In all seriousness, check the “Registry Links” tab up top to check out where we’ve registered. Each image links to the store’s Web site, and you can take it from there!

Then, he got creative, and made an “engagement model” just for me. Needless to say, it resulted in a few laughs. Check it out …

Click the image for the full-size version!

But, one of the big ones I’m finding a bit stressful is planning the honeymoon. Well, let me say that in this particular case, it’s a tad self-inflicted, as our honeymoon of choice plays right into one of my lesser points — a tendency to be overly thorough and analytical.

See, as many of you know, or may not know, we’re planning on going to the happiest place on Earth for our honeymoon:

Whoops, I mean …

Yep, that’s right … Walt Disney World. I haven’t been since the famous Taylors Elementary School chorus trip back in 1990, and Melanie has never been.

The thing of it is … Disney World offers maybe too many options! Right now I’m trying to decide where to stay. I have a few solid candidates, but now I’m having to decide the little things — location at Disney, size of rooms, transportation options, on-site activities and entertainment (as in, is there stuff to do if we get tired of riding Space Mountain over and over), amenities, all that fun stuff.

Of course, there’s no shortage of information whether it be books, online info and of course word-of-mouth. In a way, it’s a tad overwhelming! So, here I am poring over the endless amount of information, worrying more about not choosing something bad versus choosing something great!

Of course, I’d say 99 percent of it is made-up stress, since it is a honeymoon, and not some run-of-the-mill vacation.

Oh well. I’ll get through it, I imagine … then comes the next big question: will I be able to convince Melanie to wear something fun for honeymooners at Disney?

We shall see!!!

Melanie’s Aunt Jane and Uncle Rick were the ones to throw the shindig over at Red Rocks Cafe here in Charlotte.

We were surrounded by friends and family, including our grandmothers, which was a wonderful thing.

Of course, stealing the show was young Nathan. We later joked that it was nice of us to be included at his lunch!

Other moments of hilarity included:

* Dealing with three “Ricks” in the room — me, my Dad and Uncle Rick.

* The continual piling on of Dave. You know your role is the foil when even my grandmother makes fun of you!

* The whispers of the party game being rigged when both winners came from Melanie’s side of aisle, so to speak.

Overall, the food was awesome, and the desserts were even better. I had triple chocolate cake and Melanie had key lime pie, and, of course, there was a fair amount of sharing between us.

There was a mini photo shoot with Uncle Rick after we ate. One photo I think will be especially amusing — we sat at a table outside pretending to have a lovely conversation at an outdoor cafe.

All in all, it was a great party, and everyone involved seemed like they all enjoyed themselves, so, I would term it a great success!

Rick and I settled on January 31 at 2 p.m. as the day and hour of the blessed event about a month after we got engaged.  Basically, we were both tired of everyone asking, “So, when is the big day?”  We didn’t waver even when I pointed out that the Super Bowl would take place the following day. But I knew in my heart of hearts that we had one more hurdle – the release of the ACC men’s basketball schedule in mid-August.

I began stalking tarheelblue.com every morning, day and night in hope of discovering the news. When Raycom accidentally posted its broadcast schedule online a few weeks ago, I thought we had dodged a bullet – no UNC game scheduled for the 31st.  After all, Carolina always seems to play on Super Bowl Sunday and this is one year I wouldn’t mind.

The schedule was posted around 2:30 yesterday afternoon.  With great trepidation, I clicked on the link and my eyes quickly found the fateful news: Jan. 31,  UNC at N.C. State,  3:30 p.m.

I’ve been diligently trying to teach Rick the value of putting people and life before things like petty sporting events for the past few years and it looks like I’ll finally have to put those words into action. I suppose my own wedding is much more important than a rivalry game; I just never thought I would be “that girl” who got married on game day.

Perhaps we’ll interrupt the dulcet tones of Bach with the sweet sound of Woody at the reception…and I’ll definitely be rethinking red as my color.

There was another key game that was heavily involved in the early days of our realtionship: The “Snake” game. You see, we both had the same cell phone, the ultra-cool Nokia 5110. On this phone was a built-in game called “Snake.” You can play a version of the game here.

Since one sort of “ice breaker” when we first started flirting talking with each other was the fact that we had the same phone, and it turns out we were both pretty big Snake fanatics, and we would always compare scores. Melanie, as you might guess, was usually the one who had the higher score.

She would take it a step further, though. She would come by my desk at random times, take my phone and play Snake on mine, just so she could say she had the high score on my phone.

Well, one time, my phone was stolen while I was in a budget meeting at work. This time, when it came back, it had a new entrant in the directory: “MEL IS THE BEST.”

Now, given the fact that I was *ahem* too chicken to try and do something as ask for her number straight out, I saw this as a unqiue opportunity. You see, while Melanie had added herself into my directory, the entry was without a number.

So, I kept an eye on her desk, then one time when she got up, I went over, grabbed her phone, entered myself as “RICK RULES” and, importantly, put my phone number in there.

I waited until she got back to her desk, then took it over. I don’t remember exactly what I said, but I’m sure it was really smoooooooooooooth.

It was something to the effect of “Yeah, I added myself into your phone … by the way, I noticed you didn’t put your number in mine. I mean, what if I ever wanted to call you?”

I’m sure it wasn’t even THAT good. Probably a lot of stammering on my part. “Ummm, uh, I, um, noticed that you, um, kinda sorta, didn’t ummmmmm put your, you know, um, number in there.”

She then obliged with her phone number, which, of course, was a pretty key component to me calling her to ask her to the movies not too long after.

As a bit of an homage to that ongoing encounter, every time I’ve gotten a new phone, Melanie is always listed as “Mel is the Best.”

Today was a fun day, as we met in Columbia and began the process of registering for gifts!

I personally didn’t realize how much of a task it would be to select things. I mean, you would think that with a scan gun and aisles of STUFF at our disposal, it would be pretty easy, but, not really. Of course, a lot of the decision making hinges on things like color/style/etc., areas to which I am quite clueless.

I don’t have direct links to the registries themselves (which is actually good, considering that we have a ways to go before we’re finished), but, you can check the “Registries Links” tab at the top of the site for links to the places we visited today. Once we have things finalized, I’ll try and set up direct links.

It all started with a game….and a truly romantic email which I still have since I’m the top space user on the company’s email server. Here it is in all its glory:

“Check this:

Not the most mind-wracking game online, but addictive….plus you look like you are doing work
My best right now is 1,064
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/helicopter.html

-Rick”

He wooed me right from the start!

Rick and I sat across the room from each other but our desks were positioned in such a way that we were never out of each other’s line of vision. Therefore, we had lots of exchanges like that one. Rick did stop suggesting games when he realized that I would beat him handily at every one.

After a few months of trading witty comments and generally trying to impress each other nonstop (i.e., flirting), we were fast friends. When Rick finally called one day to ask me out to the movies, I accepted, despite having witnessed his hat-throwing antics during numerous televised USC football games.

We became pretty much inseparable after that first official date (a trip to Columbia to watch Red Dragon). Our relationship was “outed” in the newsroom on election night and we’ve been a part of Item love lore ever since!

BTW, you can play a version of the famous game here.

We’re starting a blog about our upcoming wedding!

Both Melanie and I will be contributing to the site … more to come!