After our First Look and Family Portraits, Rochelle snapped some photos of just me and the lovely ladies around the venue and in the bridal suite.
Here we are walking to the barn:
I love this photo:
Another favorite:
After our outdoor session, we headed back to the bridal suite as guests arrived for the ceremony. Here’s Jocelyn playing with her pomander.
My mother:
Me waiting patiently:
My mom and sister:
Stay tuned – ceremony pics are coming soon!
Photos in the post by Rochelle Mort.
Well, here it is, kids! THE ACTUAL WEDDING! Since this was the most important part of the day, please excuse for the gratuitous amount of photos (by Rochelle Mort, obviously!). After we had our first look, we took photos with our families, and then I went back to the bridal suite and took some pics with just us girls. We then sat around, chatted, and drank champagne. Tory’s dad stopped by to give me a hug. We tried to console Jocelyn with peppermints after she took a face plant.
This is what the guests saw when they entered. The ceremony area:
The ceremony programs that we labored over:
And then…..it was time! Please note, I have no idea what time it actually was. I have asked several people after that day: “did we start on time?” Seriously you will probably lose your inner clock (not that I ever had one) on your wedding day. I still don’t know what time the wedding started.
Here we are walking up toward the Ceremony Gardens at Newcastle Wedding Gardens (a gorgeous wedding venue if you’re looking in the Sacramento area!).
The guys, including Tory came out to ‘The Long and Winding Road‘ by the Beatles.
His parents were seated…
Next it was the ladies, who walked to ‘Something‘. We had a bit of a Beatles theme throughout the day, in case you were wondering. Tory and I actually bonded over the Beatles back in the day, way before we started dating, when we both worked at Safeway. He was amazed that I knew the lyrics to Don’t Pass Me By from The White Album.
First came Tory’s sister Jessica, and her daughter, Jocelyn (this photo was taken by family friend, Jennifer Bishop):
You can really see poor Jocelyn’s banged up chin (she tripped on a paver and fell face first onto another) in this photo:
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All photos in this post by Rochelle Mort: www.rochellemortphotography.com
So as you’ve probably realized by now, Tory and I are the opposite of traditional and not at all superstitious, and our wedding was no exception. We spent the night before our wedding together (gasp!) at the Larkspur Landing in Roseville. It was fun. We watched Rudy on television. Random, I know. I thought that I would have a hard time sleeping that night, like a kid on Christmas Eve, but I slept surprisingly well.
The next morning, Tory went over to his parents’ house to get ready with the boys and I stayed at the hotel. I actually had some alone time which was kind of cool. I was half watching football (yes, we were married on a Sunday during football season, much to Tory’s chagrin), and half freaking out. Slowly, the girls started to trickle in.
First to arrive was my hairstylist, Elli, who I love (Elli, I love you!). She worked her magic on my hair (which I also LOVED). Here she is helping me put on eyeliner. I don’t typically wear eyeliner, so this was a big help.
Applying a 2nd (or maybe 3rd) coat of mascara. I had originally wanted false eyelashes but was too scared to do it on my own. I looked into hiring a pro makeup artist, but decided against it. That was surprisingly one of the hardest decisions I had to make during the planning process – do I hire a makeup artist, or do I do it myself? Who woulda thought?
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I apologize for the lack of recent posting, but I just got married! =D
It was a spectacular day and I’ll share more of it here soon, but for now, I thought I’d start with my mom’s toast. A little background info – my dad is not really a part of my life, so my mom took over those traditional ‘father’ roles at our wedding.
She walked me down the aisle, gave me away, and toasted us first. My mother is a spectacular woman, and to be honest, I never felt too much of a void in the father department when I was growing up. She was all I needed. She is strong, independent, honest, intelligent, creative and beautiful…all the things I’ve ever wanted to be. Having her walk me down the aisle was simply wonderful, and I will treasure that moment for the rest of my life.
Here’s what mom had to say to Tory and me:
Good evening and welcome! Thank you all for being here today. My name is Kathleen Smith and I am the very proud mother-of-the-bride. Also here today is my daughter Elizabeth, a member of the bridal party and a second lieutenant in the US Army and, my son Isadore, also a member of the bridal party, whose performance you just heard accompanied by Erica’s step father, Dale. As you know, the Paoli’s are a BIG family and chances are you will hear our names mentioned from time to time as a result of today’s union.
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