Let the Wedding Planning Begin!

With a ring on my finger I felt much better about my wedding planning process.  Danny had told me I could start planning when we had decided we would get married.  There was just something weird about it though.  I was planning and saving pictures I loved and ideas I wanted to use and I had started my wedding planning binder to organize everything into, but I still wasn't sure when I was going to be able to use all my stuff.  After all, the planning process had really started when I was about five.  Weddings were all about the beautiful frilly dresses.  That was also the year I was in my first wedding.  Never mind that as the flower girl I cried the whole way down the aisle.  The point is that I have LOVED weddings since I was little.  It's why I do wedding planning on the side.  So of course I couldn't wait to start the Official Jenna Sheridan (and Danny Sheridan too) Wedding Plans.

My family was great!  (Well, after they quit fighting over my room!)  Josh loaned me his IPhone after he loaded the wedding planning app onto it.  With that I could check how many days and hours I had left to plan.  I could enter my budget and it would automatically calculate how much I had left.  Plus it was pink, and who doesn't need more pink in their lives?  Then my dad decided they should give me some money to help pay for the wedding, in addition to the beef they were providing.  And my grandma said she would make the cake (and eventually almost everything else that needed to be made).

I was also blessed with the MOST wonderful six bridesmaids a girl could EVER ask for.  And the weekend after the proposal was also the Central Oregon Wedding Expo.  So, Sarah, Erin, Michelle, my mom and I headed to the conference center to, in their words, "Win me some stuff!"

Michelle, me, Sarah, Erin

This was in the parking lot before we went in.  They didn't make me wear the tiara and boa throughout the show, mostly because I had so carefully chosen my outfit for my first outing as "the bride."  They were very understanding!

 

 

We did win some stuff.  I got a $10 gift certificate to a local restaurant.  Michelle won a cake (which she then used at my shower) and we got lots of goodies throughout the event.  However, mostly the vendors were for things that I already had booked.  What I really needed was a venue, a DJ, and a caterer.  Those were the pamphlets I focused on when I got back home. 

 

Oh, and we were going to need some dresses...but that's another story.



The Proposal Revisited and Updated

So some of you may have read this post when it happened. For others, this will be the beginning of the next chapter of Danny's and my life together...the chapter called "Engagement."

Danny had planned on us hiking Smith Rock. However, we also got invited to a very cute little girl's Star Wars 4th birthday party. So before we went to hike, we went to her party. Then we headed to the park.

We parked across the street from Smith Rock. Here's where we were headed:

Danny really misses rock climbing and bouldering, so he climbs any chance he gets...yup, even the little rock walls on playgrounds.

We are undecided what kind of bird this is, but it was sitting all alone in the middle of the river, watching a bunch of ducks actually.

We took the Burma Road trail. It had the coolest pine trees with the branches draped all the way to the ground. So we dipped inside and took a few pics.

At the top, Danny decided he wanted to explore the rocks. I decided to sit in a little hidey hole out of the wind and watch him.

And then I noticed my camera battery was getting low, so I put it away. Danny finished exploring and lured my out of my hidey hole to a spot that overlooked everywhere we had just been. We could see all the way to my car. It was too pretty not to use some camera battery.

And then we sat on the rock talking...well, he talked and told me I couldn't. Then he had me close my eyes and he gave me a present. When I opened my eyes he was on his knees in front of me. He told me to open the box, he took out the ring box, opened it, and asked me to marry him.

And I said...

YES!

This is from the bottom, looking up to where we had come from. I will say that it took a lot longer to get up there than to get back down. I think it's because coming down I was floating on air!

I called my mom from the top. Her response, "Finally!" Everyone else at home's response, "I get her room!" Danny's parents were a little trickier to get ahold of because they were in Mexico and he couldn't make international calls from his phone. He called his brothers and asked them to have his parents call him if any of them heard from them. We wanted parents and immediate family to know first. Then our special friends. We definitely didn't want anyone to find out on Facebook (sorry about that Leslee!).

We went to Mi Cielo for dinner. If you haven't been there, they are in Redmond. You need to go. It's owned by the sweetest family, and you will be hearing more about them later in the next chapter! :) One of the owners helped us as Danny called his parents because the answering machine was in Spanish and he wasn't sure if he had the right number. Funny story, Alma is Filipino, not Mexican, but luckily she speaks Spanish too! And then a friend of mine came into the restaurant and I had to do my best to not show off my beautiful new ring. It was tricky as we sat talking while she waited for her to go order.

Danny drove me home and I got to show off my ring there though. We still couldn't tell lots of people, but friends found out before all of our family because we had church the next day. I was still floating so people couldn't help but notice! My friends were so excited and the wedding planning began (ummm, continued?...ummm, could "officially" begin?)...but that's another story.