Weddingbee Blog

After a few more lovely words from our officiant, the Dude and I did something called the “expression of intent.” It was separate from our vows, and though it might have seemed repetitive, I thought it was a lovely sentiment. We declared to the world (well, to the room, at least) that we were ready to do this thing!

Spike: The Dude, will you take Miss Mouse to be your lawfully wedded wife and travel the rest of life’s road with her? Will you love her, laugh with her, comfort her, honor and protect her, and forsaking all others, be faithful to her as long as you both shall live?

The Dude: I will.

Spike: Miss Mouse, will you take the Dude to be your lawfully wedded husband and travel the rest of life’s road with him? Will you love him, laugh with him, comfort him, honor and protect him, and forsaking all others, be faithful to him as long as you both shall live?

Miss Mouse: I will.

This was a special moment, where we got to really look at each other and soak everything in.
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Sorry to leave you guys hanging like that in my last post—I know, it was cruel.

When I left you, the Dude was waiting for my walk down the aisle.

As I stood in front of the back door to the barn, I took a deep breath and made my entrance to the song that will forever remind me of my father.
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Before I get to the ceremony, I need to rewind a little bit. At some point while we were taking photos, the venue coordinator, Rick, took me aside to discuss what we were going to do about the ceremony. If you remember, our original plan was to get married outdoors, in the garden. When Rick pulled me aside, the rain was holding off, but the sky looked cloudy and forecasts were predicting rain for the evening. Rick let me know in no uncertain terms (but very diplomatically) that it would be way too risky to try for the garden wedding. Although I was a bit disappointed, I knew it was the right decision. So I told him to go ahead and have everyone set up in the Artisan ballroom (really more of a barn with a large wall of windows facing into the garden).

Pre-ceremony hair check

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OK, I know you guys are like, get on with the wedding already, but I’ve got one more batch of portraits to share first. These are the photos of our amazingly photogenic wedding party!

To start things off, the guys (or should I say “dudes”?) rockin’ their skinny ties.

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I hope everyone had a great holiday! I spent mine relaxing in the snowy Rocky Mountains with the Dude and his family. Why can’t vacations last forever?

Anyway, recaps are back on! Here are some more of my favorite bride-and-groom portraits of the day.

Starting with a little nose kiss

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Taking photos by ourselves was fun, but I loved taking our portraits together. It was one of the best parts of the day! Luckily we’d already gotten some practice in with our engagement session, so we were much more comfortable and relaxed in front of the camera. And we had an easier time with posing because we’d done it before.

Here are some of the more formal ones we took: outside the mansion, jacket on.

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My board was inspired by this Eiffel Tower ornament that I bought a few years ago. As soon as I thought of it, I knew I had to create a wedding look inspired by Paris fashion.

I imagine a bride getting married in an old courthouse and then strolling along the Seine with her new spouse in this Audrey Hepburn-meets-Serena Van der Woodsen ensemble.
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While the Dude was striking a pose, I was getting some solo shots with Jennifer (one of the benefits to hiring a husband/wife team to shoot your wedding!).

We started off on the lower balcony of the mansion. Finally, my bouquet makes an appearance!

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After our first look, we took portraits together and separately. I’m gonna share the Dude’s first—he’s such a natural in front of the camera! (I’m not the only one who thinks so—recently he was spotted by a local actor/comedian who asked him to play Jesus in a fake commercial he was filming! I’ll share the video with you guys when it comes out if I get permission.)

Anyway, back to the Dude’s wedding portraits.

I’ve just got to say that I’m so happy the Dude didn’t cut his hair off or shave his beard for the wedding! At one point, we were discussing him doing this–I’m glad he decided to represent for all those shaggy boys out there.
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The Dude and I decided a long time ago that we were going to do a first look. It worked well with our timeline, and we didn’t want to miss out on any of the fun between the ceremony and the reception!

Once MOH Deniz and I arrived at Barr Mansion, we only had to wait a little bit before Bridesmaids Kelli and Dani showed up. One of the staff members brought up a bottle of wine, and I tried to relax a bit. I was so nervous about the ceremony. The thought of standing up in front of all of those people was freaking me out just a little! Luckily I had my beautiful bouquet to distract me from my nerves.

And it wasn’t too long before the Dude showed up and our photographers got us ready for our first look. While I waited in the bridal suite, the Dude hung out on the balcony.

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When I left you last, our rehearsal dinner guests were heading out the door. But the night wasn’t quite over yet! The Dude and I decided not to spend the night apart, so we curled up in bed and got excited for the next day: our wedding day. But first, we decided to do a practice run of our first dance—we had literally done nothing up to this point besides pick out a song. So with “our song” playing quietly out of the Dude’s computer, we practiced our dance on the carpet of our bedroom. It didn’t go so well (the tempo was a bit slower than we realized), and I started to get nervous for the next day—but the Dude assured me it would be OK, so we decided to just go with it.

Here we are the next morning, before I headed off for my appointment at the salon. The Dude is playing with a Transformer he received as a wedding gift!

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I wanted to wait until my recaps to show you guys the gifts that we got for our wedding party. Some of them read Weddingbee, so I didn’t want any spoilers!

After everyone had their fill of BBQ, we made an announcement for everyone to gather under the carport (it was still raining) so we could dole out thank you gifts.

My girls got each got a little package like this.

Ever the re-user, I packaged two of the girls’ gifts in these kraft boxes that some of my Etsy purchases had come in. The third girl got a green gift box that I’d been saving for a while from a Bath & Body Works set I received as a gift. The green ribbon was also saved from old gift packaging–I just used some double-sided tape to fashion the bow shape.

When the girls opened their packages, here is what they found inside:
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This is it! My recaps are actually beginning! Our wedding day was one of the best days of my life, and I cannot wait to share it with you guys. But before I get to the pro pics, I’d like to tell you about the day before.

It started with manicures for me and MOH Deniz.*

In retrospect, I could’ve gone with an edgy gunmetal gray, but I loved this pale pale pink. (And it matched our wedding colors!)

Then we met up with my mom, my SIL J. Dawg, and my MIL, the Dude’s mom, for brunch. I’d been wanting to try Sandra Bullock’s restaurant, Bess Bistro, and it didn’t disappoint. Gourmet grilled cheese sandwich with blackberry compote? Yes, please.
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Now that my honeymoon recaps are done, I thought I’d share with you guys some of the things we did wrong. Hopefully someone can learn from our mistakes! By the way, I see now why people tend to go to tropical islands on their honeymoons instead of gallivanting through Europe: it’s exhausting! (But totally worth it, in my opinion.) At any rate, here’s our list of “don’ts” (and some “dos”). Please, learn from our stupids.

• On the last few days of your two-week long honeymoon, don’t try to squeeze in a million-and-one sites, activities, and adventures. Instead, save the relaxing parts of the trip for the end–you’ll appreciate those days of rest before returning to “normal” life.
• Don’t buy two new pairs of boots on your trip. Especially when you’re literally carrying all of your luggage on your back and everything barely fits into your giant backpack as it is.
• This is ridiculously obvious, but don’t neglect to check the weather before you go! Don’t rely on your partner who tells you that it’s going to be “nice” in Paris. Nice is relative, people!
• Don’t bring your (brand new) Sonicare toothbrush and try to plug it in to a European electrical outlet. Even with a converter, that baby will get fried.

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Well, folks, this is it. My final honeymoon recap post. It’s been fun sharing our experiences in Europe with all of you. Be sure and stay tuned for a post on travel tips and, of course, the wedding recaps!

When I left you last, I said that our ferry from Naxos was heading back to Santorini–what was that all about? Well, we had booked our ferry from Santorini to Athens before leaving for our honeymoon. Then we decided, while in Santorini, to take a side trip to Naxos, which meant we had to get back to Santorini in time to catch our ferry to Athens. We ended up backtracking a bit by going from Naxos to Santorini to Athens because Naxos is actually in between Santorini and the mainland. In fact, our ferry from Santorini to Athens stopped in Naxos on the way. In theory, we could have just stayed in Naxos and tried to board the ferry when it arrived there, but we weren’t sure how the system worked and didn’t want to take the risk of not being able to board our ferry. So, back to Santorini it was, but only long enough for a quick bite to eat. Then it was on to Athens!

We only had two full days in this city, so we tried to fit in as much sightseeing as possibly, even though we were incredibly worn out at this point in the trip. Our first morning in Athens, we woke up and headed a couple of blocks from our hotel to Hadrian’s Arch.

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