Love is TLC!

(First, sincere apologies from Love and myself for the lack of posting. We're both married now, and will have much more time to devote to catching you all up! PROMISE!)

Last weekend, I was privileged to direct, be a part of, and witness the joining of Love and B in holy matrimony. There are so many stories from that day and the week leading up to it, but I

will leave you with only a picture...and an assurance that the wedding, reception and marriage that ensued were beautiful, perfect, and everything Love & B deserved. Thank you both for letting me be a part of your day!

-Amoré

Amore is ABC!

Amore is married!

While Mrs. ABC is off enjoying her honeymoon, I just wanted to share a sneak peak of her big day. It was the most touching ceremony I have ever been to. All her plans were executed perfectly and even the weather was gorgeous.

Here's a lifetime of happiness for Amore!

--Love

(Let's do this again in 47 days. . . )

How Does your Wedding Stack Up?

The Knot recently released their 2008 Real Weddings Survey, which surveyed 18,000 couples of various ethnicities, education, and income levels across the United States.

The average cost of a wedding in 2008: $29, 334 (up 5% from 2007). This is significantly more than my budget for our wedding, but I am lucky to live in a rural area where lots of my costs are significantly lower than the national average. The most expensive cities to get married in were: "Long Island, New York; New York City; Northern New Jersey; Hudson Valley, New York; Chicago; Connecticut; Los Angeles; South Florida; Rhode Island; and Orange County, California."

Are you a DIY bride (like I wish I were)? You're not alone. "More than half (55%) of brides made their own favors and ceremony programs. Other top DIY categories were escort cards, save-the-dates, invitations, and decorations."

Both Amore and I will have fairly casual weddings. We're not the only ones: "Only 20% of weddings in 2008 were characterized as 'formal/black tie.'

I will have a nearly nine month engagement and Amore will have nearly a year. Our engagements are short compared to most couples: "Couples marrying in 2008 were engaged for an average of 15.7 months, more than 25% longer than those married in 2007. A majority of couples (71%) lived together prior to getting married."

So how are "Recession" brides changing their plans? "The 2008 Real Weddings Survey results reflected greater wedding spending overall, despite the growing economic concerns last year.
In a more recent survey conducted by The Knot (in March 2009) a majority of brides (60%) indicated that their wedding spending is proceeding according to plan, while 40% have reduced their wedding budgets by approximately 16%. "

How does your spending compare to the national averages? Are you changing your plans because of the recession?

--Love

Animoto Slideshow

Animoto is my new love today. It's an amazing site where you can upload your pictures or easily get them from Facebook, Flickr, and other picture sites and instantly turn them into a beautiful slideshow. You can upload your own music or choose to use orignial music from the site (which I did). The 30 second video is free and you can use up to 15 photos. You can also choose to "spotlight" your favorite photos. Because it's timed it may cut you off before 15 photos (I only got 11).

How easy and fun! I chose to use Lisa's wedding as a practice and within five minutes this is what I got:




You can choose a full length video for just $3 or an unlimited subscription for $30 a year. I haven't gone that far yet, but my first 30 second video has me excited about this service!

Just think of all the possibilites!

--Love

Real Wedding: Laura & Matt

The August Wedding Extravaganza continued with a gorgeous ceremony and fun reception in my hometown, Knoxville. Not only was the wedding in my hometown, but it was at my home church, which just so happens to be the church in which I'm getting married. Time to take notes!

Matt & Laura met in our high school youth group, when Laura & I were freshmen, and Matt was a senior. Matt was a big brother to all of us--always carting around these freshmen girls to and from church. He was such a sweetheart, but only a good friend to us. Laura's mom often asked her if there was something going on between them, and Laura always insisted there was nothing there.

Fast forward to Laura's freshman year at UT, where Matt was finishing up as a senior. Having known each other from high school, the two were fast friends, and Laura spent a lot of her time over at Matt's. She always insisted to her roommates that they were just friends, but soon enough, they had started dating.

After Matt graduated from UT, he started law school at UT Memphis. Matt & Laura spent three long years with six hours between them. Needless to say, they've both toured most of the state!

On Laura's 21st birthday, she and Matt went hiking to a popular spot in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park--the Chimney's. There, where they had shared their first kiss, Matt proposed. The engagement was almost 17 months--they wanted to wait until after Laura graduated from UT with her bachelor's degree and Matt graduated from law school. Oh, and Matt took the Bar just 10 days before the ceremony!

Matt and Laura's wedding was a celebration of love & friendship. I'll let the photos speak for themselves. (all photos by yours truly)

-Amoré

Real wedding: Jessica and Hunter

There is no way to relay every detail and personal touch of their day. It was simply a beautiful wedding. I'll try to hit some highlights.

First, can I say that this was an incredibly fun wedding to be a part of. Jessica and Hunter are not only very much in love and excited to be getting married (and living in the same country again), but are also loyal friends. The bridal party was just that--a party!

Jessica made such a beautiful bride! She was one of the stunning and most classic looking looking brides I have ever seen. Throughout her wedding day, Jessica was totally calm. Everything seemed to go smoothly and she did a great job of enjoying the day and staying stress free. She, and her maids, hung out in the church parlor and relaxed as they waited for pictures.

All day she was anxious and excited to see Hunter. They chose to see one another before the ceremony (posts will soon follow with mine and Amore's thoughts on this). They entered the sanctuary with only their mothers looking on from a distance. For Jessica, this was a great decison and helped calm any nerves she may have had.

The ceremony was officiated by her brother-in-law, which made it super personal and touching. Jessica and Hunter chose to write their own vows. Now I admit I'm skeptical of writing one's own vows (Jennifer Aniston vowed to make Brad Pitt's favorite bananna milkshake during their wedding and we all know how that one turned out *cough* Angelina). Jessica and Hunter's vows were serious, personal, and enduring. Their vows were personal, classic, and yet another personal touch to their ceremony.

One of my favorite reception detail was the "boat o' doughnuts." The groom doesn't love cake so they substituted a groom's cake with a sailboat full of his favorite doughnuts. The sailboat symbolized the groom's love of travel. The "boat o' doughnuts" was a huge hit!

The father-daughter dance was emotional for everyone! It was pretty unavoidable when they chose to dance to Heartland's I Loved Her First. As they danced, a slideshow of pictures of Jessica and her father througout the years played. By the end of the song they were no longer dancing and were simply turned to watch the slide show as they cried.

Can I just rave about their wedding photographer, Julie Roberts? She's amazing and wonderful! She made the day go smoothly and her photographs are simply amazing. I would love to be so lucky to have her shoot my wedding some day. Jessica introduced us and I asked her if she would be my friend. I've "blog stalked" her for months and encourage everyone else to become a fan too. You might have to scroll down a few posts, but watching Jessica and Hunter's slide show is worth it. See Jessica and Hunter's wedding photographs and check out her blog at Julie Roberts Photography.

P.S. I caught the bouquet :-)

--Love

Real Weddings: Jessica's Bridesmaids' Luncheon

This was my first real bridesmaids' luncheon so I was super excited and it didn't disappoint. The luncheon was hosted by the brides' sisters (who were also bridesmaids) and her mother's best friends. It was a small, intimate gathering of bridesmaids and close female family members.

The event was held at Gourmet & Co., a local upscale eatery, in a special event room. Jessica wanted to do individually decorated cupcakes for the wedding reception, but they cost too much. As a surprise they had the same cupcakes at the bridesmaids' luncheon and they were delicious! Everything at the luncheon was integrated the pink and green theme of her wedding.

One of my favorite, personal touches was the guestbook. Instead of having a traditional guestbook the hostess had a platter for everyone to sign their best wishes for the bride and groom. I love this idea because this is something that Jessica can use again, display, or use as a keepsake.

The bride is the youngest daughter in her family. Both of her older sisters are married and it has become a tradition in her family for the sisters of the bride to embarrass her at her bridesmaids' luncheon. For her eldest sister's bridesmaid luncheon the sisters presented an "evolution of Rachel's hair," which included pictures throughout the 80's of her hairdos. Her older sisters wanted revenge, *cough* I mean to carry on the tradition for Jessica.

Jessica is a self-professed geek, lover of games shows, and competition. So, for Jessica's bridesmaids' luncheon her sisters presented JESSpardy, a personalized take on Jeopardy (one of the bride's favorite game shows). The categories included "Kid's Stuff," which was full of embarrassing stories and pictures of the bride's childhood, "Geek," which highlighted Jessica's geekiness, and finally "Klutz," which included stories of the bride's clumsiness. By the end of the "game show" everyone was laughing hysterically and sharing their Jessica stories. The sisters got their fair share of revenge. . . I mean shared in a special tradition.

I thought the bridesmaids' luncheon was a great opportunity for all the special women in Jessica's life to get together and relax before the wedding craziness officially began. Jessica presented the hostess' with silver and pearl framed pictures of her bridal portraits as a thank you.

Her bridesmaids' received green and pink monogrammed bags, white flip flops for when our heels got too uncomfortable, OPI nail polish to be used for our pedicures, Swarovski crystal earrings and necklaces to be worn for the wedding, a special note from the bride, and a bridesmaid's survival kit. The survival kit, which came in handy for everyone, included: gum, safety pins, bandaids, Q-tips, nail files, sewing kit, double stick tape, handkerchief, and an airplane bottle of alcohol.

By the way, the boys were not left out. One of the groomsmen's family treated them to bowling, lunch, and special bowling awards as a special treat.

Next up: Jessica and Hunter's real wedding

--Love

Real Wedding: Lisa & Josh

Love & I celebrated another wedding this weekend! With that, the August wedding extravaganza is over, so it's time to show you some of the fabulous photos and tell you about the beautiful days of some of our best friends.

First up is the August 2 wedding of Lisa & Josh. Lisa is a sorority sister to Love & I (and she'll be a BM in my wedding, too!) She's a beautiful woman concerned with social justice. She works for the college we graduated from, and I'd say she's had a remarkable impact on all those she's come across.

Her wedding to Josh, her high school sweetheart, was beautiful and personal. The bridesmaids each got to choose our own style of dress from David's Bridal, as long as it was in the color truffle. I've heard of this BM option, but never seen it in person, and I have to say that it was great! Each of us got to pick a dress that was flattering on us, yet we still coordinated so well. The bride's signature color is brown, so it was only appropriate that our dresses were truffle!

I'll quit the jabbering and get to the photos in a sec, but I wanted to point out three other super-personal details: First, the groom's grandmother made the wedding cake and the groom's cake. YUM. Second, the centerpieces included river rocks, a perfect detail for this outdoorsy couple. And third, as I mentioned in an earlier post, the bride loves old time music. Lisa & Josh two-stepped for their first dance (and several dances afterward)! In all, it was beautiful, personal, and SO MUCH FUN!

On to the pictures! Please credit all photos to Grubb Photos.

-Amoré

A "not-so-special day"

Now I don't expect to have a "platinum wedding" and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on my special day. No, I will be very aware of my budget, but the one thing I do expect my wedding to be is special. I want to plan and dream and celebrate that day because I only plan on getting married once. I can think of few things that deserve to be celebrated as much as finding the person you want to spend the rest of your life with--cause for a celebration in my book!

That's why I was horrified last summer when I attended the wedding of my then boyfriend's (who from here on out be referred to as "bad life choice) best friend in Maryland. I was visiting and the day before his friend joined us for lunch and declared that he was getting married the next day. . . Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. The bride and groom had planned on getting married for some time and had simply decided to finally set the date less than 24 hours before the wedding was to be held. The next morning we woke up early, drove to the town center where the wedding would be held, and joined the few family members gathered.

The ceremony was performed by the clerk of the circuit court (my father holds the same elected office in my county) and the town square was actually very nice. At the last minute the bride realized she had not made arrangements for anyone to take pictures so I was quickly voted the official wedding photographer (having only met her the day before). I'll be honest and admit that my pictures from the day aren't exactly noteworthy.

Following the ceremony the guests went to a local hang out that is a bar, restaurant, and liquor store all in one to celebrate. The only problem was that the hang out didn't open til noon and we were stuck standing outside waiting for the place to open for nearly an hour. After which, happy hour began for "bad life choice" and the others gathered to celebrate.

After eating lunch together one of the bride's friends decided that they were lacking a wedding cake so she went to the local grocery story to pick one up. When the friend returned she insisted that the cake needed congratulations written on it. This became a problem once she realized that the cake was still frozen and there was no icing to decorate it with. Her solution to the problem: write on it with a Sharpie. Now, I learned in the first grade not to eat markers so this cake was tough to stomach.

Needless to say the day didn't feel special or out of the ordinary. I am in no way declaring that one must have a fabulous wedding that costs a lot of money. My grandparents were married nearly 60 years and had a nice courthouse wedding where my grandmother wore a dress suit instead of an extravagant wedding dress. Their marriage is one that I want to mold mine after someday, but I know that their day was special.

So, whether or not I have a designer gown or reception at the best venue I know that I want to plan my day and make it a celebration of the love I share with my husband to be. . . and I want a wedding cake not decorated with a Sharpie.


--Love