Heather & Phil

Heather and Phil are getting married in October up at the lovely Whitney's Inn.  When Heather first came to meet with me Phil couldn't make it so we spent 3 hours sitting in my office indulging in wine and cupcakes.  When we had realized that our planned one hour meeting turned into 3 hours chatting I think we were both happy to have a new friend.  These two made the trip north for their engagement /maternity photos during that crazy warm week we had.  There was still a little snow on the ground in the shade but the sun was shining and we really enjoyed a beautiful afternoon in the park. Phil & Heather, I can't wait for your wedding this fall and of course to meet your little one!!! XOXO Spring

Fine Art Friday

I've been slacking off... you've noticed I'm sure that this is my first blog post in over a week... sorry guys.  Life has gotten in the way. Wedding planning, wedding season and life in general has taken over most of my free time.  While driving home the other day I was thinking about my lack of blogging and realized that I had not done a Fine Art Friday post in MONTHS.  Just as I was thinking- hmm I'll have to make time to go take some photos I looked across the street from where I was sitting at a red light and noticed how beautiful the afternoon light was on the beautiful Conway Library building.  So I hit my blinker pulled over and took out my camera.  After getting a few strange looks I headed home only to stop again on the side of the road at this one spot, that almost every day, I think "wow the light in this filed is so pretty I need to shoot here sometime".  I hit the blinker again and pulled off the road to take a few more photos of the filed and a beautiful old farm house right next to it.  I'm sure the 10 cars that passed me while I was shooting thought I was nuts- but I didn't care because I now had something to share with all of you for Fine Art Friday. Any of you who are photographers, and really any of you that have a camera (even if it's just your cell phone) - look around you- notice the places you drive by everyday and make the time to stop to capture their beauty.  I know not all of you live in the country with fields and mountains but trust me there is just as much beauty to capture in back alleys in the city as there is here in the White Mountains.  I have been driving by this field for over two years at least once a day and every time I think to myself "ohh I've got to shoot here someday".  The problem was I never had a model or couple or anyone to shoot and kept driving.  The other day I decided that these spots are beautiful on their own and as much as I would have loved to have a bride twirling in that field in a beautiful wedding dress, I enjoy the field on it's own just as much.  Well... ok maybe not as much but I still love it.  The point is I may never have that perfect light, on that perfect day, with the perfect model to shoot in this field so at least this way I have captured it and can enjoy it even without a beautiful bride.

XOXO Spring

Wedded Bliss: MyRegistry.com

I always thought walking through Macy's with that little gun that scans all the goodies you could ever want to fill your home would be one of the highlights of the pre-wedding to do list.  For anyone who loves shopping and who get excited when approaching the home-goods section of TJ Maxx you know the excitement that having one of those registry scanner guns would bring to a girl.  As much as I looked forward to this day of Silas and I walking around Macy's, Bed Bath & Beyond, Pottery Barn and Target the reality was there was no way Silas would spend a day with me checking things off of our dream home-wares list.  Also one big hitch in this wonderful plan is that there are things from so many stores that I want and not all of them have a registry option. Last August one of my best friends got married.  When I received her wedding shower invite it had the date, the time, the location and a link to www.myregistry.com.  Hmmmm I thought "what the heck is that?  I'm in the wedding industry I should be aware of these things" but somehow I had missed this little gem.  Well fast forward a few months and I'm now LOVING myregistry.com because it allows me to register from my computer while sitting on the couch all curled up with Coby and a cup of hot coco.  I don't have to drag Silas with me for a full day of walking around stores I can just say "hey hun do you think we should register for a set of guest towels?  blue? gray?" and I get an answer (granted it's usually a "sure whatever you think"- he's a smart man).  Now the best part is you can use this website for ANYTHING.  Not jut weddings or bridal or baby showers use it for your christmas or birthday wish list.  It's so easy!!!   You can even set up a Cash Gift Fund- which can be really useful for things like honeymoon money or in our case money to help us pave our driveway this year.

The key is the "Add To MyRegistry" button for your bookmarks.  Much like the "Pin It" button for Pintrest all you have to do it be looking at an item on any random website and click the "Add To MyRegistry" button and this wonderful little window pops up for you to put in the size, color, quantity etc that you want.

Then you have this great list of things all right there for your guests to refer to when buying your wedding/birthday/shower gifts.  It keeps track of when something is purchased just like a registry through a department store.

We are still working on our registry- It's hard when we already have a house and have lived together for 5+ years.  There are not as many traditional wedding gift things that we need. Plus I have no extra space in this house for more stuff!  (Maybe thats my hint to Silas that it's time for a new, bigger house??).

What was the best thing you registered for and why? Or what do you wish you had registered for?  Give me some good ideas to add to our list and one lucky commenter will get a Starbucks gift card! 

Happy Monday! XOXO Spring

The Sweetest Puppies: contest winners

I've got to say there are a lot of sweet puppies out there and a lot of owners who love them like they are their very own children.  Good to know I'm not alone!!!  I absolutely loved looking through all the doggy photos that filled my inbox.  There were some little dogs, some big dogs and more then a few puppies that just had the sweetest faces!!!  I couldn't help but fall totally in love with every single one of them.  Thank goodness I didn't have to pick a winner all by myself or I'd have gone out and bought collars for everyone. When Shannon and I sat down to pick the winner we were very conscious not to pick just the pretties photo because that is not what this contest was about.  We wanted to see the love that the owners have for their four legged friend.  There were a few dogs that we absolutely loved but unfortunately were not quite the right size for this collar.  The littlest and biggest ones this collar just wouldn't fit so as much as we loved your photos we knew this prize wasn't going to do you much good.  After much debate we have chosen one winner for the collar and an honorable mention who is going to get a goodie from Four Your Paws Only for their pup to enjoy.

First place goes to Sledder- the dog who's eyes will match this collar and who's owner told such a great story about her love for her pup!  Congrats Nicole!!!!  Shoot me an email with your address and this collar will be on it's way!  Be sure to snap a few photos of Sledder rocking her new collar for me :)

Sledder is the love of my life (coming in a close third is Jason).  I, like you, never had a dog growing up and I've ALWAYS wanted one.  My mom would say, "We don't need a dog, we already have your brother".  I think the best thing about a dog is their ability to cheer you up, ALL the time.  I don't know about Coby, but Sledder tail is constantly wagging.  She's a big snuggler and greets me with tons of kisses when I walk through the door.  It's the BEST feeling after a long day at a wedding.

As if I haven't gushed enough about my dog.  Fun fact about her name:  Four years ago, when I left for my work training, Jason bought a beanie baby Husky and stashed it in my luggage.   Since I was a 100% full time travel consultant, I brought the little thing with me EVERYWHERE.  It's gone on over a hundred flights and to most of the US, via my work luggage.  A couple years later, when we finally got a *real* Husky, we decided to name it after the goofy little beanie baby, Sledder.

Honorable mention goes to Tucker.  This dog has the sweetest face even when covered in snowballs.  Allison please send me your address so that I can send you a tasty treat for Tucker!

Thank you to EVERYONE for your awesome photos!!  Here are just a few of the wonderful images that were shared with us. XOXO Spring

Wedded Bliss: 4 months to go

I almost had a heart attack yesterday when I looked at the calendar.  March 20th.... Wait... 20th... of March.  That is 4 months till my wedding day.  OH CRAP!  I have a good 20min break down.  Freaking out about that insane list of things that I was going to do over the "slow months" this winter and that is under a huge pile of mail and books on my kitchen island.  I feel like I haven't done one single thing on that list and it's not 4 months away.  Yikes! So after taking a few deep breaths and realizing I wasn't going to be sick I sat down with my list and started to check off things I've done and stared all those things that need to get done asap.  I guess I'm really not as bad off as I had first thought because when I looked at the timeline list that all the magazines have I am only behind on two things, so thats not that bad.

We had Silas measured for his suit just a week or so ago so that was a biggie for us.  My mom found a groupon for Banks & Ashby for a custom suit for less then $800.  We know we could have rented a tux or suit but Silas doesn't actually own a suit and I feel like its one of those things that a man should have in his closet.  So we looked into buying one.  Most were in the $500-$800 range.  Of course we had no idea what size he was so we went into our local Brooks Brother's Outlet and he tried on a few jackets and we discovered a problem.  My man as arms.  Actually that was the first thing I noticed about him.  I apparently have a thing for arm muscles.  So the problem is that the jackets that fit him were tight on the arms when he would move his arm around.  So when we saw the option to buy a custom made suit for close to the same price as buying one that might not fit that well we jumped on it.  The best part about Banks & Ashby is they come to your house.  One evening two girls from Boston drove into our driveway and came to sit, chat and measure Silas.  We got to pick out style, color, fabric, shirt fabric (oh year the groupon also included two custom maid shirts).  Now they will take his measurements, make the suit and come back to our house for a fitting.  One less thing to try to schedule-score!

We also went up to Harvest Gold last week and ordered Silas's wedding band.  I have my grandmother's band so I'm planning to use that for my own.  We picked out the style, size and width and placed that order.  The other things we are still working on are things like programs, menu cards, table numbers, place cards etc.  But hopefully I'm going to find that all those things will come together easily with the help I've got.  One of my bridesmaids will be home from college next month and has a lot of free time in May and June to be my slave helper.  I hope Anya knows what she is getting into - I'm thinking DIY projects weekly!!!  I've got a few ideas that I've stolen from Pintrest and Etsy that I'm hoping we can pull off:

As I've been booking a few more 2012 weddings and some 2013 weddings I'm realizing just how close my own wedding is.  It's crazy to think that I'm going to be Mrs. McKenney soon.  I'm so excited and ready to be married it's just the wedding itself that I'm stressing about a little.  But I know that when I walk down the aisle and see Silas even if the programs are not perfect and the DIY project I tried failed miserably I'm still going to be the happiest girl in the world.

XOXO Spring