HELLOOOOO!!!!! I'm back!!
Thanks for all the love, I signed in and it was all notifications from impatient peeps wanting an AW! I wasn't really around the couple of days before the wedding, and then we left for our HM (Barbados) first thing on the Monday after the wedding. I think most of you are on vacation today? Memorial Day? It's my first day back at work, which is le suck; SO much email, it's unreal. So obviously this is a better use of my time!
And now...what you have asked for!
Link to the sneak peak that our photographer posted last week: http://www.littlebluelemon.com/blog/
I seriously don't think we could have had a better wedding day. Nothing went wrong, the weather was beautiful (actually, hot. Like it was 30 and humid. When we booked the date we figured we would be lucky to see 18 or 20 that early in May, so that was a big surprise). The only slight bummer was that I was still sick...the strep was knocked out by the antibiotics, but I definitely had laryngitis. I was okay through the morning and the ceremony, but went downhill fast during the reception because I HAD to talk. I sounded horrible on Sunday and woke up with absolutely no voice on Monday! It was sad...but also hilarious for H (YEAH THAT'S RIGHT, I HAVE A HUSBAND!)
My sister stayed over the night before the wedding, and my other BMs showed up early to start getting ready. We had hair and makeup come to my house, so we all had breakfast and mimosas and girly time together. My parents came over a few hours later so that my mom could have her hair and makeup done too...and my dad brought a chair and sat outside with a book lol.
Our photo and video people went to do the photos of C and his GMs and parents first, and then came over and did photos with me and the girls and my parents before we went to the church. Hilarious: they were standing outside and were taking pictures and video when I came and opened the door. At which point they told me that they had accidentally gone up to our neighbour's house, knocked on the door. and (filming) were excited and yelling "happy wedding day!" when our neighbor opened the door and scared the crap out of him! So we have that on tape and I'm dying to see it.
All pretty and ready to go:
The ceremony was wonderful. It was happy and full of love but still serious. C was able to get the audio from a cover of Sara Bareillas "I Choose You" that we used for the processional, and it was 100% exactly how I had hoped. I managed NOT to cry, which felt like a small miracle. One of my favourite moments was affirmation of family and friends; our minister had our guests stand up together and asked if they would support our marriage through the future. Hearing all of our family and friends voice their support and love as part of the ceremony was an amazing moment.
We did our family portraits in the church after the ceremony and then the WP went and did photos while everyone else went up to the venue. C and I got a separate car to take us from the church to photos, and it was really nice to have 20 minutes alone together; definitely worth it in our eyes. Unfortunately the AC had died a few days before the wedding and it was hot as balls in the car! This was as we were leaving the church:
It ALMOST rained as we were starting photos...started really lightly, and then just blew away, thankfully. We had so much fun during photos, which I think is pretty apparent in the pictures. Our photo and video people were great and we just got to goof around I can't wait to see everything that they caught on camera!
When we got up to the venue C and I went and did a few more photos without the WP, and then our venue had a plate of the hors d'oeuvres in a side room for us, so we had a few minutes to ourselves. And THAT'S when I cried. I have absolutely no idea why! I had all the feels all of a sudden!
Dinner was fantastic. I don't think I ever shared my menu: we had a spinach salad with strawberries and goat cheese and pecans to start, then butternut squash agnolotti in a sage and brown butter sauce (I could've eaten that until I exploded), and then a choice of chicken stuffed with sundried tomatoes and mushrooms or bacon-wrapped beef tenderloin. We had alternating deserts because we couldn't decide, so half our guests got a raspberry chocolate mousse and the other half got a lemon cake with white chocolate mascarpone filling. I'm actually salivating thinking about how good that dinner was. Everything was great at the tasting, but I wasn't sure if it would be just as good when they were serving 140 people, but everything was the right temperature and everyone got the food they were supposed to have and we had SO MANY people tell us that they loved their meal. Our photographers stole us for a few minutes as the sun was going down too, so we got some nice evening pictures as well.
Our parents and MOH and BM all gave really nice speeches (through dinner, so people were eating and weren't held captive later!). My parents and ILs made me tear up, but my sister actually made me cry. My BMs also created a drinking game for speeches which was a terrible wonderful idea. I love them so so much.
And after that it was just fun party goodness! Cake cutting and dances (C and I danced to Ellie Goulding's "How Long Will I Love You" and my dad and I danced to his band's cover of Tom Petty's "Wildflowers". C and his mom chose not to dance) and we both got to spend lots of time chatting with our guests. We also made sure to take a couple of opportunities to just sit together and take everything in; having all of the people that we love in one room was so wonderful! I can't actually describe how amazing it felt.
I couldn't have asked for a better day, or a better H, or a better IL family, or a better anything. It was wonderful is so many ways. And I want to thank all of you ladies for being excited with me! And for keeping me from driving my friends crazy with wedding talk!
We spent the day after the wedding sleeping, and hit the brunches that both sides of the family had, and opened all our presents and stuff. And then Monday we fly off to Barbados for 10 days! It was heaven and exactly what we needed, and for the first few days we did nothing but sit on the beach and swim and nap. I can post more about my trip later, this post is plenty long on it's own, BUT my birthday was the 13th and this is what we did:
And now we're home and tanned and happy (and healthy, finally) and looking forward to our summer! We have lots of plans for the house and lots of projects that we want to tackle now that we aren't planning a wedding!
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