~*{^.^}*~ Wedding Sampler ~*{^.^}*~

Cool Slideshows!

Wedding Pictures

F.Y.I., the (mostly) completed set of wedding photos is HERE.

Meantime, please enjoy this slideshow wedding day 'sampler'.

Love love love. Yay. Happy. :)

All About The Wedding

Sorry it's taken so long to update, but dammit, I've been busy! *giggle*

Yeesh, I hardly know where to begin... this should be probably at least 3 different entries... but ah well, time flies when you're having fun, right? So here goes... going to start back just before the wedding, and try to give a condensed version so this doesn't turn into a 5 page single blog entry!

Everyone got here safe and sound from back east. The only hitch was Ryan's suitcase, which ended up in Boston instead of Denver. He was bummed out because he had a particular outfit all ready for the wedding in there, but he still looked as stunning as ever, special outfit or not. He was accompanied by his lovely lady Leaf, who we got to meet for the first time, and I was thrilled to discover just how wonderful she is. Hurrah! So my parents, A, the whole family from back east(with the exception of a few of the kids), and E&W and their 2 adorable munchkins were all able to make it. There were a LOT of trips to be made back and forth to DIA(Denver International Airport), and if we don't have to go there again for a year we'll be happy, hehehe. Almost all of the folks we invited who live here in Colorado were able to make it, which was awesome. Mr.M finally got to meet some people who I've been hanging out with and talking to him about, and got to see The Chef again, which was awesome, even though we did spend more time with our guests from out of town; but I'm sure our in-town guests understood. Once we get back from being on the road and Mr.M finds a more local job, we'll be able to hang out more with our friends here. That's a promise, folks!

The wedding itself was incredible. We couldn't have asked for better weather, and apart from being a bit late to the fair we were still there at 10am and had an hour(albeit a very rushed hour)to get ready and dressed and such before the wedding time of 11am. Fortunately, our outfits and accessories were very simple to put together, so it didn't take more than the hour and we got to the chapel right on time. A and E walked up ahead of Dad and I through the fair, amid shouts from many of the fair vendors, i.e. "Huzzah for the bride!" while Dad was having a very sudden(and suspicious)'allergy attack'. *grin* The procession was also accompanied by a bagpiper who played us through the fair to the chapel, and then down the aisle. I was told afterwards that a few people were crying, but once we got to the beginning of the aisle and I saw Mr.M standing there, I got tunnel vision; all I remember was grinning at him all the way down the aisle and trying not to cry myself. I was also told after that I somehow managed to make eye contact with and grin at almost every guest there on my walk up to the altar, but again, all I remember was staring at Mr.M! The ceremony was VERY short, just like we wanted, and went without a hitch except for Mr.M and I stumbling over the vows a little. Our friend Noah, who presided over the ceremony, did a wonderful job, he even memorized the whole ceremony I had given him, and even wore a monk's robe for us! We can't thank him enough for being our 'pastor'. The funny part was that the ceremony itself was so short that when it was over, we were standing there and grinning, and noone else really realized it was over... I think I said something like, "That's it!" and everyone was kinda staring at us, waiting for something else to happen, hehehe... I had warned everyone that it was only going to be a 5-10 minute ceremony, but noone believed me, ha! We had NO desire to be standing up there for an hour blathering on... we just wanted to get married, say what was important to us[briefly]and then on with the fun of the rest of the day!

And let me tell you, it was definitely fun. Pictures were taken, everyone enjoyed the great buffet spread, we rode in the horse-drawn carriage with the King and Queen of the fair in the once-daily parade through the whole fair, hung out back at the buffet area for a bit, then went to stand with the King and Queen while watching a jousting match. After that was the cake, where of course we did a little smashing of the cake in each other's faces, but not too bad because we didn't want to end up with cake everywhere; even still, I found bits of cake in my cleavage much later when I got loose of the corset!

Most of our guests had a chance to go wander the fair throughout the day, but we didn't have the energy. We decided to call it a day before the fair closed; we wanted to get back to the apartment and relax a little before going to the hotel for the night. We didn't have to leave to go on the road until the following Monday, and so we decided to just go back to the fair the following Saturday to have a nice day there in regular clothes and just be touristy with a couple of our extra tickets(of which we have plenty, and we are going to hang onto them since we are going to be able to use them for next year, yay!).

I was going to continue this with what's been going on since the wedding on the road, but it's damn hard to type in the back of a moving semi. I'll upload this tonight, and will get another entry ready as soon as I can. I'm sure I'll also think of a million things that I should have put in this blog, and I'll try to get back to everything!

Much love to everyone from the happily married couple!!

PS~ Don't go changing my last name in your address books; we're staying the same as we are for now, and when the name change does happen, Mr.M will be taking my last name. Hurrah!

Hitched and On The Road

Hey everyone, just a quick post to say that I am officially married, and on the road, posting from Utah at the moment! I promise to have a nice big blog up in the next few days as soon as I can type one up and get internet access again to post it. In the meantime, rest assured that I'm having assloads of fun, even got to spend a few hours today in Vegas with hubby as we passed through... parked at the truck stop and took a cab downtown, blew about $40 at the slots at the Luxor, and had an an awesome buffet dinner at the Excalibur. Then a cab ride back to the truck stop, and off we went, and here we are for the night at a truck stop in Utah somewhere. I'm taking zillions of pictures, and miss everyone like crazy!! Love to everyone!!

The Wedding Time Approacheth

So it's just over a week now... June 10th is the big day! Seems like there's still so much to do, and little time to do it... have to distribute tickets, shuttle back and forth to the airport about a zillion times, put together all the wedding favors, pick up the cake, do the rehearsal, move around some furniture at the apartment to make more room, and of course, try and be the best friend that I can to my girlfriend from work(who actually just quit for a much better job), whose mother just passed away. To be honest, blogger friends, I feel selfish worrying so much about things to do with the wedding when one of my best friends just lost her mom. That is so much more important, and I'm doing my best to be there for her anytime she needs me. Thank the Gods that Mr.M is such an understanding man, and knows that if she needs me I'm going to drop everything and go running. I mean, who cares if Mr.M doesn't have pants to wear to the wedding? Like my mom said, we can just paint his ass green and hope for the best... *grin*

At any rate, I'm very excited about everything, including the fact that I've only got 4 hours(and counting)before I'm off work... for 3 whole months!! Hurrah! Also, my parents get here on Tuesday, and A gets here Thursday, then E, W and the kids on Friday, then everyone else from out of town gets here Saturday. I'm pretty sure I have that right. Hehe! I am SOOO excited to see everyone, and to see how things go with the friends and family from back east, and the new friends who have become my extended family out here in Colorado. I'm sure everything will go quite smoothly. Of course, since Mr.M's away so much, he's only met a few of my new friends out here, and will be meeting some for the very first time at the wedding! Weird, I know, but it's totally ok... we both have fantastic taste in other people, and can smell a jerk a mile off, so I'm not worried at all. I just know he'll love all these really cool people I've met!

We are very sad that there are some of our very best friends in the world that can't make it, but we understand(of course)that it's due to circumstances beyond their(and our; we offered to help with/pick up plane fare)control, and that's ok. We'll be back in CT soon enough, and will more than likely have some sort of Saturday afternoon BBQ shindig for all those who couldn't make it out here for the wedding. Stay tuned for details!

Love to everyone,
Brenna(that gigantic ball of nervous/excited energy you saw bouncing down the street the other day)

Interview With A Blogger

The lovely Erica had this on her site... She had been interviewed by a fellow blogger, and offered to interview others. I signed up. Who doesn't want to be famous and have an interview? Want to pretend you're famous? Leave me a comment and I'll come up with a 5-question interview for you too!

1. What is your favourite holiday and why?

Mmm, Halloween. For one thing, it's during my very favorite season, fall. I love the colors involved, everything all earth tones, oranges and browns and blacks. I love bats and skulls and all sorts of gothic silliness. If I had to pick a tree to live in for the rest of my life, it would be the one with the pumpkin that leads to Halloween Town. (Don't know what that means? Go rent Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas. Now.)

2. You are a successful talkshow host, and you get to interview your ONE favourite celebrity. Who is it, and what do you ask?

Oh dear. I'd almost like to interview James Lipton, just because. That aside, Probably Neil Gaiman. I would ask him all sorts of things about the Sandman graphic novels, the movie he worked on, MirrorMask, and the upcoming Stardust film. I would also ask him if he's ever had any thoughts of remaking NeverWhere into a feature film, and ask him several insightful questions about the book itself. (I'd be a crap interviewer, though. I get all stumbly around new people in general, I can't even imagine getting to meet or interview someone about whom I am so 'starstruck'! I'd make an ass of myself, I just know it.)

3. What colour is your toothbrush and would you ever consider switching it to a different colour?

It's purple. I would consider green, but I'm more likely to stick with purple.

4. What frightens you the most, and why?

I have a version of claustrophobia. I'm not sure what the technical term is, I just say I'm 'crowdophobic'. I have a relatively overwhelming and semi-irrational fear of crowds; more specifically, being trapped in the middle of them. Last time this fear came up was maybe 5 or 6 years ago. I had gone to the Crystal Mall(you remember, the one in Waterford, CT)on the day after Christmas with my ex, Nick, so he could return some video game or something. The mall was so crowded that the stores had lines of customers clear into the common mall area, and there were wall to wall people everywhere. You couldn't move at all without inadvertently touching at least 3 people. I panicked, started hyperventilating, and almost blacked out. I had to commandeer a bench to sit on while Nick finished what he had to do, and then escorted me out. I'm not sure I can explain exactly why this happens, I'm just glad I know how to avoid it and that it happens very infrequently.

5. What do you want to have accomplished before you die?

Marry the man of my dreams... Oh, wait, that's happening in 2 months, so we'll call that done. Apart from living out my days happily with him, my main goal is to own my own small photographic portrait studio, geared toward adult/boudoir and fetish portraiture. I would like to own a nice house with some property near the mountains. And I want to raise some doggies. Specifically, we want at least 2 rottweilers, and one small dog of yet undetermined breed to kick around the house(not literally). Mostly, though, I would just like to live a good life, making my soul mate, friends and family happy, and bringing people joy by making photographs that bring out their own unique beauty.

Updates & More

I'm cultivating a budding friendship with my UPS man. He's been at my door, waking me up, several times in the past couple of weeks. He feels bad waking me, but when I told him it's all stuff for my upcoming wedding and not to feel bad at all, he understood and promised to knock plenty loud when he comes by so I don't miss anything. So far, everything is going smoothly. I had gotten my dress a couple weeks ago, and was thrilled with it, except it was a little big, and the color was my second choice, burgundy. See it's a kind of over-dress thing with a corset and skirt split down the front, so you can see the full skirt that goes underneath. I thought these 2 parts were attached, but it turned out they weren't. That was the only reason I had gotten the burgundy, because the forest green had a weird yellow underskirt that I hated, while the burgundy in the picture had a basic black underskirt. So I called and asked, and boy am I glad I did! I ended up sending back the burgundy corset/overdress, and keeping the black underskirt, then just the other day I got back the forest green dress, one size smaller, and it is so far beyond perfect, I can't even tell you how freaking happy I am!! This dress does amazing things to my boobs! Yay!

Let's see, what else has shown up this week... Ah, the rings! We ordered our wedding rings, finally! They both got here this week, and they're gorgeous. Mine fits beautifully, and I'm having a hard time taking it off each time I try it on. Not because of the fit, just because I can't wait to be wearing it all the time! Mr.M's is gorgeous too, but he's never in his entire life worn a ring before, so we're going to have to see how that goes. He promises to stick with wearing it until the annoying phase passes, you know, when you glance down, "What the hell is on my finger... ohhh, right." Heh. Boys.

I also got a candy shipment, with all the candy that will be going into the favors. That's part one of the favors down, part two is another internet order, and part 3 involves a trip to the crafty store. Whee, crafty store!

So there really isn't all that much left to do... I have to take the dress somewhere for alteration(all that needs to be done is shortening the hem on the dress and the skirt! Everything else is perfect!). I'm ordering my shoes on the web, from the same site where I'm getting the other internet component of the wedding favors. They're Simple MaryJane style shoes, those chinese shoes with the little silver buckle, but they come in forest green velvet! Oooooh! *giggle* Let's see, what else... ahh, the wedding "cake" debacle. I've never been that big a cake person to begin with, and Mr.M doesn't care what we have, as long as I promise not to try and shove "wedding pie" in his face, heh! What I'm thinking is since the entire food thing at the reception is buffet-style, maybe getting 1 or 2 trays of nice desserts from a real bakery(vs.WalMart or the grocery store). Maybe a big tray of desserts, and a really small cake for the symbolism or whatever. Anybody have any ideas/favorites to suggest? I'm thinking about going and hitting a couple bakeries/cake joints on Monday next week to see what can be done. Along with seeing the seamstress on the corner near my place. Actually, that doesn't have to be done Monday, the dress bit; I'm more hoping that I can talk my friend into going with me to help me in and out of the dress!

Random non-wedding things that make me happy:

1) Pandora internet radio. This is the coolest thing ever, it's free, and brilliant! It has much soothed me in my time of lost music due to crap hard drives. www.pandora.com - seriously, check it out, you build your own radio station, and they play the stuff you like and also play random other things that are similar. If you don't like a song, just click on the thumbs-down and they won't play it anymore. Sick of a song? With just a click, they'll stop playing the song for a month, then play it again. Want to know about the artist, the song, or the album? Another click, and a new page opens with a ton of info! I already have, I think, 6 different radio stations, and you can add as many artists as you like to each station to define the 'genre' of your station. I think you can also do completely random stations, but I haven't tried that.

2) T.G.I. Friday's Cheese Quesadilla Snack Chips. They're horribly unhealthy. Eat them anyway. They're yummy. Perfect with Mountain Dew.

3) This silly little flash game I found. There's pretty balloons, a monkey throwing darts, and all sorts of nifty power-ups and hindrances. Watch out for those ice balloons! Something about this game makes me keep playing. I think it's the satisfying little 'pops' as each balloon bursts. Yeah, I'm dumb, so what. Wanna fight?

4) Any Neil Gaiman lovers out there, if you don't already know, the movie for his book Stardust is coming out on August 10th this year!! I can't wait!!

Love to everyone, and until next time... Enjoy this fun video! (adult content, don't watch around the kiddies!)

Currently Reading : The Deus Machine: A Novel By Pierre Ouellette Release date: By 18 January, 1994

Wiki meme! Yay!

Ganked shamelessly from erica. Oh, and just so you all know, it's fracking snowing. Last night it was so nice I wore my new flipflops to work. So now come 6am, when I get out of work, I'm going to have to deal with that. Grrrrrr. On to meme-y goodness.

Go to Wikipedia and type in your Birthday month and day only. (Mine is October 12)

List 3 Events that occurred that day:
(1) 1681 - A London woman is publicly flogged for the crime of "involving herself in politics"
(2) 1773 - America's first insane asylum opens for 'Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds' in Virginia
(3) 1850 - The first women's medical college opens, in Pennsylvania.

List 2 Important Birthdays (besides mine!):
(1) 1875 - Aleister Crowley, English occultist and author (d. 1947)
(2) 1951 - Sally Ride, first American woman in space

List 1 Death:
(1) 1978 - Nancy Spungen, girlfriend of Sex Pistol Sid Vicious (b. 1958)

List a Holiday or Observance. (if any):
(1) Columbus Day (traditionally) - United States.