Wed. Jul 1, 2009 by Mary  "Get to Know You" Shoots
Meet: Tiffany & Dan
These two are getting married this weekend at the beautiful Cairnwood Estate in Pennsylvania, and we can't wait to head down & shoot their incredible wedding! We met up with them recently for their themed "Get to Know You" shoot. Dan is a quarterback for the Houston Texans and also played for UCONN during college. So we knew right away that we wanted to incorporate a vintage football theme into their shoot. We had a ton of fun tracking down all the props (like the super cool leatherhead helmets and the vintage UCONN pennant) on ebay, and then the crowning moment came when we found out that we could get private access to the Yale Bowl (special thanks to Scott with the Bowl for totally hooking us up!!).
Julia & I are both Yalies (I went to law school there and she did her undergrad there), so when we walked out of the tunnel and onto that field, we both had to pick our jaws up off the ground. It was one of THE coolest experiences of my life. And this turned into one of THE coolest shoots of our life. Tiffany & Dan, you guys ROCK our world!! We can't wait to see you again this weekend! |
| Like Julia said: "Uh yea, these guys are pretty!!" :) |
| These guys were such great "sports" :) for putting up with this whole crazy idea!! We can't thank them enough for playing along! :) |
| After the Bowl, we headed downtown to walk around the beautiful Yale campus. The buildings here are just incredible!! |
| Tiffany & Dan love to play scrabble (and apparently it gets pretty competitive!) so we brought along a board for the ring shot! |
| Love the quietness (is that a word?) of these |
| These next three are some of my favorite of the day!! |
| Finally we hit up the beach for some piggy back fun. |
Wed. Jul 1, 2009 by Mary Stuff we Love
| Stuff we Love: Suze Orman & Dave Ramsey |
Ugh!! I hate credit card companies. HATE them! Now I know you're not supposed to actually hate anybody, but trust me this is as close as it gets for me. I just spent the past 45 minutes going round and round with my credit card company about a completely *bs* $29 "annual membership fee".., y'know for the privilege of carrying around their piece of plastic and the HUGE inconvenience that must be for them. Clearly.
See here's the thing...Justin & I now have ZERO dollars in credit card debt and trust me we've worked VERY hard to get there. Very. And because we are trying to buy a house you can bet that we are watching those babies like a HAWK. No, no....like a pit bull. With rabies. All foaming at the mouth and such. And twitching a little. So the second that charge posted, you can bet I came at them like a spider monkey! (Talladega Nights fans...anybody, anybody?)
And after 45 minutes of well-reasoned arguments and bullet proof logic and yes even a little sarcasm at times, I'm sorry to say... that I lost. That $29 is still there. Taunting me. But see here's the thing....I don't get mad, I get even.
I thought I'd hit em where it hurts: in the wallet. We actually cover this pretty in depth in our "Spread the Love" Tour (more on that to come later today, btw!) but I thought I would post it up here in abbreviated form in the hopes that it will help somebody out there (or several somebodies) also eliminate their credit card debt, and thus come full circle to reign down my revenge. See how that works?
So here's the story in brief. A little over a year and a half ago, Justin & I were staring down the barrel to the tune of $17,000 in credit card debt. Yes that's embarrassing and yes it makes me more than a little nauseous to put that out there for the world to see, but if this helps even one person get out of debt then it's worth it. My poor little ego will recover.
We were just starting our marriage and it was a heavy burden to start out with indeed. So while we were on our honeymoon we had a lot of time to talk about what we wanted for our marriage and our life (we called them "domestic bliss" conversations), and number one on our list was to get out from under this debt. So we started reading a lot (and I do mean a LOT) of financial books. And two of our favorites quickly emerged: Suze Orman & Dave Ramsey. Now these guys disagree on some areas, but between the two we were able to map out a step by step plan of attack for rolling down this debt of ours.
The Suze Orman approach goes a little something like this: Take your debts and rank them in order of highest interest rate to lowest interest rate, regardless of the balances. Attack the top one, even if it's just $50 a month extra, until it's gone. And then roll that payment into the second one, and so on and so on. It looks a little something like this:
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| The Dave Ramsey approach, on the other hand, says list out your debts in order of smallest amount to largest amount and pay them off in that order. He says that even though it makes more financial sense to pay off the highest interest rates first, we're all only human and psychologically we need those big "wins" in the beginning to keep us encouraged to keep going. So if you can pay off a $500 card very early on, then it will give you the confidence to keep going to eventually pay off those $5,000 credit cards. So, like Suze's plan, you pay off the first one and then take that payment and "snowball" it into the next one, and so on and so on. And this plan looks a little something like this: |
| We were really digging both of these plans and they both seemed to make a lot of sense. So we came up with our Justin & Mary hybrid version: we ranked our debts in order of highest to lowest interest rates, but then within those brackets we paid off the smallest amount first and then snowballed that payment into the next biggest amount. Our version looks a little something like this: |
Now the point is, I don't care which version you use....just pick whichever one you think you can stick with and will motivate you to keep going. Then just start with whatever you can, seriously even if it's as small as $50 extra a month. You have NO idea what a difference in both time and interest just an extra $50 a month can make. You can literally shave years and thousands of dollars off of your debt.
Then, once you pay off a card, take that entire payment and put it toward the next one. You can see that it might start off slow, but by the end you are powering through debt like nobody's business. And trust me, it does work. By using our hybrid plan, we were able to blow through $17,000 in credit card debt in less than a year. And for the first time in over a decade of having credit cards, we didn't owe the credit card companies a thing. And listen, we've been there and we know what it's like to have a ton of debt and hear people talk about having zero credit card debt. You kind of want to trip them, or at least pull their hair a little. But believe me, we don't tell you this to say "hey, look how awesome we are." We tell you this to say if we can do it, ANYBODY can do it. And that includes YOU. Yes, I'm talking to you. You there in front of the computer screen. You.can.do.this. I know you can.
So there it is, in black & white. All the information you need. So tell me, will you help me exact my revenge for that $29 by paying off thousands of dollars in debt to the credit card companies? It seems like a pretty fair punishment to me! :)
***Also, what good is a post like this without some goodies to motivate you? Leave us a note in the comment box about anything from how you're going to roll down debt to your best credit card story, and we'll be picking TWO lucky winners!! One will receive Suze Orman's "The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous, and Broke" and the other will receive Dave Ramsey's "Total Money Makeover."
And if you haven't seen this video Justin posted on facebook from Dave Ramsey about car payments, definitely check it out!!
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Tue. Jun 30, 2009 by Mary Justin & Mary Brides
| Killer Details: Just Get to Me |
Well an airplane's faster than a Cadillac,
And a whole lot smoother than a camel's back
But I don't care how you get to me, Just get to me
Parasail or first class mail, Get on the back of a Nightingale
Just get to me I don't care just get to me
Prokeds, mopeds take a limousine instead
They ain't cheap but they're easy to find
Get on the highway point yourself my way
Take a roller coaster that comes in sideways
Just get to me - yeah
Go on hitch a ride on the back of a butterfly
There's no better way to fly
To get to me
I look around at what I got
And without you, it ain't a lot
But I got every, with you, everything
And now, the much anticipated details of Suzanne & Justin!!! :) Because these two LOVE to travel (I mean Suzanne is in SLOVENIA right now, for goodness sake!), their theme just had to be centered around that! So they incorporated all these different ways to travel and it reminded me VERY much of the awesome Train song, "Just Get to Me."
***We're also SUPER excited that Suzanne & Justin are being featured on Style Me Pretty's Little Black Book Blog today!! (Try saying that three times fast!!)
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Their table settings were GORGEOUS! I LOVE the linens! And look how cool the little flower tied to the vase is. Super huge shout out to Mary Voigt of A Floral Affair for totally rockin out all the flowers!! Look how pretty!
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The caterers, Sodexo, did an INCREDIBLE job. We just can't recommend them highly enough. The tables were stunning, the food was incredible, and they were looking out for us and making sure we were fed all night long. The only thing is that these guys actually specialize in corporate events, and don't really usually do weddings. But maybe if you call and ask really, really nicely they might change their minds!! :)
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And then, did I mention there were cupcakes? Like a LOT of them? And that they were PHENOMENAL? Suzanne, Justin, and each of their mom's all got to pick their favorite flavor, and then they had one that was named the "compromise". LOL! Special thanks to Felicia's Sweetface Pastry Shoppe for giving me something to dream about for the next few months!!
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| Did I mention there was an ice cream station? No? Well, there WAS!!! |
| Check out the super cute place cards with all the drawings on them!! |
| Can't go wrong with a mini-cheeseburger! |
| A Floral Affair did a beautiful job on Suzanne's bouquet and all the centerpieces! Love those delicate little purple flowers! |
| Blue hydrangea are the greatest things ever created. The end. |
| And the ginormous one too!! |
| This was cuteness to the nth degree. Because there were a lot of kids at the wedding, Suzanne & Justin had these little lawn games for them to play with. How cute are these two?! |
Mon. Jun 29, 2009 by Mary Weddings
| Married: Suzanne & Justin |
She rounded the corner and the room somehow got even brighter. Lighter. More full of love. Her curls danced pretty pirouettes down the middle of her back, as she hugged her dress close to her. Her eyes filled with tears, and in that moment she was all that's light and everything that's beautiful. She looked around the room and couldn't believe what she was seeing. Everything was as she'd pictured it. Everything she'd hoped for was there. And if there was ever a doubt that there's such a thing as perfection...
She had the proof right there.
She rounded the corner and the mood somehow got even brighter. Lighter. More full of love. Her veil danced pretty priouettes down the middle of her back, as she hugged him close to her. He looked at her and his eyes filled with tears. Because in that moment she was all that's light and everything that's beautiful. He looked across the lawn and couldn't believe what he was seeing. Everything was as he'd pictured it. Everyone he'd hoped for was there. He squeezed her hand a little tighter, and if there was ever a doubt in his mind that there's such a thing as perfection....
He had the proof right there.
Married: Suzanne & Justin
These two were married at The Branford House on a day filled with golden light. The sun had some small part to play in that, but anyone who was there could tell you that the real light was coming from Suzanne & Justin. Because they are just those kind of people. The kind of people who shine from the inside out, and you could just swear that you actually feel the warmth on your face just standing in their presence.
Suzanne & Justin, it was an honor and a privilege to be there with you on your day. You are the kind of people Justin & I can only hope to be like one day. And I hope you know the change that you've had on our life just by us being able to call you our friends. We can't wait to see you again next month for your "day after" session!! And I'm absolutely certain that mashed potato pizza must be involved!
Alright, on with the show!! Justin was with Justin (trippy!) while Julia & I were with Suzanne. |
| This tie is a most important tie. Because it was the very first thing that Suzanne & Justin decided on for their wedding and it became the central theme that everything else revolved around! It *IS* a pretty awesome tie! |
| Suzanne's stunning Nicole Miller gown. It was such a unique and beautiful dress and was absolutely perfect in every way. |
| Suzanne was super psyched to finally be able to put it on! |
| This necklace was also very important! It was a Ralph Lauren necklace that was her something borrowed (from a friend that works at RL)... |
| ...and also her something blue! Gorgeous! |
| Uh, and speaking of GORGEOUS!! |
| And let's just go ahead and shift right into cuteness overload. Ready? GO! |
| Suzanne & her mom wait for the ceremony to start |
| The flower girl was waiting it out too. |
| Suzanne's mom walked her to the beginning of the aisle, where Justin was waiting on her. |
| Suzanne & Justin had maybe one of the coolest ceremonies EVER, complete with a reading from Calvin & Hobbes. :) It was very emotional!! |
| As soon as the ceremony is over, we grab our couples and give them some time to just soak it all in, while we drop back and shoot with long lenses. That moment....that omigosh, we're MARRIED moment....is so amazing and not something you can ever get back. I just LOVE to watch that feeling sink in for them....and as you can see it's often super emotional for US and the couple! :) |
| and the beautiful ladies! |
| Seriously, have you ever seen such a good looking bridal party?? I think not. |
| Justin & his brother being....what else....EPIC!! :) |
| Then we got some time with Suzanne & Justin all to ourselves! And....it got pretty!! |
| I absolutely loved her wrap...the color was amazing. |
| A little cha-cha...and merengue |
| Justin makes one good lookin' groom, right?! And how 'bout that tie?? |
| Instead of a cake, they did different flavors of cupcakes (More on that to come!!) |
| And then it was time for the first dance. Suzanne's brother in law sang them a live version of "Question" by the Old 97's and he was AMAZING!! He is such a talented artist!! |
| Then Justin's brother rocked out an awesome toast. He looks so 1940s chic to me right here! |
| The Branford House is so gorgeous inside....LOVE this super huge fireplace. |
And then THIS was the big surprise of the night! Justin shoots video for Dateline NBC and as a big surprise gift to Suzanne he put together this whole "news story" of their lives together and the upcoming wedding. He had the Dateline news anchors in on it, as well as a bunch of their friends & family for interviews.
It. Was. AMAZING. Incredible! Insane! I kept peeking out of the corner of my eye, but I totally had to keep shooting because the reactions were priceless. PRICELESS!! |
| LOVE these two!! (And I'm not talking about the pictures!) |
| And finally....the incredible Branford House at night. We're out for now, but stay tuned for all of the killer details coming soon!!! |
Sun. Jun 28, 2009 by Justin The Latest
Life is moving fast!!! So here's a little roadmap of where we've been...and where we're going.
First up, here's a sneak peek (not peak) of the wedding Justin, Julia & I shot last night: Kim & Joel |
And here's another sneak peek (still not peak) of our next wedding on deck to be blogged: Suzanne & Justin.
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These two couples have one very important thing in common: their good, kind hearts. Each of them treated us more like guests at the wedding than like we were working. We really felt like we were at the weddings of friends. They had place cards and seats for us, and never stopped asking us if we'd had a chance to eat.
Yea, like we're gonna miss a chance to eat! :) Different flavored cupcakes...I'm all on it. But wait, I'm giving away too much! Just make sure you stay tuned!
Now we're off to shoot a full-day "Get to Know You Shoot" in Newport!! (Julia, we're going to need more Red Bull!! :)
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