Our Post-Engagement Shoot

The pictures are in! After nearly two years of being married, we finally took our engagement shoot photos or as I like to call them, our post-engagement photos. If you read this blog often, you know that I had a plan for where to go and what to do when we finally took these photos. Then, right before we actually took them, I freaked out and scrapped the plan. After much discussion, A.P. and I came up with a list of places and then narrowed it down to a few. We ended up going to five places total, but this time we felt like the places we chose had more meaning than an ice cream shop, a bowling alley, and a park. : )

We met our photographer, Theresa Scarbrough, on a warm, autumn afternoon. One of the last of the season. First up, we went to North Park Village Nature Center. Located on Chicago's northwest side, this nature preserve, which is part of North Park University, feels as if you've stepped out of the city right into a secret forest, complete with a wetland, a prairie, and even deer! There's a number of trails that weave throughout the grounds, too. We picked this place for a couple of reasons. For one, we've gone there in the past since it's near our house. For another, it looked a lot like the place where we got engaged. We spent the bulk of our shoot here and got some amazing shots.

From there, we headed to my old apartment and the site of our very first date. We, of course, could only take pictures outside the apartment, but trust me when I tell you that though this was the shortest leg of the trip, it was also the most fun. The entire time we were taking pictures, this guy was sticking his head out of the window of an apartment across the street shouting, "Hey, take my picture!" It was hilarious. We didn't stay here long, but we for sure got a few cute photos.

After my old apartment, we did a quick outfit change and took some photos in front of our current apartment.

Then, we headed over to a laundromat near our house. The second time we hung out was in this laundromat. We had agreed to make each other mix CDs and for whatever reason, I couldn't email him the one I'd made. So, I called him up and told him I'd bike it over to him. At the time, he was getting ready to go on a business trip and was at his local laundromat washing what he needed to pack. I met him there and ended up helping him fold his clothes. While we were folding and talking, A.P. jokingly asked me if I'd miss him when he was on his trip. I said yes and he thought I was kidding (we'd only gone out on one date!) and I pretended I had been. Secretly, though, I really was going to miss him. I always think back on that moment and realize that's when I knew I really liked him. (Insert collective awwww here.) So, to the laundromat we went! And I'm glad we went there because these ended up being some of my favorite photos.

The last stop for us was the south loop, where we did one last outfit change and took some shots near the train tracks with the skyline in the background. We couldn't take the photos and not acknowledge the beautiful city in which we live.

Didn't Theresa do an amazing job with these photos?? Hip, hip!

(Photos by Theresa Scarbrough)

Marriage Mondays: How Did You Meet?

When A.P. and I first started dating, we were too embarrassed to tell people how we met, especially our families. In fact, when I first met A.P.'s family, I discovered none of them knew how we met. And I had the tough job of answering that question. Luckily, I'm a smart gal and I kept thinking of clever ways to hand it off to A.P. Poor A.P. He didn't know what to say either. I remember that A.P.'s late mother thought that we met on the El train, and I was too scared to correct her. So for two days, I kept answering questions about how we met on the El ("How did it happen?" and "Did you just see A.P. and want to talk to him?") until finally A.P. told his mother we didn't meet on the train. Looking back, we laugh about the fact that I kept lying.

Here's the great, big dirty secret: A.P. and I met online. GASP!! It's true. I used to be obsessed with Craigslist and when I worked in advertising, I would fool around on the site during lunch and down time. I was obsessed with the Missed Connections, and the Best Of section. I loved (and still do) looking for antiques or stuff for sale. Anyway, back then, I would post stuff for no other reason than to be funny or crack up my friends.

Anyway, one day, I posted on Craigslist, talking about this one band I love, Animal Collective. A ton of people responded, but A.P. was the only one who knew the band. We ended up emailing back and forth and then eventually talked on the phone. Then one day, we decided to meet. We talked about what to do on our first date a lot. We both agreed we wanted to do something out of the ordinary. Finally, as a joke, A.P. suggested baking a cake. I loved the idea. So, A.P. came over to my place and we made a vanilla cake with a chocolate frosting. We also lit sparklers on my back porch. And we talked...a lot. It was so much fun. And it was on the couch, when I was listening to him talk, and looking at his profile that I fell for him. I loved his mild, Southern twang and the slow way in which he spoke. I loved that he asked me tons of questions, too.

But the thing that made me fall for him hard was at the end of the night. He had a business trip the next week and I figured I wouldn't talk to him until he got back. As I was walking him out, I said as much and he immediately replied, "I'm going to call you before then." And he did. He called me the next day. It was great to date someone who didn't play games and did what he said he was going to do. A couple of months into our relationship, I wrote in my journal that I thought I was going to marry him. I had thought it but not written it before because I hadn't wanted to jinx it. Five years later, I couldn't have been more right.

Now, we openly tell people how we met. In fact, we've got our whole story down. We take turns telling it and A.P. even added a new dimension the other day when he asked someone we were telling to guess the site we met on. People seem to get a kick out of us meeting online, that it was random and fateful. But a few months into our relationship, we discovered the real fate in our relationship: A.P.'s ex-girlfriend knew my sister because they had worked together at a store where I had also worked.

One day, through a random conversation, we discovered that A.P's ex-girlfriend had worked at the same small, Uptown neighborhood home accessories/antique business where I had worked over my summer break during college. I quit to go back to school and my sister, who was also back in school, took my position. She ended up working there with A.P.'s ex-girlfriend. A.P. used to come visit her in Chicago while they were still dating long distance. I would also go back there during my breaks (until the guy tried to screw me over with my pay). I could have easily met A.P. or his ex, but never did. So weird, right?

I've always believed in fate and destiny. I don't as much any more. But I do believe that A.P. and I were meant to be together. I didn't used to think of him as a soulmate, because I think that word diminishes the work we put into our relationship. But that story always reminds me that there is a reason that A.P. and I met and that despite our story's randomness, it wasn't necessarily random.

How did you meet your significant other? Do you feel like you were meant to be together? Or do you feel it just worked out that way?

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(The Triumph of Death or The Three Fates via here)