Happy 2012!

I'm feeling slightly hung over from 3 months of psycho-wedding planning, but the deed is done, and now begins the refocusing on breathing.

And sleeping.

Anyway, I thought I'd start the New Year off with some candids from the wedding.  

I should mention my hubby got me a new camera for Christmas (a Canon EOS Rebel T3i!!!), 

and also that I have no flippin' clue how to use it.

I know.

(rehearsal dinner shot of the couple-to-be)

Hense lots of the shots I took are uber-awful.  

My tried-and-true point and shoot was tied up to the photobooth, 

so I was left fighting with aperture, shutterspeeds and ISOs out-of-control.  

(bride-to-be with her green smoothie, getting ready to help set up decor the morning of)

But here are some favorites harvested from the memory card.  

They ain't purty, but they do tell a story...

Having had their pictures done beforehand, 

here they're chillin' while waiting for the ceremony to start.

I love how he's gazing at her while she's watching Matron of Honor get her hair tweaked

I'll show you the whole cake table in another post about the decor.  

But here's them cutting the (amazing, delicious, beautiful) cake.

(she's totally my daughter.  I have a pic like this from my own wedding....)

Some of my most treasured memories are watching my mama enjoying herself, 

Dancing with my dad, the groom, everyone!

(here's she's line dancing...turned the wrong way *giggle*)

(and here I accidently caught her grabbing my dad's rear *snort*!!!)

(in this shot she's singing to my dad, just over the bride's shoulder)

I don't have any good pics of Kristen's dress, or the bridesmaids in their garb,

 but here's a grainy shot I fiddled with in picasa of them all dancing:

(daughter #1 is behind Kristen, daughter #3 is looking at the camera)

Downstairs we had a make-shift photobooth with props I snagged on mega-clearance after Halloween.

I painted a big old formica desk top with chalkboard paint, then used a chalkpaint marker to write on it.  

If you look closely, someone thought it might be hilarious to embellish it with regular chalk.
My nephew was enamoured with the Harry Potter glasses...

Here's my youngest boys....

and some crazy woman who obviously needs some professional help...

at least she will now that this wedding is in the past tense.

(yeah, by this point in the night I was beginning to dread the tear-down)

Garter toss....

I just happened to snap my pic as the professional photographer's flash went.  

Ugh.

(she wore the cowboy boots he bought for her.  

You can see the groomsmen attire with the bowties)

Blurry pic of their last dance of the night.

(I love that the groom had untucked his shirt at this point.)

The sparkler send off was so fun!

(we all lined up and got lit, er, got the sparklers lit while they changed clothes.)

As with my older daughter's wedding, it went by in a blink and a blur.

I wish I'd have captured better pictures, 

but I'll have to rely on the professionals for that.

Maybe that's why we pay them?

EDIT:  2 seconds after posting, the photographer put this album on facebook:

Christen Wedding

Enjoy the REAL purty pics!

I'll be back soon with some pics of the decor we did.

Those pics turned out a bit better since they don't move :)

Happy New Year!