Lemur L'amour: Standing in the Road

Confession: When I read other bees' recaps, I usually find the posts with couples pictures the least interesting. I think, how can you possible have sixty pictures of the same two people? Then it comes to my wedding...and I'm seriously considering dragging this out for ten posts so I can show you EVERY SINGLE PICTURE.

Kidding. 

Sort of. 

I narrowed it down to my ten favorites, and I'll totally understand if you're not interested—cause, well, they're ten pictures of just Mr. Lemur and me standing in the road. But if you are...READ ON.

All pictures by Niki Marie Photography!

Come away with me.

My absolute favorite.

I felt ridiculous doing this—but we may have almost pulled it off?

Does it get any better?

Thanks for humoring me. You guys are amazing. 

Did you do couples pictures before the ceremony? How did you narrow it down from dozens of pictures to just a few to frame? Because that's my next project...

Lemur L'amour: The First Look I Didn't Know I Wanted

I'll be honest, guys, I didn't know if I wanted to do a first look. I was super nervous about if it would turn out, or if we would look really awkward, or if I would rather just see Mr. Lemur privately at first. Oddly enough, I ended up pretty much just leaving the first look up to fate—and Niki.

When I told Niki I was ready, she told me to wait in the living room and she would get Mr. Lemur. I was so freakishly nervous. I think I was actually more nervous to try to make the pictures look good than to see my future husband—how ridiculous is that?

But my fears were completely unfounded.

*** As usual, all images by Niki Marie Photography ***

I feel like I should say something to break up the pictures, but I have nothing to say, so...

So happy to finally be together.

So there you have it. I didn't even know I wanted a first look, but these are some of my favorite pictures of all of them. Just pure happiness and the realization that WE ARE GETTING MARRIED!

Did you do a first look?

Lemur L'amour: Let's Get Dressed Already!

Finally my mom arrived and I put on my dress. Unfortunately, it wasn't really a "cute picture of your mom zipping up your dress" moment. It was more like "oh please let this dress zip..." Which it did, and it fit perfectly. Once I got it over my rib cage.

*** Once again, all photos by Niki Marie Photography ***

My mom was able to help me adjust my dress, though, which I'm thankful for. She also helped me put on my grandmother's antique necklace. Both of my cousins' wives wore it in their weddings, which makes me the third grandchild to get married in three years and feature this amazing piece of jewelry.

I touched up my mascara one last time...

...added a little more lip gloss...

...and it was veil time!

Along with my grandmother's necklace, I wore Mr. Lemur's grandmother's earrings. Unfortunately you can't see them much in these pictures but I promise they were there!

Meanwhile, my sisters were getting dressed and putting the finishing touches on their hair and makeup with more help from friends.

At 9:30 almost on the dot, it was first look time. I was as ready as I was going to get!

Did you manage to stay on schedule the morning of your wedding? What special touches are you including in your bridal look?

Lemur L'amour: The Day Begins

I'm officially writing my recaps! AHH! I can't believe time has gone so fast, and I'm thrilled to be able to relive the day a little bit through pictures with you.

After such a crazy wedding week culminating in an awesome but tiring welcome dinner, you would think I would fall asleep immediately. After writing a few thank you notes and making sure I was all organized for the next day, I crawled into bed at my aunt's house in a room with my two sisters expecting to be out like a light. Instead, I laid awake...and awake some more...and awake some more.

I don't think I mentioned this, but I had woken up Friday morning with an awful cold. With the help of tons of Sudafed, Advil, and Vitamin C, I made it through the day, but I was definitely congested. That plus stress plus anticipation of the next day led to a tough night of sleep. After I FINALLY fell asleep, I woke up every twenty minutes, anxiously checking my phone to see if I could get up yet...

At 5:30 my alarm went off and I got up and got in the shower. A friend of ours who was doing my hair arrived around 6:30 and my sisters began to stir and get ready themselves. My aunt brought me fruit and orange juice for breakfast and K curled...and curled...and curled my hair.

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I have a lot of hair. Generally when I curl it the effects of the curl wear off after about an hour—less if it's humid. Spoiler alert though: My hair for the wedding was magical. It was seriously my dream hair. K was a wonder worker!

When my hair was curled and pinned, it was time to head out to the venue. But first...

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Seriously, would any girl's wedding photos be complete without a documented stop at Starbucks? Grande non-fat Chai to go, please.

Once at the venue, Niki arrived and began taking pictures while K touched up my hair. Gah, looking back on these pictures makes me wish I could have someone do my hair every day!

*** All photos after this point by Niki Marie Photography ***

Pinned, hairsprayed, and teased within an inch of my life. But it worked. Rain, humidity, and all—my hair didn't fall throughout the entire day. Also, I don't know why I looked miserable in these pictures! Note to brides: If you want good-looking getting ready pictures, smile the whole time! I was stressed and wanted everything to go perfectly, but I was in no way unhappy, despite the look on my face.

K moved to curling Sister E's hair while I did... I don't actually remember. This time is all somewhat of a blur. I remember touching up my makeup way more times than I needed to and pacing back and forth, waiting for my mom to arrive so I could get dressed.

Oh, can you tell how cold it is by how warmly all of us are dressed? It was freezing! The girls did their makeup and I sneaked out to say hi to Mr. Lemur—which was far and away the most comforting thing I did all morning.

I was still waiting for my mom to arrive to get dressed, but my parents were running a little bit late. Not a problem—we were still on time for the 9:30 start of couples pictures!

How early did you get up on your wedding day? Did you sleep well the night before?

Our Charleston Honeymoon: Renting a House versus Booking a Resort

Mr. Lemur and I rented a house for our honeymoon. From the beginning we were looking for a house—we never really considered one of the many hotels and resorts in the area. There are obviously benefits on both sides. Personally, we loved the privacy and uniqueness of renting a house, but then again we missed out on the extra luxuries of being on a resort. So here we go with renting a house versus booking a resort...

Renting a House

1. The biggest advantage to us was privacy. We had the whole house to ourselves—two floors and three decks! There was no bumping into other visitors in the hallways or fighting for parking.

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2. The house we stayed in was incredibly unique. The floors, walls, and ceilings were covered in reclaimed wood from an old Charleston house. The man who built the house did it as a hobby—he was more of a hobbyist than a craftsman, so the uniqueness came through. None of the windows were the same size and the stair treads were slightly uneven, for example. Personally I felt like it added to the character of the house!

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3. For us, renting a house was also more cost effective. Obviously, this wouldn't be true in every situation! We did a lot of research online and looked at a lot of different house rentals. We had a huge advantage because the first week of May falls right before the busy season, meaning discounted rates were still applicable.

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Booking a Resort

1. Resorts generally offer significantly more food options than renting a house—we were responsible for all our own meals and there was obviously no room service! This could be good or bad. We loved cooking some of our own meals, although we were coming off months of long distance so those kinds of things weren't mundane yet!

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2. Resorts also usually have a pool, hot tub, and other amenities. We had a few extra little bonuses, for example the man who owns the house offered up the use of two bikes to ride around the island for no charge. We also had our own washer and dryer—something you may or may not see at a hotel or resort! But we definitely didn't have a hot tub, which is something I wouldn't have minded since the ocean was way too cold to swim in all week.

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3. When it comes to feeling secure in your transactions, resorts and hotels definitely give you an edge. Most people renting their house on their own—the way we went—accept only cash or checks. If you go through a larger company, they may accept credit or debit, but you have to be willing to be flexible and more trusting. We went off of dozens of positive reviews on HomeAway and VRBO and loved our stay, but we could just as well had a negative experience!

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Whew, I think that exhausts everything I have to say about this topic! Mr. Lemur and I absolutely loved our stay and wouldn't have done anything differently. What about you? Did you rent a house? Book a resort?

Our Charleston Honeymoon: It Rains

We knew from the beginning we wanted to take a honeymoon especially to spend some time together after extended long distance—but didn't really have the budget or the time to do anything super fancy. Instead, we spent the week in one of our favorite cities, Charleston, the city Miss Camera is getting married in! Charleston also happens to be beautiful and insanely romantic.

We rented a little house on Folly Beach, twenty minutes from downtown, and less than four hours from our wedding venue. Since it was a morning wedding, we headed out mid-afternoon in our little car for our week long stay at the beach.

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Spoiler for the wedding day recaps: The day of our wedding was cold and rainy. So uncharacteristic for South Carolina in May, but at least our wedding was indoors!

Sunday on Folly Beach dawned just as cold and rainy. Honestly though, we didn't care! It was a perfect day to hang around the house and recover from a stressful week. Right around 8:00 at night, the rain broke and we decided to walk two blocks down to the beach.

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I miss this beach. Every evening right before sunset we walked down to the beach and along the sand to the pier.

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Right as we were walking up to the pier, there was a wedding on the edge of the beach as the sun was going down. It was just the bride and groom and a small group of people standing—maybe twenty or so. My guess is they had planned the wedding for earlier in the day but due to the rain had postponed it and taken the first opportunity they could. I might be wrong, but not many people plan their weddings for 8:00 on a Sunday night! Regardless, it was beautiful.

Now we were rested, though, and ready to explore the area more in the coming days!

Where did you go on your honeymoon? Was it low-key or lots of activities?

Married Life: A Five Week Report

As of tomorrow, Mr. Lemur and I will have been married for five weeks! This still feels like yesterday:

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In many ways, our lives are dramatically different. We went from being 800 miles apart and spending our days texting with the occasional phone call—to living together and having someone to wake up next to every morning. And it's amazing! Of course, this means a lot of other transitions in our lives.

Name Change

I changed my last name to Mr. Lemur's, for a lot of reasons. I wasn't particularly attached to my last name, and it was frequently spelled wrong. I also like the feeling of starting over as our own family. The process of changing your name isn't difficult—but I did find it frustrating to wait for my social security card, then for my driver's license, then for my new debit card...you get the picture.

Joint Finances

Mr. Lemur and I also made the decision to open a bank account together and to close our individual accounts. After our experience with separate accounts while dating and engaged, there was no way we were keeping that up. It was too difficult to split bills evenly—I pay gas, you pay food? We split the food and gas? Who pays insurance on our car or my ring, for example? Now both of our direct deposits go into our joint account and Mr. Lemur and I make big financial decisions together. Little purchases are left to our own discretion.

Emotions

I think a lot of bees around here have blogged about dealing with post-wedding depression. It only makes sense—you spend seven or more (for some, many more!) months planning a wedding, and it consumes your life. Now that day is over, and it flew by! I definitely experienced some rollercoaster emotions. I cried after the wedding on our way to the honeymoon, for various reasons, but after that until the honeymoon was over I was just ecstatic to be married.

When we arrived in Michigan and walked into our apartment, loaded with boxes and remnants of decorations and wedding gifts, reality hit me. We weren't just playing house anymore! For the next two and a half weeks, I wasn't working, so I had that time to get settled in—it was good for me. Now, though, the best thing has been for me to get involved in my new job and church and meeting people. I have plenty to do to keep me occupied!

Well, I think that's it for our married life report—for now! We're still waiting on our professional pictures, but I have a few more posts about our amazing honeymoon before diving into recaps.

How did your life change after the wedding? What did you find the most challenging?