Back to the beginning

To really understand Matt and I, and so you can better understand some of the things we are doing wedding wise, you should probably know about us a couple. Things like where we met, some important stories from our relationship, and the story of the weekend when we got engaged. lol.

So, here goes nothing!

When Matt and I met, we had both gotten out of pretty nasty relationships fairly recently and had been dating around a bit, but neither of us were really finding anything too promising relationship wise. Maybe because a lot of people who use online daing sites are bat shit crazy, although it may just seem like it. But that's where we met, on the lovely Match.com. I'll admit, I was a little bit of a Match.com player. lol. I was talking to a few different people at once, getting to know lots of different people and weed out the guys that seemed cool from the ones that I had nothing in common with and the ones who were creepy or crazy. He wasn't the first guy I went out with from the site, but he was definatly the last.

After talking online for about a month or so, we decided to meet up and see how well we would get along in real life (since people can totally be fake on the computer... and we both had a fair amount in common. lol). We origionally decided that we would meet up the weekend before thr 4th of July, and I had another date with another guy during the week (which Matt knew nothing about at the time. lol). But, when I was watching TV on the day that I had the other date, I got a call from Matt. He was free that day and wanted to know if I wanted to go out a couple of days early! I was so excited that I went and asked my mom if I could borrow the car to go meet Matt early. Once I got the O.K.,  I got ready and I was off to Folsom! We met up at Starbucks and I suddenly felt extremely nervous. It took a while of prodding, but I finally opened up when he took my hand from across the table. We ended up turning our afternoon coffee date into a movie and dinner date as well.

Our second date didn't go quite as smoothly as we would have liked either. We had plans to go up to Sly Park, go hiking and just hang out in the nice summer weather. On my way up to his house, one of the tires on the car I was driving blew out on the freeway. So, there I was, about 30 minutes away from our second date (which we decided to do on the day we had origionally set for our first date), and I couldn't find anyone I knew that could get to me. So frantic, I call Matt to let him know that I was broken down on the side of the freeway, and I couldn't find anyone to come rescue me. We finally got in touch, I explained my situation, and he was on his way to my rescue.Lucky for me, a nice gentleman helped me change my tire so I could get off the freeway before Matt got there. Matt being the gentleman he is, followed me all the way back to my house, going all back roads, to make sure that I made it home fine and then from there we went in his truck to go enjoy what was left of the day and the following day.

From then on, we spent what free time the two of us had, and what time I got to use the car to see each other. In March, I got a job not far from where he (and now I) live and I moved in... although I'm still slowly moving my stuff up from my mom's house. lol.

June 27 we left the golden hills of California for the beautiful California coast and Seaside/ Monterey. I some how managed to talk Matt into giving me my anniversary present when we finally got down to our hotel rather than waiting the extra day for our actual anniversary, especially since not only did he know 100% what he was getting, but I gave it to him before we left. I had a good idea of what he was going to get me, I was super excited, but also super nervous. We decided that we would go down to the beach after we got to the hotel and relaxed a bit from the long drive. When we were getting ready to go down to the beach he was trying to figure out how to bring my present with us, but without me knwing what it was he got me. We finally went down to the beach and after getting a little away from all the people and the washed up dead seals, we found a nice place in the sand to sit and watch the waves. After sitting there for a little while, he asked if I wanted my present, and when I said yes, he pulled the ring out of his pocket and asked me to marry him. After he realzed that I hadn't actually answered him, he asked if I was going to say yes, so I answered with an "absolutely". For dinner we decided to go all out, and so we went to the Chili's right down the street from where we were staying. lol. We spent the next couple of days enjoying all the tourist attractions that Monterey has to offer, and we took massive amounts of pictures (5 rolls of 24 each!).

From then on, the rest is history. Slowly planning the wedding and enjoying being together; something we get to do for the rest of our lives. :)

And some pictures to share from Monterey and before:



Making chocolate cover bananas when we first started dating

Outside Walmart at about 1/1:30am playing in the snow Dec/Jan 09-10

Playing with goggles for snow mobiling Feb. 2010

Us in Seaside, CA right before he proposed!





A picture I took of my ring while we were in Monterey!



To budget or not to budget

As I mentioned before, we are planning a decent sized wedding on a budget.

With this post, I intend to give you a better idea of what I mean.

Most couples that you hear about in magazines, on the internet, etc. discuss a budget together that they try very hard to stay at or, preferably, under.

Some succeed, some don't, but I'm not sure too many people have a budget quite like ours.

You see, when Matt and I first got engaged four, very short months ago, we talked about a budget that we would like to stay at. Knowing that we we're going to probably foot a good portion of the bill ourselves, we settled on $5,000 maximum budget. Not too long after starting to look into what we would need to do to make this event work for about 150 people, my darling fiance decided to change the wording on our budget.

Rather than tell people that we have a $5,000 budget, it has evolved to we technically have no budget, but that it should be as "cheap" as we can make it.

Well, maybe "cheap" isn't the word since it gives off kind of negative connotations. A better word would probably be inexpensive. lol.

Cutting what corners we can, making what elements we can, having close friends do food and cake, and playing the numbers game with vendors has been our M.O. since we really started to get into the process.

Is it really the best way to plan a semi-formal, back yard event? No, probably not. Although, the very informal way we're working through it is very us. lol.

Now it's getting through the next year without anyone loosing an eye, me turning bridezilla, or us running off to Reno for last minute escape the mad house, lets just eloping run. lol. I just hope everything comes together and everyone comes out of it unscathed and all in one piece. lol

Starting with my next post I'll be doing some background posts, so you can kind of get to know us as a couple before I really jump back into wedding plan posts. Although depending on what goes on, I may have a few thrown in for good meause!

Good night for now! I'll write again tomorrow.

About the girl and the boy

I'm not sure who all will read this, but in case you don't know me already, my name is Kelly.

(I'll introduce the boy a little later.)

I am a California girl born and raised. And I lived all of my life in a few of the small towns that Northern California has to offer, and I have loved every minute of it.

I am an aspiring photographer, current retail associate (although those are just fancy words for a cashier. lol), and fiancee to an amazing guy.

The boy is Matt, and he is truely the love of my life.

Also a California boy, his heart lies on either the shores of the East Coast, or in one of the last wild states that the US has to offer.

An aspiring law enforcement officer of some sort, he is willing to move us anywhere that offers us both a chance at full time work to help build our future together... preferably outside of California. lol.

We are currently planning our October 2011 wedding, which is pretty much why I am wiriting this blog. It is going to be my way of keeping track of everything. The sweat, the tears, and the laughter. The accomplishments, the stress and possibly some failures (hopefully not too many of the last one!). I'll update as things go wrong, things go right, I get things accomplished, or find out that there is even more that needs to be done than I thought. lol.

So, I welcome anyone who chooses to take the ride of planning a small town wedding with me.

I can't promise it will always be incredibly entertaining, although I will try. But I can promise that it will be an adventure, and maybe be able to help someone else who decides to stick themselves trying to plan a decent sized wedding on a very small budget!