Grown Up

Well, Garrett and I are officially done with college. At least we hope so - but grades come out tomorrow, so I guess we won't really know for sure until then. We didn't go to our graduation ceremony - judge us all you want.

I don't know what to do. I worked in the mailroom Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday ... and wished I had some homework to do.
People keep telling me that a Family Studies degree is a complete waste without grad school. I guess we'll see what happens with that.

Today Garrett went to work for the first time all day. It's 10:08 and I miss him like crazy and I have tried to text him 80 times and then remembered that Red Earth is not IT at OC and therefore he can't text me all day long. This is what is making me hate being grown up. Once I start working it will be better, I'm sure, but we have been really spoiled with getting to see each other randomly during the day at school.

I am thankful that we both have jobs, and we are very happy with each other. Being married is the most fun thing I've ever experienced. Obviously, there are ups and downs, but living with my best friend is fantastic and he does so many things that make me feel like the luckiest girl alive.

Ha.

Obviously I'm really, really bad at this. I quit, until after graduation when I actually have a life. So, for my 2 readers out there ... I will be back on December 14th.

Being domestic

I've decided our kitchen is impossible to keep clean.

Kitchen - 100, Kenz - 0.

Meh.

Also I hate folding laundry. Usually I let it sit in the laundry basket, completely clean, until one of us runs out of socks. Usually there are clothes that sit in the dryer until the next time I do laundry and actually need the dryer to ... DRY.

Laundry is also beating me. At least I do it though. There are clean clothes in the house, just not necessarily in the drawer that they belong.

At least I can cook.
I'm winning at that.

Soup

I am finally getting better and I would like to go on record as saying that I would never ever recommend anyone to take 21 credit hours while they are trying to figure out married life and working 16 hours a week. It's no wonder I got sick. Luckily, my online class starts it's 3rd week on Tuesday. It's not going so badly, I'm doing decently in it, but there is so much work every day. It's amazing that I ever sleep. But, sleep is on of my biggest priorities. Ever since getting married I have received an average of 10 hours of sleep a night - AND IT'S GLORIOUS. It was just 3 years ago that I was averaging 4 or 5 hours a night ... or less ... I think I would die if I tried to do that now.

Also, I think the soup cured me. Oh, and the TLC from my husband.
I had Panera on Thursday night, McAlister's on Friday night, Panera Saturday night, and homemade potato soup at Garrett's parent's house for lunch today. AND I'M STILL NOT SICK OF IT. Obviously I have a problem. Obsession. Call it what you will, I fully intend on eating the leftovers Garrett's mom sent home with us tomorrow night for dinner, along with the sourdough baguette we bought today at Wal-Mart.

In other news ... I played piano a lot today and I am going to try to have Carol of the Bells ready by Christmas. :D

Worst Blogger

Ok,so we are going to pretend that I didn't completely skip DAY 2 of my 365 day blog. Sheesh. That didn't take long.

If it's any consolation (to myself...I guess) I've been sick since Tuesday.
Yesterday was pretty awesome though, I got to have an awesome girl's night with Megan, Jessie, and Stacey, where I consumed my 2nd bread bowl in a span of 2 days ... and the sad thing is that hubby is currently on his way to Panera to get me another one. Apparently I only eat soup when I'm sick. The night was awesome, with lots of piano playing involved.

Today I thought it would be a good idea to actually venture outside of the house and go to the OC homecoming parade. We found Garrett's mom and his aunt Joy, as well as my favorite little boy, Jason.:) (p.s. cutest kid ever ... but I'm slightly biased.)
Anyways, by 1pm I was CRANKY and completely worn out. Did I mention cranky? (My poor husband.)

I've decided that the worst part about being sick and in college is that there is really no such thing as a sick day. If anything, the fact that you are not in class or at work is a good excuse to try and make that huge mountain of homework slightly smaller. Also, online classes DO NOT....I repeat, DO NOT care if you haven't ventured from your bed in 3 days. You still have to turn homework in ... speaking of which, I should really be doing that right now.
But I have Panera coming .... noms. Anyways, there is no such thing as a sick day. I remember in elementary school getting to stay home and watch TV all day, which was a pretty big deal because my family doesn't watch a lot of TV. Then I started being homeschooled, and we didn't have to do schoolwork if we were sick, but we weren't allowed to watch TV because the TV was in the school room. But now I freaking have to do homework while I'm in the process of hacking up a lung. Oh well. In a month and a half I WON'T EVER HAVE TO DO HOMEWORK AGAIN. *insert Hallelujah Chorus here*

I would also like to take this opportunity to say that I have the most amazing husband.
The End.

365 Days of Blogging

Obviously November 3rd, 2010 is the prefect day to start a year of blogging. Ok, actually, I had every intention of starting this right when we got back from our honeymoon so that I could record the highs and lows of our first year of marriage. But we just got so busy with school that it hasn't happened. The only reason that it is happening today is that I am too sick to move from my big cozy bed.

So here we go.
Obviously, today isn't starting out so hot. But I'm thankful for the break. Side note: Do not ever take 23 credit hours, especially when you have a ridiculously bad case of senioritis. You will most definitely lose your mind.

Luckily I have an awesome husband who made sure I had all the essentials right next to my bed before he left for school. (Computer, Kleenex, water, and dark chocolate peppermint bark.)
Also I have this ridiculously comfortable bed and an awesome BFF named Megan Willson who gave me her Netflix password so I could spend the day watching chick flicks online.

Here's to being cured by 8:00pm so I can go and see Thoroughly Modern Millie with the husband and mother-in-law. :)

Stuck in the Middle

Being married is the GREATEST thing.
I only have one complaint. I feel stuck in the middle.
Example. We are trying to find a church. We are still in college, so we want to hang out with college aged people. But when we go to college Sunday school classes, there is this HUGE lack of alikeness. What I mean is, those people aren't married, and I feel like being around other married people would greatly benefit us. Hopefully we will find somewhere we can connect, because I would love to have more married friends.

Similarly ... I went shopping yesterday and I feel like I am in the middle of clothes. I don't really like juniors clothes anymore, I really have no desire to look like a teeny bopper, and I would like to eventually be taken seriously. However, shopping in women's makes me feel old and I have this fear of going home at Christmas and having the same sweater as my mother. I already have issues with matching that I think came with being forced to wear pouffy lacey dresses on Easter every year that exactly matched my sister. I mean. Matching with your sibilings is one thing, but matching with your mother is completely different.
Also, part if this isn't even my problem, I've decided elderly women still really want to dress like their young, but picking out a shirt and then seeing it in the shopping cart of 103 year old woman does not make me want to buy said shirt.

I promise these two things relate.

Update

For my 2 readers ...

We are doing well.
We are really happy.
We like being married.
We are still in love.
We are all unpacked.
Our duplex is awesome! Come visit!
We are learning a lot about the other person - I love this part!
Stop asking us/me about babies.

The End.

30 Day Shred

Somehow I went the opposite direction of most brides and GAINED weight while I was planning my wedding, probably from all the stress. Anyways. I'm really not happy with my weight right now, also, my jeans are getting a little tight and ... I have to wear them all winter.

I bought 30 day Shred like 2 weeks ago ... obviously one of my biggest problems in lack of motivation.
So yesterday Garrett threatened not shaving if I didn't work out. Weirdly enough, I think this will work. I love his beard ... I HATE it when it gets nasty and gross.

Anyways. I'm starting today. Here it goes. Jillian Michaels, you will not win!

Thank you, Meredeth

All my wedding pictures are here!!!!!

So many people ... SO MANY .... told me I would regret not hiring a professional photographer. I was so excited to prove them all wrong because I knew that Meredeth would do such and amazing job and she was more amazing than I even thought she could be!

I LOVE ALL 444 of them.

Thank you so much Meredeth for taking amazing pictures for us that I can't stop looking at because they are so incredible.

First Dinner

Well, you know how some people write blogs with cute pictures about the first dinner they made for their brand new husband? And the pictures have delicious looking meals on cute new plate settings, with flowers in the center of the table?
This blog will not have pictures.
I made French Toast for dinner, which I had never made before. The bread I made it on was really thick because Garrett likes TX toast, so I said, "sure, why not?" Anyways, I cooked it until the bread was brown on both sides, and Garrett cooked bacon, and we sat down to eat. We each cut into the bread, that oh by the way, was still soggy in the middle and gross. Garrett is such a good sport and ate 2 pieces anyway, but we definitely threw away the left overs.
We didn't take any pictures, even though I love our new Fiesta Ware. It's blue and green.
And we didn't have flowers in the middle of the table either. Well, we did. But they're dead and I'm getting up to throw them away and wash the vase as soon as I finish writing this.

Hopefully tacos tomorrow will go over a lot better.

The End.

Wife. :)

We are back at home, and currently in the middle of our first day back at OC. (Our last first day!) I thought about taking a picture of the two of us like your mom does before you go to kindergarten, but I imagined the look I would get from Garrett if it was mentioned and decided not to mention it.

It's hard to believe that we have already been married for 11 days. Our honeymoon to Chicago was awesome and flew by much faster than I wanted it to, but we had an awesome time. We came home to a broken air conditioner that didn't get fixed for another day and a half, so we weren't able to move Garrett's stuff in until yesterday afternoon. But our duplex is finally looking like a home and I absolutely love it!

Being back at our duplex, and going to school where I am referred to often as "Mrs. Keck" is really starting to make me feel like a wife!

Stressed

I'm starting to feel the stress that comes with a wedding. I was kind of wondering when it would turn up.

I'm nervous that things won't come together the way I have them envisioned in my head. While I was making centerpieces, I tried the idea that was in my head and it looked ... terrible would be an understatement. I'm hoping that doesn't happen with the way I want the stage set up, or the paper lanterns, or anything else.

I'm also worried about the way everyone will look. I hope the room isn't exploding with color. All the groomsmen have different ties, and the bridesmaids have different flowers ... (ties and flowers match) I'm kind of starting to worry about that. It's going to be a lot of color, with no suit jackets to cover up really bright ties.

I'm also nervous about my parents meeting Garrett's parents. Not really sure why. I think this is normal.

I'm also kind of worried that my sister will cause more problems. She begged me to let her wear converse and have a sash on her dress, and I gave in because I was sick of her being a brat. (Granted, I'm wearing converse, but my dress is looong so you can't see them!) Now I'm kind of wishing I would've stood my ground because I think that it will look weird to have her wearing tennis shoes while everyone else is wearing heels or cute flats. I was just so sick of her giving me a hard time about it. I gave into the sash as long as she bought one for another bridesmaid too, and even though now there will be 2 people with a sash instead of just one, I still think it will look funny, but the truth is that a sash won't look good on anyone else. I just don't want to look at the pictures and have the first thing people say is, "Why is Haley wearing tennis shoes? Why do only 2 people have sashes?" Maybe I'll just tell Meredeth not to take any pictures of people's lower halves. *head desk* I don't even want to think about it.
I'm probably just super paranoid.

I just want it to
1. be perfect and
2. I want to prove to my mom/other people that I successfully planned an awesome wedding on what seemed like the smallest budget in the entire world. Everyone said that I couldn't do it, but I want them to come and say, "Holy crap. She did it."

I know all the material stuff doesn't matter because at the end of the day I am still marrying my best friend, but it's really hard to convince myself of that sometimes, because I still want things to look good.

At least I know that I'm going to have some awesome wedding pictures. Have I mentioned lately how excited I am that Meredeth is going to be taking them?

Uh ... apparently I haven't posted anything for awhile

Today Mumby told me I hadn't posted anything in awhile.
So. Here we go.

13 days til the wedding. Um ... holy crap? Where did my summer go? I thought that the few months leading up to the wedding were going to move suuuuppppeeerrr slowly. Um. Not so much. I didn't realize how often I said, "oh ... I'll do that later." NOW is LATER.

Also I'm super excited for the wedding. And for Chicago.
Wrigley Field.
Boat Tour.
Blue Man Group.

House!

This weekend Garrett and I moved my stuff into this awesome duplex that we found with the help of his awesome mother. It's pretty much fantastic and obviously way better than living in a tiny OC Phase 2 apartment. It has 2 bedrooms and 1 1/2 bathrooms, a big living room, an awesome kitchen, and my 3 favorite things:
- a dishwasher
- a washer
- a dryer
So far the only thing that has gone wrong is the air conditioner going out last night. Which, you know, wasn't that big of a deal since it was only 106 yesterday. Hopefully that is getting fixed as we speak ... :/

It is so great having an entire house I can decorate however I want ... with Garrett's input of course. :)

I can't wait to move his stuff in and have him living there with me and make it our home! And have dinner parties and Wii parties and game nights ... of course that might have to wait until we have enough money for something besides macaroni.

But it's so great. :)

Only 16 more days til the wedding!

PROGRAMS!

I know you have all been dying to see the programs that I talk about so much. We are currently in the process of printing and cutting them, and they will be all done and assembled tomorrow! Here is what they will look like!

Also - get Crystal Mumby to design your programs for you.



On this program the paper colors are blue and green, but on 1/2 of them it will be orange and pink.


Awesome, right?!

Excited.

Please let me tell you all of the reasons that I am so excited to be a wife.

1. I am beyond excited to not have to tell Garrett goodnight and then have him leave to go home. I hate that part of being engaged.

2. I can't wait to make weekly menus, and grocery lists, and try out all the awesome kitchen stuff we got at our shower. I am so excited to have dinner on the table when he gets home from work.

3. I am excited to be a housewife. I love cooking. I like cleaning (I know - shocker to those of you who have lived with me). I don't mind doing laundry. I probably belong in the 1940's. I'm excited to split up chores and I hope he doesn't mind doing the things I hate and the other way around. P.S. I hate vacuuming.

4. I am excited to learn new things about each other. Sometimes I feel like I go long periods of time without learning anything new about Garrett. But I know that there are so many things that I don't know! I can't wait to find out what they are.

5. I am even excited to do homework with him. I love spending time with Garrett, but we have never ever done homework together. This could be really interesting since next semester he is taking 18 hours and I am taking 20.

Mostly, I'm just excited to experience everything with my best friend. One month and one day til I'm Mrs. Keck. :)

34 Days!

I seem to have taken a long break from doing anything related to the wedding. The next 34 days are going to be hectic!
Today we are hopefully:
1. Selling my car
2. Getting an apartment at The Links.

I keep thinking that there really isn't a whole lot left to do, but I keep thinking of things randomly - usually at like 3 in the morning.

We still have to:
-order flowers! I went and looked at flowers in May, and she told me to come back the middle of July to order them! Time went by really fast.
-make programs! I've really just been procrastinating on this because every time I go into Microsoft Publisher to format them I end up wanting to throw my computer up against a wall 10 minutes later. But this weekend I have asked my awesome finacee to help me, even though he can do in 10 minutes what I can do in 2 hours - and that frustrates me. :P
-I really want to have a kid's table. But I don't know how many young kids are going to be there. I know there will be a lot of college-age people, but I know there will be a lot of people from Edmond CoC too, and I'm assuming they will bring their families. So, I want to have some games for them, but I don't really want to spend any more money on something that I'm not sure will get that much use.
So, I thought about printing out some coloring pages and getting crayons from Dollar Tree or something. I also thought about making an "I SPY" page with things like "shiny jewelry," "someone giving a kiss," stuff like that. I know ... CHEESY ... but cute too, right? I also know there is a website somewhere were you can make your own crossword puzzle, so I could make that wedding related too.
-I still need to talk to Karen Driskill about my cake. I've sent her 2 that I like, but I haven't picked one yet. Here is the one we will probably end up with ...

The other one that I'm thinking about has white fondant around the entire thing, and has these cute blue flowers with green stems going up the side of the cake. The only thing is that I'm worried that fondant won't taste as good as frosting. Anyways, that is my cake dilemma.
-We also have to pick up all our stage decorations from Karen's house!
-We still need candles!
-We still have to go shopping for food. That we won't do until like 2 days before. I wish food didn't go bad. I really DON'T want to make a Sam's run two days before the wedding. :P

45 days!

Sorry I haven't written anything in a long time! I know everyone out there is DYING to hear the latest news about the wedding. (ha. ha.)

Well. There really isn't any new news. I'm ready to get married! There's nothing left to do, except make programs - which to tell you the truth are going to take FOREVER.

We are done buying everything for the wedding except for some candles. We still need to pay the cake lady, the flower shop, and give Annetta money for food ... but that is all stuff that we aren't really dealing with so much - just giving people money.
Once August rolls around we will be busy picking up things that we are borrowing from people and stuff like that ... but for now, July is going by EXTREMELY SLOWLY!

Iron and Wine

I found a way to fit an Iron and Wine song into the wedding.
Er. Correction. Crystal Freaking Mumby did.
The bridal party will be walking down the aisle to Such Great Heights.
I.
AM.
SO.
EXCITED.

Now - to fit Five Iron Frenzy in ...

Vow Writing

Garrett and I are writing our own vows. I've just always thought that it would be sweet thing to do, and kind of adds a personal touch to the ceremony. Thankfully, knot.com was here to help, and sent me a list of 20 things to consider putting into your vows. However, I am not having the problem of vow writing writers block. I'm having the opposite problem. I could go on for days about how much I love Garrett and how excited I am to be married to him. I could make a list 12 miles long full of things that I promise to do for the rest of our lives. How do I condense this into something that is a minute long? I want them to be funny ... because, let's face it, we are not serious people, but I want it to be sweet ... but not mushy. I don't want people to tear up because they are so sweet ... mostly because if other people start crying than so will I ... shoot ... I'll probably cry either way.
The Knot suggested mentioning how you knew that you loved the person you're marrying ... how your life has changed with them in it ... things you can't wait to experience with them ... and things that you promise to do. Yeah. The only one of those that won't take me 5 years to explain would be "when did you know you loved him?"
This is hard.

Reassurance

For every single person who questions my sanity when I tell them I have a best man ... here is my explanation. (Which ... according to poll results ... only 9 of you will read.)

Josh is my best friend. Well. Garrett is my best friend of course. But if he didn't exist, Josh would be my best friend. I met Josh freshman year at OC and we have been best friends ever since.
At first, my mom suggested the idea of making Josh my best man. She said it's a new wedding fad so people wouldn't think it was weird. (She was wrong.) Also - it's 2010! I can be untraditional. But ... I decided I was too much of a traditionalist.

First I asked Josh to usher. Changed my mind and asked him to stand at the guest book table. Decided that job was better for a girl. Changed my mind again and asked him to light candles. Decided that wasn't good enough either. Then I contemplated coming up with another bridesmaid and throwing Josh on Garrett's side. I couldn't come up with anyone else. So. That is why Josh is my best man.

Everyday someone questions this decision. I want to blow up in their faces and tell them that I'm already stressed enough planning a wedding on such a small budget, and not being able to have dancing (I've had my father/daughter dance song picked out since I was 8) ... so just leave me alone and let me have my best man. But I am not bridezilla so I haven't blown up at anyone yet.

I will just say that every time I doubt this decision and worry too much what other people think, that Josh reassures my decision every single time by showing me why he is my best friend, and why I can't wait to have him standing up on the stage with me when I marry Garrett and start a new chapter of my life. His support means the world to me.
I might be crazy, but I don't care.
The End.

Songs ... subject to change :)

If I don't write this down I will change my mind a million and six more times. I might do that anyway.

People getting ushered in: Pride and Prejudice soundtrack
Bridesmaids: Somewhere Over the Rainbow - Glee version
Bride walking down the aisle: Falling in Love in A Coffee Shop - Landon Pigg
Sand Ceremony: Better Together - Jack Johnson
Recessional: Best Friend - Queen

Poll

VOTE ON MY SONG POLL!
So far it's been a complete bust. 2 votes for one and 2 for another. People - this is not helping. But, it's comforting to know that 4 people read this thing.

Finally

I feel like we have finally reached the point where we don't have to think about the wedding every single second. Everyone has clothes to wear at the wedding, we know where we are getting the cake and the flowers, we have rings, suits, decorations, etc.
I don't know what else to do. We have to make programs eventually, but not yet.
It's nice not having to do wedding stuff everyday when I get off of work - but I'm bored.
I'm constantly thinking about how excited I am for the wedding, so I would like to be doing something for it while I'm thinking about it. But, on the other hand, it's nice to not have a list of 678 things to do. The next 72 days are going to be looonnngggg.

I am just ... SO EXCITED.
On Saturday I met with Meredeth and talked about wedding pictures. Mer makes me so excited to get married. She might be more excited than I am. Ok, probably not ... but close.
Then I found out that my friend Hollie is going to do everything she can to come to the wedding - something that I was not expecting since she is from my home town.
Today my friend Jesse called and I haven't talked to him in FOREVER ... and he told me that HE is planning on coming also. I almost cried. Jesse has been my friend since 8th grade, and my wedding day would not be complete without him.

Huge Blessing. :)

Today Sonshine School at Edmond Church of Christ called and offered me a job for every Tuesday and Thursday in June and July. YAY! I'm totally pumped. I have been looking for a Tues/Thurs job but haven't had a whole lot of luck. I'm so excited to get to work there, and it will also count for Family Studies Practicum - so I won't have to cram another job into next semester!

Also ... I am so excited for this weekend because we are going to look for a suit for Garrett. If you know me ... at all ... you know how much I love men in suits. Also we're going to look for his ring! I'm so excited.

Wahoo!

I've finally reached the point where I don't feel like I have a list 100 items long of things to do everyday.

Yesterday Mumby and I made some sample programs! They are AWESOME and CUTE and everything I could imagine - but they are going to take a lot of work, especially just for a program. But they will be cute. If people don't remember anything about the wedding, they will still remember the program!
Josh figured out that if I do 2 a day I'll have them all done by the wedding. :)

Also, I started printing out addresses on envelopes - and so far I have only messed up on one of them! Thankfully Garrett's dad has sacrificed his office to be taken over by wedding invitations a couple times this week. I'm like 1/8 of the way done - but I've also pushed the date back of when I'm going to send them out. Originally I was told 8-10 weeks before the wedding, but yesterday I was told that since the majority of our guests will be from Edmond, 6-8 weeks in advance will be fine.

The only thing I am kinda worried about now is that by the time our wedding rolls around people will be sick of going to weddings. I mean, I know I would be - and I am planning on attending at least 6 weddings this summer. Shoot. I might not even go.

Ties...Registry...Counseling

The biggest problem with having 7 guys who need different colored ties is that there are few brands that have all the colors I need.
-Red
-Orange
-Light Blue
-Green
-Red
-White
-Yellow
But we finally found one that has every color except for yellow. We bought all the colors except for red, because they didn't have that color at the Kohl's in Tulsa. On Sunday we went to the Kohl's in Edmond (where, I would like to point out, they had at least 5 red ties on Friday) but they were out of red also. The closest red tie is in Norman. We still have to find a yellow tie.
So after the lady at Kohl's told me I had to go on a tie-hunt, she told me their wedding registry was actually broken "until further notice."
At this point I was pretty bummed, and stressed, and about to cry over a stupid tie. What the heck?
But Garrett cheered me up (he's good at that) and convinced me to go to Target to register there. It was actually fun! We registered for all the typical things you're supposed to register for, but got some games and movies as well.
After registering at Target we had our first pre-marital counseling session, and it was awesome. He told us the results of the survey that we took, and turns out we scored really high in almost every area, and even had perfect scores in a couple areas. That was a huge relief for me. I just had this fear of us taking a survey and the counselor saying, "um ... you shouldn't get married." I have unrealistic fears sometimes.
Then we went back to Garrett's house and registered online at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, which wasn't nearly as fun as registering in the store. However, we did find a bedroom set we liked and some bathroom stuff.

Also this weekend:
Bought 52 flowers at Hobby Lobby (thank you Joy for letting us use your discount!)
Decided on fabric to decorate the tables
Picked glasses to use for toasting
Visited both sets of grandparents (brownie points?!)
Found someone who MIGHT sell us their bed
Found someone who doesn't charge an arm and a leg for a cake!

It is so awesome having a future mother in law that knows a zillion people at church who have dealt with wedding things before. She has found so many people who are willing to let us borrow things for the wedding for free! It's awesome!

Honeymoon

We officially have everything booked for the honeymoon.
The night of the wedding we are staying at the OKC Hyatt right by the airport so we don't have to wake up too early. :) In Chicago we are staying at the Park Hyatt which is a little nicer version of the one in OKC. (Apparently Hyatts have different levels or something.)

Hello King sized bed. I think I'm the most excited about the king sized bed. I've slept in a twin my whole life. I cannot wait. :)

Engagement Pictures

Yesterday Garrett, Stacey Turner, and I braved torrential rainstorms to take engagement pictures.

Ok, so we may have been almost done when the rain started, but that is beside the point.

Here are a couple of my favorites. :)

Flowers!!!!!!!

Today I got an estimate on flowers. I really had no idea what to do about flowers. But I went to this awesome flower shop and they were so helpful!
Here's what we'll have.
The bridesmaid dresses are blue, but here are the colors of the flowers.






Each bridesmaid will be carrying 3 of one color, and then the groomsman's tie that they walk down with will match the flowers. I'm totally stoked. :)
My bouquet is going to have orange roses, hot pink daisies, and some really pretty blue flowers that I can't remember the name of.

Lost mind

If you see my mind, please return it.
Remember yesterday, when I said that I was so proud of us for not losing our minds yet? Yeah. Today. My mind is officially gone.
We have done so much in the last 2 days.
Joint checking.
Hobby Lobby 65 times.
Flower appointments.
Mall for shoes.
Looked at 145,000 pictures of engagement pics online to get ideas.
Remembered that we hadn't even thought about programs.
Couldn't find the song that I want to walk down the aisle to. ANYWHERE.
----side note. Anyone have Falling in Love in A Coffee Shop by Landon Pigg?
Fell asleep reading Bargain Bride. It reminded me of that scene in Father of the Bride where Annie falls asleep reading a magazine article about how to save money at your wedding. Except in the movie, her dad feels sorry for her and decides to go ahead and pay for the wedding of her dreams ... that's not going to happen.
Dealt with wedding drama. There will always be drama ... :P
But. We did make the down payment on the invitations. They are amazing and beautiful and I almost cried when I saw them because I am just so excited that someone else is dealing with them and all I have to do is give them money.

100 days.

I am going to marry my best friend in 100 days. I'm so excited.
We have only known our wedding date for 8 days and already we have:

-4/5 bridesmaids have ordered dresses
-I have a wedding dress hanging in the closet
-I have wedding shoes
-We have booked the church
-The picture for our invites has been taken, and they are just a couple days away from being ordered.
-We have bought sand for unity sand, jars to pour the sand out of, and a jar to pour it into. We have tealights for floating candles as well.

I am so proud of us. We haven't lost our minds yet.

Dress!!!!

On Saturday I went to Alfred Angelo to look for a wedding dress. I had already been to David's Bridal and fell in love with one but it was out of my price range. I was prepared to try on white bridesmaid dresses at Alfred Angelo, but they found a mermaid style for me on the clearance rack! It fit perfectly and I bought it right off the rack. It doesn't need any alterations or anything!!!

Here are some of the ones from David's Bridal that I didn't get:

I liked the flowers on this one, but the back wasn't very photogenic. Also it was $$$.


I liked the way this one fit! It was really pretty in the store, but in pictures it kind of looks like I'm wrapped in toilet paper.


This one was pretty - but POOFY!


The one I got is pretty much perfect. I'm really happy with it! You don't get to see a picture though. :)

Dresses? Check. Shirts? Check.

Yesterday we made the final decision on bridesmaid dresses. I was originally going to go with ones from David's Bridal, but they were so. expensive. So I started hunting department stores so that my bridesmaids wouldn't go broke. I found this dress:


Two of my bridesmaids have already ordered theirs! Yay. Way to be on top of things. Also, did I mention these were just shy of 40 bucks? Not too shabby.

Then I started looking a dress shirts for the groomsmen. I really wanted something that was going to match the dresses as closely as possible. While we will most likely wait til the dresses come in to make the final decision on the shirt, this is the one that I'm leaning towards.


I am really happy with how much we have gotten done this week! Tomorrow I am going to try on wedding dresses, and then going with the future in-laws to The Melting Pot! So. Excited.

Stuff is getting done!

Things are starting to come together really quickly. Yesterday we booked Edmond Church of Christ for August 20th, 2010. This is a day earlier than originally planned, but we get the church for the rehearsal dinner, the wedding, and the reception. We still have to pay them, but we are on the calendar.
Also, we booked our honeymoon! We'll be staying at the Park Hyatt on Michigan Ave. in Chicago. My dad and I stayed there a few years ago, and it is AWESOME. Because it's right on Michigan Ave, it's walking distance from almost everything. I'm so excited to spend our honeymoon in my favorite city.
Also - David's Bridal is having a HUGE sale this weekend. I'm really really hoping that the dress I want is one of the ones that is on sale! That would be so fantastic!

August 21st, 2010

Yes.
We are getting married in 15 weeks.
In 109 days.

Thanks to those of you who have been supportive and understanding and just generally awesome. I really appreciate it, especially because there have already been people who have been the exact opposite of supportive.

Right now we are looking for a location. We have a really tight budget, and I'm already kind of getting stressed about this, because most of the wedding chapels in Edmond cost almost our entire budget because they include everything. I don't want something that includes everything, because then I feel like I don't even get a say in my own wedding.
So, if anyone even reads this thing, and has any suggestions, that would be really helpful.
Actually, if you just have any suggestions in general on how to spend less that 5,000 dollars on a wedding, those would be great as well.

I am very excited to get married, even though I know some people's feelings are hurt because they are close to us and won't be able to come. That just to say that my family is the most important, and that we can't plan around everyone. We would love to see as many people there as can come!
We are so excited!!!!

Wedding Nightmare

Commence having wedding nightmares.

Last night I dreamed that we had an outside wedding. In August. In Oklahoma. Everyone was sweating and miserable, the groomsmen were passing out because they were in long sleeves and black dress pants. The ring bearer was crying because he was so hot. Everyone's make-up was melting off.
The cake melted into a huge puddle of frosting.
There were weird Oklahoman bugs EVERYWHERE including in the flower bouquet.
It. Was. Awful. This WILL NOT happen.

In other news - Garrett's dad has agreed to do our wedding!

Dates

Dear everyone giving me advice on wedding dates,
I love you. I am not planning my wedding around you. As much as I would love for you to be at my wedding, I will not rule out a weekend because you already have plans. The only wedding dates I am avoiding are January 1, 2011, because that is when Haley is getting married, and January 8th, when Megan is getting married. Sorry. I love you. Really. I do. But if I plan around everyone's hectic lives, then we won't ever be able to get married. Not an option.

We Were Made For Each Other

Haha. Ok, actually that's the name of the song that I'm listening to right now.

But seriously, this is how I know that we were made for each other.

1. If you take "rump" out of my last name, the only letters left are K-E-C-K. (Commence jokes about how I don't have that much of a butt to loose ... etc.)

2. My initials are K-E-K. (If I go by Kenzie.)

What more do you need?

Shoes

I do not know when I am getting married.
I don't have a dress.
I don't know exactly where I will get married.
Nothing important regarding my wedding has been finalized - well except the groom. :)



But. I do have shoes.
I haven't bought them yet, but I am not going to go shopping for shoes because I know exactly what I want.


TA-DA!

Engaged!!!!

Last night Garrett asked me to be his wife! I'm so excited that I get to marry my best friend. :)

Here is our engagement story!
I knew that Garrett had bought a ring, but he had told me a couple days ago that we probably weren't going to be engaged until the beginning of the summer. I thought that he was pulling my leg, but then we went on a really nice date on Saturday, and he didn't propose, so I decided that he was actually NOT pulling my leg.
Tonight we were originally going to watch How I Met Your Mother, Castle, and Big Bang Theory online, but none of them aired last night so Garrett suggested that we go on a walk instead.
While we were walking we were kind of talking about how he should propose, and he had different ideas and was asking me which one that I would like the best. He's been messing with me all week and pretending to pull a ring out of his pocket and stuff like that. He was messing with me a lot tonight.

We got to the lake at Teal Ridge, and he asked if I would like to get proposed to there, and I said yes because it's one of my favorite spots that we go to. Then I said something about how the moon was pretty and the sky looked cool with the sunset, and he was like, "so, tonight would be pretty much perfect?" I said yes, but I was getting kind of sick of him messing with me, and I was about to tell him that when he gave me a huge hug and said, "I love you - we should date." (Which he says a lot.) Then he asked, "Will you go out with me?!" Of course I said, "yes." Then he got down on one knee and said, "Ok ... will you marry me?!" and pulled the ring out of his jacket pocket.

I took it out of his hand and he stood up and we hugged and what not ... then I realized that the ring was still in my hand and that we were standing right over a lake, so I got scared of dropping it and put it on my hand. It fits perfectly and I love it so much. He did such an amazing job!

That's the story! :)


We don't have any dates or anything planned yet, but we'll be posting stuff on this website to let you guys know what's happening! We do know that we will be getting married in Oklahoma.
Dear Colorado friends - don't hate me.