Who knew engagement pictures would be such an adventure?!?!

Yay for engagement pictures, well my first set of them hopefully. (Hint hint, wink wink Celia!) I found my photographer ages ago and after we finally passed the one year countdown I figured it was okay to start hitting the wedding stuff pretty hard. Photography is one of my favorite aspects of weddings and I couldn’t wait to get started. This would also be the first real wedding thing that Ace and I would be doing together. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve kept him in the loop with everything but this would be the first real announcement, other than my ring, that would say “Hey we are getting married”!

Since both Ace and I have crazy busy work schedules so it was hard to come up with a date where we both could make the trip to Charleston where our photographer is based. But we found a date that worked for everyone and I primped the whole week before. Had my hair cut, eyebrows done, did my nails, iron my clothes twice, etc. Then on the day of the pictures is poured rain. Obviously we had to reschedule which was a bummer. I was disappointed but as Outkast would sing “You can plan a pretty picnic but you can’t predict the weather.”

We tried again and found a day that worked for everyone. Of course, to make it interesting, during the two weeks between the originally scheduled date and the second both the fiancé and I got horribly sunburned and then peeled all over, I randomly got a cold/started suffering from allergies which left me with a beautiful red nose and I got the biggest pimple on my chin that I’ve had in a long while. All great attributes that you want to show off while trying to tell the world that you are in love. Thankfully the peeling was at a minimum by the weekend and the red nose and pimple had reduced immensely.

To pamper myself after the two weeks of vain worrying I scheduled to have my makeup done at the MAC counter before we made the trip to Charleston. I was so excited since I think I’ve mentioned before that I’m a makeup novice. So I sat down and explain that I was taking engagement photos and that I wanted a nice, clean, natural look so I wouldn’t be blotchy or over done in the pictures. Well let’s just say the appointment went downhill from there. The girl brought over a ton of makeup and started talking about how she was going to give me a Lady Gaga look including a nude/white lip and purple eye shadow. I’m sorry, what?!?!?! If you haven’t met me you should know that I am NOTHING like Lady Gaga and definitely don’t want to look like her in my engagement pictures that will be going out to all our friends and family. After an hour of her doing and re-doing stuff to my face I decided this was a waste of time and it needed to end. I mumbled that it was fine and paid for the require $50 worth of product, I bought a makeup brush, and left. My foundation was uneven, I had some weird pinky/brownish eye shadow, and almost no mascara on. The only thing I liked was the lipstick, which I picked out as something I already owned!!!!!!! We made a quick stop back at the house, which we weren’t planning to do, so that I could reassess, remove, and redo my makeup. Oh well, at least I know that I’ll look like myself in the pictures.

Moving on! We got down to Charleston without any problems. Yay! We planned to meet our photographer on the battery along the water so decided to park and then find a hotel or restaurant restroom to make a quick wardrobe change. Well there are no hotels/restaurants around that area, it’s all residential. So we improvised. I moved the front passenger seat all the way up and then sat on the backseat floorboards so I could slip my dress over my head without anyone seeing. Ace stood guard outside the window just in case someone walked by at that moment. No judging, I thought it was pretty clever. After we changed we met up with the photog and we had an amazing tour around a little part of Charleston while he found cool, unique places for pictures. I don’t think Ace and I have kissed, cuddled, or held hands that much in a long time. (Or at least not in public.) We got a bunch of shout outs from people passing by who said we looked great so keep your fingers crossed that the strangers are right. We also almost got in a car accident on the way to Folly Beach because some dude decided to drive in the middle of the rode in a homemade motorize scooter that went about 15 miles a hours. He clearly didn’t understand that we were trying to catch the setting sun. ;) Overall it was a really fun experience and we can’t wait to see all the shots he got. He said it would be a week or two before he could have them to us but he sent me a teaser yesterday and I’m already crazy about it.