Feeling "Famous"

So remember me talking endlessly about engagement photography? And whether or not to have an engagement session with your photographer? Well as you may recall I went a little overboard and had not one but two sessions, and I'm proud of it! Well luckily it paid off and we were pleasantly surprised to find out that our engagement session with the talented Delbarr Moradi was recently featured on Brooklyn Bride, one of my fave wedding blogs. I gotta admit it was pretty cool seeing our photos on the blog and their choice of photos was also interesting. Some of the ones they chose I wouldn't have previously named as a favorite but after seeing it in the post I realized how much I liked them! Check it out:

Images via Brooklyn Bride & Delbarr Moradi

A Year Ago Today

...this happened! The love of my life asked me to marry him! As you can tell by the expression on my face I was definitely surprised and of course said yes! Now we are just a few short weeks away from being MARRIED. My how time flies! The anniversary of our engagement is probably not one we'll always remember, but for this first year just a short while from our wedding day, I wanted to look back on that amazing day :) Thank you kochanie, can't wait to spend my forever with you ♥


 Photo via our sneaky, co-conspirators Mr. & Mrs. Stachowiak :) 

Feeling Wedding Planning/Engagement Nostalgia

I can't believe I'm actually saying those words, but I think I'm going to miss wedding planning. Well, maybe not so much wedding planning but rather this really unique time in my life when I get to be engaged and have someone call me their fiancée and when I get to prepare to vow to spend the rest of my life with someone.

It's no surprise that these feelings have surfaced after my fiancé and I attended a marriage preparation weekend retreat. I'll definitely be posting on that in the future (highly recommend this for ALL couples, regardless of how long you've been together you'd be surprised the topics that you haven't discussed or not in enough depth.) But when it comes to wedding planning, I've been focusing on all the negatives that go along with it while forgetting that this is a time in my life I'll never get back, and I may look back on it wishing I'd taken the time to soak it in and appreciate everything.

So my promise to myself from this day forward is to enjoy this time and remember that everything we do is a memory in the making. One of the reasons I blogged about this experience in the first place was to have an account of everything and remember how I felt throughout this whole process. So here's to being a Ms. for a few more months and enjoying saying fiancé the fancy way ;)


Photo courtesy of Delbarr Moradi from our recent engagement session :)

Engagement Photos: Yay or Nay?

From the very beginning of our wedding planning, I have stated how extremely important photography is to me. So it was no surprise that the decision whether or not to take engagement photos was a no-brainer! (All these lovely images you see here are courtesy of the crazy-talented husband and wife duo Jason & Anna Photography). I figured if we were going to spend money on anything it would be the photos.

I'm not quite sure when the whole engagement session thing started but it's safe to say that this portion of the wedding industry has significantly expanded in recent years. Every photographer I contacted when initially searching for our wedding photogs all suggested an engagement session. It's a great opportunity to get to know your photographer and most imporantly get comfortable in front of the camera. Trust me, it's a bit unsettling at first and takes a little while to get used to someone snapping away in front of you.

Naturally, it's not super surprising to hear that we'll be having two engagement sessions. Yea, I'm a little of a photo session diva what can I say? (Secretly, I'd love to be a photographer but considering I lack any talent in that area, for now I'll settle on someone else taking pretty pictures with me in 'em.) I initially contacted Jason & Anna to shoot our wedding but they were unfortunately unavailable on our wedding day. Regardless, I decided a photo shoot incorporating the Arizona desert where mine and my fiancé's relationship started would make for some good stories for the grandkids. (OK, I can't take full credit, it was my younger sister who made the very wise suggestion and I'm so glad she did, thanks to her we have some amazing pictures!) We also recently shot with Delbarr Moradi, the super-talented photographer that we are honored will be capturing our wedding day! Both sessions were super fun and really helped us get acclimated to being in front of the camera. I know that on our wedding day I won't be nearly as nervous, especially since I'm confident that the pictures will come out great :)

Everyone has their own opinion on the matter but to me, money spent on photography is quite simply money well spent. What better way to capture this exciting moment in your life than with some kick-ass photos? I mean we're only young once right? Might as well make use of our youthful looks while we still got em! ;)

 

Images courtesy of Jason & Anna Photography

The Wedding Planning Book to End All Wedding Planning Books

Early into the planning process I stumbled upon A Practical Wedding, a wedding blog that differed from any other. And I'm so glad I did. You will be too once you read it. It offered a refreshing, down-to-earth perspective on wedding planning and marriage in general. Not surprisingly, the blog evolved and its creator Meg Keene recently published a book, A Practical Wedding: Creative Solutions for Planning a Beautiful, Affordable, and Meaningful Celebration.

I wasn't planning on reading any wedding planning books nor am I planning on reading any more but thank goodness I read this one! You know the feeling when you're reading a book and you can't help but talk during the process? Well that's what reading this book was like for me. Kind of like this:

"Oh my god yes! I totally agree!"
"I thought I was the only one that thought that! It's so nice to hear I'm not crazy!"
"Seriously, who the hell cares about the effin' chairs?!"

Basically, Meg took a very unique approach when it came to writing a book about wedding planning: She was actually NORMAL about it. As in, she reminds us all that the whole point of planning a wedding is the getting married part, not the part about how great your reception is or what your centerpieces look like. So if you are a clueless yet sane bride wanting to plan a meaningful celebration, read this book ASAP. She gets down to the nitty gritty and helps you figure out where to start in an easy-to-understand step-by-step process.

Thanks to movies and media, the prelude to the wedding planning process — the proposal itself — has been exaggerated to such great lengths that it has made most of us forget the point of it all. Meg's insightful and empowering words shatter the typical stereotype.  I absolutely LOVED the quote from the book discussing this topic:

"It's exciting to decide to get married. And scary. But the moment of the proposal is just that: a moment. It moves you to the next step of the process; it's not the be-all, end-all. So maybe you have a fancy candlelight dinner followed by parachutists delivering you a pear-shaped, seven-carat diamond. Or maybe you decide to get married one Sunday morning over the newspaper and a cup of coffee. Either way is fine. The point is that you decided to spend your life with someone you love."

And that ladies and gentlemen is just a small piece of the wisdom you'll find in this book. Another favorite tidbit of mine featured in the book: the genius and oh-so-true tips from Kayce Hazelgrove of shinyprettybits.com and foodiewashere.com titled "The Six Stages of Wedding Planning." Kayce takes you through the various stages of emotional highs and lows of planning a wedding. 

My favorite was #4: OUTRAGE/DEPRESSION: "WHAT THE EFF" "EFF ME"

"This stage is marked by feelings of bitterness and frustration. You may feel as though you are failing in some way. This can cause you to swing between feeling angry over all the expectations being placed on you and despondent over your inability to live up. You may find yourself resenting others with friends and family who own a barn, can DJ, or have the enviable ability to craft masterpieces out of bits of random fabric and paper." 

Now I'm not sure if any of you guys planning a wedding out there have felt this way, but I certainly have and reading this book was a nice affirmation of 1) I'm not a crazy person and 2) knowing that it can be done in a sane and gasp! maybe even fun way. As Megan of notmartha.org puts it:

"It’s like having a very cool older sister who went through all this already to help guide you on what is and what isn’t important."

I couldn't have said it better myself. Buy this book and read it now. You'll be thankful you did.



P.S. Listen to Meg's interview discussing the book on NPR's Talk of the Nation here.

Engagement Session Sneak Peak

Our awesome photographers, Jason + Anna Photography, just posted a blog with some of our engagement photos. Eek!! My excitement is through the roof right now! Already mentally planning how to frame and put them up. Did I mention I'm excited?? :)

When Your Family Hates Your Venue...

So wedding planning is tricky. Yes, the wedding is about the couple that's getting married but there are also loads of family members that want to interject their opinions into everything. So what happens when your parents* dislike the venue you've chosen?? I know, I know, this is my fault for planning a big, fat Polish wedding, right? Well maybe or maybe not. Either way, it sucks to hear that the venue you and your man have booked and love isn't a fan favorite among the rentals. It was hard hearing their not-so-approving opinions but in the end it only brought me and my fiancé closer together. After some gentle negotiations and polite head nodding (alright I'll admit and tears shed) we came to a semi-peaceful truce. One that did not require a venue change. We explained our vision to them and helped them understand what we had in mind. In the end, I realize that our families only want the best for our wedding day (even though sometimes they have a funny way of showing it ahem) and I know it'll all work out. Sometimes you just need to go through some of this crappy stuff to be even more grateful for the awesomeness that awaits your future married life :) And c'mon it wouldn't be a wedding without some drama right?! haha


*Editor's Note:* My dad liked the venue from the start, he's pretty awesome.

Love sweet Love

So we're a few months into our wedding planning now and things have been moving along (fairly) smoothly. However, it was another couple that had some big news to share this past weekend. Labor Day festivities brought a pleasant surprise when I found out another one of my friends had gotten engaged!!
I'm so excited for her and her fiancé and wish them all the best on their journey together! This upcoming year will be a really exciting time for all of us and it's great that we can go through this craziness together. Love certainly is a powerful thing and I think happy married couples will be the greatest end result you can ask for :)




Image via layoutsparks.com