It is a Girl Thing.

Hello, I'm Kristen and I've recently become engaged! And, I've also recently found out just how full of emotion the whole wedding experience can be... From bringing family together- old and new- to deepening age-old bonds and traditions. From stunningly beautiful to utterly disappointing, the lessons I've learned in this short amount of time inspired me to not only start a blog, but with the partnership of my fiance, inspired me to start a business!  And along with sharing my DIY wedding expertise at FourWhiteMice.com, and my tips and tricks for true wedding day success, I am also promising to share my own wedding story. So just the same as with my wedding, this blog is about my ideas, my DIY experiences, my challenges and successes, and my journey. And this, as it turns out, is merely the beginning.

So, I'd like to start out by telling you that my engagement was the most exciting, exhilarating and perfect moment of time, that my fiance is truly my Prince, and that I can't wait to feel like a Princess on the most special day of my life! But I'd also like to share with you that while all of this fairy tale is true, somehow the last few months of my 27 years has also managed to turn my little girl dreams and ethereal wedding visions into something even more than I had expected.

Looking back, I believe it was somewhere between the time I made that first "I'm getting married!" phone call to my Grandmother with whom I share a soul, the super-hyped, jam-packed wedding show that my Grandma, Mom, and I enjoyed with high hopes and excitement, and the 5th time I re-calculated my budget thinking that the math just couldn't be right, that I began to think there must be something more to this Big Wedding Business.  Don't get me wrong, I love all of the cakes and the flowers and the dresses just as much as the next blushing Bride-to-be, but somewhere down the line I guess I had to look past all that. It all started pretty harmlessly- I loved all the pretty shiny things- I just didn't love scrolling down the web page or turning over the clothing tag merely to find that what I really, really wanted... wasn't a reality.

I've always been a dreamer, and I've always gotten everything I dreamed about because I've worked hard to get it. But this time - even though I had supportive parents and a generous fiance with a very nice job - at the time I was also dealing with a serious illness... So with all of the expenses piling up and my income already gone, there was simply nothing I could do in time in order to accomplish the impossible- my dream wedding.

So I did what any really mature Bride-to-be would do and spent a few days on the phone crying to my Mom and Grandma, listened to the sometimes encouraging, sometimes discouraging, advice from my friends, had a couple serious "conversations" about the wedding budget with my fiance, and even ended up stomping my feet around the house like a three year old.  And then something happened. Something that would show me, no- force me to realize- exactly what a partnership, and love, and family is really about. And it all began with a perfect proposal...