Weddingbee

You guys have been so ridiculously awesome with all your feedback on my pro pic posts. Seriously. I can’t tell you how much it means to me. Yesterday we were out birthday shopping (omfg I’m 33, people - 33!), and I kept making Mr. Lovebug bring up Weddingbee on his phone so I could read the new comments. And though I don’t respond to every single one, trust me - I have a good portion of them memorized.

Means. The. World.

So as a token of my gratitude, and as a wee gift to those of you who demand–er, requested that I post over the weekend, I’m giving you something I had absolutely NO intention of sharing with ANYONE, like, EVER. Presenting the single most horrific photo of our wedding:

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…Everything was in place. Mr. Lovebug and Melissa had taken up their positions on the steps of the ceremony site. The string quartet was playing the last few bars of Canon. I waited with bated breath for my cue. All I could feel, all I was aware of, was the breeze stirring my skirts.

Only, wait. That breeze sure is…breezy. In fact, that’s not so much a breeze as it is wind. I look up at the sky. It’s suddenly grey. It’s so very…grey. Oh my god. It’s going to rain. It’s going to rain on my–

CRRAAAACK! Audible gasps. Nervous laughter. What the…? What’s going–

And then, before I know what’s happening, the music starts. I wouldn’t know what the commotion was until after the ceremony, when I find out that seconds before I walked out, the wind tore a huge branch off one of the trees. It came crashing down inches away from one of the photographer’s assistant’s head, nearly braining him.
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…So there I was, a few short steps away from where I would begin my walk down the aisle. I’ve thought and thought about how to best describe that feeling, and the closest I can come is the word “confluence.” As in, the merging of things, especially as refers to bodies of water.Because really, that’s what’s it feels like. Like all these rivers of emotion that have been building and building all throughout the months of your planning (excitement, anticipation, anxiety) are suddenly flooding their banks, and they’re joined by other, new feelings: bewilderment, awe, solemnity, gratitude, vindication. Everyone’s mix will be different, and highly personal. But whatever yours is, it will rock you.

But then you just sort of go empty and calm, and this incredible peace comes. There’s a moment between the ending of one song and the start of your song where time stands still. You take a deep breath, gather yourself in to the experience, and give your kick-ass photographer one last smile:

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Happiness is having, in your hot little paw, the complete set of your professional wedding photos. My paws are so very happy today. The Inimitable Chris Richards (I’ve given him an epithet, à la Homer) has bestowed upon us all the files of our photos - fully sized and fully awesome! Hopefully, you’ll indulge me if I revisit the stories of the day through them…

Our wedding day began with one very nervous little bug. I’ll admit it - I was a stress case. Between all the DIY projects and details I’d arranged, I was feeling extremely anxious about whether I’d have enough time to set it all up exactly how my control-freak self wanted it.

I awoke at ten, in my hotel room at our venue, to a phone call from catering manager Kathleen telling me that the reception room was all mine. I flew out of bed and spent the next three hours hauling favors, menus, books, signs, candy, jars, etc. across the grounds to the reception room and arranging it just so. It was largely a solo operation, until it dawned on me to employ the services of the bell boy and waitstaff. Durrh.
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Sitting around waiting for our professional pictures to arrive (we get them tomorrow!), I’ve had plenty of time to get my Flickr account nice and tidy. In doing so, I’ve discovered the wonderland that is Picnik, Flickr’s photo editing tool. And oh, what a wonderland it is. If Flickr is my crack addiction, Picnik is my own personal meth lab.

Scenario 1: Say you’re like me, and you’ve got a load of crappy pictures taking up your hard drive. But they’re not so crappy that you want to dump them - maybe they’re all you’ve got from some important event, or they’re the only shots you have of that one night your girlfriend Prudence reaaaallly cut loose.

Scenario 2: You’ve been inundated with all the mediocre photos your friends and family took at your wedding. (Don’t feel bad for thinking they’re mediocre. After all, everyone takes mediocre pictures sometime.) Or you have wedding planning photos you can’t bear to part with, in spite of the fact that you have eight trillion professional pics as well.

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Since we’re still waiting for the files of our professional photos to arrive, I’m pretty much sending Mr. Lovebug to the mailbox hourly. Today he returned with a manila envelope in hand, and I about broke my ankle jumping out of my chair in excitement.

Alas, it wasn’t our files - but it was something I have to share, all the same…

At the end of the reception, it was a grab fest for our silver plate centerpieces (the flowers really were gorgeous - hopefully I’ll be able to show you this week). Some of the vases/teapots/buckets have been retrieved from our friends, and some are still floating around town.

Well, just check out what was in the manilla envelope:

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I’m absolutely dying to share our professional photos with everyone. Dying. We met with our amazing photographer, Chris Richards, at his (naturally) super cool home a few nights ago. We had some drinks and went through our photos one by one in full-sized, high-definition glory on his flat screen. We picked out some favorites and talked about albums, proofs, prints, etc.

Mr. LB and I always knew we wanted to buy the files of our photos - we want to be able to print any one, in any size, in any style, at any time in our lives. So now we’re just waiting to receive them, at which point the posting blitz shall begin!

In the meantime, though, I want to bust out a quick review of the rest of our vendors for my Tucson homegirlz.
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I know I promised professional photos would be my next post - and they’re coming very, very soon, I promise! - but I wanted to sneak this in really fast-like.

It’s a super short little video I cobbled together to show at the reception. Early on, my grand plan had been to get loads of footage of Mr. Lovebug that I could make into a sweet, full-length video for him. But he absolutely wigs out whenever I film him. It was impossible to get more than thirty seconds of him doing anything.

So I had to make do with the handful of random clips I had. It’s less than two minutes, but it a) fits the theme of the wedding, b) was a total surprise, and c) made everyone laugh, so d) I was happy.

I’m home! I’m home! I’m so excited to be home! Ireland was incredible, but we are soooo glad to be home. I have to say that if we were to do it again, we’d jet to the furthest tropical island we could afford and just LOUNGE. Our rather ambitious, all-over-Ireland itinerary wore. Us. Out.

We slept for 12-15 hours a night, and alas…did absolutely no ghost hunting. I know, I know! Pathetic, especially considering the awesome, creepy castles we stayed in. But we were completely, utterly exhausted from all our daily driving and sightseeing. (Oh, and that party we threw before we left did a number on us, too.) Not to mention, it doesn’t even get dark until 9:30 pm this time of year in Ireland. So while we made the most of our days, that’s about it.

But it was beautiful and we had a blast; Ireland is stunningly scenic and the people are so, so friendly. I’ve already shared a bunch of our “Best Of” set, but I hope I can forgiven the urge to share some more. Every inch of the country just begs to be photographed…
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Greetings, my much-missed friends-and-relations! Today Mr. LB and I conclude the Ireland leg of our honeymoon, and hop back across to London, where we’ll spend a quick couple of days before coming home. I’ve taken almost six hundred photos so far (this is one photogenic country) - fortunately, I found a way to ram as many as possible down your throats. Collage-a-than starts now!  Favorite “wow” scenic shots:

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