Love Under the Moon: I Wanna Grow Old With You

I owe you an apology, Hive. 

I never shared our first dance song with you! It's not that I didn't want to, it's just that Mr. Coyote and I had such a hard time picking one out and by the time we finally decided on one I didn't have time before the wedding to squeeze another post in! 

Mr. Coyote and I mulled over so many song choices when trying to decide on a first dance song. Nothing seemed to fit. Some were too long, too upbeat, the lyrics weren't right… Oh, I could go on forever. Finally, I suggested a meaningful, but very offbeat song. I initially introduced it as a joke, but we kept coming back to it. Could we really have a song by Adam Sandler as our first dance? Seeing as we had already chosen "500 Miles" for our recessional song I didn't see why we couldn't.

And so, Mr. Coyote and I had our first dance as husband and wife to "I Wanna Grow Old With You" by Adam Sandler. It was perfect! Short and sweet, with lyrics that are guaranteed to warm your heart. Even though I was a tad nervous about nailing our dance steps Mr. Coyote did such a great job, so I just relaxed, followed his lead and enjoyed this special moment with my new husband.

"I wanna make you smile when you're feelin' sad,

Carry you around when your arthritis is bad.

All I wanna do is grow old with you.

"I'll get your medicine when your tummy aches,

Build you a fire when the furnace breaks.

Oh it could be so nice, growing old with you.

"I'll miss you,

Kiss you,

Give you my coat when you are cold.

"Need you,

Feed you,

Even let you hold the remote control.

"So let me do the dishes in our kitchen sink,

Put you to bed if you've had too much drink.

I could be the man who grows old with you.

I wanna grow old with you."

Are you having a more nontraditional first dance song?

*All photos are by the fabulous Upstate Photographers unless otherwise noted.*

Miss a recap?

• I babble about being married and share our wedding video.
• We finish up some last-minute wedding tasks and pre-wedding jitters set in the day before the wedding.
• We practice getting married and then head to our rehearsal dinner where I shed my first tears of the weekend. We later wind down with our families back at the hotel.
• My bridesmaids get pretty and I get a special message from Mr. Coyote.
• I try to cope when things don’t go quite as planned, but thankfully I quickly bounce back and then it was time to become a bride. Meanwhile, Mr. Coyote was calm as a cucumber as he got ready with the dads and groomsmen.
• I finish getting ready and see an unexpected guest on my way to our first look.
• It was finally time to cross the street and meet my groom!
• We spend some time with our wedding party and then some time alone. Ceremony time was rapidly approaching.
• Our ceremony begins with the family and bridesmaid processional and continues with the bridal processional.
• I share the full text of our ceremony.
• We recess and my father gives us a very special wedding gift.
• Our friends and family gathered for some formal (and not so formal) portraits. Then Mr. Coyote and I spent a few moments alone before heading out to join the rest of our guests for our cocktail hour.
• The reception begins with a rockin' introduction.

Love Under the Moon: Introducing...

It was finally time for us to make our grand entrance as the new Mr. and Mrs. Coyote! We reunited with our wedding party downstairs and got ready to rock out.

This is my excited face.

(Guest photo)

As a tribute to our love of classic rock we decided to use some oldies but goodies to get our party started.

"Thunderstruck" by AC/DC was an obvious choice not only because AC/DC is freakin' awesome, but because Mr. Coyote and Best Man M actually used to play in an AC/DC cover band together!

Our DJ introduced the grandparents from their seats. Then my parents entered the room:

Followed by Mr. Coyote's parents:

I love how my parents come in waving and soaking up all the attention while Mr. Coyote's parents are bit more, erm, humble. ;)

Our wedding party soon followed. Again, I was worried about the logistics of having six bridesmaids and three groomsmen, but check out these dudes... They are definitely not complaining!

Bridesmaid C, Groomsman J, Bridesmaid P 

Bridesmaid J, Groomsman JD, Bridesmaid D

We never told our wedding party what the entrance song was going to be, so Best Man M was tickled pink when he heard "Thunderstruck" beckoning him into the main ballroom. He head banged and sang all the way through his entrance. It was definitely entertaining.

MOH D, Best Man M, MOH A

Everyone else had entered and even though we were suppose to stay hidden until we were announced we couldn't help taking a sneak peak into the room. This was the first time we had seen our reception space all set up!!

(Guest photo)

The music was pumping and I couldn't wait to run into the room and get our reception on! Finally it was our turn. AC/DC faded out to…

"ALL ABOARD!!!"

What better way to start off your reception than with a little bit of Ozzy?!

As soon as I heard our cue I grabbed Mr. Coyote's hand, held it up in the air and ran into the room. I was seriously pumped!

(Guest photo)

Our DJ introduced us as the new Mr. and Mrs. Coyote and we crazy trained it straight out onto the dance floor and right into our first dance song.

*All photos are by the fabulous Upstate Photographers unless otherwise noted.*

Miss a recap?

• I babble about being married and share our wedding video.
• We finish up some last-minute wedding tasks and pre-wedding jitters set in the day before the wedding.
• We practice getting married and then head to our rehearsal dinner where I shed my first tears of the weekend. We later wind down with our families back at the hotel.
• My bridesmaids get pretty and I get a special message from Mr. Coyote.
• I try to cope when things don’t go quite as planned, but thankfully I quickly bounce back and then it was time to become a bride. Meanwhile, Mr. Coyote was calm as a cucumber as he got ready with the dads and groomsmen.
• I finish getting ready and see an unexpected guest on my way to our first look.
• It was finally time to cross the street and meet my groom!
• We spend some time with our wedding party and then some time alone. Ceremony time was rapidly approaching.
• Our ceremony begins with the family and bridesmaid processional and continues with the bridal processional.
• I share the full text of our ceremony.
• We recess and my father gives us a very special wedding gift.
• Our friends and family gathered for some formal (and not so formal) portraits. Then Mr. Coyote and I spent a few moments alone before heading out to join the rest of our guests for our cocktail hour.

Love Under the Moon: Cocktails for Everyone!

Talking about our cocktail hour really upsets me. Not because we didn't enjoy it -- we had a great time visiting with all of our friends and family who had traveled so far to be with us on our wedding day. It upsets me because there was SO MUCH delicious, amazing food and I barely got to touch any of it! While our coordinator, Dom, did make sure our glasses were always full and that we were able to try all of the passed hors d'oeuvres (which were all fantastic by the way!) we did not sample anything from the spreads or carving station.

Sigh, just looking at these photos makes me drool. Can someone please get married at Franklin Plaza and invite me so I can actually enjoy this food?! PLEASE?!  Every one of our guests raved about the cocktail hour (yeah, way to rub it in, Coyote guests). In fact, there was so much food that a few people thought we had chosen to throw a cocktail reception and that this was all the food that was going to be served for the night. Ha! Fooled 'em good, didn't I?! 

While our guests were stuffing their faces with delicious deliciousness, Mr. Coyote and I zipped around the room hugging and chatting with as many people as we could. 

Love this photo of Best Man M and his brother, SIL Coyote and MOH A

(Guest photo)

Me with Cousin A (who did our ceremony reading)

(Guest photo)

Mr. Coyote and I with our good friend from college

(Guest photo)

(Guest photo)

One of my favorite photos of us and it was taken by a guest!

(Guest photo)

Eventually, the staff (who were seriously on their A game) slowly started guiding the guests downstairs to the main reception room. They were so sneaky about it that I eventually looked up and asked, "Where did everybody go?!" Even though we had an extended cocktail hour (1.5 hours!) I couldn't believe it was over already! Dom ushered us downstairs and it was time for the real party to begin.

*All photos are by the fabulous Upstate Photographers unless otherwise noted.*

Miss a recap?

• I babble about being married and share our wedding video.
• We finish up some last-minute wedding tasks and pre-wedding jitters set in the day before the wedding.
• We practice getting married and then head to our rehearsal dinner where I shed my first tears of the weekend. We later wind down with our families back at the hotel.
• My bridesmaids get pretty and I get a special message from Mr. Coyote.
• I try to cope when things don’t go quite as planned, but thankfully I quickly bounce back and then it was time to become a bride. Meanwhile, Mr. Coyote was calm as a cucumber as he got ready with the dads and groomsmen.
• I finish getting ready and see an unexpected guest on my way to our first look.
• It was finally time to cross the street and meet my groom!
• We spend some time with our wedding party and then some time alone. Ceremony time was rapidly approaching.
• Our ceremony begins with the family and bridesmaid processional and continues with the bridal processional.
• I share the full text of our ceremony.
• We recess and my father gives us a very special wedding gift.
• Our friends and family gathered for some formal (and not so formal) portraits. Then Mr. Coyote and I spent a few moments alone.

Love Under the Moon: A Moment Alone

By the time our formals were finished my feet were freaking killing me so I swapped my cute (but painful) heels for my sexy platforms. That's right. I totally wore Playboy bunny flips flops at my wedding. And you know what?! They were comfy as hell! 

Image via Shaw Video Productions

Just outside of our private room the cocktail hour was in full swing and slowly our friends and family trickled out to join the party. Our photographers and videographer soon followed suit in order to take some footage of our reception space. For the first time that day, Mr. Coyote and I found ourselves completely alone. No family members, no coordinators, no photographers. Just us. 

If you'll remember, Mr. Coyote and I took a dance lesson a few days before the wedding. I clearly underestimated how much my feet would hurt that day and practiced our dance in my wedding heels. Because I had just switched into gigantic flip flops I was super nervous and convinced myself that I would be slipping and sliding all over the dance floor. I begged Mr. Coyote to practice with me a few times to make sure that I could  so we technically had our first dance as husband and wife alone.

It was the most peaceful, beautiful moment of the day. I don't even remember what we talked about. I just remember being in that room together; spinning, twirling and savoring a quiet moment with my new husband. After a few run-throughs (which I totally nailed by the way!) and a few private smooches, we slipped out of the room to greet our friends and family.

Married bees, did you find any time to be completely alone with your spouse on your wedding day?

Miss a recap?

• I babble about being married and share our wedding video.
• We finish up some last-minute wedding tasks and pre-wedding jitters set in the day before the wedding.
• We practice getting married and then head to our rehearsal dinner where I shed my first tears of the weekend. We later wind down with our families back at the hotel.
• My bridesmaids get pretty and I get a special message from Mr. Coyote.
• I try to cope when things don’t go quite as planned, but thankfully I quickly bounce back and then it was time to become a bride. Meanwhile, Mr. Coyote was calm as a cucumber as he got ready with the dads and groomsmen.
• I finish getting ready and see an unexpected guest on my way to our first look.
• It was finally time to cross the street and meet my groom!
• We spend some time with our wedding party and then some time alone. Ceremony time was rapidly approaching.
• Our ceremony begins with the family and bridesmaid processional and continues with the bridal processional.
• I share the full text of our ceremony.
• We recess and my father gives us a very special wedding gift.
• Our friends and family gathered for some formal (and not so formal) portraits.

Love Under the Moon: Say Cheese!

It's time for the most boring part of my recaps... Formals!

Our formals were fairly painless, but I realized after the fact that we missed a ton of photos with family members that I really wanted. I truly treasure the photos I have, but my advice to future brides is this: Make a list and give it to a designated point person who knows your family. Even though our photographers had a list, a chunk of photos were missed and looking back, I really should have had a back-up plan to make sure all the important photos were taken.

Okay, now that my lecture is over let's move on to the fun stuff! The great part about digital photography is that your photographer can just snap away without having to worry about wasting film. And although our photographers took some excellent photos there were also multiple "bloopers" that are just too good not to share. And so, I'll be sneaking some in with the regular portraits to make this a little more entertaining for ya.

We took a lot of individual shots, you know, bride with parents, bride and groom with his side, her side, etc., but I'm just gonna skip over all that and show you one group shot:

 

Mr. Coyote and I with our parents and siblings. I love how all the different dress colors look together!

Okay, okay, I'll show you a few individual shots too:

Oh man, we are one good lookin' family.

 Mr. Coyote and I with my grandparents. My grandfather is very ill and I am so blessed that he was able to make it to my wedding. This is one of my most treasured photos.

From left to right: Cousin F, Mr. Coyote, me, my grandmother, my great-uncle and great-aunt. This photo is also very special to me. Unfortunately my uncle wasn't feeling well and my uncle and aunt left before the reception started so he could rest. I'm very grateful that we at least took this photo together.

Finally, I would like you all to meet Jim.

There is so much going on in this photo, I don't even know where to start.

Jim is an old friend of my dad's and seriously one of the funniest guys I have ever met in my life. He showed up early and was incredibly helpful the morning of the wedding. We were so excited to have him there with us and we definitely shared more than a few laughs together.

Whew. That was pretty painless, right?!

*All photos are by the fabulous Upstate Photographers unless otherwise noted.*

Miss a recap?

• I babble about being married and share our wedding video.
• We finish up some last-minute wedding tasks and pre-wedding jitters set in the day before the wedding.
• We practice getting married and then head to our rehearsal dinner where I shed my first tears of the weekend. We later wind down with our families back at the hotel.
• My bridesmaids get pretty and I get a special message from Mr. Coyote.
• I try to cope when things don’t go quite as planned, but thankfully I quickly bounce back and then it was time to become a bride. Meanwhile, Mr. Coyote was calm as a cucumber as he got ready with the dads and groomsmen.
• I finish getting ready and see an unexpected guest on my way to our first look.
• It was finally time to cross the street and meet my groom!
• We spend some time with our wedding party and then some time alone. Ceremony time was rapidly approaching.
• Our ceremony begins with the family and bridesmaid processional and continues with the bridal processional.
• I share the full text of our ceremony.
• We recess and my father gives us a very special wedding gift.