Engagement Pictures - Location?

Here at the Murphy/Watson household we're in full swing "workout like crazy because our engagement pictures are in less than two weeks" mode. Luckily we joined the brand-new, beautiful, clean, wonderful (can you tell I really like it??) YMCA in Newcastle. Anyways, while we're going to look great ;) for our pictures, we're still trying to settle on a location. A few things to keep in mind...
- We're taking our pictures in November...in Washington. Weather is iffy, might be cold, but it's the only time we have.
- We aren't really "urban" people - so probably not looking for a city location.
- We are bringing the crazy (aka: Atilla) with us for some of the pictures.

Here's a few of my location ideas:
- Marymoor park in Redmond - lots of trees, cute river nearby, random structures (including a windmill), and completely dog friendly
- Golden Gardens park in Ballard - great park, but it's on the water and will be windy - so I would have crazy hair in all pictures
- Bellevue Botanical Gardens - beautiful location, but... have done Watson family photos there in the past
- Discovery Park in West Seattle - similar to Golden Gardens, it's near the water and will be windy/probably really cold.

Any other ideas/suggestions? Or even places to completely avoid? We don't want to look completely out of our element, but we also don't want to look freezing and annoyed.

And The Winners Are...

Jon & Andrea Carey! Officially the first two plane tickets have been purchased to get to this crazy wedding! Andrea posted on FB that they were good to go and made my day. There will be some kind of prize in Mexico for their preparedness.
For those of you wondering about the actual dates - we'd love to have you for any and all of the time we're in Mexico. Brian and I will be in Mexico from Tuesday - Tuesday with our families and the bridal party (well Brittney will be there a little less, as she'll be finishing up her MBA). We're not planning on having large, organized group activities (because we're not that kind of people), but we will fill everyone in on general plans and keep it nice and casual. Between the properties we've rented we'll have 3 pools and a lagoon for snorkeling, so at least plan for a little time to hang out! Oh, and the wedding is on Saturday, July 3 - so please make sure to be there for that little event :)

About 8 months away... yay :)

What we did on Sunday...

Much to Brian's dismay, I had completely planned out our morning last Sunday. For those of you who either grew up with Brian or know him very well... Brian is NOT a morning person. Especially if he hasn't had breakfast yet. ESPECIALLY if you take him shopping early in the morning, without breakfast. However, we are about 9 months our from our wedding (EEK... must. plan. more.) so it was time to register for gifts. Luckily, Crate & Barrel was having a registry event - before the mall opened, with food for the boys. Registering is weird - picking out gifts that you want other people to buy for you... it's just strange. However, we did have a good time planning for our future. We also stopped by Macy's, which wasn't nearly as fun as Crate and Barrel. Macy's was unorganized and not very helpful - but we still managed to find a few items.

To find our registeries visit: Crate & Barrel and type in one of our names, or Macy's - same thing, type in one of our names.

Note: We consider your attendence at our wedding the best gift you can give us... but we have been asked about our registry, so felt it was time to do something about it.

Location! Location! Location!

At this point we've started introducing you to our wedding party and given a quick (well, maybe not so quick) insight into how this crazy relationship started. Probably time to provide some details about the wedding location!

When we started planning the wedding, we knew right away we'd be going away. Key considerations were: somewhere tropical, hopefully even distance from the west and east coasts, somewhere that there was lots to do, and something within our small budget. After a LOT of research (that Krystle did) we landed on Akumal, Mexico. Neither Brian nor I have been to Mexico, but we've heard great things - especially about Akumal.

About Akumal:
Akumal is about an hour south of Cancun, pretty close to the border of Belize. It's less touristy and more rustic than Cancun and surrounding areas, but close enough to the bigger attractions to get groceries and go to Costco (yes, there is Costco in Mexico). Akumal is known as the "Place of Turtles" as it's where the sea turtles go to lay their eggs. There are several beaches, cave diving, open water diving, and historical attractions nearby. The Watson and Murphy families will be staying at the Romero Compound on the Yal-Ku Lagoon. The Lagoon is actually a marine sanctuary with excellent snorkelling. We're still researching other activities and will keep everyone updated on what looks interesting to us!

Other logistical items we'll be working on over the next few months include: flight options, transportation from the airport, and hotel accommodations for additional guests. If anyone has additional points we should consider, please let us know!

Fun Facts: Groomsmen - Grant

Grant Watson. Hmmm… well he let us put him in the dog crate once, he’s gone several days without showering before, and has tipped over Honey Buckets. Somehow, he’s still managed to wrangle a place in our wedding party. We actually are pretty excited about it too. Is something wrong with him… or with us?


Fun Facts About Grant
- Until Grant was about 6 or 7, he watched the following movies almost daily: Lion King, Beethoven and Homeward Bound. It’s no wonder that Krystle can still recite most of the lines to those movies.
- Grant used to be able to make a noise that sounded exactly like a dolphin. Then his voice changed. He can no longer make said noise.
- Grant’s a master of the obvious. Case in point: Krystle, Jared, Ryan, and Brian on a chairlift. Grant: “Guys, when there’s snow on the trees it means it snowed recently”.
- Grant had the best imagination growing up. He would use his toys to make scuba gear and mountain climbing gear to go on expeditions. He was typically summiting the stairs. With the dog in tow. 
- Grant loves dogs – he received stuffed animal dogs several years in a row for Christmas and always had names picked out for each of them ahead of time.
- Brittney (MOH) thought Krystle trained Grant to like her more when he was little.
- Grant prefers hiking up a mountain and skiing down, rather than taking a chair lift like normal people.
- Grant drives a car that is the same age as him – 1990 Ford Ranger.
- Grant broke Brittney’s finger when he was little by smashing it with his toy guitar.
- Grant loves to ski, snowboard, scuba dive, wakeboard, mountain bike, and hike. He’s not really a “team sports” kind of guy. Probably a reason why Grant and Brian get along so well.
- Grant once sold Krystle his bike for $100. The bike was broken. Krystle was unaware of this at the time of purchase.
- Grant’s been letting Brian borrow his really nice Trek road bike. Note: Brian does not wear the stretchy shorts like all other road bikers do.
- Grant already has the name picked out for his future German Shepherd: Jerry Lee.
- Grant is a freshman at Oregon Institute of Technology.
- Grant loves fireworks. He’ll be in charge of the Mexican fireworks at our wedding. Is this a bad judgment call?
- Bottomline: Even though he does have the tendency to text his friends whenever he’s hanging out with Krystle and Brian, he’s a pretty great little brother. He’s always willing to watch the dog for us, come hang out, and is actually very helpful. We’re so glad he can be a part of our day – plus he’s always wanted an older brother… so he’s kind of getting one now.

Bride Freak-Out #1

So yesterday it happened... I freaked out. My freaking out then subsequently freaked someone else out. Nope, it didn't freak Brian out - I scared the crap out of some random girl working at a bridal shop.

So here's the story:
I received an email from I Do Bridal about a sale they were having. I then thought to myself - "Wow, I haven't really heard anything about my wedding dress or what my next steps are". So I sent a reply back to I Do Bridal mentioning that I was confused why I hadn't heard about my dress and was curious if everything was okay. About 10 minutes later I started received phone calls from the same number, and finally a voice mail. Upon listening to the voicemail I heard a frantic sales girl telling me to call her back immediately.

So now I'm freaking out. Big time. About to go crazy if something is wrong with my dress and I have to start all over again (Yes, I realize the wedding isn't for another 10 months, but COME ON - this is THE dress). So I call the girl back. She informs me that my name isn't in any of their records, they don't know what dress I ordered, and they definitely don't have anything on site of mine. I start telling her that my mom already paid for the dress, that I was in around January, and that I couldn't believe this was happening. So she asked what brand of dress it was. ...and here's where the stupid part happens... I tell her what brand (sorry, can't say it here - don't really want folks to know yet!). "Ma'am, we don't carry that line here. Are you sure you didn't buy it somewhere else?".

WHOOOOOOOOOPS. I bought the dress from Princess Bride (don't laugh at the name, my dress is killer). Not from I Do Bridal.

It's a little scary that I'm already going crazy 10 months out. Maybe Brian should reconsider keeping my insanity around for life.

A step back in time...(part II)

Last post I gave you the run down on how we met... now to more recent history... In July of 2008, we moved in together in a little apartment in Issaquah, WA. Two days after moving in, we had our first addition to the family - Atilla the English Springer Spaniel (and greatest dog in the world). Brian started subbing for the Issaquah School District and I continued to work in communications - everything was great. Then, in the middle of December - things got even better... Brian proposed. Here's the official story: We were about to have a snowstorm, it was already snowing a bit and we decided to go for a walk. As I was downstairs, ready to go - Brian, as usual, was taking forever to get ready. He yelled down to me "do you see my jacket?", "do you see my watch?", "do you think my hat is down there?" - just as I was about to tell him to find all of these items himself, he was hurrying down the stairs and kneeling in front of me. Completely floored, I barely remember him asking "Will you marry me" - and apparently I kept saying "Are you serious?!" over, and over again. As Brian put the ring on my finger, the dog grabbed the ring box and ran around (typical). We then went for our walk and then started calling our friends.

Pretty immediately we knew we were going to get married in a different way than the past weddings we had been to. Although the weddings were all fun - we had geographical concerns and wanted to re-live a bit of the beginning of our relationship. So Mexico... Here we come!!

A step back in time...(part I)

In the last post, I mentioned that Brian and I (clearly it's Krystle writing this thing... come on, folks) have been dating for five years. However, there are some of you who may not know the full story of how Brian managed to land such a classy girl, like myself. Since I'm guessing you're dying to know, and let's face it - I'm a little bored today, I'll give you the facts.

Once upon a time, a girl named Krystle had a dream to go to Australia. Some folks said it couldn't be done. Too bad for them - she did it anyway. So she got into a study abroad program (Australearn) and started planning her trip. Luckily, her parents had several thousand frequent flier miles and gifted her the ticket. The only downside - she would fly separate from the rest of the group. So she got on a plane, by herself, and was off. While in the sky a creepy dude who had gotten deported from the US rubber her feet while she was asleep. Yup, that was her first introduction to Australia. Brian is pretty lucky she didn't just turn around there. Annnnnnnnnyways... after spending a night alone in Syndey, she was finally going to meet up with the rest of the group. Upon spotting a fellow WWU student (Megan Strobel, now Megan Lervick), she got pretty excited and apparently (and CLEARLY not typical) started talking rather loudly. Little did she know that two awesome dudes from MA overheard this exchange and were commenting to each other about how loud that girl is over there (they probably thought it was pretty cool... right?).

Little did Brian (who was one of those dudes from MA - the other is the best man) know - that was the girl he'd choose to spend the rest of his life with. So as they all took off to go north to Cairns and spend a week up there - lives were changed for ever. (No... I don't think I'm being over-dramatic) They hung out in a large group together in Cairns and then headed down to the beautiful section of Australia known as Townsville. It was in this army-base, barren, nothing-like-the-pamphlet town that Krystle and Brian really got to know each other. Soon enough Brian asked Krystle out to dinner (they went to an Italian restarant and had very awkard conversation), they walked on the beach, and continued to date throughout their time in Australia. As the trip was approaching it's end (they spent about 5 months in Townsville) - Krystle made the bold move of suggesting they try to stay together back in the states. The only problem? Krystle lived in WA, while Brian lived in MA. Upon heading back to the states - they worked hard to have a relationship over the phone, Brian came to visit in January, Krystle went to visit Brian in March (and have an interview at Emerson College in Boston to get her master's degree), Brian opted out of a trip to Hawaii to watch Krystle graduate from WWU... and they kept the relationship going. As life continued, Krystle moved to Boston - got her degree, worked at a horrendous company; Brian got his degree, started teaching...and life looked pretty good. Then Krystle decided to up and move to San Francisco for another job. Too bad Brian refused to life in CA. So he did the best he could - moved to Seattle and waited for Krystle to return. Luckily, a client needed onsite support in Seattle and Krystle got to move back 9 months into her stay in SF.

Yes, this is a long story... it's a complicated story... but it's made us who we are today.

In the next edition - their first apartment in Issaquah, the proposal, and where we are today.

What's up with the wedding?

Yup, it's true... after FIVE years of dating, living together, living across the country together, and everything else in between... we're getting married! We're hoping to use this blog as a place to provide information to those who are planning on joining us, those who are unable to join (but are curious to see just how awesome this wedding will be), and probably let some creepy internet stalkers hang out too.

So here's what we know so far:
Date:July 3, 2010
Location: Casa Romero, Akumal, Mexico (both ceremony & reception)
Time: TBA (probably pre-cocktails around 5:30, ceremony at 6)
Bridal Party (more specific details on these wonderful folks in later posts): Maid of Honor: Brittney Watson; Best Man: Jon Carey; Bridesmaids: Laurel & Caitlin Murphy; Groomsmen: Grant Watson & Jared Long

We'll be posting details on flights, hotels, things to do in Akumal, trivia about ourselves and the bridal party. In addition, feel free to use the comments area - we'll check back to answer questions.

Can't wait for the big day & hope that you can all make it!