Falling for You: Come Together

After taking some photos with our bridal party, we left them on a street corner to wait for the limo and got to work on our couple's portraits. I use the term portrait loosely since none of these photos were posed. Personally, Mr. W and I would have found it rather awkward to pose for pictures for over an hour, and as I've mentioned before, we were really drawn to photojournalism. We didn't really have a set location for photos, so we just walked around old Montreal, stopping at different locations along the way. We didn't want to do any of the traditional photo locations for two reasons: 

1. They`re always really crowded, so you waste precious time "waiting your turn".

2. We didn't want our pictures to look like everyone else's! 

I'll be honest with you guys, when we first got started, it felt hella awkward for a minute. There were two photographers and one videographer, all pointed at us, and we were just expected to keep calm and swap saliva... I kept feeling like I was on an episode of "The Bachelor" or something! However, once we got over the initial weirdness of it all, and blocked everyone else out, we had no problem smooching like the couple of newlyweds that we were.  

There were some live performers playing jazz on Place Jacques Cartier, so we swayed for a few beats.

Mr. W even gave me little dip for some flair!

Our photographers, Jesse and Catherine were very impressed by our moves.

We then moved on to a small park. This location was nothing special to look at, but the light was perfection. I love how moody and almost editorial these pictures came out. It just goes to show that while having a nice location for photos is nice, it's certainly not the only factor to consider.

We also sat and snuggled on some steps. Jesse was quite surprised that I was willing to risk my dress, but they looked clean enough, and I cared more about the photos than I did about my dress, which would never be worn again anyways. Mr. Waterfall had to keep reminding me that while that was true, I still needed my dress to make it to the reception. Oops, good point, Mr. W! 

We found a clearing and took some more pictures among the trees.

Of course, we had to take a "under the veil shot". Some call it cheesy, we call it adorable.

Lastly, we ended up at the Appeals Court. This was purely my idea, not only as a nod to my profession, but also because the architecture of the building is really cool. I`m really glad I spoke up and asked Jesse to take a few pictures here, because they ended up being our favorites!

Me, at the Appeals Court. This is my one and only "bridal portrait" since we got behind schedule due to BM Tiny arriving late to the hotel and my parents arriving late for photos. 

This was the teaser shot our photographer sent us after the wedding. I die. This picture is perfection to me.

Are you looking forward to your couples' portraits? Does the idea excite or terrify you?

All photos courtesy of the amazing Bachmann Photography unless otherwise specified

Miss a recap?

• We get it started with our wedding trailer
• We had a really intense wedding week
• We handle some last minute drama and get our nails did
• We practice getting married
• We eat all the French food
• We stuff our faces with chocolate
• The girls get pretty, oh so pretty
• The men suit up
• I put on my wedding dress
• I put on my veil and my entourage loses their sh*t
• I show you all my somethings
• We ride a vintage limo to the church
• The bridal party walks the walk
• We have a tearful “first look” on our walk down the aisle
• The ceremony begins with some lovely readings
• We exchange our vows and rings and have a blessing of the hands
• We finish mass, have a rose ceremony and sign the marriage register
• We take some pictures with our families
• We take a few bridal party pictures

Falling for You: Entourage

After we finished taking family photos, our limo took our parents back to Le Windsor while we took some pictures with our bridal party. We really wanted our friends to enjoy cocktail hour instead of standing around forever for pictures, so the original plan was for the limo to come back for our bridal party after dropping off our family while Mr. W and I did couple's portraits, and then do one last run to pick us up along with our photographers. This seemed like a really solid plan to us, and it was... until the driver lost touch with our bridal party! So, despite our best efforts, our friends were left stranded on a random street corner instead of getting their booze on at cocktail hour. Oh well, c'est la vie!

Walking around the Old Port during photos

Since we were already running behind schedule because of my family, we kind of rushed through our bridal party photos, so we don't have many posed photos at all. We also decided not to include our littlest attendants since they were aged three to six years old, and we thought they would be uncomfortable in the heat, but I still wish we had included their cuteness in some photos.

We took some cool shots by the side of the church after everyone had left. You can't really tell in these pictures, we actually had to climb up on a ledge that was maybe 3 feet high. Our photographers suggested it, thinking I would say no, and I was all " Let`s DO IT!". In a ball gown and 4 inch heels. Win!

One of my favorite shots of the day is actually this awesome candid of BM Green Eyes and BM Tiny climbing down the side of the ledge, shoes off and everything!

Our photographers also captured a lot of candids while the family photos were happening. I just love how vibrant and blue the girl`s dresses came out! If I could go back in time, I would tell myself to stop obsessing about finding the perfect Cobalt blue dresses, because clearly I already had!

The whole time we were taking pictures, everyone kept fussing over my dress, except for me. Honestly, my bridesmaids were more concerned with my train than I was. I was just so happy to be married, and couldn't care less if my dress got dragged all over the floor by this point. I just kept saying "Leave it! It's not like I`m ever wearing it again!" I think after everything Mr. W and I had been through in the previous months, our friends and family just wanted everything to be perfect for us. But oddly enough, we didn't really care about the small stuff anymore, especially after dealing with such hardship. Our vendors kept saying that I was the most relaxed bride ever -- we laughed at this because relaxed is not a word that would normally be used in the same sentence as my name. But we got married, and to me, that was all that needed to go well that day.

GM of Doom getting a few bugs out of my dress. Look at my blissful face, I do not care a little bit that my Vera is crawling with about a bazillion spiders!

My girls fawning over my bridal beauty, totally not even staged, they`re so sweet.

We walked over to Place Jacques Cartier for some more group photos, it was buzzing with people who kept stopping to look at us and congratulate us, which was simultaneously really cool and really awkward. I was able to get some pictures with my girls, and I love how natural we all look. You would never be able to tell from this picture that these girls have barely ever interacted since they live in three different cities! Still, they`re the three best friends that anybody could have.

Of course, the boys got in on the action too. Don`t they look handsome in their tuxes?

One of my biggest regrets is not asking our photographer for individual pictures with each member of our bridal party. It simply never occurred to me, but I really wish it had! At least I remembered to take one with my MOH.

And finally, there was one picture that I knew I wanted to take ever since I noticed the pedestrian crossing outside our venue. I`m a huge Beatles fan, and I particularly love the album Abbey Road, so I thought it would be fun to recreate the iconic cover photo with my girls. We walked by twice and that was enough for Jesse to get the shot. Meanwhile, all the cars were honking and hooting at us, calling us pretty girls. Not all bad ;)

This was literally the only picture I requested. My whole philosophy toward photography was to be very hands-off and just let my photographers do their thang -- after all, we hired them because they`re good at what they do! You don`t go to the hospital with a printout from WebMD, right? My advice is: don`t give your photographer a huge list of "pinterest shots" to recreate, let them be creative instead!

Are you requesting any fun photos?

All photos courtesy of the amazing Bachmann Photography unless otherwise specified

Miss a recap?

• We get it started with our wedding trailer
• We had a really intense wedding week
• We handle some last minute drama and get our nails did
• We practice getting married
• We eat all the French food
• We stuff our faces with chocolate
• The girls get pretty, oh so pretty
• The men suit up
• I put on my wedding dress
• I put on my veil and my entourage loses their sh*t
• I show you all my somethings
• We ride a vintage limo to the church
• The bridal party walks the walk
• We have a tearful “first look” on our walk down the aisle
• The ceremony begins with some lovely readings
• We exchange our vows and rings and have a blessing of the hands
• We finish mass, have a rose ceremony and sign the marriage register
• We take some pictures with our families

Falling for You: Family Guys (and girls)

When we left off, Mr. Waterfall and I were walking off into the sunset together, petals and all. As the church bells rang, we stood outside the chapel for a moment, hugging our friends and family.

If you recall, I had been pretty upset at my brother because, truth be told, he was kind of being a pain in the ass (as little brothers tend to be). But when he came up to me after the ceremony, eyes puffy from crying, and told me how much he loved me, I started sobbing. It wasn't pretty, but I'll show you guys anyway.

See?

My heart was so full of love and joy at that moment that it was virtually impossible for me to stay mad at anybody! That's the thing about family, no matter how much they piss you off, you always find a way to move past it.

Since we had opted out of a first look (#worthit!), we had a really tight schedule for photos. We decided to allot fifteens minutes to family portraits, fifteen minutes for the bridal party, and one hour for couples' portraits. Because we didn't have much time, Jesse asked us to make sure that our families and bridal party knew to follow us out of the church to a nearby park. When I explained this to my parents, they were outraged. The conversation went a little something like this. 

- But people will want to congratulate you right after the ceremony!

- Yes, but we simply don't have the time for it, I'm sorry.

- But...that's so rude!

- (sigh) Just do it, please?

So, after the ceremony, I yelled out for our bridal party and family to follow us and briskly walked to the designated spot...only to find that my parents had stayed behind greeting guests. Luckily, Mr. W's family had followed instructions so our photographers were able to start taking pictures of them, not wasting any time.

MIL Waterfall, Mrs. W, Mr. W, Lil Waterfall and Grandmaman Waterfall
It looks like Mr. W's mom and grandma are wearing sunglasses, but it's just their transitionnal lenses. Don't forget to take off those transitionnal glasses, guys! 

My parents eventually moseyed on over and we were able to finish our family portraits, but we were already way behind schedule at this point. I'm not going to lie to you guys, I was pretty annoyed at the whole thing. Not only did our entire reception timeline get screwed up, we ended up having to pay for full extra hour of photography! You can file this under reason #1 why I regret not doing a receiving line (more on that later)... However, since that's pretty much the only thing that went wrong at our wedding, I'll count my blessings and shut up about it.

Mami Waterfall, Papi Waterfall and Mrs Waterfall
We each gave our mom our roses after the ceremony, and they loved it. Plus it gave them something pretty to hold for pictures, since we opted against corsages. 

In the interest of not boring you all to death, I'll only post a few select pictures, but we kept our family photos to a bare minimum --parents, siblings, and grandparents. My parents are both only children, but Mr. W. has a lot of aunts, uncles and cousins, which would have been a nightmare to coordinate for pictures.

The waterfall clan in coordinating shades of blue, silver and grey.
Left to right: Grandpa Waterfall and his wife, Grandma Waterfall, Brother GM, Mami W, Papi W, Mrs. Waterfall, Mr. Waterfall, Lil Waterfall, MIL W and Grandmaman W.

As I mentioned before, our photographers' speciality is photojournalism. As much as the formal photos were a must-have for us, I truly love some of the candid moments that they captured in between formal shots.

A sweet kiss on the nose:

An enthousiastic high-five, told you we were big high-fivers!

 A tender moment with my grandpa:

Some more sibbling love. It was also really windy that say, and my veil had a mind of its own!
So that about wraps it up for family photos, next up, our couples' pictures!

Did you have any issues wrangling people for photos? If so, how did you handle it?

All photos courtesy of the amazing Bachmann Photography unless otherwise specified

Miss a recap?

• We get it started with our wedding trailer
• We had a really intense wedding week
• We handle some last minute drama and get our nails did
• We practice getting married
• We eat all the French food
• We stuff our faces with chocolate
• The girls get pretty, oh so pretty
• The men suit up
• I put on my wedding dress
• I put on my veil and my entourage loses their sh*t
• I show you all my somethings
• We ride a vintage limo to the church
• The bridal party walks the walk
• We have a tearful “first look” on our walk down the aisle
• The ceremony begins with some lovely readings
• We exchange our vows and rings and have a blessing of the hands
• We finish mass, have a rose ceremony and sign the marriage register

Falling For You: I Say A Little Prayer For You (Ceremony, part 3)

Hive, I do apologize for my absence in the last few days. Unfortunately, my health issues are still very much a problem and my illness had quite a severe flair-up last week, which ultimately landed me in the ER, but don't you worry, I promise that will finish my recaps come hell or high water!

Anyway, some of you are probably getting fed up of my ceremony posts by now, but this is the last one, I promise! And I truly hope that they will be useful to some other bees down the line, which is why I've been so thorough. After Father C declared us husband and wife, everyone cheered and our little flower girls walked up to the altar; it was time for the rose ceremony. 

This is another element that we really wanted to incorporate into our ceremony, but we weren't sure our priest would be on board. Luckily, he agreed! That said, I really hope that my posts will inspire catholic brides to think outside the box a little bit when it comes to crafting their ceremony. So many people complain that catholic ceremonies are very cookie cutter and lack customization, but you never know what your celebrant will be willing to change unless you ask! 

Your gift to each other for your wedding today has been your wedding rings - which shall always be an outward demonstration of your vows of love and respect; and a public showing of your commitment to each other. You now have what remains the most honorable title which may exist between a man and a woman -- the tile of husband and wife. For your first gift as husband and wife, that gift will be a single rose. In the past, the rose was considered a symbol of love and a single rose always meant only one thing – it meant the words “I love you.” So it is appropriate that for your first gift – as husband and wife – that gift would be a single rose. Please exchange your first gift as husband and wife. 

In some ways it seems like you have not done anything at all. Just a moment ago you were holding one small rose – and now you are holding one small rose. In some ways, a marriage ceremony is like this. In some ways, tomorrow is going to seem no different than yesterday. But in fact today, just now, you both have given and received one of the most valuable and precious gifts of life – one I hope you always remember – the gift of true and abiding love within the devotion of marriage. Mr. Waterfall and Miss Waterfall, I would ask that wherever you make your home in the future – whether it be a large and elegant home – or a small and graceful one – that you both pick one very special location for roses; so that on each anniversary of this truly wonderful occasion you both may take a rose to that spot both as a recommitment to your marriage – and a recommitment that THIS will be a marriage based upon love. In every marriage there are times where it is difficult to find the right words. It is easiest to hurt who we most love. It is easiest to be most hurt by who we most love. It might be difficult some time to words to say “I am sorry” or “I forgive you”; “I need you” or “I am hurting”. If this should happen, if you simply can not find these words, leave a rose at that spot which both of you have selected – for that rose than says what matters most of all and should overpower all other things and all other words. That rose says the words: “I still love you.” The other should accept this rose for the words which cannot be found, and remember the love and hope that you both share today. Mr. Waterfall and Miss Waterfall, if there is anything you remember of this marriage ceremony, it is that it was love that brought you here today, it is only love which can make it a glorious union, and it is by love which your marriage shall endure.”

Somewhere in the middle of our rose ceremony, a cellphone went off, which was hilarious because I had joked that I would kick some ass if that happened. But in the moment, all we could do was laugh, because really, what else are you going to do? Obviously, the person didn't do it out of malice and I'm sure they felt horribly embarrassed. The point of this little anecdote is that things will go wrong on your wedding day, no matter how much you plan ahead. You won't have any control over the mishaps, but what you do have control over is how gracefully you handle them, so smile, and roll with the punches!
 
At this point, we returned to our seats and Father C prepared the Eucharist while the soloist belted out Ave Maria. I've mentioned before how I didn't have very strong preferences when it came to our ceremony music, but the Ave Maria was the one piece I was really adamant about having because it was one of Nanny Waterfall's favourites. 

Papi and Grandma Waterfall had also arranged to have a small replica of La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre (Our Lady of Charity), the patron saint of Cuba, brought in (seen to the left).

While the Ave Maria was being sung, I prayed to the Virgin Mary for our marriage, for my health and for my deceased grandparents. And I cried. A lot. Mr. W held my hand and helped me get it together. Thankfully, our photographers captured the beauty of the moment, amidst my ugly cry. 

Then, cousin M. walked up to the podium for the prayer of the faithful:

For Mr. and Mrs. Waterfall, on this day of great joy: for the grace to persevere in love, cherish each other in all things, and share their love generously with all those whom they encounter. We pray to the Lord. (Lord hear our prayer). For all married couples, called to show to the world God's faithfulness in their love and tenderness for each other.and for couples who are struggling to love eachother. We pray to the Lord. (Lord hear our prayer). For God's holy people, that through this celebration we may grow in our desire to serve and love the world: let us pray (Lord hear our prayer). For a world of peace and justice for all, the best gift we can give to our children. We pray to the Lord. (Lord hear our prayer). For the members of Mr. and Mrs. Waterfall's families who have died, and for those who feel their absence most keenly at this time of joy. We pray to the Lord. (Lord hear our prayer).

After this, came the Lord's Prayer, and the rite of peace, which has always been one of my favourite parts of mass. It was especially great to see our families and friends hugging on our wedding day!

Then, it was finally time to receive communion. Since it was our wedding day, we got to have wine. Mr. Waterfall was very happy about this part!

While our guests lined up to receive the Eucharist behind us, we prayed some more...

 and we also got to have a private moment to relish in the fact that we had just gotten married!

As a last formality, we went up the altar one last time to sign the marriage register along with our witnesses.

And then, Mendelsohn's "Bridal March"started playing, signalling the end of our ceremony. Our adorable flower girls came back out and started scattering rose petals on our way out of the church, since they didn't get to use them during the processional. It was precious!

It felt so great to finally be married, hive! Next up, the portraits and the reception!

Did something go wrong during your ceremony?

All photos courtesy of the amazing Bachmann Photography unless otherwise specified

Miss a recap?

• We get it started with our wedding trailer
• We had a really intense wedding week
• We handle some last minute drama and get our nails did
• We practice getting married
• We eat all the French food
• We stuff our faces with chocolate
• The girls get pretty, oh so pretty
• The men suit up
• I put on my wedding dress
• I put on my veil and my entourage loses their sh*t
• I show you all my somethings
• We ride a vintage limo to the church
• The bridal party walks the walk
• We have a tearful “first look” on our walk down the aisle
• The ceremony begins with some lovely readings
• We exchange our vows and rings and have a blessing of the hands