photos

New Year New…

The Creative Life

https://www.instagram.com/p/BOlRu1MFbR3/?taken-by=scrapsoflife

2016 hasn’t exactly been boffo for a lot of folks, especially certain beloved celebrities, but on a more personal note, the upheaval and my cattywumpus schedule have spelled absolute neglect and disaster for my side hustle. Thankfully, something like that can be resurrected, and the Instagram challenge pictured above is part of step one of that process.

I say part of, because it’s but one page (half-page, really) from a new project that I will be launching very soon. As in shortly after New Year, if things go well. I don’t want to say too much and shoot myself in the foot by shooting off my mouth, but if you enjoy the adult coloring book craze, then this will be something you’ll want to watch for.

So watch this space next week, and come play along with us on Instagram in the new year! It’s a great way to stretch your creative muscle and my hope is that the prompts will yield some interesting interpretations. Until then, I’ll be busy typing and drawing and designing my evenings and weekend away!

 

Kiss-Cams Set to Capture!

Third Time Wife, Wedding Planning

Have I built it up enough? Are you ready to see how silly we looked in our engagement photos?

Please note: Neither am I fishing for compliments nor am I holding our wonderful photographer responsible for any of the below. Mr. Road Trip and I are absolute goofballs and ridiculously awkward (at least I am) so I’m more shocked when I think I look good in a photo as opposed to the alternative. Still, we had a lot of fun, so I have no regrets for the day–not even the copious amount of duck faces.

We started out our day Honey Lake Plantation–actually, no, we started our day meeting up in the Publix parking lot because it’s an hour from town to our venue and Kara lives south of town as it is, so we offered to chauffeur her around between locations just to make things easier. The drive time also gave us a chance to break the ice a bit more–never a bad thing.

The photos started in front of the chapel on the property, with me feeling very self-conscious and therefore very giggly.

Photo by Pink Shutterbug Photography

But I managed to pull it together for a decent shot after a bit.

Photo by Pink Shutterbug Photography

Prop #1: the banner comes out to play:

Photo by Pink Shutterbug Photography

Then we moved over to a bend with a view of one of the lakes. Admittedly, this looked a lot cooler in my head, but it’s still a good shot. And very reminiscent of how we spend most Friday nights–only it’s a sofa instead of a stone bench and the view behind us is our dining room and bar instead of a gorgeous lake. And in the bottom right corner is one of our monkey cameos.

Photo by Pink Shutterbug Photography

Time to change our view, we headed off towards to main hall and posed for this artfully tilted shot under an arch. The circular drive behind us is where cocktail hour and the ceremony will be held (the former on this side of the fountain, the latter on the steps). We’ll have to remember to get a shot of us on the day from this vantage point, too. Apparently there’s an art to the toe-kick pose, an art I’ve yet to master (though not for trying). And this is one of the few non-duck-face kissing pictures we managed.

Photo by Pink Shutterbug Photography

And then the obligatory walking-down-the-road-towards-our-future shot. Teasing aside, I did pull this as one of our inspiration pictures, and I do like the way it turned out.

Photo by Pink Shutterbug Photography

Kara had this awesome idea to shoot us with the fountain between us and her and I LOVE this shot. Trust the pros, right?

Photo by Pink Shutterbug Photography

We also did the picture frame pose–frame provided by Kara–and of the dozen or so she sent us this one is my favorite. We really look relaxed and natural in this one.

Photo by Pink Shutterbug Photography

I’ve decided that pictures of me sitting on the ground without something in front of me are a bad idea. Combine that with kissy-face and I’m generally unimpressed. This one Kara cropped just right and I think the sepia tone makes the duck face less ducky. It might also make a good shot for the back of our Save the Dates. We shall see.

Photo by Pink Shutterbug Photography

Now, after this we tried for some arty shots among the semi-tall grasses behind us but they must not have looked at all good because none were included in our discs. I’m not super surprised, as we were standing in a hole and I was leaning over at an awkward angle, but we gave it a good go. And then the strap on my shoe broke, so it was good I had several pairs in the trunk as back-up.

It looks like we’re on a bridge, but it’s actually the back stairs up to our reception venue shot while Kara stood on the same landing on the opposite end. Sneaky photographers for the win. What do you think of our monkey climbing the tree?

Photo by Pink Shutterbug Photography

Eventually we moved on to Lofty Pursuits–we can only take so much nature, after all. I had a severe slouching problem in a lot of these shots, so our bright red dress amidst neutrals didn’t work out like in my head, but they’re still some cute shots.

Photo by Pink Shutterbug Photography

Then we got sneaky–smooching behind the soda. One sure-fire way to avoid duck-face!

Photo by Pink Shutterbug Photography

Finally, it was off to Secret Headquarters for our last shots of the day. These were, overall, the best shots of the day because I think we were all about the playing and being silly and just letting our hair down.

Photo by Pink Shutterbug Photography Photo by Pink Shutterbug Photography

It helps that there were toys to play with, too.

Photo by Pink Shutterbug Photography Photo by Pink Shutterbug Photography

Brian, the store owner, suggest we swap my sapphire for a different sort of ring (Blue Lantern, anyone?)…

Photo by Pink Shutterbug Photography

And we wedged ourselves between the stacks in the graphic novel room for our best approximation of another of our inspiration shots.

Photo by Pink Shutterbug Photography

We pinned a cool collage on our inspiration board and Kara put one together of our detail shots. I really love those shoes. Oh, and Mr. Road Trip, too, of course!

Photo by Pink Shutterbug Photography

Okay, 19 pictures has GOT to be enough of us, yes? And, yet, I like nice, round numbers so here’s a 20th just to appease my OCD a bit.

Photo by Pink Shutterbug Photography

We ended up with 477 shots from our engagement session. Now, a lot of them are different treatments of the same shot, but for someone who wants lots of choices this is an awesome thing. Plus, Kara was all-around awesome in hanging with us for a total of 5 hours, 2 of which were spent in the car, when her engagement shoots only last an hour or two on average. The thing that made the difference is that she was just as excited as we were and pretty much up for anything, but she was also great about telling us what to do where and when that I have no doubt we’ll miss anything important on the wedding day.

That is, perhaps, the best reason to have an engagement shoot with your wedding photographer: the make sure everyone’s simpatico and nip any problems in the bud early on. I’m really glad we found Pink Shutterbug Photography and actually looking forward to seeing pictures of myself again in the not-so-distant future!

Holiday Fun: Puppy Love

Third Time Wife, Wedding Planning

With the holiday taking center-stage this week and 2 sets of guests to get ready for,
let’s have a little photo-fun today, shall we?

In the eternal battle of cat vs dog, on which side do you generally fall?

Todd and I? Are dog people. Even though we are currently sans canine companionship and laugh at the LOLcats with the best of ’em, we swoon over some floppy-eared, waggy-tailed goodness.

And combining bow-wows with the vows? That brings the ‘awwwww’ to a whole ‘nother level. Take a look at these pretty pooches hamming it up for the wedding photographers:

Photo Collage of dogs in wedding photos

Sources: Style Me Pretty 1, 2, 3, 4

Photo Collage of dogs in wedding photos

Sources: Style Me Pretty 1, 2, 3 and Flickr

Photo collage of dogs in wedding photos

Sources: Style Me Pretty, Offbeat Bride, Lauren Kinsey, Style Me Pretty

What I find interesting, though, is something I stumbled upon while researching wedding traditions (ages ago, for a writing project): it was considered bad luck for a dog (or any creature, really) to walk between the bride and groom at the wedding so dogs used to be absolutely verboten at weddings! This harkens back to a time when it was thought that evil spirits would routinely inhabit animals, thus the spirit walking between the bride and groom was a very bad thing.

It’s a lovely thing being enlightened and not having to worry about those things anymore, but a great man once said not to work with children or animals as both are unpredictable. If you do choose to have your 4-legged friend as a part of your wedding, keep these tips in mind:

  1. Designate a handler for Fido, someone who’s already in the wedding party or maybe a House Party member, that Fido knows and is used to taking orders from.
  2. Do not entrust the real rings to your canine ring-bearer (dogger?) as even the most obedient dog is still a dog. One good “Squirrel!” at the wrong time and you’ll be borrowing bands for the ceremony.
  3. Be prepared. Scout out of good spot for Spot to take a walk both before and after the ceremony and have your designated dog walker equipped with baggies, etc. Wet wipes are good if paws could get muddy pre-pictures (don’t make the photograph Photoshop paw prints from the wedding gown).
  4. Remind all small children that chocolate is very dangerous for dogs and not to feed any groom’s cake to them, no matter how much they beg!

But if you’re the superstitious (or just cautious) type, you might want to save the furkids for the family holiday card.

And if you’d like to see more picture-perfect pooches, check out my Dogs in Wedding Photos board at Pinterest.com

Pretty Book and Flower Icon

Meanwhile, Todd and I will be checking out the National Dog Show hosted by the Kennel Club of Philadelphia after the Macy’s Parade. We’ll be rooting for the Basset Hound, the French Bulldog and the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.

Will you be watching?