Skeptickle

After we were done meeting up, it was time for our couple photos to really begin. I had a list of must-take locations and luckily our photographer respected my wishes. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, our photographer was (and still is) A-MAZ-ING.

Inside the London taxi:

The storybook cottage:

One of my favorite shots:

A great shot of the top of my bouquet:

My red shoes peeking out:

Another favorite of mine:

This whole wedding thing sure did break down a lot of my old preconceived notions of how weddings are “supposed” to be. You know those sayings out there that the bride should wear white (I wore ivory), wear shoes that match the dress color (didn’t happen), and the biggie- the groom should not see the bride in her wedding dress until the ceremony. We decided to see each other before the ceremony for practical reasons. We have an hour to kill before the ceremony, what else are we going to do? Also, I was beginning to get tired of all the superstitious bull-hocky surrounding weddings. Do you know why this “rule” was made up in the first place? It was traditionally a preventative measure for those in arranged marriages. It prevented the groom from seeing his bride before they were official and run out because he didn’t like what he saw. Rob and I had been with each other for over three years at this point and he has seen it all: the bad, the worse, and the ugly. So something tells me he wasn’t going to run out on me just because he sees me in my wedding dress.

Our photographer was to pick the location at Nestldown for our first meeting and subsequent bride and groom photo session that day. The bottom deck behind the bridal changing room was to be our meeting place. We waited awhile for the signal from Brooke that the Rob has arrived. Rob was running late for a variety of reasons (which will be explained in a future post). Once he arrived outside the bridal changing area, Junshien took over and directed him to the bottom deck where he was to face away from where I would enter.

Looking down at him from the top deck. Also, a nice shot of my veil.

Carefully making my way down to him.

Butterflies the size of Mothra were in my stomach!

As you can see, all that pent up nervous excitement bursted forth in the form of giggles.

Annnd he turns around...

He likes!

He loves!

We don’t regret seeing each other before the ceremony one bit. It helped dissipate the pre-wedding nervousness and it’s really nice to have an intimate moment or two before you’re swept up into the social aspects of the day.

Rob and I agreed months ahead of time that we would not get each other wedding gifts. Our wedding is gift enough since so much money, time, and energy is going towards it. Why add more stress to the day? In fact, I had to convince him that yes, people actually give each other wedding gifts but we don’t have to be like them. Well, I was finishing up my bridal portraits in the changing room when Rob’s best man paid me a surprise visit. I sat down on the chintz couch in the middle of the room and he handed me a box from Rob.

“What’s this?” I asked in disbelief.

“It’s your wedding present,” he said with a wide grin.

“But…but…we agreed not to get each other gifts,” I stammered. Rob, you sly fox. I felt like crap because I didn’t get him anything. Eventually I got over it and read the sweet note attached, further affirming my reasons for marrying him.

Inside the box was a pair of sparkly earrings that he had picked up from our jeweler about an hour before I opened it.

What a lovely surprise! Has anything like this happened to you?

After our makeup was done, MOH and I grabbed our stuff and headed to Nestldown. I was so worried that we’d arrive late that I overestimated the amount of time to get there and we ended up arriving several minutes early. On the way there, we observed just how perfect the day was. This was in early March so clouds and rain were not unexpected. There were clouds, but they were the fluffy white kind. Happy clouds.

We parked outside the bridal changing area and carefully unloaded my dress. Brooke greeted us and wished me good luck. Then our photographer and his assistant arrived and started snapping pictures:

My beautiful Marisa gown.

Details...

Ruby red slippers with dust bag.

Then I put on my dress and my poor MOH had to deal with this:

So many buttons!

Putting on the earrings I got from Portland.

Waiting for Rob to arrive.

What a view!

Next up: A Surprise

I woke up on Saturday, March 7th, 2009 wide-eyed and bushy-tailed. I soaked in the giant whirlpool tub that was included with our room to meditate and center myself. Today is my big day.

I still had to do the boutonnieres and corsages, but our hair appointments were first. MOH and I walked to the hair salon which was conveniently located on other side of the plaza to get our hair done. Christy molded MOH’s hair into an Audrey Hepburn-like updo and it looked really great on her. My hair took more time because it was curled and then put into a half-updo with a bunch of bobby pins.

Throughout this process, my hairstylist kept lamenting the fact that I didn’t bring my veil. She just wouldn’t let it go. The truth was, I didn’t forget about my veil, I just didn’t want to bring it. I wanted to pop it in when I got to the venue (it has a comb) and not walk all over creation with it on. Then she figured out that our hotel was just across the way and had my MOH got fetch the veil for me. At this point, I should’ve went with my gut and spoke up against it but I didn’t want to argue about something so stupid. When the veil was finally obtained and stuck onto my head, she proceeded to pin it to my scalp with about a million bobby pins. At least it was stuck on there…GOOD. I had planned to slip it off after the ceremony but my MOH was no longer comfortable messing with the nest of bobby pins. It would be like navigating through land mines. Which ones hold the hair up ? Which ones hold down the veil?  None can tell. I also felt that more attention should have been paid to my bangs. They kept flopping down into my face throughout the day and no amount of spraying with the trial-sized hairspray they gave me helped it stay up. All that said, I liked every other aspect of my hair that day. She did a great job curling the hair so it stayed curled well into the next day.

We went back to the hotel after our hair appointments and check out of our room and and into the bridal suite that Rob and I were to stay in that night. We then started working on the rest of the flowers. Some of my friends who were staying at the same hotel joined us to help out. We had to make about 4 corsages and 8 boutonnieres in roughly one and a half hours.

I had to ditch everyone towards the end so that I could make time to do my own makeup. A whole bunch of people were concerned about me doing my own makeup. I don’t usually wear a whole lot of makeup so that’s probably why, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t know how. Albeit, I used a lighter hand than a makeup artist would have because they want the makeup to show through in the photos, but I’d much rather I not look scary in person. Sorry there aren’t any pictures of this day so far, but I promise my future posts will be chock full of photographic goodness .