Meeting the Maids

I wanted to chat a little bit about the bridesmaid dress hunt with you, but then I realized that I never properly introduced you to my ladies or even told you how I asked them! You caught a glimpse of some of them way back in this post, but I figured it's time we chat about them a little more.

My bridal party breakdown goes a little like this: two maids of honor (friends from high school) and four bridesmaids (two friends from college, two family members). 

Because we were having a long engagement many people advised me to wait a while before asking our bridal party. But the thing is, I've pretty much known since day one who I was going to ask. And now, with five months to go I don't regret asking any of them!

With six bridesmaids I will admit that our party leans on the larger side. Having a large party makes me a little busier, but honestly I just feel lucky to have six wonderful ladies in my life that are always there for me.

So how did I ask them? Well I didn't ask them all in the same way.

Saving the Date

Now that we had received our awesome engagement photos it was time to decide what to do with them.

The first thing was…. Save the Dates!

I knew from the start that I wanted to use magnets for our save the dates. I started squirreling away inspiration photos like this:

Image via Wedding Paper Divas

Image via Wedding Paper Divas

Image via Wedding Paper Chicks 

When our photos came in I set to work.

The Engagement Photo Saga

Word of warning: Photo bomb ahead!!!

Because we booked with our photographers so early they threw in a free engagement session. W00t! I was super stoked about this. Mostly because about 90% of our photos look a little something like this:

[Personal Pic: Miami 2006]

[Personal Pic: Apple Picking... Every year]

[Personal Pic: New Year's 2011]

Don't get me wrong, I love that I can look back on photos of us and laugh, but I wanted at least a few photos where I could look back and say, "Awww" instead of "ROFLCOPTERS". <-- Yes, it's a real word. I don't care what spellcheck says.

YouTube

Goldilocks and the Three Photographers

So here's a glimpse of my crazy-ass spreadsheet:

[Personal Pic]

I know it's hard to see, but I scribbled in some ridiculous notes in some of these cells. Can you find our photographer? The only note I wrote next to their name was "I like these". Nice.

For like 4 months I was photography crazy. I scrolled through site after site of local photographers. After a few weeks of this I swear I was seeing wedding photos in my sleep.

I collected quotes from as many photographers as I could. Some provided pricing on their sites, some did not. Some emailed me promptly, some told me to go away and come back next year. Since I had started with such a huge list  I'd say I easily crossed off the first 15 or so for various reasons (over budget, don't want to book with us yet, don't like their style, just plain old never responded to me, etc.).

When I had narrowed it down to about 7 photographers that's where the real fun started. I began comparing their packages and what they offered with what Mr. Coyote and I wanted for our wedding day. Did they include engagement photos? How many hours do they typically book for? Is there a second shooter or do they work solo? What do they offer us in terms of prints, albums, digital copies of the photos?

There were so many questions to ask and yes, I put them all into that rockin' spreadsheet of mine.

We eventually somehow narrowed it down to three photographers and totally pulled a Goldilocks.

Could You Take My Picture? / Cause I Won’t Remember

IIIIIIIIIIII feel like a newbooooooorrrrrnn....

Ahem, sorry. Does anyone else start randomly singing this song when talking about photography? Just me? Okay then...

Aside from finding a venue, finding a photographer was high up on our list of things to do right after our engagement. Even though we were still over a year and a half out that wasn't stopping me from contacting photographers for availability and pricing.  

Now I know I’ve mentioned before about being a semi-long distance bride. My hometown is 3 hours away from where we’re currently living so vendor shopping can be tough. Add in the fact that NONE of our friends are married yet and you’ve got yourself a couple of clueless Coyotes.

Image via IMDB

I started the photographer hunt by searching through wedding reviews on good ole Wedding Wire.