The date, the church and Second Reception hall

Well, after some discussing over the past few days, I think Billy and I decided that we want July 2, 2011 to be our date. It's funny, most people have more problems finding the reception hall than the church, we are having the opposite problem. The parish where I grew up and went to school for 9 years, can't have weddings on July 2nd. We've talked about other churches like St. Xavier downtown, the Cathederal downtown and the church on the top of Mt. Adams that I'm having trouble remebering the name of right now. All of these churches are just too expensive for my liking, yes they are very beautiful, just out of our price range. We really like St. Rose Church on Riverside Dr., but you have to be a parishoner to get married there. So, this morning we decided to go to church there and sign up. We have no idea if the date is even available, but we like the church reagrdless and plan to go there every Sunday whether we can get married there or not. I had gone to the church as a kid with my family and hadn't been back for quite some time until my friend Lindsey (we actually went to grade school together too), from Corryville, got married there this past summer. Billy really liked it and commented on it while we were there for the wedding. So, hopefully we can follow in Lindsey and Ryan's footsteps and have our summer wedding there next summer! We enjoyed church here this morning and look forward to many more Sunday mornings at St. Rose! We filled out the paper and are hoping to receive a letter later in the week letting us know we are parishoners!

After church, we stopped at Bruegger's Bagels for a quick breakfast and then met my mom at the 2nd reception hall we planned to look at, A Touch of Elegance. My cousin Melissa had her reception here almost 6 years ago and I really enjoyed it when I was there for her reception. I'm just worried the number of people we plan to invite would be a little too crowded. The man who showed us around was very nice and the hall has many nice qualities about it. It is kind of broken up into different rooms in a way and I'm not sure how I feel about that. We plan to look at one more place this coming week so we'll have to weigh all of our options when we have them. I really hope to have a hall and church booked by the end of this week. We will see!

First Reception Hall and Maid of Honor

Billy, my mom, my dad and I went and looked at Receptions Eastgate today. It's funny because Billy and I went to a wedding reception here one week to the day before we got engaged and I thought that it would be a nice place for a reception. I didn't realize I'd be back so soon looking for our own wedding! I was impressed when we were at the reception we went to and it was nice to sit and talk with someone about all of the details for our reception. This Receptions has two rooms, the Anderson room and the Union room. We were in the Anderson room at the wedding recently and Billy and I (and I think ever my parents) liked the Union room a little better when we were there. We like the way it is set up. We still have a few places we want to look, but Receptions is definitely high on our list!


After looking at Receptions, we went and met Kate down at the Xavier soccer field where our friend Hadj (also Kate's boyfriend) was playing in an exhibiton game for the Xavier men's soccer team. A little background on Kate: I've known her since she was born. We've been best friends ever since. She is my partner in crime. We've been going to the Jimmy Buffett concert in Cincinnati for 22 years in a row now (if you do the Math, that means I started going when I was 5 and she was 2, yes we are parrotheads!). She has been there for me through everything and I am so lucky to have a friend like her in my life. The reason I'm telling you this is because I gave Kate a card tonight asking her to be my Maid of Honor! I also found out tonight that she has never been in a wedding, so I'm happy her first wedding she gets to have a very important job! I'm so excited to have another very important person in my life stand up with me on such a special day! Love you!

Matron of Honor!

One of my best friends is Karianne Brown. We met at Xavier, where we were in Early Childhood Education together and had pretty much every class together. We were good friends, but we became even better friends when we started working at the Goddard School together and had break together everyday. She became engaged to Sean Brown while we were working together and their wedding was the following year. I met Billy for the first time at their Bachelor/Bachelorette party at the Reds game a month or so before they got married (I'm not sure of the date, I know Karianne could tell you). We didn't start dating until almost 2 years after that first meeting, but if Sean and Karianne didn't get married, I don't know if Billy and I would've met!


Well, I went to Karianne's house today (like I've been doing every Tuesday for a few years now) for our Tuesday night date. When I got there a present was waiting for me. My first engagement card and a binder Karianne put together to keep all of my wedding info organized! It was a very exciting gift for me. I had been planning to ask her to be my matron of honor for quite some time now and asked her as soon as I opened my binder. I'm so lucky to have a friend like her standing up there with me on such a special day! Love you Karianne!

Let the Planning Begin!

For those of you that may not know, I am a 3rd grade teacher at Corryville Catholic. Billy proposed the weekend before school started and I was very excited to share the news with my coworkers this morning. School doesn't start until tomorrow, but we always have a meeting the day before to discuss our summers and get back into a school mindset. We always have to share something special that happened over the summer and you are encouraged to bring someting to show from this special event. My goal was to wait until this point to share my big news with everyone, it would be a nice surprise for some who have known about Billy and me from the beginning. I wasn't very successful though, people saw my ring and news travels fast in our small community. I was able to surprise a few people still. I enjoyed sharing the story of the engagement and seeing everyone's reactions. There are now 3 of us at Corryville that are engaged. Kelly, the Kindergarten teacher, Amy, the First grade teacher and myself. I'm so excited to share this time with them and our friend Lindsey, the Preschool teacher, she got married this summer and is very helpful with all of the planning!

While I was at school, my mom was helping out so much by calling churches and reception halls to see what was available. Thanks mom! Billy and I have 2 dates we're choosing between, July 2nd and July 9th. I prefer the 2nd because it's a holiday weekend and makes traveling a little less stressful for people out of town, at least I think so. My parish, Guardian Angels, we found out has an event going on July 2nd and will not be having weddings that day. So, Billy and I are going to have to discuss which date we really want because if we want the 2nd, we'll have to find a different church. We started setting up appointments at different reception halls. We are going to look at Receptions Eastgate on Thursday evening and A Touch of Elegance on Sunday morning. This is so exciting and overwhelming all at the same time. I know I'll feel much better after we have a church and a hall booked.

Good News!

We spent all day today calling, texting and emailing our friends and family, letting them know our good news. I thought it was funny that when I called some people, they thought something was wrong and weren't expecting the news. Then, other people knew even before we said anything. It was fun hearing and reading everyone's reactions.

Tonight, we went to the Chart House with my parents and Billy's parents. It was supposed to be a celebration of Mrs. Mertz's retirement, but it turned into an engagement celebration. Our waiter even gave us a menu from the night with a Congratulations message written at the top for us. It's something we'll definitely keep for a scrapbook. This was the first time Billy's parents got to see the ring, they were very impressed to see what Billy designed for me! It was a wonderful evening and a big thank you to my parents and the Mertz's for all the support!

The news was announced on facebook tonight as well and we are very thankful for everyone's kind words and well wishes! It means so much to us!

We're Engaged!!!

Today has quickly become the best day of my life!

I thought it was just another date night for Billy and me. We had been talking about going to the top of Carew Tower in downtown Cincinnati all summer and we finally picked today as the day to go. The weather wasn't cooperating at first, but luckily it cleared up about an hour before we planned to leave. We decided to go to dinner downtown afterwards at the Brazilian restaurant, Boi Na Braza. We decide to dress up for date night occasionally so when Billy suggested it, I wasn't phased by it at all.

Billy had a plan all along. When we got to the top of the tower, we just walked around for a bit looking at the different sites. I had never been up there before, so it was neat to see all the different views of Cincinnati. Eventually, we were overlooking Kentucky and Billy was pretending to take pictures, but he was really setting up the video setting to capture everything. In his own unqiue, sweet way, Billy got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I was completely surprised, but said yes while crying. It was a very happy moment! We continued to take pictures and just enjoy our time together for some time at the top of the tower. The next picture is a re-enactment of the moment in the same spot.

We headed to Fountain Square to take a few more pictures and I called my parents before we went to have dinner. Boi Na Braza was phenomenal and a great way to celebrate! After dinner, we called Billy's parents and sisters to share the good news, we also called Karianne and Sean!

Finally, we ended the night with a small celebration at Tostados! Zach, Tony, Maggie, my friend from Corryville, Amy and Shawn (these two got engaged two days before us, it was an exciting couple of days for us!) joined us for an evening of karaoke, drinks and a little dancing! Thank you all for joining us!

A shot of the beautiful ring Billy designed for me!

What a day! I'm so excited for what's to come! I can't wait to marry my best friend!