Evening Strolls

 

Hat: Forever 21 // Skirt: Forever 21 // Location: Albion Basin

Guys, I am like "head in the clouds" in love. I know that is so cheesy and probably not the most entertaining thing to read but I just am. It's funny, the last couple of weekends, Mitch and I had minor disagreements that at the time felt earth shattering but we worked through them, he comforted me, made me feel loved and important and we got through it and now in hindsight those disagreements seem so silly. Honestly, we had a moment when we paused and were freaking out that we didn't have anything in common and how were we ever going to make things work if we didn't like any of the same things?! Well, after we left each other for the night, freaking out about the fact that we are so different and questioning everything (insert eye-roll emoji because how dramatic are we? haha), Mitch texted me something that I thought was perfect, "We have the gospel in common and we like being around each other. What more do we need in common?" And you know what, it's true. 

We want the same things out of life so who cares if he isn't as obsessive about music as me, as enamored with climbing mountains and things, or we solve problems differently and carry out the things we want out of life a little differently? He loves me, and that's what matters. And honestly I just love how we can sit in a McDonald's parking lot, eating soft-serve ice-cream laughing about who even knows what. We make each other oh so happy! Really, I just have so much fun with him. I don't know if anybody else thinks this about Mitch, but I think he's pretty hilarious and I love laughing with him. I love it when he drags out jokes longer than they need to last just to see if I'll keep laughing, haha. I don't know, I just think it's sort of cute. There just isn't anybody else I'd rather, laugh with, be angry at, or be polar opposites with than him. We both bring different things to the table and when we focus on everything we love about each other the other things just seem to fade. Anyway, yeah, sorry for getting all cheeseball on you guys but that's what was on my mind after a most perfect evening with my fiancé! 

"We can work it out, you and I are meant to be together. This is how it's supposed to feel. I'm in love with how this feels." -LANY

(Listen to the song, "pink skies" by LANY. It is perfection.)

Much love!

Engagements Part 3 -How To Get The Most From Your Session

Photos: Cecilia Harvard Photography // Outfits: Me, Skirt: c/o ChicWish // Top: Express // Mitch, Top: American Eagle // Pants: American Eagle

Time for the last of the photos from our engagement session! Which, I'm sure you're all probably just a little bit tired of seeing by now, as I've been over-gramming them on Insta and we were recently featured on Utah Valley Bride (GAHHHHHH) so I posted that on Facebook as well, haha. I'm still just as in love with our session -and my cute groom- as ever so here goes today's post. A couple of weeks before our session date, Mitch expressed to me that he was nervous about our pictures and that he felt like he didn't know what to do when the photo-shoot day came. I'm sure he isn't the only one out there who's gotten nervous about photos so I decided to put together some tips that helped us get the most from our session.

1: Trust Your Photographer

Once you've done your due diligence (ie Instagram stalking) and found the photographer you want to go with for your session, TRUST HIM/HER. If you chose them out of the large selection of other photographers you could have chosen it was for a reason. You liked their style so trust that they'll lead you in the right direction, they know what they're doing! A good photographer will always give you  little nudges in the right direction if you're feeling unsure of what to do!

2: Have Fun

Ok, ok, I know my this tip sounds very obvious and probably not very helpful but hear me out. Engagements shouldn't be about stress or worrying about looking "just right" in every single photo. As I mentioned in tip 1, the photographer should know what they're doing so if you're doing something totally unattractive they'll let you know. Your main focus should be having fun looking at your future spouse, laughing, and just being yourselves. Think of it as a just another date (in which you're being photographed by a professional haha). The point of the photos is to showcase your love for each other and who the two of you are as a couple so the best way to do that is to let go of wanting everything to be "just so" and HAVE FUN! 

3: Don't Be Afraid to Be Vocal

Cecilia was an absolute dream to work with and was very thorough in getting to know our styles, what our vision was, and best of all asking us what our best angles were, haha. We all have a preferred side of our face, let's be honest. ;) If your photographer forgets to ask these questions, don't be afraid to speak up! Let them know what you're going for, it's the sure-fire way to get the photos you're dreaming of! And if there's a specific shot you're wanting, let your photographer know.

4: Relax

This goes hand in hand with step 2, and probably should've come before step 2 haha, but try to relax. Think of what helps you feel more at ease and DO IT. For me, music helps me feel more myself and relaxed so the day before our shoot I put together a playlist with some of my favorite love-jams! I forgot to play it till the end of our session, because I managed to relax without it, but it was fun having something familiar playing in the background!

Here it is for your listening pleasure: (You all know how I love sharing my playlists with anyone and everyone, haha)

Much love!

Bridesmaids - Asking Your Babes to be a Part of the Wedding!

Box // Notepads // Pencils // Bride Tribe T-shirt // Trinkets: ALL FROM GOOD OL TARGET

So, I just have to preface this post by saying that I lack the thoughtfulness for cute things like properly asking my nearest and dearest girlfriends to be my bridesmaids so I didn't think to do this until my actually thoughtful older sister, Allison, told me I should have and needed to. However, just because I'm a space-head lazy-bum doesn't mean you should be, so this post is all about how to ask your best babes to be your bridesmaids in a cute and inexpensive way (because let's get real here, the wedding already is going to cost an ish ton, we don't want to spend a fortune on other things)! 

Step 1: Cute Card

Want to get more personal than a simple text message that says, "Hey wanna be a bridesmaid?" (This is totally what I did so don't judge and let's pretend like it didn't happen), then get your cute little bride bum over to target, buy a package of cute cards (THEY HAVE TONS FOR CHEAP and it's so hard to pick), and write a funny or sweet message out for your besties! I of course had to go with, "He's marrying me but he's stuck with us" because that seriously couldn't be more true for Allison and I. Like, for real, we are a package deal. I honestly don't know what we'll do when we don't watch tv together anymore. Facetime while our favorite shows are on?

Step 2: Cute (but useful) Little Knick Knacks

Ever walked through the dollar section at the entrance of Target? Yeah, it's heaven and if you haven't what are you doing still reading this post? Go to Target and spend $40 on $1 items, haha! Just kidding. But really, the bargain section at Target is bliss. It's chuck full of the cutest items that you could use as stuffers for your bridesmaids packages and you won't have to break the bank. Although, let's be real, you'll get sucked into buying a bunch of other random cute stuff for yourself

Step 3: A T-Shirt For Your Bridal Squad

We've all envisioned our group of nearest and dearest girlfriends as an all-powerful biker gang of the hottest toughest chicks in town, right? Or as the greatest girl-band that ever hit the music scene! Or as a group of highly successful actresses! OR immensely rich business moguls! Right? We've all done that? Maybe it's just me. Either way, I know there isn't anyone but a heart-less monster out there that wouldn't absolutely love to go out with their girls in an official "squad" t-shirt. Right now Target has the PERFECT selection of wedding themed t-shirts for you and your girls! I personally loved the "Bride Tribe" selection so that's what I went with. 

Step 4: Box It All Up

Last step, box it all up, put a ribbon on it, and go door-bill ditch the crap out of the most important girls in your life, haha!

See? How easy was that? Now go spend $15 tops on doing something sweet for your future bridesmaids!

Much love!

Engagements Part 2 -How To Coordinate Outfits

Cakes: @kennascakes // Photos: Cecilia Harvard Photography // Outfits: Me, Skirt: c/o ChicWish // Top: Express // Mitch, Top: American Eagle // Pants: American Eagle

Hey guys, here comes Part 2 of our lovely engagement session with Cecilia! I'm sure you're all going to be sick of seeing engagement photos by the time I'm done sharing them but Cec did such a great job and there were just too many to cram all into one post. Anyway, buckle yer seatbelts because we've got Part 2 today and Part 3 later this week. :) 

With this post I thought I'd share some tips on choosing the perfect engagement outfits! 

PICK AN AESTHETIC OR FEEL FOR YOUR SHOOT THAT REFLECTS BOTH OF YOUR STYLES

The biggest thing is probably to decide whether you're going to go for casual looks, semi-formal, or formal. This totally is dependent upon your own styles and whatever makes you both feel the most comfortable and yourselves. These photos are all about reflecting your unique relationship! If, like me, you're all about long flowing dresses, then floor-length dress that ish up! If you're more about jeans and a white pair of converse, then do you babe and rock them sneakers!

CHOOSE YOUR COLOR PALETTE

Once you know if you're going casual or dressy, it's time to pick a color palette. A good thing to keep in mind is your complementary colors. These are colors that are directly across from each other on the color wheel. For instance, for Part 1 of our session (here) we were wearing more color. Mitch was in varying tints and shades of blue and I was in a burnt orange kind of color. Blue and Orange are complementary colors. For our looks in today's photos we were going for a more muted palette so we kept our colors to whites, beiges, and grays. 

DON'T BE TOO MATCHY-MATCHY

As great as the 90s were and as awesome as their comeback is, I sure am grateful we're over the all in denim or matching sweater-sets phase of photography, haha. If you're all in black don't put your beau all in black, you don't want to be wearing the same exact colors top and bottom. Doing this will make you both look like conjoined twins or an awkward blob in your snuggly or smoochy photos. Ain't nobody got time for that. ;) It's ok to be in similar colors but just as a rule of thumb, if you're wearing a white top put him in a colored top or something a little bit darker and vice-versa. 

DRESS FOR YOUR LOCATION

This is one thing I completely over-looked doing and I really regret it. Mitch and I picked out our own locations so I thought I had planned outfits that would work. However, I somehow forgot that the foliage in our locations would be very tall. Although I was wearing a floor-length dress and skirt, I should have brought leggings to wear underneath because trekking through those tall grasses with exposed legs got me some pretty bad poison ivy rashes. Therefore, if you're able to stake out your locations before-hand, DO IT and plan your outfits accordingly so you're not at risk for rashes or any other elements! 

Well, friends, that's all I've got for you today. If any of you are newly engaged and planning your photos, I hope this helps! 

Much love!

Engagements Part 1 -Marriage Here We Come!

Me- Dress: Bohme // Extensions: Laced Hair // Mitch- Button Up: American Eagle // Pants: h&m

PHOTOS: Cecilia Harvard Photography

Oh. Ma. Goodness. You guys, we got our engagements back and I am obsessed! Cecilia shot them for us and wow she did an amazing job! The only set-back from our session was that I got an INSANE poison ivy rash from our trek through these greens. I'm talking up and down BOTH legs. I was freaking out for a whole week thinking I had some form of herpes or something, haha. (Google is not your friend when you're trying to search for causes of hideous rashes) Thankfully, it was just poison ivy and I am now on proper medication that has brought down the swelling and itching. Yippee!

Anyway, I originally wanted to post the story of how Mitch and I met for this post but I'm currently working on getting a website up with wedding details and such that will include our story so for this post I will just get all sappy and talk about how flipping excited I am to get married! 

Love is such an interesting thing. You talk about it basically all of your life but you never really know what it feels like or how you will react to it personally. It's such an incredible thing. One minute you're bopping around in life just doing whatevs and having a blast and then next thing you know you're head over heels for someone you've basically just met and planning out the rest of your lives together. Crazy, right? I think I find it so interesting because I'm such a slow-going person that I'm shocked that I was all for it and that I'm so insanely confident about it. Just blows my mind, haha. 

Also, this last week was just such a wonderful testament to me that I chose the absolute BEST person for me. Mitch came to serve with me in my calling as a ward missionary and it was so great to have him there with me, working alongside me. I don't know, something about seeing him working to reach out to others just floored me and seeing how he so happily rushed over right after 8-hours of work to help me with my calling just gave me such a wonderful vision of what our married life could be like serving in the Church together. 

We also had such a great experience at Target, the other day. While we were waiting in the checkout line I got a phone-call that I had to take so I stepped away for a while and left Mitch in line. When I get back to him he's checked out but holding a cart and chatting to an older aged woman. I come up to him and with a big grin on his face he tells me, "I offered to help her take her groceries to her car and load them up for her, is that ok?" Of course I say it's more than ok and we head over to the older woman's car. As we're chatting we find out that her name is Helen, and apparently while I was away, Mitch had told her that we were engaged so she was enthusiastically asking us about our wedding plans. Anyway, we load up her car give her a warm goodbye and head on over to our car. As we're about to back out, though, we notice that someone's parked right behind us. Before we get a chance to even start wondering about it there's Helen at the driver-side window, handing Mitch a Target gift card and saying, "Thank you. Happy wedding!"

It's just moments like those, when I get to see Mitch's character shine that really just make me fall more in love with him than ever. He isn't perfect, no one is, but he is perfect for me. I read a talk on lds.org once that said that when we focus on the good of our spouse (or future spouse) the not so good things become less evident. I truly believe that. As I see all the ways that Mitch is the best choice for me, our little differences don't seem as important or as big a deal anymore. But hey, what do I know? I'm not even married yet, haha. Anyway, yeah, love, it's amazing!

Much love!