Wed Recap: Some twists on the garter and bouquet toss

I have honestly despised the moments when the DJ calls all the 'single ladies and gents' out onto the dance floor to have the bride and groom toss the bouquet and garter away to see who will 'get married' next.  Yeah, right?  Does it really ever happen that the people who catch these things get married next?  Doubtful.

However, I knew I wanted to somehow have a toss and of course, it had to be unexpected.  Originally, I had the fabulous idea that I would surprise the girls I tossed my bouquet* to by having the bouquet break up into 4 smaller bouquets so that more than one girl gets to catch it.  :)  But as I evaluated our guest list, I realized there weren't as many single ladies as I had expected there to be. 

Instead, I had read on some blogs about how some brides were choosing to 'hand' their bouquet off to someone specific rather than just toss it away.  I loved this idea and here is how I incorporated this into our own wedding for a very special lady in my life:

As for Mr Fix It and the garter toss, he wanted to do this for sure.  But mostly just because he is a perv who wanted to get up my dress.  He decided he wanted to be 'covert' about it and worked with the DJ to surprise me with the song selection that would play while he slithered across the dance floor to remove my garter.  Here are some great pics and video of his little display:

As you can see, Mr Fix It tricked the guys they called on to the dance floor by acting like he was going to toss the garter, but then he decided to intentionally place it into the hands of one of his groomsmen that he calls a 'playa who needs to settle down finally.'  :)  I love how the DJ made the comment "If that isn't someone saying 'tag you're it' I don't know what is!"

Unless otherwise noted, all photos by Robert Mullins Photography
Raw video footage courtesy of Video Keepsakes of Beverly Hills

Wed Recap: Why teenagers are annoying

I have mentioned many times how I have a 15 year old daughter from a previous relationship.  Well, today, she is taking her driver's permit test!  Pray for me! 

She and Mr Fix It have been a part of each other's lives since she was 9 years old.  It's kind of crazy...but they love each other and get along great.  Too great...in fact, they sometimes annoy me.  And since Mr Fix It is truly still a big kid himself, the two of them together usually causes me grief.

That said, we definitely wanted to include Little Miss in our wedding ceremony and our vows. 

As you may remember in this post, Mr Fix It made a vow to be a patient and caring step-father to Little Miss.  Well, we wanted her to take some responsibility in our newly formed family as well. 

And so we created a special little part of the ceremony in which she stepped forward and the pastor asked her a brief question about whether she will love and support the two of us in our marriage.  She then was to respond with "I will" after which, Mr Fix It was to place a ring on her finger as well...sort of a little promise ring uniting our entire family. 

Of course, we didn't run through this at the rehearsal and so no one knew what the heck was going on. It's kind of silly and we laughed our way through most of it.  Little Miss wasn't sure where to stand or how to walk around me to join us.  In addition, as you'll see, she totally held true to herself as me and Mr Fix It did with her little 'unplanned' response.  Check it:

I could have killed her!  Little twerp.  Teenagers are so cocky and annoying...they just can't hold to traditions and rules of any type.  Oh well...everyone laughed, and I did, too at the time, but afterwards I told her she was a pain! 

Unless otherwise indicated, all photos by Robert Mullins Photography
Raw video footage courtesy of Video Keepsakes of Beverly Hills

We're in a magazine!!!

I officially got started as a wedding bride blogger (actually a Featured Bride Blogger) over on the site http://www.getmarried.com/.  I found the site by watching the Get Married television show which is on Saturday mornings on WE network. 

Through the relationship I've formed over at Get Married's Blogger Brides, I was given the opportunity to be the fourth bride featured in their Magazine edition of the Get Married media hype known as the Lucky 7. 

Basically, their quarterly magazine features one bride from their blogger bride community to share 7 of her favorite items from her own wedding or wedding research with fellow brides.  Of the 7 items that are listed on the Fall feature of the magazine, every single one was an item I actually used at my wedding.  However, 2 of them (the garter and the jewelry rolls) show versions different from the ones I actually ended up purchasing for our wedding.

And here it is: 

The cool thing was that one of my girlfriends who is an amateur photographer was able to get the photo credit in the magazine since they used pictures we took from our engagement session with her (Kristin Jepson).  So I was excited to be the first one to be able to help her get published.  :)

Wed Recap: You may now claim your bride with a kiss!

This ceremony recap speaks for itself.  There's not much I need to write to go along with these photos and video other than to tell you that like with everything else surrounding our wedding, I did not want the traditional verbage used to end our ceremony. 

As our pastor made everyone aware in this post, I wrote out our ceremony script for him with key bible verses, vows, and ideas to share during his message.  Near the end of the wedding planning process, I told him that he didn't need to stick to the script verbatim...except for where I highlighted certain words and portions of the script that were absolutely imperative to have Pastor Lyle say exactly as I wrote them out.  One of those few things that I insisted be performed exactly as I wanted was the final comment of the ceremony where the officiant typically says "You may now kiss your bride!" 

I wanted this to be a bit untraditional, so as you'll see in the video, I came up with a bit of a unique way for Pastor L to direct Mr Fix It for the kiss:

And ladies, let me tell you yet again why I absolutely implore you to have some type of video at your wedding....the day after the wedding, I could not remember one thing about our first kiss!!!  Nothing!  I didn't even really remember kissing my groom at all at the end of the ceremony.  But thankfully there was video to prove we did in fact kiss.   And though the photos are great, they just can't seem to convey the length, type and memory of the kiss the way the video can.  :)

Here's a few more pics I love of our first kiss as husband and wife:

Share time:  Was there anything that may have seemed insignificant or normal during your ceremony or reception that you wanted to slightly tweak to make it different from a traditional wedding event?

TODAY'S WEDDING TIP:  Be sure to practice the recessional during your rehearsal as well as the processional.  We didn't really practice this at our rehearsal like we should have and so the wedding party didn't realize that they were supposed to wait until me and my groom got to the very end of the aisle before they started walking down.  Then each of the couples immediately started following each other back down the aisle rather quickly which didn't allow the photographer a chance to get a good shot of each couple walking down.  It's better to have a mark (the middle of the aisle, end of the aisle, etc) that you direct each couple to start their walk at once the couple in front of them hits that mark.

Unless otherwise noted, all photos by Robert Mullins Photography
Raw video footage courtesy of Video Keepsakes of Beverly Hills

Wed Recap: Oh, let me just do that for you!

Mr Fix It and I are control freaks.  Shocking, I know, right?  I mean what would ever make you think that I think I can do it all?  As my sister, MOH J so brilliantly put it in her toast at our reception, neither Mr Fix It nor I are perfect...and that *is* in fact hard for both of us to hear.

We are both perfectionists and though I am a little more humble in realizing that I don't 'know it all,' Mr Fix It believes he is a contractor, electrician, plumber, lawyer, doctor, mechanic, teacher, gardener, etc.  Now granted, he does in fact know a lot about a lot of those things, but he definitely can't do it all.  Though he'd like to think he could.

Anyway, our personalities once again flared up during our ceremony when it came time to partake in the Unity Cross.  I wanted to incorporate something that we could keep as a memorable item to display in our home from our ceremony.  A lot of people will participate in the lighting of a unity candle or in a sand pouring ceremony and then keep the vase in their home.  I wasn't super excited about either of those ideas.  So I was super thrilled when I found the Unity Cross on the GetMarried.com web site. 

It's not cheap at $99 but my small group of girls that I lead in a bible study asked if there was anything special they could all pitch in to get me for my shower and I instantly thought of this cross.  So it not only was a great keepsake from our ceremony, but it also was a special gift from some very important friends in my life.

Basically, the cross is put together by the bride and groom during the ceremony to represent the uniting of the two different beings (man and woman) on the foundation of our faith. 

I loved the symbolism of this.  Although I wish the pastor would have spent a little more time and thought on how he explained this to our guests as part of the ceremony.  It comes with a great little story about how the man's cross is strong and sturdy and yet somewhat empty inside.  And the woman's cross is intricate, beautiful and perfectly suited to fill the man's cross.  But instead he described the woman's cross as 'curvy'.  Really?  Whatever, Pastor Lyle is awesome at rolling with it and I love how he made everyone laugh with his comment about me breaking a nail.  It was still a cool idea.  However, when it came time to put together the cross, well, let's just say that I commented to Mr Fix It that we probably should have practiced putting it together before the actual ceremony which we in fact, did *NOT* do as you'll see in the clip:

Did you listen carefully to how Mr Fix It and I make a perverted comment about 'finding the hole?'  Yeah, not one of my finer moments...I was obviously nervous.  :)

Starts off great working together.

Mr Fix It is having some problems.

And I try to take over...unsuccessfully.

Share time:  Did you have any little mishaps that occurred during your wedding?

TODAY'S WEDDING TIP:  While it's not necessary to practice every single thing that you will be doing at your ceremony or reception, it is a good idea to at least talk about how you'll do certain things.  We should have definitely practiced putting together the cross before the ceremony.  And though you can't do that with a sand pouring, you can at least remind each other that you want to pour the sand slowly so it mixes together well.  My sister and her hubby didn't do this and she poured her sand into the vase super fast while her groom took his time.  It didn't merge quite as well as they wanted though it was a funny story.  Remember to try on your rings before the big day to make sure they fit okay. 

Unless otherwise noted, all photos by Robert Mullins Photography
Raw video footage courtesy of Video Keepsakes of Beverly Hills

Wed Recap: The planner and the wing-it guy

I'm still following up with ceremony recaps - but there's only a few more to go.  However, today is again, one that is sort of a favorite...because it is the only time during our ceremony that I actually got choked up (though briefly). 

In my post last week about our pastor talking about both me and Mr Fix It and why he 'likes us,' he mentioned that I am a planner and that Mr Fix It is a surfer.  Well, in today's post, I am sharing with you our personally written messages to each other. 

And as you'll see in the video, Mr Fix It just 'wings it' and didn't have anything specific prepared or written down.  This is exactly why I didn't involve him in the writing of the traditional vows I shared last week, because he really just waits until he is in the moment to make decisions and share thoughts.  :)

The funny thing is, me being the planner, I knew one day Mr Fix It and I would get married.  And so early on in our six year relationship, I started keeping a journal that every once in a very great while, I would write a note or reminder about something he did or said or something I thought about him.  Basically, as soon as we got engaged, I went back through those old journal entries to gain inspiration and then wrote out this letter to Mr Fix It.  It was written probably a good 9 to 12 months before our wedding and I didn't look at it again until it was time to print it out when we were going over the ceremony with our pastor.  So yes, it was well planned in advance - at least mine was.

So here it is, the video of our messages to each other.

I just absolutely love how our pastor knew how to put us at ease and lighten a mood with a simple statement like when he tells Mr Fix It 'he's not going to top' my message. :)

Share Time:  Did/Will you include a personally written note or message to each other in addition to the vows you recite?  Or will you maybe write your vows as the written notes to one another?  How much time did you put into writing them out?  Did you wait until the last minute or have them prepared very early on?

Raw video footage courtesy of Video Keepsakes of Beverly Hills
Unless otherwise indicated, photos by Robert Mullins

Wed Recap: War wounds at our wedding (the ring exchange)

This is not your boring old ring exchange part of the ceremony recap.  Oh no, I let my pride get the best of me during our ring exchange and ended up with the war wound to prove how stupid I was for being so vain and worried about how something would look to our guests in the middle of our ceremony.

See, it starts off all normal.  Pastor Lyle is taking the rings from Best Man K...

Mr Fix It begins to place the ring on my hand.

This is kind of pretty, isn't it?

But what's this?  Why is the bride pushing the ring on her finger herself?  Isn't that the groom's job?

Oh, this is a FANTASTIC shot of the bride during the ring exchange.  Don't you just love it?  I mean, seriously, what the heck was I doing?  It is obvious this ring does *not* want to get on my finger!

But alas, here's another horrible shot of me with my eyes closed where I am showing the guests that in fact, I was going to *MAKE* this ring fit even if it cost me a little blood!  Which by the way, it did!

You see, there's a little something special about my ring.  It was a pain in the butt to get sized!  We bought it at the LA jewelry market and I didn't have it sized for a very long time.  Oh yeah, nevermind that it was too big for me.  I mean it didn't fall off or anything but it was not secure by any means.  We didn't want to have it sized down because the setting was such that the 28 princess cut diamonds in their invisible setting along side the center stone could have been ruined or fallen out by altering the shape of the ring.  So we just left it.

But I knew that wouldn't last, so I eventually found a friend's jeweler who said we could 'add' a round bump arch type of thing on the inside of my ring on the bottom to make it fit better.  And when we added that extra white gold to the ring, it did in fact fit better.  In fact, too good...it was now too tight.  I had him shave off some of the extra gold we added and it seemed to be okay.  I have large knuckles and they kept insisting that if they made it any bigger it would slip around on my finger once it got past my knuckle.  So he told me if I needed to, just use some extra cold water and dish soap to slide the ring on and off.  Hey, that idea worked great!  I did this every morning and evening when I would take my ring on and off.

So come wedding day I had a plan.  I told my coordinator and pastor that I needed either a glass of ice water or a little bottle of dish soap or hand sanitizer at the table where we would take communion just before our ring exchange.  This way I could easily place some of the soap on my finger right after we took communion before we went back to our places on the altar.  Well, instead, my coordinator decided to just give the bottle of soap to my pastor to keep in his pocket so he could hand it to me if I needed it.  Great idea.  But I didn't want to put the stuff on my finger in front of all of our guests...I was trying to be covert about it.  So when it wasn't there at the communion table and we went back to do the ring exchange, well, I'll let you watch the video to see what happened next.

Can you believe that? I was totally bleeding from trying to shove and force the ring over my knuckle!  Mr Fix It's ring went on just fine. But mine, not so much. The rest of the ceremony Mr Fix It kept trying to hold my hands and I just remember that I kept pulling my left hand away from him trying not to get blood on my dress, or the ribbon on my flowers or on Mr Fix It.  As you can see in the video, at one point, I even turned my back to the guests and tried to suck the blood off of my finger!  Disgusting...but you do what you gotta do.  Nobody at the wedding, not one person noticed what the heck had happened or that I had totally cut myself on my ring finger and was then wearing one of our little pink Hugs and Kisses from the New Mr & Mrs band-aids that I had gifted our wedding party.  Guess they came in handy after all :)

The part in the video where you see my back turned to the guests and I'm talking to my sister?  Well, I held my hand out to show her the bloody mess on my knuckles.  She must have been out of it, too because she looked at my hand and said "Yeah, pretty."  Like she thought I was trying to show her the ring!  Then I glanced at my knuckle in an effort to tell her to look again and she saw the blood and her eyes got all wide with this "What am I supposed to do look?"  So silly.

Here's a couple pics of when I put Mr Fix It's ring on him:

But now, thanks to the little fiasco of me not being able to get my ring on, Mr Fix It makes a face wondering if we will have the same problem and *HIS* ring won't fit either!

And here's a shot of me with my best friend from high school immediately after our ceremony when I first came up for cocktails.  She was the only person the entire night who asked to look at my ring.  Very strange I thought but whatever. 

By the time I changed for our grand entrance, I was able to take the band aid off. But as you can see in this lovely photo from our first dance, I did have some minor cuts and scrapes :)

All photos by Robert Mullins Photography
All raw video footage courtesy of Video Keepsakes of Beverly Hills