Bridal Shoot with Your Dog

Why the heck not? Tell me. Tell any woman when she's holding her second love.

This awesome bridal shoot found via Tamara Lackely Photography.

The East

A few things I've learned during the past couple days:

Rangers can tow Jettas. Just fine, fairly fast, and very far. Disregard the 45mph sticker on the towing dolly.
Texas never ends. Seriously. Texas almost never ends.
There really is a Texarkana, and an Arkadelphia.
It's not fun to visit Nashville on Thanksgiving afternoon. Everything is closed, and it's absolutely freezing. (But we definitely need to plan a trip to go back.)
The East is beautiful.
North Carolina is now home.

Adiós mi Tucson

Today is the day. The trailer's loaded, truck packed, house cleaned, lingering hugs given, cleansing tears cried, last glances back taken, and we're driving away. Four days cross country drive to our new home, friends and family along the way. Goodbye my Tucson, hello Asheville.

{via me.}

Whimsical Wish Jewelry

Sundance Jewelry put out their new holiday catalog. I'm so glad I didn't see any of this before I had decided not to buy any wedding jewelry. I would have loved the excuse.

via {sundance jewelry}

Mmmm, aren't they lovely?

Real Wedding: Yosemite Elopement

Back to weddings, life, and love! These pictures are amazing that Patrick Pike Photography captured, what a beautiful place to just be. No fancy decorations, no stress, no show, just simply being with each other with no distractions. We had a lot of family and community we wanted around us, but if we hadn't had that, if we didn't have so many people who love and support us, we totally would have gone out by ourselves in an amazing place like this and married each other with just nature as our witness. It's powerful. In Patrick's words, it's this:

"I joined Sarah and Robert for their wedding day. I say that lightly, but in truth it was a heavy experience. They came to Yosemite to marry by themselves, just the two of them, myself with a camera, and Rev. Autrey Nassar as the officiant. As I have said before, something magical happens when you strip away all the fluff surrounding a wedding and just bring the focus back to the bride and groom, and that's exactly what happened. With no distractions, the love between them was thick, I just tried my best not to get in their way."

I'm not suggesting you go elope, but don't these pictures make it incredibly tempting?
 

Pretend Puppy

After we find a new house and start to unpack all the boxes and put things into their places, we need a dog. This isn't a silly want or a nice idea for the future, this is legitimate. Evan and Cori need a dog. After I spent a summer as just a girl and her dog in warm sunny Portland, I gave away a piece of my heart when I had to find my Tabor boy a new home. I was working too much, had too many evening classes, and not a stable enough life to give that beautiful pound puppy the life I thought he deserved. So here we are now, almost able to be at a place where we can look at breeders, visit the pound, and find our new little family member who will run us ragged on afternoon hikes and never let us sleep in past 6:30am. We might have different ideas about the breed we want {Evan: Vizlsa -- Cori: Irish Setter -- Logic: Mutt} but who could say no to this gorgeous beauty?

pictures found here, here, here, and here.

Goodbye Pacific

all pictures via me & e {augustandafter}

California

We're on the west coast visiting family and enjoying the salty sweet pacific ocean breeze before we move thousands of miles away. Crazy to think that last time I was in San Diego we were still dating and there were hinting jokes being made about a diamond ring for my finger. Now I have two of them and still half the family to meet! Packing is overrated, living life with family is way more important.

via {g(ART)en}

Real Wedding: at the Foxboro Lodge!

It was a surprise today to see that our photographer {Sarah Neal} had posted pictures of a wedding she just did at our venue-- the Foxboro Lodge! This is also the same place if you remember that Ruthy, the author of Discovery Street, is going to get married at this winter. Andrew and Karine must have some good taste in photographers and venues! I'm a little curious as to where the reception was though, I can't imagine turning that room around during cocktail hour! To check out more pictures you can go to Sarah Neal's blog here.

Moving on

August and After is moving! No, not the website-- but us, Evan and Cori. We're moving from warm and beautiful Arizona to LUSH and green {imagine!} North Carolina. In less than two weeks we'll be on the road headed east, and it's going to be bitter sweet to drive away from this place.

It's been such a good thing to be here. It was where we really began to live life together, where Evan became a part of my family, where we got engaged, where we were married, and where we made our first home. It hasn't always been easy and perfect but it's been good and honest and real. We're leaving family, which is hard. We're leaving the winter desert we've started to love, which is hard. We're leaving our cozy brick desert abode on our little piece of ranch land, which is surprisingly very hard. And we're having to pack, which is awful! This has been a tough year in a lot of different ways for both of us, so moving now is something we're really looking forward to. Not to run from things but to start a new adventure together as a young and in love married couple. Moving on at the beginning of the new year is refreshing. We look forward to it, to everything.

As things get crazier for us my posting may begin to slow down, but I promise it'll pick it up again once we're settling into our new home. For now there's packing, friends in town, being with family, a weekend trip to San Diego, riding in the annual Tour de Tucson, last days of our jobs, and then the loading up and heading out. Wish us luck as we try to get it all done!