Weddingbee

Once our separate formal portraits were completed, it was just about that time - let’s do this thing!

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…and now, the groom’s cake. Mr. Mags and I were torn on whether or not to have one – unlike the actual wedding cake, this would not be included in our reception package. Being the huge Georgia football fans that we are, something UGA-related was the only way to go, if we did decide to have one.

FMIL and I touched on the subject with Jeff, our baked, and he showed us an option that we both fell in love with. In fact, although we didn’t decide on a groom’s cake that night, FMIL decided that (1) we had to have that cake, and (2) she was going to pay for it. (I adore my in-laws, I really do!)

So what did we decide on? A cake which recreated the UGA football field, where Mr. Mags and I took our engagement pictures. The real selling point for this cake was the hedges – a point of pride for any Georgia football fan. Playing “between the hedges” is a long-standing tradition for the Dawgs, so much so that they didn’t even let the 1996 Olympics get in the way. That summer, the soccer competitions were set to take place at Sanford Stadium, UGA’s football field, and the hedges had to be taken out. Although the actual location of the hedges during this period was kept highly secret (rival teams are always suspected of potential sabotage!), rumor has it that they were planted in the state of Florida, and we actually moved Georgia soil as well so as not to “taint” the hedges with the nutrients of our neighbor to the south. Seriously – the hedges are a big deal. And our cake had them!
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I have to interrupt my chronological wedding-day posting to insert gratuitous cake shots, per Miss Pineapple’s request…

A few days ago, Miss Pineapple wrote a great post about the cake designs that she was considering – and her first inspiration was the following:

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Unlike my adorable husband, I don’t mind being in front of a camera. So when it came time for my solo portraits, I was not only completely comfortable, but also a bit of a ham!

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Although he fought it at every turn, Mr. Magnolia eventually gave in to some formal shots as a groom-to-be. More than likely, it was just that he knew how disappointed I would be if we got our pictures back and found zero of him…

He’s so dapper, isn’t he?
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Since the boys snapped up all of the sunlight for their group shots (greedy beasts…), my bridesmaids and I suffered through our photograph session by artificial light.

I kid, I kid. 35Atlanta did an amazing job of lighting the courtyard at Christ the King, and I’m truly thrilled with how our group pictures turned out!

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Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, a Weddingbee Blogger named Mrs. Magnolia started posting her wedding pictures……and then she stopped, because life intervened, and she started traveling like a madwoman, and all of her free time was devoted to cleaning and gardening and raising a puppy, and oh yeah - being a newlywed and spending quality time with her wonderful husband.

But she’s back, and ready to post more wedding day photos, so here goes nothing!

With our wedding scheduled for 7:30 pm in January, nighttime pictures were a given from the start, especially since Mr. Mags and I decided not to see one another before the ceremony. I wasn’t worried about it, because I really do love the ambiance of evening pictures. In fact, I was looking forward to seeing what our photographers came up with.

Anyway, with that said, the boys did get their group shots in before the sun set completely, and I just love how the “city at dusk” lighting came out!
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I have got to say, we have had a TIME trying to complete our everyday china since the wedding. We received approximately four bread and butter plates, forty-seven salad plates, twenty-one dinner plates, one soup bowl, a sugar bowl, and a notification that a mug has been on backorder since Christmas. Thanks a million, Macy’s and Bloomie’s.

We selected Wedgwood’s Night and Day pattern, and while it doesn’t seem to be heading into retirement anytime soon… well, it’s also not the *easiest* pattern to find. I do take partial blame, since I insisted that we not register for the five-piece place setting. While that would have been easier, I couldn’t be less interested in a cup/saucer combo. Bring on the soup bowls on mugs! Anyway, I’ve suggested to Mr. Magnolia that we supplement our everyday china with some plain white pieces (hello, Martha!), but he’s surprisingly adamant about keeping our stuff very “matchy-matchy.”

I do love the contrasting fluted/checkerboard patterns on this china. I just wish we could collect all of it! [Image courtesy of wedgwoodusa.com.]
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While we were primping for literally hours at our house about four and a half miles away, Mr. Magnolia and his groomsmen walked around Piedmont Park, toured the Coke Museum, and eventually made their way back to the hotel roughly fifteen minutes before they were due to start taking pictures. Our photographer, Ray, actually sat around at the Four Seasons for a couple of hours, waiting for the boys. At one point, he was approached by a security team and questioned about his photography equipment - it turns out, the Chicago Bulls were in town to play the Atlanta Hawks, and they were staying at the Four Seasons as well. Security was afraid he might be paparazzi! (Well, he was - but for me, not them!)

But hey, he got this great shot:

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Okay, here we go! I’ve shown y’all some details, and you’ve seen some non-pro pics, but it’s now that time to really start posting our professional wedding pictures by the fabulous 35 Atlanta.

So here we go - pictures of me and my girls getting ready!

We didn’t actually start getting ready until about 1:30 or 2:00 in the afternoon. Since our ceremony was scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m., we actually had other things going on that day. I ran a 5K that morning, and my mother-in-law’s best friend threw us a perfectly lovely bridesmaids luncheon at the perfectly-Atlanta Swan Coach House. We were a little rushed leaving lunch, and we headed back to my house to begin getting ready as quickly as we could.

Things were pretty hectic - at one point, we had one bride, six bridesmaids, three beauty professionals, two friends, one mom, one cousin, and two photographers in our little 1200 sq. ft. house, but I wouldn’t have changed our setup for the world. I was kind of frazzled, rarely sitting down and constantly coming up with “one more thing” that needed to be done, but someone was always one step behind me, taking the dustpan out of my hand, cleaning up the wine glasses from the coffee table, and steaming the bridesmaids dresses and sashes.
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