Wedding Dresses!!

Once I had that ring on my finger, it was go time! Three days later, my mom, Danielle, her kids and I were on the road to Utah. We all knew we wouldn't be able to find anything around town that was modest enough for the temple. I had an idea of what type of dress I wanted. I thought I was going to go for a modern, trumpet style.

We drove into Utah, had a quick BBQ with some family and then went to the University Mall to go check out Allyse's Bridal. We only had about an hour before they closed for the night so we planned on just checking out the designs and then coming back the next day to try things on. I gave the lady that worked there some designs I saw online. She asked me if I've thought of trying a specific dress because I had the perfect body type for it. I was more than willing to try any dress on :) 

"THE" dress :)

This dress had brocade all over it, extremely heavy and drop dead gorgeous! There was a good group high school girls trying on prom dresses and as I was standing in front of all the mirrors, they passed by and all gawked and said whoever my fiance was, he was one lucky man. Ok, if a bunch of strangers were saying that.. it must look pretty good! But seriously? Did we just travel all this way for me to find my dress after only trying on one other dress?! I had made appointments for the following day at other bridal boutiques, so my mom said we should keep the appointments to see if there was another dress that contended with it. I agreed, but was a little nervous I'd find another dress I loved just as much as this one.

This is the dress I had envisioned, it had it all.. but was over my budget.

The next day we get to the first appointment and my fear came true. I really liked this one dress, it had everything I ever thought I'd want in a dress. It was form fitting around my stomach, had lace, some pick ups, the back tied like I wanted, and the train was beautiful! But, it was a good $700 over what I wanted to spend on a dress.

First time putting a vale on.. THAT moment was surreal!

I was now in debate, and my head was spinning with all the options. I tried on some other really pretty dresses in the mean time, but I knew the two I was in debate over.

This dress was ALL lace! Oh my.. gorgeous!

I eventually got so overwhelmed that I just stopped trying dresses on and decided the dress for me was the second one I tried the day we got into town. I knew I was only going to wear the dress for one day, but at the same time I wanted to have that dress be special. Once we went back to
Allyse's Bridal and tried on that other dress I knew I had made the right choice. It was perfect, never thought of me in that style dress before but I was in love with it! The worker quickly put this flower hairpiece in and I was sold. No more searching :)

Who knew I'd fall in love with something with fish net!

Ridding horses = LOVE

I knew when Perm asked my dad for my hand.. and of course my dad responded with, "that's all you want? Just her hand?". So I kept telling him the element of surprise was gone, just pop the question already because everyone is suspicious. Well, he didn't like that much.

On Sunday Sept 12, my sister starts talking to me about riding horses and of course I jump on that idea. I'll go riding any time I can! I had Mondays off so we decided that would be a good day.

Perm had class Monday nights and so I knew it was only my sister and I riding. Danielle was being kind of goofy that day, I had a meeting to go to for work and while I was there she asked me what is good at this local deli that I LOVE. I quickly responded with a general description of what to get. Apparently that wasn't good enough for her. She then asked about wither tomatoes and onions were good on it. I thought that was such a stupid question, wouldn't you know if you liked those things on your sandwich!?
Finally it's time for me to head over to the Warner's house, while on the way Danielle called me telling me she won't be there on time, then five minutes later that she was on her way and to pull off the road and wait for her, another five minutes go by and she tells me to meet her at the house (like I said, she was acting goofy).
Once at the Warner's I meet up with our friend Jacky and started riding the horses. Just as we head out she starts asking me all sorts of questions about what I've been up to. Naively I start telling her how I know Perm is planning on asking me to marry him (little did I know I was on my way for him to do just that!) and how he needs to get it over with because I already know about the ring, the asking of the parents. I thought I knew it all.

Jacky with her two horses, Andy and Justin

We start down this hill and I see this white Honda accord, which I thought was totally bizarre. We are in the middle of Washoe Valley, how did someone get their car out there! I asked her why that would be and she said people like to hike out here. I happily agreed with that answer and kept riding (I was in heaven just being on a horse, so I wouldn't have cared if the world was coming to an end.. I was on a horse!)
It was only a few minutes later that my horse suddenly stops. He was spooked by something in the bushes to my right. So of course I start looking that direction as well. I see this round silver thing pointing my direction... What is that? Is all I could think! Then I see it move and I see a red dot!! I look closer and see it's my brother in law Matt. Why was he recording me and when I called his name why wouldn't he answer me!? I was pretty confused. Then I look up the trail where there was a blanket with rose petals everywhere, candles and music. It FINALLY dawned on me what was actually happening!!

Perm's hiding spot

Perm comes from behind the tree where he was hiding and has the biggest smile on his face! I didn't think I would be nervous but boy was I wrong! I felt frozen, I couldn't say or do anything. All I could do was shake. I got off the horse and next thing I know Perm is kneeling in front of me asking me to be his wife! According to my family I was like a bobble head, shaking my head yes the entire time! Once he puts the ring on(of course the one I feel in love with at Jared) I noticed my "paparazzi". Danielle had been taking pictures the whole time, Matt video taping and Jacky was there with her iPhone in one hand and the rains for the horses in the other.

Brings a smile to my face every time I think of this moment :)

Once Danielle got her pictures, they all left Perm and I alone. He takes me to the blanket and I see two glasses of sparkling cider. Then he has sandwiches for us to eat, from my favorite deli (Danielle got me on that one! Sneaky sneaky!!), my favorite chips. It was perfect! We watched the sun set over the valley and enjoyed watching the stars together. Then, last but not least he pulled out the best chocolate covered strawberries!! YUM!

The night was better than I had ever imagined it being! Perm was so proud of the fact that he surprised me... And honestly so was I.

Here's some extra pictures from the night;

They thought of everything to make it a special night for me

I had my ring!! YES!

Andy was trying to eat my rose

This the most random tree out in the middle of Washoe Valley. It made the perfect spot to be proposed to!

A special thanks to my sister, Danielle and brother in law Matt for creating one of the most incredible nights of my life :)

Marriage talk

So once Perm was home our relationship started to take off. We sat at my parents house on a Sunday night and started talking about our future. It threw me for a loop! I was so surprised that only after two weeks we would be talking about marriage.. I didn't expect it, nor did he! We talked about when our wedding date would be and if we would wait till the summer or get married during the winter. Both of us felt if we knew it was right and that it was supposed to happen then why post pone it even more?

I went home that night and quickly texted my cousin Gabrielle. I told her "well.. Perm and I just had our first official marriage talk." Then she responded quickly with, "Jordan and I have had it too..." I was shocked! Gabrielle and Jordan had been dating for about a year or so and I knew it was getting serious but I knew Gabrielle all too well and she wasn't one to hop on the marriage band waggon. So I thought she meant we've talked about it but not any details. I soon find out I'm very wrong! They were looking at getting married around the same time as well! Which blew my mind! Once we both realized what was happening we both laughed and thought of course, we are like sisters(3 months apart age wise and lived a street away most our lives) why woulndn't we get married around the same time? Heck, we will probably die around the same time too!

So that of course got my all excited. I loved the fact I was in the process of getting married but the fact that I would have my cousin by my side made it that much better :)

That Saturday I told Perm we should go look for rings, because I don't know what I really like. Plus, I didn't know what looked good on my finger. So he hesitantly said yes...little did he know what he was getting himself into! Hahaha! We decided to go to Jared, I had done some research and I really liked one of the rings I saw on their website. That day we learned about the four C's of a diamond. Cut, Color, Clarity and Carat. I knew I hated the three stone look, yes Perm and I have the past, present and future thing goin for us in our relationship but I didn't want that on a ring. So I had this idea of having a center stone with little diamonds all around it. I couldn't find anything like that! Finally, the sales lady asked me the vision I had in my head. Once I told her, her eyes lite up and she went and got a ring. She told me I was a very vintage girl(uhhh...me? Seriously? Little did I know the whole vintage look would play into more than just my ring!) She put this ring on my finger and placed the center stone so I could get the full affect of what it would look like. I instantly had a huge grin on my face! Oh my gosh! It was gorgeous! (As a side note; I've always told Perm he's not allowed to pick out my ring with out me, I'm the one wearing it so I want to make sure I'm absolutely in love with it.. Thankfully he was more than ok with that!)

Perm couldn't believe we had found a ring that I was so in love with. He kept asking me, "Are you sure? This is only the first store we've been to! We need to look around". So I told him that would be fine, but I won't find one that out weights this ring. Sure enough, we went and looked around and he was the one that turned up his nose to other rings.

This all was happening while my parents were on a Scandanavian Cruise and I was happy about that. I still felt it was too soon from him coming off his mission. But at the same time I was so torn because I knew what I wanted and why wait at that point?

So a few weeks go by, he started school which stressed him out and threw him for a curve ball all on it's on. He was so used to the mission rules and schedule so when he had to change it up and focus on school it took him awhile to get adjusted. I was anxious, I liked that ring and I wanted it on my finger!