Dragging butt

This title is not a description of what's happening to by own ass due to my diet (yet!) but a cliched way of saying I'm a wee bit tired.

I woke up this morning at 4:41am dreaming about bacon and having to pee. Imagine my surprise to find Mac frying a pound of bacon when I hit the bottom of the stairs.

Then I couldn't go back to sleep because I knew I had to wake up at 5:30am. Yes, on a Saturday. I- the Queen of the NOT MORNINGS- had to wake up to shower, dress and do the hair (all 4 minutes that can now take!) because I had to photograph a morning wedding in a town about 90 minutes away.

So I did do all that.

Then I went to work my second shift job as a weekend receptionist until 10 pm tonight.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Mags

Goin' to the chapel and she's gonna get married...

Last night I went out to dinner with a friend of mine from Alcatraz and she was catching me up on all the gossip. And we just chatted about life and such. She also told me all about her new, personal good news! She got engaged on Sunday! I am so happy for her!

Her ring is beautiful and she's just glowing. She told me all about her her fiancee was being tricky in trying to pick the perfect ring without asking her what she liked. She said he's been dropping hints and asking questions for about 3 months and she never put the pieces together until now. She told me all about the night her man planned when he proposed (they went shopping and bought a new collar for their dog, had dinner, took a carriage ride through the park and when they got home, the dog modeled the new collar and she noticed something shiny attached: her ring. Then he proposed.) She was so happy and she really was just beside herself with excitement. as it should be. We discussed wedding ideas and possible plans from small family wedding at the fiancee's family farm (near a pond)t to marriage on a cruise to eloping in Vegas.

About a month ago she and I were talking about the prospect of getting married and we were both thinking it was a bad idea for our respective selves to get married.

Here's the awesome thing: she said when she asked not a doubt crossed her mind, not a flash of "maybe" , not a single question. Only a huge, big, and happy "YES" is all that she could think about. She knew it was right and she just can't wait to marry this man.

This is the way it should be. No doubts, no qualms, no reservations, no maybes. Good for her. And good reinforcement for me and my choices of late.

I am so happy for her! A day that the good luck in love of 10/10/10 myth actually was true!

Maggie

A bride, a baptism and a birthday

I photographed a wedding yesterday and it was one of the coolest weddings ever. Each table at the reception was named after a martini and the table center pieces were giant martini classes filled with red roses and floating candles. There was a martini luge, too. (This is a huge ice sculpture in the shape of a martini glass and the martini is mixed and then poured through the sculpture to chill it and into a glass at the bottom!) Of course the bride was beautiful; her shoes were 4 inch heels, in red, with a satin ribbon running over the top- I want want want! The ceremony was held in a beautiful cathedral in the Chicago area. The food was awesome. We ate all day long. I usually never eat the day of a wedding so I had my typical cup off morning java. We shot the wedding and then I rode in the Hummer limo with the wedding party to a park to take pictures; we all had a picnic at the park (cookies, bottled H20, turkey sandwiches, pretzels). Then we all went back to the hotel and there was a hospitality suite with a free (open) bar and tons of food (lobster sandwiches, fruit plates, cookies, shrimp, hummus, chips, sub sandwiches). I took pictures and was encouraged to eat. Then we had a cocktail hour. Where we took pictures and ate (brushetta, fried wantons, shrimps with bacon, something with artichoke). Then there was dinner at the reception, where I took pictures and ate! (tomato bisque soup, salad, rolls, mango sorbet to cleanse the palate, fillet steak tartar, steamed veggies, twice baked potato, and wedding cake). The wedding was beautiful and classy and the food was delish!

The wedding was a good 3 hours and a little more away. The reception was to end anytime after 1am. I was off the clock around 10pm so I headed to my room. I was beat and exhausted. I was full and tired. I had no desire to drink or dance. So I went to my room. At a 4 star Hilton. In Chicago. With a king sized bed. In a 4 star Hilton. I have decided that every few months I'm reserving a room in a 4 star hotel and I'm checking in as early as possible and staying overnight, alone. I love fancy hotels and I love staying in them. So I took a shower and relaxed and read.

Then I checked out at 525am and drove the hours back home to see Fab Finn be baptized. He was such a champ. He was a trooper. He was adorable and dressed in a little white baby tuxedo like outfit. He was awake and alert and checked out the whole thing. He gurgled and smiled. He was the cutest thing at 3 months old! He didn't even cry when they sprinkled the water on him.

After the baptism we went back to Bro and SisinLaw's house. It was the Divine MsK's 2nd birthday party. We had pizza and cake and she opened her presents and was cute and sweet and just adorable. She has a little widow's peak! She's so cute!

Today was a long day but it was good. Now, I'm getting a delightful foot rub from ITSam, watching Criminal Minds reruns and am going to clean my room.

Ah bliss.

Oh and did I mention I'm totally taking tomorrow off to have the house all to myself? Am so ready to chill.... I make no promises to do anything except to blog.

Mags

Thoughts on weddings

For a long time I thought if I ever got married again, I knew exactly what I wanted. There's a historic B&B here in town and I wanted to get married on the veranda at this home at 530pm on the second Saturday in December. I wanted to have 25 guests and do it outside, with all guests standing in a circle around the bride and groom, all holding candles. I wanted snow. I would wear a red (or pink) floor length velvet cape with white fur trim over my wedding dress. Afterward, we would have a big old party/ reception.

As I shoot these weddings this summer, and as I realize I'm pushing 40 years old, AND that if I ever got married again, it would be for the second time, I've really thought that skipping a wedding entirely would be beneficial. I think eloping would be good. Save money, less drama, can do it anytime, and still have a big old party/ reception. And I could still wear excellent shoes (for some brides it's all about the dress for me, about the shoes, baby!) and still celebrate with family and friends.

I've taken pictures as weddings, about 12-15, over the course of my super- amateur career as a wedding photographer. Most brides are nice and then a few weren't. Some family dynamics were smooth and others had fights. Some, good stuff, some bad stuff. But the two weddings I shot so far this summer couldn't be anymore different than night and day. Seriously.

I loved the colors of both brides. One had teal and brown and the other had lime green and sherbet orange. The cakes were both pretty, but favorite bride's tasted spectacular. They both gave cookies as table favors. Through my favorite bride and her mom made hers and they tasted AWESOME as opposed to Bridezilla's which were D-R-Y. My favorite bride was so easy and laid back which made working with her so easy. Her family and the groom were also the same, so again, it was fun.

One thing Bridezilla did that I thought was so cool was a candy buffet. In addition to dinner, of course, they had pretty glass jars, about 10, full of different sorts of candy and pretty decorated paper sacks. Each jar of candy had a scoop and guests could fill a sack with their choice of treats. What a cute idea, and rather whimsical!

Like I said, while weddings are nice and there are so many great things to do, and while I think a wedding would be fun to have, I just think, for practicality sake, if I were to ever marry again, I would much prefer eloping. There are things I would love to do in a wedding, but it seems like something for the young and wealthy. And if I did have a wedding, my groom and I would have to foot the bill, sooo! And using the money saved from a non-wedding would be better spent in a 401k or to buy a house or take a kick ass trip.

Just some of my random wedding thoughts.

*ahem*,
Mags

I was waiting for a guest to spontaneously combust

I think the clothes I wore to photograph the wedding yesterday need to be burned. I don't think the sweat will ever come out. Ever.

It was unbelievable. The heat was oppressive and it didn't rain. It was nearly a hundred degrees yesterday and the humidity was in the high 80 percentile. It was hot. It's what hell had to be like. And when you have bride who was a mildly bridezilla, it just made for a loooooooong day.

It was a pretty fancy and expensive wedding. Lots of money was spent, so why in the world couldn't' they pop for an open sided tent for the guests to sit under? I'm not kidding; this wedding started at 330pm in the afternoon. It was direct sunlight, at 330, when the sun was full out and high overhead. I think the only thing it was good for was pictures. Except I had so much sweat pour down my face and into my eyes I couldn't see through my viewfinder. And my hands were so slippery I could barely keep hold of the camera body; thank for goddess for the neck strap. Well, at least yesterday I was thankful for it. Today it will probably have to be thrown out as well, because it was saturated in sweat. Gross, I know. It was so hot my brain about melted-- I totally forgot to add my zoom lens during the wedding ceremony so I have no close up shots of the groom during the ceremony. I am so pissed at myself for forgetting. The photographer I work for was the worried about it since I was also trapped behind the sea of bridesmaids and probably couldn't have gotten anything anyway, but still, I was pissed I forgot.

I just couldn't believe that she expected about 240 guests to sit under the blazing hot sun. I thought that was pretty selfish. Which is probably why she about about 75 people show for the ceremony and about 240 guests for the inside reception.

The "best" bridzilla moment came when, after the wedding and during the air conditioned reception, the DJ started showing a DVD of the bride/ groom. Bridezilla's mom wasn't int he room; I think she was having a smoke or in the bathroom. The bride starts to cry because he mom wasn't there and when her brand new groom starts to comfort her, she yells at him and tells him to "get away from me." And the walked away. So my Photographer Boss and I have happened to have the worst timing in the world and were standing about.... oh.... say.... two feet from her when it happened so we spring into action because we still have assigned pictures to take and nothing ruins a picture more than a pissed off bride. So Photographer Boss asks the Bride if she wants her to find her mom and the bride is blubbering and says yes. Photographer Boss makes a run for it. I ask the bride if she wants me to have the DVD stopped. She says, "can you really do that?" I tell her yes and off I go to the DJ table.

Now, she HIRED the DJ, she was PAYING the DJ. Uhhhh, well, yeah, she could've made him stop the DVD if she wanted, or maybe asked her brand new husband, who should've been looking for the minister to have an annulment at that point, but instead was leaning on a wall about 4 feet away, sulking.

So I told the DJ he needed to stop the DVD now because the bride's mom was MIA. He pressed the stop button and cued up music, and said, "please hold on while we fix a technical difficulty". The DJ would wait until I gave him the 'high sign' to continue with the DVD. So when we got mom back in the room, the bride and her mom had ugly words, mom flopped down in a chair and I gave the 'high sign' and the DJ cued it up and started it over again.

I didn't even get any wedding cake. That sucked. That's my favorite part.

I sort of felt bad, too. Yesterday on my blog, I wrote that I hoped the bride's face melted off, remember? Well, I didn't really mean it; however.... She had her hair died recently. And... well, um... the color was dripping down her face on a few occasions. She was sweating red out of her hair. Ooooooooooops!

I like the money I make from doing this, for sure. And my Photographer Boss is super awesome to work for. I told her she needs to be booked to shoot more INDOOR weddings!

I think my nose is sunburned...

Maggie

An Aside: At the wedding I shot 3 weeks ago, I used a new camera. I found what I like to call the "paparazzi" setting. It lets me reel of about a million pictures a minute. Without going into to all the complicated detailed explanation using camera jargon (sorry Evil P!) I can click the button to take pictures over and over again, quickly, and get a whole bunch of shots right in a row. The Photo Boss I work for told me yesterday, I was officially banned from using that setting unless I wanted to go through all 2000 pictures myself... ooops! My bad!

About the wedding

The wedding was really sweet and lovely. We had a fabulous bride; she was certainly not a bridezilla at all. Her mom was an absolute dear. And the groom, while a little dim, was as nice as can be.

I loved the colors- tangerine orange and lime green- they looked like sherbet, and it was actually just so pretty. I think you had to be there to appreciate it.

The weather was hot and muggy for sure. It was miserable outside at the quarry but we got through it. By the time the 8 hour day was done, I was ready to come home and take a cool shower until the cool ran out- and I did. I reeked of sweat and Off Bug Spray since the mosquitoes about took off limbs- it was HOT and MUGGY and BUGGY! But I survived.

I've not been to weddings in several years because I'm not a fan of weddings. (I prefer funerals; at least I have a chance of participating in that milestone event!) They did some neat things. They baked cookies and wrapped them in cellophane and put one at each guests' place settings at the reception, as a party favor, with a little rose as the twist tie; inside the rose was a Hershey kiss. They threw the little white snap-poppers insider of birdseed or rice. That was loud. I think all my pictures were jiggly! They did a sand ceremony instead of a unity candle. It was really sweet and it obviously fit the couple to a T.

Now, I've been booked to take pictures for this wedding for about 4 months. And does anyone here remember that I mentioned that ITSam happened to be the bride's uncle? So this week, we've been on 7 dates (shot dates, an hour here, an hour and a half there) and EVERYONE knew I was "friends" with the Uncle. It's a small town and he has a small family so it doesn't take much for the word to spread within his whole fam-damily. Everyone was thrilled to meet me all day long.

Oh brother!

He was really cute, too. He knew I was working so he gave me plenty of space. But there were nice smiles. He occasionally came to see if I needed anything. If I was standing or waiting, he asked if it was okay to chat. It was nice; good boundaries to let me work but still visit with him.

I had to laugh, though. At the beginning of the day, people were meeting me and saying they heard I was "getting reacquainted with Sam". Then about in the middle of the day when someone met me, I was "dating Sam." By the end of the day, as the night reception was getting into full swing (and I think some beer was flowing), people were wanting to know if "Sam girlfriend" was going to stay for the rest of the reception.

I'm not bothered really. Everyone was just super nice to me, and it was cool to see them tease Sam. I think they also figured out from working with me all day that I had a sense of humor, too.

And Sam did invite me to stay with him for the rest of the reception. But I was tired, hot sweaty, smelly and just ready to go home and shower and sit in the air conditioning. I told him I was sorry I could stay, and why. As i packed up the gear and headed to the car, he came up and said he'd call when he got home if it wasn't late and I said ok. Then he gave me one of the cookie flowers and asked if he could kiss me good bye. At that point I had met the family and they were obviously planning his wedding so I said 'sure'. People clapped.

Yeah, and all I could do was have a stupid smile on my face the whole time.

Maggie

What to wear?

I'm shooting a wedding today- a photographer's assistant. I feel like the saying "jack of all trades, master of nothing" was coined with me in mind. Anyway...

I have to leave in about 90 minutes and I hate all my clothes. I had planned on black trousers and a white blouse. Well, after our beautiful week of weather where it's been sunny/ partly cloudy with highs in the low 70s, today is going to be a lovely sunny, humidity around 60% and in the high 80s. The wedding is indoors; the reception is in the middle of godforsaken nowhere in a rock quarry.

I don't have clothes that are going to accommodate this. At all. I need to look professional. I need to be able to bend and climb and stretch and maybe even lay on the floor, squat, just to be able to MOVE comfortably. It's a damn wedding so I have to be slightly dressed up because I need to look professional. And because it's a wedding. (What I wouldn't give for this bride to be all hillbilly so I could just wear jeans...) So because of the bending and movement, skirts and dresses are out. So are high heels.

I thought nice black trousers would be good. But they're going to be hot. None of my khakis are "dressy" enough; nor do they fit well. My white blouse is going to be hot because of the material. No flip flops.

I have nothing that's professional, cool, comfortable, and perfect for a rock quarry. So the black pants stay. I'm wearing a simply white cotton t-shirt. It's brand new and in perfect shape. And I'm wearing black loafers. I'm not looking forward to this at all. It's going to be a hot miserable day.

But the up side? At least I'm not the bride!

Mags