Our save-the-date photo in front of PPAC, where our names and the date were up on the marquee.
By Amanda Parker
Awkward. Staged. Funny. Weird. Fake. These are some of the words that come to mind when we think of engagement pictures. Adam and I have never been fans of engagement pictures, mainly because I can’t stare at Adam in an awkward position, be told to smile, and not burst out laughing. It’s just awkward. But, we had a really cool idea for our save-the-date pictures so, unfortunately, we had to take some awkward pictures. We had our friend, Josh, who loves photography, take them one Saturday afternoon.
Since we are going for a whole “Jackie O and JFK meet Providence” theme, we thought it would be cool to use the marquee at the Providence Performing Arts Center. My aunt works there so I called her to see if it was possible — it was! I sent the controller the exact wording of what we wanted on the marquee. On a sunny (thank god!) Saturday afternoon Josh, my mom, Adam and I went down to PPAC to take the pictures. There it was on the big screen: Coming soon…Mr. and Mrs. Adam Lupino 8/30/2114.” Wait, 2114?!?! I guess we decided to send our save the dates out really early. After a minute of panic, they fixed it — 2014 — and we were ready to go.
A few laughs and moments of not being serious — Josh was extremely patient with us (well, me). Josh was also a daredevil, standing in the street trying to get the perfect shot all while trying to not be run over. We know how crazy RI drivers are — they really don’t care! We took some more pictures in Waterplace Park, and then it was cold so we grabbed a cocktail. (You all probably think we drink a lot, but we just like to toast “to dos” when we cross them off the list).
After about a week, which seemed like a year, Josh sent us the pictures. They were perfect, and so many to choose from! We narrowed down our favorites and picked what we thought was the perfect picture to capture our theme. In keeping with our “old schoolness,” we printed it in black and white. We sent them out, and everyone loved them. They were different and fun, which is exactly what we were going for.