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Looking for a photographer was not an easy process by any means.
I don’t think I’m being extremely original when I say that photography was a HUGE priority for us. Actually, scratch that, it was our NUMBER one priority. Seriously, you could have the perfect venue, the most amazing dress, the loveliest cake, the cutest details…all of it means squat if you don’t have a talented professional to capture it all on film. Not just capture it, capture well. I mean, you’re spending all this time and money trying to make it all perfect, but who’s gonna take gorgeous pictures to make the memories last a lifetime?
So, once we had the WHERE and WHEN figured out, we set out to find the perfect photographer. I started stalking countless magazines, blogs, and websites for photographers that caught my eye. I really wanted to do my due diligence and was convinced that I had to see all my choices in order to make an informed decision. Well, I’m sorry to say my overly enthusiastic approach was a really terrible idea! It wasn’t long until I became overwhelmed; there were so many different styles and looks to chose from! So many photographers, each talented in their own unique way!
I decided to become more methodical in my search, and eliminated any photographer that didn’t elicit an emotional response from me (really not a very difficult criteria to fulfill—I cry at the drop of a dime). I also became very critical and eliminated those who routinely produced unflattering photographs of the bride. The most common offenders were the triple-chin shot, mono-boob blob, and back-fat fiasco, none of which should be featured in wedding pictures. I’m sorry, but if those are the pictures that make it onto your site or blog, I’m not very impressed in your abilities. Wedding photography 101: make the bride look beautiful, even amidst the ugly-cry.
I forwarded my favorite ones along to Mr. W, the parentals, and my bridesmaids for feedback. Slowly, we started zeroing in on the aesthetic we most responded to: photojournalism, with a hint of editorial.
Back when I first got married, you went to a card shop or similar and flipped through a massive book of wedding invitations. If you had a lot of money you might look at engraving, but most of the invitations were thermographed: printed in a raised ink so they looked engraved without the high cost.
Growing up around a print shop, I used to love looking through those ginormous books at all the different invitation styles and color and font choices.
And back then, unless you were using pre-printed cards where you filled in the details by hand, there wasn’t much happening on the DIY invitation front. Considering it was the mid ’90s, even those who had computers at home probably had a dot matrix printer, maybe an inkjet, but only offices had the impressive laser printers (and even those weren’t as impressive as they are now).
I refuse to call those the “good ‘ol days” for obvious reasons.
So, two things have now been established:
Christine is selling a halo engagement ring and wedding band set from Shane Co. She is asking $4,800.
Have a wedding item for sale? Post it with pictures in the Weddingbee Classifieds, and you might see it featured on the blog!
Other great items for sale:
After spending one hectic night in Paris, as mentioned in my previous entry, Mr. C and were off to a Mediterranean paradise via Air Malta.
Malta is a Mediterranean island just south of Sicily and north of Tunisia and Libya. Because of its unique and convenient location between Europe and Africa, it represents an interesting blend of language, food, culture, and history. The primary language is Maltese (a strange blend of Arabic and Italian), but many people speak English as Malta was a British colony from 1813 to 1964. Malta is also a member of the European Union and, as such, uses the Euro as currency. The country is also devoutly Roman Catholic, and there were many festivals taking place honoring local patron saints. Although strangely its Muslim and Arabic past still lingers in the language and place names throughout the islands. Practically all the buildings are constructed of the tan stone that is mined on the islands. In fact, it is a law that buildings are constructed of this material, probably for both aesthetic and environmental reasons as there are few trees on the island. It gives the place a very beautiful and unique appearance.
…shall we?
Nope, wasn’t talking about the kind that’s on your head. And while this is not strictly speaking a bridal topic, it’s all the more relevant with a wedding and honeymoon looming on the horizon. Hive, I wanna be baby smooth. But I’m not shaving for the wedding.
No, I’m not planning on going au naturel. I don’t plan on shaving for the wedding because I hope to no longer HAVE any hair that needs shaving.
That’s right, you’re all thinking it, now say it with me:
Here’s how to tell if I have something I’m supposed to be doing: our house is steadily becoming more clean/organized, I suggest things like “we should go on a 10-mile hike!” or, when asked what I’m up to, my response is “I’m Google image searching pictures of nails and nail polish.”
Yes, friends, I am a master procrastinator. Fun fact: in my senior year of undergrad I watched the entire series of Sailor Moon and Live Action Sailor Moon instead of doing homework. I still managed to graduate magna cum laude, but I have very much refined my skills at last-minute project success.
What does this mean for you? Well, it means that I’m going to show you some pretty pictures!
If you had asked me before getting engaged how I wanted to do my nails for the wedding, I probably would have given you an odd look and then shrugged and said something like “probably French tips.”
It’s what I did for our engagement photos, after all. / Photo by Love Song Photo
While I do love the classic look, I’m not sure if it’s what I want for the wedding. I know some people use the excuse to do something really outlandish but fun, but I think I’ll go for an understated look.
In my younger days (I can say that if it was over 10 years ago, right? Also: yeesh, 10 years!) I worked at a bank. I used that as an excuse to get acrylic nails since people spent a good amount of time starting at my hands when I counted back their money. I’ve seen some lovely examples of acrylic designs that people did for their weddings.
Hooray! Something is finally, honest-to-goodness finished in regard to this wedding.
(OK, so my cardigan is done, but so much else is in varying states of started or planning that to complete a task still feels very big!)
As usual, the whole process took a bit longer than anticipated, but that had to do more with weather than anything else. There are oodles of Gocco tutorials on the web, so I’m going to go through this one pretty fast because, really, it’s just that simple to use.
I had the computer print crop marks on the final copy of our thank you notes so I’d know exactly where to trim them.
mgw shows off her lace wedding gown.
Keep on loading your inspirational wedding pics to the Weddingbee Gallery to see them featured here on the blog! Remember, your images must be under 1MB in size, or they won’t load.
If your photo is featured as the Gallery of the Day, you’re eligible for a special Weddingbee badge for your blog or website! Check out instructions on how to grab the badge here!
You can thank Barney Stinson for that one, hive.I do love seeing Mr. Jet in a suit, which happens very infrequently as both he and and I have jobs where a more casual day-to-day look is accepted. Whenever there’s an occasion where I get to see Mr. Jet “suit up,” I get a little giddy—our wedding day will absolutely be no exception!
Mr. Jet currently has one black suit that he wears for every wedding, funeral, and fancy event. He also has a navy blazer that makes him look like a fishing captain—totally hot.
For the wedding, he wanted to take a practical approach by buying a suit, versus renting a tuxedo. This not only made sense from an “I can keep this forever” standpoint, but also allowed Mr. Jet much more variety in terms of style and color. We also had our guys in mind, as we’d rather they put their money toward something they can own instead of having to return it come Monday morning! The difference between an average tuxedo rental and the suit we eventually ordered was only $40, so it truly seemed like an economical choice for everyone.
Mr. Jet and I had always thought a gray suit would look great and fit perfectly with our theme, so we visited our local Men’s Wearhouse and Mr. Jet was actually fitted for this suit:
Where is the rest of this man’s face? I do not know. / Image via Men’s Wearhouse
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