Our Journey to the Aisle...

Our NOLA Nuptials: The Party Never Ends

amyandjoeysbigday — Thu, 20 May 2010 18:01:07 +0000

After the money dance was over, Mom BF informed me that we should change into our “going away” outfits since our reception was almost over, time wise. So, I went in the back and Mom BF helped me change into my going away dress. I got my dress at JCPenney’s for about $30. Ironically, it sort of matched our favor boxes’ pattern.

After that was done, Mr. BF went in the room to change. In the meantime, I tried to help Mom BF load my luggage in Mr. BF’s car, while people were still dancing around. Then I heard it: the beginning of the second line!

Instinctively, I ran back in there to see what was going on! The second line dance is notoriously the last dance where the bride/groom lead the line of guests around the dance floor. Bride/groom wave fancy umbrellas, guests wave napkins. It’s fun. There are tons of videos on YouTube if you’re curious to see one in action.

So, I go inside, and Mr. BF is still changing. I start freaking out. WHERE is our reception coordinator? WHY did she tell the DJ to play when clearly the bride/groom weren’t around? I just had this sad feeling in the pit of my stomach that this is the end of the reception, and we weren’t going to be involved.

Here’s some pictures taken by our photographer. Everyone seemed to be having a blast. :\ Like, seriously, Miss R was getting down and even Dad BF got in on the fun!

Images courtesy of Amanda Meyer Photography

I tried not to get too mad about this, but the music ended and with that, it was over. I was holding back tears at this moment.

Note: I hope I don’t sound too bridezilla here. It’s just that I love this New Orleans tradition and even put together our umbrellas for it. I wanted to do this with Mr. BF, but it was too late, or so I thought.

Thankfully, BIL BF insisted that we had a re-do to the DJ. He could tell that I was pretty bothered by our coordinator’s mistake, so the DJ was going to do it.

Sadly, our photographer was gone. This dance wasn’t captured by our photographer, because of course, that dance marks the end of the wedding. I’m not blaming her at all for this.

Luckily, Mr. BF’s coworker captured these pictures for us, and he had a pretty nice camera. I found these to be fairly good pictures, if I do say so myself. Here’s our second line; the way it should have been the first time.

I’m pretty sure Mr. BF felt a little out of his element with a boa-lined umbrella, but heck, where else, other than New Orleans, can you get away with this?

Even my great-uncle took to the dance floor for this one. The second line just brings out the party animal in everyone!

My guests were having a great time, and I was SHOCKED to see how many people were still at the reception for the end of it. I know a lot of people leave after the cake cutting, at least in my experience.

Nope, not my guests. I’d like to think the free booze, king cake and music requests kept them at the party. Just a note to the brides, “no-play” lists are not a necessity. Give your DJ a playlist some songs you want to dance to, and that’s all you’ll remember. Apparently, ”The Chicken Dance” and “Macarena” were requested while we were mingling with guests. I have no recollection of this. All I remember is “Jump on It”, the one and only song I wanted to shake my booty to.

Can I borrow this kid’s energy? He seriously was a party animal, and loved waving that napkin around.

Funny moment of the day in photo: I’d like to thank Mr. BF’s coworker for taking this shot. Mr. BF, you are BUSTED!

After the second line dance was over, there was this moment captured between us. Looking at this picture, you can tell what we’re thinking.

Bride: OMG…wait a second…it’s over. No more DIY invites, no more wedding planning, what the heck is happening?!? What will I do now?!

Groom: I know what we’re gonna be doing tonight! ::wink wink::

And with that folks, that is our big day. The day where we had a wonderful time with family and friends, where my new last name became amazingly easier to pronounce, and of course, the day where we became husband and wife.

Thanks so much for being there for me during the planning process. You all lent me wonderful advice, tips and were sontinuously there for me during my vents. Thanks for patiently reading through my recaps, despite them almost taking a year! (Our anniversary is Sunday!) Since becoming a bee, I felt like I’ve gained many wonderful friendships here, and that has made me the happiest Ballet Flat you could ever imagine.

Now that I’m a Mrs., my blogging has become more heavily focused on the cooking/baking side. If you’re interested in my kitchen adventures, feel free to follow me over at The Nifty Foodie. I do have a life blog in there as well, where I’m constantly struggling to be as cool as Martha Stewart.

Our NOLA Nuptials: The Money Maker

amyandjoeysbigday — Wed, 19 May 2010 14:58:39 +0000

This post is probably going to make some of you cringe, but where I’m from, money dances are a tradition. I’ve never been to a wedding in New Orleans that didn’t have a money dance, but I know to some, these are considered tacky. I learned this after being flamed on a wedding forum when I was looking for song suggestions. Ugh…why can’t we brides just get along?

Anywho, we chose “Mony Mony” (close enough to “money” right?) by Billy Idol as the song. We chose this song, because we just wanted to have some fun and laugh with our guests over a dance. Sure, they didn’t have to put money in a Crown Royal bag that my MOH was holding, but wow, were we overwhelmed by the generosity of our guests. It took us 2 songs to dance with everyone who wanted to dance with us.

Yes, I know, Crown Royal bag. Call me Tacky. So, a bride forgot one thing to get, and the reception coordinator had to improvise. Big deal.

So, here are some shots from the money dance. We all had a blast!

This is me and our ring bearer. He is so stinkin’ cute!

Oh yes, ALL of my friends from college decided to gather around Mr. Ballet Flat and dance with him. I’m sure he felt like the quarterback on the football team at senior prom here.

Here are me and FIL Ballet Flat. I’m sure he was cracking jokes about something or the smile from the wedding is just plastered on my face. I don’t think there was a time when I didn’t smile that night. HA!

This is the wife of one of Mr. BF’s groomsmen. They were actually going to Disney World the same time as us, and received big news the day after the wedding. They were pregnant! (By the way, the pictures of their precious baby girl clutches at my heart strings and brings on some serious baby fever!)

This is my brother and I. He’s a total jokester. Probably cracking jokes about how he had to run a marathon to escort three women (my mom and two grandmothers) down the aisle in a row because someone went out of order. Ah..poor guy. Sorry ladies, he’s off the market.

Ahh…Uncle BF (is that what he’s considered)? This is Daddy BF’s brother. He is the most hilarious man I will probably ever know, and when one of my friends requested “Stanky Leg” to the DJ, he was one of the few adults on the floor learning the dance. It was awesome-sauce.

Gosh, I can’t believe how fun the money dance was! It was so good to talk to guests one last time before the reception was over. Stay tuned…we have one more dance to go!

Did you/will you have a money dance?

Images courtesy of Amanda Meyer Photography

Previous recaps:
Our NOLA Nuptials: The Bridals
Our NOLA Nuptials: Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler!
Our NOLA Nuptials: Practice Makes Perfect
Our NOLA Nuptials: It Was All a Blur
Our NOLA Nuptials: Poof, Spray and a Lie
Our NOLA Nuptials: The Finishing Touches
Our NOLA Nuptials: Walk it Out
Our NOLA Nuptials: Making it Official (Part 1)
Our NOLA Nuptials: Making it Official (Part 2)
Our NOLA Nuptials: Some Afterthoughts
Our NOLA Nuptials: At First Glance
Our NOLA Nuptials: Smiles All Around
Our NOLA Nuptials: Dancing Klutz
Our NOLA Nuptials: Just Dance
Our NOLA Nuptials: Charmed
Our NOLA Nuptials: Time for Dessert
Our NOLA Nuptials: Put a Ring on It

Our NOLA Nuptials: Put a Ring on It

amyandjoeysbigday — Mon, 03 May 2010 20:03:08 +0000

After eating some delicious cake, drinking a little more and of course, more boogie-time, it was time to toss that bouquet!

I had a toss bouquet made by the florist, because I’m totally sentimental and couldn’t imagine my bouquet ripped to shreds by single ladies. I wish I could tell you that I did something creative with my bouquet, but nope, it’s just dry, sitting on a shelf in my craft room. ::sigh:: (ideas are welcome at this point)

Anywho, the DJ started playing Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” and a crowd of fiercely competitive women gathered near the balcony. They were ready.

Uhm, yeah. You gotta love how my MOH is really going in for the kill here.

Victory for Mizz K!

After that, it was time for a sweet moment with Mr. Ballet Flat. He took off my garter in the balcony waiting area, so no one saw my pasty thunder thighs. Whew…

Now, don’t laugh too hard at my lack of memory. The Ballet Flats cannot remember the song that played during the garter toss. Oops!

Anyway, lookie here! I think it’s so so cute how the little boys in front are just staring Mr. BF down, ready to get that garter! I wonder if these kids know what it means to catch the garter.

The reach….

….and the winner! You can see there were some surprised faces there haha!!

After that fun was over, it was time to get back on that dance floor and earning some green! Stay tuned.

Images courtesy of Amanda Meyer Photography

Our NOLA Nuptials: Time for Dessert

amyandjoeysbigday — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 18:53:23 +0000

After the girls finished laughing about the outcome from the cake pull, we had quite a crowd gather around to watch us cut into our wedding cake. I love this picture of Mr. Ballet Flat…just a great smile there! I think it’s because he likes me or something.

I really don’t like cutting into cakes. Maybe it’s because I decorate them for a hobby and can appreciate how much work goes into them. So, Mr. BF took the reins and made that first cut…poor cake!

I’m pretty sure I was grabbing at the small sliver, trying not to get my hands too sticky.

I was so nervous about this part. I asked Mr. BF, well, more like PLEADED with him, not to smash cake. Thankfully, he didn’t, but apparently, I forced a huge wedge in his mouth. Oops!

We’re trying to chew with our mouths closed here and preventing any droppage, which I am known to do (klutz again). Momma BF would have had a heart attack.

Afterwards, we had to wash it down. This was a fun thing to figure out…darn arm looping. People kept yelling at me to face the cameras, but I was pretty stuck there. I should have used my left hand here or something.

Check out how big Mr. BF is cheesin’!! Oh yeah, Mr. BF was excited about getting into that grooms cake. King cakes are out of season in May, by the way, so our guests were all sorts of happy about this little surprise!

Oh, and just for kicks, check out the paparazzi. Crazy wedding guests!

It was time for our guests to dig in for dessert and of course, some more wedding fun! Stay tuned!

Images courtesy of Amanda Meyer Photography

Our NOLA Nuptials: Charmed

amyandjoeysbigday — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 14:59:04 +0000

So after we got our dance on and mingled, our coordinator told us it was cake time. Uhm, no need to tell me twice. I walked as swiftly as I could to the table as the DJ announced the names of the single ladies who were going to do the cake pull.

Now for those of you who are like cake pull, what the heck? It’s a southern tradition that is widely used in New Orleans weddings, and of course, there were a few ways I wanted to bring New Orleans traditions to our wedding. Every wedding I’ve been to has the traditional cake pulls, so I thought it would be fun to do them as well! Of course, I had to Ballet Flat-ify them. I wasn’t going to buy a traditional kit somewhere locally. So, I bought fun New Orleans-y charms and made them myself! Easy peasiest DIY project evah!

The bakery actually called me after my MOH dropped the cake pulls off for me, and asked if they should use white ribbon instead. They thought it would be more traditional. Hrm..I guess they didn’t realize I made these myself for a reason! They matched the fleur de lis on the cakes fairly closely too, don’t you think?

So, after rounding up the ladies from their groovin’, it was time to cheese it for the camera and grab that ribbon….

…and pull!

My friends and family were pretty excited that these were Louisiana charms, and not the standard charms that you can buy pretty much anywhere.

After licking off the icing and cake, everyone anxiously awaited their charm’s meaning.

Steamboat – life of adventure and travel
Mardi Gras Mask - life of mystery and spontaneity
Fleur de Lis – prosperity and wealth
Party Girl in Glass – life of the party
Crawfish- red hot romance
Bride & Groom – next to wed
Saxophone – life of harmony
Tiger (think LSU, not New Orleans) – strength and triumph
Streetcar – desire and passion
Drunk Guy on a Light Pole – loves a fun night life

By the way, I totally did NOT buy an old maid charm. I mean, who the heck wants the news that they will be an old maid?! Keep it positive at a wedding, folks.

Now that the cake pull was done, our guests were staring us down for dessert! It was time to cut that cake! Stay tuned!

Images courtesy of Amanda Meyer Photography

Our NOLA Nuptials: Just Dance

amyandjoeysbigday — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 18:50:06 +0000

After I showed off my crazy (klutzy) dance skills, it was time to dance with my Dad. I was a little nervous here, because I haven’t danced with my Dad before either haha! However, my Dad is a crazy, hilarious guy, and he made sure to make light of this situation.

In the planning days, I asked my Dad for music preferences. He didn’t seem to care, and it was hard to find something that perfectly fit our relationship. We aren’t don’t exactly fit the mushy father/daughter roles, rather, more like I’ll pitch a softball to you in the backyard for hours after school and you hit it as hard as you can, I’ll take you fishing on random Saturdays, eating lunch at random camps along the swamps, dodging bees away from the Kool-Aid, type of relationship.

Since I couldn’t find the perfect song, I just kind of googled top father/daughter songs and chose “Daughter” by Loudon Wainwright. Looking back, I have to laugh at myself for this choice. Too dang sentimental. I remember Dad laughing out loud when he heard the lyrics “that’s my daughter in the water”, and him screaming (yes, screaming) “Oh man, this song is SILLY!” After that, I couldn’t stop smiling and laughing. I love my Dad….haha!

I know some brides would freak out of embarrassment, but not me, nope. I started thinking about softball, fishing, him helping me avoid mall trips with Mom (sorry Mom)…those types of things. It was pretty awesome and laid back. Whew!

After we were done dancing, I walked to the nearest tray of food, ate a meatball (much to my Mom’s panic) and watched Mr. Ballet Flat dance with his mom. I can’t even remember the song, but I know theirs was truly sentimental and full of smiles.

After that, our parents danced. We chose “Through the Years” by Kenny Rogers for our parents, since it was fairly general and cheesy.

Now that the formalities were pushed aside, my guests with tummies full of alcohol and gumbo were ready to show off their skills! I can’t even tell you what the heck was going on in these pictures. I promise you though, I was pretty sober.

I know during most of these pictures, Mr. BF and I mingled/thanked guests for coming/tried to sneak in small bites of food. I love these pictures though, because it’s evident that our guests had a great time!

Stay tuned for the cake pull, full of the wahoos, darnits and OMGs!

Images courtesy of Amanda Meyer Photography

Our NOLA Nuptials: Dancing Klutz

amyandjoeysbigday — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:20:59 +0000

After our formals FULL of smiles, I changed into my awesome platform flip flops (heh, haven’t worn platforms since high school) and we were asked to get ready to dance.

I will openly admit, Mr. Ballet Flat and I have never (if memory serves me right) danced together. We were thinking about classes, but that’s too much pressure. I thought in my head about 2002 senior prom, when I kinda just swayed around in a circle with one of my good friends. With 150 of our family and friends watching, my mentality went from OMG! to whatever…let’s just dance prom style!

**cue Aerosmith’s “Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing”** (My favorite song from my favorite movie…so unoriginal, I know.)

It started innocent, with a lot of thoughts like, OMG we’re married, people are gonna get crazy drunk here because it’s NOLA, can’t wait to be at Disney World tomorrow…oh yeah, pretty random.

Then, oops! I stepped all over Mr. Ballet Flat. He was miraculously OK and all I”m doing was laughing. Maybe I was a little nervous…ok, must.concentrate.now.

Before you knew it, we were back in the moment. Completely us. Just swaying like high schoolers and taking it all in. (Another one of my favorite pics of the reception!)

Next thing you know, the paparazzi (aka family/friends) started screaming at us. “LOOK AT ME!” “STOP! SMILE!” “NO, KEEP DANCING!” C’mon guests, isn’t there some gumbo, jambalaya, ANYTHING to go eat? Killed the moment…

At this point, I knew that our guests just wanted to fill up those disposable cameras instead of fill up on food. So, I just gave up…the whole taking it in stuff was over. Don’t get me wrong, I was still a happy bride, but I was slightly aggravated too. You only do this ONCE.

At this time, I decided to get goofy and to try to shrug it off. I kept telling Mr. Ballet Flat that I was gonna twirl, so I’d raise his hand up and twirl. I did that a few times, and the last time, I slipped out of my flip flop and almost fell on my face. There’s the reaction….good job Ballet Flat, how classy of you.

I’m pretty sure this was the end of the song, and Mr. Ballet Flat was insistent on no more twirls. He didn’t want to drag me to Disney World with a broken leg. I guess I could understand that.

I will say, I’m glad there were no lessons for us. There was no pressure to do certain steps, and the few moments we had to kind of just relax and take in everything was stress free. Plus, a good bit of the song was spent posing for paparazzi guests, so it’s good that there was no routine anyway.

Stay tuned for a little more dancing. Only this time, no twirls or foot stepping and LOTS of laughs, at least for me.

Images courtesy of Amanda Meyer Photography

Our NOLA Nuptials: Smiles All Around

amyandjoeysbigday — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:41:21 +0000

One of the things I wanted to get done quickly was the formals. Two weeks before, I attended my aunt’s wedding and the photographer was SO slow. It took them an hour and a half to rally up everyone for the formals and get them done. I was so sad for her. She went straight from formals to first dance, then she had to cut the cake and throw the bouquet! After that, most of the time, people start leaving, so her wedding was over before she knew it!! I didn’t want this happening to me, so I asked our photographer if we could get this done quickly and painlessly (Literally, because I still had my dang heels on).

Let me tell you, my photographer was awesome with these formals. I do wish some of the people would have smiled though…it’s a wedding and people should be happy! You’re about to get unlimited booze, food and cake…what’s not to smile about?!? (You’ll see what I mean..)

So, here’s the GQ crew, as a few of my friends called them. My grandma kept joking that they looked like they were posing for a magazine haha!

Here are me and my girls: Mizz K, Miss K, Miss J and Miss R. I love them all to pieces…while I thankfully didn’t have to ask them to hold my dress to use the bathroom during the wedding, they did so much for me that day and I can’t thank them enough! They were also a blast to dance with…wahoo!

Here we all are together. The little one managed to get in there too and try to be the cute one in the pic. I can’t compete with him at all.

Then, it was time for family shots. My brother was not a happy camper, I guess. :\ I promise he does smile in real life. He was probably still a little ticked at the fact that he had to escort three people in a row down the aisle (which was NOT the plan..someone walked out of order). Good exercise, I guess. Poor guy..

Here’s Mr. Ballet Flat’s family. Mr. Ballet Flat informed me that his family is not really into smiling for pictures, but I promise you, they smile in real life!

Finally, last pictures of the formals: Mr. Ballet Flat and I. I LOVE the angle the photographer made me stand in…makes me look way smaller than the size 22 that I am. Gotta love flattering angles!

Shortly after that, I grabbed the nearest hand rail and took off those painful heels. By then, most of the guests were there, and they were laughing at the idea of no more shoes for this bride! Sorry, but I was ready to bust out the flip-flops, bustle the dress and dance with my man. Stay tuned!

Images courtesy of Amanda Meyer Photography

Our NOLA Nuptials: At First Glance

amyandjoeysbigday — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 01:36:57 +0000

Hello Hive! It’s been a few months since I recapped our ceremony, and I must apologize for leaving you hanging after the ceremony. I mean, c’mon, there’s now a PARTY to recap, right? So, here’s a few glimpses around the reception hall, just like the ones our guests had as they walked in.

Here is our gorgeous cake. Believe it or not, this is buttercream. They got it super smooth for me. I was impressed…I wish I could get my cakes to look this smooth! We also got the florist to put a mini bouquet on top of the cake as our cake topper. It was absolutely beautiful, and we couldn’t wait to dig in!

That’s right folks! We had king cake as our groom’s cake for the reception. It was May, and I’m pretty sure 99% of our guests were having king cake withdrawals since Mardi Gras was about 3 months before the wedding. We got it in LSU colors (Geaux Tigers!) instead of the traditional Mardi Gras colors of purple, green and gold.

Here is the throw-away bouquet with our cake server set. I didn’t want to spend too much on a cake server set that we’d probably never use again, so I bought a generic set for 50% off at Hobby Lobby.

These were one of my favorite DIY projects. I Gocco’ed napkins a la Mrs. Cream Puff and Mrs. Cupcake. I love how these came out and guests were repeatedly asking for my vendor. They couldn’t believe I made these!

These are our favor boxes. We purchased these from the BRIDE’s line at Michaels and subbed a teal ribbon, instead of the included ivory ribbon. Our favors were our favorite candies: I love Hershey Kisses and Mr. Ballet Flat loves soft dinner mints! Edible is always a hit! We made one per guest and maybe had 5 leftover, thank goodness!

Here were our disposable cameras with the place card and favor boxes. The cameras were a hit! They were all filled up by the end of the evening, and we got some semi-decent pictures from them.

We can’t find any pictures of the mini Moo cards that we got for online uploading. We thought that would be a good thing, hoping for tons of pics in our Flick’r account, but nope, maybe 30 pictures were uploaded total. Ugh…

We also nixed centerpieces, since the reception venue had tea lights. This alone saved us over $1000, according to the florist’s estimates. No one really seemed to mind.

Here is a picture of our cake table with all of the bouquets, and our champagne flutes, which were a gift from my godmother. This is one of my favorite wedding shots of the day, because it just features so much from our big day!

You might have noticed from my planning blog posts that a lot of little projects were planned for the reception. Towards the end of planning, I did do a lot of evaluating and realized that these little projects were adding unnecessary stress, so I nixed them. In the end, really, it didn’t turn out to be a big deal, because no one noticed. In fact, I received tons of compliments on things like the open bar and all you can eat gumbo. Haha…shows what guests REALLY care about!

Just a little tip for you brides who are nearing the end of planning and stressing out: no one will know if you didn’t do some of the little projects you planned.

Stay tuned for smile-palooza!

Images courtesy of Amanda Meyer Photography

Attention Brides!

amyandjoeysbigday — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:05:18 +0000

Image source

If you are in the market for some new make-up, now is a great time to stock up!

Sephora.com is having it’s Friends & Family sale right NOW until 11/2, which is 20% off of your ENTIRE purchase. Simply use the code FF2009 and shipping is free for orders over $50!

You can thank me later! Happy shopping!