Down the Yellow Brick Road Part XIII: Boys & Girls

After the family shots, it was onto the bridal party portraits! Here are some of my favourites. I can't really give a running commentary here, since we were just posing most of the time. "Oh look, here we are on a fence. And here we are in a field. And here we are walking down a path." Yeah...um.

Yes, Mr Ruby Slippers IS sticking out his tongue at me:


As always, I did some photoshop on these to get different effects of softness and sharpness and brightness. I'm learning, but it's fun!







I faked the darkness of the flowers here...I had to, they were the focal point, and PINK! This looks much more as I intended:

We took a quick moment to run through our dance. Goodness knows what Best Man RS is doing!
Or why Sister RS looks so hacked off:


I love this one:

And my absolute favourite (of course!):

Who doesn't love a good jumping shot?



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

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

And more wedding goodness arrives at my house...

...which is beginning to look like a disaster zone. Luckily (?) my house is always in a mess, which makes the epic pile-up of wedding goodness not as noticeable. Silver lining here, people!

So aside from the eight boxes I've been purloining from work over the past few weeks (eh, they usually get thrown out, anyway), and which are full of random paraphernalia like the crystalised hanging table cards, the cake toppers, the confetti cones (those I've actually done so far), the blinged-up candles, my shoes, garter, the guestbook, and so on and so fifth, there are also three green supermarket bags full of extra candles which a work colleague gifted me from her daughter's wedding; the wooden cardbox, which is too big to fit in these boxes; a big plastic bag of photo frames for the table names; the clapperboards which were such a good idea until we decided on the classic actor table names instead, which means we have to find another way to use them because I abhor waste; twelve ice-cream tubs full of golden Oscars; and a big kitbag which I'm going to use for my emergency kit, jewellery and general "don't forget this" items on the day. Then lying on the shelf near my bed are the two BM dresses (which I can't hang up because they're strapless AND stretchy), and my veil is hiding in a cupboard so Mr Ruby Slippers doesn't see it, together with the GM ties. Then on the door to the computer room I've hung the damask table runners (they were too long for the cupboard). On top of this the computer room itself (known to us as the Spare Oom) has test-run printouts scattered everywhere, of everything from the menus to the programs to the placecards, as well as lists with headings like "don't forget this" and "parents to take to venue". Aaargh, so many teeny details to organise! It's frightening.

So the actual point of this post was that last night my seamstress dropped off the BM dresses, veil and ties at my house. I promptly had a mini dress-up in my veil (which would have been a full-blown dress-up if my dress wasn't off enjoying its last few weeks of freedom at the alterations place (probably boozing it up with the other gowns) and tried to recreate some flying veil shots (note: this doesn't work inside). I didn't get any photos, because it was impossible by myself to hold the camera whilst my veil covers my entire body, but this is pretty much what it's going to look like:


This is Mrs Jelly Beans from Weddingbee. My veil even has scattered rhinestones like hers, to give that extra dash of sparkle without being too blingy, but while hers was long in front and cathedralesque at the back, mine is just above ankle-length all the way around, if I keep it even. The beauty of a drop veil is that it can be adjusted to be any length! It also looks really pretty with the front at waist-length and the back trailing on the floor, but I *think* I've decided against this in case it covers and detracts from my beautiful train.

Here is a picture of the bridesmaids' dress. Again, I don't have one of them in their actual dresses (this is from the net somewhere), but I love the fabric we chose and the colour matches my Ruby Slippers perfectly! Oh, the serendipity of it all - because I didn't take the shoes along when we bought the dress fabric. It just happened!

The only thing is we didn't get brooches to put at the side where the dress gathers up, and I think it's necessary for a bit of dressy sparkle. So now I'm going to have to find two costume brooches from somewhere easy and close (I really don't feel like travelling somewhere just for brooches at this point..)

Oh, and one more piece of wedding goodness - I finally found white parasols! Which means we can take scrumptious photos like these:

John & Joseph Photography

Tanja Vogt

I've lost the source of this one, but isn't it yummy? It even matches my colours and everything! Only my girls are going to be a little less - ahem - free with their womanly assets.

Is wedding stuff taking over your home?

Introducing the bridal party!

I'm not a particularly social person. Most nights you'll find me at home, doing wedding preparation (read as: blogstalking), reading, writing stories I never finish, watching copious numbers of dvds, tv shows, etc. That sort of thing doesn't leave much time for partying and clubbing, which is fine because I don't really do those things anyway. What this does mean, however, is that I have a very small circle of friends. And the friends I do have are scattered all over the show; no 'big group of friends all hanging out together' stuff for me. This did, however, make it far easier to choose my bridesmaids than it would if I had a gazillion best gal pals.

Easiest was the first choice: Sister Ruby Slippers.

I was a bridesmaid at her wedding in 2003, but the one thing I regret is that the photographer never got a good shot of just US, the sisters, together (something I plan to rectify at my own wedding). This is the best shot I could find - taken by a family friend - of us waiting outside the chapel. There probably was a good professional photo of the two of us with some other people, but I don't have access to that.

Sister Slippers and I aren't super close, but it's not for any particular reason. I guess we just move in different circles and do different things. Growing up with her wasn't the most fun in the world, and we had many the catfight, but once we got a bit older we realised we had more in common than before. A four year age gap isn't conducive to having stuff in common when one of you is twelve and starting to crush on boys, and the other wants you to play My Little Pony with them. It also helped that once she moved out she stopped annoying me with her slapdash forgetfulness and leaving stuff everywhere :-) So now we have a friendly sisterly bond. She likes some craaaap movies and some shiiiiit music, but we have the same sense of humour and we get along well.

My sister duly chosen - of course, you've got to have your sister as a bridesmaid, unless you really hate each other - my other choice was obvious: Best Friend Ruby Slippers (hereafter known as J).

OMG, look how chubby I was in England!

I met J in 1999 when we did journalism together at university. For the first few weeks/months I knew her as a girl in my class, said hi to her if we bumped into each other on the way to other classes, that sort of thing, but that was it. Actually J is a year younger than I am, but the way our uni course was structured was that we could pick two electives, one for our second and one for our third year. I picked film and journalism, as did she, but she did hers the opposite way around! So I was in my third year and she in her second when we met. I often wonder what would have happened if we'd never met, because I really have no other girlfriend as good as J!

This is going to be a long story. One day I happened to sit down next to J before class, and heard her reciting a line from one of my favourite movies of All Time, "What's Up, Doc?" It's a relatively obscure movie from 1972. I knew it because my Dad had seen it back in the day, and made us record it when it came on tv in the early 90's, and J had seen it because it stars Barbra Streisand, with whom she's obsessed. I was like, "Is that a line from "what's Up, Doc?" and she was like, "Oh my God, you've seen "What's Up, Doc?", and that was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. It turned out we both loved musicals; she introduced me to the awesome fantasticness that is Judy Garland, and we're both nuts about classic films. Case in point:

Me: We're naming our wedding tables after our favourite classic film stars.
J: Oooh, can I be at the Bette Davis table?
Me: How do you know we're even having a Bette Davis table?
J: Um, DUH.
Me: Good point.

In 2002 J and I went overseas to England, where we lived and worked for about nine months. And our friendship survived! Here we are at Picadilly circus:

And just so I can gloat, us with Dame Judi Dench after a performance of "The Breath of Life" at the Haymarket in London (Those tickets were worth every pretty pound). If you look at the first picture of me and J, and can drag yourself away from my double chin, you'll see the book we're holding is the playscript. That's why we look so excited!


Onto the men. This won't be as long, because I can't really wax lyrical about why Mr Ruby Slippers is friends with them.

Best Man Ruby Slippers:
R and Mr RS have been friends since high school. Like me with Best Friend RS, Best Man RS is also younger than Mr RS, but they met on a school trip, joined community theatre (which, incidentally, is where I met them both), and have remained friends ever since.

I really struggled to find a picture of R and Mr RS together, but there just doesn't seem to be one. So this is a pic of him (in the middle, with Other Groomsman RS on the left, and a good friend of ours, J-S, on the right.

Other Groomsman Ruby Slippers:
A is also a friend of Mr RS' from schooldays. He is very kindly helping us choreograph our first dance, since he teaches on the side. More on the first dance story later! Meanwhile, here is a picture taken of the three of us, the night Mr RS and I first got together. It was a Christmas party, it was well after 3 in the morning, and we look like shit, but I'm putting it here because it was a momentous occasion. And no, I don't know why we were pointing at a foot.


So...a nice even wedding party of two special people each. I sometimes wish it could be bigger, so we could have awesome big group photos like this:

(image by Carl Zoch)

but it's okay. They're all four of them great people, and I'm so happy that they're standing up for us at our wedding.

Bridesmaids Dresses: Who Pays?

I can't be the only one who feels a bit confused by this! As far as I always knew, the bride pays for the bridesmaid dresses (or, at least, whoever is paying for the wedding does!) and it's up to the bride if she wants to pay for their hair and make-up as well. Now, planning my own wedding, all the info out there tells me that the girls have to pay for ALL their own stuff!That seems a bit unfair, surely?It's your wedding, why should your friends/sisters/cousins/former roommate have to fork out hundreds or thousands of rands for stuff they'll probably never use again? It just seems a bit...stingy.


In the US, it seems to be completely normal and accepted to let the bridesmaids pay their own way. All the etiquette articles and books and magazines say this. But I'm paying for my two girls. My sister paid for my dress when I was bridesmaid at her wedding; I think she'd be pretty miffed if I didn't do the same! Anyway, it just feels right. What do you think? What did you/are you going to do?