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So, Brian and I have been married for one week now… wow!  I have a husband!  We’re down in Huatulco, Mexico for our honeymoon, but I wanted show you a picture from the wedding - I can’t wait to share all the details with you!

This picture was taken by my cousin - what a perfect shot!

With everything behind me (how crazy is that?!), one of the moments I remember most vividly from my wedding is dancing with my dad…

It took me a while to come up with the perfect song to play when I danced with my father at my wedding… First I asked him for any suggestions he had: “Stairway to Heaven. Obviously.” Clearly this was not going to be the best way to go about finding the perfect song…

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Out of my 11 bridesmaids, 6 are married and 3 have already given birth to one child.  Another one is currently pregnant with her first due in February, and I just found out today, that another is pregnant with her 2nd due……the week of my wedding.

What to do?  What to do?  Naturally, given the demographics of my bridesmaids, I understood early on that at this point in our lives (circa 29-30 years old), we all have our own family lives and demands that make it hard to plan around.  I understand that my bridesmaid due in June may not be able to make the wedding or fit into a matching dress.   However, I don’t want to NOT have her because of that.  Just because she may not be able to participate in the “big day” I still consider her as I do the other 10, vital important people that have contributed to making my life special throughout my various walks of life.  I’ve told her that I would love for her to be considered a bridesmaid and participate in whatever she can.  Obviously, everyone understands that a 9 month pregnant woman may not be able to commit, however, I still want her included in my roster of special people.

Have any of you been a pregnant bridesmaid or have pregnant bridesmaids?  How would you feel and what would you do?

Since Garrett and I got married in San Francisco without our families and friends (with the exception of Garrett’s aunt, uncle, and best friend who all reside in CA), we both wanted a way for them to be part of the marriage and we knew we wanted to have the marriage blessed, because God is the important part. We decided on the chapel of the church Garrett grew up in, a side portion of the sanctuary with its own altar and a more intimate setting.

I love this image, by Kristen, of us walking in. You can see the priest’s white robe as we follow him in, walking together, hand in hand. It was really nice to go in together, I was only thinking about Garrett the whole way. We decided on having the church’s music director play organ for our entrance and exit which was lovely. Once we got up to the altar I remember Garrett asking if it was okay that we were holding hands. (”Yes!” I said, “we’re married!”) Either way, I wasn’t letting go.

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You won’t believe all of the changes taking place in the Brennan/Power Household within the next month!

{via In This Instance}

In the next two weeks we will be moving to the suburbs of Boston and finally living in a house with a little yard for Bradley.  I cannot wait! It’s happened a little sooner than expected but we are very excited about the move.

We’ve begun searching for a washer and dryer to buy for the house (I was shocked to see how expensive they were) as well as a car for us to get around in.  Not to mention settling in a new town, finding movers, gearing up for the Christmas season and finding out how to get back to Pennsylvania for the holidays with Brad!

The big secret however is that while we are back in my hometown, we will be getting legally married!  I wanted to keep it a secret and share with you after the big day but who was I kidding.  I can’t keep secrets!  Although the “real” wedding ceremony and reception is still in Ireland in August, this will also be very special to us as well.

To make the visa process as easy as possible, we learned that getting civilly married before traveling over to Ireland would be most ideal.  Originally we had thought of doing it after Ger graduated from Grad School however, we soon found out that it could take up to 5 months to process all of the papers.  This is when I had the bright idea of getting married over Christmas and to share the experience with all of my family that aren’t able to make it over to Ireland! Remember my dilemma? Problem solved, right?  I love that we are able to incorporate both of our families into this great celebration and I am even able to wear my first wedding dress!

I’ve always been the type that whenever I wanted to get a new hair style or a hair cut, I needed to do it right away.  It would drive me crazy to wait for days until my appointment and by then, I usually changed my mind anyway.  I admit, I can be quite impulsive at times.  I get so tired of planning and researching EVERYTHING.  Sometimes you just need to go for it, right?

Has anyone else been impulsive when it comes to life and wedding planning?

While Nick and I were taking photos, our guests headed to the reception tent for the cocktail hour. They were supposed to gather around the rectangular pool — amidst round high top tables and mason jars of candles tied with red and orange ribbon — but the wet weather prevented that from happening. However, I heard they still had a pretty excellent time.

The space was decorated with red and orange Chinese lanterns, strings of white lights, baskets of greens, and fichus trees (all expertly arranged by our day of coordinator, Betsy, I must add).

Susan Savia provided the entertainment, and drinks were served alongside a European cheese spread with fresh bread, fruits, dips, and mustards (provided by The Festive Board of York).

We offered two signature drinks: Arnold Palmers from the groom and Peach Sangria from the bride. The Arnold Palmer is a blend of iced tea, lemonade, and vodka. And we mixed the Sangria the morning before the wedding. (Get the recipe.)

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{ image via Corbis }

I had another wedding dream last night. We got to the ceremony and things were a mess. Our pastor wasn’t there, it was some older woman who had no idea what she was doing…kept flipping through pages and pages and could not find what she was supposed to read. And then all of a sudden we were married (I think?) but people didn’t know because she didn’t announce it at all. One big ol’ hot mess of a ceremony. Then everyone ended up coming over to our house (which was also a mess) instead of going to our reception venue and Mr.’s grandparents were complaining about it. Actually, now that I think about it, I don’t remember seeing any of my family at all. And this is where I freaked out and just started cleaning the house in my wedding dress. (Note to self: have someone keep me a safe distance from any cleaning products on my wedding day just to be safe?)

Yikes. On another note…

Mr.’s parents went to a wedding at our venue last night and had a TON of feedback for us. The thing that bothered me the most is that our venue’s coordinator LEFT after the bridal party was announced!! I mean, really?? Wow. Well, this makes me even more relieved about our decision to have a Day-Of-Coordinator. Although it’s likely that we’d be ok without one, I think that I’ll be able to relax and enjoy the day a bit more knowing that I won’t have to be the type-A personality to over-analyze everything for the day.

(sidenote: Saved by the Bell is on and it’s the episode where the girls fall in love with their substitute English teacher. They all daydream that they’re going to marry him…their dresses are totally late-80’s fab. Please tell me that I won’t ever look back at my dress and want to barf like I did with those dresses…)

{via My Own Collection}

If Bradley could talk, I’m sure this is what he would be asking me.  With all of the Wedding plans, it’s easy to forget about our little guy and what we plan on doing with him during the wedding.

We would love to have Bradley be a part of the big day.  It really wouldn’t be complete without him there however, it is turning out to be quite a challenge.  Although our venue is dog friendly, the hard part will be to get him over to Ireland.

Imagine Bradley in a little bow tie running around on our big day!  He would be such a gentleman.  However, this brings up another point, in the midst of all of the last minute details and events, would we really be able to give him all of the love an attention he needs? Would we be too distracted to watch after him? What about when it’s time to go on our honeymoon.  Does he stay in Ireland while we are in Japan?

One of the other side of the coin, could we really go 3+ weeks without this guy? Where in the world would he go? I’m sure the cost of puppy hotel’s aren’t cheap.  This plan doesn’t seem any better!

I need your help!  For those of you who have special guys at home, how are you incorporating them into your wedding plans?

Mr. and I went to our first wedding together this weekend and we had a wonderful time! Not to mention, we learned a TON. He was the best man in the wedding so between the two of us we were able to kinda see both sides of the day.

The part that stuck out as the most memorable of the day had nothing to do with the flowers or invitations or food, or actually anything at the reception at all. I will never forget how my heart was pounding after the moment that the bride and groom saw each other for the first time and she walked down the aisle.

It’s easy to put so much focus on the font for the invitations or the flavor of the cake or table decorations and the whole party that comes afterwards that sometimes I feel like we can lose sight of that big thing that happens before we crack open the champagne. I felt so honored to be a witness to the vows they said to each other. No, they didn’t write their own, but it felt so special to be able to see them take such a big step together. Special isn’t even the word…it was just…just something so sacred and I felt truly honored to be able to witness that moment.

Mr. only looked at me once during the entire ceremony because we knew we would just lose it. I have no idea how I’m not going to be a slobbering mess come the time that we have to say our vows. I mean, why can’t the girl say the vows first? I think I’d be less likely to cry then. Anyway…there are some things that we’re going to do a little differently.
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When Brad from Shaking Hands Productions (he’s a fabulous Virginia-based videographer, go have a look!) emailed me with his proposal story, I knew I had to share it with you.  While Brad’s girlfriend Lyndsey was modeling for one of his videos Brad surprised her by proposing and Adam Miller caught the moment on video.   I teared up watching!

My proposal to Lyndsey from Shaking Hands Productions on Vimeo.

Tim Gosnell was on hand to take photos of the proposal - I adore the shocked look on Lyndsey’s face.

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Out of everything that went into the preparation for our vow renewal, I probably had the most fun and least stress planning the day after brunch.  It was held at South City Kitchen in Midtown, just steps from our hotel blocks and our venue from the vow renewal the night before.

Orange as a wedding color has always inspired me, so I knew that I wanted to use it for the brunch.  It’s so fresh and clean!  I kept things super-simple, bringing in only one accent color (yellow) and using lots of fresh fruit as decor.

Each place setting was decorated with an orange wrapped in parchment paper and tied with raffia.  The leaves were goccoed with “Bonne Annee!”, French for Happy New Year, written in calligraphy by Laura Hooper (continuing the slightly-French theme that was carried through from our RSVP packets, do not disturb signs, menus, and other printed items).

{Jessica Claire}

The bar was lined with oranges and lemons, purchased from Whole Foods and donated to a local food bank after the event.

{Jessica Claire}

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Wow.  When did that happen?  The past month has just flown by and all of a sudden it’s one week until the big day!  Things have been pretty crazy (hence my sad lack of posts - I’m so sorry!), but I’ve gotten a lot of the big “to dos” checked off my list:

1. Pick up wedding dress - check!
2. Nail down all rentals - check!
3. Finalize guest list - check!
4. Put together all gifts for bridal party - mostly check!
5. Bust butt in the gym so that even if I look the same in a week, I feel amazing - check!
6. Sit down with musicians and finalize selections for ceremony and reception - check!
7. Make final menu decisions - check!

Despite all this, there still seem to be a million and one things on my to do list…  no big items (yea!), but lots of little ones.  Fortunately my wonderful fiance and dedicated bridesmaids have the reserved the upcoming weekend so we can do all the remaining wedding projects (they even seem excited about it!  though I think that may be entirely for my benefit…).

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There are SO many amazing photographers in the world - how do you find the one that’s perfect for you?  Well, not only do you need to blog-stalk them, see images from a full wedding, and find out all of the details about the specific packages that they offer, but you also want to ask these questions:

1. Will I receive a DVD of images from the event?
2. How many images do you post-process (the more the better!  All of those amazing images you fell in love with from their website and albums are post-processed.  If the images on the DVD you receive are SOOC (straight out of camera) you should know and understand this.)? Can I see multiple examples of before-and-after images?
3. Do you color correct all images?
4. How soon after the wedding will I receive my proofs?  My DVD of images?  My album?
5. Do you write up every event on your blog?
6. How soon after the event will you blog?
7. What types of images do you include in your blog post?
8. Do you shoot in film or digital?  Color or black and white?  RAW or JPG?
9. What is your contingency plan if you are ill or otherwise cannot attend my event? {Be sure the answer to this is specifically stated in your contract}
10. Who retains copyright to the images?  Reproduction rights?

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