Wow! I can’t believe I’ve been engaged for two months already and will be getting married in exactly 135 days (thank you countless websites for keeping track for me.) I am the type of Bride that, if given the time, could easily turn a wedding into a circus, so my Fiancé and I decided it would be best to have a short engagement. We have been together for 9 years, so we are pretty in-tune with our roles in party-planning. His role: Smile and tell me, “That sounds great!” My role: Plan a wedding, making sure his favorite people, dinner, music and beverages are there…oh, and try not to empty the bank account while doing so.Immediately following our engagement, I went to work planning. I called around to a few places regarding a dress and such, only to find that I was being asked the same question by all, “What is your wedding date?” I quickly learned that sealing a date with a venue should have been task number one. Stephen (oops, let me introduce you; Stephen is my fiancé) and I have always talked about having our wedding at our favorite winery in Temecula, so I figured this would be an easy task. We really wanted to be married on 10-10-10, as quite a few people tease that we might as well get married for our 10-Year Anniversary, but it seemed quite a few other couples also had significant reasons to be married on that date. We would have to settle for whatever availability they had around September / October. When I called the winery, the only date they had available without going into the holiday season was August 29th! Lesson number two was quickly learned and applied: When having a short engagement, you MUST be flexible and act fast. I took my Mother-In-Law-To-Be down to the winery that weekend and we signed the contract.Task number one complete: Stephen and I will be getting married at Ponte Family Estate the evening of August 29, 2010.

With Love,Jenn