Are you gonna make that?

Taking a small break from the posing tutorial (of dubious quality!), I've been thinking about a question I get asked a lot.

"Are you going to make your dress?"


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I've been asked this question since before I got engaged. I completely get the meaning behind it - I sew, and I sew well, so why wouldn't I - and I'm doing my best to take the question as a compliment and not get amused at how frequently I hear it. Everyone who's asked me doesn't know that everyone else has also asked.

So here's the skinny. No, I'm not making my dress. Why? There are a few reasons.

Posing for Photos Tutorial - Part 2

So, here's your photo shoot. You're wandering around a park, taking amazing pictures with your photog, and you reach a bench. She says, "You two sit there and I'll take the picture from over here!" And then she bounces off to her location, leaving you to get yourselves settled. What do you do to look your best? I have one major point of advice.

Arch your back.

If your photog asks you to sit down on a bench, you can most definitely avoid sloppy sitting posture. Most people let their backs bow out and slump their shoulders forward in a natural sit, but during a shoot, you want to look as sharp as possible. It can be difficult to maintain good sitting posture, especially if you don’t have something to lean against.

Why should you arch your back? It will minimize waist flab (Yes, we all have it, but this can help!), get rid of the back hunch, and it can also help show off your neck.

Posing for Photos Tutorial - Part 1

After all the wedding forum browsing I’ve done lately, I feel pretty confident that there needs to be some kind of tutorial out there for couples who don’t take a lot of photos. There are a lot of folks out there who feel very uncomfortable with posing for pictures, probably because they’re never the focus of a photoshoot.

A lot of people don’t have to analyze how they appear in pictures. They usually see photos taken from group shots at bars or parties, and there isn’t a specific pose involved.


We're all champions of a the snuggly-up party pose!
That being said, learning to pose can be hard. Nobody knows exactly what they look like when they get in front of the camera lens. A lot of people have unconscious behaviors they do when the camera focuses on them. When I first started doing costuming photoshoots, I tilted my head to the side like a golden retriever. Why? It felt cute. I have a friend who used to clench her jaw very tightly so she looked uncomfortable in all her photos. Heck, look at the girls on America’s Next Top Model! They pose every day and still have trouble.

Shoes: I receive ye!

After finding a pair of super cute Sanitas at DSW this weekend, I got to thinking again about reception shoes. I've already found the shoes I'm wearing for the wedding, but they're definitely not something I could dance the night away in.

A lot of bloggers and folks recommend Converse. Converse has a section on their site that lets you customize a shoe, and I've toyed around with that a few times, but I'm not sure that Converse are for me. I don't wear Converse as a regular part of my day-to-day fashion, so it seems like that choice would ultimately be one that wouldn't serve me well.


They are cute, but I'm not sure they're for me!
Instead, I wear Sanitas a lot of the time. Sanita is a brand nearly identical to Dansko - something Dr. Light introduced me to early in the relationship. As he works in a hospital and can be on his feet during rounds, it's essential that he have a comfy shoe. He kept extolling the virtues of how comfy they were, so I finally tried them out.

I finally got these.
And I love them. I wear them with all sorts of stuff they don't match because they're THAT comfy. They're one of the only pairs of shoes I have that I don't need to put insoles into, and that's saying something.

So, that got me thinking. Why choose to wear the popular shoe at my reception just because it's the popular shoe? I went hunting for a purple pair of Sanitas (or Danskos) and only came up with this:


But is purple quilt really what I want? I still have just under a year to find a pair that matches my vision better - but it's more that Sanita needs to PUT out a shoe during this year. If I don't find them, it's not the end of the world - I have two other pair (one not pictured) that could serve me just fine, but there's a tiny part of my soul that hopes the right pair will materialize out of fairy dust.

I feel pretty strongly that a shoe I love is better than just going with the current trend. I wonder what other folks have decided to do regarding reception shoes and bucking the Converse bandwagon.

Featured on Weddingbee

Today one of my favorite engagement photos was featured on Weddingbee in their Gallery of the Day.

Check it out!

The Engagement Party

I admit it now: this post is long overdue. We had our engagement party back in September. My dad and stepmom threw it, and it was a blast. The only downside was that Dr. Light's mom was in a non-serious car accident after she left, so a few other members of his family had to skedaddle too.

I also managed to catch no photos of Dr. Light's family. I think it will have to be up to him to grab some, as taking photos, schmoozing, and drinking get kind of hard for me. :)

My stepmom changes the chalkboard art on her kitchen pig. For the party, our initials!

Unexpected Advice

On Monday, Dr. Light and I had the pleasure of sitting down for a test run with a caterer, The Food Guy. Instead of having generic menus with a price point, this caterer will help you come up with ideas with cost based on number of proteins in your meal. This allows them to fit the meal to a theme.

They were fantastic. We tried a very delicious salad that had vinaigrette dressing, a cut of pork that was so tender I almost thought it was beef, mashed potatoes and spinach, and a little slice of cake. I'm pretty sure that we'll end up going with them, as we had several personal visits by the owner, a very friendly rep who would help us on the wedding day, and a good overall feeling to the entire affair.

What I didn't expect, however, was the unexpected advice we got.

After we sat down in the tasting room, Dr. Light was across from our rep, a shorter woman named Brittney. We chatted for a while, and then suddenly Brittney grabbed the very tall centerpiece from the table and moved it to the floor because she couldn't see Dr. Light over its flowery stems. She said something to the effect of, "Make sure your guests can see one another."


An example of a centerpiece I think is too big!

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For her it was probably a throwaway comment, but it definitely made an impact on me. While browsing for various wedding ideas, I've seen my fair share of tall centerpieces - flowers, manzanita branches, candles, elaborately tiered boxes and birdcages. Sure, they've all been pretty, but it made me realize that no matter how pretty a centerpiece is, it's not doing a good job if your guests can't see each other at the table. I think it stifles conversation cross-table, or, at the very lease, causes frustration.

My goal is to have any centerpiece we choose be something that our guests can see each other over so nobody has to do the duck and weave all evening long. I'm just really glad we had that moment of unexpected advice, since I think it will definitely change how I approach our decorations. I hope to post some thoughts about mockups sooner rather than later, but right now I have plenty of time to think.

A Ring

A few weeks ago I decided to take our shiny, brand new camera outside and snap some quick ring photos. All I had before that was an iPhone photo, and while ok, wasn't what I wanted to post all over the blogosphere. I decided to use some of the pumpkins and corn we bought at our engagement shoot as setting pieces.

I particularly cherish the idea of an engagement ring because, in my eyes, it not only symbolizes the love that Dr. Light has for me, but for the item he's given me to protect - a representation of his love and his heart. Ok, enough with the gooey stuff.

Here are a few of my favorite shots.