Breathe Gently - by Mamajags: September 2011

You and Me: Dance, Dance

I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't worried about people having a good time at our wedding. We had an eclectic mix of young and old guests, some I knew well and some I didn't. How was I to choose the right kind of party music to get people dancing?

The best advice I can give you is to be random. We had classic jazz followed by top 40 followed by rock and roll followed by the occasional ballad. Sometimes people danced, sometimes they didn't, but the floor was hardly ever empty. And there was shuffling. Oh yes, we Party Rocked it up, my friends. (Although I'm pretty sure we were all doing the running man rather than the shuffle.

There was random jigging.

There was general merriment.

There were group numbers.

And then there were the surprise moments, like my friend C, who stole the show when 'Billie Jean' came on and she whipped out all the dance moves. Someone even obtained a hat, perfect for her routine.

But for the most part, there was just plain FUN!

Image via Amy Nelson-Blaine Wedding Cinematography

Feel like a sneak peek at our dancers? Well, alright then!

All photographs bythe team at Follan Photography unless otherwise noted.

Let's start at the very beginning - it's a very good place to start.
Our wedding rehearsal went by in a flash.
We finished off our last minute projects at home.
I had some girly time the day before the wedding.
I checked into the bridal suite and spent the evening alone.
A prank call woke me up... to my wedding day!
The girls had their hair and make-up done.
The boys relaxed and took it easy playing pool.
It was finally my turn to get beautified!
I put my dress on & became a bride.
My bridesmaids and I rush, rush, rushed to the church & arrived early!
The wedding began with a processional...
Our guests waved us out of the church with our home-made ribbon wands.
We took some bridal snapshots in the wind and rain.
I took a few moments with my new husband, just he & I.
Our bridal party posed with us as the daylight began to fade.
We relaxed in the bridal suite.. and I got sewn into my wedding dress!
All of our wedding details came together beautifully.
The Jaguar bridal party made their way into our reception...
And on the way there, I took a tumble & landed on my butt!
We were spoiled with gorgeous speeches from our loved ones.
Mr. Jaguar & I snuck out to take some evening portraits.
We got tangled up in champagne toasts & cut our lovely cake.
Our first dance, to 'You and Me', was a bumbling success.
We got our slow dance on & opened the floor with a little jazz.

You and Me: Lullabies & Crazy Love

It was hard, hard work choosing a song for the father/daughter dance.

Choosing a dance for Jase & I was easy - but for my dad? I struggled. My one request was that the song wasn't a country music song, because I've heard one at nearly every wedding we've ever been to. My suggestions were upbeat, with my two favourites being 'My Girl' by the Temptations and 'Here Comes the Sun' by the Beatles. He didn't have any connections to those songs, and shot them down. After a lot of coming and going, he sent me one option that I quite loved: 'Lullaby' by Billy Joel. And so, it was.

We swayed for a while, and I can't for the life of me recall any particular conversations we might have had - but it was lovely. The nerves I had of dancing in front of people had dissipated after Jase & I's first dance, and I enjoyed the moments spent dancing with my daddy.

Image via Amy Nelson-Blaine Wedding Cinematography

I had arranged that during one of the instrumentals of the song, we'd have Jase and his mother invited to take the floor with us - this worked out beautifully.

And afterwards, during another instrumental, the MC invited the rest of our bridal party couples out onto the floor to sway with us for the final few moments of the song.

Image via Amy Nelson-Blaine Wedding Cinematography

As the song concluded, we decided to put on a nice jazzy number to encourage folks young & old to join us on the dance floor. My pick? 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love' - the Buble version. And, lo and behold, it worked! Our dance floor was PACKED! Is my nanna not the cutest thing you've ever seen?

This picture of my new father-in-law cracks me up every time I see it.

It's official: weddings & Buble go hand in hand.

And best of all? I managed to keep Jason, Mr. 'I don't dance EVER', out on the floor for just a while longer. Huzzah!

We were ready to REALLY get the party started!

All photographs by the team at Follan Photography unless otherwise noted.

You and Me: Our Song

Did you know I've been blogging over at Weddingbee for a year now? (Holy smokes, that went fast!) One of the first posts that I wrote there explained how Jase & I first met. To quote myself from back then:

Girl hears song on radio, girl falls in love with song, girl stalks band online ands finds their forum, girl makes friends online including a sweet Australian boy, girl develops gigantic crush, boy and girl eventually swap mobile numbers, girl text messages boy during a particularly boring uni lecture, boy calls girl that night, girl meets boy at movie theatre, girl thinks boy is adorable, boy thinks girl is okay too…and the rest is history.

It was only fitting, then, for our first dance to pay homage to the band that brought us together. Without them, after all, I would have never met my best friend.

The song, You and Me, is the message behind my recap titles. It was the perfect one for us to sway to as husband and wife for the first time.

Images via Amy Nelson-Blaine Wedding Cinematography

Seeing as both of us are not dancers & were sure to be stuck in the 'awkward sway/shuffle' category, we learnt a basic step routine from my parents in the weeks before the wedding. Jase and I practised every evening before the wedding until we had it down - we even had one or two twirls thrown in for good measure. We were sure we'd be fine.

Well, it started out okay, as these two guest photographs show.

But then, as the musical beats started - my mind went blank. All of our practised moves flew out of my brain, I got the timing all wrong, and I began, you guessed it, the awkward sway/shuffle. Jase was laughing hysterically and asking me what I was doing, and I was all ... 'just go with it!'

The shots of our first dance are therefore not romantic at all, and instead show us giggling like loons.

Regardless of the giggles, I still love them.

I was worried about spending the full three minutes and thirty seconds dancing out there on the floor, but time really did fly by. I'm so glad we decided to stick it out for the whole song.

Image via Amy Nelson-Blaine Wedding Cinematography

With our awkward sway/shuffle over, our folks were introduced onto the floor with us.

All photographs by the team at Follan Photography unless otherwise noted.

You and Me: Cake & Champers

After we snuck outside for a few couple portraits, it was time to get the last formalities out of the way. We were ready to hack into our cake!

There is nothing funnier than the audience you have while cutting into the wedding cake. We were facing an entire wall of cameras, all ready to witness the slicing and dicing.

Because the majority of our cake was fake, we had to look carefully for the tiny fondant 'cut' tab - real cake had been placed in that spot, so our guests would have the illusion of the cake being whole. Despite the cutting hint, I was still really nervous that we'd slice into foam in front of that wall of cameras - awkward!

Thankfully... it worked! There was cake inside! Crisis averted.

Now here's another stupid bride-brain moment that happened on our wedding day... after we chopped into our cake slice? We took a few pictures together, and moved on to having a champagne toast - but we never actually had any bites of wedding cake together. That means no dainty cake eating shots and certainly no cake smooshing either. Sad face. Speaking of those champagne toasts...

Oh sure, it LOOKS easy.. but the twisty arm-linking thingy is harder to do than it looks!

Now, I've hinted before that I am the queen of pulling obnoxious faces - so it would only be fitting for me to share a visual from our wedding videography trailer, right?

Face pulling & nervous laughter - yep, that sounds about right!

Guest Photograph

And when we finally managed to have a sip of champagne each, it was followed by camera flashes, giggles & smooches. Perfection!

Guest Photograph

All photographs by the team at Follan Photography unless otherwise noted.

You and Me: Sneaky Night Shots

If you happen to have some spare time during your reception, use it to steal away for a few minutes & take some time to yourselves. Some of the photographs we got from that super short session are my favourites of the evening. Sure, the rain had just stopped and my dress was getting saturated, but for those moments - none of those things mattered.

Before I get too far ahead of myself though, let me backtrack a little. After the speeches were over, we snuck out of the reception room for a few official family portraits in the foyer - it was still raining at this point, so we were forced to make do indoors. I'll spare you the many, many shots we have of our loved ones: Jase & I looked the same in every one! (If there's any occasion where you'll have to perfect your smile, it'll be your wedding day.)

Our guests also used this time to snap a few selfies with us, which was good fun. They also captured some nice simple shots of the two of us that I really love!