12 More Days & A Sneak Peak

I have twelve days left as a single lady.

Well, wait. Let's backtrack...

I was at work a few days ago (I believe it was Thursday) and a customer came to the cutting counter with bolts and bolts of fabric. Things were pretty slow, so I decided to step in and help Sue cut for her until another customer needed some help. This lady was so excited!

Her: "Oh, my! I've never had two cutters before!"
Sue: "She's a good kid."
Me: Brushing it off as no big deal
Sue: "Well, I can't say that too much longer. Pretty soon I will have to say she's a good married kid!"
Me: "Sixteen days!"

Approximately 5 1/2 months became 100 days, became 2 months, became next month, became a month from the day, became THIS month, became 20 days.

20 days became 16.

And now we are down to twelve days.

We looked at the apartment yesterday. There are definitely a few things we will get to look back on and laugh at about our first place (i.e. the porch light that won't stay upright, thus hanging upside down).

Here is a small sneak peak!

This is part of the kitchen.

This is Jason. I think he's gonna be the best part of the apartment :)
Er...this is a view of the front door and living room from the kitchen.

This is Josh.
Friend. Neighbor. Apartment manager.
He is showing off the fireplace in the living room.

And this is what I plan to be doing tomorrow...
It's time to start packing up!

Exciting Week

Hello Everyone!!!

Now that I've posted on here, I think I've gotten myself into trouble. I guess I proved that I can figure out how to post something and now Courtney knows it and asked me to write this one.

Anyway, the other day we got a phone call from Western Oregon University. This is super exciting news because they told us that we got the apartment that we have been wanting to get. It is the on campus married student housing. They are two bedroom units right next to school so Courtney will be able to just walk to class instead of driving 20 minutes each way. It will only lengthen my commute by about ten minutes because all of the extra distance is highway mileage. Even better we already know several people that live in the same apartments, including the manager and his wife. It will be super close to church as well. We will be able to walk on nice Sundays if we so choose.

Then Tuesday evening we got how we wanted the ring ceremony to go all figured out. It should go really well. We send out a thank you again to Bobby for officiating that for us. It will work out real well I think.

The best part of these apartments though is that they are very reasonably priced and EVERYTHING is included. Water, electricity, garbage, sewer, cable, internet, everything. You can tell the school is really trying to put the students in a position to succeed and not have them worrying about a whole bunch of other stuff. Lots of time for Courtney to study without some of the normal cares of moving out for the first time.

Also, we have been getting lots of things ordered for the new place. The mattress is on its way. The bed frame and sofa as well. We already have a small dinette set. It really helps for me to have the employee discount at the furniture store. We can actually start off with some pretty decent to good stuff instead of scouring craigslist for stuff that is in halfway decent shape and used already. I like my job. It has been affording us nice opportunities. I digress.

Lastly, this afternoon we went to the KROC Center and tasted the food to decide what we want at the reception. I don't want to spill the beans on just what it will be though. I'll let everyone find out at the reception itself. I suppose if Courtney wants to let you know ahead of time she can override me though. It would suffice to say that it will be AMAZING and I hope everyone will get to come try it. A word about the chef, dude can cook.

We can really see everything start to come together and the wedding is going to be stunning. I am very grateful for all the work that everyone has put into it so far, and for Jim and Pam's willingness to give their little angel the wedding of her dreams.

Don't forget to RSVP on the website. The link is somewhere on this blog.

Can't wait to see you there.

Jason Baguley

Bridesmaid Dresses

Ashton's dress just barely arrived via FedEx.

I have been so nervous about this. We ordered the dresses online at A Dressy Occasion. They have great reviews, but who knows how anything bought online will actually turn out.

The dresses could come super late.  The color could be completely wrong.  The dress could not fit...at all.   Everything about it could go so wrong!

Ashton's dress came two weeks early. It was scheduled to arrive March 9th - we were anxious about the date being so close to the wedding.  So far we're off to a good start. Now I just have to hope Ashley's dress makes it up to Alaska smoothly.

I held my breath as we opened the box.

We didn't pull a brown dress out of the brown packaging.  It isn't purple.  Nor is it red.  It's definitely burgundy.  Burgundy.  I am so relieved.  The color is perfect and the dress is gorgeous!

There are a couple small alterations to make, but that is to be expected. I love the dress! I'm so happy we took the risk :)

Just 28 more days to go! That's a month from yesterday :D

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If you are ever looking for modest gowns or formals, I highly recommend A Dressy Occasion .  They have modest, fashionable dresses at good prices.  We called in with several questions and concerns, which they effectively answered with good suggestions.  They are an actual store located in California, not just a random online store run out of someone's garage.  They are fast, but their dresses aren't just thrown together.  They are very nicely made with quality fabric and beautiful seams!

License!!!

So we had another exciting step towards getting married today. After Courtney got out of class we went over to the Polk County Courthouse in Dallas, OR and purchased our wedding license. It was a short, uneventful trip but an important one too. I'm super excited. Just over a month away!!

I know. I know. Everyone probably thinks this is just Courtney's blog but she made me an administrator so I figured I should probably post something too. This seemed appropriate so I figured I would post it myself and save her the trouble. If anything I've just been slacking.

Anyway, just so you all know, I am super excited too. It's not just Courtney. I can't wait for the day to get here. Thank you for all the support you all have given us.

Jason Baguley

Cake

We all love to sit down, have our cake, and eat it, too. Well, that's a large understatement; we just like food, period.  Cakes accompany celebration, and in some cultures -  in our culture - the cutting of a wedding cake constitutes a social ceremony.  Cakes are fun, pretty, and most of the time, delicious. But what's the big deal about cake, anyway?

Here's what Wikipedia has to say:

The wedding cake is a tradition that began in the Roman Empire. Then, however, it was a bread loaf that the groom broke over his bride's head as a symbol of his dominance in the marriage and over her. Times have changed just a little bit since then.

The color of the cake is typically white to symbolize purity - much like a white wedding dress.  The cutting of the cake symbolizes the first joint task of the bride and groom in married life.  Feeding the cake to each other symbolizes the commitment being made to one another.

The custom of cake toppers is representative of the concept of togetherness.  It became dominant is US weddings in the 1950s.  Today's wedding cake toppers may be figures indicating shared hobbies or other passions, if they are used at all.

What is the real point of all this?

We met with Mariela, a friend of my dad, on Monday morning.  She is making the cake for us. All I have left to say is:

It's gonna be good!

Update & Photos

Honeymoon is booked!

We looked at tuxes Tuesday evening.

We have chosen our picture(s) for the announcements! Whew! It only took a few days to get the proportions all figured out. But it is perfect :) I am not going to share exactly what that photo is at this point, but I will share a few favorites from the shoot. We can now finish putting our announcements together and start sending them out. That is one big step closer!

 

Ahhhh!

I am so excited!!!

We have our engagement pictures!!!

Tick...tock...tick...tock.

I'm now waiting for Jason to get home from work so we can look through them together. Luckily, it shouldn't be too much longer.

I will share some of the pictures and a link shortly :)