The Wheels Have Slowed

Well there isn't a whole lot going on with the wedding right now. I've come up with a ridiculous amount of ideas in my head and I guess it's time to put them on paper and see what works best.

I now have two bridesmaids at least, hopefully brainstorming will ensue. It also helps that they are both organized self motivated because I'll need that influence, although I think eight months is more than enough time to plan a wedding.

I still need to look at more venues, although I love the Sorosis Building it just seems like the cost wont work for me in the end. Plus I think ultimately I will want more space than it can offer. There are five other possibilities to explore, as of now: The Peggy Brown Building (I think it's cliche, like getting married at Hollis Gardens); The Loggia (my personal fave, but it's basically an outdoor venue, i need more info); The Garden Building (also a hot spot for everyone and their mothers wedding but recently renovated so, who knows?); Lake Mirror Towers (I haven't seen it since it's been remodeled but I always wanted to break into it when it was abandoned, it's just so old and appealing); and Maddox Ranch (I work here and could probably rent it for next to nothing, if not nothing, I just don't know if it's what I'm in the market for.

I'm still up in the air about a menu, cocktail foods vs. full meal, speaking of which, I'm starving. I like the idea of cocktail foods, but I think it will be more work and possibly even more expensive. Food is one of the things I plan to splurge on anyway, and I want it to be very impressive. I did make a promise to create a wedding like none have seen before.

Maid of Honor & Venue I

I've asked my cousin Ashley to be my maid of honor, she accepted though she seemed somewhat shocked.

Also, Brian and I looked at our first possible venue, The Sorosis Building. It's a nicely renovated historic building near the Lakeland Library. Pictures will soon follow, they have a well equipped kitchen, 150 white wooden folding chairs, and rectangular tables. We want round tables so we'll have to rent those, I have no idea what that cost will be. Rental will cost 1100.00 plus 195.00 event insurance, which includes liquor liability and we'll can have the site for 3 days. I like this building, I had my 16th birthday party here, it's been renovated since though. There are a handful of other places that I want to look at though.

Orlando Sentinel News Story

After becoming engaged a reporter from the Orlando Sentinel approached us and asked our permission to publish a story about the whole affair. He snapped this photo of us, interviewed Brian and wrote the following article. If you read the entry "Darwyn Cooke is a peach" you'll see that he embellished a bit. To date we haven't spoken to Darwyn on the phone and it is unlikely that we will. 

Just after 2 p.m. on Sunday, the last day of MegaCon, the loudspeaker on the show floor announced "Attention Shannon Baxley... Brian Alvear has a very important question to ask." Yes, it was indeed *that* question.

Weeks earlier, Brian Alvear, who works at Comic Connection in Orlando, contacted his favorite comic book artist, Darwyn Cooke, and told him about his plans to propose to his girlfriend, Shannon. Brian said he had never called an artist he admired before so he was a bit nervous, but they ended up talking for 2 hours.

It all came together on Sunday when Cooke sketched Brian (as Green Lantern) proposing to Shannon (asZatanna). The announcement was made, and the question was asked.

Oh and in case you're wondering, she said yes.

Click on the image to see an excellent copy of the sketch Darwyn made us.

Darwyn Cooke is a peach.

At Megacon '08 Brian and I had the pleasure of getting to speak to Darwyn Cooke outside of the con. We really enjoy his work and we were thrilled that  he wasn't a dick like some artists we have met. He sat outside, smoking cigarettes, and shooting the breeze with us for quite some time. We also got to meet his lovely girlfriend Marsha. Well this year Darwyn and Marsha remembered us and we caught back up Friday and Saturday. Unbeknownst to me, Saturday Brian told Darwyn he was going to propose and commissioned a sketch just for the occasion. If you watch the video of Brian proposing, you see him grab the sketch from Marsha. This is a better photo of the sketch, unfortunately it didn't occur to me to scan it before I framed it......what can you do. When I saw this I nearly cried because to me this pulled the whole thing together. I'm so grateful to Darwyn for the way I felt when I first laid eyes on this sketch. He wouldn't even let us pay for it. Thank you Mr. Cooke, I'll never forget that moment. If you were wondering, they're on the guest list.

The Proposal

Brian did the most amazing job when he asked for my hand in marriage. All I really had hoped for was that once he did decide to ask that I be surprised. Well I was definitely surprised, but he really went above and beyond. Here's the video.

Cause if you don't know, now you know.

Very shortly after being proposed to thoughts of weddings went racing through my head. Despite the fact that I may think like a man the majority of the time I do love things like this. I love to dress up, I love fashion, clothes, shoes, the whole nine yards. This may come as a surprise to some people but it's the truth.

The thing is I wasn't the type of girl who thought about the way her wedding would be, not until I was engaged. So now I'm starting from scratch, tabula rasa. There are however some things about my wedding that I knew right away. For one, it will be like no other wedding that any one in attendance has ever seen, I like being different. Also, partially for budget purposes, partly to support the first statement I want to do as much myself as possible. Not necessarily alone, but you know what I'm saying (paper flowers, hand-made center pieces, etc.)

I will tell you that with no way of setting a date just yet because of ridiculous multiple circumstances that I feel a sense of ease concerning any sort of timeline. There is only so much I can do for the next few months. Also because of the catering job, I have an army of event oriented minions at my finger tips. I'm extremely excited though, not just about planning but I also think that the blogging will help with some stress issues I'm destined to run into.

We'll See.