Treely, Madly, Deeply: More Lady Love

Sidenote: So sorry for the mini-hiatus, Hive! Life and work, especially, have been crazy. I promise that even though I may be MIA for small periods of time, I will NOT let these recaps go unfinished. :)

When brainstorming my recaps, I wasn't quite able to decide if I should go in chronological order of the day or if I should group the posts by pictures. I've made the executive decision to go in chronological order in the hopes that maybe it will help others when it comes to planning their wedding days and the various activities involved.

I realize that not everyone particularly cares about the wedding party pictures but, for what probably seems like the gazillionth time, I feel the need to stress how important all of these people are to Mr. Palm Tree and myself. I take friendship very seriously, largely due to all of the DramaRama in my life. I am, undeniably, someone who holds high expectations for the people I call my best friends and I am, undeniably, someone who can be hard to get along with at times. I know my faults better than anyone: I am loud, overbearing, opinionated, borderline obnoxious, bossy, insecure, stubborn, super-Type-A, an over-planner, a worrywart, in constant need of assurance. . .the list could go on forever. Despite all of these issues, though, the people in my life have been there for years. They have dried my tears, they have cried with me; they've witnessed - some of them firsthand - the ridiculousness that was my family life; they've traveled with me, they've taken care of me when I was sick or injured, they've demolished entire cartons of ice cream with me and they've gone to bat for me. These people are my family and perhaps deserve even a little more special treatment for continually choosing to be a part of my life, as opposed to having the blood obligation. As a result, I've decided to give them their time in the spotlight, as deserved. Feel free to skip if it's not the kind of thing that interests you, but I can assure you that this is a post I'll be re-visiting for years to come.

Moving on. . .after we were dressed, we decided to get our girl-on-girl action shots out of the way. Again, we were crazy ahead of schedule, so I mentioned to Dawn that we might as well take advantage of the time we had to knock out some of my Must-Have pictures (have I mentioned that I compiled an in-depth list of Must-Have pictures? I'd be happy to share my entire timeline, which includes said list, if anyone is interested!). 

We decided to make use of the available space in our development and walk up the street a little for our pictures. This was my first time traveling in my dress, so it was exciting and nerve-wracking. 

*all photos courtesy of Limelight-Images

Bridal party on the move!

There is a small, grassy, woodlandish spot at the end of our street so we decided to use that as our staging area. 

Behind the Scenes: it was hella sunny out this day and Dawn really wanted to try this from-up-above thing. So we all gathered around and I said, "tell us when to open them!" My eyes were squeezed the F shut until this very moment - the other ladies were unable to actually open their eyes, that's why they're cut out of the shot. 

One of many TOMS shots. I specifically staged this one so that everyone was on equal footing. . .HEY-O. ;) 

I did individual shots with each of my ladies. Dawn, the pro, had me do them in sets of three: smile, look at each other and smile, then look at her again. This ensured that at least two of the three pictures had a 'real' quality to them, not the stage smile that I feared I'd adopt. This also improved our odds of getting quality, non-squinty/awkward face/bad timing photos. Such a simple concept, but I never would've thought of it myself. That's why we pay the big bucks for certain things, right?

First up: MOH Mem and myself.

 SIL/BM Badonk:

True Confessions: I pretty much held my arm out and let the girls step into it as they wanted to - no rhyme or reason here, as long as the end result was that I had my pictures.

BM Y and I. BM Y had been teary pretty much all day, so I made crazy eyes.

#67 on the list of #99875984353495739457349875 Things That Never Get Old, No Matter How Many Times I Look At The Pictures: the color of my ladies' dresses, how fabulous it looked in the sun and how well it photographed. Mind-blowing, every single time. 

BM Blackout's turn. Spoiler Alert: she was the one most dreading the pictures, for fear of squinty eyes, hurting cheeks, awkward smiles, awkward poses, feeling like it was taking forever, etc. As we boarded the trolley for the ceremony, she said, "that really wasn't that bad. It was a f-cking lot of pictures, but it wasn't painful." If that's not an endorsement, I don't know what is.

Rev. Fun, who repeated her line from earlier in the day: "I can't look at you without crying."

Finally, BM Tiny Dancer. Can you tell which ladies were at the infamous Pirates game on the day with the UV Ray Level of a GAZILLION? ;)

The ever-fabulous DOC/Friend E: 

True Story: DOC/Friend E was our TOMS Campus Club representative in college.
Even truer story: we did NOT make our
 feet go the same ways on purpose. 

The Wedding Powers That Be clearly were on our side that day because as we finished our QT photo shoot and were walking back to the house, the guys had arrived. Again, I want to give them credit where credit is due: they adhered to the Wedding Day Timeline without the help of any of we ladies. I promise I'm not being sexist or anything, Hive; our guys are really just those guys 99% of the time. I guess the other 1% of the time lends itself to weddings. I'll take it!

On our return trip, I started to duck down so that the guys couldn't see me. There aren't any pictures of it (Dawn was behind us) but I jumped out and 'surprised' them. It was a great moment. I may have spied some tears in some eyes. . .just saying.

All of a sudden, Dawn was like, "we need to get you to the carousel." I swear, it felt movie-esque. "Is it TIME?!" "It's time." First thing's first:

A final touch-up.

And, of course. . .

A group shot. GM Pythagoras so kindly lent his Monster to me so that I could use it as a chaser. Straight shots normally equal insta-goosies and a strong desire to toss my cookies, but I will say the Bacardi Pineapple is the shiz. We later drank it straight out of the bottle on the trolley, before the ceremony. Class Acts, you guys. 

Hahaha, I was preparing myself. ;)

DOC/Friend E loaded me into her car and we were off to Schenley Plaza, where I would see my groom for the first time that day. Can you feel the butterflies?