The Search for a Church
Mood:  a-ok
Ok, so after a bit of going back and forth between August and September, we decided on September and had two tentive dates in mind, the 15 or 22. Bryce, myself, and my parents have begun to discuss where we'd like to have the wedding. For a long time during our relationship, Bryce has always desired to have an outdoor wedding in a park, although I'm more of a traditionalist, however this would of been fine with me. However, Bryce's feelings recently changed on this (to my surprise) and we'd both like to go with a traditional wedding in a church. Bryce and I attend a small, community Christian church with his family and although this is where we'd ideally like to have the wedding, it is not nearly large enough to host just my family alone (I come from a large Catholic family). My parents are Catholic and have made the suggestion of a wedding in a Catholic Church. However neither I, nor Bryce are Catholic nor do we desire to have a Catholic wedding, so that rules that option out. As an alternative we're looking at is renting a larger church so-to-speak and hopefully having our pastor from our church officiate or co-officiate. I'll be calling a few churchs around town and let you know what I find out.

Figuring Out the Basics
Mood:  irritated
Ok, so the first steps would be 1)To Figure out our wedding colors 2)Pick out a date 3)Book the location of the ceremony and reception 4)Figure out who we'd like to be our pastor and speak with them about arrangements. Seems like a lot, right? Yeah. On the topic of colors, I had an inspiration this week at work while working on a story time craft for the children's librarian. I was punching out the holes of foam snowflakes in various shades of blue and white and I thought to myself, "What about a winter wedding with various blues and whites?" Well, after a few days of discussion with my mom and Bryce we weren't sure we wanted a winter, instead in the spring or fall. However, Spring's pretty far off, so we're looking more towards fall. Now, we're thinking August, Septermber, or October, but can't come to an agreement or make-up our minds. Arg, how hard can just picking a date be!? Can't do much more in the way of other planning until the date is picked (wish us luck with that). Well at least since I at least know going to be in the fall, I'm thinking of fall colors: dark red, orange, and yellow.

Spreading the Good News (Of Our Wedding Of Course!)
Mood:  chatty
Today, I broke the news to my co-workers. I think they were happy for us, not too much fuss though, just some congratulations and questions of if the date is set (which it isn't yet). Also, I'm sure Bryce will be sharing the news with his co-workers sometime this week as well. And so this week begins the journey of planning our wedding.

I'm Engaged
Mood:  happy
Oh my gosh! Bryce proposed with a ring today! Ok, it starts out that today is when both my mom's side and my dad's side are having their Christmas get together, however I had to work until 4. Bryce, being the sweetie he is wanted to go and hang out with my family until I get off work. 4 0'clock came around and I called to let him know I was ready to be picked up (I'm without a car since a car accident back in November) and he said that'd he'd be there soon. When Bryce picked me up, we started to head towards a local nearby park, Morrow's Meadow, instead of back towards my Grandma Pat's and George's house. When I pointed out the other direction was a quicker route to get to Grandma's, he coyly responded, "I'd like to take a walk in the park, first." It was a cool, overcast day, but warm enough with a coat on. When we got to the park, we started down a paved walking path along Buck Creek, hand-in-hand. After we walked down the path and bit and a jogger had gone by, we stopped and he turned to me and said he had a poem for me. The poem went something like, "I love you, Rachael. Now close your eyes and picture our future together. Now what do you see?" I responded that I see us still in the relationship and happy. Then he instructed me to open my eyes and he was getting down on one knee, pulling out a ring box, asking me, "Will you marry me?" And I think I said yes, even before he finished getting the last word out of his mouth :-D He then slid the ring onto my left ring finger and we exchanged hugs and a quick kiss. He admitted that he'd messed it up a bit and was nervous, to which I responded affectionatly, "You didn't appear too nervous and did fine" And we walked back to the car, hand-in-hand, couldn't be happier.