So much to do, so little time....

It's starting to get pretty busy these days because of work. This week ends the 50 hour workweeks and next week starts 55 hour workweeks and working on Saturdays! Some people keep asking me why I'm planning so much of my wedding when we just got engaged two weeks ago. Work is why! My mother has been making appointments with photographers and florists and we're realizing that no one will meet on Saturdays or late at night during the week. If I waited until next week to make some of these appointments, I wouldn't be able to go to them!!! Regardless, after we pick a photographer, I'M DONE! I'm not doing anything else wedding related for a several months! I'm very lucky to have my mom, sister, and Justin's mom. Justin's mom is SOOOOOO excited. It's funny to see her be more excited than even me! She emails me new ideas everyday and she's pretty much planned the entire rehearsal dinner...invitations and all! She's been such a huge help and I can't wait til she's my mother-in-law :)

However, I have come to the realization that the hardest part of planning a wedding is trying to figure out showers, dates, and who to invite to those showers! Justin and I are so very blessed to have so many friends and family offer to throw us showers. It's unfortunate that we've gotten to the point where we've had to turn people down! But as I sit down with my calendar to map out the showers, I realize how busy our summers are going to be. In April alone we have 3 weddings, 3 showers, 2 birthdays and an anniversary!!! We now officially have NO free weekends between March 28th and our wedding day. HOW CRAZY IS THAT! We had a trip to the Grand Canyon planned for April but can't even do that now because we have no time to take it! But when I get pissed off about not being able to go to Havasu Falls, I rest easy when I think of my honeymoon...10 days and 9 nights in Hawaii. Is it bad that both me and Justin are more excited about the honeymoon than the actual wedding???

We went to Chase and Allison's wedding on January 24th. It was a great day and the both of them were so incredibly happy! The wedding ceremony was beautiful and the reception was amazing as well. It was at American Village in Montevallo and the church was so packed that people were standing up in the back! Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Williamson!!!!

Mr. and Mrs. :)

First dance as husband and wife

Ladies and Gentlemen....We Have A Date!

It's official!!! Our wedding date will be July 25th, 2009. The ceremony will take place at St. Mark United Methodist Church and the reception will be at B&A Warehouse. Justin and I originally wanted an August wedding, and we tried really hard to get that, but we could never get the church and B&A available on the same date in August. We didn't want to go later than August because we run into football season. So since we live in the south, we are steering clear of the months of August - December. January through April of 2010 would be my busy season so there is NO WAY I could get married and go on a honeymoon during that period of time. So basically it was either get married in July 2009 or May 2010. Naturally, we wanted the one in 2009. Six months is definitely a short period of time, but with the help of my mom and God's gift to wedding planning (aka Lindsey Smith), it can definitely be done.

St. Mark United Methodist Church

B&A Warehouse

Justin also told me that he bought the rights to http://justinandmarcie.com/ for two years :) Pretty sure I have the best fiancee EVER!!!! (And yes, it is still weird to call him that). As soon as I have some time to put up a wedding website, I will. I'm in the process, but it's not finished and we haven't linked it to justinandmarcie.com yet so if you go to the website now, you won't see anything. I'll make a blog post when we link it so everyone can see.

Soon to be Mrs. Morris!

I got engaged this weekend!!! On Friday afternoon, Justin was telling me that he wanted to do something fun this weekend. He gave me two options, skydiving or New Orleans. I figured it was WAY too cold to skydive so I picked New Orleans. We flew up on Saturday evening at 5:40. While at the airport I was thrown a curve ball when Justin told me that we weren't staying at the Hampton or Hilton. We usually stay there so he can get hotel points for free trips later on. I was kind of shocked and asked where we were staying. He told me he booked a room with a balcony at the Omni Hotel.



View of our balcony on the fourth floor of the Omni

When we got to New Orleans we got a cab to take us to the hotel. After dropping our stuff off, we started walking around the town. I have never been to New Orleans. That's surprising to some people, but I was never big on going to frat formals and I've never been a big drinker, which is mainly what New Orleans is there for, so I never felt the need to go. (Of course I say this as I am about to marry a frat boy). Anywho, we first went to Pat O'Briens and he got a Hurricane. I had a few sips, it tasted like kool-aid though and I'm not a fan so I never got one. He did convince me to get a hand grenade. I quote Bonnie when I say that it was like drinking sweet tarts.



Me with the hand grenade....nasty nasty....I didn't drink all of it!

After walking down Bourbon Street some more, Justin suggested doing one of those horse and carriage rides. So we found one parked in front of St. Louis Cathedral and took a 30 minute ride around the French Quarter. When the horse pulled back up to its spot at the church, I told Justin I wanted a picture with the horse. The driver gave me a carrot and told me to feed her. As I was feeding her, Justin was paying the driver and apparently also told him that he was about to propose and wanted him to take pictures of him doing it. He said he did this because he knew that I would want pictures of it. So sweet :) Anyway, after the driver took a picture of me feeding the horse, he asked us to climb back up in the carriage and he could get another picture. I climbed in first and by the time I turned around, Justin was already in the carriage and on one knee!!!! All I can remember saying was "OH MY GOD"......I couldn't believe it was happening!



Picture of me after feeding Jill, the horse!





After he asked me to marry him I just kissed him and gave him a hug. I wasn't aware that I never put the ring on. Apparently I just closed the box and hugged him. Justin was making fun of me by saying "you know most people put the ring on, they don't close the box". You can see the box in my hand in the picture below.

The driver wanted an "after" picture so I put the ring on and he took one last one of us. The next several hours is a blur. I seriously don't remember much. I called my sister Lindsey first. Lindsey had no idea I was even going to New Orleans. I purposely hid that from her because I didn't want her to think he was going to do it and then he didn't. So I called and she answered the phone and I told her that I was in New Orleans and engaged. She was so excited. I could tell she was holding back tears! I then called my other sister, Jennifer, but Jenn didn't answer. So I called my mom, who already knew because Justin met with her that morning for breakfast....sneaky little people! Jenn finally called back and so I got off the phone with my mom to tell Jennifer. Her reaction was pretty cool. This is how I remember the conversation going:

Marcie: "So I just had my first hand grenade"
Jenn: "what?"
Marcie: "oh yeah, I'm in New Orleans"
Jenn: "what??????"
Marcie: "yeah Justin brought me here to propose....I'm engaged"
Jenn: "WHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAATTTTT!!!!!!!"

Classic.....



The "after" picture

At that point I was trying so hard to send a pic of the ring to all my lady friends but IT WOULDN'T SEND!!!! I was unable to send it to anyone and it was hours before I realized that I could do it through email. But I didn't have everyone's email address! By that time, Jenn and Lindsey had both made their facebook status' about me being engaged and everyone already knew!

Justin and I gave up on calling people and wanted to enjoy our night so we went back to the hotel where we were greeted with chocolate covered strawberries and a bottle of champagne.



I rarely slept that night. It was really loud because people were on the streets ALL NIGHT LONG! I think I may have gotten 2 hours of sleep between 5:30 and 7:30. The next morning Justin ordered us some breakfast in our room. We ate then changed then went back to St. Louis Cathedral so I could get some pics in the daytime!







We went into a little store that had some ornaments and I had to get one with St. Louis Cathedral on it!



A pic of the ring in the box

Justin told me the next day all the ways he was going to do it, but chose against them. He is so freaking creative!

1) He was going to have me come home from work on Friday and he would already be gone and I would see an envelope with a plane ticket and a letter telling me to meet him at the top of the Empire State Building....He knows how much I love New York. But I was about to work Saturdays so going out of town for the whole weekend was out of the question.

2) He was going to get a hot air balloon and propose in the air! This was amazing! But it would have been freezing as cold as its been in Bham lately!

3) He was going to have us both go skydiving and ask me to marry him before I jumped out of the plane. I would have gotten the ring when I landed. This was such a good idea, but it again was too cold.

4) He was going to hire a plane to fly a sign behind it asking me to marry him, but the only place I would be able to see it good would be at Vulcan, and he didn't want to go there.

He is so amazing and creative and put so much thought into this. I love him so much! Some of you may not know, but every morning I get a text message from Justin that says "good morning beautiful. I love you". I just got one this morning that said "good morning beautiful future wife"....He makes my heart melt :)

When we got back to Birmingham, his parents wanted us to come meet them so they could see the ring. They also knew what was going on the whole time!!! We walked into the restaurant and Mrs. Morris was holding back tears....I could tell. They loved the ring and me and his mom started talking plans already.