Our Charmeng Wedding: Formal Portraits

After our ceremony, we took our formal portraits. Tip: We put the Order of Formal Portraits in our ceremony programs so that our guests knew that we wanted to take pictures with them. It also prevented our guests from exiting the church and forming an impromptu receiving line. It didn’t take that long for our guests to gather together and take this beauty:

This is a HUGE group picture and I really love it. I thought about putting this on our thank you cards, but there were so many guests who didn’t attend the ceremony. I was really disappointed in the amount of people who didn’t attend our ceremony. It’s a little more understandable when guests don’t go to ceremonies where there is a huge gap between ceremony and reception. But we had NO gap. In fact, our ceremony ate into our cocktail hour. And it sounds petty, but really, the “wedding” is ceremony, and the least guests could do is attend the important part! Being the OCD person I am, I actually figured out all the people who attended the ceremony and those who didn’t. Surprisingly, we had the majority of our friends attend our ceremony but few relatives. John’s side isn’t Catholic, and his parents didn’t want to encourage their side to attend the Catholic ceremony. So our Catholic ceremony attendants would only be my family and our friends. On the guestlist, my side dominated my friends 2:1. So to find out that family and friends were equal in numbers really bummed me out. Luckily, I didn’t notice this until we got our pictures back. But I wasn’t shocked, just hopeful.

This is my new family. You’ll notice that in all the pictures, John and I are just holding hands. We didn’t know what to do with our hands, and instead of embracing, we just held hands. No one told us what to do, and that’s what we did naturally. It looks a little bit awkward to me.

And our parents.

Our awesome celebrants. Fr. Kevin (on the left) was also at my confirmation when I was in high school.

And MY “immediate” family. Or I guess I should say my parents’ immediate family. My mom’s and dad’s siblings and their children. If you look close enough, you’ll notice that I am BY FAR the oldest of all my cousins.

And my beautiful family.

My little kiddies. I really wanted to sit for this one. I see a lot of colorful flower girls dresses, but I really wanted my little girls to look absolutely pure. Besides me, they were the only ones dressed in white. Cuties, aren’t they!?! Unfortunately, we’re missing one of our boys, John’s cousin. His cousin and uncle zoomed out after the ceremony to welcome any guests at the reception. In his culture, it is considered rude to not welcome each and every guest as they arrive. So no group picture with him. We have no formal pictures with anyone from John’s side, except for our Jr. Bridesmaid because she decided to stay with John’s sister instead of going with his brother and dad.

And of course our beautiful bridal party. I’m kind of disappointed that our photographer didn’t line up our girls nicely. EVeryone just looks a little cluttered together.

And finally, just the two of us. I love how this picture showcases the grand ceiling. Our church was absolutely beautiful.

And closer…

And closer. And then it was time to head outside.

Doesn’t it look like I have an attitude. It’s called “I’m so cool, I just got married!”

And then a couple with him.

Jen really loved the look of the floor.

Booty booty booty booty rockin everywhere. hee hee…love how it shows the rusching of my dress, with the appliques.

And we had to do some cool shots with the veil in front of the church.

Getting a little close.

And us. The goofy us.

Ok, THIS is the goofy us. We thought we were done with pictures, and were headed to the reception. What face do you make when you’re married, done with formal pictures, and heading to the reception? THIS FACE. WOOOO HOOO!!!

And another close-up of my hair clip and earrings. Can’t get enough of them. I hope to pass it down to someone for their wedding in the future. Maybe my sister…maybe a cousin…maybe my bff. Who knows.

So I threw on some flip-flops and gave John my Manolos. We could’ve splurged and got the horse and carriage I wanted. But really, when your reception and ceremony are 380 feet apart. That $500 that you’d spend on the carriage would best go somewhere else. So instead, we walked. I love my shoes, but I needed my feet to last the entire night! So onto the reception!!!