Weddingbee boards

Overall, our wedding was a huge success. We didn’t have a lot to do right before hand but I felt kinda rushed and like time wasn’t on my side. Maybe that’s because it was flying by so fast, but I really did have enough time, so I don’t know why I felt rushed ;-)

Potential stupid crises 1: My manicure was a complete failure, lol. It took SO LONG and I really didn’t have time for that… and I had to go get it redone. I had a French manicure. In the words of one of my bridesmaids, “You know, I thought it looked fine before but now that I see it redone, ya, this is def. a lot better.” Lol

Potential Crises 2: My brother was too sick to make his flight… or the next flight… or the next morning. He wound up making it Friday night but missed the rehearsal. It’s OK, at least he made the wedding!

Potential crises 3: Our Piano player had a family emergency. We wound up just staying with what we had, 2 guitars, 1 violin, a djembe drum, and the vocals. We had a TON of compliments and no one missed the piano, including us.

Potential Crises 4: my hair. My trial was better than my wedding day hairstyle and we’ll see how I feel when I get pro-pics…. Lol

Potential Crises 5: My makeup. I scheduled plenty of padding into the time. I didn’t include time for everyone and their mom to swing by MAC for their Halloween makeup on the 30th. My girl also didn’t do that great of a job because her focus was everywhere else…

In the end, I got my dress on and we were right on time! We did pics with the girls and my family at the hotel, we got to the church on time… I got in trouble for being too calm and things were just unreal to be honest.

Here's me with our FGs about 3 min. before go time - aren't their $50 dresses amazing!

Our ceremony was…. AWESOME! I spent more time working on the ceremony than the reception… it was everything we wanted… the music was amazing, and we got so many complements! We had a lot of lapsed and non-catholic guests and they LOVED our full mass thanks to our music. My husband was cool the whole time and I’m the one who wound up finally showing emotion and crying during the vows. At one point, I choked out part of the vows, and I’m looking at my husband, crying, trying to hold it together, and the priest just WASN’T continuing… so I looked at the priest… back to DH, priest, DH, guests… finally I try and choke out louder what I said 8 seconds ago and everyone chuckled as the priest finally moved on… lol. We had a lot of comments about that too… and everyone else heard me!

Me and my dad. My face is ridiculous! lol, the blusher was sticking to my false eyelashes when I walked so it was hard to look up or smile or anything because I was so blinky... Rings we're married! better sans veil!

My flowers were done by my MIL and were just amazing. Probably my favorite detail… even though I’ve never thought of the flowers as the “best” in details. She made it everything I could have ever dreamed of and more!

We did pictures and then got to the reception. This is where my biggest problem happened and one I’m currently dealing with trying to settle.

My Lighting.

Lighting to a photographer is the end all be all of what an image is. Photography, at it’s root, is the “capture of light.” Up lighting makes or breaks an image… It also makes or breaks the ambiance of a room. It was important to me for 3 reasons. 1) it looks awesome 2) At a venue I WORK at, lighting makes it appear different 3) My pictures, my most important part, would look 20,000 times better with lighting to bring color and dimension into the images.

We pulled up to the site and through the wall of windows I see nothing but white light. No blue or purple as had been CONFIRMED 3 days before. I figured, OK, It’s only for cocktails so when we enter guests get the wow. Nope, didn’t happen. I spent the first part of our FIRST DACE discussing with DH the lack of lighting and my heart was just palpating with anger and frustration. Poor DH had to calm me down and I was stuck trying to look like we were discussing love not failure of a contract. After special dances I spoke to my day of and there was no lighting guy there to discuss what happened nor did I receive a heads up something was off. That’s all I’ll go into as I’m currently seeking a full refund. Bottom line, while everyone (who didn’t know we purchased lighting) thought it was just “so beautiful” we had a lot of “I thought you got uplighting” comments and when I see our pictures I will forever be reminded of this. When I think of the pictures I’m sick to my stomach. Essentially, the lighting guy ruined the entire “look” of our wedding and negetted a huge chunk of our budget.. I know this seems petty, but as a photographer, knowing what a transformation lighting DOES, and knowing what should have been, I’m completely sick about this. Bottom line, while we are seeking a full refund, I will forever be upset over this. This is also someone I’ve worked with many times, so the let down also feels very personal.

Here's an example of our lighting:

The blue right above my dress only going about 3 feet into the air was all that was done. This is what is SHOULD have looked like...

but the blue and purple was supposed to be on the side walls too.

A not so important almost crises was our DJ. Our friend who DJs on the side offered to give it to us as a gift. He had locked in with equipment that was “taken back” by the giver about a week before our wedding. He had to scramble to find other equipment and what he did find wasn’t the best. He wasn’t used to the system and the speakers weren’t that great. We had a room full of radio technicians and they couldn’t get it better… but people danced and had a great time. Now, eh, really… it wasn’t that bad. We mainly feel bad for him because now he feels bad for us and it wasn’t even his fault…

Food – Oh my gosh, SO AMAZING and we got a TON of complements on the food!

Bar – Lots of complements on the bar. We stocked it ourselves with Guinness, Corona, and Bud Light. We also had a Riesling, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Cabernet sauvignon, and Shiraz. My dad almost had a heart attack when I told him I purchased a cabernet called “Double dog dare.” It was the biggest hit though and people never guessed it was under $4 a bottle before discounts… I highly rec checking out double dog dare cabernet sauvignon. We’re a bunch of wine snobs and everyone was raving about it!

Dress, I loved it, DH loved it, everyone was blown away when I came into the reception without the sleeves!

Our toasts were awesome, our bridal party was awesome, the mass was awesome, the reception (minus the lighting missing) was awesome. Overall, what a day!

our cake from our friend

I'll leave you with one of the most fun parts of our wedding. Our Lightsaber Arch entrance! Just imagine though how awesome the color of the sabers would have been in a room full of colored light :-( (also ignore my face, lol)

And, my favorite from a friend so far...

Oh my lord. beautiful!!!

I LOVE your dress!!! With the jacket and without!

@Aubergold: lol - I don't know what else to say other than it was just indescribable! Everything was just so perfect... it was pretty much heaven on earth. Our music really just added a lot too. We did contemporary style music (the guitars, drum, etc) and added in some violin. People were blown away. We did some classic hymns; be thou my vision and joyful joyful for instance, but with a contemporary upbeat flair and mixed in some new contemporary catholic music. It was really joy-filled and a lot of our non-catholic guests really enjoyed everything about it and couldn't stop talking about it. They really enjoyed our music in that it wasn't just a symphonic ritual but held a lot of joy, participation, and meaning. (and wasn't sleep inducing). People said they found themselves tapping their feet and just overall enjoying it, so, win! 

double

@crayfish: ugh, ya... I'm glad you understand where I'm coming from! On top of all the personal disappointment... I counsel ALL my clients on lighting... I'm now concerned about when I blog my own wedding what do I do? If we work it out I don't want to flame the guy as I work with him at other events but at the same time, my clients look at me to see what I did... all of which I told that I was getting lighting and why...

So the disappointment, anger, and frustration is on so many levels... 

Congrats! Beautiful pics!! :)  Glad you had a wonderful wedding. I know not everything went as expected, but it sounds like most things were fantastic and now you're married. :)

@jenandchris: yup, the lace was only for church. 

original jacket before altering: 

My bridal bouquet

My MIL took lace scraps from my jacket alterations and made the bouquet wrap. She then tied my "something new." It's a ring I had custom made in Texas and my something "new" which will become a family heirloom. It's Our Lady of Guadalupe... which is also who we dedicated our marriage too.

The bridesmaid bouquets

these I shot the day after in our backyard, I just pulled them off my camera tonight so they aren't fully edited or anything...

My MIL seriously rocked these! 

To my favorite conservative on WB: I am so in love with your dress it's not even funny (I'm sure I've mentioned it many many times). You have one of the most gorgeous dresses one could pick. I remember you had another one but you changed it. This is so classic and sexy. Yay you. I love it. I wish I could have been at your mass. That would have been so awesome. Most weddings I go to that have High Mass are a tad...um...long? But yours sounds like it would have been just great. I hope you had video so we can all see it. Your MIL did a great job on your flowers. You are so lucky you had a friend who was a DJ. Your recap is so awesome. I can't wait to see pro pictures. I'm sorry you feel bad about the uplights but from where I sit reading what you typed and looking at the pictures, it looks like fun was had by ONE AND ALL :)

Congratulations! I am sorry to hear about your lighting; I hope you get a full refund because that is not OK. But it was beautiful, and it seems like you had a wonderful day. You looked stunning in your perfect dress, too! :)

Thank you so much everyone. We didn't get a good response from the vendor... I'm seriously amazed he's willing to damage our relationship and his own name if I have to fight him for this...

But, we did have an amazing wedding otherwise!