The week in review: nudity, cake, and close-ups

Some weeks go by so fast, you’re not sure if it really contained the usual mandatory seven days. Of course, it’s always the fun weeks that fly by, and not the miserable ones. Well anyway, it’s been a fun week, so let’s share some of it with you…

We met with Andrew of Aiden Wolf Photography (http://aidenwolf.webs.com/). Aiden Wolf, if you’ll recall, is doing a ‘wedding night’ shoot with us: something ‘full monty’ that won’t actually take place on the wedding night--that’s just the theme. I’ll admit, I was a little nervous of the idea, and on our way to meet Andrew, I wasn’t sure what to expect in a photographer who does nude work. It’s not that I’m opposed to the nude form—indeed, as an artist with a concentration in painting and drawing the human body, it would be strange if I did oppose it—but it’s one thing to have a trained model stand naked in front of you for two hours while you sketch them, and another to be the nude model, yourself. And of course, like any art class, the artists really set the tone…so meeting and liking Andrew was very important for many reasons.

Andrew was, in fact, less intimidating than I expected. He was referred to the project through a friend of mine who happens to be his partner, but we hadn’t met; yet somehow, from my friend’s description, I thought he was going to look something like a truck driver: perhaps a stout, heavily bearded man with tobacco stains in his mustache and a t-shirt pulled taut over his rotund belly. Andrew looks nothing like this. In fact, he’s surprisingly low on hair of any sort, he's very well groomed, and he’s not at all trucker-shaped. I sat there for a few minutes, picking at my dinner, trying to compose myself as my simple brain corrected its erroneous assumption. 

We began to chat, and turns out, Andrew is great. He is funny, to the point, and knows his stuff. We talked about Project: Priceless over all, and discussed the wedding day and photos he’ll capture there in his role as partner-in-crime with Adam Pap. And when we got to talking about the ‘Wedding Night’ shoot, I was only blushing a little. He was able to be very matter-of-fact with the do’s and don’ts of a nude, non-erotic photoshoot, while still being personable and cracking jokes with us. We even decided to take Andrew up on his offer of doing two ‘solo’ shoots, so that we’d have photos to give to each other. This was actually really exciting for me, as I have wanted to do a nude shoot for a few years now. I had some major reconstructive surgery about four years ago, and I’ve wanted to capture the scars, proof of my warrior spirit, on camera. Andrew was game, and we talked about ideas and looks for the shoot.

I find myself thinking of that movie, Calendar Girls, where the old ladies do nude photos to make a calendar. I know I’m young…well, young enough…so it may seem silly to feel a kinship with a group of female retirees whose concerns about being photographed naked are probably a lot different from my own. But maybe not so different, when we consider that girls now start dieting at the average age of 8, and that women my own age are regular clients of botox clinics the world over. I’m hoping I won’t even think about these things, these imperfections that bother me in the bathroom mirror but hopefully won’t matter to the camera. I want to be proud of my fine lines, as they follow perfectly the lines of my smile; I want to capture on film the scars that show a life fully-lived thus far; I want to believe I’ll be okay with seeing the curves my belly and butt, rounded by my addiction to refined sugar. I think I’ll just focus on Brian: how he can talk me into so many crazy things without even having to open his mouth, as long as he smiles. Because it’s the challenging grin that had me up on a zipline, out with a snorkelling tour, and on the back of a motorcycle. And making this possible, I’ll have Andrew there, with his wry wit, his years of experience, and his carefully-construed lighting.

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We also met Laura Stephenson this week, of Laura Elizabeth Photography (http://lauraelizabethfoto.wordpress.com/). Our wedding planner Amy helped us find Laura when one of our photographers cancelled. We found ourselves in need of a photographer who was a whiz at catching up-close details, so that we can be sure to document every borrowed, traded, and donated item at the wedding—everything from earrings to venue. Amy had her table at WedByHand photographed by Laura, and when we saw the pictures, we knew we’d found a great shutterbug. Laura is fairly new in the field, but we only learned that when she told us, because you sure can’t tell by her work. We need someone who can do photos like the wedding mags have, with in-action details of the little things that make up a wedding. Well, Laura’s our girl. I met with her at Brian’s tea shop this week, and aside from adoring her work, I now adore her. And I have no idea why this is relevant, but she’s cute as a button. There, I said it. I’ll basically re-mention all this when I do the ‘offers’ post, but I wanted to blog about it because sitting with Laura, having a tea, was really great: here was someone new to talk with about the wedding! Poor Laura, I have no idea how long she thought the meeting would take when she first sat down, but two hours later, I had told her a hundred random details including guest list drama and the adventures of bridesmaid dress shopping. Laura, thank you for being an interested and compassionate ear for my meandering tales. Sometimes you gotta say all this stuff out loud so you can really hear it for yourself. And we truly are so very happy to have you on board.

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I also got a tweet this week that sent me skittering over to Lilac Lingerie, a new independent lingerie boutique that’s opened here in the Westboro neighbourhood…but you’ll have to wait ‘til the offers post to hear more! Suffice it to say, it was a bright spot early in the week and I’m very, very excited.

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Last thing I wanted to be sure to write about today was the cupcake tasting we went to, put on by Little Cakes (http://www.littlecakes.ca/). Little Cakes is offering cupcakes for our co-ed shower (hopefully happening in May). We had eaten some samples of their wares at the WedByHand show, and the moment my bridesmaid Tam had heard they were offering treats, she demanded that their mint chocolate variety be on the menu. Anyway, Little Cakes had a special ‘wedding tasting’ this week; we all paid five bucks and stuffed ourselves full of about a dozen flavours of cupcake.

Mo and Tam came with Bri and myself, and we all grabbed one of everything. I demanded we try the flavours in an orderly fashion and proposed a grading scale to be sure we chose our very favourites to have at the shower. While Mo and I took half-bites of our first few flavours, I asked Brian what his grading was for the first flavour…of course, when I turned around, he’d already wolfed down about six or seven of them. Thank the heavens they were mini, or I’d have had a sick boy at home with me that night.

The cool thing: we all almost unanimously agreed on the three best flavours, so narrowing them down wasn’t too painful. There was some question over what the third-best flavour was—cherry cherry or strawberry lemonade—and when I asked Bri, he voted for the cherry, completely unaware that Tam and I had just decided on the strawberry lemonade. I said okay, but I said it like, “Okaaaaaaaay….” and leaned my head against his as I debated how much of a bridezilla I could be at this moment: did I have to have the lemonade one? I did like the cherry…but the lemonade was more of a crowd-pleaser…And then suddenly, out of nowhere, Brian changed his mind and abruptly announced he’d actually prefer the strawberry lemonade one. I sputtered for a moment, trying to be certain he wasn’t choosing that one just because I liked it, and he said definitively, No, he liked that one best and in fact, was going to go eat another one. As he wandered off to find one, Tam looked at me like I had performed some sort of miracle. I asked her, What? She said, “It was as if you put the thought into his head with your mind,” she said, and we both laughed incredulously, because it did seem like that! And then, wise woman that she is, she asked, “How did you do it? And: can it be taught???” But then Brian came back and we forgot all about it. Hmmm.

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Tomorrow we go to the Ottawa Wedding Show. This is our first all-out ‘traditional’ wedding show…we went to WedByHand, but it’s so unconventional and indy-inspired that I don’t lump it into the same genre. I’m curious to see what this show is like. I have actually worked at this show before, back in a former life when I was a certified makeup and image consultant. And I hated it, but then, I didn’t care much for weddings back then. I still have pretty ambivalent feelings about weddings, but now I see how a person can really make it something different, if they’re only willing. I don’t know what to expect, and only half of my girls can make it, which makes me nervous…but hey, at least there’ll be cupcake samples.

Maybe I could have kept that too-big dress…who knew there was so much cake on the road to marriage.