Wedding

***Below is the guest post that I wrote for Mandy over at A Sorta Fairytale. It was sadly lost in the great Bloggerpocalypse of May 12, 2011, so I thought I would re-post it here. I know some of you have already read through, but feel free to leave your lost comment again ;)***

I was so excited when Mandy mentioned writing about my wedding. It has been almost three years and I had so much fun looking at the photos and reliving our big day. 

I have a not-so-secret dream to be a wedding planner so I had a blast planning (and, of course, living) my wedding. One of my coworkers is currently planning her summer wedding and lets just say she is not having a blast. There are a lot of things that can contribute to a stressful and less-than-enjoyable planning experience, but I really think it all comes down to attitude. It is easier said than done, but if you are determined to have fun, enjoy yourself and not sweat the small things, that can really go a long way.

My mantra from the beginning was “I want people to dance and I want to be married at the end of it all.” Whatever happened, I wanted to have fun and I wanted to get hitched…that was the idea behind this thing right, to get married?

Mandy asked if I would have done anything differently at my wedding and I think, like most brides, I will go to my grave saying everything was perfect. 

Okay, maybe I can think of a few things here and there that I may have tweaked:

Ceremony photos

About 30 min before the wedding was scheduled to begin, my officiant informed me that he did not want photographers up near the front during the ceremony. He thought it was distracting and pretty much told me that we could not do it. I understood his point, but was a bit miffed that this had not been mentioned previously. My photographer was wonderful, she said that it was my wedding and it was up to me how they shot the ceremony. At the time I was just trying to relax and enjoy the day. I didn’t want to deal with conflict so I said fine, we don’t need the photographers up front. If I could go back now I would stand up for myself. 

I have beautiful pictures like this one: 

and this one:

and this one:

but that is as close as it gets.

I love all of my pictures, but we have no close ups of our hands or the big kiss. I was trying so hard to be the laid back bride that I didn’t fight for what I really wanted. Remember that future brides, don’t let anyone push you around on your wedding day!

There is a happy medium between Bridezilla and a doormat.

Timing

I would love to go back and somehow inject another hour or two into the day. There was just never enough time for everything. 

There I was getting ready at home... 

and as soon as I had my dress on they were shooing me out the door!

I wasn't ready to jump into everything. 

I wanted more time to breathe, more time for moments like these:

Okay, it looks like I did get a few of those moments, but I just needed more.

I also needed more time during the reception. We had planned to travel around to each table to greet our guests instead of the (in my opinion) archaic and painfully awkward receiving line. We made it to about a third of the tables before it was time for toasts. 

There are people who came to my wedding that I didn’t even say hello to. That is a shame.

NOISE

I should have told the band to “turn down that racket!” (old man impression). 

We had an amazing band that kept the dance floor packed at all times, but it was SO LOUD. Anyone taking a break from dancing ended up moving to the entrance of the venue so they could have a conversation without shouting. 

Aren't we cute?

All things considered those three issues were just tiny blips on the radar screen of a day that was otherwise equal parts blissful and raucous. 

If I had one piece of advice for those of you planning your wedding right now I would say inject as much personality as you possibly can into your wedding day. It is so easy to get caught up in the big and the fancy, but it’s the little things that make it your own. The details make your wedding YOUR wedding.

A few things I LOVED about our day:

My shoes! 

Wizard of Oz has been my favorite childhood movie for as long as I can remember. I got my first pair of ruby slippers when I was seven and after that I was hopelessly in love with all things bedazzled. I have worn ruby slipper for most of the important events in my life. When I found these I knew they were the ones:

Our flowers

You may think I'm crazy, but my bouquet was the only piece of the floral arrangements that I really helped design. I knew I wanted orange calla lilies and I sort of based my whole color scheme off of them.

Both of my grandfathers had long since passed and one of my grandmothers was too ill to make the trip for our wedding. I wanted to include them in my day, so I attached their pictures to my bouquet. Not only did these photos represent my family, they also represented two solid marriages.

 
Our florist was a family friend and I completely and utterly trusted his taste and design. I told him my color ideas and a general concept for what I imagined the flowers to look like on the tables/in the bouquets and just let him go with it. I didn’t see anything until I showed up the morning of my wedding. Everything was absolutely beautiful! 

The aisle.

Bouquets. I literally just gave him a few ideas and never looked back. I was so delighted with how they turned out.

I am a cupcake girl all the way. I loved this whimsical topper and it fit right in with the Trophy cupcakes.

Part of the table decorations.

Look at the awesome flower girl headpiece!

One of my favorite pics. These are some amazing women right here.

It was so fun to be surprised. I know most people aren’t comfortable releasing the reigns completely, but if you have someone who understands your style and who you trust to create something beautiful…I highly recommend it.

I pause this blog post to show you cute pictures with my husband, I love him.

Ok, what was I talking about? Oh yes...

Lastly, instead of blowing up the bellies of our tiny feathered friends with some traditional rice, we decided to throw flower petals. Or should I say I decided…six years prior to my wedding. 

When Ryan and I started dating I began collecting the petals of the roses that he gave me. I knew I was going to marry him and I thought it would be sweet to use the petals at our wedding. 

Borderline psycho? Shocked that it took us 6 years to get married? 

Anyway, it turned out to be a very cool send-off, we were showered with tiny colorful symbols of our past as we stepped into our future as a married couple. 

Did that last part make you want to barf?

Yes, there is a petal in my cleavage. No, there is not lingerie in that bag.

Was this all just an excuse to post as many wedding photos as possible? Yes. But come on, asking a bride to pick one wedding photo is like asking a mom to pick a favorite child!

Well actually, that is easy:

Favorite. Ok, she is my only kid at the moment, but this was a good excuse to throw in her picture. Love her.

Finally, I will leave you with these images of my amazing family:

Best Man and Maid of Honor reenacting our first date. They took some artistic license here.

That's us...we are old

It is a tradition in Ryan’s family to have some sort of “ceremony” welcoming the new person into their family. In the past these have usually involved Viking helmets and large swords as they are a proud Norwegian family. I, however, am already a proud Viking of the Swedish sort so I had no idea what was in store for me. They decided to play off of my past as a competition dancer and, after many hours of practice via skype, fully busted out Michael Jackson’s Thriller in its entirety. 

Note the MJ gloves.

It was an evening not soon forgotten.

If you take anything away from my (wow extremely long) post here today I hope it is this: RELAX! Decide the things that are most important to you, make sure they happen, then enjoy. This day will only happen once and it goes by so quickly. Anything that goes wrong will either fade in your mind or make for a great story.