Did You Notice?

So as you can see from the recaps so far I didn't end up making the big 2nd dress change that I was considering many months ago. I figured why should I waste the money on a second dress? And why not enjoy my wedding gown for as long as I can before I had put it away for good. Really it's such a shame that I'll never get to wear it again. It's still hanging from my closet door tempting me to try it on just one more time!

However, I did decide to make a little change before the reception. I just couldn't help myself. Did you notice? I'm sure you're all super observant and all so I don't think that I have to tell you. I'll just show you in case you're new here and missed it.


So who's the smarty who can tell what I did? :)

All images: Daniel Krieger

Our Wedding - Outdoor Shots

Happy Monday! Hope you all had a great weekend. We did a bunch of visiting and a few errands. Oh and I also got boots! I tried on a bunch of over-the-knee ones but I didn't love any of them. So these aren't exactly what I was looking for but I love them nonetheless. What do you think? J told me they need to satisfy my boot craving for the season and I think I made a the right choice.

Today I figured I'd continue with another recap. I think I only have a couple more to go and I want to move on to other things so here it goes...

Early on into the reception, our photographer took us outside for a few shots on the balcony. It's so funny to see some of the faces you make when he tells you to just talk amongst yourselves so he can get candid shots. Is this serious how I move??? :)

What on earth were we talking about???

It's seriously cracks me up to see some of those expressions. At least we got a few shots of us both smiling and looking happy and in love :)

Next up - more of the reception

All images: Daniel Krieger

Our Wedding - Now Let's Party!

Finally onto the reception kick off...the entrances followed by the much dreaded first dance.

I'll give you a little background. J's a really good dancer. Her father taught her when she was younger and he even tried to teach me many years ago. Unfortunately nothing ever worked. I’m terribly uncoordinated and for some reason I try to take the lead and I just end up stepping on the other persons feet. J has tried numerous times over the years to teach me in the privacy of our own home but whenever she attempts to teach me I quickly nip it in the bud. Withing the first ten seconds I wrap my arms around her neck and kiss her until she makes the torture stop! So needless to say, it was a source of tremendous stress for me before the big day.

And we didn't make it easy on ourselves either. Our song of choice was With Me by Sum 41, a rather untraditional first dance song. I guess you could call it an alternative/punk ballad. Definitely not the easiest song to dance to. Especially once the guitar riffs kick in. But it's one of our favorite songs. And when we got married back in June on the beach it CT we had it playing in the background. If we were going to do a first dance, it just had to be to that song.

So after much hemming and hawing we decided to go ahead and do a first dance. Even though the thought of stumbling around awkwardly while all of our guests watched terrified me, the thing that cause me even greater stress was what would our guests do??? Could they or would they want to dance to it? I knew that there was a good chance that 99.9% of our guests never would have heard the song before. What would happen if nobody joined us on the dance floor??? Can you say panic attack?!?! Maybe we should just pick a song that everyone knows and just make it a little easier on ourselves. But in the end we decided to go ahead with the Sum 41 song since it meant so much to us.

The funny thing is after all the stress I actually went into the dance feeling really good. We had practiced a bit before the wedding and I thought I had everything down pat. Nothing was going to stop me! Unfortunately we (I should probably say I) started of on the wrong foot (literally!) so we never really got into a good sway. You'll be able to see for yourselves when I post the video later. I beg you, please be gentle on me :)

The good news is that in the end I didn't really care because I was beyond ecstatic. Nothing, especially a few awkward steps, was gonna kill my mood!
Ok enough of that. Now let me get into how it all started. Our fabulous attendants kicking the night off right! The song we chose for the entrances was Your Love Is My Love by Whitney Houston. Another one of our all-time favorites.

J's mother & brother

My parents

Our besties

Our nephews

Our nieces

My siblings bringin it!

One of the big surprises of the night. J's rather reserved sisters getting the party started!

Ta-dah! Our grand entrance!

Having way too much fun!

And then the dread sets in.....

But I focused soley on my bride...

and managed to make it through.

And much to our delight, our guests actually joined in!

My grandmother even took a twirl!

We made it...pure bliss!

Stay tuned for actual footage. I might regret doing that but I know you guys will be nice :)

All images: Daniel Krieger

Our Wedding - Show-Stopping Views

So now we're onto the the big showstopper of the night...the views from the penthouse reception. It might be tied with the cake (more on that later...) as the huge photo-op of the night.

The room had windows on three sides , one facing Central Park, one facing downtown and the other facing the east side and there was even an outdoor balcony with a few tables so our guests were able to have a cocktail or two outdoors while taking in the view.

I have to admit, the view was the thing that sealed the deal for us when choosing a venue. No friends, it wasn't that J & I used to wait outside for Duran Duran to come out when we were teenagers. Although that was a kinda cool coincidence. We even have a picture of us looking very awkward circa 1986 standing outside of the hotel. But as I was saying, the view sold us. Take a look for yourselves.

The balcony was always packed

Major photo op of the evening

Our guests never tired of the view

Next up I'll show you the entrances and first dance.

All images: Daniel Krieger

Our Wedding - Reception Decor

Hope you all had a fun weekend. I stayed in to recuperate and missed out on all of the Halloween fun but I did manage to get a few treats this weekend. Thanks honey :)

I figure I'll continue on with the recaps today. After the cocktail hour everyone headed upstairs to the penthouse for the reception. Here's a little glimpse at the decor.

Our escort cards. We hand glued aquamarine Swarovski crystals onto cards and had our calligrapher write the names and table setting.

We had a mix of high and low centerpieces. The low ones were a tight arrangement of dahlias, hydrangea and celosia.

And the high ones were crabapple branches with hanging votive bulbs. It was extra special for us to be able to incorporate this into our decor because J grew up with a crabapple tree on her front lawn. Many members of her family noticed & commented on the connection.

We named the tables after our favorite vacation spots. Each table had a picture of us in the locale.

Here we are on a glacier in Alaska

And that's not all. The best part of the decor is still to come. Stay tuned to check out the magnificent crowd pleasing views!

Images: 1-4, 6-10, 12-13 - Daniel Krieger