Love is All About "We": The First Look

All photos below by The Wiebners unless otherwise noted. We purchased a disc of all unedited images from our wedding day, so some post-processing has been done by me for the purpose of sharing the photos with you. Click on any photo to enlarge.

As the guys waited outside of the hotel for the ladies, everyone grabbed a hold of their flowers and got ready to make their way out of my suite; my mom, my dad and I waited for the phone to ring, which was Jenn's signal that Mr. Cupcake and the bridal party had left the premises and I could leave the hotel without being spotted!

Here I am delegating whose flowers are whose... I swear I was not a bridezilla, but this photo cracks me up — I look like crazy-eyes Cupcake and MOH Nicole looks like she's terrified of me, hehe.

I had a moment of being temporarily frazzled before we left when I heard that the boutonnieres for the groomsmen accidentally went to the church instead of the hotel, as they were supposed to; we had originally set everything up so that the guys would all have their bouts on for our pre-ceremony photos. I don't really know what happened — maybe I wasn't specific about this in my last meeting with the florist (I had so many details floating around in my head at that point), or maybe communication lines were crossed. Ultimately, there was nothing we could do at that point, as the boutonnieres were already halfway to the church and traffic was too heavy for the driver to turn around and drop them off at the park where we were going to get photos taken momentarily. Jenn was on the phone dealing with it and doing everything she could, but it was our first little bump in the road and I tried my best to just take it in stride. My dad just kept saying, "everything is perfect!" and both of my parents reminded me that it wasn't a big deal. And honestly, in the end, it wasn't!

Regardless of the little bout-blip, I love how the flowers for the bridesmaids came together. They had the perfect "not too structured" look that I wanted with a mix of whites and vibrant greens (and I love the Yoko Ono mums!).

MOH's Nicole and Kelli

Before hopping in the shuttle, Kevin showed off his teal argyle socks to Coleen. (We got matching socks for all of the guys but forgot to ask The Wiebners to get a group shot — d'oh! My bad.)

Rather than rent a pricey limo bus, I was able to reserve one of the Desmond shuttles to transport the bridal party to our photo location, from our photo location to the church, and from the church back to the Desmond. It worked out perfectly and saved us hundreds of dollars!

Best man Ryan and bridesmaid Chrissy {Photo by SIL Cupcake}

My parents and I followed just a few minutes behind in the limo to Valley Creek Park, just a few short minutes from The Desmond, and where Mr. Cupcake awaited my arrival.


The Wiebners set Mr. C. up along one of the trails at the park, and I made my way down the path to meet him. At this point, I realized I had no idea how to hold my dress (as is evidenced in most of these photos) and my shoes did not make it easy to walk down a hill!


I excitedly snuck closer to my hubby-to-be....


... and (not so) gracefully hopped over to meet him as he turned around and got his first view of my fancy schmancy ensemble.


Hug time!



Kiss me, you fool!




So, yeah... I wasn't kidding when I told you I didn't know what to do with my dress! You can see that in all of the above photos, I'm awkwardly holding it behind me while simultaneously hugging my man. I was just so nervous about getting it dirty before my walk down the aisle and I didn't want it dragging on the ground — especially since I tend to be pretty klutzy. Disaster is often around the next corner when it comes to me, textiles, and anything that could possibly leave a stain. It turns out that Mr. Cupcake was also sort of afraid to touch my dress, for fear that he'd ruin it :-)

I love these photos, though, and they just make me giggle at how awkward we were about it all, but I guess that's just us! We're not used to being all dressed up and proper while the paparazzi follow us around. It was still really, really special to see each other beforehand. I think it made us both feel a lot less anxious and a lot more excited about the ceremony, and I'm so glad we decided to see each other pre-ceremony.


After we greeted each other, Mr. Cupcake wanted a better look at my dress, so I did a little twirl to show off the details.



Hold on... I think we need a close-up of that one:

Yup — that's his best "ooooooooooooh, fancy!" face. Such a character!

Then it was time for some nice normal posed shots for the grandkids to remember us by. The old farmhouse at the park made for a great backdrop.



I worried in the months beforehand that the wedding day would be Sobfest 2008 for me, but up to that point, I was totally calm and tear-free. I think I had imagined those moments so many times (and started to cry every time) that I was literally all cried out! Although I was still overcome with emotion, it came out in the form of excited smiles and laughter, and I'm so glad I wasn't a crying mess.




Below is one of my favorite candid shots, perhaps from the whole day. I have probably mentioned before how I love that when Mr. Cupcake smiles, his whole face smiles. You can see that in the photo below, and I think the schmoopy way we're looking at each other here just shows how we really feel about each other. (All together now: "awwwwww!")


But, wait! Lest you think we're always schmoopy and cute — doesn't now seem like the perfect time to clean some fuzz off of Mr. Cupcake?? Why, yes — yes it does.


Now that's more like it!

What can I say? Some things remain the same whether it's our wedding day or any other day ;-)

Up next, the bridal party and our parents get in on the photo shoot action!


Previously in our wedding recaps:
The Eve of Our Big Day: The Rehearsal Dinner
Love is All About "We": Getting Gorgeous
Love is All About "We": The Dress!
Love is All About "We": The Guys Get Sexy