Good Things To Come

Look who I get to photograph this weekend. :)

Also, somebody is having a birthday on Saturday. :)

Lots of photos to come. :) Happy week!

O' Christmas Tree

Three years ago I moved into my first condo with a roommate. Three years ago I also bought my first Christmas tree. Although I love real trees, I bought a fake one because I figured it was more economical. I put my tree up that year and two weeks later, our condo flooded. It was a mess and I won't go into it. But, I had to take my tree down before Christmas that year. The year after that, at a new condo I lived at with Rudy, we had Pepper and Dusty. Pepper just turned a year old and Dusty was 6 months so I figured it was safest not to put up my tree. The year after that, we moved in with Rudy's family, so again, I didn't put up my tree.

This year has been the first chance I've had to really get use out of my tree. I love Christmas and I love things that are pretty (probably why I love photography), so a Christmas tree is one of my favorite things. Two weeks ago, I decided I couldn't wait any longer and I spent a day decorating my tree.

It makes me happy. :) Enjoy your weekend!

Engagement Photos

I think engagement photos are so fun! It's a chance to get to know your photographer, kiss and cuddle with your fiance and feel like a rockstar for a couple hours! This is the second professional photoshoot Rudy and I have had and this time, I really wanted to go all out. I'd never had my hair or makeup done professionally before and I've noticed in engagement photos (because I stalk many professional wedding photographer blogs and look at A LOT of sessions) that your hair and makeup can make a huge difference! So, Kamee (amazing photographer who took all of these photos) suggested contacting Katrina (seriously talented hair and makeup artist), which I did, and I'm SO happy I did! Katrina is super sweet and oh my goodness, can she do hair and makeup or what?

Kamee, Katrina...thank you so much! I had so much fun feeling like a rockstar. I'm lucky to have you two on board for the wedding!

Rudy, thanks for being such a good sport. I know the Giants were playing during the shoot and we missed any sort of Halloween fun, but you didn't complain once. I love you!

3. Dress

1. Photographer
2. Venue
3. Dress

These were the 3 most important things to me when it came to planning our wedding. I'm sure Rudy doesn't quite agree with me here. His list is probably more 1. Music 2. Alcohol 3. Honeymoon. ;)

After booking our fabulous coordinator (which has proven to be my best decision yet!), I booked our amazing photographer and then I booked our awesome venue (which I'll post about soon). But when it came to the dress, man...I was crazy nervous to go shopping. I was terrified that I wouldn't like how anything looked on me. I'm not the most confident person in the world, especially when it comes to my body and on your wedding day, you're supposed to feel great about yourself. So, I was scared.

Luckily, I took an amazing support group with me when I went shopping in July. When the size 2 sample didn't fit...it was okay! I still had two sweet sisters, my wonderful mama and my wookie (best friend Autumn) to help me see what I would look like with the dress in my size...and to remind me that pretty isn't only a size 2.

First, forgive my hair. Trying on a ton of wedding dresses kind of gave me a workout and I wasn't concerned with how my hair looked in these photos. :) Second, this isn't my dress. But, it was a VERY close second! If my budget allowed both my dress and this dress, I would have purchased it in a heartbeat. This second place dress was definitely me and absolutely fit our venue and theme.

However, this dress just didn't quite make me feel as pretty as the dress I did choose. There is something about my dress that just felt...perfect. :) I think it's a dress that Rudy will love and understand as well.

So, overall, my dress shopping experience was a great success and I couldn't be more happy about my top 3 wedding choices!

Big Fresno Fair

Every year, Rudy and I make sure we go to the Big Fresno Fair. It's really our only tradition. We eat a bunch of fatty foods, look at all the exhibits (I always say that the next year I'll enter the photography competition), and take photos in the photobooth. The fair isn't anything special, really, but I love it because it means spending time with Rudy and remembering that we've spent another year together.

This year, the fair was extra special though because we got to go with our friends, Chris and Jenny who live "up north" as us central Californians say.

This was also the first year that I saw horse racing! I swear, with Rudy's size and athleticism, he was born to be a jockey.

I'm already looking forward to next year's fair...maybe Rudy will finally win me a goldfish!

Happy Thursday!

Life is Good

Poor blog. I've completely neglected it.

Good news is though, there hasn't been too much going on lately to blog about. My mama moved up her wedding date to January 8, so I'll be posting details to that soon. Rudy and I took our engagement photos this past weekend, so those will be posted in the coming month as well. We took our annual trip to the Big Fresno Fair with our friends Chris and Jenny a couple weeks ago, so I'll post about that soon too.

Life is good. :)

We're all supporting the Giants, even the puppies. :) Well, all except Belle, who refused to participate because I think she's a Dodgers fan. Go figure.

By the way, I took this photo on a timer on the FIRST TRY. Can you believe all of us are looking straight at the camera? Pepper is even winking at the camera! It makes me so happy. Have a wonderful week (just in case I don't come back until next week)!