A Coordinator Worth 1000

Like many brides, I had unattainable goals when it came to wedding planning. Not just goals that were unattainable financially, but things I wanted to make happen that I simply didn't have time for. One of those things was a personalized music mix for the entire time we spent at Hotel 1000. All of the sudden it was 2 days before the wedding and the playlist hadn't even been touched. That's when I admitted defeat and emailed my Hotel 1000 coordinator, Donna, to let her know that it wasn't going to happen and I needed her to pick up the slack for me.

Her choice of music was fantastic! It really set the tone for the event, and I remember my sister turning to me in the middle of dinner and saying "Wow, you did a really great job with the music for this!" I let her know that it was all Donna's doing, and then we both continued to nod our head and sway our shoulders to the beat in approval.

Imagine my surprise and delight when I opened up my mailbox the other day to find this sitting inside:

Yes, that would be a copy of the CD she had playing. Donna was my second coordinator at the hotel, and making the switch made me really nervous. It was a little difficult to re-orient with her at first (not because she made it hard, just because there were so many details to catch her up on), but she and my DOC really carried the event through from start to finish. I've already listened to the CD several times and it's one of the most thoughtful gifts I have received in a long time.

It's so wonderful to have such a good relationship with my wedding vendors. I've been emailing back and forth with her about the wedding photos as Kelli puts them up and I think she might be as excited about seeing them as I am.

Have any of your vendors gone beyond the call of duty in their interactions with you?

Teaser 5: Ring Ceremony

Because we didn't do a whole lot of posed, formal, portraits with our friends and family, shots of moments like this one are so special to us.

Why do I love this photo by Kelli Nicole?

1. It reminds me that it is okay to have shots of people other then the bride and groom at the wedding. Make sure and not to your photographer if there are specific people in your life that you would like to have captured!
2. The couple pictures are some of our closest friends here in Dallas, and with any luck their wedding will be the next one we attend.
3. I didn't just plan this wedding for us, I planned it for our guests. Don't they look like they are enjoying themselves?

L read our quote by C.S. Lewis from Mere Christianity, and did an absolutely beautiful job. This quote describes everything Mr. Avocado and I believe about what love should be. When our marriage becomes difficult, this is the text we will turn to in order to remind us what we are working for.

Being in love is a good thing, but it is not the best thing. There are many things below it, but there are also things above it. You cannot make it the basis of a whole life. It is a noble feeling, but it is still a feeling. Now no feeling can be relied on to last in its full intensity, or even to last at all. Knowledge can last, principles can last, habits can last; but feelings come and go. And in fact, whatever people say, the state called "being in love" usually does not last. If the old fairy-tale ending "They lived happily ever after" is taken to mean "They felt for the next fifty years exactly as they felt the day before they were married," then it says what probably never was nor ever could be true, and would be highly undesirable if it were. Who could bear to live in that excitement for even five years? What would become of your work, your appetite, your sleep, your friendships?

But, of course, ceasing to be "in love" need not mean ceasing to love. Love in this second sense--love as distinct from "being in love"--is not merely a feeling. It is a deep unity, maintained by the will and deliberately strengthened by habit; reinforced by the grace which both ask, and receive, from God. They can have this love for each other even at those moments when they do not like each other. They can retain this love even when each would easily, if they allowed themselves, be "in love" with someone else.

"Being in love" first moved them to promise fidelity: this quieter love enables them to keep the promise.

It is on this love that the engine of marriage is run: being in love was the explosion that started it.

Teaser 4: Party Portraits

Portrait time with the wedding party was really important to me. We had to be at the temple at 11 am, and all of our wedding party wouldn't be going inside with us so it didn't make sense to do pictures before. We knew we would emerge from the temple somewhere around 1:15, and we wanted to get a few pictures with all those in attendance as well. We knew we had to budget around 20 minutes for the drive from the temple to the hotel, and that everyone would be driving in different cars and arriving at different times.

All I can say is budget extra time for your portraits. More time than you think would ever be possible to fill, because there will be setbacks. Like how the groomsmen all decided to swing by the hotel and pick up their "party clothes" to spend a night on the town after the wedding. As the bride I stuffed my face with a sandwhich and tried to pretend like I didn't care (Oh, did I sound sort of shrill when asking where they were? My bad).

No matter now though, because we ended up with photos like this:

Do I even need to be explaining why I love this photo by Kelli Nicole?

1. Everyone somehow managed to have the same kind of expression on their face. Not just any expressions, but some of the hottest and sassiest expressions I have ever seen in a wedding photo.
2. I knew the suitcases could be a stretch. Would they look awkward, would the bridesmaids (and man) want to haul them around and pose with them? Whether they liked them or not, at least they did a good job pretending.
3. Look at my little junior bridesmaid in the bottom left. We only had to coach her one time, and that was to keep her panties from showing :)
4. Does bridesman Trevy not look like a GQ movie star? I'm feeling a little flushed.
5. We managed to pull off shots like this even though we had to get up about every other shot and allow people to walk up and down these stairs. These stairs are only a block or two from Pike's Place Market so they stayed pretty busy the entire time.

Teaser 3: Temple Emergence

For an LDS temple wedding, a small number of people are present to witness the sealing. All of those who witness the sealing leave the building before the bride and groom and the entire crowd waits outside for the new couple to emerge. We invited everyone invited to the dinner later that evening to join us as we emerged from the temple as husband and wife.

Most of the time the couple come out, maybe raise their arms in triumph and then stand around awkwardly for a few moments before they figure out they are supposed to start hugging people. That wasn't the case for us, as upon emerging we were greeted Suavacado's parents grinning and walking towards us, looking, shall I say, a little bit mischievous.

Then, the coins came pouring out on our heads.

If you look closely in the middle of the frame you can see me screaming in shock and delight, for I happened to know exactly what they were doing. I wrote a post for the Bridal Guide a few months ago talking about different Danish and Polish traditions I was interested in incorporating into the wedding, and this was one of them. To quote myself:

Probably my favorite Polish tradition is throwing pennies at the bride and groom as they leave the ceremony. The best part of this practice is that the bride and groom must stop and pick the pennies up after they are thrown at them. It makes for some really great photos! The pennies are supposed to be an indication of financial fortune in the future, which must be why this bride and groom look so eager to bend down in their wedding attire and collect them.

I don't know if I was eager to be picking them up, but I really didn't have any other choice with all of our family and friends saying "Oh, I see one over here." and "Woohoo, you guys missed one."

Everyone present loved it. I even had one little cousin come find me afterwards and hand me $1 in quarters. "Here," she said "I forgot to throw these when you came out because I was so excited."

Reasons why I love these photos:

1. Isn't it obvious? A real Pole incorporate a Polish wedding tradition into my thoroughly American wedding. My folklore professor would be so proud.
2. This was obviously something that had been planned ahead of time. Someone else planned something for our wedding. To think I didn't have to do any work to make this moment happen :)
3. In the second photo I am attempting to both hold the coins and keep everyone from getting a look down my dress. My train wasn't bustled and so I kept gathering coins underneath and sweeping them around. Don't worry, my family pointed all of them out to me.

Kelli Nicole, you amaze me.

Teaser 2: Into the Woods

When visiting Poland with Mamcado this past May, my FILcado took us to see a Polish castle. As a girl who referred to herself as a princess growing up I was beside myself. I reached the point of critical mass when a bride and groom walked up right behind us, plunked themselves down, and started taking portraits.

What really got my creative juices flowing though was the vintage suitcases they were hauling around and incorporating into their portraits. A photo prop that can be converted into instant seating is the best kind of photo prop. It fit perfectly into our non-themed vintage/travelesque/button wedding.

I also love that they asked the medieval festival participants to pose in their pictures with them!

And here is how the idea was interpreted for our wedding day.

SILcado is missing from this photo because she stayed in Poland and I am so sad!

The woods we are in are literally steps away from the temple grounds, so it worked perfectly to do family photos right before we were married. My parents hauled 4 different suitcases into the woods with them and I am sure my in-laws thought we were crazy (well, after the wedding they probably think we are still a little bit crazy, but that is okay). The suitcases helped create height and gave the photos a certain dynamic we wouldn't have been able to achieve otherwise.

Things I love about this photo:

1. The way my sister is looking at my husband. She always says the nicest things about him.
2. The fact that everyone looks relaxed and happy, and this is at 10 in the morning as the day is just beginning!
3.The suitcase I am sitting on. You guys can't see it (there will be more shots of it later), but I found it a few days before the wedding for $10 at a thrift shop in a nearby town. I am sure it will be reused for photo shoots many times over by Mamacado. I'm tempted to claim it as a type of "hope chest" to keep wedding items in though :)
4. How the suitcases were used throughout the wedding and a nice theme developed without it feeling overdone. You will see that they functioned as bridal party shot props, trunk for the photo booth props, a place to put guestbook postcards, holding the escort cards, etc.

First photo by me, second photo by Kelli Nicole. You can see the rest of the woodsy shots here (or save them for the recaps!)

The Secret Life of Bees: The Avocado Edition

First there was Popples. Then it was Jenna Nichole. There were many others, some forgotten, some lost, some remembered. Puckers kept me company in high school and through part of college. Green Bear did the job before the wedding.

Yes, it's true.

[Insert cut here Peng! For I think it adds some suspense.....]

Mrs. Avocado sleeps with a stuffed animal. Well, I recently upgraded to a little red pillow, given to me by junior bridesmaid Nay two years ago at Christmas.

But don't let the fact that it's a pillow fool you. It's just a stand-in for a stuffed animal until I convince Mr. Avocado to give me something cute to sleep with when he is out of town on business each week.

It's something about the way my arm sits against my chest when I lie on my side that makes me feel like I have to have it. I really planned on eliminating it once we got married. I figured that getting married would mean I had finally reached the point where I am a grown-up and would not need such childish things anymore.

So maybe I didn't grow up. Or maybe it's okay to hold on to a few childish things after you get married.

Do you have a "childish" secret to share?

Let the Teasing Begin

My photographer has been devoting entire posts to our wedding day photos. Not just the "here are 40 photos and I am done now," kind of post, but the "I'm breaking this wedding up into several sections and blogging about the event as a story." In fact, if I was really lazy, I could just point you to her blog and not do any recaps at all! Except I have been waiting to do my recaps since I was accepted as a Bee. I LOVE recaps and I can't wait to get my CD back so I can get started on mine.

Why would she devote so much time to our pictures? To quote her:

Jenna was my very first ever roommate at BYU (and makes the top 3 list of favorites, out of 32!), so she gets special treatment.

We chat online almost daily and we plan on flying her out to do a newborn shoot (her specialty, but not happening anytime soon) no matter where we are living. The relationship we have is so much more than just a wedding vendor and a bride, and I love it.

I still want to wait for the cd of prints I purchased with my package before I start my recaps, as I want to really convey the story of our day, not just the best photos. However, for the next few days I am going to choose a favorite photo from each of her posts and tell why I love it so much.

Let's start with a getting ready shot.

Reasons why I love this shot:

1. The lighting is amazing.
2. It's ultra dramatic.
3. You may think that I am giving thanks, or having an intensely emotional moment as I prepare for one of the most beautiful things I will ever do. Nope, I am freaking out because they are tugging on my head to get the veil in. I have a really tender head and I am kind of a baby about people pulling on my hair. My head was so sore after the entire thing was backcombed for what felt like hours. Ok, fine, it was like 20 minutes, but I think I only cried one time!

To see more shots of me getting ready, visit the post here (or don't and then it will be more of a surprise when I finally do tell all!)