Invitation Postage

My stamps have arrived! Yes, it's the little things that keep me excited around here.

You probably already know, but just a word of advice for all of you early summer brides out there: the cost of sending a first class envelope will go up two cents (from 0.42 to 0.44) on May 11. Learn more about it here.

Since May 11 is a good two weeks before my RSVP deadline and I can't bear the thought of using the "forever" stamp (c'mon Post Office, if you wanted us to use a stamp for forever, you should have made it more attractive!), I've decided to put two stamps (totaling 0.44) on my RSVP envelopes. That will cover anyone who decides to mail their RSVP back after May 11, while also still looking pretty.

These:

with

I think the flowers with the coffeepot (I actually thought it was a teapot when I was purchasing them, but whatever) is really going to look cute against the bright green of our envelopes.

And I'll be using these on our outer envelope (I didn't care for the standard wedding stamp that they have right now - a little too flowery for my taste):
The blurb on the USPS website says: "Entitled All Heart, the design focuses on a large, bright red heart that is transporting its owner to an unseen beloved who will be gifted with this heart full of love."

Awwwww. Who can resist that?

A Very Good Place to Start

Hi there. It's been a long time. I'm a bad blogger, I realize.

But now I have a topic that is consuming me and I need to get it off my chest - wedding planning. I think way too much about it and read a ton of blogs, so why not write about it, too?

To begin at the very beginning, I am engaged!

Picture it - February 6, arriving at my parent's house after a long car trip. My boyfriend is already there, drinking a beer with my Dad (nothing strange so far). He seems a little squirrley, but, whatever, he gets like that sometimes. I tell him I'm going to do laundry, does he have any I can throw in with mine? He goes out to the car and returns with a laundry bag. At some point (this will be important later) he either hands me this bag, or I already have my bag in my hand.

We both come back in the house after retrieving said dirty laundry and he stops me in the dining room and starts talking. Once I realize where this talk is heading the ONLY thing I can think is that he is proposing to me while I have a sack of dirty laundry in my hand. I blurt out something inappropriate along the lines of "I'm holding a sack of dirty laundry!" In one fell swoop (it probably wasn't, but this is how it plays out in my memory of it now), he rips the bag of laundry from my hand, tosses onto a nearby couch, and gets down on one knee. I think he pulled out the ring after he popped the actual question, because I remember thinking for a *very* brief and shallow moment, wait, there is a ring involved, right?

Once he pulled out the ring and put it on my finger, I started laughing (I laugh when I get nervous/excited/overly happy) and couldn't stop. Then - even better than the ring, in a way - he pulled out two letters from his back pocket. They were from his kids, inviting me to join the family. I don't think I've ever been so overwhelmed with emotion and love in my life.