Let's Fall in Love: Family Affairs

Our ceremony had been over for less than an hour and Mr LikesIt and I were already running late.  Typical.  There wasn't a lot to do about it - and I wouldn't trade the photos we got from our last-minute confetti-sendoff or spontaneous trolley ride for anything.  However, it did make the next few hours feel frazzled. Not that the party could really start without us being there, but it did zip to ease my still-in-knots wedding anxiety tummy. 

There was a fair amount of milling about as we prepared for family photos, and eventually the bulk of the wedding party was dismissed to the trolley to enjoy the beer and fresh air while we hammered through the list of formals poses. 

That list was supposed to go something like this: bride, groom, parents, parents, grandparents, full family one, full family two, peace out.  Twenty minutes.  But we added poses as we went and it snowballed.  I was never stressed out about it (again, my party) but it did impact the timeline later on, which ended up being a minor bummer (to be explained later).

He put a ring on it!

 Live and learn, but I would have either started the ceremony a bit earlier (or the cocktail hour later) to make more wiggle room for photos.  I should have known that these things never, ever go according to the schedule.  I've been to (and in) a million weddings by now.  Oh, coulda-shoulda-woulda!

So everyone was corraled towards the front of the church, and business commenced.

The famblies.

I love my Grandma!  I'm her first grand-daughter (of four) to get married.

Mr LikesIt is equally close with his grandparents, and they were so excited to be there for us.

Off schedule or not, one thing I really appreciated during the portrait session was the unbridled enthusiasm that both families showed us.  Everyone was just so excited to be there.  Parents, cousins, granparents, aunts, uncles ... it was overwhelming, really.  It was incredibly touching to know that we have this network of people in our lives who genuinely care to celebrate milestones like this. 

Family portraits took about twice as long as we had planned for, but at that point there were few things that could bring us down.  We left the church one last time (with much less fanfare) and joined our friends aboard the trolley for another ride around downtown.  

And by that time everyone was raring to go, the Happy Couple included.

In case you missed it ...

I bought a dress and completely changed it.  We had a marathon final week of engagement.  I giggled my way through our rehearsal.  Mr LikesIt got grilled at our rehearsal dinner.  The groomsmen ran amok in downtown Springfield. The girls got gorgeous.  We exchanged mushy wedding-day gifts.  The guys got fancy and then got dancy.  I became a Bride.  There was a first First Look. I shared my Somethings.  The boys made the most of trolley-time. And did their thing on the Capital grounds. The girls took photos at the hotel. Everyone arrived at the church. We walked down the aisle. We declared our intentions and my cousin preached. We exchanged our vows. Our hands were blessed. Mr LikesIt put a ring on it and kissed his bride. We were pronounced Mr and Mrs! We left the church in a blizzard of confetti, and took a "just-married" trolley ride. We made it legal.