Monthly Archives: October 2010

We could have danced all night!

We can sleep when we’re older!

One last summer fling

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Tagged Bachelor party, Boston, Groomspeople, Wedding, Wedding Party, Wedding Planning

Volumes of Love: Just Keep Swimming, Just Keep Swimming…

Posted on October 26, 2010 | 1 Comment

On July 18, around 9 AM, I woke up a married woman. Well, a groggy married woman. A happy, groggy married woman. Once we got up, Mr. Library and I decided that the first full day of marriage deserved a fantastic start. We had requested that the hotel bring us up a couple slices of wedding cake to our room in case we didn’t get any during our reception, and man, they delivered. They had wrapped up a slice of each flavor! Taking advantage of their excellent service, we decided that a marriage should begin with lots of cake. So we ate all four pieces. All. Four.

This was all that was left of our breakfast (only because the middles were plastic. Yeah, I made that mistake).

Once we felt like we were going to burst from cake and buttercream, we packed up our gear, including my dress, and headed down to find the rest of our guests. We had invited people to join us for an informal brunch get together, but when it took a bit to pack the cars with the wedding leftovers, a lot of people simply peaced out. Sad but true.

There were, however, a great number of wedding party members who stuck around. Unfortunately, the day after our wedding was fun for some and painful for others. You see, BIL Library thought it wise to go shot for shot (and drink for drink) with Mr. Library’s Aunt S and then by himself. Mr. Sox, Sister Library’s boyfriend, and Best Man K also got in on this dubious life choice. The next morning was ugly. Very ugly. The fruit platter the resort had left for us the night before was used as some hangover repellant (or repair) for Mr. Sox, but the rest were left to suffer on their own. This is what became of BIL Library:

We had all planned on going to a nearby restaurant for brunch, but since Bethel is a ski town, the information online was very very wrong. And we were let very very hungry. So what is a hungry bridal party to do?

Go to Melby’s, of course! For those of you who don’t live around Southern Maine, Melby’s is a little hometown restaurant in Waterford that wouldn’t ever make it to a culinary magazine for their decor but would for their amazing homemade comfort food. I have grown up going to breakfast at Melby’s — it used to be named Tut’s General Store — and I was thrilled that I could share it with my friends. I’m not sure the restaurant was as excited as I was, but they didn’t disappoint with their food. Even though I was full of cake, I still made room for some delicious eggs, hash browns, and toast. Mmmmm… Mr. Sox had the most interesting order of the morning. To cure his hangover, he ordered a side of bacon. And Gatorade. That’s it. The waiter’s head almost exploded.

After breakfast, we said goodbye to a few people who wanted to head home and then caravan-ed to FIL and MIL Library’s house for our after-wedding pool party! Our guests who had stuck around were treated to leftover wedding cake, wedding favors, snacks, and a cook out. We swam, laughed, and towards the end, opened presents!

Like the amazing friends and bridesmaids that they are, Miss Sox and Bridesmaid Al took photos and wrote down everything we opened. While I won’t bore you with all of the photos they took, I will highlight some of the most meaningful and useful presents we opened that day.

This is Mom Library next to our HUGE pile of gifts. Our guests were far too generous. With our tiny apartment, we didn’t even know where to put some of it. This has now been fixed, thanks to my inherited ability to stuff things away like Dad Library.

My proudest moment probably came when we couldn’t get the box open to Miss Sox and Mr. Sox’s gift. Needless to say, they were totally impressed by my ingenious solution.

One amazing gift that came in super handy during our honeymoon was a Flip camera from Groomswoman K. We used this thing everywhere on our honeymoon, Miss Sox and Mr. Sox’s wedding, and during our second ceremony. We love it!

While all of our gifts were lovely and appreciated, this one took the cake. This was a gift from Gram Library.

This was the first quilt my grandmother ever made. Some of the fabric on the inner squares is from a dress I had when I was a baby. I cannot tell you how much this means to me. She had always been planning on giving it to me for my wedding, and here it was. It’s almost too pretty to use it, but I’m not sure that’s what she would want. (And check it out… it features two of our major wedding colors!)

People began to leave around early evening as many of them came from out of state, and Mr. Library and I double checked our honeymoon bags. We had left them both at MIL and FIL Library’s house because my Aunt C and Aunt P have a nasty track record for messing with newlyweds’ luggage before a honeymoon. When my parents got married, they took their suitcases and filled the underwear with rice and sewed up the leg holes. It was simply too risky to leave our bags in a location they could find. And I mean that in the most loving way possible.

With goodbye hugs and kisses from FIL and MIL Library, we headed back to my parents’ house to bask in our post-wedding high and get ready for our flights the next day. And the rest? Well, you’ve already read about that!

Walk me through this:

We could have danced all night!

We can sleep when we’re older!

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Tagged after-party, Bride, Family, Friends, Groom, Honeymoon, Maine, Wedding, wedding guests, Wedding Party, Wedding Planning

Volumes of Love: The Final Hours

Posted on October 17, 2010 | 1 Comment

By the time we got up to the Groom Squad’s suite, it was already about midnight. I was exhausted, but I wanted to live up every moment before my body and mind finally shut down. Mr. Library also needed to grab his belongings from the suite, so we decided to join in on the impromptu after-party that was taking place. There weren’t many people, just a handful of groom squad members, bridesmaids, and their dates (the sign of an awesome wedding if everyone wants to hang out even when they aren’t being told to do it!). People passed around some drinks, and we all settled in just to chat.

There were definitely some stories told that made me question just how much I knew about our friends (weddings bring out the crazies in people, I tell you!) and there were times that made us closer together. As much as I wanted to just pass out, I am glad we spent that time with our friends after.

Around 12:30, Mr. Library and I called it a night and told our friends good night. We walked back to our hotel room, grabbed my heels and a groomsman’s jacket that had been left at one of the tables, and got on the elevator to our suite. On the way up, two gentlemen joined us. See that Mr. Library was in a suit and I was in a dress, they asked if we had gone to the wedding.

We looked at each other, smiled, and said a sheepish, “Oh yeah!”

The guy then asked if it was any good, and we smiled even wider and gave him a simple, “Yes, very good.”

Once we reached our suite, it was bedtime. There was brunch and a pool party to get to in the morning!

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We could have danced all night!

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Tagged after-party, Bride, Family, Friends, Groom, Maine, Sunday River, Wedding, Wedding Planning

Volumes of Love: I Want to Dance with Somebody

Posted on October 17, 2010 | 2 Comments

I know my friends and my immediate family. We love to dance. If there is music and space, we will create a dance party… including in the supermarket. So when it was finally time to dance, we let loose!

My youngest cousin C was mesmerized by my dress, so we had a twirling contest. She loved it!

Our guests, young and old, really came alive and danced for a good portion of the evening. We had asked the DJ to play generation neutral songs so that everyone could enjoy them, and I think he did a pretty good job with that. There were, of course, times where I wished that he would just play another slow song so I could dance with Mr. Library, FIL Library, or BIL Library, but that didn’t happen. C’est la vie.

There was a lot of singing, shouting, and ridiculous dance moves going on, and I am so glad that our photographer captured our friends having a good time. People slowly began to call it a night (call it a downfall to having older crowds attend a wedding), so Mr. Library and I got pulled from the dance floor every couple of songs to say goodbye and thank you to people. Most of the time it wasn’t an issue, but when Mr. Library’s grandmother took nearly 15 minutes with her silent goodbye and she didn’t even say anything to me, I was a little angry. I had other guests and a party to be at. And I was nearly missing this:

Yep, that’s my grandmother leading the conga line! She danced so much during our wedding, she could barely move the next couple of days. She didn’t regret it one bit, though. Neither did anyone else who joined in for the amazing, room-wrapping line…

Mr. Library and I finally made our way into the conga line just in time to get some pictures and partake in the fun. Once the line broke up, my grandmother went to sit down, and Cousin J decided it was a good judgement call to go… well… you be the judge of what is going on here…

(If you guessed lap dance, you would be 100% correct.)

People continued to have a wonderful time, which was what was most important to us. My grandmother stole Sister Library’s boyfriend and told her to “eat her heart out” as she dragged him to the floor…

we danced and sang along to “Shout”…

our props from the photo booth made their way onto the dance floor…

and the guys simply busted a move.

It makes me so happy to be able to look back on our photos and see how much fun everyone was having. When it’s your wedding day, everything seems to blur. You think you’re taking it in, or at least trying to, but everything just flies. If you are on the fence about budget, trust me. Photography is worth its weight in gold.

As the evening began to wind down, our wedding coordinator approached Dad Library and told him that while they had originally said we could break everything down in the morning, we actually needed to get everything out tonight. They had a dance competition going on first thing in the morning, so the staff was putting everything together as soon as our guests were gone. Bummer. Ever the loving father, Dad Library kept this from me and Mr. Library, rallied Mom Library and my aunts, and broke everything down for us. They didn’t want us to leave the party, so they did the work instead. Seriously, how lucky can a couple get to have these people as family?

The night ended with some circle dances with Mr. Library and I in the middle to the tune of “Final Countdown” by Europe, and while it made me a little sad to see so few people left, those who made it to the end made it worth it. Clearly, we were surrounded by love and happiness in every sense of the word.

Our party ended around 11:15, which may seem early to some, but we were spent. Getting married takes a lot of energy! We said goodbye and thank you to our families as they crept off to their own rooms, and we scooted upstairs to change my stuff from the bridal suite into our honeymoon suite. After a quick change into my rehearsal dinner dress, we headed over to…

the groom squad’s (small) after party.

Walk me through this:

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Tagged Dancing, DJ, Family, Friends, Greg L. Strom, Maine, Photography, Reception, Sunday River, Wedding, Wedding Party, Wedding Planning

Volumes of Love: Cheesing It Up

Posted on October 14, 2010 | 3 Comments

While the dance party started in the other room, our photo booth started to become a central location to have some laughs. They followed the directions on the sign and had at it. But don’t let me do the talking. The photos can speak for themselves…

Mr. Sox certainly knew his way around the photo booth!

A loved the props. She wore the purple sunglasses for the rest of the night.

And my absolute favorite…
This makes me laugh every time!

For the amount of money we spent on this (probably around $30), we got tons of laughs and amazing photos. People didn’t get to print theirs out, but there are other times they can get them! If you are considering doing a DIY photo booth, do it. You save money and it is SO FUN!

And finally, WE DANCE!

Walk me through this:

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Tagged DIY, Family, Friends, Greg L. Strom, Maine, Photobooth, Photography, Reception, Sunday River, Wedding, Wedding Party

Volumes of Love: Receiving the Details

Posted on October 14, 2010 | 4 Comments

While we’re on the topic of sentimentality, let’s back up a little and focus in on some of the details I poured my heart, hands, and soul into for the reception. There were quite a few, and I really feel like our guests noticed and appreciated them.

I do have a confession to make, though. I am totally disappointed in how under photographed our reception decor was by our photographer. I spent years on these projects – YEARS! – and I do not feel like they got their fifteen minutes of fame in the eye of the camera. That being whined, here we go…

As guests entered the ballroom, they were greeted by our escort card table filled with birds. We also trimmed the table with a string of photos from both of our lives.

All of the tables were named after covered bridges in the states where Mr. Library and I have lived: Maine, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Poor Rhode Island only had one!

On the other side of the entrance was our smorgasbord of signs and “activities.” First, we featured our guestbook options:

Our traditional guestbook took awhile for me to put together. I put all of the photo corners in by hand because Mom Library insisted that not everyone will want to stick their thumbprints on canvas. To my frustration, my mother was incorrect. Only three people signed our guestbook, which was designed for 100. Three. THREE! Oh well. Now it will make a nice photo album for the photo booth pictures.

Our thumbprint tree was a hit! People loved it, including the resort staff, and nearly everyone signed it. I chose to use three different green ink pads to give people choice, and I am so glad they used all of them. It now hangs on our living room wall to remind us of everyone who took part in our lovefest.

Farther down the table was our White Knot project. I had received some flack from some family members right before the wedding about this as they believed “a wedding isn’t a place to make a statement,” but I ignored them. This wedding was about Mr. Library, me, our family and friends, and many in attendance are not allowed to marry their partners. If there was ever a time to make a statement, it is now! I was touched and thrilled with how many people came up to me and told me how much it meant to them. People were wearing white ribbons everywhere!

You’ll also notice our photo family tree in the picture above. In retrospect, I wish I hadn’t thrown my hands up as quickly as I did on it the night before, but people seemed to look past my inability to make the frames straight and were excited to see the collection of family photos we had put together.

Each photo was labeled with who the people were, their marriage date if known, and how they were related to me or Mr. Library.

Once guests found their tables, they were greeted with our centerpieces and table markers. As mentioned before, I had named the tables according to covered bridges found in the three states we had lived in (though not together). The centerpieces themselves finally came together and looked wonderful lit up!

The table markers featured my own photography on the front and some information about the bridge on the back. The head table was named after the bridge Mr. Library and I had just gotten married on, my parents sat at “Pop’s Bridge”, etc. We tried to pick appropriate and cute names for each family who attended.

Guests also had a menu made out of green card stock and the handmade napkin poofs I spent hours making on New Year’s Day. I loved the color it brought to the tables, and I think our guests loved that they were like extra favors.

See how many people turned them into fashion accessories?! LOVE IT!

Speaking of favors, we had delicious favors that never seemed to have photographed. By anyone. Probably because they were gone so quickly! You can sort of see them in the table photo above if you really look for them. Mom Library’s cousin K has made all of the favors for our extended family members’ weddings since my cousin K got married in 2001. She specializes in molded chocolates, so Mr. Library and I had her make chocolate covered pretzel rods for our favors. We love them, and our guests seemed to enjoy them as well. Mmmm nothing like a sweet and salty snack to remind you of a fabulous day!

Outside of the ballroom was our photo booth setup. It worked out pretty well for as low-maintenance as it was. Dad Library and our wedding coordinator put the finishing touches on it in the morning, and once people realized it was open, they took full advantage of it and the props.

Obviously, my family members are very shy, introverted people.

Next up: people break in the photo booth and the dance floor starts rocking!

Walk me through this:

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Tagged details, DIY, Greg L. Strom, Guestbooks, Maine, Photobooth, Photography, Reception, Sunday River, Thumbprint tree, Wedding, Wedding day, wedding guests, Wedding Planning

Volumes of Love: CATCH!

Posted on October 11, 2010 | 5 Comments

Traditions in weddings are often disputed. Sure, some traditions can seem out of date or a little cheesy, but I didn’t really care. I wanted to keep most of them because they were fun and made for some excellent pictures.

Case in point? The bouquet and garter tosses. Some people want to ditch them because they think people are uncomfortable with the tradition, but I love them. Our wedding featured them, and the hilarity that ensued did not disappoint.

First, the DJ called Mr. Library to the floor to remove my garter. The problem was, I only caught on to this fact about two minutes before when I realized that I didn’t actually have my tossing garter on. I had my own garter on, but the one meant for tossing was in the day-of bag. Oops. I got Miss Sox and Bridesmaid Al’s attention, and they helped me through it on just in time.

I kindly tried to sneak Mr. Library some hand gestures to show him discretely which leg it was on, but we failed in the secretive communication department.

It was then my turn to toss my bouquet. I have always loved the photos that come out of an event like this, so I made sure I gave a good toss.

The funny thing about that is… well… the toss wasn’t exactly “good.” Sure, it got where it was going, but I released a little too high up in the arc, the bouquet hit the ballroom ceiling (according to Mom Library), and promptly fell to the floor with a thud. My friends then looked at each other going, “Do you want it? No? Well I don’t want to pick it up… Come on, just take it… Anyone? Crickets?” Even though Miss Sox was clearly the next to get married, Friend A sucked it up and picked up the bouquet. Way to take one for the team, A!

Mr. Library then had his turn at tossing. As you will notice, the guys didn’t back away quite as fast. They waited until the last possible second and left Mr. Sox in the lurch!

Their faces all seem to suggest the same message: ”Hahaha sucker!”

Being a good sport, Mr. Sox made the best of an awkward situation with Friend A (don’t you wish you picked it up now, Mrs. Sox?). A pointed to the spot on her leg where it would be acceptable to place the garter, and once there, Mr. Sox made a run for it.

With all of our formalities done, it was time to party the night away!

Walk me through this:

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Tagged Bouquet, Bouquet toss, Bridal Party, Bride, Family, Garter toss, Garters, Greg L. Strom, Groom, Maine, Photography, Reception, Sunday River

Volumes of Love: Just Dance!

Posted on October 10, 2010 | 6 Comments

Ohhhh dance parties. How I love you. A lot.

My family loves a good dance party. With so many female cousins, there is bound to be a quality conga line and/or running man in there somewhere. I was eager to start the real dance party, but we had a few formal dances to get through first.

First up, our first dance, naturally. Mr. Library has always remembered the first dance he danced with me to during high school (how does he remember this but can’t remember to put the plastic wrap away?!), so that song has been “our” song from day 1. It was only natural to use it as our first dance song, no matter how cheesy and outdated it seemed a couple days before.

Dance lessons were never really an idea that occurred to us. We didn’t have the time or the money or the care. Were people attending our wedding to see us emulate “Dancing with the Stars”? Nope. We did our best sway and spin and simply enjoyed each other.

Three-quarters of the way through the song, we had our DJ invite our wedding party to join us on the floor. Everyone in our party had brought a date except for Bridesmaid Al and Best Man K, so we put them together. They were very good sports about it.

After our song was done, Dad Library joined me on the floor for our Father-Daughter dance. Dad Library took it upon himself to choose the song, and he wanted to keep it a secret. In the end, he ended up picking the song I really wanted to dance with him to anyway without even a hint from me! It’s like he’s my dad or something…

He had chosen this song because of its meaning. He had fallen for the message, which is exactly what I had done. When a family friend mentioned it to him, he was hooked. Dad Library even went out of his way to buy me the CD with our song on it so I could listen to it whenever I wanted and think of him. I’m still tearing up thinking about it now.

I have only seen my dad cry a few times in life. He’s a sensitive guy on the inside, but he often doesn’t let himself cry in public. He had begun to breakdown when he gave me away during the ceremony, and he started to lose it again while we danced. We talked about other topics so that we both wouldn’t start blubbering. We talked about how everyone around us looked like paparazzi. We talked about how to properly execute a spin (and did so a few times). We talked about how fast the day was going and how much we were enjoying it.

When our dance had ended, it was Mr. Library and MIL Library’s turn.

MIL Library had chosen the song, which was very sweet and upbeat, much like her relationship with Mr. Library. Much to her relative dismay, though, she forgot just how long the song is and decided halfway through to just “rock out.”

They rocked out a few times before the end of the song, which made almost everyone laugh, including me. I found it endearing and completely hilarious!

Yeah, I have an ugly laugh face. Oh well.

Next up was our final formal dance. We wanted to honor those who had come before us, and we decided to do so with an Anniversary Dance. We wanted to make it known that everyone who celebrated an anniversary could join in, especially since a number of our guests were LGBT, but I don’t remember whether the DJ made that known or not. As the years started to go up, people began to leave the dance floor. The final couple was Mr. Library’s Aunt S and Uncle T who have been married for an incredible 48 years.

While we had planned to go right into our huge dance party, there was a touching request on behalf of two of our wedding guests. You see, July 17 wasn’t only our wedding date, it was theirs too. They had come to our wedding on their own fifth anniversary. My Aunt C requested their first dance song and the DJ invited them to the floor to have their dance again.

With our formal dances out of the way, it was time for the dance party and the hilarity of bouquet and garter tosses!

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Tagged Bride, Dancing, Family, Greg L. Strom, Groom, Maine, Parents, Photography, Reception, Sunday River, Wedding, Wedding Planning

Volumes of Love: Let Us Eat Cake!

Posted on October 9, 2010 | 7 Comments

Oh cake. Mr. Library and I had been dreaming about our cake for nearly a year. When we went to our first tasting at Nothing Bakes Like a Parrott, we fell in love with the amazing flavors, textures, and the personality of baker Jessica. She was sweet, real, and an alum of my undergrad university! Perfect! Plus, she delivered, which was one of our key concerns. Since the price was right, we were thrilled to book her.

Beyond the delicious flavors, Jessica was great to work with because of her creativity. You see, I wanted to surprise Mr. Library a few times during our wedding day, and cake time was one of them. Somewhere along the planning line, I got the idea to order Mr. Library a special groom’s cake, something that typically isn’t done here in New England. I bounced the idea off from Jessica, and we came up with the perfect cake: an A1 cake! No, the flavor wasn’t A1, but it was shaped like a bottle! Mr. Library has a serious thing for A1 (it was the first thing in our fridge when we moved into our apartment and he eats it on everything, including salad and soup!), so what better way to incorporate his obsessions into the wedding?

Once the speeches were done and we had a minute, I asked Mr. Library to follow me over to the cake table for a surprise. When he saw it, his face lit up. It was perfect! I was thrilled, and everyone else at the wedding seemed to enjoy it too! The photographer, however, didn’t notice that it was there until he began showing me the photos in our album. Hmmmm…

After dinner was done, we went right into the cake cutting. Why make people wait any longer for this deliciousness? We decided on four different flavors: red velvet with raspberry and buttercream, strawberry cake with lemon buttercream, and chocolate cake with German chocolate filling in our wedding cake, and lemon cake with raspberry filling in the groom’s cake.

Wedding cake cutting is intimidating; no joke. Our wedding coordinator tried to help up figure out how to cut the cake. Why doesn’t anyone tell you to practice this before the wedding?

We gave it a shot, and when all else failed, I was a total lady and used my fingers. It was our wedding, right?

The ever important question then became feeding each other. If you have followed this blog or know us in real life, you know for a fact that Mr. Library and I are nothing if not classy, mature, and sophisticated. Still, we thought it would be okay if we just once put down our guards and fed each other cake without forks. And smooshing cake in Mr. Library’s face? Oh, that never crossed my mind at all! But maybe it was a good idea we went at the same time just to be on the safe side…

This was about when Mr. Library began to realize that I was trying to take the cake out of his mouth and that I was trying really hard to eat all of it off from his fingers in my mouth. But why ever would I want to do that?

Yeah, we became another couple who smooshed the cake. Do I regret it? Oh heck no. Sure, it wasn’t the most formal thing to do, but it was US. Our guests know and love us for being goofy with each other, and at that moment, it was about us and not so much them. So, to all of you brides out there worrying about what your guests will think if you attack your partner with cake, stop worrying. Just do what you want to do. Seriously. It was FUN!

Now that we were slightly covered in frosting and red velvet, we kissed, took in the moment, and then my new husband did the most gentlemanly thing he could do: he cleaned me up!

Now that our cake was being whisked into the kitchen for cutting, it was time to begin the formal dances. I really wanted to just dance already, and I think Mr. Library felt the same, but since we didn’t do our first formal dance yet, we were forced to do awkward ones until the DJ put on our song. Here’s to awkward dancing and all the fun that was to come!

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Tagged Bride, Greg L. Strom, Groom, Groom's cake, Maine, Photography, Reception, Sunday River, Wedding, wedding cake, Wedding Planning

Volumes of Love: Say Something and Eat!

Posted on October 2, 2010 | 10 Comments

Now that our wedding party was situated at the head table (a table idea which I now have decided I didn’t really want. I totally would have done something else.), the DJ handed over the mic to Best Man K and MOH/Sister Library. I had been looking forward to these speeches for a very long time, so I was excited to hear what they had to say.

Best Man K took the floor first. Naturally theatrical, K has a way of making people laugh. He began by talking about his relationship with Mr. Library, which began their freshman year in college. They are quite similar in how unique they are (though that sounds like a contradiction) and hit it off right away. The speech kept going. I don’t remember how, but K brought the topic around to how Mr. Library used to eat eight-inch carrots in the cafeteria during college. I’m pretty sure that’s why my face looks the way it does in the photo above. Where was this speech going?

K then brought it back around to me and Mr. Library. He said that when he met us as a couple, it felt like a natural fit, especially since I hadn’t told K that he was an idiot as many other friends’ girlfriends had. When he heard that we were getting married, his thought was, “Now this makes sense.” I think that was my favorite part of the speech. Our relationship has always felt so natural to Mr. Library and me, so it was nice to know that it was the same for others.

By now, the speech had seriously lasted five minutes. Our guests were still patiently holding their glasses of champagne and, well, waiting for the end to toast us…Getting the hint, K wrapped it up with some sweet lines about how much he loved us as a couple and we toasted.

MOH/Sister Library took the mic next. I was really looking forward to what she had to say, and with the way that wedding planning with her had gone, I was hoping this would build some of those bridges back. Sister Library pulled out a few notes she had written on a piece of paper and quickly zoomed through them. She repeated her point a few times, which was to be good to one another. Even though she had practiced the speech with my other bridesmaids, I think she got nervous and lost what she was going to say. It was certainly a valiant shot, and I love her for trying.

With the formal toasts made, Mr. Library and I had wanted to open the floor to anyone one who wanted to make a toast, but the DJ took the mic away. Bummer. I was hoping to hear more of what our guests had to say (yeah, that was probably the attention whore side of me kicking in… but it was our wedding!). Our bridesmaids put their bouquets in water on the head table and prepared for the next activity.

Dinner began to come out, so Mr. Library and I took the opportunity to take some photos with guests while people ate.This is Mrs. B. Mr. Library and I met in her seventh grade math/English class in middle school, and she was my inspiration for becoming a teacher. It was only natural that she be a part of our wedding day, and those who met her loved her. She retired from teaching this year, and she asked if I would still include her in my classroom to fill the void. She’s too cute!

We didn’t get any shots of dinner (why would you want pictures of people stuffing their faces), but I can tell you that the meals were delicious. Miss Sox, who hates salad, even took 17 bites of salad for our wedding on the 17th! How sweet and nutritional! I inhaled my food and made myself sit down to eat. I was going to enjoy this meal and actually eat something.

Once dinner was done, it was time for the tastiest part of all… CAKE!

Walk me through this: