Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Freeing my Mind

So, as some of you know, I am a photographer. This summer I tried my hand at wedding photography. I definitely had a blast, but I also learned a couple things.

First, I learned that I don't want to be a wedding photographer. It has nothing to do with the couples I photographed, or how stressful it was, or any of that. It simply has to do with the fact that I would rather do photo shoots of children, families, or even engaged couples. Weddings are incredible events that are life changing and everyone loves to see photos from them, but for me, I would rather attend than photograph them. So, doing the weddings I did this summer taught me more about myself and my passion for photography, not too shabby. 

The second thing I learned is that it is impossible to plan your wedding while you have to spend hours editing photos from other people's weddings. And these aren't just random strangers either. These are friends. People who I know well and share similar interests and tastes with. So, basically I have spent the first month or so of my engagement surrounded by weddings. My brain is on overload to say the least. I decided about three weeks ago that I can't realistically make any decisions about my wedding (mostly decor and that type of thing) until I am done editing these photos and have given myself a break. I need to refresh my mind. 

Well, tonight I finished all my editing and I can now take a break and give my mind a chance to start fresh. There are some things I already know about my wedding. Alex and I are not very traditional. We don't want to do many of the things that people traditionally do at weddings. We have nothing against the traditions; they simply don't mean anything to us. For instance, we are not having cake at our wedding. I know what you are thinking...no cake?! Well, neither of us are really cake people, so we decided to have cookies instead. 

Another set of traditions we won't be doing are the dances at the reception. Alex and I don't really like to dance all that much and we also don't like being the center of attention. And for us, the time we have at the reception, we really want to spend it with our friends and family. But like, actually talking to them and taking the time to see who actually came to our wedding. We feel like all the extra stuff really just gets in the way of celebrating with the people we love. Sure, dancing will be an option, but not a requirement. 

I don't want anyone to think I am criticizing the way they did things at their wedding. I am a firm believer that every couple is different and will express themselves in different ways.
***
Tonight I am thinking about Alex and I and how we have an amazing chance to get to know each other even more. We are planning an event that should really demonstrate who we are as individuals and who we are as a couple. We get to dive even further into each other's characters, our likes and dislikes, our funny quirks. I am so excited to learn even more about this amazing man that I have the great honor of marrying. Should be quite an adventure. :)

~ sarah

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

So...we can't just elope?

Needless to say, Alex and I have started the process of this crazy thing called wedding planning. Now, don't get me wrong, I am not giving up, or turning into a crazy person...at least not yet. But let's be honest, nobody is ever prepared for how exhausting and complicated planning a wedding can really be. 

We think, oh, my wedding will be different. It will be stress free and we will make it work. But we know we will have the occasional disagreement and that things won't always go as planned. What I didn't expect was that Alex and I are both extremely picky. 

Naturally, our first task is to pick a venue and set a date. Well, we easily figured out the date we want to get married. We just can't set it in stone because it turns out there aren't many venues that can suit our very picky taste. I knew I would be picky because I am a photographer. It was easy to know that I would be looking at every venue with a photographer's eye. 

It was surprising to me that Alex has such strong opinions on the matter. For instance, he doesn't want a barn to have anything to do with our wedding. I don't disagree, while we both grew up in Enumclaw, neither of us grew up in the country. But let's be honest, about 70% of venues around here have a barn somewhere on the property. So, we are expanding our search elsewhere. 

We took a trip to Seattle yesterday to scope out some parks and gardens that are available to rent. We didn't really like any of them except one garden. It was gorgeous! The neighborhood was quiet and really nice...unfortunately, the garden was smaller than we anticipated and could probably only fit about 70 people realistically. So, we scratched that off the list. The day ended with five venues being crossed off and left us back at square one...and slightly discouraged.

But...I did learn something yesterday. I learned that Alex and I deal with frustration pretty well together. And I learned that there is almost nothing better after a long day than curling up on the couch together, watching funny TV shows and eating hummus. 

Really though, I learned to not take the simple things for granted. I learned that when you love someone, you don't have to have anything fancy or have everything figured out. All you need is to just be with each other and remember to laugh together every day.

~ sarah