11 Months to go....

What a month...

In wedding news: I bought my dress in Lafayette over Thanksgiving! (WAHOO!!) I have officially put Patrick in charge of the music for the night, so another thing off my list! I did meet with a caterer and I am pretty confident that we will be using her. I have chosen, Cypi's Cake Box to make my wedding cake. Check out her page for pictures of her work. Next on my list is: Bridesmaid dresses and colors, invitations, florists, and getting the rentals secured.

In personal news: Pat and I went to one of my favorite restaurants in Houston, Rattan, for my birthday. It was excellent! We spent Thanksgiving in Sulphur at my mom's house.



For the second December in a row, we got snow in Houston!! And a lot of it...

1 year to go...

I sadly do not have a lot to report this month....

We have officially booked our photographer, Jason Hardesty!! I absolutely love his pictures and am looking forward to working with him!

We hope to get the caterer booked the first weekend in December and we also hope to have the Band vs DJ decision made that weekend.

In personal news, we have a new niece! Anna Grace was born on October 16th! We got to spend Halloween in Baton Rouge with Patrick's family! Here are a few pictures from Halloweeen:

13 Months to go.....

I used to laugh when people would tell me that no matter how far in advance you start planning all that time before the wedding will fly by! Well, I now know what they mean!! I spent a whole weekend interviewing photographers. I talked to 6 total over 2 days!! We have narrowed it down to two: Laura Kelley and Jason Hardesty (check out their work using the links under Photographers). We will hopefully have a decision by the end of the week. I still have not completely decided on a dress... Here are some others that I have tried on and really like! Next on my list is Music/ Entertainment and Food! Pat and I are hoping to check out a few bands that have been suggested to us in the upcoming weeks. We are also still in the market for a caterer and/or wait staff. We have been in touch with a few, but we have not found that perfect fit yet! Other personal news... My sister turned 22! (That means I'm getting old!) And Patrick's brother and his wife are expecting this month!! Hopefully by the next blog I'll have new pictures of Patrick and me and of course our new niece!!

14 Months to go....

Our official wedding date is November 13, 2010!!

After we set our date we started looking at venues in Lake Charles. We looked at the Castle in Sulphur, all the rooms at the Civic Center, the old Charleston Hotel, the old Calcasieu

Marine National Bank building, the Lake Charles Country Club, and L'auberge du Lac. After a few trips we decided on the old Calcasieu Marine Bank.

Here is your sneak peak at the Bank! You'll have to come to the wedding to see the rest!!

I have also started looking at dresses. Our favorite lines are Casa Blanca (http://www.casablancabridal.com/) and Maggie Sottero (http://www.maggiesottero.com/). We looked in New Orleans, Jennings, and Orange. I was offered a chance to go to Denver, CO to work for a few days so my mom and I flew up a few days early! It was beautiful!!! We went to SEVERAL dress shops while we were there. Here are a few of our favorites!!

You'll have to come to the wedding to see which one I picked!

The biggies still on the To Do List: Caterer, DJ or Band, Photographer, Florist, Cake!

In personal news... Our newphew, Josh, turned 3!! I love kid birthday parties!! They ususally have my favorite food and very yummy cake and ice cream!!

Our Engagement Story!!

Friday, August 7th 2009: Patrick turned the big 30!! We celebrated in true (to us) fashion by getting pizza delivered and watching Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (that was the last movie Pat and I saw in theatres). After the movie I let him play his computer game! ;) --Now, I didn't get Pat anything for his birthday, he never would tell me what he wanted. Keep that in mind as our story continues!

Saturday, August 8th 2009: We decided to go see the newest Harry Potter at the Alamo Theatre. For those of you unfamiliar with the Alamo Theatre, they serve real food and alcohol and they serve it to you!!! So anyways, we drank beer and ate lots of popcorn as we watched the new Harry Potter.

Sunday, August 9th 2009: Since we had so much fun at the movies the day before we decided to go back! We went to the IMAX theatre and saw GI JOE. Another great movie!!! No beer this time, but lots of popcorn!!

All in all the weekend was going great!! Later that night when we got back from dinner, I assumed Pat was going upstairs to play his computer game so I went and got on my computer. Patrick came back down shortly and came up to me and said...

You know, that's pretty crappy! You didn't get me anything for my birthday but I got you something! (At this point he gets down on one knee and pulls out a ring box) Brittany, will you marry me?

You may not appreciate this story, but I think it was pretty perfect!!!

We're Engaged!!

2009 Pre-Engagment

2009 started out with us living in a hotel while our house was being put together. We did get to move back in after a week, but it took all of January for the contractors to complete the work on our house. Coal turned 2!! We fed him steak on his birthday and he LOVED it!!! We finished out winter and moved into Spring pretty quietly. We enjoyed having our house put back together. Coal wasn't a big fan of having furniture back in the living room.

One of my closest friends, Aimee Boggs, got married in April. When we pulled the charms from the cake I got the engagement ring charm!! (little foreshadowing for ya!)

We spent our 2 year anniversary in Baton Rouge for the NFL draft! Here are Derek and Brian enjoying the draft! Coal and Pat spend a lot of time outside playing fetch.

In the heat of the summer, we bought Coal a pool to help him cool off after long days of playing fetch!!

Pat bought his new car in June. He got a red Nissan 350Z!! I went home right after he bought it and Landen tried it on for size!!

In July we took a much needed vacation! We spent a few days in Austin, TX and then a few days in New Braunfels, TX. In Austin, we did lots of sleeping and lots of drinking! We met up with my sister and her boyfriend in San Marcos to shop before New Braunfels. We spent a whole day at Schlitterbahn and it was great!! We kept Pat coated with sunscreen and I'm happy to report he did not burn!!!

Our Story -- 2008

2008 was CRAZY for us!!

In January Patrick quit his job and sold his house in Baton Rouge to move to Houston. Our baby turned 1!! Here's a picture of Coal at 1.

In February, Patrick moved in with Coal and me in our little apartment in Pearland, TX. We lived a whole block from Buffalo Wild Wings. It was awesome!! We miss being that close to our favorite restaurant. My cousin, Elizabeth, got married that February. This is us before the wedding.

March madness was so much fun, especially being that close to BWW all the time! Both of us started new jobs at the beginning of the month. We also decided that the apartment was too small and started looking at houses towards the end of the month.

In April we celebrated our 1 year anniversary at Ashlee and Randy's wedding. We took a trip to Surf Side Beach and Coal absolutely loved the beach! He handled the sand a lot better than we thought he would but the waves scared him.

We bought out house in May and moved in June 1st. With the help of my mom and sister we painted 2 bedrooms upstairs and our room. We spent most of June getting settled into the new house. For July 4th we went to Corpus Christi and hung out with my family. Don't we look cute?!?!

Patrick turned 29 in August and we went to see the Mets vs the Astros. We have front row seats in right field!!! Our A/C went out towards the end of the month, so we had a really warm August and September. September was quite exciting for us. We completed the "man-room" with a new couch. We house refugees over Labor Day weekend. We got our A/C fixed the day before Hurricane Ike hit. And then the fun started...

When our ceiling started caving in we fled to Austin, TX where Matt and Mandy graciously took us in! When we returned from Austin we started repairs, within a month we had a new roof. The interior work took much longer for them to get started.

In October my sister turned 21! We helped her celebrate by meeting her at the casino and toasting her birthday with some champagne. In November I turned 25 and we celebrated Thanksgiving with our families.

December came and went rather quickly. We decorated the front yard with lights. Here's the newest additions to our family! We spent most of Christmas break packing up our house for the contractors to start working on our interior work in January.

Our Story -- The very begining!

We met in the spring 2007 while playing volleyball at Mangos in Baton Rouge,LA. We started dating in April of that year. I graduated in May and was soon there after covered in poison oak. Patrick took me in and took care of me while I scratched my way to relief from the poison oak. In June of 2007, we got our dog, Coal. He was 4 1/2 months and 40 lbs when we got him.

In August of that year I moved to Houston, TX. We spent many weekends on the road going back and forth between Baton Rouge, Lake Charles, and Houston. Here are a few fun pictures from that fall.

Watching Football at my mom's house. Coal is about 8 months old in this picture.

Thanksgiving 2007

My favorite picture of us!

My 24th Birthday.

In New Orleans for Gus' wedding.

Christmas 2007

New Years 2007. Well right around there. We went to the Old 97s Concert in Austin, TX a few days before New Years Eve.