MY SUNNY SIDE OF LIFE

Last week life threw me a bit of a curve ball. My company announced that they were closing their doors and they sent us home on Wednesday. While the writing was on the wall it was still shocking with the timing and honestly, I thought we were going to pull out of it. Most people have reacted with empathy followed by, well at least you have time to plan your wedding! Pa-leez… that thing was basically all planned in the first three weeks of being engaged! But since this blog is about looking on the sunny side, I have chosen not to focus on icky stuff right now and instead focus on being surrounded by people who love me and I am excited to have our first Christmas together this year!

So, update on the wedding planning is as follows:

✓ Groom 

✓ Venue

✓ Band

✓ Tent and Lighting

✓ Dress

✓ Cocktail reception decore

✓ Photographer!!!!

Prior to getting engaged, John and I had been talking a lot about getting engaged – ok, fine, I talked a lot about it while John’s eyes glazed over… but in my thoughtful attempt to point out that timing was of the essence since venues and photographers book up quickly, the message was conveyed that if I did not get the award winning photographer of my dreams for over a decade, there was going to be a sad fiancé.

Thankfully, it all worked out because David Murray was the first person I contacted as soon as we got engaged to see what his availability was for a July wedding. Thank the High Heavens, he and my favorite venue had ONE date that synched up. AND it was my first choice for a wedding date (it was based on the high tide schedule so we were not looking at icky seaweed during the ceremony and pictures). Now, there are tens of thousands of wedding photographers out there and I imagine, given all the choices and packages, that this would be SO HARD to decide on. But I have known I wanted David to shoot my wedding for over a decade. When I was living in Virginia, my sweet friend Kathleen used him for her wedding and when I saw her engagement photos I just died. They were so beautiful! It was about that time, my bestie in Maine was also looking for a wedding photographer and they both ended up using him and had their weddings two weeks apart in Cape Cod and in Maine.

Since we are having a destination wedding I was a little worried about how we were going to pull off doing our engagement photos by David since he is in Maine and we are Alabama and I basically was out of vacation days! But as David and I started talking about our little connection from over a decade ago, it turns out he only summers in Maine and lives the rest of the year in Atlanta – 2 hours from Bham! WHAT! This was seriously the perfect match for us!

We had our engagement shoot in Atlanta at two different locations and three outfit changes. We met at the Georgian Terrace Hotel across the Fox Theatre in downtown Atlanta. This guy isn’t a rookie, he knew starting off the shoot with cocktails would help everyone relax and get in the mood! After the hotel shoot we headed to Piedmont Park for two more rounds and I am so happy with how they turned out! I love the way David captures the light and the sweet little moments. I cannot wait to see our wedding photos! Check out his Instagram: davidmurrayweddings I had so much fun figuring out the outfits – the key was selecting outfits the complimented each other but not too matchy-matchy and showed some personality. Y’all I just had so much fun doing this! Hmm… how can I turn that into a profession?? Here are some of my favs from our engagement shoot with outfit details and surprisingly, not everything was new – I did manage to pull some pieces from my closet… I know, what a concept 😉