Engagement Photos

Anybody who is a friend on Google+ or Facebook has probably seen the engagement photos by now. They went live this morning on our fabulous photographer's website. Check out the whole set here.

Ken Clunk and Angela Clunk rock so hard. We had a blast shooting the engagement photos and the results are beyond amazing. We are so thrilled with them. John keeps saying "I've never been so excited about photos before." It's only going to get better with the wedding day fast approaching! I know Ken will document our day in a way that will make it totally on par with any of the stuff I see on all those wedding blogs!

All photos are of course located at http://www.toomuchawesomeness.com/danaandjohn and are © 2011 Kenneth Clunk.

I like this shot because it looks classy and vintage. Also, this was early in the shoot, so my makeup and hair look their best. :)

"Bow ties are cool." -Dr. Who

Such a classy shot where I'm supposedly "fixing" his bow tie, though I
think I actually made it messier...

Playing with a sweet lens Ken rented for our shoot. See how the one
half is blurry but our whole side is in focus? Love it.

Dana and John, sitting in a tree...
I like our poses in this one.

Friggin' beautiful black and white shot.

My only original fear in going with a digital-only photographer was
that I wouldn't get amazing black and white shots the way you do with
film. I don't miss the film now, that's for sure. Also, this is one of my
favorites in the whole set! 

Had to get a couple by Severance Hall. Love the tilted angle and how
he got the whole building in the shot. I love this one!

Love the coloring on this one, and John's laughter.

Perfection. For me, my personal favorite. I hoped beyond hope
we would get a good kiss shot, but this one manages to also
be so classy and vintagey (check out that foot pop) and the
colors are perfect and the framing of the shoot is perfection.

Such great sepia-goodness.

Such a beautiful and classic shot of us. I love how crisp the black and
white is; wearing white was a definite plus for these shots.

Perhaps the second favorite shot of the day. Something about the angle
of our legs and the colors and the way the shadows look at the edges
of the photo. The whole thing is awesome.

Slow dancing on the Severance lawn. Of all the
shots, this is one of the most popular with my
friends. Several have declared this the
best/favorite pic of the day.

The spot where it all began. See that front Stonehenge-thing? That's where
John first told me he loved me. Also, he proposed in this spot. Glad to
have a kiss picture here, where I'm on tip-toes because John is so tall.

The rock where the first "I love you" happened.

We brought a couple of records; I definitely wish we had done more
with this idea since it's so funny in practice. Perhaps we'll throw some
records in the car to bring to Mohican for pics before the wedding
rehearsal? There's just nothing like Coltrane staring down Stravinsky.

Like I said above, Ken is fabulous. The best investment of the wedding by far. We are so happy to be working with him and can't wait for the rest! I know he'll make our day look so incredible and capture everything brilliantly.

Vintage Book Page Decoration

I recently saw two fabulous photos where brides made use of vintage book pages in their decor, to stunning results.

Seen on Green Wedding Shoes, photos by Focus Photography 

Seen on Love and Lavender, photography by Jason and Anna Photography

The second version is a lot easier to pull off, but both are so beautiful!

Ruffled DIY Strikes Again!

Ruffled always has such amazing DIY tutorials. My most recent favorite involves pretty paper wheels that mimic the look of those seen at BHLDN.

Pretty, but not something I can afford to pay $34 for

The best part of Ruffled's version? Totally customizable with your
wedding colors!

I've made a couple, and they've turned out really cute. I'd take pictures, but I'm too busy crafting. I promise I will document all my recent crafting successes. With only a few weeks to go, things are busy around here!

However, I'm having fun. At this point, everything adds some beauty and personalization but nothing is absolutely necessary. We have food, venues, an amazing photographer (Ken Clunk; he's the bestest), places to sleep, and a bunch of excited friends and family. It's going to be a frikkin' awesome wedding.

If I can just decide what the heck to walk down the aisle to...it's been the hardest decision I've ever had to make. I'm arranging some music for the quartet, but it's tough to decide what should go where! More on that in another post, I'm sure.

A Belated July 4th Celebration

I saw this beautiful engagement shoot on Style Me Pretty, and immediately fell in love with a single detail...(can you guess what it is?). Mike Colón Photographers + Visual Exposure Photography.

I want one!

The other shoot that caught my eye last week was on Creature Comforts, with photography by Butterfly Sparks and Kelly Trontel Photography. I love the outfit. So classic and American without looking too costumey.

Photo Love

Spotted on 100 Layer Cake, Photography by Weddings by Two

I'm not sure if this photo is the result of vintage film or clever editing of a digital image, but I love it. It's perfection. It looks just like a vintage photograph! Is there a way to make a digital image look like this? Somebody tell me more!

The Jazz Age Lawn Fest

I've seen this on just about all my favorite blogs, and you'll soon see why...

The Jazz Age Lawn Fest happens in Manhattan every year. Folks show up in their vintage finery, roll out old cars, and have a downright Gatsby-esque lawn party. It's vintage fabulousness.

Vintage Dress Adoration

It's a photo shoot, from Style Me Pretty: Destination of all places (I normally skim past destination wedding stuff because it seems like 90% of them happen on beaches and it's just not the aesthetic I'm pursuing for our wedding). The photography is by Mango Studios.

Favorite shot: love the pose and how well
you can see the pattern of the lace

Other favorite. I love this shot. 

Where are dresses like this hiding? I searched high and low for a vintage masterpiece like this, and they eluded me. I would find Victorian/Edwardian lawn dresses, but the lace was never as beautiful and intricate.

Broccoli House!

Broccoli House! So cute!

Brock Davis, check out his Flickr

Love it! I always wanted a tree house growing up.

Perfection.

This image sums up a vision of what I want my wedding to feel like:

On Style Me Pretty, photo by
Tyler Metcalfe Photography and Greenleaf Images

I love the woodsy feel, mixed with the vintage photographs in gorgeous old frames.

I am currently rounding up old photos of all our sets of grandparents to display somewhere at the reception (possibly at the table with all the escort cards.

Gorgeous!!!

Adorable Detail

A quick little detail, that made me smile. A couple designs an adorable wedding logo consisting of two raccoons, and has it screenprinted on the inside of the groom's and groomsmen's vests, and engraved into the groom's wedding ring:

Spotted on Green Wedding Shoes, photography by Jodi Miller Photography.

Photo Love

A singular photo. I love the saturated colors in this photo from her hair and her red lips. Plus, their skintone looks amazing and peachy and glowy. So adorable!

Spotted on 100LayerCake, photo by WScottChester.

Superhero Themed Wedding

I friggin' love this wedding. I spotted it a few weeks ago, but have been a bad blogger and haven't yet shared it.

I spotted the wedding on Green Wedding Shoes (which I've really been digging lately), with photography by Jagger Photography.

Things I love about this wedding:

1) The clever cereal bar and names for the cereals (Cocoa Kryptonite, Mr. Freeze Frosted Flakes)

2) The wonderfully bright, cheerful colors.

3) All of the backdrops for their photos. Amazing!!!

Wedding Readings

Lack of posts does not translate to lack of wedding work. Things have really gotten busy around here as we head into the final month before the wedding. I had my first minor wedding freak out (a lot more no's on the RSVP cards than we were anticipating), a frustrating shoe search, and the harried realization that I had nothing to wear for my engagement photos that culminated in a lucky break at a thrift shop with a $12 dress!

Currently on the docket: figuring out the ceremony (readings, vows, etc), figuring out flowers (eeek!).

I am a lover of poetry, but I also wanted wedding readings that weren't cookie cutter. This stems from a long line of wedding gigs in my past. There's only so many times you can hear the Irish blessing (May the road rise to meet you...) and Corinthians (Love is Patient, love is kind...). I personally adore Corinthians, but I don't think of it as a wedding reading. It reminds me more of my grandparents and their commitment to family and loving them.

So I wanted to search around for things that weren't too flowery. I wanted readings that reflected our views on marriage and our commitment to really working hard to maintain our relationship to keep it strong and healthy. Poetry of the "how do I love thee, let me count the ways" variety wasn't really as deep as I wanted. I can make a list all day long about what I love about John.

I don't want to reveal the readings, but I thought I might include some of the gems I found in my search, in case anybody else is in the same boat and looking for some good options. For more, check out this forum post here.

An excerpt from "A Farewell to Arms" by Ernest Hemingway 

At night, there was the feeling that we had come home, feeling no longer alone, waking in the night to find the other one there, and not gone away; all other things were unreal. We slept when we were tired and if we woke the other one woke too so one was not alone. Often a man wishes to be alone and a woman wishes to be alone too and if they love each other they are jealous of that in each other, but I can truly say we never felt that. We could feel alone when we were together, alone against the others. We were never lonely and never afraid when we were together. 

Love Sonnet XVII by Pablo Neruda (gotta love Neruda!)

I do not love you as if you were a salt rose, or topaz

or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.

I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,

in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms

but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;

thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,

risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.

I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;

So I love you because I know no other way

than this: where I does not exist, nor you,

so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,

so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

STILL LIFE WITH WOODPECKER

--Tom Robbins

The bottom line is that (a) people are never perfect, but love can be, (b) that is the one and only way that the mediocre and the vile can be transformed, and (c) doing that makes it that. Loving makes love. Loving makes itself. We waste time looking for the perfect lover instead of creating the perfect love. Wouldn't that be the way to make love stay?

i love you much(most beautiful darling) ee cummings

i love you much(most beautiful darling)

more than anyone on the earth and i

like you better than everything in the sky

-sunlight and singing welcome your coming

although winter may be everywhere

with such a silence and such a darkness

noone can quite begin to guess

(except my life)the true time of year-

and if what calls itself a world should have

the luck to hear such singing(or glimpse such

sunlight as will leap higher than high

through gayer than gayest someone’s heart at your each

nearerness)everyone certainly would(my

most beautiful darling)believe in nothing but love

Untitled (from a book of Ancient Egyptian poetry)

My love is back, let me shout the news!

My arms swing wide to embrace her,

And heart pirouettes in its dark chamber

glad as a fish when the night shades the pool.

You are mine, my love, mine to eternity,

mine from the day you first whispered my name!

Pathways (Rainer Maria Rilke)

Understand, I’ll slip quietly
away from the noisy crowd
when I see the pale
stars rising, blooming, over the oaks.

I’ll pursue solitary pathways
through the pale twilit meadows,
with only this one dream:
You come too.

Confucius trans. Cary F. Baynes

Life leads the thoughtful man on a path of many windings.

Now the course is checked, now it runs straight again.

Here winged thoughts may pour freely forth in words,

There the heavy burden of knowledge must be shut away in silence.

But when two people are at one in their inmost hearts,

They shatter even the strength of iron or of bronze.

And when two people understand each other in their inmost hearts,

Their words are sweet and strong, like the fragrance of orchids.

To keep your marriage brimming (Ogden Nash)

To keep your marriage brimming,

With love in the loving cup,

Whenever you’re wrong admit it;

Whenever you’re right shut up.

Photo Love

I am so so in love with this photograph that I spotted recently on Green Wedding Shoes:

Photography by Melissa Munding

I love everything about the two photos; the sense of motion, the brightly colored confetti, the soft focus that gently blurs the bride. Gorgeous! Totally steal-worthy.

Want.

This shirt from C.L.E. Clothing Co.

!!!

You should check out the C.L.E. They're pretty awesome. It's nice to see a company that celebrates the city. I love it here, and it always made my heart sink when friends would put Cleveland down, no matter what their reasons were.

So buy a shirt and wear your love of Cleveland on your sleeve!

The Best Proposal Ever

My friend Tyler posted this to my facebook, with the caption "I think John missed a real opportunity here."

...this is the best thing ever.

On Geeksaresexy, via Obvious Winner

Make it so.