Wedding Photos

Normally I don't check my phone until we are in the car driving to the office, but for some reason this morning when I woke up, I turned towards my bedside table and saw my phones charging away and I had the urge to check them for messages. There were emails for work, emails for Stephanie Beach Photography emails from friends and of course emails from spammers. There were a couple texts and a bunch of Facebook posts (mostly likes and comments on photos I posted yesterday). And then there was a tag from fifteen:fifty-one photography and that made my morning. It was 6am and my day was already good - thanks Gen!! :)

The above and below photos are screenshot captures I 'borrowed' from Gen's blog (Photo Copyright © 2012, Genevieve Georget/Fifteen:Fifty-One Photography. http://www.fifteenfiftyone.ca/) --- hopefully she doesn't mind. :) I was trying to choose my favourites from all the photos, and kept changing my mind between so many of them, so you get these two here and the rest are on Gen's blog until we get our awesome little CD next weekish.

My Summer Rollercoaster

I have never really enjoyed roller-coasters. When I was a kid, I could tolerate them, but did not enjoy them. When the family would head to Canada Wonderland or even during our trip to Disney World, my mom and brother would venture onto the craziest of rides while my dad and I sat quietly watching our crazy family members. To this day, I do not understand the thrill and can no longer even tolerate the beasts. But I go on them every once in a while to make sure my dislike of them is still valid and every time I do, I come out a little worse for wear, but alive. To say that the last few months have been a roller-coaster ride with all those dizzying highs and nauseating lows, barely even begins to cover it.

For just under the last two years, Dave and I have been planning our Fall wedding. Since it was a long engagement, we ended up having this vision of our wedding being way off in the future of Fall 2012. It was beautiful and awesome all at the same time, our friends and families were having a ton of fun and Dave and I looked amazing in our wedding clothes. But, it was still way off in the future, something we could enjoy planning and looking forward to, but nothing to worry about. It was 'round about 3 months ago that I realized that it wasn't way off in the future anymore and that we needed to step our planning into high gear.

For whatever reason, there was absolutely no slow period at work and as a result, we ended up working very long hours at the office and trying to squeeze our regular gym appointments and now all the new wedding meetings/tasks into the mix. It resulted in a lot of stress, some of it inevitable, while some of it was completely avoidable and yet wasn't avoided.

Next came raise time at work. This was at first abysmal but after some very good conversations with my boss' boss, it got resolved for the better and I was moved from hourly to salary and was given a much more tolerable raise. In fact, as stressful and upsetting as this time was, the actual process, was pretty straight-forward and pleasant as everyone pretty much agreed with my position. But it left me feeling nauseated nonetheless.

The 2 month mark quickly came and I was really feeling the physical and emotional draining that was happening to both myself and Dave. To be able to meet deadlines both in my professional lives as well as my personal life, I had to take some time away from blogging and to be honest, pretty much everything other than work, going to the gym, and wedding planning. There was time for friends and family, but even that was cut shorter than I would have liked due to work and stress loads.

Then, about a month before the wedding, my grandfather was suddenly hospitalized. It left my entire family in an awful state. My mom drove roughly 3 hours a day to visit him with my aunt and getting the updates from her was not only difficult because it was pretty clear that he would not pull through, but also because of the pain and sadness I could hear in my mom's voice each time we spoke.

Two weeks before the wedding, he passed away. There was a private graveside memorial attended by his family and closest friends where he was laid to rest beside my grandmother. It was quiet and peaceful, exactly what he wanted. As a child, you are sad because a family member is no longer around. As an adult, you understand what has happened not only to the one who passed, but to everyone else as well. You can visualize the unspeakably painful day when your own parents become sick and you are forced to deal with their mortality.

Luckily, we have a really amazing circle of friends and family who supported Dave and I through this time and some great co-workers who picked up our workloads so we could take a day or two off to try to cope and spend time with our family.

We returned to our wedding planning and trying to get things settled at least somewhat at work. After a very long last week at work, we had made it - 2 glorious weeks off! We spent the week before the wedding not paying attention to work emails and tying up all the lose ends for the big event. We made lots of ribbon flowers and decorations; managed to pick up over 600 bulbs that we had ordered and get them into our wedding favours a few days before-hand (thanks mom and dad); arranged drop-off times and locations with vendors; finalized and issued schedules for the wedding party and our families; picked up suits and dresses; and did what seems like a million other things. The rehearsal day came, and I was super stressed and a little nervous. Everyone got there eventually and things went pretty smoothly for the rest of the night.

Something happened that night though, as at some point while I was sleeping, all my worries drifted away. When I awoke, I was super calm and stress- and worry-free. I came to the mindset of, if something went wrong, it didn't matter, there was little to nothing I could do about it now and I had done my very best up until this point. I am not sure how I got to this mindset, as that is typically not my style whatsoever, but it was a great place to be for my wedding day.

This post is longer than I had anticipated, so I will not go into great detail here about the wedding day itself, mostly because I feel it deserves it's own post, but let me just say it was amazingly awesome. There were a few tiny hiccups, but nothing that mattered then and definitely nothing that matters now. It was a beautiful day and I came out of it as a wife to a loving and caring man, who I love more than life itself. I am now Mrs. Koning and all of the roller-coaster lows of this summer are made a little easier to handle by this fact. I am honestly and truly happy.

As a reward for getting through this post, I am going to share the following image with you. Dave and I took it on Honeymoon #1 to Niagara Falls. My camera had felt a little neglected this summer so gave it lots of attention during this trip and I hope that the next year of traveling and honeymoons makes it feel loved.

Absent due to Major Changes

You may have noticed my absence on my blogs as of late. Not only are Dave and I very busy with our wedding preparations (which I am hoping to update you all with shortly), I am also working on some BIG changes for my blogs and for my photography business overall.

Some of the changes need a fair bit more research before I can announce them, but the changes for my photography blog should be ready sometime this weekend!! Hopefully the changes for this blog won't be far behind.

I am super excited to share it all with you and I hope you check in to see what's going on.

The Day the Honey Ran Out

Dave and I recently celebrated our 8-year anniversary. For the occasion I decided to make an extremely delicious strawberry shortcake dessert. To try to make things fit into our new lifestyle a little better, I decided to sweeten it with honey rather than white sugar. I managed to get enough honey for the dessert, but I had to decapitate my honey bear in order to get the very last bits of honey from the jar.

Dessert was delicious though (recipe will be posted later this week on Road to a Better Me).

2011 in Review

This year-in-review post is a little late as we are nearing the end of January now, but better late than never right? Let’s see, 2011 was a pretty big year for me and my family. I think the biggest things that happened are pretty obvious but let’s try to go through things chronologically shall we.

---

January 2011
Dave and I announced our engagement. Since Dave proposed on the 30th of December in 2010, we did most of the announcing early in 2011. Our families and closest were informed that day after he proposed, but the world found out through Facebook and this blog in January.

February 2011
This was a big month for me. Not only did I learn that my brother would be having a boy (and I would therefore be getting a nephew), but on February 28, 2011 I officially started Stephanie Beach Photography as a small business. I got a domain name, website host and design and got an official business number from the Province of Ontario. It was an exciting and somewhat scary time for me, but I am very glad I did it.

March 2011
My birthday happens every year, but this year, as I turned 27, I think I might have moved from mid- to late-20s. It is a scary thought, but I think I am getting old!

This was also about the time when I got my own office. An office at work with a four real walls and an actual door. It is still pretty awesome. My own office came with a larger workload and much larger jobs to manage. Though I had shadow managed jobs before, I started working on even larger jobs as a shadow project manager around this time as well.

April 2011
April was the month where Dave and I searched for and purchased our first home. We wouldn’t get possession of it and move in until later, but the exciting purchasing process definitely happened here.

April was also the month where Dave and I joined Goodlife Fitness and signed up for personal trainers. It was (and still is) expensive, but we have been going ever since and I am glad we started and stuck with it.

May 2011
Though it may not seem like much, May 2011 was when I learnt that my 2009 accident had come full circle. An advance green light was installed at the intersection where I was t-boned. It left me with a weird, but satisfied feeling.

May 10, 2011 was the day my baby was brought to me…my Nikon D3s arrived in the mail! It was a wonderful evening and the next few months allowed me the time to really learn the amazing abilities that my full-frame camera has to offer.

June 2011
Dave and I got our house! It was purchased 6 weeks prior to us moving in on June 15, 2011. At the same time, my brother purchased his house (literally we put offers down on the same weekend and ended up closing on the same day). We have been here for over 7 months now and I still love my house! We have done some work on it, mostly painting, organizing and decorating but we are planning more significant updates later on.
July 2011
Jackson Robert was born on July 19, 2011. He was (and still is) adorably perfect and I love him to bits. My only wish is that I had more free time and could go visit him more, perhaps I will plan a trip to go see him in the next couple of weeks.

July was also a big month for my photography business as I shot my first wedding as the sole wedding photographer.

August 2011

As Dave and I had combined our bank accounts when we purchased our house, I had been spending the months following that event making sure all of my automatic payments, etc. had ceased or been transferred from my old account. August was the last of my ‘student plan’ capabilities at BMO and I therefore closed my very first bank account. My mom and I opened my BMO account when I was 12 or so as I had  gotten a paper route. I remember going to South Keys or Meadowlands with Chris to get to a BMO ATM when we were in school and getting a PLoC for when Dave and I bought the Honda Fit (though we didn’t end up using it then). Good memories, but the account wasn’t worth the bank fees. Seriously, why would I pay bank fees?

September 2011
This was the second quiet month for The Great Abyss (and my other blogs too). I was struggling to keep my head above water. To be honest, I still haven’t figured it all out and have been getting more and more comments from friends, family and even clients about how I manage to do everything that is currently sitting on my heaping plate. I could be doing much better if I focused on one job rather than the two official ones I have. I could be organizing my wedding in a much more timely fashion if I so chose. But I have chosen to try and do a great deal right now and I am doing okay at it (in my opinion).

October 2011
October was primarily spent trying to get things straightened out. It was the first time in my life that I knowingly carried a balance on a credit card and ended up having to take money from my personal line of credit to deal with it. This didn’t last long as before the year was done, any debt Dave and I had was taken care of, but it was an uneasy and uncomfortable time for me.

November 2011

Dave and I put chose our venue and put down the deposit, making our wedding date officially September 29, 2012.

November was also the month in which I finished my first conceptual photography series. I am very pleased with how 99 Luftballoons turned out and have received many great comments/reviews from friends, family, classmates and followers on the internet (aka strangers).  The final product and the responses from everyone have inspired me to think of more conceptual ideas and work towards getting them completed. You can view the images on Flickr (link above) and there will be a series of posts on my Photography Blog shortly.

December 2011

After a long search (I may have been looking for all of 2011), Dave and I selected our wedding photographer. We put down the deposit and are very happy with our choice.

December was also the month in which I finished my last course of the Algonquin College Digital Photography program. Though I got my grade in January, the last class was in December. I am very happy to be done with the program and have learnt so much. More to come on this later on my Photography Blog.

And of course, Dec. 30, 2011 marked one year since Dave and I got engaged.

 

---

So that was pretty much 2011. Some of the items above are a little forced to be able to get something in each month (you may have noticed). The big ones are obvious as I said before. Announcement of our engagement, birth of my nephew, purchase of our first home and starting my business officially. I started working towards my photographic dreams by starting as a wedding photographer and a conceptual photographer. I also started taking on much larger jobs at work as a project manager and shadow managing on even larger jobs earning myself my own office.

My goals for 2012 are pretty simple. I want to have a great wedding that everyone enjoys; continue advancing my photography business; continue working on my conceptual photography ideas; get closer to achieving my health goals; start my travel goals; and continue to make our home truly our own. I am also looking forward to watching Jackson grow up and really get his own personality.

One Year Later

A year ago today (at roughly this time) Dave and I got engaged. We have been happily engaged and planning our wedding since. There have been a few snags in our wedding plans as of late, but things are moving along nonetheless.
We are going to be getting married on September 29, 2012 at the Southway Hotel and Conference Centre (aka the Southway Inn) in Ottawa. We have found  made a great deal of the remaining decisions, or at least started the process of doing so and are meeting with our planner at the hotel in the new year.
Of course, I have quite a large spreadsheet for the plans and today I started printing out things and compiling a hardcopy binder (softcopy just wasn’t cutting it anymore due to the large number of contracts, pamphlets and business cards).

Our engagement announcement went into my hometown paper quite some time ago. It was difficult finding a recent photo of the two of us, but I eventually found one on which we both agreed.

New Stuff Part II

A couple months back Dave and I went on a shopping spree. Below is the car packed full of our purchases for the day:

I got a new bike, we both got new shows and other sporting goods and we spent some money at Future Shop/Best Buy and of course, we stopped by Henry’s as well. Dropped a great deal of money, but on useful things that did not go unused in the months since then.

This shopping spree reminded me of an earlier post that discussed my love of getting new things. It is one of my more materialistic tendencies that I don’t really mind to be honest.

Happy Birthday

Happy 26th birthday to my amazing fiancé. I love you so much and I hope you have a wonderful day…perhaps I will make you something delicious for dinner.

2 Years Later it Comes Full Circle

Last week, just over two years after getting T-boned on my way to work, Dave and I drove through and advanced green turn signal at Conroy and Thurston here in Ottawa. It was pretty amazing, so much so that we both clapped. The next day I took this photo to prove to others that the turn signal we had all wanted for so long actually existed. Don’t worry, Dave was driving the car when I took the photo from the passenger seat.
I like to think that through my accident I helped make this happen. There have been at least 4 other accidents in the intersection since mine however, and those are just the ones that I have noticed (and can remember).

Our House is a very, very, very fine House

I'll light the fire
You put the flowers in the vase
That you bought today
Staring at the fire
For hours and hours
While I listen to you
Play your love songs
All night long for me
Only for me
Come to me now
And rest your head for just five minutes
Everything is good
Such a cosy room
The windows are illuminated
By the sunshine through them
Fiery gems for you
Only for you
Our house is a very, very, very fine house
With two cats in the yard
Life used to be so hard
Now everything is easy
'Cause of you
And our la,la,la, la,la, la, la, la, la, la, la.....
Our house is a very, very, very fine house
With two cats in the yard
Life used to be so hard
Now everything is easy
'Cause of you
And Our
I'll light the fire
And you place the flowers in the jar
That you bought today

"”Our House” – Crosby, Still, Nash & Young, 1970.

The story of how Dave and I found our house is pretty short really (relatively speaking). We decided last fall that we wanted a house and were going to try and get one Spring 2011. Around Christmas 2010 however, we learnt that the bank didn’t want to give us a big enough mortgage for us to get a house here in Ottawa. We got very depressed about the subject and put the whole idea on the backburner.
In March, a co-worker informed us that he had just bought a house. We though to ourselves, we make approximately the same amount of money, how could we not get a big enough mortgage. We went to the mortgage broker he recommended and learnt that the bank was wrong. We could afford a very high mortgage and had impeccable credit ratings.
We informed our real estate agent and started looking at house mid April. For two weeks we looked at about 15 or so different houses and found one that we thought we really liked. We also found one that I absolutely loved. We scheduled second visits for both these houses while Dave’s parents were down so they could give us a less-biased opinion. Upon visiting the fist house the second time, we noticed everything that was wrong with it and no longer liked it at all. Then we went to the second home, the one that I had absolutely loved. It was pretty much perfect for us and Dave’s parents agreed. We stared the process of putting in an offer that very afternoon. By 1:00pm the next day we had conditionally bought the house for $10,000 less than the asking price. It was a very good day.

On April 29, the conditions came off the house and now we just have to wait until we get possession of our new home on the 15th of June. I sit around our rental waiting for the day wishing it would come faster but then thinking of how much is left to be done before we can actually move – we own a lot of things that need to be sorted and packed or sold or given away. We plan on doing quite a large purge when leaving this house as there are quite a few things that are still packed from when we moved here nearly three years ago.

In case you are wondering, the description of our home according to their real estate agent is as follows:

“3 Bedrooms,3 Bathrooms. Hardwood & porcelain flooring on main level. Main floor family room w/wood fireplace. Gourmet kitchen w/central isle & granite. Eating area opens to the fenced & private yard w/patio & above ground Pool.Main floor laundry. Master bedroom w/3pc en-suite & walk-in closet. Basement is near complete w/Recroom, Bedroom & ample storage. C/Air, C/Vac.”

I’m Back!!!

I know it has been a while, but I am back now. I am spending most of the rest of this afternoon sitting by an open window, enjoying the fresh air, my backyard garden and the sunlight while I blog away. In other words, there should be regular posts for the next month or so despite how busy I will likely be.

 

What have I been busy with you ask? Well for those of you who don’t already know, Dave and I have been advancing our lives a fair bit lately. We are obviously planning our wedding which is very time consuming despite the fact that we are planning a wedding that is well over a year away. We have also signed up at Goodlife gym and gotten ourselves personal trainers (to learn more about this, check out my health blog, The Road to a Better Me – it too is getting updated today). We also made one of the biggest purchases we will ever make…we bought a house. I will create more specific posts about each of these things later, but for now I think this is enough to understand just how busy our personal lives have been lately. Oh, and I am also planning a baby shower for my sister-in-law with my mom which has taken a little bit of work as well (invitations, ideas, gift shopping, etc), though to be honest, this one wasn’t as much work as the others. In fact it was quite fun to send out invitations and look at baby things.

Way Back Whenesday: THe Fro

 

When we were in first year Dave didn’t really get his hair cut – as matter of fact I don’t know if he got it cut even once throughout that year. We all named it the Fro. At one point we even gave him a fro pick.

7 Wonderful Years

Happy Anniversary Sweety. I love you more than I could ever put into words.

My Big News

As some of you already know, I have some  big news to share with you. Over the holidays, Dave proposed to me. It was perfect and amazing and I of course said yes. The story, since I have been asked so many times, goes like this:

On Thursday, December 30, 2010 Dave and I went to Upper Canada Village in Morrisburg to take night photos of the Alight at Night Festival. During our 2-3 hours there we walked around and took many photos of the night lights and even had fresh gingerbread, so yummy. We then got back to our car where Dave brought out the hot chocolate he had made for us and snuck in our thermos. We then drove back to Ottawa listening to the Glee soundtrack that he had so nicely downloaded and put on his new Google phone. When we got back to town he drove us towards downtown and I thought he was driving us to Parliament Hill as I had also wanted to take photos of the lights on the Parliament buildings. Instead he turned onto Sussex and parked overlooking the Ottawa River. He had music playing on his phone and had packed blankets and pillows for sitting in the back of the car - it was very nice. The evening was great and because it was so cold (it is Winter in Ottawa), the ring actually fit me.
It is now at the jewellery store being resized as even though Dave took his iron ring as a reference, it was still too small (only be about one size though). His iron ring fits my right hand but not my left unfortunately.
I am very happy and looking forward to all the planning and organization that is involved in getting a wedding set up. But first things first, Dave and I are still planning on getting a house this Spring.

How-To Tuesday: Make An Elf Ranger Costume

Last year I blogged about Dave’s Kisame Costume and it seems to be a rather popular post, though this may just be because it is based on a character from a fairly popular anime series. Either way, Halloween is coming up and being a big fan of the holiday I decided that I would do another Costume How-To.

My costume this year is more-or-less the same as last year, an Elf Ranger. I created the cape in a similar fashion to Dave’s Kisame cape by using the Simplicity pattern 5840. I made it using a heavy green material. I purchased a gold tassle for the hood and a wooden button to hold it shut (the loop was made with gold cording). I sewed gold cording around all the edges (around the cuffs, bottom edge, front opening and around the hood) and gold ribbon around the chest for added detail.

I got elf ears from a costume shop here in Ottawa, Malabar, and after gluing them on I put cover-up/concealer over them and my ears to blend the two together a bit better. (the trick to the ears is not where to buy them or how to get them on, but rather getting them off at the end of the night. It was a true ordeal last year that was incredibly uncomfortable, but apparently not too bad as I am wearing them again this year.) I

wore black yoga pants and a black shirt. I would have liked some sort of dark brown vest with a slot for a knife, but couldn’t find anything and ran out of time to make it myself.
For a bow, I actually used Dave’s bow but brought no arrows to the party as it is an actual weapon and that mixed with alcohol could have resulted in some very bad things.
I will be wearing the same costume this year but with the addition of

fantastic brown boots I purchased from Town Show at a discounted price recently. I may even get around to finding/making the vest I wanted last year.
Perhaps this year I will actually get around to taking some photos of me in my costume…but I wouldn’t place any bets on that.

10/10/10 10:10

Make a grand wish!

A few interesting 10/10/10 events and facts:
- 101010 is 42 in binary code;
- Slang for a person who spends too much time on the computer;
- Global Day of Doing;
- Global Work Party;
- A Family Celebration for Women & Babies Hospital;
- lots of weddings will be occurring today;
- many bloggers and photographers are encouraging people to commemorate this day with a photo;
- Hooha Fun Run; and the final fact/event is:
- Nothing significant appears to have happened during the year 1010 or 10.

To celebrate I will be having Thanksgiving lunch/dinner with Dave's extended family. You?

Happy Birthday Jess

Today is Dave’s sister’s birthday. I hope you have a wonderful day Jess!!
The above photo was taken when she and her parents came to visit Dave and I for a day in Ottawa. We went for a really nice walk around Hogs Back Park and since part of the riverbed was dried up, we ended up getting to some areas I hadn’t had a chance to walk along yet. It was a really nice day and resulted in some really nice photos too.

Guest Post XII, XIII, XIV and XV

The guest posts over on Always Standing are starting to wind down now (I wrote a total of 17 posts and we are apparently up to number 15). That being said, I have been slacking in letting you know of their existence so here is a longer post about each of the guest posts I have missed.

Post XII was supposed to be about Russian vodka but now that I try to create a link, it seems to be blank now...interesting...will have to inform Chris about that. Either way, perhaps it is jus tmy computer or perhaps it will be fixed shortly so check it out in a little while.

In the meantime, check out Post XIII. This is a more in depth post about my weight loss blog Road to a Better Me. I talk about my past success and also my current inspirations for joining Curves and taking a better stab at making my life healthier.

Post XIV is all about Ottawa Festivals. They are a wonderful aspect of this beautiful city that I really enjoy. Of course my favourite is the Tulip Festival, as any of my readers will know, but I also enjoy Winterlude and some of the smaller festivals in town. Greekfest just ended and The Gatineau Balloon Festival is coming up shortly.

And finally (for now at least) Post XV was just posted today and is all about My and Dave's morning routine. It's pretty short so a really easy read if you don't have a lot of time this morning.

That is all of them until XVI and XVII are posted in the next week or so. Chris comes back to Canada in a little while so no more guest posts then, but many more (regular) posts from the world traveller - which I know I am excited about.

Vacation Recap

So vacations #3 and #4 are officially over and I am slowly working my way through the photos. As per usual, my summer collection of photos has grown at a much faster rate than I can edit. As a result I will likely be dealing with a great deal of summer photos through the Fall and Winter seasons (well more like the Winter as I tend to take a lot of photos in the Fall as well).
Despite the fact that I don't really have any photos to show you, the trips to Toronto and Quebec City were great. I have realized that Quebec City is awesome and far superior to Montreal, in my opinion and I am sure Dave and I will be going back again.
As previously mentioned, both of these trips revolved around Cirque du Soleil shows. They were both good shows but Totem has definitely won the title of favourite Cirque show so far. We absolutely loved it! Not only were the performers great, but the clowns had actual acts and the stage was amazing (especially when you consider that this is a travelling show)! Totally worth the money and I highly recommend seeing this one if it comes even remotely close to you. I am sure I will post more about the trips but for now, hopefully that answers some questions about how they went.
As usual, the end of a vacation has made me start planning the next one - not entirely sure what it will be though Dave is interested in going camping at Bon Echo and we both still want to go to Vegas sometime soon. I will of course keep you all updated on what we do next.

New Old Roommate

When Justin moved back home last year it left a void in my and Dave’s social life. He visited us a couple times since then and we of course stayed in touch via Facebook, email and Skype but it hasn’t really been the same.
I am happy to announce that he recently found a job here in Ottawa and has since moved in with us until he finds his own place. It is really great having him back in Ottawa and even better to have him so close by. There have been lots of games played and reminiscing done – good times had be all.
Today also happens to be Justin’s birthday – Happy Birthday Justain.