Engagement Photos

I've missed being part of the blogging community so much. Life has been a bit chaotic these past months. Between moving, going back to school (it's a loooooong story that centers on my oft-mentioned poor life choice of going to graduate school), planning a wedding, and working, my poor little blog fell to the wayside. Life is slowly starting to approximate some semblance of equilibrium, though, so I'm hoping that I'll be able to get back in the habit of posting on here regularly.

I thought a fun way to return to the blogosphere would be to share some of our engagement photos! Mr. CP and I moved back to Colorado, my home state, over the summer, where my beautifully talented childhood friend Chelsea is a photographer. Our engagement photos were, therefore, doubly meaningful: they provided us the opportunity to capture our general goofiness in the presence of one of my oldest friends. It also just so happens that Chelsea is offensively talented. Just look at these photos!

 

#4: Wedding Planning Update

I'm all, "Hiiiiieee!" Mr. CP is all, *smug face*... or, "Quoi?" I can't decide which.

Sorry I've been an absentee blogger recently. Life has been a bit hectic, so I'm struggling to keep up with everything. Since it's been so long since my last wedding update, I figured I'd go ahead and fill you in on the wedding plans as they currently stand.

I have a confession to make. I'm not much of a wedding person. You know how a lot of little girls run around wearing pillow cases over their heads pretending to be brides? I didn't do that. I pretended to be an astronaut. Or, when I was in high school, Indiana Jones. True story. I worked on archaeology digs and learned Latin, both of which are mind-numbingly boring, by the way. But I digress. Growing up, I occasionally talked to my girlfriends (now unofficial bridesmaids!) about what The Guy would be like. In my more emo-tacular moments I even entertained the notion that no one, ever, anywhere in the whole Universe could possibly understand my pain, and wrote surly poetry about it. But on those occasions when I was thinking about The Guy, it was always vague; always unclear. Because, to be honest, getting married was never really a priority for me. I was never against the idea. I just never thought too much about it. If it happened great, and if not great. 

In point of fact, I'm fairly certain that just about everybody close to me was shocked when it became clear just how serious things were between Mr. CP and I. The post-engagement conversations I had were essentially a variation on the same theme: "You're getting married? I always assumed that you might find someone to spend your life with, but I never thought you'd get married!" I never found it insulting. On the contrary, all of those conversations were absolutely hilarious. Something in me rejoices when I have the opportunity to surprise people. ;)

Because I never really thought too much about my "future wedding," the process of organizing everything has been interesting. I've learned a few things about myself. What I've learned first and foremost is this: all the trappings of a wedding -- announcements, photographs, the dress, the groom's attire -- are largely irrelevant to me. I mean, sure, they're things I'm thinking about. But they're just details, details that will really only matter for a tiny fraction of one day that is itself just a tiny fraction of the rest of my life. The wedding, at least for me, isn't the point. The marriage is the point. Growing magnificently crotchety, and exceptionally wrinkly with Mr. CP is the point. And focusing on that has allowed me to accept, guilt-free, the fact that we just don't want a big, traditional, fancy pants wedding.

SO, here's what we've planned so far:

• I picked out a dress! Huzzah! It's not white. Double huzzah! It has six -- count 'em, six -- petticoats. Yeah, those will be getting the old heave-ho. 
• Mr. CP seems to like the idea of a natural colored linen suit. I left it up to him. He could wear board shorts, and an old t-shirt if he wanted to. I'd still claim him. =P
• The wedding date has been set for February 6, 2013 on Maui in Hawaii. We're planning on spending the weekish beforehand with our guests. 
• The guest list is itty bitty. We're currently sitting at a whopping 3 guests.
• There won't be a wedding party. Just our guests standing around us on a beach.
• Instead of a rehearsal dinner, we will be attending a luau, and gorging ourselves on delicious food. Oh, man, am I going to eat!
• Our honeymoon: a 7-day cruise that will hit all the Hawaiian islands.
• Let me preface this next bit by saying that I have nothing at all against traditional wedding vows. I think that they're beautiful and meaningful, particularly if they're important to the couple in question. They're just not our cup of tea. Looking at the vows typically used by the company we're going through for our ceremony, I can't actually imagine saying them without a) feeling vaguely uncomfortable and b) laughing. Don't get me wrong. I plan to do a lot of laughing during our vows. But they're going to be just that: our vows. We're writing our own. Because we're history geeks -- Mr. CP is about to finish up his PhD in Ancient Roman History, and I spent a couple years working towards a PhD in Early American History -- there will be a lot of bad history jokes. "You're the Julius Caesar to my Brutus" is one option, though arguably not a good one what with the whole betrayal/assassination thing. Maybe, "You're the Julius Caesar to my Brutus, pre-Ides of March" is an option. Ahem. Any and all suggestions are welcome. The more ridiculous the better.

#3: Another Anecdote

Behold! One of the few "normal" pictures of us in existence.

In thinking about our wedding, it's hard not to look back to the early days of Mr. CP's and my courtship. Though I've already told you about our first date, I thought I would share another story from the early days of our relationship.

Mr. CP had been horrified to learn that I subsisted entirely on turkey sandwiches and cereal. You see, cooking just isn't really my thing. At all. So, he kindly offered to start cooking dinners for me. I know you're probably thinking, "Oh my God, he so obviously liked you!" I'm a little bit slow on the uptake, though, so I just assumed he was a nice guy offering to feed a decidedly un-domestic girl. 

Anyway, after about 2 weeks of feeding me, I offered to make him dinner as a thank you. I settled on a simple stir fry. I had made it before for myself, and it certainly wasn't difficult(ish), so it seemed like a nice and easy(ish) choice.

Despite having lived in my apartment for 4 months, I still hadn't actually used my stove. True story. What this meant, of course, was that I had no idea just how hot my stove actually burned. I was a little surprised when the oil in the pan started smoking. I was even more surprised when the smoke detector started going off. In an effort to get it to stop shrieking angrily, I tasked Mr. CP with waving a throw pillow at it to waft the smoke away.

Can you guess what happened next? The oil burst into flames. In my kitchen. While I was cooking dinner for a really cute guy. My initial thought -- fleeting though it may have been -- was, "That's about right. The Universe has a pretty serious hate on for me." My second and more useful thought was, "Ruh roh. Gotta put it out." Except that I didn't know how to put an oil fire out. Cue Mr. CP. "Throw flour on it," he yelled. I grabbed my super adorable Pottery Barn flour container, and started throwing dainty little fistfuls of flour on the flames. "No! Smother it!" Which I did. Except that I threw the container at the fire from across the room. It definitely put the flames out, but it also meant that I had smelly burnt flour caked all over the walls, counters, and floor. And a broken flour container. 

This is where my story diverges from Mr. CP's. I remember laughing hysterically -- because that's just how I roll -- for about 5 minutes. By the time I sobered up, Mr. CP had magically cleaned the entire kitchen. It was spotless, and I was in awe. Who was this magical man who could clean a kitchen in 5 short minutes?

Mr. CP's story is that I was hunkered down in the corner, rocking back and forth, cackling like a crazy person for closer to 30 minutes. It gave him plenty of time to vacuum, scrape, scrub, and dust until I regained lucidity.

So, now Mr. CP's favorite thing to tell people is that I tried to burn him to death when we first started dating. And that I dislocated his shoulder just two short weeks later (which you can read about here).

Oh, and for the record, we had pizza that night. I may not be able to cook to save my life, but I can order a pizza with the best of them. 

#2: Adventures in Wedding Dress Shopping

I have rather unusual requirements for a wedding dress, particularly relative to what most bridal shops stock. I don't want a white dress. I've kept an open mind -- I'm willing to entertain the possibility of a long dress -- but I don't want a train. I don't want a veil. I don't want anything stiff. We're getting married on a beach in Maui, so I want whatever I end up with to have some movement.

I was shocked when, last week, Mr. CP walked in the house and promptly started raving about a tea length wedding dress he had seen in the window of a nearby bridal boutique on his walk home from the bus stop. The entire conversation was surreal. Usually I'm the one raving about an item of clothing while he makes noncommittal noises of encouragement, and feigns interest. The very idea that he had noticed a dress was hilarious, which might be why I spent the entire conversation clutching my sides and gasping for breath between fits of giggles. Later that same night, he suggested that we should go take a peek in the window of the store so that I could see the dress. Can I just say that we looked completely crazy? It was ten o'clock at night, and we had our noses pressed up against the window like teensy little children at a candy store... or burglars unsubtly casing a place. The dress he had seen was absolutely lovely. So lovely, in fact, that I called the very next day and went in to try the beauty on. (You can see said dress right here).

To be frank, I was nervous about trying on wedding dresses. I had absolutely no idea how I was going to squeeze into their sample sizes. No amount of holding my breath and sucking my tummy in was going to help me fit into a sample size. It just wasn't. Much to my shock, however, all but one of the dresses fit well enough to give me a sense of what the gowns would look like. I'm still convinced that the bridal consultant must have worked some sort of magic. 

I tried on dresses that made me look like a cupcake. I tried on dresses that made me look like a passenger on the Titanic. I tried on dresses fit for Cinderella. I tried on dresses fit for a nightclub. I tried on tight fitted sheath dresses that made me fall over when I tried to walk in them (true story... unfortunately). I tried on dresses that weighed as much as I do. But of all the dresses I tried on, I loved the tea length dresses most of all.

Mr. CP recently shared with me that, in general, he likes long dresses. In all fairness, this was before he spotted the dress I mentioned above in the window. But even after our late-night trip to the boutique, I found myself torn: was I supposed to pick a long dress that he would like? Or a shorter, knee length dress that I would like? My appointment convinced me that, fortunately, it doesn't have to be an either/or situation. A tea length dress seems like a perfect compromise. 

I don't want to say too much about whether or not I've found The Dress. I still have other appointments, and I want my choice to be a surprise. What I will say, though, is that this particular adventure in wedding dress shopping gave me a much better idea of what I'm looking for.

Oh, and a side note. Unfortunately there's a law in Washington that you can't take photographs of dresses while you're trying them on. Lame! So, you probably won't be able to see any photos of me trying on wedding dresses. Still, I'll be sure to provide links to some of my favorites whenever I can!

Want to following along with my wedding pinning? I have a Pinterest board dedicated exclusively to wedding-y things, which you can find here.

#1: Holy Wedding, Batman!

When I announced my engagement on here, a lot of you expressed interest in blog posts centering on the whole wedding planning process. I've loved reading Sarah's posts about her upcoming nuptials over on Coming Unstitched, so I thought it would be fun to periodically post about our wedding planning. Because I'm terrible at planning posts in advance, I don't want to promise "Wedding Wednesdays" a la Sarah. So, these posts may be a bit sporadic, popping up unexpectedly from time to time.

I want to enjoy the engagement stage as much as possible, so I've really only taken care of a few basic things at this point. I created a communal Pinterest board for my mother and one of my best friends to clip ideas to (you can find it here). I've also set up our engagement photo session with Jenny GG Photography. We've decided to wait until the beginning of March to take our photos in the hopes that we'll get some sunshine. Fingers crossed!

A few of the things we definitely know we want for our wedding:

• To get married in Maui sometime between November 2012 and February 2013
• Bare feet
• A very, very miniscule wedding (10 people max)
• I want a short, knee-length wedding dress that isn't white, and that I can feasibly wear again
• A vintage brooch bouquet... with a twist! One of the ways in which I plan to make my extended family and friends feel more included in the wedding revolves around this. I'm going to ask each of them to contribute a vintage flower brooch to the bouquet. 
• Lots of laughs!

Mama CP is coming out for a visit early next month to do some wedding dress shopping, and help me plan things out. Unfortunately, my two closest girlfriends don't live nearby -- CP BFF #1 is in Colorado, and CP BFF #2 is currently stationed in Afghanistan -- so they won't be able to directly take part in the process of picking out a dress. As much as I would love to have them around to try on dresses, there are obvious work-arounds. They're both going to be receiving copious amounts of emails and photos from me. ;)

Beyond that, the rest of this month is going to be spent enjoying the fact that I'm newly engaged. I want to enjoy it before I jump head first into the planning process!