"we're the happiest couple ever...weeee!"

this last week, facing cold, harsh conditions, cade and i set out to get our engagements taken. i think it is fairly well known that cade and i are pretty good at this, but i thought i would still post some pictures on here for those of you who haven't figured that out yet. we took the pictures at the salt lake city library and some on the grounds of the city and county building. it was an adventure in-and-of-itself to try and get a picture without a bum/laden shopping cart in the background, but our biggest foe turned out to be the frigid wind. our photographer, brittany, (who is great by the way) would set us up in a position, ready to go, and then- whoosh...i suddenly have horn bangs. luckily brittany packs an extra can of aqua net, so we were able to make some progress. overall, i am happy about the pictures. i was seriously worried that my visible goosebumps would be an issue....i lucked out.

i am not sure about which one we'll use yet (all we have seen is an online preview) but there are a couple that i love. some of you may think it is bad luck to see the couple before the invitation is sent out. false. that only pertains to the wedding dress and groom thingy. so, i don't know what i'm doing with the invitations yet, but just don't get peeved if you happen to get an invitation with a picture you've already seen. that is your fault for blogging.
the picture below was taken in a refugee area. i think it is the only spot we found where the wind couldn't eat us alive. i really like this one though...a lot.

perhaps the most humbling part of this experience resulted from the realization that cade and i struggle in the "cute" department. every once in a while, our photographer would tell cade and i to be "cute." at first, cade just smiled bigger and i just stood there- awkward as ever. then she explained that "cute" means to flirt with one another, giggle, whisper in ears, go nose to nose and gaze, give little kisses, etc, etc. we tried to do little cutesy things, and then she told us she had too many shots of cade kissing me...so we needed to up our game. when it all came down to it, we just laughed the whole time. for fear of judgment, i only included this "cute" shot in the refugee camp. some of the others are pretty dang funny though.

some other things we didn't plan for: a patriotic wedding. how did this happen? amer-i-can... amer-we-will....you'd be REALLY surprised to find this one tucked away in an envelope a couple weeks from now.


finally, i had a bunch of requests to see my ring. so although i have slightly mannish hands, i include this shot to satisfy the masses....all 6 people who read this blog. cade knew the style i was interested in and he picked it out. i love it though.
so there you have it: a complete summary of the photo shoot that changed our life. i would also like to point out that this all happened in between two wedding showers which were so fun. it was a busy day, but so great to spend time with both sides of our families.