I owe you all posts about weight loss and more pics of Addy’s modeling session, but before I get to any of that I need to share with you all my experience this past Friday and Saturday.  I had the pleasure of attending the Paper to Print Workshop – the first of what I am sure will be many successful workshops taught by Michael Howard.  You might remember that Michael is the photographer who shot my wedding almost 4 years ago so pretty much he can do no wrong in my eyes.  Hiring Michael was hands down the best decision I made in my wedding planning and being given this opportunity to learn from him was a dream come true.

I don’t really even know where to begin.  We did go over the general ISO/Aperture/Shutter Speed bit that you would expect from a photography workshop.  I also feel like I FINALLY have a good handle on my off camera flash set up that I’ve been working on learning for almost a year.  But more than that I got a reminder that I shouldn’t be comparing myself to the 1,000s of other photographers out there, I learned how to critique my own photos, and I was reminded of the importance of taking the time to create photographs for yourself and not just your business.  It was a remarkable experience and one that I am still mulling over days later.

As an added bonus to all the learning that went on this weekend, I was also blessed to make some wonderful new friends.  I bonded so quickly to my table mates Rhiannon (we had so much in common), Lori (same name as my mom and red hair too!), and Grace (could totally be my friend from college Christy’s sister) – truly a rare thing to someone as socially awkward as me!  I am looking forward to staying in touch with them and seeing how we all grow as photographers as a result of this experience.

And now some photos from the workshop.  We started out photographing a model Michael brought in and then wrapped up the shoot by photographing each other.

Michael in the midst of teaching

Some pics of our beautiful model

My beautiful new friend Lori

And the lovely Rhiannon

And the gorgeous Grace

And despite the fact that this photo did not hold up well in critique, I’ll share it anyway since it’s one of the only off camera flash photos I took that I like – Lori is staring in this one as well.

And as a bonus, here is one that Lori took of me!!  If you want to see the one Grace took of me doing a Zoolander impression, you’ll have to go find it yourself on her blog, LOL!

Thank you Michael and all my new friends for the wonderful weekend!!

I’ve got sooooo much I want to tell you!!  This has been one of those weeks where I have been blogging in my head constantly, yet haven’t had an opportunity to sit down and actually type it out until now.  And as per usual, I’m all over the place, so you’re getting bullet points tonight

- Ok, so can we talk about the olympics for a minute??  I think the last time I was this into watching the winter olympics was when all that drama with Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding was going down.  Between the always hot Apolo Ohno going for a record for medals earned, the crazy competitive men’s figure skating showdown (what is up with that Plushenko guy?!?), and the super emotional women’s figure skating (I’m so not a crier and even I teared up when Joannie Rochette clinched bronze), I just COULD NOT look away!!  I’m sad it’s all coming to an end tonight, but it’s probably for the best.  Maybe this week I will get to bed at a more appropriate hour.

- John’s cooking me a steak right now on doctor’s orders.  Ok not exactly, and I really don’t enjoy steak as much as most people, hence how I ended up here.  I found out earlier this week that I’m seriously anemic.  I’ve been started on iron pills and am making an effort to add more iron rich foods into my diet but MAN!!  I’ve only been taking these pills since Tuesday and can I ever tell a difference!!  I feel like  a new person.  I feel like I’m 16 again!  I’ve got energy that I never thought I would see again.  YAY iron.  LOL.

- I got a letter in the mail this week from 1995.  March of 1995 to be exact.  My paternal great grandmother’s sister passed away recently and during the clean out of her house a letter was found addressed to me from my great grandmother, Nanny.  Nanny passed away when I was a sophomore in high school.  I received it on Tuesday.  I still haven’t read it.  I don’t really know why I’m putting off reading it.  Ok yes I do.  As I said before, I’m not a crier, but I know that reading a 15 year old letter from my great grandmother is going to bring on the water works and for whatever reason I’m just not ready to go there yet.  For now at least, I’ll just keep carrying it around with me in my purse until I decide I can face it.

- The Healthy Train ended this week.  I’m not sure if I ever blogged about it but I’ve been a part of a contest hosted by one of my all-time favorite photography teams Bobbi + Mike since September.  I ended up loosing a total of 7.06%.  Certainly not the most but I’m still very happy with my progress.  I’ll try to blog some more about this later this week as I kinda have a lot to say about my weight loss journey

Alright that’s all I can think of for now.  So happy that spring finally seems to be on it’s way to middle TN  I celebrated by taking some updated modeling pics for my sister-in-law Addy.  Here’s a sneak peek – more to come soon!

Quickie post tonight, but have you seen the new Ashley’s Bride Guide yet??

Ashley has redesigned her site and not only does it look even more fabulous than it did before (which I didn’t even realize was possible), but it’s now easier for you to use than ever before. Just check out the headings on the top of the front page – a tab for DIY and a tab for Savings in addition to lots of other cool things!  There is even a DIY category in the inspiration gallery.  Clearly Ashley was thinking of my Money Saving Monday Brides when she designed the site  To check out even more of the great new features check out this post and don’t forget to poke around the site on your own as well.

So we’re back!  We got back Friday night after a LOOONG day of travel delays due to snow all across the southeast.  So I’ll give you a run down – starting from the beginning.

Monday we went straight from the airport to our ship – the Norwegian Sky.  We got a fantastic deal on this cruise so we were able to get a balcony room, yay!

Once we got settled in our room we went up to the pool deck for the sail away party.  The sunset against the skyline of Miami was gorgeous!

The sail away party was fun, although a little chilly.  I also feel the need at this point in the story to take a little time out and tell all of you people who told me you can’t even feel the boat move that you lie (I’m looking at you Melanie).  From the moment we shoved off I could feel the ship moving and rocking.  I never got sick but I absolutely could feel it move.  After the party we headed for our first dinner – in The Crossings dining room.  This is also the only night I took a photo at dinner.  Every other night by the time we got to dinner it was dark outside already and I didn’t want to use my flash and disturb other people who were dining.

After dinner we explored the ship a bit.  Maybe we were lame but we really felt like there wasn’t a lot to do on the ship.  There was a smoke-filled casino where we played a few slots.

That got boring and had the potential to get expensive but fortunately (or unfortunately?) the smoke in the room was so bad we only stayed a few minutes.  On the other side of the casino was the Duty Free shop.  Not all that large of a shop but they did have just about everything you could want.  Except gum.  Some of you know my affinity for gum.  Well I ran out during our internment in the latter part of the week (which I will expand on later) and was HOT when I found out you could not purchase gum on the boat.  Seriously, you could purchase any kind of liquor you could think of but gum?  ”Sorry we don’t carry that. How about some Mentos?”  I don’t want no stinkin’ Mentos!!  Which by the way did you know that means stinky fart in Laotian??  Or at least that’s what John told me.  Anyway, I’m getting off track.  Basically our first night on the boat we discovered we were glad we booked a cruise with a port stop everyday because there was not a lot we were interested in doing on the boat.

The next morning we woke up to the sun rising and our ship pulling into the port of Grand Bahama Island.  I ventured out onto our our balcony to take a few photos.

The night before we booked our excursions for the week and on today’s schedule was a trip to the Garden of the Groves and Lucaya Beach.

Our boat used to sail around the Hawaiian Islands and when they moved it to the Caribbean they failed to redecorate, hence the giant leis painted on the side.

Self portrait at the port

Alright, John and I kinda have a thing for Gardens so there is an inordinate amount of pics from the Garden of the Groves.  My apologies

Creepy bird living in the garden that John insisted on taking a photo of

John walking the Labyrinth in the garden

Then we headed over to the beach, that was beautiful but windy and cold.  I don’t mean “breezy,” I mean 30 mph winds whipping through the palms.

After we went to dinner that night came the highlight of my cruise – the towel animal.  Yes, that’s right.  The towel animal was the highlight of my trip and I’m not ashamed of it.  I think he’s an elephant.  John said he was a dog.  What do you think?

The next morning things really started to go downhill. We woke up pulling into port again, this time in Nassau and all seemed fine at first.  There was even a really cool yacht parked near our balcony that John enjoyed drooling over.

More shots of our boat

Yet another self portrait

We were about an hour early for our excursion.  We thought it would be fun to do some people watching down at the port.  What we did not anticipate were the 30mph winds (again) that did not let up for even one minute for the entire hour.  This pretty well sums up my feeling on that.

Thankfully not too long after this photo we boarded our water taxi for the Atlantis Hotel.

It was just beautiful, inside and out.

We especially enjoyed the aquarium.

Their private beach looked incredible.  I think if we ever go back to the Bahamas I’d like to skip the cruise and just stay here

Probably my favorite pic from the trip – us on the boat ride back from Atlantis.

That night back on the boat, we were greeted by another towel animal (yay!!).  Except it was exactly like the animal from the night before.  Apparently our towel animal maker only knew how to make elephant-dogs.

The next morning was supposed to be our day on NCL’s private island – Great Stirrup Cay.  Well it was too windy to anchor the boat and ferry onto the Island so instead we ended up with a “fun day at sea.”  Only it really wasn’t so fun.  It was too cold to get in the pool.  It was too cold to lay out on the deck.  By this time I was tired of the food.  Basically, it just sucked.  The one thing we were looking forward to were reservations as one of the up-charge restaurants for dinner – Cagney’s.  It’s their version of  a steak house.  The food was good, especially the dessert sampler, but it would have been a lot more enjoyable if we had not been seated in the portion of the restaurant that was only a thin curtain away from the Karaoke bar.  Listening to “IF YOU LIKE PINA COLADA” being shouted by a bunch of drunk people kinda kills the romantic restaurant vibe, ya know?  Anyway, that brings me to the last photo of our trip.  We dressed up for that dinner but weren’t able to find anyone to take a decent photo of us, so yet again you get a self portrait.

We may not have had the most enjoyable cruise experience, but we still had a great time spending time with each other and overall I’m glad we went  Hope you enjoyed the run down and photos!

Photo credit – Kristyn Hogan

I am so excited to introduce you to my latest wedding planning friend, Emily Humphries of Simply Yours Weddings and Etc.  I met Emily through Twitter.  Yes I’ve finally given in to being a “Twit.”  If you’d like to follow me my name is AmberVo.  If you’d like to follow Emily her twitter name is 1weddingwoman.  This little snippet from Emily’s bio does a great job of summing up what her business is all about:  ”I truly believe that EVERY bride deserves someone who is dedicated to focusing on her dreams, her worries, her heart and all the details that feel “little” no matter the size of the budget or the wedding.”  Well said Emily!  Without further ado, here are some tips Emily has shared with us about saving money in the wedding world.

I think every Bride has a place where she can save money. First of all, look at your budget, and figure out what is a priority to you and what is not. Is it a big deal for you to leave in a limo? If not, put that $100+ dollars into another place that does matter! An extra musician for your ceremony, or a bigger floral arrangement. Then, continue in this fashion through each aspect of your day.

{{{Taylor and Brett leaving their reception in a limo}}}

Second, there are a million and one ways to use Do It Yourself (or DIY) projects in your wedding day! Some Brides strive to be entirely DIY Brides and if they have the time to do all of these things (or an incredible set of friends and family to help!) it can truly be a major money saver. I’ve seen anything from making their own and their wedding party’s jewelry, to making their own invitations and programs, to favors. There are SO many blogs out their now that have wonderful DIY ideas that range in all levels of creativity. BUT before you dive into a list of projects, really check your time and see if you can do these things in a timely fashion without making yourself crazy!

{{{Kayla was an amazing DIY bride}}}

Every Bride is unique. She has her own vision of how things should look and be on her special day. Time, research and dedication to your budget is totally possible; you just have to be very intentional with your planning and budgeting!

For more helpful tips from Emily, add her blog to your RSS feed reader and give her a shout today!

Thanks again Emily