Weddingbee Blog

As you may have noticed from my borderline-bombastic blogging, words are my friends. I don’t like to admit they can fall short. However, I easily concede that photographs can capture an expression, a texture, a single moment in time, in way that text can’t always touch. (Of course, text can sometimes do what image cannot. …I had to say that or they’ll take away my library card.)

I assume this is why we all seem to rank wedding photography at the top of our priorities. (Although, wouldn’t it be funny if you hired someone to document your wedding day in words? Like a wedding prosateur? NEW DREAM JOB.) Sure enough, in the days that followed our wedding, I was thrilled to see guest photos. Then the professional images rolled in, and I was thrilled again. This post is about both of those kinds of pictures: the ones you paid for and the ones your friends took with their iPhones.

We begin at noon on our wedding day. I had just finished primping, and PDog was apparently upstairs, looking into our future.

I didn’t want to do the first look sneak-up-tap-on-the-shoulder thing.

I wanted to walk toward him, both of us facing each other, like it would be when I walked down the aisle. So I stepped up from the stairs, already beaming, and walked straight at him.

In full confession, this was not the first time I’d seen him that morning, though it was the first time he’d seen my dress. So he checked out my situation, while James A. Garfield looked on. (Just kidding. I don’t know who the guy in the picture is, but I think we can agree that he is checking me out too.)

We talked for a few minutes, and I began my signature nervous-hand-clutch.

In case you can’t tell by our awkward body language and Cullen-esque complexions (oh crikey, I didn’t…), we aren’t often in front of the camera flash. And honestly: it is funny to watch the progression of PDog and me attempting to be photographed.

First, I keep it together while homie laughs it up about something. My mouth is smiling but my eyes are saying: IT’S OUR WEDDING DAY. STOP HAVING SO MUCH FUN.

Then, apparently trying to overcompensate for his guffawing, I undershoot and land on whatever this expression is:

…until finally, Squinty-Bride rides again!

I’m grateful our photogs caught us as who we are: unaccustomed to attention and laughing more than is congruous with the situation at hand. Dear hypothetical PDog children: your parents had fun on their wedding day. Even before they started drinking.

So here is a smart move on my photographers’ part: PUT ME IN A LIBRARY. Yes. This is where I belong. Probably more so than in regular life. Seriously…once my parents had to sit me down and have a talk about making real, human friends because I didn’t like any non-fictional children as much as I liked Anne Shirley and Alice McKinley.

PDog’s direction to me: THINK ABOUT JOHN IRVING. Okay!

At this point, the whole wedding party was ready to be beckoned for pictures. So, if you’ve ever wondered what you’re supposed to do, as an attendant, here are some suggestions based on my friends’ choices:

Take snapshots of the unknowing almost-weds:

*guest photos

Test out the photo booth for reception festivities:

*guest photo

Pose with the local scenery:

*guest photo

Throw a Most Awkward Photo Contest, and win:

*guest photo

At this point, perhaps the bride will join back up with you, and you’ll proceed to have a small photo shoot based mostly around how much you all love the wallpaper.

*guest photo

What is this wedding missing?! More point-and-shoot photos with stylishly obtrusive wallpaper!

*guest photo

Okay, I joke, but really: I cherish the grainy, iPhone / point and shoot, no light / garish-flash, unedited pictures too. See?

*guest photo

Pictures like these? They’re as real as they get. There’s no creative angling or placement in beautiful light. Yes, it’s grainy, and one friend isn’t even looking at the camera, while another one is mid-blink. And I, hyena bride, am clearly unconcerned with whether or not I look pretty. Yet, it’s the perfect picture of a bunch of people who love each other, on the day that one of them is getting married. And isn’t that the point?

Photography- Katie Albrecht of Blink of an Eye

Makeup- Sarah Cormier

Flowers- Glendale Florist

Old Episodes

• A Prairie Dog Companion I: Reader, I Married Him
• A Prairie Dog Companion II: So It Begins