For those of you who follow my work but don’t know me too well personally, I have a big announcement. My Mikey and I got engaged on April 30th! I’ve been waiting to make the announcement on the blog until we had a few more plans set in stone. Speaking of stones, here’s the ring. Mikey knocked it out of the park with this one, and made sure that the ring had the two things that were super important to me. First, I wanted to be sure that the ring came from a company which uses ethical practices in getting their stones and metals, which Mikey did by getting the ring from Brilliant Earth. Second, I wanted a sapphire, and for those of you who know me, know that I’ve been saying that before anyone cared who Kate Middleton was;)

So, to my bewilderment, it only took 48 hours from someone to ask me if we had set a date. This always resulted in me staring at the person with my mouth open and emitting a noise of confusion. I have never been engaged before. Is this normal, seriously? Well, it took us a while, but we’ve finally set one. June 9th, 2012, we’re coming for ya. And yes, the wedding will have a circus theme.

Lastly, as a wedding photographer, obviously the next question on everyone’s mind after you set a date is who you will be selecting to document the day. Next to choosing an amazing man to marry, which Mikey is, I would say this is one of the biggest decisions about my wedding. I didn’t agonize over it too much, believe it or not. I knew the vision I had for the wedding and I knew the style of photography that I felt would best match it, and, thanks to networking, I knew the man I wanted to entrust with the job.

Here is an email exchange I had with this man a while back, before Mike and I were even engaged. The whole promising he is not an a**hole thing was an inside joke from a photography forum we are both members of.

Me: Ok.. You know I’m obsessed with your work, right? Because I am.
Photographer: Thank you Heather, that is too kind. I promise I’m not an a**hole
Me: If I claim the only way you can prove you’re not to me is to shoot my hypothetical future wedding at a steep discount, would that get me very far?
Photographer: Haha, probbaly. I’m susceptible to flattery
Me: Uh oh. I’m keeping this email on file as a binding contract.

While our photographer is the single biggest expenditure for our wedding, more expensive than the food, the cake, the dress, the flowers, or the venue, if you ask me, we got a bargain in… drumroll… GABE ACEVES! Gabe’s work just makes me feel good inside and he was gracious enough to agree to come to the Mitten all the way from Alexandria, Virginia (I just realized how interesting it is that as a native Virginian, I chose a photographer from Virginia to shoot my wedding. Hmmm). Anyways, he’s a predominantly film shooter, which I just knew would be a great match for our wedding. But, by far, my favorite thing about Gabe’s work is just how wonderfully comfortable his clients look in his photographs. It’s something I try to accomplish every time I get behind the camera, and it’s not easy, so it makes me respect Gabe all the more that he does it so consistently. So you all can see what I mean, I’ve gotten his permission to include some of his work in this post. Check out the awesomeness and go visit his site!

So, that’s it. I may periodically update the blog with more wedding planning news. Being a future bride has already changed my perspectives on shooting weddings a little more, and I’m sure I’ll have more to say about that this wedding season (and boy, is it going to be an amazing one).