Thursday, December 18, 2014

Monumental Love: I Sphinx I Love You

Add the Pyramids to the list of couples who strongly recommend a first look!  In a practical sense, the key driver was to get pictures out of the way, but it also allowed us to spend a special moment together without anyone else around (well, except our paparazzi).  Several family members and friends have looked at our pictures and said "Wait - so you saw each other before?"  From their point of view at the ceremony, nothing was missing.  Not like I shuffled up the aisle, gave Sphinx the 'sup nod, and he said "Oh, hey, it's you again."  That moment was still special in it's own way (and when we get there, you'll see even more why I'm glad we did the first look!).

If you're anti-first look, I'm not trying to sway you otherwise.  However, if you like the idea of a first look but are worrying about missing out on "the aisle moment" - trust me, you won't.

Can you spot the bride creeping up in the mirror?/All photos by Eau Claire Photographics

Monday, December 15, 2014

Monumental Love: It's the Little Things

Raise your hand if you love detail posts! Really?  Me too!  

It's fun wrapping up how some of my buys, crafts, and ideas turned out, and I hope it's enjoyable for you too.  Today we'll be talking about a lot of my accessories - basically anything that was in the hotel room with me the morning of (I've got another post lined up later for details featured at the reception).  It's been a while since I've been able to obsess over teensy little details, so excuse me for the extended explanations on some of these photos!   

Starting off with this gorgeousness.  All photos by Eau Claire Photographics

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Monumental Love: Becoming a Bride

Today, my dears, I have a ton of pictures for you, so I'll let the pictures do most of the talking here.  It was hard to narrow down which ones to share, because these really are some of my favorites of the day.  For one, there's beautiful light streaming through the windows and all the ladies are dressed up, but the best part is just how happy we all look.  No stress, no worries, just so much love and laughter.

All photos by Eau Claire Photographics
As each girl arrived, we hung their dresses up in the living room window.  Really, it was just because that was the only place for six dresses, but it also sped things up when the photo and video teams arrived!  They said sometimes it takes a while to get all those dresses together.

The cute hangers were covered a little, but still did their job. 

Ghost dress!

One more shot of Dino's pretty purple robe as the girls get dressed.

Getting by with a little help from my friends. 
BM Taco was clearly ready to get the party started.

To start, Momma P goes to take the dress down.

And then she might have not been able to reach the hanger so MOH Curls took over.

Excuse me for a second of big sister bragging: this girl is gorgeous. 

And she's helpful. 
This was the best way we could figure to get me into my dress without messing up the hair: I put on the Spanx + petticoat first, then I stepped into the dress and the girls stuffed the fluff from the slip into the dress.  Good enough, and the realization of how ridiculous this was caused me to get very giggly.

Oh the things we do for weddings.
 These next few pics give me a glimpse of what it would have looked like if I'd gone with a strapless dress.  I don't regret the sleeves for a second, but I do still love these shots.

My mom stepped in to zip and fasten the little pieces of lace that would cover the zipper.

I don't think I can do a recap post without saying a picture is my favorite of the group - this would be the one for today.  That train!

You can see the little ruffle along the top of the dress here, which was a sweet detail to capture.

I'm pretty sure in this picture I was telling BM Duffy that she'd be the one doing this in a month, and this was her reaction.  I told you we got silly.
If you read my post on finding my dress, you'll remember that the bolero was a completely separate piece.  So once the dress itself was on and secure, I slipped on the bolero and my mom and sister started doing up the tiny, delicate buttons in the back.

It was kind of weird just standing there waiting, so I kept smoothing down my dress while they told me to stop moving.


And here the silly keeps on going - when we realized that they had skipped a button and had to start over.



My exact reaction - "Why did we let two lefties do this job?"


And then I couldn't stop laughing as they were trying to undo their work. 

Successfully buttoned up!  Way to go, lefties!

Y'all like how my mom and I were kind of twins?  That was totally unplanned, but when we went to pick up my dress at the salon, she found this gold one and lit up when she put it on.  She had been going back and forth on what to wear and hadn't fallen in love with anything, but she was absolutely strutting in this dress.  I made a joke about how she was copying me, and she swore up and down that she wouldn't buy it and would find something else if it bothered me - and of course I told her she was nuts.  This dress made her look amazing and feel fabulous, and that's all that mattered to me.

Then BM Perk gave me some garter assistance.

Total disclosure: those came off like an hour later because they were slipping down my leg and we just stuck them back on before the toss at the reception. 
One final step to Bridedom: the veil!

I was so honored to wear the veil my mom wore at my parents' wedding 30 years earlier.

Nanny's face here is so cute.  "You ready for this?"

We took the veil off of its original cap and had the seamstress put the pieces on two combs, so that I could wear them separately.
Oh hello, bride, there you are!


One of my favorites of my Nanny and me.
This picture captures what I was doing all morning - deep breaths, deep breaths, deep breaths!  



And finally...I got the last of my nerves and jitters out by flexing my "Disney Point"  - I don't remember why and the video doesn't even explain what was happening here, but it looks fun.

Please keep your hands, arm, feet, and legs inside the hotel - and let's go get that groom!




Previously on the Pyramid Wedding:

Monday, December 8, 2014

Monumental Love: Send My Love to You

Sending presents and letters to each other the morning of the wedding isn't exactly a new idea - but I wanted to make sure to do it a certain way.  Through all of my browsing while investigating vendors and looking for ideas, I learned that I love wedding videos where the personalized vows are played over other images of the day: the bride getting ready, the groom waiting with his back turned for the first look, and the couple dancing at their reception in front of all of their guests.  Something about showing the happiness of the couple mixed with the emotional words of their promises beautifully pulls everything together.

Since we were married in the Catholic Church, our vows were not personalized, so we used the letters to fill in the gap.  I've seen it done both ways, but I wanted to have the writer read out loud, so that it would make more sense when used in the video (you can hear some of my letter in the teaser trailer).  
It was a nice moment to step away from all the activity to remember why we were doing all this./All photos by Eau Claire Photographics

Friday, December 5, 2014

Monumental Love: Groom's Team...Assemble!

As you saw, girl getting ready time all took place in my hotel suite, with hair and makeup coming to us.  The guys operated a little bit differently, obviously, so I'll rely on Sphinx to tell the story of their morning (but not without some commentary from yours truly, of course). 

The day began like every other, the birds woke me up with their merry songs. I got out of bed with a good stretch, then walked to the mailbox and waved “Hey” to the neighbor. 

No, seriously I was up later than intended writing my letter to Miss Pyramid after drinking more than intended when several groomsmen came over to the house after our Rock n Bowl party. So the first step was to pound a Red Bull and get the pulled pork going in the crock pot for sandwiches. 

GM Lil Bro, Daddy P, Sphinx, and BM Skittles all acting real cool and casual./Unless stated, all photos by Eau Claire Photographics

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Monumental Love: Girls Get Glam

So everyone says the wedding day is the best day of your life, right?  Well, if I had any doubts about that, they were cleared up when our makeup artist Amanda walked into our suite and handed me two pouches full of false eyelashes and said "Here, look through these and pick out your favorites."  I can get used to that.

We set Amanda up by the window in the bedroom, and the girls took turns getting all painted up.  

All photos by Eau Claire Photographics
I frequently stopped by the makeup chair to see the progress and helped the girls decide on their lip colors.