The Crazy Life of J: And They Lived Happily Ever After

It's official, I'm now JP! Don't worry, the blog will still be The Crazy Life of J, but I have officially married the love of my life. Yep, I'm corny. But, I always have been so you get to deal with it.

Anyways, now that I've been back in the States for over a week and caught up on most of my life, I figured it was about time to catch you all up on what has been happening. You may have noticed the countdown posts ended at "two days left" and that is because the day before and the day of were crazy! It was all worth it though- September 8 was the most perfect day imaginable. Since I am officially the wife of a photographer now, and his photographic ways are rubbing off on me, I figure that I'll let the pictures do the talking. Now is also the time I should probably apologize for how picture heavy this post will be, although you can blame our AMAZING photographers, Lance Booth and Jonathan Miano, for that! They worked their asses off, and we honestly owe them big time for the incredible time, energy and enthusiasm they put into making our day one that will be easily remembered.

So, here goes!

Ah, my dress. I am still completely in love with it, and am admittedly a bit bummed that I'll never be able to wear it again! I didn't even want to take it off at the end of the night, despite all of my married friend's warnings that I'd want to tear it off as soon as the reception was over.

My sister (a makeup artist/esthetician) did my makeup as my wedding gift. She did such an incredible job- I will never be able to thank her enough. She kept my natural look in mind, but still made me look amazing. Maybe someday I'll be wealthy enough to hire her as my personal makeup artist!

Brian and I did what is called a "first look" where we actually saw each other before the ceremony. It is a bit nontraditional, but we really loved having the first few moments of seeing each other on our wedding day to be very intimate, just me and him... and two photographers!

The ceremony was beautiful, if I do say so myself. My boss, who officiated, did an absolutely wonderful job. It was so amazing to walk down the aisle toward Brian, even though I almost forgot to look up at him as I was walking!

Here's a prime example of how dedicated our photographers were. Lance was willing to do just about anything to get the best shot. But it paid off, because they got shots like this...

And this...

I am especially in awe as these are just a small sample of what they will be eventually sending us. I can't wait to see the rest, and I may have to do another post or two to share them with you!

Our tent was another part of our wedding that could not have been more perfect. We don't have any shots back yet that show the entire tent, but our first dance perfectly encapsulates the look. The Chinese lanterns and clear roof panel couldn't have looked better.

Speaking of looking good, Brian's Nana could not have looked better that evening. I just couldn't resist adding a shot of this especially beautiful moment :)

A few of you may know that Brian and I have been together since our freshman year of high school. Which means there are more than a few nerdy pictures of us floating around from through the years. Including some old homecoming photos which Lance happened to find. I had no idea what he was doing at the time, but his creativity turned into this. I'm sure our kids will love laughing at these someday!

The photo on the left was taken at our sophomore year homecoming. Man, were we dorky.

This one was from our Junior year homecoming. Note that Brian is looking a lot less like Harry Potter these days...

My step dad collects barn wood, which we gratefully used to make custom wedding signs that fit into our vintage theme. We've turned most into firewood, but we'll be keeping the one above.

One of Brian's favorite things to do when he photographs weddings is light paintings. Because I love seeing the results of his work, we made sure Lance and Jon got a few as well. They are a pain in the butt, but the results (like above) are pretty awesome.

It was seriously the most perfect day imaginable. I have so many more details to share with you all: more wedding photos once we get them, how we custom designed our stationery, our incredible honeymoon, and more. Hopefully you all don't get sick of my rambling on about wedding details- I'll make sure to add in a few other posts in as well so I don't bore you to death!

I'll leave you with just one more... it really did feel like a fairy tale: