Photography.

Oh... if there's anything I could become completely fanatical about, it would be photography.

I mean, it's just so... beautiful. I love everything about it... the different lighting, the shadows, photo editing, the click sound it makes when taking a picture, the ART of it, how it can completely change a perspective on a subject by capturing it in a different angle or light. *Le Sigh. I wish I could BE a photographer...

Anyway, enough about my love affair with photography... I think one of the things I am looking forward to the most about the wedding is getting the amazing pictures back afterward. No seriously, that is actually the thing I am looking forward to the most. (And having my friends and family witness the most important moment in my life, but besides that...)

I might actually use half of my wedding budget to afford the perfect photographer (er... floral arrangements? Who needs those!) Anyway, so I found a few really amazing photographers located in Virginia. I figured I'd save them for when I actually need to come back and look for some later. In fact, I know people who know people who have used some of these... so they MUST be good! :)

Also... another thought, engagement photo shoot or no?
Are they worth it? Because... it's so expensive and I'd like to just use that money to have a great photographer on the actual wedding day (did you get that memo?) Maybe I'll just force AJR to truck around with me and my tripod randomly over the next few months and let me embarrass him with my obsessive photo taking.

**That picture is of us just hanging out in the yard this past weekend. He's fun :) (taken by us with my tripod)

MY LIST:


Casey Templeton Wedding Photojournalism

Jodi Miller Photography

Patricia Lyons Photography

Open Air Photography

Wedding Photojournalist Association (this one is a list of photo-journalists in Virginia... probably too far out of my budget, but hey I can dream right?)

Cotton Candy

Last night AJR took me to a Redskins game. While there, I was dying to get some cotton candy. Ecstatic with my sugar rush I exclaimed, "Omigosh, I LOVE cotton candy! Can we please have it at our wedding?!?!" To which he replied with a small shake of a head and a "um. no."

Hmm... Maybe it was because he was so absorbed in watching the game that he wasn't able to quite picture glorious puffs of artificially colored sugar making their rounds at our wedding reception...

How serious was he about that no?

(How serious was I with that idea?)

I decided to google image "cotton candy wedding" and I found one. Kinda cute. :)cotton candy bride

The Point

Normal people would think this is awkward. But I have no shame.

The past few weeks I have become utterly OBSESSED with blogs... namely wedding blogs. And wow! There are a TON of amazing ideas out there. Which led me to the conclusion that I should in fact, start my own to compile all my favorite things I find to weed out the stuff I don't want.

The kicker is... (*drumroll) I'm not actually a bride yet... (ahem. cricket cricket.)

HOWEVER... here's the deal:

I am in love with my best friend. He is my world, and his name is AJR. The coolest part about it all... is he feels the same about me, and we plan on getting engaged asap! He had dinner with my parents a few nights ago and popped THEM the question, so now I will wait around hopelessly until he he pops ME the question :)

To pass time, and because I am undoubtedly one of the most impatient human beings on earth, AND I am somewhat a perfectionist, I decided to take the liberty of "fake-planning" my wedding until I'm really allowed to. So... browsing fun DIY wedding ideas and photography sites never hurt anyone, right? Right? Er....