Down the Yellow Brick Road Part XVIII: Speeches

Guys, I am SUCH a nana. And by that I mean short-for-banana, not that I'm someone's grandmother. :-) The reason I'm a silly banana? I forgot I'd never finished my wedding recaps.

Cue shock, horror, and possible fainting.

I know, right? I start a blog about planning my wedding, and then forget to finish the wedding! But, in fairness, all this business of me photographing other people's weddings kind of took over. And I was almost done! There's just the reception left, and...well, I don't know if being a wedding photographer has rubbed off on me, but the reception really isn't the most interesting part of the day. Not that I didn't like mine. But still.

Anyway, onward down the road of yellow bricks! If you want to catch up on everything that happened before, scroll to the bottom of this post and follow the many links. Otherwise, continue...

We arrived into the reception hall to the fanfare that comes in the middle of "Rose Tint My World" from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Did I mention we're quirky movie nerds? Yeah.

Then Mr Ruby Slippers swept me around for a kiss...


Don't get freaked out by this next photo. We're really NOT licking each other's tongues. It just looks like we are.

Look! A wedding ring on my new husband! Yay!

Then we sat down and my mom helped me get my veil off and hook up my train. I also dumped my bouquet in the champagne bucket. I'm so classy.

It's getting on for eight months later now, people (EIGHT MONTHS), so details are a bit hazy. I know there were some speeches, from my Dad:

Want to know what's special about his tie? It's the one he wore when he married my Mom in 1971. I just thought it was the best idea to have him wear it...happy marriage mojo, and such...

My Dad is the king of bad puns. Here we are reacting to one:


Best Man Ricky gave a great, funny speech. I KNEW he was going to talk about the night Mr Ruby Slippers and I got together, and he did. See, it was a Christmas party, and Mr RS and I got to kissing on the bed (that's all, I promise!), and Best Man Ricky came bounding in to say goodbye. There was much hurried sitting up and straightening of hair on our parts, and awkward, "Um, ok, I'm going now, because I don't know what to say and I'm embarassed" shuffling stammers on his part. Good times. :-)


I've been trying for DAYS to get the video of this speech uploaded. Blogger isn't playing ball. If I ever get it in, I'll send you an updated heads up! Sorry.


There was toasting of and to each other at some point:



Finally, Mr RS got his turn. As he arrived at the mike, the DJ cut in with "I'm too sexy...", and my hubby played along:
His speech - when he got to it, was sweet, funny, and loving, just like him. I think I teared up a tiiiiny bit, but remembering the high I was on that day, not much.


I love you, hubby Slippers.


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
Part XVII: Details - Reception

I ♥ Faces Fix-it Friday

Ah, it rolls around so quickly. Seems like just yesterday I was posting last week's entry...

Here is today's original picture from I ♥ Faces.

Actually, I think there's very little wrong with this picture. It's beautifully exposed and clear, and there are no weird shadows or sunny spots anywhere. I subscribe to the "if it ain't broke" school of photoshop; that is, since this picture is so lovely I'm not going to mess with it too much and do all sorts of weird effects and softness and odd things. I did, however, decide that I needed to get in closer on his face, so I cropped in a bit, and then I decided that his expression and big eyes would be best served by making the photo black & white. Babies and amall children look gorgeous in black & white, in my opinion. Before I converted it I lightened and sharpened his eyes, just to bring them out. And voila:


Such a sweet, beautiful boy.

I ♥ Faces Fix-it Friday

I realised I forgot to post my entry from last week's Fix-it Friday at I ♥ Faces! So here you go.

This was the original picture:


And here's my version:

There wasn't much wrong with this sweet photo. I cropped it a little to make the focus more on the little girl than the background, used the clone tool to fix up the shadows on her face, and used Pioneer Woman's soft and faded on her at 25%, with the desaturated layer down to 0%. I also sharpened her eyes, lips and nose edges, as well as her hairband. The End!

Alice

So I've been a bad blogger. Sometimes, you know, I just don't feel like it. I can't think of anything interesting to say, I've got nothing specific to post about, and I've been busy with my photography business and getting stuff moving along with it. I will tell you that I might be going to do something really huge. And, of course, it might not happen, so I can't say what it is. Just that it would mean a complete life change and a wonderful learning experience. But it depends on so many factors coming together.

Anyway, yesterday BFF Ruby Slippers emailed me in excitement that she'd seen pictures from Tim Burton's new Alice in Wonderland film online. Now I'd conveniently forgotten all about this, mostly because I've tried to block Tim Burton from my mind ever since the heinous, hideous mess that was his humungously disappointing version of Sweeney Todd. Seriously, if any of you saw that film and thought that's what Sweeney Todd is LIKE, you had better go and rectify that now. If Stephen Sondheim were dead, he'd be turning in his grave. So go and watch either this version or this version. And if you still don't like Sweeney Todd, well then, you clearly just don't Get It.

Anyway, to get back to the original point, I'm extremely intrigued by the new promo pictures from Alice in Wonderland. My first thought was "Oh, great, Helena Bonham Carter's going to be pale with dark eyes and wild hair. You know, like in every other Tim Burton movie she's been in."

Even the one where she was animated. :-)

But I'm really intrigued by her somewhat freakish and slightly computer-generated look in the new movie:

And here's Anne Hathaway as the White Queen:


And Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter:


What I'm REALLY keen for are pictures of Alan Rickman as The Caterpillar and Stephen Fry as the Cheshire Cat, but I can't find any as yet. But look at the film visuals:



Aargh, I want that last one painted on my wall. Minus the freakish Tweedledum and Tweedledee, of course.

And this is Alice:

Now from what I can gather, it's more of a SEQUEL than a retelling of the original Alice. Seems that Alice, as a 17-year-old, finds herself coming back to Wonderland after many years. Hmm. Sounds like Tim Burton has borrowed heavily from American McGee's Alice (which has been in movie development hell for years), as well as the novel The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor (which I loved).

Either way, I'm keen for awesome fantasy gorgeousness. Is this a good time to admit I've never even seen the original animated Disney version, nor read the full novel? I know, I know...

Alice in Waterland

Some of you may know the site DeviantART. It's an amazing forum for photographers and artists to display their work and get inspired by others. Some days I've practically lived on there, there is so much gorgeousness to see. It's like photography porn (in the best way, just as sites like Style Me Pretty and The Brides Cafe are wedding porn:-))

Anyway, I was wandering about there tonight, and I came across the most gorgeous set of underwater images by sugarock99. She's taken a series of Alice in Wonderland-themed shots (except they're Alice in WATERland, in this case) that are absolutely breathtaking. I just had to share some of them.









Go see the rest! And look at her other underwater pictures; they're magical.

Now I want underwater housing for my camera, boo.

Photographer Friday: Christine Meintjies

Another South African photographer feast for you today! This time it's Christine Meintjies.



Wellingtons - soooo cute!

The reflection shot on the right is sublime. And I love the horses!





I don't even like wine, but boy do I like this picture:


Gorgeous.

Photographer Friday: Lizelle Lotter

Ah, Photographer Friday...if only I remembered to do it every week! This time I'm back with another amazing South African photographer, Lizelle Lotter. I've just discovered her over the last few months, and boy oh boy, is her work beautifully wonderful.







The most fun groom shot I've ever seen!



I love the negative space here...I'm a sucker for that.

I love a photographer who gets awesome "details" - like this cat guarding the shoes at a beach wedding!



Swoon.