Wedding Still hopeful, still Heidi, now MARRIED! (pics inside)

[hopefulheidi]

Nate and I have officially been married for 11 days now and it has taken me all of this time to log on to Pricescope to share photos! While it doesn''t yet feel (completely) real, I have the photos to prove that the wedding actually did happen hehe Everything went so perfectly (with a few minor issues here and there) that I still can''t believe we were so fortunate. When we first arrived in NY it was rainy and in the 50s but by the wedding day the sky was sunny and cloudless and 75 degrees! The hills were popping with color and it reminded us of everything was miss about living there. The entire event was like a dream and so many people commented that it was the best wedding they had ever attended, that we had obviously thought of every detail, that we did an amazing job putting it all together. All of the hard work and WAITING was totally worth it.

But I know all you guys want is the photos...so let''s get this show started...

 

[StarbuttsKoffee]

where are the photos???????????????

 

[hopefulheidi]

Due to some poor beverage choices at the rehearsal dinner (and beyond), my little sister kept me awake the entire night as she worshipped the porcelain god. While it didn''t do a lot for my beauty rest, I was able to get some awesome photos of the surrounding hills very early on the morning of the wedding.

 

[hopefulheidi]

Circa 7 am...yikes!

 

[hopefulheidi]

My dress hanging on the gorgeous bed in the diamond suite. It wasn''t until the videographer had me inspect the dress for the camera that I noticed a smudge on the front but it was quickly remedied. After all of the issues getting the dress altered, a little stain wasn''t all that disconcerting.

 

[hopefulheidi]

The morning dragged by soooo slow. Both my maid of honor and my little sis were still very sick from our celebrating the evening before and I wasn''t feeling much better. I was also very anxious about the ballroom and ceremony site set up but I forced myself to stay in our gorgeous room and relax, knowing Nate and company had everything under control. Finally around 12:30 the hair stylists showed up and started working on us. The mansion is quite old and apparently the wiring is a bit funky as we kept tripping the circuit breaker every time the curling iron and blow dryer were running simultaneously.

 

[hopefulheidi]

Not long after, the paparazzi arrived (2 photogs and a videographer). I was facing a mirror in the corner of the room concentrating on being calm while activity swirled around me. I knew once we were finished with hair/makeup/dressing that the day would fly by, and I was right.

 

[hopefulheidi]

Eventually we were all dressed...and that is when the crying began. My family is a big bunch of mushballs and it would only take one person tearing up, to get everyone into the act. My little sis seems to be the biggest cry baby as you can see here Apparently she blubbered down the entire length of the aisle during the ceremony hehe I''m looking forward to seeing that on video

 

[hopefulheidi]

My mom looks so proud of me here.

 

[hopefulheidi]

I really hope I look as foxy when I''m her age.

 

[hopefulheidi]

My maid of honor wearing the dress we were luckily able to swap out a handful of days before the wedding. She had been worried that going up a size would require alterations, but I think it looked perfect.

 

[hopefulheidi]

The ceremony site was one of the only parts of the whole event that I got to help set up. While Nate was switching from his hotel room, to the honeymoon suite, my family snuck me downstairs so I could look at all of their hard work and I couldn''t resist taking over and helping a bit

 

[hopefulheidi]

This is the view our friends Chris and Carol had during the ceremony.

 

[hopefulheidi]

We won''t have a lot of the photos of the ceremony until we get the pro pics but I really love this photo some of our friends took. The wait to walk down the aisle was excruciating and I was so excited that once I made it there, it was all kind of a blur. I know my dad walked me down the aisle, and kissed me on the cheek before handing me over to Nate, but I can''t recall much of it. It really felt like it was only Nate and I in that entire moment. When I reached him, he had tears in his eyes which was so incredibly sweet and I could tell he was nervous by the way he rubbed my hands while we listened to my brother-in-law perform the ceremony. I held up ridiculously well and didn''t shed even one tear. After so many years of waiting I wanted to make sure everyone could hear the vows I had been waiting so long to make. There was only one small little mistake with the vows, where my brother-in-law forgot to ask Nate to stick with me through the difficult AND the easy (he skipped over difficult so apparently Nate has a free pass to escape if things ever get difficult). There were also a few bees that required swatting but other than that it was perfect. The entire ceremony there were two sailboats gliding along on the lake. Quite symbolic

 

[hopefulheidi]

After the ceremony we hopped into this cool Rolls Royce and headed out into the countryside for a quick photo shoot. As we returned to the mansion, we happened to see the A Cappella group that had hired, out in the parking lot. They quickly surrounded the car and chased us all the way back to the tent, serenading us the entire way. It was one of the coolest parts of the day and I felt like royalty after making such a grand entrance.

 

[hopefulheidi]

We had some time for wedding party photos before the reception began.

Here is the entire wedding party...

 

[hopefulheidi]

Here is my side of the family right after my poor little sister was stung by a bee and as my mom is yelling at her to suck it up for the photos. I love family drama

 

[hopefulheidi]

With both sets of parents.

 

[hopefulheidi]

Just us and the mansion.

 

[hopefulheidi]

Our first dance to "Into the Mystic". About two weeks before the wedding I ordered one of those cheesey, learn-to-dance-at-home DVDs and I''m so glad I did

 

[hopefulheidi]

I''d rather not say much about the cake other than it arrived, and it was reasonably priced.

 

[hopefulheidi]

Hooray for not smashing the cake. The frosting was a bit hard when we cut into the bottom tier so it took some work to get that first piece out, but we did a good job feeding it to each other and we didn''t leave any crumbs behind.

 

[hopefulheidi]

Post cake kiss.

 

[hopefulheidi]

And a blingy kiss

 

[hopefulheidi]

Here we are getting a kick out of the best man''s toast. His theme was communication. To paraphrase "Nate, if you come home and find Heidi washing the dishes and looking unhappy and you ask what''s wrong, and she says nothing, what she really means is that something is wrong and she''s mad at you for having to ask. Heidi, if you see Nate playing video games, and you ask him what''s wrong, and he says he wants to play video games, what he really means is that he wants to play video games." It was really cute.

 

[hopefulheidi]

We went against tradition a bit and had the father/daughter dance at the same time as the mother/son dance so they could both have their recognition without the guests sitting through 15 minutes of special dances. It worked out really well.

 

[hopefulheidi]

And on to some of the details...

The Candy buffet. People were complete vultures and although we had already prepackaged a cup of candy at each place setting, our guests still managed to clean out all of these containers as well. There was absolutely no candy left!

 

[hopefulheidi]

Placecards and Cardbox. The really cool thing about our handmade placecards was the meal key we came up with. Our venue had said we could just use colored stickers or whatnot to show what each guest was eating, but we took it a step further and used a maple leaf punch to punch out two leaves on the front. We then slipped a red, orange, or yellow piece of paper inside and the color that showed through the front, told the servers which meals to deliver.

 

[bee*]

Congratulations Heidi!! You look amazing and I''m thrilled for you and Nate!

 

[emeraldlover1]

Everything looks like it was amazing! Where is the mansion again? Hudson Valley? I forget and I know I''ve seen the pics before but can''t recall. I hope my wedding is just as beautiful next year. We are getting married in the Catskills.