We Did It: Engagement Photos

Our engagement session in Cleveland followed a remarkably close timeline to that of moving chaos. While at the airport to depart Oklahoma City for Cleveland, Ben received an email requesting his first interview for the National Weather Service in Milwaukee. Our awesome photographers (check out their new website!) sent us the sneak peek of our photos as Ben received his first job offer and participated in the Spring commencement ceremony (during which time we also hosted his parents and a big graduation party); we got access to all of our epic photos while packing up our house. Dare I say there might be an excuse for this untimely post?

Despite planning the engagement session from 1,000 miles away, it went off without a hitch. It had been raining for days, but the sun came out for our afternoon downtown with For the Moment Photography's Dustin and Amanda. I had the cutest outfit of shorts, embellished sandals, and a button-up planned.... until I remembered what May in Ohio can be like (read: super chilly, especially on the Lake when it's also extremely breezy - did our hair NO favors). I ended up wearing jeans and buying a blanket to use as a practical photo prop at the last minute, and we braved through the beginning of our session on the beach.

We then headed to quaint Ohio City where we grabbed a quick bite to eat and took photos at Market Garden Brewery and outside Great Lakes Brewery. Although the original plan was to take the bulk of our photos at the more-iconic Great Lakes, I was completely unfazed when we realized that their brewpub turned out to be closed on Sundays; I love the photos we took at Market Garden and actually prefer their beer anyway! Because I had dreamed of taking wedding photos with my veil blowing in the wind on Lake Erie, we ended the session on the East 9th St Pier in downtown Cleveland at 'golden hour.' Dustin and Amanda were so patient as we went from location to location and we felt like we were just hanging out with friends, which made it easy to avoid a stressful session. We are completely gracious for the time they spent traveling to photograph us in my favorite city. Please check out their blog post or visit our Pass Gallery to see more photos!

My advice for any couple planning a long-distance engagement session is to spend time researching where you want to be photographed and communicate with your photographer. We planned the order of our locations based off of proximity to one another and the opportunity to change outfits at the restaurant half-way through. Speaking of outfits, make sure to plan accordingly for the weather, says the meteorologist who froze her butt off on the beach. I had my doubts about the long-sleeve, flow-y blouse I chose, and I should have listened to my gut as I don't think it photographed in the most flattering way. A form-fitting but light sweater would have been a better option [currently kicking myself for not thinking of my favorite gray cowl-neck, which I had already packed away in my 'out of season' box during the height of warm Oklahoma spring]. On the other hand, I LOVED how the green dress and accessories I chose turned out in the photos. The colors really pop and look great against a variety of scenery.

The engagement session was a great way to practice being in front of the camera and I think the experience will help us tremendously when taking photos on our wedding day. I recently purchased a My Publisher Groupon and made a photo book/guest book using the engagement photos so that our St. Louis guests can get a taste of Cleveland, too. I think we will look at it more often than a traditional, sign-on-the-line guest book and I can't wait for it to arrive.

Thank you again to For the Moment Photography!

We Did It: Invitations

Wowee, wedding season is in full swing among my friends and peers! Shoutout to a good friend (no really, her family adopted me for a summer while I was an intern in her hometown) and fabulous fashionista "seester," Annie White from Success on Stilettos on her recent engagement. I can't wait to see the beautiful wedding look she will undoubtedly put together.

On my end, the moving-induced wedding-planning hiatus is officially over, and boy does it feel grand! We have been in our new home near Milwaukee, WI for two weeks now and are really enjoying the landscape and location. I have never been so excited to see pine trees - I hadn't even realized I missed them! The way-of-life and culture here is much more similar to St Louis and Cleveland than in Oklahoma, so Ben and I think we fit in quite well.

While there are many small tasks we managed to check off before the packing and moving began (wedding bands! engagement photos!), I want to first jump back in with a quick post about our invitation approach. Since most of our family and friends are internet-savvy, we decided early on that a cost-effective way to handle Save-the-Dates and invitations would be to utilize Paperless Post, a website that allows you to design custom invitations to send via e-mail. You really must see one to understand how cool this service is; upon opening the email, the recipient (for an additional charge for the sender) views an interactive envelope addressed with your name on it. Click on the envelope and the invitation pops out as if it were in your own hands. A simple click enables you to RSVP, which is linked back to and tracked by the sender's account. No addressing envelopes, buying stamps, or keeping track of paper RSVP cards. In my opinion, this concept is a win-win-win: environmentally friendly, convenient, and low-cost! Plus, as a guest with a smart phone, you always have the invitation and wedding information at your fingertips and don't have any guilt about eventually throwing away the bride and groom's invitation masterpiece.

This is what our tech-savvy guests will receive in their email. Navy-and-natural!

However, there are a few family members on our guest list (love you, grandmas and grandpas!) that will require paper invitations; of course, we'd like some printed ones for pictures and posterity as well. Paperless Post allows you to order any invitation or card designed online as a paper version, but we found this to be too expensive for the relatively small number we'd be ordering. So instead, I picked up some plain white printable invitations at Target on clearance (30 invitations and envelopes for $15) and poured my wannabe graphic-designer soul into creating a modern, casual invitation design. Let me tell you, I spent HOURS playing with different font families - I chose the ornamental one after my photographer posted it on Pinterest (thanks, Amanda)! Despite the bit of extra time and effort, I really like how they came out. Sure, the mismatch between the online and paper version bothered me a tiny bit at first, but it was kind of fun to design two invitations. Plus, if you're using The Knot's website builder you can even import a Paperless Post theme, so I'm appeased that our online invitations match our website.

Sorry about the photo quality, but trust me- they came out great!

Would you ever send online invitations? The most common criticism I've heard is that online invitations don't abide by etiquette, but to that I say, Welcome to 2014. ;-)