ranonculousity: 08/01/2012

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:

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Deerly Beloved: Hora time! (and speeches)

A word to the wise- if you are planning on doing the hora at a wedding where a large chunk of guests have never been to a Jewish celebration, it might be smart to mention what exactly the hora is and how they can join in. I, in fact, failed to do this and a large portion of our guests stood around us in a circle with extremely confused looks on their faces- live and learn!

Since I did not think ahead, it was up to my family and I to get the dance going (btw, even though Mr Elk has been to numerous Jewish celebrations, he still had no clue what to do...):

All photos by Ruby Star Photography

Before long, chairs appeared and Mr Elk and I were being forced into the air. Mr Elk's face is PRICELESS:

Apparently, the idea of letting go even just to grab my hand scared the poop out of Mr Elk

After a few minutes of being lifted in chairs, the strong (and awesome) guests holding us up (thanks guys!!) seemed to be faltering a little, and Mr Elk was NOT enjoying the feeling of almost falling. And so ended the hora!

The hora is one tiring dance (especially for the men who decide to do the lifting!), so a little R&R was just what the doctor ordered. Everyone made their way back to their tables to finish the first course. During this time, I noticed that MOH L was sneakily setting up a laptop, which was connected to a projector, which in turn was pointed at a large screen in the corner of the venue. I started to get really nervous- was there some terrible slideshow in store during dinner that nobody had thought to mention to me?

But then, DJ Corey announced that it was time for speeches and MOH L stepped forward. She announced that during my planning process, I had made A LOT of powerpoint presentations(which is totally true, btw), and she figured she would commemorate the elk wedding by making her own powerpoint!

Let me tell you, hive, it was pretty hilarious! Most of the actual powerpoint slides were made up of silly photos of Mr Elk and I which were used to illustrate the point MOH L was making (so for example when she talked about how I taught her how to dance when we were younger, there was a terribly embarrassing shot of me dancing at my bachelorette party!). Anyhoo, it really has awesome!

Next up was best man L (aka Mr Elk's older brother). Best man L started his speech by stating he always intended to NOT do what Mr Elk did at his wedding- which was not write a speech and just kind of wing it. But of course, being Mr Elk's brother, best man L did JUST that. Despite not writing anything formally down prior to the wedding, best man L spoke from the heart and said some really touching things about family!

Here are Mr Elk and I listening intently:

Last but not least was Papa Elk, who commanded the attention of the room with a heartwarming speech.

After we had laughed a little, and even maybe cried a little, it was time for dinner (or, for Mr Elk and I, time to do everything EXCEPT eat!).

Miss a moment? Catch up here:

1. The Elks part ways with their pooch, and eat WAY too much rainbow cookie cake
2. Mrs Elk beautifies with her ladies after a less than stellar wake up call
3. Mrs Elk REALLY wants to put her dress on already!
4. The Elks- Reunited and it feel so good!
5. The Elk bridal party poses, while Mrs Elk makes Tyra Banks proud
6. The Elks strike a pose with their families
7. Disaster strikes!
8. The Elks realize the importance of a good rehearsal
9. The Elks follow the ~~yellow brick road~~ grey slate aisle
10. The Elks get eaten alive, oh and the ceremony begins!
11. The Elks say I do (after a quick fit of giggles)
12. So many details!
13. The Elks sway like grade-schoolers

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Deerly Beloved: Introducing The New Mr and Mrs Elk!

I'm going to skip talking about our cocktail hour, because honestly, the photos are pretty unexciting. We made our rounds, talked to almost all of our guests, and didn't even get to take a bite of any food!

After our guests had been herded into the ballroom following cocktail hour (yes, I did use the term herd when talking about my wedding guests...whoops! I know it is totally inappropriate, but still pretty accurate) it was time for Mr Elk and I to make our grand entrance. We decided to skip the bridal party and parent entrances for no particular reason other than I just didn't feel they were necessary.

We stood back, waiting next to the door until we herd (haha I totally mistyped heard but then thought it was funny that I said herd again while talking about my wedding) our DJ say "the new Mr and Mrs Elk!". Our song came on, and we ran in through the tables as if we HADN'T been talking to our guests 5 seconds earlier during cocktail hour. ( PS, our song is Great Balls Of Fire by Jerry Lee Lewis)

All photos by Ruby Star Photography

Oh, and Mr Elk kept stepping on my dress while we were making our way to the dance floor. He later told me it was dumb of him to follow me (which I agree whole-heartedly!)- so all you misses out there, learn from my mistake! Don't let your SO follow you if you are wearing a floor length gown that COULD potentially be stepped on. If you are both wearing full length gowns, I have no words of wisdom other than- I hope your venue has wider aisles for you to walk through side by side!

Ok, back to the recaps. Once we made it to the dance floor (and yes my dress and bustle were all still intact), Mr Elk and I got ready for our first dance. Our chosen song came on, and we swayed like a couple of middle schoolers in love (see...we were supposed to take dance lessons, but I got lazy and never scheduled any-whoops!). Anyway, feel free to listen to our first dance song as you enjoy the photos of us "dancing."

a cute "you can see Mr Elk's adorbs cufflinks" shot:

This is one of my favorite shots from the entire wedding:

So, you may have noticed that our chosen song is over 5 minutes long (which is SUPER long), and by about the 2 minute mark, Mr Elk and I were beginning to feel a little self conscious. Luckily, our DJ had asked if we wanted people to join in days before the wedding! With a quick nod to DJ Corey (who was awesome by the way, more on him later!), an announcement was made and other couples started to appear on the dance floor beside us:

which is why this hilarious photo of me talking to bridesmaid K exists ( I swear this was not a posed photo- we really could not wait to talk about something, and so we leaned over WHILE dancing):

I love the look in Mr Elk's eyes- its like "yupp, thats my wife and I don't mind all that much!"

Before we knew it, our foray into slow dancing was over. Next up- the Hora!

Miss a moment? Catch up here:
1. The Elks part ways with their pooch, and eat WAY too much rainbow cookie cake
2. Mrs Elk beautifies with her ladies after a less than stellar wake up call
3. Mrs Elk REALLY wants to put her dress on already!
4. The Elks- Reunited and it feel so good!
5. The Elk bridal party poses, while Mrs Elk makes Tyra Banks proud
6. The Elks strike a pose with their families
7. Disaster strikes!
8. The Elks realize the importance of a good rehearsal
9. The Elks follow the ~~yellow brick road~~ grey slate aisle
10. The Elks get eaten alive, oh and the ceremony begins!
11. The Elks say I do (after a quick fit of giggles)
12. So many details!

Friday, August 17, 2012

Deerly Beloved: All The Pretty Little Details

Now that you've witnessed our marriage, I think its time for you to see all the details that made our day that much more special.

all photos by Ruby Star Photography

As guests entered the Old Field Club, the first thing to be seen was our escort card table:

Our guests then walked through the cocktail area space and onto the deck on their way to our ceremony space. Here is the deck

And here is the view from the deck of the water:

On the way to the ceremony, guests were encouraged to take a program and a tissue packet:

Once our ceremony was over and cocktail hour had begun, our cornhole boards were open for business:

which resulted in some pretty neat photos:

During cocktail hour, our marriage certificate was available for guests to sign

After the cocktail hour, guests were escorted into the ballroom

Each table had a unique combination of my collected milk glass filled with a mixture of flowers, and each guest's escort card was made from the same paper as their table number. Our guests were encouraged to take floral arrangements home with them at the end of the evening- vases included!

When our guests entered the ballroom, the first course had already been plated for them (which meant nobody had to wait for food!)

how yummy does that look?

The only downside to pre plating the first course was that our menus did not get to lay on top of the charger plates, which is why I had made them round. Despite the change in plan I think they looked pretty nice

Our Mr and Mrs signs worked like a charm in making sure nobody stole our spot before we made our grand entrance:

We originally planned on using the bridesmaids bouquets as fireplace mantle decor, but in the end we had a lot of extra milk glass and we didn't need them up there! Instead, we used them to decorate our gift table (of course they were for my bridesmaids taking at the end of the evening, vases included):

Our cake was sort of ridiculous- pink frosting EVERYWHERE!!

and just in case you NEED to see it from the top:

And as the evening was coming to and end, our chocolate paw print favors replaced our escort card display in the entryway- a final detail to end the night! The sign sticking out of the basket says "Thank you! Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite!"