The dress

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I know that the groom traditionally isn't supposed to see the dress before the wedding day, but Samantha and I accomplish things when we're together. Shopping is not something Samm particularly enjoys and her family is so excited that they can hardly contain it, which unfortunately sometimes evolves into complete overload. When that happens, nothing happens or gets accomplished. I'm done making excuses for why I went dress shopping with her yesterday, just let me tell you about it. 


Samantha has already explained her knack for finding good sales and I shared with her that my mom and one of my aunts were able to find very beautiful dresses from David's Bridal for extremely cheap. We wanted to have two dresses for multiple reasons, but we decided to check out David's. Last night, we drove out there, fully expecting to see some nice dresses, but be disappointed with the outrageous prices. 


Trying on wedding dresses is a process, let me tell you. Apparently the bride has to put on a bra-slip combo, but after that the changing of the dress happens within seconds. After some problems finding which size bra-slip combo actually fit, we started having dresses appear on the rack outside of her changing room. First one was OK, but the second one, I was absolutely blown away with. I was about to say, this is it, this is the dress. It was $350, but we also needed to add sleeves or something to have it be a little more modest and appropriate. We decided to hold onto it in case we couldn't find anything else and we decided we wanted to spend the extra money. Ohh! back up a second. The first dress had some beads and stuff in the body of the dress and Samm immediately started playing with them and picking. So we decided we didn't want anything too fancy and dressed up just for the sake of it staying together the entire night, through the reception. After that, they ended up taking a few dresses back to the floor. Anyways, she goes through a few more dresses, nothing too spectacular and we especially not having any luck finding one that would look halfway decent with sleeves, plus they were all out of our price range. Samm finally gets onto the manager for bringing so many dresses out to her that were out of our range and she mentions that there is one more that they ended up putting back on the floor because of what was said about beading and playing with it. We decided that we would look at it anyways.


Turns out that this is the dress that we both absolutely loved! We had the alterations woman bring out a shrug type of jacket thing, just something with sleeves and it looked even more amazing! The jacket was amazing and it just works well together with the dress. Anyways, Samantha and her family is going back tonight to buy the dress and jacket and they'll set up an appointment for a fitting sometime later down the road. 


We are totally rocking this wedding planning thing!

Quick Post

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I was smiling at myself in the mirror today, something I rarely do, but should probably do more often (you know how a small smile can make someone's day, even your own). I realized, EW!
I got my dress today. Oh yeah, I'm just guesstimating, but I'm pretty sure I got this dress for $500 cheaper than the marked price. You can't beat that! Okay so you can, but this dress is... ah! So gorgeous. If I can find a picture, I'll post it.
But back to my tragedy. I painted a picture to show my dilemma. If anyone has any suggestions to have this fixed by Decemeber, please let me know! :)

Priceless

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So, we have been running around and getting things done for the big day! I've only had one breakdown, and thankfully we were in separate cars on the phone, so nobody saw the Broke-down Bride. It was over something we had settled on, but just that: settled. However, in the bigger scheme of things, the choice we made in the beginning makes the most sense.

Our two biggest trials now are one, finding the gosh darn stupid dress, and two, disguising a gym to look like a wedding hall.

However, things have been going really well. Due to strategic shopping, luck of sales, and a high bank of patience on Spencer's part, we have

* flower garland
* flowers for the bouquet
* flowers for throwing bouqet
* most of the ingredients for our centerpieces, which incorporates 3 or 4 things
* shoes for the dress (leftover from prom, that's handy)
* a few more scattered things here and there

and the grand total is: ... ... couldn't tell ya exactly, but I know it's less than $50 :) Talk about smart shoppin! And it doesn't stop there! I fully intend on spending less than $200 for a temple dress and another dress. I know, "Two dresses? Girl you be outside yo mind!" but we deemed it necessary, as long as we can get them both for under $200. I found one I like for $100, plus $50 to add professional sleeves, and then the temple dress, I found a nice one for $40, so there we go! There's just a bit more detail than that, it's not so simple.

We have also decided not to move out of Spencer's apartment now. I'll just be moving in with him until the lease is up. It'll save over $1000 and relieve a bit of stress off our shoulders for now.

There you have it, week 2 of our engagement is over tonight, and we have so many things in line. I think we have roughly 12 weeks left. We can do it! I'm so excited to get to marry this man, and I can't be more grateful for his willing attitude! We are getting so much stuff done! :)

Let the madness begin

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We've jumped headfirst into the insanity known as wedding planning. We've got a venue picked out, we've got the reception all planned out and things like that. This weekend, we went looking at flowers and centerpieces for the tables at the receptions and this is what we accomplished:

We went to Hobby Lobby and were checking out the flowers. We decided that we wanted silk flowers so that we can keep them much longer and not lose their color, plus the obvious price difference. We have the flowers for her bouquet as well as the flowers for the bouquet that gets tossed. I couldn't give you the names of the flowers specifically, but her bouquet will be a mix of blue and white flowers (I'm pretty sure one of the flowers is tulip, but I couldn't be totally positive). Anyways, we had all that picked out and we started looking at flowers for boutonnieres and everything but didn't settle on that yet. We also got some flowers to go on the cake and food tables for that little added decoration.

We also got some stuff for the centerpieces for the tables in the reception. We have tulle circles to go under glass bowls that will be filled with little colored glass marbles and water, and we're going to float a white flower in it (one of the same flowers form her bouquet, but not the tulip). We're also going to put flower petals around the bowl on the table. We still need to get the bowls though. The ones we found didn't quite work out for what we wanted so we'll have to go look again sometime.

I'm probably forgetting something which will be filled in by Samantha, but that's what I remember without actually seeing what we bought. We're going to go look at the apartment complex we're keen on this afternoon, and maybe even to David's for a dress. As crazy as this is, I'm loving it, I just can't wait to finally be married to the wonderful woman!

The Proposal

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I had been trying to figure out how to ask Samm for such a long time and I couldn't come up with anything legit. On top of that, everything I thought up and tried to take Samm out to ask her, she wasn't in the mood or didn't feel good or some other excuse. 

I had things like taking her to her favorite park to picnic, I tried to get in touch with the operator of the video board at one of the stadiums we went to to watch a game, and we almost went up to the peak of the mountain while we were in Albuquerque. NOTHING. I was kind of getting tired of always carrying around the ring.

About the ring. Kind of a side note, I had gotten the ring but didn't know her exact ring size. I tried being smooth by checking out some of her rings and see which one fit the best on her finger. Again, I got nothing. I even started asking her (she already had her suspicions so I just didn't even try to hide it). I had it sized the afternoon before we went to Albuquerque and I was trying to propose that weekend. Like I said above, nothing worked. Anyways, I decided to just wing it, much like with our first kiss.

We both love sports, we both love football, and we both love Texas Tech. Texas Tech hosted Texas this past weekend and this is a big deal here. Students started camping out Sunday afternoon to secure their spots. After Monday, the number of student camping had already gotten over 800. I wanted to camp out for this, and Samm was just as excited as I was so we set up our tent Tuesday night. We had to check-in twice a day and at the end of the week, we were going to be arranged according to how many times we had checked in. Anyways, check-in was usually at 11 p.m. and then at 4 a.m. and with as many people were out there and as rowdy as they were, there wasn't much sleeping going on, just napping. Anyways, Tuesday night, we're settling in and we start talking about our relationship. I had the ring on me, of course, and I saw an opportunity.

I was telling her how much I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her and how much I loved her. I pulled the ring out of my pocket, but still out of sight, and was starting to tell her that I had something for her that she had been waiting on for some time. I said something along the lines of that this thing that I had for her came with conditions: that she would love me forever and ever, even when I'm being a pooper. Then I told her that I will always love her and gave her the ring.

I was actually more nervous about the ring actually fitting than the whole part of finding what to say and saying it. Luckily for both of us, the ring fit perfectly! We were engaged on September 14.

Now comes all the crazy wedding planning!!

The Proposal, pt II

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I was asked very nicely by Samtha to post a picture of her ring. I took this picture with my phone and blew it up a bit so you can actually see. I hope its not too fuzzy. Anyways, I'll post how it REALLY happened later. 

The Proposal

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The main post that most people have been waiting for: The proposal. I'll see if Spencer will post a picture of the ring when he tells his version of the story.

We had talked about marriage a lot, and we knew it was headed that way, but I told him he couldn't marry me unless he had a job. So, during the summer, he actually found two jobs. I knew this was it. However, I kept waiting and waiting, no ring, no proposal. He kept dropping "hints", hints that slapped me in the face, it was shocking how subtle they were..."Babe, what's your ring size?" "Will you marry me? Just kidding, that's not how I'm going to do it", "Babe, do you want round stones or square?"...

Then there was the matter of talking to my dad. I kept giving him opportunity after opportunity to be alone with my dad, and it never happened. I was so frustrated after I walked in one day, noticed they were talking, and made every excuse to avoid them, just to find out that he hadn't even brought it up while they were talking. After that, I just decided not to expect it, it'd happen when it would happen.

I started getting stressed though. June turned into July turned into August turned into September. Our 6 month engagement was slowly losing months and we weren't going to have time to get everything ready once it happened and we made the news public! One day, I felt the ring in his pocket, I thought, but I convinced myself later that it was just his wallet, trying not to get my hopes up.

Finally, we set up camp in Raiderville. I had my expectations that he was going to propose at the UT game, so I wasn't expecting it at all, which I think that's what he was going for. We were in the tent, and I noticed him digging around in his backpack but thought nothing of it. Then he turned to me and said something to the effect that this conversation has:

Samm, I have a question.
Yeah? What's that? (Not suspecting a thing)
Will you always love me? Forever and ever?
Of course I will, I will always love you! (starting to suspect something...)
Even when I'm being trouble, or a pooper, or Spencerbob Crankypants?
Of course I will, as long as you will love me when I'm being those things too!
Samm, I will always love you! Will you marry me? (Shows the ring)
*gasp* Trouble! Trouble face! Of course I will, you trouble.

Then he put the ring on my finger, we hug and kiss, then he says "Wait, should I have been on one knee?" "Oh yeah, you better redo it" So I gave him the ring back, and knelt as tall as I could, which was still shorter than him on one knee, seeing as how neither of us could stand in the tent, and he was nearly reaching the top on one knee as it was, and said "Samantha Allred, will you marry me?" And no trouble faces, I said "Yes!"

"I Will!"

The disaster I wouldn't change!

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When Samm and I started hanging out and spending time together, we weren;t really looking for anything serious and weren't really planning on anything taking off. So much for our plans. We started dating the first weekend of February after just one week of spending time together and our first kiss was only one week, to the day, after that.

Even though we were planning on taking it a little bit slower, I couldn't help myself but fall completely head over heels for this girl! Supposedly, Samm wanted to take things EVEN slower but said she failed. I think there was just no stopping it! Anyways, we pent just about as much time togther if not more the week we started dating than the week previous. Through all of that, I was holding her hand and everything and wanted to kiss her. Me bing a cheeseball, I didn't want it to be some lame thing that I would remember forever as a monumental fail. So much like everything I plan out, I rethink it, chicken out, and replan it many, many times. I hadn't thought out any precise plans for this kissing her thing, I just thought I would roll with it and see what happens.

The weekend after we started dating was Valentine's Day weekend. I had bought her flowers, Tulips to be exact, and made a randa-bag of some of my favorite chocolates! It was yummy! Anyways, we had family dinner at her house that Sunday night, and then went back to my apartment to watch a movie. Throughout the whole thing, we're all cuddled up with each other, olding hands and being extremely close for people. You know, the whole awkward close when you haven't kissed yet but your faces are right in teh others one's face!? Kind of like before you hold hands and your hands are touching, but you're not actually holding hands? That was our faces!

Anyways, I keep going into kiss her while we were watching the movie, but she kept denying me! After a few tries, I just gave up and settled with myself that it must be her trying to take thigns a little slower. After the movie, I'm walking her out to her car, not feeling so great with my failing and BAM!! She tries to kiss me! I was obvisouly taken aback! First off, girls don't initiate the first kiss and second, she had been shutting me down all night! So I said something lame and she started getting into her car. I VERY QUICKLY DECIDED THAT'S NOT WHAT I WANTED TO HAPPEN! Haha, so as she's getting into her car, I tell her to come here and strt pulling her back. I don't wait until she's all the way back out before I kiss her. And unfortunately, it was probably the lamest kiss known to man.

Regardless of how lame our first kiss story is, it's something I will never forget and cherish...probably just because it shows us and our personalities and our relationship perfectly!

Kiss the Girl

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So I was going to tell about the proposal, but I can't skip the first kiss! It's too classic for our relationship. (Is classic the right word?)

So not wanting to rush into anything too serious, and failing by holding hands on the second date, I figured I wouldn't kiss him until we were solid in dating. However, with our relationship plummeting into 'serious' faster than I could have known, and with no stopping it, this was proving more difficult than planned. The first time Spencer ever said "i love you" was within the first week of dating. He told me he knew it was crazy, and that he usually moved a whole lot slower than we were, he couldn't help himself and how he felt. He told me that he was the happiest he had been in a long time, and I admitted to myself and him that it was the happiest I had been in a long time as well.We had also started confiding in each other things that we didn't confide in your every day person, which brought us even closer. I just felt so comfortable with him, like I'd always known him. Then Valentine's Day came around (yes, all of this happened in one week...). He had pecked me on the cheek and head, hand and forehead, but never on the lips. I might have pecked his cheek, but I wanted to avoid the kiss in order to keep this relationship at somewhat a steady pace in something

So I went over to his apartment after church and we started watcing Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. I could tell he wanted to kiss me, and I decided, since he wanted to kiss me so badly, and I him, that I would give him one for Valentine's Day (I know, a very selfish present). However, there was no way that was going to happen during Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs... so I figured I would wait for it to be a goodbye kiss, make him wait as long as possible for it. haha 

However, it seemed like he was very discouraged throughout the whole movie, thinking he was going to get one and still hadn't, so when he walked me out to the car, he was a little disgruntled. Then, I gave him a good bye hug and started to kiss him and he turned his face and so "No, you don't get one, I've been trying all night and you've been rejecting me all night!" So I figured okay, fine, whatever, threw off my smooth, I'm out of here, so I got in my car and he stopped me and said Wait, no! And then it was a quick awkward peck on the lips from reaching up from being halfway in my car, and him bending down around my monstrously long door on my car. It was a horrible train wreck that I wouldn't trade for anything!!!

LOST being the key word here

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So I invited Samm over to watch Lost with me on my computer. I was streaming it over my computer, so we were in a couple of very uncomfortable chairs. I would have liked to have been a little bit more comfy, so we just wrapped up in blankets.

We were just snuggling up to each other the first night. I kept trying to figure out a way to be smooth and hold her hand, but I just kept chickening out. The second night she came over, I was like I am not letting that happen again. We were snuggling even closer than the night before and we kept playfully touching hands. I just couldn't convince myself to hold her hand for some reason. FINALLY, i grabbed it, looked over at her because I knew we were talking about not rushing into anything, and saw it was OK. I had another date with someone else the next night that I had set up previous to this whole Samm thing, but I was relieved to find out that there was NOTHING going on there. Crisis averted. 

We saw each other every night that week, minus the one where she was having a girls night and I was out on a date with the other girl. Turns out, Samm had another date that weekend, but after we both had seen someone else that week, we felt that there was no one else we would rather be with than each other. I only had eyes for my Samtha and saw nothing else! We made it official February 7 and I have been the happiest I've ever been since!

Lost in Dating

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After we had exchanged numbers, I wanted to see him as soon as I could. However, after getting out of a messy relationship, I wasn't looking for a new one and I didn't want to rush into anything. This made things complicated. I wanted to hang out with this guy, but I didn't want a relationship again. After Institute, I think, I followed him to his apartment, and he pulled up a chair for me at his computer so we could watch Lost. I think we even started it from the beginning, Season One. Now, I generally move pretty fast in and out of relationships, so I was making sure to keep my distance; to make sure I didn't rush myself into another one that would end just as badly, or worse, than the last one. However, he keeps his room frigid cold, so we bundled in a blanket. Now that I look back, I know he wasn't cold, he's never cold! He was just using it as an excuse to brush shoulders ;)

He went out on another date with that other girl. Later that week, if not the next day after, I came over to watch more Lost, and he told me that he had shut the book on that other girl. We were very open with each other from the beginning. Neither of us were looking for a relationship, but we knew it was headed that way and there was no stopping it. The second time we hung out, I kept wanting to snuggle closer, maybe just to grab his hand or peck his cheek, but it was only the second time we had hung out! It wasn't even a date, we were just snuggling again in front of his computer in two separate hard back chairs! Just wrapped up in a blanket. I didn't want to move too fast, but my little "Rationalization Samm" came out, and I figured okay, well if I just set my hand here, it's up to HIM if he wants to grab it or not! I think I remember him kind of moving closer as well, but finally, I could see him buck up the courage and just snatch my hand. At first, he looked a little apologetic, a little sheepish, wondering if that was okay to do or not. But once he realized it was okay, I'm pretty sure I saw the rest of the block of ice chip away, the Berlin wall crumbling down to where there was nothing standing in between us.

That Saturday, I went on a date with another guy and realized hmm... This was a great date, group date, had a wonderful time, but... I was thinking about Spencer the entire time. I felt a little bad for the guy I was on the date with. The next day, I went over again, and we talked about it, kind of a DTR talk. It was short and sweet and consisted of me saying, "I don't really want to be with anybody else." I mean, it was February 7th, and my version of the story, we met January 30th, that's pretty fast! It's exactly what I wasn't looking to do! However, when I thought about even going on dates with other guys, I just didn't want to. None of them interested me like Spencer did. None of them attracted me the way Spencer did. So, we made it officially exclusive. :)

Tomorrow, we'll tell about our first kiss ;) And don't worry! The proposal is after that!!! Sound good babe?

Where It All Began

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Spencer and I have decided to start a blog to keep track of our engagement and the relationship leading up to it. I will be writing in this color, showing my awesome femininity and he will be writing in navy blue to represent his masculinity. :) This first post will be about how we met and where everything started between the two of us, my version, then his. 

Spencer will more than likely start out with some explanation of how we really met, but I like to peg it to January 30th. Our singles ward was having an ice cream social. I wasn't planning on going, I had gone through a nasty break up and had been feeling very anti-social for a couple of months. But I decided I would go anyways. Shayla was the main reason that I went, I didn't want to abandon her all by herself, and plus, ice cream!

Shayla, however, kind of abandoned me to go fulfill some calling or something... So I was left to socialize with the people I had been so keen on avoiding. Not that I didn't like them, I had just detached myself from them and was now trying to get back into the social scene. That was when I saw Spencer standing across the gym, wearing his big winter coat that he looks amazing in. I meant to meander around and eventually make my way to him, but meandering turned into making a bee line straight to Spencer. We even joked about it once I got to him. Maybe that's why I went straight to him, because he seemed to know I was going to him anyways.

I didn't want to linger too long. A girl I knew had just gone on a date with him and she told me about it. I didn't want to step on her toes, so after a few pleasant exchanges, we parted. The only problem was that I couldn't stay away! I kept thinking, "Talk to different people, Samm, there are more guys and [this girl] has dibs." However, this girl and him didn't talk too much that night, and I subconsciously considered him free game after he chose to continue his conversation with me over his conversation with her. I kept leaving to talk to others but for some reason, I kept finding myself by Spencer, which inevitably sparked more great conversations. I even called Laura telling her who I had talked to and who I thought I was falling for. Our conversations flowed so easily, it was like we had known each other for years. 

Afterwards, he came up to me and asked if I knew about the after party at a friends house. I told him I knew about it and asked him if he was going. Of course, he turned the question around and asked if I was going, which I read loud and clear as "I'm not going if you aren't." So he asked where it was, I tried to give him directions, but we came to the conclusion just to go together. :) We spent the rest of the night playing games and enjoying each others company. We went back to the church building so he could get his truck. He got out, but then bent back over to talk about Lost. I knew he was just coming up with excuses to see me again soon, but I was trying to come up with excuses myself. I knew I wanted to spend time for him. He brought up watching Lost and I jumped on the opportunity. He asked for my number after saying, "I know this is totally cheesy and not smooth at all, but I need your number." So I grinned thinking this guy is cute, making his intentions known that he wants to be more than just friends, and I gave him my number. :) We started dating on February 7, 2010. We had hung out several times, gone on what he considered dates, I considered hanging out that swiftly turned to dates, and figured that we didn't want to be with anyone else, so we made it official. Pretty quick pace, but I've never regretted it!  Okay, Spence, your turn.

Geez, Samm, you writing a book?

So she probably said something about us meeting at the ice cream social in January. Not true. We met 3 years ago when I used to meet up with other people from the branch (it was a branch back then it was so small) on Saturday mornings to play soccer and occasionally ultimate frisbee. She and her younger brother Nathan come out to play ultimate frisbee with us one morning and THAT'S when we met. Samm never attended the branch when I was first there, and it wasn't too long before the school year had wrapped up and I was back in Dallas, preparing to go on my mission.

Post mission, I come back to school starting in January. We were having this ice cream social at the end of January, which I'm sure she talked about, and I was recently called to the ward activities committee. As a part of fulfilling my duties to said calling, I went out beforehand and got balloons, helped set up and was assigned to work a table of toppings. I had the EXTREME table, and let me tell you, I had the grossest things you would ever put on ice cream: doritos and pickles.

I think I had maybe three visitors to my table, and they were only there to fill up a bowl of doritos, and not for their ice cream. I dont blame them, that would just be gross. So the ice cream eating part is winding down and throughout this, I get bored of just standing there and not doing much, so I grab my bowl and start talking to some of the people that were in the branch before I left on my mission. I wasn't really branching out and talking to new people.I thought I would eat what I was trying to get everyone else to try, so I grabbed a pickle and make a huge scoop of ice cream complete with all the toppings, throw it on the pickle and eat it. Let me tell you, it was one of the most disgusting combinations of normally, and separately decent foods I have ever eaten. 

I convince myself to be a little bit more social that night and continue to mingle with other people, in doing such I was re-introduced to Samm. The other conversations I was trying to have to not be just talking to Samm would eventually die down. I would walk away but would quickly notice I was walking right back to Samm, I just felt drawn to her, I didn't know why but I wasn't going to fight it. Anyways, this happens multiple times and I start to realize that there's something there. She was just so easy to talk to, I felt like I had known her for years!

Somehow, I find out that theres an post-activity gathering at a guy's house from the ward that I didn't know how to get to. I asked her if she was going and she said yes, so I said I would just follow her over there but end up deciding on just riding together. Later, after the game night on the ride home, I somehow made mention that another friend of mine had introduced me to Lost and that I was really getting into it. As I was getting ready to get out of her car, I mentioned that I was catching up and thought it would be cool if we watched it together. 

Being the goof that I am, I layed on the cheese and said that I would need her number so that we could get the details down and so I could give her directions to my apartment. She laughed at me, but gave that big, beautiful, sheepish grin that I have come to love so much, and we exchanged numbers. We saw each other practically every night that week and decided that we wanted to be official, so we started "dating" on February 7, even though I thought we were that whole week in between then and the ice cream social the weekend before.