Saturday, December 31, 2011

Here's To The New Year!

Happy New Year!

This past year was wonderful (thanks for following along!) and I'm looking forward to another amazing year ahead.  I hope you all have a wonderful time celebrating and spending time with your loved ones.

And here is a great quote to kick off the new year:

Photo by Amanda Pham (found via Lana Lou Style)



Thursday, December 29, 2011

[Real Couple] - Arif & Gurjit's Autumn E-Session

When I come across a truly amazing love story, I of course have to share it with you guys.  Today I'm sharing Arif & Gurjit's sweet story and their engagement pictures to go along with it.  And to top it off one of their first dates was on New Year's Eve - a perfect way to finish out the year.

How they met (from Gurjit): Arif and I met online, and it was love at first conversation! It felt like high school all over again! We would spend hours and hours on the phone each day. After a week of non-stop conversations, it was time to meet. After the expected nervousness wore off, our connection was unlike anything either of us had ever felt! It felt like we had known each other for years. Our third date was New Years Eve. I know what you're thinking:  "Wow third date on New Year's Eve. That's a lot of pressure!" Don't worry, we were thinking the same thing. But my best friend Nicole commented, "how amazing would it be to say next New Year's Eve that your third date was New Year's Eve?!" And sure enough, our first New Year's together was everything we had hoped it would be! It was like we had been together for years, but we still had butterflies seeing each other!  Over the next 8 months, we couldn't spend enough time together. After a road trip together, it became very clear that we both wanted to spend our lives together - and so the wedding talk began! Arif believed that his future wife should pick out the engagement ring of her dreams - reason number 4,231 why Arif is the perfect man for me! He would always say "You're the one that has to wear it for a life time, I want you to love it as much as you love me!"



The Proposal (from Arif): After the ring was found and was being created, I began devising my master plan to take my beautiful girlfriend's breath away with a proposal.  I bounced a seemingly endless number of ideas in my head, and finally decided that I wanted to do something that was simple and personal (which eliminated the possibility of proposing at a Canucks game - which I'm sure Gurj was thankful for!). I began to work feverishly on creating a photobook of memories of our first 8 months together. I began spending longer days at work, and lunch hours and minutes in between clients arranging, editing, and compiling the book. Now for the hard part - to make the proposal a surprise.  Since Gurj already knew that her ring would be ready for pickup on September 16, my bright idea was to purchase a 'temp' ring from my local high end jeweler, Walmart, and try and ambush Gurj prior to the 16th! On September 12, I put my master plan into effect. I bought Gurj's favourite bottle of champagne, and packed it up with a pair of champagne flutes, loaded up my car with champagne, and I was ready to go! I called Gurj at work, and told her that I wanted to go for a walk after work. Now this wasn't any ordinary walk, I took Gurj to Sendall Gardens in Langley - a beautiful park with a spectacular gazebo, and a tremendous Greenhouse with exotic plants and birds. Now the hardest part of the plan was to find a way to have the photobook with me while we were walking. So as we got out of the car, Gurj asked me why I had my laptop bag with me. I replied, "Because I've got a bottle of water for us!".  I quickly started to walk before Gurj had more suspicious questions for me; after all, I knew how ridiculous it looked, me in my shorts going for a walk with my laptop bag.



Proposal Story Continued: After an exhausting 3 minute walk, I realized that the sun was going down, and I needed to get Gurj to the gazebo to show her the book, so I did what any respectable, and smart man would do - I faked an ankle injury. So I walked...errrr.... limped over to the gazebo and we both sat down. I said I had a surprise to give to Gurj who seemed very puzzled by all of this. I pulled the wrapped photobook out of my bag and gave it to Gurj. From the second Gurj saw the book, she was in tears. It was surreal sitting together and looking at the book, thinking about how much we had done together in only 8 months.As she got to the second-to-last page.... I reached my sweaty, nervous hand into my pocket and I was prepared! And then..... I got down on one knee, pulled out my beautiful Walmart ring, and asked Gurj to marry me! Now I know you think that the rest is history, but wait! Before Gurj said yes, there was about a minute of questioning about where I had gotten the other ring, and where her real ring was! This is Gurj again! Just to interject here, I was just so confused... I honestly loved the Walmart ring he gave me until it gave me a rash on my finger! Now back to you Arif...  Shortly after she composed herself she said yes and the rest truly was history!

















 
So that brings our little story to where we are today - preparing for the greatest day of our lives! We have had a blast planning our dream wedding, and we are so excited to share our special day with all of you - the most important people to us! And we know this sounds cliche, but on April 6, 2012, join us - Eat, Drink, and get ready to party!
 

Congrats to Arif & Gurjit!

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Mountain Music

'Oh, play me some mountain music.  Like grandma and grandpa used to play.'

Today I'm off to Colorado to go skiing for the week and celebrate New Year's Eve!  I'm excited to get away and relax in the mountains.  There's something about all that fresh air (and maybe the added wooziness from the altitude sickness) that make me so happy.  I love being outdoors and what better place to do that then the mountains?

And speaking of the mountains, how about a little wedding inspiration to go along with it:

How great is this cake stand?  And it's a DIY!

{1} Bride & Groom via Polka Dot Bride * {2} & {4} Table Setting & Reception Setup via Rustic Wedding Chic * {3} DIY Light String via Crafty Butt * {5} DIY Cake Stand via Once Wed * {6} Bird Seed Favors via VisuaLingual Etsy Shop

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

SoCal Holiday Wedding Inspiration

Usually when it comes to a holiday wedding, people think of reds and greens or silver, white and gold.  But, why not think outside the box and do something a little different?  Well, that's exactly what this group of talented wedding vendors did for this Southern California inspired holiday shoot.  Think bright beach colors with a holiday spin.  



About the shoot: Our goal was to set these love-birds free into the world of styling options available to them, giving a nod to the holiday season, but setting their wedding apart. We hoped to inspire couples to think outside the box (a wrapped Christmas present of course!) and give a SoCal style holiday wedding a try. Through this shoot, we hoped to create a wedding for a couple who wants to embrace all the goodness and warmth this season has to offer but is unique, modern, fresh and fun!
























So what do you think?  Do SoCal, bright colors work for a holiday themed wedding?

Invitation Designer: LLY Designs
Dress Store: TheGownSwap.com
Cake Designer: The Butter End Cakery
Makeup Artist: Elegance By Alex
 
Submitted via Two Bright Lights
 



Sunday, December 25, 2011

Merry Christmas!!

 Merry Christmas!!


It's the most wonderful time of the year!  And I hope all of you have had a wonderful holiday season!

Pinned Image
Picture: Country Living (by Laura Moss)


Saturday, December 24, 2011

[Real Couple] - Lance & Kathryn's Christmas Suprise Engagement

Merry Christmas Eve!  I don't know about you guys, but this is one of my favorite times of the year.  I just love the decorations, Christmas songs, the Christmas spirit and how everyone seems to be so happy.  It also means lots of time with the family and taking a much needed break from work.  I can't wait for tomorrow and all of our Christmas traditions!

Today we have a Christmas themed shoot for you that turned into a surprise engagement.  From the photographer: Lance and Kathryn have known each other nearly forever....he feel in love with her in the fifth grade, but it took a few years to finally convince her! Years later, the two are still going strong. We arranged for a fun Christmas themed session to celebrate the holidays, but little did Kathryn know.....Lance had a huge surprise in store, he planned to propose at the end of the session! Kathryn thought she was getting a fun photo session, but in reality, she got a lot more!



















Love this one!



I think this would be the perfect picture for their save-the-date cards!



The Proposal: Lance and Kathryn had been talking about getting engaged for awhile, but because of a recent car accident, Lance was pretty confident he had her convinced it was going to be several more months until he would be able to actually purchase a ring. However, we knew the girl in her would have to wonder if this shoot might not be a good time and be on the lookout. So we decided to wait until the very end of the shoot. Lance came up the with idea, and it was precious….One of the coolest features of our shoot location was a wishing well. When we were technically finished with the shoot, I started to say my goodbyes and thank them, then suddenly remembered “one more” shot I wanted to get….Hey, guys, this may be totally cheesy, but I had this one last idea…… would you both make a Christmas wish in the well....you know, to incorporate the cute wishing well?? I dug around in my camera bag for two pennies (which Lance had prepped me with) and stepped back to shoot the “wish”. After they tossed their coins, Lance casually asked Kathryn what she had wished for…..I was so caught up in the shoot, I forgot to even make a wish, she laughed. Lance, however, remembered to make a wish. He proceeded to pull his “wish” straight up out of the well…..and then dropped to one knee, ring in hand……Kathryn said YES without a moments hesitation! It was such a cool ending to an already pretty amazing shoot!                           






Such a fun shoot.  Congrats to Lance & Kathryn!

And Merry Christmas to you all!
Photographer: Melissa McCrotty