Today was a good day

Today was a great day!!!

With only 99 days until we say "I Do" I have finally found a dress!!!! I am soooooooooo happy, so excited and so anxious for Drew to see me in it. It is NOTHING like what I thought I wanted, but it is so beautiful.

Also, we received our engagement pics today!! They turned out so good. Here is a small sneak peak :o)

E-PICS!!!!

Andrew and I got engaged on August 6, 2011. Since August 7th I have been bugging him, begging and pleading even trying to barter the chance for us to get engagement photos. Yes I know we have other photos around that house of us and YES I know they are not required just because we got engaged....but I REALLY wanted them.

I see ideas all over Google and the boards with different things to do with a couple's e pics and I wanted to do the same... or at least something similar.


In the past 4 and a half years Drew and I only have about 10 pictures that are frame worthy... and even that is pushing it. So I never gave up hope on this fight. FINALLY I wore him down and he said "Okay." So I started researching and found several options who all wanted too much money for 2 hrs worth of work. So I had to go back to the drawing board, get creative and use my resources. 


After a few more months of negotiations and just short of blackmail, I was able to convince one of my Bridesmaids, Candace, to do my make up and my Maid of Honor, Shauntae, to take the photos. Many people don't know this, but Tae has a passion and a gift for photography. She really does not like shooting people and much prefers inanimate so I really was twisting her arm to get her to be our photographer.


When it was all said and done, we had a great outing. Andrew's best man, Anthony, and groomsmen, Sam, and my bridesmaid, Candace, came with us and really helped to make it a great afternoon and fun time for all. I can confidently say that 80% of the smiles in the photos we took were genuine.

Now for the waiting..... I cannot wait for the editing to be done and see how they turned out!

Our Save the Dates!

So I wanted to do a post to talk about our Save the Date cards.

Since the day we set our date I have been brainstorming ideas for STD cards, magnets and/or notes. I REALLY wanted magnets so that they can go on the refrigerator and not get misplaces. I really didn't want to spend money on something that would just go right in to the trash can. The only issue is the cost. Some sites wanted as much as $2 and change per magnet... that's crazy!

Then I thought "well I can just make my own with the help of Microsoft Publisher, so magnet backing and a little patience." Cue my surprise when they didn't quite turn out the way I envisioned. lol. So I gave up that idea. I went back to Vistaprint and found a really nice save the date care and envelop combo. They matched my color combo, there were right size and they had fast shipping... BUT they wanted almost $90 for 70 cards! So there goes that dream.

In my final search I came across 123Print.com. They seemed like a decent website and they had GREAT prices. Although I couldn't find a pre-made design in my colors that I liked, I was able to find another color combo that still fits. It was more than half the price I was quoted at Vistaprint AND it was for 100 cards. That was a done deal. From placing the order to delivery it was only about 4 days and they quality was great. I did pay a bit extra for nice paper, but it was only a few bucks and it was worth it!

So without further adieu... here is a picture of the Save the Date :-P

                  

Sorry I'm not sure how to rotate the pictures...

The Paper Chase...

Things are finally moving along!

Our Save the Dates went out in the mail on Monday, I ordered all of the paper needed to make our invitations this morning and I am in the process of designing our programs. 

I sincerely hope my bridesmaids love me as much as I think they do, because I see inevitable paper cuts in our near future. 

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On another note: I am finally feeling accomplished. Deposits have been paid, contracts signed AND I FINALLY met with a photographer I like. He has the same photo journalistic mindset I have been wanting and he has been in this business longer than I've been alive. My only concern now is the price. I want nice pictures, but if this man thinks I'm going to spend more than 1/3 of my wedding budget on it then he doesn't know my future husband. lol. Andrew is not going for that. 

I have another meeting with the company that stood us up so hopefully they will give me a discount that's worth mentioning and MAYBE I can take that quote back to the initial photographer and he may be willing to make a deal. Soooo let the negotiations commence! 

Yes it's on a Friday

Our Save the Dates are in!!! It really has been a long time coming. I have been eyeing and designing different Save the Date cards for months now. I was actually waiting to take our engagement pictures so I could include them on the cards, but that was a big can of worms. So after browsing the wedding boards I found a great design and low and behold they wanted too much money. So I kept looking and found a GREAT deal on 123Print.com. I took a risk, ordered the cards and hoped for the best. They came in the mail yesterday and look great! While they were not exactly what I had had in mind originally, they look good and they'll get the job done. So keep an eye out because they may be coming to a mailbox near you.... (<-- too corny? Oh well. Lol)

Stood up?!?! Me???

**deep breath**........AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why is it so hard and stressful to plan a wedding?!?!?!?! Last time I posted I talked about the disappointment over not beig able to hire my either of my top 3 photographers to photograph my wedding (for varying reasons.) Well in an effort to be more open, my mother suggested I take a meeting with a company whose advertisement I found via Facebook. I wasn't completely against it, but I also wasn't overly thrilled with the idea either. I had of course done a bit of research on them and was only able to see a few select photos. At any rate, I sent in the online inquiry form and was IMMEDIATELY bombarded with 1-800 phone numbers calling me, leaving voicemails and a bunch of emails. Needless to say, I was completely turned off. I'm not really one for big companies. They tend to be generic, impersonal and have big company pricing. Anywho, I took the bait and set up an appointment for this afternoon to meet with one of their " Wedding Specilist." (Red flag #1: I'm meeting with some random person and not the photographer.) Due to traffic and just being Kim, I'm a few minutes late. I arrive at some random Panera Bread in Canton at 4:36 for our 4:30 appointment. The "Wesding Specialist" is not where to be found. I wait a few more minutes then search my email for her contact number. I call and leave a message. I call my mom to side if she had heard from the woman I was Supposed to be meeting and she hadn't. So I call Andrew to tell him how mad I was about beig stood up by a potential vendor. He has the genius idea to email her (not sure why I hadn't thought about it,) so I do. At this point is about 5pm. She responds immediately that she waited from 4pm - 4:45pm, called me and left a voicemail and had thought I just wasnt coming. We went back and forth through EMAIL with the end result being she had the time wrong and she was meeting with another potential client at that moment and could not come back to meet with me. Are you kidding me?!? Who sets an appointment, calls and confirms the appointment on Friday, sends an email on Saturday to change the meeting location due to the "Sailabration" in Baltimore and then STAND ME UP! Can it really be this difficult to find and hire a photographer?!?! So I guess I'm back on the search... Hopefully I can find someone who can deliver what I have in my head and make it in to something tangible.

Pose for the Camera Now... Flick...Flick!

When a person plans their wedding, they always have a certain list of priorities. For some the venue is above all the most important aspect of their day. For others, it's the food...music or even the dress. For me it's the memories. Yes I will be disappointed if the DJ forgets to play "Who Let the Dogs Out" for the garter toss or if my Dad steps on my veil right before I walk down the aisle, but those disappointments will be forgotten as time passes by. The only way to preserve a moment of time forever is in print.

Photography is an important part of any wedding. For me it's one of the top. I want to be able to look back on the day I stood in front of God, family and friends and told the man that at makes my heart sing that I will be his forever. I want to have THE best photos to capture the love, emotion and raw energy of that day in the most artistic way possible. For some reason, I am really impressed and stuck on a photo journalistic approach. Most places claim to specialize in this style of photography, but really only few master it.

Months ago, I came across an AMAZING photographer and have secretly been pinning over his albums for some time now. Unfortunately he is not available to shot my wedding and I am not the least bit happy about it. He even referred another photag buddy of his who's work I also love and OF COURSE he is unavailable as well. With the help of my lovely planner mother we have contacted a number of photographers whose work is up to par with my standards (they are high) and they are all either not available or over priced. One of them even has the audacity to be getting married on the same day... :-) (Just joking. It's a great day to get married!) 

All in all, I am still on the search to find the right person who can turn what I have in my head to actual works of art. I have a consultation with a new photag company scheduled this weekend and also sent off some more inquires this evening...so hopefully something comes of it.

To show you I am not expecting TOO much I'll leave you with some of my favorite pics taken by my 3 top photographers, all of whom are no longer options.

Scrole Vision: 

                 

Colville Heskey:

          

Ann Pak: