The New Website!

The Thirty-Something Bride has a brand new website! Grab my new button for your own page, or just click on the link!

<a href="http://thethirtysomethingbride.com" target="_blank"><img alt="TTSB" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2713/4322959457_37e25860c2_o.jpg" /></a>

What's so great about the new website?

• Recaps of my own wedding!
• Fresh ideas on decor and design for both weddings and home interiors!
• Contests!
• Wedding Features (contact me if you're interested)!
• Budget saving ideas and DIY projects!
  
• The occasional snarky post (some things will never change)!

You can sign up to get the new RSS feed here. That way, new posts will show up in your Google Reader. I also Tweet. And, you should really follow T30SB on Facebook.

See you on over at the new site.

Hey You, T30SB Followers! Yes, YOU!

Source

Come follow me on my new site http://thethirtysomethingbride.com.

Click right HERE to subscribe!

That way, you'll get all my updates in your Google Reader or Feedburner or whatever your blog-reading poison is.

Come on, you know you want to......

And how cute are those freakin' Twitter stockings? Not that I'd ever buy them, but they are too cute!

NEW BLOG SITE! NEW BLOG SITE!

OK, so I got it done.

Ta-Da!

Go here, y'all.

You can find and follow me at:
www.thethirtysomethingbride.com

I've got my own freakin' domain name (no more blogspot!)- BOOYA! Book mark me. It will make me feel SO important.

I'm still updating some pages and stuff, but the guts and glory are all there for you to enjoy.

New Year, New Blog? Not So Much...

I was totally hoping to surprise everyone with a great new blog design for the New Year, but alas, I have not worked it out. I had a mini-heart attack earlier today in my attempts to update and write my own code. It worked in the test-blog I set up, but then I tried it here and I thought I'd lost all my links and followers and all this happened right as The Candyman wanted a quick smooch. Right at that moment I was freaking out. I was a bit of a Bitch and had to go apologize. Thus, I have given up for the time being on the blog redesign and have opted to write one instead. Go figure.

So where was I?

Right, I was threatening my family with imminent death if they sneaked peeks at the blog. Why? Because I got most people pictures for Christmas! I have to say, I am most impressed with myself. I was able to get a Photo Book made on-line, printed and sent to me at astonishing speed. I'm sure you are all familiar with the fancy-schmancy books you can buy from your photographer, InkuBook or Mac iPhoto. I got mine through MyPublisher, which I found through Costco's on-line photo section (hello, 20% discount!). I simply uploaded all the photos I wanted to tell the story of our wedding day, arranged them in the style of book I wanted (this took me ALL DAY) and had the printed versions in my hot, little hands a mere 3 days later! Totally bad-ass. We got the 15" x 11.5" size with a linen hardcover. If I could do it over again, I'd get the leather cover and pay the extra $$$. The linen cover is very nice, but it tends to fade in areas where it's touched, almost like it's getting dirty. Ew. However, I love my book and so do both sets of parents!

These are just some different shots of the pages so you can see all the different ways to set it up. You can also add text and all sorts of frames and such. It was actually really fun to do! If you're really interested in seeing how it turned out, send me your email addy and I'll send you the link to My Bookshelf on MyPublisher. The book was 47 pages and had 125 photos and was under $90 with my Costco discount!

I also took our engagement photos and loaded those into a small, paperback book as a secret gift to The Candyman. I put a few lines of "tender feelings" along with the photos. I don't know how much he liked it, but I liked making it for him!

I'll tell you what The Candyman was definintely happy about....the Wii I got for him! Look at that smile!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

I will be getting back to the wedding recaps starting with my next post! Now that all has been revealed, I can start posting my fav pics! Ooooh, I can't wait! I can't wait! It's like Christmas, all over again!

I do want to share with you one of the amazing sights that The Candyman and I saw in our Christmas travels.

Yes, the plate says TITMAN. Awesome. What was funny was that the driver noticed I was taking a picture and gave me a strange look as we passed him. I swear, I will never understand people. Never ever. I mean, how could I not take a picture of it?

P.S. I just noticed that I lost all my blog links in my sidebar. Swell. Just swell.

The Kiddie-Poos

I know a lot of other brides struggle with whether or not to invite children to the wedding. We did too. At first I was like, "Absolutely not! No rugrats allowed!" Then I thought about having a flower girl and how can you have a flower girl and no other children? Well, that seemed ridiculous to me. But what we finally decided (after much debate and struggle) was this: the whole reason we were even having a wedding was because we wanted our closest friends and family to witness our union. We believe that the people we invited to our wedding will be those people who stand up for us through thick and thin. We think that when the going gets rough, these folks will be around. Many of these people we love and adore have children, especially since The Candyman and I are thirty-something. Lots of our friends got a running head-start on the procreation thing. In some cases, if we didn't invite the kids, the parents probably couldn't come. All that just seemed to negate what The Candyman and I were trying to achieve with our wedding in regards to the importance of family.

We were quite lucky that our venue offered the perfect solution. Since we had a whole house buy out at Mere Bulles yet we did not need all the space, we were able to sequester the kids away upstairs. It turned out AWESOMELY! One of the rooms upstairs had a drop down movie screen. So we hooked the ankle-biters up with a few DVD's, a kid-friendly menu and a few babysitters. Have I mentioned the babysitters? No? They are none other than fellow local brides Miss Kriss and Sarah Elizabeth!

Look how effin' cute they are!

These wonderful ladies came to my rescue in my hunt for babysitters! I was trying to go through a service to get some reliable sitters, but that was a dead-end. I did not want to sign up and pay for some lame service since I only needed babysitters for ONE NIGHT! And guess what folks? When you don't have kids, sitters can be hard to come by. I definitely wanted someone over the age of 18 so some of my friend's high school kids were not in the running. I was stumped as to how to find anyone. I was complaining to Miss Kriss one night at the gym (she was such a wonderful sounding board!) and she totally offered to help me! She enlisted Sarah Elizabeth and I was all set! You guys (meaning Miss Kriss and Miss SE) totally rocked my world with your willingness to help out a fellow bride-in-need! Many thanks to you both.

As I mentioned before the wedding I had a kid's table all planned out. Their favors were old skool Cracker Jacks and I had a massive centerpiece filled with candy. From what I hear, the kids were totally jacked up on candy all night long. Sweet!

It looks like this had already been raided.

Look at this little puffin face! How cute, right? I love how Mere Bulles hooked them up with kids cups too!

The Flower Girl and her brother reach for a well-deserved treat.

After the adults had finished eating and toasts were made, we invited the kids down for cake and dancing. A few of the older kids wandered down, but most of them stayed upstairs for the most part. Here are the Flower Girl and her brother again, totally zoned out on a movie.

Although, some kids definitely wanted to get their boogie on. I couldn't resist this one as a dance partner.

I find a few things odd about this shot. First, I'm clearly gettin' down with my girl. Second, the parents watching? Not her parents. Third, is my mom standing barefoot? I think this was at the end of the night anyway, but it sure was fun. I do remember I was dancing to a song that I LOVE to dance to, Blame It On the Boogie by The Jackson 5. It's back when Michael still had black skin, a real nose and Tito was stylin'.

Craving Michael's sweater vest and belt. Hot.

Yuck it Up

STOP!

WARNING!

MOM AND/OR DAD - DO NOT READ THIS POST OR I WILL KILL YOU! I LOVE YOU BOTH DEARLY, BUT I WILL KILL YOU IF YOU SO MUCH AS GLANCE AT THIS POST. YOU WILL RUIN CHRISTMAS FOR EVERYONE IF YOU DO. DO YOU WANT TO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR RUINING CHRISTMAS FOR EVERYONE? I THINK NOT. AND WHILE I'M AT IT, AUSTIN AND/OR CHRISTINA - YOU SHOULDN'T READ THIS EITHER. I CAN THREATEN YOU TWO WITH DEATH AS WELL, BUT YOU ARE BOTH CRAFTY, INSANE PEOPLE WHO WOULD GIVE ME A RUN FOR MY MONEY IN A DEATH MATCH. SO, I'M JUST GOING TO TRY TO GUILT YOU INTO NOT READING THIS POST. DO NOT RUIN CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

And back to the recaps.......

The great thing about a First Look scenario is that you get all the pictures out of the way (for the most part) prior to the ceremony and the reception. I am so glad we did this. Any of you with an ounce of Type A coursing through your veins - I highly suggest the First Look. Why? Because I was SO impatient! I was ready to get my reception on.

So after the first look, we had some more formal shots taken as well as some fun ones. Jonathon Campbell, photographer extraordinaire, has a photo-journalistic style, but managed to capture some really great formal portrait styles as well - all with just a hint of flair and personality. And when I say personality, I mean ours, not his. His photography shows off the personality of the people in front of the camera, not behind it.

The Candyman and I crack each other up all the time. We talk all the time. We make faces at each other all the time. We are cheesy and goofy and we don't care. We are so not cool, but I think we do a good job at faking it when we need to. Jonathon was able to capture that in ways that were endearing and charming and just plain romantic. What's great is that our families are the same way! Both are goofy and cheesy and fun and I am so glad we got that vibe captured on film! Below are some of the images that capture this spirit. While they aren't the ones that I will have matted and mounted and hanging in the living room, they are the ones I think I love the very most.

Typical. A shit-eating grin on The Candyman's face and me cracking up!

I absolutely adore this photo. Joshua, The Candyman's brother and Best Man is the wittiest creature I know. He can be so dead-pan. It's awesome. Joshua also has what The Candyman refers to as "The People's Eyebrow." I think this has something to do with the wrestler/actor The Rock, but I have to admit, my knowledge of the WWF is limited. Both The Candyman and his brother have the same eyebrow thing and Joshua is showing it here. I'm sure the look followed a snarky comment that set The Candyman into hysterics.

This is The Candyman and one of his other brothers, Preston. Preston was paralyzed when he was 18 years old (he's 40-something now) and has just the most incredible spirit. Wheelchair or no, those two behave like any other siblings.

OK, I've got to preface these next couple of shots. My MOH is not one who laughs or smiles a whole lot. She never really has been. It's not that she's grumpy or unhappy, it's just got to be something really funny for her to laugh. Her children are very similar. They are not unhappy children, just somewhat serious, like their mother.
Here we are about to get some shots of the The Flower Girl and the MOH and me. As you can see, the FG is taking this very seriously.

Jonathon took a couple of shots with the FG just sort of standing there looking at the camera. She wasn't smiling and looked a little scared. Sharon, Jonathon's partner in crime, gingerly asked her, "Do you think you can give us a little smile, honey?" And right on cue:
Stunner!

Jonathon (or maybe the second shooter?) immediately got this shot right after:
Me and the MOH cracking up at the FG. She went from this sad-looking little girl right into happy mode at the gentlest of prompting. It was too funny!

As I've mentioned several times before, I had to have some "help" in filling out my dress. Not familiar? You can read about it here. Here's my MOH in a moment of jocularity over the new wedding day cleavage!

And then me, checking out the girls myself:

My mother will totally hate this picture of herself, but I love it. She's totally laughing at me for some reason and clearly I'm enjoying myself too!

From the smug look on my brother's face, I know he's probably said something disgusting and/or completely inappropriate. However, since we're family and we all have a totally twisted sense of humor, we think it's funny too.

Now, this last shot might be my most favorite picture of all time. For reals. I'm not exactly sure how this started, but my brother and I have been doing this for decades. If I'm remembering it correctly, he and I were young and were acting up (Southern for misbehaving) one day. Someone (I want to say my dad, but it could have been my mom) told us to knock it off and to stop acting like little cretins. The adults left the room and I asked Austin what a cretin was. He made this weird face at me and made a strange sort of snorting noise and said, "That's a cretin." I mimicked him the best I could and said, "Like this?" And he said, "Yeah, like that!" And thus, The Cretin Face was born. It lives on to this day. Behold, The Cretins.

So it's Friday and this is the last weekend before the holidays. If y'all are as behind as I am then it will be a crazy-insane weekend, no? The beginning of next week is going to be so off-the-hook for me that I'm not sure how much posting time I can get in! Besides, The Candyman and I are heading out to The Carolinas to visit families so will be on the road quite a bit. If I can't get in any good posting time I want to say the following:

Merry Christmas to you. Happy Hanukkah to my Jewish peeps. Happy Kwanza to those who celebrate it. But to all, regardless of how or where you celebrate this time of year, I wish you peace, love and all the happiness and health that The Candyman and I are blessed to have. Please be safe in your travels - look out for the other guy as he might not see you. Please don't drink and drive. Lastly, thank you to all of you who have followed and who continue to follow me in my writing and rants. You have made my wedding journey unforgettable in so many ways. Happy Holidays everyone! More recaps to come!

How YOU Doin'? The First Look!

Thank goodness Jonathon didn't get any pictures of me trying to get into my Dad's car in the wedding dress! It was too funny! I was thinking that I'd shimmy across the back seat and sort of lounge to keep my dress from getting wrinkled. However, the back door didn't open up wide enough for me to back in without the dress potentially getting all up in the door jam and stuff, so I quickly abandoned that idea. My dad moved the front seat back all the way and I climbed in, arranged my dress just so in order to avoid it touching anything and we were off to Owen Chapel!

We got there just as The Candyman was climbing out of his car and I started screaming, "He can't see me yet! He can't see me yet! DAAAAA-AD! Drive around the other way! Drive around the other way!" Tabitha (my fab planer) was in front of the church and I rolled down the window and yelled at her, "Keep him away! Keep him away!" I have no idea why I was so frantic as we we going to officially see each other about a nano-second later. But anyway, Tabs went running across the parking lot and kept The Candyman at bay so that I could climb out and sequester myself away in the back of the chapel!

We got all that taken care of and arranged for The First Look. There are two definite camps when it comes to The First Look. Some vehemently oppose the idea. Others just don't give a damn. I was vehemently opposed to the idea from the very start. Bad luck, you know. However, as time went on, I realized that I wasn't as opposed as I thought. In fact, I totally switched camps. Why? I feared I would be so nervous that experiencing walking down the aisle and the ceremony would be consumed by my whirling brain activity versus paying attention to what was going on right in front of me. The one thing that calms my nerves? The Candyman. I knew that if I saw him before The Big Show, that all my fears would disappear, if I had any. It turns out I was amazingly calm, but getting all the pictures out of the way was a huge time saver and I'm totally psyched we did it!

The Candyman was set up inside the chapel and I entered through the doors behind the pulpit area.

I wonder what The Candyman is thinking! He looks quite devious here.


Hey, baby! You clean up good!

I just love this shot. The beautiful simplicity of Owen Chapel makes me so happy. So happy.

Just practicing!

You know, it's kinda hot in here. Oh, and please look at my sew in bra-cup and teeny boob. I wonder how many people I flashed that night? Hm..... That's what happens when you lose weight right before your wedding. Things start moving around.

Practicing my exit solo. Just kidding. I was just going outside for more pictures.

I want to let y'all know something important. I am NOT posting my most favorite pictures or the best of the best of the all the best that I got from Jonathon Campbell Photography. Why? Because Christmas is in 8 days people! There needs to be SOME element of surprise. Sheesh!

So until December 25th, y'all will have to make do with what I consider my second favorites! Don't worry though - I'll share all in due time. Patience is a virtue, right? RIGHT????