Our amazing photographer

We've signed the contract for our photographer!  Gabriel Van Wyhe does amazing work, both creatively and with the classic, beautiful wedding pictures you dream of for your wedding day.  Now we get to plan our engagement shoot!

I like shots of feet: (especially like that their dog is in this one...it'd be great to have Paris in a few shots:)

and I love the lying-in-the-grass shots:

(how cute is this old couple?)

this is super-cute:

and it'd be great to have a shot of my oh-so-beautiful ring...

and I love the dips...

and the forehead-kisses:

ooh, this is cute, too:

I also (although Matt doesn't "get it") think it'd be fun to have props like red balloons...

since we're getting married in a setting with so much green & flowers, it'd be good to go in another direction for the location of our shots, I'm thinking...like an alley in downtown Tacoma, maybe...

or on some stairs?

or railroad tracks...

definitely a lot of beautiful photos to inspire our shoot! 

Details...

In no particular order, these are the things that are on my (wedding-laden) mind of late:
-how to make 7 bridesmaids (and Matt's 7 corresponding groomsmen) NOT seem obnoxious both in photos & standing with us for the ceremony...can we stagger them somehow?  (it's on my "google this" list.)

-deciding what bling to put on my GORGEOUS, undadorned dress.  How much do I really want the black sash?  Will I regret it in 20 years when I see pictures? 

-how to shrink the guest list while still honoring our family & friends who want to see us get married.

and the exciting things:

Ok, I'm so blessed...after several unsuccessful dress-shopping trips, Matt's mom flew my mom in from Philly to surprise me on our 4th (I know...) appointment.  And I found my dress!  Best yet, we bought the sample so they cut us a deal..then we were told that  the designer takes 9 months to order & ship the dresses so I wouldn't have been able to get it in time for our Labor Day wedding.  (also, it's silk.  I die.)  :)

It was amazing to watch my mom & Betty bond while she was here.  It's been hard for my mom to reconcile the fact that I am really staying on the west coast, especially now that Anna is looking at colleges (some in WA!  yay!)  Betty's been an amazing friend & support to my mom, & recognized the importance of having us together to make big decisions before we even did.  God is good.  So is my future MIL. 

We have a date (September 5th) and a venue (Lakewold Gardens) and a dress...last night we met with a caterer and tonight with a photographer that I really like. 

So more than anything else, I have realized how much weddings are about details...most of which I had never thought of or really care about.  And they are all posed as questions that I feel like I SHOULD have a concrete answer for.  Things like, "are you wearing your hair up?" "Will you have a full cocktail hour or just 45-minutes?"  "What kind of necklaces will your bridesmaids wear?"  

(my answer to every one of these questions has been a blank look and an "ummm, I don't know...do I have to know right now?") 

I am the girl who has dreamt of her wedding day but had to put a lid on the dreaming a few years back.  I was trusting God that He has the best plan for me, but it no longer seemed imminent that that included a wedding.  So I kept some small details in my mind (blue shoes and a photo booth), but have not been a wedding-crazed single girl.  That probably scored me points with Matt, but is not so convenient for our vendors...or mothers.  So I am scoping it out, immersing myself in wedding porn (hehe) and obtaining opinions on details.  Ex: yes!  hair up!  45 minutes seems sufficient! 

Still don't care about their necklaces, though.  Maybe they can pick their own...