Weddingbee Blog

After lots of dancing and lots of Smileboothing, our wedding night wound down to a close. Tired of lugging my massive marshmallow dress around on the dance floor, I had changed into a shorter dress that I packed just for that purpose. Ahh, much better to dance in. Our photographers closed out the Smilebooth and left, guests drank more wine, and people started trickling out. I was actually surprised by how many people stayed until the DJ played the last song. Our friends and family are partiers!

We gathered our things and headed out to a cab. Everyone else was loitering around the reception hall, not ready to leave. Mr. CA and I weren’t ready either, I don’t think, but we were sweaty and tired. It was time to go!

No fancy limo or getaway car—a cab will do just fine for us.

Mr. CA’s dad had checked us into the hotel earlier in the day so that we wouldn’t have to deal with it when we arrived. That was awesome, and I highly recommend you have someone do that for you if you’re staying in a hotel that night. It meant we were able to just hop in the elevator and go up to our room!

As we were in the elevator, I realized that we were going to a very high floor. I got a little suspicious. And when we got into the room, I saw that Mr. CA had surprised me with a very nice, very large suite! It was fabulous, I was very surprised, and it was just the perfect end to a wonderful day.

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You guys. Is it strange that one of my favorite parts of the reception was our Smilebooth? Because it was. I freaking loved that thing.

The reception was rocking—people were dancing, drinking, splashing, socializing, and just generally getting shit-faced crazy on the dance floor. While that was going on, they took breaks and made their way over to the bar area where the Smilebooth was set up. It was glorious.

At some point during the dancing, I decided to take a break and get some water. I was hot and sweaty! And I was so excited to get into that freaking Smilebooth. As you can see, we had so. much. fun. I loved that thing, and I think our guests did too. I also love how all of our props turned out in the photos—people really had fun and got creative with them! I’ll let the photos speak for themselves, because they are pretty amazing. Our guests rocked.

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As soon as the last notes of the father-daughter/mother-son dance wound down, James Taylors’ “How Sweet It Is” segued immediately into the beat of our first-dance partay song. And it was epic. You guys. Seriously.

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So apparently I am an unreliable narrator just like Sansa Stark, because as I was writing the last post about mangling our wedding cake, I totally remembered sitting down right after our cake-cutting and chowing down on that cake. But that isn’t what happened. We went right from cake-cutting to our first dance. Whoops. Now that I look at the pictures, I do remember being bummed because someone took the cake away from me and forced me onto the dance floor instead. It was only later in the night when I was sweaty from dancing that my Auntie grabbed me and forced me to sit down and eat chocolate cake with her. My memories are all jumbled from that night. Too much excitement, I suppose!

Anyway, so yes, we went from the cake-cutting to our first dance. I was a little apprehensive about this, because I’m not a huge dancer and, as I’ve mentioned, I don’t really like everyone’s eyes on me. Well, me and Mr. CA, but you know what I mean.

We decided that we would do our first dance to Ben Harper’s “Forever.” I love the song, and it just seemed fitting. However, since we didn’t want to sway there for over three minutes, we told our DJ to cut the song off after one minute.

We swayed and swirled a little on the dance floor, and it was lovely. I felt very in-the-moment, and while I knew people were staring at us as they were eating their cake, it was a nice feeling, because I was just clutching Mr. CA and telling him what a handsome husband he was. It was a nice intimate moment between me, Mr. CA, our photographers, and 115 of our family and friends.

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So after we hugged every single person at the reception, the maid of honor and best man got up to give their toasts. Honestly, I was the worst bride ever in that I didn’t really give anyone direction as to what they should be doing—I just told people they would be giving speeches and that the coordinator would let them know when to go up. Which worked out fine, really, but I find it adorable that they took it upon themselves to go up together. As you might recall, our bridesmaid and groomsman did the same thing at our rehearsal dinner! I don’t know where any of them got this idea to go up together, but I seriously loved it! I thought it was so awesome, especially since they are our siblings. Sort of like a little show of new-family togetherness. Or something symbolic like that. Whatever.

I have never had a brother before, and I inherited two when I married Mr. CA. It has been such a blessing having them around, and I am so glad that I have great relationships with both of them.

So, because we have a great relationship, I have harassed my brother-in-law for over a year to send us his speech, so that I could insert parts of it here. And, of course, he has ignored my pestering and has not sent the speech. Probably because he didn’t write it down. See—no notes! And because I was a terrible bride, I have absolutely no idea what he said. I was too excited and happy to pay attention, maybe? Drinking too much wine? Who knows. I do know that it was sweet and heartfelt.

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Hmm, well that break was slightly longer than intended. Oops. My bad. Back to Candy Apple recaps!!

We’ll start with a picture of wine. Because, well. Does it need explanation? I like my booze. I think wedding guests do too.

Remember when we did a wine-tasting at my aunt’s house to pick the wine?? Yeah, didn’t think so…but we did! And it was awesome.

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Now on to the real wedding goodness. Reception details! I absolutely loved how everything came together at the reception. McKenzie did such an amazing job with the florals—they looked even better than I had imagined.

Here’s a big shot of the ballroom, all gussied up, as well as some closeups of the tables. I literally did nothing the morning of to set up, so when I walked into the ballroom, I saw everything for the first time. It was amazing and beautiful.

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Once all of our formal family portraits were done, Mr. CA and I looked around and realized that almost everyone had left and our cocktail hour was half gone. We had asked the limo to take some of the wedding party back to the Club during the family pictures, so while we waited for the limo to return, Sarah grabbed us for a few more “yay we just got married!” couple portraits. The resulting pictures are my favorite pictures of the day. We are just so relaxed and happy. And newly married!

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After our recessional, we snuck back into the church so that everyone could sign the marriage license! We also had asked the best man to bring envelopes with money to pay the musicians, but he, of course, forgot them. So Mr. CA had to explain to them that we were, indeed, honest and trustworthy people, we were not trying to swindle them, and we would drop the money off at the parish hall the next day. Thankfully, they were very understanding, we left the money at the hall the next day just like we promised, and it all worked out fine. Whew! Another crisis averted.

Fr. John, always thinking about the photography, had us sign everything right up on the altar so that we would get good light for the photographs. He also draped my bouquet artfully next to the certificate. He should be a wedding planner!

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I know that some wedding ceremonies are very, very short, and that is fine. I have been to quite a few short ceremonies, and they have all been perfectly lovely. However, Mr. CA and I are practicing Catholics and we knew going into this that our wedding day was first and foremost about just that—our union before God and our closest friends and family. So we wanted the ceremony to be very meaningful and personalized. Well, as much as the Catholic mass can be personalized! We spent a lot of time choosing readings and songs, deciding who would do what, etc. I actually really enjoyed this part of wedding planning, because it was part of the actual “getting married” planning. The Catholic Nuptial Mass is, of course, fairly set in terms of what happens when, but you depending on your priest/church, you do get a large amount of flexibility on readings, etc. Fr. John even told us that if there was an excerpt from literature or something that was particularly meaningful to us, we could include that as a reading instead of a traditional Bible reading. We didn’t end up going that route, but I really appreciated that the option was there!

Anyway, enough of my blabbering. I really enjoyed our ceremony, so I will just let the images and the words speak for themselves. I loved Fr. John’s contributions to the mass, so I will be copying portions of the mass below. It’s a bit long, and for that I apologize but, well, the Catholic Nuptial Mass is long! You have been warned…

My brothers and sisters, on behalf of G and J, I am happy to welcome you to this blessed event. On this beautiful day, they have called us here to be with them, to stand with them as they offer themselves to one another.

My name is Fr. John Whitney, and I have the great joy of witnessing this marriage on behalf of the Church; but the truth is, all of us here are called to witness, called to celebrate, called to bless this union with our prayers and with our heartfelt support.

It is important to J and G that each one of you is here, because you are part of their community of love. And so—on their behalf—I invite you to be active in this celebration, and to feel yourself an important part of it.

Though we may come here from various traditions and diverse backgrounds, we are united by our love for G and J, so I invite you to feel at home here, today. Now, filled with the Spirit of love, let us pray…

He then said an opening prayer. I love the calm and serenity I feel when looking at the above picture. It is how I remember much of the mass—just me, Mr. CA, and the priest, but feeling the warmth and love surrounding us from our guests. It was really very powerful.

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After we finally got the church unlocked, the groomsmen helped escort people in. We chose Gabriel’s Oboe-Morricone as our prelude song, and after everyone else was seated, Mr. CA escorted my step-mom into the church. It was time for the processional!

We chose “Simple Gifts” as the Processional song. Sigh. Every time I listen to this song it gives me happy tears. Please feel free to listen along!

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Once we had finished our wedding party pictures and were heading up to the limo, I started to get butterflies in my stomach. You know, those “holy crap I have to walk down the aisle in front of 115 people and I might fall and then I have to sit in front of everyone while they watch me for an hour” butterflies. Yes. I got a little bit anxious. But I tried to push that anxiety down, because I knew that people would (hopefully) be focused on Fr. John, our readers, and the mass itself, rather than on me.
So we gathered our stuff. I think in this picture I am trying to gulp some water down before we leave. It was hot, yo!

(Personal Photo)

Then, because my mom missed out on my “pulling on the dress” pictures, we forced her to pretend to zip me up for posterity. Ha. This picture cracks me up. We look so staged! And my eyes are closed. Jeebus. I am glad I have the next two though, because they are the only pictures of just my mom and me that day. How did that happen?!

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Once we had wrapped up our “formal” bride and groom shots, we raced back to the Club to get bridal party pictures. We rallied the troops and dragged them out to the tennis court. The light was super harsh that day, so it was a bit tricky getting pictures in the sun, but I absolutely love all of the below photos. Mainly because they include our best friends all in one place, but hey, the pretty photography is nice too.

We took a few pictures on the tennis courts, but the light was super harsh and the pictures weren’t turning out how Sarah and Chris wanted, so we headed off to the dock!

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After our first look, we stole away for some couple shots before we brought the bridal party in. The images don’t really need much explanation, but I will say that they are my favorite shots of the day. Why? Well, because they are of me and Mr. CA! Duh. The entire reason for the wedding. Sarah and Chris beautifully captured us, our love, and our relationship, and I cherish these pictures. They make me remember how calm and happy I felt at the time. Just me and him (um, and our photographers, but we can pretend like they weren’t there), all excited about getting married.

One of my top five favorite pictures from that day. We put this one on the cover of our parents’ albums. Oh, and if you look real close, you will see Bill Gates’s complex on the bottom left. Ha!

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After I was ready and Mr. CA was ready, it was time for our first look! There wasn’t really much discussion between us about the first look—we decided it was the best option since we didn’t want photographs to eat into too much of the cocktail hour or reception. Also, I thought it would calm my nerves a bit to be able to spend some time together before I had to walk in high heels and a poufy dress in front of a bajillion people. OK, so only 115, but it seemed like a bajillion.

Mr. CA, looking dapper. Apparently I took a bit longer than expected to get ready, so he was standing out there for a little while. HA! Sorry, babe. Story of our lives.

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