Hello there everyone. I have been on a short hiatus. I don’t want to be lame and blame it on wedding planning, but I will. I’ve been super busy and haven’t taken the time to sit down and write out my thoughts. I finally have some time today to catch you up on my life. I know how you’ve been anxiously waiting on the edge of your seat.

Just a few weeks ago, my family and friends (spearheaded by my mom) threw me a surprise bridal shower. First of all, props to my mom for throwing a surprise party in her home for a person who lives with her. Thankfully, I am quite oblivious to things, especially recently with all this wedding planning. I can breeze through a room and not notice anything around me if I have things on my mind. And I ALWAYS have things on my mind. I was told they had been planning it for months. I did catch a few hints here and there, but ultimately I was surprised.

My sister-in-law Mary took me out that morning for a shopping trip with my niece Grace. Shout out to Mary for doing a great job of keeping it a secret when she was with me all morning. I was definitely sure it was a party when we drove up to the house. There were a ton of cars.

I walked in and it was overwhelming to see all the smiling faces looking back at me. My parents, brothers, Zach, his parents and sister, aunts, cousins, friends, my nieces and nephews. They were all there for me. I repeatedly said, “This is silly. You didn’t need to do this. This is so silly.” I didn’t know what to say or do!

Thank you again to everyone. To all those who put time and effort into planning, thank you. For all those who came from other states to be with me for an afternoon, thank you. Thank you most especially to my parents. They go above and beyond all the time to make sure their family is happy. They have really gone above and beyond through this whole wedding process to make sure Zach and I have the best day of our lives. The shower was just a preview of all the love and support Zach and I have in our lives. It was a magical day.

Another step in the wedding process that we recently took was engagement pictures. When we got engaged, engagement pictures were thrown on the back burner. I figured if I needed a picture of us for something, I could take it myself. When we booked our photographer, we found out that an engagement picture session was part of the package. Since it was part of the package, I told Zach eh we might as well get them taken, it could be fun. But, again, they fell to the backburner because we had many other things to get done.

I like to say that Zach and I aren’t an ordinary couple. I think we’re special, obviously. I have often tried to be different in most things that I do. So to go with my “I want to be different mission,” our photographer is no ordinary wedding photographer. Major shout out to Jerry Tomko. Jerry photographed my brother Mike’s wedding a few years ago. He is also the father of my sister-in-law’s good friend. My thoughts when it came time to pick a photographer: I wanted someone who took great pictures (duh), I wanted someone who cared about the photos they were taking, and it would be a plus if I knew them personally. Jerry was an obvious choice.

Better late than never, with just 6 weeks to go until the wedding, we took engagement pictures. And they were anything but ordinary. These pictures allowed me to see us from a new perspective. Zach and I have a lot of pictures of ourselves, I blame me, the self-proclaimed selfie queen. I will cherish these photos Jerry took of us because they are not the everyday cute couple shots we take ourselves. They are stunning. And I don’t just mean we look nice in them, which we do. We look so grown up and so in love. The city in the background looks amazing. The composition of the photo itself is so artistic and beautiful. It will be a great memory to look back on when we’re married for 30 years. It’s a great memory to look back on now and it only happened just last week. Having Jerry as our photographer, gives me another reason to be super excited for the wedding day. I know we will have amazing pictures that capture the love and happiness that will fill the atmosphere.

I thought taking engagement pictures would be awkward. But Jerry made it comfortable for us and, like always, Zach and I laughed a lot and enjoyed our time together. It was also nice to take time out in the evening to dress up and do something different. For engaged couples, I suggest taking engagement photos. I’m happy we did.

To view the pictures from our session, click the link below:

http://gerardtomko.com/blog/nighttime-engagement-session-in-philadelphia/

I think you are all caught up. 37 days to go. Lots to do. Fingers crossed it all gets done.