Weddingbee Blog

Mr. Dolphin and I have been married for 1 year… ONE YEAR!?! I can hardly believe it. Wasn’t it just yesterday we were cutting endless invitations and fretting over whether an ivory vest would go with a white shirt? Ahh, the worries of planning a wedding.

This year has been amazing. So much has changed for us both personally and professionally. It has certainly been an eventful year with many weekends spent working towards our future together. I guess you can tell by my light posting from the past year that we have been busy enjoying the newlywed life.

Photo-boothing-it-up at Ryan & Jen’s Wedding we shot as Gator Bride Videography (the business we started as newlyweds!)

I love being able to call Mr. Dolphin my husband, which also makes chasing after him and calling him “boyfriend” so much more fun.
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Don’t kid yourself and think you will eat at your wedding.

If you have the chance to put any sort of food in your mouth at your wedding, you are one of the lucky few.

Mr. Dolphin and I always said that no matter what, we would eat at our wedding. Because after all, that shiz is expensive and we were getting our…I mean, my parents’…money’s worth. Leading up to our wedding we were so sure of ourselves. We were going to tell people they need to chill so we could enjoy our fabulous stuffed chicken and spring salad, along with maybe a slice of cake or two.

Yeah, that didn’t happen.
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What’s next on this fast-moving (okay… more of a slow-paced) recap bandwagon? Speeches!

I’ll admit that when other bloggers are recapping their weddings and they get to the speeches part, I skip over it. Eek! I can’t believe I typed that out. So embarrassing. But, I’m all about truth, so I’ve gotta tell it like it is.
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In my last entry, you saw our first dance along with a little bit of our practice footage. I probably showed a total of 20 seconds of practice footage. Y’all… it certainly took longer than 20 seconds to learn how to dance. That’s for sure.

Here we are bustin’ a move.

Mr. Dolphin and I took private lessons at the Imperial Dance Studio here in Gainesville. We signed up for their wedding package, which included two hours of private lessons, along with two hours of private practice (in our own studio, by ourselves) for $140. Not bad in our book.

At our first lesson our instructor listened to our music and danced quietly around the room by herself, figuring out which type of dance style fit best with our music. After a few minutes of humming and moving around, she determined a fox trot would be perfect for our first dance song, I’m Yours by Jason Mraz featuring Colbie Calliet.

The first practice consisted of loud sighs by Mr. Dolphin, lots of stepping on toes, and a few “scenes” by Mr. Dolphin.
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In my last recap, I mentioned my favorite moment from our wedding day: having our first dance as husband and wife in the men’s locker room.

This was right after “zipper-gate.” The zipper broke on the back of my dress, but I wasn’t going to let anything get me down! A quick safety pin recovery by Dolphin Momma and my cousin Lisa, and I was good to go!
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Mr. Dolphin and I are big on art. Not the fancy-schmancy art gallery stuff (although we would LOVE to own something from one of those types of galleries), but instead, local art. I have two requirements on every trip we take:

1. We purchase an ornament for our Christmas tree from the place we visit
2. We purchase local art from the place we visit

From the beginning of our relationship, Mr. Dolphin and I have wanted the walls of our home to be filled with pictures and art from our travels. No Target/Pottery Barn/Pier 1 mass-production art allowed here.

We aren’t big spenders. We have a tight budget for art, and our honeymoon was no different. I believe you can find amazing art, on the cheap, while vacationing. If you look around, you can find amazing pieces for great prices.
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Let’s start out by saying that if you are one of those people who have impeccable, baby-smooth, blemish free skin, this post is not for you. And…we can’t be friends. Only kidding.

I know that I wasn’t the only bride out there struggling with acne. Acne is no new thang for me. I have fought a losing battle with acne for many years. I even joke to Mr. Dolphin that I don’t know how he ever fell in love with my crater face (over 8 years ago!). He always tells me that it’s what was on the inside that counts for him…and that he liked my booty. MEN!

So what did I do to get my skin looking like this?

photo by Starks Photography

It’s been a long, tearful journey, my friends.
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Looking back on our wedding day, there is one moment in my eyes (and heart) that stands out as the best moment. During this moment we weren’t surrounded by bridesmaids, parents, guests…not even our wedding photographers and videographers were there to capture it, nor do I think they could capture such a perfect moment (corny, I know).

Let me set the scene:

It’s 6:30PM. We’ve just come in to the men’s locker room of the clubhouse after spending time out in the hot Florida weather (hello, MAY) taking all our family and bridal party shots at the ceremony site. We’re sweaty, a little tired, nervous for the next part of our wedding (the first dance), and ready to sit down and take a breather. Sunny MOH and Seminole bridesmaid are there to help me take off my dress (to use the bathroom and air out), put me back in my dress and bustle me up for the reception. After they leave, it’s just me and Mr. Dolphin in the men’s locker room. Just the two of us. And so began my favorite moment ever.
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Oh na na. What’s my name?

Oh na na. What’s my name?

Having an identity crisis in Maui

Unflattering camera angle by Mr. Dolphin. Thanks hubs!

Today I was driving to work and heard Rihanna’s song, What’s My Name?, and it got me thinking about the whole name change game newly married women must endure (if they choose to take their husband’s last name). On a side note, I totally believe all newly minted husbands should have to change their names too, so they have to go through the struggles at the DMV (located in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE in Gainesville) and the Social Security office. I still don’t think Mr. Dolphin quite understands my plight.

Anyways…
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Sometimes I don’t know why I try and finish recapping our wedding. Then I came across the video footage below, and I remembered why. I’m going to jump around on my recaps, because…well…they’re my recaps and I’ll do as I want.

Anyways, back to why I’m here today. Leading up to our wedding, Mr. Dolphin knew he wanted to honor his Mema and Papa with a dance of their own (as they will be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary this year and have done so much for Mr. Dolphin growing up and now). So we told the DJ to play “their” song, The Twelfth of Never by Johnny Mathis, during our reception, as a surprise for them.

Our Wedding // The Twelfth of Never from Mrs Gator on Vimeo.

I love how Mr. D’s Papa is singing the song to Mema in her ear while they dance.
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Okay y’all, in my last post we got hitched. It was amazing. Perfect, in our eyes. I even received a phone call from Mr. Dolphin’s Mama saying she happy cried for half an hour after seeing Mr. Dolphin say his vows. Now, let’s keep this wedding recap bandwagon rollin’ with another video. Whatcha say about that? So, here’s what happened after all our happy tears, stubborn rings, and sweet kisses.

♥ Our Wedding // Pre-Reception from Mrs Gator on Vimeo.

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Confession: We were SOOO ready to be married, our ceremony script was the last thing we wanted to deal with/cared about.

Whew, I’m so glad I got that off my chest. I’ve seen lots of brides post their ceremony in full and talk about how much time they put into their ceremony script and how important certain passages for them were, or poems they included. I think that is awesome and I’ve loved reading what they’ve put together, but truthfully, throughout the wedding planning process, the ceremony became less and less important for us.
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When we last left off, I had just arrived (a little late) to the altar. We’re going to take a moment before moving on to the ceremony (and our ceremony “confession”) and recap all that’s happened so far…through VIDEO!!!

♥ Our Wedding // Pre-Ceremony from Mrs Gator on Vimeo.

As you can see, our wedding video is IN! I’m beyond excited.
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As Christmas ornaments!!!

This Christmas, I have searched high and low for a knight ornament for Mr. Dolphin’s alma mater. I even contacted Bunnywithatoolbelt (who made our cake toppers) to make a miniature knight ornament for us, but a custom piece proved to be a little more expensive then I had in mind. Then I thought, why not make our sweet little cake toppers into ornaments?

Hello, I love you.

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This Christmas will be very special for us this year because it will be our first Christmas as a married couple. Hooray! With that in mind, this past weekend we unpacked our holiday decor, turned up the Christmas tunes, put on our Santa hats, and got our camera set up for our annual Christmas tree video. Annual is a relatively new revelation. We had so much fun making the video last year, we thought we’d try our hand at it again with a few changes. But, enough of my yappin’, why don’t you see for yourself?

Stop Motion Christmas 2010 from Mrs Gator on Vimeo.

The video was shot with Mr. Dolphin’s Nikon D60 with a fish eye lens he received for Christmas last year from my parents. My favorite part is the ending…I love it. It makes me smile, smile, smile.
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