A Rustically Elegant Wedding

We get our hair done and grub down on some food delivered by dad

We Do(e): Hold On To That Feeling

When it comes to weddings and dancing, i've seen both sides of the spectrum. I've been to the weddings that were highly energetic with tons of people dancing and I have also been to the more laid back weddings where people were busier conversing at tables than hitting the dance floor. Both are great, but I really wasn't sure what would happen at my wedding. I had an inkling that we wouldn't have many people dancing at my wedding and I was totally fine with that.

Boy was I ever wrong. Apparently my friends and family really love to dance, who knew? I certainly didn't.

I danced with my husband's friends:

I busted a move, or whatever you want to call it, with my parents. The sad thing is I am fairly certain we were dancing to Sexy Back and NOT Walk Like an Egyptian, but whatevs.

My great-aunt requested the 'Cupid Shuffle' (surprise there, and she didn't even dance with us. I think she just wanted to watch. Random) We really had no clue what we were doing so we just made up some of our own sweet moves. Why do I feel like everyone always knows all the cool coordinated dances but me?

My husband obviously gave up on the cupid shuffle and I decided my made up moves were better anyhow.

We generally all let loose and just had fun dancing our booties off.

I was pleasantly surprised that our guests hit the dance floor. I owe it all to our incredible DJ, Joe Kalamaras from SJ's Disc Jockey- dude brought the house down. If you are in the Sacramento area, I cannot recommend him enough.

We had requested that our last song be Journey's 'Don't Stop Believing.' I figure it doesn't matter your age, gender or background...everyone loves this song. I knew the moment I heard the beginning start to play that or night was coming to an end. It was bittersweet but I decided to drink it all in.

At this point many of our guests had left and the late night crowd was comprised of mainly family, close friends, and a few of the partiers (ahem, party fowl-er, do you see him?) I only teared up a select few times at my wedding, and this moment was one of them. Being surrounded by my closest friends and family, singing at the top of our longs, nothing could be sweeter than this.

The most beautiful day had finally come to an end. As the song came to a close all I could think to myself was "hold on to this feeling." Maybe because Journey told me so, but no words could ring truer at that time.

We have a party fowl-er

We toss to call me maybe

We get our hair done and grub down on some food delivered by dad

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

We Do(e): It Happens...

I am going to jump ahead a bit in the evening. Mainly because I feel like talking about this right now. Good enough, right?

You know how people say that something will happen during your wedding that you won't be prepared for? Coming from a grade A Girl Scout over here, I somewhat scoffed at the idea of not being prepared. I am always prepared.

But here's the thing, you cannot control other peoples actions. What you can control is your response.

Once the open dancing got under way, people really started to let loose and have fun. Unfortunately one of our guests broke one of the golden rules of bringing drinks onto the dance floor. You just cannot jump up and down and control your drink at the same time.

Insert the part fowl of all party fowls. He spilled his drink. All down the front of my maid of honor's dress.

I won't completely point out which dude was the offender in this picture, but take a wild guess. This picture was taken literally the moment after it happened. You can even see my sister in the middle looking down at herself realizing that there is some type of alcoholic beverage all down the front of her dress. I obviously not realized quite yet what had happened.

There are a few different ways we could have handled this situation. The big sister in me wanted to grab him by his tie and yell at him. I know accidents happen, but you really shouldn't be getting sloppy on the dance floor at a wedding. Also, I would probably lose the whole "classy bride" thing.

Instead, the Monte Verde Inn staff was quick to clean up the floor as if nothing ever happened. My sister went upstairs, cleaned herself off and changed into a tank and sweats.

Luckily it was towards the very end of the night so many of our guests had left and she was probably more comfortable anyhow. We both kind of just smiled our irritated smile and the party fowl-er apologized profusely.

And while my sister may have had to change out of her pretty dress and into a tank top and sweats, she obviously did not let that stop her fun. My sister rocks, y'all. (I don't usually say y'all, but no other word seemed appropriate here. Why can't Californians say cool things?) Either that, or Journey can really turn some moods around.

It has since turned into a joke and we can laugh about it now. Kind of. My sister and the party fowl-er even ran into each other a few weeks back and he once again apologized, in which she told him it really is okay, no harm no fowl. But just to give him a hard time, we will continue to make off hand jokes and jabs- all in good fun.

Moral of the story, you may be as prepared as a girl scout for your wedding but at the end of the day, as Forrest Gump would say:

(Video via You Tube)

Did you have any type of unfortunate event happen at your wedding? How did you handle it?

*Photo by Martin's Photography

We toss to call me maybe

We get our hair done and grub down on some food delivered by dad

Monday, November 12, 2012

We Do(e): The Tossin' Songs

We had a little switcharoo of the bouquet toss music the morning of the wedding. Originally we had planned on 'Beautiful Girls' by Van Halen. However, around the same time as my wedding was when what I like to call the 'Call Me Maybe' blowup occurred. My bridesmaids and I could not get enough of the song and such parodies as:

(Video via You Tube)

And while these were not out at the time, they are currently among our favorites:

(Video via You Tube)

America, we are out of control. We get obsessed with something and we just run with it apparently. Looking back years from now, I guarantee 'Call Me Maybe' will not be forgotten and will become one of those songs you can't help but love. We might forget the parodies, and we might throw a wish in the well to forget the words....but we won't. We will continue to sing line after line with a goofy grin on our face. Our kids someday might look at us like we are boring and weird, but I think we will all remember the year that 'Call Me Maybe' exploded on to the scene.

The morning of my wedding my bridesmaids asked if they could change the song and I was more than happy to oblige. I told them they had to take it up with the DJ though, and of course he had no problem with it. Looking back I am so glad we decided to change it to such a silly yet fun song because everyone thoroughly enjoyed it.

It took me forever to actually throw my bouquet because I didn't want the song to end. I also had a tipsy groomsman tell me about ten times to be careful of the chandelier. Which means I kept stopping and telling him that thank you, yes I see it.

Now, the garter toss was equally as fun. We used the song 'Who Do You Love' by George Thorogood, mainly because my husband's favorite movie is 'Joe Dirt'. It turned out to be the perfect song for this type of occasion.

I was also very concerned about how awkward this moment might be. It turns out to not feel as strange as it looks. However, I do recommend being aware of your posture in the chair because some photos have the ability to turn out no so flattering if you aren't sitting up appropriately.

Did you have fun with your bouquet and garter toss songs?

*Photos by Martin's Photography

We get our hair done and grub down on some food delivered by dad

Thursday, November 8, 2012

We Do(e): I've Got So Much Honey...

...the bees envy me. But not you bees....the bees in 'My Girl' of course.

I always knew my dance with my dad would be to 'My Girl' by The Temptations. That has just been 'my' song for as long as I can remember. My dad was a bit more hesitant though thinking that it has been overdone. But, the more we thought about it we realized, who cares? It is my fist and only wedding, so why does it matter? We decided to just go with it, despite a small concern that it is fairly upbeat. My mom told us just do dance around and we will be fine. Easy for her to say!

As it turns out, my mom was right. We did just dance around and get completely lost in our father daughter moment. I am glad we chose to dance to My Girl because it is just one of those songs that I can sing at the top of my lungs to and not care who is watching.

In almost every picture I am either laughing or singing along like some bad karaoke.

Double chin? I don't even care!

You know that quote "dance like nobody is watching"? That was totally me during our father daughter dance. I had a blast and for just a few minutes on my wedding day I was suddenly transported back in time to dancing in my socks with my dad in the living room.

What do you have planned for your father daughter dance? If you are already married, what song did you choose for your father daughter dance?

*Photos by Martin's Photography

Dinner with a light drizzle
A Sweet Entry

We get our hair done and grub down on some food delivered by dad

Friday, November 2, 2012

We Do(e): A Rehearsed First Dance

Although I always thought taking dance lessons before the wedding would be fun, I quickly brushed it off assuming Mr. Buck would have no interest. He surprised me when he brought up the idea approximately two months before the wedding. His biggest concern was the high school sway-which we have perfected up until this point in our life. He of course naturally assumed he would be burdened by two left feet. I did some research and decided to use Barbara's Dancing Tonight in Davis, California. I found her prices to be reasonable and she was willing to customize different packages for exactly the type of instruction you want.

As it turns out, even though I had been a cheerleader for years growing up and performed in many theatrical plays-apparently I had somehow lost that talent. While I wasn't a terrible dancer, I was in fact a slow learner. Mr. Buck on the other hand was incredibly coordinated and a very quick learner. We decided to keep our dance lessons a secret so that we could surprise everyone at the wedding-mainly his family who would never in a million years think he would do dance lessons. He is a baseball player, hunter....manly man. And apparently a pretty sweet fox trottin' machine as well.

I wrote awhile back about my concerns of trying to dance to a song that is really neither slow nor fast. I am glad we decided to take lessons because we were able to learn the fox trot, which is perfect for Better Together by Jack Johnson.

A quick yet funny side story before I move on. The night before the wedding we were at the hotel and we were both very nervous about our impending dance. We felt as though we needed to practice a few more times until we felt more confident. I secretly asked the hotel if we could borrow one of their meeting rooms to practice in. (Hi, i'm the bride, please don't say no. Insert cheesy yet impressive smile here). They agreed but asked that we make sure the furniture is moved back into place should we move it. Well, they gave us the smallest meeting room ever so we did have to move the furniture around.

More important to this story though is that our friends and family had no idea where we were. They kept calling and texting us, but the problem was the only way we had to practice with music was with our iPhone. Which means every time they called us, we had to stop and then start again. Apparently they all started cracking jokes about where the heck we were.

Luckily we were able to get some practice in and boost our confidence level. We just played cool to our family and friends and told them not to worry as to where we were. Of course the next day when we broke out or sweet moves, they put two and two together.

We did surprise our families and our guests and had a great time enjoying our first dance a la fox trot.

Did you decide to take lessons for your first dance?

*Photos by Martin's Photography

Dinner with a light drizzle
A Sweet Entry

We get our hair done and grub down on some food delivered by dad

Friday, October 26, 2012

We Do(e): The Ruffled Cake

Soon after I had found my dress, I had thought to myself "wouldn't it be cool if our cake could match my dress"? As you all have seen by now, the bottom of my dress was very distinctive in that it was ruffled and resembled whipped cream. Of course I couldn't share that piece of information with Mr. Buck, but I did explain to him my idea of what I thought our cake should look like.

Kelly Dalisa, owner of our venue Monte Verde Inn, is the mastermind and creator behind all of the wedding cakes. I shared with her my idea and not only did she says she could do it but she also threw in some of her own ideas. Up until our wedding day I was anticipating what our cake would like, especially since we had such a specific look we were trying to achieve.

The morning of our wedding while I was getting ready at the Inn, Kelly Dalisa told me that although our cake is among one of her favorites that she has done. Now, for all I know she tells all her brides that, but I believed her and she certainly succeeded in getting me excited. She wouldn't reveal it to me though until it was time to actually cut the cake. She wanted me to have my "cake moment".

We had a quick break before it was time to cut the cake. Kelly Dalisa retrieved us right before it was time to gather everyone for the cutting so she could personally show us our cake. I could tell she really was excited with the work she had done. I was excited myself, but I was simply blown away when I finally saw our ruffled cake in person.

It was everything I could have possibly dreamed of in all of my wedding cake fantasies. The ruffles, the creaminess, the pale pink flowers, the way the "J" that I had feverishly worked on flocked the top...everything about it was spot on. It also weirdly perfectly matched my wedding gown...I have no idea how she was able to match it so effortlessly. Take a look at the comparison:

Cake matching dress = success.

Right when we were about to cut into the cake, Mr. Buck looked at me and said he felt like we were committing a crime cutting into it. While I felt a twinge of sadness, once I saw the delicious chocolate peanut butter cake underneath...I no longer cared. That ruffled cake was now fair game.

Now what do you do with these things?

Awkward cake feeding...I envy anyone that has cute photos of that moment.

And somehow we had done it. Our beautiful ruffle cake went from this:

To this chocolate peanut butter and lemon goodness. (Separate, not together. You'd be surprised by how many people have asked me). Might I add that the cake tasted as incredible as it looked.

Do you have a specific idea in mind for your cake? If you are already married, how did your cake turn out? Did it meet all of your dreamy expectations?

*Photos by Martin's Photography

Dinner with a light drizzle
A Sweet Entry