Wedding Planning-Reception (Erin) (Archive)

This past weekend I went up to Huntsville to see my family, go to a bridal shower for one of my friends, and go look at a few reception sites for the wedding!

My parents and I (unfortunately Gerrit wasn't able to be in town) were planning on looking at the Huntsville Museum of Art on Sunday, and last minute we made plans to visit the Botanical Gardens as well. We were just sitting around Saturday afternoon talking about possibilities and decided it would be good to look at the Botanical Gardens, and so we called and they said we could come right then!

The venue we saw at the Botanical Gardens was The Arbor (it's the only place big enough to hold the amount of people we are planning on). It is a beautiful room that is supposed to have an indoor garden feeling. It has vines entwined with lights that climb up arbors on the walls, a high ceiling with a beautiful dome, a working fountain, and so many other unique details. My mom, dad, and I walked in to the room and were wowed by it. By the time we left we had decided that any other venue would be hard pressed to beat this one!

On Sunday afternoon we went to the Art Museum. It was also a beautiful room! It was much simpler with high ceilings, windows that lined the top of the room, and gorgeous artwork on all of the walls. It also had two adjoining rooms that could be good logistically. It felt very elegant, and I could definitely see the reception in this place as well.

All this to say, when we were done looking at both venues (and forget looking at more! our decision was already hard enough!) there was a lot of discussion about them. Pros, cons, costs, etc. And FINALLY I think we have decided on the Botanical Gardens!

The only problem is that we can't book it until August...which, being the planner that I am, makes me very nervous. But we talked with the lady there and she said it really shouldn't be a problem at all and we will continue to be in touch with her to make sure nothing comes up.

We are excited to have made a decision though! Now we have somewhere to visualize when making plans for the reception. And here it is for you to be able to visualize!

Save the Date! (Erin) (Archive)

We’ve officially set a date!
We will be getting married on August 7, 2010 at Faith Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, AL.

Currently we are working on our website so that you will be able to go to gerritanderin.com and view wedding details, photos, and more. We’ll post wedding details as we know them in order to keep everyone up to date!

It’s exciting that plans are getting put into place!

Backpacking in the Sipsey Wilderness (Gerrit) (Archive)

As a way of kicking off Spring Break 2009 (one of TWO spring breaks that Erin and I have actually had overlap) We went backpacking for three days with some friends of ours through the Sipsey Wilderness. It was a thoroughly planned, three day, thirty mile adventure where we'd planned on walking in a very large circle carrying very heavy "backpacks".

On the eve of our departure we had to make some tough decisions as a group. At the time we made these decisions, there was a storm stretching from Atlanta to El Paso that showed nothing but endless rain in the forecast for the weekend. Here's some key words to pick up on so far in this post: Wilderness, Rain, "Thirty Miles", "Heavy Backpacks". Maybe now you can accurately see the picture we were facing.

Alas, we left early the next morning with nary a backward glance...

Upon arriving at the trail head and covering every scrap of cloth on our bodies with ponchos and rain jackets, we set off on the thirty mile loop. Progress came to an abrupt halt when we reached the "creek" that the trail map assured us would be no big deal to cross. I say "creek" because the raging torrent before us was about 20 yards wide, neck deep, and moving at a speed that rivaled white-water.

Quickly giving the dream of hiking the thirty mile loop in the downpour (some of us more quickly than others), we trudged along on another trail, the destination of which we were unsure.

Lots of hiking in mud, climbing one cliff, and crossing a knee deep stream later we eventually found a suitably dry campsite about 5 miles into the trail. We had dinner, went to bed super early, and tried to stay away from swimming in the tent thanks to all the leaks.

Thankfully the rain mostly stopped during the night and the rest of our camping trip was very fun and mostly dry. We didn't make near the thirty mile goal (it ended up being more like 10) but it was certainly a memorable experience...

I have a cold now...

Engagement: My Version (Erin) (Archive)

I'm excited that we have this website to keep everyone updated as to what is going on with us! And thank you so much to everyone for your congratulations! We are so excited and it means a lot to us that our friends and family are as well.

So here is my version of the proposal:

Let me just preface everything by saying that I wasn't expecting a proposal at all until Spring Break. We had talked about the timing of it a lot, and I was getting very anxious trying to get clues from him all the time. But from what he had said and what his attitude seemed to be, I was completely expecting it to happen in March.

So...

I had been shopping with my mom at Bridgestreet and we were in the dressing rooms when my dad called my mom wondering why Gerrit wanted to go out to lunch. Gerrit had already told me that he wanted to go meet with my dad about a website, and so this didn't really alarm me. But my dad wanted to know if this was "it."

After Gerrit had gone to lunch he came to meet up with me and my mom. We saw our friend Lauren and we were talking to her which brought up the conversation about him getting sized for a suit. He needs to get sized for her wedding and I have been bugging him to get this done for awhile now. So I asked him if he had gone that morning like he said he would, to which he responded that he hadn't and that he wanted me to come with him to go to a store over the mountain. I complained (why wasn't the S&K in Bridgestreet good enough?), but then he begged again in a "please don't ask questions or you will ruin this for yourself" kind of way.

I'm excited that we have this website to keep everyone updated as to what is going on with us! And thank you so much to everyone for your congratulations! We are so excited and it means a lot to us that our friends and family are as well.

So here is my version of the proposal:

Let me just preface everything by saying that I wasn't expecting a proposal at all until Spring Break. We had talked about the timing of it a lot, and I was getting very anxious trying to get clues from him all the time. But from what he had said and what his attitude seemed to be, I was completely expecting it to happen in March.

So...

I had been shopping with my mom at Bridgestreet and we were in the dressing rooms when my dad called my mom wondering why Gerrit wanted to go out to lunch. Gerrit had already told me that he wanted to go meet with my dad about a website, and so this didn't really alarm me. But my dad wanted to know if this was "it."

After Gerrit had gone to lunch he came to meet up with me and my mom. We saw our friend Lauren and we were talking to her which brought up the conversation about him getting sized for a suit. He needs to get sized for her wedding and I have been bugging him to get this done for awhile now. So I asked him if he had gone that morning like he said he would, to which he responded that he hadn't and that he wanted me to come with him to go to a store over the mountain. I complained (why wasn't the S&K in Bridgestreet good enough?), but then he begged again in a "please don't ask questions or you will ruin this for yourself" kind of way.

This was my first hint that something was up. He also didn't have a very good excuse as to why he hadn't had time to run this errand earlier in the morning.

We left Bridgestreet and started driving and I kept asking questions trying to evaluate the situation. What is this place called? Do you know where it is? All of his answers were sketchy, and this made me more suspicious.

Despite what he says about me playing into his plan perfectly, I knew as soon as he turned to go up the mountain that he was up to something. I knew even more that he kept making different detours. But I was just in denial. As much as I had hoped, I just KNEW that he wasn't going to propose this month.

But he did. We found a pretty view, got out of the car, and after he said something mushy (I really don't even remember) he proposed.

And as wonderful as that moment is, and as much as everyone makes a big deal about the proposal, the best part has been everything afterwards.

That night our families got together for dinner. It was so wonderful to see everyone so excited! Telling our friends has also been so much fun! It seems so surreal to us, but with everyone visibly excited around us it helps it to sink in a bit more.

We feel so loved! And we love all of y'all!

Engagement Day! (Gerrit) (Archive)

I know many of you have already seen my post from the morning of the 21st… but I haven’t had the time to sit down, digest, and write about the events of the rest of the day until now.

For some of you this is the first post you’ll read on the blog. For you first timers, I thank you for coming to our blog to keep up to date with our engagement and other plans. We’re very appreciative of all the support and congratulations we’ve received. We’re so happy that you’re excited enough about us and care enough about us to think to pass your notes of congratulations and your excitement along. Your thoughts and prayers are always appreciated.

But here's the meat of the story that you're really caring about: (a longer, more detailed version of the story for those interested can be found here(edit: link actually works now). Be advised, It's long... and detailed.)

(if the image doesn't load, click here to view the album through the flickr website)

Ok, so after arranging for lunch with Mr. Perry, I got ready and nervously wasted a few minutes on the computer trying to make those last few ticks of the clock happen. I drove out to his office and met up with him and we went to a Vietnamese restaurant. We talked a bit about a website that I'm going to be doing for him, but obviously the real reason I wanted to talk to him was something else.

When there was an appropriate break in our conversation, I asked him for his blessing (I had really wanted Erin's mom to be there for this part, but it unfortunately didn't work out with the timing). He assured me that both he and Mrs. Rebecca were thrilled and that they thought highly of me. Our conversation continued for a bit and then we got back down to the business of web site details.

After lunch I met up with Erin and her mom who were out shopping. I almost exploded with excitement when I walked into the store because a good friend of mine who recently got engaged as well was there with her dad and I wanted more than anything to tell her what was going on! I went over and met up with Erin and her mom and followed them around for the remainder of the shopping trip.

My idea was to get Erin up on Monte Sano Mountain, and the easiest way I could think of to do that was to tell her that I needed to go get sized for a suit in the area of town that's on the other side of the mountain because a particular place had been recommended to me (I really did need a suit, and I was supposed to go get sized for one earlier in the day, so Erin was at least tolerant of the idea...)

As we drove up the mountain Erin fell perfectly into my trap by starting to talk about how it'd been forever since she'd been up here and pointed out where she'd taken piano lessons all her life, etc. I suggested that we continue this walk down memory lane by driving to the state park on top of the mountain that we'd both been up many times as kids.

I could tell at this point that erin was getting a little suspicious, so I found a place down by some old cabins that had a pretty view of the city. We got out of the car, looked out over the city, I talked to her for a minute about how much I loved her, and then I dropped onto my knee and asked her to marry me!

On our way back down the mountain we began the marathon of phone calls. Erin called her house and they invited my family over for dinner. It was so exciting to see our new family together so excited about our future!

To summarize: I am engaged and am so happy!

If you're craving more, you can see it at the link above.

If you're craving pictures, here's a slideshow I think you might like...