The February List: Recap

As scary as this is to say, February is over! Darn you for being such a short month.  As I promised in my last post, I think you will be very proud of me when you see all the progress I've made…don't forget, I had vacation through most of the first week!! :)

The February List:
-Call and schedule a cake tasting - DONE!  Scheduled for next week.  Can't wait to report back on that one!
-Invitations - get a sample with our words and our colors - decide if we are using it or not. -Okay, so not done…but for a good reason! We still made major progress in this department.  My DOC has my invitation design, and is going to help us rewrite it to match what we are looking for.  Once we have the wording, all I need to do is order the sample!
-Groom/Groomsmen suits - get final offer/options from Jos.A.Bank outlet - decide it we are using them or continuing to look elsewhere. - We have decided to continue to explore our options in the groomsmen department.  I was not impressed with the service (or run-around) we were getting with the people we were talking to at Jos.A.Bank.  So the search continues!  Although I haven't totally crossed them off as an option - but certainly not the location we've been in contact with.
-Officiant - order certificate and visit Groton town hall. -Half done!
-Videographer***** - I will leave it not crossed off, only because there is no contract yet.  But a meeting is planned for April, so I'm probably going to take it off the March list.  This item gets a break for now!
-Discuss timeline for the day with DOC - if I could throw a party over an item on my wedding planning list - it would be this one.  I have never felt more relieved to check something off.  This will probably be the topic of a number of blog posts in the future - because it is such a silly thing, but I found it so stressful.  and it isn't over! Not really.  We will probably tweak things quite a few times….but I had the best conversation with Jen about the overall timeline for the day, and I am feeling really really good about it.  She made it so simple, and made me so relaxed, and I should probably send her a cupcake or something.  I could keep talking about this, but for now…I'll stop.  DONE!
-Confirm timeline for the day with caterer and DJ - I emailed details to both our DJ and our caterer based off my above conversation with Jen, to keep everyone on the same page!
-Call Kathy at Branford House to update her with timeline info - Not done yet.  No good reason, this was my slacker item this month.  I may put it off until we visit the BH next week…we'll see.
-Email caterer about chicken options - DONE! Yay for another silly thing finally off the list.  Now we can get that conversation moving and get closer to a finalized menu.
-Email MUA about contract - DONE!
-Say Yea or Nay to current wedding gift idea - if Yea, book! if Nay, begin to brainstorm - Okay…so I started to cross this off, and then realized technically I shouldn't.  I said Yea, but there might be a wrinkle.  If it wrinkles, then I'm back to the drawing boards! CROSS YOUR FINGERS FOR ME, please :)  I'm really excited about this idea and hoping it works out!  I should know in the next week or so, and hopefully then my wedding gift will be booked!
-Book hotel room for wedding night - DONE! Booked and ready to go - yay for having a place to sleep our first night at husband and wife!!! Ahhh!!!

There have also been quite a few bonus items I've been able to check off of my list throughout the month - you can read about those during my first official post about the 6 month sprint!!!

Besides all this wedding planning, we tried to kick the winter doldrums that February brings by staying as active as possible!  That included a mini vacation to the city, which was probably the highlight!!  We got to visit my roommate from college, who is in the middle of her busy accounting season - and see Justin Timberlake!!!!

While we were walking around downtown, we got stopped by this couple who was part of the Race for the Rock, by the Bridal Guide Magazine!  We helped them with their scavenger hunt, but unfortunately they didn't win!  We had to allow them to record us for 30 seconds while we talked about what makes our relationship work.  Our simultaneous answer?  Communication!

We spent the morning at the Natural History Museum - in case you were wondering, I would weigh 57 pounds on Mars! (I took this picture for your benefit Melissa!)

We had dinner at this amazing Japanese BBQ restaurant.  The food is delicious and any restaurant that has smores on the dessert menu is good in my book!

Ant had gotten me tickets for Christmas to see JT at Madison Square Garden…which means Christmas lasted so much longer! Our seats were awesome, right next to the stage and the show was crazy!  He is so talented and so much fun to watch.  I danced and sang like a crazy person all night.  I LOVE Justin.

I also got asked to be a bridesmaid in one of my best friend's weddings this October (I said yes!!!) - and two other couples we are close to got engaged!  That's a lot of love in one month!  and you know me, I love love.  How was your February???  How did you avoid the winter blues??

The 6 month sprint

Ok guys, you are seriously going to be SO proud of me when we talk about February's list.  I won't get too ahead of myself, since February isn't over QUITE yet, but I did want to get started on this fun mini series I'm hoping to keep up with between now and August, titled "the 6 month sprint."

Now, if you follow my instagram (and if you don't, you should!) you have already seen a hint of this - with some hashtags #sixmonthcrunch.  I've since decided I like "sprint" better than "crunch".  In the lifetime of our engagement (roughly 15 months)- the last six months are kind of the final sprint.  The planning started off with a burst, but then slowed down for a bit - now we're in the home stretch!  When you get to a moment where you realize that…if you are me, you panic!  I am the queen of procrastination, so I generally have two ways of handling that feeling…either allow it to cause me to put things off until the end of time, or use it as motivation to cross stuff off the list!  In this case, my obsession with crossing things off of lists is stronger than my natural desire to procrastinate!  For that, I am thankful.  In each post of the series, I will give you a snapshot of what "the 6 month sprint" has looked like for me from a schedule perspective!  I will try to do so as often as possible - not JUST when I'm really busy.  My hope is that this will allow you to get a real version of all the silly nitty gritty that goes down in the six month sprint. Get ready - it does get a little crazy!

The Wedding Photographer

Ahhhhhh.  Okay, this post could go on for days.  Sorry in advance if that really happens.

To start - anyone who knows me knows I am OBSESSED with wedding photography.  Obsessed.  There is no better word to describe it.  I LOVE, adore, can't get enough of it.  This has been going on for many many years.....since before I met Ant.  Which is great, because it means he wasn't freaked out by my obsession - it was normal.  Anyway.....this means I have spent LOTS of time looking at wedding photographers, following blogs, doing research on prices, packages, etc. etc. etc.  I have gone through "phases" with photographers where I have had favorites.  Blogs I have followed more and less closely.  There was one particular moment I am ashamed to admit, where I was at the seafood festival in my hometown and started freaking out because I realized one of these photographers was there with her family, enjoying the food.  Yes.  That obsessed.  I started slapping Ant going "remember that blog I read ALL THE FREAKING TIME??? THAT'S HER!!!" like she was Justin Timberlake or something.

Anyway.  The benefit to this is that I learned a lot about what I like about photographers, and a LOT about what I don't like.  I became quite the snob.  I googled every version of "CT/RI/New England wedding photographer" and I would pick and choose the ones I liked enough to keep reading.  I realized it was often the subtle details, and the simple photos that stood out to me the most.  Over editing does nothing for me....overly posed shots do nothing for me.  Give me some raw simple emotion and some beautiful pictures any day!

So, when it came time for Ant and I to start looking at photographers for OUR wedding, I had a mini freakout.  How was I supposed to make a decision like this?  To me, the photographer is hands down the most important vendor of the day (no offense to our other vendors...I love you all!).  Besides the marriage itself, the photos of the day are the only thing that will truly last a lifetime.

I emailed a number of them.  A few that I knew I loved I also knew were out of my price range.  A few others I quickly learned were out of my price range.  This discouraged me, and made me hesitate to email a couple of other photographers I had been really excited to talk to.  I then started panicking about budget, and went way too far the other direction.  I reached out to people I knew I could afford, and knew I didn't necessarily want.  The worst part was that half the time, these photographers who appeared cheaper ended up being not all that cheap.  Their wedding package included 1 photographer and 6 hours and by the time you got what you REALLY wanted, you were spending over your budget all over again.  For not the person you wanted.  It was a mess.

I took a breath, stepped back, and started over.  I filled out a contact form for a photographer who's blog I'd been reading for months...and I waited for a response. The email I got back made me take an even bigger breath.  She sent me a link to a website, FULL of information for potential clients.  It includes images of their "pretty heirloom items" like your wedding album..*swoon* and also includes all of the nitty gritty.  The cost, the details. and the beauty of it all?  It's oh so fabulously simple.  The fee for the "experience" includes all of the following:

Includes 8 hours of photography by 2 photographers, a couture styled engagement shoot, a PASS gallery of your wedding + engagement, the digital download of all your low-res images, delivered in less than 4 weeks, a custom website, and an EXPERIENCE that you won't soon forget.

Again...*SWOON* what more could you ask for?  Simple, clear cut, and best of all - BEAUTIFUL.  The photos, are beautiful.  These are some of the ones that jumped out at me in the beginning, and made me continue to follow her blog.

SO anyway, long story short, we agree that it is within our budget-ish enough to set up a meeting.  We show up in Hartford at Alicia's home studio.  She has a cheese plate and water and is sweet as can be - and it really is that simple.  The only wrinkle or hesitation after our initial meeting had to do with the cost of the wedding album.  Wedding albums, if done properly, are expensive.  More expensive than naive little me could have ever imagined.  So the cost of the photography and the album fell a bit outside of our initial budget.  BUT.  I have the best fiancé ever and the most supportive parents and future in-laws ever, and we made it work.  Conversation over, photographer booked!  We will be working with Rachel from Alicia Ann Photographers (formally No Eye Has Seen Photographers) next summer, and we couldn't be more excited!

As you may know from reading about our engagement pics here or here - we didn't actually meet Rachel until the day of our engagement shoot…which I was also a little nervous about.  But there was nothing to be nervous about! Rachel is so so sweet, and was so helpful with every detail leading up to the day we took our pictures.  The photos came out AMAZING, and the process was so simple.  They were posted on the blog here - and we received a PASS gallery of all the images, so I was able to download them and use them for our engagement party just a few short weeks later!!  She has also been beyond patient... answering my random questions and rehashing timelines with me, as I start running into all the silly things you never thought you'd think about.  I legitimately can NOT wait until August, to see the beautiful moments she is going to capture for us on our wedding day.

Okay…I warned you it was going to be long!  How did you choose your photographer?  Is anyone else as in love with wedding photography as me?  Send me the links to some of your favorites - I'm always looking for beautiful new blogs to read!!

and just because I can't help myself, I'll leave you with a few more pretties to look at…