E-Pics Sneak Peak

Our engagement pictures were a week ago today and our photographer posted a few shots for us right away - you know, just to drive me completely mad for the next three weeks until we get the CD with all of them on there!!! :)

I could not be happier with how the pictures turned out - it is EXACTLY what I was looking for! Bryan, being the good fiance that he is, was looking for the exact same thing that I was looking for in the engagement pictures... Actually, he was just happy I told him NOT to tuck in his shirt.

Without further delay - here they are!!

E-Session Outfits

Photography is on my mind lately! Our engagement pics are set to take place on Sunday, keeping my fingers triple-crossed that it does not rain. I've had our outfits bought and stowed away for a little over a month now and I am SO excited about them! We are not dressy people - in fact, we can wear jeans every day of the week to work - so I think our outfits are pretty normal/natural for us, but still look nice.

I personally have two outfits and one pair of FABULOUS shoes. I like clothes. :) Bryan's technically has one outfit - a button down shirt with a nice t-shirt under it - so, for some of the pictures he will wear his button down and for some he won't, so he's not technically changing. (I had a hard enough time convincing him that we really did need a 2 hour photography session, getting him to completely change outfits was a battle I did not chose to pick.)

First, anchor of both my outfits - the shoes! Love, love, love them!!! Living in a small town (I mean, less than 5,000 people) I feel I can pull these off no problem.

My fabulous shoes will be paired with this dress

with this AWESOME jacket

My next outfit will consist of the boots and this shirt

and this little number

Bryan will be wearing jeans (didn't feel the need to photograph those) with this shirt

over this shirt

So excited for the combinations and to show you guys the sneak peaks!!!

Nina.Cecilia - Creative Spark

I love pictures. I love candid pictures, professional pictures, pictures of babies and pictures of old people. I ESPECIALLY love wedding related pictures. Before we got engaged I spent MONTHS pouring over the websites over local photographers, trying to find just one that met my style.

A little over a year ago, I saw that a couple of girls, twin sisters in fact, that I had hung out with for a short stint early on in my college career had started a photography business. (Via Facebook of course.) I became of fan of their Facebook page - Nina.Cecilia - Creative Spark and Fell. In. Love. They're photographs are amazing and just my style. Their pictures are not overly posed, very natural and capture the true emotion of the subjects. Their editing skills are also amazing - they're incredibly creative and talented!

I knew I had to have them as our photographers.

Around the time that I knew we would be getting engaged, I emailed Nina and asked for a menu of services. It must have been a good omen because we were engaged about a week and a half later! I immediately booked them the next day.

Since they had been around for less than a year when I booked them, it was a bit of a leap of faith as they had only done a couple of weddings at that point. However, this summer they have had quite a few and with each wedding they post on their Facebook page and blog, I get more and more excited! Our pictures are going to be amazing and I really can not wait.

Here is a sampling of a few engagement pictures and wedding pictures they have done so far - AMAZING!

Wedding Workout Wednesday

Whoo-hoo! The fiancé is on a business trip, I am SO going out!

HA!

Yeah right.

I am actually sitting here eating Mac & Cheese and watching my dog sleep. My how times have changed… J

So, it’s Wednesday, which means I need to recap the workouts I have done this week… Or lack there of! I have had a severe motivational problem this week. Here is what my schedule looked like:

• Thursday: Items from my Pampered Chef party arrived, my exercise consisted of ripping open boxes and kicking myself for not getting that set of measuring cups.
• Friday: Day off from work, ran/walked on the treadmill for 30 minutes (about 25 minutes of running, 5 of walking.) Lifted free weights.
• Saturday: Iowa Hawkeye Football home opener!!! Does walking around tailgating while drinking a beer count? Maybe. In my book it does.
• Sunday: Too tired from Saturday to do much, sat on the couch a lot.
•  Monday: Had intentions of working out… Then decided I needed to clean the house and get groceries instead.
• Tuesday: Attempted to run on the treadmill, lasted 10 minutes. Did another 10 on the elliptical and then lifted free weights.
• Today: Have an appointment with the florist right after work, won’t get a workout in.

My past few weeks have gone like this, so I finally did something about my motivational level (which is usually about ZERO) – I joined a gym with classes!

The Upside (s)

•  I like being told what to do and when to do it when working out, I do not like motivating myself. This gym will help that problem.
• It is close to work, so there is less time from the time I leave work until when I get home to talk myself out of working out.

The Downside

•  Its 20 – 25 minutes from my house (I said it’s close to work) – this means workouts REALLY have to happen during the week.

I’ve tried becoming a morning person before and have failed miserably at it each time, but now I just might have to… Stay tuned to see how my first week at the new gym goes!

The Main Dish

Ah, wedding food. We've all been to the weddings where the food has been less than stellar and perhaps even swung by a McDonalds after leaving the reception because you were still hungry. Bryan and I wanted the food at our reception to be a reflection of who we are. We are not chicken marsala people, nor are we veal people. We really like steak and salmon, however, that does not fit within our budget. We are pizza people, and roasting hot dogs and hamburgers over an open fire people and down-home, comfort food people.

Picture from www.mccormick.com - not where the recipe is from.

The part that sold us on our reception location is the fact that we can bring our own food and alcohol - MAJOR money saver there. Bryan's uncle has an amazing recipe for pulled pork. Being born and raised in the heart of pork country, pulled pork is a favorite meal of both of ours and it is a good reflection of who we are - simple but delicious. So, his uncle has agreed to make enough pulled pork for 320 people and it will only cost $1 to $2 per person! This of course does not include buns, but still a fabulous price.

Our goal for food is to keep it around $5/person - not including dessert of course. With the price of the pork and using an up and coming caterer for the side dishes (more on that later) I think this may be an achievable goal. If we maxed out the capacity of the reception location at 320 people, this would be around $1600 on food - not too shabby!

Now that we have the main dish decided on, I will be working with a caterer for our side dishes - more on that in the coming weeks!