The Misadventures of Place & Date

Well, let the planning begin! I spent yesterday and today looking for ceremony and reception sites. We did a preliminary invite list over the weekend, and came up with around 300 people. (No, that is not a typo. I have a huge family, so I figure close to a third of that is family. So that is definitely a factor in determining the location. We have a close family friend who is the wedding coordinator for her church. I had asked about getting married there, but since we are not members of that church, that won't happen. She was able to give me some excellent suggestions on reception sites, as well as floral shops and bridal shops. Yay! Thank you so much for your help!

My best friend Heather (who will be my maid of honor) and I went to Barnes & Noble Tuesday night, and bought a wedding organizer/planner and also a bridal etiquette book. We had a blast going over the selection of bridal books in the store. Another family friend gave me my graduation present, which is a year's subscription to Bride's magazine. It's fun to look through and start getting ideas for everything.

The neatest part about telling people about our engagement is their reactions. Most people who knew the two of us were not surprised to hear the news. The youth have been really funny. The girls all get really excited, jump up and down and scream, cry and ask for details about the proposal, fawn over the ring. The guys see the ring and are like,"Oh, that's nice." I did have one girl get really excited, and then ask me with total sincerity who I was marrying. Since I thought it was obvious that David and I are together, I was shocked by that question.

Oh well, I guess the next thing to do is nail down a time and place. I hope to have that done as soon as possible. I've been told that after we get that decided, then everything else is just details. We shall see.