And the winner for best RSVP response is.....

Courtney and Cody!! Their winning response, "will attend with bells only. We love clothes optional weddings!"

What did they win...well nothing. But we laughed really hard!

Bet you didn't know this was a contest. Next time you send in a response card, make it interesting. Trust me, the bride and the groom can use the laughs.

Bells??

The "I'll be there with bells on" is a phrase I've used most my life, I remember my mom using it frequently. When I was looking for RSVP wording, I saw this and thought it was cute and decided to use it. I never thought it would cause confusion. But I've had many people ask me "Do I really need to wear bells to the wedding?" The answer to this question is NO! Please don't wear bells to the weddings.

For those of you who do not know, the phrase means "happy and delighted to attend" or to "indicate one's enthusiasm for a special event." The phrase originates from the time before cars were invented. In that era, it was customary to decorate the harness of the horse that drew the carriage with as many bells as possible for special occasions.

Unless you are attending by horse and buggy, no actual bells will be needed.

The Engagement

So, you may be asking, "Why haven't they told us how they got engaged?" A lot of people have asked that question and the answer always was, "He hasn't asked me yet?" So, how did we get to planning a wedding before there was a "real" proposal. That answer is easy. Eugene is in the Guard. He has already been overseas once and his name went back in the big pot of deployable in January. Around August, we talked about marriage and when we wanted to do it. He said he would propose officially soon. However, once we found out that he could be deployed at anytime during the year, we decided that we didn't want to rush and get married if that happened. He picked that date, I picked the time and we started the planning. However, he didn't propose until February 23rd. That's right, just a week before most of you will get your invites.

Monday afternoon, Eugene told me that his sister was going to see a movie and wanted to know if we wanted to go with her. I was cool with that. The odd thing was, was that he had been on the phone all day and I thought something may be up, but wasn't sure. I was getting dressed and was so sick of wearing jeans and sweaters that I threw on a skirt. Eugene asked me why I was wearing a skirt and told me to put on some jeans. I figured nothing was going on since he wanted me to wear jeans. We got to the theater and I saw a truck like his dad's and I said, "Look, that's just like your Daddy's truck" he didn't respond. We pulled in behind a truck that looked like my dad's and I only got a quick glance at the license plate before Eugene realized that he couldn't fit with the truck parked the way it was. I got a little suspicious, but I knew my parents wouldn't be out on a school night with my nephews. I pushed it aside.

We get inside and I go and get the a drink while Eugene gets the tickets. We get to the door and the usher goes in ahead and just disappears (I still don't know where he went). I was looking for his sister and spotted her beside his parents. I said, "Oh, that was your parents. There here." He corrected me by saying, "No, honey, the whole family is here" I looked up, as the lights came on, and my parents, my youngest sister, my nieces and nephews were smiling back at me. I looked back at Eugene to find him down on one knee, ring in hand. I couldn't look at him, I was so overwhelmed at the planning it took to pull this off, I just couldn't do anything but tear up. He said to me, "Tabitha, will you officially make me the luckiest man in the world?" I eventually chocked back the tears to say yes! He put the ring on the wrong hand and I called him a dork, but he got it right in the end.

This is something that I will remember forever.

What's this site all about?

Here is where you can find the information about the wedding. If you don't want to scroll through all the posts, I've provided links directly to the posts you may want.

Ceremony: http://toloveandlaugh.blogspot.com/2009/02/ceremony-information.html

Reception: http://toloveandlaugh.blogspot.com/2009/02/reception-information.html

Registry: http://toloveandlaugh.blogspot.com/2009/01/gift-registry-necessary-evil-and-funny.html

Directions: http://toloveandlaugh.blogspot.com/2009/02/directions-and-such.html

Hotel Rooms: http://toloveandlaugh.blogspot.com/2009/02/rooms-for-those-wishing-to-stay.html

If there is something you need to know that I haven't posted about, please ask.

Ceremony Information

Here are a few things about the ceremony that you might need to know:

This will be a traditional Episcopal wedding, with communion. There will be a program to tell you what is going on.

The Church does not allow any photography during the service. Please respect this, as it is also the belief of both Gene and I that the ceremony is too important for anyone to be distracted by someone taking pictures.

This is a special occasion for the both of us and please dress accordingly. Please no jeans, T-shirts, or overly casual clothes (that means no cover-alls Todd).

If you have any questions, please let us know.

Reception Information

A couple of people have asked about the specifics of the reception, so here they are:

There will be food at the reception. The food consists of a pasta-bar with two different kinds of pasta and sauce, heavy appetizers and desserts.

There will be coffee, tea, water and some soft drink served at no cost. However, there will be a cash bar available for those who wish for other beverage options.

There will be a dance floor for dancing. I expect to see most people dancing at some point or another. If Eugene and I have to dance, then so do you! :)

This is a very special occasion for us, please respect that and dress accordingly. Please no jeans, T-Shirts, or overly causal clothes (that means no cover-alls Toddy).

If you have any other questions please ask.

Rooms for those wishing to stay overnight

The Ramada has agreed to reduce their rate to $82 for the night if you use the code "ERTP" (I need to double check that code, but if you use it and it doesn't work, please let me know). If you get travel discounts for any other reasons, you might want to check those rates first, but they have reserved a certain amount of rooms for us at this rate.


EDIT: The discount has now expired, there are other hotels in the area as well and rooms at the regular rate are still available.

Directions and Such

I know that I didn't put the addresses on the invitations, there just wasn't enough room. Instead, here are the addresses and directions for the ceremony and reception.

Ceremony

3434 Teays Valley Road, Hurricane, WV 25526

From Charleston

Take I64 W to Exit 34 toward Hurricane.
Turn left onto Hurricane Creek Road.
Continue until the final stoplight where you must turn left or right.
At the stop light turn left onto WV-34 Teays Valley Road
Travel approximately 1.1 miles, church is on the left

From Huntington

Take I64 E to Exit 34 toward Hurricane
Turn right onto Hurricane Creek Road
Continue until the final stoplight where you must turn left or right.
At the stop light turn left onto WV-34 Teays Valley Road
Travel approximately 1.1 miles, church is on the left.


Reception

Ramada Plaza 200 Second Ave South Charleston WV 25303


From the church
Take I64 East to Exit 56 Montrose Dr
Turn right at light on at top of ramp
Turn right onto Central Avenue for .2 miles
Turn right onto Second Avenue

If you have any questions just let one of us know.

I WON!!!

I rarely win anything, but I still like to enter to win things. And there is this website I enjoy reading. It is such a good resource for planning a wedding and the ladies on the site always give good advice. They regularly hold contests to win wonderful wedding related items. Jewelry, shoes, veils, magazines, travel books, ring bowls, a Nintendo DS, I could go on and on. I always enter but never expect to win. Last week I opened my email to find that I had won a ring bowl. One of these bowls....









We aren't having a ring bearer, so whether or not to use the ring bowl in the ceremony is my question. I could have my mom carry it or one of my sisters. But there is no way I'm letting my nephews carry it. My luck they would trip and fall and then everyone would scramble for the rings. On second thought, that would be on way to break the ice.

Gift Registry - A necessary evil and a funny beginning

MONTHS ago, I was searching for new bowls, specifically bowls that would match these cool plates I had bought awhile back. Now, at the time I had six bowls total and with John and Alex over on the weekends always wanting cereal for breakfast, six bowls only go so far. My solution was to find some at a good price that matched my plates. I'm not normally a matchy-matchy girl, but I just love the plates.

Eugene gets home from work and sees that I'm looking for bowls. He says to me, "Honey, I haven't even proposed yet, why are you putting together a registry? Don't you think you're jumping the gun?"

I tried to explain that I was looking for bowls to match the cool plates but he kept teasing me about making a registry. So, I said to him, "Oh, well, you found me out. Check your email in thirty minutes."

In that time I created a registry, specifically this registry.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/registry.html?ie=UTF8&type=wedding&id=1E9Y8K9XX96Q

This was originally created as a joke, but once we were engaged and the date was set, we weren't sure what to do. We didn't want anyone to feel obligated to buy us anything and there isn't much we need. We've been living on our own for years, and combining households means two of somethings and more of others. We thought about not having anything and if people asked, we planned to tell them that we would rather have gift cards for home improvement or monetary gifts (we need windows in a bad way). But in asking the advice of a few recently married friends, they suggested that we at least have one medium sized registry. Since then, we decided that this is the one we wanted to go with and we have updated it with the things we truly want/need .

Again, we don't expect any gifts nor would we want anyone to feel as though they have to buy us anything, but we know some people will. This way, if someone insists on getting us something and they don't want to go the gift card/money in a card, they know exactly what we need. In all honesty, at this stage in our lives, if it's not on that list, we most likely have it.