Making Fools of Ourselves: 2014

Here we go! Let the embarrassment begin. Welcome to our 4th annual Making Fools of Ourselves blog post (also lovingly referred to as “How Many Hairstyles Can Carolyn Have in One Year?”). You’ll find that not much has changed since we first started this. Geoff’s main facial expression is still lovingly annoyed with me and/or chronically surprised, while pictures of me range from tired to excited to panicked to happy to fist-pumping to Journey going on hour 9 of 10 in a totally delirious state. We laid on a lot of floors, wrangled a lot of dogs, recovered from tendonitis only to get it again only to recover again only to get it again, ruined a lot of one another’s pictures, talked to a bunch of guests we don’t know, let our hair grow only to shave one side of it only to cut it completely off only to grow it in again. A lot of people on social media try to present the best versions of themselves, but we’re firm believers in presenting your worst. That way, you know, it can only go up. Here’s to 2014.

CSP Class of 2014.

In 2014 we were on the road. A lot.

We ate a lot of snacks out of a lot of different vending machines. We had to ask guests at a wedding in Georgia to clarify what a “fill-up” station was. I found myself wearing a tank top in Michigan in August, only to find out I was woefully unprepared for it being 49 degrees when we arrived. We snorkeled with sharks, sting rays, and sea turtles at our first destination wedding in St. John, USVI. A woman who owned a diner in Connecticut showed me her teeth she was having worked on that afternoon. A little boy in NC answered the door for us wearing a werewolf mask. We finally got to see the Gaffney Peach in South Carolina. Babies were born, hands were held, and cats were most definitely petted. We were happy to see old friends and meet new ones in comfortable, familiar places like Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Maryland.  And we went on a personal trip to Iceland with clients from a few years back who have become dear friends of ours. We went through a lot of different camera bags, cracked the screen on the back of one of our 5DMIIIs, split at least one pair of pants, and racked up hundreds of flight points on the rewards card and thousands of miles on the Mazda.

In 2014 we made a lot of new friends. Here are some of them.

CSP Class of 2013.

We’ve been doing “CSP Class of” posts for the past couple of years and we love it. You’re all like our darling pupils… coming into our lives for a year, allowing us to impart our wedding wisdom onto you, occasionally having your moms call us to ask us questions. Then you’re gone and we only see you when you visit (where you probably notice that we look a little older and worse for the wear since the last time you saw us), during which we reminisce about all the things that you worried about leading up to the wedding and how none of it came true (or did, depending). Instead of apples you bring us rum or vodka, and we pat you on the head and then you leave (or really you’re probably patting me on the head due to my very short stature).

Here’s to all the amazing people and places we went in 2013. Here’s to the excitement, the occasional tears, the joy, the on-the-road snacks, sleeping in people’s houses that we don’t know, traversing many state lines, bustling all the dresses, checking for ticks on a constant basis, eating post-wedding nachos, editing all the pictures to really cheesy Netflix dramas that Geoff makes fun of me for (mostly Gossip Girl and One Tree Hill this year… don’t judge me), and to each and every one of you for trusting us with photographing a very important day in your lives… and for the fantastic memories you’ve given us. 2013 was lovely.