In honor of our upcoming trip to Jamaica, I though I would share some never before seen footage from our honeymoon in Negril (all g rated - promise).
We're here!
Snorkeling!
this is my absolute favorite picture from our honeymoon!
Bob Marley Shot
Time to go home
I think going on a honeymoon right after our wedding was one of the best decisions we've ever made. We spent a lot of time debating whether or not we should spend the money (here, here, and here) and I'm SO glad we decided to. We had the time of our lives and I couldn't recommend Couples Negril more. Even when I'm really stressed out, memories of our honeymoon make me smile.
Don't forget - today is the last day to enter my giveaway! The giveaway closes at midnight tonight and I'll be announcing the winner this weekend. Good luck to everyone! I can't wait to see who wins.
And just so no one feels left out, I put together a little gift for all of you. A mix tape!
Before our wedding ceremony started we had a wedding mix playing off of our ipod and through our venue's speakers. Since we knew lots of people would probably get there before our 6:30 ceremony start time, this was our way of sharing some of our favorite lovey dovey songs with our guests and setting the mood for the whole evening. I've already shared a list of the songs we chose, but today I wanted to actually give you the mix! I really hope you like it :)
Its hard for me to pick a favorite song from this, but I'd have to go with Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.
So happy Friday everyone! What is everyone up to this weekend? I'm going out with my bestie for dinner tonight and then working like a mad woman the rest of the weekend to finish up my final papers. I am so ready for this semester to be over!
Thank you guys so much for all of your support and advice regarding my wedding album woes. I was so nervous to e-mail our photographer about our wedding album, but after reading all of your lovely comments I finally put my big girl panties on and sent her an e-mail. And, just like most of you predicted, she wasn't mad at all.
Neill and I asked her to pretty much design the whole thing, but we did want to be sure some of our favorite photos would be included. So, the other day we made a list of our "must have" shots. It was surprisingly hard to come up with a concise list so to help narrow down our list we asked ourselves whether we would be disappointed if our album didn't contain each picture. If the answer was "yes," it made it to our final list.
So, without further adieu, here are our must have wedding album photos!
getting dressed
before our first look
our first look
pictures at promontory point
in front of the allerton
us with our bridal party
me and my bridesmaids
bridal party with balloons!
wedding shoes
neill under the huppah
saying our vows
happy
we held hands the whole time
our first kiss
waiting to be announced as husband & wife
outside our reception venue
Thank you so much for your support! I feel loads better after contacting our photographer and getting this going. I hope in my next post about this I can show you pictures of our how album turns out!
You see, we paid for a wedding album. And our photographer provided us with so many wonderful photos that I really, really want one. But . . . somehow I let it slip through the cracks. I e-mailed her in the beginning of October of 2010 to check in about the wedding album and she responded that a 30 page book and one design was included in our package and asked me to pick 80-100 photos.
But, there hasn't been anything else said on the subject.
Let me explain. At the time, I just couldn't handle choosing the pictures. The wedding was still too new. I didn't want to look at the photos at all, let alone choose photos for our wedding album. I didn't want to the responsibility of choosing the photos. A handful of favorites, maybe. But, every single picture? It seemed too overwhelming.
But did I express any of my thoughts of feelings to her like a logical person? No. Instead, I told myself that I would respond to her e-mail later and avoided thinking about the subject.
Well, its six months later and I can't seem to avoid the subject anymore.
And I feel so dumb for dropping the ball like this. She even offered to look at the photos with me over beers! Why oh why did I not take her up on that? Obviously, I messed up. Big time. But, the thing is. I want an album. So what do I do?
I feel ridiculous e-mailing her out of the blue almost a year after our wedding. I don't want to be an inconvenience.
So I need some help! What do you think I should do? Is it okay to e-mail her, apologize for my complete lack of communication, and bring up our wedding album? Or, do you think we've missed our chance and I should look into hiring someone else to design our album? Did you get a wedding album? What was your experience like?
xoxo
Just to be clear, I absolutely loved my photographer. She is easy to get along with, fun, and talented. I think this album situation is pretty much my fault. If I could do everything over again, I would definitely still hire Alix! If any Chicago brides out there have any questions on what it was like to work with Alix, don't hesitate to e-mail me at marriedinchicago@gmail.com.
Yesterday was our ten month wedding anniversary. I can't believe how quickly time has gone by since saying " I do." This first year of marriage has been so sweet and everyday I am glad to be married.
But, there is also a bit of a sadness in saying goodbye to being Just Married. And, I'm embarrassingly sad to say that I've come to the end of our wedding day recaps. But, just like every good story, every wedding day also ends. And seeing as how my wedding day ended more than ten months ago, I think its time for me to write this final post.
We got all dressed up, took our pictures (here, here), we said our vows, food was eaten, the cake was cut, and we danced the night away. And before I knew it, the DJ was playing our last song.
{Press play to hear our last song, The Adventure by Angels and Airwaves}
I wish I had pictures to show you, so that you could see how magical the last moments were. But, I don't. Our photographer was long gone by then. But, I don't think the pictures would do it justice anyways. Because the magic was not in the aesthetics. It was in the connection between me and Neill.
Neill and I danced together, gripping each other tight. Everything else melted away. We looked into each others eyes and sang to each other
I cannot live, I can't breathe
unless you do this with me
I cannot live, I can't breathe
unless you do this with me
I cannot live, I can't breathe
unless you do this with me
I cannot live, I can't breathe
unless you do this with me
I cannot live, I can't breathe
unless you do this with me
I cannot live, I can't breathe
unless you do this with me
And we just knew. We knew we had gotten the wedding of our dreams. We knew that all the hard work we put into our relationship had given us a strong foundation to start out marriage. We knew that we were in it together, one hundred percent. We knew how lucky we were to be there, at that very moment, together and happy and madly in love. We knew that the future was waiting for us.
Here I am
And here we go
Life's waiting to begin.
Life's waiting to begin.
Thanks so much for letting me share my wedding day with you! It has been so fun to look back on our wedding and I'm even thinking of getting a book made of all of my wedding day posts (read them all here). I know I wouldn't have even thought write this all down if not for you guys, so I'm really grateful to have this blog as an outlet.
Did you and your sweetie share a last dance? What was your last song? What do you remember about the final moments of your wedding reception?
Okay. I'll be honest - this post is just a catch all to document some of the little details that went into our wedding.
We ordered our invitations from Hello Lucky and had Nicolas Lama, a friend, design a custom wedding map for us.
Neill and I got matching custom converse made and also gave a pair to each of Neill's groomsmen (minus the "I DO"). Unfortunately, I ordered mine about too big so I don't get wear them. But, it is fun for me to see Neill wearing his wedding shoes!
Here is a picture of my list minute wedding day jewelry from The Left Bank. For the longest time I was planning on wearing pearls, but then the week before the wedding my mom and I took a trip to The Left Bank and I completely changed my mind.
Our lovely and ridiculously expensive Ann Wood cake-toppers. But damn, aren't they freaking adorable? I spent way more time thinking about our cake-topper than I did what jewelry I was going to wear!
The card box, our guest book, the wedding favors, and the little signs to go with them were are official DIY projects for the wedding. We made the card box by connecting two mini suitcases made by Paper Source and cutting a slot on the top for people to slip their cards into.
We designed our own guest book using photos from our engagement session and had it printed with blurb.
And for our wedding favors we put together little goody bags of treats. Guests could choose jelly beans (sweet) or pistachio nuts (salty). We tied each bag with ribbon and a mini-thank you card we ordered from moo cards. We also put together gift bags for all of our out of town guests, but unfortunately we didn't get a picture of that.
And that's it! As you can see, we didn't go crazy with the details. But, we tried to do enough to give our wedding a personal touch.
Since a big portion of our wedding ceremony centered around exchanging rings, I think our lovelies deserve a post of their own. Plus, buying our wedding bands was one of the most exciting ohmygodwearereallygettingmarried moments of wedding plan. Quite fittingly, while we were busy getting ready, our rings enjoyed a little photo-shoot of their very own.
And here is one last bling shot from after we exchanged rings. I'll admit, sometimes I enjoy just getting lost in the sparkles.
