Scouting Locations November 2, 2008
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My parents came to visit us in Louisville this weekend! We had a great time. On Saturday, I treated them to one of my favorite Louisville meals, Stan’s Fish Sandwich. Then we spent the day at Churchill Downs watching horse races. On Sunday, we spontaneously decided to show up at some possible wedding locations.
First, we saw the Olmstead. It is a large old building that is part of the Masonic Homes of Kentucky just off of Frankfort avenue a couple miles from where we live. The venue was HUGE! They have two large rooms that would each be big enough for our reception. Each room had lots of big arched windows so you could see the trees changing color outside. The whole room was a cream color and all the trimming on windows and molding was a chocolate brown that would match our wedding colors wonderfully! 
The venue offers the space, caterining, linens, flatware and pretty much everything together. I see this as a good thing and a bad thing. It seems good because its much less of a headache for me to find all of these separate things and organize them to all go together. The bad part about it would be that we wouldn’t have the choice of outside vendors so we have to use theirs which could be more expensive in the end. They also require you use their bar, which could make quite the huge tab quick with my family!!
The second venue we saw was Locust Grove. Its a historical site with a visitors center, reception area, and really large open areas with hills, trees, gardens, and more. Although the outside space was beautiful, the indoor space was kind of ugly and smaller than we would need. Unless we decided on an all outdoor wedding and rented a tent, this area would not work well. We weren’t took heartbroken to find out they were booked for most of the times we were looking at anyways!
I spent much of the afternoon today researching locations online and it looks like Ben and I will be visiting some of them as soon as tomorrow!
Here’s what I found:
We’re Engaged! November 2, 2008
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I’m sure at least one of you cares to hear the whole story about our engagement so here it is:
On Monday night, Ben and I had a couple of our new friends over to play cards and at about 10 they left and we still were having fun so we kept playing. Ben was totally kicking my butt at Casino and we were having some alcoholic beverages and talking for quite a while. At about 1 am, we got into a long conversation about track locations on albums and where an artist should put their first single, etc. (Yes, we are that awesome)
The conversation got even more indepth when we started fishing through our huge CD collection and picking out CDs and playing songs while talking about where they were on the album. I then made the argument that the first and last song were just as important as where you put the first single. To back up my claim, I put in JImmy Eat World’s “Futures” album and turned to the last track “23″ which is my all time favorite song.
We both sat at the table just listening to the song and all the sudden I saw Ben getting really emotional. He jumped up out of his chair, ran into his den, and came back into the living room with his hands behind his back. I stood up to ask what he was up to and he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him!
Apparently, he had gone to look at rings with my best friend Nicole Randolph when she came to visit a couple weeks ago and had gotten the ring Ok’d by my mom when she came to visit a couple days before. He hadn’t decided how or when he was going to propose and my favorite song, our great night just the two of us, and probably the few drinks we had made him sure it was the right time. (The song lyrics actually say “You’ll sit alone forever if you wait for the right time, what are you hoping for? I’m here, I’m now, I’m ready) So I guess Jimmy Eat World told him to do it!!
I am so incredibly excited and have barely been able to sleep more than an hour or two at a time the last 2 days. Ben and I spent most of the night last night calling our parents, grandparents, and closest friends to tell them the good news. So far, everyone is ecstatic for us and couldn’t be happier! My mom and Nicole are relieved they don’t have to lie to me anymore too. The ring is absolutely perfect and very me. You all probably have noticed I’m not a big jewelry girl so I told Ben this is the only thing he ever has to buy me so make it good and he far exceeded my expectations. It is a clean white gold band with a shiny round diamond. I never want to take it off!
We haven’t decided when, where, or how we’re getting married so far. It will most likely be next Fall or Winter somewhere in the Southern Indiana/Louisville region (or possibly nearer to Columbus). I would love to get married outside with lots of trees with pretty leaves because I want a golden yellow and chocolate brown wedding. I have a ton ton ton of planning to do and I am excited/terrified of doing it all! We will let you all know as soon as we know any more.
Thanks to everyone who has congratulated us already and we hope to see you all sometime soon! Ben has some vacation days in the next couple months and we are trying to find some time to visit Muncie and other areas. As always, you all are welcome to come visit us in Louisville!
