Our new home

I haven't been doing a very good job with this whole wedding planning business. I swore I wouldn't spend a year obsessing over fonts and flowers. But now I've gone and done just the opposite; I'm a bit too relaxed!

Instead of shopping for dresses, we've been shopping for a new house. And we found one that we both can't wait to call home.

So now instead of simply planning a wedding, we have to move out of current house, move into new home, find renters for current home so that we can afford to eat, and somewhere in there, get back to some wedding planning.

But not tonight. Tonight, we made grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner and shopped online for a new refrigerator.

We close on our beautiful casita Oct. 18.



We can't wait to have you over and welcome you all to Austin!

The Swoop House

Mike's friend and realtor, Lisa, threw a soiree at this charming, newly renovated home on the east side of town. It was just a few months ago, and I remember walking in to the party with Mike and secretly thinking to myself, "This is where I want to get married."

The Swoop House was purchased and renovated last year by Stephen Shallcross, who owns a local catering company. The house was originally purchased for Supper Club dinners and corporate events. (In fact, they've only been open a few months, and it looks like we might be their first wedding!)

Here are a couple of pictures of The Swoop House. Here's the Supper Club web site with more photos of the adorable interior.

January 15, 2011 - Save the Date

We got engaged May 20, while visiting the Hoke family in Australia. In the middle of our two-week stay, we took a couple of days to explore the Great Ocean Road on our own -- and to visit the Royal Mail Hotel and famed restaurant in Dunkeld.

It was in Dunkeld, the evening before my 37th birthday, where Mike proposed. He picked a romantic spot just before sunset and asked me to marry him near the base of Mt. Abrupt. (See that spot below? He proposed there.)

It didn't take us long to settle on a wedding date.

My mom had only one request: it should be cool or cold weather. Meanwhile, Mike's family in Melbourne only had one request: try to schedule the wedding when they're on holiday.

We hope our date makes everyone happy: an all-but-guaranteed cold weekend in Texas that happens to fall during summer break in Australia.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Austin, Texas

(This also means a fairly short engagement period -- about 7 months -- which makes the bride pretty happy, too. I want to marry this man as soon as possible!)