As soon as Mr. Jet and I got engaged, I signed up for a Knot account - that's what every fiancée does, right?  I will admit, they have a lot of helpful articles and checklists, but a lot of the fluff doesn't pertain to us and it seems like they're mysteriously trying to sell you ALL THE WEDDING THINGS!

I found myself discouraged easily and quite frustrated at all the lists telling me I needed to find the PERFECT. BRIDAL.  BRA.

However, being extremely HTML challenged, I did like the ease and ready-to-publish templates of their free wedding website.  I grabbed our URL and got to work messing around with all the pages and options we had.  I was able to customize it to suit our needs, while getting rid of most of the "fluff". 

We kept all of the pages really simple and straightforward.  We provided the following:

hi there. - A brief introduction and cute photo of Mr. Jet and I on our trip to Salem last fall! Aww...

she said, "yes". - The story of our proposal, since many people still don't know how it happened!

ceremony. - A photo, address and a few details about the ceremony location.

reception. - A photo, address and a few details about the reception.

our guys & girls. - A list of our bridal party members and a quick, funny description of each.

"out of towners". - We'll have quite a few family members and friends coming from out of town.  Here, we listed the hotel we booked rooms at, some Fall New England activities, our favorite restaurants in the area and a few bars for after hours fun. 

guest book. - pretty self explanatory!

map. - The Knot has a cool Google Maps interface that plots the points you dedicate for Ceremony, Reception, Hotels and more.  This is a neat feature and pretty much populates itself!

We left out an "about us" section because, really, if you don't know us why would we invite you??, a gift registry because we're still undecided, and pages of photos which seemed a little self-indulgent.  It's a simple and classic website and plays its part perfectly for us.  

When I imagine Mr. Jet and I dancing at our reception, this image pops into my head:

I LOVE to dance.  I have always thought there was a badass Latin dancer living inside my little white body.  I can bust many a move and do so anytime the situation arises.  I love to be the center of attention on the dance floor and will most certainly do that on my wedding day.  Mr. Jet doesn't exactly share my love of "the dance," but he's a big goofball and will indulge me on any dance floor.

That being said, it was important for us to find a DJ who fits our style.  I love all styles of music; pop, alternative, punk, classic rock, etc. while Mr. Jet's interests are far more eclectic and "indie."  We had to find a DJ that can compromise our two styles and find a great mix of ambient dinner music and dance music that isn't too exclusive of our diverse guests.

Our DJ, Frank Baptista, suggested that Mr. Jet tackle the cocktail and dinner music, since his style is a little less accessible to the mainstream guests we'll have and I take on the dance music since I seriously sing Janet Jackson's "Pleasure Principle" in my sleep.  This was a great compromise for the two of us, since music is such an important part of both of our lives. (Mr. Jet is a self-taught musician and and I come from a long line of singers and musicians as well).

My "Reception Boogie" playlist is already 100 songs long.  Time to edit?

Typical Fall New England colors include rusty oranges, reds and yellows - much like our changing trees.  

I wanted to spice things up a bit with our October nuptials.  No Halloween theme, no falling leaves scattered on the tables.  I wanted to modernize our rustic venue with two of my favorite colors: Slate Gray and Moss Green.

These colors work so well with all of the elements we're adding - burlap, vintage wine, a touch of chevron, cream accents and square metal lanterns on every table.  We're incorporating the gray into the guys' suits and the green into the girls' dresses.  I just love the look of those two colors together.  Makes me feel all warm and cozy inside!  Here is the original Polyvore board I created, can't wait to see how it matches up:

So the ring came in nearly a month later and, on the night Mr. Jet picked it up, he drops a text on my telling me he has it at band practice and all the guys in the band think it's SooOoOoO pretty....

Jerk.

Now I know he has the ring and he's just torturing me for his sick pleasure!  

A few weeks later, I was packing up for a two-week business trip to China and I shared with Mr. Jet that I was a little relieved he didn't propose before I left - imagine how hard it would be to be proposed to then shipped off to a foreign country for two weeks?!

After a very pregnant pause, Mr. Jet revealed that he was going to propose at the airport in just a few hours when he dropped me off for the trip.

Oh.

He quickly added that he had another, better idea for later down the road but it was too late, I was already in tears claiming, "I RUINED IT!  I RUINED EVERYTHING!  I AM LITERALLY THE WORST!"  (Is anyone else noticing my uncanny resemblance to Lucy van Pelt??)

Thankful for Mr. Jet's uncanny ability to talk me down from any ledge, I finished packing and the we arrived at Logan Airport the next morning before dawn.  

As we hugged goodbye, Mr. Jet told me I hadn't ruined anything at all - and that I was far from the worst.

"Huh?"

No matter the conversation the night before, Mr. Jet was determined to send me off to China has his fiancée - come hell or high (tearful) water!  I, obviously, said yes and spent the next two weeks without a phone or Facebook to share the news. (THERE IS NO FACEBOOK IN CHINA, HOW AWFUL IS THAT?!) I did manage to send out a quick text and photo to my close friends and family and Mark broke the news on his Facebook page. 

The next few weeks in China went by really quickly and I shared the news with all of my colleagues there, however I did feel terribly lonely that I wasn't able to celebrate with my brand new fiancé!  By the time I got to Hong Kong on my way home, I had so many "likes" and "comments" and that lonely hotel room was filled with the love of all of my people back in the States.  I returned to Mr. Jet with the biggest bear hug and plans for a special dinner to celebrate our news.

Okay, so I'm totally crazy and type-A and need everything to be perfect and HATE surprises - that makes me the perfect person to be proposed to, right?

The first few years of dating Mr. Jet, marriage didn't really cross my mind.  We had moved in together after 11 months of dating, and I was serious about him, but being a wife wasn't at the top of my list of priorities just yet.  I was still young and trying to figure out what I could do with a Communications degree and how to buy a new car with nothing to put down.  

We casually talked about "forever" once in a while and I knew pretty early on he was the one for me and I for him.  We just wanted to take things slow and enjoy life as we knew it - raising our chihuahua mix, Bruce Banner, paying our bills on time and exploring our hobbies together and individually.

It wasn't until 4 years into our relationship that I started to get...the fever.  The more we did things like get a joint checking account and invest in furniture together, the more I realized that this WAS forever.  I wanted to keep him forever.  I wanted a proposal from him so that I knew he felt the same way.

In the winter of 2011, I really pushed the issue with Mr. Jet.  I was ready and needed him to know it.  He said he wanted forever too, and it would happen if I was patient.

Me?  Patient?  Has he actually MET me?

One night over a shared scorpion bowl at our favorite Chinese restaurant, I got him to agree to look at rings with me.  We stopped into a local, family-owned jewelry store and I pointed out exactly what I wanted.  (I had been there a few times before with my equally-as-obsessed friend, Chelsea).  Oh, just an Asscher cut diamond, in an antique-style pavé setting in white gold where the diamonds only go half-way around to prevent gunk build-up.  Nothing really particular about that.

Mr. Jet completely surprised me when he came out with this one:

"Okay, let's get it."

"Say whaaaaaa?" says me in a scorpion bowl-induced stupor.

We ordered the ring that night and we left hand-in-hand with a real promise for our future.