For the last couple of weeks, I feel like every conversation has begun with something along the lines of: ‘I love your engagement pictures! You can tell how much you love each other!’
Wyndi and I feel these comments are really sweet, but it does seem like it doesn’t matter who we’re talking to, they will bring up the photos we posted to Facebook.
Friends and family? Seen the photos. Community member? Loved the photos! Advertiser? Thought the photos were adorable. Person at the grocery store? They thought the fourth one was the best. Bill collectors? The last one was their favorite.
Okay, I might have made up a few of those encounters.
As much as I kid, I’m glad they turned out because up till the last hour before we were set to meet Danielle Meador to take the photos, Wyndi and I were trying to chicken out.
It had been quite a while since she had posed in a photo shoot and I realized that unless you count Church directories and school headshots, I’ve never really posed for one.
We met at the Dublin City Park with a list of props including a blanket, picnic supplies and specially selected books.
Wyndi spent the next hour posing and generally being cute while I awkwardly smiled, fumbled with my hands and told jokes.
It was fun and I think the best things about the photos is that they convey that and the way we feel about each other.
I might take contention with how I look sitting down. (I will never be photographed in a chair again for the rest of my life! Well... I’d like to be able to make that vow.) However, Danielle captured the mood and our feelings and I think that’s the most important things for us to have captured.
Some of the most fun moments made terrible photos like us feeding each other cherries.
We each put our hands in front of the other’s face and kept tilting our heads back in what quickly became a limbostyle contest. (It kind of looks like we’re trying to choke each other.)
We were also instructed to pretend to kiss while holding up the newspaper that included my proposal in front of us. This directive led to a general shuffle of the paper while maneuvering our heads around and I processed the orders we were given. (It became a seated dance that I don’t think will catch on.)
We also had to arrange the picnic and I thought I was sneaking cherries as the fruit was arranged, but apparently I’m not as sneaky as I thought because Danielle didn’t miss a single moment of my thievery. They are all there in the gallery she sent us.
We ended up with several favorites we shared and you can find one of the most popular on page A4 in our engagement announcement, right below the police log and next to the obituaries. If it’s good luck to have rain on your wedding, this has to be some good vibes.
In all seriousness, I’m glad to have people say the affection Wyndi and I have for each other is so obvious. It almost makes being the center of attention worth it... almost.
—Gaudette in the Managing Editor of the Dublin Citizen. He can be contacted at publisher@dublincitizen.com.