From the very begining

Russell and I met somewhere around 7-8 years ago through mutual friends, after several months we began dating on March 13, 2002. Did I mention I was 14 and he was 18? Yes, I know I was young, but we've been together ever since, and we're both very happy. On May 23, 2009 we went to San Francisco for a belated birthday trip for me, at least that was the reason he told me. When we got there we walked on the beach, it was windy and I was hungry and didn't have much interest of walking on the beach at the time, but he convinced me to since we were there already. As I was ready to walk back to the car, he told me to sit with him on a rock under this tree, before I knew it he was on one knee and hold a ring. It was a big suprise and very romantic. We now have a tree. He wants to get married on our annerversary, March 13. As Russell put it, it's been a lucky date for us so far.

So I had approxamitely 9-10 months to plan a wedding. (Now i only have 6 months, and it's fast approaching.)
Not even a week later I got my wedding dress at David's bridal. The dress I fell in love with was discontinued so it was even cheaper! a big plus!
I found a color I like for bridesmaid dresses that I really like, its called serene. It's a kind of blue-ish green. sort of. I am debating between 2 dresses that I like, one is long and one goes to about knee length. I'm not sure which would be better for march. The weather has been weird lately, so you never know if it will be hot or cold.

We secured the place for the ceremony and reception in the middle of June. The place is called Wilbure House. It is a lady's house named Sandee, she live out in the country of Manteca she has a huge and gorgeous property and she holds weddings in her backyard. She provides the place, the food, the servers, tables, linens, plates and silverware, decorations excluding flowers, security, bartender, ect..I think thats it. So we will need to provide the minister, which we are going to use my parents pastor. A D.J., who is a friend of a friend. A photographer, who is Russell's mom's boyfriend. He is not a professional in the technical sense, but it is a hobby and talent of his and he is great, I've seen many of his picture and I love them. We are very happy to have him do our photos. We still need to look into the florist. Since the wedding will be outside we don't want to have very many flowers, just bouquets, and the guys one that I don't know how to spell..boutineers? Possibly some small decorations on the ends of rows of chairs. The centerpeices will be candles. We will also need to provide the cake, which is yet to come too.
We've scheduled for my hairdresser to come to my house in the morning of the wedding to do my hair and the bridesmaids hair. Not sure yet about makeup...my hairdresser doesn't do make-up, i dont' think. i need to double check that. Maybe I will use the lady Summer(my sister-in law --Andy's wife) used at her wedding. I need to remember to ask summer about that.
We were thinking about having an afternoon wedding, around 3pm. The photographer, Randy, has given us his approval on that time of day.
I haven't yet talked to the 'cake guy', but Russell's mom, Debbie, she works with a lady who's husband does wedding cakes and specialty cakes. I just got a CD with pictures of previous cakes he's done. I really like them, most of which are the style i like. I will add photos later.
I haven't done much lately, as far as wedding plans go. I am taking 2 hard science classes at the moment, Microbiology and Physiology. We are also looking to buy a house. We have put 5 offers on houses with no luck so far. We are waiting to find out about the last one, but we are pretty sure it's a no since its been several days. I'm going to call our lady, pam, tomorrow about the house. Hoping for good news, but prepared for bad news. Russell wants to get the house before the year is up so we can get the 8,000 dollar credit for first time house owners in Ca. Since we aren't married yet we would both get the 8,000. 16,000 dollars to put towards the wedding and honeymoon! we need to get a house first. It's been rather stressful and very discouraging. There isn't very many good houses out there. Once there listed the are bought within 2 of 3 days. Also investors are picking up alot of houses. In our area there are what seems like a million short-sale houses, which we aren't going to do.
After we get a house, god willing that will be soon. We will get going with the wedding plans again. We need to buy the invitations, and register for gifts soon. I also need to decide which dress I like better so the girls can order them soon.
Next week mom and I plan to go see a florists to get an idea of prices and narrow down my flower choices. I want to have yellow as an accent color, so i think yellow boutineers would be nice and the girls bouquets to have yellow flowers in them. not sure what kind of flowers, though.
So hopefully that's caught everyone up on where Russell and I are at on wedding plans and house hunting. Please pray that we will be lucky enought to get a house this year.