A message to the city I want to live in some day....

Dear Atlanta,

Thank you for taking such good care of Mr. Fiance, even though he has shunned you for the past 6 years :) I know he had a wonderful time with his family and was so happy to be with them for the holidays. Also, thank you for being a good home to his parents... you must have some wonderful shops for his mom to be able to find cute little things like this for me for Christmas

(Thank you Lauri!!, and yes, I will be rhinestoning the corners of that D :) ) And lastly, thank you for having a big airport so my future husband can fly home....

I promise we'll both come and visit soon:)

Miss you lots!

Danielle

December 27, 2009: Week 1

Amber Lane....

Chris and I are so excited to have just signed our purchase agreement for our new home! Hopefully it will be done June 1st right before our approximate wedding date. When we were picking out which lot we wanted the home to be on, I immediately looked for cute street names... and once I saw "Amber Lane" I knew we had to live on this street! Usually we're very indecisive people (or maybe that's just me, and not so much Chris), but this is probably the fastest decision I've ever made in my life (and fortunately it was a easy sell to Chris)!

Here she is!!

This neighborhood also has the cuuuuuutest light poles... They look like they stole them out of a Christmas movie :) Yes, this will be right in front of our home!

Hopefully our home will look just like this when it's all done, except the orientation of the home will be the opposite (The garage will be on the left side)

Wish us luck!!!

Engagement Pictures

What does Chris...

plus Danielle...

plus a certain Tempe Town Lake bridge...

Plus a cute little red headed/amazing photographer equal?

To die for Engagement Pictures!!!!

Actually, I wish the equation looked a little more like this:

Chris + Danielle + TTL Bridge + Wonderful Photographer =

To die for Engagement Pictures - The Cop :)

Yes, in order to get those "To die for" engagement pictures, we had to go on to a certain railroad bridge (not the one pictured above) that was apparently still in service.... as we were leaving a cop came up behind us on his bike and said "What are you doing?!?". Kind of a obvious question, especially because we had a lady with a camera, and two dressed up people standing next to her. Cute little photographer told him we were taking engagement pictures, and then I flashed my smile and showed him my ring, and said "We're engaged!"

After giving us the "It's a class 5 felony" talk, he said congratulations and let us go... super nice guy!

Here's the good thing.... You only take engagement pictures once, which means we'll never need to use that railroad bridge again :)

Sneak Peak :)

Are you wondering where our reception is going to be? I took my dad to a super cool place for his approval and he liked it very much. I think he's getting a little excited too!

I don't know what the camera on my phone was doing, but i liked it! Hopefully Santa will bring a new camera for me next week so I can stop using my phone :)

This is the bride's room, A.K.A. the awesome picture room...

This place is almost a done deal... Get excited!

My Future In Laws....

I promise to those of you who write emails, I won't normally, if not ever do this... but I just couldn't resist.

I love my future in laws :)

Father John

Chris and I go to church every Sunday, mostly because we love love love Father John. After telling our family we were engaged, we looked at each other and said that we couldn't wait to tell Father John. Father John always greets us after mass with "holy hugs" and when we told him the news, he went crazy (in a good way of course)! Yesterday, mass started the same as usual with Father John getting everyone hyped up for mass and then asking for those who are visiting to introduce themselves. He then stood next to our pew, and asked if there were any newly engaged couples in the house.... we were a little embarrassed, but with Father John, I guess it was to be expected! He gave us a special blessing in front of the whole church and it was very special :) We can't wait for everyone to meet him, and look out for his crazy cowboy boots, I've seen them in green and yellow so far....



Also, a very big congratulations to these love birds!

Mike (Chris's brother) proposed to his new fiance Kate :) Obviously this is pre engagement (I stole the picture off of facebook)... Kate is rocking a pretty sweet ring and I can't wait to see pictures of it. So now two out of three Schulman's are engaged leaving Chris's little sis Jess... one more to go!

Meet our Dads...

We didn't want to make this blog completely about us, only about 99% of us :) So we want to introduce you to our family members, and decided to start with our dads...

My Dad, Anthony... Back Then :)

And Now

Chris thinks he looked like Erik Estrada... Go look at some pictures!

Chris's Dad Glenn... Back then

Yes, I think this looks like a stock pile picture of a 1980's broker on the phone, trying to Schmooze clients :)

Chris's dad now

So now you know half of the reason Chris and I are so beautiful (just kidding)! Don't worry we have Moms too (and a brother and sister each). More to come soon!

You've Got Mail....

Chris came over the other night with a big box in his hands, and it was our first engagement present from his parents! Have you ever watched Rachel Ray, Emeril, or Giada make their awesome foods with a super hi-tech food processor? I use to be so jealous, but not anymore!

I'm not going to lie, but we were a little intimidated... There were so many pieces!

And did you read the box? This processor holds 14 cups!! Lauri (Chris's mom) said it's so we can cook for the entire family when they come to visit, which I'm totally fine with! Thankfully I have all weekend to read the recipe book and watch the DVD that came with it. Thank you again Glenn and Lauri, we love it so much!

Engagement

I'm so excited to finally be able to start a blog! I never had a reason to want/have one, but now that we're engaged, I don't want to forget anything. We also figured this would be a good way for our friends and family to follow our engagement!

So here it goes for all of you that want to know how my fiance proposed.....

Earlier in the week, Chris had told me that we were going to take a client to dinner with his wife on Friday. He sounded way more excited than usual, but I figured it was because this would have been our first "business" date night. So the week flew by, partly because Thanksgiving was on Thursday and I had decided to take Friday off. We had also decided that we were decorating my apartment all day on Friday, and called it Chris and Danielle day. For those of you that don't know, I love love love Christmas. I had been listening to Christmas music since the beginning of October, and Chris had said the Friday after Thanksgiving was the only acceptable day to start thinking Christmas.... so I had been looking forward to this Friday FOREVER (and little did I know, so was he, but for very different reasons)!!!

He was a bit different on this Friday.... we were decorating the Christmas tree, and out of nowhere, he wanted to slow dance to Michael Buble, so precious! I can't tell you how much energy he had. He was pretending to be a ice skater to the faster Michael Buble songs! This guy just had way too much energy, but I figured he was just as excited as I was that Christmas was finally here!

Along came 3:00 and Chris left making sure to let me know that I HAD to be ready by 5:00. I'm never on time, but this time I was :) On the way to dinner, the client called (AKA, Chris's Dad) and said that he and his wife were getting ready to leave and that his son had just fallen off of a ladder while hanging Christmas lights, and they thought he might have broken his ankle. While the "client" was telling this to Chris, Chris was almost uncontrollably laughing! I was thinking to myself that he probably shouldn't be laughing at this, but I later found out that Chris's dad was trying to disguise his voice so I wouldn't recognize it, and apparently it was hysterical.

We then arrived at Elements, the restaurant at Sanctuary on Camelback mountain... it was absolutely beautiful!

Chris had also insisted that we take a picture of us, "because we looked so good". He really just wanted a last un-engaged picture because he knew I would want one....

*** For journaling purposes, Chris had maple leaf farms duck breast, bok choy, roasted butternut squash & garlic cherry glaze, and I had bacon wrapped filet of beef, roasted garlic mash, balsamic onions, mushrooms & blue cheese. We also drank Robert Eymael "Monchoff" Estate Reisling. Okay, thanks!

Then the magic happened. We had sat directly in front of the windows, looking out to Paradise Valley, and Chris said that we should get up and look at the window to get a better view. I was so full, and was like, that's okay, you go over there and I'll watch... lol ... Well, needless to say I got up, and Chris looked at me and said that we make a really good team (and I don't remember the rest because my heart was racing once I heard those words). Then the next thing I know, he's down on one knee asking me to marry him. I was in complete and total shock that I looked at him and said "are you sure?!?!?". He looked at me and said this isn't one of those questions I should answer with a question :) I never even said yes, and nodded my head instead because I was still in shock. Then came the waiter with two glasses of champagne and creme brulee!

He later told me that he was so excited all day because he wasn't going to have to sneak around anymore! If this is a peek of life to come, I am one lucky girl!

Now comes all the fun stuff, and we couldn't be more excited!