Weddingbee Blog

My first minutes of marriage were probably a lot like everyone else’s. We were, in the interest of my beloved schedule, of course, shuffled out of the room. Guests were ushered (thanks, ushers) out to the balcony so our catering staff could flip the room into reception mode. Meanwhile and elsewhere, the bride and groom kicked off their most-photographed hour (couldn’t believe it was only an hour) of the day.

Cocktail hour was, they say, a magical affair, with passed appetizers, the beer-and-wine bar, whatever people had in those flasks, a nice view of City Hall, and life-size cutouts.

That’s right.

All pics by Ashley Forrette and Gem Photo unless otherwise noted

Cutouts courtesy of Kevin, friend and engagement photographer, are linked throughout these recaps. The story: he jokingly mentions that the engagement-photo files are large enough to produce life-size cutouts. Wheels immediately start turning once we realized the idea is ridiculous enough to work. Kevin learns we need to reshoot the photos so they’re a tad bigger, so we reshoot; he prints them, then hand-mounts them into the glorious form you see here. The reshot photo of me is the one I use here on Weddingbee, but its intended purpose in life was always for the cutouts. As a bonus, Kevin and helper Matt, Bridesmaid A’s fella, rode public transportation alongside these things on the day of with no detectable traces of irony.

Kevin and Matt stop by the hotel to say hi to the girls and drop stuff off, then immediately take off to set the cutouts in place before anyone sees them.

A handful of people, including our parents, saw them first and loved them best, I think. Early-bird guests got a gander, too. But it was mostly a surprise that worked out as planned. Most of our bridal party didn’t even know about these, and the ones who knew were either involved in their creation or found out completely by accident.

We still joke about how nice it was to enjoy cocktail hour with our guests that way, and I really do get a Disneyland-reminiscent rush of happiness when I see guests’ photos of “us” with them.

Guest photo

Guest photo

I was struck by how everyone appears to be having a really good time, wouldn’t you know it; since we sometimes lament how we’ll never know what it was like to be a guest at our own wedding, photographic proof of smiles and laughs became particularly important.

After the reception really got going, you better believe the cutouts were put to fun, mildly to moderately inappropriate good use. More on that later.

Immediately post-ceremony, we did family portraits and what eventually became our favorite picture with officiant, Mac (see below). Then, it was on to some mister-and-missus time (not in that way, that’s what she said, etc., etc.).

Many wedding photogs say the mood is different once the wedding rings are on and pronouncements have been made. As such, the pictures then appear a bit different, too, and not just because of your brand new jewelry. The whole first hour of marriage was another one of those unrepeatable moments in time, so I’m glad we did so many photos at this point.

Ah, this place. I’m glad it also got to shine in these photos because it’s a stunner. The building, a city-owned one, doesn’t get much use on weekends aside from events, so there weren’t any non-guests just wandering around. We really liked having the hustle and bustle of pedestrians and tour buses during our walk to the venue and the bridal-party portraits. But I equally treasured the intimacy of wandering around our wedding venue, inside and out, in relative peace and quiet.

This is one of our favorites. It’s just so well composed by our photogs. And you can’t tell that my train is starting to get thrashed.

Another favorite above; this one was the first photo we saw in our wedding-day teaser.

So much for putting that away. We both have a problem with this, but I thankfully didn’t have pockets for my leash. Er, phone.

Pic above by friend William, from the balcony

After wandering around outside for a bit, we came back in to shoot some more as cocktail hour came to a close. The intimate theme of these photos continues, I think, which is what I enjoy about them the most. If there ever was a time for you and your husband (and two photographers who happen to be there) to forget about the rest of the world, this is definitely it.

Next up: reception gets going with The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and full glasses.

Catch up with the Tacos’ journey from regular to supreme:

Ceremony: “comedy hour,” not falling, and a Boston terrier.

First look, bridal-party portraits, and tourist buses say hello.

Getting ready for showtime.