our awkward DIY engagement photoshoot

our incredible wedding photographer costs a pretty penny, so when it came time to think about engagement photos we definitely had our work cut out for us.  i have taken more selfies of me and steve than i care to admit, so instead of standing awkwardly in front of a stranger with talent, we opted to stand awkwardly in front of a tripod to take our official photos of betrothal.

true story:  DIY actually isn't too bad a way to go if you know how to use a good camera and lens.  sure, it's kind of weird jogging between tripod and steve planted in the "don't move or else you'll be blurry" position, while strangers decide to stop and watch with interest from a standpoint that happens to be, you know, in the background of the photo...  but it's also free, which is neat.

also true story:  DIY engagement photos are a solid way to be really self-conscious about how weird you look taking fancy selfies in public.  still, i recently finished designing our save the date postcard, so now that i have an official picture selected (to keep confidential until we send the postcards out), i figured i'd share the rest of our hilarious, semi-embarrassing photo-shoot.

steve was making fun of me because i kept getting pissy with him for looking stiff.

so when i told him "be whimsical" he opted for the julie andrews sound of music pose.

yup, pretty much.

happy weekend recap

we have had the most beautiful weather imaginable lately. we had the whole weekend to ourselves and made the absolute most of it.  we're turning into old people or something getting up so early on the weekends, but we got a lot done and finally got a chance to have a minute to ourselves, which we've definitely been missing.

we had easy nights in, got some banking sorted out, got some engagement photos taken for our save the dates, and took a day to soak up the outdoors at oval beach on sunday.  i'm headed into winter kicking and screaming, but the weather's been nice enough to keep me forgetting that snow is a thing around here.  all things considered it was a pretty perfect weekend.  i'm ready for another one, but sadly can't forsee one for quite a while.  i think starbucks and i are going to be better friends.

hope everyone has a good start to the week!

word count: 31,103

werddings, merving, ermahgerd

i was originally going to blow you guys off again because our apartment still looks like this (above left... we fortunately do not have a horrifying pig-tailed woman lurking anywhere... that i know of).  however, since we have been without comcast all weekend, it feels wrong not to immediately hit up the blog with my new-found-non-3G-interwebs.

right now, adulthood feels like baptism by fire.  even though all i want to do is sit back and soak up the fun of moving in together and getting engaged we haven't a second to waste on such relaxation, unless we want to let our apartment turn into a more cluttered version of gollum's cave.  meanwhile, other obligations include: pinning down a wedding venue and date (merci parents for your patience and generosity), replacing steve's car (merci parents for your patience and generosity), getting ready for steve's trip to texas, getting ready for our trip to virginia for emily and colin's wedding, 

screw it, i'm not going to stress myself out further by putting my to-do list in writing.  that ain't my style.

because it is simply terrifying trying to write about everything going on right now, i'll instead compile a variety of pinteresty wedding photos that are on my do-not-want list.  perhaps this will evolve into a series of posts about things i don't want at my wedding.  i'll call it "she said no," or something.  we'll see.  it could just be sweaty shaking internet withdrawals that have me committing to something as hardcore as a blog series.

anyway, i apologize in advance for any silence that has happened here lately, or any silence from me that will happen round the blogosphere soon.  things are just plain hectic.  to amuse you, below are the photo-ops i will be banning from our wedding.

people might not understand how
happy we are if we don't write it down.

1.  crap written on chalkboards.  or scrabble tiles.  or pennant banners.

i'm pretty sure when i started elementary school back in 1995 chalkboards had long been obsolete.  adding text to photos also just seems so tumblr to me.  isn't a picture supposed to be worth a thousand words anyway?

2.  photos of our feet

i could tell you steve and i don't have the same size feet.  yes, i could tell you that, but it would be a lie.  unfortunately, this means we'll somehow have to remember our wedding without images highlighting our footwear.  i hope this is possible.

3.  the "american gothic"

this is a very popular photo pose i have seen and it has never made sense to me.  for the sake of brevity let's ignore the already very strange aspect of the raw meat and carrots, and focus on the "we are standing full frontal side by side with dead facial expressions."  nothing says love and life-long commitment like a combined mugshot.  alas, i'm going to have to pass on this one.

(ok, i suck at brevity, true story: when i pinned this image with a "wtf" caption the photographer commented on my pin: "Hi Becky, If you read their engagement post you'll see that she is a vegan and he is not. They even went to a party as Meat Man and Veggie Girl. :) It for sure has to do with their story." sorry for calling you out, mr. photographer, you seem like a very nice man and you are quite a talented photo-snapper.  but on top of the fact that i find it annoying when people choose to define themselves based on what they eat, i still think it's a ridiculous picture.  c'est la vie.)

hopefully this post doesn't read too snarky.  wedding and engagement photos are personal and if chalkboards, shoes, and dead-faces are your cup of tea, please don't think my opinion matters one fraction of an ounce (it doesn't).

ok, back to business.

word count: 21,046