A Wedding Potion

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Love Potion #17: More Pictures! Because Wedding.

...like I said, weddings are mainly comprised of photo ops.

The weather was absolutely beautiful that day, so we couldn't resist some outdoor shots with our bridal party. But first- I needed to pop my collar?

I swear I didn't know this photo was being taken

We gathered up our friends for some fabulous photos:

I don't think they knew this picture was being taken, either

Our photographers told us to pretend we were posing for a magazine, like supermodels. This is what we came up with. (Once again we were unable to round up all 4 tiny attendants.)

Please observe my baby cousin's interpretation of "act like a supermodel":

And again, sans little ones:

The bridesmaids' dresses had pockets (pockets!), so the photographers decided to emphasize that fact.

If the seated photo was for a magazine, then this one must be our album cover:

Since our wedding was a large family gathering in the month of November where we were all dressed nice, my Mammaw decided to go for the obvious- Christmas card photos!

My mom liked this idea, too.

And I got a couple of pictures with my parents before we made our way back to the party

Did you take lots of family photos on your wedding day? Also- how great are dresses with pockets?!

*all photos by One Photo Gallery*

Love Potion #0.5: Uh…Who is This Chick?
Love Potion #1: Dress Rehearsal
Love Potion #2: Gettin’ Our Hairs Did
Love Potion #3: Last Minute Details
Love Potion #4: Corsages for the Generations
Love Potion #5: The Boys Get Spiffy
Love Potion #6: “Formal” Portraits
Love Potion #7: Goin’ to the Chapel…
Love Potion #8: Proceeding with the Ceremony
Love Potion #9: Leaving Our Families to Cling to Each Other
Love Potion #10: And Then We Got Married
Love Potion #11: Our First Meal as a Married Couple
Love Potion #12: Boys Just Don't Smile
Love Potion #13: Formal Portraits that are Formal: Family Edition
Love Potion #14: Formal Portraits that are Formal: Bridesmaid Edition
Love Potion #14.5: We Didn't Have a DOC
Love Potion #15: Why Dance When You Can Watch Football?
Love Potion #16: The Sweetest Part

Monday, January 6, 2014

Love Potion #16: The Sweetest Part

...I'm talking, of course, about the cupcakes.

You may recall that we decided to forgo the traditional wedding cake and have a variety of cupcake flavors instead. There was a table to the side of the dance floor holding a small selection of these cupcakes as the guest arrived to whet their appetites, as it were, though we placed a sign on the table so no one would steal a cupcake before we had a chance to eat one :)

Front and center on this little table was our "cake topper," created by my uber talented sister/MOH:

About halfway through the reception, the waiters brought out the rest of the cupcakes and removed the sign:

That meant it was time for the "cake cutting!" We surveyed the delicious offerings and discussed whether to share a chocolate, red velvet, or carrot cake cupcake:

We picked chocolate!

I gave Mr Potion a bite:

Then it was my turn- but first, I reminded Mr Potion not to squish it in my face because that would NOT. BE. FUNNY. PERIOD.

...I got frosting on my nose anyway, though. It was kind of unavoidable!

The cupcakes weren't the only sweets at the reception- we also had a candy buffet!

(Do you see those two potion bottles hiding off to the right?)

Are you having a traditional tiered wedding cake or a different kind of dessert? Married ladies- did you get cake smooshed in your face on the big day?

*all photos by One Photo Gallery*

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Saturday, January 4, 2014

Love Potion #15: Why Dance When You Can Watch Football?

Once we were done with photos at the church, we made our way to the reception. The schedule for the reception was simple- the guests could eat, drink, and mingle before we arrived, then we'd make our grand entrance, have the special dances, then open the floor for dancing while we grabbed some food ourselves before cupcakes and toasts, and finally, after many goodbyes, we'd make our grand exit. (You may remember that we weren't having a seated dinner- just hors d'oeuvres and a smashed potato bar.)

Did I say grand entrance? I meant epic.

We rode invisible horses into the reception with our bridal party.

Yeah, we were those people- we made our entrance to "Gangnam Style". Unfortunately, our photographers were not there to capture the moment, but my cousin L sent me this great picture:

photo via my cousin L

Once the crazy was over, Mr Potion and I immediately cuddled up for our first dance. I know I had talked about choreographing a show-stopping ballroom number for this dance, but, as the wedding approached and I had to cut things from the epic to-do list, this idea quickly died. We ended up just swaying and grinning like the goofy kids that we are, with the occasional spin- and I actually let Mr. Potion lead! Oh, and what song did we end up choosing?

We went with the beautifully romantic "Hard to Concentrate" by Red Hot Chili Peppers instead of the Disney songs that were in the running. Again, I have no professional photos of this moment, but I did manage to find a guest photo:

photo via my godmother

Next, I danced with my dad. We had considered opening the dance floor up to other dads and their daughters halfway through, but when the microphone died there was no way to really communicate this to the guests, so we dropped this idea, too. It was nice to share an almost private moment with my dad, though, as we danced to "Rainbow Connection" by Weezer featuring Haley Williams:

photo via my Aunt P

Next, Mr Potion danced with his mom to "Forever Young" by Audra Mae & The Forest Rangers, and unfortunately we don't even have a guest photo of this moment :(

After that, the floor opened for everyone to dance- or at least that was the plan. You may recall that I had a few tricks to get people to dance- a huge dance floor with no assigned seating, an awesome playlist featuring songs requested by the guests, and alcohol + candy. I really envisioned everyone dancing and being goofy for the rest of the reception, but I forgot one crucial detail.

It was football season.

It was football season, Alabama was playing that afternoon, and there was a TV on the upper floor of Spring House.

So yeah, nobody danced.

Well, not nobody...

This is entirely unrelated, but- this is the cutest picture of the whole day:

they're comparing the LEGO men on their flowers!

Was there a lot of dancing at your reception, or did other forms of entertainment take over?

*all photos by One Photo Gallery unless otherwise noted*

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Friday, January 3, 2014

Love Potion #14.5: We Didn't Have a DOC

Alternate title: Some Things Went Sorta Kinda Wrong

Let me start by saying that I regret nothing about our wedding day. If the Doctor showed up on my doorstep today and gave me the chance to have a conversation with pre-wedding day Miss Potion, I'd tell her to continue with her plans exactly as they are. (I might tell her to stop stressing a bit, but it's sort of impossible for me to stop stressing, so that would be pointless.)

That's not to say that nothing went wrong, however. I'm fairly certain that, had we hired a planner or DOC, the things that went wrong would not have gone wrong. However, the things that went wrong were, in my opinion, rather minor in the grand scheme of things, and if I have a choice between small things going wrong and big things going wrong, I'll take the small things. (And yes, with my luck, something has to go wrong- nothing can be perfect.)

Of the minor mishaps on our Big Day, two things were big enough to be noticed by the guests.

No Photos of Our First Dance

Both of our photographers made the journey from Atlanta to Alex City in one car. Before the ceremony, I briefly chatted with our second shooter about how he could head to the reception early and take photos of guests arriving and making merry while we got our portraits done. BM MrsF's husband was serving as our pseudo DJ (that is, he was chosen to press 'play' on the playlist on my computer) and would be leaving just after Communion, so I told our second shooter to ride with him. The only problem was, in the hustle and bustle of the pre-wedding festivities, I sort of forgot to pass the same message along to our pseudo DJ. If we'd had a coordinator, she would probably have made this arrangement without my having to think about it...

This wasn't such a disaster- both photographers could ride in the same car and follow the bridal party to the reception.

Except they got lost.

And I didn't notice they weren't there until after our first dance and our dances with our parents. Oops.

As Mr. Potion and I grabbed some food, somebody asked me where our photographers were and that's when I realized they were missing. I asked my sister, my fantastic MOH, to call them and see what was up, but by that point they had figured out their wrong turn and were almost at Spring House.

The Microphone Died

We didn't hire a DJ or band, and frankly, we didn't need to. I created a "cocktail hour" playlist which played during the hour or so before we arrived, comprised of sweet, mellow songs like "The Gambler" by fun. and "Life Less Ordinary" by Carbon Leaf; I also created a dancing playlist for the rest of the reception with a variety of danceable songs- everything from "Glad You Came" by The Wanted, to "Good Morning Sunshine" by Alex Day, to "I Won't Give Up" by Jason Mraz. I created shortcuts to these two separate playlists and put them on my desktop, removing everything else, and wrote some very clear instructions on the desktop background:

*personal image*

It says, "If the bride has not given you permission to touch this computer, DON'T TOUCH THIS COMPUTER."

Finally, I adjusted the power settings on my laptop so that it would stay on when the lid was closed, and hooked it up to the restaurant's sound system using an adapter we bought at Radio Shack. All our pseudo DJ had to do was double click on the appropriate playlist and then close the lid. Simple!

We also bought a wireless microphone at Radio Shack for the honor attendants and my dad who would be giving speeches during the reception. We tested it thoroughly during our night-before set-up party...and then we forgot to turn it off.

The mic was completely dead when speech-time rolled around. This meant that the only people who could hear what was being said were those standing within a few paces of the speech-givers.

Could a coordinator have prevented this? Maybe, if the coordinator had been the one setting everything up. It's likely that this would have gone wrong either way, though.

So there's your warning, folks- if you're going for a DEY (Do EVERYTHING Yourselves) wedding, be prepared for a few hiccups along the way. Luckily for us, this was the worst that happened and we were able to continue with the celebration completely unfazed. (Perhaps that's because they happened after the actual getting married part happened and we were in a permanent state of happy. Also there was alcohol.)

Have you hired a planner or day-of coordinator? Married ladies- were there any mishaps on your big day? Did they stress you out or were you able to keep partying?

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Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Love Potion #14: Formal Portraits that are Formal: Bridesmaid Edition

Hive, I've come to an important realization while writing these recaps- weddings are primarily composed of photo ops.

That's right- our guests were now all at the reception, chatting pleasantly, sampling hors d'oeuvre and whiskey, and we were...not. Because we had more pictures to take, obviously!

First, though, I had to boss some people around (because that's what I do best) and the photographer decided to capture the moment. As it turns out, this provided some lovely shots of my bouquet:

Once I was done ordering people about, it was time for some pictures with my girls.

(This may come as a shock to some of you, as I'm sure my previous photos have been deceiving, but, believe it or not, I'm rather short. 5'2 1/2", to be exact. [And yes, the half inch makes all the difference.] Also, I chose to wear flats on our wedding day for various reasons relating to comfort and general awesomeness. I told my bridesmaids to wear whatever shoes they wanted (so long as they were silver and not sneakers), so some picked heels. But who am I kidding- I'm miles shorter than the girls that wore flats, too.)

And then of course there were a couple of group shots:

By now we were all pretty much starving, buuuuut we couldn't leave until Mr. Potion and I made out a little bit. Oops.

Was your wedding mostly eating, mostly dancing, or mostly taking photos?

*all photos by One Photo Gallery*

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