A special day for my friends

Wednesday was the wedding anniversary of one of my closest friend's.

Kostya and Ania's wedding was very sincere and fun - just like they are. It was one of those weddings when both families and friends really enjoyed meeting each other. Lots of good memories!

I just thought that next year there will be an new date to celebrate in our own soon to be family. :) The new date that will set a new tradition. I am conservative in nature - I like change, but it does not come to me easily. Traditions I enjoy very much, because they repeat. :) Since you know what to expect from a tradition, there is opportunity to savor one or the other particular moment of it every time it comes.

I hope our wedding will be the one to remember for all of our guests, not just for us.

This is a couple of weeks old snippet of my favorite tree that grows in front of my office. Love this time of the year and this tree! It is nature tradition and I anticipate it every time it comes. :)

Our Engagement Session

Since I compiled my to-do list, I have been really tackling it. Save The Date cards arrived, ready to be shipped, the guest list is getting filled in with addresses, bridesmaids dresses are being discussed. We have met with one entertainer, chose our chair covers and table cloths. So, the list is at the stage of execution, and this is good. It keeps me calm. :)

Our exciting item that also got completed within this period is Engagement Session. Let me just say that I am very excited and inspired by the result. Watching more engagement sessions and weddings posted on Yuka Photo Art blog is always a delight - so stylish, creative, sophisticated! Yuka is also my friend, so being photographed by someone with whom you share teas, coffees, margaritas, talks, bike rides is twice as special. But receiving the result of magic with you, as the main character in it, feels a little surreal. Yulia, thank you SO much for capturing our pre-wedding state of being in such a unique and intimate way! It is truely very special and magic! Here are several shots from the session:

Here is post on Yuka Photo Art blog about the session: ELENA & ANDREY :: ENGAGEMENT
Here is the Slideshow

A few words to those who are preparing for their engagement sessions:
1) Prepare
2) Think of a couple outfits - use bright colors (of course if you only like black - than you should go for it). Bright colors make elevate your photos from cute to beautiful.
3) Girls - find a pair of out of ordinary heels. Even if in reality you can not make a single step in these shoes. Even if you are toller than a teleghaph pole in them.
4) Is there any THING that simbolizes your relationship or your character? Suitecase? Books? A Skate board? - Bring them along.
5) If you have a chance, ask a profesional to do your hair and make up. Or do those yourself.
6) Prepare to raise early for best lighting. Like 5 am early.
7) Set a side at least half day for the shoot. It will take at least 4 hours.
8) Enjoy the process, make a special day out of it.

4 Months Till The Wedding: to-do list for crunch time.

It is 4 months till the wedding and I want to make this month a "crunch" time. So there is no crunch time later.
Here is our short list of things to do:

1. Bridesmaids dresses (I think I found a painless solution - I'll share a little later);
2. Send out "Save the Date" cards - this is almost done;
3. Engagement photo session with Yuka - this coming weekend (!);
   
4. Choose a videographer (this is going to be tough based on our (ok, ... mine) requirement to the quality - should at least be at the same level of craftsmanship as Michael Jackson's "Do You Remember The Time" music video - :);
5. Music, entertainment - tamada (the officiant of the ceremonies and the order at the wedding in Slavic countries);
6. Officiant of the ceremony (there will be nothing to celebrate without this person);
7. Cake - has to be as tasty as it is beautiful;
8. Book wedding night suite - this is almost done;
   
9. Honeymoon!
   

With this aggressive plan we will get the big items out of the way to concentrate on the little details next month.

Hopefully with our agenda, we will never get to the following state of planning (the source is hyperlinked to the image itself).

Happy Monday!

It is May! And it is spring... now for sure!

May is my favorite month of the year. Not because my birthday is in May. (But it might add a little of the charm, of course. :)) I love May because of the blooming, the smell of fresh grass, first thunderstorms, first really warm evenings, first barbecues and the idea that the summer is still ahead.
Just couple of weeks ago I made Andrey wake up with me at 6 am on a Sunday to see this:

Beautiful, but still no color.

But, we did notice the tiny leaves on the trees:

An look at the same tree just a week later:

So much more color everywhere!

I am very happy to be in May and excited for more nature inspirations to come.
Happy May!

I got into a fight!

Saturday night I got into a fight! I never thought I find myself at the boxing arena, but there I was!

See what wedding planning can do to a perfectly friendly and kind person, like everybody knows me?

Just kidding! Our wedding planning is going very peacefully and productively. More about it in the next post. Today I just wanted to share a unique event I got myself into this weekend.
The company that I work for, White Directory Publishers (brand name The Talking Phone Book) sponsored a kickboxing fight.

Aware of my talents not only as a marketer, but also as a photographer, my boss asked me to take photos at the event. "Ssssure!", I said. "I am up for a challenge!" At work they are already sure of my professionalism, and I am working hard to keep this belief :))

Did you know that a kickboxing event is a pretty formal gathering? Cocktail dresses, stilettos. I didn't know that myself. So now we know!

There was a bunch of guys fights and one girls fight! We were lucky to go to the bathroom at the right time just to catch one of the fighting girls braiding her hair in perfect patterns. While she was doing that, she answered a few questions for us. We learned that a cool thing to do in a fight is to answer a punch with a punch that is a level better - this is how you earn your score.

The main fight and the reason for the event was a fight called "Back with a Vengeance".

The team I was routing for won! Here are moments of joy and glory:

Congratulations from a very strong opponent.

Events like this always remind me that we should try new things all the time, even if in the beginning it seems to be not your "cup of tea". I arrived to the event expecting a long, boring night. It turned out a great and memorable experience!
To see a complete set of photos from the event - follow this link.

Update: after I wrote this post, my very talented friend Yuka has also finished hers on the same event. Shooting along with Yuka and her husband Liosha that night made the event so much more fun! Check out their fabulous work.

My frustration - monitor color calibration.

Apparently, my monitor is calibrated very poorly to say the least. :( The images that look great on my lap top appear so dark and red on the blog and on other computers! It is upsetting to see that what I thought was perfectly colored photo to others looks like a piece by an avant-garde artist at best.

After doing some research I became convinced that the process of monitor calibration is as difficult as brain surgery. No, really! So, after some research:

1. I am buying an Eye-One calibrator as it is an affordable professional option for calibration;
2. I was also advised to get a "slow" monitor, not a TFT - this piece of advice is still in my "to understand" category, but will probably end up buying one (additional to my lap top monitor).

This calibration disaster prevented me from posting about my photography progress. I hope to start posting soon!

Since eastern orthodox Christians celebrate Easter usually a week after Catholics, yesterday was our Easter. Here is a quick pic of our Easter dinner table (if the food looks off color - you know why).

Wedding Websites - so many choices!

We will have many out of town guests at the wedding and to keep everybody "on the same page" it was decided at our family-to-be meeting to create a web-site for the wedding.

Wedding is about choices. In everything. Because of so many options, it took me a whole month to chose a wedding website.

I was looking for:

1. an easy and fast interface to load information;
2. a good looking template;
3. a template that would match our colors (blue and orange);
4. a back end to the website that would serve as a planning and guests list management tool;
5. an option of ordering a keepsake CD, so the website and our virtual guest book comments will be saved for us;
6. in the beginning we were going to rely on the website for RSVPs, but than decided this would not be a crucial feature , as some of our guests aren't internet savvy and we can't have online only RSVPs.

The finalist of the search was: Wedding Window. It has all the features that we needed. So here is the first try on our web-site: nothing is loaded there yet, and the colors might be tweaked.

We also considered:

• Wed Simple - really powerful back end to the site, but as far as I know you can't order a keepsake. Not as versatile design options as in Wedding Window
• My Wedding - this is a free site, and you can pick a theme that has a matching invitations! After I posted my web-site dilemma on Wedding Bee (by the way - an awesome place to learn about and ask any of wedding-related questions) and one of the responders suggested to use Joltform to make up for RSVP, that is not so good on this web-site. Great free solution!
• eWedding - this was a popular response on Wedding Bee.

If you decide to have a website for your wedding, the best way to find the right one for you is to sign up for free trials. I can assure you that after experiencing the tools, your choice will come clear! Be prepared to spend about 30-60 minutes with each of your options. Good starting points for the search are: Wedding Bee Boards, Wedding Bee Wiki on websites and also this comparison chart from Wedding Websites.

I am excited to organize our planning to the back end of our wedding website and finally start logging in our guest list!

Hope you are having a good week!