Bling bling

Yesterday, my darling fiance came home with a dozen roses and two cans of Sofia champagne.
(Fun fact, I LOVE champagne in a can. Yes, I am that classy. :P)
I suspiciously asked what the occasion was and he said "Why can't I just surprise you with something nice?"
Then, he gave me my ring! I didn't expect to get my engagement ring until next Friday, so it was a wonderful surprise!! I cried again, because I am a sap. :)

I love my ring so much! It's even prettier than I thought it would be. :) It's hard to see in the picture (my camera doesn't like to focus on something so small), but the band has pave diamonds on the top and the rest of the band is engraved. The setting itself looks like a chalice and is also inlaid with pave diamonds. It is gorgeous! Here I am, wearing my ring and enjoying my champagne. (I look kind of rough because I'd actually just gotten up from a nap, and, like I said before, I cried.)

Last night was really fun. We had a great time at the GAPSA mixer and at Maison Musique, listening to the Russian Mafia Band. We had a little too much fun, actually- I bought two Russian Mafia Band T-shirts (one for my future brother in law, and one for my boss, who introduced me to the band) and a CD, but managed to lose the T-shirts on the way home. I have no idea how. At least I still have the CD! Here I am with Stephanie and Sarah at the GAPSA mixer, showing the camera my ring. :P

Today we went to visit two potential wedding/reception venues. One is an art gallery on Julia St. and the other is a wedding hall. This was a very good experience because both places are in our budget and are both very nice. Of course, they both have pros and cons and we still have other places we want to see, but it's prompted us to further discuss our vision for the wedding. Nothing was decided today, but I feel like the day was very productive nonetheless. We still have a long way to go, of course!

Between our night out last night and our busy day today, we were both very tired so we've spent a quiet night at home. Tomorrow I only have to run 6 or 7 miles (yay, taper week!) and then we are going to watch the Saints game with our friend Bruce and Simone. This will be the first game we've watched and I'm mildly paranoid that this change will jinx the Saints. So feel free to blame us if they lose!

I also need to finish tidying the house. The front rooms, at least, are nice and tidy. My darling fiance took this pictures this afternoon because the light was just perfect. Isn't our apartment lovely?










I'll leave you with a picture of me and my ring, resting on the sofa after our day of wedding planning. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Wedding Stuff

It's been almost a month since I got engaged and people have started asking me how my wedding planning is going. My answer is, slowly. In all fairness, we've kind of narrowed the date down to March or April of 2011, so there is plenty of time. On Saturday we're going to look at two potential venues, which I am looking forward to. I want to be able to imagine details of what everything will be like, but I find that to be pretty difficult when I haven't even seen the places where I'm thinking about having the wedding and reception.
Other progress:
We've "envisioned our event," as the knot would say. Basically this means that we have agreed that it will be inside, during the evening, and that the wedding and reception will be in the same place. We favor cocktails and appetizers over a sit down meal.
I know what I don't want in a dress- I am basically going for the opposite of the poofy princess dress. I'd love something fitted and maybe even short. That's all I know- I haven't done much else beyond dismiss the majority of wedding dresses on the internet as entirely too poofy, and wonder aloud if the Jcrew dresses would look good on someone other than Keira Knightly's clone. (I particularly like the second dress I've linked but I don't think it's designed for someone with boobs.)
I have a vague image of white flowers with dark green leaves in mint julep cups.
Oh and I've added a bunch of wedding blogs to my google reader. That totally counts as progress, right?

Other events coming up include my Theta Alumni Club's wine and cheese party tonight (I've made Smitten Kitchen's cheesecake brownies, and urge you to do the same because they are amazing), and a night out on the town tomorrow. We are planning to go to the GAPSA (graduate and professional student association) mixer which gets all the grad students (and their dates) at the various colleges in town together for free drinks; and then we're going to the Marigny to listen to Debauche- The Russian Mafia Band. We keep tossing around the idea of asking them to play at our wedding, but we're worried that they're a little too non-traditional. :) And on Monday my office is having their annual Thanksgiving Potluck which I really enjoy. The food is always really good. I'm making Macaroni and Cheese (also from Smitten Kitchen).