First meeting at the church.

Yesterday T and I met with Father Peter who will be our officiant.  We will be meeting with him several times before our wedding day to talk about many different things that have to do with marriage.  Yesterday was an introduction of what is to come in the future months.  He was asking us many questions about our relationship.  I felt nervous at first but then felt at ease because we were simply talking about why we want to marry each other.  It was so nice hearing each other say what we cherished about each other and how we knew we were to be married.  As we were talking with Father Peter, I could not help thinking of our wedding day in St. Peter's church.  I was imagining all of the lights on in the church with Father Peter (dressed to the nines) standing next to my future husband (of course dressed to the tens!).  The feeling is overwhelming and I thought of nothing else... not the flowers or the favors but just the moment that T and I will see each other and proclaim our love to one another in front of our loved ones.  Being with TJ at the alter, above all details, is what I look to the most.  This played out in my mind like a dream sequence and I can only hope that our day will feel as magical, if not more.  The many details have taken my attention over the past months but now I realize the most important part of the day and that everything else is icing on the cake tree themed .  I know I have said this many times before but now, more than ever, I mean it with every part of me... I am so excited!

Less than 6 months to go...

Wow... less than six months until our wedding day.  It feels like yesterday that TJ asked me to be his wife in Rutgers Woods.  Like every other OCD bride, I have a countdown from The Knot on my phone and every day I check it (183 days!) and share the dwindling time with T.  Time is going by quickly.  I cannot help but become anxious that I am forgetting to do something or am waiting too long to do something.  Thank goodness for the many checklists that I have collected from many magazines.  I mention checklists, plural, because each one has different milestones to take care of that another might leave out.  They are all in my infamous binder and keep me on track.  There are also many checklists available online which give mainly the same information but in a more "green" way. On top of the checklists, I have printed out a 2011 calendar and have color coded different due dates with an accompanying key (Proof reading this, I notice I sound  uber OCD!).  I do not know how brides go without a binder, checklists and calendars!  Unheard of!  

I believe it is time to sit back and relax a bit since a majority of the details have been taken care of.  All I am waiting for anxiously is my dress!!  It will be here in July so you will definitely be hearing about that soon!

Time to relax this summer and bask in the engaged life with my T!

Photography

Lately, I have been thinking about photography and what it means to T and me.  I moved photos from my old laptop to another computer and in doing so, I resurrected old images from early in our relationship.  I could not help myself... every folder was being opened and TJ was being called over; "T!  Look at this one!"  45 minutes had passed and we found ourselves reminiscing.  After that, I realized how important photography is.  If it weren't for those photos, we would have forgotten minutiae of events that shaped our relationship.   

Thinking of our wedding day, one of my most important aspects would have to be the photography.  I am very detail oriented and tend to see the minor but poignant features of a photo so finding a photographer who could do the same was extremely important to me.  I know that our day will go by quickly (as many brides have told me) so I want to be able to look back fondly at the entire day through photos and find new interesting things each time we look.  Another request of mine was that the photographer not be traditional but more photo journalistic.  The artistic touch is key and can bring life to a picture while telling a story.  T and I searched high and low for a photographer.  We met photographers we loved and photographers that were best for other couples.  Of course price played a huge part in our choice but we feel that we are going to have a phenomenal photographer for a wonderful price!  We chose Art Work Photography located in Mt. Laurel, NJ and cannot wait to see what they will do in our wedding day.  They are award winning and have been featured in The Knot.  I am not going to lie... I was looking for "award winning."  We have an engagement session soon to get to know the photographer (even though we already had an engagement session with the amazing Mary Hunter <3).  We have yet to choose our engagement session site but we are leaning towards Princeton University since that is where we had our first date. 

Check out the link to Art Work Photography below.  

http://www.artworkphotos.net/

Here is a sample from their website...

This picture (below) was taken by Mary Hunter!