mrs. cupcake's wedding blog: Love is All About "We": Our Entourage

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.

Once Mr. Cupcake and I had our first look, we spent some time taking photos with our bridal party and parents. It was important to us that it be a quick and painless process, and The Wiebners made that very easy! We had about 30 minutes for all of our first look photos as well as all of the photos you see below, and we couldn't have done it without the speediness of the pros.

First up: our extremely good looking bridal party!

Six bridesmaids + five groomsmen = lots o' love

The bridesmaids dresses ended up looking more blue than teal to me, despite the fact that the color was called teal (I have a very specific sense of color!), but I loved them just the same. (They are Alfred Sung style D328, which seems to no longer be available.) The guys also look especially dapper in their suits (all rented with the exception of Mr. Cupcake's suit), even minus their boutonnieres. I think everyone looked smashing!

Kissy kissy!

Another fabulous shot of my bouquet from Blue Moon

I wanted to make sure I got a photo with each individual bridesmaid. Mr. Cupcake? Not nearly as sentimental and didn't want to torture his guys. Luckily my ladies are all hams like me and didn't mind this request ;-)

Cousin #1, Michele. She got the tall blonde genes of the family; I got the short brunette ones.

Cousin #2, Coleen. I probably don't have to tell you that she and Michele are sisters! These lovely ladies traveled from New Orleans to be my 'maids. It meant the world to me to have them there as I always admired them growing up.

Bridesmaid Chrissy and me; I think we're giggling because I was making a joke about the scene in 27 Dresses where Katharine Heigl squats down to get on the same level as the bride. What can I say... I know some lovely, tall ladies!

SIL Cupcake, a.k.a. Kim, the sister I never had! We were truly destined to be family.

MOH Nicole, my best friend since 8th grade. She currently lives in Austria and came home especially for our wedding!

MOH Kelli, my best friend since freshman year of college, and baby girl H in her belly! The baby was born just 11 days after our wedding, and two days after we returned from our honeymoon (on her due date!). Doesn't Kelli look fabulous? I will forever be grateful to baby H for holding out so Mommy could be in our wedding :-)

While the girls were looking adorable, the boys were playing it cool in a nearby field.

Did I mention that the weather was absolutely perfect on September 20?? We seriously could not have asked for a more glorious day. 72 degrees, sunny, no humidity (thank you, hair gods!), and I think the only cloud in the sky was that super teeny tiny one in the photo below.

See it?

I was really glad that we were able to spend a minute getting a few more traditional bridal portraits of me. Although one of the main reasons we hired the Wiebners was because of the amazing candid shots they are able to capture, there is still something to be said for some more traditional posed shots. They totally understood this but didn't make it a long process.

SIL Cupcake helped me with my dress as I moved around....

And little did we know that Joel (or maybe it was Rita?) captured this ridiculously amazing shot below. I swear I'm not full of myself, but this photo took my breath away when I first saw it! I think what I love the most about it is that I had no idea it was being taken. It feels real to me.

Now, enough about me — where did all of those fine lookin' ladies go?

There they are!

We made our way to another area of the park....

And found ourselves a Moonbounce!

I find this so hysterical, because Mr. Cupcake has always joked about wanting a Moonbounce at his birthday party every year. Okay, so it wasn't his birthday, but a Moonbounce on our wedding day! How awesome! (If it had been after the ceremony, maybe we would have considered getting in it, although the people having the party may have thought that was a bit strange.)

A few more shots of my bridesmaids and me....

And then we finally let the bridal party get going to the church! While they headed off, we took a few moments for some shots with our parents.

Momma Cupcake and me

I loved Momma Cupcake's dress — see that amazing little jacket she's wearing? She made it! The dress consisted of a strapless top and skirt, and she wanted something with a bit more coverage, so she ordered some extra material and emulated the pleats from the dress. I was so impressed!

Love this photo!

Momma Cupcake and Stepdad Cupcake

Daddy Cupcake and me

Mr. Cupcake and his parents

The whole clan!

We wrapped everything up and were ready to head to the church. Even though we had already seen each other, Mr. Cupcake and I still decided to go our separate ways until the ceremony. We still wanted there to be some element of suspense when I walked down the aisle, so he rode to the church with his parents while my parents and I rode in the limo.