i said yes to the dress

in a shocking turn of events, i picked out and purchased my wedding gown exactly two and a half hours after the search began. no one was more surprised by this than me.  

kim, missy and my mom joined me for what was to be an initial scouting trip. the goal for the day was simply to try on a lot of dresses and get an idea of what i might be looking for. when they asked what would happen if i found 'the one' on this visit, i chuckled. given my poor shopping and decision making abilities, i was certain that would not be an issue. but just to appease my entourage, i picked a conservative dollar amount as an absolute max for the day and off we went. nine dresses in...there she was. exactly one penny shy of the max for the day. of course, being the thorough and slightly ocd person that i am, i still had to try on the rest of the dresses on the possibility rack. and put 'the one' on again. and wear it around the store for thirty minutes. and consider the possibility of buyers remorse. but in the end, i did it. i made the decision. i rang the bell. i said yes to the dress!  

missy . marilyn . shelly

shelly . kim

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the ring bling

i love my new ring.  i love it a lot.    

the meinhardt family is lucky enough to have our very own jeweler. my cousin eric, the third generation of our family jewelers, made my ring with a stone that belonged to my mom. his grandfather, walter goerss, made my grandparents wedding rings; his father, bill goerss, made my parents wedding rings; and now eric will make ours. this ring was pretty much perfect to start with, but the family history makes me love it even more!

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i said yes

october 4, 2012 started out like any other thursday. i had a job molding young minds at pleasant lea middle school, where i spent the day helping seventh graders write expository paragraphs. yes, that is in fact as thrilling as it sounds. i had an oil change appointment scheduled right after school so as soon as the kids were gone i was out the door, ready to be on my way...and then the day got interesting. i rushed to the parking lot and was surprised to find donald waiting by my car. since he works on thursday evenings, and our work schedules are exactly opposite, this was definitely out of the ordinary. i mentioned the fact that i had been hurrying to an oil change, but he said he had made some plans for us that were time sensitive and asked if i wouldn't mind rescheduling the appointment. that was the first time i said yes.

we headed back to my house where i was given thirty five minutes to change and get ready. i was instructed to dress in a sort of 'fancy date' way. being unsure if that meant skirt fancy date or dress up jeans fancy date, i asked if he would be changing as well. he said no, he would be wearing the jeans and polo he had on. seeing as how the weather had just turned fall-like that afternoon, i decided to go for it and try out the new-to-me boots i hadn't gotten to wear last year and dress it up a bit. i must say i'm pretty impressed with my ability to go from teacher to 'fancy date' in thirty five minutes with no prior warning or wardrobe planning.

when my time was up we hopped in the car and thirty minutes later we pulled up to the nelson-atkins museum of art. donald handed me a photo album and told me i was being sent on an art scavenger hunt. he led me inside to the entrance of an exhibit, gave me a few instructions and left me to my scavenging. the album had pictures of specific pieces of art, and my job was to find each item one by one and answer related trivia questions. i take these sorts of things very seriously, so i was all business at this point. 

on our way into the nelson

the album and my favorite trivia question

after locating a number of items inside, my final clues took me out the front door and onto the steps. i made a loop around a birdie before the last clue led me to the thinker statue at the bottom of the staircase. when i made it there i saw donald, who had been waiting just out of sight. he had changed clothes and was now looking all fancy and dashing. he met me in front of the statue and held my hand while he said those five magic words...'shelly, will you marry me?' i sort of remember him getting on one knee and pulling out the ring (which i LOVE) but it's all kind of a blur. i do remember that my answer was yes.  

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