Teaser 8: So long! Farewell!

After being showered with ecofetti outside the hotel we hopped in the car and drove away. Wait... we were spending the night at Hotel 1000 that night, why would we get in the car and drive away?

Why, to get shots like this of course!

Reasons why I love this photo:

1. I wanted something iconic, something to end our wedding album with a bang.
2. I had pretty high expectations about this photo. These are the photos that inspired it*:

I think Kelli did a pretty amazing job!
3. Kelli was exhausted by this point. It was somewhere around 8:00 PM and she had been shooting me (all by herself!) since somewhere around 7:00 AM. Actually we were all exhausted, as I had been going non-stop since about 5:30 AM that morning.
4. There is a shot of me as a senior in high school, standing in this same park, with this same view of Seattle that That Groom absolutely adores. My mom gave a huge print to him as a gift once, and it just might be his all-time favorite photo of me. I love that we can replace my old senior picture with one of the two of us.
5. I would imagine all brides become attached to the city they are married in, and I love that this is our shot of the city we got married in.

Until I get my Dvd(s) of pro-pics back, that wraps things up for now. I hope you have enjoyed my teasers, and I can't blame you if you want to head over to Kelli Nicole and check out all of the teaser shots (all 144 of them!) on her blog!

*John and Joseph Photography and Photogen-Inc

Teaser 7: Photobooth Shenanigans

I hate doing things that are "in" or cliche or could possibly be considered a fad as the years pass. I still haven't decided if the photo booth can be deemed any of those things, but there is somethign you should know. I actually don't care because photo booths are the best thing weddings have seen since the tradition of serving wedding cake began. I guarantee you there is no chance I would ever have been looking at photos like this without it:

Reasons why I like this photo:
1. My Great-Grandma is over 90 years old. I haven't seen her look this young in a long time.
2. She used to tell me stories of dancing on the pier while listening to big band music in the 20's and 30's. She told me once that she was the one that everyone wanted to dance with. I think the fake pearls, the purse, and the little hat remind me of that time period.
3. I hope to be able to show my daughters this photo one day and tell them "This grandma? She used to send me books because she and I both loved to read, and gave me a pair of semi-precious earrings I have always treasured, and she led a glamorous life sailing the Caribbean and traveling the world after she retired." I think you can sense her glamour in this photo.
4. Our photo booth? It was free! Jaquilyn Shumate brought her husband and took the pictures in exchange for a meal (and they must have done a fabulous job of coaching people and helping them feel natural because it shows in the photos). The camera and lights were provided by my mom, and the camera lens and backdrop were provided by Kelli. I got the hookups!

This is the first set of photos that make me a little bit sad and glad. Glad, because they are so hilarious (all of them!) Sad, because we only made out with 53 photos by the end of the night! With 75 guests that showed up, this means that less than half of our guests must have made their way over to it.

I don't want to end on a sad note, but this is the first time I will write about a wedding regret: Not doing a good enough job of spreading the word about the photo booth. I should have posted about it on the wedding website, included "tickets" for it in the ring ceremony program, and talked it up every single chance I got!

I just started to get really sad thinking about it. Then I scrolled back up again and looked at that photo of my Great-Grandma and began to smile again. :)

Teaser 6: Receptioning

Choosing this photos was really difficult to me. Do I choose one of the many details I had been slaving over for so long? What about the first dance shot, or the cake cutting, or the toasts?

You might be thinking "Hmmm what a strange choice." Well, here are the reasons I love this photo:

1. This moment was completely unexpected, and in no way planned for by me. The best man was our MC and suggested we play a little game to break the ice around the tables while people ate dinner. I wasn't so excited about the idea, as I didn't want the reception feeling like a game show with contests and prizes, but I liked his suggestion of having everyone in the room try to guess how to spell my new husbands middle name. The best man threw a little twist in the game when he revealed that it was actually the entire room competing against ME!
2. So the emotion you are seeing in my face is pure shock and disbelief. I actually spelled his middle name correctly! It must be a sign of true love or something, because my husbands middle name is MIECZYSLAW. Not only is it crazy authentically Polish, but it is made-up Polish (Shhh! Don't tell the other Poles, apparently they don't make up names all the time like we do in America!)
3. This, to me, is true photojournalism at its best. It's real and open and honest and it captures every single thing I was thinking and feeling in that moment.
4. I must have reapplied my lip gloss just before this shot was taken. I think it looks nice. :)

Think you can stay strong and keep it a surprise for just a little bit longer? If not, visit the rest of the photos by Kelli Nicole here.

2 Dresses and 2 Veils

I didn't talk much about my dresses and my veils before the wedding because I didn't want to get my hopes up that it would happen and then not have things work out the way I wanted them to. Confused yet? What could hold me back from wearing the second dress? Prepare for a long post in all of the explaining, but as always, I will fill it with pictures to keep you reading. Let's start with what I did know first.

Evelyn and this veil were always going to happen. This veil just happens to be Mamacado's, stashed away in Grandma's closet, with no hopes of ever being worn again. That is, until Mrs. Avocado and her crafty sister put two and two together and realized the veil had been worn once within the last 10 years while a fun round of dress-up was played and photos were taken. A little bit of digging and... YES!

Then I was going to keep Evelyn and change into this veil. The sassy birdcage from Something Bold just didn't look right worn over my face, but looked perfect flip back with a flower from Easter Yu.

But there was also a second dress lurking in my closet, calling out to me to be worn. The same day I tried on my Grandmother's dress from the 1950's I also attempted to zip up my mom's wedding dress. If the last person to wear it had been my mother I think there would have been no problems, but after my parents were married my practical Aunt decided to wear the same dress (to marry her brother-in-laws brother!), adding on poofy 80's sleeves and taking it in around the ribcage and at the bust. So the first hurdle was zipping the gown up AND being able to breathe.

Luckily pre-wedding stress knocked an inch or two off of my frame and a few weeks before the wedding I was finally able to zip the dress up and move around a little bit. The dress was sent off to the dry cleaner in an attempt to make it look a little whiter so that hurdle number 2 could be tackled.

2nd hurdle = would the dress be white enough? You see, I was never going to wear Evelyn in the temple for the sealing ceremony. I chose an off-white gown knowing it complemented my skin tone best, but with the knowledge that white clothing (including dresses) are worn inside of the temple. Elder John A Widtsoe, a leader in the LDS church, explains it best:

“In the temples all are dressed alike in white. White is the symbol of purity. No unclean person has the right to enter God’s house. Besides, the uniform dress symbolizes that before God our Father in heaven, all men are equal. The beggar and the banker, the learned and the unlearned, the prince and the pauper sit side by side in the temple and are of equal importance if they live righteously before the Lord God, the Father of their spirits. It is spiritual fitness and understanding that one receives in the temple. All such have an equal place before the Lord” (John A. Widtsoe, “Looking toward the Temple,” Ensign, Jan. 1972, p. 58).

My mom had worn the dress in the Seattle temple to be sealed to my father 24 years previously, so it wasn't an issue of modesty or style, but the dress had been hanging in my grandma's closet unpreserved for all of that time and the fabric would never be the brilliant white it once was. I cleaned the gown and packed it up knowing that I might walk into the temple and be told by one of the kind ladies that it hadn't been taken care of well enough, and that I would have to wear something else. (If you are wondering, my something else would have been the very plain and simple temple dress I will always wear when I visit the temple form now on).

Luckily that didn't happen, and so I was able to be sealed in the same dress that my parents were sealed in, in the same building. My mom wasn't as excited about the idea as I was, but it meant a lot to me to have her say that morning, as she was helping me get dressed in the dressing room "I didn't realize how much it would mean to me to have you be sealed in my dress."

Photographs of any kind are not permitted in the temple after the building is dedicated, so I do not have any photos to show you from the actual wedding day. Again, I knew this before we were married, so I begged Mamacado to do an After Wedding Shoot with us on the last day of our honeymoon, since we would only be relaximooning about 45 minutes from my house!

Before you look at these photos, I know Mamacado would be whispering in my ear to type "Make sure they know those aren't the sleeves I chose!" I also realize that my poor little chest is smashed beyond recognition because the dress is such a tight fit. Mr. Avo couldn't even look at this photo without laughing!

Here I am wearing my mother's veil, her dress, one of the fabulous cocktail rings I collected in Italy this past May (I also gave one to each of my bridesmaids!), the pearls Mr. Avocado gave me the morning of our wedding, and the earrings my parents gifted me for the wedding*.

I think the texture on the bottom of the dress is so beautiful. I don't think you see many soft and floaty dresses made like this for the price my mom paid. Her wedding was very simple and I think she said she paid around $200 for this dress!

The veil and the dress go together so perfectly. If you click on the photo to enlarge and zoom in you will see that the bottom of the veil is yellow with age! I liked it that way though, and insisted that we not get it cleaned as I thought it added a little vintage quality to the dress.

So now you are overwhelmed and you forgot what this post was about. Let's do a quick review of the different looks I wore on my wedding day.

I started out the morning with a first look moment wearing this:

A dress that used to look like this, BTW:

Then I went inside the temple and changed out of Evelyn and into my mom's dress and was sealed wearing this (minus the veil)*:

Then I went back to the dressing room and emerged from the temple wearing this:

Once we arrived at Hotel 1000 I did a quick veil switch and spent the rest of the night looks like this:

I loved fitting in so many different "looks" throughout the day. Bet you didn't realize I was such a quick change artist!

Do I need to brag once again? Kelli Nicole Photography. The other love of my life.

*All photos of me in my mom's dress by my amazing mother!

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.