"When are you getting married??"

That's the first question anybody asks when they find out you're engaged. Well, after "how did he do it?" :)

The funny thing is that it's not like you have an answer. I mean, people started asking me this less than 24 hours after the engagement as if we would already have set a date. So at first, the answer was really vague--"next spring or maybe next fall."

Then when we had started looking at reception places and contacted churches. In Brookings there isn’t a whole lot to choose from. There is only one reception hall that allows alcohol to be served and that same place also attached to a hotel. We thought it would be nice for our guests to be able to have their rooms and the dance in the same place. No one has to drive and being a catholic wedding, you can just go to your room for the time in between the wedding and the reception. Once we knew where we wanted everything, we narrowed it down to a few dates, May 16th, August 1 or sometime in October. May 16th – graduations – one especially we couldn’t avoid Big Case would be in Chicago. August 1 – HOT!! So October it is.

Now, we are about 99.9% sure it is October 3, 2009. We will hopefully be signing a contract with our reception venue Friday October 3, 2008, as you can only officially book the place a year in advance and the church already has us down.

And then the countdown officially begins.