The Date

After great debate and conferring with a few important people, Joe and I have settled on a date.

I guess it seems silly that we had to have so much discussion about it, cause really, what else do you have to pick, other than the time of year you want to have your wedding???

However, there was a very special day I had in mind when Joe and I even mentioned getting married in the future, a while ago...little did I know, Joe took the info and ran with it, basing his whole proposal and our engagement around that very day, without me knowing.

The tricky part, of course, is that I have two great friends also getting married around the same time and did not want to interfere with their special days or have any hurt feelings. My very first college friend Andrea is getting married two weeks prior and Kayte, who I've known since elementary school, just bumped up her date a bit and is getting married only one week after! It took me countless hours of weighing the options and the "what ifs" to come to a conclusion, which drove Joe crazy--because as he saw it, this is our ONE day to do exactly what we want to make it special and knew that having it on this date meant the world to me. He also knows that I have great friends who will also appreciate the day's importance.

For some reason, I was nervous to tell Kayte and Andrea--for the slight chance that it might negatively affect their plans or think they were not considered in our decision, which was FAR from the truth. But of course, both lovely ladies took the news gracefully and were supportive.

So after much ado, and conferencing with them and a select few other friends and family, we have finalized our date. Of course, I had to run it by my Queen of Etiquette friend, Sarah, whose mom happened to be present at the time and pretty much summed it up:

"It only happens every seven years."

"It" (being my father's birthday), coincidentally falls on a Saturday the year Joe and I plan to get married.

And so, 9.26.09 it is.

I figure if my dad can't be there to walk me down the aisle, the best birthday present I could ever give him is knowing his daughter will be taken care of for the rest of her life by the best man she could have ever dreamed to have met.

Vacation

Marisa and I just got back from our vacation. Not from wedding planning, you know, from life and work and all that stuff. It always seems to go too fast. Don't worry though, we kept up with the planning and made up our minds involving some pretty important decisions that you'll find out soon.

FYI, we went down to Orlando for my cousin Daniela's wedding. I must say, there are no dull moments with my family. Lela, as we like to call her, got married to this pretty cool Puerto Rican guy (like most of my cousins). No, really though, Rick is amazing and couldn't be a better match for Lela. I knew it from the moment I met him. Scarily, he's like a brother. I love them very much and wish them all the luck in the world with their marriage, even though I don't think they will need it.

Anywho, along with much drinking and a little relaxation, we got to really wrap our heads around this decision we made to get married and take it all in. Marisa took to the magazines pretty hard and I watched.

We stayed with my family and by doing so we could really feel the love and excitement that everyone has about our engagement. We couldn't ask for anything more.

Returning home means its time to get back to work, wedding and otherwise. The big decisions are close to being made and the little engine is beginning to gain momentum. Watch out and stay tuned.


To my family: Thank you for all the encouragement and excitement on our engagement. We are very lucky to have you in our lives. For those of you who offered services and help, you will be receiving phone calls and emails in the near future. We love you very much!


Along with that, enjoy some photos from our trip.



View the flickr set.

We love you. And no, we're not ignoring you.

Please bear with us.

If you are reading this, you are probably feeling like this blog is your #1 (or only) source of communication between yourself and us- and it might be driving you crazy cause we "haven't told you anything." But it's meant to be (not to drive you crazy, but to be your source of up to the minute news of Joe and Marisa).

We have decided to take everyone's advice in all their cards and emails: "Enjoy this special time together. It goes by fast."

How I look at it is, this is our time that is meant solely for us to enjoy and for us to share as we choose to unfold it. As crazy as it might sound to a lot of you, Joe and I really haven't gotten many chances (if any) to do something, or anything, for just us. Literally, every "vacation" Joe and I have taken together has been due to a wedding. We can proudly say that we have celebrated with all of you, ten weddings since we've been together, over half of which one or both of us was in (or photographing) and more than two thirds of we traveled out of state for. We love you all and are so happy to have been a part of each of your days. So now, we are enjoying ours.

We do understand that everyone wants and needs to know the date and place. We have some important decisions to be certain of and a couple people to run it by before we start calling the press, but as soon as things are in order, we'll let you know. We have had a lot of options to weigh before finalizing a date. Despite what we may have told anyone when put on the spot about a date or month or time of year, we've been doing a lot of thinking. We assure you, it will be special, and we will tell you ASAP.

And if you're reading this and still want a phone call, that's ok, but please remember that everyone close to us wants that phone call too and if we stayed on the phone with everyone that wants to talk to us for as long as they wanted to talk about every detail that we've addressed, we'd both have to quit our jobs, which I don't think is the wisest decision if we plan on having any funds for our wedding.

That is why we (Joe) created this blog for all of you. Because we love you and want to be able to follow us as we go through the excitement and escapades together. We don't want you to have to play phone tag with us. We want you to be able to go into work, go to "joelovesmarisa" and waste a good half an hour or so a few times a week on reading up on us, right here.

Planning 101

We’re engaged! (as if you didn’t know…) But if you were not aware or don’t even know “Joe” and “Marisa” and you are still reading this, grab a cup of coffee, a J. Walker, or simply, enjoy reading. We have quite a way to go.

After the firestorm of phone calls, emails, Facebook and MySpace posts, and congratulations cards (thank you everyone!), we knew what would follow... "So, have you set a date?"

We have an idea of a date, but we are not locked into anything quite yet. We aren't telling just anyone either. We had to tell a few people for the outsider’s standpoint and etiquette tips, but that’s about it. Don't worry we'll let you all know (right here!) as soon as we decide.

I knew that after asking the question, planning would have to take place, naturally. What I didn't know was how soon. Like, now. We sat down with our event planner (which we'll get back to later) on Tuesday and (4 days later) we are already booked for more preliminary visits for our second Saturday of being engaged, than we know what to do with. We’d have even more, but travel and timing just not feasible, so they will extend to Sunday. She kicks some serious you-know-what, by the way.

The following probably should've been be the first topic of this blog post but to those of you reading this, I'm sure budget isn't what you want to read about. Especially ours. Have we nailed one down? Of course not. Do we have money? Not really. This is the most unsure facet of the getting married process, at least to me. (Not sure if Marisa is having second thoughts of saying “yes” to this guy.) This is where a planner comes in handy (at least that’s what she told us.) They are there to keep you us on track with budget and advise as to where money may be better spent. Our biggest problem up to now is what our budget will be. But no worries here, we have our budget analyst friends punching numbers into spreadsheets as we speak. No matter what our budget, I want Marisa (and myself) to have the best wedding possible without me having to sell an organ. I would if I had to, though. However, as we thoroughly expressed to Michelle, Superwoman of event planning, “best” to us, doesn’t necessarily mean the traditional “chandelier-horse-and-buggy” type wedding that others might die for. Actually, it absolutely does not mean that at all.

There are so many things to consider and we’re only a week and a half into the engagement. The only part of this whole thing that I’m sure of, is who I get to do it with. There are times when I know there are about 127 things I would rather be doing then listen to Marisa explain this color over that or what food we should get or can’t afford, but when I realize who it is that I will be sharing the rest of my days with, I can’t help but smile.

Anyway, enough of the sappy stuff… I have asked Marisa (had to bribe her with candy) to write along with me on this blog. She should be posting soon (she even helped a little with this one!) We thought it would be fun to have anyone who wants to read what we are doing and where we are going, do so. We will be posting everything from what and where we are looking for plans, to registries and maybe even stories (definitely stories). So stay tuned and please feel free to comment, email us and/or just follow along.

Well, its now about 10 a.m. and we have a 10:30 beverage tasting. We'll let you know how it goes.