Can't Waiting...

I listened to a girl once talk about how we often are "can't waiting" for life to happen. And that if we spend all our time "can't waiting" for the future, we will never truly enjoy the present. While I whole-heartedly agree with her, I don't think even Christmas Eve as a five year old beats how how much I "can't waited" for my wedding day. Between the stress of wedding planning and the excitement of spending my waking and sleeping moments with my love, I felt like four months would never go by fast enough.

Planning a wedding was definitely stressful, but I loved it. There were many days I found myself so surprised by the fact that it was really my turn, my wedding, and it felt so normal and natural to be planning it.

Brad was a great support, both at giving an opinion when desired, and getting out of the way when he knew I had made up my mind. And we would never have gotten through it all without our own personal wedding planner/older sister. Trish flew down in April to help get things started since she knew she'd be busy having a baby once it got closer to the wedding. I had no idea where to begin and she just picked up the phone and started calling reception centers, flower shops, cake decorators... you name it, she had called them all and set up appointments within the week she was there.

Jean took full responsibility for the reception in Georgia, which was a wonderful blessing because I did okay planning one wedding, but I couldn't do two.

My mom did a wonderful job of stepping in where she was needed, and stepping back when she disagreed with our plans (because let's face it... mother and daughter don't always agree on what a wedding should look like). She was very, okay mostly accepting of my decision to be a dark-haired bride, and she helped make sure the wording was perfect on our invitations. She also spent HOURS pouring over websites with me looking for the perfect bridesmaid dresses, and helped talk me into trusting my gut and getting "my perfect dress", even though I was too tired to try it on again, and nervous about alterations.

Brad and I continued our long distance relationship for a month after the official engagement, and then he moved down to Centerville to be close while we planned out the wedding. We spent every waking moment together that we weren't working, and it was such a blessing to be able to have that time together before the wedding so we could get to know each other day to day, and not just on the weekends.

Time felt like it dragged on for those four months, but we had some great times, and now that I look back it seems this past year has flown right by us. It's been fun to go back and put photos together, watch videos, and relive so many precious moments of the past year. And I realize that my friend really was right about "can't waiting". After marriage, the wedding has happened, the anticipation is over, and a new journey begins. I love the new journey, and I'm grateful to be on it. But I'm also glad I didn't "can't wait" so hard I missed out on the excitement of anticipation. It made the next step that much sweeter.

Waiter, There's a WHAT in My Soup???

Since Brad and I have now moved far, FAR away from our loved ones, I decided it was high time I started dropping at least an occasional post about our adventures here in Florida. But in order to go forward, I feel I must go back several months to capture the rest of 2011 because it was quite a year!

Of course since Brad and I are married, so it's only logical it started with an engagement, which started with a proposal. And what a proposal it was! Brad had it planned out from about the beginning of the year... and he had the ring for probably a good month before the official proposal took place. I am very impressed that he carried it around for so long without cracking.
I headed up to Idaho for his first Comic Frenzy (a comedy improv group at BYU-I) performance on March 3rd, and since he and Emily were in a play that weekend, it didn't seem strange that my parents were coming along for the weekend too. I realized looking back I should have been suspicious for several reasons, but Emily and her roommates did an excellent job of allaying any suspicion and my mom acted way to normal for there to be mishief afoot. She's the worst liar I've ever known.

The final improv game was called "Waiter" and required a member of the audience to come onstage. I knew something was up I was "randomly picked" from the crowd and brought onstage. My hunch was definitely confirmed when the suggestion needed from the audience was something that would fit in the palm of the hand, and the entire audience yelled, "A RING!!!"
Sure enough, each of the members of the team took their turn coming up while I politely said, "Waiter, there's a ring in my soup." Each would give some sort of pun to go with the "ring" suggestion, until finally Brad came up to the front of the stage where I was sitting. I looked up at him and said, "Um...waiter, there's a ring in my soup?"

"Oh that's where I put it!" He exclaimed while pulling the ring out and getting on one knee. The audience cheered and then fell silent while he first said in a quivering voice, "this is going to be a lot harder than I thought!" But he asked the question, and of course I grabbed him and kissed him, and said yes.

Mom and Dad there with us to celebrate

My weekend roommates and Brad's partners in crime

Brad and I just after the proposal

Oh and as a side note... he had a horrible mustache for a play he was in. I did not think he would actually propose while he was still sporting the stache. Boy was I wrong.

I finally found one copy of the video that was saved somewhere other than facebook. Unfortunately you can't really see any faces in it with the bright lights. But you'll get the gist of it...