Excited (and a wee bit nervous!)

Thursday is the day! Not for our wedding, silly. That's still over a year away. But Thursday is the day that we not only skip out of the country for Ned's first visit to Europe, but it's the day of our first engagement shoot!

You might be wondering why I say "first" engagement shoot and that's because Ned and I decided that we needed not one, but two engagement sessions! Im incredibly excited, but at the same time super nervous. I can't really figure out if the butterflies are due to the photos or the trip or everything combined. Im a seasoned traveler and have been visiting Austria multiple times a year for almost a decade so Im thinking the nervousness is due more to the photos.

See, I'm someone who loves to be behind the camera, not in front of it. Just the thought of someone taking a picture of me starts to get me going crazy. I wonder about my hair; how will I style it? Does it need to be colored? What about a haircut? I wonder about my teeth; are they white enough? Do I have time to bleach them? What about my clothes? What will I wear? What will look just right? Dear god, what about SHOES?! I cant forget the shoes! Oh, and then I freak out that all this worrying will cause my skin to break out.... It just goes on and on and on.

Ive been trying to get things taken care of ahead of time to avoid going crazy over the little details at the last minute as much as possible. I took care of coloring my hair about a week or so ago. Ned and I both went and got haircuts together this last weekend. I started going through all my clothes (which, if you know me, you know is a huge task) and started to not only put together the most perfect outfit, but also pick out what I want to pack for our trip. It still feels like there is so much to do though.

We are probably overdoing it by planning our photo shoot for the morning of the day we are leaving for Europe, but it's the only day we will be able to visit the Minnesota State Fair this year. The Fair opens the day we leave and ends before we come back! We both love the State Fair and would be so sad if we missed it. Last year we had so much fun that we actually went twice. It only seems fitting that our engagement photos are taken there. Unfortunately, our wonderful wedding photographers, Graddy Photography, are booked on the only day we can make it to the Fair. (We get a free engagement shoot with our wedding package.) But we are super lucky to have the amazing Jenn Barnett instead! We are still going to use our engagement session with Graddy at a later date, maybe this winter or in the spring.

Im really excited to have our engagement photos done, but tomorrow is going to be a whirlwind. So much to do in such a short time. Im keeping my fingers crossed for nice weather!

I wanted to make a post about getting an email from The Knot yesterday that we reached our 13 months mark, but I just don't have time. Expect a big update when we get back! For now, here are some photos of us from the MN State Fair last year.