hi there

I'm pretty sure no one reads this anymore. It's been almost six months (say whaaa?!). I have yet to sort through the bajillion amazing photos from our wedding. So...here ya go!

Wanna help me narrow it down to 20-30 photos for our album??

B & W

Life is busy, even after you're done planning a wedding apparently.

Let me present: wedding photos taken by our other photographer, best man Brian. My favorite part? These were all taken on black and white FILM, which he developed. yummy!

Laughing with the girls

My darling flower girl and niece

Love this shot! On the front steps of the church

Arriving at the reception

Hello there husband

The morning after the bachelor party in Sacramento, tee hee

Perfect Timing

One of the few photos we have with my step-father-in-law (he  only was present for parts of the day to avoid the germs due to his battle with cancer)

what's in a name?

So I'm in a weird place name-wise. I always knew I would take Husband's last name. But the marriage certificate hasn't come yet (it's been almost 2 months? maybe I should make a phone call...) so officially I still have my maiden name. I changed it on FB, and when I started telling people what the new name would be, the general consensus was that it sounded natural, it flowed, like it had always been my name (probably helps that half of Husband's family has J first names, including him! ...we're going to have the same first, middle AND last initials). But since it's not my legal name yet, I've noticed lately I'm conflicted when I have to tell people. I was at the pharmacy today and I actually had to think for a second, which last name to say when asked my name. I guess that's a sign I've made the right decision for me. I can't wait to change it legally so everything else can be changed. Even at work, my email is maiden name first initial, my email signature is still my maiden name (it's going to get confusing there's a lot of people I communicate with regularly on a daily basis, in different parts of the country, that I've never met), my business cards are old. But women do this all the time right? I feel like I'm doing this radical thing, taking on a new name to better shape my new identity, even though that's completely the opposite of how things are in this day and age of feminism. Anyway, random thoughts aside, my new last name is pretty awesome, I love it.

Never Gonna Let You Down

So music was a big part of our day. Husband spent a lot of time piecing together this playlist. With minor help from me.

Ceremony:

Dylan played while the bridesmaids and groomsman came down the aisle, along with our moms (mine escorted by my little brother, husband escorted his). I came down the aisle to "Us" by Regina Spektor. So epic, so happy and beautiful. it was perfect. And "You Are the Best Thing" was the perfect exit from the ceremony music. The horn section kills me every time, so upbeat!

{yeah I discovered the song from 500 Days of Summer and maybe I included this video because the only celeb I've ever been told I looked like was Zooey. I'll take it!}

Here's the Reception. Sweet Thing was our first dance. It's the song that was playing when Husband proposed. I danced to Ballerina with my dad, I did ballet for 14 years, and it's a very sweet song.

Our playlist was very eclectic but I trusted Husband with it. It was very representative of our taste in music and iconic songs from our relationship. We didn't even make it through the whole playlist, the reception ended up lasting about 4ish hours. People began to leave on their own, so that by the time the majority of the guests had left and it was just family and wedding party essentially, we changed and left for the honeymoon around 6:30. (Ceremony had started at 1 and Husband and I arrived at the Reception by 2:30 - food was already there for guests, hors d'ouevres meant they didn't have to wait for us). The timing of the day worked out really well for us.

Also, see the 2nd to last song? "Righteously" by Lucinda Williams? Yeah that ACTUALLY is "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley. Yes Husband Rick Rolled me at our wedding (He renamed it since it's my iTunes account so I wouldn't notice). Right before the father-daughter dance. And it was hilarious. Husband spends a lot of time on online message boards and is well versed in rick rolling. The majority of our guests had no idea what was going on including my dad. But it was funny nonetheless. Oh Husband! (he also has a rick roll app on his phone! I love that boy! =D)

italiano

This is why I'm a little bummed I didn't try everything food-wise:
MENU
1. Antipasto, cheeses & fruits - display including marinated vegetables, salami & italian meats, provolone, fresh mozzarella, brie topped with sugared pecans, Italian olives & pepperoncini, four cheese tortellini with dipping sauce of sour cream, lemon, cracked pepper & parmesean, seasonal fruits with sour cream, brown sugar and caramel sauce, chevre topped with sun dried tomatoes, Stilton with dried apricots
2. Warm brie & phyllo tartlets with cinnmon fuji apples & sugared pecans
3. Herb polenta topped with garlic and herb chevre, sun dried tomatoes and kalamata olives
4. Deep fried cheese ravioli with fresh roasted tomato dipping sauce
5. Honey roasted red grape & lemon ricotta bruschetta
6. Miniature filet mignon wellington with madeira sauce
7. Warm puff pastry package with chevre, dates and maple smoked bacon
8. bruschetta - chicken breasts stuffed with basil pesto, thinly sliced and served on toasted baguette with baby greens and dijon aioli
9. Hickory grilled pork tenderloin bruschetta with orange ricotta & topped with compote of cinnamon cranberries, dried cherries, golden raisins and pecans
10. yukon gold potato, applewood smoked bacon and fontina tartlets.

jealousssssss.

(p.s. we gave the caterers our budget and number of people, they let us choose 10 different items from their proposed menu. It was reasonable, pretty and YUM. very satisfied)

disjointed recap

Last week was a good week. Maybe it's because I got to spend all day Sunday with husband, walking everywhere in in our little town (church, crepes, frozen yogurt, cheap rentals at going-out-of-business blockbuster). Maybe because we got our wedding photos (amazinggggg!!! too. many. to. choose.) Maybe because I found out difficult co-worker was quitting and Friday was his last day (goodbye negativity!). Maybe it's because we've been spending time with and celebrating 2 weeks with this little guy:

{Meet Raphael! our adopted little one}

Unfortunately that meant neglecting le blog. So...yes wedding photos are in. Also received a disc of the film shots that best man took. so overwhelming. and so happy! Our photographers did such a good job capturing the joy of the day and our loved ones. I actually had to dig through the fb posted shots from family and friends to find some of the detail shots of the decor (because priorities=people thankyouverymuch...also food, but photographer got some awesome food shots because duh, we're on the same wavelength)

So here's some more fb photos until I have time to sort through the 300+ edited shots: 

{see awesome vintage fox fur stole bridesmaid Shawntel let me borrow, it belonged to her great-grandma! Also, behind me, a non-alcoholic beverage: lavender lemonade}

{plates full of our delish hors d'oeuvres/fruit/cheese, wine from the bar}

I will admit, I only tried 3 of the hors d'ouevres, a slice of cake, a couple pastries, one glass of chardonnay and one glass of champagne. I didn't do so awesome in the "eat tons of food at my wedding" department. I really love to eat but I didn't realize how much I would spend making the rounds and chatting with everyone. I did eat In-N-Out burger before the ceremony though (it was next door to our hotel!):

So that kind of balances it all out right? Husband and I might have also splurged on room service later that night. mostly because I've never had room service at a hotel before!

Anyway, back to the decorations:

{gift table at the entry, with some branches (mixed with artificial branches that had twinkly lights) in the background including the antique birdcage}

{this was a big hit. It was a display that we rented from a beverly's fabric store for $30, we filled all the buckets with bunches of flowers and had squares of brown paper off the to side so guests could take home bouquets. just about everyone took some home, and had so much fun putting together bouquets! There were hardly any flowers left by the end of the day}

{cake table! The awesomely yummy cake that grandma made. Everyone was so impressed that my grandma made it}

A little "before/during" cake action:

The state of my parent's kitchen Thursday before the wedding, grandma took over. p.s. that Kitchenaid mixer? yeah it's 40-45 years old. Can you believe it?! The cord was one piece of electrical tape away from electrocuting us. But it worked awesomely.

Pretty cakes! The bottom was vanilla with lemon curd filling, the middle was carrot cake with cream cheese frosting filling, and the top was chocolate with chocolate fudge filling (which we left at Husband's mom's house on accident).

{all photos by family/friends/myself}

dressy time!

oops sorry, I promised and didn't deliver. but husband time > blog time.

Dress time!

Ok so remember miss multi-talented bridesmaid Shawntel? Here's the gift she gave me at my bridal shower:

That's ME! (click to zoom) She hand drew and watercolored this illustration of me in my dress with my hair and veil all done. I'm so in love with it!

So I told my girls grey/silver knee-length-ish dresses. Go! It was cold so tights/cardis were recommended. It worked out so well! Their dresses were each so unique to the girl and yet looked so cohesive and well together. Check out these beautiful ladies!

Miss A (2nd from the left in the above and below) MADE her dress! (she literally finished the night before and the zipper was being finicky so we ended up sewing her into the dress right before the ceremony!)

And a peek at me! For some reason, of all the photos our friends and family took, it was hard to find a good full-length shot.

Me with Mama. Let me tell you, I ADORED this dress. It was soooooo comfortable. I ended going really retro/vintage with my whole look slightly by accident, but it felt so me! This dress is ivory beaded lace over a "champagne" colored satin (surprisingly lightweight). A fitted trumpet style (showed off my curves!). It had a v-neck, cap sleeves, deep V in the back and a thin beaded empire waist. Everyone was dying to know where I got it and everyone was incredulous when I said david's bridal, commenting that the dress was so unique looking and intricate and so me. mission accomplished.

This is also a good shot of my bouquet, my florist was AMAZING. the sweetest lady ever and her designs were so wonderful. My bouquet had anemones, juniper berry (for delicious smell and lovely purple color), dusty miller, rosemary (also delicious smelling!) and seasonal greenery. I loved it!

Here you can see a little detail on my bouquet, my great-grandmother's cameo brooch. I wore my grandma's strand of pearls. and the headpiece was from my grandmother's wedding as well, 55 years old and in such wonderful condition! The fingertip length & blusher veils were from my mom's wedding which she wore with the headpiece also, except she wore it with the points flipped up like a crown. Shawntel just touched up the veil portion and detached them from the head piece and sewed on a comb. She embroidered me and husband's names and our wedding date onto the comb in blue as a special little touch!

A little peek at the reception, here's me introducing cousin for her tearjerker speech. Also, good full-length shot of the dress.

Me and husband dancing! You can see veil #2 here, just a simple birdcage style netting over the headpiece. Loved it. (Handsome Husband. what. up. p.s. he printed a picture of mad men's don draper and took it to a barber for his haircut/style. tee hee)

Yay! Hope you enjoyed. ceremony/reception decor next? and the sneak peeks from our photographer are trickling in. so exciteddd!