Eleven. Exactly. One louder.

Julie and I are looking for wedding bands (amps that go to 11 not required, just preferred) in the Birmingham area so if you have any suggestions, let us know.

Save the Date

Finally! Julie and I have set the date and location for our wedding. It will be June 13th, 2009 at The Sonnet House (http://www.thesonnethouse.com/).

After many hours spent thinking of potential places, talking to them over the phone, taking numerous tours, including one day where we went to a handful of places and braved the aftermath of one of the southeast's numerous hurricanes/tropical storms this season (it literally rained that entire day) we were told one day late last week about The Sonnet House.

Weeks ago we had initially dismissed TSH because we thought, "Leeds? That is too far away." So we never gave it a second thought. The initial places that made our first cut were Rucker Place, Gabrella Manor, Aldridge Gardens, Alabama Theatre, Donnelly House, Summit Club, Redmont Hotel, The Tutwiler and Carraway-Davie House plus a few others. All had great things going for them but all had something that gave us pause as well, too numerous (and in some cases too excruciating) to name here.

After deciding on the Carraway-Davie House and putting a hold on the date, we received the contract for review. But (thankfully) it wasn't meant to be as a couple of Julie's friends mentioned The Sonnet House to us and we decided to give it another look. Their website was great and the pics were unbelievable. As fate would have it they were having an open house starting on Friday the 5th-7th so we made plans to go as soon as the doors opened at noon. It turned out to not be a far drive at all as it was ~20 minutes from downtown Birmingham.

Two of the owners were there and they gave us a tour of the place. TSH turned out to be everything we were looking for: beautiful grounds, large space for the ceremony and reception, flexible times for the event and the ability to choose any vendor we wanted. Basically, here's the house, do with it what you will.

Julie and I were the first people there for the open house but a handful of other people came in shortly after us. We sat in the car and talked about and whether we wanted to stick with CDH or go with TSH. All of May and half of June was already reserved so we knew any available dates wouldn't last through the weekend so I went back inside and put our name down for June 13th and had them email me a contract. Julie, her sister Elizabeth and their Mom went back on Sunday to take a look and they both loved it as well.

Here's a pic of Julie from their visit on Sunday. This is one of the benches upstairs that Julie obviously loves.

Finally, we found a place that we were 100% confident in and offered everything we were looking for. So put it on your calendars, we're 9 months away...

The Thought Had Crossed My Mind

Since Gabe has had a chance to tell everyone his side of "our story", I thought I'd share it from my perspective. On the Monday before we got engaged, Gabe and I were talking on the phone about the upcoming weekend and the bachelor party and fantasy football draft he was going to have. He said he wanted to take me on a date on Friday night since he had plans for the rest of the weekend. We don't go on real dates as often as we used to so I was excited about an evening of walking through the Birmingham Botanical Gardens after work and then a nice dinner at Highlands Bar & Grill. As soon as we hung up, the thought crossed my mind...what if he proposes?!

All week I had an internal debate of will he ask or won't he? By the time Friday rolled around, I'd pretty much talked myself out of thinking he would propose. Gabe's great about doing random sweet things so this date wasn't such an out of the ordinary thing, but I did go ahead and do my nails just in case.

When we got to the Gardens, I tried to kind of hang back and let him lead me in the direction he wanted to go just in case he had something planned. But of course, Gabe whips out a map of the Gardens and says where do you want to go (score one for he's not going to ask). As we started walking, we realized that the Gardens were set for a wedding that evening. If I believed in signs, I would have to mark one up for he's going to propose after I saw that. We went into the rose garden area and promptly saw the biggest, scariest spider I've ever seen outside of a cage (see Gabe's post for a picture).

It was such a beautiful day and absolutely perfect weather, especially for August in Alabama. There were several people in the Gardens taking pictures, relaxing and enjoying the great weather as we just continued to meander along the paths. We headed for the wildflower area and it slowly became more secluded and just us on the paths. Gabe saw an elevated area and suggested we go there. He was in front of me as we walked up the hill to the area and I noticed that his camera and phone were really sticking out of his jean pockets. I thought that there was no way he was going to propose while we were here because there wasn't a place in his pockets to hide a ring box. The "he's not going ask" side had clearly won...or so I thought. When we got to the top of the path, I remember commenting on a cute rock that looked like a bench and seeing a plaque at the base of one of the trees. We had been looking at a lot of the names of the plants so I bent down to get a better look at this one since it was covered up by a leaf. The name was a little strange so I was trying to say it in my head and was bent over for quite awhile. I thought Gabe was standing behind me and turned half way around to tell him the name, but I didn't see him. When I turned all the way back around, I was quite shocked to see him down on one knee holding a ring.

My first reaction was to laugh. I didn't know what to do. I had clearly been wrong about him not being able to hide a ring in his jean pockets (rings fit in the little change pocket if you take them out of the box) and was not prepared for it. He took my hand and said a lot of really sweet things and asked me to marry him. I realized I was still giggling while he was talking to me and remembered telling myself to stop laughing or to at least cry a little. I was also telling myself to remember what he was saying to me. It's amazing the things you remember at these times in your life. While I do remember that the plant's name began with Florida and all the things I was telling myself, I don't quite remember most of what Gabe was telling me. Even him putting the ring on my finger escaped me! Later in the evening, I had taken it off to put lotion on my hands and told him he needed to put it back on finger since he hadn't done that yet. It was Gabe's turn to laugh then.

After taking pictures and laughing about how long he had to wait for me to turn around and wondering if anyone saw us while he was waiting, we headed back to the car and started making phone calls to our family with the news. Gabe being the sweet, traditional guy that he is, had spoken to my dad a couple of weeks earlier to ask for permission to marry me so my parents were expecting my call. My sisters were quite surprised and very happy for us. It has been so much fun getting to share our news with everyone and start planning for the big day. I'm looking forward to the months ahead and many more good times.

Engaged on 08.08.08 at the Botanical Gardens in Birmingham, AL

Walking up to the Gardens we see this giant man-eating spider guarding the front gates. If Julie gets any closer he might gnaw her finger off and ruin the surprise.

Some of the plants and flowers I snapped pics of along the way. It was a beautiful day, blue skies with temperatures in the 80s and a nice breeze. It felt like an early fall day and I couldn't have asked for better.

Walking around the Gardens I'm thinking in my head when and where my moment will arrive. Around 6:15pm I see this nice rock formation up a little hill in the wildflower section and it has a nice raised cul-de-sac up some steps. In my stomach I felt this was going to be our spot so I mention to Julie that we should walk up there and check it out.

There were some nice plants and trees along w/ a stone bench. Julie sees a plant and turns around to check it out. It's now or never for me. So I reach in the front change pocket of my jeans to get the ring and I get down on one knee. Of course Julie decides this is the most interesting plant in the world and literally reads the description and looks at it for 1-2 minutes. I'm sitting there on one knee with Julie's cute booty at eye level, trying to stop from laughing and wondering if people are watching this or if she's ever going to turn around. Or has she seen me and doesn't want to!

Julie finally turns around and has a look of shock and surprise on her face. Once she has composed herself and her giggling has somewhat subsided (I set the over/under for the number of times she spontaneously giggled and covered her mouth with her hands over the course of the night at 27) I took her hand and told her all of the reasons that I love her and why I want to marry her. She immediately said yes and made me the happiest I have ever felt. It was an emotional and wonderful experience for us and it was everything I had wanted it to be.

Here are some pictures of Julie showing off her ring afterwards...



Here's a closeup of the ring...

So we went back to my apartment to change clothes and make a few phone calls before our reservations at Highlands Bar & Grill that night. Our waiter, Andrew, was really great and he was the first person we were able to tell face to face. After we sat down he asked how we were doing and Julie exclaimed, "We just got engaged!" It was a really great moment and he promptly brought us out a couple of complimentary glasses of champagne. Dinner at Highlands was terrific as always. Julie had their hanger steak and I had the venison (Julie always orders better than me and tonight was no exception). Mine was good but Julie's was great. Andrew brought us out some dessert wine w/ our ice cream and cake and it was delicious.

After dinner we went back to my apartment and made phone calls to friends. Here are some pics of Julie talking to her friends:

Before dinner talking to her sister, Rebecca...

After dinner talking to her friend, Emily...

Talking to my Mom...

We (90% me of course) finished off the bottle of champagne that my jeweler, Jared Nadler at Levy's (shameless plug), gave us and called it a night. Until next time...