Spreading the news

As soon as Simon proposed, I called my little sister Katy and asked her to be my maid of honor. She's my only sibling, and at age 21 she's pretty excited to be in my wedding. Our mother passed away four years ago and our father is not in our lives, so having her in my wedding party is very important to me.

I then called my aunt, who is my mother's only living sister (her other sister and both parents passed away from the same cancer before I was born). Aunty Rena has always been there for me, along with her husband Aaron. They have definitely been surrogate parent figures for me. I gave her the good news and then asked her to put Uncle Aaron on the line. I asked him if he would give me away, and he was honored.

Last but not least, I called my cousin Jen, who is my only female first cousin and the person whose house I had been at that night. She was thrilled as well. I was so glad to hear how much they all love Simon, though I wasn't surprised! We then spoke with Simon's mother, whom he had consulted before popping the question. She was so happy for us!

Over a bottle of champagne, Simon and I began to discuss a wedding date. We both absolutely love the autumn, and decided this autumn was too soon as we were in the middle of selling his condo and buying a house together (yes, we started planning the house before the engagement!). So fall of 2010 it was, and we decided on October, as my sister's birthday is in September and mine is in November.

That was about all we could plan the first night, and Simon had to keep telling me to slow down, we have a year and a half! All my life I've dreamed of my wedding, and now that it was real, I found myself changing my mind about everything I had thought I wanted. I didn't want a casual beach BBQ wedding. I didn't want a medieval wedding. I wanted something simple and elegant and fall-themed.

And so the planning began!