Today is the day I get mushy all up in this blog – Nathan and I are celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary today!

We wanted an outdoor ceremony and a fairly intimate wedding so we picked Swan Court as our ceremony and reception site. The ceremony took place at 11am (I know, early!) and Marty Younkin of Love Notes officiated.

To keep it only semi-mushy, I wanted to answer some questions about my own wedding day that I have gotten over the years:

How did you & Nathan meet?

I love this story! We went to high school and college together but didn’t actually get formally introduced until late 2001. We had all of the same friends and we had heard stories about one another- I even have photos at parties with him in the background- but we just didn’t officially meet until that day. I was actually hanging out with our mutual friend Thomas at Humperdinks (in Richardson) when we were formally introduced.

We didn’t hit it off from the beginning, but he eventually asked me out via email. It’s not that he was scared of me, he was scared of being ridiculed by his friends if he struck out. I was quite a flirt back in the day and he wasn’t sure if I liked him or if he was just going to be another guy that I laughed and pointed at.

On our second date we were in my car and I was playing a Nirvana B-sides CD and he was telling me a story about how his best friend Erich had one and some random stupid girl never returned his. (Remember when you could only get import CDs at Best Buy and they cost an arm & a leg? Ya, that’s why he was bitter.) I ejected the CD and showed him that it had Erich’s name on it. (Remember when we wrote our names on our CDs?) Oops, I guess that was me!

Note: In all honesty, I tried to get Erich his CD back after graduation and I still have it, Erich, in case you are stalking my blog and want it back!

This is one of our first pictures together. Alex (on the left) also went to high school with us. (She may or may not kill me for posting this!)

What was the most difficult part of planning a wedding?

Finding the dress! I felt like I went to every bridal shop in Dallas and I was going to be satisfied until I saw every last dress out there! I wanted something a simple A-line with little to no beading and a short train – which seems like an easy request, but 5 years ago that was basically unheard of! There were a lot of princess-like dresses that I called ‘cream-puffs’ because you could just see my head in that mountain of tulle!

How did you know the dress was the one?

Here’s another one of my favorite stories! The day I found my dress we had had massive layoffs in my company. The telecom industry had begun it’s downward slope and the company was cleaning house. It was a stressful day that began with an early morning offsite meeting explaining the situation. Then we were told to return to our desks where there would be an envelope – if you had a pink sheet – literally, a pink slip, you were released. Everyone else was told to go home. As always I’m a special case because I didn’t get an envelope at all!

Knowing my job was still in tact, I decided to head to Whatchamacallit to get the beautiful lace empire waist Jessica McClintock dress that I had fallen in love with. Back then, Whatchmacallit was located near Preston and they had a closet of designer wedding dresses that you got to dive through. As I took the Preston exit off of 635, I remembered that I hadn’t been to Terry Costa yet so the part of me that had to see EVERYTHING took a right into the parking lot.

The dress was in the very back, in a small section reserved for up & coming designers. It was a hot mess. There were a red sharpie marker streak across the front, the zipper was torn up, there was missing beading and it was about 4 sizes too big. But I loved the soft silk and the details that it had : pleats on either side of the skirt that spilled out into a rounded court train, the look of a two piece, and these tiny buttons down the back.

Since I was alone and desperately wanted a second opinion, Terry Costa let me “borrow” the dress and I took it straight to my mother in law’s house. She cried. It was a winner.

Who shot your wedding?

Jason, my mentor and the man responsible for the whole photography bit. He was the Photo Editor when I started working on the newspaper and he schooled me in the ways of developing/printing/film rolling & photoshopping.  That was back in the film days when we were slaving away in a closet darkroom and use Mac Power PCs. You can stop being jealous at any time.

He also shot my wedding in film so that makes him 20x more awesome.

Did you do engagements?

Unfortunately, we did not. Nathan’s not much for getting his picture taken which explains the utter lack of images of him on my blog and facebook. But he did compromise and take a few pictures of our hands for the thank you cards!

Did you do bridals?

Yes! And I am so glad that I did, it was such a fun time and a rare chance for me to play in front of the camera! In true Lynn-style I had 4 photographers there! Jason, his awesome wife Amy, my best friend & maid of honor Gloria, and my mother in law were all shooting!

These are some of my favorites, they were shot at Winwood Park in Addison.

I wanted my bridals to be different so I had red roses instead of my white wedding flowers. I always recommend that my brides do something different as well – from funky shoes to a different hair do or to let their hair down at the end.

The mask was Gloria’s idea. I have no idea why she had it in her camera bag, but it was a lot of fun anyway!

I love that Jason shot a roll of true black and white film. These rock my world!

And here’s one of Gloria making fun of me. It makes me laugh every time I see it because I had no idea it was happening at that time.

From there, we went to Addison Circle where I ate pizza at Pastazios and walked a Chihuahua (although I have no idea what happened to those pictures!). The big joke about the image on the right is that I had been eating low-carb for months, I don’t smoke, and I’m not much of a drinker.

How involved was Nathan in planning the wedding?

Actually Nathan pretty much stayed out of planning and it was the best thing for a control freak like myself! He was happy to give opinions when asked, but my trusty wedding binder and I made all of the final decisions. I remember we were walking down the aisle and he said “hey, we have a harpist!”, I laughed and said “Ya, Ya, keep walking!”

Were you on a budget?

Yes and no. Nathan had asked that I stay under a budget of $5000 for the wedding day because he’s a saver. I used the handy-dandy Budget checklist on TheKnot.com as well as an excel spreadsheet to keep everything organized and accounted for and I still have it, so here’s the breakdown:

* Yummies / location- The majority went towards the location, food & beverages. I had a guest list of 35 people and we had a full 3-course sit down meal served in the restaurant. Refreshments included wine and a champagne toast. The wedding cake was also provided by Swan Court, a custom 3-tier Italian Creme. My mother in law baked Nathan’s grooms cake, which was one of Nathan’s two wedding day requests!

There was a nominal rental fee to have the ceremony at Swan Court.

*  Wedding Attire – The wedding attire was the next biggest expense. This included my dress, accessories, veil, hair & makeup, nails and all of that good pampering stuff that brides do beforehand.

* Flowers- Flowers were the next expense on the list. I LOVE flowers but Swan Court is so beautiful that I didn’t need very many for the ceremony. In addition to bouquets and boutonnieres, which consisted of white roses, calla lilies and sweet pea,  we had roses on the ceremony chairs and down the middle of the long reception table. Each guest also had a single calla lily at each place setting.

* Gifts – we actually spent more on thank you gifts for everyone than other things. We didn’t have wedding day favors, so this was in lieu of those.

* Entertainment/Music was one of the lowest expenses on our list because we decided to not to have dancing – the second request from the husband! We played house music during the reception, but we did have a harpist for the ceremony.

* Rings were another of our smaller expense. Both of us wanted simple white gold bands.

Actually, I have two bands, one on each side because I like symmetry!

* Initiations – My small guest list and particularly picky nature made wedding invitations a tough thing to pick out. The ones that I feel in love had a minimum order of 100, so I made them myself!

* Photography- This is the toughest one to talk about as I paid for the film & developing only. Jason and I did a trade for wedding coverage, as I had shot his wedding a year prior. I could have easily dropped 3/4 of my budget on wedding photography otherwise!

You got married outside in May what was your Plan B for rain?

I guess this was my big bridezilla moment, I refused to talk about a rain plan. I knew Swan Court would let me get married inside their cafe but I didn’t even want to entertain that thought so I just didn’t answer the question when it was posed! It rained much of that May so I was incredibly happy when the wedding day was beautifully sunny and clear!

Did you have a shot list?

Not at all. I organized the formal groupings after the ceremony based on my experience from shooting weddings and gave Jason the freedom to shoot everything else on his terms. I had a shot of everyone who attended, and then we went into the different family groupings & bridal party.

Did you have a videographer?

I choose not to have a videographer at my wedding. My aunt taped the ceremony and some parts of the reception on her personal camcorder and I later had a friend combine the footage with my wedding images. I watched the video once after I got it and it’s just awesome, but I love looking at the images so much more!

What was the your favorite part of the wedding day?

Nathan and I had a few minutes alone before the reception. It was so great to just be alone and talk.

What would you do differently?

My biggest regret is not seeing Nathan the morning of the wedding for what I tell my clients is The Reveal. I really wish I had that time alone with him to see him for the first time and to have him see me in my dress. I wanted to see real reaction a photograph of it. I was such a nervous wreck going up the aisle, trying to see his face through the crowd and acknowledged my guests that I missed it.

What images do you have displayed?

As they say “The cobbler’s kids have no shoes”! While I actually have every image printed out as a 4×6, they are lovingly residing in a binder somewhere upstairs. I actually printed 4 larger images and have them displayed around our house. I ended up with over 3,000 raw, unedited proofs by request. How I wish they had been culled , edited and arranged in an album for me!

These first two are displayed together. They were both candid shots that I love.

These are both in my office. Remember when I said I was a big ole’ mess during the ceremony? Here’s what Nathan is thinking in this image: “Here, honey, let me help with the veil.” Here’s what I am thinking: “DON’T WRINKLE IT!”

Yikes, my scanner didn’t like this one, it cut off the people on the sides and the colors are wonky! Anyway, something was incredibly funny.

What were the silliest images that you received?

The boys were a riot!

What did you do with your wedding dress?

After the wedding I took it to a local dry cleaner to have it cleaned and preserved. Unfortunately, they messed it up and Nathan said it it looked like wet toilet paper. It hung in my closet for a few years and in 2007 I did the following:

1) I put it back on

2) I got in a boat.

3) I got on a jetski.

4) I jumped off the jetski.

5) I swam around lake LBJ for a bit.

6) I jumped off the boat!

Finally, do you have any sage words of advice to your brides?

I really don’t have anything that hasn’t already been said in a book somewhere, perhaps more eloquently. Nathan and I made sure we left all of our previous baggage at the door when we got married. I know my weaknesses and my strengths, as he knows his, and we honestly talked about them and let each other strengthen and step in when required. We keep things simple, respectful and logical in our relationship.

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And suddenly I realized that I spent 3 hours writing this post!I hope that you all enjoyed a glimpse into my own wedding day! Did I forget to answer any questions that you, my darlings, have?!