"Just Like an American Movie"

I don't want to brag or anything, but if you can't toot your own horn, who will, right? Our wedding was pretty fantastic. I mean, we throw (and you, too, Daddy) a pretty mean party.

When Dirk was in high school he befriended a foreign exchange student from Norway (much like we all did the Conovers' exchange students), and after Bjornar's year in Alabama was through, he moved back to Norway and hadn't traveled to the United States since (over a decade ago.) When he found out Dirk was getting married, he made the trip back to the US of A and Sweet Home Alabama to be at our nuptials. What a nice guy! He kept saying, in his super cool Norwegian accent, "I feel like I'm in an American Movie. This is just like a movie." So this obviously became the quote of the event.

Dirk and I's first dance was to "Dimming of the Day" sung by David Gilmour (formerly of Pink Floyd), my favorite lyric is: "You pulled me like the moon pulls on the tide / You know just where I keep my better side." (sigh.)
I LOVED how Maureen and Matt had photos of their families around their cake table, so we took the cue and I gathered wedding photos or couple shots of our grandparents and parents to put on ours.
Dirk's cake was shaped and colored like his bass guitar. Pretty cool, right? We let Bjornar cut the first piece (we had already done the traditional feed-each-other-cake-bit with my cake.) He was so honored he teared up a little bit.
I've got to stick in some photos of us being all cute together.
LOVE this one.
ALL of the Blackwell cousins made it to the wedding celebration, which is the first time we have all been together in almost 3 1/2 years (since Gomar passed.) What a good looking family Granddaddy produced!
Then came the dancing. The Blackwells like to boogie. Jane even broke out the running man. We had a kickline at one point, too. If memory serves me right (the whole night can blur together) during the song "We Are Family" we created a huge circle and had a dance off in the middle. That's right.
Much to my father's chagrin ("I've seen WAY too many episodes of America's Funniest Home Videos where the bride falls off the chair," I DID stand on a chair and rap the entirety of Gangsta's Paradise, foo!
I had almost forgotten about the bouquet toss until someone reminded me about it. SO I gathered all the single ladies, crammed a cake bite in my mouth, took a swig of vino, and tossed the crap out of that bouquet. This photo cracks me up every time I look at it. Look at Sarah assuming the position. I mean, she is ready to JUMP to get that bouquet. She beat out Susan, who is a good foot and a half taller than her!
I don't know why, but everyone let me do a ballet solo. An homage to Francie, I suppose.
Then it was time to cool off in the pool.
I was soon followed by almost everyone there.
So it turned into a pool party. And the awesome owners of the inn, rather than chastising us for jumping in the pool at eleven o'clock at night, brought us towels and kindly requested that no one break their necks.

I promise there is only ONE more wedding post after this one, friends. And it's of the cutest of the cutest flower girls in the whole wide world. So look forward to that one!

The rest of the photos live here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/libbadibbado/sets/72157624264444674/

Ceremony

Sorry I took a little break from wedding blogs, friends and followers, but I've got some exciting new creative projects I'm working on, AND, I was just able to get to editing more photos as they've been trickling in.

The ceremony was special. It was just so "us." My Uncle Mike, a circuit judge in our county, officiated the ceremony, which allowed us to talk closely with him about the script, and was special because Mike has been part of our lives since I was 3. I had minor hiccup with my eyes beforehand, which really stunk. I had put my contacts in LAST MINUTE for portraits, and by the time those were over and I was relaxing in our suite with the bridesmaids waiting for the ceremony, my eyes were hurting and red. So I took the contacts out, and I didn't put them back in. I'm not blind, or anything, I have a -2.5 in one eye and -3.0 in the other, so I can see, just not too clearly. I try to look at this as being a good thing for this particular event. Because I was focused on Dirk and Mike, and no one else. It also made the reception line especially interesting because it wasn't until then that I could greet and see who made it to the wedding.

The dogs were our ring bearers and I wish that I could say they did good. Sipsey broke out of her collar and went and peed behind the archway and Piper was busy grunting and scratching her back on the grass throughout the ceremony, but it was amusing, and it was just so "us."

So here are some photos, and I promise to not go a week before posting about the reception. Expect that one on Tuesday or so (I have to blog when Dirk is either asleep, at school, or at band practice because we like to spend every waking moment together when we can :)

Oh, and I have some fun new concepts I'm going to be trying out on the blog the next few weeks. I've actually been researching moving my blog off of blogger and to a site that allows me to share my photography portfolios as well as a blog, but we'll see. If any of you know of a good site for that, please share! It's just so annoying having to send you all to flickr to see photos, you know?

Speaking of which, here's a link to the rest of the ceremony photographs:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/libbadibbado/sets/72157624086534309/

In Which: I Have a Handsome Husband

Dirk and I had decided a while ago that we would like to meet privately before the ceremony, just to take the pressure off, and also so that we could get all the boring portraits out of the way prior to the ceremony. I'm so glad we did. It was wonderful spending a few moments with him, before the rush of guests and family and bridal party, just to take it all in and really appreciate the moment and to psyche ourselves up for the upcoming celebration.

Isn't he handsome? Blue Spring Manor has tons of these little out of the way spots just perfect for romantic gatherings.
I was so nervous and excited walking across this field! I couldn't WAIT to see the look on his face when he first saw me!
Spectacular. This is one of those photos that I will look at again and again and again and tear up over the outpouring of love.
Dirk and I LOVE the movie "The Princess Bride" and when Mama saw this dress at the bridal shop she said, "Libba! You have to try this one on! It's the PRINCESS BRIDE!" As soon as I put the dress on, I knew that it was THE dress, and I had no desire to even LOOK at another wedding dress. It was just so ME. It was also unlike anything I had ever seen before.
Then we had our wedding party portraits, and all I have to say is Thank GOD for whomever invented those colorful pieces of sugar dots on the paper because that got Taylor through the weekend. Taylor starts whining: "Taylor! Do you want a piece of candy?!" Taylor falls down and scrapes her knee and is inconsolable: "Taylor! Do want a pink or a yellow dot?!" I think Brooke had candy dots wrapped around her bouquet to get the flower girl to walk down the aisle.
Daddy REALLY wanted this photo. I think he had been planning it. It was funny for a click or two, but then he just continued to stand there, for literally like, three minutes, so on our film there are no less than 15 shots of Daddy doing this pose WITHOUT MOVING A MUSCLE!
I just love this. I've always had a soft spot for my Granddaddy, possibly because we almost share a birthday, but also because he inspires me and encourages me to always keep an active mind and look at a situation from every possible perspective. This photo will definitely be getting a frame.

Here's a link to the rest of the portraits Lisa took!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/libbadibbado/sets/72157624191981144/
I can't help but feel like I look like a child bride or something in these photos. Maybe because I'm not used to getting all dolled up and it brought back memories of prom or something.

Day of Wedding Blog

I woke up early to the sound of rain on the tin roof. A sound I've always found comforting, until I remembered that this was the day of my wedding. My OUTDOOR wedding. So yes, a little stressed the morning of.

After some tears and hugs and Dirk pulling up the forecast on the laptop, I calmed down significantly.
I'm pretty sure the mimosas helped.
My bridesmaids were the best. They whisked me off into our private apartment to spend the day sipping champagne, relaxing, and pampering ourselves. Aimee not only gave us all facials, but she also gave me a wonderful hand/foot massage. From now on I will always refer to her as Saint Aimee.
We found some hoops and I got in some practice.
I even got to spend some time on a porch swing with my dear bridesmaid Kate, all the way from Cedar Rapids. Kate keeps me grounded, she helps me focus on the task at hand, and she is wonderful about encouraging others to live in each moment and to just breathe and take it all in. Not only that, but Kate handled the decorations, party favors, and all the creative elements of our celebration. Amazing, she is. Pure love and joy personified.
Aimee did EVERYONE'S make-up, even Mama's, and don't tell Brooke, but Taylor got a little lip stain, too. Have you ever seen that show, "Toddlers & Tiaras"? HA!
Then Mistye did my hair, and I knew that the time was getting close.
I know it's customary for mother's to help daughter's get on their wedding dresses, but Mama and I struggled with this. Three days before the wedding I asked her to help me get the dress on because if (God forbid!) the diet hadn't done the job, we were going to need to invest in some Spanx before the big day. So Mom is struggling, right? And I'm freaking out, and she's like, "I just can't get it!" and I'm losing it because my mother is telling me that my super expensive wedding dress doesn't fit. I Bridezilla on her, just a little bit, and then she admits that "No, the dress will fit, it's just that I don't have my glasses on and I can't see the hooks." So when she showed up in our bridal suite without her glasses, I got a little nervous. Luckily, Collins was on hand to help.
So by the time all the getting ready was complete, guess who decided to make an appearance? THE SUN! He then went promptly away, taking the heat with him, but the rain did not make an appearance 'til the next morning and it was absolutely perfect!

For more Wedding Day photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/libbadibbado/sets/72157624191836884/

Stay tuned for Portraits, Ceremony, and Rehearsal photos!

Rehearsal Dinner

Okay, okay, so I'm still trying to gather all my photos together. As one observer reported, we had more cameras at our wedding than Brad & Angelina. So once I have ALL of the pictures from each of the events, I will continue to post and share. For right now, I have compiled my favorites of all the photos taken at our rehearsal dinner, which was great. It was a get-to-know-everyone of sorts. All the bridal party and immediate families and that was it. Very intimate, very delicious, and it would have been enough of a celebration in and of itself.

Here we all are. My Uncle Mike, a Circuit Judge here in Alabama, officiated our ceremony. Dirk was getting a little nervous because Mike was cracking the jokes at the Rehearsal, but I had a feeling he'd come through during the actual Ceremony.
Once an Iowa Girl, always an Iowa Girl. Yes, I am drinking my daddy's beer during our Rehearsal.
Daddy and his girls.
The menu. Does anyone know what goes into a Mary Ellen salad? Because it was amazing. And there were peas in it. And you could eat the bowl, which was made of cheese. I'm not even joking.
Dirk's probably having second thoughts at this point.

So anyway, I wanted to share photos here, because I've gotten a little weirded out about sharing photos on facebook. I became overwhelmed by all the random people I've met over the years having access to photos of my loved ones and myself, and I know that blogspot is not that different, but it takes a little bit more motivation to find my blog than to look through my facebook photos. Oh, and just so you all know, my loyal blogger friends will always have access to my facebook photos, I ended up "Not Sharing" the majority of my albums with over a third of my fb friends. Shhhh, don't tell them.

Here's a link to more Rehearsal Dinner photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/libbadibbado/sets/72157624060702435/

My Fiance the Hero

I had just gotten finished shopping with Shannon and Liz this afternoon and was very excited about all my fun new clothes and accessories for next weekend (yes, one week from today at this very moment I will be saying "I DO!" when I pulled into the driveway and stopped the car. At first I thought they were branches from yesterday's storm, and then I realized one had a head and was looking at me. Thank God for cell phones. I've never been squeamish about snakes, and every time I tell my Mama I'm going to swim in the river she shudders inside thinking about all the snakes that must be swimming with me, but in my almost 8 years in Alabama, I've only seen three snakes (five now, I suppose.)

But luckily, I am marrying a man who takes care of these sorts of things. His first instinct was to get something to kill the snakes, instead of calling a pest service or screaming or carrying on. He takes care of $h!t, and it's one of the many reasons I love him. Because I know that if there's ever something around threatening his family, he'll do what needs to be done. Although he hated killing the poor things and said so a couple of times, I am so grateful that he did. Because I couldn't have.

Please pardon the curse words. We were distraught.
(note: I cannot seem to get this video to upload, but will continue to try!)

Snake 1
Snake 2