Wedding Recaps: Party Time!

At this point in my wedding recaps, I really have to give major props to our DJ, because the party was awesome. I don’t really know what else to say about our dance other than it was a pretty typical wedding in most respects, but we had a great time and I think most of our guests did too! The best part about this part of the day was that everyone let loose and was completely candid…which makes for some really great (and sometimes embarrassing!) photos.

As you can see, I was out on the dance floor a lot more than my husband. When we were going through the photos he looked at me and asked “Where am I??” I laughed at him and reminded him that he was off in the corner talking farming with all of his friends. Talking about farming doesn’t make for fun photos, dancing does!

Wedding Recaps: Unforgettable

One sort of ingenius idea that we had (not that I’m bragging or anything…) was to have one big combined dance for our parents dances. Instead of just me and my dad, then Shaun and his mom, we decided to have three couples out on the dance floor at once – me and Shaun, mom and dad, and my new in-laws. After about a minute, our DJ called for us to switch partners, so I got to dance with dad, Shaun got to dance with his mom, etc. We switched up a couple of different times, and it made for some really fun photos. The song that we all danced to was “Unforgettable” by Nat Cole (re-recorded after his death by his daughter Natalie Cole, so the version we used included both of their voices).

Unforgettable, that’s what you are
Unforgettable, though near or far
Like a song of love that clings to me
How the thought of you does things to me
Never before has someone been more

Unforgettable, in every way
And forevermore, that’s how you’ll stay
That’s why darling, it’s incredible
That someone so unforgettable
Thinks that I am unforgettable too

Wedding Recaps: Our First Dance

I’m going to let you in on a little secret about the first dance – it’s pretty awkward. It’s a little strange to have an entire room full of people staring at you while you awkwardly sway back and forth to a chosen slow song…we didn’t take dance lessons or choreograph anything, so that’s exactly what our first dance was. Still, I’m glad we did it and that we have a song that’s got special meaning for our relationship now.

Our first dance was to “Something About the Way You Look Tonight” by Elton John.

There was a time I was everything and nothing all in one
When you found me, I was feeling like a cloud across the sun
I need to tell you how you light up every second of the day
And in the moonlight, you shine like a beacon on the bay

And I can’t explain, but it’s something about the way you look tonight
Takes my breath away
It’s that feeling I get about you deep inside
And I can’t describe, but it’s something about the way you look tonight
Takes my breath away
The way you look tonight

With a smile
You pull the deepest secrets from my heart
In all honesty
I’m speechless and I don’t know where to start

And I can’t explain, but it’s something about the way you look tonight
Takes my breath away
It’s that feeling I get about you deep inside
And I can’t describe, but it’s something about the way you look tonight
Takes my breath away
The way you look tonight

The Big Announcement: I’m Moving!

Now that I’ve gotten a few things in order, it’s time for the big announcement that I alluded to this morning (and announced on Twitter) – I’m moving to Blogger! After a lot of thought and deliberation, I decided that instead of having to pay for more WordPress space, I’m going to move to a new blog entirely.

In some ways, this makes me a little sad, especially given that this particular blog and I have almost 2 years (!) of history at this point. However, it also seems a little fitting. I’m just about finished with my wedding recaps and, after all, this did start out as a wedding planning blog. The wedding is now done, you’ve seen all of the recaps…so this seems like a good time in my blogging life to move on. I think Blogger will make it easier to build relationships with bloggers my own age and with similar tastes, so that’s the move that I’ve decided to make.

For the next week or so I’ll be finishing up my wedding recap posts, but then I’m going to officially retire “Life. Love. Law.” If you’d like to keep following me (and I hope that you do!), please come check out my new blog called “Latte and a Prayer” over on Blogger. It’s going to basically be the same kinds of non-wedding posts that I’ve been writing here for some time now, just in a slightly different format to fit the Blogger platform. I hope that if you’re reading this, you’ll at least drop by for a visit!

Changes on the Horizon

Wow…it’s been a long time since I took a few days off of blogging! In addition to this being a really hectic week at school, there are some big changes in store for my blog life in the very near future. Like…maybe this afternoon. Maybe tomorrow. I’ll make the official announcement once everything is in order. (But take a look at my twitter feed if you want a hint ;))

Wedding Recaps: Cutting the Cake

One of the last things that we did before our photographer left for the night was cut the wedding cake. Let me start off by saying that I loved our cake! It was so beautiful, and I was completely thrilled with how it turned out. I was a little awestruck when I saw it for the first time! And it tasted amazing too. Each layer had two flavors in it: chocolate chocolate chip and raspberry swirl. They were special and unique flavors without being too crazy. There were kids at our wedding, after all, and we wanted them to enjoy the cake too!

Another thing about wedding cake…I hate the tradition of smooshing cake in each other’s faces. I hate it in a “I paid a lot of money to look like this today, so please don’t ruin it with frosting, thank you very much,” sort of way. I get that it’s fun to some people…but not me. Luckily, Shaun and I were 100% on the same page with this. We don’t have those funny pictures of an impromptu cake fight, but that’s perfectly alright with me.

How do you feel about wedding cake – do you ever eat it? And how do you feel about the face-smashing tradition? Love it or leave it?

Wedding Recaps: Sunset Photos

I know that I’ve said in just about every post that this set of photos was my “favorite” from the day…but these sunset photos that our photographer took in a field across from the banquet hall after dinner are divine. To me, they’re high-fashion meets country living, if that’s even possible. They remind me of photos that you see in bridal magazines…except the subjects of the photos are me and my husband! I still can’t quite believe that when I look at them. I have a hard time picking favorites out of these, because they’re all just so perfect.

One of my absolute favorite photos. Gorgeous.

I love that these photos, even more than a lot of the others I’ve shown you already, really capture who we are and where we’re from. But at the same time, they’re beautiful, artistic, and worthy of being blown up for a large canvas on our living room wall. Which is exactly what’s going to happen with that first picture 🙂

Wedding Recaps: The Toasts

Although our entire wedding day was full of all sorts of emotions, one of the parts that still stands out in my mind were the toasts made by the best man and maid of honor. They were short and sweet, but very meaningful. And our photographer happened to get a few great shots of the toasts as well, so that doesn’t hurt either.

Mike’s speech wasn’t long, but the best part was this: “I’ve known Shaun throughout many different phases in his life. And I’ve honestly never seen him happier than he is when he’s with Kim.” Awwwwww.

My sister, Amie, was more nervous about making her speech, but she did an amazing job. She talked about how we fought a lot growing up (and we did…we shared a room until I went to college, after all…), but that now we’re closer than ever. That now we’re more than sisters, we’re friends. Cue another awwwww.

What’s the best toast you’ve ever heard? Was it long or short? Lots of stories, or just a few heartfelt sentiments?

Wedding Recaps: Kiss! Kiss!

It’s been a little while since I posted my last wedding recap. But now that I have my computer back and I have access to our wedding photos again, they can resume!

You know when you go to a wedding and everyone clinks their glasses a million times to get the bride and groom to kiss? Well, we don’t completely hate the tradition, but we wanted to have some fun with it as well. So every time that the crowd started clinking their glasses, we chose a couple at “random” to kiss as well. Our photographer managed to catch pictures of all of the lucky (or unlucky!) couples we chose, and it’s definitely one of my favorite pages in our wedding album. Here are a few of our favorite photos:

The first “victims.” Except not really…they volunteered!

Shaun’s friends Tyler and Melissa – we’re going to their wedding next weekend 🙂

And my friends Sam and Eric, who got married last weekend! They played the same game during their dinner…and took revenge on us.

My little brother and his girlfriend…they were so embarrassed. Teehee.

Shaun’s aunt and uncle really got into it…

And us…of course 🙂

September Budget

Well, the good news is that I did much better at sticking to my budget this month than I did last month. The bad news is that I probably still spent too much, especially considering all of the computer troubles that cropped up a few weeks ago. Still, I did much better about only buying things that were on sale or shopping at stores where I had coupons, which made a huge difference. Here are some of the pieces I got (the full list, including prices, is after the pic):

Left column: Packers shirt from Old Navy ($9.50 after coupon), Pink Cardigan from NY&Co ($25.77 on sale), Plaid shirt from Maurices ($0, a “just because” gift from my mom, who also had a coupon)

Center column: Leopard loafers from DSW ($34.95 after coupon), Sequined oxfords from DSW ($29.95 after coupon), Ulta “Oh!” from Ulta ($6)

Right column: Julep Mystery Box ($19.95), BGBGeneration bracelet from Younkers ($14.95 after coupon), Striped tee from Old Navy ($16.99 on sale), Black tunic from Old Navy ($12 on sale)

Total: $164.14

Again, I tried to make my purchases this month very versatile, and I think I did a good job of that. I also think I did a pretty good job of sticking to my “September Wish List” – I found two pairs of fall shoes that both go with just about everything, and the tunic from Old Navy is the closest thing to the “perfect black shirt” that I’ve found so far (I got it in black, not the gray color pictured). The one thing I definitely need to start watching more closely is the amount of nail polish I buy…it’s so easy to get just one or two bottles here and there, but it really adds up after a while! I’m participating in 2 polish swaps in October, and that should keep me stocked with new and interesting colors for a while. I’m committing to not buying any new polish in October except the Julep Maven box. In fact, a shopping ban in general for the month of October sounds like a good thing. My goal for next month is to keep my purchases under $100, so I can put that money towards our honeymoon in December.

Linking up with Franishh’s Budgeting Bloggers. 🙂