Wedding Wednesday: Engagement Pictures

Booking our photographer was actually fairly easy. I had been following a lot of local (and not so local) wedding photographers' blogs for awhile. I knew what style of photography I liked and I was excited to find one that fit our "budget."

(Ok, honestly, there was a budget in my head, but I have no clue how well we stuck to it. I have never sat down and figured out exactly how much out wedding cost us. I'm actually scared to find out that we went horribly over budget! I did have a list of various elements and a suggestion of how much we should spend on each based on our budget. I think I did a good job of staying within range.)

Anyway, because we had gotten such a great deal on our reception venue, I was able to splurge on our photographer. I cannot say it enough, if you are going to splurge, do it on the photographer. Do NOT go budget on this! It will show in the photos and do you really want to have bad photos of such an important day? You will never regret splurging on an excellent photographer.

We hired the fabulous Amanda Fales Photography for our wedding. Amanda and her husband Andy are based out of Indianapolis, but originally from this area. They actually do a lot of weddings locally. I originally discovered Amanda through a local wedding magazine that featured her work. I actually booked Amanda without even meeting her! Crazy, I know, but I had been following her blog for so long, that I knew I loved her work and her personality really showed in her writing.

We first met Amanda and Andy at our engagement session which was included in our wedding package. I wanted to do our pictures at a local park in the fall. I had hopes of having wonderful fall foliage in our pictures, but sadly, Mother Nature didn't want to cooperate and many trees had not yet started to change. Oh well, the pictures are still fabulous! Here are a few of our favorites.

We used this one for our newspaper announcements.

We were totally sitting in some underbrush for this one.

It started drizzling halfway through our session. Luckily, I had a cute argyle umbrella!

The park has a wonderful field of dahlias. If I had a fall wedding, I would've had these as our flowers.

 

 All pictures by Amanda Fales Photography

They blogged our session here!

We loved our engagement pictures and I tried to use them as much as possible. I used them for our save the dates, Christmas cards and our guest book. We even gave our families framed pictures for Christmas presents. 

Pinterest Sunday

Time for my weekly Pinterest roundup! Every Sunday, I share with you a few of my favorite finds from the previous week.

First up, how adorable is this?

Source: etsy.com via Jenn on Pinterest

I'm not a fan of bows glued to baby girls' heads, but headbands are so cute. The girlier, the better, I say! If I ever have a baby girl, I'm so buying her headbands like this one and lots of fluffy tutus!

Next, seeing things like this on HomeGood's Facebook page just makes me want to jump in the car.

Source: a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net via Jenn on Pinterest

I hate that I can't go to HomeGoods anytime I want. We were planning a trip in a couple weeks, but now we're going to have to push it back a couple more weeks due to a conflicting event. I want to go NOW!

Finally, I dare you to not smile when you look at this picture.

Source: contentinacottage.blogspot.com via Jenn on Pinterest

Pug puppies are so cute!

Color That Won't Quit

As a BzzAgent, I recently got to try new makeup product. I received several tubes of Maybelline SuperStay 24™ 2-Step Lipcolor in various colors to try out for myself.

Normally, I am not much of a lipcolor or lipstick girl. I usually just stick with lip balm or if I'm feeling sassy, some clear lip gloss. To me, color usually means it's going to wear off or come off on cups and then you're going to have to touch it up. And who really wants to deal with that?

Maybelline SuperStay 24™ 2-Step Lipcolor says that it won't fade or transfer. In fact, it promises to last the entire day - 24 hours! Well, I had to put this to the test. I tried two different shades on two different days.

The first day, I wore it on a Saturday spent with friends. The second time, I wore it on a busy day at work. Both days, I talked a lot, smiled a lot, kissed my husband, ate and drank. And that color did not budge! In fact,  a coworker even commented that she liked my lipcolor 8 hours after I had applied it. I never once touched it up.

And it felt great! I've tried lipcolors that made my lips feel dried out, but  Maybelline SuperStay 24™ 2-Step Lipcolor felt completely natural. I often forgot I was even wearing it.

It's also really easy to use. You just apply the color with the wand applicator, which I loved, and then let it dry. I applied the color and then packed my lunch. Then apply the moisturizing top coat (which looks like lip balm) and forget about it! Your color is set for the day.

Maybelline SuperStay 24™ 2-Step Lipcolor comes in 30 shades and is available at most drug stores and big box stores, like my favorite Target.

Want to try it for yourself? I've got a coupon to share with you! You get $2 off any Maybelline SuperStay 24™ 2-Step Lipcolor.

Let me know if you try it and how you like it!

P.S. My favorite shade is True Rose!

I received this product at no cost to myself and all opinions are completely my own.

Wedding Wednesday: Dress Rejects

I found the "lost" pictures from the last few rounds of dress shopping! I wanted to share them because I see that some readers are finding my blog by searching for specific dresses. I know when I was dress shopping, I would rather see a dress on a real bride instead of those angry looking 14 year olds that wedding designers use as models.

So, here a few dresses that didn't make the cut!

Allure 2216 - Sadly, it's been so long since I shopped for a wedding dress, that I can't remember exactly what I didn't like about each dress. This one was strapless, which I was really trying to avoid though. (and let's ignore the awkward face, please!)

Casablanca 1875 - Halter, which you know I didn't like much. Also, no tulle which I LOVE. Skirt was just too plain for me, I think.

Casablanca 1899 - I think this one had definite potential. Lots of pretty lace and great straps. It also has a pretty train. I think this one was in my top 5 for sure.

 

Unknown designer - Strapless which I didn't want and the skirt wasn't full enough.

 Unknown designer - One of my bridesmaids picked this one out. I really don't like the look of pick-up skirts. I felt like I had a down comforter around my waist!

Maggie Sottero Lily - I really liked that Maggie Sottero dresses have lace up backs. It made trying them on nice because they would actually close unlike zipper dresses. Plus, they did fabulous things for the waist. Sadly, the Maggie dresses that I was interested in were out of my budget, so I didn't try on many. This dress was pretty, but the skirt wasn't full enough for my tastes.

Unknown designer - This skirt was too full! I really though I'd have a hard time getting down the aisle with this one. Plus, you can't see it, but it was strapless.

 

Unknown designer - Very pretty dress! Loved the lace and the skirt. Hated that it was strapless. 

Remember last week when I told you that I ultimately had to decide between Casablanca 1930 and another dress? This is that dress!

 

Unknown designer - Can you see how similar this dress is to my 1930? Loved the lace, loved the tulle, loved the sash. Ultimately, I just liked the look of the 1930 better, but this was definitely choice #2!

Please leave me a comment if you happen to known designers and/or styles of any of the dresses. I would love to know what they are. Especially, my second choice dress!