Check this out ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcxhOGyrCtI&feature=related

A Truly Awesome V-Day

I pretty much had the best Valentine's Day I can remember, ever. Which is saying a lot really, because I've had some pretty good ones. Mike and I set up an appointment to view a chapel in Saginaw about ten minutes away from our reception hall, and we ended up loving it! It's an authentic historic chapel built in 1869, complete with the wood-carved pews, a tin ceiling and a cute little steeple. ;) It's part of Apple Mountain golf course and ski resort, and has a lovely setting of rolling green hills and apple trees around it. I'm very excited! I'm waiting for the paperwork to come in the mail and then we're going to book it. It feels great to get the hall and the ceremony location out of the way, because now I feel like I can sit back and not do anything else for a while. And I thought it was really romantic that we found the place we'll be married in on Valentine's Day! :D

We stopped by my parents' house on the way home as a surprise and spent a few hours relaxing with Mom and Dad and talking about old times. :) I was so glad we stopped and I think they were too. Colby had just gotten a hair cut so he was really frisky, and Dad's birthday was just this week so I got to give him a hug for that. Afterwards Mike and I came back to Lansing because we had dinner reservations at Dublin Square, an Irish-pub restaurant in downtown Lansing. The food was delicious and I had a great time!! There's nothing like a nice steak and potatoes dinner out on the town. :) We also browsed around Home Depot after dinner, looking at kitchen cabinets and talking about what sort of refrigerator we'd like to have someday. ;)

Sunday for lunch we met with SHRUTI, OMG! I haven't seen Shruti since her white coat ceremony, which was before she started med school!! That's just... way too long to go without seeing her. Embarassingly long. I still have her Christmas present!! She got me a beautiful white scarf which she bought while in India over winter break, as well as a dragon calendar and some glow-in-the-dark dragons to stick on my wall. ;) Awesome. I missed that girl a lot--hopefully it won't be another ridiculous six or something months before I see her again.

I would also like to note that Mike found this super nice men's suit jacket at Macy's, regular price $178, for twenty bucks. OMG. Why can't I find deals like that?!??! He looks ultra hot in it though, so I guess we both win in the end. ;)

School is going to suck a lot the next three weeks. >_<

So to bring an end to my recent string of wedding-related blog posts, I'd like to show off a website I put together for Mike and I! I know some people think wedding websites are a little... fluffy... but I honestly put A LOT of time into it so if you went to it and looked around and... told me it was awesome or something, I would greatly appreciate it! :D

http://www.weddingwire.com/MikeAmanda

Self-Quoting

Yeah whatever. Don't judge me. :P

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Me: There's an HIV med that contains 45% alcohol (84 proof).
Mike: Shit! I bet that feels great going in!
Me: Yeah, that'll take the edge off those opportunistic infections.

The Hall

This week/weekend I traveled back to Flint twice to visit several reception halls Mike and I were most interested in. It was a good week for me to do it because: 1.) I didn't have any exams and 2.) I needed to get behind the wheel again. And!! I got to see Mom, Dad and Chris! :D I was so happy, but it made me homesick. :( Anyway, reception hall hunting has already proven to be very stressful, mostly because it typically consumes 50% of your total budget, so you really learn what you can and can't afford during this process. Not to mention, you have to work fast because brides/grooms book so far in advance that even Mike and I have run into places we really liked that were already booked for our day.

I visited three halls on Wednesday by myself because Mike had to work, and then Saturday we visited two more together. I loved one of them I saw on Wednesday, but it was already booked for our day. We even considered moving the date back a week so that we could get it, but instead we fell in love with the second hall we visited on Saturday, which is the one I'll be calling tomorrow to book. Here are some piccys--tell me what you think! I'm so excited!! :D