it's official...

We're getting married! I finally proposed to Amanda, ending what was (for Amanda) a torturous period of secrecy between when we decided to get married and when I (finally) let her tell our friends and families.
The good parts of a secret engagment: getting comfortable with the idea of marriage before you have to tell everyone, and getting a chance to begin planning before the craziness ensues.
The bad parts of a secret engagment: the craziness actually ensued immediately, and I was on the receiving end of a constant stream of questions from Amanda and our parents (whom we told) about when they could start to tell everyone.
For those of you who weren't there when it happened (i.e. everyone except Amanda), I'll fill you in:
On Valentine's Day (just about the sappiest thing ever), Amanda came home to a group of boxes on the kitchen table. In each was a note detailing a different "gift" I was giving her now that we were officially engaged: "The gift of Telling Others," "The gift of Unhindered Planning," "The gift of Cake Tasting." Everything she'd had to hold back for the past four weeks was now fair game. When she turned around, I was there with the ring. Precious. Simply precious.
Now that I opened those flood gates, I feel like we have been on a non-stop press junket for our wedding! Still, I really think this experience has helped us to master the non sequitur:

"Thanks for coming over for dinner, guys."
"We're getting married."

"Did you see the hail this morning?"
"I got engaged."

"That'll be $4.75."
"Would you like to come to our wedding?"

We are constantly calling relatives and inviting friends out to drinks and I when I look at our list of people-yet-to-be-told, I still feel like eloping.
Which brings me to the (3rd) point of this inaugural posting. We wanted to be able to fill in our families and friends on how the planning is going, what are lives are like here in PDX, and give you some ideas of what to do if you come to town for the wedding. We'll post pictures of the planning process, updates on hotel information for out-of-towners, a map of things to do and places to eat and, eventually, links to our registry sites. Check back regularly for new stuff or just to admire our handiwork. We're pretty excited to be sharing this with you!