Step One

Being engaged is a lot of work! We've only been engaged a week and I'm already stressing about the wedding! Ben is amazingly understanding though and is good at calming me down and telling me everything will work out! And following me around to Michael's, Home Depot, Ross.....

Needless to say, we had a busy weekend.

The first thing we are trying to figure out is a venue for the wedding. We have a small budget and a large guest lists. The two don't work very well together. But after lots of research on both our parts (Ben is also very helpful, finding lots of good ideas!) and recommendations from family and facebook friends, we visited some venues this weekend. Here are the places we have looked at/thought about so far:



Beazell Memorial Forest in Philomath. Beautiful. Rustic. Natural. I love this place. $750 to rent, includes tables and chairs for up to 80 people. You can fit up to 120 if you arrange parking somewhere else. If my family wasn't so big and we didn't have a billion people to invite, we would be having it here. Perfection!





Scappoose Creek Inn. Lovely and quaint and adorable. Llamas and chickens wandering around. $650 ncludes tables and chairs and use of the barn and outside area. They also have a restaurant on premise and can include bar service for $100. Really pretty, but again, too many people. This would have been our second choice though!




Mt. Tabor Amphitheater. Beautiful setting, only like $322. Doesn't include tables though, and is in a public park. Read: people playing basketball and running around while we're saying our vows. Can fit up to 300 people. But would incur a lot of other costs to rent tables, chairs, get insurance and permits. Lots of space though!





Stein-Boozier Barn in Wilsonville. Rustic, beautiful, cheap. Only fits 98 people max :(


We did tons of research and looked at lots of options. We had almost decided to go with the Scappoose Creek Inn when Helen suggested we look at a place in Independence. Looking at the info online, it seemed too good to be true! But I emailed them, and after waiting three days finally heard back. It really WAS all true!


And now, the piece de resistance:

The Rogue Brewery hopyard. Fits up to 200 people (perfect!). You can use their catering if you want, and if you do they don't charge for the venue. If you don't use their catering, its only $500. Includes tables, chairs, tableware, set up and tear down of tables and chairs. They are a brewery, so you can serve their yummy beer. It is also beautiful. Or so I've been told. I actually have never seen the place, but Kevin and Helen seem to love it, and the pictures I found online seem beautiful. So we booked it without seeing it! We'll go look at it this weekend, and if we hate it can cancel. But sounds like we'll be saying "I do" there on September 1st!

Wedding ceremony/reception venue? Check! Now on to the next million things on the list...but mostly wedding dress shopping next weekend :)


If anyone has had/been to a wedding at the Rogue Hopyard and has pictures, I'd love to see them!

Frozen yogurt....and other things.

So, let me tell you about my day last Saturday. It was a pretty decent one.

The day started out with me doing homework and coupon shopping. Neither things exactly fun, but necessary nonetheless! I told Ben I was going to finish up some final studying and then come over to his place. He told me that his mom was going to come down that afternoon and wanted to take us to a late lunch/early dinner and then go suit shopping for him. Sounded like fun to me!

His mom showed up and we piled into the little pickup to head to Henry's (a place that Ben chose, which was surprising as he had previously sworn to never return after a couple bad experiences there!) for happy hour. We all ordered our food, had a nice time chatting, then headed to Men's Wearhouse. Ben has a potential job interview lined up and so they said they wanted to get him a suit to wear if it pans out. Sounded legit to me, nothing suspect!

Boy was I wrong. After having some severe sticker shock at the suits there, we headed for some frozen yogurt. Now, I love frozen yogurt. I would eat it every day if I could. Ben and I have been to froyo many times during our ten months together. So again, nothing suspicious! We went in to the frozen yogurt shop in Pioneer Square (Chef Fresh), where Ben's mom (Debbie) distracted me by asking questions about the sign outside the shop, asking if those were the specials for the day. When we walked in, Ben handed me a container to fill up with frozen yogurt.

Nothing suspicious again (although I almost handed it to his mom, since he didn't have one for her!). I grabbed the container and headed to fill it up.

Let's backtrack for a minute. Ben was acting a little odd all day. He was super giddy when I was facebook chatting telling him I was on my way to his place. Then a little quiet and distant once I showed up. Then happy again. Then, on our way out the door, he grabbed his giant gym bag. This sucker is giant. It was a Christmas present from me, and I probably should have gotten the next size down. I think I could fit in it. Anyway, I asked him why the heck he was bringing his bag. He mumbled something about having the things he needed for the day, and the game he wanted to play with my parents, even though he knew my parents had decided not to come up for the day. Anyway, I let it go (good thing). And we now return to where I left off....

I grabbed the container and headed to fill it up. Except I felt something weird on the bottom of the cup. I was standing right by Ben and turned the cup over asking, what is this? He said....I don't know.....as I unpeeled the tape on the cup.

I'm not sure what happened next. He either dropped to his knee or I saw a beautiful diamond ring. Things got a little hazy. I also don't know if he popped the question or explained the original plan first. Whatever order things happened in, I found a beautiful diamond engagement ring, Ben got on one knee and asked me to marry him, he explained his original plan for proposing (which I ruined!), his mom told him to re-do the proposal since she hadn't had time to get her camera out to record it. Oh and I said yes. Oh and also there was frozen-yogurt-eating mixed in there somewhere.

Even after ruining his carefully thought-out plan! Here is how things were supposed to go. Debbie held up her end of the deal: she was to distract me while Ben went into the shop and talked to the girls (who already knew he was coming since he had called days earlier to talk to them!) making sure they knew what they were supposed to do. When I got in there, he handed me the previously-prepared yogurt container and I was supposed to fill it up with whatever my heart desired. When it came time to pay, the girls were going to tell me I owed like $13 because it weighed so much. I was going to freak out a little, try to figure out why it weighed so much and then find the ring. By this time, Debbie would have her camera ready, Ben would get down on one knee and we would live happily ever after! Such a wonderful and adorable plan! Well, things happened a little differently!

But, the moral of the story: I got engaged!!!!!





So now we're in the whirlwind of planning. First trying to figure out then when, where and who. Then all the other details. We know we want to have the wedding this summer, but we aren't sure exactly when...it kind of depends on the place we find and when its available. We aren't super-rushing, but six months even is still a short time to plan a wedding. So we don't really get to just enjoy being engaged, but have to hurry and figure everything out! But we are still enjoying it and having fun planning together. Ben is really helpful and is always sending me places he found, tips he got from friends and coworkers, etc.

Anyway, yay for being a fiance! Now I just have to get through my last term of school and plan a wedding, then we'll be married :)