I want to tell you a little story today. With there being so many 9s left and all until the wedding, usually bridals happen. This is a normal thing to do. After going back and forth with the photographer discussing locations, Flagstaff was decided. Why, may you ask? Well. It's snowy. And fresh fallen snow = good pictures. Right? Right. This seemed like a perfectly logical decision. Perfectly normal.
Well.
I forget that I don't live in Buffalo, NY which just happens to be buried in snow at this very moment. Well this is from November, but you get the point!!! Anyway. It's cold in Flagstaff. There is snow there. I mean, it's snowy just about everywhere else in the country right now, but not in Phoenix. Phoenix is a place filled with sunshine and flip flops. Ice cream stores are open ALL YEAR AROUND!!!!!
We drive up to Flagstaff. Have I mentioned that Mario, the fiance, is incredibly sick and had a fever for the last 2 days, and was barely alive when we drove up there? I dragged him along because, well, I had to. I needed my groom! Back to the story, we drive up there, walk outside, look at the snow, look at each other and say, "hey, it's not that bad! I'm not even cold! I probably don't even need a jacket!" I mean, some under armour pants, some boots and a jacket should be enough for a tiny little photoshoot, right? I mean, how bad could it be?
It was bad. We drove right to the field of ice, snow, death, and the most beautiful backdrop of freshly fallen snow on tall wintery trees. Ten minutes in I couldn't feel my toes, another ten I couldn't feel my fingers, all while trying to look like I was the warmest human being alive. It actually was an awesome bridal shoot. Selena, our photographer, is fantastic. She has so much energy and made it really fun. When Mario and I went back in to the car to heat up a little bit on the way to the next shooting location, we realized that the heater was forgetting its job and only blew out cold air. We kind of chalked it up to not having enough time to heat up and sucked it up during our next location.
This is where the classic relationship building comes in. We say goodbye to our photographer and her lovely assistant, and go to find food. Halfway to food, and in the middle of some kind of residential area of Flagstaff, the car starts billowing smoke. SMOKE!!! My car doesn't do that! My car is perfect, gosh dangit! What the heck happened!!!! I guess that's what happens when your car overheats... apparently. We had the tiniest bit of water left in a water bottle that we poured in to the radiator. And then we waited. At this point we were cold. We hadn't heated up from the photoshoot, and now we were just wet. And sooooooo cold. The car miraculously started, and we found a safeway in which we bought socks and 4 gallons of water. I think we both looked like drowned rats. The car was a mess, I had thrown (gently, of course) my wedding dress in the back, couldn't find my shirt so I dug one of Mario's jackets out of the pile and wore that, along with an extra pair of sweats. We gently poured the entire gallon of water in the radiator, while using one of the socks as mittens and it started SPRAYING boiling water out. Straight-up boiling. Once the spraying had stopped, Mario and I just looked at each other, still freezing, shrugged our shoulders and hoped the best. We drove around aimlessly trying to find food, still cold, but at least the car was working, camped out in the restaurant for a while to heat up, filled the radiator again, and drove home. The end.
This was a long story which could have been summed up in: We went to Flagstaff for a bridal shoot, our car broke down, we were really cold, and we made it home alive. Sorry 'bout that.
BUT!!! At least we got some freaking awesome pictures from that. These are just a few of my favorites:
I have to admit, I still think it was worth the drive for these pictures.
Catch ya next time,
Ivy
Photo cred: Sorensen Studios
