Down the Yellow Brick Road Part VII: Going to the Chapel and We're...

When we last left off, I was a BRIDE!

And my girls were looking just as beautiful as can be (but not as beautiful as me...) :P


If you're wondering what that funny bulge is in Sister Slippers' skirt, it's her knees. That's because her shoes were so high that the first picture looked like this:

Whoa, giantess sister! So my Mom made her crouch down like a deformed person for the other photo.

Do you see their necklaces? These were my bridesmaid gifts to them. MIL Ruby Slippers is a part time rep for Honey Jewellery, and she lent me a catalogue a few months before the wedding. I selected four that I liked that I thought would work as necklaces for The Day, and sent BFF Ruby Slippers and Sister Ruby Slippers pictures of them, asking which ones they liked best. I like to think I made it sound like I was choosing a necklace for myself, but I'm pretty sure they were totally onto me! However, by the time I gifted them at my bridal shower, they had both completely forgotten about it! Or so they claimed.

This is what BFF Slippers chose:

And here is Sister Slippers':
They were both so pretty that I rather wished I'd got one for myself! And at least they are something they can both wear over and over again. Brides like to say that they choose the bridesmaid dresses for re-wearability, but to be honest, I don't know where either of my girls will ever go that they'll need a full-length red satin gown. At least they can always wear a necklace!

Oh and here's a picture of my Mom and my Sister all dressed up(I think BFF RS took this one):


And my Mom and my Auntie Pam, who is actually my Mom's cousin. They were so close growing up that they were each other's only bridesmaids, and they wore the same wedding dress as well! (sorry, BFF, but you're not getting your paws on mine! I don't share that way).


So then it was time for some girlie portraits! And, would you believe it, the sun came out just in time, never to be submerged behind clouds again (that day, anyway).



Yep, lots of smiling, laughing, looking at each other, laughing more...


It was around this point that one of the coordinators from The Moon & Sixpence, Thandi, who had been bobbing in and out for the last ten or fifteen minutes, told us that they were Ready For Us at the chapel. One of the other coordinators - never got his name! - was standing by at the chapel, checking with Mr Ruby Slippers and the families if everyone was there and ready to begin, and he was in constant contact with Thandi so she could tell us when to go. My Mom, Aunt and amazing make-up friendor, Mel, had left a few minutes before while we did the bridesmaid pictures, so it was just us to walk down to the chapel. I must admit at this point I had NO idea what time it was, and it didn't occur to me to ask. I was in such a haze of excitement and stress from rushing to get ready and get all the photos I wanted, that I couldn't think about such inane things as time. Never even considered it for pretty much the rest of the day.

Here we are leaving the honeymoon suite and the other clutch of rooms they have for guests:


Down the corridor that leads straight from the rooms into the carpark. Yeah...we didn't get photos of that bit! You can see Thandi being helpful with my train behind me:

At some point I had to tell her that although she was being very sweet, she was getting in all my photos, and I really just wanted to have me and my girls, and not some lady that I'd just met that day, in all my pictures! I think I was nice about it. I hope so!

Tanja walked ahead of us the whole way and took pictures, and BFF Ruby Slippers took over train-holding duty. Here we are going down the steps into the garden:


Don't fall in your white dress, don't fall...

And crossing the lawn to the chapel:


to be married...over several posts.

Previously:
Part I: The Night Before
Part II: Salon, Supermarket & Judy Garland
Part III: Setting Up
Part IV: Prettifying
Part V: All Bridalled Up
Part VI: For the Boys

Down the Yellow Brick Road Part VI: For the Boys

Previously:
Part I: The Night Before
Part II: Salon, Supermarket & Judy Garland
Part III: Setting Up
Part IV: Prettifying
Part V: All Bridalled Up


Sorry I've been MIA the last few days. Thanks to the spectacular timing of my pc shuffling off this mortal coil just around Christmastime, we had to wait for the suppliers to be open before we could get a new one. And everyone except me seems to have managed to take the longest holiday they could possibly have. Then right around the time Mr Ruby Slippers brought home the new pieces of the new computer, our landlords decided it was a good time to have our cottage repainted and the ceiling fixed. So everything has been sitting in the middle of the bedroom for the last few days. On the up side, it did provide us with a reason to clean behind the bookcases, which - ahem - we never do.

Getting back to the recaps. What I didn't mention in my last post is that while we were getting ready, ominous clouds were gathering overhead. Dun dun dun. I kept my cool; in fact, I was quite pleased to see them because it was a scorcher of a day and we needed some cool relief, and besides, stormclouds make for awesome pictures! That is, if it doesn't rain. Actually, even a light drizzle I could have come to terms with, the sort where you can get cute "kissing under the umbrella" pics. Just no storms that make it impossible to be outside, or, worse, impossible for anyone to hear our vows!

I was thinking all this and more while I was getting my makeup done, because that is when I first heard the unwelcome sound of thunder, and the even more unwelcome sound of rainfall. Not downpour heavy, but heavy enough to hear. Which, to my mind, was too heavy. I immediately picked up my phone and sent an sms (text message) to Mr Ruby Slippers, who was getting ready with his guys in a room far, far away. Now I had not, of course, seen or spoken to Mr RS since he left home the night before, and I wasn't sure if actually phoning him would be breaking the "not seeing each other before the wedding" pact. He, of course, had no such qualms, and immediately called me back to calm me down. (My text had read something innocuous like, "It's raining!! OMG." but I imagine he thought I was freaking out a bit more than I really was.) Actually I think I was surprisingly calm. At any rate, it was very sweet of him to allay my fears. Tanja's second shooter, Natasha, was with the guys at this time, and she got some shots of Mr Slippers talking to me on his phone:

I wasn't here for this (obviously, so I can't give a running commentary, but here are some shots I liked. Yes, we're segueing into the "Men getting ready" segment! So seamless.

Here's Mr RS practising his speech, while in the foreground are a groomsman bout and the wine for our chocolate & wine ceremony (more on that later). I have to wonder, though, if the guys were taking surreptious slugs of it to calm their pre-wedding jitters. :-)

And the good old standard "what time is it?" shot:
He cleans up good!

In fact, he cleans up so good that there should be MORE of him:

Well, if you're going to place the mirrors like that, what else can we do but take advantage?

For every hanging dress shot, there is a hanging suit jacket shot:


Next, Best Man Ruby Slippers helps the groom on with his boutoniere:
Whoa, this is tougher than it looks:

And the final product. I think the pocket handkerchief looks totally wrong inside out, but someone put it in that way and told him it was right. Hmmm.

And....they're off! I'm glad these shots really show off the green gardens of our venue. And notice how the sun has emerged, bright and cheerful:
Stand on a ledge...

And kiss your freedom goodbye....


Posing...


So pensive...
And so zen....
Heee hee, I love this one.

Ok, guys, it's time to head off to the chapel!
Here it is...ready for you to marry the girl of your dreams (that's just you, Mr RS, not you other two).

And unfortunately the next bit is where I have a gap in my pictures! I'll try to follow on with something not too out of order...

Down the Yellow Brick Road Part V: All Bridalled Up.

Previously:
Part I: The Night Before
Part II: Salon, Supermarket & Judy Garland
Part III: Setting Up
Part IV: Prettifying

While I was getting all prettied up, Tanja busied herself taking some photos of the wedding paraphernalia. Now I hadn't wanted to go too overboard with the list of "must-take" shots, because it felt a bit pushy, and I am not pushy *at all*. Do I want people coming into my work telling me how to do my job? No. So I felt I shouldn't get too carried away with the lists; I didn't want it to come off as me telling Tanja how to do her job. But actually, though, now that it's over, I wish I had added more items to that list. There were lots of little things that I either forgot about, or thought, "well, surely she'll get that shot", but in the end they didn't happen. And some of my very favourite photos are the ones based on items from my list. I suppose it all depends on the photographer, but sound yours out, brides-to-be, and if he/she seems amenable, make a list of everything you can think of!

One of the shots I did absolutely insist on was the hanging dress. You might remember how much I love those! And I also mentioned a bunch of times that I like shots taken from below. This is my favourite of the dress shots. I liked it so much I made it sepia, black & white, faded colour, softened, sharpened; you name it, I did it! I think this classic black & white looks best, though.

Did I mention that, despite my Packham Envy, I luuuurve my dress? It was so pretty and fairytalesque! In fact, when I first tried it on and wrote down the code number in my diary, in case I wanted to go back for it and they couldn't find it, that's what I wrote next to it: "Fairytale one". Here's a close-up of the bodice detailing:

And here we have the back of my dress and, dun dun dun, the big reveal of my bouquet:

Now, you may remember me saying that I wasn't entirely happy with my bouquet, and that's not because it doesn't look lovely. It does; it's beautiful, and lots of people told me so. But It's. Not. What. I. Wanted. First off, the colour of the lilies was all wrong. This is the colour I wanted:

I really wanted that deep, blackish-purply-red colour. And my florist had these pictures! But what I got was, well, pink. And I don't LIKE pink. So I've spent a whole lo of time darkening the bouquet in photoshop so that it looks "right". Is that wrong? I know it wasn't how it really WAS on the wedding day, but I really wanted the look of the dark, dark calla lilies, and photoshop helps me achieve that! (the photo I've posted is not altered, however, so you can see the colour as it was).

Secondly (yes, I'm still harping about the bouquet), I wanted a few black feathers in the bouquet. Sort of like this one's style:

So my florist promised me black feathers like this. If you scroll up again, you'll see what I GOT was a surround of peacock feathers. Now I LOVE peacock feathers. I think they're incredibly beautiful. But they didn't go with my wedding, so after considering them, I disregarded them. Yes, I thought about it, and decided it wasn't what I wanted. But apparently that didn't matter. Aaargh.

Now I know I shouldn't complain, because two of my friends paid for more than half the flower cost, and the florist (one friend's sister) did everything at cost, which saved us all a LOT of money, but I just wish she'd been more communicative! Asked me if I was okay with peacock instead of black. Warned me that the lilies were going to be far more expensive than she'd originally estimated. And especially told me that they were the wrong colour, and asked if I wanted something else instead! I had already emailed her options of other dark red bouquets with different flowers, in case the lilies were unavailable. I would actually have preferred the right colour with other flowers, than the wrong colour on the right flowers. Oh well. It was a pretty bouquet, at least. Here's another shot of it with my wedding stuff! Oooh, ruby slippers!



And here's a shot of our rings on one of my Oscar favours! I also suggested this one. I had to photoshop him a bit, because I realised, when I took him out for Tanja to use, that I had accidentally picked one with a hole on the front of the base. Ooops. (By the way, we had a bunch of Oscars left over after the wedding. I just ate the last one last week!).

Here's a shot of me checking out the back of my hair in a compact mirror:


And the girls went off to start getting ready. Tanja sneaked in a shot of Sister Ruby Slippers putting on her shoes:


Oooh, caught!Then, because my veil was a drop veil, and had no obvious point at which to attach it to my head, I had to measure it out so Megan could put some hair grips in at the right place.

And while she did that, I derobed. I had to crop the bottom half of this next picture because I was wearing my comfy panties and my not-so-great cellulite. But at least the top half of my back looks ok. And I got a shot of my tattoo!:


And the girls helped me on with my dress. I'm not sure what I was doing with my hand again. The Claw, perhaps?:


Once the dress was on, I had to shimmy over the the nearest mirror and adjust my cleavage. Yeah, I had to do the whole "dip my hands inside the dress and hoist up the girls" thing. There doesn't, however, seem to be a picture of that. What a shame.


And on with the garter! Look at me trying to do an elegant ballet pointe very inelegantly:


And then I struggled to get my earrings in. I have stupid holes that don't like to let earrings slide in easily. I was originally going to wear my dangly diamante earrings, but when I tried on my ensemble a few weeks before the wedding, I decided that they were Too Much with the tiara and necklace and the sparkliness on the dress. So I ended up wearing some tiny cheap diamantes hanging from a tiny loop of silver. I've had these since my university homour's ball in 2001, and I've worn them for many a community theatre show.


And then my mom helped me put on my necklace.

Ok, so she didn't, and this picture was totally posed. My mom can't see well enough without her glasses on ever to be able to fasten a clasp, let alone one behind my head where she can't see at all!


And then a shot of me in the mirror, taken by Tanja lying on the floor, yelling, "Lean forward more!" a lot. But it was totally worth it :-)



A bride standing elegantly (ish) in a doorway...
And again...
A close-up of my tiara. I love this one so much! Look at my eyelashes. Love them too!

And on with the veil. There now follows a loooong series of veil photos. Suck it up, they're my favourites!

First, my Mom bringing the veil over to me:

And lowering it:


Megan fixing it to my head:Then lifting it again so that Tanja could get some awesome photos:



Yeah, I went nuts on photoshop with these:

And down...
This is my mom's boutoniere/corsage thingy. Now THIS looked great! Possibly because I didn't care what it looked like to begin with:

I HEART this next series of photos in the mirror:


And kazam! The transformation is complete! I'm a BRIDE.

Next up: Going to the chapel and we're....