Recap: Wax Lips

photo by Bob Laigo

...were probably the best investment we made for our little celebration. Something about 'em, I don't know, is so celebratory. They truly make ordinary photos quite comical.  All photos courtesy of Nicole Freda, unless otherwise noted.

Three gals & a hand? Add some lips, and BAM!

Ok, so solidarity isn't always the key.

Check 'em out:

Such camaraderie.

My second cousins. Photo courtesy of Bob Laigo. He doesn't knot it yet, though.

Brah hardly smiles in photos. Thank you, Lips!

Hey, Luke can sleep standing up!

Robot lip dance

      and then, things start to make no sense...unless, we all got stung by bees in the mouth.

Filed under "ridiculous."

smooches!

thumbs up

I got mine at Oriental Trading company, by far the best price out there. After all, who could put a price on these images????

Our Guest Book

Our guest book wasn't a book at all. 

It was important to me to have some creative documentation of our guest attendance at our celebration. I wanted something that I could display in the house and see every day. I felt a book's covers would hide all the beautiful sentiments. I picked up come ceramic plates at the Dollar Tree and some paint pens at Michael's.

Of course, Martha gave me this idea. I love the variety on the wall here, and I plan to add a few more decorative plates.

How they did it.

Our special touches:
I made a small sign that read: Love is...please tell us what love means to you. 
I thought that glancing up at the plates and reading about love, since it was the reason we all came together, would be so nice. I also finished up with the dates on the top plate shown.

Across the top and bottom rim it reads: Shawn and Leilani married on December 4, 2009, and all our family and friends came together to celebrate our Love on 11. 5. 2010.

Here's the final result:

With our favorite wedding/ Bully photos

 a Bit closer

I took some liberties and filled in empty spaces

To make the paint stick on a ceramic surface, you can use paint pens made for ceramics. Some pens cure with time, and some you may nave to bake. I just used some matte lacquer and sprayed a thin coat on the surface, let it cure, then sprayed a couple more times.

I just love it!

Family & Friends

I finally found my camera cable!

Now, I don't have many reception pics yet. I 've got whatever have popped up on Facebook, and some my friends are going to send me. I probably have to wait a few weeks on the photographer's pics. Here is a raw image he loved and put up immediately on Facebook. Its pretty cute!

Nick Sanders gets all the credit

Breaking Bread at Taste of Thai

But here are some awesome pics of family and friends  from my camera from over the weekend. People came from Illinois, Michigan, Florida, Texas, Virginia, Georgia and Hawaii. Funny thing is, it was colder here than every one of those places, and we had a bonfire where most of the family huddled inside of our tiny house.  Sorry, guys. At least they were prepared and brought their coats. It was fun, though. Lisa & I won at Ladderball.

Check out these pretty people:

Mrs. Orteza and Lisa

Sisters: my aunt, left, and my mommy on the right

Ortezas, Reynantes, and Bangilans. Shawn was at work.

My beautiful friend Lindsay, and Her beau Donavan. Holding pillows they've given me.

Lindsay had this pillow custom made for us from Cozy Blue on Etsy.  So cute!

"Shawn+Leilani" 

Our "photobooth"

Finishing up some welcome bags with Lindsay

Some last minute prep

Shawn serenading us

The pic above is the only picture I took at the anniversary reception/marriage celebration. As I sobbed with emotion.

 The next night we had a bonfire/cookout. Who knew corn cups melted in 2 seconds? It was fascinating. Later we went out for a beer or two.

Melanie & Mike flew from Hawaii

Brian, Chrissy, and Melaniie

Scott & Brah

Colleen & Jesse on the left drove from Michigan. Lovely Erin on the right

Mike, Shawn, and Kevin. Buddies from the Navy. Sooo glad they could make it.

Me and the sailors

again

    Breakfast the next morning at Smith Street Diner with family, and Lunch immediately after that at Bravo with friends. I ate so much this weekend. I had to show everyone our favorite breakfast joint. Everyone took pics of the giant biscuits.

Mommy, cousin Frank, his wife Karen, sister, and JP

Plus me

The wax lips were a hit!

That't what I've got for today. Stay tuned for more pics. my friends have some HILLARIOUS ones that I'm trying to wrangle from them!

Updates from the Whitmires IV

  Done and Done!

  I can finally sit back, relax, and reflect. The last guest has left our company. Pic are starting to be posted on Facebook and I'm trying to get our house back in order. Shawn went to work today.

It was a blast!

We had a wonderful celebration with the family and friends that mean the world to us. We reunited, partied, toasted and ATE.  We ate a lot.

I am really relieved that its over, as planning this took a lot of my time. However, I enjoyed the whole process (well, mostly), and felt the overwhelming love at the result.

I realized I have really awesome friends, and an amazing and generous family. I realized I have an amazing husband. His acoustic set really knocked the socks off of everyone, including myself. He sounded better than I have ever heard, and I've heard him practicing at home countless times. I joked the next morning that he is my "trophy husband," 'cause I felt like I was showing him off all of Friday night. He dances well, too. Breakdances, even!
 
 I learned to embrace these things I love, and let go of all the disappointments...

So, pretty soon, I'll let you know how it all went down, but right now, I need to find out where we put everything... this house had been nuts!

This is it, again!

  In a few hours, all our hard work will come down to one evening. We'll present  ourselves to our friends and family as a Mr. & Mrs, many for the first time. I hope we don't forget a single thing, but it is inevitable that something may be left out. In fact, it's Murphy's Law. I'm not focusing on that, though, but I am acknowledging that things may not always be perfect or according to plan.

I am the only one who cares about the details.

But today is not about Shawn and me. We've had our wedding day. Today will be about sharing love with our loved ones. Its about you.

We are truly thankful to have all these wonderful people who have always been there for us, and for those who are always there for the milestones. The fact that many of you have traveled on what is still a work day to be here for us means more than you know. Shawn and I are as lucky to have you and we are lucky to have each other.

To us, a big part of being married is the people in your life as a couple.

So we are going to put on our appetites, dancing shoes and love of fun to the test. There so many cool things we've got planned, and I hope this is a memory that sticks with everyone, 'cause we'll never forget it!

My friend April, who can't be here today, wrote a sweet blog post about our friendship today. Her sentiment is heartfelt and her memory-impressive! I am going to share it with you today 'cause I'm in a loving mood!

                   A Once in A Lifetime Friend by April Clark

What do no next? Stuff I don't wanna.

Today I made welcome bags for our out of town guests. Then I separated 6ix pounds of M&M's by color. Like a CRAZY person. Yeah, I skipped certain things so I could have the candy buffet I wanted. I think I spent $70 on M&M's alone. That sounds insane. There were discounts & coupons involved, but insane.

And  Ohhh, the result was worth it!
I set up my candy in jars ready to be scooped by you! I have so much else to do before having done this task, but lets face it,  I am always going to pick the more fun task. I've been waiting to play with my candy since I bought it all. It's pretty plentiful so you all better eat up! its awesome and all my favorites and I'll totally be in trouble if I have leftovers. I have no will power.

Cleaned the bathroom, now i should probably go to bed. Tomorrow is an early but EXCITING day as my family starts arriving! Lets see, I'll have my mom, sis, cousin, aunt, and maybe some extended family.

Now, if only I will stop putting off the other crap I need to do.
Like call the caterer back and tell her we have 2 more, and verify the linens, etc. etc. Fun, right?

Bonfire

   Shawn and I are planning to have a cook out & bon fire for those in town Saturday. It will be @ our house. Bundle up and get ready to sing along the the acoustic guitar and roast smores! We should be done in time to go out, if you chose to hit the downtown. For weather, click here.

Hair!

I have to decide on how I want to wear my hair. Now, I didn't do a trial hair style, not in the budget. I rarely spend time on my hair. But we'll be in all those pictures, so it's time to think about it. I trust my stylist. She did a romantic up do for me last year for my friend's wedding, and it turned out well. 

channeling Lauren Conrad hair

My criteria for a hairstyles are that it has to be for long hair, it has to be dance-proof, and I need to embellish it somehow with a headband or flower. 

via Green Wedding Shoes

   I love her hair here. Its so naturally voluminous. My flower or embellishment won't be this big.

Via Green Wedding Shoes

This is pretty, too. Simple. Romantic.

She has pretty hair. That much is true. I love a good side ponytail.

A little bit of all three? Probably.

First Friday Indie Market

Not to conflict with our reception at all, or anything...Ok? Just in case you are in town, or off work, or have some free time before seven o'clock, check out this indie market a block away from our event. It's from 4-9 and features some local artists and music. If you're not helping us set up (you know who you are), or taking family pictures with us, feel free to stop by and support local arts!. This is part of a First Friday series that downtown GSO does with shops, museums, and galleries downtown.

Maybe next year, I'll be there with my cake stands...?