When Chris and I first began to think about where we wanted to get wedding party pictures taken, we knew we needed indoor venues.  It didn’t take us long to decide on Powell Hall (home of the St Louis Symphony).  Since Chris plays with the Symphony, it wasn’t hard for us to get permission for photos in the lobby.

So…the recap continues! 

After the first look photos at the Omni, we all loaded into the white limo and rode to Powell Hall. 

Our limo!  But first, we ran over to look at a building nearby (attention:  photo shoot)  Note the faux fur jacket AND the smitten mitten:  you can hold hands while keeping your hands warm!  It was a surprise for Chris. 

And…my veil blew away!  It was COLD and windy.  Don’t worry, we caught it!

Then it was time to get in the limo and head to Powell.  It was tough getting in the limo—I wasn’t yet used to moving in my dress, and I was very afraid of messing it up.  I was also afraid of messing up my flowers!

We had approximately two hours of photographs scheduled so it was looking to be a long afternoon!  It was a bit tiring, but Sarah Crowder did a great job keeping us going and not letting it get TOO boring 😉

Here are some of my favorite shots from the afternoon.  I love that the Christmas decor was still up!  Some of these could be awesome Christmas card photos for next year.

Admiring Chris’s picture in the lobby.

One of my absolute favorites from the day!

Aren’t we romantic??  I also love my earrings!  I had thought they might be too "white" or something, but I was really pleased with how they looked in pictures!

This picture is amazing, but even better in black and white—I have to get this one from Sarah in black and white to frame!

This is another favorite, probably one of my top three or four of just the two of us.

My bridesmaids!  Leslie, me, Sarah, and Carrie.  There were a ton of great photos of them!

Leslie’s hair is very fancy!  They all have matching earrings and I think you can see them pretty nicely in this picture.

The groomsmen.  In the formal picture, John, Norbert, Chris (groom!), and Dave.

I know this is done all the time, but I still wanted it!

I think this is funny because Leslie is taller!  (I was wearing flats 😉 )

How gorgeous is the setting?  I know the purple and red isn’t amazing, but the shiny gold and cream colors are.

So there you have it—my favorites from our photo shoot in Powell Hall!  After that, we loaded back into the limo and headed to Moulin for the CEREMONY!!! 

After I finally got dressed and ready to go, it was time to do our "first look."  If you are new to weddings, traditionally the bride and groom wouldn’t see each other on the wedding day until the ceremony.  However, since we were taking pictures in the afternoon before the ceremony, we did a "first look" where it was the first time we saw each other that day (and the first time Chris would see my dress!)

I went downstairs with Sarah Crowder to where Chris was waiting in a corner of the hotel’s restaurant. 

It was weird that I hadn’t seen him yet!  He looks kind of nervous in this picture.

Oh Hai!  He heard me coming but wasn’t sure if he was supposed to turn around.  Then he did!

He looked excited that I actually looked all good and stuff.  Not sure what he was expecting—I suppose he had seen me pack my grey sweatpants…

It was funny because we were supposedly having this private moment while surrounded by several photographers.

Evidently we were able to ignore the photographers, as usually Chris and I are not ones for public displays of affection.

This is one of my favorite pictures! 

After the photo shoot here it was time to gather all the bridesmaids and groomsmen and get in the limo and head to Powell for pictures!  It was all happening really fast, and the other funny thing was that almost all of my relatives were hanging out in the lobby of the hotel hoping to catch a glimpse of me (I hear there might be video around…anyone?) walking through, and I was trying to avoid them.

(I’m sorry I’m drawing this out so much, but I really want to show a nice amount of pictures without making any posts super long.  I hope you are enjoying my recaps!  So much more to come!!)

Next:  Did you know I bought a faux fur winter white bolero coat?  You’ll see it!

So my wedding ceremony was at 5:30 pm.  If you thought that meant I got to sleep in, you’d be wrong.  The bridesmaids were told to meet in my suite at 9:00 am for hair and makeup.  They were to be dressed by 12:30, and we were to meet the limo at 2:00 pm to go for pictures at Powell Hall.  So that meant I got up at 8:00 am to eat breakfast.  The Omni had a nice breakfast that was included with the room price—a good variety of hot and cold food.  I was ravenous (stress eating!) but tried to choose stuff that would give me good energy.  I was up in the room before 9 am in case the hairdressers got there early. 

I had two hairdressers meeting us and one lady to do makeup.  All the bridesmaids were getting their hair done, and Leslie and I were doing our makeup.  Additionally Chris’s mom was getting her hair done, and we convinced Mom to get her makeup done!

Before an updo, you have to curl all the hair, evidently!

What a beautiful bride!  Oh wait, thank goodness this wasn’t the finished product…

I am not sure if Sarah’s hairdresser knew she left a brush in there.  I really liked this look…

After hair came makeup!  Our photographer, Sarah Crowder, arrived around 10 am with three assistants in tow.  They took a few pictures of us getting ready and also started taking pictures of my dress and accessories all alone. 

The final hair product, and getting my makeup done!

After we were all done with hair and makeup, it was time to order lunch.  Our photographer was in and out, and she went down to take pictures of Chris (I think) and said she’d be back after lunch to start taking pictures of me getting dressed.

Those girls have some fancy hair and makeup for those casual tops. 

My accessories:  purple shoes, clutch, smitten mitten, bracelet that I ended up not wearing, necklace, and earrings!  (The smitten mitten was a surprise for Chris—if you don’t know what it is, it’s a mitten that two people can wear holding hands.  I love it.)  The clutch, bracelet and earrings, and smitten mitten were all from various sellers on Etsy. 

My necklace with my engagement ring.  The necklace was a gift from Chris for our first anniversary.  I used to wear it a lot and I rarely do these days, just because I don’t wear necklaces—but I thought he’d be tickled if I wore it.  He was!

My dress…oh how I love my dress!!  I love it so much.  (I wish I could wear it again for another event…)

We got our lunch, ate a bit, and then the bridesmaids got their dresses on.  Then it was time for me to get dressed!

Carrie was very excited to get the dress off the hanger.

It was a getting ready party!  Though a bit stressful.  Note to everybody:  corset backs are way harder to lace up than it seems when the professionals do it for your fitting.  Luckily Sarah Crowder was able to help us out a bit…otherwise we might have taken even longer! 

In the meantime the florist had brought by all the bouquets.  Our florist was Becky Huffman and she did an amazing job!  She dropped off the bouquets and boutonnieres before heading over to Moulin to put together the centerpieces.  

Finally I was ready.  From left to right:  Sarah, Leslie, my mom, Carrie.  For the record, Sarah is drinking Diet Coke.

Next it was time for pictures of me alone in the suite.  I ended up not wearing the bracelet because the clasp wasn’t working.  Oh, and the veil was ALSO from Etsy.  I guess I was an etsy bride!

(And yes, we had a really tough time getting those bumps out of the side of the dress.  One of the problems that day!)

Next: time to go downstairs for the "first look" with Chris, and then into the limo for pictures at Powell Hall! 

I know I am getting more and more behind on my wedding/honeymoon recap!  Okay, it’s now time for the rehearsal dinner.  Warning:  this and the following recaps will be very picture heavy.  Just warning you!  I would apologize, but I’m not sorry!

I sent out invitations for the rehearsal dinner.  I think I showed them to you already, but here they are again!  I got them from Etsy, like I did my wedding invitations and tons of other stuff.  Here’s the link to the shop I worked with for these.  They were great to work with!

Chris and I had a hard time finding a good rehearsal dinner venue, since we wanted to have our dinner on January 1!  Many restaurants were closed, or were willing to open up for a price, and that price was generally more than we wanted to pay.  Eau Bistro at the Chase Park Plaza seemed to fit our needs though, in that they were already open, had a private room, and the food and ambiance was what we wanted:  nice and classy.  We selected a limited menu that our guests could order from.

  

I wanted to wear something spectacular for the rehearsal dinner.  I thought of red, but just couldn’t find anything suitable, until I went to a wedding in late October.  One of the guests was wearing a stunning long red gown, and I knew I would look great in it—I asked where she bought it, and then ordered one online.  I was right, it was fantastic!  And floor length!

 

We had planned for our guests to arrive between 6:30 and 7:00 pm and that we would mingle and get to know everybody before sitting down.  We had an antipasto platter out, and also ended up getting a cheese platter because the antipasto was significantly smaller than we thought it should be.  We had invited our immediate families, my grandmother, our attendants and their dates, and a few other special friends.  I think there were 25 people there.

Chris’s parents

Everybody mingling!  They had the table set with the menus on each place setting.  The table was a really long (and wide) table with chairs all around.  It ended up being slightly larger than we thought and it was challenging to talk across the table, but it all worked out well. 

We planned just to eat a nice meal, get to talk to people, have a few toasts, and give out gifts to our attendants.  As the evening progressed, we decided to wait on the gifts.  I also brought my guest book along, because I had made a photo book on snapfish with our engagement photos and I wanted people to sign it as if it were a yearbook.  I thought it we started it at the rehearsal dinner people would be more likely to continue writing on it the following day!

 

Chris’s family

Leslie and her fiance Peter

You can see everyone was having a good time chatting and visiting!

My brother Jesse and my dad.

Sarah and her boyfriend Sam (Sarah was one of my bridesmaids.)

The place setting!  I had the baby spinach salad, lamb, and creme brulee. Chris would have enjoyed the steak but he was still feeling a bit queasy so he tried the vegetable wellington instead.  People said the steak was great, and so was the sea bass.

My family’s corner of the table…

Our friend Sarah in the middle!

The creme brulee—really more of a pudding—was served in eggshells.  Very cool presentation!

My parents, and the other dessert…gigantic cookies with ice cream!  Good thing we all had a lot to eat at dinner, since obviously the next day there wouldn’t be much 😉

Carrie and Jesse, and you can see Leslie hard at work signing the guest book beside her.

My dad daintily eating his creme brulee.

After dessert we opened the floor for toasts.  Chris’s dad gave one, followed by Carrie and then John (one of the groomsmen.)

The three sisters together!

Dave and Dacy (guest book in lower right corner)

Jon and Laura

Chris with Vanessa

It was a wonderful dinner!  After dinner, I went back to the hotel with the bridesmaids.  I wanted to give them their gifts and then we were going to do facials (yes, yes, I know.)

I gave them all earrings to wear the following day, and I gave Sarah and Carrie "Missouri" tote bags.  I gave Leslie a clutch that matched the one I got for myself. 

{source} Babbs Boutique

We didn’t want to stay up too late, however, because the next day we were meeting the hairdressers at 9:00 am in my suite!  So by midnight the girls left and I was left on my own…I read a bit, and tried to sleep.  I was SO excited…I know it sounds cliche, but I had thought of this day for so many months, and WOW it was here!!  Everything just seemed so surreal…it’s hard to explain, but I just couldn’t believe this was all really happening, that our planning was truly paying off, and that I was finally getting to wear these awesome dresses!

(to be continued…)

As you probably know, I took close to two weeks off from running over my wedding/honeymoon break.  I also took close to three weeks off from playing the violin.  Guess which feels worse!

My first run was about a week ago.  It was just awful!  My legs felt like lead the entire time and I was huffing and puffing.  I managed two miles before calling it quits.  I tried again the next day and it was a bit better, but still I felt slow and lumbering.  (Then again I always do.)  This morning I ran Forest Park with Jen (first time as a married lady, ha!) and it was one of the hardest runs ever.  Granted it was colder than I expected—my legs were almost numb, my feet hurt, and I was cold and wet—but I still felt awful.  Jen told me to quit beating myself up, that she had never heard anyone so negative.  (That’s me, I like to give myself a hard time:  I’m also carrying a little extra holiday/honeymoon weight, that I’m saying HERE on the blog, I want to lose it in the next month.) 

In a nutshell, running is hard for me.

Ordering pina coladas is NOT hard.

Let’s contrast that to the violin.  Last Sunday I started practicing my part for Winter Opera’s upcoming performance (and today’s rehearsals) of Strauss’s Ariadne.  I was a little rusty for the first 20 minutes, but after that I felt great, as if I’d taken no time off.  I was careful not to overdo it the first day and kept my practicing to about one hour, the next day about two, and we were back in business.  Today my fingers are a bit sore after six hours of rehearsal (the strings irritate your fingertips if you don’t have enough callous built up), but otherwise I feel fine.  Any trouble I had in rehearsal was due to only having one week to prepare the part rather than having taken three weeks off. 

In a nutshell, violin is easy for me.

Am I the best violinist in the world?  No, but I’m a good one!  Far better at the violin than at running 😉

Moral of the story:  when you’ve only been doing something for a year to a year and a half, taking two weeks off is a long time.  When you’ve been doing something since you were five years old, three weeks is nothing.

And that’s not a moral failing for me.  It’s just how things are.  I need to let it be okay that I took a break from working out and from healthy eating for two weeks over my honeymoon!

Speaking of the honeymoon, I’m going to continue the wedding recap this week!  Stay tuned 🙂

Okay, where were we in the wedding recap?  Last time we spoke I told you about New Years’ Eve, I believe.

That brings us to the new year!  January 1 I woke up and went for a run with my sister Leslie, who was training for the Phoenix Rock n Roll Marathon.  She left to go back to the hotel, and I got a call from her warning that my parents might be on their way over.  I had invited my family to come for lunch for leftovers if they wanted, but had asked them to call first.  I guess they didn’t hear that part, because suddenly there were half a dozen people at my house, including my brother Jesse who had gotten in late the night before.  At the same time my friend Sarah and her boyfriend Sam arrived (from Phoenix, driving).  And yes, I was in sweaty running clothes.

We all chatted a bit and heated up leftovers from the night before.  After lunch I needed to collect my belongings to get ready to check into the hotel!

We were staying (along with our guests) at the Omni Majestic Hotel.  I was staying in a suite the night before the wedding and then Chris would be joining me the night after.  The hotel had given our guests a really good rate, including breakfast as well, so most of our out of town guests were staying there.  The plan was to check into the hotel then go to the rehearsal at Moulin at 4 pm, then back to the hotel to get dressed for the rehearsal dinner.

I had to bring my wedding dress, my dress for dinner, along with toiletries, snacks, and a few other things.  We got to the hotel when we had told them we would be there…and the suite wasn’t ready.  I wouldn’t have been annoyed except that they knew EXACTLY what time we planned to arrive and should have called us.  I know it was the day after New Year’s Eve, and we gladly would have waited to check in, but as it stood, Chris and I weren’t sure what to do.  However, we soon ran into some family members and suddenly found ourselves in a  hotel room with my Grandmother and various other aunts and uncles.  It was great to see everybody, and frankly the whole ‘wedding experience’ was starting to feel both REAL and surreal.  We had been planning for so long, and now it was time!  Our friends and family were here, and we were about to go and rehearse, and it was just crazy!  (We stored my stuff in Leslie’s room and the hotel said they would move it to the suite when it was ready, definitely by the end of the rehearsal).

 

Jon and Chris—Jon was doing a reading

Who knows what they were talking about?  Something really funny, I’m sure!

The men:  Dave, Norbert, Jon, Chris, and Ann’s (wedding coordinator) son

Carrie, Leslie, my parents, Sarah, and John, all listening intently to the instructions (sorry Leslie, but I like the photo generally 😉 )

I was getting so excited.  Honestly, I never really thought my wedding day would come…I was not one of those girls who dreamed about her wedding day!  But since getting engaged in February, we had certainly been planning it, and talking about what we wanted it to be like, and here we were, at the rehearsal, preparing to say our vows in front of our loved ones, preparing to join together, all of our family and friends here to celebrate and witness…I was getting a little bit emotional!

We were all lined up and ready to go! That’s our officiant, Lamira Martin, in the middle.  We played several weddings where she was the “celebrant” and thought she did a wonderful job, so we were thrilled to have her for our wedding.

This was while Jon was practicing his reading, we tried to look interested.  Just kidding, we were very interested!  I guess Leslie thought it was funny…

Anyway, that was the rehearsal.  Basically we just practiced walking down the aisle, standing there, and walking out.  Seemed easy enough!

Next:  the rehearsal dinner!  Coming soon…