The Facts.... .so far

Here's what we have established so far:
When: November 17, 2012
Where: Marland Mansion - Ponca City  www.marlandmansion.com
Bridal attendants: Katherine Reed Evans, Kelly McLain, Ashley Rumford
Groom attendants: Spencer Reed, Mark Chaney, Brian Rucker
Bridal consultants/planners/support/and wedding day bosses: Marci McCrory, Amy Cox
Music: Ponca City 4 piece string orchestra for the ceremony
Cake: Cindy Filson
Theme: Vintage lodge, eclectic, unique
Colors: Cranberry red, Sweet potato orange, Eggplant purple.... brown/wrought iron

Wednesday, March 21

Ron and Debbie hosted the most amazing engagement dinner for our families! My grandparents, parents, brother, bridal attendant Ashley and the Reeds ate the most delicious steak and baked potato. We told stories and laughed for several hours and truly enjoyed ourselves. I cannot thank Ron and Debbie enough for their generosity. What a fabulous evening and a great start to an engagement!

Monday, March 19

We have had such a wonderful vacation in Texas. One of our last adventures was to have lunch with Ms. Nancy Hutto (Jonathan's mom). We met her at Pei Wei and had the best time! She gave us the most precious bride and groom angel. I have it in the living room right now! What wonderful people in Texas! Cannot wait to go back!

Sunday, March 18

We woke up bright and early and headed to Houston to visit Aunt Loretta and Uncle Jim. We talked the entire trip down. Katherine was so helpful in getting us started planning. By the time we hit the edge of  Houston we had a wedding date and venue as well as a bridal attendant! The more she talked the more excited we got! We ate at the most amazing mexican restaurant for lunch. Lupe's had the most amazing fajitas! I have never seen tortillas the size of theirs! We had so much food crammed on that plate that there wasn't enough room for our chips and waters! Once we had stuffed ourselves, we headed out to the patio to visit a while. It was so nice to see Jim and Loretta. Everyone was well and in great spirits! The day went very quickly and before we knew it it was time to go back to Waco. Hugs and well wishes were shared as well as kisses from Henry! We planned, visited, and laughed all the way back to Waco where we ate our body weight in Poppa Rollo's pizza!

Saturday night March 17

Once we got to Waco we met up at the Evans' home and got excited about dinner. We went to Diamondbacks Steakhouse. This is the same restaurant we ate at following the Evans wedding reception. I had the best steak that night. It was stuffed with seafood! yum! Dinner was wonderful and we toasted the engagement! When katherine got engaged I gave her a bride wine glass as a gift. When we got back to the house she gave me the glass back! How special!

Saturday, March 17

The next morning we got up and walked back to the fountain to take some pictures! The plaza was beautiful on Friday night but we found something interesting the next day..... a nice run-down hotel in the background! ha! Makes for a nice story. Once we had seen all downtown had to offer we headed to the stockyards. What fun! We were on cloud nine all day! Mostly we were anxious to get our families on the phone to share the news! Once we had seen all of the stockyard area we loaded up and headed toward Waco to Jonathan and Katherine!

Friday, March 16

Friday, March 16

Taylor came to pick me up at 2pm to head to Ft. Worth. We were making good time until we hit Edmond. It took us over an hour and a half to get from Waterloo Road to south of Norman. If you've ever been sitting in stand-still traffic on the I-35 interchange.... you know our frustration! After we got south of Norman, we were on our way........until we got to Marietta. The highway department is doing road construction! We were once again in stand-still traffic. This time we were going approximately 5mph for over two hours. We finally got to Ft. Worth about 9pm and headed to find our hotel. We checked in to the Omni Hotel and went to change clothes for dinner. Taylor wanted to take me to eat at the Reata. We ate engagement dinner with Katherine and Spencer on the roof of the Reata 3 years ago. We were so excited about going back to the roof! Once we got to the restaurant we found out that the roof was closed until April. We ate inside and had a wonderful time! After we ate we decided to take a walk before going back to the hotel. Taylor wanted to find a park but I was having no part of it! It was 10:30 on a Friday night in a downtown of a strange city.... I was not going to look for a park! We found a small park with a pretty wishing well fountain. I saw a sign that said   fORTth  as a mix or letters for the city. On top of this sign was a panther. I was yacking on an on about the fact that the animal they chose to represent Ft. Worth was a panther!!!!! As I am talking about the stupid panther Taylor is reaching in his jacket pocket to get the ring box. He told me to close my eyes and turn around. When I turned around he was on his knee and asked me if I would marry him. My first response was to cover my mouth and then say...'are you sure? are you sure? are you sure?' I eventually got around to saying ...'yes!!!!' Once we collected ourselves we walked back to the hotel bar and ordered a cocktail. We had a couple across from us take our picture!!

Taylor: The couple that took this photo was unaware of our recent engagement. We sat there smiling and laughing with each other throughout the evening, and then decided to go someplace quieter so we could visit. The band that was playing was really loud. As we started to leave we were interrupted by that same couple, and they wanted to know if we had just gotten engaged. They had noticed that we were very excited, and they caught us starring all evening at Laura's ring!!!