly not least, is my soon to be sister-in-law Andrea Kolb, whom I am looking forward to getting to know even better and sharing a lot of memories with.

So blessed to have so many amazing people in my life, and of course thats not limited to just the girls in the wedding! Today I can hardly contain my joy!

Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine.

This weekend will mark the one year out date for the wedding! We have chosen August 6, 2011 here in Champaign, IL. It was a simple decision for us, since we met and went to high school and undergrad here, and it is where both of our families reside.

Since I have gathered the information that wedding gowns should be ordered nearly 9 months in advance just in case, AND the fact that both my sisters will be leaving for Texas for their upcoming semester, I had no choice but to go ahead and start looking for dresses. But what I have to admit is that the dress really found me, and it inspired an entire theme which will be....drumroll...Old Hollywood Glamour. Having never thought I could pull the old fashioned bride look off, I am ecstatic that the dress I have chosen was suggested to me and had everyone's jaws hitting the floor. It is completely opposite of anything I would have chosen, not to mention I never saw myself having any kind of "themed" wedding, but here I am already doing the opposite!

Without disclosing too many details to Nate (he doesn't want any dress details or to even see me before the ceremony) I told him we were going to do an old fashioned Hollywood wedding theme to which he immediately asked- "So does this mean I get to be your Humphrey Bogart?" And the funny thing is that my dress ended up being called the "Casablanca" so it was meant to be!

So far we have ideas like renting an old vintage car to drive away in and have picked colors and possible decorations that go along with the theme. I want everyone to be surprised so thats all I will share for now...

Nate has been wonderful helping with the planning! Since he will be heading back to Kentucky to start up his new semester and due to things getting booked up quickly, we've already got our venue, Photographer, and DJ booked, and have set up correspondence with the caterers and florist too. Its seems like a lot but every time I scratch something off the list, more things get added! All in all though, I've enjoyed the planning and can't wait to get closer to start thinking about decorations and registry and all that fun stuff! Thats all for today, thanks for checkin in :)

At the insistence of my small group ladies, I have decided to blog my engagement/and or anything else exciting happening in my life (at least to me anyways:)). I normally wouldn't have thought to blog, but since it was suggested, might as well give it a shot! And Amy brought up a great point- blogging will ensure that I can look back on this exciting time and remember exactly as it was, when I normally might not have remembered all the details. So here it goes...I am getting married! To a wonderful man named Nate, and we have the date set for August 6, 2011. He proposed on July 2, and here is how the story goes::

My sister, Audra, had just gotten engaged a week before Nate popped the question, so needless to say I was extremely surprised, assuming my proposal was further in the distance. I have always expressed my love for the fourth of July, thinking it was such a romantic, fun holiday, but still didn't think he'd propose that weekend. The evening started off just like any other, Nate "drove home" from Indy like he usually does, coming straight over to my house to pick me up for a date night. Nothing appeared to be planned, he let me pick where dinner would be, and wasn't too concerned about the time. We decided on Olive Garden, and Nate had many more bathroom breaks than usual, ha. (He seems to NEVER need to go to the bathroom as much as I do!!)

After dinner, we decided to rent some movies head home. As soon as I was through the door I started to take my shoes off and complain about how tired I was. My parents were acting super odd, both of their noses stuck in books and they were barely making any conversation. Nate suggested a walk which I declined, saying I was tired. He insisted again, that it was a nice night and that we should take advantage of it. I whined I was tired since I had been up since 5:30 that morning and finally he said "WE'RE GOING ON A WALK." Well okay then. I ran upstairs to put some comfortable shoes on and we were out the door. We went on our usual walk which was behind our subdivision by the pond. As we approached the water I noticed candles flickering on the bridge, and I said "oh, thats nice, the bridge is all lit up!" to which Nate replied, "I know." I was in shock saying "what do you mean you know?! Are you asking me to marry you?!" and he said "well, you have about 100 feet to back out!" I immediately started crying as we walked over the candle lit, rose petal covered bridge, and he explained how special or relationship had been from the beginning and what I meant to him. At the end of the bridge he got down on one knee and proposed. I said yes, and he put an amazing ring on my finger, even though I still had my old ring on! I noticed rustling in the bushes, and realized my whole family was in on the set up, and had videotaped the whole thing. I exclaimed, "I'M GETTING MARRIED!" and immediately a bunch of fireworks went off over the lake. I have to say, my own personal fireworks display was indescribable!

My sisters, parents, and my sister's fiance and his friends all popped out and congratulated us, they had all been in on it! Nate had secretly come home from Indy midday to plan and get everything set up. We went back to my parents house for a champagne toast and cupcakes. My sister surprised me with a wedding planner notebook which she had made for me. The whole night was perfect, thanks to everyone who made it the most special night of my life- so far!