ok, ozzybear is actually the name of one of my dogs, but sometimes i wish i could live vicariously through him. i'm actually a 29 year-old human that lives near downtown l.a. with my fiance and our two dogs, ozzy and dante.

mr. ozzybear and i met in the spring of 2000, through an internship in undergrad. at the time, i was dating someone else, but mr. ozzybear and i became good friends and kept in touch after college and even when i moved out of state for grad school. i returned to cali in the summer of 2003, but we didn't start dating officially until april 2004. we moved in together a year after that.

i feel like he and i have a good mix of similarities and differences that seem to balance us nicely. he loves all things sports, adrenaline-fueled activities, and is up for any challenge, yet is very laid back when it comes to getting everyday stuff done. i tend to be overly cautious about anything that could potentially cause me any sort of physical harm and i break out in a rash just thinking about going for i hike, but at home and work i'm your typical a-type personality. he's much more outgoing than i am, howeve we are both the type of people you usually find sitting in a quiet group in the corner at a large party. we both love all kinds of music (except country, sorry!) and we love to cook and of course, eat!

mr. ozzybear asked me to marry him on friday, november 09, 2007 on the beach near the santa monica pier. after work that day, he kept pestering me to go out to the beach with him.  going to the beach at night is something we do fairly often, but it was pretty cold out, and i told him i didn't want to go. he ran to the bedroom to get me extra clothes to wear. we finally ended up heading out to the beach; i was wearing at least three different layers of clothing, plus gloes and my beach hat.

technically speaking, he didn't actually ask me to marry him. he announced his intention to ask me to marry him. then he stopped and looked at me. i figured, what the heck, who am i to split hairs? plus, it was really cold out! i quickly accepted so we could get back in the warm car and head home to tell the puppies.

we had already talked about engagement rings and decided that we would rather put that money towards a down payment for a house, so i wasn't surprised that he didn't present me with a ring. what did surprise me was when he told me that he had gone to my parents to ask for their blessing. i'm not of the very traditional mindset, but it really meant a lot to me that he made the effort to take that step.

on the way home, we stopped for one of our favorite late-night treats - some fries and a soft-serve cone from mc donald's. all in all, i consider it the perfect proposal for me.

after much discussion and consideration, mr. ozzybear and i decided on a destination wedding in positano, italy! neither one of us has been to italy before, but we decided on it because we both wanted a very small wedding, and he has a really large family that would have been very offended if we had it in the states and did not invite them. really, it was important to us that our immediate families be there, but we just did not want to be the center of attention in front of so many people. since we were planning on honeymooning in italy anyway, this seemed like a nice way to take our families on a trip and oh yeah, get married.

dealing with the logistics of planning a wedding overseas has been tricky, but it hasn't been completely impossible. we did hire a wedding planner in italy to assist with the coordination of some details, but there is still quite a bit we are sorting out on our own.

we are planning to be wed outside the positano town hall (they have a terrace overlooking the sea) at 5:30pm on tuesday, june 30, 2009 with 20 guests in attendance. we have booked the restaurant at the hotel palazzo murat for a cocktail hour and dinner reception.