Photo Ideas for the Big Day

In the hustle and bustle that will be your wedding day, there will be a lot you might not remember about the day. Of course, it can be easy to forget in the moment to get the shots you really want for your big day. So, be sure to grab a pen and paper, and make a list to be sure you and your photographer have the same picture of your big day. There's the obligatory family and ceremony shots, but there may be a few you're forgetting.

Here's a few shots you won't want to miss!

First Looks

Getting that once-in-a-lifetime shot of newlyweds first seeing each other decked out is a must for any photobook. Whether you choose to have a first look beforehand, or decide to leave the surprise until the ceremony itself, getting photos of your happy and surprised looks will be something you won't want to miss.

Outfit Details

What's your something borrowed and something blue? Did you buy monogrammed cufflinks just for the occasion? If there's any part of you or the wedding party's outfits that you adore, be sure to let your photographer know. These shots can get done while getting ready and putting them on for the first time, or up close in wedding party photos later.

Decor, Before

For all the time spent arranging tables and deciding centerpieces, it's definitely worth a little extra time to make sure you get some shots of it all together. While it's great to have photos once everyone's in place, a few photos of the perfectly arranged ceremony and reception venues before your guests arrive will make for some beautiful photos later, especially if your venues are somewhere scenic.

Family Reception Photos

While the posed family shots are expected with every wedding, the ones you'll truly cherish later will be the candid ones. The little things, like your flower girls dancing together or your grandparents wiping tears from their eyes, will be the sort of detail you'll probably miss on the day of. So getting shots of these moments helps preserve them - and you might catch something you completely missed!

Cake Time

You can keep your dress, and choose to have bouquets or corsages pressed or preserved, but unfortunately food expires. While the tradition of freezing a slice for the future is still practiced, the look of your food and wedding cake fresh and decorated is something you'll only have in memories. It can be best to preserve it by getting tons of photos - both of it before anyone has dug in, shots of you and your spouse cutting it together, and some glamor shots of the interior of the cake after the cutting. While you can't eat the pictures, they can really help remember that special part of the day.

The most important part of your wedding photos is discussing with your photographer before the big day what your expectations are. They may have their own suggestions of additional photos to take, but your photographer cannot read your mind - if you have something specific you want, be sure to make this clear so that you are not having to remember to ask on the big day. Once you've figured out what you're doing together, you can let yourself relax, let your photographer handle the rest, and enjoy the moment!

First-Dance Songs as Unique as Your Love Story

The first dance between newlyweds is a highlight for weddings all over the world. Traditions like this can be a great way to express the couple's love story to everyone present for their special day. There are expectations that come with the tradition, though — typically, people tend towards slow dancing or classically romantic tunes to dance to. Songs like Etta James' "At Last" and Tony Bennett's "The Way You Look Tonight" have become staples at many weddings

While many of these are classics for a reason, love has never been one size fits all, so why should the music? A first dance can be of any style of music, so be creative and consider what fits your own, unique love story to show your loved ones in celebration.

So, if you're wanting something a little less traditional for your first dance, try giving some of these suggestions a listen or use them as inspiration for a dance that could be all your own.

Somebody to Love - Queen

Freddie Mercury's vocals are always a showstopper, and this song shows off his excellent range like no other. This is a great option for a couple that does want a bit of a slower dance, but definitely not a subtle one. If you want your guests to get out lighters and cell phones to sway above them, this is a pick worth considering.

Dynamite - BTS

For those wanting something pop but not overdone, K-Pop can be an excellent subgenre to explore. BTS's international appeal shows how universally loved their music is. Dynamite is a great song to kick off dancing shoes to, and the fun lyrics will have guests tapping toes and wishing they could join in.

Groove Is In The Heart - Deee-Lite

A great option for couples that want something funky and retro for their wedding dance. While the hit was released in the 1990s, the sampling tracks and slide whistle in the breakdowns have a unique Funkadelic vibe perfect for a colorful couple.

Like Real People Do - Hozier

Hozier's unique blend of blues riffs and ethereal lyrics makes for a surprisingly slow and alluring song from his debut album. This song is perfect for the indie or alternative couple wanting something they can slow dance to that isn’t overdone.

Maps - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Punk couples get married too! And combining the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' loud alternative guitar with the sweet, sentimental lyrics of Karen O can be a perfect combo for your special day. With both romance and a little edge, it has the best of both worlds for newlyweds wanting something alternative to typical first dance songs.

These are just a few options to explore, as anything can potentially be a first dance song. Explore you and your future spouse's music tastes, find something romantic, rocking, or even silly. Every love story is unique, and no one should feel limited in their options to pick something that reflects that. Hopefully, these suggestions helped you brainstorm the perfect song for you and your future spouse.

Movie Review: Annihilation (2018)

Horror is a divisive genre of media, and for good reason. Some come to horror movies for a controlled adrenaline rush - wanting to feel anticipation, a rush of terror, and at the end of the two hours know it was just a movie. Others come for an atmosphere - a steady crawl of creepy, rather than the rise and falls of "jump scare" flicks. Often, the latter can end up having as much to say as any other thoughtful drama or heart-filled slice-of-life movie could.

Annihilation, a 2018 horror film starring Natalie Portman, somehow pulled off both of these.

There's plenty of scares that'll make you jump out of your seat, creatures just close enough to reality to make us wonder if they could be lurking in a dark corner somewhere, and tons of shots of gore to terrify. But underneath it is also a movie full of heart, trauma, and of all things, beauty.

Portman stars as a cellular biologist, tasked with a team of other scientists to explore a phenomenon called The Shimmer - a strange area forming around the site of a meteor crash. It turns out her expertise are precisely what's needed in this scenario - whatever was in the meteor is causing everything within this Shimmer to radically mutate - locations, plants, fungi and animals all pose unique threats to the team as they try to get to the center of the crash site.

Interspersed with these tense action sequences is the tale of a woman wracked with guilt, and indeed each of the team members is handling specific traumas as they make their way through these trials. And at the end of the day, the soul of this movie is not in the stellar set designs or amazing visual effects: it's that inevitably, each woman responds to the horror around them in unique ways. An overarching theme presents itself of cancer - and each team member reflects a different response to someone or a loved one receiving such a diagnosis. Some respond with anger, others fear, some give up and let it consume them, and yet others fight with everything they have.

One of the best aspects of this movie is the unique aesthetic of the Shimmer - everything within becomes lush, overgrown and bright - there is a terrifying beauty in the mutated plants and the prism-like quality it gives the sky. It evokes the similar bright, floral designs of Midsommar, though the terror is far more about facing the unknown. While a few of the performances were somewhat underwhelming, Portman and Jennifer Jason Leigh both stand out with amazing performances that women are not often given the opportunity to have in Hollywood. The core team being all women feels like a deliberate subversion of a typical action-horror cast, and works well with the deliberately-flipped aesthetic of a bright and light-filled horror movie.

I'd recommend Annihilation for fans of horror wanting something new, that isn't afraid to reject formats typical of the genre, who like a piece that was determined to play with both the darkness and the beauty of something totally alien.

Review: Armaid, Trigger Point Therapy Assisting Tool

People who know me personally are aware of my daily struggles with wrist and arm pain.

I spent my free time drawing, painting, and knitting, and I love to fidget. Of course, the constant use of my arm and hand has led to some issues. I've dealt with carpal tunnel in the past, and am currently dealing with a condition known as de Quervain's tenosynovitis, which causes pain in my thumb and down the thumb side of the wrist and arm.

And believe me, as an artist, it stinks.

I've tried many things to deal with the pain over the years. I know many brands of wrist braces by heart at this point, and my spouse can attest to the amount of compression gloves and bands I have laying around the house. I've even gotten acupuncture done. And while a lot of this does provide relief, I still wanted something that felt like I was being proactive about dealing with my issues, rather than treating symptoms as they came up.

In came the Armaid.

The Armaid is an interesting tool - it looks like an odd white clamp, with an interchangeable part on the side. The device is fairly simple to use - add on one of the provided five attachments, use your free hand to clamp the device to the arm experience pain, then move your arm back and forth. This helps the user provide trigger point therapy to the areas where there is pain. Each of the attachments provides a different sensation - harder ones for very stubborn muscle knots, or softer ones for more delicate areas such as the wrist and hand.

I'm not going to say this stuff will guaranteed get rid of your conditions - but doing the routine daily has seen a massive improvement in me. I've gotten rid of muscle knots, and am more importantly getting back to my most important hobby: drawing, without dealing with tons of pain. Doing the routine consistently (using YouTube videos that the Armaid company provided) has allowed me to work on my health in a way that doesn't involve just sitting around resting it in a brace or waiting for my next acupuncture appointment.

The Armaid costs $79.00USD for the device and one attachment, or $129.00USD for five interchangeable attachments. Being able to get back to activities I love? Priceless.

Book Review: Untamed by Glennon Doyle

(or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Unleash My Inner Cheetah)

art by Jordan Watson, 8/12/2020. gouache

Like many people out there, I've spent the pandemic reading books. You remember books? The ones you'd hide under your math textbook and sneak a paragraph from while the teacher wasn't looking?

...Okay, maybe that part was just me. But I do know many others who have gone back to old favorites or used that time quarantined indoors to get back into a habit of reading.

And what a book I managed to grab here. Untamed is Glennon Doyle's hit book of 2020. It's a memoir, a short story collection, a self-help guide, and a critique of all the ways society views women, wrapped up into one powerful 352 page punch. Doyle manages to bring complex issues in feminism, mental health, and sexuality into a stark light with snapshots of her life. With her reflections on shampoo bottles, snowglobes, and soccer matches, Doyle masterfully presents how society molded and shaped her to become a bulimic daughter, to an alcoholic adolescent, to dutiful mother and wife, to finally, and most powerfully, herself.

My copy of Untamed is now thoroughly loved - borrowed and returned, highlighted, scribbled in, a few pages wrinkled from tears I couldn't stop from spilling. I saw her, I saw myself, I saw other people in my life. Doyle has a remarkable talent for metaphor, perhaps best illustrated by the opening story of a cheetah, bred in captivity, dreaming of the wild.

"Ah," the cheetah sighs, "I must just be crazy."

"You're not crazy," Doyle retorts. "You're a god damn cheetah."

And may we all find the wild we're dreaming of.