This post originally appeared on our old site Born to be a Bride as "Showered in Love, Part 2."
Coming off the super-high heels of yesterday’s post on my bridal shower, is Sunday’s rain-trodden engagement shoot. As you know from following this blog, Josh and I do not have the best of luck with engagement photographs. Our first batch was a disastrous mix of humidity, swollen extremities, poor wardrobe selections and terrifying camera angles. The second shoot, slated for December, was canceled due to a combination of blizzard and stomach flu. So, it should have been no surprise when I checked the weather on Sunday morning and saw nothing but rain all. day. long.
Still, I was resilient. I removed my brand-new and twice-steamed silk French Connection dress from its garment bag that hung inside my bedroom door at Fairview Street. I slipped into my cork-bottom, black patent peep-toe Cole Haan pumps that I’d preserved for the occasion. I booked a blowout. And a lash fill. And I checked the weather again.
And then I cried.
Why was this happening to me? Why could I not just have the stars align for two measly hours so that Josh and I could mark our engagement in style? We’ve both lost weight and worked hard to get ourselves in tip-top shape. We’ve combed the internet (OK, I’ve combed the internet) looking for style and pose inspiration. We have the photographer of our dreams meeting us outside the Plaza at 6pm on a Sunday. Can the rain clouds not just give us a break?
Luckily, our incredible photographer Elisabeth Millay agreed to meet us early while the sun was still (sort of) in the sky, and she reassured me that the photos would be beautiful. Her husband, a talented photog in his own right, would come along and even hold an umbrella over us at times to make sure we got everything we needed.
I hightailed it to Fox’s, the high-end designer resale shop in my hometown, looking like a drowned rat in an old sweatshirt and a pair of yoga pants from high school (ahem, that was a while ago). “I need a long-sleeved dress!” I declared, aloud, to anyone who might be listening. At the onset of summer, finding a long-sleeved dress in a beach town that is neither black nor funurial nor both, is tough. But after many options were tossed aside, I found a navy knit number with see-through woven sleeves and suited up in that, black tights, and a borrowed pair of my mother’s pumps. And I caught a train. Weather, be damned!
We shot for about 20 minutes inside Grand Central Station, where Josh felt a little weird that everyone was looking at us. Don’t worry, your favorite attention whore here was just fine with all the stares! We then hopped a cab uptown and shot outside the Paris theater, the Plaza, and the adjacent fountain before making our way into Central Park.
After some playful shots and some more serious ones, we were all wet and tired and ready to call it a wrap. But, Elisabeth and her husband conferred–there was a clearing we had to get to. We made our way up the path and out onto a large slab of rock.
Josh led me to the top as the rain was beating down on our crisp designer outfits and previously well-coiffed hair. He took my hand and we looked at the view–that iconic New York skyline with heavy fog at the top, and a park completely empty for only us to enjoy.
The smooching that followed will undoubtedly make for some great photos, and it doesn’t take a psychic to know I’ve been stalking Elisabeth’s blog like a junkie for the past four days waiting for a teaser. After our romantic, rainy shoot, Josh and I grabbed hands and headed south on Fifth toward Trump Plaza. Tucked inside, we ordered cabernet and French fries and laughed about the day. And that is what being engaged is about.
Here is my lesson from this seemingly less-than-perfect day. You cannot control everything, even when it comes to your wedding. No matter how many Pinterest boards you maintain and how many vendors you terrify into submission, dress fittings you attend or green juice smoothies you consume in lieu of a proper lunch… there will be things related to your engagement and wedding that just don’t go the way you wanted or planned. And this is okay. Because life, and marriage, will be the same way.
So, when you get hit with a shower, you need to just turn it around, buy a new dress, slap on a smile and face it. Turning storm clouds into rainbows is something Josh and I will have to do for the rest of our lives together. We might as well start now.
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