I've added a photo gallery. It doesn't have a lot on it just yet, but check it out. I'll be adding more next week. Tracie (my sister-in-law) found a website having a killer sale on wedding dresses and prom dresses. I picked three of them and then sent emails out and got everyones' thoughts on them, then made my pick. I put a photo of it in the photo gallery. It is a photo of the dress, but the stock photo is a pink dress, my dress will be white...duh. I'm happy with the dress. It is very Jane Austin. I can't wait to get it and try it on! Once I get the dress and make sure it's the right size, Philip will take some photos of me in it.

love you guys, thanks for all the help I'm getting with planning this!

my ring

i was able to cast my own wedding ring this year. i cast jake's as well.

the wedding singer

this is my first post for my getting married blog.......yay!

jake sauer and i started dating on april 6, 2007. his last name is pronounced like sour...my name will sound like a mixed drink....we got engaged on november 28, 2007. we are planning to get married in june 2008 in the nashville temple. there will be more posts with updated plans.

a little about the bride: my full name is amanda paige shafer but i go by mandy. i was born on december 8, 1984. i have lived in tennessee all my life. i will graduate from tsu in may 2008 with a studio art degree. i plan to take a year off before continuing graduate school so i can be with jake while he surveys in chile. my ultimate goal in life is to be a children's book illustrator, mother, and wife. i am the youngest of six children. philip, samuel, jay, becky, jennifer, and me. philip is an english professor at tsu and lives in bellevue, tn (just down the road from my apartment) with his wife traice and daughter annabeth. samuel is a manager at o'charleys and lives in franklin, tn with his wife maryjane, daughter amandajane, son bow harrison, and adopted daughter kate-lin mae. they adopted her from china in november of 2006. jay works in construction and plays drums, he has a daughter named sydnie. becky lives in burke, vr (about 15 nminutes away from jake's sister) with her husband eric and son brandon. jennifer is office manager at an alarm company and lives with me. she plans to attend mtsu to be a director. my mother geneva is a librarian and my father philip is a brick mason.

front row:dad, jennifer, me, sydnie, becky, mom, tracie and annabeth, amandajane, and bowharrison.

back row: jay, eric and brandon, philip, maryjane, sam and kate-lin mae.

a little about the groom: my full name is jacob james sauer. i was born on august 19, 1978 in leadville, co. i've lived in a few towns, but i call palisade, colorado home. i served my mission in chile from 1997-1999. i have two bachelor's degree in history and anthropology from byu. i moved to ky to get my master's degree in anthropology, but transferred to vanderbilt to get my phd in anthropology. i will be a.b.d. (all but dissertation) in january. i have two older sisters. erika lives in virginia with her husband and five children. rachel lives in florida, and is a journalist. my parents bruce and sidney live in my home town of palisade, co. i like to dig in the dirt. i've done archaeology in utah, tennessee, mexico, and chile.