We were in the News!

While Jenni's parents were shooting our engagement photos the weekend after Thanksgiving, we were confronted by an Everett Herald Newspaper photographer who said he needed to take some photos of people utilizing the new park. So he proceeded to document the photo shoot and about 3 days later, we found ourselves on the front page of the "Local" section.

Camano Residents begin embracing Four Springs Lakes Reserve - a 50-acre public area on top of the island
Reference The Everett Herald, Dec 2004

Engagement Photos

We had our engagement photos taken this weekend by Jenni's Dad. He did a really great job and we were happy with all of them. It was hard to choose which ones to use for our wedding announcement, so in the end we ended up using a few different shots. All photos were taken on Camano Island.

These are several of our favorite shots:

Trying on Wedding Dresses

Part of the excitement of being engaged is knowing that you can now go into bridal stores and know that you are justified in trying on all of the pretty dresses. :)

Dalynn and Tessha (whom I also chose as bridesmaids) were so great and trudged through many a bridal shop with me before I finally found the right dress.

Given our modest standards for wedding dresses within the LDS religion, finding a cute modest and trendy wedding dress was not an easy task.

I first decided to try on some of the modest dresses...and as you can see by the pictures and the expression on my face, I really did not like any of them. Here are just two examples:

Well, so then I decided to start trying on sleeveless dresses that might work (to add sleeves onto later)...And as you can see, still no luck.

I also tried on several strapless dresses just to see if I liked the style of the bodices. It is pretty sad when out of all the dresses I tried on, the ones that actually looked decent on me were ones that I wouldn't be able to buy in the end.

I actually ended up coming back to one of the shops a few days later and discovered a dress that I had not tried on before. I loved it. It was the one. I spoke with the owner about having sleeves designed to match the dress and material, and it was no problem.

Here is the dress before alterations were made later on...

And then here is the dress later after sleeves were added...

As you can see, the detail on the sleeves are an exact match to the dress :)

The sleeves were actually later shortened about 3 inches so that the "bell" of the sleeve started right at the elbow.

I love this picture - Me looking back at myself in the mirror in my wedding dress. I was so excited to finally have the dress, and kept imagining myself wearing it on our wedding day.

Jenni's Symphony Concert

I have been playing with a chamber orchestra called the Oregon Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra for the past 6 months or so. I have played with countless number of groups before, but this is the first group I've played with that was semi-professional and I have to say - we sound pretty good. :)

This past weekend we had a special concert with the Sapporo Philharmonic from Tokyo. So our little "chamber" orchestra was temporarily supersized to a full sized symphony-orchestra (and then some).

Above: A view from the audience's perspective during a dress rehearsal

The 4 hour nightly rehearsals leading up to the concert were grueling, but it paid off in the end. Our sold-out concert was held at the Governor's Hotel in downtown Portland. It was rated as the #1 concert of the weekend in the Oregonian, even higher than the Oregon Symphony.

Above: Jenni at the back of the 1st Violin section

Will's parents flew all the way from Idaho to attend the concert. They brought me a bouquet of roses before the performance. That was really sweet of them.

We performed some American orchestral standards, including Aaron Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man" and "Hoedown", as well as a few Classical favorites such as "Scheherazade" by Rimsky-Korsakov.

Service Project

We had the opportunity to participate in a ward service project and help clean up a horse farm. It was a place for wayward teenagers -where they come and get assigned to take care of an animal, and in turn it is supposed to help them cope with their behavioral problems.

We showed up to help pull weeds around the property and clean it up again, and also fix their fence.

Above: I really did pull weeds, and not just pick daisies. :)

After we got done with our service project, we went and goofed around and took pictures of ourselves.

Above: Caught! I was staring at my engagement ring again - haha.