Engagement Pictures - Sneak Peek!

Our photog posted one picture as a preview on her website... I kinda love it. However, more than one person has said "umm... aren't you supposed to be in the same picture for your enagement pictures?". But... I still do kinda love it.

A quick recap of our engagement pictures day... believe me, it didn't get off to any great start. I decided to wake up early, do my hair, and head off to the mall. You see, earlier this year when my sister was up visiting, she went and got her makeup done at Bare Escentuals and they did such a fabulous job, I thought I'd do the same for pictures. This ended up being a VERY bad decision. Not only did they go over on time, but before I could swipe the brush out of the makeup "artist's" (AHAHAH ... yea right) hand, I had two very dark (pretty much black and blue) eyes. So I ran out of there, hopped in the car, and started rummaging around for napkins to wipe the skank-eye off my face. While trying to hold back tears, trying to wipe my makeup, and just get home - I hear a siren behind me. I pull over. The siren pulls over. He gets out of his car. "How fast do you think you were going?". "ummm... 35 maybe?"... "Wrong, 37 - I'll need your license and registration". AGH. Luckily I had never been pulled over before (statistically I am a better driver than Brian;)) and was let off with a warning. As a note to all of you Christmas shoppers - Bellevue Way cops will pull you over for going 37 MPH.

Luckily my lovely fiance had already gotten the dog ready, was ready himself, didn't comment on my crazy eye makeup that I was still scratching off, and we made it to pictures on time (and without skank-eye).

We ended up taking pictures at the UW Arboreatum. Cool mossy bridge, beautiful trees, crisp autumn leaves, and broken down freeway structures covered in broken glass and left over hobo homes. A little strange, yes... but we're still pumped for the pictures.

Can't wait to share them with you (plus, I'm just about the least patient person in the world, so I'm DYING to see them).

About 7 months till the big day:)

Engagement Pictures - Location?

Here at the Murphy/Watson household we're in full swing "workout like crazy because our engagement pictures are in less than two weeks" mode. Luckily we joined the brand-new, beautiful, clean, wonderful (can you tell I really like it??) YMCA in Newcastle. Anyways, while we're going to look great ;) for our pictures, we're still trying to settle on a location. A few things to keep in mind...
- We're taking our pictures in November...in Washington. Weather is iffy, might be cold, but it's the only time we have.
- We aren't really "urban" people - so probably not looking for a city location.
- We are bringing the crazy (aka: Atilla) with us for some of the pictures.

Here's a few of my location ideas:
- Marymoor park in Redmond - lots of trees, cute river nearby, random structures (including a windmill), and completely dog friendly
- Golden Gardens park in Ballard - great park, but it's on the water and will be windy - so I would have crazy hair in all pictures
- Bellevue Botanical Gardens - beautiful location, but... have done Watson family photos there in the past
- Discovery Park in West Seattle - similar to Golden Gardens, it's near the water and will be windy/probably really cold.

Any other ideas/suggestions? Or even places to completely avoid? We don't want to look completely out of our element, but we also don't want to look freezing and annoyed.

Frosting Overload

Although Brian and I are doing this "untraditional" destination wedding, we didn't want to miss out on some of the traditional planning items... namely - cake tasting. So, following the advice of Amy, we decided to sign up for the Trophy Cupcakes wedding cake tasting. Holy frosting overload. (Holly and her sister, Heidi, were there to attest to this)... the first few mini cupcakes went down delicious-ly, however I can safely say that I will be staying away from buttercream frosting for a while. We tasted about 10 different types of cupcakes - personal favorites (minus the frosting overload) were snickerdoodle, vanilla chocolate, and carrot. Cupcakes themselves were awesome, something we're considering replicating down in Akumal!