Engagement photos

Our good friend Marco is taking our wedding photos (in less than four months!). Last month the three of us took a day trip up to Flagstaff to get our engagement photos taken. It was a lot of fun, and the day resulted in some great photos. Here is a handful of my favorites. (Note: click on the photos to bring them up in a new window so they're larger.)

Moving

Tomorrow I move into the apartment and start an entirely new lifestyle and chapter in my life. I will be fending entirely for myself for the first time. It has been a few years since I moved out of my parents, and I have been paying rent since then, but never before have I had an entire place to take care of. I will be doing all of the housework, shopping, cooking, etc and paying all of the bills. Of course I'm nervous and a little overwhelmed, but I trust that I will learn what it's like to be in charge of a household and manage a budget. I will learn lessons (hopefully the easy way) that will prepare me for marriage. Gone are the days of being able to buy something whenever I wanted or thought I needed it. Gone are days eating out whenever I don't feel like bringing something to work or making something after getting home. (Which will hopefully help my belly as well as my wallet.) I'm excited to take on the responsibilities. I do think I'll get lonely at times being in a quiet apartment by myself. I'll miss Luke driving his cars on the wall at 10:30 at night, Abby screaming bloody murder for no reason, Daniel being inappropriately my brother, the kids yelling at me because I didn't give them a hug good bye, Aaren's food and so on. But it is time for me better learn how to manage my money and continue taking the steps to prepare being the man Cassia deserves and needs me to be.

This is just another milestone in mine and Cassia's engagement that will make the fact that we're getting ready more real. It is hard to believe sometimes that I actually get to marry her in a few LONG months. As we start to order things and set plans in place, we are able to see what our wedding will soon be like. Likewise as we plan our budget, go through the pre-marital classes and books, talk about our desires, purchase furniture, and as I move into the apartment tomorrow, we are able to start seeing what our marriage will soon be like as well. It is obviously a lot to take in, and I'll be grateful when tomorrow is over. All this anticipation has been building up and it'll be released finally. And I'll be even more grateful at the end of the day on March 13th, 2010. :)

It's been awhile

It's been awhile since either of us have updated you all and I think it's telling of what life is like right now, busy. Cassia has been busy with mid terms at school which includes papers, projects and exams. On top of that she has work, ministry, planning a wedding, being a daughter, sister, friend and fiancee to balance in her life as well. I personally think she is doing a bang up job considering all she has set before her. I can't say I'm as busy as she is, because I'm not. But I've been preparing to move into the apartment on Nov 7th, buying the necessities, figuring out my budget, realizing I really should start packing soon, having more opportunities to play on various worship teams and with the band again which is definitely something I needed. I was getting pretty discouraged about that lack of opportunity lately so it's been a huge blessing.

As far as the wedding planning goes, we did pick out a cake and let me tell you, you guys are going to LOVE it. It's so stinking good, in fact thinking about it is making me hungry right now. Cassia has started to look for flowers and work on the invitations, which means we need to finish up our guest list soon. Which will actually be a pretty daunting task. We start our group pre-marital class on Nov 1st with a few other couples who recently got engaged (we started the trend) so that should be great. We're currently going through a "great expectations" packet which is really in depth and although some of the questions are ridiculous, it is full of things that need to be considered.

Some things we could use prayer for are; patience as we both are finding it hard to wait now as we come up on 4 months left to go. Financial guidance, as we figure out our budget and start to see it in action with me moving in. That our hearts will be guarded against Satan's attacks. And one of the bigger things right now is just that we can stay close to God right now and listen to what He desires for us, and as we continue to learn and see what our roles should be.

Premarital Counseling

Tonight is our first premarital counseling "session" with John Lasley. I'm honestly slightly nervous. We chose to go with John because we knew that he would be entirely honest with us. We definitely felt some other pastors and elders are more attached to us and our relationship and that "bias" could get in the way of honest spiritual counseling. I think John will be tough on us, but in a loving way and will bring forth changes that need to be made in both of us. I will appreciate your prayers tonight.

Big purchases

We bought a dining room table! And we actually got an additional $50 off -- thanks Lisa Mishler!

Also, pray for us as we're making a decision about an apartment; we're pretty close to making a decision.

The dress

My dress came in this week! I went with my mom and Aunt Lisa to pick it up yesterday. Since some changes had been made, I tried it on again at the store, and it fit better than before, and I loved it even more than I already did. The actual dress I will be wearing at my wedding is now in my house. I'm stoked and just hope that Ben will love it when he sees it for the first time on March 13 -- just a little more than six months from now.

I would love to post a link, but that could be problematic, since Ben accesses and even writes in this very blog... so I'll avoid even the slightest description. It's a dress, that's all he needs to know :)

Personal data inventory discussion

On September 16 Ben and I will be meeting with John Lasley for our first premarital counselling session. There are so many great things about marriage that I'm looking forward to, but there are going to be difficulties that we just can't ignore. We had a really good conversation going through our premarital applications together. It was hard at times, but it was beautiful because we were able to be open and honest with each other. I was left feeling edified and reminded once again of the reasons I am marrying Ben.

In other events, I am going to call some cake places today to see if they're open on Monday. The time has come to really start looking into these kinds of things.

Proposal photos

Kha Do: what a wonderful and gifted friend you are. Thank you for capturing this moment for us and sharing it with us.

Tuesday morning, July 28. We got up early in the morning to see the famous Charles Bridge. Ben thought it would be a good idea to pull me aside and start having a private conversation.

Why are you saying all of these sappy things, Ben? Oh, wait... this is far from a normal conversation...
Ben: "Are you going to say yes?" DUH!

Oh my gosh. I can't believe this just happened.

This was probably one of the most amazing moments of the whole proposal. Everyone's support was overwhelming and incredibly encouraging.

That just happened!!!

Overjoyed.

Personal Data Inventory

We got our first packet to fill out for our premarital counseling with John Lasley. It is a "personal data inventory" packet and has some straight forward questions and some that are really making us think. For example, one is "List 5 reasons why you want to marry your fiance." Of course I know I want to marry Cassia, and I know why I do but articulating them into something more than "I'm in love with her, that's why!" is proving to be interesting. Cassia feels the same way about that particular question too. There are some other challenging ones too, which I won't share. I personally think one is a trick question that Nancy put in there and we aren't supposed to be able to answer it. ;) We are going through our packets by ourselves, but we decided that when we're done we are going to go over them with each other before turning them in. I think it'll be good for us to be able to talk about our answers alone first.

Apartments, apartments, apartments

We checked out these apartments today (floor plan A2) -- definitely at the top of our list right now. At this point, Ben could move in early- to mid-October and pay less than $600 a month (not including utilities). It's very secluded, close to my school, and a lot of other things we like.

There is the potential for renting a house that we're going to look into. The thought of moving into a house right away does kind of scare me, admittedly. First of all, the thought of maintaining a house sounds daunting to me. Second of all, the thought of ever being alone in a house makes me far more nervous than that of being alone in an apartment. We'll know where God leads us once the time for decision-making comes.

Ben and I had an initial wedding-planning meeting with my parents, his mom, Brenda Whiten (my "other mother" and our wedding coordinator) and Nancy Bohovich (wedding planner in training). We talked about a lot of ideas. It's really overwhelming sometimes, to be honest. I can imagine the relief I'll feel when the wedding is over and there's no more planning to do, in that respect at least.

Apartments and Opinions

One thing I've learned in the short time we've been engaged is that everyone has their opinion. We are blessed that so many of our family members and closest friends are truly excited for us, more so than I honestly expected even. I think I've felt myself becoming overwhelmed with the barrage of opinions and ideas directed towards us though. Some are hilarious, and we more than likely won't take action with them. Others are definitely things to consider. What I have come to realize is that as much as I appreciate and love all of the support that we've had so far, we will have to ultimately decide for ourselves what is best for us. We won't ignore what wisdom people have for us as we choose our steps but we won't (and physically can't) put every single one of them into action. It has been fun making decisions that will actually take place now instead of all of our hypothetical "we should do this when we're married" conversations we had when we were dating.

I've been looking at apartments alot lately, and as much as I would like to buy a house right of the bat I don't see that as being possible right now. At least while Cassia's in school and working part time and I'm making what I am now. I think the best route for us is to spend as little money as possible on an apartment that'll suit our needs. The one we looked at today defintely is a big possibility I think.

Camden

Ben and I looked into the Camden apartments on 79th Avenue, just north of Bell. The downside to Camden is that you are apparently required to pay the "additional" fees for cable and valet trash pickup. This to me defeats the purpose of being "additonal."

We need to set an appointment with Brenda Whiten, our wedding coordinator -- hopefully next week. She'll be able to help us answer questions like, "Would it be weird to have the guys wear brown suits?" and "What do you think of having everyone take communion?" and "Which cake place did the individual cakes that you told us about?"

The big day

First things first: Ben and I have set the wedding for Saturday, March 13, 2010. At this point it will be a 2:00pm ceremony followed by a cake reception. Everything will take place at our church, Northwest Community Church. I have found my dress (yay!) and am anxiously awaiting its November arrival.

I still really want to have suits versus tuxes. My hope is that that will work out. Brown suits are being considered, since I'd like the colors to be brown, yellow and green (think sunflower).

The guest list is going to be ridiculously huge. From NCC alone there are at least 200 people I want to invite. When you add in both of our extended families, people from Calvary Chapel Central, and other friends... the list gets enormous -- haven't quite decided what to do about that yet.

On a different note, we got to spend time with the NCC Czech team at Megan's tonight. It was so much fun to talk and play card games, as well as eat absolutely delicious food served up by the lovely Kimm Brown. I'm stoked that she gave me the recipe for the blueberry dessert she makes. Ben loves it, so I foresee it being a favorite in our home.

Wedding website

We've been talking about having a wedding website ever since we got back from the Czech Republic and have finally gotten around to actually creating one. Ben and I will do our best to update this with new developments on the wedding plans... and life... and such as.

Today Ben ordered a TV! Hopefully it will come in soon. I think that counts as our first big purchase.