Here’s a Jumping Photo I Can *almost* Get Behind.

We all know how I feel about jumping photos.

But … this one featured on Ruffled today is pretty rad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Via Ruffled via Lizelle Lotter Photography.

Wedinated and Vegoosed: Kate and Trevor.

So this next real wedding post is hilarious but also so filled with young love and the utter anticipation and eagerness of Kate and Trevor to just get it done and be married. Also? It’s very much an example that whether you plan or not, something may go wrong. And you can either roll with the punches or you can choose to have a fit. Kate and Trevor really rolled with the punches and when Kate first explained their wedding to me, it was impossible not to have a full belly laugh about it. And while they don’t have any photos from their Vegas nuptials, (which, BTW, I really wish they did just so I could see her rockin’ outfit!) they have some pretty cool old-school ones of their confirmation back in Jackson.

Name: Kate Cope

Age: 25

Occupation: Office Manager

Wedding location:Las Vegas, followed by a confirmation in Jackson,WY

Wedding Date: June 7th 2004

Length of engagement: Approx 10 months

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tell me about your wedding: Our wedding in Vegas was the most ridiculous thing ever. The “Chapel of Dreams” was anything but.  I was moving down to Arizona to be with Trevor and we knew that we were going to live together and we’d already planned on getting married, so we decided to stop in Vegas and make it official (tho some people might say we eloped).  We had a basic ceremony (no Elvis, but we did have a tiny, heavily accented Asian woman to help things along) in a tiny house that had been converted to a chapel within walking distance of the courthouse.  We wrote our own vows and because we had no rings, we exchanged kisses and little pieces of silver elastic I had saved from a Christmas gift.

Our confirmation was done in November after we were married at my parents house in Jackson.  At this ceremony I had all the fixins, bouquet, cake, friends etc.  It was another traditional ceremony where we again wrote our own vows except this time we exchanged the rings we had purchased after our Vegas wedding.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What was your favorite part of your wedding? Our Vegas wedding was definitely fun filled, looking back my favorite part is how many times the lady called us by the wrong names (Christopher and Danielle), it was at least 3 different times!  Also our wedding attire was pretty fantastic. I wore a 1950’s style “homemaker” dress that was white with blue and yellow flowers, my Chucks and Jack Skellington hair chopsticks, Trevor wore Chucks, black pants, a shiny red shirt and a sweet Jack Skellington tie. At the time, I would have said getting out of that chapel was my favorite part!

My favorite part of our confirmation was my bouquet which had dark orange and maroon calla lilies which are my favorite flower.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What disasters did you avert … or not avert and how did you deal with it? Our Vegas wedding was disastrous on the whole, the “chapel” was a bedroom that had been converted with a cheap trellis and plastic flowers, and our music consisted of a tinny boom box playing the wedding march.  I’m still not sure how a boom box managed to produce that warbling old 8-track feeling, but it did perfectly.  In the video of our wedding you can see our “minister” counting out the beats in her head before she headed back to turn off the boom box.  She then called us by the wrong names and when we corrected her said “well who are you then?”… stellar!

That lovely moment was followed by a prayer that went on and on and was mostly unintelligible, in the video you can clearly see me trying to stifle my laughter and Trevor mouthing several times during the ceremony “I’m so sorry”.  Also in the video, during the prayer the lady had her hand up as if blessing us… she was tiny tho so it looks like she’s trying to grab my boob. After Trevor and I exchanged vows, kisses and rings, which in my mind means we’re married, our “minister” sat us down and gave us a 20 minute Jesus talk that was about 19 minutes longer than our ceremony had been.
Then there was the random man who poked his head in during the ceremony.  After our ordeal we were taken in a back room to pay, there we were called by the wrong names again and we were told it was “customary” to tip the minister.  She didn’t get a tip, we didn’t get any photos… but we did get a VHS copy of our wedding.
That’s right in 2004 we received a VHS copy of our wedding, which we then had to buy a VCR to watch it on.  In many ways I am so glad that Trevor and I were the only witnesses to this event, but the video and story make for great talking points!  I guess I dealt with the whole thing by laughing, the whole thing has become substantially funnier over the years but it was still pretty funny then.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our confirmation was much smoother.  I think we only really had 2 major problems.  The first, one of my dogs took a bite out of my cake. Of course, I was horrified but with some rearrangement of the flowers on the bottom tier, no one had a clue.  I was also a little worried because the cake was chocolate but there seemed to be no ill effects on the dog.  The other major problem was when our videographer caught on fire.  That’s right!  He leaned back into some candles while shooting our vows and his shirt instantly ignited.  My poor friend, who is horribly afraid of fire, was standing right next to him but was too scared to put him out.  Luckily his wife jumped in and beat out the fire before he was burned too badly.  In the end only the shirt and a small patch of skin were injured in the blaze.  That also makes for a lovely video moment!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Was there anything you would have done differently, or do you have any regrets about how something went? If I had it do to over, I would have checked out some different chapels in Vegas.  If you are planning on getting married in Vegas you should know that outside the courthouse there are about 75 different people who are all intent on getting you to their chapel.  Fights will break out, you will be grabbed, yelled at and generally traumatized by these people who want to “put you in a limo right now and take you to the chapel”.  They will descend upon you the minute your shoes touch the sidewalk in front of the courthouse with marriage license in hand.  They will yell obscenities at the other chapel people and generally behave in a frightening manner.  We were NOT prepared for this and so, taken by surprise we went to the closest chapel.  Looking back I think I should have just asked if they had Elvis.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What was your biggest challenge in planning? I didn’t really plan either my wedding or my confirmation… I guess I really lucked out there!

What lessons did you learn from planning or from the wedding itself? I learned that your dream wedding may not happen, but if you’re marrying the one you love it doesn’t matter if you get called by the right name or if someone catches on fire… you’re just happy and in love!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What was your biggest “holyamazeballzI’mfreakininlove!” moment? I fell for Trevor the first time I saw him but I realized I truly loved him on our first date, while talking about books… nerdy, I know!  The first time I knew Trevor truly loved me was after his first disastrous meeting with my mom.  When he picked up the phone the next day and treated me just as sweetly as ever, I knew he really really loved me!

What were your top 5 favorite things about your wedding?
Our wedding outfits (Vegas)
My bouquet (Jackson)
Not getting Christopher and Danielle’s wedding license (we were SURE we would)
Running through Vegas to our car, laughing hysterically about our terrible wedding
Our silver elastic rings, I still have those somewhere

Top 5 least favorite? You know what?  I could bitch about everything, and I think I probably have, but both my ceremonies were beautiful in their own way and I wouldn’t trade them for anything!!

What was the worst piece of wedding advice you received? I didn’t really get any wedding advice, people were just kind of shocked and horrified that I was getting married so young .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The best? My Grandma told my Mom (and then she told me); “if you can stand the thought of washing his dirty underwear for the rest of your life, you’re ready to get married”… on second thought this might belong under worst wedding advice!

If you’ve been married for more than a few years, what have been some challenges? Living with someone is hard, seeing someone every day makes it really easy to lash out at them or take a bad day out on them, apologies, though hard to make are crucial.  I married my best friend, so when we face challenges, from outside (or inside) of our relationship, there is no one I’d rather have by my side!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What from your wedding vows/ceremony still holds the truest? Everything, since we wrote our own vows, we wrote was truly in our hearts.  We genuinely respect, love and honor each other.  Also I’m considering changing my name to Danielle J

Any other bits of wisdom? Go for it! If you truly love someone and want to be with them, don’t let anyone stand in your way.  When I got married at 18 the first question anyone asked was when I was due.  Trevor and I have been married almost 7 years now and while we hope to have kids, we have none so far.  No one else’s opinion matters and you don’t have to validate your marriage to anyone!

Stunner.

I die.

Via Style Me Pretty.

Things To Come.

I’ve been a bad blogger as of late. Have been sort of melting down about some wedding stuff. We had to switch coordinators because our original one at the hotel is going to a wedding on the same day as ours. The transition  hasn’t been easy, per se. So I’ve been bogged down in trying to match up all the correspondence from the last (almost!!!) two years with what they have now. No small task, but we’re getting there.

Work has also been … daunting. Many office vacations make for less days off for yours truly. Which is fine, it’s just a lot. Whatevs.

Anywho, we’ve managed to get *thisclose* to having everything.

Also??? And this is exciting!!! I’ve got a couple more real wedding posts in the pipelines. Two Vegas ones, one of which was a quick just-the-two-of-them affair. AND!!!! I’ve got at least one international post. Possibly another, but still waiting to hear.

One thing I’ve noticed so far is they’ve all been … destination weddings! I in no way planned on this, but hey, it’s relevant! And pretty freaking rad.

So … stay tuned.

xoxo

Wedinated: Ashley and Mike

Ashley has been a friend of mine for a loooooooonnngggg time. Like, a really long time, if you didn’t pick that up. She would come to Jackson from Florida every summer to spend it with her dad and our families would spend nearly every weekend up at Jackson Lake camping. For many summers during my childhood, she would be the only other kid connection I would have for weeks at a time. So, obviously, we were great friends. I’ve kind of known Mike for about as long, but not nearly as well. Mike and Ashley were high school sweethearts and really epitomize it. I was broken-hearted that I couldn’t attend their wedding. Not only was she the first of my friends to tie the knot, but looking at the pics it looked like a blast. Alas at the time, a plane ticket from Boston to J-Hole was not in the cards. Anywho, not only are they a gorgeous couple, but they’re really great for one another. I got to see both of them (together!!!) this past Christmas and it made me so happy. Ashley is a total goof, which is a breath of fresh air sometimes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Name: Ashley and Mike

Age: 28 (29 on June 4th)

Occupation: Affiliate Marketing Manager for FramesDirect.com

Wedding location: Jackson Lake Lodge, Jackson, WY

Wedding Date: 9/3/2006

Length of engagement: We got engaged on July 20th, 2005 and married on Sept 3rd, 2006…so…..over a year, ha ha

Tell me about your wedding: Rev. [Paul] Hayden performed our ceremony. Having a religious figure of some kind was not a requirement for either of us. I wanted some kind of “Christian” something or another and we felt our grandparents needed and would appreciate more religion in our ceremony. Therefore we chose the hip and cool Rev Hayden.

We did not write our own vows. I’m not good at expressing my emotions and, honestly, prefer not too publicly. I did request to have the word “obey” removed and I wanted my name to be said first in the “I now pronounce you Mr. and Mrs. Ashley and Michael DiPrisco” part. Thinking about that now, almost 5 years later, that seems silly. {Ed.’s note: Not silly … and I’m totally doing the same thing.} At the time, however, I think I was having a “I don’t want to lose my identity” moment.

We also chose not to have an aisle to walk down. Being a tad nontraditional (I didn’t wear a veil either and let’s be honest, we were already living together) we had the family and bridal party enter in from the side.
Being from the same town and having too many years of bad history on my side of the family, we avoided any kind of Bride and Groom’s side seating. Instead we had 3 sections with 2 walkways. My bridesmaids also chose to wear stilettos. It wouldn’t have been very nice of me to ask them to walk off of the pavement, through the grass and up the grassy aisle. Although, maybe the lodge would have given us a discount for aerating their lawn with the girls’ heels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What was your favorite part of your wedding? Honestly, I don’t think I can narrow it down to just 1 part, thing or event… as cheesy as it sounds, it was perfect.

The majority of our families were able to be there and everyone was in good health. The weather was absolutely perfect. My parents were extremely generous during the entire process and it turned out to be a wonderful event.

I am glad we decided to have a receiving line. We went back and forth about whether or not to do it, but I’m glad we did. We had a chance to thank everyone for coming and that was important to us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What disasters did you avert … or not avert and how did you deal with it? Weather was good – thank God. We didn’t have a backup plan for rain. Everyone was also on their best behavior. 😉

Was there anything you would have done differently, or do you have any regrets about how something went? No regrets but yes, we would do a few things differently. First, I would have a different dress…or a better bustle. I loved the way my dress looked but it was heavy, hot and my bustle (1 button) broke right after the ceremony. Just bad planning on my part.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What was your biggest challenge in planning? It was very challenging to plan a wedding from afar. We were living in Mississippi and planning a wedding in Wyoming = crazy. I headed to Jackson 6 weeks before the wedding to finalize some details and the wedding turned out better than we could have imagined, but it was challenging.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What lessons did you learn from planning or from the wedding itself? I learned that I LOVE to plan stuff. Ya ya, big surprise. I’m not sure that I learned any lessons but I did learn things I didn’t know before. An example would be that everything is negotiable if you have the time and energy to negotiate.
Sorry I don’t have any deep and inspirational lessons to share. {Ed.’s note: Pffft.}

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What was your biggest “holyamazeballzI’mfreakininlove!” moment? Ha ha, can one have such a moment at the ripe age of 16? To layer on the Velveeta again, I think the moment I first knew we’d date for a while was during our first kiss. Not only was he super-hot but he could kiss too! Ok, so I guess that would be lust.

Other than that specific moment I have several other events that just solidified and grew my feelings for him. When he went off to basic training after high school graduation he wrote me a letter every day. A real letter, on paper, sent through the mail. That is just crazy. (here you go making me all uncomfortable by getting personal and digging into feelings) One letter also had a pressed flower that he picked from a field they had to do pushups in. I will admit that I teased him about being such a cheese ball but deep down I still can’t believe he’d notice a flower while doing pushups and then mail it to me. I mean, who does that in real life? That’s only stuff you see in sappy girl movies like The Notebook.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another “wow he’s a great guy” moment was during his first deployment to the Middle East. He surprised me by flying in my best college girlfriends for the first weekend of his deployment. Again, who does that? He’s the one leaving home for 77+ days, on a deployment to the 120+ degree dessert to live with dudes and eat chow hall food while “defending freedom” and he’s planning fun things for me. Freaking amazing.

More than anything though he continues to amaze and impress me with his unwavering sense of right and wrong and regard for others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What were your top 5 favorite things about your wedding? The Groom, family and friends, the location/ venue, the band and the open bar.

Top 5 least favorite? Our flowers attracted bees during the ceremony, my bustle, Mike could only be there for 48 hrs. I can’t think of anything else.

What was the worst piece of wedding advice you received? I didn’t really get too much advice. More stories that started with, “when I got married…..and we did…..”. I really didn’t mind hearing other people’s ideas. Either way, we were going to put our own spin on it.

The worst wedding day question/comment: “When will we hear the pitter patter of little feet?” I mean really people!?! Can we please get married first before you throw out the kiddo question? Someone give me a glass of wine or something. Damn. {Ed.’s note: Arrrgh!!! Right?!?}

Ashley's little sis giving a speech.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The best? After the rehearsal dinner everyone went into the bar at the lodge and we continued the party. One of my bridesmaids, Gillian, turned to me and said, “You need to put your glass of wine down and go to bed.” She was so right! She saved me from being tired and hungover on our wedding day. I didn’t want to leave but am thankful she could tell me that and that she did.

If you’ve been married for more than a few years, what have been some challenges? Oh boy… here we go….
No really, I wouldn’t label them as challenges. I’d say more like things we’ve learned, accepted or changed. (how’s that for a diplomatic start?)

One thing that was challenging for me was sharing space when we first moved in together. Being an only child for a good portion of my life, I’ve never had to share a bathroom. So I guess my taking up the entire counter and leaving a small and — in my opinion — unnoticeable, pile of clothes behind the door isn’t a good thing. Humm, my jammies like it behind the bathroom door.

I also don’t see why the dining room table has to be used only for dinner. It’s right near the entryway and is a great spot to leave my purse, car keys, sunglasses, scarf and whatever other layers I want to remove while entering the home. Makes sense to me.

So for me, it has been an eye opening experience to realize that I may be a bit of a clutter bug. At least in the common space of the home…..which I guess is now the entire home.

If Mike were writing this I’d imagine he’d say a challenge was:
1) How much stuff a girl has and 2) how most of it is in the closet which leaves only a few inches for his clothes.

Now that we’ve been living together for almost 6 years, those things are what we laugh about.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What from your wedding vows/ceremony still holds the truest? Oh girl, I don’t remember our vows. Should I go watch our wedding dvd and get back to you?
Prolly the “to love and cherish” part. 😉

Any other bits of wisdom? Not sure you could call it wisdom. Maybe advice. I’d say just have fun with one another. If you can laugh and have a good time together the rest will all work out. Most of all, be nice to each other. It’s the one person who knows you best and is there for you. Don’t take that for granted.

Photos provided by Ashley, some by Imagewell Photography.

Also? Ash divulged that they had 8 bridesmaids, 6 dudes and 278 guests. That really takes planning. Srsly.

*Coming Soon* New Goodies That Aren’t All About Me.

Oh!!!! I’m actually sitting here getting all SQUEEE about this!!!

So, you know how I said the other day that I was going to do this and WIN? Well, I’m doing it. I’ve talked to a couple of my rad homies and they’ve offered to step up and give me some more schtuff to put on here. Both of these girls have been hitched for a while now and I’ve known them for ages … like since I was twelve-teen and younger. And you know what? These chicks have it going on. One’s a mama of an adorbz little girl and a career woman, and the other is a military wife of sorts. And she lives a pretty baller life and has a job that makes her travel … a lot.

So I’m working out the logistics, fine-tuning some shizz and soon you’ll have ACTUAL married peeps talking about their experiences.

Are you excited? Because I am.