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! :)

I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends

Hello, Hello!!

So, yeah, I haven't blogged in oh say....2 1/2 months! I'm so sorry for my absence!

Yes, my wedding has now passed....and I have to say that it was absolutely perfect in it's own unique way and I wouldn't change a thing about it! I'll give you all more full recaps later, including reviews on each of our vendors, but as for now I have two things i want to address. 1 - My absence from writing this blog and 2 - My amazing friends. 

As the time for my wedding drew closer and closer my To-Do list got longer and longer (Imagine that!).  Not only that, but I felt that this blog was best for me to share ideas, bounce ideas off my readers, and eventually get around to making decisions. As those of you know that have planned a wedding before and those of you that are currently planning a wedding will soon find out, once you get about a month out from the wedding, everything goes into overdrive. I no longer had any time to bounce ideas off people....I then only barely had enough time to make and implement decisions! When people would ask me why I hadn't been writing in my blog I would tell them, "I no longer have time to write about doing things....I actually have to do them!".  As much as you plan prior to your wedding, you can never take care of everything in advance and there are ALWAYS last minute things. Trust me, I'm a planner by nature and I definitely learned this. 

Speaking of taking care of last minute things....leading up to the wedding, I had a To-Do list that i carried around with me EVERYWHERE. I seriously could not leave home without this....and I could not forget to put something on it that needed to be done because my head was so jumbled with STUFF that if I didn't write it down right away, it was gone. You see, I planned a wedding in the town that Mark & I live in...not in my hometown. Which means...it was basically just me planning the wedding by myself (with input from Mark) without much help at all from my family. Not a big deal at all to me...I'm a pretty independent person and I don't rely on others very often. BUT planning a wedding while working a pretty demanding full time job is another thing! My To-Do list was still a good 2 pages long 2 days before the wedding. THANK GOD my friend and bridesmaid Fawn came into town a little early for the wedding (because she was coming in from L.A.)....she got over to my house on Thursday ready and willing to work! We stayed up talking and wrapping presents (for the parents, child attendants and groom) that night. The next day, Friday, was the day of the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. We had planned for a lot of the girls to stay at my house that night because I was kicking Mark out to go stay elsewhere the night before the wedding. :) Well, my friends certainly came to my rescue here. After a LONG, rushed day of a stressful rehearsal (family issues - divorced parents) and family coming into town and getting lost and then our rehearsal dinner (which was nice, but i was still a ball of stressed worried about my family and their interactions the next day), it was SO NICE to have all my ladies over for what i intended to be a little girl time....but ended up being me quickly packing my suitcase for our honeymoon and the girls putting together the toss cones, tying ribbon on the seat markers and wrapping gifts for the groom. If they had not been there that night i think A) I probably would have lost it and given up...crying on the phone with my fiance OR  B) been up ALL night finishing projects. Not only did they save my sanity that night, but they also did it with a smile. I love you girls and I cannot even begin to tell you how much your support meant to me. 

I just wanted to end this post with a couple pictures of my superheroes from our wedding weekend....

L to R: Stevie, Me, Fawn, Becky, RuthAnn @ the cocktail hour honoring our bridal party

 (after the rehearsal)

My Lovely, Amazing, Wonderful Welcome Attendants (aka polaroid photographers, program hand-r-outers, guestbook attendants, petal toss cone explainers): Melanie & Becky

RuthAnn (my superhero friend, my hair stylist, my toss bouquet go-getter, my veil put-r-oner, my kick everybody out of the bridal suite when i needed peace & quite -r, my getting ready picture taker, yeah...you get the idea)

RuthAnn and I at the reception

RuthAnn, Fawn and Deana - my lovely bridesmaids/superheros/ water go-getters/ make sure the bride TRIES to eat-ers

....and I wish I had a pictures of all of my lovely bridesmaids together, BUT I don't :( Thanks SO SO, VERY MUCH to all of you ladies though. I love you!!!

xoxo,

The Indecisive Bride

Joining the Family

Back in March (I know, I know...late post, right??) Mark's Mom and sister organized a bridal tea for me that was basically just Mark's side of the family. It was a great opportunity to get to know the family members that I didn't know as well and it really turned out to be such a beautiful shower! It was held at Terry Pines Country Club in Cullman, AL (where Mark's dad and some of his family are members and nearby where a lot of his family is from). Mark's Mom, sister and Aunt collected pretty little vintage tea sets for the shower and used these on each of the tables.

Here's a shot of what it looked like before things got started:

Beautiful Right?? 

Here I am with the lovely hostesses:

Me with Mark's Mom 

Allison (Mark's sister) and Me

I'm so lucky to be gaining such an amazing family. Since Mark and I live in Birmingham and his parents live in Trussville (a suburb of Bham) we get to see them a lot. And I have to say...I'm definitely winning the lottery in the in-law department! :)

Thanks again to Allison and Jan and Mark's entire family for the beautiful bridal tea. It made me feel so welcome to be joining their family and it was just an amazing day all in all. These two showers (both this one and the one my friends threw for me in Prattville) have really made the whole wedding experience seem real...and SOON! :) Just 5 more weeks to go!