Mr. and Mrs. Weak Sauce Go the Distance (a completed Disneymoon TR!)

[therussells08]

HAHA I love your HSM3 reference! I'm right there with you- that movie is great!

I love all of your getting ready pictures! Your hair and makeup look amazing!

Aww I love the picture of you and your dad together! We have several pictures in our wedding album of my dad and me right before we walked down the isle! I was so nervous, and you can tell he's trying to calm me down!

That's so great that you had a former student involved! Yay for Apple Andrew!

Your vows were amazing...I just had to go get a tissue!

Your pictures are all gorgeous! This is making me have so many flashbacks to our wedding..thank you for sharing! I love seeing all of it!

 

[mermaid764]

The seamstress did such an amazing job on the dresses...I would never have guessed that the strap was added.

Your pictures are gorgeous...and the last one is definitely my favorite!

 

[RachelNinja]

You got some really great shots! That's one of the things I regret the most about our wedding was not spending more time together without everybody surrounding us. Oh well. I guess every bride has regrets and things she wishes went differently. I'm just glad the wedding is over and we're married now as I am sure you are too!

Yeah, there are so many things I'd probably do differently in terms of the wedding, but I"m so glad it's OVER! Haha. I don't think we would've realized we should set aside time for private photos if it weren't for our photographers!

HAHA I love your HSM3 reference! I'm right there with you- that movie is great!

I love all of your getting ready pictures! Your hair and makeup look amazing!

Aww I love the picture of you and your dad together! We have several pictures in our wedding album of my dad and me right before we walked down the isle! I was so nervous, and you can tell he's trying to calm me down!

That's so great that you had a former student involved! Yay for Apple Andrew!

Your vows were amazing...I just had to go get a tissue!

Your pictures are all gorgeous! This is making me have so many flashbacks to our wedding..thank you for sharing! I love seeing all of it!

I love those pics with my dad! Haha, it doesn't seem like a very common thing because he's usually very serious, so that's why it's even more precious to me! He really likes that photo too.

Having Apple Andrew involved was so important to me. I had originally planned on inviting former and current students, but I didn't want to deal with having so many kids there who might not necessarily behave, haha. I decided to scale it back to the current 8th grade, staff kids, and only a handful of alumni. It worked out better for me though to not have everyone there even though there was technically room for it!

I think it's so weird that I'm married now. I remember reading all of your wedding recap stuff and thinking, WOW, she's MARRIED! Haha, and now I have joined the club. ODD!

The seamstress did such an amazing job on the dresses...I would never have guessed that the strap was added.

Your pictures are gorgeous...and the last one is definitely my favorite!

Right? I thought it was so cool that the strap looked like it belonged there. I thought they would have trouble finding a strap in that same color, so I was happy to see that the sparkly silvery color worked so well!

Aww, thanks! Yeah, I like that in the last picture, it's a genuine laugh/smile!

 

[RachelNinja]

Mr. and Mrs. Weak Sauce: Reception

After we ate some hor d'ouvres and relaxed, it was about time to head into the main room for the reception. We also found out about a problem in terms of seating. They had set up for a sweetheart table even though we had asked for a dais, and they couldn't change it at that point so they just added a table. You'll see just how awkward that looked in a bit, haha. While we waited around, we SHOULD have taken that time to bustle my dress, but I completely forgot! Whoops! Oh well. Here we are being introduced as Mr. and Mrs. Weak Sauce!

We didn't have a traditional first dance because we didn't want the awkwardness of swaying in place. To be honest, we had THOUGHT we could do one of those choreographed silly dances because it wouldn't have been serious, but we never had the time to do it. PLUS, we are SO spastic that even copying a dance from a YouTube video was too much of a hassle! We attempted the HSM3 "Can I Have This Dance?" dance, but it didn't work out, and I actually hurt my elbow in one of the lift moves. Haha, let's skip the dance and have a prayer instead!

See just how awkward that table set-up is? I feel like I didn't get a chance to be with the bridal party. I did have a lot of time to whisper to Howard about just how awkward I felt though, haha. I really enjoyed Danielle's speech as the maid of honor. It was funny and very well-written as she spoke about Nutella and the pairing of chocolate and hazelnut (representing Dani and me) and then ended with peanuts and chocolate (representing Howard and me). It also had a lot of very sentimental things in it in terms of how Dani said she looked up to me and she referenced a lot of things we did while growing up. It was truly a wonderful speech!

Howard and I then had a somewhat difficult time convincing his parents that we should do the tea ceremony. In Chinese tradition, the newly married couple serve tea to the groom's parents and family. They kept saying it wasn't necessary, but it's an important ritual even if I don't understand it. It ended up that we moved it from the main room to the bridal suite, so I had to have our reception coordinator bring all the cups back there and set up again. I won't post all those family pictures, but basically, we each would give a cup of tea and then we'd get lucky money or a gift in return. Danielle and Nikki were there to help too. It was a little stressful for me because (1) I didn't even know who I was serving because I had never met these people before and (2) most of them were speaking Chinese, and I can't understand very well! But we did it, and I'm glad we did since I'm the new daughter in the family.

Since we were back in the bridal suite for the tea ceremony, I figured that'd be the time to bustle my dress. Of course, it wasn't working! AGH! They couldn't find all the hooks. Dani and Nik were willing to keep looking, but my coordinator was saing that's how it's supposed to be. I knew that it wasn't supposed to be like that and it was done correctly because they had showed it to my mom and me in the store when I tried it on. When I told them that I had to pay for 2 sets of bustle because there were 2 layers, then she understood why I wanted it to be done correctly! It never really was done the right way, so I had to just accept it that it wasn't falling the right way and longer than it should be. Through the night, it started falling down and at one point, it just ripped when someone stepped on the dress. Oh well! I'd have to say that that was the one thing that bothered me just because I had to pay for it! Haha, my reception coordinator said that she was amazed at how calm I was and she thought it was funny that out of all things, this was the one thing that bothered me.

We had to take a break from table photos to cut the cake. I like this shot from the other side so you could see all the people taking pictures of us! After a while, it's not fun smiling anymore, haha. It starts to hurt!

We fed each other the cake. Yum, we purposely ordered one of the greatest combinations ever - chocolate with peanut butter! Delicious! We ended up sharing the top layer with my parents when we brought it home (we left it at their house when we were away on our honeymoon), and then we brought it back to our apartment and ate the rest. I didn't want to wait for the one year thing, take a bite of badly frozen cake, and then waste it. This way, we got to enjoy it since we only got that one bite at the actual reception.

I thought this picture was funny because it really did look like I assigned homework or gave a test! We really did love all the responses though!

As much as I didn't like taking the table photos and having everyone else want their camera used too, I liked this pic that our photographers got!

With only an hour left, a few people were getting on the dance floor but not really dancing much. Someone said to me, "If you ask Ken to dance, he will" so I said, "Go get him!" and he didn't want to at first until I went over and urged him to get on the dance floor! He is definitely the reason why everyone else started dancing and THE reason why we ended up having so much fun during the last hour! No more pictures, no more formalities ... just forgetting everyone else and having fun!

One of my very talented cousins! He's actually Dani and Nik's younger brother.

I loved dancing with "Baby K." She's not a baby anymore since she now has a baby brother, but her mom used to always write that out, and in my eyes, she will always be Baby K! Also, do you notice just how flat my hair got?

Fun memories!

I thought this shot was hilarious! Haha, one of our church friends was dancing to a song that put it in his mind to rub up against Howard. It was such a funny moment caught on camera because of our friend's face and Howard's face!

I went to go get my co-workers up on the dance floor too. They were hilarious; I love them so much! My 2 close buddies who are the other homeroom teachrs in middle school were like, "We were your token white friends table!" And they wanted to joke with my family members who went up to them and said, "Oh, you work with Rachel?" and answer, "How did you know?" Haha. In this photo, you can also see that the bustle has completely died. Someone stepped on the dress, and it ripped so I had to hold up the train.

It was so much fun getting other people up and dancing! The DJ said that if the bride asked you to go up, you can't say no! So I decided to get my uncle up!

And because of that, we got a ton of awesome shots of his dancing, but this one was the best! It was also posted on our photographers' blog before we got the CD of pictures, and everyone loved it!

Cute shot of Nikki and her boyfriend, Dan! Dan helped out so much last minute. He came to our wedding rehearsal, and he filled in for my bro in helping my mom walk down the aisle during the practice. Then we asked him to be an usher with my cousin because all of a sudden we needed 'em! We were so grateful! Plus, he was dancing up a storm and getting people excited and entertained!

Now even though Howard really isn't much of a dancer, he did go along with it all, which I greatly appreciate! And this is probably one of my favorite photos of the reception, haha, because it's like he's very clearly enunciating, "Woot, woot!"

It was sad that only in the last hour we had fun, and it was soon time to go! I was very conscious of the time because we had to get everyone out! If we stayed later, we'd actually be charged because they had to set up for the nighttime event, which was from 7pm-12am (no way could we have done that, so glad we chose the 12pm-4pm route with all that light!). We said goodbye to everyone, but before we left, our photographers pulled us for a quick photo session with a chair. Wait, a chair you ask? Yup, a chair. I love the chairs that they had at the venue. I know a lot of people like the fancier things with chair covers and bows and all that, but I hate 'em because I have always tripped on chair covers! Plus, they're a little too frou-frou for my taste. I love the simple chairs there, and seriously, that was one of the reasons why I didn't mind having a formal reception! When we met with our venue coordinator for final details, she asked what kind of table linens I wanted. I replied, "Um, clean?" because I'm not the type of person to care about colors (we picked neutral since the centerpieces were different colors). I told her that the only thing that really mattered was those chairs! I explained my weird love to our photographers, so that's why they set up a quick photoshoot with the chair before we left.

Once we wrapped up and I said goodbye to the chair (and our photographers!) and grabbed our stuff and our top layer of cake (thankfully, we were still there and someone from the wait staff saw me otherwise we would've left without it because we didn't even realize it!), it was time to GO HOME! We were MARRIED, and all the work and stress was finally OVER!

It was then time to PACK for our DISNEYMOON! YAY! Haha, yes, I'll finally start getting into the trip part of this trip report! Thanks for letting me go on and on about the wedding!

 

[729tink]

Great updates! You guys look like such a fun and loving couple. I can't wait to read about your disneymoon!

 

[mermaid764]

I said this in my last comment but I will say it again that your photographer was AMAZING!! Your photos are gorgeous, and it really seemed that they captured a lot of everyone's natural emotions and not so much posed and what not.

That's disappointing about the bustle, but at least it still worked out in the end.

Your cake also sounds amazing! And I think you made the right choice not to wait a year to eat it.

Can't wait to hear about your disneymoon

 

[oboedm]

Yay! You always have the BEST TRs. Super excited that you have one for your DISNEYMOON! Your wedding pictures are stunning, but mostly because you look stunning. Both of you are absolutely glowing. I am so, so happy that you and your DH are finally married! You two are one of my favorite DIS couples, LOL!

.... Now I sound like an obsessive stalker, LOL! I promise I am a normal person. =)

 

[RunningGirl]

I love the photos of your reception. The one of your uncle dancing is great! I'm glad you were able to relax and have fun. I'm like you in that I don't like being the center of attention, so I understand your feelings throughout the wedding and reception.

RachelNinja, you just got married! What are you going to do now?!?

 

[reelmom]

Don't apologize for having so many wedding updates. I loved it. Your wedding was beautiful and you could tell you had a great time. I wish I would have thought not to freeze the top of our cake. We didn't get anything to eat at the reception, not even a piece of cake. A year later, it was horrible.

 

[BarbP]

Enjoying this! I am going through Disney withdrawals.

 

[jane2073]

All of the dancing looked so light-hearted and fun!! What great memories!!!
I love the 'chair' photo! You look so pretty and relaxed!!

 

[stephielela]

I'm so glad you were able to enjoy at least some parts of your day! I totally agree with your sentiments that the days hould be about the bride and groom. It's too bad that's not the case very often! You all looked great! I can't wait to hear about the rest!

 

[callicourt]

I'm definitely subscribing to your TR...your wedding photographs are beautiful! As a newlywed myself {we just celebrated our 2nd anniversary}, I can remember how tired we were when we finally made it to Orlando after our wedding. Thanks for sharing your memories!

 

[NeverlandClub23]

How wonderful! What an odd feeling it must be to go home and be like "We're married now?!?"

Are you still planning a trip back to WDW with your cousins next year? I've always wanted to do something like that with my cousins (who I was very close with growing up), but they all got married and started having kids and it just wouldn't be the same now.

Can't wait for the next update! (No pressure though )

 

[JolllyHoliday]

Thank you for sharing all the wedding photo's.I always enjoy all of your trip reports. Can't wait to hear all about the Disneymoon. Best wishes to you both!!

 

[Nermel9]

Thank you so much for sharing your wedding and reception with us! I remember how stressed you were planning the whole thing, and it looks like it was worth the stress, everything and everyone looked amazing, and I'm glad you got to chill out at the end of the night and have fun!

Oh, and I love your fuchsia flats, so cute!

Can't wait to read about the Disneymoon!!!

 

[Cameo818]

I loved hearing about your wedding and seeing your beautiful ceremony and reception! I do have to admit that your vows to Howard made me tear up a little - they were just beautiful, yet funny at the same time (the line about the makeup was hilarious). I strongly believe in humor at a wedding as it breaks the tension. After all, you want your marriage to be filled with laughter, so why not start at the wedding?

Looking forward to hearing about your Disneymoon!

 

[bmb3]

Your wedding day looked WONDERFUL! Your photographer captured everything - what an amazing job! I can't wait to hear all about your honeymoon now

 

[not_Joanna_eggs]

Ohh yay! You sarted!

I loved your wedding recap! The same thing happened to me with the ring box (though all of my wedding guests were *sure* I was going to throw the box at our best man's head - what does that tell you about my stress level?? )

You guys are so adorable and you can tell that you're both so happy! Congratulations again! I can't wait to hear about your trip!

 

[Leasha_Loves_Disney]

I love everything about your reception pictures. I can see all the happiness and love in the room!!! It's just so perfect. It's so amazing that you were so relaxed and laid back on the big day i feel like I would be freaking out and nervous. It looked like such a great day.​