Life. Love. Lipstick.

Well, as happy as I am about our decision to elope, I’m sad to wave goodbye to Eric Laurits.  I had my heart set on having Eric shoot our nuptials, but deciding to get married this year means that we just can’t afford a top-notch photographer.  So here we are, searching for a decent photographer that meets our criteria:

1. Local to Orlando, to avoid travel costs.
2. Will shoot for just an hour or two, much like an engagement session, with a little ceremony thrown in.
3. Will sell us a disc of edited images for a reasonable price.
4. Will sell the disc of UNedited images for way cheap.
5. Is a good fit with our favored styles.*
6. Can be booked with just a couple months’ notice (wedding will possibly be on a weekday, so this isn’t impossible).
7. Will do the shooting itself for under $400.

Am I seeking the impossible?

I’m going with NO, and am going to search for the right photographer!  I know a lot of photographers read this blog, so if any of you can do this, or know someone who can, please let me know!

*Samples of these favored styles can be found on these photography blogs: Eric Laurits, Susan Stripling, The Image Is Found, John & Joseph – Just a few of my faves.

We’re eloping.

Details are to come.  I’m really short on time and energy right now.

But i promise… more is coming on how I came to this decision, and what the plans are so far!

Well, I am still really confused about what we are going to do.  We decided to have an intimate wedding where we live, and even made our guests lists, totaling 48.  Then, however, we decided that we want to get married THIS YEAR.  yes, this year that is halfway over.  We are in no financial position to have a wedding on that scale on such short notice.  Now begins Project Scale-Down.

Eloping seems like the obvious choice here.  Very little expense, easily done on very short notice.  Something inside me is nagging to have someone present, though.  To keep things small, and to keep me relaxed, it needs to be very few people.  At this moment, I am really feeling pulled toward eloping.  Tomorrow, I may wake up and be ready to pare down the guest list to the bare minimum.  It’s just such a stressful task for me.  It was hard enough to get to 50.

We really want to get married in October, so I better figure things out quickly!

I am quite possibly the most indecisive bride-to-be on this planet. I just posted recently that after much thought, I decided we would have a small wedding rather than just elope. Well…. Now I’m not so sure. After making the guest list and reaffirming that we could definitely do a small wedding, I started daydreaming about eloping again. I feel like once I get moved in with Dustin, the wedding is going to feel unimportant, and I’ll be just as satisfied with an elopement. But I’m not sure! Will I miss out on having our friends and families there? Or will we have the wedding and feel overwhelmed, crowded, and broke?

I love the thought of having my parents and brother and my closest friends there. My mom helping me into my dress, my best guy friend Brandon seeing me all dressed up, seeing Dustin’s expression as I walk down the aisle toward him… these are all moments I dream about. I want to dance with my new husband to a special song, show our guests a good time, and give them a glimpse at our love. I want great photos that tell the story of the day.

I also love the romanticism of eloping, with a modern twist. Dustin and I would have a private ceremony, just the two of us plus the minister and photographer. We’d dress in nice, informal clothes, write our own vows, and have beautiful imagery to document the day. We’d celebrate with friends and family a few weeks later with a casual party.

Both scenarios have great appeal, and I constantly flip-flop between the two!

Has anyone else gone through this? How did you make your final decision?

I posted recently that Dustin and I finally got engaged. Now comes the fun part…. the planning!

I have put off posting about this, because since we first started talking marriage over a year ago, we (okay, I, considering Dustin has expressed several times that he can go either way happily) have gone back and forth about whether we should elope or have a wedding with guests. As with any major decision, there were multiple pros and cons for both choices.

As for eloping, it keeps costs way down, meaning we can afford the most important element to me, a good photographer. It also means that I don’t get caught up in inviting Aunt Ingrid and her family out of politeness, my college roommate because I was invited to hers, and my friend who lives down the street. Ok, so none of these situations are anything I’m dealing with, nor do I know anybody named Ingrid. However, there are similar issues with the guest list if we chose to invite guests. Eloping also means that the focus stays where it should- on the fact that we have chosen to live our lives together as husband and wife, instead of on linens, favors, registries, and buffet vs. plated dinner. Honestly, I think one of the biggest things for us is that eloping means we can get married very soon. There are other positive points for eloping, but those are the big ones for me.

Eloping is certainly not without cons. I would hate to wake up in 3 years wanting to have a vow renewal (which are completely ludicrous, i’ll post about that another time) because I really wish I had gotten to have the whole wedding experience. Also, I am completely enamored with weddings and all the love that surrounds you on your day. As I mentioned in a previous post, I long for the emotion of the wedding day. I want to share that day with those who have either shaped me to be the person Dustin chose to marry, or have played a part in our relationship. I think it’s becoming obvious as I type this that I have made the right choice for us… we’re having a wedding.

Now, as a compromise between a wedding and elopement, we’re having a VERY small, intimate wedding. This ensures that we’ve invited only those we can’t imagine the day without, and that costs stay down. I still don’t think we’ll be able to afford our dream photographer, but we’ll see. I’m just thrilled to have something to go on! Right now we’re thinking next spring for a date. First things first though… I have to move 500 miles so I can finally live with the love of my life!