This month’s rewind has two parts to it.  Part 1 is mucho mucho favorite images from last April.  Part 2 is one of my favorite things I have ever posted on my site.

Part 1.

Part 2:  Last year I asked one of my brides who broke off her engagement if she would be willing to share what that process was like and everything that it involved.  She was kind and brave enough to say yes.  It is still one of the most viewed pages on my website and  was the top Google result for broken engagement for a while last year.  Regardless of how great your engagement  or relationship is you should take the time to read what Kristin had to share.  (Read her story here.)

I love designing and giving my clients big giant wedding albums. It’s a tangible item you can hold in your hand and there is something extra fun about snuggling on the couch and looking at your wedding day together. It’s even more fun once your have kids and THEY get to hold a big giant book all about your day. I thought I would share a sneak peek at the latest album I am working on. Melissa & Ross were married about a week ago and their day was full of amazing little details. Enjoy.

OK, so here is the deal.  This June is our 9th wedding anniversary.  Everyone makes a big deal about the 10th and we already have a few things planned for that one, but what about this year?  I mean, it should count for something right?  So, why not make a contest out of it.

I’m looking for the most creative/fun/memorable evening that cost me no more than $100 bucks.  It must be within a 4 hour driving distance of Palestine and you do NOT have to factor in gas or hotel expense.  Ideally, the date would happen in June.  If your idea is date specific it can NOT occur on a Saturday.  (I tend to be at weddings on Saturday.)

Here’s how the contest is gonna work.  Leave your date idea in the comments.  You have till Monday at 10:00 AM to post your idea. The sooner you post, the more time I have to start liking your idea. ;)  I’ll then go through them all and pick my favorite and the winner will revise a 16×20 canvas gallery wrap of any image I have shot of them.  (Those bad boys cost $300 bucks so you know you wanna win one.)

Here is where it gets AWESOME.  Other people are allowed to submit date ideas on your behalf.  If their idea wins they get a $25 Target gift card & you get the 16×20  canvas gallery wrap.  So… the more people you have submitting date ideas, the better your chance of winning.  The best way to do that is to jump on Facebook and point your friends towards this blog post.  I also know many of you follow this blog but don’t know anyone I have shot.  If you win I’ll let you pick your favorite couple and I’ll surprise them with the 16×20 gallery wrapped canvas and I’ll hook you up with a $25 Target gift card.  Cool?

On your marks…. get set…. GO!

Every cup and plate in our house is plastic and we like it.
You are engaged and you should like it.
This post will eventually make sense, and you will like it.

If you look through our kitchen cabinets you’ll see plastic cup after plastic cup.  Our dishes are also plastic.  Some are just a solid color.  Most contain a cartoon character of some sort.  Are Danielle & I allergic to glass?  Do we look down on others for owning fancy dishes?  No.  The reasons for our plastic fetish are simple.  Jo, Sara, Luke & Eli.  Awhile ago we made the decision that the next few years would be much much easier if everything that went back and forth to the kitchen table was NOT breakable. :)  This in turn would allow kids to take and bring all the dishes; something they could not do if we were using “big people” dishes.  (I’m sure each of you has a memory of dropping or breaking a dish while you were young.)   Rather than fight our phase of life, we embraced it whole heartedly and jumped right in.  We have yet to regret this choice AND our meals are more colorful and fun because of it.

One of the coolest things about being engaged is that you are not married yet.  You have cool words like fiancé, bridal showers.  You also get to go to stores, shoot things with a gun, and have other people buy them for you.  Seriously, think about how cool that is.  It’s a season of your life, and it only lasts for awhile.  Embrace it.  Go all out.  Find the joy in saying sentences like “My fiancé and I are having coffee today.”  You can wish and want and try and make your wedding day get here faster, but you may miss the phase of life you are in right now. The same is true of you single people.  Live in the moment of your single-ness.  Find the joy in saying sentences like “I’m having three different guys buy my meals today.”  :)

Most people live their life constantly looking towards the next moment.
When they get engaged.
When they buy a house.
When they have kids.
When they get promoted.
When the kids are out of the house.
When they have grandkids.

All of these are great seasons of life, but please, please don’t look towards them at the expense of where you are today.

Be single. Be engaged. Be married.  Drink out of plastic cups.

One of my favorite parts of weddings is seeing the connection that brides & grooms have with their parents.  I love being able to capture the expression and little moments that they have with each other throughout the day.  I’ll be honest, with 3-6 bridesmaids, 3-6 groomsmen and all your “extra” friends, it’s very easy for parents to get pushed to the side on your wedding day.  That’s why I LOVE when I see a bride who seems able to juggle all of these dynamics on her wedding day.  From our first meeting, I felt like Jessica & her mom “clicked” when it came to her wedding.  I thought it would be fun to hear what the planning process was like from Jessica’s mom’s point of view.
(One last note:  I promise I didn’t ask her to rave about my photos, but I’m glad she did.)

Sept. 25, 2010 turned out to be one of the happiest days of my life.  That is the day my first born child and precious daughter joined her life in marriage to my new son-in-law.  My daughter and I planned her wedding day completely in less than 6 months. These were the sweetest 6 months we have ever spent together and I think forever marked a turning point in our relationship from not only mother and daughter, but also best friends.  I will tell you, there were moments of stress and disagreement.  But in the end, no matter how I felt, I just had to constantly remind myself that this was her day, not mine.  This was all about her.  Times have changed so much since I got married.  I will never forget when she came to me and said she wasn’t walking down the aisle to “Here Comes the Bride”.  I was in complete shock, I couldn’t believe it.  How in the world do you not walk down the aisle to that song?  How would anyone know when the bride was coming and when they should stand?  I just could not even fathom this idea.  But, this was her day, not mine.  I had 6 months to get used to it and by the end, I was completely ok with it and it turned out perfectly.  But then she came to me and said she was going to see her groom before the ceremony so we could take photographs before the wedding.  What?  No way!  This can not happen!  It’s bad luck!  Again, I could not fathom this and again, I relented and it turned out perfectly and I wouldn’t have done it any other way.  It saved so much time and our guests weren’t kept waiting at the reception.  Times have changed since we were getting married. I would just encourage all mothers who are planning a wedding with their daughter, to keep an open mind.  And above all remember, this day is all about her, even if we are paying the bill, this is her day.

Planning a wedding will definitely have its stressful moments.  They are just unavoidable. But we eliminated as much stress as we could by pretty much leaving everybody else and their opinions out of it.  Grandparents, fathers, siblings, cousins, friends, they all have their own opinions and want to share.  Really, it doesn’t matter what they think anyway, so why stress for one minute trying to make them happy.  This day is all about her.

Another thing I will say moms is when the wedding day comes, just enjoy the day.  Do not designate yourself to do absolutely anything other than cleanup after the whole thing is over with.  This is such a special day that you will never ever have again.  Delegate, delegate, delegate and do nothing yourself.  Don’t even bring a camera with you.  Which brings me to the absolute, without a doubt, most important thing you will need for this day… the photographer.  If you only splurge on one single thing for the whole wedding, it needs to be this.  Moms, again, keep an open mind.  I wasn’t convinced of this either in the beginning, but my daughter felt strongly about this from day one.   She had her photographer (AlexM) picked out before she was ever engagaged. I was, lets just say, a little skeptical.  I mean, everybody at the wedding will have camera phones right?  Why do I need a photographer?   That is, until I met Alex and saw some of his work.  In a matter of minutes I was as convinced as she was about it and that was that.  The best investment without a doubt.  I promise, you won’t regret it.

Also, as I look back, I just must share this.  I tortured myself for weeks over plastic or real dishes.  I wanted real everything, but daughter wanted plastic.  This turned out to be one of the best decisions we made for that day.  It is so much easier and less stressful.  Plastic all the way, and it is just as beautiful.

Our wedding was almost 5 months ago.  I miss it.  I want to do it again, but I just can’t.  Thank goodness I have all of my beautiful pictures from that day so I can relive it over and over again for many years to come.

Moms and daughters, as your planning your big day, have fun, don’t stress too much and just enjoy this time.  Your big day will be here and gone before you know it.  And you know what comes next moms……. grandchildren!  I know I can’t wait.    I hope your day will be as special as ours was :)