Tales of Tying the Knot: The Morning of & The Photo Shoot
Hi blog friends!
As you may or may not know, about a year ago I started a series of posts called Tales of Tying the Knot as a way to preserve all our fun little memories from our wedding planning time and the wedding weekend. I figured they’d just be for me – as my plan was to print them and create an album – but they’ve proved pretty popular! This little series kind of fell to the side as photo season got busy so I figured the count down to our first anniversary was the perfect time to wrap it up! If you need to catch up – just look for the blog posts tagged under “Tales of Tying the Knot” category. I’m picking up with the morning of the wedding and coming later this week…The Ceremony, The Dance and The Reception – complete with video! Stay tuned…
When all the prep work was finished and we crashed into bed Friday night I wasn’t sure I’d sleep. I couldn’t imagine anyone getting much sleep the night before their wedding.
Turns out if you exhaust yourself with 16 hours of reception-making, you will in fact sleep just fine. So when the alarm went off on Wedding Day morning I was surprisingly normal. I wasn’t overly excited even. Just very calm. Which I suppose is a good thing.
We chilled out, chatted a bit, showered up. A very normal morning considering we were about to be wed.
You’ve probably gathered by now that we didn’t stay in separate rooms the night before the wedding. Here’s the deal on that. Zac and I are attached at the hip and have been since we were 16.
We’ve essentially lived together since the day we left for college, even if we did have separate apartments. We rarely go to the grocery store for milk without each other. It’s just the way we roll. So the thought of spending the night before our wedding apart sounded totally ridiculous. If we don’t split up any other time, why would we split up during one of the most important weekends of our lives? So, naysayers be damned, we shared a room the night before our wedding.
The calm continued through breakfast and at that point, we split up to get ready separately.
There were a few hours spent at the salon.
I take pride in the fact that I never acted like a Bridezilla (or if I did no one mentioned it!). But my hair kept turning out…not how I wanted it. And I kept saying. “Nope, try again.” It was the only time I thought, damn, I’m kind bein a biotch about this.
But eventually it turned out and everyone was done-up and ready for the next step…
This is me doing my make up. In case you wondered what it looked like.
Showing off my muscles. I will never, ever be that skinny again. And you know what, thank freaking God. Exactly 1 week after our wedding I ended up sick with Shingles. Yeah, gross. The doctor said the only explanation for someone my age and with my health getting shingles was because I’d pushed my body way too hard and gone straight past the point of exhaustion and on into the crazy zone. Like I say, never ever again.
Meanwhile, men were getting snazzy in the room next door…
I like that one – its Zac sharing his electric razor with my brother who forgot his. Or who left his at home in hopes that we wouldn’t make him shave…I’m not sure which.
HA! Alike much?
Before I knew it I was in my dress and buttoned up, veil on, flowers in hand ready for the big moment: The First Look!
The first look thing goes right along with the not being separated. Our ceremony wasn’t until 4 – I wasn’t going to spend the entire day without Zac. No way. But aside from that – we’re photo people. I live for photos.
We’d hired our photographer for 12 hours and I intended to take advantage of that! (Poor, poor worn out photographer!) So by doing The First Look early in the day, it meant the time between getting ready and the ceremony could be used for couples photos and bridal party photos with no special logistics to keep us apart.
I highly recommend doing The First Look before the ceremony. Some couples want that big moment to be at the start of the ceremony and I understand that, but it was just as special standing in the grass, I promise : )
After The First Look came The First Look with Pa. Pa here tried to sneak his look in earlier. We shut him out! We made him wait. It wasn’t very nice. But, photo freak that I am, I wanted the moment orchestrated to achieve maximum photo potential. Mission accomplishment.
From here, we boarded the trolley. It was just Zac and I, the photographer, Kate the maid of honor/dress holder and 45 minutes of photo freedom. I was glad we were able to make this work. I felt a little bad about abandoning our families and bridal party but aside from the photo opportunity, it allowed us some quiet time to just take a breath and grin like idiots.
We parked the trolley and bounced around a bit of Galena, taking advantage of the wide variety of scenes in such a small area – there were spots that were quaint, country, fall and vintage grungy in about a 2 block distance.
We struck poses.
Dramatic ones.
It was fun. I felt like a model. Or at least an average person imitating a model : )
After the modeling session, we went back to The Ramada and loaded up the trolley with the rest of the bridal party and the appropriate friends, family and significant others. We were off to Oak Hill and this time, we’d know where to find it.
If you were there, you understand the extreme hilly-ness of the ride to Oak Hill. Like a two-lane roller coaster. You should try it sitting on a polished wood bench seat. In a dress made of tulle.
I loved the trolley – I was so glad to have everyone who was a part of the wedding party in one place for the majority of the day!
Once there, the photo shoot continued. Inside, outside, in the woods. If there was light – we posed. I loved it : ) Except for the part were we all nearly froze to death because it was like 40 degrees. This coming weekend, exactly a year later, the forecast calls for sunny skies and a lovely 65 degrees. I’m not bitter at all. I promise.
Inside the Chapel, my mama, an aunt and a cousin were hauling ass to transform the chapel into the chapel I pictured in my head. They had a two-and-a-half page Word document with written instructions detailing just how everything should look. And man, did they pull it off! When we walked back into the chapel after finishing up photos…it was perfect! Just like in my head!
And with that it was time to get the show on the road…or down the aisle I suppose.
Come back tomorrow when Tales of Tying the Knot continues with: The Ceremony.