E Shoot Planning: Part Two

So planning what to wear for the E Shoot is the best part, right? I think so! Currently we have two outfits picked out, and I love to come up with a third but I'm not sure yet. We have a fancier look and more casual one picked out. In order to blog about it (and email it to BM Marie), I used Polyvore. I'd never used it before, but its fantastic. I highly recommend it for making inspiration boards!

E Shoot 1 by one23mad
(For sources, click on the e shoot 1 link)

Anyway, after pending way too many hours looking at dresses and trying to plan a trip to Anthropologie, I visited TB and tried on some dresses at the mall by him. I was super shocked to find a dress I loved. It was cute on the hanger and double cute on me. It fit perfect (unlike a dress from VOn Maur I would have had to get altered, but it was a runner up). It was listed for $100. . . but I got it on clearance for $30 from JC Pennys. I was surprised to find anything at Pennys, especially because the one by TB is super super small.

So I couldn't be more excited about the dress, and I'm still shocked I found it. It must have been my lucky day! After setting aside $120 to buy a dress, finding one I like just as much for way less was a great feeling.

TB also bought some nice pants from gap (the pink shirt in the photo is from gap, but TB is just using a pink shirt he all ready owns). The pants were 25% off and he got a Gap card too for another 10% off. In the end, he got 3 pairs of pants (for student teaching) and 3 pairs of shorts. He now has shorts that fit without holes! Yay!

Next are those amazing heels. I actually found them at Famous Footware for $30 (they're listed for more on the website). Seeing as I have no heel experience and they're crazy tall, I've been practicing. Once I got over feeling fifty stories tall and super wobbly, I started to get the hang of them. And Confession? I love them! I've never been very girly but I feel super hot in those shoes. I finally get why ladies squeeze their feet into crzy shoes now. . . You feel like a rock star!

And, as I've all ready mentioned TB's Samba Obsession, he'll of course have to wear them! (The new pair he just bought. . . that look like the same ones he just wore out).

Anybody else rockin' crazy heels?

E Shoot Planning: Part One

So Mr. TB and I have officially booked our E Shoot for Monday July 19th. I've all ready requested the day off work, but any day off work is a good one for me! Just kidding. But seriously, I've been spending my 2 weeks vacation in my head. It goes something like this: E shoot = one day, grandpa's bday party = 1 day, Friday before wedding = 1 day, honeymoon = 5 days. . . so we're at 8 days? I only have two left?! I've only had vacation time for a week and I've all ready almost spent it haha. Bummer.

Anyway! On to the good stuff! Miller + Miller has the best eshoots ever, I've decided. Don't believe me? Take a gander at these puppies:



I really tried to narrow it down. . . I really did. It's a good thing blogger only lets you upload a few at a time, other wise this post would be all photos. Anyway, if you want to see more (which you should!) check out Miller+Miller's website. You will be happy you did.

TB and I have been trying to decided where to have our shoot, and we're still working on it, but Sarah emailed me some tips which I figured I'd share. (Sarah is great about email and she has no idea how much I appreciate it. Being stuck at my desk all day with no time for personal calls makes phone correspondence very difficult).

Here are Miller+Miller's engagement session tips (all credit goes to M+M for this):
Perhaps bring two changes of clothing.
You might consider:- Something a bit more dressy ( perhaps a cocktail dress & heels paired with a collared shirt / coat jacket for the guy )
- Something more fun ( like a summer sun dress or jeans and a trendy shirt )

Additional tips:
- Cute shoes and heels ( black or especially one's with color pink, red, yellow, turquoise, etc. ) are always an excellent added touch in the photos.
- Bring along comfy shoes ( in place of the heels while we are finding shoot locations if you'd like)
- Often added accessories (like shoes, sunglasses, purses, bags, props, etc.) can help enhance and
create distinctive photos for you. If you want to bring any extra personalized items, feel free.

So, TB and I seriously need to decided where we're shooting, but we do have our outfits picked out! More on that later. Sarah said most couples bring 2-3 outfits so we're looking for a third.

Oh and since I know you want more, here's another for the road:
Anybody else seriously crush on their photog's photos?

Photooooh no!

Finding a photographer was a headache. I mean, I was frustrated and angry and I stated to feel hopeless. I had searched photogs on and off for about six months and had some results. I found one guy who I thought was perfect... well, the price was perfect. I emailed TB and was all, "Check it out, yo! It's perfect!"

Welllll, it wasn't perfect, exactly. It got to a point where I began looking at prices before I looked at photos. I went back to look at his (we'll call him DP) photo's after I had set up a meeting annnnd I was, really, just underwhelmed. Originally, I had kind of liked his work, but something had occurred to me that I don't know why I didn't really think of before. Here's the thing, a photographer chooses what photos from each wedding or event (s)he posts on his site. So what does it mean if some of the photos aren't great? What does that say about the photos we haven't seen? If the 'best of the best' so to say aren't the best, what do the photos we haven't seen look like?

Exactly my point. Right, which is why I canceled the meeting with DP and decided that he wasn't right for us.

Anyway after mucho headaches, I found the answer to our problems.

Enter: Miller + Miller photography.
I met with Sarah & Ryan Miller, the husband and wife team behind Miller + Miller on a Monday after work. Naturally, I got stuff in traffic, the drive took me 2 hours, and I was 30 minuets late. Yeahhhh, it was brutal.

But despite my lateness, Sarah and Ryan were still incredibly nice and funny. Right away, I felt I could spend my wedding day with them. As soon as I left, I called Mr.TB to tell him that we had to hire the Millers. We had no choice. TB said okay, and I emailed Sarah the next day.

It seems like the Millers have been super busy lately, as their website has been updated repeatedly, and every time I look at a new set of photos, I'm even happier with our decision.

Unlike most other photographers that I looked at, Miller + Miller doesn't charge per hour, nor are we locked into a 4, 6, or 8 hour day. We get them for the whole day and they just snap away without capping their photos at a certain number.

So, long story short, I love them. And you should too.

How to Involve Your Groom

(Image from Amazon: here)

So, as much as I love Mr. Giraffe (which I do!), we're very different people. I think one of the biggest differences between us is that I'm definitely a small picture person and Mr. G is a big picture guy. Every time (almost) that we've talked about the wedding he just says "Whatever you want, Miss Giraffe" or "we can do that, Miss Giraffe" or, more likely, "I've told you a hundred times, the wedding and stuff isn't what matters to me, I'm just happy about they afterwards, about being married to you."

Okay, okay, so, yeah, I'm aware that it sounds sweet, but when I really need an opinion and legitimately want Mr. G to care whether or not I consider using rounded corners on our invitations, it can be a little frustrating. He just doesn't visualize things well, and being the big picture guy he is, he's all ready not worry about small details (i.e. rounded corners). I figured his big picture was that we're getting married, we're having a wedding and a reception, and that's it. I found myself getting frustrated and annoyed that I felt like I couldn't get him more interested in the wedding planning. He said, "It's not that I'm not interested, I just see the big picture." Well, big picture or not, G, this wedding isn't going to happen unless we get off our butts, make decisions, and plan it.

I'd been struggling with how to get Mr. Giraffe involved and more excited. I mean, he is excited, yes, but at the time when I was so frustrated, the day was still over 300 days away, how could he be excited then? Well, when we were garage sailing a couple of weeks after that, I found the Knot's Guide for the Groom. It was listed as $.50, but since I got that and other wedding book (also $.50), they gave them to me for $.25 each! Score!

Anyway, when Mr. Giraffe was on the bus on the way up to visit me shortly after that weekend, he read the book! I was actually surprised he read it. I mean, sure, I made him promise me that he would, but I didn't really seem him sitting down to do so. I thought it'd be like pulling teeth to have him sit down to do it. As he spends all day and night working, I couldn't picture him sitting down to read after a 14 hour day... so good thing he had a bus ride with nothing to do!

The weekend we were together after that, Mr. G was all about the wedding! I mean, we talked/planed about it constantly, but he had some seriously thought out input that time and read me passages out of the book about our planning timeline and getting our guest list completed. I was shocked! Well. . . shocked and totally excited of course! For the first time, Mr. Giraffe was getting into the details without me having to push him and ask him tons of questions. He started putting thought into everything, and I got really excited because after all, this wedding is about both of us, not just me (no matter how much I love being the center of attention.)

Mr. Giraffe said that the book was actually funny and he was surprised at how well written it was. I'm sure other grooms might enjoy its wedding to sports metaphors too. I'm not going to lie, I saw the same book at Border's, where it is $14. You might not be able to get it for $.25, but I recommend it for your groom. It's an easy way to get him excited and hopefully get him into planning as well.

How did you get your groom involved?

Here We Go

Okay, so its been quiet on Wedding Web Notes for a while. . .For a long while! Legit! But seriously, its been quiet because wedding planning had been quiet, but things are different now.

Last month, May 14th happened. That's right. May. 14. 2010. We hit the one year away mark. 365 days until the wedding! And all of the sudden its like there were a billion things to do or a hundred billion or something like that. It is seriously crazy. Of course, I (or ummm 'we') and totally exciting. After being engaged for a year and a half, we only have a year to go! Whooo hooo! It's about time, eh?

Anyway, now that its June, we have 11 months left and those billion things to do! I can finally get back to blogging because, for serious, there's actually things to blog about! For start, there's photographers now (!) and shoes and a new dress (well, for the future engagement shoot) and a certain interest in another dress, and a new season of True Blood. Well, okay, that last one isn't wedding related, but it is nearly as exciting.

I've had wedding on the brain for the last month now and it seems like things are really coming together. I cannot wait to share with everyone!