Photographer Phanatics

Maybe it's the Phillies Phan in me, but I think you can add a Ph to any word that begins with an "F".

Philadelphia is home to amazing photographers, that can make choosing just one a very difficult process.  I follow many photographers work on their blogs, facebook, and twitter. Pictures are my passion.  I am a hobbyist photographer, my friends lovingly refer to me as the paparazzi.  To me, this is the most important aspect of our wedding.  MORE important than our venue, more important than food, music, video, flowers combined.  There was no compromise, and no budget set for our photographer.  We would just find what we loved.

I'm not denying that I've been secretly stalking who would photograph our wedding since before we got engaged. Wedding photography is so accessible and passionate, it's a snippet of the most memorable day of a person's life.  If done correctly, it should stir emotion and awe. But as much as I have a lot that I love about wedding photography, I also had a long list of don'ts. I don't like over processed pictures, or unnaturally lit pictures, and the vintage wash and distortion in pictures are not for me.  If the photographs on a photographers website didn't look clean, naturally lit, and organically created, they were not the photographer for us. 

The Divine Nine

Nine is my favorite number. Always has been. So I feel that is completely appropriate to have nine bridesmaids.

My nine bridesmaids are made up of my sister,  Mr. Ly's sisters, and my nearest and dearest friends that range from elementary school best friends through my closest friend at my current job. At first I didn't love the idea of such a big bridal party.  But I can't imagine my day without any one of these ladies, so nine it is.

Something Blue

Choosing my something blue for the wedding was an easy choice, in that I didn't actually chose it as much as it was chosen for me.

This is the story of my ring.

Personal Photo

Save Our Date!

We had a tough time deciding how we wanted to Save the Date.  We had our pictures from our actual engagement, which were nice, and I definitely wanted to use them in some way, but  I didn't want a magnet with our pictures on it, or a postcard with our picture on it, or really anything else that was majorly just a picture of us as our Save the Date.  Not that I don't think our pictures are wonderful, I just wanted something different.

Luckily the internet is full of inspiration. 

Here were some ideas I fell in love with: 

DIY Save the Dates by WeddingChicks

I loved the ampersands, and the design is simple and classic.

A Fall Bride

No, not me.  I'm definitely a winter bride.  But, my family is planning a second wedding this year, as my little brother proposed to his girlfriend of 10 years (!!) the Saturday before Valentine's Day. 3 months after  Mr. Ly and I got engaged, and they are planning a wedding for 3 months before our wedding!

I think everyone expected me to have a less-than-cool response to finding out my little brother was getting engaged.  Not the case. To be perfectly honest, I had always thought he would get engaged before I did.  He has been with his fiancee for 10 years, and they have watched countless numbers of their friends and family get engaged and married, long before they did.  They are serial wedding attendees, and I can not imagine how torturous that must have been for my brother's fiancee.  I've read some of the waiting posts, and trust me, I feel for you girls, it is not easy.   My brother had planned on proposing before the end of 2011, however, within 1 day of each other,  his future brother in law proposed to his girlfriend, then I got engaged the very next day.  Let's just say it wasn't part of his plan, but being the good brother that he is, he didn't want to steal our thunder, and decided to postpone his proposal for a few months.

Will you be my bridesmaid?

I struggled with how I would ask my bridal party to be my bridal party.  Most of them knew it was coming, and when we would talk about the wedding plans - I would feel like I was losing ground on time to ask them without making it seem lame.

With nine bridesmaids, it's hard to do anything without breaking the bank. I decided I would design my own cards for them, and put together a cute little bag of goodies for them to properly ask them to stand beside R and I as we get married.  

At first I had the grand idea of designing mini navy blue satin dresses myself, and attaching them to the cards, this was a giant fail. I have minimal skills with fashion design, and didn't have the slightest clue where to begin.  

This image was my inspiration: 

ClipArt via Clker.com, image by chika87

Sight Unseen.

Maybe I'm an anti-bride. But with the amount of time/energy/creativity I've spent over the past months just thinking about the wedding, I doubt it.  However, the one area of being a bride I was truly and whole-heartily dreading was dress shopping.  I.HATE.DRESS.SHOPPING.  This probably has everything to do with being a plus sized bride, and not loving the shape I am in currently.  I haven't been losing the weight that I want to lose, and if I'm being truly honest with myself, I haven't even really been trying.  But there is very little about dress shopping that appeals to me.  I hate the sizing difference, I hate the parade of dresses, styles, etc.  Ech.  Just give me a dress that looks good on me, preferably one that doesn't cost a fortune, and I'll be happy.

Bijou by Amsale