Weddingbee

After we made our end-of-ceremony getaway, Mr. Lovebug and I ducked into the nearby bridal chamber to catch our breath and have our first minutes alone as husband and wife. Outside, we could hear our guests laughing, glasses clinking, and the string quartet starting up again:

It was such a crazy, charged moment in that room together. Theater dorks will get this: it felt like we’d just finished a really good, high energy show. Seriously - we all but high-fived one another. We spent a few minutes comparing notes and collecting ourselves, then opened the door back up to let Chris do his thing:

I had, at this point, no idea that the bobby pins in my hair had slipped down and were showing. I vaguely remember one of my girlfriends mentioning it at some point in the night, but I was afraid to mess with them. In retrospect, I wish I’d taken them out and just brushed my hair out…but if my biggest complaint is visible hair jewelry and stringy strands, woe is me.

(Mr. Lovebug does bouquet-holding duty while his new wife reapplies lip gloss.)

Chris, Mr. LB and I wandered the property of our venue, in search of a decent photo setting. But it was hard, people. It’s such an ugly property, what with all the flowers, archways, and brick-lined pathways:

Actually, the truth is, I had a minor freakout after we first booked the Arizona Inn. I suddenly realized how very “Southwest-y” it is (um, durrh). Not that there’s anything wrong with Southwest architecture, landscape, decor, etc. But it’s neither my nor Mr. Lovebug’s favorite (we both very much feel like fish out of water here), and at the time we were worried about our photos being dominated by a Southwest look. We would have preferred, in other words, more of a blank canvas.

But looking at our photos, we’re so glad we married at the Inn. We don’t plan on staying in Arizona, so it was the perfect commemoration of our time here. Plus, we had a really cool city setting for our downtown engagement shoot - change is good. And obviously, it would be absurd for me to not love our pics; the colors and textures of the Inn photographed beautifully:

I call this the Egghead shot - look at Mr. LB’s bean all stretched out!

And here we have the Fountain Horseplay series:

I’m laughing like a hyena because while Chris was momentarily busy with his equipment, I’d hopped up on the fountain, much to the concern of Mr. Lovebug. He was convinced I was going to fall in. But as you can see, I was paying very careful attention to what I was doing. And though I have no recollection of it, apparently he thought popping his hand under my dress would steady me??

It was about this time that a pair of my girlfriends stopped by to watch. The look on Mary’s (the front hottie) face when she saw the shenanigans was awesome:

A waiter loaded up with a tray full of our signature drinks came by and we paused for a toast…

(Why is there a black straw in that drink when there were boxes full of pink love knot ones? Grrr!)

…then it was back to work trying to find someplace for a pretty photo. I mean, seriously. Is there anywhere a bride and groom can go for a romantic shot?

It was still totally light out - Chris musta worked his magic on this one.

Back inside, I marched the men straight to my favorite spot in our venue: the library. I hadn’t given Chris a shot list, but I wanted my library pics, oh yes indeed.

We grabbed books off the shelf and just started playing around:

I think I mentioned before that the random book I happened to grab had some crazy, fitting title? Well, check it out:

It was called “Each To The Other”, people. “Each To The Other”.

(Putting the knights in kissy face position was Mr. LB’s idea. )

(A repeat from my Hits and Mrs.! post - but it’s my fave.)

While we were hard at work doing all of this, our guests were enjoying music, conversation, and cocktails:

After an hour long photo frenzy - and while our guests were still having cocktails across the property - we ducked into the reception room to check it out before anyone came in.

I can’t even describe how beautiful it was. I’d seen it earlier, in daylight - but it was an entirely different room at night. The dim chandeliers and uplighting, the candles, the flowers, cake and escort keys — all the little DIY goodies I’d been slaving over. They were just so perfect and pretty. It really took my breath away. In fact…

So that you guys can see how it all looked to us when the reception started, how about I do a details post next? Or should I continue with the reception and “double back” afterward?

I’ll let the hive call it - Details or Reception next? After all, you’re the ones who’ve cheered me on as I glued, taped, printed, and Xyroned my way down the aisle!

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