Sometime over the summer, I began our photographer hunt. I found someone in northern Maine whose work I really liked, and she even had a package that included a photo booth! However, after crunching the numbers a bit, I realized that her most basic package, plus the extra $600 for the photo booth, would make the final tally for her services a bit more than we wanted to pay (well over $3K).So it was back to square one. But not really, because now I had a better sense of what photographic style worked for us. After stumbling onto the New Hampshire branch of the Wedding Photojournalist Association, I realized I liked a photojournalistic style best. So even though our photographer is not listed on that site, I somehow managed to find him with that thought in mind (can't remember for the life of me how).His name is Aaron Rohde and he's based out of Dover, NH (just 12 miles up the road from Portsmouth and where we used to live until June). His website is really well designed and has a sweet, fun playlist set up for the wedding slideshow. Justin joined me in looking at it and was equally impressed.
After some email tag over the summer, we met with Aaron a few weeks ago. He's a chill kind of dude, someone who seems like he'd be a mellowing influence on wedding day. He showed us a slideshow he'd set up for us of sample wedding photos, including some detail shots that hadn't been on his website, and we talked a bit about the nuts and bolts. Currently (this will change soon), his 8-hour package is $2K and includes full rights to the pictures and a free engagement session!After we walked out of the Dover mill building his office is in, I said to Justin, "It's a no-brainer, right? We like his work, he seems cool, and his price is really reasonable." So in a few days, when I've sent him the contract and paid the deposit, bingo! We'll have our wedding photographer. Below are just some of the images I love from his site:
So after much hemming & hawing, I finally ordered our Save the Date postcards! Justin's away this week, but we tweaked the design together last week and I placed the order on Saturday. According to the 123Print website, they should be delivered on Thursday, the 24th, which is our 1-year anniversary. That has to be a good omen somehow, right?
The front of the postcard is a picture we took on vacation to PEI (after writing the info & date in the sand, of course). While I'm happy to be having our wedding in Portsmouth, I always kinda wanted to get married on the Island. However, it helps to have some details in the wedding that remind me of PEI.
The back of the card - anonymized, of course. I bought a font that I love from My Fonts & will use those for the labels. Then, I'll make a trip to the post office this week to buy 100 of the prettiest $0.28 stamps I can find! Well, with some exceptions for the cards going to Scotland, Canada, and Ireland.
I'm really excited to send them out, as they're the first official notice of our wedding. I'm also really happy with them, because we personalized them, then got a good price for someone else to print them. Win-win!
Days until our wedding: approximately 291 (I think that's right, but I can't be arsed to tot them all up again).Guests on the A list: 203Guests on the B list: 35 (ish)
Blog posts about the wedding: 16 (now 17)Buckets of sand stolen from Canadian beaches for reception decoration: 2 (don't tell Parks Canada on me!)Wedding nightmares thus experienced: 2 (in both cases, the wedding day was here & we were woefully under prepared)Contracts signed: 1 (venue)Photographers met, liked, and soon to be booked: 1Dresses bought: 1Pairs of shoes fallen in love with & budgeted for, but yet to be bought: 1I think we're doing ok. :)
Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. I know - I've been gone forever. In my defense, I've been struggling to process the news about my grandmother as she starts palliative chemotherapy, Justin & I snuck up to PEI without telling you, our roommate/best man moved out (to Russia!), and I started a new job this week. And there's always wedding stuff. We're meeting with a local photographer we really like this afternoon.
However, I'm back, or I hope to be. Things will begin to settle down a little in the next few weeks & I really missed blogging here. I can't count how many times I sat down to write something & got distracted by other things (usually wedding related). So, with my apologies, forward into the breach!
I found two quotes recently that jumped out at me as the way I want to feel about my wedding day. The first is from one of the wedding blogs I read (and you should, too), A Practical Wedding. The second is from one of the "other parts of my life" blogs, Nothing But Bonfires.
- "It felt exactly how standing in the middle of a room surrounded by almost 100 people who love you should feel."
- "I can only think that it'll be like one of those wonderful dreams where suddenly everyone you love is in the same place. And all you have to do is walk towards them."
Because, as I commented on Nothing But Bonfires recently, ". . . isn't it the family time, the giggling time, the time with those we love, watching us marry the one we love, that is the most important part of all of this?"
