That Roman Bridal Shoot

I have been teasing you for weeks about this so lets get started at soaking in pretty pictures taken in a pretty place.

All photos by Denise Andersen.

Appearances can definitely be deceiving. The Trevi Fountain was ANYTHING but devoid of crowds that night. We started the shoot at around 11 pm and were lucky enough to find a little corner empty of people.

Once I established myself in this corner for shooting, people tended to stay away from me. Wearing a wedding dress gives you a strange feeling of power.

To achieve a floaty veil shot like this one, you must have a volunteer willing to throw the veil up in the air and run away as quickly as possible. My volunteer was a girl from the U.S. who had a friend with her that warned me the photos she was taking would be all over Facebook the next day.

I think we made it to the coliseum somewhere around 2 or 3 am. You will notice that in most of these photos I am not smiling, as I was focusing all of my energy towards trying to figure out what to do with that dang veil.

A gentle wind picked up towards the end of the evening and it was just perfect. It made the veil float, and it kept me from doing really weird things like wrapping it around myself like a mummy (you'll see a shot of that later).

These last few were taken somewhere around 3:30 am. I could hardly stand up straight, but the exhaustion was definitely worth it because they ended up being my favorite shots of the night.

If you see a look of extreme pain on my face it's because these shots were taken while my Mom held the camera in one hand and took the pictures, and used her other hand to yank my veil up and down. My poor sister will forever be a little bitter that she wasn't allowed to come along on this trip and act as the assistant photographer. We definitely could have used her for this part of the night.

Hands down, this black and white shot is my favorite. I love the movement in it, and that the coliseum is a little bit muted in the background.

Once again, thanks to MILLIE for loaning us this gorgeous dress, I hope it was worth it for them as it was for us! They have been working on taking new photos of their entire collection, and they look absolutely gorgeous, effectively proving that you do not need to haul one of these dresses to Europe to look great in it.

Have you for some reason not had your fill? There are even more pictures to be seen here!

Count me in!

Ladies, I'm in on the challenge. I stood up from my 10 pushups sweaty faced and shaky. I won't be enjoying this, but I will love my hawt arms when this is all over.

That Ring

It's been so hard to hold off showing you all my gorgeous ring. I've actually had it in my posession since April. Yes, I, the bride, have had it since April. I found it on the website Sylvia's Antique Jewelry. When we decided that this was the ring to order I wanted to do it as soon as possible because I was worried that someone else might snap it up before I could.

We were dating long distance and That Groom was coming up very soon and so it only made sense to ship it up to Utah where I was living. After we decided to keep it I somehow ended up storing it in my apartment at school until I moved down to Dallas. I cannot remember why this was the best plan, but it's a good thing that the ring was 3 sizes too small because the temptation to wear it around was huge. I was sworn to secrecy concerning its presence by That Groom and only allowed to show it to my immediate family.

The diamond is described as an "N" color on the website, which made me very nervous when we put in the order. The diamond does not look perfect by any means, but I'm okay with that.

The ring was listed as made of white gold, but the jeweler we took it to for the resizing told us it is actually made of platinum. What the? Yes, this makes me a little nervous because it seems like a pretty huge detail to overlook....but I love my ring so who cares? We have never had a full appraisal done on it, so for all I know the diamond isn't even real. The two of us made a decision when we took it out of the package, that the ring was worth what we paid for it because we both loved it. This may be a young and foolish mistake on our part, but a diamond like this is never really going to increase in monetary value, likely only emotional.

If you have found a ring on Sylvia's website that you are interested in, you can read a full review of my experience with them here.

Anyone else order their ring online and have that "love at first sight" moment?

That Proposal

That Bride is back and ringless no more! Let's dive right into the magical proposal, shall we? As you all know, I had an engagement shoot scheduled for the weekend that we were in Mexico on a vacation sponsored by That Groom's company. I did not know That Groom had slyly converted a portion of our engagement shoot to a proposal shoot as well.

Before we dive into the pictures let me give you a little bit of back story (or if you are like me, you will just scroll down immediately to see them and then come back up and read the story afterwards).

When we left on Wednesday, I was positive I would have a ring on my finger by Saturday night. That Groom did not appreciate my bragging about it, and he spent the entire weekend attempting to confuse me. First he tells me that we can't shoot engagement photos Saturday night because he wants to have some time for just the two of us. The next day he tells me it doesn't matter if Saturday night is free or not and acts like I am crazy for suggesting we might want to avoid making plans. Saturday nights engagement shoot didn't quite go as planned with fog and rain and stormy clouds forcing us to hike all over the coast of Mexico in an attempt to find a beach that wasn't either (a) private or (b) flooded out by a river of muddy water.

We ended the night on a busy beach right next to the city trying to catch some pretty shots at sunset. There was one moment where I was positive that it was going to happen. He had this look in his eyes and I was so ready, but then we were leaving and the moment was over.

That night, he kept telling me how sorry he was, how all of his plans had fallen through one by one and he had realized that he was just going to have to think of something to do in Dallas Monday or Tuesday before I move home to Washington on Wednesday. I was really bummed, and completely convinced that I would be getting on the plane without my pretty ring. I was worried it would be forced and rushed and awkward between him working so many hours to catch up from vacation and me trying to get all packed and ready to move home for 2 1/2 months.

We woke up the last morning of our stay in Mexico at 6 am to try another round of shooting. We shot for about 15 minutes when Kelli, the photographer, whispered in my ear that she would like to capture a few shots of me alone next to this hot pink wall we had seen. We slipped away for a second and told That Groom we would be right back. I spent the next few minutes trying to think up an alibi, as I was hoping these photos might be something I could give to him on the day of the wedding (I even slipped my little sweater off and paid some attention to my decolletage to give the shots a little va-va voom). He came looking for us a few minutes later telling us that we needed to hurry back to the beach because it was starting to get crowded with people.

As we were walking back, Kelli told us that she wanted to get some shots of us walking and holding hands. She stayed back to catch a few of us from behind, and then all of the sudden she was shooting out in front of us (literally dashing through the water). I thought she was just being really dedicated to the photos until I looked down to see rose petals and candles sprinkled in the rocks and sand. He had things set up perfectly so that I didn't even realize what was happening until we were literally standing right on top of them.

Apparently he had a whole bunch of people in on the setup, as my roomate on the trip was the one who brought down the candles, and a coworker helped him get everything set up on the beach. The concierge hooked him up with some of the biggest, reddest, rose petals I have ever seen.

I told myself so many times that I would not be overwhelmed by the situation and that I would write down everything he said in his proposal right afterwards. Even though I knew it was coming, it was still so fast and wonderful that I can only remember a few things he said. I remember he proposed using the special pet name he has for me, and it still makes me smile every time. The things I do recall, were beautiful and personal, all of the things I wanted most (I believe those few sentences are the most important part of the entire process!)

Despite everyones predictions, I did not cry. That Groom even revealed that he liked the idea of proposing at the hotel beach because he was worried I would cry so hard that I would smear my makeup and have to run up to the room to fix it. I love that he knows how much these pictures mean to me!

We kissed for a long time. I think Kelli probably got bored.

I rotated between being unable to take my eyes off of the ring and not being able to take my eyes off of my new fiance. I love the word fiance. Fiance, fiance.

I was so happy I kept clapping and yelling out into the ocean "I'm engaged!". I should have learned how to say it in Spanish as well because I don't think the people around me knew what I was saying.

Kelli emailed me these photos at 3 AM this morning, after taking them that morning and flying all day. The pictures are so amazing, and I love looking at them over and over. I think we shot for about 6 hours total during our stay in Mexico, so I should have a whole lot more in a few weeks.

Next up: The pretty pretty ring!

All photos in this post should be credited to my fantabulous photographer (and friend!), Kelli Nicole.

A to Z Meme

Downtown Southern tagged me on this A to Z meme today, and I'm always up for a good list of random facts about myself.

A. Attached or Single? Engaged
B. Best Friend? That Groom (sickeningly sweet I know)
C. Cake or pie? Cheesecake (which I consider to be a conglomeration of cake and pie)
D. Day of choice? Sunday
E. Essential item? My little baby, the g9
F. Favorite color? Black
G. Gummy bears or worms? Worms
H. Home town? Royal City, WA
I. Favorite indulgence? Weddingbee
J. January or July? January, because I hate being so hot in July
K. Kids? Not yet
tL. Life isn’t complete without? Really good tasting water
M. Marriage date? October 11, 2008
N. Number of brothers and sisters? One sister, One brother
O. Oranges or Apples? Apples
P. Phobias? Bees
Q. Quotes? "Are We Not Like Two Volumes of the Same Book?"~Marceline Desbordes-Valmore
R. Reasons to smile? I'm going to Mexico this week
S. Season of choice? Spring
T. Tag 5 people: I'm a bum. I am not going to. You should do this if you want, it's fun!
U. Unknown fact about me?
V. Vegetable? Onions and tomatos
W. Worst habit? Procrastination
X. X-ray or Ultrasound? Both
Y. Your favorite food? Cheese
Z. Zodiac sign? Aries
Z. Which zoo animal is your favorite? I should go to the zoo....

Plans Down The Drain

I had plans for posts. All kinds of posts lined up like little toy soldiers. Those plans fell through one by one, and in 5 hours I'm driving away to Mexico. I shall return with a ring, and too many photos for anyone to enjoy but myself.

But because I never want to post without adding a pretty picture.....look at those gorgeous heels she is managing in the sand!Photo by Mango Red

The EAD Library!

If you read all of the bride blogs that I do, you have already seen this announcement 274 times. Want to know why every single bride is writing about it today? No, we weren't paid. Really, there are no free handouts involved here. When I first started reading and commenting on EAD I was amazed to find personal replies in my inbox to some of the comments I was making. It was like getting individual attention from a blogging celebrity, and I was loving it. The more I commented and began to converse back and forth with EAD, the more I loved the two of them and what they are doing. They are like my new blog BFF's.

Now they have launched this new library that will eventually grow into a comprehensive resource for brides across the nation. The best part about this library is they have given us brides some control! Every single page on the site has a "Contact Us" link where you can submit links to wedding vendors you would reccomend. The sponsored links are clearly marked, but every vendor below that link is there because EAD loves them, a bride loves them, or because that vendor themself keeps up with the wedding blogging world well enough to know about this fabulous site and wants to be a part of it. I love that there is no question about whether vendors were chosen for the site based on the amount of money they are willing to pay.


When I said before that EAD could potentially become your best friends, I wasn't joking. They even took my suggestion and included a vendor review from a real bride on the front page! I absolutely hate when I can't tell if a site is made up of vendor reviews and reccomendations sponsored by ad revenue, and I think the words of a real bride eliminate that concern entirely.

If you haven't already, go check things out. I was very excited to see A Bride Beautiful (the store where I bought my dress), listed in the beauty section under bridal salons. Start submitting your own vendors to help build things up. I'm very impressed by how comprehensive the site is on the first day of the launch, and I can't wait to see where things go from here!

Sherbert Flavored Bridesmaids

Photo by Duston Todd

How to reuse those old prom dresses you have hanging in your closet. Definitely an interesting take on the rainbow color palette idea.

The Gift Giving Dilemma

That Groom likes it when I attempt to get excited about finances, so I subscribe to My Money Blog because I can send him links and impress him with my dedication to reading the posts. A few weeks ago the author wrote a post about how much a wedding gift should cost.

Image via flickr.

He suggested three factors to consider when buying your gift:

1. How close are you to the couple?

2. How fancy is the wedding?

3. What is your financial situation?

That Groom would say that #3 is the most important one, and he would be right. Yes, there are some couples who get a little bit greedy when it comes to gifts, but I think most couples are just genuinely pleased to see their loved ones show their support by coming to the wedding itself. Take what you can afford, and invest it in something off of their registry that you think will last.

If you are really stressed about what to get, talk to some of the women in your life who have been married for a long time now. Ask them what wedding gifts they are still using because there are definitely some things that last longer than others.

My personal plan of attack when it comes to gift giving is to buy the funnest looking item from the registry, and then take as many pictures as possible at the wedding. The photos won't be as pretty as what the photographer captures, but I don't think there was ever a couple that complained about walking away with too many photos of their wedding.

I'm Melting!

My core body temperature always seems to be 10 degrees higher than what everyones else feels. Which means I am a sweat-er. Not so much an armpit sweat-er, but a makeup-melting, hairline-soaking, red and splotchy face sweat-er. Having pictures on the beach is awesome, but not if my face is going to look like this:
'

Image found here.

I am planning on bringing blotting sheets, but other than that I have no experience with makeup melting prevention. Usually I just try to accept it and pretend like it isn't happening, but I don't feel like that will be the best method in Mexico. I think I have the mascara and eyeliner covered, but I have no idea what to do about the rest of my dripping face.

Any secrets people would like to share?

Feeling Beachy

Photos in the ocean always look so fun! Image by Apertura.

Our engagement shoot is occurring in Puerto Vallerta, Mexico, when we are on vacation next week. Such an opportunity is only occurring because my photographer is a friend and former college roommate.

That game plan:
The morning of the shoot we'll take the bus into town and shoot for a few hours. I hope to find an outdoor market and some fun alleyways to explore. I hate looking like a sweaty mess so we'll take a break in the middle of the day when it's all hot and rainy and gross. We'll resume shooting sometime after dinner and finish the evening all wet and sandy on the beach as the sun goes down.

Would you mind helping me choose which outfit would be best for our photo adventures? Vote yes on the outfits you think I should wear, no on the ones I should avoid. It would be best to vote yes for only two outfits, because voting yes for all of them doesn't really help me with my decision.

Outfit #1
The puffy sleeves might be a little trendy, but I love the bright color. But will my sweaty armpits just soak right through the material?

Outfit #2
This outfit isn't quite as bright and colorful, but it's sweet. The neckline makes me feel young and pretty.

Step #3
I'm still bolero hunting for this dress, but it's so beachy and bright. Who wouldn't want to splash around in the waves and frolic in the sand while wearing this?

Outfit #4
I'm not keeping the shoes. So try not to fall in love with them like I already have. This dres is all nautical and preppy, it even has little anchors on the buttons. I ordered cheapie $15 white flats from Target after I admitted to myself that the mustard colored flats just weren't working.

What would you recommend?

A Letter to You, Dear Reader

I would like to apologize to each and every one of you who have been faithfully commenting for months now, while enduring the blinding torture of entering in the word verification symbols each time.

After one of my favorite e-friends, Guilty, posted her rallying cry concerning the decimation of such an evil practice, I smugly commented on her post to tell her that I agreed and looked down upon those who engaged in such practices. Imagine my horror when I visited the post once again to discover that she had replied to my comment to inform me that *gasp* I did indeed have word verification enabled.

I wanted to protest, to scream and cry out NOOOOO, but a speedy perusal of my settings page revealed the filthy horrific truth. A few tears were shed, changes were made, and you, my dearest readers, can now comment away to your hearts content.

So please my friends, listen to Guilty. Learn from my mistakes. Exterminate this blogging curse from the land.

Guilty, I hope the love between us will only continue to blossom from this time forth.

All the best,

That (word-verification-free) Bride

Blow Them Up Big and Tie The String

Images here.

Image here.


Images here.

Did anyone else used to think as a kid that if you collected enough balloons that it might be possible to float away?

Images here.

I'm brainstorming lately about props like this that would be good for the engagement shoot.

Sombrero, sunglasses, and some of those mariachi things. And an umbrella because apparently it is supposed to rain every single day we are in Mexico.