Our Engagement Party: The Details

It's official, I love photography!

Our friend Vanessa sent us a few pictures of the engagement party this morning and I'm extremely pleased with her work! Vanessa and I went to high school together and we have the same circle of friends. She got her college degree in photography and lives in New York now, but she made a special trip to Virginia to take pictures at our party.

I'm so thrilled that she captured all of the details of our day, because as many of you know, a bride loves her details! There's absolutely no way that Aaron or I could have taken such amazing photos. Everyone was busy visiting with each other and as you can see from my previous post, we didn't get many pictures. We put a lot of thought and effort into the planning and set up of the party, and having these shots makes it all worth it.

Almost all of our details were DIY or the work of family and friends. My coworker's mom made the cake and it was delicious (I mean it was de.lic.ious!). If you live in Virginia and are looking for a fabulous and affordable aspiring baker, contact me so I can give you her info! I created the welcome sign and put together the collage of engagement photos. My grandmother helped me decorate the frame with flowers and my mom was the genius behind our game "check mate!"

A very special thanks to Vanessa! Please use us as a reference in the future, because we will highly recommend you! We know you cut us a huge deal and we're extremely thankful. I see a bright future in photography ahead for you! You did an amazing job! Whoever said professional photography is the only way to go, didn't have the talented friends we do!

 

 

 

 

 

Did you have a professional photographer for your wedding and wedding-related events?

Have you ever asked a friend to take pictures and been extremely happy with the result?

Our Engagement Party: A Huge Success!

Our highly anticipated engagement party was a huge success!!

The turnout was stunning! More than 40 people came out to celebrate!  EVERYONE was there. Friends, family, and coworkers turned out in numbers. We were so pleased!! The food was delicious too! Our potluck provided more than enough. We had everything from ribs to deviled eggs, it was all southern comfort food of course! My diet was totally shot! 

People really got into it!

It's something about weddings that people must love, because our family was totally into it. We were a bit worried that nobody would want to wear nametags or participate in the group game, but boy, were we wrong! Folks snatched up the name tags like they were goin out of style! Everyone filled them out with excitement, giving themselves descriptive titles like, "future mother in law," and "1st cousin."

Everyone loved my mom's game, "Checkmate!"

Everyone was asked to write down a question to ask Aaron or myself about one another. This was to see if we're ready to get married, which is why the game is called check mate. It's also because Aaron and I love to play chess. If people couldn't think of a question, they were asked to write down a bit of marriage advice. My mom had this little bell and everytime she rang it, Aaron and I would have to pick a number. Whoever had the paper with that number on it had to share thier question or advice.

It was definitely a bit embaressing for Aaron and me, because we had to stand in front of a room full of 40 people, but it was 40 people we love and adore, so we enjoyed it. Everyone really, really had fun sharing thier advice and/or asking us questions! We did a really good job answering questions about each other too!! This was

Aaron's Cousin: "Aaron, if Sara is upset (not at you, but upset), what do you say to make her feel better?"

This was the million dollar question! If we could take back all the questions that night and have just one, it'd be this one, because everyone loved it! Aaron's answer hit the nail on the head and everyone from family to coworkers knew it!

To make me feel better Aaron tells me to "piss on it," which is one of my granny's favorite sangs! Bahahahaha! A bit crude for a grandmother, but if you knew mine you'd understand! She's a firecracker and trust me, she hardly ever gets bashful, but when Aaron said this, her face turned totally red and whole room went up in laughs!

The best part was the speeches...

We weren't really expecting it, but a lot of our friends and family stood up to give us a toast. Aaron's dad, his godmother, my mom, my dad, and Aaron's sister all said something to cheers to our engagement. Aaron's sister totally made me cry. We've been friends for a really long time and she said she always knew I was perfect for her brother! It was a special moment (one that I'll never forget and treasure)! *tear*

We asked a friend to take pictures at the party (of all the details so I could share with you readers!!), but we haven't gotten them yet. Here are some pictures Aaron's dad took of our fabulous friends and family:

My dad, stepmom, and little sister:

Aaron's godparents:

My little sister aka the junior bridesmaid:

Two of my aunts:

My coworker and the delicious cake her mom made:

Mr. B and my granny:

The MOH and me (and Mr. B's mom):

Did you have an engagement party? 

My Mom and Dad Engaged

I love old pictures...

I love looking at how things have changed over the years, which is why I was fascinated when I found these engagement shots of my parents while digging through my mom's pictures this past weekend. Aren't they a lot different than the engagement shots you see today? 

Have you seen pictures of your parents before they were married?

Did your parents take engagment pictures?

Our E-Session

Round One of Our Engagement Shots

Another reason why I haven't had a chance to post a lot this week is because Aaron and I were off taking our engagement pictures! We traveled to Williamsburg, VA, which is Aaron's hometown, to meet with a photographer, who also happens to be a good friend of the family. We thought that since our photo session wasn't until 3pm, we'd have all day to relax and get ready. Aaron and I aren't really camera people and both of us shy away from pictures. We spent a lot of time anticipating the session and we thought scheduling them later in the day would give us ample time to prepare. Boy, were we wrong!

We slept later than we planned, didn't have a good breakfast, were late to my makeup appointment, and eventually, ran 45 minutes late to our session. It was hell, let me tell ya!

Getting my makeup done was a lot of fun though! Even Aaron enjoyed watching the transformation. The problem was that 1. the makeup artist is another good friend of the family and we spent a lot of time visiting, goofing around, getting lunch, and 2. my eyes kept watering, which meant a lot of airbrush touch ups. In retrospect (as much as I loved getting my makeup done and as much as I love the final result--it looked fabulous), I don't think I'll get it done for the next round of engagement pictures. Not only did it seriously cut into our time, it also resulted in our pictures having a much more dramatic look than I really like. Don't get me wrong, I like the pictures (I've only seen six), but in most of the e-sessions I have seen, the women have a more natural look.

Anyway, because we ran so late on the makeup, I had no time to do my hair. Again, in retrospect, I would have put my hair in rollers or something while I was getting my makeup done. We also lost a lot of sunlight, which limited our pictures a lot. Thankfully, our photographer, Kelly Mihalcoe is amazing and did some cool things with her flash.

We love, love, love the chess board shot of my engagement ring! We also love the pictures of us sitting on the ground. The background on those is perfect! It's exactly what we wanted. It fully captures our favorite time of year, which is the fall and Williamsburg is just so pretty! Can you believe we were less than a mile from where Aaron's parents live? We were also just a hop, skip, and jump away from where John Smith settled in Jamestown! Yes!! Where John Rolfe met Pocahontas. Kind of romantic, ay?

One last note about our pictures... for some reason (maybe I'm not the most confident woman in the world), I really don't like the "sexy, serious, look!" I like the pictures that we're smiling at each other, kissing, or looking at the camera smiling. With that said, I'm a bit mortified at the picture (on Kelly's blog and not here) of Aaron and I on the water. Kelly told us to put on our James Bond look! She said look sexy, look GQ, and unfortunately for me (not Aaron, because he looks GREAT), I just look really mean!


There are some out there that say they like this shot, but personally, I hate it. I love Kelly's vision. I love our outfits and the background, but just not my facial expression. Sigh! It's a bit frustrating, but I'm coping. I have felt a little sad here and there looking at other e-sessions and thinking ours didn't get turn out the way I had imagined. I honestly have no right or reason to feel sad though. At least not at this point, because we haven't even seen the proofs!!

There's more to come about our pictures. Hopefully a really happy post about all the great ones we are yet to see. In the meantime, feel free to see a sneak peak of our engagement shots on Kelly's blog or look here at my favorites so far:

Very cool Kelly! Thank you so, so, so much!! We can't wait to see the rest!