We're getting hitched!!! Finally!!!!

A little catch up: I got engaged in November.  Redneck homeboy proposed on the beach on Sandy Hook, our favorite place.  He hollowed out Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to the chapter titled "The Unbreakable Vow" (geek girl squee).  My ring is stunning and aquamarine, which has elicited completely inappropriate responses ("oh, well, it looks like a diamond, especially in this light", or "well, if that's what you wanted").  We love the outdoors, so we wanted all our festivities to be under the summer sun.  Unfortunately that meant we had to wait for an engagement party.  I'm now in the midst of planning it.

You already know my story.  Redneck Homeboy is the morning web producer at a local news station.  We live together and have 2 dogs.  In our spare time I play roller derby and he runs into burning buildings. 

He's pretty sexy.  Here's our fairy tale. 

We met a couple times before we actually met.  The first time was in 2006.  I was in a car accident and 2 ambulances responded.  He was an EMT in one of the ambulances.  Unfortunately, he took the jerk that hit me to the hospital and I was too stressed out by the destruction of my beloved Jeep to notice anything else.  Nine months later I was at the local dive bar with my friends on St. Patrick's Day.  During the shenanigans, this guy bought me a drink and struck up a conversation.  But, possibly due to the volume of alcohol in my blood, that still wasn't it.  We became friends, spending tons of time together, while I was dating someone else.  We went on our first "date" a couple months later to the county fair: I was bummed after having a fight with loser boyfriend.  RH decided to cheer me up, winning me the biggest, stuffed Nemo you will ever see, and helping me eat my feelings, in the form of cotton candy, butterfly chips, funnel cake, fresh squeezed lemonade and fried Oreos.  I realized when I got home that I had more fun with him than I ever had with the current boyfriend.  It took me another 2 months, but Labor Day weekend, 2007, he finally kissed me, and we've been inseparable ever since.  He's my greatest cheerleader, my best friend, my soul mate, my confidante, my partner in crime, my coach, my therapist, my personal chef, my life.  He hates olives, I love them.  He's my lobster.  Our relationship is like a long book that you never want to end and are fine with that because you never ever want to leave it.  Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same. 

Our wedding style was recently described as polished organic, and that's so spot on.  We are planning on an outdoor wedding and reception with a lot of DIY, a lot of help from our friends, and a little luck.  We're walking that fine line between spending too much and giving up too much from our vision.  We have so many ideas, and trying to lay them all out and figure out how to incorporate them is challenging.  Since I have all this suddenly free time (I was recently laid off), I'm planning on reviving this blog.  In addition to all the other topics I wanted to write about, I'm going to include adventures in wedding planning.