Throughout the wedding season, I work with fellow photographer David Kern as a his second shooter. When I work with David I have the freedom to wander around and solely concentrate on creating beautiful photographs. Styled by Laura Hotvet at Mother of the Bride, this all-white wedding wedding is simply elegant. The use of white dasies is economical and adorable especially on the wedding dog. -Lacey
Time for sharing.
After getting engaged I was pretty confused about what we were supposed to do next. I’m a list person, pretty organized, and I love planning events, so a wedding sounded like an awesome project! However, I’m not one of those gals that started hatching my dream wedding plans in grade school. I honestly never really thought of what I wanted it to be, which is kind of rad because I think our shin-dig will be a good mix of both Ted and me, which is what a wedding is supposed to be, right?
So to quell the confusion brewing in my head, I did the only thing a naive bride-to-be who cannot afford a wedding planner, would do: I bought a bridal magazine.
That glossy covered mag the size of a small town phone book opened with image after image of frosty white dreamy madness. I went straight to the articles on budgets and planning, and in about 20 minutes flat I was having a severe panic attack! Apparently the average wedding in MN costs around $38,000 and that’s small potatoes compared to other states! I barely make that amount of money in a year with my gross income. There is no way in the fiery depths of hell we’re going to spend one of our salaries on a one day affair!
Ted came to the rescue, made me drop the magazine in the recycling, and then made me promise to never buy another one. We had less than a year to plan and save, and we were going to make it happen, but in our own way.
Blogs and websites became my obsession. The greatest D.I.Y. ideas are out there, and some of the worst as well. The one major frustrating thing I’ve encountered is because of the mass amounts of free ideas floating around, people latch onto trends and before you know it, every single wedding photo you see has succulents as the flowers, typewriters as the guest books, mustaches on sticks for the photo opps, barnyard settings, and candy tables that put Willy Wonka's factory to shame. I’m sure every bride wants to believe deep down inside that her wedding is as unique as she and her groom are, but the fact of the matter is, these D.I.Y. fiasco weddings all look the same.
I’m digging a hole for myself as I write this because I’m sure that our wedding will be as flawed as the rest, but we’re going to try to make this day the greatest party you’ve ever been to. That’s our mission statement in a nutshell. I just hope all of my ideas aren't all over the blogosphere before our wedding. Me First!!
More to come…
xoshayox
www.tedshay.com
Now in its 31st year, Eelpout is the fishing festival where almost nobody fishes. Let's face it, this is Mardi Gras on ice and each year 10,000 people visit the temporary town on Leech Lake to party. Main Street, a mile-long path on the lake, is lined with party houses populated with drinking teams. Snowmobiles and four-wheelers towing couches and picknic tables cruise the street to form a haphazard parade. On the last day of the festival, pouters pack up camp with dreams of doing it all over again the next year.
I know about as much about jewelry as I know about everything else (not a hell of a lot).
My search for an engagement ring was a 2 month process. I only knew what Shay wanted because on one of the many post-bottle-of-wine, sitting-on-the-deck-with-Jimena-nights she divulged that if she ever got an engagement ring, she would like an old Art Deco one. Obviously it was time to punch the google machine until it told me what I wanted to know. The only things that came back were always these gaudy gold things that looked like they dropped out of Donald Trump’s ass and cost even more.
I wasn’t done yet though.
I stole a ring from Shay’s very large jewelry drawer while she was at work and walked over to the antique mall down the street. I asked them if they could size it for me. For some weird reason an antique store with enough rings to even make an Italian stereotype shake their head didn’t have a ring sizer. I did however get a recommendation from one of the employees. This was the second recommendation for this particular store I had received. I decided it was time to check it out.
First, I headed to a big “fancy” jewelry store to get the ring sized. A bunch of greasy salesmen in suits surrounded me and asked if I wanted coffee, bagels, plasma, anything. It was like swimming with sharks that wear way too much cologne. I laughed and bluntly told them I just wanted to size the ring and there was no way in hell I was going to buy a 60 dollar ring for three grand from them.
A week later or so, I decided to make the trek out to Hopkins during rush hour (because I’m an idiot). After an hour drive I reached the store everyone told me about.
Anne and Jack’s Vintage Jewelry is like a rich person’s basement. I mean that in a very good way. They had piles and piles of old school jewelry. I knew I hit the jack pot.
A short woman asked what I was looking for. I described what I had overheard Shay drunkenly tell Jimena. She made it easy for me.
She lined the table with all these rings made in the 1920’s and started weeding out the ones I would never be able to afford.
Since she wasn’t a sales lady, she wasn’t trying to sell me anything. During our conversation she swore like a sailor and told me about her nephew in some jam band.
It took a really short time to find the perfect ring that I knew Shay would love.
She did love it and anybody that ever needs a ring should make the trip to Anne and Jacks Vintage in Hopkins….
Ted
PS-I do love it, even though this picture we tried to take doesn't do it justice. I love it even more because he didn't go broke following the 1,2, or 3 months salary "rule". It's a 1920's white gold, diamond ring with the most amazing details, and it's not huge or blinding, just perfect and wonderful (like my ted). I give you permission to go barf now- shay
www.tedshay.com