The never-ending recap...is ending

I'm thinking maybe the reason the recap is taking me so long (our reception was in October, after all) is that I don't want it to be over. I want to feel like I still have real and relevant things to say and things to show. But the truth is, I'll fade back into the spectator group soon. I'm still very much into weddings, as my google reader reflects (and taunts), and seeing as my main income is wedding photography, I doubt it will completely fade anytime soon. I am so glad to be apart from the stress that was the months leading up to my wedding, and I am so glad to be married, to call Garrett my husband, to have the same last name, to be "The Cummings Household" (I used to answer my parent's landline "Merrill Residence" as a child, and it was good fun).

I'm like a mother that doesn't feel useful anymore, or The Giving Tree. Ask me your questions! I yearn to teach! All good things come to an end. I do have one more post to share about our wedding after this, so sit tight, but here is our sendoff from our reception.

We danced until well after our time was up (the reception began at 7 and was to end at 11) and not everyone stuck around, but those that did were handed sparklers for our departure.

From my own personal preferences, I think for a night send off sparklers are great (or anything else that produces light) and bubbles can be as well for pictures (the flash reflecting off the bubbles can be great if there are a lot of bubbles). Just to throw my two cents in, for daytime I love confetti (big round or rectangular multicolored bits) or flower petals (from different wildflowers or various colored and sized petals).

Our send off was a bit silly, as we didn't have anyone to pull the car to the front and so we failed at an attempt to walk to the parking deck (it was locked so we walked back inside), but I don't think anyone noticed and the party didn't really end. Afterwards I changed into the short white dress I wore to our second attempt at getting married in San Francisco (do you not recall that story?) and we went to a bar with a lot of Garrett's high school friends.

It was such a fun night and everything was great. The music, our friends, our families, dancing. I don't think everyone needs a big wedding, but you do need a party! It is such a moment to celebrate! So, do! Whether it be before or after, you need time with the people you love to celebrate, eat good food, relax, and dance!

all of the images in this post are by Kristen Stewart Photography, editing by me.

Our Wedding: Photobooth

Ahh yes, the photobooth. I had been looking at photobooths since before we got engaged and it was one of my big must haves early on. I was willing to splurge to rent one, even. Enter mad amounts of stress that made me want to abandoned all of it, except for the part where Garrett and I would be married.

Just for FYI's sake, my photographers (who are also friends of mine) set up the booth for me and hired someone to press the button. We discussed remotes but I just know someone would've accidentally dropped it into their pocket. Plus, drunk people going to check and see how the pictures are turning out = disaster. We limited the hours on the photo booth so our poor photo servant could go home at some point. We were hoping for a legitimate backdrop holder but it didn't arrive before our date. I don't think anyone really noticed/cared. And now I have the yellow fabric for future projects, which is pretty special.

I don't have much to say about it, except lessons learned for future brides. Create a sign to direct guests to your photobooth, let your DJ know in advance to announce it, several times. If you are doing it yourself, make sure to order too much fabric, it's better than not enough. And if possible, have a handout to let guests know where they can see the images later. I say all of these things because I didn't do them. And while I really love the images we did get, most guests didn't know about the photo booth since it was in a separate room at our venue. Signs are great. Make signs.

Wedding Recap: Reception Part II

 You wouldn't believe how hard it is to post recaps. I loved my wedding and now I want to move on to life things! And, other peoples' weddings. It's really fun to party vicariously through someone else's vision.  I'm always suggesting blogs to my clients! If it wouldn't require more time than I was physically capable of, I'd love to be a photographer and a wedding planner. And a curiosity shop owner.

 All that aside, I'm looking forward to these final few recap posts, and hopefully by the end of 2010 putting together a wedding album for us. It's a way more challenging process as the bride, and I'll be so glad when I have an actual book to flip through!

 But for now, let the party continue!

Garrett's little cousin Warren is one of my faves. I asked him recently when he was going to go to big school and he replied "when I get big." So cute and so sassy.

We've known each other since first grade. Our blonde hair and blue eyes brought us together even when our height difference threatened to tear us apart. Just kidding, but I'm 5'2" and Stacy's 5'11", so we're height opposites for sure.

Pretty sure this was "to the window to the wall" (Get low). Classic wedding song. I love it.

And this one was either "Shout" which Garrett requested to be played the whole night or 500 miles, which everyone apparently loves to dance to.

Photos by Kristen Stewart Photography and Je Vois Photography, editing by Spindle Photography.

Our Wedding: Reception Part I

Our first dance was to "Alabama Waltz" by Hank Williams. Garrett picked it and it was perfect in a lot of ways. It's Hank Williams (Garrett's a big fan and my uncle was impressed), it mentions Alabama, it was fairly short, and it's pretty. Plus it'll be very memorable for us and is fairly unique. Not sickeningly sweet or cliche.

"Okay, DJ, it's cake cutting time."

Oh, don't worry, Garrett did smush cake in my face. He was just smart enough to do it with the piece German chocolate groom's cake that was sans icing and thus did not mess up my face or my dress. Because otherwise, there would've been a beat down.

Garrett's grandpa gave us Waterford Crystal toasting glasses for the occasion (and we've been too scared to use them for anything else thus far, they are so nice!) and we thoroughly enjoyed them.

The face in the middle is to my mom and aunt, telling us we were supposed to lock arms, to which we replied that we'd already tried that at our private dinner. But we did it again anyway. And while not graceful, we were successful.

I love this picture so much. Can't this be our Christmas card? Champagne is glorious.

You know the deal:

Photography by Kristen Stewart and Hillary Stegall , editing by Kelly Cummings .

Our Wedding: Dinner

I know my wedding feels uber-neglected, I apologize. I've been so excited about new things & planning for them that the wedding feels like old news. It was the best day ever, but now I get to be married instead of planning for it! This is a far better stage for me. Plus, now I can focus attention to friends that are getting married (3 in 2010 so far!)



My mom, Linden (one of my bridesmaids), and I prepped all of the centerpieces on the day before the wedding. I'd originally planned on all ranunculus, but truth be told it would've taken at least 600 stems and I ordered 300, so the rest were button mums. I had some white teapots that I used the ranunculus in, and filled all the blue with the mums. They weren't particularly hard to make and not all that time consuming either. We used that green foam stuff to stick the stems in (we cut it into pieces small enough to fit in the teapots and used a pen to create holes so we wouldn't damage the stems by cramming them in). We used Davis Wholesale Florist in Birmingham for the mums and the prep space (they were super helpful and offer delivery for cheap! I highly recommend them for DIY brides) and fiftyflowers.com for the ranunculus (I was also impressed with their customer service).



I loooove food. We had mini blts, strawberry field salad, shrimp & grits, bacon wrapped scallops (though, they gave us huge scallops at the tasting and miniature ones at the wedding. we had words), fruit, roast beef tenderloin with horseradish, and pork loin with rolls. Garrett and I ate privately before so we didn't even see the food set-up. I'm really glad we have pictures. Plus, we never got our to-go plates. Note to brides, assign someone to bring your car around (we walked to our car in a very anticlimactic shuffle) and assign someone to take your food to said car.





You've heard about the cakes by now. I may stick to making pies for the next few years to avoid reminding myself of the stress that was the cakes.





The private dinner was nice, even though we didn't have the typical wedding day. The sign in the background flashed "Congratulations Kelly & Garrett!" some of the time which was fun. If you get the chance to eat separately it's well worth it!



Photography by Kristen Stewart Photography and Je Vois Photography, edited by Spindle Photography. Head over to Spindle Photography for bigger pictures!

The Blessing!

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.

I think we had about 20-25 guests at the blessing. My bridesmaids and some of Garrett's close guy friends were there (sans one of my best friends who couldn't get out of a vet school surgery, and she was sorely missed) and otherwise we kept it limited to family no further than aunts and uncles (and their children). I don't think anyone was offended (if so they didn't make it known to us), and I think it meant more to us and to the people there that everywhere we looked were people that really loved us. I was so happy to look at all the faces when we walked in.

Hillary snapped this one right before the wedding coordinator tracked her down to forbid her from taking pictures. I never knew of any no picture rule (that would've put a huge damper on this choice of location), and I'm hoping for other couples' sakes that it was because we were praying or something? Since I'm a photographer, I find this aspect of ceremonies really frustrating. Crying babies are a much bigger distraction in church than a few shutter clicks and no one kicks them out! Nor do babies capture the most precious moments of your joining your life with someone else. I digress.

In addition to the readings, the priest told a story about a man who bought his wife red carnations every Saturday for years and years. She would put them on display in a vase and be so glad to receive them. He said that one day the wife came for confession and admitted that she hated red carnations, that they reminded her of funerals and didn't go with anything in her house. But the joy that she felt every time he gave that gift was real. I'm pretty sure I teared up.

We did have a kiss, but we'd been prepped by the priest that the kiss should not be the "first kiss of the honeymoon" with hollering and the like, but instead the passing of the peace. He told us that you can repeat the kiss every time you do the passing of the peace at church and it will remind you of the day you married and the vows you made, which is a really nice thought. So, had the wedding coordinator let the photographers actually take pictures, they would've had a hard time catching our super quick sweet marriage kiss.

The blessing was absolutely beautiful and lovely and wonderful, and my previous stress at being rushed had melted away. We both agreed that we really felt married afterwards, because this was how it should've been for us. I wouldn't take back getting married early, it alleviated a lot of our problems and worries, but I would've been okay with having the blessing immediately when we'd gotten back. There had been something missing, you know?

(You'd melt too if he was looking at you this way.)

I'll have another post with the readings and music from the blessing for those interested.

All images by Kristen Stewart Photography and Je Vois Photography, edited by me.