^Because, #yolo.
I can, without a doubt, 100%, tell you that my wedding day was the best day of my life. I enjoyed every minute - beaming with happiness, laughing, crying and genuinely just loving life. As I just recently (yes, I got married close to 9 months ago) finally ordered my wedding album, it made me take another deep-dive into all the awesome photos we got of our big day.
I've yet to share many day-of pics on here, so I thought why not bring back a little #tbt, while sharing some of the best/funniest/most non-traditional perfect moments of our wedding day, through pics. Because one of the best parts of all the photos you get is that you get to relive your big day and remember what made it so unique and perfect to you.
Plus, to all my wedding planning friends, here's my word of advice when it comes to wedding pics: Do you. Your day is just that, yours. So smile when you want to, cry when you want to and perfect the "skinny arm" if you want to. You're the one that matters and everyone else will smile along :)
1. It's inevitable. Some of the wedding poses, especially the solo shots, are going to be a little awkward. But trusting your photographer makes for some pretty cool shots - even if you're awkwardly giggling the whole time.
2. A friend of mine gave me some wedding photos advice one day in passing, to make sure you strike a pose during your recessional down the aisle, post-ceremony. Somehow, someway, I remembered that bit of advice (or maybe I was just genuinely the happiest human alive at the moment) and we were able to capture this insanely happy moment on camera. I also didn't realize at the time but Kev's grandparents have a "recessional wall" in their home and they quickly printed and framed this bad boy. I love it!
3. Sometimes you just need to be casual and let your friends have some fun during the hours-long photo session. So by the guys throwing on their sunglasses for some shots, slamming some champagne on the bus in between destinations, we were having fun! And at the end of the day, that's all I wanted. To have continuous fun from start to finish. #success
4. My favorite non-traditional decision of the day? Let's all go to RP's (our favorite bar in Oakley close to our home) to have a drink and take some fun pics! It was one of my favorite parts of the afternoon. The chicks all had a Fireball shot and the guys got a Razz Wheat draft beer from our favorite Athens brewery. Really, perfection. So in 30 years when we're going through our wedding album, we'll remember when we used to YOLO around at our favorite bar, even on our wedding day.
5. I think when I thought of wedding photos pre-my own, I thought they were all going to be super formal and posed. Little did I know, some of the most fun ones to look back on to relive memories, are the candids that were sneakily captured.
6. The reception was the most fun part of the day! I looked around all night seeing my friends and family having fun, watched Kev put on a concert for everyone and now looking back at pictures, I feel like I'm living it all over again. It's the in-the-moment photos that really bring me back.
7. So at the end of the day, I remember the smiles and laughs on the best day of my life. I'll never, ever forget that kind of happiness - and luckily, will have the pictures to prove it.
P.S. Shout out to the incredibly sweet Mandy Paige who captured all these beauties. Xoxo!!