Let's Get the Planning Started

After years of reading Weddingbee, I was confident that I was ready to begin planning a wedding that was going to just WOW everyone. I mean, come on, 4+ years of Weddingbee stalking MUST mean I was an expert. Just take a little idea here, and a little idea there, add a lot of alcohol for my guests, and I was going to have the perfect wedding. But right now I feel like I have a midterm paper that's due in a week that I haven't started yet.

Brian and I hope to purchase a place to live this year and our priority is definitely the house before the wedding. As much as I would love to take the money I've saved for a downpayment to book Still Motion today, I'd be broke, homeless, and probably without a fiance. To be honest, most of our savings will be gone with the house and Brian and I will be paying for the wedding ourself. With that being said, I'm in favor of having a longer engagement and having the wedding in the summer of 2011. Brian's argument against that is that he'll be gray and bald by that time - which is completely illogical since he can only be one or the other. ;-) But I understand his point, two years is a long time. Right now we're just taking one step at a time and doing a mix of house hunting and wedding planning.

The one thing we HAVE agreed upon is a rough idea of the wedding budget. We agreed the location is definitely something we're willing to spend a little bit more on. As an added plus of us being semi-recluses, our guest list is sitting under 100 right now. Of course, since I'm Asian, my family is about half this guest list. Having a smaller guest list means we can spend a little bit more for the nicer places so we're on the hunt for reception venues.

Right now I've been doing most of my research for venues online but I realize that I'm going to have to meet with actual hotel vendors soon to get prices. But for anyone interested in the listing I have as of now, you might find this helpful:

Royal Sonesta - http://images.sonesta.com/CateringMenus1.pdf

Hyatt Regency - http://regencycambridgeweddings.hyattemenus.com/

Langham - http://boston.langhamhotels.com/en/pdf/tlbos_wedding_packages_tlbos_en.pdf

Omni Parker - http://www.omnihotels.com/hotels/weddings/20/OmniParkerHouseWeddings.pdf

BU Castle - http://www.bu.edu/castle/weddings/packages/index.shtml

Le Meridien (Cambridge) - http://newengland.destinations.starwoodhotels.com/LeMeridienCambridge/Weddings.htm?EM=VTY_MD_3253_CAMBRIDGEWEDDINGS_WEDDINGS_NEAST

Marriott Back Bay - http://www.marriott.com/hotels/event-planning/wedding-planning/bosco-boston-marriott-copley-place/

Hotel Marlowe - http://www.hotelmarlowe.com/mlw_weddings.html

So I started this post 2 months ago and just have gotten around to finishing it but next post I can talk about the venues I've visited so far!

The Engagement!

My first tip to anyone who has just gotten engaged - be prepared to tell the engagement story - a LOT. I wish I had known this because the first day back at work after the engagement - it took my a REEEAALLLY long time to get the story out and it was definitely not in chronological order. So I should have enough practice to just whip out the story for my first post but it's been 3 weeks since I first started writing this and I haven't even started the story. BUT! I'm feeling oh-so-inspired now that I've downloaded all the Glee songs off itunes and I'm riding a musical high so maybe I can finish. (p.s. GO GLEE!)

I had brought up the topic of marriage a while ago just to make sure Brian and I were on the same page. I believe my exact words were "do you want to marry me someday?" Thankfully the answer from him was "I think so" because it might have been slightly embarrassing if his answer was a flat out no. But it wasn't until sometime in May until we seriously talked about it and that's when we started looking at rings. I made him promise me that he would do it within 6 months because:

• It's a lot of work looking for rings - especially if you have no clue where to begin. I went into a couple of stores where the sales people would say "hi" and wait for me to tell them what I wanted...which is no good when I had absolutely no idea what I wanted.
• Once he said the word "ring" that's all I became obsessed about. It gets tiring just waiting!! I was already anxious waiting for the moment after a week and I really regretted giving him 6 months to do it instead of 6 days

We had taken a trip to NYC in August and I was honestly expecting a proposal during that time so every time we went out, I was just holding my breath for that moment. I was really sad when we got back on the bolt bus back to Boston and just kept thinking "Well, I guess I know it won't happen on the bus."

But luckily I didn't have to wait much longer. The last warm Saturday of the summer, we planned a day trip to the Cape. The night before, Brian keeeept insisting he had to buy a photo album for his mom that Jenny was going to put together. Then we went to the Paper Source where he got the album and he asked me if I wanted to stay there while he went to CVS to print the pictures. I was SOOO in heaven when he said that because I love me my Paper Source. The next morning we got a really late start to the Cape which irked me to no end because I was worried there'd be traffic and it wouldn't be worth going if we waited any longer. To make matters worse, Brian was also adamant about dropping off the album at his sister's. But we got to the Cape and spent an amazing (yet chilly) day on the beach and watching the sunset over the ocean.

Brian had made reservations at Scampo which is a restaurant part of the Liberty Hotel. We realized around sunset we were never going to make it back before the restaurant closed. This was fine with me because I was exhausted and just wanted leftover meatballs in my pjs. I was completely clueless as to why Brian was wasting my iphone battery finding restaurants that would still be open at 11. Once we got home, I dropped my bag and announced I was ready for dinner while wearing my hoodie and jeans. At that point, Brian nonchalantly said, "You might want to dress up and pack whatever you need for overnight" and the blood rushed to my face and I blurted out "NO, I'm home already" before I realized what was happening. I tried to keep it nonchalant as I cleaned up but I couldn't stop grinning.

It turns out the original plan was for the hotel staff to slip him the room key underneath the check at Scampo and he was going to whisk me up to our room for the night. His sister had decorated the room with orchids, roses,

and a bottle of champagne. On the bed was

the photo album that Brian had bought the night before and in it were pictures of us. I was flipping through them thinking "ok, I'm here...now what?" when the last pict

ure was of hm holding the ring. The next thing I knew he was there in front of me getting down on one knee and nervously asking, "Lovie, will you marry me?"

I had been preparing for this moment for all through dinner and basically all these months. Yet I was just blown away by the emotions that swept through me when he asked me that question. There was something just so humbling in that moment - to think that he loved me enough to spend the rest of his life with me. And he thought I was special enough, worthy enough for his love. I am not the most emotional person in the world but I felt loved, humbled, special, and overwhelmed by the whole moment. I hope I never forget that feeling. I am lucky and I love love love the man I will marry.