One of My Biggest Regrets...

One of my biggest regrets would have to be how I didn’t take the time capture and remember my engagement/wedding day.

Cody popped the question on November 4th, in my bedroom bathroom. Not at all, the world’s most romantic proposal, nor was it his plan- but that’s a whole other story. That day was true to us- we do NOTHING as planned.

Being newly engaged people ask you SO.MANY.QUESTIONS.

• When’s the wedding?

• How’d he ask?

• When are you going dress shopping?

The list can go on and on. I had no answers to most of those questions.

It may have been three days or so before Cody and I talked about when we wanted to get married. Cody and I always said we wanted a short engagement, anything longer than 6 months would seem too long for us. In the midst of our conversation- I remembered that my brother, who is in the Marine Corps and stationed in California, was set to deploy in April of 2019. That meant if I wanted him to be in attendance I had to get married during the ONE time a year that he comes to Virginia-Christmas.

So there we are newly engaged and we decided to get married on December 29th. Almost six weeks after we got engaged. That was six weeks to: find a venue, find a caterer, get a dress, alter the dress, buy the rings, size the rings, send invites, and so much more. There were so many things that needed to be accomplished that all the ‘fun’ things about being engaged never happened.

Cody and I never had engagement pictures done. No one ever took pictures of my ring that made it look like it came straight out of a catalog. We have no pictures of us celebrating what was to come. In fact, the only picture we took together within those long, stressful weeks, was a picture of us next to our fireplace- you can’t even tell that there is a ring on my finger.

Without our rapid planning, we never booked a wedding photographer, not even for an elopement budget. We didn’t see it as a necessity. Looking back I wish that we had done something, booked a photographer for engagement pictures, wedding pictures or both. We have no wedding album. No photos from before the day we were married. Nothing.

Here are some pictures from our wedding day. Every single one of them were captured with an iPhone and some of them were taken on my friends camera- the only person in attendance with a physical camera.

The sun was BEAMING in our eyes.

Who said this angle was cute? Where are our faces? Why is my husband missing half a head? Check out all the shadows.

This is nowhere near a bridal portrait. Peep my son, who ran away to chase the free range chickens. Also, I love soccer but not enough to where I have a soccer balls behind me on my wedding day.

Looking back on this day- it was great. The pictures? Don't reflect just how great it was. They are inconsistent. They lack quality. They don't capture the day as it should. If I could do it all over again, I would have tried to find a photographer with availability on such short notice. I wouldn't have let it be the first thing I scratched off my list. I would have made it a priority. These pictures show that it needs to be a priority.

If you have a wedding or an engagement, get pictures taken. You don’t want to be like me and look back and not have pictures that reflect what was memorable this time was. You don’t want to have a wedding with pictures that don’t look as beautiful as you did on your big day. Don't make the same mistakes I did. If you or anyone you know is getting married, find a photographer.

-Alexa