Whirlwind of wedding planning

So, Mike proposed back in May on Mother's Day.

We have yet to set a date because his work doesn't do vacation schedules until November and Mike's the newbie to the shop so he's the last to get his pick of what week he wants.  However, that hasn't stopped the planning from going on.

I have my guest list done, my dress and bridesmaid dresses picked out, flower girl dress and all the guys clothes picked out.  I haven't asked my bridesmaids yet because I haven't seen them in person and Mike hasn't asked his guys either.  I have also decided how I want my cake decorated. I think I'm going with a small cake for Mike and I to cut, but then cupcakes for everyone else.  My extended family has about 40 people in it and almost half of those are kids so I figure cupcakes are fun for them.

As far as location, that's still undecided too. I would like an outdoor ceremony but I am too scared of bad weather to have an outdoor reception. My luck it would be a severe thunderstorm that day and we would all be rain soaked.  I do have a list of places I want to check out, but until I know a date I haven't called places yet.

We had engagement pictures taken back in August and I'm going to use those to make the guest book like this. 

Here's a few of my favorites from our engagement photos. I haven't seen all of them yet, the photographer just posted about 30 of them and is getting us the rest this week. Can't wait! 

Photos were taken by Nichole Frank Photography

I also have a few ideas of center pieces and stuff for the shower. Oh, and the first thing I did was create our registry, but there's only a few items on there so far. We are registered at two stores and we're doing a honeymoon registry. I decided that since we have lived together for 8 years and we have a house full of stuff and I don't want people buying us items we won't use or don't need a honeymoon registry would be a great alternative. We are going on a cruise and the cruise line offers the registry through them for things such as dinners, room upgrades, or excursions. Can't wait! 

So I think that's all I have done since we got engaged 5 months ago. I'm already overwhelmed! 

We're ENGAGED!!

I shared back in this post that we got engaged. Here's how it all went down!

A few weeks before Mother's Day, Mike had talked about buying a four wheeler from a guy at work. I was definitely okay with this decision so I was all excited and wanted to pick it up asap.  He would casually talk about it here and there saying he wasn't sure and all this other stuff. When he finally said we were getting it he said the guy works the night shift so we can't get it until Tuesday (after Mother's Day)  Fast forward to mother's day.  We wake up and since it's my day to do whatever I want, I decide we'll take a trip to the zoo.  We spent a few hours there and then we head to the outlet mall. While at the mall Mike tells me to buy whatever I want from any store.  I guess I was mentioning this a lot lately but I said, "I can't buy my own engagement ring"  Right there in the middle of the mall Mike drops to his knee and starts to say will you... I grab his hand and pull him up and call him a jerk. I'm thinking he's just playing around cause I'm being a brat lol.  He then gets up and I joke with him about how you can't propose in the mall and not to embarrass me in public.   We do some more shopping and then head home.  We just hang out at home and later my brother and his fiance text to say they want to come see our new house.  They come over around dinner time and hang out for a while. Then Mike says, "they're going to watch the kids while we go to the beach to watch the sunset."  In my head I'm thinking 'well, that's rude, they wanted to come see our house and us and we make them watch the kids' so I was kind of hesitant to go, but they said they were okay with it.  So we left and headed to the ice cream shop for shakes and head to the beach.  While driving there it starts to get really dark and thunder.  Once we got to the beach it was a full on lightning storm.  We hurried out onto the beach to watch the storm coming in.  

I took the pictures above with my back to Mike. As I turn around to say lets go since it was at this point starting to rain, he pulls out the ring and says, "before we go will you marry me?"  I immediately say yes, and hug him and start crying. Then I slap him on the arm and call him a jerk.   

We head back to the car and head home.  It's on the drive home that he mentions we aren't really getting a four wheeler, that was his cover story for why he was taking money out of the bank. I was actually a little sad about this, and said can we still get one?    And he really did have the ring while we were at the mall and he was being serious while I thought he was just trying to embarrass me. I felt really bad when I realized that. OOPS!  When we get home I realize also that my brother and his fiance were in on it too and that's really the whole reason they came over. They're so sneaky!  I also called my parents, of course, they knew that Mike was going to ask.  

I had no idea at all that he was going to ask me. We've been together for 7 years and he always said he doesn't see the point in being married, so I was figuring we would never get married. I am SO SO SO glad he changed his mind on that though.  

So now, let the wedding planning begin!! *Edit* Here's the first of our wedding planning.