YOU HAVE TO SEE OUR ENGAGEMENT PICTURES!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG! Amanda posted our pictures on her blog today and they are amazing!!!!!!!!

I am sooooooooo lucky to have such an amazing photographer as such a good friend.  We had so much fun on this shoot and I am AMAZED by the pictures.  I'll show you some highlights, but you have to check out the entire blog for yourself: 

http://www.amandaeganblog.com/louisville-engagement-sonnet-and-shane/

Location, Location, Location: Whitehall

OK, so now we have a second venue that we like.  This venue is in Louisville and Shane loves it, but I reminded him that we haven't seen Glassy Chapel in person yet.

Let's start with the gardens.  They are gorgeous!  There won't be as many flowers in April, but there's plenty of ivy, so it will still be beautiful.

The guests will come through these archways to get to the ceremony.  They'll probably be bare in April though.

View from the back of the ceremony location

This is were the bride would enter.

The backdrop for the ceremony

The house is beautiful too.  It's a great place for people to gather and chat, there's bedrooms for the wedding party to get ready, and even a balcony for the bouquet toss!  If it rains we can have the ceremony on the porch! I love built-in backup plans!

This room is perfect for a gift table/registry

Possible backup location for the ceremony

This room is upstairs and is the perfect place for the bridal part to have lunch.

To get to the upstairs balcony for the bouquet toss, you have to climb through an window in the bathroom.

Get ready to catch that bouquet! Plus, this is another backup ceremony location.

Unfortunately, if we do the reception inside the house, everyone will be scattered into different rooms and I don't like that, so we'd have to rent a tent and have the reception outside. No matter what it will be beautiful . . . but we'll be visiting Glassy Chapel next weekend and we'll keep you up to date.

Bridal Guide

Look who's flipping through her first bridal magazine this morning?

Snickerdoodles!!!!

Look what I . . . I mean "we" . . . got in the mail from my future in-laws?!

I love our new Apple basket, but I love what's inside even more.  When I came home to this delicious engagement present sitting on my counter, I literally squealed with joy!  Then I proceeded to eat 5-6 cookies.

Suzette Apple knows that I love snickerdoodles.  I don't know why I love them so much.  I can resist sugar cookies, but throw in some cinnamon and tartar and I'm in love!  

Maybe it's because they're a new discovery of mine.  I used to think they had Snickers candy bars in them, so I wouldn't eat them (I know that's it's probably weird that I don't like Snickers, but I don't care). However, in 2010, I ate a Kazito brand snickerdoodle and I have had no resistance towards their sugary goodness ever since.

Which brings me to this:  Suzette, I love you.  I love your cookies.  But PLEASE don't bake anymore until after the wedding!

And then bake a lot of them. :D

Thanks,

Sonnet

Happy Dance Like a Chicken Day!

Today is National Dance Like a Chicken Day!!!!!!!   By the way, this will be going down at the wedding (Sorry, Shane).  Wisconsin represent!!!!! 

Here's some quick factoids about the Chicken Dance that you'll be sure to enjoy:

1.  It was written by Swiss accordion player Werner Thomas in the late 1950s (which is weird because I always thought it was a German heritage song).

2.  It was originally entitled Der Ententanz, which means The Duck Dance, but became known as the Vogeltanz, Chicken Dance, and also as Dance Little Bird.

3. It arrived in America in the 1981, via the Tulsa, Oklahoma Oktoberfest.  By that time it had acquired set choreography with repetitive beak, wing, and tail motions.

4.  There are over 140 recorded versions of this epic song - making over 40,000,000 records!!

5. The version entitled "The Birdie Song" by The Tweets was voted "the most annoying song of all time" in 2000.

(This post is dedicated to Jim Krasin)

One ring to rule them all . . . (part 1)

Photo Credit: Amanda Mera/Sunny Studios

Warning: the following pictures may disturb some audiences.

We had to  take my engagement ring in to get resized and while we at the jeweler's, we decided to try on wedding bands.  Our first instinct was for Shane get a white band to match mine, but I'm not sure silver works with his skin tone.  What do you think?

I took pictures of Shane wearing various rings and we want your opinion, so take the poll on the right side of the screen.


It's so weird seeing a ring on my man's finger!!!!!!!! He looks so grown up!

Yellow gold

Mixed

Titanium? (Smile, Shane!)

White gold

Engagement pictures!

We've only been engaged a week, but we've already picked out a venue, second guessed it, had a panic attack, and got our engagement pictures taken!  I think we're ahead of schedule.


It helps when you're good friends with an amazing wedding photographer.  Huge thanks to Amanda Mera and April Schweiss for taking our pictures today.  We had so much fun!

We shot at Huber's Winery and Orchard in Starlight, IN and I can't wait to show you some more pictures.  I'm sure they turned out great!

Shane and I are EXCELLENT frolickers!

STEP 1: LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION!

Meet my dream wedding location.  It's called the Cliffs at Glassy Chapel and it is BEAUTIFUL.  I mean- just look at these pictures!!!!!!

It's in Landrum, SC, one hour south of Asheville, so get ready for a road trip, because it's totally going to be worth it.

Here's a question:  when should hold this amazing ceremony? In a perfect world, we would have it in the fall, because the view of the autumn colors will be AMAZING!!!! However, let's be realistic.  October lodging near Asheville is expensive and sometimes tricky to find!   

So how about April?  It's predates tourist season and if we're lucky, we'll have some dogwood and redbud trees to add some color to the scene. 

Then there's June.  I hear the wildflowers in Asheville are a sight to see, but it might be hot.  I don't want to be a sweaty bride.  Also, I might face more competition when it comes to primo wedding photographers ;)

I want all of your input, so PLEASE TAKE THE POLL.  You can find it to the right of this post.

Thanks!

 

 

After being together for almost 6 years, Shane finally popped the question.  Can you believe it?! We're actually getting married!!!!!

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