YAYAYAYAYAY!!!!!

Today,

 I am stupidly excited.

 And girly.

 And I'm not girly.

 But today,

 I am caving in with a giant
"EEEEEKKK!"

 of unrestrained giddyness.

 And I'll tell you why.

 Last year,

 when the hubs and I decided we were in LURVE and wanted to get hitched,

 we had very little time to do it

 before he was supposed to report to OTS,

 after which he would be moving to Florida,

 and I couldn't go with him

 unless we were married.

 Stupid housing rules.

 So we decided to elope (pretty much).

 I was too stubborn to just go to the courthouse,

 but I was in the middle of nursing school and there was NO WAY a big wedding was going to happen.

 So we decided to go up to the mountains in Gatlinburg

 and seal the deal,

 just him and me

 and have our shindig later.

 My mother had other plans.

 Suddenly, we had about ten guests,

 flowers,

 a dress,

 and cake.

 Sigh.

 We couldn't win.

 So we went on with it,

 knowing that we still wanted to have a wedding

 where all of our friends and family could come

 and celebrate with us.

 I have been dreaming of said wedding since I was about 4,

 when I was a bride for Halloween.

 Fake bouquet, clip-on earrings and all.

 Welllllll,

 we have been trying to plan said event

 since our marriage last November,

 but every date ends up falling through. 

 Yay training.

 It got to the point where I was embarrassed to tell my girlfriends

 "so we think we may be able to do it ______"

 I think they probably didn't even believe me anymore.

But today, it has happened.

 We found a place.

 We booked it.

 We set a date.

 And I started planning.

 What my mother doesn't understand is why we still feel the need to do this,

 when in her eyes we had a "perfectly nice wedding" last year.

 The reason we feel we need to do it

 is because none of our friends got to be there.

 And then we left town and moved here,

 and haven't gotten to see many of them again.

 We want all of our friends

 in one place

 to celebrate our marriage

 and renew our vows

 because our lives are going to change so much in the next year.

 We don't even know where we'll be living.

 Yay training.

 Plus,

 I never got to do all the girly stuff.

 I never got to plan.

 I never got to pick colors and food and bridesmaids dresses and centerpieces.

 And I'm kind of selfishly excited about all that.

 And my husband loves that I'm a DIY girl :)

(p.s. if you follow me on Pinterest,
 I apologize in advance for the spewing of wedding junk
that is about to ensue on my page).