Catholic Encounters

I have heard over and over again how complicated it is to get married in the Catholic Church. We somewhat experienced this, but realized over the weekend, it's probably only hard if you don't regularly attend church or are marrying outside your own church.

It literally took us months to find a church in RI that was willing to marry us. We had to agree that our hometown church would sign off on the paperwork, which we were worried about since we no longer attend on a regular basis. We kind of pushed this off for awhile. Then this weekend, we finally met with the pastor at my childhood parish.

He was so welcoming and friendly. I explaiend that I had attended the church growing up. He didn't really ask too many questions. He let us know he'd help with whatever we needed. All he asks is that we start attending regularly and stay for the entire mass. His biggest pet peeve is parishoners leaving after communion, which is about 2 minutes before the whole service ends. Thats a pretty small requirement after all the troubles we were expecting.

This weekend left us with a big sigh of relief. All we have left to do regarding the church is to sign up for and take pre-cana, then have the pastor write the letter to our church in RI, then we're all set. Things look like they are going to work out!

Did something end up being easier than you expected during your planning process?

Love is Life

The Cliffwalk is a Newport toursit must see, which also happens to go along Salve's campus. Mr. Newport and I spent many walks on the cliffwalk, so it was a must on our list for engagement pictures. The views are just unbelievably gorgeous. It was kind of funny to be walking the cliffwalk while having our photo taken. It kind of felt like paparazzi. I actually didn't even notice him most of the time, it wasn't until we were on the cliffwalk and other people were walking by that it felt a little funny, but then after a minute, you just get used to it. Although Dave made us feel super comfortable, I'm glad I don't really have photograpers following me around all the time!
If you look closely at the photo below, above the bridge, it says "Love is Life", this is probably my favorte part on the cliffwalk, I first noticed the quote on a walk during my freshman year.Dave found this tree between the cliffwalk and Salve and decided to take a few shots, little did I realize ants were all over the tree. Mr. Newport did notice, but thought I'd freak out and we wouldn't get a good shot, so he decided to wait and tell me this after the shoot.....
Here we are leaning up against the ant tree.....Thanks Mr. Newport ;)
Did you feel like you had paparazzi following you during your engagement shoot? Did you like it, or was it a little weird?

All photos credited to: David Bibeault

Sensational Centerpieces

One of the DIY projects I am most looking forward to is our centerpieces! We are going for a reception room that is romantic beach elegance. The room will be all white with hints of gold. Candles will give a soft glow. To illuminate the room, the centerpieces will be candles.

I have found so many inspiring photos on the web. I originally wanted one large hurricane vase, filled with a little sand, an off white candle, and a starfish. Something similar to the picture below.
Image from: Shore Chic

Then I saw the image below and thought I must add lots of votives around the main hurricane centerpiece.
Image from: Jennifer Dery

Then I saw this image and thought, I must add a few white shells at the base, with the sand. it seems like my centerpieces are ever evolving.

Image from: Brides.com

Lastly, I saw Mrs. Lemon's amazing centerpieces, and it got me thinking, should I do clusters of candles? I realized at this point I had already bought the hurricane vases, so I had to let go of the idea of Mrs. Lemon's beautiful candle clusters.

Image from: Mrs. Lemon of Weddingbee

Are your centerpieces florals, candles or something completely unique? How did you decide what to do? Where do you get your inspiration?

Willl you.......swing me around?

When Mr. Newport proposed, pretty soon after he just picked me up and started swinging me around on third beach (The Beach in Middletown , RI, where we had our proposal picnic). He's done it many times before then and many times after, but now every time he does it, it brings me back to those exciting few moments shortly after he proposed. The excitement. the Happiness. Pure Joy. Inexplicable. Undeniable. Most Amazing Moment of My Life. (So far).

When we were deciding on the where and when for our e-shoot, I knew for sure, we had to include third beach as a location and I wanted to re-create that moment.

Well, we did and it brought me back all over again.

Is there anything that reminds you of the moment your fiance proposed? Does it still bring back all the feelings you had when he asked you to be "THE ONE"?

*Photo credit: David Bibeault

Beach Photos

"No matter where you travel, you will never be able to shake the sand out of your flip flops, nor the ocean from your soul...." -anonymous

Mr. Newport wanted to get some shots on the beach. Not just any beach, but the beach where he proposed. It is beautiful, romantic and secluded which helped since we didn't have to work around people on the beach. It was practically empty.

This wasn't by coincidence. We actually planned our shoot around Newport's busy schedule.I went online and looked up all upcoming events on the Go Newport* calendar, I then checked Salve's graduation date, Salve's summer session start date, and then we had a one week time frame to get the photos in! We chose May for the lack of students and the lack of tourists, which left us with excatly one week to get the photos without the hassle. The beach was pretty secluded, no tourists yet!

All photos by: David Bibeault

Did you plan the timing of your engagement shoot around other events?

*Go Newport is a website that gives tourist information related to Newport, RI. The calendar gives information on everything from events like the Boat Show, Restaurant Week, to plays in the area. It is a great resource, if you plan to visit

Alma Mater Photos

Shooting at Salve was a blast! Part of me has worried that we are over-obsessing with Newport when it comes to the wedding (it's where we met, we got engaged, where our engagement shoot was, and where the wedding and thus all wedding photos will be), so for about a minute I questioned why do it in Newport, well actually my sister quesitoned it. I briefly thought maybe I could do it somewhere else, but I couldn't think of one place I'd rather do it than Newport.

I am so glad we stuck with Newport. It truly was like a walk down memory lane. We started at The Salve gate that leads to the admissions building, then we walked through different areas of the campus.
Including outside Hunt Hall, our freshman dorm, where we met! We showed our Salve pride by sporting our Salve t-shirts for a portion of the shoot.
The shot above was included in our least favorite shot list, not because of our photographer, I just hate jeans and felt a little uncomfortable and Mr. Newport wasn't a huge fan of his outfit choice either, oh well, go Seahwaks!

This is our photographer, Dave's favorite shot: (I love it too!)
I really wanted to incorporate the "There's no place like Salve" sign, but I didn't really know how, so Dave came up with this cool shot!

Mr. Newport came up with this shot idea, which he is super proud of. He is actually way more creative than me when it comes to photos, which baffles me because I spend hours obsessing over photo blogs, but put me in front of a camera and I'm like a deer in headlights. I could hardly remember the key shots I wanted. He'd just walk around and point to something and say, that would make a cool shot, and it pretty much always is!
How gorgeous is Salve's campus? I miss it so much! Oh well, there's always reunions and wedding planning dates to get back there.....

Did/Does your engagement shoot location hold special meaning to you? Was/Is it the same location or similar to your wedding day location?

All photos credited to: David Bibeault

Engagement Photo Re-cap

Thing's didn't really go as planned...at all. When I booked our photographer for the session, I thought I had plenty of time to prepare and somehow it snuck up on us (even though I had months to plan). I spent the day before the shoot scrambling to find outfits I liked, I was a mess the day of deciding whether to curl or not to curl my hair, I didn't have time for a manicure, I never made an appointment to get my makeup done, so I did it myself, and I never really put together a real schedule. Sure I had lots of ideas over the past few months and I made tentative schedules, but when it came down to it, we kind of just went with the flow.

The day before, my mom and I went to Salve and kind of scouted out areas that could possibly make for good shots. I'm really happy we did this. I didn't want to regret missing any amazing areas, so it was good to walk around and get a feel for what we would really want to use for the shoot. Then, the day of the shoot, Mr. Newport and I took another trip to campus, also to look at different areas to shoot. I'm glad we did this too, because we cut down on a lot of options.

I love the rose garden and thought we could get some awesome shots, but Mr. Newport didn't understand the meaning behind the location. We didn't pick Newport because of it's beauty (altthough it definitely is), we picked it so we could have our photos taken in places that are meaningful to us. So we cut out a lot of places. We ended up taking photos where we first met, the place we went on an informal date/get to know you, the place we had our actual first date, outside the building we had our first dance and where Mr. Newport proposed. So lots of meaning behind every shot!

What I learned:

1. Relax beforehand. I spent the entire day before and morning of the shoot running around looking for outfits and shot locations- I ended up getting blisters and couldn't wear the cute shoes I planned on for our pictures. The sad thing is- I pretty much wore all clothes I already had, with the exception of a T-shirt bought from my alma mater the day before.

2. Plan ahead. See #1. If I had really planned my outfits ahead, I wouldn't have been spending so much time at the last minute running around.

3. Coordinate. Make sure outfits look good together, if you are wearing heels, it's probably not a good idea for him to wear sneakers. I had originally planned on wearing heels, but because of my sore feet and Mr. Newport's footwear choice, it made more sense for me to wear flip flops.

4. Choose a location with meaning. That was our main goal and when I veered off, Mr. Newport gave me some perspective. Sure you can get awesome spots at a palce that isn't meaningful, but to me, it makes the shots more personal.

5. Get creative- we brought in a couple props (more later)

6. Vary the shots. To make your photos more unique, try different outfits and more than one location, it will give you more options to choose from in the end. We ended up with three outfits each and three locations.

7. Trust your photographer and be flexible. I had so many ideas in mind, but at the last minute went with the flow, and I am so glad I did. Our photographer was super creative and had so many great ideas. We had ideas, but when we threw something out there, he knew how to make it work, which enhanced all of the ideas we put out there.
8. Be your self. I originally wanted a dressier outfit and heels, but they so aren't me. I do wear dresses almost every day, I dislike jeans and heels. I felt so comfortbale during the shoot, except for the portion we wore jeans, and they happen to be our least favorite shots. I didn't even own a pair of jeans, so I bought a pair, since I saw so many other pictures of other couples in jeans. I thought it looked natural, but it just didn't work for me, because it isn't who I am.

9. Don't always follow tips you hear, if it doesn't work for you. I was told to wear solid colors, but I love one of my patterned flowy dresses, so I chose to wear it anyways!

10. Have fun! We just kind of walked around and reminisced about our dating days. We were completely relaxed and didn't take it too seriously. We listened when our photographer gave suggestions. We also made sure we both gave each other reasons to smile throughout the shoot. It made it fun and more natural.

If you had your e-shoot already, what kind of tips do you have? or, What tips from others did you find the most helpful?

All photos credited to: David Bibeault