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!

PICTURES! PICTURES! PICTURES!!!!!

THE FIRST ROUND OF PICTURES IS UP!
THE FIRST ROUND OF PICTURES IS UP!

Go now. Go fast. Go see Part I of The Thirty-Something Bride and The Candyman.
Go here. Go now.

I am so excited, I might pee myself.

"I Wish" Wednesday!

I WISH ALL MY PHOTOS WERE READY!!!!!

Ok, no pressure Jonathon, no pressure. Just really really really excited since I've had two semi-sneak peeks. I'm hoping JC and Sharon don't get upset with me, but I have GOT to post these other two photos I've seen. They don't have the snazzy JCP logo on them, but y'all know how much I j'adore (yes, I know that that reads "I I love") JCP and must give props where props are due. I'll get into that more in the recaps.

I honestly, I'm just over recapping the honeymoon. I mean, it was gorgeous and relaxing and fun and wonderful and all things that a honeymoon should be. I have no complaints whatsoever (hard to believe, no?). But seriously, do you guys care how much food we ate or how much cool Mexican art we bought? The only other really cool thing was the infinity pool. We spent a lot of time there. However, we did come face to face with a deadly scorpion hiding in our umbrella. See:

This little sucker can kill you dead.

The Candyman found him when he was moving the umbrella around to protect our lily-white skin from scorching to death. He put the umbrella down and calmly said, "There's a scorpion." I just about jumped out of my skin. The gardener guy was nearby, we pointed him out and a few seconds later, no more deadly scorpion. I'll tell you what though, every little itch or flutter in the corner of our eyes was a deadly scorpion waiting to kill us. Thank God this happened on our last day there. We would have freaked ourselves out otherwise.

I'll just leave you with a few of the best pictures (in my opinion) from the trip and be done with honeymoon stuff.

Sunset from la casa.

An evening swim with The Candyman. He's hot, no?

The happy couple!

So, without further ado, I'm going to share some contraband photos with you. Seriously, JCP, I'll take these down if you want to me too! I just LOVE them though!

Pre-wedding, outside Owen Chapel.

The ceremony. I loves me some Candyman!

Here are a few others taken by friends and family that I really think are great! Thanks for sharing everyone!

My brother, a greeter and program passer-outer. I hate to call him an usher since he didn't really usher anyone.

Moi. I have no idea when this was taken though.

Walkin' the aisle. Dear Dad, why do you have to have those weird glasses that turn into sunglasses? Oh, and why does Mom have them too? He looks so intense here. I have no idea why. He seemed pretty happy. Maybe he was just focusing on the task at hand. He's that kind of guy.

One of our cakes from the Cake Buffet. This one was the chocolate raspberry with cream cheese frosting. Sweet 16th Bakery knocked it out of the ball park. These cakes were slammin' good.

I'm totally psyched to get more wedding recaps up! I've got my budget figured out too and can give you the 411 on the breakdown. Is anyone interested in that?

Gorgeous Photo Shoot! {If I do say so myself...}

My photographer, the amazing Jonathon Campbell and his wife Sharon posted a new post about yours truly and The Candyman - our engagement session! Sharon wrote the sweetest things about me and The Candyman!

Please keep JC, Sharon and there three little ones in your prayers. They are experiencing grief in their family and can't be together to lean on one another.

FREE Nashville Premier Bridal Show Tickets, Sponsored by Jonothan Campbell Photography

Hey, all you Nashville area brides! My amazing photographer, Jonathon Campbell is sponsoring a give-away right here on The Thirty-Something Bride's blog!

They are offering two FREE tickets to Nashville's Premier Bridal Show, being held this Sunday, July 12th at The Nashville Convention Center. This is where I met the boy-wonder photographer Jonathon and his lovely wife, Sharon. Here's a shot of their booth from the January show where me and The Candyman met JC!


As you may have read in my past blog about hunting for the perfect photographer, you know that I did not leave one photographic stone unturned. I have not one regret in my decision to choose JCP as my moment-capturer for the day of The Big Show.

Here's proof (pun intended) positive of why I think they are so incredibly awesome. Check out some of my favorites from our engagement shoot!

Come on! They scouted a Candy Shop in honor of The Candyman!

Daisy Duke, eat your damn heart out.

Engagement shoot fun with Sharon Campbell!

So you want free tickets, huh? This is a $20 value! Besides, if you win, you get to meet me and I'll even intro you to the fabulous Sharon and Jonathon. Liza Hippler from Maiden to Married will be with me too. How can you resist, right? ;)

Bridal shows can be overwhelming if you're not ready for them. Plan to to be overwhelmed, but plan to have fun too. Don't sign up for things you have no interest in as you'll be bombarded with emails. I highly suggest heading over to mybridemail.com to set up a free account specific to your wedding vendors. Trust me, I wish I'd done this myself.



Here's what you've gotta do to win the FREE tickets! Just head over to the JCP website or their fun blog, pick out your favorite picture and come back here and leave a comment about it. Don't worry, I won't play favorites if you don't choose my pictures! I'll choose a winner at random.org and announce the winner on Friday!

To my Nashville bridal bloggers (you know I love you) - please help spread the word locally!

JPGS from Japan!

Hey everyone! I'm safely in Japan awaiting my flight to Manila. I am so tired I don't know what to do with myself. I only had about 2 hours of sleep on the flight, but did see three movies I've been meaning to watch (He's Just Not That Into You, Marley & Me, Revolutionary Road). Movies on Demand is the best part about flying first/business class. Well, that and the free booze. :)

Right before I left the U.S. I got an email from Jonathon Campbell with two more sneak peeks from our engagement shoot. Thought I'd share them real quick before I pass out from exhaustion.  

How freakin' handsome is The Candyman?

Thanks Sharon for the last minute picture sharing! This made my day! OK, I seriously need some sleep. This jet lag is going to blow. More from Manila!

*Insert Ear-Piercing Scream Here*

Even though my awesomely awesome photographer Jonathon and he equally awesome wife Sharon are on vacation, they posted a sneak peek of our engagement shoot on their blog. I have, of course, been stalking their blog ever since the shoot. I wanted to crawl out of my skin in anticipation! Click on the pics to make them big.

Jonathon took this one on a lonely road on the way to Leipers Fork. Well, we thought it was lonely. There was quite a bit of traffic for a Sunday afternoon!

I love this photo! I think I was balanced on the side of a hill for this one, but I'm not sure. The Candyman looks so handsome, it kills me.

Sharon, Jonathan, thank you so much for my sneak peek and for the fabulous time during the photo shoot. You two are top notch.

Cake, Shoes and JCP

Wow. What a weekend. The Candyman and I had an amazingly full schedule of to-do's all weekend long. We are both exhausted, suffering from allergies, but giddy and happy too.

On Saturday, we had a noon appointment with Sweet 16th - A Bakery and met with husband/wife team Ellen and Dan. While Dan handled the steady stream of customers (all of whom they greeted by name), The Candyman and I sat and discussed cake options with Ellen. While they do not typically do the standard stacked wedding cake, the do offer several varieties of cakes that sounded pretty darn good!

We tasted the chocolate with cream cheese frosting, the vanilla with cream cheese frosting and the red velvet with cream cheese frosting. The Candyman is not a fan of red velvet, but he really liked this one. When I had set the appointment up with Dan, I had mentioned "no banana flavored anything" because, well, banana flavoring tastes like poo. Ellen inquired to my "no banana" request and was determined to prove me wrong. She grabbed a banana muffin for The Candyman and he immediately scarfed and gave a nod of approval. Sweet 16th doesn't use the artificial flavoring that produces the metallic taste I hate. Nice. Ellen's presentation of her single wedding cakes is gorgeous. I wish I had a photo to share. As we have done with out other vendors, we have chosen based on how we feel about the people in addition to the services offered. Maybe that's why it took so long to find a cake vendor - no one quite fit. We think Ellen and Dan do. The cakes vary in cost from $25 (chocolate cake with cream cheese icing) to $45 (The Velvet Elvis: 2 layers red velvet cake, one layer chocolate with peanut butter cream filling and cream cheese icing!). We estimate we'll need about 4 cakes, so this fits into the budget nicely! I need to call them and book for certain, we just need to crunch a few more numbers. Keep your fingers crossed for the cake buffet!

After we were done with the cake tasting, we headed over to Off-Broadway Shoes to see if I could find a pair of cuties for our engagement shoot. I did and they are fabulous and hopefully, you'll see them when I get my engagement shots! TEASE!

However, I did come across these as potential wedding shoes. The blue (and optional cream) ones are lovely, but too high. The ones with the rhinestones were kinda cute, but they didn't have my size and The Candyman was not as interested as I.


The engagement shoot was a blast. Jonathon and Sharon really just are the best people. We had such an amazing time! We met them on Sunday in Franklin, hopped in their van and headed south to Leipers Fork, Tennessee. After several days of rain, the sky had cleared up beautifully, although it was a tad windy. We stopped at a few random places along the way: a discolored cement wall with a barbed wire fence, an old marquis sign and a lonely country road. The owner of the marquis offered it to Sharon and we (OK, it was me) seriously considered hooking it up to the van! I snapped a shot of the marquis and The Candyman along the way:


We arrived in Leipers Fork around 4:30pm or so and cruised around one of the antique stores and snapped a few shots there while we were still in our "casual" clothes of jeans and nice shirts. We changed into our fancier duds and really got down to business. The Candyman did not wear the hat, just so you know.


We took photos outside of store fronts, on an old truck, on benches, on a hill in front of a stream, under this giant gazebo/outside porch thing, in front of cool, old walls and in front of a replica of the General Lee (for those twenty-something brides, that would be the car from The Dukes of Hazard, one of the best 70's TV shows ever). Sa-weet! By the time we got back to our car, it was almost 8pm! I don't know why, but we were completely exhausted when we got home. I mean, basically all we had to do was stand there and make out a little. How awesome is that? OK, we didn't necessarily make out, but there was some smoochin' goin' on! :) I have a slightly higher regard for models now, but not much.

I know that Sharon did a ton of leg-work to scope out the locations and she did an incredible job. All these great photo op spots were within 600 yards or so of each other. It was the first time The Candyman and I had been to Leipers Fork and we will for sure be back! I can't wait to see the photos. I'm not sure when they will be "ready" but I'll be sure to share when they are! So excited to see the outcome of much anticipation and tons of fun yesterday! Thanks you guys! We had a blast!

Kubota Photo Design

When I was in middle school, I lived in Hawaii. I had a friend named Kecia. I was always slightly jealous of Kecia. She had boobs. She was really smart. I thought her colored jeans from Foxmore and her white Nike's were cool. She also had a verrrrrry cute brother, Kevin. Now Kevin was like a senior in high school or something, so totally unattainable in every way, but still cute. I remember having a sleepover at Kecia's house and her brother was getting ready to go on a first date with a girl named Clare. He married that girl Clare and started an amazing photography company. He has created amazing photography stuff that I know nothing about. He also received some fabulous humanitarian award. All that stuff is here. Even now, 20+ years later I still think Kevington Steele (as we used to refer to him) is still kinda cute! What he really is, is an amazing photographer - from any angle (oh, I crack myself up!). I swiped some of his incredible wedding photos off his blog. Lookie here:

All images from Kubota Photo Design.

Apparently Kevin and his team (which includes his sister, Kecia) have workshops and such all over the world! While I only sporadically keep in touch with my friend from Hawaii (they're all mainlanders now), I am always happy to hear of such success amongst friends, old and new. Check out his amazing work on his website Kubota Photo Design.