WE’RE OFFICIALLY ONE YEAR OUT FROM OUR WEDDING DAY! What better way to celebrate that than sharing some of our engagement photos! I couldn’t wait to share these – our photographer, who will also be shooting our wedding day, did such a wonderful job capturing beautiful moments between Jonathan and I. We had so much fun during our engagement shoot and I highly recommend doing one when you’re engaged. I know most people do them nowadays, but I think it’s so beneficial to get them done by the same photographer that you’ll be using on your wedding day. I say that because it was such a great way for our photographer to get to know us and vice versa. I think it’s so valuable to build those relationships with your vendors for many reasons; one of them being for the wedding day to go a lot smoother, and especially with a photographer, feeling comfortable behind their camera is so important. If you feel comfortable behind the camera and the person taking the pictures, then you’re more likely to get the shots that look natural, effortless, and in-the-moment. Those shots are the ones that I find to be the most beautiful and memorable. When deciding on the location of where we wanted to get our photos taken we didn’t really have anywhere specific in mind. There’s not one particular spot that has a very special meaning to us and we don’t feel tied down to any one location. What we did know is that we love the beach and a beautiful sunset, so that’s what we went with. Well, let’s be honest, Jon’s favorite spot is a golf course, specifically the same one that he proposed to me on, which is also where my wedding shower is going to be. Not to mention that our reception venue is a golf club. So I think it’s safe to say that I wasn’t going want our engagement photos to be on a golf course too haha! Instead, it was in a park/beach in Greenwich CT. It was the perfect night and the scenery all around us was so beautiful, we kept walking around the grounds and taking pictures in different spots, which I loved because we have so much variety in our photos. We couldn’t be more pleased with our photographer, he’s so talented and his work is incredible. He had all of our pictures edited and back to us in less than two weeks – which is amazing! He does a lot of weddings in the northeast and he’s traveled further for others, so if you’re ever looking for a great photographer you have to check him out: Tony Spinelli Photography.
I can’t believe there are only 365 days left until we tie the knot! The last few months have been so surreal and I know that it’s only going to get better (and more hectic!) from here. I’m really happy with the progress we’ve made so far especially since we still have another year to go. As you know if you’ve been reading my blog for a while, we’ve booked our church and venue (read that blog post here), our photographer and videographer (read that blog post here), and our florist. One of our last big vendors that we still have to book is our DJ, but we have a few ideas on who that could be. I’ve also been gown shopping already and I can’t wait to go again! That’s a process that I can’t wait to write about and share my experience on because it’s been nothing short of a fairytale! As for the other stuff, we haven’t done too much with the smaller details of the day but my wedding binder is already pretty thick with contracts and other things! Staying organized has been so important for me. I just got a really amazing wedding planner with all of the monthly to-dos for when it’s 12 months until the wedding, 9 months, etc. leading up until the wedding day. It also has pages for guest lists, vendor contact information and notes, wedding party information, budget/expense lists, and so much more. I’m very much still a paper and pen type of person, I can’t have everything in excel or on my computer and/or emails. I need to write certain things down and I will definitely be writing down everything in my wedding planner! It’ll also be a really cool keepsake for when it’s all over and I want to go back and reminisce on this wonderful journey and hand it down for generations to come. 🙂