When I heard there was an engagement session shot at the War Eagles Air Museum waiting in my inbox – I couldn’t open it fast enough. When I saw that it was from Wedding Xpressions, some of my favorite El Paso photographers, I may or may not have let out a little gasp. I was instantly mesmerized with the vintage airplanes, the crazy gorgeous location and of course, the plethora of romance. In fact, I don’t think there is one little piece of this shoot that I’m not head over heels for. These images are passion galore with a special touch of vintage love. They look like they escaped from a movie... they kind of remind me of the film Pearl Harbor. I hope you enjoy them!
Ahhh… and make sure to stop by at the end of the post to read the romantic proposal story and some hints about the multicultural wedding this cool couple is planning.
From the bride... Chris and I met while attending school at New Mexico State University during our sophomore years. Chris and his best friend managed to have the housing staff permit them to live on an all-girls floor in the dorms and wound up being my neighbors. After 6 months of friendship, we started dating. Four years later, Chris proposed by hiding scavenger hunt clues in Easter eggs, which ended with an engagement ring around the collar of one of our pet cats. We have lived apart for the past year while Chris was completing his US Air Force Combat Systems Officer Training in Pensacola, FL and I finished my last year of Graduate School at NMSU.
The wedding will be held June of 2012 and will incorporate elements from Chris's Hawaiian traditions and my German traditions. Some of the traditions that will be incorporated include drinking from the Brautbecher, which is a German tradition where the couple drinks from a pewter cup with two ends. Whoever is capable of finishing their end of the cup first, is said to win the key to the house. To include another German tradition, we are taking a different approach to the selection of the next "bride-to-be". Instead of the traditional bouquet toss, in Germany the groom is blindfolded and must remove the bridal veil and successfully select one of the single women who walk in a circle around the couple. He must then pin the veil in her hair blindfolded. From the Hawaiian side, we will be incorporating the famous Lei element to our wedding. During a Hawaii wedding, the bride and groom exchange leis which was a tradition practiced by the royalty for hundreds of years in Hawaii. The exchange symbolizes love and commitment. We will also be using white orchids as one of our wedding flowers (along with red roses). Instead of doing the traditional lighting of the unity candle, we will be doing a sand ceremony where different color sands are poured into a bottle signifying the unity of the two families. And lastly, we will be leaving the ceremony to the Hawaiian wedding song "Ke Kali Nei Au" (Waiting Here for You).
Photography: Wedding Xpressions