Hi everyone! It has been a while since we have blogged – this is the first post of 2010. We have many great things in the works and some big announcements to make soon. For now, Erik and I wanted to thank all of our amazing brides and grooms from 2009. We had an incredible year with you and feel so honored to have been a part of your wedding day! We also want to thank you for saying great things about us to WeddingWire, as we were recently selected to receive the WeddingWire 2010 Bride’s Choice Awards™ for Photography.

From WeddingWire:
“The annual Bride’s Choice Awards recognizes and celebrates excellence in quality and service within the wedding industry, as determined by recent reviews and extensive surveys from over 500,000 newlyweds. Victoria Souza Photography is among the top five percent of all vendors in the WeddingWire community, which includes over 100,000 wedding professionals across the US and Canada. Awards were given to winners across 19 different service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers. We are happy to announce that Victoria Souza Photography is among the very best Photographers within the WeddingWire Network, which includes WeddingWire and Martha Stewart Weddings.”

A few months back Erik lost his handmade wedding band at an engagement session on a beach in Boston. He has been ringless since, and I have been on a mad quest to find a special ring to replace the one he lost. I am a bit of a jewelry lover, and I especially love modern and unique pieces. I found the coolest website the other day in my search and I just had to share with all of you brides! The website is New York Wedding Ring and you get to spend a day making your own ring! If I had known about this back when we were getting married, I would have loved to spend a day with my hubby-to-be making each others wedding bands. Exchanging rings on your wedding day is always special, but how much more special would it be looking at that wedding band for years to come and thinking of the day they were made. Really. Awesome. I am also a fan of Mokume Gane, which is how I came across the site in the first place. Now I will just have to talk Erik into spending a day to make his wedding band. Check it out!

And just for fun, this is a website I check out often – Krikawa. I absolutely love their work! Specifically the Mokume Gane rings ; ) Someday maybe I will own one.

I just realized today that I haven’t posted on my blog in about 3 weeks. Shameful. I have good reasons though – it was my husband’s birthday..I went to Boston on a rare weekend off, and I went to Chicago this past week for a couple days. Sunday I shot a wedding with RJT Pictures. I have plenty to blog about and it will be coming in the next few days!!

Something I hae been meaning to blog about for a while is the book The Conscious Bride: Women Unveil Their True Feeling About Getting Hitched. If you are newly engaged, or even close to your wedding day this is an awesome book! After I got engaged I remember going through a strangely emotional period and I was thoroughly confused. All the women around me I knew who had gotten married were talking about how fun planning a wedding was. I heard over and over that this is a happy time. At times I felt happy, but I also felt so many other emotions ranging from anger, confusion and fear. This book really helped me to appreciate the rite of passage that Marriage is, and helped me to be ok with what I was feeling. I learned that most women DON’T spend the engagement period in a state of elation, and that it is ok! It was a huge relief for me, and if any of you are having uncomfortable feelings, know that it is OK and totally normal…and maybe have a look at this book.