Engagement Photos Preview

The day FINALLY CAME!!!!! On January 4th, Mr. Hess and I finally had our ENGAGEMENT PHOTO Session (or, E-session for those into the wedding terminology).

We had been debating ever since we started looking for photographers whether or not we were going to have an Engagement Photo Session with the company we chose, or to just have our friend Lauren do some snapshots of us.  When we finally found who would be capturing our big day, we decided that we were going to weigh out the options and see what the best option would be.

The package we booked included an E-session, so it made sense to use that as an opportunity to get to know our photographer, and see how she captures our style.  So with our friend's blessing....we finally decided to book our E-session with our wonderful photographer Victoria, from Elegant Imagery. We found them at the Bridal Show we went to back in October, and after seeing their work and modern, artistic style - we booked them within a month!  SO EXCITED!!!!!! :D

After how our E-session went, I couldn't be happier with the quality of photos, the colors, and the modern and edgy eye our photographer has.  She even brought her dad along to get some different angles and throw out more ideas for us to do.  I was very impressed with that added bonus, and I'm so glad we decided to use her for our session since I think it is really important to us to have chemistry with whoever is shooting our wedding.  Also, a huge requirement for me was to have great communication skills, because I've learned from my friends in the past how much communication and chemistry (or lack of), can have to do with how your photos turn out.  

Knowing our photographer's style, and our style - we decided to take some photos that were different form the normal beach, park, or empty field photo.  Since we met in Orlando, we wanted to have more of a modern, urban feel to our photos and chose to take the photos in different parts of downtown.

We started out at a great Spanish, rustic looking restaurant, went to up and down staircases, over some train tracks, over to some graffiti walls and ended up on the rooftop of the Amway Center! Yup, the brand new Arena in downtown Orlando.  I don't know how he did it, but Scott pulled out whatever connections he had and really made me proud.  We even got some shots at the end on the actual Magic Court and in the stands.  I know I will love ALL of our photos, but I think some of those will be my favorite, just because the Magic have so much to do with how we met.

Our day is finally complete...in our Magic gear!

After a long day of shooting, we were excited to see how the photos turned out but were a little worn out to say the least...

We haven't gotten more than a handful of our photos back, but I wanted to share what we've seen so far!  CAN.NOT.WAIT to see how the rest turn out!!!! :)

Civiche - this pic was shot bouncing off of a mirror!

Of course, Mr. Hess thought of this pose idea...

So you can see, we are a little out of the "ordinary" when it comes to wedding stuff.   We want our ceremony to be more traditional, but when it comes to the reception, you can definitely say we are thinking "outside of the box!" and more on the fun side.  Both Mr. Hess and I have a contemporary style, and I'm happy to see it showed through our Engagement Photos:

Amway Center - rooftop, overlooking downtown Orlando!

I was very proud of Mr. Hess, who came up with a really creative way to do our "Save the Date" in on of our photos.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that turns out and we can use it right away to get Save the Date cards printed and sent over! AHHHHH!

Can't wait to post more when they are released! :)

Wedding Hint #2

It's probably pretty obvious to you by now that my favorite color is: 

PINK!

 

Revealing a color and type of flower you might be seeing at our wedding...we have about 5 main flowers in our floral decor so far!

Bride (& Groom) Hangers!

So, most of you know by now that I was in my dear friend Britt's wedding last November.  Not only did she do an amazing job staying organized and planning her wedding, she has steered me in the right direction in so many different ways!  One thing she showed me when it was almost time for her wedding was the MOST ADORABLE wedding hanger.  Naturally, as soon as I saw this I wanted to order one of these for myself the same day!

I thought about it, and because I am going to have it say my future Mrs. name, I'm not going to post an actual picture of it.  But, I decided to share anyways, because these things are just SO darn cute!!!

 

ADORABLE RIGHT?!

Well, one thing I was worried about and asked myself was, what about if the dress is heavy?  Will wire really hold the dress?  The wire hangers will supposedly hold a wedding dress for up to a few days, but will not be good to store on long term.  Great for a photo opp, but I wasn't sure if wire was the way to go because of this reason.  After researching more, I found a few different versions of it:

 

OR, you could even get a fun color accent to go with your wedding:

So after seeing these, it is clear that I will be ordering one.  Also, these would make great bridesmaid gifts!  I didn't order these for my girls, and if I did I wouldn't have posted it on here because they frequent my blog page - but I found something completely different and special for them already.  But look how cute this could be if you don't have an idea what to get your girls:

I'm not sure which one I personally will go for, but it looks like I'm leaning towards the PINK or wood!  I showed Mr. Hess these hangers, and now he wants to get a Groom hanger in blue for him.  Or maybe they have one in the wedding color he got to pick?  Look for a few Wedding Hints from now to see what colors we chose to decorate our big day with! 

My personal fav is the complete wire, but I would hate for it not to be able to hold the dress of my dreams!  Any suggestions?!

For more wedding dress hangers or ideas, try the website I pulled these from:

http://www.etsy.com/search_results.php?search_query=customized+hangers&search_type=category&ref=auto&category=weddings

195 days to go....

Until next time!

Presh

Mr. Hess, Pup & his Razorbacks!

We all know Mr. Hess is a little bit of a ARKANSAS RAZORBACKS fan...he only went to the school, played in the marching band (YUP - sure did play the trumpet), and was THE Arkansas Razorback Mascot for 3 years!  He is loud and proud of his HOGS and never misses a game.

Tonight when I got home from work, I saw the ARK vs. OHIO ST Sugar Bowl game on.  Of course, there Mr. Hess was watching the game in Razorback gear head to toe.  Tonight though, we had a new guest over to watch the game...

About 5 nights ago, Mr. Hess called me in the middle of the night from downstairs telling me that he was coming up, but he found a stray dog.  Half asleep, I agreed to let him come into the house for two reasons: 1) I love dogs and 2) it was in the middle of a cold night streak in Orlando.  I felt bad for the little guy, who Mr. Hess said was cold, wet, and wandering around looking lost.  He had a blue collar on, but it was very tattered and there weren't any tags on him.  We spent the next few days after we found him putting up signs around the neighborhood, but haven't gotten a response from anyone.  We have been looking for MISSING DOG signs, but haven't seen a thing.  So for now, we have a pup.  We bought him some puppy food, made him a bed, took him on lots of walks, and pretty much took him in as our own.

We haven't named "Pup" yet, because we didn't want to get attached, but clearly that has already happened.  We are excited to introduce the newest member of the Hess family (for now anyways) to you:

We would aboslutely LOVE to keep him if his owners aren't anywhere to be found.  I don't know who would have the heart to do it, but just by the way he responds to strangers and kids, it leaves us to wonder what kind of home he came from and if he ran away on purpose, or if he was abandoned.  He seems to like it at our place, even though we swore we would never have a dog in an apartment.  If we had a house, the desicion to keep him would have already been made.  So, we'll see what happens in the next week. Pup is one of the sweetest dogs I have ever come into contact with and something tells me we were meant to find him...I'm just saying. ;)

Keep you posted!  Until next time...

GO HOGS! WOOOOOOOOO PIG SOOOOOOOIEEEEEEEEE!

198 days and counting...we're in the 100s now! WOW!

Presh