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Hey everyone! You might remember me…I was one of the wedding-crazy bloggers from 2008. :-) Since I got married, I’ve started my own photography business – let’s just say there was no way I could leave the wedding world behind after my wedding was over!

This winter, since it’s quiet season, I’ve decided to run a competition for couples whose wedding photography experience didn’t turn out quite like they’d hoped. I’m offering a photography session where you can dress up in your wedding gorgeousness again, and get some beautiful portraits you can fall in love with!

You can read all about it on my blog – hop on over there, and make sure to spread the word!

Those of you who have been paying attention will know that I  started my own wedding photography business, Kat Forsyth Photography, this year. A few weeks ago Mrz Splendid’s company, Splendid Affairs, did the decor for Toadbury Hall’s part in the ‘Rock around the Cradle’ event, and she asked me to come along and take photos. Do I ever say no to that sort of thing? Um…no. :-)

Mrz Splendid does such beautiful flowers! Here are a few of my favourites. You can see more on my blog.

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So what was happening whilst we girls were primping, prettifying and posing?

The chapel was looking just beautiful:

The pens were waiting to sign the register:

The tissues I’d set out for my weepy family were in place:

The Mother/Father of the Bride/Groom signs looked great:

My petal cones, filled by Sister, BFF and Aunt Ruby Slippers were waiting in the entranceway:

Meanwhile, Mr Ruby Slippers greeted his two bosses with the proper decorum. The one on the right with his glasses on his head is marrying the girl Mr RS is about to hug . I really hope we’re invited. I haven’t been to a wedding since April 2006. Not including ours, obviously. And I luurve weddings.

I have to say that this is one part of the day that I, of course, missed entirely, and I’m kind of sad about that. Granted, the “are you nervous?” comments and “It’s not too late to back out now!” jokes might have annoyed me, but mostly I would just have loved to be there and see everyone arrive and chat to them and mingle and share my excitement. Still, it’s the price you pay for a Big Reveal.

Here Sister-in-Law Ruby Slippers, her friend Jen, and MIL-Ruby Slippers enjoy the free welcome drinks outside the chapel. I missed those, too. But they did send sandwiches to my room, and we had complimentary orange juice, champagne and tea and coffee!

And then they waited…

And waited…

And looked nervous:

Everyone was ushered inside somewhere around this point, so that when we arrived outside, the only people waiting were my Dad, his friend Rick (with the camera) and our officiant (in the black vest thingy):

I have no idea what my Dad is doing here; maybe he’s going to pretend to steal my nose and make me cry?

And of course they had to fix my veil back over my face, like the proper, demure bride I was:

Did I mention how much I loved my veil??

Meanwhile, my Dad shows off his “Father of the Bride” cufflinks that my cousins gave him before my sister’s wedding in 2003.

Me with my Dad. I’m so happy:

My Dad looks so cute here:

And then it was (BREATHE) time to line up and go in! Here are the girls lining up outside the church (yes, all two of them can line up, if I say so!):

And…they’re in!

Next time you might actually get to see me walking into a chapel in my wedding dress… :-)

Hi. I’m Mrz Honeysuckle. I used to blog here. *Sheepish wave* I remembered earlier that I’d never finished my wedding recaps. I have no excuses. Still, ten months later and I’m back to do it! Even though my last post was in March.

When we last left off, I was a BRIDE!

And my girls were looking just as beautiful as can be (but not as beautiful as me…) :P

If you’re wondering what that funny bulge is in Sister Honeysuckle’s skirt, it’s her knees. That’s because her shoes were so high that the first picture looked like this:

Whoa, giantess sister! So my Mom made her crouch down like a deformed person for the other photo.

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What I didn’t mention in my last post is that while we were getting ready, ominous clouds were gathering overhead. Dun dun dun. I kept my cool; in fact, I was quite pleased to see them because it was a scorcher of a day and we needed some cool relief, and besides, stormclouds make for awesome pictures! That is, if it doesn’t rain. Actually, even a light drizzle I could have come to terms with, the sort where you can get cute “kissing under the umbrella” pics. Just no storms that make it impossible to be outside, or, worse, impossible for anyone to hear our vows!

I was thinking all this and more while I was getting my makeup done, because that is when I first heard the unwelcome sound of thunder, and the even more unwelcome sound of rainfall. Not downpour heavy, but heavy enough to hear. Which, to my mind, was too heavy. I immediately picked up my phone and sent an sms (text message) to Mr Honeysuckle, who was getting ready with his guys in a room far, far away. Now I had not, of course, seen or spoken to Mr HS since he left home the night before, and I wasn’t sure if actually phoning him would be breaking the “not seeing each other before the wedding” pact. He, of course, had no such qualms, and immediately called me back to calm me down. (My text had read something innocuous like, “It’s raining!! OMG.” but I imagine he thought I was freaking out a bit more than I really was.) Actually I think I was surprisingly calm. At any rate, it was very sweet of him to allay my fears. Tanja’s second shooter, Natasha, was with the guys at this time, and she got some shots of Mr HS talking to me on his phone:

I wasn’t here for this (obviously, so I can’t give a running commentary, but here are some shots I liked. Yes, we’re segueing into the “Men getting ready” segment! So seamless.

Here’s Mr Honeysuckle practising his speech, while in the foreground are a groomsman bout and the wine for our chocolate & wine ceremony (more on that later). I have to wonder, though, if the guys were taking surreptious slugs of it to calm their pre-wedding jitters. :-)

And the good old standard “what time is it?” shot:

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While I was getting all prettied up, Tanja busied herself taking some photos of the wedding paraphernalia. Now I hadn’t wanted to go too overboard with the list of “must-take” shots, because it felt a bit pushy, and I am not pushy *at all*. Do I want people coming into my work telling me how to do my job? No. So I felt I shouldn’t get too carried away with the lists; I didn’t want it to come off as me telling Tanja how to do her job. But actually, though, now that it’s over, I wish I had added more items to that list. There were lots of little things that I either forgot about, or thought, “well, surely she’ll get that shot”, but in the end they didn’t happen. And some of my very favourite photos are the ones based on items from my list. I suppose it all depends on the photographer, but sound yours out, brides-to-be, and if he/she seems amenable, make a list of everything you can think of!

One of the shots I did absolutely insist on was the hanging dress. You might remember how much I love those! And I also mentioned a bunch of times that I like shots taken from below. This is my favourite of the dress shots. I liked it so much I made it sepia, black & white, faded colour, softened, sharpened; you name it, I did it! I think this classic black & white looks best, though.

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I left my parents and bridesmaids in the chapel, scattering petals and setting up candles, and I rushed back to the honeymoon suite where Mel (aka the Honeysuckle landlady) was waiting to do my makeup. Mel is a costumer and makeup artist by profession, and she offered way back when to do my wedding day makeup, as well as that of my bridesmaids, as her wedding gift to us. Since I’d seen how much makeup artists charge, especially to go out to a venue, I was thrilled to agree.

You might recall that this was my makeup inspiration:

Here I am with all my red bits and black circles covered up with, um, whatever it is they use:

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So after we arrived at The Moon & Sixpence and dumped our stuff in the honeymoon suite, it was time to go and see what my parents were up to in the reception hall. You may remember that I’d given them all the reception details to set up – the Oscar favours, the damask table runners, the guest book, table names, etc. My friend Henni’s sister had her florist partner, Daisy (not his real name, but I’ve never found out what it actually is!) set up the table flowers and make the bouquets and boutonieres in the morning, so when we arrived we saw this in progress:

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When I woke up annoyingly early on the morning of my wedding, I was still surprisingly calm. I did have butterflies, but only tiny ones…not even as bad as the ones I used to get when I had swimming class at school (I was scared of the teacher, and scared that I’d be pushed under by someone because I never mastered how to be underwater without holding my nose). I got up, took a photo of the fantastically blue sky, ate breakfast – yes, I did, I was HUNGRY – and woke up BFF Honeysuckle. I stuck on some Beach Boys to perk us up (mostly because we’d done ABBA to death over the past few weeks) and we bopped around packing last-minute stuff to the strains of “I Get Around” and “Good Vibrations”. Man, I love those Beach Boys. Then Sister Honeysuckle arrived. Photo op!

It was very bright, hence my eyes being closed. That, and I’m notorious for closing my eyes in photos. Either way, I should have gone the sunglasses route like sister HS.
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I’ve been a bad, bad Buzzing blogger. And I have no excuse at all. I keep *meaning* to blog, and then never getting around to it. Anyway, if you want some recaps, hold on to your hats, because here they come!

I still don’t have ALL my pro pics, but I have enough of them to get off to a good start.  And it all starts the night before the big day…

I think I already mentioned that despite being surprisingly calm in the lead-up to The Day, I managed to flip out completely the afternoon before. And not about anything specific: everything was ready, boxed, packed and waiting to go; it was just the stress of ten months of planning, and the fear of stuff screwing up the next day that was freaking me out. So, like a total bitch, I yelled at my Dad when he stumbled carrying one of the boxes of wedding paraphernalia downstairs, and then burst into tears (me, not my Dad). Tears accompanied by huge, heaving sobs that I couldn’t calm down. It was like I needed a paper bag to breathe into, or something. Luckily Mr Honeysuckle was there and he put his arms round my shoulders and just stood there behind me, going, “Breathe, slowly, breathe.” He’s a hero (my hero!) because I wouldn’t blame him for being a little afraid of the wedding monster I had just become. Plus I wasn’t a pretty sight.

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