Saturday, May 29, 2010

The Many Faces of a Bride…

Do you hate to be wrong? I do. Maybe it has something to do with being a woman, because let’s face it, we’re right MOST of the time…or maybe it’s just me. But I’d much rather be right than wrong. Although when it happens that I’m wrong, I’m generally a good sport about admitting it.

Which leads us to this post…the entire time that we’ve been dating, B has gently joked with me about the many faces that I make while dancing. To his delight, I vehemently deny making funny faces when I dance and just accuse him of making fun of the way that I dance…I am just a white girl after all! But it’s been a constant, running joke between the two of us – sort of like the joke about how I snore…but I’m not ready to give that one up yet!

But faced with our wedding pictures, I can no longer deny the obvious…apparently I DO make funny faces while dancing. Really funny faces. Like “What the heck was I DOING?!?!” sort of faces…maybe you do it too. I hope I’m not alone in this.

So, babe, this post is for you. Just to show the blogging world that I’m wrong and you were right, and I CAN be a good sport about things. This is a post (with pictures) that is completely 100% about the funny faces that I make while dancing. I mean, we’ve already seen a few other pictures of some odd faces that I make randomly…but these take the cake!

Check these out…
Lucky for me, MOH is a good friend and doesn’t leave me alone making funny faces…
I think that I must look goooood…or that’s what the expression on my face says to me now!
Maid Britney helps me out and makes a funny face of her own!
I wasn’t being mean there…I’m 95% certain that that face was made during Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”…hopefully that explains a little bit of it…
Obviously Best Man S didn’t want me to be the only one…
But I know when to admit defeat in the face-making-while-dancing contest…
So there you have it…all the faces that a bride can make while dancing! I hope that you got a good chuckle out of those…because that was SO embarrassing to post!

**All photos courtesy of Christina Carroll Photography

Need to catch up? Here’s some links:
Girls’ Spa Day
Bachelor/Bachelorette Party
Setting Up the Venue…
Practice Makes Perfect…
Rehearsal Dinner
5 Minutes is All that I Need
A “Quick” Stop at the Hair Salon
A Sneak Peek at the Venue...
Arriving at the Venue...to Stay!
Getting Dressed
The Maids Pose for the Camera...
Oops - I’m Out of Order!
The Boys Smile and Say “Cheese!”
It’s Show Time!
Here Comes the Bride!
Becoming Man and Wife...
We’re Man and Wife!
Family Pictures
Now THAT’S Love!
The “Group” Says Cheese!
Now It’s Just Us...
It’s the Smallest Things...
Here Comes the Bride! And Groom!
Raise Your Glasses...
Our Cake Buffet
The Great Cake Cutting Debate
We Danced...
Two More Special Dances...
One Lucky Girl...and One “Excited” Guy!

Thursday, May 27, 2010

One Lucky Girl…and One “Excited” Guy!

Isn’t that how you should refer to the catchers of the bouquet and garter? At most weddings, the participation on the girls side of things is usually a lot more…willing, shall we say? The girl that catches the bouquet usually is excited to get it and feels lucky that she caught it. But the guy that catches the garter? More often than not, you might see them tugging at their tie only minutes later…LOL!

And that’s sort of how I felt about this part of the reception. I would really have been ok just skipping this whole toss tradition…but B wouldn’t hear about it. He wanted the chance to embarrass his single guy friends…not to mention the “fun” of taking my garter off! So, despite my best arguments against it, we kept this one in the line-up.

I can’t tell you for sure when it happened. It was in the middle of all of the dancing…maybe about an hour before we left for the night? But it just seemed easier to slip this in my recaps right here before I start the dancing pictures…so here you go!

First up, the ladies. There were quite a few out there to form the mob…even if it looks like maybe some of them are a bit “underage” to catch a bridal bouquet!
No, I’m not sure what that look on my face is about either…I know that Christina wanted me to do a few “practice” throws for the pictures, so maybe that’s what I was doing…who knows?
And then I let it go…
Our friend, Nicole, was the lucky one that night! And she was SO excited to get it!
Now I don’t know about you, but I think that the groom gets a LOT of enjoyment out of the garter toss…even if the guys catching it don’t really! I’m doing my best to keep my dress down (due to the cameras) and he’s doing his best to reach on in there!
Luckily for me, it just took a few “looks” to get good behavior out of my groom, and the garter was almost off…
He’s victorious!
And as you can see, the group of guys waiting to “catch” the garter is MUCH smaller…with only two that should really be catching it!
B did a few practice throws too…
Now I don’t know about you, but it looks to me like the younger guys are working harder to get it than the two that actually count!
And the outcome was pretty hilarious!
Looks like neither one of them really wanted it!

The funny thing is that the two that caught it are a real-life couple friend of ours…so it was completely appropriate that they were the winners!
And even though I’d like to add a post script to tell you that catching the bridal bouquet DOES in fact work as far as getting you a proposal…I can’t do that. They are still together, happily, but no ring in sight at this time…much to her dismay! I’m sure that it’s coming, Nicole, be patient!

**All photos courtesy of Christina Carroll Photography

Need to catch up? Here’s some links:
Girls’ Spa Day
Bachelor/Bachelorette Party
Setting Up the Venue…
Practice Makes Perfect…
Rehearsal Dinner
5 Minutes is All that I Need
A “Quick” Stop at the Hair Salon
A Sneak Peek at the Venue...
Arriving at the Venue...to Stay!
Getting Dressed
The Maids Pose for the Camera...
Oops - I’m Out of Order!
The Boys Smile and Say “Cheese!”
It’s Show Time!
Here Comes the Bride!
Becoming Man and Wife...
We’re Man and Wife!
Family Pictures
Now THAT’S Love!
The “Group” Says Cheese!
Now It’s Just Us...
It’s the Smallest Things...
Here Comes the Bride! And Groom!
Raise Your Glasses...
Our Cake Buffet
The Great Cake Cutting Debate
We Danced...
Two More Special Dances...

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Two More Special Dances…

After having our first dance as man and wife, it was time for the Father-Daughter dance. In reality, I wasn’t really sure that this was something that my Dad really wanted to do. I’m not being mean by saying that, just honest. I mean, this wasn’t my first wedding (as he kept reminding me), so I wasn’t sure if he’d want to do all the things that he didn’t do the last time…and I had to just swallow my pride and ask him about it. And don’t you know that when I did that, he acted like he’d never been anything but supportive of the idea for us to have a big wedding and of course he wanted to do a Father-Daughter dance with me.

We could have easily have left it out, but I’m really glad that we did it. There was no Mother-Son dance, so it wouldn’t have been that odd if we’d left this one out…but like I said, I’m glad that he wanted to do this tradition this time around with me. I know my Dad well, and knew that he would really only be comfortable doing a waltz. With that in mind, I selected Natalie Cole’s version of “Unforgettable” as it’s one of our favorite songs and a great song to waltz to.

Except that when we took the floor and the music began playing, there was another song playing at the same time. Right now, six months after the fact, I can’t recall what the other song was. But basically the problem was that we had given the DJ a burned CD for the songs that we wanted played that weren’t already in their library of songs…and of course, our First Dance song wasn’t in their library. So she had just played the Black Keys song off of the CD and then was switching to her library of music for the Natalie Cole song…but somehow the CD wouldn’t stop playing. It wasn’t really a big deal, other than there we were, my Dad and I just standing out in the middle of this dance floor waiting…and waiting…and waiting.

Of course, I made good use of the time and reminded my Dad (repeatedly over and over) that I couldn’t go backwards like normal in our waltz. With my bustle, the dress was up off of the floor, but just barely and I was really concerned about tripping and falling flat on my face. Call me Grace…but if it was going to happen to someone on their wedding day, it would be me!

Luckily, the music finally started and we moved into our motions. Without me going backwards. But leading me in the wrong direction kind of threw my Dad off a bit and we ended up doing a cross between a waltz and a two-step…it was cute though and no one but us could probably tell. But apparently we don’t take good pictures together, as this was the only really decent picture of the two of us dancing…

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great picture of the two of us – the joy and laughter on my Dad’s face is just priceless. I just wish that we hadn’t been making such awful faces through the rest of the pictures!

After that song ended, I got a small surprise. J came up to me and asked if it was her turn to dance with me now. I have to tell you that I nearly cried. If I had though ahead to plan this out, I couldn’t have done it better, but honestly it never crossed my mind that she would want a dance all on her own with me. Silly mommy! I quickly caught the DJ’s eye and requested what at the time was “our song” – Taylor Swift’s “Love Song.” We played this CD out in my car – at top volume and to this day, she still requests it on random days.

I’ll let the pictures show you this special, unplanned dance…



And of course, she wanted to be spun around and around…




And like the “little lady” that I’m trying to teach her to be, at the end of the dance I bowed and said “Thank you!”

Like I said, I couldn’t have planned this better if I’d tried…it was the perfect ending to the special dances before the dance floor was opened up to one and all!

Did you have any “surprise” special dances at your wedding? Or are you planning on any? I’d love to hear about it!

**All photos courtesy of Christina Carroll Photography

Need to catch up? Here’s some links:
Girls’ Spa Day
Bachelor/Bachelorette Party
Setting Up the Venue…
Practice Makes Perfect…
Rehearsal Dinner
5 Minutes is All that I Need
A “Quick” Stop at the Hair Salon
A Sneak Peek at the Venue...
Arriving at the Venue...to Stay!
Getting Dressed
The Maids Pose for the Camera...
Oops - I’m Out of Order!
The Boys Smile and Say “Cheese!”
It’s Show Time!
Here Comes the Bride!
Becoming Man and Wife...
We’re Man and Wife!
Family Pictures
Now THAT’S Love!
The “Group” Says Cheese!
Now It’s Just Us...
It’s the Smallest Things...
Here Comes the Bride! And Groom!
Raise Your Glasses...
Our Cake Buffet
The Great Cake Cutting Debate
We Danced...

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

We Danced...

You would think that when you’re THIS close to finishing up your recaps that they would just flow right out of your fingertips and into your computer, huh? Yeah, not so much. Of course, that might have more to do with me entering into my third trimester...LOL! My focus is clearly on other things right now! But I WILL finish these up within the next week or two hopefully...then I can really concentrate on baby stuff...

So when we last met, we had listened to our friends’ moving speeches and fed each other some cake...no, I’m not going to mention the icing on my face that also happened...which means that now it’s time for dancing! I guess that it’s normal at most weddings for the dancing to not “officially” start until after the bride and groom have their first dance, and our wedding was no exception. And from the looks of some of the dancers in our crowd, it was past time to get the party started!

I mentioned before that we didn’t really practice our first dance. That’s true. We sort of planned on a junior high school shuffle around the floor with some twirls and spins thrown in for good measure…but all done on the spur-of-the-moment. Since we had actually talked about it, sort of, I guess that could be considered planning? Yeah, I didn’t think so either!

Either way, it worked out perfectly...Brent took my hand and led me out onto the dance floor as “our song” started playing. (You know that you never really realize how long a song actually is until it’s just you two on the dance floor with everyone watching you and snapping your picture, right?) Our dance was nothing special and everything that we wanted all at the same time...
(About halfway through the dance I realized that his tie was thrown over his shoulder, so I fixed that and the last of the pictures don’t show his tie all funny.)

How did we pass the time? Because it did feel sort of never-ending...well, we talked. About the icing on my face, of course! This was me giving him more grief about it - check out that mischievious grin on his face...
And we kissed...
He spun me a few times...
And made me laugh, which is nothing new!
Like I said, it was perfect. We even took a bow when it was all said and done...
Next up – the father/daughter dance and one more VERY special dance...stay tuned!

**All photos courtesy of Christina Carroll Photography

Need to catch up? Here’s some links:
Girls’ Spa Day
Bachelor/Bachelorette Party
Setting Up the Venue…
Practice Makes Perfect…
Rehearsal Dinner
5 Minutes is All that I Need
A “Quick” Stop at the Hair Salon
A Sneak Peek at the Venue...
Arriving at the Venue...to Stay!
Getting Dressed
The Maids Pose for the Camera...
Oops - I’m Out of Order!
The Boys Smile and Say “Cheese!”
It’s Show Time!
Here Comes the Bride!
Becoming Man and Wife...
We’re Man and Wife!
Family Pictures
Now THAT’S Love!
The “Group” Says Cheese!
Now It’s Just Us...
It’s the Smallest Things...
Here Comes the Bride! And Groom!
Raise Your Glasses...
Our Cake Buffet
The Great Cake Cutting Debate

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

The Great Cake Cutting Debate

How do you feel about the whole cake smashing debate? It seems to me that you’re either on one side of the fence or the other…you’re either in favor of the act of smashing cake in your newly married loved one’s face, or you’re not. Can you tell which side of the fence that I’m on? LOL.

Me thinking that there were only two sides to this argument was my first mistake…me trusting my husband 100% was my second mistake.

So here’s how it went down. After the toasts were over and hugs went all around, the DJ announced that it was time to cut our cakes. I really, really, really hated to slice into our main cake…it was THAT perfect! But slice it up is what we eventually did. First, we moved into position and everyone (or everyone that wanted to see) crowded around the table. There was a brief moment when a wayward kid got too close to the table and I thought that the whole thing might come crashing down, but luckily that didn’t happen!

We picked up the carving knife, and that’s the moment that B thought to ask me how exactly we were supposed to do this…in hindsight, it might have been a good idea to practice this before the moment was caught on camera. I’m just making a suggestion, do with it what you will. But cutting a sliver of cake to feed to your new husband/wife is definitely harder than it looks!

So we moved into position behind the table and I gave B quick instructions to just cover my hand with his and I would guide him through the process…thinking in my head that since I bake/cook so much that I was the pro at this.
We make the first cut…
And all looks well – so far so good as we go in for the second cut…
I remove the knife from the cake and turn it horizontal so that the blade is flat and can be used to pull the cut piece out of the main body of the cake.
At least that was my intention…but you can see the look of "concern" starting on my face as I realize that maybe this isn’t going to happen the way it turns out in the “picture perfect” reel playing in my head...
By now, I’ve got some of the cake balanced on the knife, and realize that the only thing holding it upright is the rest of the cake. That’s all I can say about the face that I’m making…
Now I think that maybe, just maybe this is going to turn out all right because the cake is coming out, not toppled over (yet) and the plate is waiting in the wings to catch if needed…
Now you can see that maybe my plan isn’t working so well…B steps in to “save the day”
Success!! The cake is on the plate…didn’t fall off on the table…and now we can move on to tasting it.

Before taking my bite, I give B “the Look.” You know, the one that reminds him of the agreement that we had made earlier about NOT smashing cake in each other’s faces…then I open my mouth to get my bite.
But you can see that I’m still not 100% trusting him and I give him another "Look" as the piece is hovering right above my mouth…
He was a good groom and I got my piece of cake without incident…
This is me saying “Oh man, that is SO good!” without actually using words…
By this point, the crowd is getting antsy and they’re REALLY disappointed that B didn’t smash cake in my face. As the taunts get louder, I gather up a piece of cake to feed to B…and a look passes between us…
He licks off my fingers as I smile on…blissfully unaware of what his devious little mind has in store for me…
You see, while I was getting his piece ready and feeding it to him, his free hand was moving steadily toward the cake plate again…out of my line of sight…maybe you caught it? If not, I present Exhibit A:
Do you notice his free hand? Yeah…I didn’t.

So after feeding him his piece, I innocently lean in for a kiss from my groom…and since I love him SO much and am just basking in my newly married state of bliss…I am unaware of what’s about to hit me…
Yep, it was a finger-load of icing…placed ever so sweetly upon my cheek…
You can see my nose crinkling up there…but this is a better shot…
Mainly because it shows how proud of himself he was! He immediately destroys the rest of the “evidence” on his hand…
And I start giving him another “Look” but this time it might be in all caps – you know, a “LOOK!”
I have to admit that 6 months later, while writing this post, he was pretty smart. He kept his word to me in not smashing the cake all in my face while he fed it to me, which is what I definitely didn't want…and still managed to save face with his guy friends and get icing on me at some point during the process. It was the best of both worlds for him.

Me on the other hand? Oh, I was mad all right. Not like hold-a-grudge mad because after all, it’s just icing. It was more like an I-can’t-believe-that-you-did-that-to-my-makeup sort of mad. I wasn’t really upset…it was funny, and I love the pictures that came out of the event…so I guess he was right to do it the way that he did it. But I can’t say that I was 100% happy with him at the time.

So where do you stand on the cake-in-the-face issue? Are you planning on smashing your cake in your newly married spouse’s face? Or are you going to play nice? Maybe you could be like B and have the best of both worlds!

Up next is our First Dance, so I couldn’t stay mad for long…we had to take a quick break and let MOH help me get all of the extra icing off of my face before more photos were taken!

**All photos courtesy of Christina Carroll Photography

Need to catch up? Here’s some links:
Girls’ Spa Day
Bachelor/Bachelorette Party
Setting Up the Venue…
Practice Makes Perfect…
Rehearsal Dinner
5 Minutes is All that I Need
A “Quick” Stop at the Hair Salon
A Sneak Peek at the Venue...
Arriving at the Venue...to Stay!
Getting Dressed
The Maids Pose for the Camera...
Oops - I’m Out of Order!
The Boys Smile and Say “Cheese!”
It’s Show Time!
Here Comes the Bride!
Becoming Man and Wife...
We’re Man and Wife!
Family Pictures
Now THAT’S Love!
The “Group” Says Cheese!
Now It’s Just Us...
It’s the Smallest Things...
Here Comes the Bride! And Groom!
Raise Your Glasses...
Our Cake Buffet