Personal

Date Night

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Tonight M and I had a date night.  Well that is what I am calling it anyway.  We had scheduled time to go see a band we like for the wedding in Manhattan.  Since they were playing at someone elses wedding we had to dress up.  The bride had given her permission for us to come by but we couldn’t go in street clothes.  We figured since we were going to be dressed up and we didn’t need to be at the wedding till 10PM we should go to dinner.

We ended up at the Capital Grill.  It was really good.  We had a good time at dinner and then decided to walk around near Rockefeller Center before going to the venue nearby.

The band was pretty good.  We liked them, but still want to see other bands to ensure we picked a winner!  We both loved M’s friend Jenn’s wedding band but they are far away and there is risk in them driving in from out of town the morning of our wedding especially in the winter.  So our search continues…

My Mom’s Birthday

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Today we got up and went to a local Crepes place in Woodside. We had seen it on Yelp a few weeks ago and had wanted to try it but have been busy. I have been craving crepes since our trip to France. I fell in love with them there. It was nice to find a Crepes place in Woodside, and it turned out to be this really small nice place. After getting us lost (my fault) we finally found the place and had a great breakfast.

We did work around the house during the day and then traveled out to Little Neck to meet my mom for her birthday. My mom wanted to take M and I to one of her favorite restaurants. My dad wasn’t feeling well so he stayed home. We had a great meal before M and I had to rush to the LIRR to head home. The only issue with visiting my parents on the weekend is that there is only 1 train every hour. Thankfully we are in woodside and it is really easy to take the LIRR to my folks. In LIC it was significantly more difficult.

Food Truck Rally

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For the past year I have been a fan of Time Out New York.  It has had great date ideas and things to do.  Last month I got a print subscription (i know it goes against my trend of all digital) for half off via Groupon.  One of the first things we saw was a Food Truck Rally every 3rd Sunday of every month in the Summer at Prospect Park.  M and I jumped at the chance to do that.  We had planned going for weeks.

The rally didn’t disappoint.  I had grilled cheese at one truck.  M had a lobster role at another.  We also had ice cream from a 3rd.  It was really yummy.  We were stuffed and then went into the park to lie into the shade and read and relax.  It was a fantastic afternoon in the park.

I am hoping we can go back again before the summer is over.

BBQ

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Today M and I got a zipcar and drove to Jayson & Gretchen’s for Seth’s 2nd birthday BBQ.  We went up early so we could have Jayson take some Engagement photo’s of us at nearby Vasser College.  We had fun for the photo shoot but it was really hot out to be in pants!

The BBQ was fun.  Lots of little kids, but we did get to meet little Eli for the first time.  He and I bonded pretty well!

M and I had a fun time!

Picking a Photographer

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Tonight M and I went out to Jersey to visit with 2 photographers we really like.  We have looked at a few but they stood out.  We liked their photo’s and also liked that they were a team so we would get 2 different angles on the wedding.  After meeting with Shelley and Keith we are pretty sold on them.  Being the wafflers that we are we are still going to look a little bit further but we seem pretty confident they will be the ones we pick.

Wedding Date

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We have set the date for the wedding. It will be January 8th, 2012. M and I went with her parents to the View on the Hudson today to show them. They were last people we wanted to see it before signing contracts. With their positive comments along with our own and my mom’s we signed and put in a deposit. We are very excited.

After visiting the venue we went to visit a florist. From there we went to the Hilton nearby that we want to use to get a block of rooms the night before. We had lunch with M’s parents, got some dining room chairs that M’s parents had been holding after being worked and and we headed back home. It was a very productive day.

Wedding Website

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After some research we just launched our wedding website. I settled on a site hosted by WeddingWindow.com. We have tons of information we want to post, but right now it is just a shell. I bought www.mcandscott.com for us to use. No date has been set for the wedding yet but we are aiming for Winter 2011/12. Once we have more information I am sure I will be blogging about it.

Wedding Venue Research Tuesday

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Today after work M and I took a ride to brooklyn to check out another venue for the wedding. We looked at Giando’s on the water. Overall it was a great place. The view was fantastic of the bridge and the Manhattan skyline. We weren’t super sold on the ballroom layout and some other details. At first I thought that the View on the Hudson and Giando’s were contenders but after talking with M we both agreed Giando’s was not the place for us even if it was really cool.

Walking back to the subway we decided to goto Dressler for dinner. It was a fantastic meal. Then we headed home.

Wedding Venue Research Weekend

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Today was a very busy day. It was our first day of research for wedding venues. M had done a ton of research and we narrowed down our list to 3 places north of Manhattan. M’s parents were meeting up with us to visit 2 of the 3 locations so we were really excited.

The first place was the FEAST at Round Hill. We both liked it, and we left the venue having generally good thoughts about it.

The second venue was the Clubhouse at Patriot Hills. The ballroom was really nice, and the view was great but otherwise we weren’t that sold on the location so we passed on it.

We ate lunch with M’s folks at the clubhouse and then we headed off to our 3rd venue. At first we weren’t going to even go, because I was fighting a migraine and already took meds for it. After lunch i was feeling a bit better and the venue was on the way home so we figured it was worth it to swing by and check it out. We were both glad we did.

The last location was the View on the Hudson. M and I both liked it. it had a great ball room that the first location was missing, it had a spectacular view of the hudson river and overall it was a good venue. We both left knowing that was the place to beat in our search for a venue.

I am Engaged

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Today was a huge day for me. It was the day I moved into M’s apartment. We had been planning to move in together since mid April but with our planned vacations in May it really wasn’t feasible to plan a move until June. i had been packing for weeks. I was very excited for the move but also a bit nervous since it was my first time moving in with someone since college. That wasn’t the only reason for being nervous. With all the moving craziness aside (and there was a decent amount of it) I also proposed to M.

She knew I was thinking about it. We had talked about it. We went to do some research at a jeweler while we were in DC. She also knew i went with my mom to the jeweler last weekend to look for a ring. I dropped a little mis-direction earlier in the week when I told M that i didn’t find anything I liked when in fact I found the perfect ring. I was originally going to propose one weekend in July if we went away. My sister gave me the idea of doing it when we moved in, since she wouldn’t be expecting it. i thought about it a lot and had a great idea on how to do it, so all I needed was the ring.

My mom brought that to me yesterday since I couldn’t get back to the jeweler before the weekend.

The proposal was very simple. I was only really nervous when i tried to run through what i wanted to say in my head before hand. Otherwise i was surprised that i wasn’t totally going crazy.

Once the apartment was in decent shape we got dressed to go out to dinner and celebrate our finishing the move. Before we went I gave her a huge hug and said there was only one way for this day to be any better. At that point I went to go down on one knee. What was funny was M wouldn’t let me go from the hug so I brought her down halfway to the ground before i got her to let go and then I pulled out the ring to propose. She said yes obviously or else I wouldn’t be writing about it now. My mission was a success and she was totally caught by surprise.

We then went out to celebrate our moving in and the engagement at the great sushi place by the apartment.