ranonculousity

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Goodnight sweetheart, well its time to go....

Hive, its been real. I cannot believe Mr Elk and I have been married for almost 4 months- time sure flies, especially when you move 2 states and start new jobs! Our wedding was an amazing beginning to this new chapter of our lives. Moreover, I cannot believe it has been almost a year since I began blogging for the bee. I have loved every moment of sharing my wedding journey with you. Thank you for your inspiration, your constructive criticism and your support. Thank you for helping to ground me when I let myself get carried away (on occasion). I can't tell you how much it has meant for me to be a part of this community of amazing people, sharing not just ideas about a wedding, but about marriage, beauty, and life in general. THANK YOU, and goodbye for now (but never for forever).

Guest Photo

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Deerly Beloved: Remembering Our Wedding

I spent quite a long time planning our wedding, and while I had the most amazing time, it was only one day of an entire life. Of course, it was an extremely special day, and its a day I don't want to forget anytime soon. I will always have the memories, but just in case I ever need anything a little more concrete to remind me of the promise Mr Elk and I made, I've scattered a few reminders around our home.

1 Pictures
I truly love the amazing job our photographers, Amy and Anthony of Ruby Star Photography, did at our wedding. While I haven't decided what photo(s) I want hanging in our home quite yet (if you have a favorite that you think is hang worthy, please let me know! I truly can't decide!), I did quickly put together an album on MyPublisher.com to have. Our photography contract gave us full use of our photos, and we did plan originally on ordering an album through them. But I am a total control freak, and I am quite particular about photo album layouts (I really like clean, simple designs). Plus, we didn't have the dough to shell out 500+ dollars for the album I really wanted through our photog- a flush mount album. So for now, I decided to make a nice album through MyPublisher- which allows you to fully design the layout, has lay flat fairly thick paper, and allows for panorama shots.

Here is one of the panorama shots, and I put the remote in there just so you can see the book is pretty big!

2. Marriage Poster
My brother and his girlfriend were so nice in not only creating our marriage poster, but they also had it framed for us as a wedding gift! I love how it turned out, and it is currently sitting above our fireplace!

3. Broken Glass
Mr Elk took his sweet, sweet, time making sure he REALLY broke the glass during our ceremony:

We saved the glass shards (we used a special colored glass from a Judaica store), and I bought a small container from Michael's so that we could keep the shards and always remember the last time Mr Elk put his foot down (hehe...at least thats my take on it!)

4. Milk Glass
Hive, I spent MONTHS scouring thrift shops searching for the perfect milk glass to adorn our tables during our reception. I really loved the look we accomplished- it ended up feeling so homey and special!

I really wanted our guests to take home arrangements, milk glass and all if they so desired. But in the end, there was plenty left, and so I have a few special pieces scattered around the house just as small reminders of the beauty of our day. This currently sits on my bedside table:

5. Rings
Of course, I can't forget the fact that I get to wear some gorgeous bling every day, and Mr Elk seems to like his simple ring as well! Everytime I catch a glimpse of Mr Elk's ring on his finger, I get a tiny feeling of first confusion (it is still really weird!), and then happiness.

6. Mr Elk
While I didn't scatter pieces of Mr Elk around the house (serial killer, much?), being able to call him my husband is a strange thing that reminds me on a daily basis how much our relationship has changed, and just how special it is. While we were living together prior to the wedding, and a lot of things feel the same, it is also very clear that things are different. We were united in front of our families. I have taken his last name. We have joint bank accounts. Things just feel more solid, real, and unchanging for the future.

What have you done to remember your special day and the promises you made?

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Deerly Beloved: My Secret To A Successful Evening

AKA how I kept my feet from ruining my wedding.

Hive, I know I let you know my plan for my wedding shoes a long time ago, but I figured I'd give you a recap and a play by play on how things went the day of just as an FYI!

So, you've already seen a picture of my official wedding shoes, but just to remind you here they are (Badgley Mischka Randee).

I had been obsessed with these shoes for at least 2 years leading up to the wedding, so I knew from the getgo they were my wedding shoes! Problem is I NEVER wear heels. I knew my feet wouldn't make it through photos, the ceremony, walking around during cocktail hour, and dancing at our reception in 4.5 inch heels! At the same time, I didn't want to change into flats and all of a sudden lose those extra inches/have my dress be way too long on me! My solution was platform flip-flops, which you can see me wearing here:

Hive, I do not exaggerate even the slightest when I say these were the best investment I made for the wedding. I decided to wear my beloved Randee's for key moments of the wedding/moments I thought they would potentially be most visible. That boiled down to 1) getting dressed 2) the first look 3) the ceremony 4) the first dance/hora (I was worried sitting on a chair my dress would be raised and my shoes would be visible). For the remainder of the wedding (including family photos, bridal portraits on the beach, cocktail hour, and the rest of the reception) I wore those heinous platform flip flops.

And despite the fact that I don't love how they look, they were seriously a godsend! Most formal events I attend, my feet start killing me barely an hour into dancing. The night of the wedding, though, I was as comfy as a peach! And that, my dearest hive, is truly all I ever wanted! I got my beautiful Randee cake, and got to eat it too!

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Deerly Beloved: I'll Carry You Home Tonight

Hive, our wedding was fast coming to an end, despite the fact that everyone still seemed to be out on the dance floor having a good time! Before I knew it, though, our fateful last song was being played. I hadn't really thought about what song we should end our evening with, but at dinner time DJ Corey came over to ask, and I gave him the first song that came to mind, which happens to be the same song we ended my bachelorette party with.

And this is the exact moment that Mr Elk realized just what song I had requested as our grand finale:

All photos by Ruby Star Photography

If you haven't already guessed, it was We Are Young, by Fun. And if you can't tell, Mr Elk isn't really a huge fan of the song thanks in large part to me playing it on repeat in the months leading up to the wedding. Whoops!

Anyhoo, I took the opportunity to serenade my new hubby (and apparently I decided to look pretty curvaceous! In real life I in fact have no butt, so I'm a little enthralled with my bubble in this photo!):

I'm sure Mr Elk LOVED my singing- I mean, I am classically trained (and by classically trained I mean I sing off key in the shower a lot!). During my singing, a circle had formed around us (probably our guests' attempts at standing as far away from my terrible singing as possible without offending me).

We decided to join the circle at some point, and got a little chorus line action going:

And then, as the song sang for the last time "I'll carry you home", I hopped up and down until Mr Elk realized what I wanted- obviously I wanted him to carry me home- but picking me up would do!

And that, hive, is the last photo taken at our wedding! I love how excited best man L looks.

Hive, I know most people think their wedding was awesome, but our wedding really was awesome! Mr Elk and I had such a great time! We are so lucky to have such amazing friends and family who all wanted to be a part of our day and who made it special. I can't believe its over, but thank you for letting me relive it, and thank you for wanting to be a part of it all!

And don't worry, I may have shared all the festivities of our day with you, but I have a few more things to share before I officially say goodbye.

Miss a moment? Catch up here:

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Deerly Beloved: Cake Time

Our cake had been staring me in the face all night, and after missing out on all of the food during cocktail hour (too busy talking), as well as all 3 courses of dinner (again, too busy talking!), I was READY for cake! I was so ready, in fact, that I went searching for our Maitre'D to get to cutting before it was actually time!

All photos by Ruby Star Photography

And hive, the cake was pretty delicious! After we cut the cake and fed each other a piece, I kept eating that piece while I was standing there! It was that good (and I was that hungry!).

While there are a lot of adorable pictures from our cake cutting, those three are the only ones I actually like. Why you may ask? Well... a certain thing called "Mrs Elk's Fake Hair" decided to make an unwanted appearance near the end of the evening. Therefore, almost every picture of me taken from my left side (aka every pic from the cake cutting) is plagued with a very obvious band of velcro which announces "hey, this hair..totally fake!" And now that I've seen it, I can't unsee it!

Do you see it? How bout in this adorable "frosting on the nose" shot?

or how bout in this ever flattering "Mrs Elk PIGS OUT while her arms flail like a T-Rex" shot

Obviously the velcro hair piece is not the end of the world, but it is enough to make me wary of using these otherwise adorable photos for anything (other than obviously share them with the hive- I wouldn't hold back from you guys!)

Miss a moment? Catch up here:

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Deerly Beloved: Sneaking Out For A Quick Pic (or 2)

When we met our photographers, they let us know that during the reception they really like to focus on photojournalism, and hate getting in the way. That being said, they know how important lighting is, and when the lighting is right you have to take advantage! They explained that they might, therefore, sneak us away if there was a particularly beautiful sunset to get some amazing shots in. As predicted, just around sunset we were stolen away from cocktail hour to snap a few quick shots.

All photos by Ruby Star Photography

After this, I pretty much forgot about our photographers, assuming we were completely done with any formal type photos, I sort of just let them snap away in the moment. But then, just as the evening was beginning to wind down, they came running to us- this is how our conversation went:

"we have to go outside and take photos!" - Amy and Anthony

"why?"- Mr and Mrs Elk

"the sky- it is AMAZING right now!"- Amy and Anthony

"umm...it looks pretty typical to us"- Mr and Mrs Elk

"trust us!" - Amy and Anthony

Obviously, we followed them outside and let them snap away. As we were finishing, Anthony pulled up a shot on the screen of his camera and said "see! This isn't even edited!!" This is what we saw:

Boy am I glad we trusted them, because this is by far my favorite photo of the evening:

The moral of the story is sometimes you have to trust the professionals (even when you think you know it all!)

Miss a moment? Catch up here:

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Deerly Beloved: Lets Partay!

After all the pomp and circumstance of the evening was over, and our guests had full bellies and even fuller glasses, it was time to get the party started! And boy, my guests- they know how to dance! Don't believe me? Well I have some crazy awesome photographic evidence:

all photos by Ruby Star Photography

Things started pretty tame:

But before I knew it, there were some crazy things happening around me:

even Grandma Elk got in on the action!

And then there was Sweet Caroline, which resulted in an awesome chaos:

A lot of couples also decided to hit the dancefloor:

And they were showing some SWEET moves- Here is MOH L's husband shaking his rump:

I even got an awesome (mildly staged) dip photo! You can't stage that face though, I was truly terrified!

After getting sweaty on the dance floor, Mr Elk and I decided to retreat for some fresh air, and a quick game of cornhole:

Miss a moment? Catch up here:

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Deerly Beloved: Dancing with my Daddy

Yes, I did indeed just say "daddy", and I'm not even slightly embarrassed. That is because I am truly a daddy's girl, and so I was very excited when it was time for us to share a dance.

All photos by Ruby Star Photography

We chose to dance to Bill Joel's Lullaby for a couple of reasons. You see, growing up on Long Island, Billy Joel was sort of a big deal. My dad bought a few Billy Joel cassettes when I was about 7 years old, and they quickly became our favorite driving tunes. My dad, brother, and I would sing at the top of our lungs, all while my mom, who initially liked Billy Joel, was getting sick of his songs rather quickly. It got to the point where my mom would refuse to ride in the car with us if we even mentioned the possibility of putting on some of Billy's songs.

And so it sort of became a running joke in our family that we had ruined Billy Joel for my mom. So when Papa Elk and I were discussing a song to dance to, and we both agreed that Billy Joel had meaning, we also sort of wanted to see how Mama Elk would react (aka we wanted to annoy her)! Of course, she reacted just as anticipated- "please god, not Billy Joel AGAIN!" (despite the fact that it has been almost 20 years since we were listening to him nonstop). The perfect reaction to a dance with my daddy!

Miss a moment? Catch up here: