Wedding Pictures

As I was thinking about what I could do today, I thought that I would look through the wedding pictures and start putting a list together for the album, which reminded me that I haven't really posted any pictures on this, which is (was) supposed to be a wedding blog. So here we go (all pictures by Wei Han at Evoke Photography in Houston):


This is a view of the chapel (at Prince of Peace), which photographed so well, and just looked amazing in person. I am so glad we had the ceremony in the chapel and not the main church.


Here is a picture of me with one of the bridesmaids (I made sure to use one that would love her picture). As you can see, even though I used an inexpensive florist, my bouquet looked awesome. I was so surprised when I saw it, not what I imagined at all, but exactly what I wanted.


Next up, we have the cake, which I only got two bites of (downside to leaving the next day).


Here are the place cards that I toiled over before the wedding, which I think turned out well. If you would like me to make some for you, let me know. As I'm not employed yet, I have plenty of time on my hands.

Finally, one of my favorite pictures of the two of us.

The Pushy Videographer

On with the list.

I seriously have a grudge against the videographer. I understand that I need to just let go, but it seriously might take some therapy. To begin with, I did not want video coverage of the wedding, I think it's just weird to watch yourself on film, and I doubt we would ever watch the video. For these reasons, and the sake of the budget, we didn't get a video crew. Then, my grandparents decided that they wouldn't be able to travel for the wedding, so my mom found a videographer so that they wouldn't "miss the wedding."

Umm, videographers are awkward.

1) Videographer spent the half hour before the wedding at the church trying to get in the dressing room to get "getting ready" shots. Which, A) I didn't care if there were or not and B) didn't make sense because the only thing left to do at the church was put on the dress, which I was waiting to do so I could sit down without wrinkling the dress.

2) Videographer kept staging "special moments," such as the bride and groom feeding each other parts of their dinner. Which, sometimes we do, but not when we're sitting at a table with 14 other people.

3) It's weird having your first dance filmed when you're not the best of dancers and you have a video camera on wheels following you around. Thank goodness my husband decided to turn it into a funny moment by dancing us towards and into the lens of the camera.

4) I love my brother, who, since the videographer decided to film the groom and I going through the buffet line (again, why would anyone want to see that), gave a play-by-play of what I was selecting (she's got the crab cake, but will she go for the sauce?)

Since we were booking only a month or two in advance of the wedding, we didn't have much of a choice when choosing a videographer, especially when squeezing it into the budget. If I were giving myself advice, it would be to talk to the videographer beforehand about what he usually includes in the video and ask to see one of his other videos. I can't wait to see our own cheesy extravaganza.

Engagement Photo Session

I have been remiss in my writing, yet again. Of all the stories I have chosen to share with you, I have yet to inform you of our engagement photo session disaster. We decided that an outdoor shoot would look nicer, more natural, if you will. I wanted to get it out of the way before school started, which meant that we needed to do it in August, in Houston. We were crazy, I know, but I worked with the studio to schedule the session as early in the morning as they would let me.

We were to meet our photographer at 10:00 am down at the Japanese Gardens in Hermann Park. Our lovely dog was also scheduled to be in the pictures, so we planned to get to the gardens a few minutes early to allow for dog-handling issues. We also weren’t sure how long it would take us to get into the city, so allowed for some extra time there, as well, which meant that we arrived at the park at 9:30.

The gardens were lovely and, in true Hermann Park tradition, we ran into a couple of homeless people “showering” in the public restroom sink. To kill time (and tire the dog out), we walked around the gardens trying to stay in the shade to keep cool. Around 9:50, my cell phone rang; it was the photographer:

“I’m running a little behind. I was taking my grandmother to church and I got a flat tire. I should be there soon, but I just wanted to let you know I was running late.”

Seriously, that’s what she said. Even if that was the truth (who knows?), wouldn’t you lie and make up a more believable reason? Not that I'm a proponent of lying, but who would believe you? My mistake was not to ask her how long she thought she would be. The sun had come out from behind the clouds, and was starting to get hot. At this point, I went back to the car and retrieved a couple of kitchen towels that we had tossed in there in case the dog got muddy.

Finally, at 10:20, we saw a woman approach the park with a bag of camera gear. Tadaaaa! She had made it. She apologized profusely then claimed she would shoot quickly, so we wouldn’t be out in the heat too long. We hurried around the path in the park, stopping in several places to take shots, and finished in only an hour. Eww, it was so hot. Luckily I had brought the towels from the car, not for the dog, but because we used them to mop the sweat from our brows.

In short, it was a total fiasco. It did make it easier to choose which photos we wanted to send out to family, as there were few in which the dog behaved that we didn’t look like we had been plopped in the middle of the desert.

We Booked the Photographer

We’ve booked a photographer, but of course not without some sort of mishap. Fiance and Mom came to the photographer, which was good, as all of the great questions I had thought about asking completely flew out of my head. We're still not sure about when the reception will start with relationship to the ceremony (will there be a gap, how long of a gap, how long would the gap be for the photographer). Note to Self: write down questions and bring them to vendor for when you get tongue-tied - avoid Mom and Fiance staring at you blankly while waiting for you to talk.

At this particular photographer, the price structure makes it cheaper to book the photographer for the whole time if the gap is for less than half an hour. As the woman pointed this out, Fiance suggested, “Well, you can always just take pictures of us dicking around between the ceremony and reception.” At which point, she doesn't react in shock and outrage (she was in her 20's), but she certainly didn't laugh. She said something about how some people book the photographer for 12 hours and then found a reason to leave the room while we looked at albums. I laughed while Mom pretended to not be horrified by her future son-in-law.