Fonts, Monograms, Cardstocks, & Ribbons Oh My!

Well I met with Allison Barnhill Designs about a month ago to design our Wedding Invitations.  I finally received the email with the sample invitations and the different monograms and fonts we chose.  After looking at them Mike and I both narrowed it down pretty quickly to which one we liked.  We are set with the monogram we picked, but the more and more I look at the fonts I start to like one more then the one we picked then I'll go back to the one we picked!  Ah decisions, decisions...good thing I have until July when they go to print to make any changes!

So we LOVE monogram option # 2 but, don't like the font that is used on it, but here's the real kicker, I kind of really LOVE that font on the inside of the invitation...but I can't have all those different fonts going on!  I know one thing is for sure...we both like the design of Invitation # 3.  But I have a feeling that we will stick with the original font we chose which is the font on the invitation design we like best, # 3!

Invitation 1



Invitation 2




Invitation 3



Look what came in the mail!!!!

I'm so excited! I cannot wait to taste all the  yummy food they offer!  As I have told you before Mike and I keep hearing about how awesome the food is at the Beach Club!  One person even told us it was the best meal they had ever had!  My mom and Dad are going to go with us too (I mean they are the one's paying for it, they should have a taste too ; )  Plus my Dad hasn't seen the venue yet, so I'm so excited for him to see it!

Our Honeymoon is booked!

After the concert on Friday we got up nice and early and made the drive from Salisbury to Davidsonville to meet with our travel agent Christi from travel bug travel agency.  Mike and I both have never left the United States so choosing a destination for our honeymoon was kind of a hard decision.  I had posted on facebook for inputs of where to go, since October is a tricky month because of hurricanes and I had a number of people tell me St. Lucia.  It is in the hurricane belt, but rarly gets hit and hasn't gotten hit directly in years.  Plus a few of Mikes friends from BGE have been to the Sandals La Toc in St Lucia and highly recommended it. 2 couples went on their honeymoon there, one was in the month of November, and the other couple went for a friends wedding in October!  They said the weather was great in October.  Mike and I checked the place out online and read tons and tons of reviews on the place.  There were a lot of mixed reviews, but I truly believe it all depends on the type of person you are.  It doesn't take too much to make us happy were pretty easy going so I think as long as you have a good attitude everything will be fine!  After meeting with Christi and discussing the Sandals La Toc and the different room options we decided on booking the Romeo and Juliet Oceanview Butler Suite on the Bluffs!  She highly recommended getting a room with butler service as well as many reviews that we have read.  It seems worth it and it seems like it would be a disaster if you didn't have it since they basically get dibs on everything first, dinner reservations, beach and pool lounges, and so on.  The other nice thing about staying at a Sandals resort in St Lucia is that they have 3 in total all being 15 minutes apart that you can shuttle to and you have access to their beaches and resturants as well. I like to keep the mind frame that i'm only going to do this once, may as well do it right!  After marriage there is going to be more bills, your going to start having kids and it will only get harder and harder to do things like this, so we may as well take advantage of this luxery while we can!



View from the Romeo & Juliet Suite




Romeo & Juliet Suite





Beach at the La Toc




The Bluffs, where are suite is located




Other side of the Bluffs




Main Pool







More wedding planning!

On Friday before Mike and I left for the concert my sister went to Annapolis with me to meet with Allison Barnhill Design to design our wedding invitations.  She only meets with people during the week so Mike couldn't make it, but I think it's safe to say he didn't mind missing this...There was so many choices to chose from I knew exactly what I wanted, except when it came to the font!  Oh there was so many choices!  Luckly I got to pick my top 3 favorites and she will design 3 samples and email them to me so I can actually see what they would look like and I can pick and choose what I like from there.  I can't wait to receive them and actually see our names printed out with the information from our wedding on it!  It will be so surreal!  I will meet back with them at the end of summer as well because were going to have them design our wedding programs, escort cards, menus, and table numbers so they all match and keep the same theme.  Below is a sample of one of her previous wedding invitations that our's will be very similar too!

Allison Barnhill Design

All you gotta do is put a drink in my hand!

So being the awesome fiancé that I am, I got Mike VIP tickets to see Eric Church for this past Friday!  So we have a little history with Eric Church.  Mike introduced Eric Church's music to me on our first date.  He took me the Chart House in Annapolis and he must of played his one song "Guys Like Me" 20 times that night!  I didn't mind because it was a cute and catchy song that instantly became Mike's ringtone!  Eric Church is one of Mike and I's favorite artist and we have seen him in concert 3 other times prior to this show. He had his 3rd album released this past July while we were on vacation in Emerald Isle's NC the same day that Mike proposed.  I had preordered the album on itunes so when Mike and I hopped in his truck to go to the restaurant where he proposed we jammed out to his new album. 

The concert was a blast and he is still the best performer that Mike and I have ever seen! 



Waiting for the Private VIP showing





Our VIP table mates




The second love of my life ; ) Not the best pic I forgot my digital camera...womp womp.



Bridesmaid Dress Shopping

I went with all 8 of my bridesmaids to shop for dresses on Feb 4th.  We went to the same Bridal Salon where I got my wedding dress because they had a big selection to choose from.  I really love the look of all different bridesmaid dresses in the same color family like such;

I was expecting that either everyone would end up picking 2 different dresses that they all liked, that it wouldn't work out and I was going to have to decide on 1 dress, or that they would all find a dress and then there wouldn't be a color to match.  I wanted champange colors or close to it.  I had a few rules, they all had to be short dresses, and they could not have any type of fabric bows or flowers on them!  I wanted all my girls to be in a dress that they liked and felt comfortable in.  So many people have different styles and not everything looks good on everyone.  I wanted them to feel pretty too, I didn't want them standing up there with me feeling, ugly, frumpy, fat, and hating the dress they were in.  I have gorgeous friends and I want them to look goregous on my wedding day!  At first I was kind of worried!  There were dresses flying everywhere!  The poor girl helping us probably thought this was going to be a disaster!  Luckly it worked out so much easier then I think any of us thought possible!  We had all dresses picked out in an hour!  Only 1 style dress is being worn by multiple people, BUT they had 3 different colors in my color family so it worked out!  I'm so happy everyone found a dress that they like and are comfortable in.  The dresses range in colors, some are champange, some are brown, some are taupe, some are latte, and there is even one stone color.  I will admit I got pretty nervous a few days later and thought OMG what did I do, but looking back on the pictures I know it's going to be unique and I will love it!  They will all have their hair up in similar messy do's as well as the same shoes and jewlery, to keep it more unified and the groomsmen will all have champange color vest and ties with black tuxes.  I think keeping all the men in the same color will help keep it clean looking, trying to match them to their partners dress would of been too much and sloppy looking.  Plus the champange vest/tie will match all the dresses no matter what color that girls dress is!




My lovely Bridesmaids/Best Friends



V-Day

So Mike and I decided that we weren't really going to do too much for Valentine's Day this year since we have the wedding coming up and a lot of our money is going towards that.  To be completely honest I had forgotten all about Valentine's Day and found myself in Hallmark the day before with about a dozen other men looking for the "perfect" card.  It was actually pretty funny listening to the jokes they were all cracking and then seeing me in this sea of last minute men shoppers.  I feel like the older I have gotten the less concerned I have become with Valentine's Day.  The flowers and stuff are nice and I greatly appreciate what Mike gives me, but I'm one that tends to think it's overrated. Mike does plenty throughout the year to show me how much he cares about me, I don't need one silly day a year for him to prove that he loves me when he does it everyday =)  I honestly wasn't expecting anything from him besides maybe a card but when I woke up and walked out into the kitchen that morning before work he had this sitting there for me!

I was totally surprised and of course loved it, especially after we had discussed not doing anything for each other.  That night we did go to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants CD Café down on the Island.  It wasn't anything too special since we go there on a regular basis, the food there is to die for!  The place was packed which was to be expected since it's a pretty nice place to eat especially for a day like Valentine's Day.  The wait for a table up front was over an hour, but that was fine with us since we like to eat in the back at the lounge.  When we walked back there, there were 2 seats left at the bar so we hopped in them and stayed there for the rest of the evening.  We never really even ate dinner we ordered some oysters Rockefeller, had a few drinks, and then went home. 



Next V-Day we'll be Mr. & Mrs. !



It was a nice time and very relaxing minus the couple next to us.  The husband was rude and pushy (complaining about the wait time, it's V-day and you're in a packed restaurant that's on the small side, what do you expect? This is why I think EVERYONE should serve tables, they should really make it a graduation requirement, seriously then people would get it a little better) and his wife would not shut up!  They had a guy in the lounge playing a guitar and singing some tunes and this lady decided to sing along to her husband rather loud which quickly became annoying and kind of gross because she was being so mushy.  The lady that was sitting next to Mike though was a women who moved to Maryland 4 years ago, she looked about to be in her 80's and I believe her name was Gretta.  She moved up here from Florida to be around her family after her husband passed away.  It broke my heart to see her alone on Valentine's Day and to hear her talk about her husband to us.  They were married for 54 years, so uncommon these days and something that should really be applaud.  But, I think she was enjoying herself, her glasses of wine, and our company.  Mike and I tend to make friends easily when we go out especially with older people.  We are always meeting such nice interesting people.  Gretta reminded me a lot of my Grammy Mag.  No matter how old you get and no matter what happens to you in life you keep on enjoying it!  I admire these type of people so much and hope that when I get older that I can have attitudes like them and be full of energy, and that one day Mike and I will be the old couple out sitting at the bar talking to the younger couples!

Bridal Show

So in November I got an email from the Beach Club letting me know that they would be hosting a Bridal Show there on Jan 7th.  I was so thrilled because 1. it would be a great time to take some of my bridesmaids to see the venue, and 2. it would allow me to meet with certain vendors that we were still looking for.  3 of my bridesmaids went with me Britney, Jamie, and Rosie, and of course my MOH my sister Sarah, and my mother!  I was so excited as we pulled up, I wanted to race to get in line to get through the door and show them the ballroom we had picked out before we did anything!  Once we got through the door they were handing out champagne and I was given my bag of goodies and told to go fill out some paperwork.  It was so overwhelming at first when we walked in because there is so much to look at and everything is just gorgeous!  I think we got caught up like 3 or 4 times looking at stuff before we even made it to our ballroom.  Britney's boyfriends mom (Sharon) acutally works at the Beach Club and was such a sweetheart!  She was like having our own little personal tour guide.  She was introducing me to all these vendors, telling me that I needed to go taste these cakes, and these chocolates, and of course came to us first when drinks were about to come out!  "Hey stay right here cosmos are about to come out, i'll tell them to come straight to you", I like the sound of that!  We were all like kids in a toy store tasting all kinds of cakes from different vendors, trying favor gifts, cookies, popcorn, more drinks, and the Beach Club even passed around some of the appertizers they serve at their weddings.  I was extremely excited to try some of their food because Mike and I keep hearing about how amazing their food is!  And the apps definitely did not disappoint!  I can't wait to go for our tasting!  I don't know how we will choose, they have such a huge menu and if everything taste as good as the apps were going to be in trouble!  But back to the bridal show, I ended up coming across a videographer that I hadn't seen or heard of before while we were there and I am so happy I stumbled across them!  I already was talking with another videographer who was also there, but when I saw Matt's work I fell in love, I liked it so much more then who I had orginally planned to go with.  I also found our DJ who is so entergetic and i'm sure will put on a good show and get people on their feet and dancing.  This was one of the people that Sharon introduced me to and thank god she did, when Michael and I met with him it was like anything we have ever heard before.  He actually puts you in the studio with him after discussing and feeling out what you like and gives you a mini concert/show of what your day will be like.  He has such a great personality too!  I also found the people who will be doing our cake!  I had already contacted these people as well as a couple others that were there so getting to see their work in person and taste their most popular flavors made the decision so much easier!  Mike and I had already been to one cake tasting and we weren't impressed.  We also found the place that we will be having our rehersal dinner at.  It's a resturant called Annies in Kent Island and they were there giving out samples of their cream of crab soup, to die for by the way!  I already had my florist contracted and she was there, so it was nice that the girls got to meet her and see some of her work.  It was such a great day that i'll remember forever!  This whole process seems to be flying by, and while I can't wait for my wedding and to marry Michael at the same time I wish it would slow down.  I love doing this kind of stuff and meeting with vendors!  I espeically love spending the time and doing these things with the people that are closest to me.  It's definitely a day I will cherish forever and never forget!

Showing them the rooftop deck where cocktail hour will be




My sister/MOH, mama, and me on the rooftop deck





Alison Barnhill Design! Who i'm meeting with on Friday for Invitations!





Sugar Bakers Cakes, they will be doing our wedding cake!



Shopping for the Dress!

I knew this was going to be one item that I would not budge on.  I'm not a David's Bridal kind of girl and I was willing to pick up the cost if it went over my parents budget to get my dream dress.  I started researching bridal stores around the DMV area and came across Betsy Robinson Bridal in Pikesville, MD.  They had some mixed reviews that I was kind of uneasy about, but they carried tons and tons of designers so I knew I would have a lot of dresses to choose from in the styles that I liked. Plus they carried the designer Lazaro who happened to make a dress that I have been admiring for about a year now!  My sister, Mother, my niece Caeley, Miss Kelly (my mother in law) and 2 of my best friends Jamie and Britney came with me the Saturday I tried dresses on. 

I met with Joyce my consultant and showed her the handful of pictures I had of dresses that I liked along with the Lazaro one!  She went and pulled about 5 dresses that fit the description that I had given her.  I'm very open to trying different things on because something that can look absolutely hideous on a hanger can be so beautiful on.  I know what I like and I'm pretty quick about it and set if I like something.  My style is very different from my mother, my sister, and my best friend Jamie.  I didn't want to look like a fufu princess, I didn't want a blinged out wedding dress, and I didn't want any type of flowers or a belt with the dress.  I wanted it simple and elegant, yet modern and for the dress to have enough beauty that it didn't need anything extra, just a simple veil, and some gorgeous earrings and thats it.  Oh and NO tiara!  I think they are so god awful tacky! I put the first dress on it was very modern, the look I was going for, but the waist came up way too high, I wanted it to be more of a drop waist, but I went out and showed them anyways and they liked it, but knew it wasn't the right one so back into the dressing room I went.  Before I even had the second dress on I was like OMG I love this one, it's exactly what I had invisioned!  I put it on and walked out with a huge smile on my face saying I love this one, it's exactly what i've pictured!  Well nobody was really saying anything so I said mom what do you think? "ah I don't know, it's different"  same answers pretty much followed with my sister and Jamie, but Britney being the sweetheart she is was hiding behind everyone giving me a thumbs up!  She knows me and my style and knew it was a Paige dress right away!  I think they had a hard time looking past the huge hunch back I had from this pillow they stuffed down the back of the dress since it was about 2 sizes too big!  I was like what don't you like about it, "the bottom" I was like well it's only the second dress lets try some others on.  I tend to always go with the first or second dress, all my prom dresses were this way too!  So back into the dressing room we went and I tried on a Kenneth Pool dress that was stunning! But wasn't me...the dress was so pretty on and I really did like it, but it was a little too much of a princess dress for me.  After that my mom and sister started going crazy pulling dresses that I had no desire to try on.  "Paige try this Mermaid dress on" so I put it on and was like ew, I am wayyyyyyy too curvey for this, so when I came back out in another dress besides the mermaid dress my mom goes "try on the mermaid one" I told her "I did it's ugly and i'm not showing you it because I don't like it" lol after that I told them all to "STOP pulling dresses because they weren't even pulling the right sizes or sytles that I liked, that Joyce knows what I like so she's pulling for me". 

I don't even really remember the other 2 or 3 dresses to follow because I was set and in love with the second dress.  My sister and Jamie ended up pulling a dress and said try this one on it's like the second dress you like but a little different at the bottom.  Joyce my consultant proceeds to tell them "that is the same exact dress as the one that she likes and you all didn't, but in a smaller size"  HAHAHAHA! Now that means that dress # 2 is meant to be! I put on another dress that was very similar to the second dress I  loved liked except the whole bottom was tuelle.  I liked this one as well so I knew it was down to either this one or the second one.  I went back and forth between these 2 dresses trying them on 3 more different times and talking to my friends and family until I decided dress number 2 was it!  They knew I loved it!  I put it back on and sold them on it.  After keeping in mind that it is a sample dress the bottom has probably pulled some and after fixing it up some they decided that they did like it.  I never cried, I just smiled, I had a huge burst of happiness in that dress!  To top it off the dress ended up coming in wayyyyyy under my budget so it made me love it even more!  They measured me all up and ordered my perfect dress!  It should be in an another 3 months and then i'll go back to the bridal store and pick out earrings and my veil!  Of course you can't see the dress but i'll give you the designer, it's Maggie Sottero, and i'll even show you the Kenneth Poole one I tried on that was a little too princess for me and Sunday Rose, the first dress that's waist was too high =)



Monique lhuillier Sunday Rose




Kennth Pool



The Ceremony

I was brought up Catholic going to Church every Sunday, attending CCD, and have received all the sacraments I have been able to so far so I knew when the time came to get married it had to be in a Catholic Church.  Lucky for me Michael is Catholic too!  We started going to Saint Mary's Star of the Sea in Solomons together because the older we both got the less we attended and it was something that we wanted to start back up again.  So having the ceremony at the Chesapeake Bay Beach Club was out of the question!  We went on the search for Catholic Churches around the area and called 4 different one's in the Annapolis area.  One wouldn't do it because it's the boat show that weekend in Annapolis and they never do weddings that weekend because of the boat show, another was going to be under renavation, we found one about 3 miles from the Beach Club (which we drove and saw after our tour of the Beach Club and it's beautiful), BUT they only do weddings at 3:00 and not a minute later!  I didn't want a ceremony starting at 3, I wanted an evening wedding, but the Priest wouldn't budge.  We found another Church near the Bay Bridge that did 3:30 and you had to pay to use the Church (which was the first time I have ever heard of this, it's usually donation only) and the fee was I think like $750 or something crazy like that.  I started to stress and became very upset. For the first time in my life I thought that I might not be able to get married in a Church.  The thought of not having my father walk me down a Church isle made my stomach upset, this was something that I refused to not do!  I called Erin my lovely wedding consultant from the Beach Club to get her input, she quickly calmed me down and told me that since the Ceremony is from 3-4 guest who are staying the night will have time to check into their hotel after the Ceremony and guest who aren't can head over and they will escort them to their lounge area where they can relax and have drinks until 5:00 when our cocktail hour begins on the deck.  Now why didn't I think of that? ; )  I was so relieved that it was going to work out.  We called Saint Christopers back, the Church about 3 miles from the Beach Club and told them to put us down for Oct 13 at 3:00.  I'm still not thrilled that the Ceremony is going to be starting at 3, I rather the Ceremony start at 5, but in the end it all worked out and it will still be the best day of my life!

Searching for our venue!

So I have always known that I wanted a fall wedding on the water so as soon as I had the ring on my finger I was in search of the perfect venue!  This quickly became the most stressful thing for me since it was August and when I was calling venues for end of September early October dates for 2012 they told me they either had none in September, one weekend left in October, or none at all but they could do November.  I tried to stay as calm as possible and think to myself, November wouldn't be too bad.  I set up appointments to look at The Oaks in Saint Michaels, Kent Manor Inn in Kent Island, Harrington Harbor in Rosehaven, and The Chesapeake Bay Beach Club in Kent Island.  I had all 4 appointments booked within 2 weekends of each other.  From looking at all of them online I thought to myself The Oaks hands down is my favorite, but also the most pricey and the furthest away. Harrington Harbor I have been to so many times and I felt like it wasn't going to give a good enough fall vibe, too tropical, plus I wanted to be different. Kent Manor Inn was my second favorite and I was unsure of The Chesapeake Bay Beach Club at the moment because from what I saw online it looked okay...we were already going to be on the Eastern Shore for the day so I figured it doesn't hurt to look so I made an appointment and it was the first stop that we made. Michael, me, my mother, and my sister all rode up one Saturday morning together for their open house. CAN I JUST SO THANK GOD I BOOKED TO LOOK AT THIS PLACE! From the moment we pulled up it was just beautiful!  The website and pictures that are online DO NOT do this place justice!  They have 3 main rooms hosting 6 weddings a day.  3 during the day and 3 in the evening.  Mike and I fell in love with the Sunset Ballroom!  It has it's own private hall a seprate dining room, a garden room with a fireplace, bar, and where the dancing will be held, and our most favorite part about it, a rooftop deck with another fireplace and bar over looking the Chesapeake Bay with the Bay Bridge in the background.  Mike and I said we don't need to look at any other places this is it, we were sold! After the tour was over the lady got her book of avaiability and my heart was racing, the other 20 plus brides around me better move out of the way because I was a bridezilla on a mission!  They had 2 dates left in October for the Sunset Ballroom, Oct 13 & Oct 20.  The rooms are booked on first come first serve so if someone else there was interested and had emailed the lady first they got it, so as soon as I knew the dates I was on my Iphone emailing Erin to snacth up one of those dates before anyone else could get to it!  Our heart and minds were set on this place now it was just waiting to hear back from Erin in hopes that nobody had beaten us to those dates.  When we left the Beach Club we drove over to Kent Manor Inn because they are across the street from each other, just to see if we were missing anything and it was a big let down!  It looked so runned down and needed a major facelift!  It no longer looked like the pictures on the website and even had weeds growing over the room where they held receptions!

When Erin got back to me on Monday, the 13th was already taken, but she had the 20th so I told her book it!  We are truely blessed to be having my parents help us with the wedding covering the Venue and food costs for the Beach Club, so I began discussing everything with them and how much we needed to send off to them because I only had this date saved for me for 7 days before they opened it back up again.  I soon got an email from Erin that the people who had the 13th on hold had not paid their deposit so it came back open and that we were first in line to see if we wanted it.  I had originally wanted the 13th, so it worked out perfectly and the check was sent off ASAP!  Below are some pictures of the Sunset Ballroom, I just can't wait for this day to get here, it's going to be so beautiful!



The rooftop deck where you can have your ceremony, but we will be having cocktail hour here.



Dining area




Fireplace on rooftop deck




The rooftop deck/garden room from the ground



Bay Bridge in the background

 

Another view of the rooftop deck



View from beach area




Garden room




Fireplace in garden room




Dining area




Dining area again



The Proposal

We were on vacation with my Dad's side of the family in Emerald Isle.  We go down there every year for a week and there is this restaurant in Swansborro called Riverside that we all just love!  All week my dad kept talking about how he wanted to go and get those delicious grouper fingers!  So finally after all his talking about going there me, mom, Mike, and dad were all supposed to go together on Thursday to dinner.  I remember complaining like I always do, "but the rest of the family is making dinner tonight, why do we have to go? I don't get to see my family that often lets just stay here" So after about an hour of twisting my arm I agreed not very happily to go to dinner.  I go in from the beach around 3:30 to go get a shower and start getting ready and 4:15 rolls around and my mom is still out on the beach and if you know my mom you know how long it takes for her to get ready!  So my dad pretend throws a fit and says he's not going anymore and that we can just go because "who the hell knows what Carolyn is doing".  Mike called and made a reservation because this place does get very packed and fast and after I was done getting ready we were off! 

We pull in the parking lot of the restaurant and it isn't very busy yet, it was still kind of early, so I said Mike, don't tell them we have a reservation nobody is here, (I get embarrased when you tell them  you have a reservation when nobody is there, because whats the point?)  Well he was hell bent on telling them we had a reservation....in my mind at the time I was like omg whyyy!  So they seat us and we order our drinks and food. Mike tells me he has to go to the bathroom, so he gets up and goes, and when he walked out of the bathroom I was starring right at him and thought in my head, man that was fast! (This was attempt #1 to try to give them the ring, but I messed that up by seeing him come out of the bathroom)  After a few minutes, Mike goes I want a glass of wine and I tell him you have a whole beer to drink!  He is now hell bent on finding the waitress and asking for a glass of wine even though he has a full beer, now i'm thinking to myself,wow he must be really drunk! (This was attempt #2 to give the waitress the ring and he was successful) so the waitress brings the glass of wine and after we finish eating Mike wants dessert. Now this is unlike him he likes candy, but not cakes, pies and such, but at this point i'm like okay whatever! So the owner brings over her "tray of desserts" she laid down 2 different pies and then a plate with a napkin on it and wrapped in it was the ring! (I thought it was some type of eclair wrapped in some kind of paper at first lol) Unbeknownst to me it was the ring Mike jumps up out of his seat gets on a knee and says "will you marry me" grabs my head kisses me and in the midst of doing that bangs my head on the back of the booth lol! (Mike had gone to the restaurant the day before and set all of this up, that's why he had to give them the name of our "reservation" when we got there lol, makes sense now!) Now i'm caught up and realize what is going on! Of course I said Yes, and they brought us out a bottle of champagne to celebrate!

I'm so excited and all I want to do is go back to the beach house and tell all of my family! But no, Mike wants to stop by this restaurant called Portafinos by the house and have a drink because he needs to "calm down" before we go back there. Well we pull in and sneaky little Mike has my whole family there waiting for us my aunts, uncles, mom, dad, sister, cousins, and gram! We walk up and they are all snapping pictures, clapping, and yelling congrats! Mikes smiling ear to ear, i'm smiling and crying and everyone is hugging everyone! They all have known for the whole week that Mike was going to propose! We all had some drinks and back to the house it was to celebrate! I must give it to my family for not spilling the beans because I had not 1 clue that any of them knew anything! Mike had pretty much pulled one family member in at a time and showed them all the first day we got to the beach.  He hid the ring in my Aunt and Uncles room because he figured I wouldn't be in their room much.  My uncle is also my Godfather so Mike also asked for his permission as well as my fathers. I love to hear all the stories he has about the whole process.  How he asked my father for permission and the kind things my dad had to say to him & of course gave his blessing!  The reactions each one of my aunts and my grandmother gave him when he first showed them the ring, and how he was on pins and needles all week that someone would slip up because my Grandmother was being a pest about how he was making her wait until the end of the week and my father would be loud and say "are you going to do it today?"  He was so scared that I was going to over  hear one of their loud mouth!.  He ended up waiting until the end of the week to pop the question because my sister ended up coming down on Thursday and since my sister helped him with ring picking and advice he thought it was best and only right to wait for her!

Enjoy some pictures from our engagement celebreation!

After we met up with my family at Portafinos

Shots to celebrate!



My Uncle Steve and I




Aunt Deb & I both love patron so she went out & bought a bottle to celebreat!





Celebrating with Gram