A Moment in Time

Some moments are just so good that you never want them to pass, holding them in the palm of your hand so tightly that your knuckles turn white and your fingers go numb. Our wedding day was like this to me. Were there moments of stress? Yes. Anxiety? Yes. Nervousness? Yes. But there was also Warmth, Love, Friendship, Hopefulness, and Overwhelming Support.  There were several times when I had to stop and remind myself that this was all for me & Mark. That this was actually OUR wedding.

We made a decision pretty late in the game to hire a videographer...and I'm so, SO glad that we did. We had amazing photographers that I was sure would be able to capture the mood and overall feel of our day, but there's just something about a really well done video that tugs at your heartstrings. It goes beyond the pictures and really tells the story of the couple and the people that surround them.  It unveils the emotions that are involved with the deep commitment that the ceremony symbolizes. And trust me, there are an array of emotions! We haven't gotten even a sneak peek back from Superium, our videographers, yet but I cannot wait till we do! 

Until then, I'd like to share a couple videos that I think capture a wedding beautifully. These kinds of videos are the reason that we decided to hire a videographer for our wedding. These two videos are done by Still Motion, a wedding cinematography company based out of Canada. (If they weren't over my budget and hundreds [maybe thousands] of miles away from us, then I definitely would have been all over them to shoot our wedding!)

raj + carolyn // same day edit . TN from stillmotion on Vimeo.

johanna + david // a london wedding. from stillmotion on Vimeo.

Amazing right? Those two get me teary eyed every time!! When I met with our videographer -- Nick Weeks from Superium Productions -- I had a little trouble expressing what I wanted our video to be like. I used words like "atypical wedding video", "unique", "artistic"....I told him that i didn't want it to just be video of the wedding...I wanted it more like a movie, something that's actually fun to watch. I told him to chop it up and edit it like crazy...I didn't want it to be just one long recording of the events. I knew I wanted our voices overlayed in spots too....things like the vows, and we decided to do a little mini "love story" within the wedding. They interviewed both Mark and I separately and asked questions about our relationship and each other. I can't wait to see what they come up with! Here's a sample of a highlight video they did for another couple:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKIV_St0qk4

So what about you guys? Do you think a wedding video is worth it? Did you hire a videographer

for your wedding day...or would you?

The Name Game - Making it Official

Okay, so I know that many women think about their name change ahead of time...like as in before the actual wedding. Well, I wasn't one of those. The first time I actually really put much thought into it was at a wedding shower that my friends from my hometown threw for me. Just out of the blue while visiting with all my ladies, one friend asked "So what are you gonna officially change your name to?" And I answered...."Um....I don't know...?? I guess I should have thought about this, huh?" DUH!!

No, I don't want to hyphen our last names...that's just too complicated

For most women it's easy....You take your First Name - Current Middle Name + Maiden Name + New Last Name and there ya go...it = Your Married Name. Well, unfortunately mine is a little more tricky. Currently, I'm working with First Name Middle Name Last Name, BUT I go by a version of my Middle Name. So I can't exactly just drop my middle name...And I don't exactly want to drop my first name. My first and middle names actually kinda form one of those classic southern double names....and although I've never gone by said double name, I like it. And I want to keep it. So, you're probably thinking...well, why don't you just drop your Maiden Name? Well, it's not exactly like I got married extremely young before I established a career (THANK GOD, btw...) so I'm now known in my industry by my current name (which is a version of middle name and maiden name). Following me here?!? So that brings me to First Name + Middle Name + Maiden Name + New Last Name = Married Name. Damn...that's a lot. PLUS my official signature would be my First Name (which I've NEVER gone by) and my New Last Name....which actually would be the same name as my husband's grandmother. Oh, and did I mention that I'm not too fond of *just* my first name on it's on? You know, without the middle name in addition which then forms the double name. 

Oh. My. God. This is confusing. And probably quite boring to read too! So, after that lengthy, confusing explanation...what do you think I should do?? I guess I'm trying to decide between:

FirstName MiddleName MaidenName NewLastName --> official signature would be a name I'm not too fond of

FirstName MiddleName NewLastName --> I'd have to drop my maiden name, which I'm pretty attached to, as well as my colleagues in my industry 

MiddleName MaidenName NewLastName --> I'd have to drop my first name, which I'm very fond of my first name/middle name combo...plus, my first name is a family name

And yes, I'm 100% sure that I'm putting WAY too much thought into this and it would be considered by many as obsessing. We've already determined that this is how I function :)

So...what do you guys think?? Option 1, 2 or 3? OR....do you have another suggestion for me?? (and yes, I've decided that I FOR SURE want to change my last name to my husband's last name. It might be old fashioned but I like that it kind of solidifies us as a family unit AND it's very important to me to have the same last name as our future children....however less appealing that new last name is than my current last name) :)

Conceptualization

It's no secret that I most certainly put some time and thought into planning our wedding. It was very important to me that our wedding *really* represent Mark & I - our individual personalities, our personality as a couple, and our likes and dislikes...all the way down to the food, the drinks, the flowers and the music.

One of the very first things I did when I began planning the wedding was to put together an inspiration board. It was basically a collage of pictures that inspired items or designs that I wanted to incorporate into our wedding. This collage gave the overall style and vibe of our wedding. I took this inspiration board to every vendor I met with, in hopes to give everything about our wedding a sense of unity. I kinda had an underlying theme where I wanted things to coordinate, but not match exactly. Now...you can take that idea as deep or as shallow as you'd like...but I'd like to think there's a little subconscious meaning behind it ;)

Just for fun, I thought it'd be cool to see how the ideas I started with turned into our wedding so I put together an inspiration board from pictures of our wedding. I'm going to start with one of the very first boards I made then progress to one I was using when I was meeting with vendors and then lastly, the board that is made up of pictures from our wedding.

In the beginning our colors were Pale Aqua and Black & White Damask:

 I wanted very pale aqua bridesmaids dresses and white/cream flowers. 

Next, I decided to add purple to our color palette:

I still wanted to incorporate the Pale Aqua and Black & White Damask, but I also wanted to add a very deep purple to the mix that would debut in the bridesmaids dresses and florals. 

This board was just further developing the style of the wedding:

Garden-like florals, toss cones, lots of candlelight, vintage glassware and touches of damask.

This was my Final Inspiration Board that I took around to all my vendors:

There are several items on here that were the exact items actually present in our wedding: the aqua and damask-like parasols, the purple ruffle clutch, the deep purple bridesmaid dress AND my dress. 

And lastly we have OUR WEDDING:

If you'd like to see these inspiration boards closer up then you can view them on my flickr photostream here.

So....what do ya think?? I love how it came together. There are definitely a *few* things that didn't come together completely as I had pictured in my mind, and maybe even a few disappointments, but all in all I think it came out pretty close to what I had planned.  I'll go into depth more in future posts on individual items and each vendor, but I think this last collage gives you a good idea of how the design of our wedding turned out. Also, please keep in mind that the pictures in the collage of our wedding are NON-PRO pics. ....I can't wait to get those pro pics! ;)

xo,

The Indecisive (Bride) Wife <-----HA! :)