Well, here goes nothing!

Hello world!

For the past few years I've been toying with the notion of starting a blog and I did once... or twice... But now I figure I actually have some interesting things to talk about in a blog and to show the world what's up in my little corner of the Internet. I'm also hoping this blog will serve as a chronicle of sorts to follow my year of being engaged and wedding planning and all that good stuff. That way my fiance and I can look back and see how in the world we planned something as a huge as a wedding and hopefully pulled it off! So, let's start over and start at the beginning, shall we?


First things first, I'm Alyssa! For those of you who don't know me (or if you do, just reminding you), I'm heading into final year of graduate school and will graduate next April with my Master of Fine Arts degree in Dance and Choreography. But more on that in a later post...


I am a dancer, an educator, a choreographer, a (now) videographer. Dance has always been a part of me and has never seemed to leave my life. There was a period of time where I thought I didn't necessarily need it in my life and then I wound up at grad school getting my MFA in dance, so... I think I always knew that I wouldn't become a performer professionally and I've always enjoyed educating others in the art form more. I hope that with my degree that I can teach dance in a college one day! I spend my days choreographing (creating dances) and on the side, filming dance. My love for dance videography is fairly new but is quickly becoming an intense passion. I'll be sharing my work on the blog in due time so you can see what I've been working on and maybe see how I progress in my technology and editing skills.

I got ENGAGED!!! to my wonderful fiance, Nathaniel! He proposed on December 23, 2014 at the Columbus Zoo in Ohio during their Wildlights event and it was beautiful and emotional (there may have been a lot of ugly crying on my part). He gave me the most beautiful ring for me to wear and I still, six months later, find myself just staring at how sparkly it is. I'll have to dedicate a whole series of posts relating to this proposal because it is quite the story.

Our wedding will be in May of next year (and before you tell me I have a lot of time to plan this wedding, just. don't. Because there's never enough time!!!) and we like to joke that we are having a destination wedding. In Ohio.

See, Nathaniel and I currently are in Florida and we are planning our wedding from here, so... I guess we can technically call it "destination", ;) haha. You can view our wedding website here:

http://www.theknot.com/wedding/Morris-Stevens


Last October, we adopted an 8 week old goldendoodle that we named Yuna. Bringing home a puppy (basically a baby) so young brought it's own set of challenges. She challenged our patience (and our wallet) but all in all, raising Yuna together and all the hard work put into her training and well being drew us closer in our relationship. If that doesn't prepare you to raise a child together one day, then I don't know what else can! I plan on starting from the beginning of Yuna's puppyhood and touch on the challenges that being a newborn pet parent presents. Also, I'm sure many of you just would like to see pictures of her!

The first day we brought Yuna home! This was taken at the breeder's house.

Yuna at 9 weeks

Yuna at 5 months.

So, there you have it! I've talked about me, my guy, and my goldendoodle! Keep checking back on the blog for updates on wedding planning, my puppy, and delicious recipes.