Orlando wedding, engagement, family photographer | Root Photography Blog

The many adventures of a cute husband and wife photography team!

Mindy + Tim : First Look on the 1st

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I would like to send a huge thanks to Mindy of Budget Fairy Tale for October’s First Look on the 1st! You can visit her blog here, and read her full wedding recap here. :)

We had always known we wanted to do a “first look” before our ceremony simply for logistic reasons.  We didn’t want to have to rush through our photos between the ceremony and reception, and we also wanted to join our guests at our cocktail hour (hey – we were paying for it, after all). But my strong, feminist side has always had a problem with the way traditional first looks perpetuate the myth that the bride is somehow more important than the groom and has to be hidden away for a big reveal. So we elected to do a “reverse first look,” where Tim came up behind me and I turned around to see him. This actually worked very nicely for me because I had yet to see his full wedding day ensemble. So when I turned around to see him, I actually was truly surprised and excited!  It was so nice to have some time to ourselves before the chaos hit.
 
One of the unexpected perks of the reverse first look was it resulted in one of my favorite pictures from our wedding day, which is the photo of me standing in the grass among the fallen petals of a Jacaranda tree, waiting for my soon-to-be husband.  Even though I had walked around the grounds of the Disneyland Hotel several times before, the place felt different and the area felt so much more magical to me at that moment, and I was standing there by myself waiting for Tim it really hit me that my fairy tale was coming true.

Related posts on the blog :

What’s a “first look?”

Carrie and Patrick’s First Look

Erin and Steve’s First Look

 

Baby Shower in a Box

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Easily one of the best moments of my life was when my sister-in-law let it slip that she and my brother were expecting a baby! I knew immediately I wanted to throw her a shower, but after a quick glance at our wedding schedule and trying to figure out logistics of where (we’re in Tennessee, she’s in Oregon, Mom’s in Florida!), it was abundantly clear that a traditional shower wasn’t possible.

Our family and close friends are scattered across the country- Alaska, California, Florida, and Tennessee, and I wanted to find a fun way to include everyone we love. That’s how my idea of a baby shower in a box was born! It was a true labor of love and I’m thrilled with the feedback I’ve received! So, if this is something you think you’d want to do someday, here’s how I put it together:

Charlie and Kristin met when he was an airline pilot and she his flight attendant, and both sides of baby Quinn’s family are packed full with pilots. Between our families’ love of aviation and the fact that these boxes were sent across the country, I thought an atlas-themed shower was quite appropriate. :)

I started off by separating a few pounds of M&Ms by color (the OCD side of me couldn’t have it any other way)! I also bought a few maps of Oregon, Quinn’s birth state, online and using Mod Podge, covered $1 Ikea frames. I was so happy with how these turned out and hope to make some for myself soon!

Each recipient got a little box with a plain white onesie, three paint colors, and a paint brush.

Along with the onesie and paint, everyone received an invitation, photo frame, box of M&Ms, and a mailing label for Kristin (so she’d know their box was part of the shower!). Thanks to my buddy Lorie for helping me find a cute way to word my “invitation.” I know a lot of family members had already sent a gift to Quinn, so I also decided to include two bookplates, encouraging them to send their favorite childhood books to grow Quinn’s library.

(Editor’s note: We totally yanked Hipmunk’s adorable chipmunk for this! Also, names and addresses blanked out because, well, because.) 

The onesie box all wrapped. :)

The shower in a box really was a hit and I felt so happy to be able to include key friends and family who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to attend a shower. Kristin and Charlie are still getting random boxes in the mail, which makes my heart happy! Hopefully this can help anyone out there not in the same state as their best friend or sister moms-to-be!