Our Wedding: Part 2

Check out Part 1

Our First Look

Once Adam and I were ready to go for the day and had taken a couple of solo pictures, it was time for our first look.  We decided to see each other before the ceremony because it made sense for us, our timeline, and our personalities.  Honestly, Adam has a very calming influence on me – the idea of spending more time with him on our wedding day seemed like a perfect way to relax and enjoy the day (our ceremony wasn’t until 4:30).  Another big factor: we love efficiency…and the efficiency of doing all the pictures ahead of time is pretty hard to beat.  And another big thing – I cry.  Like.  A lot.  We needed to do our nice pictures before I got all emotional and mush gush during the ceremony.

We did our first look outside in the courtyard across from the inn.  This worked out perfectly as it allowed for family members to watch the first look from the windows.  It allowed them to be involved, while giving us an intimate moment together.  Adam went outside first (brave soul – it was about 25 degrees out).  I made my way down with Allie, and my sisters.  We crossed the street toward the courtyard with Adam and our paparazi.  He had his eyes closed and back towards my direction.  We started getting closer and I was just so excited to finally see him.  It had been hard keeping all the secrets about my dress, I was excited to officially start our wedding day together.

Aww poor cold Adam waiting on me.

With my entourage making my way to the first look!

Almost ready!

Okay Julie, now count to three!

My plan for the first look was to walk toward him, instead of the usual tap on the shoulder thing you often see.  I wanted to emulate walking down the aisle, since he will already have seen me at that point.  My sister called out 1….2….3… and Adam opened his eyes.  I started laughing and walked toward him, my dress dragging in the snow.  I remember thinking “man, I shouldn’t have stood so far away from him!  This is a long way to walk.”  Finally I reached him and we hugged and kissed.  I think it was starting to sink in that we made it to our wedding day.

No peeking :)

I think he’s showing some emotion!

Don’t sob. don’t sob. don’t sob.

Hellllooooo there!

Oh hey family creepers.

 

Showing Adam the full look!

Happy and together.

Despite the cold, we took several pictures at this point while waiting for the limo to show up.  It was freeeeeezing, but everyone was really a trooper as we took a couple of different combinations of pictures.  I ended up switching into my winter boots, and I must say… those were LIFE SAVERS.  They made the day so comfortable and really helped me feel very toasty warm.  I LOVED having them.  I can’t recommend having warm feet enough if you’re going the winter wedding route.

My boots rocked my world. So warm!

Hey let’s hide under my veil. Like you do.

With my ladies!

Wearing our gloves Adam’s grandmother made for us!

Hey let’s hide behind these balloons and kiss.

Eventually we saw a small janky looking bus pull up to the Inn.  “How funny, someone else must have an event!” Well… turns out that crazy looking old bus was for us.  Dreams of our lovely limo vanished as we all piled into the bus (that also had a bathroom with no door).  We were all laughing at the change of plans, and honestly it worked out kind of great having all that space.  It wasn’t that nice, but it was spacious.  And it gave us something to laugh hysterically about – for some reason that day we all thought it was really funny.  Plus, it was a vehicle that was on time so we didn’t even think about fighting it.  Not worth it.

Enjoying our spacious vehicle.

We made our way to our one photo location.  Initially in the planning stages we wanted to stop by a couple places around downtown Indy.  But the more Adam and I discussed it, the more sense it made to stick to one location.  It would cut down on wasted time and make for a more stress-free time.  It turned out to be a brilliant decision as we had a lovely time, never felt rushed, and still got a variety of pictures.

We chose to have our photos at the downtown library for a few reasons.  One, it has a ton of variety – it was renovated and has a really neat old-fashioned looking part and a stark modern area as well.  Two, Adam and I are big dorks that love to read.  Three, we went on one of our first “dates” at the library for Adam’s med school prom (yes, that is really a thing).  Honestly if we had a big budget, we would’ve chosen the library as our venue – it’s just GORGEOUS.

With my ladies again!

The whole group looking fancy.

The handsome gentlemen.

Getting ready to go in the library. There may have been a bit of heckling by random people hahah.

Completely fancy people. I mean right??

Ooooo… so handsome!

A little “Beauty and the Beast” no??

Let’s snuggle on the stairs in the library.

Once we had our fill of the inside library… we realized it was SNOWING.  So we just HAD to go outside and capture all that glorious snow.  My dream was coming true.  Snow on our wedding day.  Pinch me!

Pretend like you’re not cold and cheer!

Let’s be all dreamy and kissy… and freezing.

Both of us were on cloud 9 with all this snow.

Cuddly almost spouses.

Just giddy!

After about 45 minutes at the library we piled back in our silly bus and made our way to the church.  It had just started to snow, so it was a good thing we were making our way.  Once we got to the church we did all of our family pictures.  We had another 45 minutes or so to do all of the combinations of family members.  It ran like clockwork as we spent a lot of time coming up with an order that would be extremely efficient.

Family photo fun!

Once all the photos were complete I made my way back into the children’s nursery to hide out.  At this point I was starting to feel a bit of a headache/light headed.  I pounded some water and advil, and ate about 4 cookies from our cookie bar.  Hahah, it worked out perfectly :)  

I was very surprised how nervous I was getting.  It seemed like the morning and photos were all fun and games… and it finally was dawning on me what was happening.  I started thinking about all of the people out there and got a little overwhelmed.  Honestly these feelings caught me a bit off guard.  I perform and am used to doing things in crowds… but for some reason I was just anxious.  I sat down in one of the rocking chairs and just tried to calm down/zen out.  I think all of the busy-ness of the day and emotions were catching up with me.  I was happy that there were no photographers or videographers with me.  It was very welcome to just have a bit of time alone.  Everyone did a good job of giving me space without me even asking for it.  I think having a bit of downtime on such a busy day made for a much more successful rest of the evening.

It reached 4:30 and I knew we were getting close.  Due to the snow I knew we’d delay start until 4:35, but no later (we told them to only delay 5 minutes in case of snow).  The clock seemed to be counting down incredibly slowly, but quickly at the same time.  Eventually I heard the music of our singers start.  This was it.  Time to go become Adam’s wife.

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Our Wedding: Part 1

Happy Valentine’s Day!  Adam and I are planning a perfect evening of Olympics-watching and writing thank you notes.  Ahh perfection!  Things around here have been surprisingly busy: lots and lots of writing.  Of the thank you note variety.  I must admit….somehow it doesn’t seem fair to write blog posts when I have so many thank you notes I should be writing.  But we’re making excellent progress on those.  Plus new job prep (did I mention I need a whole new wardrobe for it?? Yeah a whole other post for a whole other time), and all the stuff that goes along with moving…I somehow feel busier unemployed than I did with my job.  With my last few days of ‘freedom’ looming before starting my job next week, I figured I should finish up a couple wedding posts! Especially now that I have the professional shots back! Can I get a woot??!

Wedding Morning

When I woke up on January 18th I distinctly remember thinking

“I really don’t want to wake up…”

Despite it being my wedding day, I just couldn’t muster the desire to get out of the warm, warm cozy bed. To be honest I was a little surprised…aren’t you supposed to be pooping rainbows, sunshine, and happiness on your wedding day??  Was something wrong with me?? After about 10 minutes of battling waking up in my head, my ‘bridal coordinator’ Allie arrived.  With Starbucks.

Allie and I have been friends for 7 years and have planned on being each other’s ‘person’ for weddings.  Essentially you need a run around person that isn’t needed for pictures that can just do stuff for you.  A grunt, if you will.  Having Allie around to just help keep the timeline on track, answer my phone, and make sure I ate/drank in the morning was priceless.

Allie wasted no time accessing the situation (of me grumpily clinging to the bed).  She ordered me off to the shower, and what a difference a shower can make.  I soon got out of my sleepy fog and realized IT’S WEDDING DAY!  We all got some breakfast and drank our Starbucks, making sure everything was ready to begin.  We rented an adorable inn (with 11 rooms) for all family and had all the make-up/hair gals coming our way to get ready.  This made for a relaxing morning logistically – all we had to do was stay put!  With the winter/snow aspect of it, I really didn’t want us driving around from place to place.  Right before the make-up folks arrived, the nerves set it.  I don’t know if it was drinking coffee (not a usual coffee drinker) or what… but my stomach was churning.  I took some tums, chugged some water, and sat down to get my hair done.

My lovely shoes! (Found these puppies on sale for 30 bucks!)

The dress!

While I tried to soak in the morning and relax, Allie was buzzing around making sure things were moving according to schedule.  I had created  several documents in advance that she essentially just had to execute – it worked out perfectly.  She executed my vision while I could focus on getting ready and being a happy and sweet bride :)  While getting dolled up I invited several close friends over for a “bridal luncheon” – essentially eat lunch, drink mimosas, and giggle was the plan.  It was awesome getting to see them all in the morning before all the madness began.  I created a “getting ready for wedding” playlist to help set the mood. Allie made sure that everyone arrived and found their way to the right place.  Again, it was awesome not thinking about all that myself.

Allie keeping things on task.

Who doesn’t love a mimosa?

The yummy spread.

Look at all that healthy stuff!

The getting-ready process went pretty smoothly as I had already done trials, and pretty much knew what to expect.  Though I must admit, we did have a little bit of a hair panic.  And by we, I mean me.  My hair initially ended up looking a bit differently than we had settled in the trial.  I looked in the mirror and just about cried. We had already eaten up our time buffer at this point, so I was starting to sweat.  I told my hair gal that I needed to move on and get my make-up done, but there were a few things I wanted to adjust after to look more like the trial.  I sat down to get my make-up done and my stomach was now a little churn machine.  Inside I was borderline panicking about my hair.  I put on my best actress face to hide any frustration, as I really didn’t want any negative energy to spoil the morning.  Afterward my sister told me she had no idea I was upset – success!! Once my make-up was complete, my hair was touched up.  Pretty soon I was feeling much better.  It still wasn’t perfect to what I had envisioned, but my stomach no longer hurt about it…good enough for me!  And honestly we didn’t really have time to fiddle with it anymore.  At that point, it just needed to work.  I tried hard to shake the internal stress of the morning and just let it go.  Again, I really didn’t want any outward stress or negative actions to affect the mood.

One of my adorable flower girls getting ready.

Carolina getting all dolled up.

Make-up time!

Are they not the cutest??

My beautiful sister.

Once we were all dolled up and ready to go, Adam and I exchanged little gifts.  Honestly we viewed “throwing each other a wedding” as our gift, but wanted to do something small and sentimental.  Allie ran mine over to his room and collected mine.  At this point the videographers arrived to capture the rest of the day moving forward.  Adam gave me the sweetest letter that instantly had me crying (he even put ‘P.S. stop crying’ at the bottom) and a picture frame with a few sentimental tokens/pictures in it.  It was perfect.

Reading Adam’s letter.

He’s so sweet.

Must. Stop. Crying.

I gave Adam a journal that I kept since we went to dating long distance in July.  It was full of pictures and words of excitement about the wedding and our life together.  Later Adam told me I managed to squeeze a tear out of him, which completely shocked me.  Prior to that I’d only seen him cry once.  Ever.  And it was maybe a tear.  I do all the crying for the two of us ;)

So cute!

Adam reading his gift.

Once we opened our gifts (in separate rooms in the Inn), we each got dressed and took some pictures solo.  Adam got ready in his room with his Best Man (brother) and Best Groomsmen (my brother) and his parents.

Tying his shoes. He’s so talented.

The guys getting ready.

Adam with his lovely mama.

All 3 ready to go!

I’m glad we had this time built in, as it also helped me calm down from the morning. Putting on my dress was a magical feeling.  It was really happening.  This was it.  I was so so happy.  I made sure to have my mom zip me up. As I kept adding the different details (veil, shoes, etc) I just kept feeling more and more bridal.  The stress of the morning washed away – it was time to be a bride.

With my sisters!

Saying goodbye to friends after the “Bridal Luncheon”

Getting ready!

Mom zipping me up!

With my Dad.

My Grandparents looking at the final result!

Future sister-in-law Katie helping me with the veil.

Grandma helping me with my bolero.

We grabbed about 30 minutes of ‘bridal portraits’ before heading out to see Adam.  We wandered from room to room in the adorable Inn grabbing shots.  It was a lot of fun and the perfect way to sort of calm down before the day REALLY began.

With my bouquet.

Hello, I am a bride.

Looking all fancy.

In the hallway of the inn.

Touching my veil. Like you do.

Looking all old-fashioned.

Funny fact: this photo was taken in a bathroom (with awesome light), but still a bathroom.

Also taken in a bathroom.

Adam and I settled on a “First Look” in order to expedite our picture-taking and have a smoother timeline for guests (since we weren’t having a cocktail hour).  We did one final check to make sure we had everything ready to go before heading out to see Adam and really get this day started…

And here I feel like I should say “Stay tuned for the next wedding installment!”  ;)

Happy Friday!!

Kelly

 

 

Ch ch ch changes!

It’s been a whirlwind of a few weeks!  With the wedding behind us I’m now focusing on the next major life event: relocating to Nashville, TN.  I’ve made it to The Music City safely and there are no words to express my excitement and contentedness.  It’s just so amazing to be reunited with Adam and live in the same apartment.  We keep reminding each other “Hey I’m your wife/husband and we live here together.” Pinch me. Okay…yeah, vomit.  Sorry.  But seriously, we’re just so thrilled.  All is right again!

Hooray! Officially a Tennessee resident!

Adam is working nights and I still haven’t started my new job yet, so we’re in this strange twilight world land all the time.  But… I’ve been using the time to do all the work that you sort of forget about when you get married: thank you notes, name change stuff, moving stuff, etc. etc.  Most of it requires a lot of paperwork and running around, but I’ve made some decent progress and I’m feeling good!

We also drink out of these fancy glasses when we’re bored.

Speaking of work… I found a new job and I’ll start in a couple weeks!  The position involves a LOT of travel, which I’m excited/scared about.  I used to travel a ton for another job and it makes ‘balance’ in life a very tricky thing.  HOW WILL I BRING MY WEIGHTS IN MY SUITCASE?!?  A crisis I still haven’t settled.  I know being healthy on the road will be a challenge, but something that will force me to be more creative than ever before!  Plus I’m so used to this whole ‘healthy’ thing and I love it.  Well, I love how it makes me feel.  That’s something I definitely don’t want to give up.

Speaking of healthy… as promised I am just giving myself a get out of jail free card and just enjoying food to my heart’s desire.  Honestly the week or so before the wedding I was pretty stressed and didn’t do a good job of “everything in moderation.”  I didn’t really purposefully deprive myself, but let’s just say I was really ready for some pizza after the wedding.  (Note: we did order a pizza the Sunday after the wedding).  But… now that I’ve had my fill of chocolate and chipotle and deliciousness I have been reminded of why I generally try to eat well in the first place (And why I stay away from deprivation: it just makes you want more).  You. Just. Feel. Better.  I’ve toned down the candy this week and I’m already feeling a bit more like myself.  Adam and I are planning to start P90X3 one of these weeks before I start my job and I’m looking forward to getting back into a routine.  Though this mental break from exercise and meal planning has been welcome.  I’m a huge fan of planned breaks – it always is a good reminder of why you put in the work to stay healthy in the first place!  Though I do feel a bit rebellious to admit how little I’m exercising and how much chocolate I’m eating. Wahaha. Everybody needs a break right?? :)

And finally… my “bridal style” has been featured on a blog!  I know, right!?  Nuts.  I’m planning on doing a couple wedding posts once I get gather the energy to do it right :)  So in the meantime, check out the blog post with a few of the professional shots!! :)

Yay fancy wedding pictures!

 

 

http://www.theblacktiebride.com/black-tie-bride-style-kelly-at-the-fountainview/

Have a great week!

-Kelly