How to book your photographer like a crazy bride

By far, the most important expense on our wedding day for us is photography. The cake will be eaten, the invitations hopefully admired for least 1 minute (please!) but then tossed aside… my dress carefully stuffed away only to be pulled out when I am feeling nostalgic. But, the photos will remain. I promise to pinch every penny for everything else, but I have to absolutely have photos that knock my socks off.

This past summer, I was working on the major components of the wedding. I met with my first-pick wedding photographer with my mom and to-be mom. I knew going into the meeting that she was outside of our photography budget. But, I love love love her photos. I figured I would try and see if she would come down a little and she did based on that were adding a few extra goodies to our package. The moms also very much liked her photos. Her photos are crisp while still being romantic. I probably would have booked her right away, but a few things gave me pause. 1. She was very friendly! However, she wasn’t overly zealous and all warm and fuzzy – more business-like. Which is good but not what I was expecting. 2: I felt like many of the weddings she photographed all looked a little bit alike. I think it is because her customers have beautiful weddings but they lack personalization… in my opinion. So, my big question is: Can I get her to shoot my wedding with a bit more creativity?

It seemed like I had to definitely meet with another photographer in order to make a decision. I had an appointment booked with another photographer for July 3. However, the goal was to meet with three photographers, so I could feel like I was making an educated decision before spending tons of money. I found a few more photographers whose photos were also fabulous, but one by one they all got back to me saying that they were booked already! WHAT! We were still 1 year away…..how can they be booked!?!! Sad face. All those stupid wedding checklists in books, magazines and online say to book your photograph 9 months to go. Lies. All lies.

Naturally, I freaked out. All I could think was WHAT IF MY FIRST-PICK PHOTOGRAPHER GETS BOOKED BEFORE I MAKE A FREAKIN’ DECISION?! One part of me was telling me that I needed to wait until July 3^rd to meet with another photographer to ease my concerns about creativity before making a rash decision. But the other part (the crazy part) was telling me to but a deposit on that photographer NOW. What to do!?

Sigh. I gave into my craziness and emailed the 1^st-pick photographer to book her before I had met with the other photographer. Whatever. I know that I am ridiculous, but I also knew that I would be happy with her photos and she is (sort of) close to our budget.

The good news is that because we had to work out a contract I still had time to meet with the July 3^rd photographer.  (I did feel slightly guilty for meeting with another photographer even though I had told photographer #1 I would book her.) Wes and I went to the second meeting and it gave us a lot of think about, but we still felt that we had made the best decision going with photographer #1.

So without further ado… Kristen Taylor of Birmingham, MI will be shooting our wedding!

All photos from Kristen Taylor Photography Blog

Swoon.

I feel that if I make our wedding fun and unique, then Kristen will respond to that. Now, I have to make all of you promise to smile and not be talking on your cell phone in all my photos!

What do you think should be the most important thing to spend money on? Would you book somebody without meeting with anyone else?

Staying fit in Finland: Part 3

This will be my last and final post in this mini-series! This one is about a super strange bridal tradition that I learned about in Finland. Some background material first:

Sauna is a big deal here in Finland. Everyone uses the sauna. Some Finnish people crave the sauna when they go too long without *cough* Miriam* *cough*. Sauna is thought to be a tool to release bodily toxins and treat sickness and pain. Sauna is introduced to kids from age one and parents always teach their kids how to prepare, wash and maintain a nice sauna. It is both a family and social experience. Often times, families will eat dinner, go to the sauna, and then watch the news together every evening. It is very rude to call a house in Finland between the hours of 6-10pm because that is SAUNA TIME.

Sauna Time

Suffice it to say, I had to try the sauna. Verdict: the sauna is awesome. You get super clean, then sit in the wonderful hot box and put water over rocks that are heated by a wood burning stove while sipping a beer. It smells like campfire and is so warm which is nice in a place where it is winter most of the time. Then you get out, rinse, put on a robe and go outside to cool down. Some people even jump into the lake. Then you get back into the sauna and do it all over again!

You come out of the sauna SO relaxed. A whole body massage doesn’t even compare. So, you get now that sauna is a big deal here in Finland. Obviously, sauna would be incorporated into big events here in Finland including holidays and WEDDINGS! These traditions are very old and a bit out-dated, but people have adopted some of the traditions in modern ways for their own wedding days.

Brides in Finland are supposed to use the sauna on the eve before their wedding as a way to banish evil spirits and ghosts of former boyfriends. (HA! I think a few of us could benefit from this!) You decorate the sauna with white towels and candles to represent purity. The bride sits in the middle while her friends whip her with birch branches. You heard me right, whip her with birch branches.

It is very common to create a tool from birch branches to (gently) beat yourself with while in the sauna. It serves as a tactile stimulus that the Finns are big on (remember the whole hot to cold to hot idea?). Also, it releases oils onto your skins that are cleansing.

The bride’s friends then wash her with salt, honey and milk to purify the bride and make her innocent again. Miriam told me that sometimes they even crack and egg over her head! It has something to do with fertility... Next, beer is passed around to take a sip from to honor the bride.

The bride’s friends then sing and chant to cast away those evil boyfriend spirits. A bride at this time is supposed to sit on a throne of juniper (while in the sauna) to remind her that marriage isn’t always easy and can be painful at times.

To finish it all up, the bride tosses the bundle of birch branches over her shoulder and makes a wish.

BAM! The bride can then consider herself cleansed and pure.

Not sure that I will do this, but it would be nice to spend some quality time with the wonderful women in my life before the wedding. Got any ideas? Anyone up for a bachelorette party?

Staying fit in Finland: Part 2

Okay, I exercised maybe twice a week in Finland, but I did supplement by hiking! To continue in my “Staying fit in Finland” series where I sneak in photos of Finland into my blog, I would like to show you two of my adventures!

Early during my time in Finland, I went blueberry picking out in the woods surrounding Jyvaskyla with my friend Miriam and one of Miriam’s lovely friends. Miriam gave me a bike to use while I was in Finland. We biked about 5 kilometers outside of the city. Then, we hiked up a hill and wandered off the beaten path.

It took some time to find berries because they were picked over. These crazy ant hills were everywhere, though.

Eventually, we did find some. They grow like carpet over the forest floor.

We were very focused on blueberry picking (as you can tell by my purple hand) so we may have gotten lost a little, but Miriam found our way out.

Hooray, I made it!

For my last weekend in Finland, I asked Mika and Miriam to go hiking with me in a National Park. My camera battery was dead, so the following are all Miriam’s pictures.

A purple mushroom!

We hiked for 1 hour then made a fire to cook some Finnish sausage…yeah, you're jealous.

Mika chopping wood.

Pondering great things.

The ladies made fire...

Mmm sausage.

We hiked out to a little bit of land that extended out into one of Finland’s many lakes.

When then hiked back and admired these geologic features called kettle holes – large holes that glaciers cut out of the earth.

Lichen. It made the ground look like gray snow.

Another lichen?

Kettle hole!

Besides that, I also walked to work and back every day and didn’t eat fast food at all. Okay, maybe once because I had to try to the Finnish version of McDonalds. All in all, I think I was active enough! I am thankful that I get to start Jazzercise back up again soon because another week without it and I might be singing a different tune.

I know that other people very dear to me are also trying to stay fit and/or shed some excess pounds for many different reasons, but partially because our wedding is coming up. So, I would like to take a moment to say GO MOM, GO ANA, GO BM NICOLE and… GO WES!

Correction: Wes just informed me that he is getting fit for the honeymoon, not the wedding. My bad. :)

Staying fit in Finland: Part 1

I know this is a strange notion, but I would like to look really good in all wedding-related photos! And, I would like to fit in my dress on my wedding day. Therefore, it was a goal of mine to workout with all my extra time in Finland. A co-worker of mine asked me a few months ago, "Why did you buy your dress so early, aren't you afraid you will gain weight?" Well...no, not really, not until he said something about it! Normally, I exercise a lot. Jazzercise rocks my world!

Jazzercise!

That's right, I am a dancing, shake my butt while wearing spandex, because I find treadmills boring sort-a gal! We don’t really wear this stuff but I hear that some people used too… I may have or have not dressed up as a Jazzerciser one year for Halloween because some people (not me) consider spandex scary. I miss you Jazzercise ladies of New Jersey!

Kissing a skull.

Anyhoo, I didn’t want to gain weight pounds eating sausage, beer and bread in Finland right before our engagement photo shoot. Did I mention that? We are getting engagement photos done next week!!! I could burst I am so excited. More on that later.

Finland doesn’t have Jazzercise, so I decided to take some Jazzercise videos with me and jog... If I could take one thing back with me to the US it would be my jogging path. So, pretty.

Pretty, right?

University of Jyvaskyla. This is the campus I worked at.

I am on a boat cruise here with Miriam and Mika (super cool Finnish people), but the boat left from a dock that I jog by. You can see my apartment in the background.

I jog past this lake and into the downtown area that you see in the background.

More downtown Jyvaskyla

You can see my apartment from the lake/bridge that I job over! My apartment's balcony is where the white arrrow points to.

Views from my apartment!

Confession: so I didn’t really work out as much as I should have in Finland. This post is really just an excuse to show you some cool sights from my jogging route!

In current news: Vendor searching was almost the death of this Michigan bride...

I have some FANTASTIC news. I am done searching for vendors!
Venue – Check! Includes food so DOUBLE check! Plus, they work with fabric/chair people so all I had to do was tell them want I wanted…. TRIPLE check!
Officiant – Check!
Dress place – Check!
Photography – Check!
Bakery – Tasty check!
Flowers – Check! AND, under budget. Double point bonus for me.
DJ – Check!
Hair/makeup – Check!

Before I found all my vendors I felt like this:

My favorite adopted neice, Lucy, and I with not so happy faces...

Now I feel like this:

Pure joy!!! Lisa and Matt, your baby is fabulous.

I am congratulating myself with a glass of red wine as we speak.

However, getting to this day was not an easy one…

The other week I almost decided to forget about having a “super awesome” wedding and just send out some invitations and call it a day. It seems so much simpler to say “I do” and then eat some cake that you got at the grocery store that morning. Who really needs fancy flowers or the best DJ in town? In the end, you’re married no matter what.

Why was I feeling like this? Well, I found it very frustrating to try and find all the vendors for the right price. I love DIY projects, but I definately found that vendor searching made me anxious and/or frustrated. I absolutely hate trying to figure out whether I think someone is worth the price that they are charging. I hate bartering. (I hate to stereotype, but Wes should never let me go buy a car by myself, haha.) I hate trying to determine if someone is trustworthy. And, when you think you might have found some wonderful people to work with… BAM…you get the news that they are already booked for your wedding day. I can live with not having the best DJ in town, but it feels terrible to start the search all over and go through the process of accessing the quality of someone else. Note to all June brides: it is not too early to look for vendors! EVER! Tell your fiance I said so. On top of it all, it feels so rude to say, "You're great, but we decided to go with someone else".

Then, I realized why I love planning the wedding (i.e. customized with tons of details and hands-on projects). I realized that, while I may be the only person who truly cares about having handmade invitations, I get to share the time making things like that with my family and friends. Living in NJ, I don't get to see all of you that often. For instance, finding bridesmaids dresses gave me the perfect excuse to pester my friends and go to Michigan to hang out with them. I get to call my maid of honor anytime I want because she agreed to be my maid of honor. My mom, Wes’s mom and I all spent a wonderful week together bonding over wine and wedding inspiration photos. Wes realized that when I ask him to do a wedding project with me, what it really means is that we are going to spend some extra time with each other doing something other than watching TV. I love spending that time with people and I love that I can type up all my thoughts and share them with whoever does care about my experience making 200 fabric flowers that day. And, all the effort I spent on finding great vendors is leading up to one terrific party. We will get to share at least 6 priceless, PRICELESS, hours with family and friends from all over the country. So, the personalized super awesome wedding is back on!

Thank you to everyone for being a part of this experience and a part in our lives (mushy, I know, but weddings are supposed to about mushy love stuff, right?).