Wedding Recap: Uh oh...it's magic!

There was one thing that Mr Fix It did not fight me on when I told him that I wanted something extra special to entertain the guests during our cocktail hour:  a magician!  If you read my post back here, you can check out the story of how we came to find the amazing Jeff Ezell. 

Jeff did not disappoint on any level!  He showed up before our ceremony started and we quickly greeted him while we passed him taking photos.  He sat in the very back of the ceremony by the bridge and even provided over 30 photos on his iphone for me on Facebook!  And then as soon as the ceremony was over and he and the guests made their way upstairs poolside for cocktails, he went to work!

He wandered around the guests, amazing and bewildering them with card tricks, rubberband tricks and even a trick with Mr Fix It's wedding band!  I'll just let the video speak for itself and then share a few pics with you as well...you *HAVE* to see this!  And tell me if you see his slight of hand moves.

Today's video footage (courtesy of Video Keepsakes of Beverly Hills) is a bit longer than my previous recaps...but only because you have to see Jeff's amazing talents...and try to figure out how the heck he does this!!!

The amazing magician, himself

The kids were definitely loving him!

He gave us a deck of cards signed with his name and our wedding date...it was a keepsake that

had a few cards in it that guests had written their names on as you saw in the video.

But I think Mr Fix It was most impressed with him.  As a matter of fact, he kept pulling him aside to do tricks for his own family and friends!  So much so, that by the end of the night, my mom, sister and some friends said they never even saw him!  But oh no, Mr Fix It made sure he made his way to *ALL* of *HIS* friends and family!  Twerp! 

I love Mr Fix It's reaction in these next few shots!

All above pictures by Robert Mullins Photography

Jeff did such an amazing job, that we asked him to stay during dinner and walk the tables while guests were waiting to be released for the buffet as well.  He did this for a very minimal extra fee.  We were so thankful!

He was more than accommodating and a wonderful vendor to work with - probably our favorite!

All above pictures provided by Roseanne Rivoli

TODAY'S WEDDING TIP:  Find a way to do something different during your cocktail hour if you can.  It can be playing a montage video of photos of the bride and groom or having a photobooth or a game table set up.  You can hire live musicians to walk around serenading guests or even those live moving tables to serve your appetizers on.  I knew I wanted our guests to be entertained throughout the event.  I wanted them to be kept busy and eating and having fun.  Those who saw the strolling magician raved about him and it was definitely a highlight and hit of our event that I was so excited about.

Wed Video Recap: Make 'em laugh!

Preface:  The end of the video in this post contains a few brief moments of the very beginning of our ceremony...be sure to watch it through to the end.  It is one of my favorite moments of our ceremony because it just shows our personality and how we interact with our pastor so perfectly.

As you saw in the posts last week, moments before I was to walk down the aisle, I had a little somethin' somethin' for entertaining our guests at the ceremony.  They had just arrived, maybe they walked around the zoo or picked up a drink at the bar.  They said some hellos to friends and family.  And now they had been seated.  They watched the wedding party make their entrances and arrive at the altar.  So all that was left, what normally comes next, is the bride's big entrance, right?  Nope...not at the Beever wedding.  I wanted to start off our night purely entertaining the guests and letting them know what this whole event was really all about....laughing and having FUN!  And so I had the video.  You can click that link to refresh your memory and view it again...it was my piece de resistance of the night.  It was my baby that I had worked on for over six months leading up to the wedding.  And it was the big ta-da right before I entered to meet my almost husband.

So how did it go?  Well, here's some pics and video of the guests watching our E! True Hollywood spoof detailing the events of our life and our journey to each other as man and wife.

Disclaimer: This video was created using raw footage courtesy of Video Keepsakes of Beverly Hills.

It was created by me strictly for recap purposes and therefore will not necessarily be great quality.

There will be things you probably shouldn't hear and shaky footage in certain places.

Thank you for your understanding.

We had two 50" flat screen Panasonic high def tv's in our ceremony area.  One was off to the left off the guests (that's the one these guests are turning to watch) and the other was up to the right of the altar (so the bridal party and people up front could watch easily, too). 

Look at what a great time they're all having.  Their laughter helped keep me sort of calmer as you saw in last week's recap video :)

These are my future in-laws watching it.  My sister-in-law Jackie (on the right) got a sneak peek of the video a few weeks before the wedding when it was almost finished.

Friends from both me and Mr Fix It's lives are sitting together watching.

Here you can see the tv that was off to the left behind the guests.

Some old friends in the back have a great view of both tv sets.

And as you saw at the end of the video today, I wanted our ceremony to be anything but formal and stuffy.  I loved how our pastor made great jokes and comments about us personally and how we (I) just reacted to them instead of feeling like I had to sit there until it was my turn to talk.  :)

TODAY'S WEDDING TIP:  If you are going to have a montage or video played at any point in your wedding event, be sure to do a test of the actual equipment before the event.  I mailed the DVD to the video equipment rental company a few weeks before our wedding to have him play it in his DVD and test it...I don't know if you know, but homemade DVD's are not compatible with every type of DVD player.

*  All photos by Robert Mullins Photography

Wedding Recap: Photobooth fun!

I don't care what you do, if it all possible, the one thing I highly encourage you to have at your wedding is a photobooth.  I know it's trendy and overdone nowadays but it is only because your guests absolutely LOVE it!  Whether you make your own 'faux-to-booth' or rent one like we did from a company like Cheesy Photobooths, it is the best investment you'll make for entertaining your guests.  And it also serves as a great favor for them to remember your special day by.  I personally loved it because it also served dual purpose as part of our guestbook so we'd have a pic of all of our guests from our special day. 

But seriously, the entertainment value alone is phenomenal and ours was packed all night long.  So without further ado, here are just some of the many, many different types and styles of people and photos we discovered after browsing through our photobooth photos:

You'll get people of all ages:

 20 Somethings:

 Teens:

 

Moms (mine and my sister's mother-in-law):

Parents (of the groom and their friend):

Families:

Even sleeping babies!

By the way, how freaking cute is our banner at the bottom of the pictures?

And of course, you'll get the silly photos and crazy shots:

Little Miss and her dad:

The kids were in that thing all night long - like 20 times each! 

(Our Junior Groomsmen, Mr Fix It's nephew)

My crazy cousin, the flower girl

My best friend from high school who I invited 5 days before the wedding!

I love this pic in the top left of my cousins with the afro - so genius!

And you'll get the pics to see how many people you can fit inside for one picture:

This one is me and my bible study girls I lead:

Me and all my bridesmaids (and my cousin jumped in at the very end)!

My team of coordinators even jumped in at the end of the night:

For some reason, everyone thinks it's necessary to kiss and/or stick your tongue out in photobooths:

Truly disgusting...I don't need to see that!

You'll get sweet shots:

Me and Little Miss

And of course there's "What the hell is going on in this photo" shots:

Mr Fix It thought we were gonna get busy in there...silly boy!

And then finally, the "They were obviously hammered by this point" shots:

And then there's the random "Why are there totally different people in each one of these?" shots

I felt horrible about this one.  These are Mr Fix It's friends.  I didn't see anyone in line and didn't know they were inside and I barged in on them to take the pic of me and my girls right when they were kissing.  What a horrible selfish bride!  I apologized profusely and they were totally cool about it :)

Mr Fix It likes to think that he can raise his 'pimp hand' to me.  He thinks it's hilarious...not really:

But my favorite of the entire night was my wedding coordinator's husband,

 who brilliantly came up with this little beauty:

Now granted, not every single guest got in the photobooth which was a bummer.  Some left early because of kids or early mornings the next day.  Some said they were in line or on their way to the booth and then got sidetracked or ended up having to come in for the grand entrance, dinner, cake cutting, etc.  To try to offset this, we had our company set up the booth and split our hours.  We had the booth open at 4:30 and the ceremony was at 5 or 5:30 pm.  They shut down for an hour during the ceremony and then reopened from 6:30 to 11:30 during cocktails, dinner and dancing.  We booked them for a total of 6 hours and it was packed the whole time! 

I only wish I would have taken more advantage of the booth myself :(  Like much that was going on that day, I just never found enough time to focus on what I wanted and do all I wanted to.  (sigh)

So, what are your thoughts?  Did/Are you having a photobooth?  When/How do you plan to incorporate it?

Today's Tip:   Be sure to have lots of props on hand for a photobooth and set them out clearly and obviously. (I bought most of mine the day after Halloween at a costume store for a huge discount.)  I also had a dry erase board (couldn't find a chalk board I liked) and markers for people to write messages on and somehow it did not get used in any photos!  I think it ended up in the kids' play area or someone used the wrong pen on it and ruined it.  Have a photobooth attendant there all night instructing guests on what to do, encouraging them to use props, etc.  And tell them in advance about things like a chalk board or whatever.  Be sure to have your DJ or emcee announce the booth is open as well and remind guests to go use it!

(We did have an attendant who came from the rental company but I don't think that I told him about the dry erase board and I was too caught up in everything else to realize it until later.)