Engagement Shoot

Wade and I recently did an engagement shoot with our crazy talented photographer, Scott, one Sunday afternoon because, well... because we could. It was such a gorgeous day, and we went to these hidden away little gardens in Mount Tambourine that I had never heard about, and ended up having a complete blast. As in, we didn't stop laughing the entire time. So our photos ended up comprising of lots of shots of us cracking up, and a few shots of us trying to look serious and dreamy and in love - but failing miserably because we were trying not to laugh.

In any case, I love these photos because they are just us all over. I have so much fun with Wade, and we never stop laughing when we're together. And I love how these photos reflect that. So, without further ado, here are a few of my favorites!

Thanks for stopping by!

- Heather

Summer Beauty Favorites

I find myself - although it's only one month in to Spring - saying to everybody I know, "How awesome is it that it's Summer?", "Don't you just LOVE Summer?", "Isn't this hot weather amazing?" because it is so incredibly hot here in Brisbane at the moment. The skeptic in me knows that I only have such an obsession with hot weather because I work in air conditioning, and therefore only have to spend time in the heat on the weekends where I can wear cool dresses and laze around by pools and such. But I digress. This post is about Summer Beauty, because I find my regime changing a lot in the hotter months. I've brought my beauty routine down to a finely-tuned art so that I can spend as little time as possible staring at the mirror. And my Summer routine is no different. Here are my top Summer Beauty Favorites, which help me get through the hotter months without looking like I'm overheating.

1. Dove Summer Glow. I only just discovered this recently, and have almost used up my whole bottle, which is very sad. This stuff is super moisturizing (which I haven't found with many gradual tanners), plus it smells nice all day long. Have you found that some tanners smell amazing when you put them on and then smell musky from about two hours in? This one smells nice all day. The only problem that I have with it (and this is probably because I bought the Fair - Normal Skin version) was that it isn't dark enough to build up my tan in the first few days. So I "helped" it with a few squeezes of leftover Le Tan. :)

2. Olay Complete Defence SPF30+ Daily Moisturizing Lotion (Sensitive). I have used both this lotion and it's twin, the SPF15+ Moisturizing Lotion, for about ten years. What can I say? I know a good thing when I see it! I use it on my face and all over my chest, and it's amazingly effective at blocking the sun. So awesome for Summer!

3. Chi Chi Mosaic Face Bronzer. My sister offloaded the early version of this bronzer on me a few years ago when she was clearing out her unused makeup. Needless to say, I am still a huge fan of the bronzer and go through it like crazy in Summer.

4. Juice Blemish Be Gone. I break out a lot more in Summer. I think it's a combination of exercising / sweating more and wearing moisturizers with SPF in them - but a pale girl's gotta do what she's gotta do, right? Especially in the skin cancer capital of the world! So rather than can the SPF, I went hunting for a good pimple buster, and found this little gem after reading reviews by some of my favorite beauty bloggers. I was happy that it had all organic ingredients, so it was something that I felt happy about putting on my blemishes. I found they cleared up quite well - but a warning, the blemishes don't disappear quickly (as the name suggests). I found that putting it on at night before I went to sleep reduced the size of the pimple quite dramatically by the time I woke up.

5. Maybelline Baby Lips. Obviously I had to include a great lip balm in there! Baby Lips are my all-time favorite balm, and Quenched would probably be the one I go through the fastest.

I hope you enjoyed reading my top beauty favorites for Summer! No doubt I'll be posting more as the season progresses and I discover new cosmetics that work when my face is, um... glistening.

- H

I'm Still Here!

About a month ago, life started to get crazy busy. Wade and I had thrown ourselves into house hunting - going to open houses, making appointments to look at other houses... it was getting insane because we couldn't find what we want. Finally, after a lot of discouragement, it was nice to step back and think let's get through the wedding first. So the house hunting is officially OFF for the time being, which, amazingly enough, freed up a lot of spare time to do things that I had let slip, like, for instance, this blog. I've missed writing for enjoyment! This blog is a bit of a haven for me amongst the craziness of life. So, this is just a little post to say, I'm here to stay!

- H

P.S. Oh, and by the way, this is kind of my feeling about searching for a house.

Week One of the Twelve Week Challenge

One week over, eleven to go. When I signed up for this challenge, we were encouraged to set goals every week. I kind of laughed at this. Weekly goals? I only overall goals: I want to lose a few of those extra kilos, tone up and get fit. But after week one of the challenge, new goals have started to emerge.

On Day One (Monday of last week), I tried going a whole day sticking to the eating plan. Which meant that for the first day in (quite possibly) my entire life, I tried to go a whole day without sugar. If you had asked me before the challenge if I was addicted to sugar, I would have told you Yeah! with a huge grin on my face because I didn't really believe it. Do I like sugar? Definitely. Am I completely dependent on sugar? No way.

And this is how I was still feeling when it got to ten o'clock at night on Day One. I was getting ready to go to bed. But I couldn't relax. My palms were sweating, I was shaking a little bit and I was starting to get a headache. Finally, after bursting into tears, I raced down to the kitchen and started tearing through our pantry and fridge (all of which had been cleaned out in anticipation of the Challenge). Finally finding some sweet crackers and a half-full bag of chocolate chips, I turned on the grill and melted chocolate chips all over the crackers while simultaneously pouring the chocolate into my mouth.

I wish I were joking, and that my need for sugar was a joke. But after looking back at how I've been eating I started to get a little a lot scared. I realised that I have a sugary drink with most meals (usually fruit juice or iced tea), and that there are most often baked goods lying around in the staff room at work for morning and afternoon tea. I also will tend to grab a muesli bar as a snack at Uni. So basically, without realizing it, I have been feeding myself a constant stream of sugar for most of my adult life.

So my new goal is: break the addiction! Have any of you tried to break a sugar addiction? How did you do it / how did you go?

- H

This is sort of a post about money

Ahh August. We are just over one week in, and I feel like I already need to make some changes to the way this month is going. You see, my sweet friend Elza has just made the life-changing decision to go and bring help and healing on The Mercy Ship - a ship that sails doctors, nurses and thousands more around Africa. Incredible, right? When Wade and I broached the subject of donating to her (she has to raise over $10 000 to cover her flights, insurance and stay on the ship), we both agreed that in order to donate as much as we would like, we would have to sacrifice a little bit.

Now, when I say sacrifice, I don't mean eating rice and tinned food every night, walking to work and the like. Although I definitely could do that. No, I just mean cutting down on the little luxuries that I afford myself every month. Just by eliminating some things from my routine, we should be able to save enough to donate. This will mean not going across the road and treating myself to sushi during my midweek shifts, and instead bringing lunch to work. This will mean not buying cute tops as soon as I convince myself that I need them, and instead creating a wishlist here on my blog. This will mean making my own damn espresso at home with my amazing espresso maker that my friends gave me for my birthday, putting it one of the three thermoses I have and taking it with me to work or uni instead of buying a cup when I get there. This will mean no impulse purchases of books (when I have some I still haven't read sitting on my kindle!), music (after Shazamming that awesome track that was playing on the radio), or - my weakness - nail polish.

I'm going to be honest here and say that being frugal - isn't that an ugly word? - isn't my strong suit. At all. And if I'm trying to save for myself, it is almost destined to fail every time. But when I'm saving for a friend - well, that's a different story. I'll probably be documenting long, mournful posts this month about how much I'm missing my sushi, or crafting clothing wishlists on Polyvore, or trying to talk myself out of buying yet another shade of blue nail polish. Ugh, I just read that last sentence, and I kind of hate myself. I feel like I should hashtag it #firstworldproblems. But I really need to practice reigning in my spending and I'm feeling that August is a good time to start! Who's with me?

- H

Happenings

Reading: Mister Pip - Lloyd Jones. If you haven't read Mister Pip, you need to run - run! - to your nearest bookstore and buy it. Or get it on your kindle and devour it. It's that fantastic. I read this book a couple of years ago when I picked it up at the Lifeline bookfest. I grabbed it because the title of the book reminded me of my favorite Dickens novel, Great Expectations (sidebar: I think it's my favorite because of its conciseness - does anyone else think that?). Imagine my delight when I discovered that the whole book was about the transformative power of novels; in this story, Dickens' novels. Also - get excited! - they are making a movie, due soon, starring Hugh Laurie as the kooky Mr. Watts. Then, a couple of weeks ago, my friend Annie (who has scarily similar tastes in books to me) added this book to her "Books I've Read" section on Facebook, which prompted me to go back and re-read it because this book is pure magic.

Watching: Bones is back on TV here in Australia, so I'm falling for the show all over again. *Sigh*.

Listening: I'm falling back into old habits, listening to music that can take me to favorite times and places. Chase This Light by Jimmy Eat World is notable when I get in this mood. I think that was possibly one of the happiest periods of my life. I was just starting Senior Year, I was getting my driver's license, I was full an insane amount of confidence. Oh, and I was falling in love with the boy who had given me this CD.

Loving: Here are three things to give you the happies!

1. Nerdy Love Song - filled with nerdy pickup lines. I tried some of these on Wade tonight, as he's currently at an extremely nerdy debate featuring Lawrence Krauss and William Lane Craig entitled Life, The Universe and Nothing. Please excuse the language - but this song is a classic, and the kitty is gorgeous.

2. Following Grammarly on Facebook. Because of a glitch in completing my Arts degree I have to take another subject on grammar. This is my third grammar-intensive subject in four years, and it has caused me to start calling people out on incorrect uses of who / whom. Yeah... Anyway, Grammarly is awesome because every day you get pictures like this one that make you want to punch the air, even if you are on a bus. I do have an opinion about the Oxford Comma!

3. Annnnd, the 27 Most Relatable Jessica Day Quotes. Especially this one.

- H

Here's to not getting wheeled down the aisle...

A few months ago, I started to feel a familiar twinge in my right knee. Every time it would twinge, I would freak out a little bit, and then forget about it. I didn't tell anyone. Then, one rainy day at uni, I was hurrying to class when my kneecap sublocated and immediately began to swell up. Crap.

You see, I've been through this before. Three times, in fact, with my left knee. I spent a few birthdays in surgery, went to Disneyland in a wheelchair, and abseiled in a full leg brace. I spent so long on crutches, that, to this day, one of my nicknames is Hoppy. If you read my blog, you will know that this actually ended up being quite a good thing, as I agreed to go out with Wade for the first time while in hospital. I won't say whether liberal use of my morphine button had anything to do with that decision.

Spending my 16th birthday in hospital. The nurses made me a cake.

So now, over four years after my last surgery, my fears (and my Dad's and my surgeon's) are confirmed. My right knee might just as messed up as my left. We're making jokes about me hopping down the aisle on crutches. Or my dad wheeling me. And most of the time, it's hilarious because my knee is behaving itself, and I'm working extra hard at the gym so that my leg muscles will hold the kneecap in place. But then, on days when it's twinging really painfully every time I put weight on it, I can't help but think, hold out until I get back from the honeymoon! Maybe nothing will happen, ever and my knee will just occasionally sublocate and that will be fine with me.

Or maybe not.

Here's to not getting wheeled down the aisle!

- H

Our Engagement Party!

At the beginning of the year, when we first got engaged, Wade's parents asked us if we were going to have an engagement party. At the time, some pretty sad / crazy things were happening with my family. A big one was that my grandma (the only family I have in Australia outside of my immediate family) had just gone in to hospital, and we didn't know if or when she would be getting out. So I told them I didn't think it would be possible. I knew that just organizing a wedding would be a huge ask for my parents and sisters. But Wade's parents were pretty insistent that we would be missing out on something if we didn't have an engagement party, and so they offered to host it. Which was, might I just say, amazing of them. We decided to have a very intimate party with just family who lived locally and close friends - especially those who we knew would be out of the country for the wedding. After a drizzly and cold week, I started questioning our decision to have the party at our local park. But the day before the party,  the sun came out, and it turned out to be the most beautiful weekend of the whole Winter! At the last minute, I decided to set up a volleyball net at the park because I knew that most of the people we had invited were volleyball enthusiasts (including myself and Wade). This turned out to be a massive hit (pardon the pun), and I don't know if I'll ever throw a party without a volleyball net again! What made the party extra special for me were the speeches, and the fact that my uncle and little cousin flew out all the way from England to come to the party. So there were two extra Lloyds at our engagement party - which is a huge deal.

I hope your weekend was as beautiful as mine!

- H

Engagement Session Wears

Wade and I have an engagement session booked in September with our very talented photographer, Scott. We had a little mini session right after we got engaged with Vivid Photography that was incredibly fun, but unfortunately because of the package we didn't get a disc of the images - only prints of our favorites. I'm happy we did it, though because it's really nice to have some pictures from when we first got engaged, whereas the shoot with Scott will be only a couple of months before the wedding.

The mini session was great, too, because I learned what I liked and didn't like about what I wore. I wore a really cute vintage-inspired tea dress that I bought from Dotti for only $10! Here's me wearing it at Elora's high tea. Super cute, right?

Unfortunately the lining of the underskirt showed in a couple of the really gorgeous photos, plus I think it was a little bit shorter than I thought it was. Not as timelessly classy as I wanted!

My hairdresser Kylie - who, by the way I would highly recommend! - styled my hair right before the shoot, and I, for some reason, requested it to be styled down. Even though my hair was / is at that awkward "growing-out" length where it's too long to be a cute bob, and too short to look like an elegant long bob. Plus, I almost always wear my hair up, because I hate using straighters and curling irons on my hair in the morning. So it wasn't very me.

Anyway, I was browsing Pinterest looking for engagement session inspiration when I found this image from the most gorgeous engagement session I've ever seen:

So now I'm on the lookout for a cream dress! Let me know if you see any.

- H

Getting Psyched for the Twelve Week Challenge

Over a month ago, I bought a gorgeous yellow bikini. It was not eenie meenie (nor polkadot - hehe...) so I thought it would be fine to buy it without trying it on. Well, it fit. But my reflection in the mirror after trying it on was discouraging to say the least. After months of regular and tough workouts at the gym, and sessions with the amazing Trevor, I was not seeing the fruits of my labor... in my case, that meant looking good in a bikini for my honeymoon in the Carribean!

I took a picture of myself in the bikini to look at every time I went to reach for a piece of cake from the fridge, or go on a midnight McDonalds run. This was actually working quite well until I went to my hairdressers, and tried showing her some styles I had saved to my camera roll. Of course, while flicking through my photos, I accidentally showed her that glorious piece of art, hereafter named Heather in Yellow Bikini which prompted no end of shame on my part - even though she pretended to have missed it.

What to do now? I knew that the one thing that motivated me to hit the gym in the first place was accountability. Group sessions, eating plans and having people check up on you every week - that was exactly the kind of motivation I needed to lose the love handles and the tuckshopesque arms. I'm definitely not brave enough to post a "before" picture here on the blog, but be warned, there will most likely be an "after" picture of me looking like an Amazon warrior in a sports bra.

Just kidding.

Anyway, this is just a shout-out to my fellow Brisbane-based readers out there in the blogosphere to join me in kicking the last few kilos into the ground. You can sign up for the challenge here - it's not too late! Here's to a bikini-ready Summer!

- H

Just a quick post to say...

I'm an aunt! Welcome baby Hunter James to the world!

- H

PS. Isn't he perfect??

Courting the Muse

One of my favourite quotes when it comes to writing rituals is by German author Peter Prange. Translated it reads,

"Instead of discussing with myself every morning whether I feel inspired or not, I step into my office every day at nine sharp, open the window and politely ask the muse to enter and kiss me. Sometimes she comes in, more often she does not. But she can never claim that she hasn’t found me waiting in the right place.”

I think what Prange was trying to articulate was that, as a writer who needs to practice their craft regularly, he needed to manufacture inspiration rather than wait for the mood to fall upon him. This completely resonated with me. As you might be able to tell from this blog, I will often wait until I am in the right mood before I will sit down and put pen to paper... er, fingers to keys. And that mood doesn't come upon me nearly as often as I need it to if I ever want to get published. So I decided to try my hand at manufacturing inspiration.

I started thinking about the times when I have been able to churn out awesome pieces of writing while not in an inspired mindset. Two instances came to mind. The first is pressure. Whenever I have a deadline, I am somehow able to pull a solid piece of writing out of nowhere by working up to the minute before it's due. I have never turned in a piece late. But somehow, creating a stressful, pressured situation in order to invite inspiration was not the most appealing. So I went with my other idea: having a nice, clean, fresh workspace (my desk is almost always cluttered with paperwork and textbooks), a fresh page in a notebook that is devoted completely to writing, and a freshly sharpened pencil (I never write in pencil outside of writing creative pieces). I tried this every day for the past week, even waking up earlier than I normally would in order to write. And guess what? Inspiration began to flow - very slowly, but it was definitely there. I was creating! And not just To Do lists and doodles. This is very exciting for me, and hopefully I will be getting a lot more muse kisses in the near future.

- H

Things that will get me up in the morning to gym it in Winter

1. New Lululemon tanks (they had a sale recently and I bought three - yay!). I'm planning on going back and getting this one for my "I want to be active, but still look cute at the same time" days... like when I play tennis.

2. Sleeping in a sports bra. While not the most comfortable thing ever, there is nothing else that will make me get out of my nice, cozy bed and go to the gym when it's freezing outside. Other than waking up and rationalizing with myself that I'm already dressed, so technically all I need to do is put on some shoes.

3. Rewarding myself. About five minutes up the road from Goodlife Holland Park there is a Zarraffa's Coffee. Nothing makes me feel better (and more smug, I will admit) than sauntering into work after a morning of exercise and holding a steaming cappuccino.

- H

Last First Day

On Monday, I had my last first day of school - ever! While I was daydreaming paying very close attention in one of my lectures, I was thinking about my very first day of university. Obviously I can't remember my first day ever of school - according to my dad, there were lots of tears. But I can remember driving my very unreliable little white car to the bus station, then catching the bus with an armload of textbooks to my very first day of uni. Wade snapped this picture on one of my first days of uni to remember it - I can't remember if it was my very first day, but it was definitely in that first week. Gotta love his artistic angles!

When I got to uni, my first ever class was a web design lecture. Not even kidding when I say that I felt like this, when I pulled out a notebook amongst the rows and rows of shiny, white Macbooks.

I remember the lecturer telling the class that just because we were adept at coding (uh, WHAT?), or had our own web design business (uh, NOT) that this class would still be a challenge. He then told everyone to open up Notepad++, or whatever source code editor we used, as a reference. I felt so incredibly out of my depth, and just wanted to go home. Unfortunately I still had the rest of the day ahead of me.

Now, I look back to four years ago and think of myself trying to scribble down code in a notebook and trying not to hyperventilate and I'm laughing. You know the old saying, This too shall pass? I passed that course. Actually I got a distinction for it. So now, four years later and trying not to hyperventilate about everything I have ahead of me, I can keep thinking This too shall pass. Life goes on. One more Semester to go.

- H

Maslow's Hammer

Today I was reading an article by Tim Challies about the concept of Maslow's Hammer - when you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail - and how that compared to what we share on social media. I think about social media a lot - mainly because it's a large component of what I'm studying, but also because my partner has different views to me about restraint when sharing online. I, however, share a lot on social media - not as much as I could, but certainly enough that you could say I have a presence. Because I'm applying for communications graduate jobs right now - and a lot of them in my field require you to have some sort of presence - I've upped my social media sharing over the past few months.

Since getting Instagram a little over a year ago, my thoughts have slowly drifted from "Wow, I'm having a great experience with this person/food/setting/holiday. I'm going to soak it in and enjoy it... maybe take a couple of pictures to remember it." to, "I need to Instagram this." For a while that thought has been nagging me. Part of that is what I Instagram. I post pictures of Wade and I looking happy at weddings, a delicious cake, my new red hair. I don't Instagram pictures of Wade bickering, or of my face after it has broken out, or the big stack of bills I have on my desk that I've been avoiding. Probably because I know you don't want to see it. Mostly because I don't want you to see it.

But there was something else. And I couldn't quite put my finger on it until I read this tonight:

Some experiences are too full to distill to 140 characters and too rich to capture in a photo. Sharing such experiences through social media serves only to cheapen them. Do not allow yourself to ruin a beautiful moment by seeing it primarily as an opportunity to share it with strangers.

 It took me back to two days ago when Wade and I were having a beautiful, lazy day together down at Victoria Point at this gorgeous new bakery. I took a couple of pictures of Wade stuffing his face with this ginormous apple cobbler and some pictures of me with a sour cherry pie - I haven't had a sour cherry pie since America! Right after I took a picture, Wade said to me, "Please don't put that on Instagram" - and I didn't. Nobody but us (now everybody who reads my blog - haha!) would know about that beautiful day, and how delicious the pie was and how happy we were. And that made the moment much more special somehow.

So, for now I think I'm going to cool it with the Insta-spam - Wade will be delighted I'm sure! - and start taking pictures for myself and my own enjoyment, rather than to share with the world.

We'll see how we go...

- H

Time Out

After finishing last semester, I found myself completely burnt out. Then, right after finishing I started taking overtime at work which added a lot of pressure. So this is the first week I've found myself with some time to breathe - time to relax and sleep in and get things done. Last week I wrote myself an enormous To Do list and I've been slowly working my way through - interspersed with fun mornings spent with Wade before he heads off to work nights. We also celebrated the beginning of our fifth year as a couple with brunch at one my favorite bistros, Egg. I still feel exhausted even though I know I've got to pick myself up again and get back into studying and working in five days. Right now I can't even face it.

- H

Searching for our Photographer

When Wade and I sat down to work out our wedding budget, we decided that more than anything, we wanted to have an amazing photographer shoot our wedding. We also wanted to have our reception in a gorgeous location with amazing food. Those were our top three priorities: photographer, location, food. I don't claim to be much of an expert at all when it comes to photography, but after being surrounded by photographers since I started working at Photo Continental I knew a little bit about what I wanted in our wedding photography. 

And so we started our quest. Verbalizing what I wanted was by far the trickiest part of the search. Basically what it came down to was that I wanted the photos to look like a perfect, real moment. That's a very vague concept I know. I figured out that I wanted pictures that looked like the photographer had snapped them and not edited them at all - but were still breathtaking. Therefore, I ruled out any photography that looked like the photographer went to town on Photoshop. Wade simply wanted a photographer that made him feel comfortable in front of the camera - if that was possible.

We started trawling blogs and asking for recommendations from friends and other photographers. And that's when we stumbled across Scott from Dawes Photography. Browsing through his images, I felt like I was looking at a series of captured moments - every one of them perfect and breathtaking. And after an initial Skype chat (until recently he was based in California) we were sold. For a while there I wasn't sure if we would find the perfect photographer who made us feel completely comfortable and took amazing pictures. But we did! Check him out if you're getting married soon. You won't be disappointed, I promise!

- H

One Year

On major holidays I always find myself looking back and thinking about where I was one whole year ago. One whole year ago, I was holidaying with one of my sweetest friends, Jess in Canada. We celebrated Canada Day together, and then on the Fourth of July I had my own little celebration - an American visiting Canada from Australia celebrating being independent.

A whole year ago, I remember thinking about marrying Wade seriously for the very first time. Before I left for my first big solo trip Wade had - cautiously - brought up the subject with me. At the time I had kind of shrugged it off, maybe when we're older... I want to travel first... we don't have any money. So we didn't really talk about it again before I left. I was so excited to go on the trip, never anticipating what a mess I would be from missing Wade. When I was about two-thirds of the way through the flight to L.A., I opened my carry-on to grab a book and I found a letter stuck between its pages from Wade. I started bawling my eyes out, because as soon as I finished the letter I realized that I wasn't going to be able to see him for months and, suddenly, that was a very big deal.

I look back at all the photos from the trip and I can remember that every time I found myself having a ball, I would think I wish Wade was here! Crazy how things can change in only twelve short months.

- H

Happenings

Reading: Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris. I love Sedaris, and this is one of my favorites. Since all my books are in storage until Wade and I move, I've been re-reading my favorite eBooks on my Kindle. The chapter about a subway ride he took while living in Paris is possibly my favorite thing ever written.

“People are often frightened of Parisians, but an American in Paris will find no harsher critic than another American.” 

I'm exceptionally excited about An Evening With David Sedaris at the Powerhouse next year!

Watching: Packed to the Rafters. As soon as I heard this show was finishing, I started watching it, and made my sisters and my mom watch it too. We're totally hooked. It's so different to my family life, because it's incredibly Aussie but that's why we love it.

Listening: I found an old mix CD that I made for Wade in '08. It rocks. I'm serious, I love every single song on the CD. It's very Blink and A New Found Glory-heavy which is weird, until I remembered that that was all Wade listened to for a while there and I obviously got into it too.

Loving: This awesome little desktop calendar by Rebecca Seale. I always set her calendars as my wallpaper, and when Wade and I buy an actual house, I would love to buy one of her personalized house portraits.

- H

The Last Wedding Before Ours!

Today Wade and I attended the wedding of some of our friends, Tara and Johnathan. It was a slightly more stressful day than we had anticipated, to say the least. The pianist at the wedding was having jitters and so Wade was roped in, twenty minutes before the bride walked down the aisle, to play guitar for the ceremony. You know what's difficult? Playing old hymns on guitar. I was totally freaking out, and crossing my fingers and toes that he wouldn't mess up. I was so proud to see him up there playing like he had been practicing for weeks instead of twenty minutes. Then, in between the ceremony and the reception, Wade and I popped up to my Grandmother's house, only to find that she had very low blood sugar (she is Type One diabetic) and was fading slowly out of consciousness. Without breaking a sweat, Wade went into paramedic mode, testing her blood sugar, giving her juice and preparing glucagon for her while I stood around and freaked out - again. And we didn't have to take her to hospital, which was awesome. For the rest of the day, and all through the night, I continued to be totally amazed by this guy who takes on any challenge that comes his way without panicking about it at all? Sitting through weddings always makes me think about my wedding, and now finally the next wedding will be ours. And I'm almost certain that at the next wedding, Wade won't be as calm!

- H

Winter Wedding

Does anyone have as much trouble deciding what to wear to a Winter wedding as I do? This is my third wedding that I've been invited to in the past few years that has taken place in the middle of Winter, so I feel like I'm becoming a bit of an expert. I found this gorgeous dress at Forever New a few weeks ago. It's wonderful for Winter because it's made of a thick cotton / nylon / elastine blend and fully lined so it's actually quite warm. And how cute are those beaded straps? I'm undecided as to whether I'm going to cover up with a little fur bolero (like the one pictured) or a black blazer with longer sleeves. I'm leaning towards the blazer because the reception takes place near the water - but how cute is that bolero? I know this wedding is going to be pretty dance-heavy so I'm leaning towards wearing these trusty and incredibly comfy Wittner heels and some simple, yet sparkly accessories. Wade's wearing this charcoal Saba suit so I'm looking forward to snapping some quick pictures before we head off to the ceremony!

- H

Gifting

Yesterday, I was browsing xoJane, when I was (slightly shocked) to find this very controversial article, originally titled "A Third Of The People Who Attended My Wedding Didn't Give Me A Gift - What's Up With That?" You can have a read of the article - it's very interesting! - or you can trust me to give you the highlights. Basically, the author got married a little over a year ago and is very perplexed as to why a third of her guests didn't give her a gift. Although she admits that she felt guilty for getting upset about it, she still goes on to describe particular wedding guests who she feels "owe" her a gift and yet did not deliver.

I then read the comments section and was surprised to find that a lot of people agreed with the author - that when you throw a wedding, you are owed a gift. A lot of people agreed actually. Part of my job at work is to help others create wedding invitations. More often than I'd like to admit, I get asked by customers how to ask for particular gifts (especially cash) on the invitation. Why? Because they expect a gift and they want to direct people towards the right kind of gifts.

Here's the thing. A wedding gift is just that - a gift. Not a payment, or a "token of appreciation" for the honor of being invited to the wedding. I guess I'm bringing this up as a bride as well as someone who works (partially) in the wedding industry. I want to give couples a gift because I love them, and want to show them that I love them by giving them a gift that reflects my relationship with them and their personalities. My parents still have pieces that they received for wedding presents that my mom will tell me, "Oh, so-and-so gave me that. I never would have thought I wanted it, but I use it all the time." I want to be so-and-so who gave them that awesome mini food processor that has lasted a zillion years. I want to be so-and-so who gave them that beautiful painting that still hangs in their living room. Have a read of the article and let me know what you think about our gift-giving culture. I'd love to know your thoughts!

- H

DIY Photobooth with the Canon Selphy CP900

When we were party planning for my brother's sixteenth birthday, we were trying to think of something that would make his party really fun. Obviously, photobooths are the bomb. I've been to a few parties and weddings with photobooths and I love that you get to leave with an awesome souvenir of the night. That being said, when my mom and I started looking into hiring photobooths for the night we were shocked at the prices - $1000 for 3 hours? - so we started thinking about alternatives.

At Wade's brother's wedding, they had a Fuji Instax where you could snap a Polaroid and peg it up on a memory board for the bride and groom to keep forever. However, some guests - not me, I swear! - liked the pictures too much and knew they were never going to see them again so they took them. Which kind of sucks for the couple, because they never got to see some of the best photos of their guests. It also sucked for me because I took a great picture of Wade and I that I will never see again.

Enter the Canon Selphy CP900. Aka, my new favorite toy. The Selphy is a tiny printer that you can hook up wirelessly to your camera, computer, or smartphone - or you can stick a USB or SD card in - and print 6x4 photos.

To make the photobooth I started by cutting pieces of tissue paper to look like papel picado. Wade then strung them up on the walls to create a colorful backdrop.

Then we popped a couple of chairs in front of the backdrop and a box of fun props and let the party guests do the rest! After they posed for the shots, I printed the pictures straight away. I printed two of each of the four poses (eight in total) on each piece of photo paper and sliced the 4 x 6 image in half. We then tacked the photos up in a public place for the guests to look at and take home.

Here's my sister Steph and I getting a little crazy in the "booth"!

- H