Samantha's Thought of the Day: Make a photograph list for your photographer!!

Samantha's bride tip #2: Make a photo list for your photographer and assign a "photo wrangler" who is either one of your friends, a family member or your wedding coordinator. I found that this was key in making sure that our photos were taken efficiently. We were actually done far ahead of schedule when the wedding was over! Part of making this work is having a plan for photos to be taken before the ceremony. Mr. L and I didn't want to see eachother beforehand, but even so, we were still able to take hundreds of family, bridesmaid and groomsman pictures at separate times. Since we finished so many photos ahead of time, the photo taking after the ceremony was minimal, except for our bride/groom portraits, which we took all over Georgetown on the way to the reception. We tried to be very organized with the post-ceremony photos so that groups of people could make their way to the reception or do whatever else they needed to do. I planned in advance which group would go first, second, third, etc. Our ministers needed to change and go on to other things, so we had their photos taken first. My parents needed to head off to host the party, so their photos were taken second, Mr. L's parents needed to go host their guests, so their photos were taken third and so on and so forth. Finally, were just left with the two of us, my maid of honor (who helped to bustle me) and my brother, who drove the two of us and our photographer around Georgetown for portraits. Perfect! Now we'll have to see how the portraits come out...

Teaser: Whoa.

Since when were we hot?

More to come from the brilliant Alea Moore.

Add another line item to that budget

On Friday, we are scheduled to take our engagement photos. I've been researching ideas and found some really fantastic work out there. We've strategized to make the most of our golden hour time slot, with the plan to begin at our super fun loft apartment with a retro theme, then walk around our neighborhood casually [the Highlands, standard for pretty much everyone in Atlanta], and finally take the last few on our deck as the sun sets as a duo in a Bond flick [that's my hot black ball gown and Mr. B in a black suit, skull tie & aviators to you].

Inspiration includes the AMAZING Feather Love:

[we are totally taking pictures with Mr. B's banjo, the lessons are really paying off!]

And Jasmine Star via the Wedding Cabaret.

Among many others.

Wow, there's so much to do, got to get the place spiffed up, oh and REPLACE ALL OF OUR CLOTHES. Because the load of laundry that included all our clothes for the shoot, yeah, it turned pink.

Off to the mall tonight!

Wedding, I'm done with you for a while. We need some time apart.

Yesterday, I made some major decisions and was so relieved. I had researched all of the following elements endlessly and decided to just bite the bullet and just book these services! After all, I leave next week for Hawaii and will need to focus on finding gainful employment, not on finding the perfect ribbon.

On Wednesday, I walked into a bridal shop and asked a woman about veils, flower girl dresses, necklaces, shoes and headpieces, all in the span of about one minute. I think she may have suspected that I had either downed 2304923 cups of coffee or was on speed. This is when I realized that I was turning into...not Bridezilla...but the OCD Bride. Enough! I want my personality back!

Voici, my accomplishments of Friday:

1) I bought my veil-- it is long and very, very glamorous! I purchased it from White Swan Bridal in Vienna, VA. I'm not re-veiling what it looks like though (get it? re-veiling? I crack myself up).

2) I booked my florist. This has been in the works for many months now, but we've finally engaged the service of Melissa Sylvain, owner of Sylvain's Florist in Reston, VA. I'm am going to have a beautiful pale peach, pink and ivory bouquet with some sort of gorgeous ribbon yet to be determined. The bridesmaids are going to be sporting red dahlias, red roses and red lilies with a rich ribbon (I'm thinking velvet). At our reception, we'll have dendrobium orchids and curly willow on each table, we think!

3) I booked my photographer. I'm going with Bella Photography. Their concept is pretty cool- the company first sets you up with a consultant, who interviews you, collects vital information about your style and then helps you to make decisions about which package works best. At that point, you go online to rate up to 200 photos, which will help the consultant match you with a photographer. Bella is a national company, so they could theoretically bring a photographer from New York City to DC at no extra cost to the couple, if that NYC person's style was the best fit. Bella exclusively employs 300 people in the DC area alone and so if your person gets sick, there is always a backup. Also, they give you ownership of all your photos and you don't have to order through them- they give a you a CD that does not have watermarked pictures. Also, if a couple can't afford to buy an album at the time (hello! that's me!), you can order it years later. Finally, it only takes 28 days to get photos back! I'm hoping that this works out because pictures are important. Just in case, I'm going to encourage lots of outside picture taking of family and friends! Below is Princess Sophia of Spain at her wedding! 4) I ordered a cake. Pastries by Randolph makes SUPER delicious cakes and has fantastic reviews. Each tier of the cake has five layers and four layers of frosting, so it's very moist (ugh! hate that word.) Their prices are fair and they make very pretty cakes as well. I like the idea of integrating a cascading ribbon into the cake as well- perhaps I'll use the same ribbon as my bouquet? Hmm! Mom likes the separated tiers, so seperated tiers it is. I think we'll have some flowers in between. I toyed with the idea of cupcakes, but I think I'll encourage someone to get them for some other pre-wedding event!

5) I chose invitations. Although we were initially deciding between William Arthur and Crane paper, we decided that they were too expensive, so we're going to order from Invitations by Dawn. Since they are an online company, we requested a sample to make sure that the quality and thickness of the paper is up to snuff. I love traditional stationery and the invite we've chosen is actually quite beautiful and the most old-fashioned, of course!

OK, that's it. Now I'm happy:

(my little niece! love her!)