A "Vintage Bridal Photo Shoot" Taken Just A Bit Over The Top!

Friday morning as I prepared to once again leave for Dallas, to pick up Caitlin's wedding dresses and have her Bridal photos taken, I thought, "I once liked to 'Do It Myself'".  I was afraid that this wedding had perhaps drained every one of those creative juices from my body.  And if it had, I knew right where it had transfused them...to my daughter!

When Caitlin said she had a "few" items put together for me to bring for her "Vintage Bridal Photo Shoot" to Dallas, I though, "How much could it actually be?"  She had sent me to my mother's house to collect an old ladder and some wooden fruit crates from the 1930's.  I had Robby put the back seat of my vehicle down to make room for the length of the ladder and then went upstairs to see what else was left to pack.  When I got up there I was AMAZED at the amount of items that she had set aside for me to bring!  I got everything in the vehicle, but as I stood back to look at it I wondered where we would put our luggage...or the two wedding dresses for that matter!

Luckily I was able to close the back to my vehicle and then I headed off to Marshall to pick Caitlin up and head straight to Dallas for her final fitting on her wedding dresses.  The alterations lady once again met us at our hotel room...at 9 p.m.!  We completed the fittings by 10...she was out...and we were the proud of owners of two beautiful wedding gowns, just waiting to be photographed the next day!  I asked Caitlin what time this photo shoot was going to take place and she said somewhere around 4 or 4:30 p.m.  Good!  That would mean we could sleep in; not have to rush (ahhh...).  Then I remembered that our coordinator (and best friend...) had sent me a message earlier in the week telling me that the temperature was predicted to climb to 90 degrees!  Surely not...

Well, those weather folks sure do know their business of predicting weather; it was about 87 degrees when we arrived for our OUTDOOR photo shoot!  Mentally, I had told myself that it was a "Springtime 87 degrees"...OK, 87 degrees is 87 degrees and by the time I had carried the first load of vintage props up the hill and begun to help set things up, sweat was DRIPPING from my body!  We told Caitlin to just sit in the car with the air running until everything was set up and then we would get her so she could put the first dress on.  In the meantime, I was back at the site sweating like a hog and climbing on the unstable, vintage ladder to get something out of a tree when I reached out to steady myself and got a HUGE thorn stuck in my thumb!  I jerked it out as I looked at the tree limbs and they were covered with these huge thorns.  CRAP!  I remembered my mother telling my something about poisonous thorns; I sure hoped these weren't them.  The photographer had gone home to get an ice chest of bottled water (before we all passed out from dehydration...) and I headed back down to the air conditioned car to find a needle to remove the remnants of that possibly poisonous thorn.

The photo sites were set up, the lighting was getting good, it was finally about 85 degrees in the shade now so we began to get Caitlin dressed for her photos.  I truly wish I could post the vintage scenes we set up and even the photos I took of her, however, she has sworn us all to secrecy so please tune back in the first week of June to see photos from this beautiful photo shoot.  Although we were itching from the bugs and grass out in the field we were allergic to, sweating through the heat and even coughing a bit at the end of the day, I must say (as did the photographer...) that this was the most unique and beautiful bridal shoot I have ever seen!  Caitlin not only had two dresses, but also many different head pieces and three bouquets.  I sat there on a sheet, wondering if I would die from the heat or the poisonous thorn first.  But there was one thing I knew...all of the effort and thought that Caitlin had put into these photos had been well worth it.  This photo shoot had given me just a glimpse of what her wedding day would look like once every idea she had was implemented.

It was 7 p.m. by the time the photo sessions was complete and we got Caitlin out of her wedding gown and bagged both of them up.  That's when I looked around and realized that all of that stuff we had packed up the hill for the shoot had to be packed up and taken back down the hill (sigh...).  We finally got it all packed back up and headed off to eat dinner before making it back to our hotel room. 

When we made it back to our room, we quickly got our showers and hopefully washed any bugs down the drain that were still clinging to our sweat-dried bodies.  We each took an antihistamine and hit the bed.  Needless to say, I immediately fell into a deep sleep.  Sunday I would have to made the long trek back to Louisiana.  But I was excited that we had checked another task off of our list.  This put us just one step closer to Caitlin's special day.  And now, I was truly excited to see how all of the decorations that had taken residence on the top floor of my home were going to look once strategically placed for the wedding and reception.  OK...RIGHT NOW, I am sorta burned out on "Doing it Myself", but I must admit that the vision is BEAUTIFUL and I'm sure will be worth all of the effort in the end...