How I Planned My Wedding in Less Than Two Months

Wow. I really dropped the ball on this blog over the past year and a half. And that's too bad, because it would have been a great time to be documenting here for the nonexistent reader (besides my future self...because I ridiculously and slightly embarrassingly love reading my old blog posts). There were some horrible times (pretty much my entire second year of teaching) and some amazing times (meeting, dating, and falling in love with one of the greatest men I've ever known), and all the in between (my thoughts and commentaries on the random things in life).

Let's do a quick catch up. Well, not much to say about teaching last year, except that it was hard. I had a really tough class, and there wasn't much good to talk about from the year, except when it was over. We switched over from year-round to traditional schedule and had to move out to portables, so that was all kind of a bummer. We went from 4 classes to 3 classes, which meant we each have almost 30 kids in our classes. It's be a rough first half of the year. I do have amazing kids who I really like, but that doesn't mean it's not hard every single day. I also love my teammates, Megan and Allison. We are all very much on the same page about pretty much everything and work really well together. That is one advantage that has come from traditional schedule: collaboration. That was hard on year-round. But anyways, enough about work. That isn't the purpose of this post.

Something much more exciting is the purpose of this post. It has to do with Nicholas Lawrence. We met July 2014. First date was September 1, 2014. First kiss was January 19, 2015. He proposed December 25, 2015. We're getting married February 13, 2016.

Nope, not a typo. We're planning a 7 week engagement. Everyone's eyes get a little wider and their jaw drops a bit when they hear that, but when you've been dating someone for as long as we have, talking about the possibility of marriage for at least 6 months, you're ready to get married, asap. And when you've got a couple of older (at least comparatively in the Mormon world), more reasonable and frugal young adults like us, you don't need that much time to plan the kind of wedding we want. Something simple, smallish, and chill. So 7 weeks seems like a great amount of time. Especially when we can get stuff done right now while on break.

So my idea for blogging again is to not only document this journey, but also see if I can relieve a bit of stress in my life. We'll see how it works. But I want to do one of my mini-series, like I've done in the past. This one is going to be: How I Planned My Wedding in Less Than Two Months. And sticking with tradition, I'm starting it at about 3 in the morning, because once again while staying in my bedroom at home I've become an insomniac and couldn't sleep. So, a quick outline of what's happened the past few days. I know it doesn't look like a lot, but it's felt like quite a bit.

Dec 25th: Talked about date possibilities. Looked online at apartments.
Dec 26th: Talked more about date possibilities. Looked online at options for dressing up a cultural hall.
Dec 27th: Weighed the options for a date. Searched for reception venues.
Dec 28th: Went to Target and Kohl's to start our registry. It was exhausting. More online searching for reception venues.
Dec 29th: Scheduled Feb 13, 2016 at 1:00 pm with the Mt. Timpanogos Temple. Dress shopping with Mom. Found 2 dresses, one that I loved, one that I really liked. Also led to the possibility of Mom making a dress like the one I loved. We're going to check out fabric tomorrow and weigh the cost. I want to make the decision tomorrow. Nick continued to look at venues online. (Finding a venue to meet our needs and budget has been frustratingly difficult. I'll get into that more later.)

Well, I think sleep has finally found me and is tugging me back onto my pillow, so that's all for now. We'll see how this mini-series actually goes. I promise I'll try to make it more entertaining than just a running list of what I do every day. And I'll try to add some fun stories about Nick and me and our relationship. Happy 45 more days!