MARRY Saturday Folks!

As you may know if you've been reading my posts, I am happily engaged to the best man in all of the universe for 2 years, and some!! We finally set a date, and got the ball rolling. We decided on a destination wedding in Maui.... since we've been together for almost a decade, we really wanted something intimate and stress-free. Mark and I are from both pretty big families, so if you can imagine a guest list of maybe 400 or so... for my side only! Haha... really, it would have probably been high up there. Anyhoots, we decided to get married on our 10th year anniversary this June in Maui, on a beautiful estate in the countryside! Here are some pics I have to share with you so I can get you caught up on the here and now:

Mark proposed on July 24th, 2009 at a family dinner. We were celebrating my graduation for my Masters Degree AND having a farewell as we were getting ready to head up to Oregon the next day :( I was soooo surprised when it happened... after being together 7 years at the time, I knew he was the only one for me, and we would even talk about getting married after I was done with grad school, but wow! That day! In front of everyone?!? Before we left to Oregon?! No wonder why people were acting weirdo kannerdo when we got back from Hawaii a few days before this big dinner. I guess he was supposed to do it while we were on vacation in Hawaii with family, but he said there was never a perfect moment (we were never really alone). Mark said he decided to wait and do it in front of the family because he knew how much they mean to me and how BIG I am with my family! This guy... it just doesn't get any better than this :)

Now fast forward to 2 and some odd years later... I am still working on my dissertation, BUT am planning to graduate with my PhD this summer.... first week of June to be exact. I told Mark that I thought this year is THE time to tie the knot.... 10th year anni, and it'll be after (2 weeks after LOL) my graduation date. We locked in those lyrics, and SAVED THE DATE!

Mark has a creative side to him (I don't like to admit it to him, but I will to the world)... we came up with this design together and created the STD's from scratch together!

Our factory table for the week with all the goods (of course including our coffee!).

I fell asleep at about midnight that night... I got through all the cutting, punched all the holes to tie raffia through... then started to get cross-eyed and couldn't stand to stay up any longer. I woke up at about 6am the next morning to see the masterpiece lined up on the table! My sweet handsome doll stayed up, finished some of the stamping, tied all the raffia (which he wanted to crumble up to give it a "vintage" vibe on the luggage tag), and assembled them together! When I asked him how long he stayed up, he admitted til the butt crack of dawn. He said he wanted them to be done that day, knowing I was working towards a tight deadline for my preliminary defense! I heart him... always and forever!

I'd la la LOVE to see your STD's or invites! Sharing is caring, plus who doesn't like to share their masterpieces?!