Wedding Plans and An Ode to the Brave

So it's no complete secret that Trevor and I have been talking marriage. In fact, he has tried to propose, but I keep telling him that he needs to ask my dad first and have a ring. (I'm SOO high maintenance I know!)

But even without a fancy little stone on my lift finger, we've been talking dates and I've been flooding my spare Internet time looking for cute things online (by the way, theknot.com is GREAT for anyone planning a wedding!)

When I told my mom we were planning on getting married, her response, surprisingly, was "oh! A December wedding would be so beautiful!"

My initial reaction was WHAT?! Heh Heh...not quite what we were thinking!

But as my mind started whirring in that direction, I started to like the idea more and more! The colors I would like, the decorations, the time of year, the fact that my church has the night sky up (they decorate the whole big walls of our sanctuary with Christmas lights all over covered in black cloth so it looks like a sky at night...it's really stunning!)...all these things were crossing my mind as, hey, December could work!

So of course, like the great soon-to-be-fiance that I am, I told Trevor about my mom's idea and let his mind wrap around it for a second before I bombarded him with the 6 month jump from the first date we had picked.

Then the dreaded thought crossed my mind when his face wasn't lit up as much as I had hoped: his best friend is headed to Iraq this month...

So, again, like the wonderful fiance-to-be that I am, I was quick to put my hopes of a December wedding away. I mean, if my best friend couldn't make it and I knew before the date was picked, I might reconsider. It wouldn't dictate the first day of my new life with my better half, but I would look at other dates.

Trevor looked at me and laughed. "The day is not about Eric, it's our day." So I gave my mom the thumbs up and off she went!

Yesterday she read in the paper about a garage sale that had wedding things so she insisted that I meet her there as soon as possible.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to be the stuck up bridezilla that NEEDS EVERYTHING HER WAY ON HER DAY!!!! But the thought of a garage sale being the place I find my wedding stuff...that kinda rubbed me wrong at first. But to please my mom, I made it there for a short trip away from work as an early lunch of sorts. To my surprise, the flower type I had wanted (but knew they were uber expensive) were there in silk bouquets! Now I'm gonna tweak them a little, but they were awesome and totally cheaper then I could have ever imagined! They also had other silk flowers of the same kind that I could cut from the 'vine' and use to decorate pretty much anything! So almost all of the flowers were taken care of for less than $80! Who can really say that?!

Here are a few ideas I have in mind for our big day:

Centerpieces:

Bridesmaid dresses:

Wedding cake:

Invites:

Now I know what you're looking for next...my dress perhaps?!?! Well, I definitely have ideas on what I want, but I'll keep that under wraps because Trevor knows this URL, and he doesn't get to see it till our wedding day as my dad is walking me down the isle!

For dinner yesterday, I had Trevor over and I made Minnesota Wild Rice Soup.

He wanted to show up in a jersey and goalie mask with his hockey stick to join the celebration. I had to gently shatter his hopes of it being a soup to celebrate the great hockey team the Minnesota Wild! Afterwards we joined his friend Eric, Eric's girlfriend Jackie, his son and a few other friends for a farewell meal (if Trevor would have told me they wanted to have dinner, we could have done that before I made the soup, but we were still able to join them while they ate and we had pop and water).

After we left and said goodbye and good luck to Eric, I could tell Trevor had something on his mind that was bothering him. So I asked.

He said that Eric leaving hadn't really sunk in until tonight and it would mean a lot for him to wait till Eric can be there.

OF COURSE!!!! Sure the whole winter wedding was a great idea, but the day is about us and having loved ones around us to celebrate with us and create memories of the greatest day we can have together (for starters anyway).

So our wedding date is being pushed back and I have no hard feelings whatsoever!

In fact, it has made me really think about how amazing the men and women who fight for our country are. To be able to see Eric and his 7 year old son last night interact and see how proud the little guy was of his army dad...it was really touching!

So if the least I can do is push back my wedding date another 6 months, I am for sure and for certain able to do that. I might have moments of lapsed memory and be a little sad and impatient, but Eric and the guys and gals over there fighting for the red, white, and blue deserve at least my patience and respect and so much more!

So for now, all I can do is pray and respectfully honor the brave of the US Armed Forces.

Thank you, for all you do here on the home front and overseas for my freedom as an American citizen. I pray God will keep you safe and comforted as well as your family here at home!