Wedding Planning Weekend in Wilmington

This past weekend me & Dustin, as well as our moms, my sister, and my grandma all headed down to Wilmington for two days of wedding meetings. On Friday we met with the riverboat to put down a deposit for our reception, then we met with the aquarium to put down a deposit for the rehearsal dinner. We also visited the spot on the beach where we're going to get married & set up a rain plan just in case it rains on our big day. We viewed a room in the hotel we're staying at and actually found some time to eat! -ha ha. On Saturday we shopped in downtown Wilmington for a couple of hours before heading to our cake tasting...which was amazing. Me & Dustin decided on the flavor of our cake & are so excited for our wedding next September. We got a lot done but still have a lot more to do!

Here are a few pics from our trip:





This last one has the riverboat, Henrietta III, in the background that we're having our reception on!

The Proposal

So...me and Dustin are engaged :) And here is the story:

We went to Tennessee on Thursday for a family reunion on Dustin's side. We love Tennessee...especially Gatlinburg & Cades Cove. So Dustin had planned for us to go on a hike Friday morning before the rest of his family arrived so we could have do something fun before all the family festivities began. Friday morning we woke up and looked out the window and it was pretty cloudy, but Sheri (Dustin's mom) was very persistant that we go on our hike (dumb me didn't see this as a clue). So we headed to Cades Cove and we got lucky...the sun started to come out so it wasn't super cloudy anymore.

Dustin had already done alot of research on this trail we were going to hike on. It was the Ace Gap trail and it was supposed to be peaceful, beautiful, included a cave, and an awesome view from the top of the Smoky Mountains. So we're riding through Cades Cove and come to the road we're supposed to get off on to ride to this trail. This road is extremely bumpy, has tons of potholes, isn't paved, and has trees fallen across the road. Dustin starts getting really upset and apologizes to me over and over again and says, "I'm so sorry, this day was supposed to be perfect!" And of course...I'm just trying to make him not be upset! I kept trying to figure out why he was so upset about the road being terrible. So he decides to turn around and takes us to this trail we past on the way up to the Ace Gap trail.

This trail that we decide to hike on is really grown up & looks pretty sketchy. There isn't a sole in sight and we were pretty scared that a bear might attack us because we had already seen several bears that morning on the way through Cades Cove. So we walk maybe a quarter of a mile up this trail before we turn around...we found TICKS crawling up our legs! Because of this, Dustin starts saying "I'm so sorry, this day was supposed to be perfect!" all over again...and he was truly getting upset. We then turned around and went down to another trail that we had traveled before and knew wasn't sketchy or would give us lymes disease from high grass with ticks crawling in it.

We came to the Abrahms Falls & Elijah Oliver trail and begin our journey successfully down the trail. We come up to the Elijah Oliver Place which is this cabin that was built in the 1800s. We walk around and take videos of the cabin and were acting silly and taking pictures when Dustin asked me to grab a lens for his camera out of the backpack. So I go through the bag and grab the lens he asked me to get...and he asked me to open it for him. When I open it for him there sits this GORGEOUS ring and I immediately begin to cry. I was crying so hard that I couldn't see him sitting on one knee until he grabbed my hand and told me to come closer to him. He grabbed my hand and said, "Ashley, you're the only girl I want to spend my life with. I love you so much...will you marry me?" It took me a good minute to answer him because I couldn't catch my breath...and then I of course said YES!

He had planned this perfect day out for us and when it didn't turn out the way he had planned he got really discouraged. But I told him I didn't need to be proposed to on the top of the mountain...because I was already on top of the mountain when he asked me! And I also see this cabin as symbolism for our engagement; this man, Elijah Oliver, had built this cabin for his family and raised his family there....and now me and Dustin are starting our family :)

I truly feel like I am the luckiest girl in the world & feel so blessed to have a supportive fiance who loves me and pushes me to be the best I can be at everything.

So far we have decided that we will be married on September 25, 2010 at Fort Fisher Beach, NC.
More wedding planning details to come!

Independence Day

Yesterday I celebrated Independence Day with my family. We went to my aunt's house & swam, ate barbecue, talked & goofed off, and shot of a few fireworks before heading to our local park to watch real fireworks. While shooting off our own fireworks, Dustin & my cousin Jesse decided to play a trick on the women in my family. They tied firecrackers to the tree behind my family (i was video taping) and lit them. I witnessed my grandmother jump about 10 feet in the air and laugh until she cried! It was a good time! Then after shooting off our fireworks, the kids in the family got everyone racing each other in sprints across our field.

With this said, I'm so proud to be an American and live in the United States where we are free to do this sort of thing without fear of being shot on a daily basis. And while I was sitting in church this morning I was thinking about how truly blessed I am to be able to worship God without fear of being killed because of my beliefs. I'm so thankful to live in this country :)

Technology

It's amazing how much technology has taken over my life. It used to be that I was only obsessed with AIM. Then I moved on to AIM & MySpace. Then I dropped MySpace & AIM. I added Facebook. I added a blog. I then started to receive Facebook alerts on my cell phone & email. Now I not only have Facebook, a blog, and Facebook on my cell phone, but I have now added Twitter & update it via my cell phone. It's an epidemic. Summer only makes me too dependent on technology :X

The S.S. Bindi

So today me & Dustin took our kayak out to lake Thom-a-Lex for the first time. It was so much fun. We spent over 2 hours just paddling around & fishing a bit. I know for sure that if I do this very often that my arms, shoulders, and back muscles are going to be so toned! Here are a few pics of our first adventure together on the S.S. Bindi!