A Wedding Post

After nearly 6 months, certain seemingly minor aspects of our wedding day rise above all of the rest:

1. On the morning of the wedding, sitting on my kitchen floor, surrounded by friends and a couple buckets of flowers from the farmers market, to put together my bouquet, my ladies' bouquets, and some extra floral arrangements. It. Was. Awesome.

(photos by my sister and me)

2. Watching, with my jaw dropped to the ground, as our dog Kisa jumped on my soon-to-be husband's spotless suit pants. I'm amazed at how perfectly our photographer captured that whole series of events.

 

(photos by our awesome photographer Allison Shelley)

3. Singing "Peanut Butter Wedding Time" (to the tune of the youtube video, Peanut Butter Jelly Time) to keep us laughing, instead of crying, in the moments before my Dad walked me down the aisle (at which point, I totally lost it).

(photo by Allison Shelley)

4. Dancing til the wee hours of the morning, on pure adrenaline and joy (after getting only 4 hours sleep the night before the wedding and waking up still groggy from the Nyquil I took at 3am), and offering our cab driver a cupcake on the way home.

(photo of our Ugandan dancers, by Allison Shelley)

(photo by Allison Shelley)

I love that these are moments that have crystallized in my memory. Not the look on my husband's face as I walked down the aisle (I honestly don't remember the walk down the aisle, I only remember how I felt), not the dried flower petals people tossed/didn't toss on our victorious walk back down the aisle, and not the first dance (we didn't have one. it didn't fit the vibe of our wedding party, and i would've felt entirely too awkward to enjoy it).

With that said, my husband and I were so lucky to have snagged local DC photographer, Allison Shelley, to shoot our wedding.  Holy moly, the photos she took at our wedding blew my mind and continue to warm my heart.  Armed with her photojournalistic eye, she managed to capture all of the emotion of the day and all the little moments, many of which I missed.  Not only that - she was a blast to work with, totally responsive, and a downright cool person.  We can't sing her praises enough.  Here are a few of the photos that I especially love (all by Allison Shelley):

And those are just a few of the many gems.  So basically, the lesson is: pick a good photographer and you'll have photos you adore for the rest of your life together.  The End.