We have a date… March 26th, 2011!

by Scott

The date has been set, March 26th 2011. After investigating our wedding venue options around the area we’ve settled on our number one choice: The Greenbranch. The Greenbranch is just outside of town in a rural setting with exotic animals like Gazelle and Kangaroos. We will have more information available here at the website about lodging, travel, times, and all the other aspects you’d normally expect from a wedding website.

The Greenbranch viewed from above.

In ancient Rome March was the first month of the year. In the Mediterranean climate March is the first month of spring, a logical beginning of the year. It was not until later Gregorian calendar was invited. Wikipedia also tells me that March is American Red Cross Month, Colorectal Cancer awareness month and the month of Texas Independence.

What else occurred on March 26th?
1484 — The first English translations of Aesop’s Fables are published
1830 — The Book of Mormon is first published in New York
1953 — The Polio Vaccine passed trials , two years later it was given to every child in the United States
1976 — Queen Elizabeth II sends the first royal email
2011 — Scott Phillips and Tina Messinger are married

Its my birthday and we ate sushi.

by Scott

This past Saturday evening Tina and a few of my fellow laborers gathered to celebrate my Birthday and May Day. We went to Naked Fish, what I believe to be the best Sushi restaurant in B/CS, and ate some great sushi. I highly recommend the Dancing Tuna roll, it’s probably their best roll on the menu.

Tina arranged to get some Sushi cupcakes for the event and they turned out amazing, see the picture below. The waitstaff at the restaurant hadn’t seen anyone do that before. It was funny to see the sushi chef’s checking out Sandee’s icing recreation.

Scott's Birthday Cupcake at Naked Fish
Sushi topped birthday cupcakes by Sandee Moss of Cinderella Stories. Everyone was amazed by how awesome they looked and how good they tasted.

See our other photo’s from the event on Flickr.

One week later…

by artjynx

I promise I won’t do a weekly account of our engagement, I just haven’t really been outspoken yet other than announcing the big news. Even though I’ve been a part of the whole process, it still made me emotional at the time of the actual proposal. I think it’s it’s an inherited girl trait of some sort. So far, I do feel different actually much more confident in what’s coming ahead at least. Being an extreme goal oriented person my whole life, it was an adjustment to consider another person’s goals and how they go about achieving them. I think that’s one of the really cool things about Scott and me…we like to do things together and now we’re choosing to do this for the rest of our lives! :)

Since we got to show off Scott’s ability to choose jewelry, (and oh, he did such a beautiful job….I couldn’t ask for a prettier ring) I did manage to get a little something to mark our engagement. What’s funny is while I knew at some point he would ask, I didn’t know when. I hadn’t seen the ring in it’s actual form (I’d only seen renderings and a wax version) and I really thought he’d ask on the actual day of our anniversary, but you never know :) So I had to leave the day off but at least knew the month and year…

Engagement picture, found letters of architectural photographs.

So far, I’ve been collecting type specimens of my future name. I have several woodblock type pieces and now photography. I’m sure it won’t end there. I think it’s my way of trying it on so to speak by being creative with it.

So onto planning this wedding. So far, I’ve done internet searches and we’ve limited ourselves to around here plus a 200 mile radius of here (to include Austin if desired…Houston was also considered, but ew.) I’ve also found several blogs on DIY weddings and will post them below in the links area as discovered. I’m not sure how massively detailed I want to get on here as shouldn’t the whole thing be a little bit of surprise? But then I’m all about the process :) maybe I’ll just tease everyone a little as I go.

We're engaged!

by Scott

On April 16th, 2010 Scott Phillips proposed to Tina Messinger. She said yes. The event occurred while we were on vacation in Port Aransas. We were walking along the beach with our two puppies, Mia and Maisy. On the way back to the car walking over the wooden walkway across the sand dunes, with the sun set in the background, I kneeled on one knee and popped the question. Even though she had a good idea it was coming, Tina had tears in here eyes. As we hurriedly took some pictures before the sun completely set.

Scott and Tina

Tina and I met while working for the library at Texas A&M University. Tina is a designer helping make the library look good; I am a software developer working on digital library projects. We went on several Geocaching expeditions around the local area. Geocaching is a geeky treasure hunting activity where you explore your local neighborhood and other places by simply finding caches that other people have left. Not many people can say visiting Aunt Jemima’s (Yes, the syrup) gravestone brought them closer together. These expeditions culminated in our first date, with a Geocaching trip to Port Aransas for Sand Fest. Walking along the beach we first expressed how the felt about each other. Just a few days shy of two years later walking along the same beach is where I proposed.

The Engagement Ring

After telling both of our parents the first question was do you have a date set? Nope, we don’t have a date or a venue set, but we are aiming for this fall or next spring. Check back here for details later.