*This little light of mine*: Venues, Ducks, Doggy & Premarital Counseling

WHAT A DAY IT HAS BEEN!

I've been a busy little bee today. As the blog title says, Venues, Ducks, Doggy & Premarital Counseling. Let's break it down.

My fiance and I went to look at venues this morning as our tentative wedding date is approaching quite fast. The problem is, I am VERY indecisive and my mind changes constantly (one plus is I am not very picky, so that will be good when the time gets closer if things go wrong). I had always wanted an extravagant wedding however now I am realizing how quickly the $cost$ really does add up and I don't want to spend that much on just a few short hours of celebration. I'd rather spend more money on something like a down payment for a house, etc. Granted, it's not just a few short hours of celebration as a marriage should last forever, but it seems crazy to us to spend much of our savings on one day of celebration. SO, our new plan is to have a wonderful ceremony and celebration with our loved ones, but definitely do it on a smaller budget. We checked out a few venues today, including a local church that we are not a member of but we both adore this church. It's location is also great as it is a few short blocks away from where we'd like to hold our reception. The two places we checked out where totally different, one would be an outside ceremony, the other would be a church. Again, I had always thought I wanted an outdoor wedding BUT the more I think about it I have mini panic attacks of "what if it rains, this is Fla after all and April showers bring May flowers" SO, the church may work out much better stress wise.

a Butterfly and Water Garden at one venue

Arbor Garden at the same venue

Potential Church

After we were done visiting the 1st venue, as we were walking back to the car I remembered I had a ton of day or two old Publix bread that was getting harder by the minute so what better time for an impromptu duck feeding? (The venue was right across from a Lake). PERFECT! We spent a bit of time feeding the duckies. :)

bread.... bread.... bread..... they came running

jump for it!

I <3 Geese

Goodbye!

Thennnn, we passed a small dog on the side of a road. I saw it ahead and told my fiance "Ohmygosh! There's a puppy up there. Slow down please, you may have to pull over in front of it and I'll rescue it". So, that's what he did. The puppy actually was a doggy (about 9 years old) and was very timid at first and I was afraid it would cross the street again, but it inched it's way towards me, shy at first but tail wagging. Finally he was within my grasps. I knocked on a few doors and no one claimed the dog as theirs. We didn't go to many of the houses because they had fenced in yards and we didn't just want to walk up and take a chance of getting shot or something (hey, you never know out in the country!) haha. So we debated what to do as we had an appointment in an hour and a half and the local SPCA was quite a drive away. We decided to head towards the SPCA with the intent of leaving the dog if it wasn't chipped, and I'd later post an ad on craigslist and some found fliers up around the area. Drove all the way out to the SPCA, had him scanned and dun...dun...dunnn... HE HAD A CHIP!!!!! I was elated. They tried both numbers registered to him, one was disconnected, the other just rang. She asked if I was familiar with ____ rd and I said "YES! That's exactly where I picked him up from! He had just wondered across the main road!" SO, she wrote down the address and phone number for us, and I said we'd return him home. Got in the car, read the ladies name to my fiance and what do you know... dun dun dun... He recognizes the first name!! He went to school with a boy with the same last name that lived on ____ rd. Coincidence? I think not! It was the boys mothers dog. WOW! As we parked across from the house debating to go through the fence or not, I saw a lady walking out so I got out of my car and she saw me with her dog and was so ecstatic! She thanked me and gave me a BIG hug and said she was just on her way out in search again for the dog. I told her no worries, he had enjoyed his car ride with us and was happy to be home. During the short time we had him, we called him Toby! We found out his name was Otis. Toby, Otis, you know, close enough. Otis was very happy to be reunited with his mommy. Come to find out he is a shelter rescue that she got from our local animal control aka "the pound". Another happy ending for Otis! Microchips are so awesome! Just remember to keep your contact info up to date. You'd be surprised how many animals are chipped but their owners move or get a new cell and never update their info.