[rock_show_host]

[Skeeter]

Huzzah!

[MtlMom]

Congratulations!

[fenderguy962]

[DaGeek]

I'm pretty sure a story's in order . Congrats!

[rock_show_host]

Ah, indeed. I've been running around a lot lately (2nd week of classes) and neglected to return to my own announcement. For those still interested, here's the story.

Last Friday night, my girlfriend and I went to have dinner at my parents' house (I live 10 minutes away from school). I knew ahead of time that I wanted to propose to her that night, after we left, but didn't tell anyone in my family for fear that they'd act weird or somehow blow my cover. Problem was that since nobody thought we had a deadline, dinner and the ensuing social time kept dragging on; eventually I started being rude and saying things like, "Well, we're tired, we should get back to campus...no, really, can we wrap this up soon?" After a slew of dirty looks, I ended up whispering my plan to my parents, who laughed and managed to shoo us out the door without giving anything away.

Fast forward to half an hour later. I called her and told her I had something to show her in my room. She came in, I shut the door, we sat down on the bed and I opened up my computer, where I'd spent the last couple days putting together a presentation on my computer -- not a PowerPoint, just a Pdf file to scroll through with a couple sentences on each page (I'm a writer, definitely not an artist). She began to scroll through, and after a couple goofy introductory slides (that she laughed at my lame attempts at humor must be some kind of sign that we're meant for each other), I reminded her that we'd been together for exactly 32 months, and since we're fond of celebrating monthiversaries, I'd put together a list of 32 reasons why I wanted to marry her -- one corresponding to every month. The list was a happy mix of genuine/cheesy and silly/inside jokes, which made for a nice blend of laughing and cuddling.

BUT...I knew ahead of time that I had to work in some element of surprise; we've been talking about getting married for over a year, and so I knew she would see the proposal coming the second I turned on my computer. So, instead of dramatically pulling out the ring at the very end of the slide show, per expectation, I waited until she arrived at Reason #3, which was, "What else am I going to do with this thing?" She looked confused, and that's when I got down on one knee, pulled out the jewelry box and asked her to marry me. She hugged me and said yes without even looking at the ring, prompting me to joke that I should've just saved my money. But she did put it on immediately after, and loved it; it still looks beautiful on her. Although she's since told me that I should've proposed during the daytime so she wouldn't have to wait till the following morning to see what the diamond looks like in sunlight.

We finished the slide show, then after our own personal celebrating went into a phone frenzy -- family members first, then friends at school. Her roommate from last year threw us an impromptu celebration party, which I had to leave early cause I had worship rehearsal at 8 the following morning. Next day came the Facebook announcement (a very important step, of course). Also, I have to say, for all the horror stories I've heard about young people (we're seniors at a college where engagements aren't common at all) getting flack from others after getting engaged, our friends have all been wonderfully supportive and congratulatory. It's been a pleasant surprise.

On to the planning....

[slap_j]

Great story. Congratulations, friend.

[bravesfan007]

I feel as if I am a little late to the party, but....Congrats!!!!

The planning is a stressful time, but I know you all will be fine.

Best wishes and congrats again!!

[rock_show_host]

Originally Posted by bravesfan007

I feel as if I am a little late to the party, but....Congrats!!!!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by bravesfan007

The planning is a stressful time, but I know you all will be fine.

The funny thing is that right now, we're still totally naive. All our conversations seem to go like this:

Us: I mean, we understand there's a lot that goes into a wedding, but we don't see how it can be THAT stressful.
More Experienced Elders: That's cause you've never planned one....

T'will be an interesting year. But an equally wonderful one. And at least I'm not writing a senior thesis.

[bread man]

Congratulations man, that is a great story

[DaGeek]

Definitely a good story! Congrats again!

[rock_show_host]

Just stumbled across this thread again and thought I'd post some updates. If nothing else, to reassure myself that I can remember everything.

Our wedding is on May 30, so we're in the home stretch of planning. As if graduating straight out of college wasn't hectic enough, our wedding is happening two days after college graduation. So we're in for an interesting couple of months.

Things we've accomplished:

-Sent out save the dates.
-Booked the photographer, cake, and flowers.
-Booked the venue for the reception hall and worked out meals.
-Secured a DJ for the reception (a friend of ours is bringing his own turntables, which is awesome).
-Bought the wedding dress and bridesmaids dresses. I'm not allowed to see the wedding dress until the day, so I have to trust the bride on that one.
-Lined up musicians for the ceremony.

Things that still need doing:

-Setting up the registry. We've done a bit of pre-planning but haven't officially put together a list yet. My brother's really excited to get to play with the bar code gun.
-Picking out and arranging music. We're planning to sing a couple hymns during the ceremony and obviously need music for the processional/recessional. This is the one area in which I have any authority whatsoever, so naturally I'm being as indecisive as possible.
-Sending out the invitations.
-Tuxes.
-Choreographing a first dance. Given our coordination skills, this is bound to be an interesting sight.
-Buying the wedding rings. We both want something simple, so this shouldn't take long.
-Wedding shower and bachelor/bachelorette parties.

I'm probably already forgetting a lot, but that's the gist. Our families are being really helpful and we have a few friends pitching in as well, so things have actually been less stressful than we would have thought.

Also, on a funny note, our wedding is on a Sunday afternoon, and one of my groomsmen is our campus RUF pastor who just learned that he's scheduled to preach that morning. Hopefully he's not doing a sermon on 1 Corinthians 7....