The Big Day has Come and Gone

The wedding was beautiful and while there were a few minor messups (as there always is with weddings) all in all I would say it was their perfect day! For me it was bittersweet seeing my oldest child walk down the aisle, knowing she would be leaving, heading off to her new life as a wife. What's the old saying? "your not loosing a daughter, but gaining a son" well we of course feel that way, but there still is that bit of emotion that wells up inside of you when you go through something like this. Now of course it's time to move on, get back to the daily grind of this life that we lead. I just wanted to pop onto the blog and share with everyone that it happened, it's over and we had a GREAT TIME! Here's a few shots of the big day and the new Lcpl. & Mrs. Mark Alm! Wow, gotta get used to that new name :)

It's a Marathon, not a Sprint!

So, here we are in the final week before the wedding. Also known as "the week of hell" according to Jim. I always love Jim's little nicknames for stressful events, he's so, oh how shall I say this....MARINE! So, yes, here we are in the week of hell, running all over the place for last minute things for the wedding. The stressers of meeting the new inlaws and hoping everything associated with this wedding turns out just as planned without anything going wrong. So, for future reference I am here and now demanding that Murphy stays far, far away from us on Saturday!!!!

I wonder if other Mother of the Brides feel the pressure and stress of their daughters wedding day, or if it's just the lovely honor that's been bestowed upon my shoulders since I'm the planner etc... (we wont go into that since I've already blogged my feelings on that one) What's really funny is I seem to be more stressed than the Bride...now, what's wrong with this picture?

Today is the day that really starts the whole event, my stepson flys in this morning, then Charity's best friend and Maid of Honor flys in tonight. We have tuxes to get for the boys, hair to figure out for the girls, family from all over coming in and of course then the day to day duties I have just as a Mom. If I make it through this event sane and without killing someone I'll be doing wonderfully and will consider it all a success!

You know, what's really funny is I havent even let the fact my baby is getting married get to me yet. I'm wondering if it will only hit me as I watch her walk down the aisle looking gorgeous on her Dad's arm, or will it be when she says those words "I do" to her future husband, or will it only hit me after everything is over and I realize she's really grown up, leaving us to start her own life and family.

With all that aside, I'm just trying to take this one minute at a time, one day at a time, that's pretty much all I can do. I've also made a mental note to myself....remember....it's a marathon, not a sprint!

Mother of the Bride & Wedding Photographer...

Well, here it is June and Charity gets married in 9 days...gosh...I'm getting so old! I dont shoot weddings (it's just not my cup of tea) but Charity has asked me to shoot hers, so of course I couldnt refuse! So, now not only am I the planner of this wedding (remember my last entry about not being a planner?!) but am now the wedding photographer too, not to mention the "Mother of the Bride" and by the end of it there will probably be tons of other titles I'll have attached.

All that aside however, it is a honor that my daughter would want no one else to shoot her wedding but me. That makes me feel good! What I really fear however is this will become a trend. As we all know I have 3 more girls coming up and am really hoping they dont "ask" me to shoot all their weddings because being a Mom who loves all her children the same, I will of course never refuse that request. Can we all say STRESS?!

Anyway, so here I am the "wedding photographer" and in true fashion I put on my photographer hat and did Charity's bridal session. Being her Mom of course I want her to have all the important pictures that goes along with a professional wedding package and a bridal session is a must!

Off we went to get a trial run of her hair do for the big day and it turned out gorgeous, she really liked it and luckily one of my best friends is a hair dresser, so we got the trial run for free! Free is always a good thing, but I'm getting off track here! So, I took this opportunity to go ahead and do the bridal session. With hair done and dress and accessories in place we headed off to a beautiful plantation house here in the county we live. In true southern fashion we did shots at that house! I really think the images turned out great.

So in true "Mommy bragging" fashion, I thought I'd share some of the images from the session of my gorgeous daughter in her wedding dress. This is about the only place I can post these images for now because my future son in law has access to everywhere else I post pictures, he doesnt know about my blog, so this way he wont see her dress or how gorgeous she's gonna look on their wedding day!