face on a stick, flowers, dancing...must be a wedding!

So the wedding: you guys, the wedding was awesome. Kristen was engaged for almost 1.5 years and her planning skillz made mine look like baby-stuff. Case in point: her itinerary was 5 pages long, mine was a little note card. Her monogram was literally everywhere, tiny details were sprouting up at every corner and there was not a detail missed along the way. Wow, that girl loved wedding planning....a girl after my heart [and yours, I'm sure].

I was a reader in her wedding which meant I had to get to the church early. Which, of course, meant I had ample time to snap a bunch of pictures at the ceremony before the chaos began. I have a thing for mosaics and religious icons are always interesting. Therefore, I like this picture:

Love the icon

Another thing I liked? Her color palette. Technically it was hot pink and black but her bridesmaids bouquets were hiding in a secret room of the church.....I spotted pink and green and immediately thought it was time for a sneaky picture. LOVE these flowers.
Hot pinks? At Kristen's wedding? No way.

So before everyone else arrived, Hannah and I studied our readings. Kim looked on with wise eyes and wished us well. She was really soaking it all in and living in the moment:
Kim, helping Hannah prepare for her reading

Then finally it was time for the beautiful bride to walk down her aisle. I rarely get emotional at weddings but when the bride gets teary eyed it makes it hard, you know?
Here comes the bride!

The ceremony was beautiful and then they sealed it with a kiss:
Mr and Mrs!

Off to cocktail hour! Kim enjoyed herself as you can see:
Kim hearts wheat beer.

The reception was at a fabulous country club and we took advantage of the glorious weather on the patio before dinner.
Wisconsinites do STL

Upon arriving to our dinner table we saw that Kristen, once again, outdid herself with decorating. Just look at these adorable place settings:
Place settings

Oh, and her bridal bouquet was a highlight for me, too.
Bridal bouquet

The head table? Stunning:
The head table is stunning

I was getting all artsy with the pretty candlelight and my 1.8 lens. That would be my cranberry and vodka which I thought fit the pink theme nicely, no?
Getting artsty with my cranberry vodka

So as you can see, Kim was a total hit. I am not joking when I say I might have 100 pictures of people with Kim. Here are some of the two of us as Nate played with shutter speed. I have to call him out and say that he gave up on the 'manual' setting really quickly and chose the easy 'auto' within about two tries. Also, as the lights got dimmer and dimmer we were FORCED to use our crappy built-in flash. I hate the stupid flash but could not manage without it. Oh, if only my new tripod fit nicely into my suitcase....next time, my friends.
julia plus kim foreva

So yeah, I didn't want to give into the flash just yet [but that's just me being stubborn]. So when everyone got these awesome fiber optic wands for Kristen and Will's first dance, I thought I'd play around a bit. I actually like this one of my crazy hubby:
go crazy with the fiber optics, Nate

And although it's far from a technically perfect image [way, way far from it] I really love this one because it is so wild and blurry. It just sums up that moment so nicely, in my opinion. Maybe it gives some of you a headache or a near-seizure. If so, I apologize:
Love this one!

Then this one just freaks me out. There are two of our little bride!!
Totally psychedelic, man

Again, obviously blurry but kind of artsy, too. I like it:
A fave, even though it's blurry.

The new Mrs. and Mrs. with Kim. I'm sure this one will be a framer, don't you think?
Front page of the wedding album, for sure

To illustrate our friends' obsession with Kim, here is just smattering of my pictures. This is Lindsey with her fiance John....wearing Kim's face as his head. They are getting married in August and I know you can't wait to see their entertaining pictures!
total showboaters

We danced the night away to a fabulous band and even made it up until 3 am. I really don't feel the need to post any pictures beyond this point in the night:
Wedding guest pros.

But if you are dying for more you can always go to my Flickr page. I find them all quite interesting but maybe that is because I know my friends. Man, I miss my friends.

And that was wedding #1 for this year. Many more to come. And now that I've purchased a cute clutch purse big enough to hold my camera and TWO lenses [yes, it's a huge clutch] perhaps I will tote the SLR along for the rest of the events. It's just too much fun, really. Except for when I woke up the next morning in a startling panic, worried that I'd lost a lens during the nights' escapades. Of course, I did not but still. It was heart-stopping at the time.

12 comments:

  1. Love this post!!

    A clutch for the SLR is a great idea! I was just saying this weekend that I HAVE to find a new Coach to carry my SLR :) Love a reason to get a new bag!

    Would you use a smaller case in your clutch.. or no case at all?

    xoxo

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  2. those pics with kim's head are too funny. you are such a great friend to make her feel like she is there.

    I saw a girl at dizzy's wedding with one of those flash diffusers as an attachment for the pop up - not part of an external flash. have you seen such a thing? Hers looked homemade out of a film case (like a real film case), but I found one online I might get. just because sometimes you can't avoid the flash...and hopefully it would make things look a little less harsh...

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  3. Awesome awesome pictures Julia! And a beautiful wedding!!

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  4. Great pictures!

    And I totally got married at that church! Ascension in Chesterfield?

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  5. The pictures with Kim are all so great. You guys are wonderful friends to make it so that she could be there!

    The wedding looks amazing. Though, I should tell you, I actually did not like planning. Sure, my wedding was the best wedding ever and was totally awesome, but I was so glad to be done with planning!

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  6. Yes, Jennelle~ Kristen is a big Ascension girl as are many of her bridesmaids. What year did you graduate?

    And Little Miss Southern~I didn't use a case at all, just the camera inside my giant clutch [and lens case, of course]. I was just very careful! I think there is a pic of the giant clutch on my flickr stream....in the pew before the ceremony?

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  7. I love the crazy blurry pics with the glow wands. Sigh, every post of yours makes me wish for a digital SLR more and more.

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  8. omgosh! is jesus throwing up signs in the first photo ? lol JK :)

    You looked AMAZING! So gorgeous and your skin is absolutely GLOWING!

    XOXO

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  9. i really like your shot of the drink and the head table- good depth of field, julia!

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  10. The head on the stick is priceless! Totally my sense of humor :)

    Sigh...weddings are so much fun. It looks like you two had a blast!

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  11. What great pictures! I especially loved all of the pics with Kim's head.

    I loved your dress by the way...

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  12. Talk about heart stopping. The second I realized I left my 5D's battery and battery charger plugged in at the STL Sheraton, at approximately 1:45 a.m. Saturday morning. So I definitely know the "heart stopping" feeling!!

    Which, BTW, they claim was never found. I have two batteries, the one that was plugged into the wall and the one that was in the camera that was being used throughout hte night. So I'm stuck with an almost dead battery, with NO charger. SHITE!

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