The Sounds of the Blue Whale Wedding

After I wrote that title, I wondered what an actual blue whale wedding would sound like.  And of course I thought of Dori. But there was no whale speak at our wedding.  Though maybe that’s what some people were trying …

The Wedding Photos I Didn’t Know I Needed

Alright.  I know you have a list of photos to be taken at your wedding.  I had a list as well.  But I’m here to tell you that after the wedding, I realized that there were some photos that I didn’t know I wanted until after the wedding!  Luckily, our photographer managed to capture some of these without my request.  (And several of them are some of my favorite photos.)

But there are some photos I should have requested.  So to keep you from making my mistakes, I’ve compiled a list of the photos that I didn’t know that I needed until after the wedding.  And I’ve given you a little inspiration and reality to go with it.

• The Bride with Each Bridesmaid: This one makes me so sad.  I can actually remember the moment my photographer asked me, “Do you want to take photos with each bridesmaid now?” And I said, “We can do it later.” Well, later never came, and now I’m really bummed that those photos didn’t happen.

Inspiration:

Image from Tie the Knot

Reality: No photo for me 😦

• The Bride’s Face as She Walks Down the Aisle: The obsession nowadays is to capture the look on the groom’s face.  But let’s not forget that your groom might want to look at pictures one day too!  Hopefully your photographer can capture both.

Inspiration:

Photo by Kristen Booth

Reality:

• Guests at the Ceremony: If you’re like me, you might forget that other people exist during your ceremony.  I literally did not look at anyone other than Mr. Whale during our ceremony.  I wish I had a few good pictures of the guests.

Inspiration:

Sean Parker’s Wedding Photos by Christian Oth

Reality: I think this is the only one I have where you can see some guests.

• The Bride and Groom with Both Sets of Parents: Somehow I missed that this was a thing.  I went into the wedding not caring at all about the formal family photos.  (I wanted family photos, but I wanted them to be candid.)  So I guess I didn’t put much thought into it.  But now we have photos of us with Mr. Whale’s parents and us with my parents.  I wish we had one photo we could put up that has all the parents in it.

Inspiration: (I felt weird borrowing a photo of some random couple’s family, so let’s look at Mrs. Otter again.  Can you tell I enjoyed looking at all of her photos?) 🙂

So much love in Mrs. Otter’s family photos | Photo by Stacey Able

Reality: 😦

• Candid Parent Shots: I didn’t really plan for parent shots, and that was a mistake. I’m so glad our photographer knew to get some.

Inspiration:

Photo by Slava-Slavik

Reality:

• Fake Dancing: I’m not talking about dancing at your reception.  I’m talking about dancing when you’re out in the middle of the trees or on a city street.  Dance like no one is watching, you guys!  Be carefree. (I guess planning to be carefree kind of defeats the purpose… Do it anyway.)

Inspiration:

Photo by Brenda Upton

Reality:

• The Dip: The dip screams romance.  But if you do it wrong, it screams awkward.  So practice the dip.  And then request that move.  Because if you get it right, it’s incredible.

Inspiration:

Found on Weddingbee

Reality:

• Guests at the Reception: When I was looking through other couples’ wedding photos, I didn’t care too much about the reception photos.  But that’s probably because I didn’t know those people!  I absolutely love seeing photos of all of our guests.  And I had no idea that I would feel this way.

Inspiration:

Photo by Todd Laffler

Who are these people and why were they not at my wedding? | Photo by Todd Laffler

Reality:

• Group Shot of All the Guests: Okay, seriously, this would take some work.  But I wanted this photo, and Mr. Whale didn’t, so we scrapped it.  But I wish we’d done it…

Inspiration:

Photo by Jeff Newsom

Reality: We don’t have this one.  Boo.

• The Jump: I urge you to reconsider your position on this one.  Mr. Whale and I love to pull up our jumping pictures and zoom in on everyone’s ridiculous faces.  It’s 100% cheesy, and I thought it would be stupid, but it ended up being one of my favorite photos.

Inspiration:

Image from the Wedding Party App

Reality:

And there you have it.  All those photos I overlooked but ended up loving.  If any of these are on your list of “photos you don’t care about having”, I suggest you reconsider.

What photos do you wish you had from your wedding?

What We Skipped and Kinda Missed

Last time I talked about several things that we decided to skip at our wedding that we didn’t miss at all.  Today, I want to talk about the few things that we actually did miss.

I know that everyone always says, “Your wedding day won’t be perfect. Something will go wrong.”  But honestly, we really didn’t have any of those moments.  The weather was perfect. Everything was on schedule. We had enough food and enough alcohol. There was no drama. There were no excessively drunk people. Honestly… I have nothing to complain about.

So I’m going to invent things to complain about.  No, that’s not it.  Truthfully, because our day went so smoothly, I feel bad saying anything bad about it.  But there are a few decisions we made that, if I could go back in time, I would change.

What would we not skip if we could do it all over again?

• The Father-Daughter Dance:  We decided not to have a father-daughter dance or a mother-son dance.  Mr. Whale didn’t want to call attention to it.  His reasoning was that he would just dance with his mom later on in the night and that I could do the same.  And he did dance with his mom.  But… I never got to dance with my dad.  (Too much stuff was happening, and I just forgot!)  This is the only thing from our wedding that I reeeeeally regret.  I know see that there’s a reason it’s a designated dance.  It’s because without a special time for it, it might not happen at all!

Who can forget Mrs. Otter’s beautiful father daughter dance? Image by Stacey Able

• A Receiving Line:  There’s a reason receiving lines are a thing. (Just like there’s a reason a designated father-daughter dance exists.) It’s because you might not get a chance to talk to every guest otherwise.  I wish I had read Mrs. Sword’s post before our wedding.  I think we could have done a quick one.

• Fresh Flower Bouquets:  But Blue Whale, in your last post you said you didn’t regret your choice!  I know, I’m so fickle.  Truthfully, I don’t think I would go back and have fresh flowers again.  But I brought it up, because I felt some initial regret about not having fresh flowers.  Now that enough time has passed, I am totally in love with my paper flowers again.  But I will say one thing about this.  You had better love your bouquet.  Because it will be in almost every single photo that you’re in.  So if you don’t like it, you’ll question its presence in every photo.

Image via Weddings Beautiful

(I can’t lie. Sometimes I wish this bouquet was in my life.)

• Wedding Programs:  Okay, realistically, I didn’t miss the wedding programs.  But, a funny little thing happened on our way to our wedding.  Mr. Whale turned to me in the car and said, “Where are those wedding programs you made?”  And I said, “Oh, it turned out to be too much work.  So I just quit.  We don’t have programs.”  And he said, “What?? But how will people know who the wedding party is?  What if they wanted to take a program home from the wedding??”  This, folks, is why you should occasionally fill your fiance in on your plans.  If I’d known he cared so much about the programs, I certainly would have kept at it.  But I just assumed that he wouldn’t care.  Whoops.

How cute is this! Too bad we didn’t have a program… (Image via The Bridal Detective/Photo by Angela Renee)

Did you end up missing any of the stuff you skipped?

What We Skipped and Didn’t Miss

This post is all about the “typical”, “traditional”, or “trendy” stuff that we chose to skip at our wedding.   For the most part, our decisions turned out great.  As a disclaimer, I feel the need to say that these decisions made sense for us. They might not make sense for everyone.  But if you’re thinking about skipping something and wondering whether you’ll regret it, well then hopefully this will reassure you that some stuff can definitely be skipped.

Of course, there were just a few things that I would have done differently if I knew then what I know now.  My next post will be about the few things that I wish I could change, but let’s do the good news first, shall we?  So what did I skip and not miss at all?

• A First Look: This could be the subject of an entire post.  But I’ll try to sum it up here.  We didn’t have a first look, and I am 100% happy with that choice.  However, for those of you out there still unsure, know that I don’t think that having a first look would have a negative impact on the feeling that you have as you walk down the aisle.  I know some brides are worried about that.  But the aisle moment is just special.  I can’t say for sure, but I think it would be just as special whether or not you have a first look.  What I’m trying to say is: We had plenty of time for photos after the ceremony.  I love the way our day went.  But if you want extra photos and you’re worried that you’ll ruin everything by seeing each other before the ceremony, I don’t think you need to be worried.

• Professional Make-up: Our photographer asked me who did my make-up and was impressed that I’d done it myself.  Score! 🙂

• Real flowers:  Paper flowers=excellent idea.  So light, and I get to keep them forever!

And I certainly don’t regret not having flowers in our centerpieces either.

• Ceremony decorations:  The beautiful scenery was enough for us!

• Out-of-town bags:  Maybe a guest missed them, but I don’t think so.
• Bathroom baskets:  Totally not missed.
• Bouquet and Garter Toss:  I literally didn’t think of these until weeks after the wedding, and no guests ever brought it up.  I don’t think a soul noticed that they didn’t happen.
• Pro-pics of getting my hair and make-up done  If you can’t afford to have these, don’t stress.  I don’t mind at all that I don’t have them.
• A big cake Our cupcakes were so freaking delicious. And easy to eat… And didn’t require serving…

• A Signature Scent:   I don’t wear perfume unless I think I smell bad. It seemed weird to start now.
• A Big Sparkler Exit:   Pinterest convinced us all that anyone can have those fabulous sparkler exit photos.  But as the big day got closer, I realized most of those photos don’t turn out that great. So I nixed it. We just had a few sparkler pictures taken.

• A Getaway Car:  It just seemed excessive.  We had a barn reception and were driving two miles through the country back to our cabin.  There didn’t seem to be a point.

Are there any typical, traditional, or trendy things that you skipped that you didn’t miss at all?

 

 

I Whale Always Love You: Sparks Fly!

With our wedding reception at a close, I had one last item on my list of “stuff we need to do on our wedding day”.  And that item was “get some sparkler pictures”.

Like about a zillion other brides in the world, I absolutely fell in love with the sparkler getaway photos.  (Did you say sparkles?  Yes, I’ll have some please.)  But as the big day drew nearer, I had some second thoughts.  There’s one or two really awesome sparkler photos on Pinterest.

Photo via National Geographic

But once you get past the one or two amazing sparkler getaway photos, the rest are just so so.  There’s too much light.  Or not enough light.  Too blurry.  Over exposed.

BUT, where I saw perfection was in the staged sparkler photos.  Spelling out “Love” with sparklers.  Or drawing the wedding date.  Those photos are always stunning.  So I decided we would skip the getaway (too much planning!) and just do a few photos.

There were a few semi-failures…

I can’t even imagine how frustrated photographers must be that all brides now want to have sparkler photos 🙂  A word to the wise: advise your “runners” not to get too crazy with the sparkler movement, lest they obscure your face.

But another take got a fabulous shot.

Yes, that would be the ghost of my brother running in the background.  If I was any good at photoshop, maybe I would figure out how to fade him out of it, but I say it gives the picture character 🙂

We chose not to sneak out of our reception at any point for a few extra photos.  But I am really glad we took just a few sparkler photos at the end of the night.  It was so easy.  It only took about five minutes.  And that photo is one of my favorites from the whole day.

Once we were done with the sparklers, it was time to head out.  Our coordinator had pulled my car around, and we saw that it had some extra special touches 🙂

If you’re thinking, “Why are there equations on the car??”, then welcome to the club.  My parents decorated the car, and I think they ran out of stuff to write, so they just decided to fill the space with stuff they associate with “Matt and Erin”.  Mr. Whale is a physicist, and both my parents are engineers, so they thought equations and formulas would be a good idea 🙂  I’m pretty sure we’re the only married couple in history whose car was decorated with PV=nRT…  (In case you’re curious, which I know you’re not, that’s the Ideal Gas Law.  Very romantic.)

We also had this giant face on the front window.

I think someone had a few drinks before wielding the window chalk 🙂

After sharing a good laugh over the silliness written on the car, Mr. Whale and I hopped in our fabulous ride and headed back to our cabin.  Several of our friends were already there when we got back, and though it wasn’t a raucous party or anything, we did somehow end up staying up until sunrise…

As Mr. Whale and I watched the sunrise over the lake, we realized that sunrise was also when he had proposed.  And so it was only fitting that our wedding day come to a close at sunrise, too.

And of course, you know how this story ends.  We lived happily ever after 🙂

Thanks for reading, hive! It’s been so fabulous to share my day with all of you!

*All photos by the super fabulous Brenda Upton Photography.

If you missed any part of this whale of a tale, get caught up here. Previously…

• My underwear was nabbed by the underwear bandit.
• We did last minute errands in Atlanta, then drove to Blairsville, where I had an emotional moment in the courthouse getting our marriage license.
• I got emotional at our rehearsal. Then it was off to bed, where my Ambien caused some unexpected weirdness.
• I awoke on my wedding day, and headed off to get ready with my bridesmaids (and give them some gifts!)
• My braided hairstyle was everything I ever dreamed of.
• After putting on my veil, it was time to head over to where I was getting married!!
• The bridesmaids got dressed, and then I got dressed!!
• I showed off my accessories, which featured turquoise tights, a fab hair flower, and a bright pink crinoline!
• The bridesmaids and I took some super fun photos, and then I took some solo shots. And then the guys got in on the photo fun.
• I squealed with excitement over our wedding video sneak peek.
• The girls feasted on snacks while the guys panicked.
• We processed in, and Mike began our ceremony. We said our vows (which were written on our manatee cards), exchanged rings, and Mr. Whale sang a special song.
• I hugged some people, even though I felt awkward. Then we moved on to family photos.
• The wedding party posed, jumped, and ran! Mr. Whale and I took some pictures together.
• We kicked the reception off with some Montell Jordan and Van Halen! Then we chowed down on dinner and cake.
• We heard some musical toasts and then toasts from my dad, the best man, and the maid of honor. Then Mr. Whale and I put on a special performance of our own.
• We swayed to our Get Up Kids first dance. Then we opened up the dance floor.
• Our guests loved the photobooth and the mad libs.
• Mr. Whale and some of the guys had an impromptu singalong to “Piano Man”.
• I share all the details, including a lot of DIY.
• The partying continued, with an air guitar battle, Don’t Stop Believing, and a special Beastie Boys performance.

I Whale Always Love You: Fighting for Our Right to Party!

Where I left off, the last song, “Don’t Stop Believing”, had just played.  We were all super pumped.  And I thought the night was over.

My brother had other plans.  He starts yelling, “Play some Beastie Boys!!!”  Why Beastie Boys?  I honestly have no idea.  Seems like an odd choice, right?  Maybe.  But since we technically had the band until midnight and it was only about 11:40, they were happy to oblige.

So we all rocked out for a few minutes.  And then, a funny thing happened…

It was time for the third verse, but the singer couldn’t remember it.  And the next thing I knew, my brother was on the stage holding a mic!  I think you see where this is going… 🙂

Oh yeah.  It was like Piano Man all over again, but even more epic.  He was born to be a rockstar.

Image is a still from our wedding video.

Still don’t believe me?  Well, then you have to see the video proof.

So epic.  In fact, I e-mailed our videographer after the wedding to ask if he got it on video, and he replied, “Oh I got your brother’s Beastie Boys performance.  Epic.  Truly epic.”

It was the perfect way to end the night.  Mr. Whale pulled me in for one last kiss.

Then the lights came on, and it was time to get out of there.

And that’s basically it for the Blue Whale wedding.  But I’ve got one more quick post, so I hope you’ll stay with me for just one more recap! (Spoiler: It involves some sparklers!!)

*All photos by the super fabulous Brenda Upton Photography. All video by the super fantastic Hammond Studios (and chopped unartistically into clips by me)

If you missed any part of this whale of a tale, get caught up here. Previously…

• My underwear was nabbed by the underwear bandit.
• We did last minute errands in Atlanta, then drove to Blairsville, where I had an emotional moment in the courthouse getting our marriage license.
• I got emotional at our rehearsal. Then it was off to bed, where my Ambien caused some unexpected weirdness.
• I awoke on my wedding day, and headed off to get ready with my bridesmaids (and give them some gifts!)
• My braided hairstyle was everything I ever dreamed of.
• After putting on my veil, it was time to head over to where I was getting married!!
• The bridesmaids got dressed, and then I got dressed!!
• I showed off my accessories, which featured turquoise tights, a fab hair flower, and a bright pink crinoline!
• The bridesmaids and I took some super fun photos, and then I took some solo shots. And then the guys got in on the photo fun.
• I squealed with excitement over our wedding video sneak peek.
• The girls feasted on snacks while the guys panicked.
• We processed in, and Mike began our ceremony. We said our vows (which were written on our manatee cards), exchanged rings, and Mr. Whale sang a special song.
• I hugged some people, even though I felt awkward. Then we moved on to family photos.
• The wedding party posed, jumped, and ran! Mr. Whale and I took some pictures together.
• We kicked the reception off with some Montell Jordan and Van Halen! Then we chowed down on dinner and cake.
• We heard some musical toasts and then toasts from my dad, the best man, and the maid of honor. Then Mr. Whale and I put on a special performance of our own.
• We swayed to our Get Up Kids first dance. Then we opened up the dance floor.
• Our guests loved the photobooth and the mad libs.
• Mr. Whale and some of the guys had an impromptu singalong to “Piano Man”.
• I share all the details, including a lot of DIY.

.

I Whale Always Love You: The Night (Almost) Comes to a Close

By 11:30pm, things were starting to wind down at our reception.  The candy buffet was demolished.  Shoes had been removed. And Hello Kitty had been borrowed for the photobooth and now looked like this:

After nearly three hours of dancing and partying, we had some exhausted guests on our hands.  As much as I would have loved to have had a supremely rockin’ party all the way up until time to leave, it just wasn’t the case.  So Mr. Whale and I headed up to the band and asked that they go ahead and play their last few songs.

And I’m glad we made that move, because the last few songs were awesome choices, and our guests came back to life as soon as they started.  Mr. Whale and I had chosen “Don’t Stop Believing” for our last song, and the band got everyone ready for it with some Bon Jovi “Living on a Prayer”.  There were fist pumps and screams and general craziness.

 

I seemed to be making that awkward face a lot.

 

Oh, and wait.  Let’s back up.  A few songs before Bon Jovi was Guns N’ Roses “Sweet Child O’ Mine”.  And during that, there was an “air” guitar battle.  (Is it still air guitar if it’s an inflatable guitar??) Even Papa Whale was getting in on the action!

Guest Photo

Guest Photo

What started off harmless enough quickly took a turn for the intense as my brother and bridesmaid Rachael battled it out.

 

Everyone needs to have these two people at their wedding.  Instant party.

My brother got pretty into his performance.  And when I say he got pretty into it, I mean that by the end he was rocking out so hard that he decided he needed to destroy his guitar rockstar style.  But it was inflatable, so it was hard to destroy.  That didn’t stop him.  He was bound and determined to destroy that guitar.  So he did.  And then he laid down to rest near his dead guitar.

 

Maybe this explains why all of the guests were so exhausted by the end of the night…

In any case, we finally made it to our last song, and all the remaining guests sang their hearts out.

And so the last song had played. Our guests were exhausted.  It was time to head home.

…or was it??  You’ll have to wait and see what final surprise I have left!

 

*All photos by the stupendously talented Brenda Upton Photography

If you missed any part of this whale of a tale, get caught up here. Previously…

• My underwear was nabbed by the underwear bandit.
• We did last minute errands in Atlanta, then drove to Blairsville, where I had an emotional moment in the courthouse getting our marriage license.
• I got emotional at our rehearsal. Then it was off to bed, where my Ambien caused some unexpected weirdness.
• I awoke on my wedding day, and headed off to get ready with my bridesmaids (and give them some gifts!)
• My braided hairstyle was everything I ever dreamed of.
• After putting on my veil, it was time to head over to where I was getting married!!
• The bridesmaids got dressed, and then I got dressed!!
• I showed off my accessories, which featured turquoise tights, a fab hair flower, and a bright pink crinoline!
• The bridesmaids and I took some super fun photos, and then I took some solo shots. And then the guys got in on the photo fun.
• I squealed with excitement over our wedding video sneak peek.
• The girls feasted on snacks while the guys panicked.
• We processed in, and Mike began our ceremony. We said our vows (which were written on our manatee cards), exchanged rings, and Mr. Whale sang a special song.
• I hugged some people, even though I felt awkward. Then we moved on to family photos.
• The wedding party posed, jumped, and ran! Mr. Whale and I took some pictures together.
• We kicked the reception off with some Montell Jordan and Van Halen! Then we chowed down on dinner and cake.
• We heard some musical toasts and then toasts from my dad, the best man, and the maid of honor. Then Mr. Whale and I put on a special performance of our own.
• We swayed to our Get Up Kids first dance. Then we opened up the dance floor.
• Our guests loved the photobooth and the mad libs.
• Mr. Whale and some of the guys had an impromptu singalong to “Piano Man”.
• I share all the details, including a lot of DIY.

 

I Whale Always Love You: The Details!

Because I’m on the ‘Bee all the time, I’ve gotten used to seeing some pretty amazing things at weddings.  Some of you all are pretty fabulous DIYonistas. (I don’t think that word is going to catch on…)  It’s easy to forget that not everyone is browsing the wedding section of Pinterest on a daily basis.  So it really surprised me when so many of our guests complimented our decorations.  (It’s not like we did anything life-changing.  But apparently, they liked it.)  It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. (Actually that could have been my love for Mr. Whale.  Or the champagne.  Who knows.)

When guests walked up to our venue, they were greeted with several hand-painted signs.

The signs led them down to the ceremony site.

I actually painted the “Happiness Here” sign for my mom to put in her flower garden.  Then she brought it to the wedding.  So we put it up!  I like the idea that it will live in their garden after the wedding, so I get to see it when I visit 🙂

The “Best Day Ever” sign didn’t turn out quite as good as I thought it would… But it didn’t make the day any less awesome 🙂

My favorite sign! This one will live at our house, if we ever get a house…

The sign fun continued at the reception.  As guests approached the barn to enter the reception, they saw this.

And I guess they all got to walk through the bubbles! I have no idea, because I wasn’t there for cocktail hour.  But I hope they walked through bubbles… because that’s awesome.

Once inside the barn, the guests picked up an escort card to find their table.

(I’ll tell you a little secret. That display of escort cards was way harder to put together than I anticipated.  Just fair warning in case you want to do something similar.)

I think my centerpiece vision came together beautifully!

And Mama Whale deserves a big shout out, because she helped me glitter the table numbers while my wrist was broken.

On their way to a table, some guests might want to drop off a card or a gift.

Or maybe they felt like doing some mad libs!!

Of course, the sweetheart table had a few extra decorations.

It’s no secret to anyone who knows me that I have a teensy weensy obsession with Hello Kitty.  And for the record, I was going to have them on the cake table, but it was decided (by whom? I’m not sure… whoever finished up decorating the day of) that they looked better on our table.  Mr. Whale was (and always has been) a good sport about it.  (Just so you know, I’m writing all this while wrapped up in my Hello Kitty snuggie.)

And let’s not forget the Mr. and Mrs. signs I made for the chairs!

For the record, the letters were SUPER EASY to make.  And it was practically free.  I think the “Just Married” banner and the chair signs cost less than $10 altogether.  (And I used the glitter in lots of other stuff, so it was a total win.)

Throughout the reception, our guests had the option of hanging out in the photobooth!!  And we had a TON of props!

And that’s just the first table.  We had so much stuff we had to pull in a second table!  (Good thing we had so many, since guests didn’t want to take them off!)

And last but not least, we had a few sweet treats for our guests.  Of course, we had to have cake.

OMG the cake was so delicious.  We have two friends who recently opened an upscale restaurant, and they raved about them.  If your chef friend likes the food, I think it’s safe to declare success.

And finally, the item that I had to have at my wedding: the infamous candy buffet.

Somehow there are no pictures of the buffet before people actually started eating from it. (Notice the half-full jar of Reese’s with no lid and the stray Skittle on the table?)  But at least I know it was well-loved.

The craziest part of the candy buffet is that I somehow never saw it.  I mean, at one point, I remembered that it existed and I looked at it from the other side of the room.  I remember that someone was filling up a bag of candy.  But I cannot believe that I literally never visited the candy buffet during the evening.  What was I thinking??

Such is the life of a bride.  Spend eternity obsessing over something.  Never look at it on your wedding day.

Right now you’re asking yourself, “Why are those hearts so far above the candy buffet?”  Le sigh.  I had big plans for my polka dot glitter hearts.  They were going to hang around the candy buffet table.  But for some reason, that particular table cloth wasn’t ready the day before the wedding.  So the table cloth wasn’t going to get there until a few hours before the wedding.  And I wasn’t going to ask someone else to spend all that time putting the hearts up.  There was already a piece of twine hanging on the wall.  So… I just put the hearts on the twine and called it a day.  Could it have looked better? Yep.  Do I care?  Nope.

And there you have it.  All the fabulous details of our wedding!

*All photos by the stupendously talented Brenda Upton Photography

If you missed any part of this whale of a tale, get caught up here. Previously…

• My underwear was nabbed by the underwear bandit.
• We did last minute errands in Atlanta, then drove to Blairsville, where I had an emotional moment in the courthouse getting our marriage license.
• I got emotional at our rehearsal. Then it was off to bed, where my Ambien caused some unexpected weirdness.
• I awoke on my wedding day, and headed off to get ready with my bridesmaids (and give them some gifts!)
• My braided hairstyle was everything I ever dreamed of.
• After putting on my veil, it was time to head over to where I was getting married!!
• The bridesmaids got dressed, and then I got dressed!!
• I showed off my accessories, which featured turquoise tights, a fab hair flower, and a bright pink crinoline!
• The bridesmaids and I took some super fun photos, and then I took some solo shots. And then the guys got in on the photo fun.
• I squealed with excitement over our wedding video sneak peek.
• The girls feasted on snacks while the guys panicked.
• We processed in, and Mike began our ceremony. We said our vows (which were written on our manatee cards), exchanged rings, and Mr. Whale sang a special song.
• I hugged some people, even though I felt awkward. Then we moved on to family photos.
• The wedding party posed, jumped, and ran! Mr. Whale and I took some pictures together.
• We kicked the reception off with some Montell Jordan and Van Halen! Then we chowed down on dinner and cake.
• We heard some musical toasts and then toasts from my dad, the best man, and the maid of honor. Then Mr. Whale and I put on a special performance of our own.
• We swayed to our Get Up Kids first dance. Then we opened up the dance floor.
• Our guests loved the photobooth and the mad libs.
• Mr. Whale and some of the guys had an impromptu singalong to “Piano Man”.

I Whale Always Love You: Piano Man

At approximately 10:30pm, two things happened.  First, the band took a break.  And second, my bustle broke.

Honestly, I was expecting the bustle to break.  The alterations seamstress told me that no matter what she did, there was a good chance it would break.  (At least she warned me, right?)  So mom and I ran off to the bathroom to MacGyver a new bustle.  While we were in there, the “band break playlist” that Mr. Whale and I had made started to play.  And one of the first songs was “Piano Man”.

Now, one thing you need to know about Mr. Whale is that he loves karaoke.  And he loves to sing “Piano Man” at karaoke.  So when I heard someone steal a mic from the band and start singing along with “Piano Man”, I just knew it was Mr. Whale.  And of course I wanted to hear him sing.  So there I am nervously jumping up and down in the restroom asking, “Is it fixed yet? Is it fixed yet?” while Mama Whale tries to fix the bustle.

Finally, we fix the bustle, and I run back into the room.  And I find… my MOH’s boyfriend on stage!  She had told me he could sing, but Dang! I mistook him for my own husband!!

MOH’s bf on the left. My brother on the right.

It wasn’t long before my brother took the stage along with MOH’s bf.  And from there, things got pretty intense, pretty fast.

I’d like to point out that he was singing into the photobooth prop mic, even though a real mic was there 🙂

Once Mr. Whale figured out what was going on, he had to get in on the action.

My brother, who had briefly abandoned the stage, saw that things were getting pretty epic, so he ran (literally ran) and leapt (literally leapt) onto the stage in time for one of the last choruses.

Note the tie still in motion from the leap.

They rocked out pretty hard for the last few minutes of the song.  I think it’s pretty clear that they were enjoying themselves.

It was certainly one of the best moments of the night.

Did you have any good sing-a-longs at your wedding?

*All “photos” are stills from our wedding video.  Thanks to Edwin Hammond of Hammond Studios for the fabulous footage.

If you missed any part of this whale of a tale, get caught up here. Previously…

• My underwear was nabbed by the underwear bandit.
• We did last minute errands in Atlanta, then drove to Blairsville, where I had an emotional moment in the courthouse getting our marriage license.
• I got emotional at our rehearsal. Then it was off to bed, where my Ambien caused some unexpected weirdness.
• I awoke on my wedding day, and headed off to get ready with my bridesmaids (and give them some gifts!)
• My braided hairstyle was everything I ever dreamed of.
• After putting on my veil, it was time to head over to where I was getting married!!
• The bridesmaids got dressed, and then I got dressed!!
• I showed off my accessories, which featured turquoise tights, a fab hair flower, and a bright pink crinoline!
• The bridesmaids and I took some super fun photos, and then I took some solo shots. And then the guys got in on the photo fun.
• I squealed with excitement over our wedding video sneak peek.
• The girls feasted on snacks while the guys panicked.
• We processed in, and Mike began our ceremony. We said our vows (which were written on our manatee cards), exchanged rings, and Mr. Whale sang a special song.
• I hugged some people, even though I felt awkward. Then we moved on to family photos.
• The wedding party posed, jumped, and ran! Mr. Whale and I took some pictures together.
• We kicked the reception off with some Montell Jordan and Van Halen! Then we chowed down on dinner and cake.
• We heard some musical toasts and then toasts from my dad, the best man, and the maid of honor. Then Mr. Whale and I put on a special performance of our own.
• We swayed to our Get Up Kids first dance. Then we opened up the dance floor.
• Our guests loved the photobooth and the mad libs.

 

I Whale Always Love You: Mad Libs Do’s and Don’ts

As soon as I saw some wedding mad libs, I knew I had to have them.  And so, we had them!  We had one at each seat along with a pen.  (Actually, we somehow lost some of them before the wedding, so we didn’t have one at each seat… that’s still one of those mysterious things that we can’t explain.)  We had them printed on bright blue, and it made each table look really good.

Photo by Brenda Upton Photography

Now that I’ve done it, I’m super glad we did this project.  Even Mr. Whale agrees that it was an awesome idea. (He wasn’t on board in the beginning, but I told him he had to trust me.)  But I do have a few suggestions for future couples.

DO:

• Make them yourself.  It’s so easy to do in Microsoft Word.  Just use lots of textboxes and move them around.  It took me about an hour to make mine.
• Make sure you have extras.
• Print on paper that’s a little heavier than regular paper.
• Make different versions.  I wish we had made at least three different stories.  It’s getting a little old to read the same thing over and over again.
• Have someone test it out.  I’m so glad I posted mine on the ‘Bee, because I had made a few mistakes.

DON’T:

• Print them on paper that’s too dark… Ours are just a little hard to read.
• Read them all at once.  They’re funnier spaced out over time 🙂

Now that you know what to do, I know you want to see some of our favorites from the wedding.

 

One of the groomsmen’s mom made this one.  But she was too embarrassed by how inappropriate it ended up sounding to put her name on it.  So she signed it Carl Sagan. Ha.

Our officiant, Mike, was so proud of his.  He was so proud that he actually memorized it and kept quoting it the next day.

 

Some of our guests chose not to follow the traditional Mad Libs directions and instead filled in their own actual advice.  I enjoyed these as well.

 

 

Of course Mr. Whale should always “bow to my prowess”.

One of the best parts of the mad libs was where we were wished many _____ _____ for years to come.  Here, we are wished many bad-ass socks, which I totally hope comes true.

 

Some advice was mind-bending.  Don’t forget to explode before you implode?

Apparently, our guests really like cats, because they made quite a few appearances in the mad libs.

And we were quite proud of all of the creative exclamations our guests came up with.

And my personal favorite.

Lolz.

*All photos by me (obviously) unless otherwise indicated.

If you missed any part of this whale of a tale, get caught up here. Previously…

• My underwear was nabbed by the underwear bandit.
• We did last minute errands in Atlanta, then drove to Blairsville, where I had an emotional moment in the courthouse getting our marriage license.
• I got emotional at our rehearsal. Then it was off to bed, where my Ambien caused some unexpected weirdness.
• I awoke on my wedding day, and headed off to get ready with my bridesmaids (and give them some gifts!)
• My braided hairstyle was everything I ever dreamed of.
• After putting on my veil, it was time to head over to where I was getting married!!
• The bridesmaids got dressed, and then I got dressed!!
• I showed off my accessories, which featured turquoise tights, a fab hair flower, and a bright pink crinoline!
• The bridesmaids and I took some super fun photos, and then I took some solo shots. And then the guys got in on the photo fun.
• I squealed with excitement over our wedding video sneak peek.
• The girls feasted on snacks while the guys panicked.
• We processed in, and Mike began our ceremony. We said our vows (which were written on our manatee cards), exchanged rings, and Mr. Whale sang a special song.
• I hugged some people, even though I felt awkward. Then we moved on to family photos.
• The wedding party posed, jumped, and ran! Mr. Whale and I took some pictures together.
• We kicked the reception off with some Montell Jordan and Van Halen! Then we chowed down on dinner and cake.
• We heard some musical toasts and then toasts from my dad, the best man, and the maid of honor. Then Mr. Whale and I put on a special performance of our own.
• We swayed to our Get Up Kids first dance. Then we opened up the dance floor.
• Our guests loved the photobooth.