If you could, would you?

This post on Weddingbee made me think a bit. I've always vaguely thought, "Oh, I wish I could have done this rather", or "if only we could have afforded that..." but I've never actually consciously sat down and thought: What would I change about our wedding day if money was no object? If I had won sixty gazillion Rand in the lottery before the wedding, as Miss Gloss suggests, what would I have done differently?

THINGS I WOULD HAVE CHANGED:

1)Photographer
I would definitely have flown in one or two of my photography idols to shoot the wedding. The problem is deciding which two. Or three. I can probably narrow it down to fifteen, if I try really hard. One day I should post just about that!

**EDIT** I've had it pointed out to me that this sounds a bit like I'm being mean about my photographer, and I honestly didn't mean it that way. This is what I wrote in the comments.
I was thinking more in terms of money; there are some hugely expensive people in America that I would die to have shoot my wedding because they are GODS to me (in photography). But I had a look at some of their prices, and with the exchange rate...well, let's put it this way. If I wanted to hire a certain popular, fab US photographer (I won't name names here), their cheapest package would cost me more than MY ENTIRE WEDDING did. Without even flying two of them in and providing accommodation. Just the package. The cheapest package! But their photos would be so worth it if I had that kind of money! That was kind of what I meant. I didn't mean any offence to my photographer. But if I had the money to get someone who I consider to be the best photographer in the world, then I would get the best photographer in the world!

2) Videographer
I would have got one. My Dad's friend's footage made me realise how inadequate he was.

3) Wedding coordinator
I would definitely have got one. None of this family setting up on the morning, rushing around to fetch bouquets stuff. It wasn't that bad, but an organiser would have taken the pressure off just a tad.

4) Photo booth
I sooooo would have had one! It just seemed like an unnecessary expense at the time. But they're so frikkin cool.

5) Florist
I would have hired a real one who could give me exactly what I wanted, and not gone with my friend's sister to save money. That way my bouquet might have been the right colour.

6) DJ
I would have got a better one...he was ok, but not great. He played some iffy song choices.

7) Date
I would have had it on a Saturday. Far too many people left earlier because they were tired or had to work on Saturday. Considering I've worked Saturdays for years, I know what that's like. Still, I wish they'd stayed longer.

8) Cake!
I would have hired the most expensive cake-maker in town just to be sure to escape from the wreck that was my cake. The toppers, however, I adore and I would put them on every cake I ever eat in the future, if that wasn't...weird.


THINGS I WOULD NOT HAVE CHANGED:

1) My shoes and accessories. Loved them!

2)The programs, table names, favours & other DIY stuff - I loved doing all this stuff and I love how it turned out!

3) The chapel decor. I was stressing that I'd left it too bare, but in the end the carpet of petals was simple and perfect!

4) Venue. Well, obviously, if I had endless money, I would have flown everyone out for a destination wedding somewhere beautiful and tropical. However, since that sort of thing just isn't practical and conducive to having everyone you want attend, I would probably have kept it where it was. The Moon & Sixpence was a good venue. However, I have since found two I liked more...but at the time, I liked it best, so I think I'd have stuck with it.

5) Dress. I might have tried on a Jenny Packham Papillon to satisfy my Packham envy, but I have a sneaking suspicion it mightn't have looked that good in me. In which case I would probably have stuck with my own dress, which I love.

6) Hair & Make-up. I loved what Megan and Mel did! I have never felt so lovely.

7) Bridesmaids & Groomsman outfits. They looked good!

and, most importantly, and really the one thing that makes none of the above matter anyway:

8) The Groom. Because even with all that stuff I would have changed, I doubt if my smile could have got any bigger than this:


Because it was perfect in its own way, without everything being, well, perfect.

PS - Happy 5 month anniversary to The Ruby Slippers' TODAY!

How do you like them apples?

Why, with water poured on, please.

I went outside earlier to try and get some fast shutter speed splashing water shots. Unfortunately I couldn't get it as bright as I wanted without going into direct sunlight (which I hate hate hate), but I think some of them came out kinda cool:









I promise I didn't get any water on my camera :-) (I don't know how I did that, but thank goodness I didn't! Haha)

I haven't done anything to these in photoshop, either.

EDIT: Ok, now I have. Here's the last one edited a bit:

Sp sharp, love it!

Photo of the Day

Since I've started photographing, I've been discovering how much I love both shooting upwards and shallow depth of field. This picture by 35 Atlanta encompasses both! I wish I'd taken it.

Not to mention her bouquet is stunning!

Movies watched

I think I'm going to add a little note at the end of each post from now on, saying what movies I watched since the last time I posted, and a few word in-depth critique of them :P . Since this is the first time, I'll do movies I watched this week.

In Bruges - Really funny, but a tad heavier than I expected.
Rachel Getting Married - Excellent.
I Heart Huckabees - Completely bizarre. Don't think I liked it.
The Wicked Lady - Awesome fun melodrama with the delicious James Mason.
Life With Judy Garland: Me & My Shadows - Watched it a bunch of times; Judy Davis is brilliant.
Australia - Enjoyable; cried my eyes out with the Over the Rainbow theme.


And yes, I am one of those movie geeks who keeps a list of everything she watches.

Play Festival madness

It's play festival madness here at the Ruby Slippers house! I'm not sure if I ever mentioned this (I'm sure I must have) but Mr Ruby Slippers and I met when I joined The Franklin Players, a community theatre group of which he was a long-standing member. I joined in 2004, and though we weren't actually in the same show - I was in the big musical while he was in a heavy play about infidelity and fighting and more fighting - he did come to help us out with putting up the set and providing an outsider's viewpoint. Plus he was the director's housemate so I saw him a lot. Lucky me :-)

Here's me doing my best Judy Garland impression in "Get Happy", the closing number of the musical, "Faces of Music".

So fast forward a few years and hubby and I have both been in a number of other musicals and short sketches and plays. Well, not me so much; I far prefer singing to straight acting. Anyway, I've been in stuff. But last year we bowed out because of The Wedding (those rehearsals are killers) and, well, we just haven't felt like going back. I just feel like it's not as fun as it used to be. You really have to enjoy going to rehearsals on Monday and Wednesday nights plus most of Sunday, and I just don't anymore. And Mr Ruby Slippers, after two years as chairman of the Franklin committee, has lost all enthusiasm and soul for drama. Which is a pity.

HOWever, it's still fun to go and see what's going on there. Plus we're kind of obliged to, since Sister Ruby Slippers and her husband, not to mention a host of our other friends, have all got plays on. My sister and her husband co-wrote a play, which he is directing, and she is directing another one which is on next week. (And which she's now starring in, thanks to a dropout two weeks ago. Can I just say that I ABHOR people who can't stick to their commitments? Way to ruin it for everyone else).

Here's Sister Ruby Slippers and friends Paul and Tarryn in 'Teatime of the Living Dead' last year, which was written by my clever husband. She's a dead body come back to life (one of many) in a funeral parlour...it's a long story.

The play festival runs over four nights, and other amateur dramatic societies are invited to participate, which means that we have eight plays this year, four from Franklin and one each from four other societies. Mr Ruby Slippers is adjudicating along with two other people, so that's what we'll be doing for the next two weekends. It's kind of fun, though, to be on the outside looking in. Though I have to say I do miss that dressing-room excitement; the smell of make-up, the roar of the crowd...oh wait, we didn't really get that sort of crowd at Franklin. Well, the pleased applause of the crowd, then.

I just wish I could muster up the enthusiasm to be a part of all this again. I love theatre (well, mostly musical theatre), I really do. But sometimes the effort doesn't seem worth the result. Sigh. Mr RS and I have had many, many, sad conversations about this.


PS - I have to get up at 5am tomorrow morning to get to my photography class practical at the Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens at 6am. Shudder. I don't even know what 5am LOOKS like.

Well, that's annoying...

Like many of you (or at least, many of you who stalk blogs like I do) I read all my blogs in Google Reader. It's just so much easier to click on the name and scroll through the post quickly without having to open a new window. Today, however, I discovered something annoying. In order to comment on a post you have to open it in a new window, and today there were two photo blogs I wanted to comment on. And that's when I saw it.

In both cases there were twice the number of photos on the actual blog website as were shown on Google Reader! After the first one (Andrea Carlyle) I just assumed it was her specific blog being weird, but when Punam Bean's blog did it too...

Have I been missing out on half the photos ALL THIS TIME??? Gah!

Photo of the Day

How original is this picture by Ben Pancoast? Or is it just the building design that's awesome? It's like the best birdcage ever! Either way, I love this picture!

Anne Hathaway = Judy Garland

According to reports this morning, Anne Hathaway has been selected to play Judy Garland in a new film biopic, as well as some sort of theatre version (details were hazy on that bit). Now if you know me at all, you'll know how I idolise Miss Garland. Aside from the drug addiction and four failed marriages, of course. But her presence on screen overshadows all of that. Her luminous "can't tear your eyes away from her" presence, and of course her unbelievable, never-equalled VOICE, are what make me fall a little bit in love with her every time I see her onscreen.

So Anne Hathaway is going to play her. Well, they could do worse. As long as they still use Judy's actual singing voice (I know Anne can sing, but you can't make a biopic about a singing legend and then not use her own voice) I can live with it. I think. My main issue is that while Anne can easily look the part of the young, fresh-faced, wide-eyed Judy Garland, I don't see how they're going to make her up to look like the older, beaten down, drug-ridden Judy of the 1960's.

This can work:


This, however, not so much:
This is a picture of Judy Garland in 1969 with her fifth and final husband, Mickey Deans. She died twelve days after her 47th birthday, so in all likelihood this picture was taken when she was 46 (she only married Deans in March of that year). This is what drugs and alcohol do to a legend. It makes me incredibly sad. Anyway, my point is that I can't imagine how they can possibly get pretty young Anne Hathaway to look like THIS.

At least she can act. I saw Rachel Getting Married on Saturday, and I was blown away. Hello, Oscar? Where were you?

And who on earth is going to play Mickey Rooney and all her famous co-stars?

PS - if you haven't seen the tv miniseries Life With Judy Garland: Me & My Shadows, for which Judy Davis won a Golden Globe and an Emmy, do yourself a favour. It's brilliant. I won't deny that Judy Garland was probably quite an awful person, self-centred and difficult to live with, but Davis really brings out her vulnerability and "Little Girl Lost" quality. I'm not actually sure how they can better this miniseries with a movie....we'll see.

Photo of the Day

Or rather, photo shoot of the day. I found this on Triplecord Photography's blog today, and I just fell in love with it! Prettiest bridal shoot EVER. See more photos on their blog!

Secret Photos of Bees...

Well, maybe not so secret. I'm sure he knew I was there. Assuming bees can "know" anything.

I was taking photos of this lavender bush for my depth of field assignment, and I had to stop and get a few (tons) of photos of this bee. I don't like things that can sting me, but I have to admit he's rather beautiful.






I'm loving my camera! Look at the fluffiness on his back and the patterns on his wings! Gorgeous.

More of my photos

Welcome back to "some random photos I took this week!" They really are quite random, but I like 'em! And in fact, the first two aren't random. They were for my first assignment at my Photography Class! The assignment was basically centred around shooting under artificial light, and using different white balances to see what we came up with. They also obviously wanted us to be a bit creative and interesting. We had to take twelve different pictures of each composition with different shutter speeds and light balances (keeping the ISO and aperture constant). I won't bore you with all twelve pics of each scene, but here are the two I liked best.

The pyramid ceiling at a mall near my house. A security guard came to kick us out so I took these in a hurry, which meant I didn't have quite the angle I wanted. Ironically the course lecturer told me this one had good composition. I wonder if he would have liked the version I actually meant to get more or less?


Yeah...I like food. Especially when it's chocolate. Mmm, smarties. I decided on this close-up to contrast with the wide scene of the ceiling.


Then I ate them all.

I'm quite pleased with my efforts, though this other girl had an awesome shot with a plant and a garden light that made me jealous :-)

Now for the random! My landlady has this cool mosaic mirror outside her office. I used it to play with focus. This is what happens when you focus on the mirror...


And this is what happens when you focus on the reflection in the mirror! Pretty cool, huh?


A little fly on a leaf...


Some fun pinky-red berries in the garden. Goodness knows what they are. Enid Blyton taught me never to eat unknown berries.


The landlord's car after the rain. I was practising depth of field (which is one of our assignments this week. I'll post it when I've done it!)


My first experiment with sun flare! I knew I loved it. Always a favourite in wedding photos...


A leaf of ivy after the rain. I have about a hundred of these photos. I just adore ivy.


Some fresh green plant outside. My landlords have a really nice garden! I just love how soft and NEW this looks:


And it wouldn't be a photo post without Golly McGollumson :-)


He's so precious. I just wish I had another cat to practise on. Preferably one that didn't leave me gifts like this in the bathroom:


I never found his tail.

Photographer Friday: Jason Q Tran

Today's Photographer Friday is the talented Jason Q Tran. The last one is one of my favourite photos ever!

RIP Natasha

A beautiful presence was taken from this earth today. Rest in Peace, Natasha.

Photo of the Day

How is it that I can actually FEEL the love in this photo by Cheyenne Schultz?

Natasha Richardson

I've been reading the news all day. I really, really hope she's going to be okay. She's one of my favourite British actresses (after Emma Thompson and The Dames, of course!) and I just love her to bits in The Parent Trap, which is one of my favourite movies.


For those of you out of the loop, Natasha (daughter of Vanessa Redgrave, wife of Liam Neeson, sister of Joely Richardson) was injured in a skiing accident yesterday. Various reports say she is in critical condition and/or braindead. There was a statement that she had died, but this was later retracted to state that she was not expected to survive.

I'm really depressed right now. I'm hoping everyone's thoughts and prayers find their way to Natasha and make a miracle happen.

Down the Yellow Brick Road Part XVII: Details - Reception

Here it is, folks! The reception hall at The Moon & Sixpence, all gussied up for a night out at Mr and Mrs Ruby Slippers' wedding.


The main table. Loving my damask runners! I hung this one forward so it was more noticeable:


A close-up of the main table. Because we couldn't decide on a classic actor or actress to name the main table after, we used one of our classic engagement shots.


A close-up of the candle bling I created to dress up the main table a bit:


Another angle. I also love that the petals spilled over onto the floor:

The table flowers. I'm posting a LOT of these because I love how they came out. Granted, the vases were much bigger than I'd wanted, and created quite a mission at the end of the evening to disassemble, but they looked gorgeous:




Our Oscar favours!


Table views! Yup, posting a lot of these too.

Charlie Chaplin:

Cary (deliciousness) Grant:


Getting creative through the chair with the fabulous Judy Garland:


The iconic Katharine Hepburn:


The fabulous Ginger Rogers:


Ok, I'll stop now. The other tables were Humphrey Bogart and Bette Davis.


Oh look, more flowers:

Hanging table-listings just outside the entrance. I'm so pleased with how these came out. I worked on them for bloody ages! As you can see, I used the same photos as the ones on the tables on the one side, and had the list in a damask border on the other.



We used a different shot from our engagement shoot for the head table listing, though:



The menu, with the same damask border:

I love the mirror bases I rented!

This is the guest book table. We decided to use our baby pics for the heck of it! How cute were we??? (Yes, I had red hair).


A nighttime shot (all the others were taken right after the set up, before the ceremony, but this is what the hall actually looked like to us):


Our starter! The rest of the food was buffet, so it didn't look to exciting on a plate, which is why, I guess, there are no pictures of it! This was a biltong and peppadew tartlet (sounds bizarre, but it was actually the yummiest starter we tried). The vegetarians got versions sans biltong.


The flowers lit for the night. I'm glad the staff at M & S organised this sort of thing!


The outside of the hall. I'm glad we had extra candles to line the steps - it looked so romantic!


I'm actually very pleased with how it all turned out! Hard work paying off, etc etc. :-)

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
Part VII: Going to the Chapel and We're...
Part VIII: Meanwhile, Back at the Chapel...
Part IX: Down the Aisle
Part X: Readings, Vows & Tasty Treats
Part XI: Man and Wife
Part XII: Cake and Family
Part XIII: Boys & Girls
Part XIV: Couple Shoot the first
Part XV: Couple Shoot the second
Part XVI: Details - Programs