The One Where My Mom Wears a Dress

Although my mom is unquestionably beautiful, has flawless skin and a rockin body, she'll be the first to call herself a tomboy.

She grew up with 3 brothers, races motocross with my brothers, got her black belt a year or two after I did (at age 35) is an excellent shot with a handgun, prefers a stick shift and regularly hounds me to go skydiving with her. Case in point, she's awesome. She also raised 3 children, did all of the above, and went back to school to graduate with a business degree all at the same time. She's my role model in all that I do. She does not, however, wear many dresses! She jokes that the only real dresses she's ever worn were for prom and on her wedding day, and my grandma jokes she would've shown up in slacks to those too, if she could've!

I think she's plain silly, because as you can tell, she sure did enjoy trying on these!

My mom was 21 when she had me, her first child, so she'll only be a youthful 43 at the wedding. She was quick to demand that she not be put in any old 'grandma dress.' You know the type!

Cameron Blake by Mon Cheri

So off we went to the mall. The funny thing is, my mom was cursed almost immediately by the wedding faux-paux of white dresses. Pretty much everything she liked was some variation of white or cream! I kept my cool, obviously, and it became more of a joke than anything else. Besides, she insisted that people still dye clothing these days, which remains unconfirmed.

One such example was this, which we found at a BCBG Maxeria. I really did like everything about it except that it was stark white! We almost bought it too, "to dye it", until the store refused to honor a sale price, and then we left on principal.

That was the only contender from our first trip, but a second trip to Macy's at Northpark bore more fruit.

Check out that sassy hip! This one remains my favorite.

We liked everything about this one but the shoulders. Isn't that a bummer when one detail ruins the whole dress?

The attitude returns, and I loved this Calvin Klein dress! Mama Manatee didn't think it was formal enough, but it sure was slimming.

 Pictures definitely dont do this one justice. It was a very pretty light silver, not cream like in the picture. It also had sequins all over that picked up the light in a gorgeous way.

We ended up putting the silver dress and darker blue dress on hold, hopefully to return with MIL Manatee to see if we they find anything they both like!

I bet none of you believe that Mama Manatee doesn't like dresses either, the way she was sassing it up in her pictures! We had so much fun we forgot to get to the main mall to make a return before it closed!

Did you make a day out of 'finding the dress' for your mom too?

Video Killed the Budget...Until!

Disclaimer: I'm going to hope all of you love wedding videos of strangers as much as I do, because I've included a few!

Guys, I was just not feeling videography at first. I, like many others, thought it was just another expensive expense we couldn't afford. And I was perfectly happy thinking so! Until the lovely Mrs. Coach (or maybe Vanessa McKellar?) went and ruined it for me.

The first time I became even the slight bit interested in videography was after Coach posted about choosing her videographer, which happened to include this incredible piece by Vanessa McKellar.



The music, the love, the FUN! It was all captured so perfectly! And danggit, hive, I was hooked. Soon I was creepin all over the interwebs for more and more of these videos. Mr. Manatee found me several times cuddled up with my laptop and my comfy comforter (IKEA, you can make a mean goosedown.) with a single tear and the fear that our budget was out the window on this one.

Well, seriously, miracles happen. As it turns out, the woman that originally handled the Wedding coordination at our ceremony location passed the reins to a new coordinator. This coordinator met with us to discuss our membership and for the final word on if we wanted the sanctuary vs. the chapel. We'd been members for about 9 months at this time, and been attending faithfully. She was shocked that we still hadn't received any info about any member discount, and promptly gave it to us. And I swear. I danced. My eyeballs popped out of my skull. I kid you not, it was a grand cheaper than what we had been quoted for non-members. A G. One thousand dollars. I literally hugged the woman for releasing this information that made such a huge difference. Videography was on!

After checking out Ms. McKellar's website, it quickly became clear that no matter how the budget was coddled and stretched, it was just not going to happen with her. So I kept looking. The downside was that by the time we started looking at the beginning of June, we were no longer 'ahead of the game'. At only a year out from our wedding, we didn't have the pick of the litter anymore! It was a long process, but so worth it!

I initially stumbled upon Jeffrey Coombes at JChristopher Films. It seemed like a miracle, too good to be true. His prices started at $500. Turns out it was, since he was booked! However, remember that strategy I talked about about asking vendors if they could refer other professionals with similar styles? He kindly referred us to the talented Candlelight Films. Their videos were just as swoon-worthy! Their swanky website alone led me to believe that maybe we were back out of our budget. I was right.

Sarah + Kyle :: Coming Soon from CandleLight Films on Vimeo.

I told them upfront I was not looking for any type of discount, since June is prime real estate, and we all have bills to pay! Clint and Lauren were happy to refer us to the buried treasure, I Do Cinematics.

Now guys, I've said it before and I'll say it again (like with our wonderful photographer June Bug Company). If you glean nothing else from my posts let it be this. Get. In. On. The. Ground. Floor. 

 Matt and his now-fiance Claire were brand spankin new on the scene, but they had talent out the ears. Since we were mostly working on trust, they didn't have many videos to show me at the time, they were willing to work with us on our budget and got us an amazing package for an amazing price. Did I mention they are incredibly talented? They've recently been shooting a ton of styled shoots with some serious players in the wedding world like Southern Fried Paper, After Yes and Couture Events by Lottie. And did I mention they're already on the Black Book for Wedding Chicks and been featured on Ruffled Blog? Seriously. Talent. We met once and hit it off, and it was a done deal. I'm subscribed to them on Facebook, and every time they post some great news about their thriving business and recent engagement (yay!) I'm so happy and just a little more in love with them!


erica + jason // sneak peek from Matt McNeill on Vimeo.

If you havent figured it out by the videos I've posted, I adore the 'sneak peak', which are usually less than 5 minutes. I'm a strong believer in that your co-workers and acquaintances dont want to see a 300 picture album of your wedding. They dont even necessarily want to see a 12 minute video. But hey, under 5 minutes? Post that shiz on Facebook, on Twitter, wherever your heart desires. Flaunt it, its adorable.  

I hope I've been a videography eye opener like Mrs. Coach! Were any of your vendors a labor of research love? And wasn't it totally worth it?

And if we do, Where?

Despite the despair and confusion in my last post about the honeymoon, we actually have a few good ideas of where to spend this 3-4 night mini-moon! I'm going to list these in order from most-probable to mostly wishful thinking.

As a side note, we agreed pretty early on that we want our honeymoon (preferably scenic) to be 75% relaxation, 25% adventure. If you read my last post, you'll know why. Spoiler Alert: Sh*ts about to get real hectic.

1. Austin's Hill Country

Images by Classeguide

Austin is only about a 3.5 hour drive (and one we and GM T make frequently). The hills of Austin are gorgeous, and Austin has some pretty-impressive resorts available. Given the Manatee's fondness for drink, downtown has unlimited nightlife and activities to keep us busy for the 25% adventure. Cheap, close and hello. Its Austin. Need I say more? However, we've also been there many times. Is this the most exciting option? No.

2. The Oregon Coast

Img by Tripadvisor

Img by Walldesk

I hate to admit this, but Twilight had some seriously jaw-dropping scenary. I investigated where it was filmed. If you guessed Washington, that is incorrect. Oregon. Also partly filmed in British Columbia,which is absolutely breathtaking in general. That is, if I'm allowed to make generalizations about a part of Canada where I was born and spent half my life. Because I'm a Canadian citizen. Am I getting off-topic? ANYWAY.

Oregon is gorgeous.

It has a beautiful coastline, Portland, canyons and mountains. Silver Falls State Park http://www.oregonstateparks.org/park_211.php has 10 waterfalls. 10. Oregon also has white-water rafting, which I fell in love with during my two week stint in Costa Rica, and the Mr. got a taste of during one of our trips to Colorado.
Can you tell I've got my fingers crossed for this one?

3. A 4-day Cruise to the Bahamas.

Img by Bahamas Air Charter

My father used to travel quite a bit for his old job, and has quite a bit of travel points saved up. He has offered that we could use some of these travel points either for a cruise or (since the best cruises leave from Florida)  flights to a cruise. I've never been on a cruise (although Mr. Manatee has) and transportation and meals are mostly included! The bad side is, unless you want to just wander around on shore or stay on the boat forever, excursions are expensive. Also, Mr. Manatee has already been to the Bahamas (spoiled!) and we kind of want to go somewhere we've either both have or havent been to. That way neither of us will be too "been there, done that" about it.

Right now, the bahamas actually seems like the least tempting option! I never would have expected that.

Did you investigate non-conventional honeymoons?

Will We or Wont We?

No, this post is not about (in my opinion, WAY over discussed) wedding night sex.

This post is about the honeymoon!

Now when I first told people I was getting married during nursing school, I got a mixed bag of reactions: Mostly polite congratulations, some crazy looks, and just a little even flat-out-rude discouragement. I was originally  I think I'm getting a slight idea about why.

My particular nursing program is a 15 month 'fast-track' program, which means we pretty much go continuously for 3 month sessions with one week break inbetween. Guess which week DOESN'T fall on a break! Of course, the week after our wedding! Since it's a fairly newish program not particularly known its communication skills, my desperate pleas for information about this summer's schedule have been met with  a whole bunch of 'we're not really sure yet." The good news is, this program is online with 1-2 full days of clinicals (school time spent with real patients) a week. They THINK clinicals that semester 'might be on Tuesdays, but dont count on it" and there are rumors that we have a test every week. Joking, (or am I?) I may need some serious xanax that week.

Img by Some Ecards

Deep breath!

Because of this, we've decided that IF a honeymoon is gonna go down, it's going to be a mini-moon!

Here are some worst-case scenarios:
1. In the case that clinicals are ACTUALLY on Tuesdays, either head straight from the hospital to the airport (worst, worst case) or fly out bright and early Wednesday morning (slightly better). Study on the plane there/back for a hopefully non-existant test that next Monday. Damn.
2. Throw caution to the wind and re-schedule/skip clinical. Live in a bubble for the rest of the semester to prevent getting sick ever/having to miss another one.
3. Fake death. Go on mini-moon and never come back.
4. World ends on December 21st, situation becomes null and void.

Best case scenarios (unlikely)
1. No clinical that week. No test either. Best week of my life.
2. The nursing department decides that a mini-moon is a completely acceptable reason to miss 3-4 of material and I get off scott-free.

Also, since we'll have spent pretty much every dime we've ever earned on our wedding, we're largely relying on Mr. Manatee's Fancy New Job sign on bonus (which we may not even get in time) and hope that our guests continue to react positively to our Honeyfund.
And yes, we're doing a honeyfund.

All these things/stressful roadblocks beg the question...Do we really need to have a 'honeymoon' right away? Besides, we've already been - wait for it - cohabitating/living together/LIVING IN SIN  (nobody faint!)for over a year now. If honeymoons are traditionally for 'exploration', that ship has sailed.

Img by cheezburger

The only saving grace to this situation is that the mini-moon in question is firmly in Mr. Manatee's territory, and once we get the go-ahead on any of the above-mentioned scenarios, he's going to be planning it.

In summary:
Like many bees before me, I'm left biting my fanga-nails to the quick and trying to convince myself that its totally okay that we may not have a honeymoon/minimoon....yet.

You lazy blogger, you! / We find a photog.

I, like Miss Otter, have been on a little blogging hiatus due to a new job!! In addition to my original hospital, I picked up a job at a county hospital in Dallas! I adore my previous job working with mothers/infants and will stay PRN (very very part time, for non-medical folk!), but this new job is a really great career move. The transition has been time consuming, but exciting!

Anyway! I've teased a lot about our amazing photographer, but it's time for the reveal!

As I mentioned in my Risky Business post, I was totally in love with the photography of Jonathan Ivy and Allison Davis, but it just wasn't in the budget :(

I had actually heard of a photography company based in my high school hometown, Mansfield.  Daydream Photography was fairly new at the time that I contacted them. Small world - the photography assistant used to date one of my guy friends in high school. My younger brother's friend had their senior pictures done by them, and they recommended them. They mostly did senior pictures and family portraits, so I was skeptical. Sure enough, they did weddings too!

Photography by Daydream Photography

Photography by Daydream Photography

 I exchanged a few emails back and forth with the owner, and he was awesome! We had an in-person meeting at his studio, and he was always quick to respond to my emails (a big plus for me). He was willing to give us the printing rights as part of our package, and his prices were excellent. I was really hoping for someone who specialized in wedding photography, but with our small budget we were staying open-minded! I had a good feeling about it, but kept my options open.

I looked and looked and looked. I googled, I asked around, I flipped through countless wedding magazines, and haunted Weddingwire and The Knot.

I think everyone goes through a knot.com phase. Its so exciting, with the little countdown and the seemingly endless vendors! I dont know about you guys...but I grew disenchanted with the Knot very quickly. Checking out the $ page for photographers, I got well...nothing. Nothing really good, anyway. If my memory serves me right, The Knot insisted that only  4 photographers in ALL of DFW were in our price range. I checked out the first 3 web pages, found nothing special, and closed the page. I wish I had clicked on the 4th, because she ended up being our photographer!

Later in my search, I came across June Bug Company.

All photography by June Bug Company

Seriously, I had a hard time even picking just 3 to post on here.

This is really where 'getting in on the ground floor' really, really, really helps. Nadia had been in non-wedding photography for a while, when another photographer called asking for her help shooting a wedding. After that, she couldn't get enough. She'd only been on her own doing purely wedding photography since the end of 2010. But she is holy-crap amazing. Since we booked her, she's been featured in several magazines, added an unbelievable amount of weddings to her gallery and has just gotten better by the day. I love that she captures a sense of fun in all of her pictures!

Funny story, when we decided to meet at Starbucks after a flurry of emails, I almost missed her! She was the tiniest little person (although, that's compared to me at almost 5'10), and looked about 21. The meeting was supposed to be quick, but we were there at least an hour, we just clicked!  The funny thing is, we both thought we were drastically younger than we are! I kept talking about graduation, and eventually she just looked at me with a totally straight face like "You seem really mature, but your parents are okay with you getting married in high school?" I thought I was going. to. die. laughing. I guess she thought I was like, 16. (Its probably the freckles!) I told her that was okay, since I thought she looked like she was still in college! 

She was a little over our budget, but we negotiated a package to include two photographers instead of one and an engagement shoot. We even kept the option open for a boudoir, ow ow! ;)

I couldn't be happier! Did you bond right away with your photographer?

In Lieu of Paper Sacks

I want my girls to look good. Like "I feel like a rockstar" good. Seriously! I'm not the kind of bride that is secretly plotting to make my ladies look a mess so that I'll look better by proxy. Hive, that is tacky. Also, no one wants to $100-$300 on a dress that they hate. I don't even like spending that much on dresses I like.

But when I originally asked my bridesmaids what kind of dresses they were thinking about for the wedding, they were totally wonderful....but also very vague. They assured me that "they'd wear a paper sack if I wanted them to". Well, hive, I'm here to announce the official cure for well-intentioned "I'll wear whatever you want" bridesmaids! Spoiler alert: Terrorize them with pictures like this.

Img via RackedNY

I had had some ideas before, mostly Pinterest inspired, but I was torn between matching and mismatching dresses. To add even more indecision, 'mismatched' also has about 10 different ways TO mismatch.

Our only confirmed wedding colors are blue and gray. It just so happened that my favorite inspirations were usually one or the other of these colors. I also knew I would really life them in soft, light fabrics like chiffon. I wasn't sure if I preferred that they be long or short, just that they all chose long or all chose short. I loved 'matching' options like these...

Image via Style Me Pretty

Img via Em for Marvelous

But then the mismatching options were cute too....

Img via Style Me Pretty Photography by Jen Fariello

Img via Princess Wedding Styles

I loved that the mismatched options also worked really well with my ombre theme!

In case your head is spinning with options like mine was, I found this awesome blog post with examples of each mismatched 'style'. I posted this link to my "Bridesmaids!" Facebook group (which I would highly recommend!) to clear things up so they could choose their favorite!

I polled my bridesmaids, and they actually unanimously picked long dresses over short. They also liked the same color, different dress idea! Now just to decide on blues or grays!

Next we'll try some on!

So much Cake Porn

As you can probably tell by now, Mr. Manatee is taking what you might call a "hands off" approach to wedding planning. This is pretty much okay with me, since it means he pretty much trusts my opinion but isn't afraid to step in if one or two of my ideas go terribly wrong. I also attribute this to a sweet conversation I happened to walk in on between Daddy Manatee and the Mr. He explained it to Mr. Manatee like this. "Your job is to show up, look nice for pictures, and be absolutely amazed at everything she's put together." When he puts it like this, how could I possibly disagree?

But the cake? He was all over that. To be honest, he's not actually much of a cake person normally, so this surprised me. Picking out table linens? Not so much. For me, it was not as much about taste as it was about design. Duh!

I was swooning over these beauties. Sensing a theme? Yeah, me too. Ombre, yet again, and no fondant!

Img via Wedding Chicks Photo by Austin Gros

Photo by Martha Locklear

Img via Ruffled Blog Cake by A Cake To Remember

My mom teased me that she would make sure a traditional fruitcake would be present, as is tradition in Canada. She was only joking, since she had adamantly protested that there would not be one at her wedding, but Grandma Manatee slipped one in at the last second!
Admirably sneaky, but gross.

Image by Aussie True Blue Recipes

We also knew we wanted to have a Grooms Cake! Despite the fact that the slices are usually inexplicably 50 cents cheaper, its the one of the few chances the couple has to really showcase the groom's personality. And an excuse to have a cake dripping in chocolate, usually.

Because of Mr. Manatee's Ohio roots, he's a die-hard Buck-eye fan, and we're hoping to somehow combine the sports element in these two chocolate-on-chocolate cakes. I'm dying just thinking about it.

Image Via World Wide Wedding and Bride

Img via Pinterest

Stay tuned for our cake tasting adventures!

What I'm Most Excited For

What I'm most excited about, besides the ceremony and the dress and the cake and....
Well, high on The List of Things I'm Excited About (which is about a mile long) is our decision to use Wish Lanterns!

Image via Martha Stewart Weddings

Previous bloggers have explored Wish Lantern options,  like Mrs. Frog!

I have to admit, most of my desire to have this as a main-event for our reception stems from Tangled. I mean, what bride has watched that movie and not had their eyes grow big as saucers with the sheer possibility of this amazeballs tradition.
Now Tangled gets cray with it, since it's a whole village sending these off. Thats simply not in the budget. Although the best pictures I've found have several hundred, we're hoping for a similar effect with 50-75. Since I'm sure everyone has heard some horror stories about setting these off, we're going to take a ton of precautions. Luckily our awesome venue has okay-ed the idea, and there's a huge parking lot nearby we can set them off without any trees or buildings getting involved. If we order 50-60, we'll be able to ask our guests to partner up to coordinate the launch, so no one has to figure it out by themselves. We're also toying with the idea of asking a fire marshall to come out? Like I said, precautions.

Our daydream for this idea looks like this

Image via Forevermore Events

NOT THIS


Wish Lantern has them for around $2.50 a piece (if you buy at least ten), BUT I found a listing for 50 for $34.99 with Best Choice Products on Ebay. Am I suspicious? Maybe. But considering that 50 lanterns on the Wish Lantern website would run me $139.99 + tax + shipping, I think it's worth the risk. Stay tuned for when we test one out!

Even if my gamble is a bust and I have to pay full price, I still think they'll be a really affordable way to make a big statement. So romantic! 

Do you have any experience with Wish Lanterns?

Bee, Bee, Manatee!

I know every says this, but I can't believe I'm writing this! I really, really cant.
And I can prove why!

When I turned in my application about a month ago, I was usually talking Mr. Manatee's ears off about one of two things: the wedding, and getting into nursing school. More specifically,
1. Becoming a bee
2. Getting into nursing school at our current university, not somewhere in a galaxy far far away (like East Texas.)

Now I may have gotten a C in statistics, but when I saw on the website that only 5% of applicants got accepted as bees, I knew enough to know that 5% roughly translates to....

Wormhole Riders

So earlier this month, when I got accepted to nursing school at my University, which is rumored to have a 10% acceptance rate, I calculated (and I had to google the equation! Doh!) that my chances of getting in to nursing school AND getting a good email from Mrs. Pengy were....... .005%!   Good Lord! Case closed. Or so I thought!

Now that you know I'm a complete nerd, you understand my reaction when I got the news!  After stepping out of the shower and checking my mobile email on a whim, I ran to the front door in my towel to yell down the hall after Mr. Manatee, who had just stepped out. I probably scared him half to death! I'm betting my neighbors also think I'm a nutjob, for hanging my head out the door hollering "I'M A BEEEEEE".
 No lady, you are clearly not a bee, you're a soaking wet person.

Given these odds, I really should have bought a lottery ticket! Either that or I'll never win anything in my life ever, because I've used up all my impossible luck.

Anyway! We're the manatees, and we're madly in love.

At our favorite college bar :)

Mr. Manatee is finishing up his last few months as a Civil Engineering student, and I'm a newly minted Nursing student! We were born 2563 miles apart, and its crazy to think that 100 years ago we may never have met! We met in college on a forced blind date by his roommate, who insisted we were perfect for each other! We were living it up after recent breakups on both sides, and neither of us were crazy about the idea. We finally agreed to meet, and the rest was history!
We're the perfect balance! I'm a little silly and spontaneous, he can be very reserved and likes to think things through. I could get lost in a cardboard box and he can navigate his way out of anywhere. We've been through some definite ups and downs, but we always get through it together!

We've been together for over two years, and we've been engaged for a year already! We're ready to get this show on the road! We're planning a ombre/watercolor, fun and laid back celebration with around 100 of our favorite people. Its hard to put a finger on our 'theme', but we're going for fresh and fun with a variety of blues, grey and maybe even a raspberry pink! Although we're getting married at a B&B, you wont find any chalkboards or mason jars at our shindig! 

So why the manatee? Well...we spend a TON of time in and around water? Or cuz its stinkin cute, thats why! 

Cant wait to share our story with you, and get to know the hive better!

Twogether in Texas

We've  always known we would do some sort of premarital counseling. Both of us grew up with the mentality that divorce is not an option. Considering that the divorce rate in the United States is a staggering 50%, we knew we wanted some tools to help ward off those odds. It didn't hurt that our church also required it for us to be married, but they were incredibly flexible about where it was done!

Early early this morning (8am on a Saturday, ouch!) Mr. Manatee and I battled OU/Texas traffic up to Anthem in Dallas for our premarital counseling seminar. Texas has this fantastic (and completely free!) program for engaged couples called Twogether in Texas. Completely non-faith based, this program approaches touchy subjects like communication, anger, money, previous marriages and blended families. Surprisingly, sex was not really discussed! After completion of the full day program, couples receive a certificate of completion that earns us $60 off our marriage license! I actually found this program on the side bar of advertisements on Facebook.

We dragged out of bed at 7am, picked up some liquid courage and joined seven other couples in the most fantastic full backed leather chairs.

The class ran from 8:00-4:00pm, and it was surprisingly a lot of fun! The class was taught by a really wonderful couple who had been together for almost 25 years! They immediately got us up for several "Ice-breakers" that let us really get to know each other, including sharing our love stories. It was a really great mixed group! Because we got the awkwardness out of the way early, it was really amazing to get to hear and share personal stories and struggles we'd had in our relationships throughout the day. We also got a workbook with amusing pictures and interactive activities, a love language quiz and instructions to write an "Only You" love letter to our future spouse! Some of the discussions and activities were hard, but we learned so much! At the end of the day, this really tough-looking martial arts instructor shared his "Only You" letter with the group, and it was an incredibly touching tribute of his love for his future wife and incredible excitement about their child on the way. We all got a little teary-eyed! Mr. Manatee wrote me the sweetest letter that I can't wait to frame. 

Oh yeah, and we got free lunch!

Did you opt for premarital counseling? Was it a chore to get through, or an experience you enjoyed together?

Giving This Thing a Theme

We've played around with a few color schemes. Some with pink as the fifth color, some with coral, one with green. But the blues have always been the 'base' of our color scheme. Blue is my absolute favorite color, and given half a chance I'd paint every wall in our apartment a different shade. Blue is Mr. Manatee's second favorite color, first being green (check out that second color scheme!).  But truth be told, the fifth color is not as important ....yet. If it were up to me, we'd only be doing the blues, gray and glitter (!!!),

So pretty!

In a perfect world! But our slightly pushy florist insists we need CONTRAST. We're still hammering out the details of that elusive 'contrast color', but what we do know for sure is the ombre/watercolor theme we have going. I was initially worried Mr. Man wouldn't be on board with the 'ombre' idea, but he actually really liked it once I'd shown him some pictures! His words were "As long as everything is not bright pink." What a blessing to have such creative license ;). I posted on Weddingbee a few months ago my inspiration board I sent to my lovely Canadian aunt who is doing our invites. As other bloggers, and my favorite fictional character Robin Cherbotski,  have mentioned before, it seems to take a little while for wedding (or any) trends to hit Canada.

"The 80's didn't come to Canada till like '93."

Anyway, ignore the purple in the picture, I'm mostly looking at theme. But aren't these ombre blues to die for?

What do you think for our elusive 'contrast color'? Pink? Green? Maybe even yellow? Who knows!

Risky Business

We (I) started looking for a photographer pretty quickly. Several years ago, my aunt (the mother of our adorable ring bearer!) had an intimate destination wedding on the beautiful island of Kauai. She had a gorgeous ceremony, a handsome groom, unbelievable weather (and yours truly as a junior bridesmaid!) It was perfect! The only thing she didn't have? Pictures.

My aunt and her husband

My aunt is a smart woman, an artist, and not strapped for cash. She is also the last person who would hire someone unprofessional, untalented or suspiciously priced. He showed up to the wedding, did his thing, and that was that. He sent them a few sneak peak pictures a week or two later and then....nothing. Long story short, he skipped town. This was probably eight or nine years ago, and as far as I know, she still hasn't heard from him. Thankfully my grandparents are never without a digital camera, so she still had a few pictures to treasure.

It's interesting the level of trust we place in our vendors; how huge it is that we place our perfect day in their hands! Of course things like contracts protect our financial investments, but that's hardly a consolation. I sometimes suffer from memory problems (I guess my doctor would blame it on ADD) and I'm committed to remembering every detail. Because of this and my aunt's experience, I was prepared to do my research. I'm not sure how long Weddingwire or similar review sites have been around, but I creep those sites like nobody bidness.

Problem: our budget was relatively low. Our original budget for photography (with or without engagement pictures) was originally $1800, or 10%. Luckily, our long-ish engagement gave us (me) plenty of time to search.
SPOILER ALERT: We discovered later that the best way to stay in budget was to find a photographer etc whose style we really loved, tell them our budget dilemma and ask them if they happened to know anyone with a similar style whose business is relatively new, but may have been a 2nd shooter/intern for someone prestigious for years. They have the talent and respect of a professional, but not the 'reputation' that costs you. If you have the time to find that balance, I highly recommend this method!

We considered a few options. I think everyone within 100 miles knows that photographers like Allison Davis and Johnathan Ivy are pretty much the gold standard in Dallas. They absolutely deserve every penny! I love their work, and with that in mind, I set out to find someone with similar talents more in our price range. It was an adventure!

Photo Credit: Jonathan Ivy

Photo Credit: Allison Davis

Despite being amazing in their own right, these particular pictures are of our venues! Left: Reception Right: Church (More on that later!)

Have you had any family experiences that effect the way you deal with vendors? Are you willing to trust a relatively new vendor if they are backed by professionals?