I'm so vain, you probably think this post is about me...

But after going through all of our engagement pictures, I found my true favorites. (Side note: I sent the moms (mine and MJ's mom) to view ALL of our pictures on our online gallery, my mom's first response (via email)? "I do not like your blue dress, at all." Uh, thanks mom, self appointed fashion critic.

Anyway, I have to share these too:





This first picture is the one that we'll be using for our Save the Dates. I'll be designing them tonight and I'll post tomorrow what I've come up with.

I'm a little torn on doing magnets...the idea of postcards with this image seems like it would be a little sweeter and then I imagine that all of our guests will hang the postcard up on their refrigerators. MJ thinks that there is only one option: magnets. But what about people who can't stick magnets on their refrigerators because it's not magnetic (we're friends with a couple where this is the case and their garage fridge has a few STDs on it, probably where ours will end up too) I feel like we should send the STD and then maybe a cute little magnet for those who want to put it on the fridge. It's still an idea in process...

How did you mail out your Save the Dates? And what would you do with a Save the Date postcard? If it came with a cute little magnet would you hang the postcard on your fridge?

WE'VE BEEN BLOGGED!!

Eeeek! This morning I received an email from Facebook with my photographer requesting to be my friend so that she can tag me in our engagement pictures!! YAY!! I quickly accepted her friend request and jumped over to her blog as quickly as I could. The results are phenomenal!! Especially this one:



Umm...yes, I think hot is the perfect word for this. And yes, photoshop is my friend. My skin looks soooo smooth.

Love these too!







But those are just Jen's favorites, there are quite a lot more to choose from. Specifically for our STDs I love this one:



My other favorites include:





I'm loving these! I'm that much more excited for our wedding day - and I'm thrilled that I have no doubts that my photographer is going to rock it out and just add to our entire experience.

Did you decide to do an engagement photo session before your big day?

Can't Hardly Wait

So last Saturday we had our engagement photo session with Jen Slot, who was way more awesome than we expected! :) As I previously posted, MJ and I are in love with this creative Save the Date (and we're actively stealing this idea for our own):



So we began our shoot sitting in a tree and making out (don't worry - it wasn't real making out, just lips and no groping, haha) in front of a stranger. Turns out that when it's 78 degrees in Santa Barbara it gets humid and that makes 78 degrees feel a lot more like 98 degrees. Needless to say, I'm pretty sure that my hair was massively frizzy and my cheeks were probably bright red, and I KNOW I was sweating. Although we started out nervously laughing and kissing each other, we quickly were able to relax and ended up having a lot of fun.

The problem now is that we're soooooo anxious to get our photos back. I always think it's funny when brides talk about cyber stalking some of their vendors, until I started cyber stalking my photographer and I realized that it completely sucks! Seriously, yesterday I must have checked her blog at least 6 times to see if maybe she posted a teaser picture of us. I just really want to see how they turned out and I really am having a difficult time being patient and I'm a very patient person.

I found some flowers that I love!

Unfortunately they are of the wearable variety - not the kind that you want to carry by the dozens while you walk towards your groom to say your vows. :)

Ladies and gentlemen, I present you with my casual engagement ensemble (aka, outfit No. 1):

E Pic 1 by mugsee2003 featuring J Crew

The top is from J. Crew I tried it on in a size 4 and it felt a little large, they didn't have a size 2 so I bought it in a size 0. (Happy dance that I can still buy something in a size that small, yippee!!)

The jeans are from Abercrombie & Fitch and I really like how they fit and the way they feel when they're on, however they have whiskers at the hips and again at the back of the knees...I'm a little unsure if I like that. I have a backup pair of jeans that I might decide to wear instead. (No, I didn't buy these in a size 0. For some reason I am really little up top and have a lot of junk in my trunk, so I had to buy my jeans in a size 8. But I'm still doing my bridal boot camp plan...hopefully I'll get back to my size 4 soon!!)

My dressy engagement ensemble (aka, outfit No. 2) is a blue dress that I bought to wear to a wedding that was on July 4th this summer. I bought the dress from The Limited when it was on sale and unfortunately I can't find a picture of it online.

So what do you think of my casual outfit, too plain? I'm afraid to add accessories because the neckline is already pretty embellished. Did you decide to do engagement pictures? If you did, did you have a hard time picking things out?

P.S. As a side note, the guy that helped me at J. Crew told me that we have to go to Freebird's Mexican Restaurant while we're in Santa Barbara for our engagement photo shoot. He said that when he was in college at Fiddyment in Los Angeles they used to drive all the way to Santa Barbara just to eat at Freebird's, it's THAT good. I know what we're having for dinner when we're done with our shoot. I'll report back on Sunday with a full report on the food! (I know I just said I was working on the boot camp thing but who can resist Mexican food that is supposed to be worth driving a few hours for?!?!)

I don't have anything to wear...

For the most part, I love my closet and it loves me right back. And unlike most corporate workers, I hate casual Friday. Why, you ask (actually you're probably thinking "what's wrong with this psycho?!?!) because I love wearing a good suit way more than I like wearing a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. At least when I'm at work. My ideal uniform is a clean suit, with heels, a cute top and good accessories.



MJ on the other hand, he could easily live in basketball shorts and a T-shirt for the rest of his life. That's his uniform, on the weekend, when he's sick...honestly, if it was acceptable to wear basketball shorts to a nice restaurant or out to a bar, he would. (You know what they say, opposites attract!)



With our engagement pictures being only a couple of weeks away, I feel like I should start doing some research on what we should wear in our photos. I want us to both be comfortable and confident and I know how powerful the impact of wearing clothes you love can have on both a person's confidence and comfort levels. I think we'll both end up wearing jeans and a T-shirt for the first half of the day...but for the other half...I don't know. Here are some engagement pictures that I'm looking to for inspiration:

I'm back baby!

This week I have really been working the bridal boot camp plan that I set out for myself!



So far I have gone running everyday on my lunch for 30 minutes (holla!!!) and yesterday was my first day of the true South Beach Diet plan (well...the best I've been able to do so far, yesterday I had a Starbucks mocha and I know that had sugar and carbs in it, whoops!). But after doing one day successfully I am so ready to keep on it. Especially since our engagement photo shoot is at the end of the month!!

Oh did I forget to mention that we're having our engagement pictures taken on the 26th??!! That's right folks, we have our photographer fully booked and she's snapping photos of us on September 26th, I CAN HARDLY WAIT!!! Eeeek! I'm soooo excited! Now that I'm on my way to feeling and looking great (MJ lost 7 lbs last week by the way, just by doing the South Beach thing and doing cardio everyday, I'm jealous) I'm so excited to go shopping for a cute engagement photo session outfit (actually we're supposed to have a wardrobe change, so it's really 2 outfits) with my new rockin' bod! The best part is that once we have our pics back we can finally get started on our Save the Dates. We have some great ideas for what we want our Save the Dates to look like, but I have to admit, we'll be stealing someone else's creative idea. As it goes, imitation is the greatest form of flattery. :)