As promised, here is a recap of the first of the three weddings I attended in June/July (see the first one I covered here). The difference this time? I was the one providing the photographic coverage!

Those of you who know me know I am VERY much a fan of hiring the best photographer you can afford for your wedding. (Clearly – we hired Tanja!) There are so many reasons for not using a friend or relative, but I know y’all know them so I’m not going to list them out. That being said, my uncle and his fiancee had already decided that a professional photographer was not in the budget for them (it was a second wedding for both), and so when they asked me to step in and do my best, I obliged. I would have felt much more confident with John at my side and with both of us shooting (between you and me, he’s the better photographer :), but I’m pretty happy with how things turned out. I thought you might like to see a little peek at what I captured!

Note: All of these photos were taken with our Canon 35 mm film camera except the final one, which was taken with our Nikon digital camera (not a DSLR, but not a point and shoot, either). I switched back and forth between the two all day, and used about 8 rolls of 24-exposure film.

Love this one! Those flower girls were very concerned about not getting her dress dirty.

Though I’m pretty happy with this photo, the ceremony presented the biggest photography obstacle of the day. The ocean in the background was much lighter than the couple in the foreground, and when I lightened the photos enough to get a good look at their faces, the beautiful background ended up getting blown out. Ah well.

So cute :)

This one was definitely a lucky grab – I spun around and snapped with the film camera, and it ended up turning out well.

Really, really love this one, though I can’t take much credit for it! Their outfits are so cohesive without being matchy-matchy, and they all look so comfortable together! You know how I feel about family portraits.

S’mores on the beach… every wedding should include them, don’t you think?

P.S. Our foray into wedding videography

Hi friends! Lately, I’ve been preoccupied with trying to decide what to put on our Paloma’s Nest ring bearer bowl, so I thought I’d turn to you all for some suggestions.

Melissa Schollaert

If you were getting a ring bearer bowl, what would you put on it? (Or, if you actually had a bowl at your wedding, I’d love to hear what it said!) Would you go simple, with just the date (that’s John’s vote)? Would you take a line from your vows, or a ceremony reading, or your first dance song? Let me know what you think – I’d love to hear!

P.S. Wouldn’t it be a brilliant idea for Paloma’s Nest to make a Pinterest board showcasing their custom ring bearer bowls from real weddings? They’ve currently got a board with their product photos pinned from their website, which is a great way to drive customers to their site, but this board I’ve got in mind would be more about inspiring customers like me, who are trying to decide on an inscription. With the hundreds of ring bearer bowls that have been featured online, they could pull amazing examples from all different wedding websites and blogs! And Caroline, if you’re listening, you’re welcome :)

P.P.S. Enjoy the opening ceremony tonight, friends! John and I are kind of Olympics nuts, and are so excited!! Also, be sure to check back in on Monday for the conclusion to a wedding saga that’s been years in the making…

Austin Warnock

Since my last update…
— John had his individual meeting with our pastor. I have mine on Monday!
— We attended our tasting (yum!) and are in the process of making a few adjustments to our menu
— We had a venue walk-through with our florist and made what I think will be the final adjustments to our order
— We met with our chapel coordinator. She is a little bit scary.
— John’s tux has been tailored and looks awesome!
— Kate and I attempted a trial cake… more about that soon :)
— We collected the final silver pieces, and they all look great!
— We bought part of John’s gift for his groomsmen
— We purchased our wedding bands – going to pick them up this weekend!
— We bought ottomans, coffee tables, and candles at Ikea

Next up on the list?
— I’m sad that our invitations haven’t been sent yet, but they’re arriving this week, so I should have them out the door soon! Envelopes have already arrived.
— My final dress fitting is coming up soon
— We need to finalize the text for our ring bearer bowl
— I want to nail down all of our ceremony music so I can send it to our pianist, string trio, and soloist. I would also like to finalize readings.
— I need to collect the rest of our family wedding photos, to be displayed at the reception
— I’m going to make a few signs to help direct guests from the ceremony to the reception
— I’m going to make a set of drink stirrers for my own wedding! :)

I promised recaps of all my recent adventures, and thankfully my girl Meredith Perdue is helping me out! She was the photographer at the second wedding of the three I attended in three weeks, and she posted a little preview yesterday. So fun to see familiar faces on her beautiful blog!

You can see more on her blog right here!

As many of you know I wore a Rent the Runway dress to this gala affair, and when I wrote about it back in March, I promised a review. Happily, my review is positive! When it arrived, the dress was in great condition and needed little more than a few hours on a hanger to be party-ready. I ordered a 0 and a 2 (they send an extra size with every order), and I ended up wearing the 0. Per the reviews on the site I knew the top wouldn’t have much give, which turned out to be true, but it wasn’t that big of a deal because, well, you know.

I did have to run out and buy a pair of fancy flats, because anything higher than one inch would have made the hem too short – and I’m only 5’4 and a half. I wasn’t too upset about having an excuse to wear flats, though!

I felt glamorous and elegant, and it was the perfect thing to wear to this black tie wedding. I happily accepted several compliments throughout the night, including from people other than my parents and date :) A little peek:

Yep, that’s the wedding tuxedo in action! John also fielded several kind remarks, with good reason, I think.

ALSO! Almost forgot to mention that John’s first real bow tie tying experience was almost traumatic. He didn’t give himself quite enough time for trial and error, and so started to panic just a bit as the minutes went by. But, in the end, his first complete attempt looked great, and we were out the door seconds after that. If you find yourself in a similar predicament, I would highly recommend this Youtube video – the gent moves through the steps very slowly and has a calming voice :)