Wedding Photos

For some reason I wasn't able to post pictures with my "To Have and To Hold" post. Here's a collection of pics from our amazingly wonderful day.

To Have and To Hold

October 29, 2005 I married the man of my dreams. My strong, handsome, loving and incredibly wonderful man became my husband. I couldn’t have been happier.

They say most little girls dream of their wedding day and know exactly where and how everything will happen. I dreamed of getting married to a man exactly like John and I always thought it would be wonderful to have an outdoor wedding but beyond that I didn’t think too much about the details. However, as I spent months planning this day I got more and more excited about each decision I made. The “big picture” vision came to me little by little but I was confident this would all come together and be a beautiful day. And it was.

I was trying to figure out how I could stretch this event out for as long as possible, treating our guests to a get-away but without making this truly a Destination Wedding that would be a financial hardship on certain people and therefore not allowing some very special people to join us. We decided on the beautiful little beach town of Cambria, Ca. The Cambria Pines Lodge was a charming place surrounded by flower gardens and a little white gazebo that would be a perfect spot for our ceremony. Later we would be able to move inside to the banquet room for the reception, and after that (!) we could hang out and celebrate in the rustic bar area with a huge stone fireplace. It was perfect.

Many guests arrived Friday afternoon or evening. My wedding party graciously put up with my overly organized rehearsal and then we treated them to a dinner at a restaurant over looking the ocean, right at sunset. After dinner we went back to the lodge and mingled in the bar area as more guests arrived. Later into the night one of our, - well, John’s - invited guest decided to keep his personal tradition by stripping down and streaking through the parking lot. The after party of our wedding-eve took place in Mariah & Robert’s cabin room. A small group of us started out just visiting and having a few drinks, after the drinks we already had in the bar. I’m not sure what happened but we ended up raging like a bunch of teenagers in there. John and his friend went to get more alcohol, not sure why, and nearly got arrested. Oh the drama! People were crazy but it was one of the best parts of the whole weekend. When I went back to the room that I was sharing with my Mom and Aunt, it was close to 3 in the morning. My Mom was concerned, and rightly so, that I might be terribly hung over for my wedding day. Turned out, after a bit of coffee and some breakfast I bounced right back the next morning - must have been the adrenaline.

My wedding morning began with all my girls getting our nails done, and then hair and make-up. I have such a fabulous memory of spending that time with all the amazing women in my life. Everyone was so happy for me and I was incredibly touched that these ladies were such a huge support in my life. I am very lucky. Once the primping was done – and it did take a while – it was time to take some photos. I always said that on my wedding day I would never want my husband to see me before I walked down the isle. But at the last minute I decided to side with the photographer and take some photos beforehand in order to save time between the ceremony and reception. It turned out fine. They placed John in a garden lined walkway and I came up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder. The photographer caught it all and those are some special photos. We were both so excited and ready to get this party started.

My sister married us on the steps of the gazebo. It had been a beautiful, sunny morning but as the ceremony began, the fog rolled in. It got continuously colder. My bare shouldered bridesmaids and I began shivering. We made it though and as chilly as it was standing in the fog, it was kind of magical as we felt like we were in a cloud. The ceremony was very special and personalized. Our Mom's stood up to do a reading as well as our Maid of Honor and Best Man reciting a poem that I just love. After John and I read the vows we had written to each other, we finally got to seal the deal with a kiss!

While we drove away in my Dad's 1962 Cadillac for more photos, we left our guest to enjoy a cocktail hour in the garden. Their time in the garden was spent listening to the BFOM's. Brothers From Other Mothers is an acappela singing group which included John's cousin and some of his college buddies. They were a big hit and ended up surprising me with a serenade to “My Girl” at the reception. The night continued with dinner, dancing and the traditional wedding antics.

As per my plan, after the official reception the guests with the most stamina moved over to the fireside bar. We partied a little longer until John finally talked me into leaving and going back to our Honeymoon Suite. As much as I didn't want that night to end, I was exhausted and ready for some quiet time with my new husband. After all, we had a bottle of champagne and jacuzzi tub waiting for us. A fond memory of that night in our room was when I asked John to help me unzip my dress. As we stood in front of the mirror looking at each other John said, “Are you sure you're ready to take this dress off? You're not going to see yourself in it again, at least for a long time. You look gorgeous today.” I hadn't thought about it that way but I was thankful he made me take that extra moment to really take in our day.

We woke up to our car decorated and cans tied off the back bumper. We met up with everyone again at the hotel breakfast in the garden. After packing up and saying our good-byes John and I headed down the road. We spent the day having a picnic lunch near the beach on an overlook. We continued to Hearst Castle where we went for a tour of the grounds. A little further down the road we spent a complementary night from my Mom at the beautiful Ragged Point. We had a room with a back patio that overlooked the amazing Big Sur coastline. We sat, drank a bottle of wine and couldn't stop talking about our amazing weekend. We were so happy and so blessed.