Wedding recap: the reception

After we were announced husband and wife, we walked back down the aisle and did a sort of receiving line. We had intended to just visit tables at the reception (which was also did), but I'm glad the impromptu receiving line happened because it was nice to say hello to everyone in the immediate after-glow of the ceremony. Then we signed our marriage license.

We took pictures with the bridal party and our families while the guests enjoyed a cocktail hour and simple appetizers.

Some of my favorite pictures from the whole wedding during the cocktail hour.




Once pictures were done, it was finally time to go into the reception. On the left side of this picture, you can see our amazing wedding coordinator, Erin. I honestly don't know how the day would have gone without her. The thought in my head in this moment was, "oh my gosh, it's my wedding!"

We decided to go straight into our first dance to get it out of the way. We danced to an acoustic recording of Stellar by Incubus. We discovered that first dances are awkward. It's really weird to have everyone watch you. We were pretty much over the whole thing in about a minute. We even looked at the DJ at one point to wrap it up. Despite having gotten engaged while dancing, we are not good dancers and don't like the spotlight, and I honestly think the first dance was the most uncomfortable part of the day for me.

After our first dance, we invited everyone to join in on the buffet. Instead of a traditional head table or a sweetheart table, we elected to sit with our siblings and their significant others. So we were at the table with Megan and Daniel and David and Alex. The rest of the bridal party sat amongst the other guests. This way, we didn't have a huge head table, didn't split up couples (ick), and weren't on show at a sweetheart table. Win-win-win.

After we visited the tables and said hello to everyone again, my dad and I did our father-daughter dance. We danced to Elvis Presley's Love Me Tender. When I was little, my dad bought me a music box with a daddy and baby panda that played that song, and I always think of my dad when I hear it. I cried some while we were dancing, and thanked him for the wonderful father he's been and for giving me a beautiful wedding. My mom said she looked around the room and many people were crying.

Dan and his mom danced to It's a Wonderful World.

After dancing and mingling with our guests for what felt like 10 minutes (but was actually an hour and a half), it was time to cut the cake. Dan knew I'd ordered a groom's cake, but didn't know anything about it. His family loves to play Yahtzee. Like, all the time. And he usually wins, because he's awesome. So the cake was a Yahtzee box with 5 dice each showing a 5 (5x5=someone's 25th birthday!).

Our cake was 3 tiers of amazingness. We cut into the cookies and cream tier, but we also had a lemon tier and a chocolate mocha tier. We were nice and didn't shove cake in each other's faces.

Of course there were toasts and our moms presented us with a homemade photo display of pictures of each of us through the years. We had an amazing time and enjoyed hanging out with our guests and having some drinks. When it was all over, we went upstairs for our first moments alone together all day. I gave him his birthday gift and we had a couple of chocolate strawberries the hotel had brought up. We changed into comfy clothes and went to our favorite place, Dave & Buster's to party our little booties off.

All in all, our day was perfect. I wouldn't have changed a single thing about any of it. I truly married the man of my dreams, and I can't believe it's almost been a year. Cheers to many many more happy anniversaries!

Wedding recap: the ceremony

Our wedding ceremony was at 11:30am on Friday, October 16, 2009. I know, I'm a bad bride and made everyone take time off. But it's what worked out best for us on the day we wanted. Amazingly, I didn't have to get up all that early. I had hair and makeup done in my hotel room with my mom. My bridesmaids and mother-in-law went to a salon nearby for hair and then came back to the hotel for makeup. We were ready to go by 11:15, and just about everything went perfectly.

I was so excited to walk down the aisle. I remember standing with my dad in the hotel lobby, waiting to see Dan and feeling butterflies throwing up in my stomach. As each person ahead of me walked out the door to the aisle, the anticipation grew and grew.


Finally, it was my turn to exit the doors and I walked out onto the patio to the sound of Apocalyptica's cover of Metallica's Nothing Else Matters. In that moment the nerves were gone and the world fell away. I remember being aware of walking with my dad, but I don't remember seeing anyone but Dan, and it felt like I flew down the aisle.

The first thing I said to Dan was a whispered "happy birthday." My friend Andrew, who officiated, did an awesome job throughout. Dan was hot (as was everyone - who knew it would be almost 100 degrees that day) and giddy, and being in front of everyone was nerve-wracking.

We had written our own ceremony (or really, I wrote our ceremony) from bits and pieces of others I had found in my internet searching. I loved how heartfelt and personal I was able to make it. Exchanging my vows and rings with Dan is something I'll never forget, now matter how nervous I was.

Long-time friends read a beautiful poem by Pablo Neruda.

Dan and I did a wine and love letters ceremony. We put a bottle of wine and letters written to each other in a box made by my grandmother. The idea is that if we're ever in hard times and struggling in our marriage, we'll open the box, read the letters and drink the wine to remember why we vowed to love each other forever. The hope, however is that we wouldn't struggle and that we would open the box and enjoy its contents in celebration of our 10th anniversary.

The funny thing about that picture is that we don't remember the photographer being there. We were both surprised to see that Kyle got that shot. It literally felt like we were the only ones there in that moment. Finally, we were pronounced husband and wife and I got to kiss Dan for the first time as Mr. and Mrs. Kingston.

And that is the story of how me+he=we.

Wedding recap: Our story

Dan and I were at the baby shower of a mutual friend on May 3rd, 2008. I noticed him, he noticed me. I left for dinner plans before he had a chance to approach me. He asked our friend for my number and we connected on myspace a week later. About a week or so after that, we went on our first date to Cheesecake Factory. He was kind and quiet, nothing like his tough exterior. I didn't realize it at the time, but he skipped school on Tuesdays to take me out. We went out for dinners, mini-golfing, and went to see the baby that brought us together.

In July, we became exclusive, and were pretty much inseparable by then. We spent weekends hanging out, seeing friends, and enjoying falling in love. We celebrated his 24th birthday with dinner and cake at home and exchanged our first "I Love You's." I had a calm sense about knowing that he was just the right guy for me. Everything about my relationship with him was different from everything else to that point, in the best possible ways.

For our first Christmas, Dan came down from Phoenix to Tucson and spent about 3 days with my family, hiking, going to see Christmas lights, and just hanging out. It really impressed me that he was willing to come spend a whole weekend with people he barely knew and that he did that for me. On Christmas night, we went to look at lights in a neighborhood that goes all out with decorating. One of the homes in the neighborhood had a wishing tree. Strips of paper and a stapler were set out and the idea was to write a Christmas wish on the paper and then staple the strip onto the end of the chain. As neither of us is good with secrets, we shared ours. Mine: "to love him always." His: "win the lottery and be with her forever." That was the first time we'd talked really long term, and we spent the rest of the evening whispering about what it meant for us. We knew we wanted to get marriedand it was so exciting to talk about the future.

Dan proposed exactly a month later on January 25th, 2009 after asking for my parents' blessing the evening before. We were in our pajamas. We made dinner and shared a bottle of our favorite wine. After we ate, he asked me to dance - right there in our living room. After dancing slowly for a few minutes, he looked deeply into my eyes and got down on one knee. He asked me to marry him and of course I said "yes." We were so excited. We called our parents and siblings, then sat back in our excitement and just enjoyed this new chapter in our lives.

We set a wedding date of October 16th, 2009. As cheesy as it may be, we liked the idea of saying "I Love You Forever" on the anniversary of the first expression of our love for each other. We planned a wedding that was uniquely us, yet still traditionally and fully heartfelt. We both thoroughly enjoyed wedding planning, I think, and had fun meeting with the DJ, tasting cake, and finding ways to put our personalities into the day. I did a lot of it myself, and really enjoyed doing the favors, programs, and other little details. Over the next few days, I'll show you pictures from our wedding and show how it was just perfect for us.

Show Us Your Life: How I met my husband

It is once again time for a Kelly's Korner Show Us Your Life post. This week is the "how we met" story. Enjoy...

There once was a girl named Brooke. She was a good girl at heart but had made some mistakes in love. She came from a wonderful and supportive family, enjoyed her job, had a new puppy and was 4 months out of a relationship and looking forward to rediscovering herself.

There was also once a boy named Dan. He was young, fun, and tattooed but serious about what he wanted out of life. He had a great core group of friends and was working to rebuild a relationship with his parents.

There was also a hussy named Nikki who'd trapped a boy named Dennis by getting knocked up. Brooke worked with Nikki and Dan knew Dennis in high school. The hussy named Nikki couldn't possibly be separated from Dennis for an afternoon to have a baby shower, so she made Dennis bribe his guy friends into coming with beer.

Brooke and Dan were both invited to the baby shower. There was good food, fun games, and - as promised - beer. Brooke remembers noticing a tall cute guy with tattoos and a sweet smile. Dan remembers falling in love at first sight with the girl who knew everything about celebrity babies. Just as he got the liquid courage to approach her, she left for dinner plans.

Dan asked the hussy named Nikki for Brooke's contact info, and between their hectic schedules (he worked full time, a second job, and went to school), they went on a date approximately two weeks later. He remembers that she ordered fried macarroni and cheese and a vodka soda with olives. He also remembers the outfit she wore and could pick it from her closet to this day. She remembers that he was shy, but sweet. There was something magnetic about him.

Long story short, they dated for like 8 months, got engaged, and then got married 17 months after that first meeting. And they lived happily ever after.

A little more about us

Mr. Kingston and I met at a co-ed baby shower for a mutual friend. He spotted me from afar and was blown away by my knowledge of celebrity babies. I noticed a tall guy with a lot of tattoos and kind eyes. I didn't think much of it though - all the younger guys were kind of over the whole baby shower thing and had segregated themselves. Apparently though, just as he'd gotten the courage to come over and talk to me, I left for dinner plans. He asked our friend for my contact info and we eventually connected on myspace a week later. We made plans and had our first date at Cheesecake Factory.

We dated casually fow a couple months since we were both in school, lived far apart, and didn't have a lot of free time. We can both be shy and we just enjoyed getting to know each other. I knew he was special when on my birthday. Not only did he show up to my get-together at Dave & Buster's where he wouldn't know anyone alone, he brought me gift cards for Starbucks and PetSmart. For having only been dating for about 6 weeks, it struck me as very thoughtful, and I knew coming took him out of his comfort zone since he hadn't met any of my friends. When my semester was over, we started dating more seriously and became inseparable pretty quickly. We found so much we enjoyed doing together: wine tasting, Dave & Buster's, playing Wii and Xbox, taking Paisley to the dog park.

We started talking about getting engaged on Christmas Day. A week later we began shopping for rings, and we were engaged on January 25th. He asked for my parents blessing the night before, and popped the question while we were dancing in our pajamas after making dinner together. It was perfect.