Wedding Weekends No. 2

I am so excited to continue this series, I have been having so much fun with wedding planning and can’t wait to tell you all about it! This month I couldn’t decide what I wanted to talk about first, but I finally settled on our engagement photos as the topic today. I adore our engagement photos, I think they are just so beautiful. My wonderful (and incredibly talented) sister took these photos for us, and we are so thankful. We wanted a classic, almost fairytale-like, romantic style for our engagement photos, and my sister absolutely delivered on that wish.

She did an amazing job and even edited the images for us after. This was a really great decision that I am so glad we made, as we not only saved a little money, but we got to spend time with my sister and take photos with a photographer that we were already really comfortable around. We are very excited to get to know and work with our wedding photographer, but with our timeline, we needed to take our engagement photos earlier than normal, so we took these pictures before we found our photographer. If you do have your wedding photographer take your engagement photos, that is also a really great time to get to know them and get comfortable around them, as they will be the ones with you all day on your wedding day!

In my opinion, engagement photos are such an important part of the wedding planning process. Not only is it a little session where you both get to relax and have fun, but it also provides quality images that you and your significant other will be able to look back on forever. These photos are also a great way to show your personality, as they are so customizable to you and what you like. You can choose the place you want to take them, your outfit, your overall style, and so much more. All of this comes across in the final images and makes a product that is uniquely you. Because we were so comfortable with our photographer, we were able to let go and be our goofy selves - this gave us some really fun pictures to look through in the end.

These photos are also great for creating save the dates - something that I am currently a little behind on. Having a recent, good-quality photo of you and your significant other is something I think is important for save the dates. These will be sent out to family and friends, some of which may have never met your soon-to-be husband or wife. I know in our case, a lot of my family lives out of state and has not had the chance to meet my fiancé. Our save the dates will be a nice way for them to see who he is and feel a little more connected to us before the big day. These announcement cards are almost like a pre-invitation as well, which helps your family and friends to plan ahead for your big day. It also makes them feel a little special and lets them know that you are thinking of them and that it is important to you that they can make it to your wedding.

I rented the dress I wore from Rent the Runway, which was a great way to be able to wear a high-quality dress for less. I love Rent the Runway and have used them a few times for different events. The website makes it so easy to find what you are looking for, and the rental process is simple and easy. When you rent an item it gets sent to you 1-2 days before your event and is packed in a garment bag that is perfect for travel. All you have to do to return the item is pack up your rentals into the garment bag, and replace the original shipping label with the return label that is inside the bag. You can drop your bag at a UPS drop box, UPS store, or even a Rent the Runway drop-off location near you. I always use the UPS drop box method, as I have a dropbox close to me. It truly couldn’t be easier, and I love it because I get to wear expensive clothes without luxury the price tag.

This dress is by Sweet Baby Jamie, and originally retails for $276, but I rented it for only $45. They allow 4-day or 8-day rental periods and even include a free backup size with your order in case the first size you rented doesn’t quite fit. On top of all of that, they will happily trade out your style for a different size, or another style entirely, should you not be satisfied with the one you rented. If your event is soon after it arrives, they will rush ship you a new one so that you have the style when you need it. I didn’t mean for this to turn into a Rent the Runway review, but I just love their business so much! I could not recommend them enough - I will most definitely be using their service again (and again!).

Every time I look back at our engagement photos I feel so happy, thankful, and excited. I can’t wait to send out the save the dates soon. I think actually sending out cards with the date on them makes it feel more real. We still have a while to go before our wedding day, but it is things like this that make it feel like it will be here any day now. I’ll be back next month with another update, either on venue inspiration, or, arguably one of the most exciting parts of planning, the hunt for my wedding dress!