And the winner is…

*Dramatic drumroll*

Scade Photography!

They passed my screening questions with flying colors, have a great portfolio, shoot an unlimited amount of photos for the full day, do touch ups, include an engagement session, are one of the more affordable ones on my Top 10 list, aaand they come highly recommended from our family friend!  A+!  (Plus they didn’t piss me off at any point during the screening process.  One of the photographers I emailed was very arrogant; another broke the very golden Brenna Rule and tried to bypass the email entirely and wanted to set up a phone call.  NO, I will not have a phone conversation with you until you answer my simple screening questions!  Stop messing with my system!  D:{  -100 points!!!)

In any event, I’ve sent a message to Scade Photography asking to meet with them to talk about booking.  I’m so excited for pretty wedding photos~  *^^*

Since our ceremony and reception are looking to be fairly close together time-wise, we may have to end up doing some of the formal photos before the ceremony to avoid running out of time before the reception.  (I don’t really want Mason to be able to see me in my wedding dress before the ceremony though…  Maybe I can talk to the photographers and we can come with a way of doing photos of the groom and bride’s sides separately…?)

They also like to do multiple photo locations for the formals, so I’m trying to think of other (free) locales near the Citadel where we could do some shots before the ceremony.  Maybe even outside if the weather is nice.  Ideas?

• NAIT HP center
• Grant Mac
• Enterprise Square
• Commerce Place
• Legislature grounds
• Edmonton Art Gallery
• River Valley
• High-level bridge

For the ceremony…

Instead of the typical materials thrown at weddings — confetti (too messy); rice (kills the birds); bubbles (okay I really have no objection to bubbles at all) — I was thinking maybe paper flowers~?  Each guest could be given one when they walk in for the ceremony and then everyone could throw them in the air when we finish!  Y/Y?

They’d probably take a while to make (we’d need around 100 of them), but I could just start doing them while watching TV or something at night.  We could do them in blue and brown paper to match the wedding colors~  :3

*    *    *    *    *

I’ve also been trying to think of some sort of ceremonial thing we could do, but Mason thinks the whole sand pouring and candle lighting stuff is tacky.  I did some Googling of other traditions people do and we’re thinking of doing a ceremonial wine drinking; however, since I hate the taste of wine, we’d substitute it for something more Brenna-friendly like, say, wildberry cooler?  :B  It all looks the same when it’s in a glass!

Prettifying those feet~

I need to start looking for (affordable) shoes!  I’d prefer something with a bit of an open toe with a style along these lines:

I like how they sort of emulate the ruching effect.  I think they’d look really cute with my dress~  :3

I also need to find a second pair of more comfortable flats in case my feet object to my pretty ceremony shoes later on in the night.  I don’t want to go the ballerina shoe route because I think they look goofy, but maybe something like these?

Question: if you buy dyeable wedding shoes, can they be re-dyed again after the wedding?  Or is it a one-time only thing?  I’d love to take what ever shoes I end up getting and dye them a more wearable color afterward.

The search for a photographer begins.

This whole photography thing has been both very fun and overwhelming.  When I started my search I wasn’t aware that I would find so many as well as get so many recommended to me by others.  It was a lot to look through.  *Sweatdrop*  (THANK YOU, BUT NO ONE REC ME ANY MORE PHOTOGRAPHERS, PLEASE!  …my brain will explode…)

So originally I started off with a list of 30 and managed to chop a third of them off during a second very long look-through, but then still had 18.  D:  By use of wonderful spreadsheet though and some side-by-side comparisons, I’ve narrowed it down to a much less intimidating 8 10 11:

• Helga Himer Photography
• Scade Photography
• Picture That Photography
• Kelsy Nielson Photography
• IAWAR Wedding Photographers
• Christina Louise Photography
• Erik Hornung Photographer
• PhotoAlberta.ca
• Creationsphoto
• Studio 9 Photographics
• Lightside Photography

Anyone heard or have any reviews of any of these?  (The above are based mostly on their portfolios at this point, I have to contact them all for specific price and package details.)  I also e-mailed a family friend who teaches photography at NAIT to get his opinion and if he knows of any well amazing recent grads that fill what I need (hence the hasty addition of two more to the above list.)

Brenna photography must-haves (I’m very picky):

1. I want photos through out the entire day, and there needs to be two of them.  I want to have pictures taken of Mason and the guys getting ready as well as us, so they need to be able to be at both locations at once.
2. At least a portion, if not all of the photos, retouched for colors, contrast, etc — maybe even some light filter work on some of them?  :3
3. Very wide range of shot styles including detail shots of things like the flowers, dress, shoes, rings, etc.  I like also having some interesting angles and aspect shots (maybe even some fisheye lenses?), and someone who has ideas for interesting pictures (not just boring, straight-on shots of people standing.)
4. Free engagement session would be a perk too~

Yes to that dress! X3

So, I thought I had found my perfect wedding dress.  I got the tingly *glee!* feeling when I walked out in it and it swooshed nicely and sparkled in all the right places a dress should sparkle — but Mom with all of her parental wisdom convinced me to wait on the decision until we went to one more place.  I was still excited when I got home, but yet when I woke up the next morning I felt the need to look at the picture again to double check that it was The Dress.  I figure… you should never have to double check if it’s The Dress.

And sure enough, when we later went to a little boutique called Career Girl Bridal downtown the cute little ADK swooshy dress I thought I loved so much got its ass kicked.  :3

I’m refraining very hard from posting a photo of it right now in an attempt instead to keep it a surprise for when I walk down the aisle.  >_<  But rest assured that my gown woven from 100% pure win, some hand-stitched awesomeness, and with a touch of the sparkly ooh ooh ahh~ I love it.  No double checking required on this one.

Now I need to start looking for a hot little pair of ivory-colored shoes and some accessories to pair it with.  (Where I do look for wedding shoes…?  Your typical retail shoe stores don’t exactly stock a very large selection of ivory heels.)  Apparently I also need to have which ever various undergarments I will want to wear underneath in time for my first dress fitting in four months or so…  I can’t say I’ve given that part much thought.  *Sweatdrop*  In the coming weeks we need to arrange a day to go shopping for lacy-type things I think.

1… 2… 3… FLASH!

I am seriously considering getting a Flashworks photobooth for our wedding reception~  :B  The concept of a photobooth was something that had actually crossed my mind earlier, but then we went to the bridal show and suddenly there was this Flashworks company that had the most affordable pricing I’d seen so far with a bunch of fun perks thrown in.  It’s a very cool set up that includes:

They also include a box full of “props” to use in your photos, and we could bring some of our own as well.  It would be so much fun and we would no doubt get some really great pictures.  Admittedly, considering we’ll already have an actual photographer there a photobooth would be somewhat of a frivolous investment… but the more I think about it the more I like the idea.  It’s something original you don’t get at a lot of events, plus we can use it as part of the wedding favors for guests (though I’m still pretty set on my original Timbit idea — but I’ve abandoned the whole homemade part, it’s cheaper and frankly easier just to bulk order through Timmies.)  We’ll have to see how our budget looks later on this year.  (Maybe if we wait until next winter they’ll be back at Bridal Fantasy 2011 with their wedding sale on again!)  X3