Top 10 Things To Do Before Your Wedding Day

Your wedding day is a day you will never forget, but while planning you can be overwhelmed by all the details. But don't worry!! You will get everything done and it will look BEAUTIFUL! When planning for Sara's wedding, we did a lot of these things to help the stress melt away! And they truly do work and they created wonderful memories that we still talk about today! These are not in our favorite order, but these are our top 10 things for a Bride to do before her wedding day! Of course, the groom can do these as well! :)

1. Laughter: Have you ever heard of the saying, “Laughter is the best medicine.”? My mother use to tell me that a lot of the time, and it truly is! When you feel like you’ll never make it out of the wedding craze, taking a break to laugh with a girlfriend is great. Of course, don’t forget the coffee with the girl date!

2. Pick Up The Phone, Call Mom: Along with having a good laugh, calling your mom/dad/best friend is sometimes the next best thing. It is so relaxing and helpful. It also releases any stress and makes you think of great memories! Even if you don’t feel stressed, it’s just a great thing to do.

3. Let Others Help: Or in other words, delegate! You are the bride and only you know what you TRULY want, but we are here to help! Vendors, friends, family members are all here to help with invitations, dress shopping, and other wedding details! Let us help so you can have peace, feel more centered, and enjoy the experience with your soon to be husband!

4. Soak in the Tub: Everyone knows the amazing powers a nice soak in the bathtub will do! A hot bath, candle light, along with soft music playing in the background will soothe the soul. Sara highly recommends to have even more of a soothing bath, you can use bath bombs from LUSH Cosmetics. She promises that you will feel like a new woman when you step out!

 

5. Keep Hydrated: Water is great all the time, but it is especially when you are the bride! Staying hydrated will keep awake, fresh, and just better all around. It is so much better than that extra cup of coffee or an extra scoop of ice cream, that is for sure! Another wonderful thing that keeping hydrated does is that it will keep your skin glowing beautifully! You could spice up your water is a little bit of crystal light add in, or fresh fruit (lime, cucumber, orange, or lemon) for added flavor!

6. Write in a Journal: One of the things I did for Sara’s wedding is I wrote in a journal from a year out to Sara's wedding in May 25th, 2014. I wrote about the movies we went too, finding her wedding dress, and the fun sleep overs she have to practice her wedding makeup with her dear friend. It was a year of beautiful memories that could or have been forgotten! A lot will pass from when you get engaged to the wedding day, so writing in a journal is something I really do recommend! Along with writing to remember the memories, it also helps you cherish the emotions you were feeling, to capture it all down for generations to come!

7. Do Stretches or Yoga: You could do either or, but both are fantastic to relax and soothe your body. Yoga can help stretch those tight muscles, minimizes tension, and improve your outlook on the experience! Sara has been to yoga for years and she gives is lots of thumbs up.

8. Aromatherapy: Essential oils work their beautiful wonders when wanting to use it for soothing and relaxing your mind and body! You can use lavender, jasmine, chamomile and others that uplift! You can mix up your own or go to Young Living and purchase a few of their mixed essential oils. If you don’t want to place oil on you, you could also get or make your own aromatherapy scented candle! (This could also be a great house warming or wedding gift!)

9. Take a Deep Breath: This ties into Yoga and Aromatherapy, but deep breathing soothes your body and mind. It takes the craze of a day and lets to refocus your mind and lightens the mood. If you do this in the bath or while using aromatherapy, it works wonders! Sara uses it all the time, especially Lavender. :)

10. Date Nights: Brides sometimes can get lost in the details of planning a wedding that they forgot to spend time with her soon to be husband. Take some time out to spend alone with your fiance! This could be a dinner date, a walk, and movie date, but any one-on-one time with your soon to be husband is a great night! Just challenge yourself to not talk about the wedding, but other things going on. Having that one-on-one time with him could make you feel even more butterflies!

These are our top ten ideas that YOU should do before your wedding day! Even after the wedding, these tips are wonderful when you need a self pampered evening! We hope that you give them a try. :)

Why Every Couple Should Do An Engagement Session!

As a wedding photographer I understand why a couple should have an engagement session . . . but maybe you are wondering why you should have a session and what is it's importance? I am excited then you stopped by!! An engagement session is so much more than having your photographs taken.  It is a time that our clients can begin to experience what they can expect from us! Also, it is a great way for us to connect even more with each other! We believe that your time in front of the camera should be fun, easy going and relaxed. So here are a few reasons why you should have an engagement session!

Engagement sessions are a great trial run! This is the time for you both to just relax and get comfortable in front of the camera. An E-session affords you the time to learn posing, gain confidence and have fun doing it!  It usually takes a couple about 15-20 minutes to warm up and after that, everything clicks beautifully. On your wedding day, you shouldn't have to try to learn or worry about posing, you already are a pro from the engagement session! It is amazing then how everything flows together and the bride and groom are showing off with the best poses!
 

An engagement session lets us get to know one another!  An engagement session is a fun and relaxed time in which you get to know more about me and how I flow, work, but also have fun! I also have this time to get to learn more about the two of you and it the love story began. By the end of the session, we all are comfortable with each other and ready for your big day! By getting to know my bride and groom, creating a connection between us, it allows me to truly capture their personalities!

Boost your confidence for the wedding day! Besides learning to be more comfortable posing as well as in front of a camera, this time will help you build confidence. Once you see your engagement photographs, you will have confidence to pose without us even helping and know how to rock in front of the camera! If the session is taken at the wedding venue location then you could remember your favorite(s) spots you loved! You will remember what your favorite poses were, be a PRO, and it will feel like a piece of cake! You won't even need to worry about anything when it is time for your romantic session images.

Images to use! Don't get me wrong, Sara takes a lot of pictures of us all the time and I do love them! But I really do love when we have professional pictures taken of us. Isn't that the same with you? You probably have tons of self-taken images of you two, but when have you gotten your images professional done together? The quality of these images are what add to memory of the image, even still viewed in digital form! With quality photographs from your engagement session, you can do some many things with them! You can hang some beautiful prints on the wall in your home or to keep one your desk at work! You can also include these photographs into your wedding by creating “Save the Date” cards, at the wedding have an engagement book for guests to sign, or even a photograph to display at the reception!

Still wondering if you should have an engagement session?  Oh, YES! (In all caps too!)

I highly recommend it, so much so that we have some big changes coming! So keep posted as we will be sharing that quite soon!