Go Big or Go Home: The Epic EPic Hair Trial Conclusion

I recently shared my inspiration and deep love for big ass country singer hair and now, I'm going to share the results. I took pictures every step of the way - including immediately post-shower - so be gentle with me, here.

First things first: my hair, immediately post-shower. 

Clearly, the way to make the MySpace-tastic bathroom cell phone sans makeup picture okay is to make silly faces.

This was immediately after my shower - all I did here was comb it. As you can see, not much life to it. It exists, it's there, it's alive and. . .that's about it. If I were to let it dry without doing anything else, it'd look pretty much like it does right here except moistureless. 

I set to work blow-drying my hair, using the 'low' setting.

Trying to hurriedly snap the picture and figure out my front-facing camera nonsense. You may note that I have also already applied my makeup. . .I did so while my hair was wet in hopes of getting it to air-dry as much as possible because it takes freakin' forever.

Go Big or Go Home: Setting up the EPic Hair Trial

See what I did with that title? ;) I’ve already expressed my general distaste for and inability to do all things DIY. One is not likely to find a bigger Fail Whale than the aftermath of my glue gun and I spending some QT together. 

So why did I decide to do my own hair and makeup for our engagement pictures? Because I’m stubborn. And cheap. 

I originally reached out to the artist (is that the technical term?) doing hair and makeup for my girls and myself on our Wedding Day and it simply cost too much to justify. Her work is gorgeous, without a doubt, and I’m super excited to have her. . .but I just couldn’t do it for our engagement pictures. 

I had a vision of my hair in our engagement pictures. It was something kind of like this: 

 Sources, from Top Left: Faith Hill, Carrie Underwood, Julianne Hough, Faith Hill, Faith Hill and Carrie Underwood.| Sensing a pattern?

Engagement Sessions: Do's and Don'ts

I have so much to share that I barely know where to begin. As you've gathered from the theme of my last few posts, I've been obsessing over our Engagement Pictures.

Let me tell you, friends: obsession so worth it.
 

We had an absolutely fabulous time that exceeded all of our expectations. The entire evening was so much fun. Our photographers Jimmy and Kristy of Limelight-Images (clearly you should all be on a first-name basis with them as we are by now ;) ) were incredibly engaging and so much fun. It felt so comfortable and their experience and skills were so evident; they knew just how to catch the right shots of the city and just how to pose us. It was also fun to see them work together as a husband and wife team - they played off of each other so well and spoke in half-finished sentences the entire time. "Kris, could you. . .?" "Jimmy, why don't you grab that wide lens. . .?" Being a ginormous oober goober, I had what we refer to as "bursties" the entire time just witnessing them. . .and of course, staring into the eyes of my handsome other half for two hours helped as well.

I pinky promise that a reveal of our pictures is coming, but I wanted to share a few 'Do's and 'Don't's for engagement sessions. . . because you know, this being my one and only experience with them has made me an expert. ;)

Picspiration for the EPic Session

I've sung the praises of our wonderful photographers, Limelight-Images, so loudly that your ears are probably bleeding, so I'll try my hardest to refrain from doing so in this post. . .it's just so hard, when they're so awesome.

I mentioned before: I'm huge on pictures. I've already started a list of 'Must Haves' for our wedding day, including the 'jump shot' and the 'carry shot'.

via Limelight-Images | The vice-versa will also happen - I'm all for equality ;)

via Limelight-Images | Fun Fact: When we moved into our new place, I had BM Y & GM Pythagoras practice this shot with me.

As far as a list of 'Must-Haves', they focused on the city. Pittsburgh is so picture-esque, I wanted to make sure we caught the bridges, the stadiums, the river, the skyline. For the two of us, it was actually more of a list of 'Capture These Feelings With These Awesome Things In The Background'. I'm not saying I want this to be a Pittsburgh photo session with us as the props; more that I want both the city and us to be captured brilliantly, because we're both such a big part of each other. . .you know, Pittsburgh wouldn't survive without us, obviously. ;)