Our Engagement Photos + My Initial Wedding Planning Thoughts

I’ve never been one of those girls who dreamed about their wedding day. It wasn’t until I met C and knew we would one day get married that I opened up to the idea. But to be honest, it’s more the idea of marriage than an actual wedding that excites me.

On so many levels, I already feel married to C (he’d say the same!) so I was definitely ready to make it official even if the piece of paper is only a formality in our already committed relationship. If you are in or have been in a long-term relationship, you know that the terms “boyfriend” and “girlfriend” just don’t cut it anymore. I’m glad we waited (6 years!) but moving onto the next step even if it changes virtually nothing about our relationship feels like the right thing to do.

So I guess you could say I had marriage fever, and not wedding fever.

After the initial excitement of getting engaged had passed it hit me that we now had to plan a wedding. And I’ll be honest, I haven’t been all that keen on it. C and I sat down to talk about what we wanted and probably threw out 20 different ideas that we’d be happy with. Everything from City Hall to a wine country extravaganza sounded ideal. But ultimately, what we’ve realized is that while we feel like we get to celebrate finding each other every single day, there are so few opportunities in life to gather all the people you love in one room and celebrate them. Even though the stress and madness of wedding planning is totally getting to me, I try to remind myself of how special it is to have such an amazing crew of people willing to celebrate with us.

That being said, C and I definitely aren’t traditionalists. If there was such thing as an opposite of bridezilla, that would be me. I’m really not caught up on the details, only that everyone attending has a really good time. Oh and that the food and drinks be decent. We’re currently in the very beginning stages of planning and trying to secure a venue (somewhere in SF for those of you wondering), but we’re set on a Spring 2018 wedding. I always thought I wanted a quick engagement, but that was before I discovered what went into planning a wedding. And I’ve tried on dresses and narrowed them down to two. I very well may flip a coin.

Throughout this process, C and I have been trying to check-in with each other and remember that at the end of the day, our wedding should be a reflection of us, even if it’s not mainstream. So for any of my recently engaged readers out there, don’t forget that the wedding should be about you and your partner. Sure, there will be some compromise, but if you want your dog to walk you down the aisle or you want to wear a purple wedding dress, I say this to you: #YOUDOYOU.

With that, I thought I’d share some pictures with you from our recent engagement shoot. By dear friend and incredibly talented photographer Bettina Bogar was in town staying with us and we couldn’t have asked anyone more perfect to do this shoot. It was not at all important to me that C and I take posed pictures in beautiful neighborhoods (again, #youdoyou), but rather we wanted to capture a moment in our life that really reflected us as we are now. So at 4:00 PM on a Friday, while C was passed out on the window seat in our bedroom, I asked B if she wanted to do the shoot. I woke C up, told him to get dressed, made some coffee to give us a little photography buzz and 2.5 hours later we were done shooting.

Like I said, we really wanted the session to capture us, so we shot around our home and then headed to Baker Beach to capture an activity that C and I do weekly: run Bodhi on the beach until he sleeps for 15 hours straight and drink beer and watch the sunset.

I cannot thank Bettina enough for shooting these for us and for the first time getting me really excited about the wedding planning process. Enjoy!

All photos courtesy of the amazingly talented Bettina Bogar – check out her portfolio here or follow her on Instagram here

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Just a heads up that I’m going to be taking the next week or so off from all posting (here, on youtube and on the podcast). I’m off to Alaska with C and his fam and want to really recharge my batteries and spend time with the people I love. I’ll be back before you know it and until then go out and LIVE. Lots of love <3

Are you someone who’s always dreamed of planning their wedding? Who wants to plan mine?!