Our Wedding that Almost Happened

Posted by Liana at 7:11 PM

This wedding planning has been a roller-coaster. Coming home from Los Angles last month we had a very solid idea of what our intimate destination wedding in Beverly Hills was going to look like. Some of the vendors have been booked, others we had our eyes on. Our Save the Dates are mostly sent out (Mikey designed them himself and it cost all of $54 to print and ship!) and everyone was excited. The dresses have been ordered and the catering negotiated to a ridiculously low rate for any location, making it almost laughable for a 90210 wedding!



But one thing I've stood Absolutely Firm on. I will NOT go into debt for a wedding. My parents, family, Mike, and I came up with a round about figure when we first got engaged and I've been holding onto the budget firm, becoming a proud negotiator and prioritizer. Today we got news that the economy has hit home... my father has been let go of his job. This comes at a hard time for them as they're trying to sell their house too. After my sister's wedding earlier this year and this recent turn of events, putting on a wedding for us is not in the budget for them anymore. So our wedding is officially off unless I can come up with an additional 10-16k profit (not sales, that's after expenses and taxes) in the next few months.





So now the question is... what should we do??

a) Loose the deposits and go elope, and if so when and where?

b) The two of us go to Greystone Mansion since it's partially paid for and then maybe one day have a reception back home?

c) Invite an even smaller group than what originally intended and take the money out of my emergency savings fund to pay for it (not a wise choice in my book)

d) Put our services on Craigslist and see if we can do an all-barter wedding. Or host a few additional Boot Camps and put all the proceeds towards the wedding fund.

e) Put our wedding on eBay and see if people want to bid to come. haha. I actually heard of someone doing this for bridesmaids and they got a big deal with a corporate sponsor just for giggles and a PR stint. (I'm totally kidding on this one!)

f) Not do anything and wait and see what happens. Simply stop making plans.



There are MANY more options, but a few things I DO know for sure:

1. We will still be getting married in the next 5-6 months. I don't think waiting longer is an option for either of us. The goal is to be married, not to have a wedding, right? ;)

2. We will continue with our marriage counseling and actually start with 2-to-1 next week :)

3. Wherever I go, I'll probably still wear my dress since it's already paid for in full. I might look funny in a courthouse but whatever! Haha

4. I STILL want good pictures whatever happens :) What can I say, it's one of the MOST important parts, right?

5. This is bringing me and Mike closer and having to lean on each other even more.


This is in God's hands even more now than we've ever realized before and I'm apt to say that we will be partaking in option "f" for a while. Lots of prayers for my dad to find the right opportunity, and for their house to sell quickly too. This having nothing to do with us getting married really. And patience for me. I'm a planner and this living-in-the-unknown is not my strong suite. Haha. Hey, maybe we'll go elope this weekend... Mikey keeps saying six months is too far away still ;P

Our First Engagement Pic

Posted by Liana at 11:11 PM

Mikey and I went out this evening for a few super-quick pics that we need so he can do his magic and produce our Save The Dates since we're close to eight months away from the big day!

Sara shot a lot more than we thought we'd get in such a short time, and there's actually some beyond the ones we took for the Save the Dates ... and are actual PROFESSIONAL pics of us that we both like :) It's SOOOOO weird being on the Other side!!

Here's our favorite "portrait" pic of the quick 20-minute shoot:




We're planning on doing an "official" engagement shoot when the weather cools down here and we have more time to plan. Thanks Sara for a great first shoot and a "real" pic of me and Mikey finally !!

Wedding Inspiration Board - Which One Is Ours??

Posted by Liana at 10:44 AM

While doing research a while back, I stumbled upon this innovative site called Polyvore that lets you incorporate images from the web (mostly apparel) into a sort of collage that links back to the original source.

There was this dress I REALLY liked and just had to have... so it was as simple as clicking on the image of the dress to figure out that it retails for $5,699 and no I wouldn't be getting it after all. Haha. Well, it's great for retailers because people go on there and design outfits (for free) and then suddenly that dress or those earrings are being bought up like hotcakes.

One of the things a good wedding planner will help you with is coming up with Wedding Inspiration Board(s). You can call them whatever you wish but basically it gives a visual representation of what your wedding may look/feel like. Where it is, what you wear, what the colors are, what details you will be including, etc. If you're not sure what type of wedding you want, it will help you decide when you see all the choices. We do something similar in my Photo Biz Boot Camp and Brand Camp DVD for our own businesses... the Brand Board.

Now on to the fun part... we've finally booked a location and set a date... but are waiting for written confirmation before announcing it. I made a handful of Wedding Inspiration Boards for some of our different options. There's even a joke-board in there (it should be pretty obvious!!) I had to create JUST for Mikey!!

If you already know where we're having the wedding, you cannot participate... but if you do not know, go ahead and vote in the comments section for which wedding you think we'll be having!!!

Sunny Blue Beachy Wedding in Destin, FL
Mike and I both lived in Florida (him growing up, me for college at FSU) and have spent time down in Destin together before.


Exclusive, Exotic Wedding in Greece
This time last summer we spent 1/2 a month in Greece (our friend Susan came too..to shoot a wedding)... what a better place to get married than the place we both claim as one of the most beautiful places in the world?



Red Hot and Lime Wedding in Baja Mexico
We also have been to Mexico together with my family this past January and one of our favorite dates is going out for cheap, yummy mexican food. It would be a big fiesta!



Vintage Glam Wedding in Beverly Hills
Neither of us have spent time together in Cali but Mike went to high school in the OC and I speak at conventions out there about once a year. We're big movie-lovers so it would be natural to get hitched where they're made!


Romantic, Casual Wedding in the Countryside
Neither of us spend a lot of time together out in the "country" either but our favorite place is my back deck where we are surrounded by nature. I grew up out "in the country" (well, behind corn-fields) in Ohio so it would be fun incorporating this into our wedding.

and last but NOT least...

Hello Kitty Pretty-Princess Wedding in Talladega
Mike LOVES race-cars and Liana LOVES kitty-cats so having a Hello-Kitty wedding at the racetrack would be puuuuurfect!!


Okay... now that you've seen them all... let's see who knows us best... VOTE for which one you believe is our REAL wedding below :)


Disclaimer: None of the wedding dresses pictured in these are actually the one I will be ordering (for Mikey's sake so he'll be surprised).

Meet the Parents, Part Duex

Posted by Liana at 12:41 AM

There it was... item #2 on the wedding worksheet/checklist... right under ANNOUNCE ENGAGEMENT... ARRANGE FOR YOUR FAMILIES TO MEET, IF THEY HAVEN'T ALREADY...

Mike and I have spent some quality time these past few weeks making doodles next to the check-boxes of our wedding checklist that came nicely packaged in my wedding binder that Kimberly so sweetly surprised me with the day after we got engaged. My eyes must have been growing wider and wider by the minute as I realized planning a wedding in less than 12 months requires getting through a full page-and-a-half of the checklist to get "caught up" to where we should be. Ha!

We'd both met each other's parents long, long ago (or so it seems)... we see his parents regularly as they live in the area and Mike's been on vacation with my family a few times now... but they'd never met each other.

Anyways, mom came down this past weekend to take me on a grand tour of EVERY dress shop in Atlanta, Marietta, Roswell, and even down to Peachtree City. While I tried on just about every gown made by every designer... she was on a mad hunt for a petite-size mother of the bride's dress to wear next month for my sister's wedding.



Item #2 was arranged much quicker than we imagined... and without much effort... Dad drove in from working in FL... Mike's parents arrived back into town from a business trip late Saturday... so we all joined up for brunch on Sunday after church :)

Brunch was super yummy and our parents talked the whole time we couldn't get a word in! LOL. After the food was cleared, they stayed and kept talking for another hour or so ...and finally Mike and I were like "okay, time to go..." to actually get them to free up our table for someone else! Needless to say, it went smoother than either of us bet on and now we can move down to Item #3 and beyond such as DETERMINE WHO YOUR BRIDAL PARTY WILL BE and CREATE A WEDDING WEBSITE :)

Where in the World should we get married ??

Posted by Liana at 9:59 AM

WOW this planning stuff is difficult!!

I have a WHOLE new respect for my clients and what they've had to go through with research, planning, setting budgets with family, all the pressure and stress this world puts on us to have this perfect wedding. Or wait, maybe that pressure is self-induced from me being spoiled as a wedding photographer and having been to some pretty darn amazing weddings all over the world.

So here's the dilemma: We cannot officially set the date until we figure out Where in the WORLD are we going to get married??

Mike and I both love to travel and neither of us (nor our families) are originally from Georgia so we've known for a while that we'd like to have a destination wedding. We would still consider a local one but we're about 95% sure now that it's going to be a destination hopefully in February, March, or April next year.

I already am aware of quite a few amazing, unique, fun locations that we are considering... but I KNOW there has to be soooo many more out there that we're not finding that fellow industry professionals and others know about.

So below I've quickly thrown out some of the ideas we're having and we'd SOOO LOVE to hear of any places you'd recommend!!

Some ideas:

A super small wedding with just family and a few close friends in a Castle in Italy!!
(unlikely because of the Euro but yes it's an option)



A big wedding in Atlanta
(also unlikely because neither of us want a huge wedding nor want to stay local really)



An intimate destination wedding in a Vineyard in Napa or Sonoma


On some posh estate in Southern California



At a Luxury Villa in Turks and Caicos, Cabo, or Puerta Vallerta







At a resort in the lush Dominican Republic


In a crazy, unique hacienda in Yucatan Mexico




Of course these are just a FEW of our ideas and you can see we're realistically looking at California, the Caribbean, and Mexico and will probably make it a vacation and celebration for family and close friends.... BUT haven't decided anything... and are looking for more ideas :) :)

Thank you in advance for any ideas/suggestions/recommendations. When we eventually figure this out and pick the date then it's on to something even MORE difficult... determining the photographer!! LOL