Invitations, anyone?

I spent most of last Monday designing our wedding invitations. And here it is:

I am looking at places to get it printed and have requested samples from a site, so hopefully I'll have this printed soon and we'll be getting the announcements and invitations out!

And we took engagement pictures (real ones), but they are on Hollis's computer and I don't have copies of them yet. But when I do, hooray another post!

Hollis fixed my ring

Hollis made me a beautiful ring when he proposed, and I love it. But it is really quite big, and I was running close to breaking it. And then he surprised me with this beauty:

I had heard a rumor about it - somebody didn't know that I wasn't supposed to know anything about my ring and asked me if it had come in yet. Oops, well, so I knew that it had been ordered. But I didn't know when he would give it to me, which was just about where I had been anyway - I knew he was getting me a ring, but I didn't know when I would get it. And now I have it. :)

Hollis took my other ring and said he would fix it. And then he returned the "fixed" ring... it was the new one. I love it.

Wedding Dress!

I have my wedding dress! And I didn't even have to go dress shopping to get it. (I have been dress shopping a lot with friends, and I really didn't want to go through it myself. You can't find anything you like, and then when you do, it costs a ridiculous amount of money. And then you just get it off Craigslist anyway.)

Well, my mom was looking at the Provo craigslist, and found a dress that looked my size and a style I like for $200. My sister is about my size, and she was living in Provo, so she went and tried it on. She sent pictures back, and before she could even get home, we had called her to tell her to buy it. But I had to wait for the dress to get from Utah to Washington before I could try it on.

Then my dress made it to Wenatchee. My sister Natalie wanted to try it on, so she did.

And she sent me the picture. I loved the dress even more! About a week or so later, my parents came over to Seattle and brought the dress for me to try on. It fit well, but we didn't take any pictures so Hollis won't see me in the dress until my wedding day.

The past few weeks

I haven't done much the past few weeks. Why? Well, I came down with mono and didn't feel like doing much of anything. Before I knew that I had mono, I was wondering why I didn't want to make any plans or buy a dress or anything. But now I know.

Anyway, I'm mostly better now, so hopefully you'll get to read all about my exciting wedding planning. :)

We are getting Married

Yep. That's right. Married. On July 9th in the Seattle Temple. From here you can read all about Hollis and Michelle's lives. Yep. This is the place. Who we are, how we met, how we fell in love, etc.

Also, you can get more information about our open house and reception. Look at the links on the right to navigate and get to where you want.

For your viewing enjoyment

Our Story

Yep. We have one.

First Meeting
Michelle met Hollis just after she moved to Seattle. She went to an institute committee meeting, and Hollis was on the Institute Council, so he was in charge of one of the committees. Our first conversation (after the meeting) went something along these lines:

M: "Hi, I'm from Wenatchee."
H: "Do you know anyone from East Wenatchee?"
M: "Yeah, I'm actually from East Wenatchee."
H: "Do you know any Younkins?"
M: "Like Kathy? YES! I love her! We were friends during junior high and high school. And we were roommates."
H: "Awesome! I love Kathy! She's so awesome! I'm one of her friends from Ellensburg. She's one of my favorite people."
M: "Mine too. In fact, my cousin Richard is the one who helped Kathy realize she should go on a mission."
H: "Yeah, I think she told me that story."
M: "Well, see ya."

Yep. Riveting stuff. And that was pretty much it for the next month.

Callings and Friendship
After about a month, Michelle was called to be on the Institute Council. Which meant that she got to be friends with several awesome people - including that kid Hollis. On November 11, Veteran's Day, the Institute Council went on a day trip to Bellingham. We went on a hike - bonding time - and had a planning meeting. So that was fun.

L to R: Michelle, Hollis, Jon, Brother Knowles, Maggie, Stephanie, Julia

But it wasn't until the next week that we did anything outside of our calling together.

One of Michelle's friends had recently broke up with her boyfriend, so she wanted to do something fun on Friday night. Michelle felt like a bunch of people were needed, so she started asking for ideas. One friend suggested that we go roller skating - it's free for University of Washington students. So at Friday Friendship Feast (the weekly institute lunch), Michelle started spreading the word and inviting people. Hollis happened to overhear the words "roller skating" and was extremely excited. So a bunch of us met at the institute and we all walked over. And we had a blast.

L to R: Hollis, Michelle, Maggie

The other event of significance that occurred at that Friday Friendship Feast was that Hollis and Michelle hatched a plan. This plan had been discussed previously, but we made concrete plans. We thought that it would be the best idea ever if we made a fake wedding announcement for our friend Kathy. So we decided to go take engagement pictures.

This is just a sample of the many pictures. More can be found on facebook or this blog post.

And we just kept doing things. This blog does a decent job of chronicling our adventures.

The New Year
So Michelle went home for Christmas. When she got back, Hollis was acting differently. It was as if he was thinking about dating her (which he was). Michelle decided that it didn't matter, she was just going to keep being friends with the awesome Hollis. And we reached a point where we were spending so much time together that we either had to start dating or stop seeing each other. So we gave dating a whirl. We whirled so well that we ended up deciding to get married. So we are - July 9, 2010.

The proposal story as found on my blog.

All about Hollis

I am awesome. And if you are reading this, you probably are too, if for nothing more than association. I'm going to the University of Washington and double majoring in History and American Indian Studies, with a minor in Environmental Science and Resource Management. I plan on going into Washington State Parks after I graduate and becoming a ranger.

I am the youngest of eleven children and grew up in the great city of Kenmore, WA. I love Seattle and the rain. I also love Ultimate Frisbee and Peach flavored Ice Cream. And I also love Michelle Merrill. She will be my wife. You wanna know why? Cause she is amazing. And awesome people should only marry amazing people. I am also part of a couple other blogs. Chec-chec-chec-check 'em out!

The Monster House Blog

The Crapo Forum