A Foxy Fête: All I Want Is You, Will You Be My Bride?

As the Vitamin String Quartet finished drifting through the speakers, Officiant Em, Foxy, and Best Man Carkey made their way down the aisle.

All photos by Exclamation Imagery unless otherwise noted.

After a slight pause in the music, stepdad JCC and stepbro CJ started up with their guitars, playing and singing their arrangement of one of mine and Foxy's most favorite songs - All I Want Is You (originally by Barry Louis Polisar). Enter: the rest of the wedding party!

Hit play to listen along!

Groomsman Negs & Brideslady M

Groomsman Matty & Brideslady A

Brother Groomsman & Brideslady Bunny Love

MOH's Blondie & Copper

I remember going over this whole part (the processional, that is) at the rehearsal the night before, and my mom telling everyone to sloooooow the eff doooooown when walking up the aisle - especially since JCC & CJ needed to coordinate the music timing. Welp, guess what? People (and by that, I mean the ladies) walked a whole lot slower in heels on the actual wedding day than they did the night before. JCC & CJ were total pros, though, and were able to adjust accordingly with nary a hiccup in their playing!

As everyone made their way up the aisle, I was enjoying watching from a few steps back. That, and I was just trying to breathe. Who would have thought I would be such a ball of nerves when I literally just saw Foxy a half hour earlier?!

And then all of a sudden, before I really knew what was happening, it was my turn.

 

Photos by Mrs. Guinea Pig

With the second reprisal of "All I want is you, will you be my bride...", I stepped up through the gazebo - my one moment of standing on my own - something that I really pushed to be able to do before my mom and my dad joined me for our joint walk down the aisle. Independent, yet nothing without them beside me.

Photos by Mrs. Guinea Pig

I know everyone says to "be in the moment" and savor that walk - but honestly? It's all a complete blur to me. Rewatching our video helped some, but it mostly only reminded me that I started begging my parents to "pleasewalkfaster pleasewalkfaster". I mean, I even had a relatively short aisle and that thing felt long as frick with a hundred people's eyes all on me. Talk about pressure. Sheesh.

Fortunately, the end was in sight, and so was Foxy.

Once we finally (finally) made it up there, my mom and dad each wished us well with a hug and a kiss before finding their seats.

And while this was all sweet, sentimental, and treasured, you know what the crazy person in me noticed? That the top part of the fabric backdrop on the gazebo was uneven, which it wasn't earlier in the day.

I mean, seriously? That's what I focused on? (Do you even notice it..?!) Ugh. #priorityfail

Anyway, asymmetrical fabric aside, with my bouquet handed off to MOH Copper and Foxy's hands in mine.. I don't think I've ever been so happy or more excited in my life!

Did anyone else have random thoughts during their walk down the aisle? Or were you able to truly soak it all in?

Miss a recap? Catch yourself up!

It's Wedding Week! - The week of the wedding started out pretty hectic, but we made it through (relatively) unscathed.

We're Cool People (who had to deal with a slight change of plans) - On Friday, we made our way to the venue, had a relatable moment on the radio, and learned about some last minute changes that we made an effort to take in stride.

Practice Makes Perfect.. And Crabs Don't Hurt, Either - After most everyone was settled in on Friday evening, we had our rehearsal followed by the best dinner ever - a Maryland crab feast!

Rise and Shine! - Wedding morning was soon upon us, and I woke up at the crack of dawn ready to get prettified.

Pretty Women - Over the course of the next several hours, myself and the girls hung out, got our hair and makeup done, had a photo shoot, and drank champagne.

Dressing Up - Soon enough, it was time for me to slip into my dress!

Dapper Dudes - At the same time, Foxy and his guys were ironing and getting into their suites - and Foxy was opening his wedding day gift!

The First of Many Looks - We had our first look, and both felt so much better after being able to see each other for the first time that day.

A School Bus Photoshoot - Our vehicle of choice for the day was a school bus, which we turned into a photo op both inside and out!

Smiles and Sun - The photos continued by the lighthouse and pier.. with sunglasses and a few funny stories along the way.

ALL The Family - We then met up with family at the lock house for even more pictures, and I started getting a bit antsy and having problems with my dress.

And Then There's Us - I kinda-sorta-maybe forgot all about couple and bridal pictures. Thank goodness for our amazing photog reminding us!

Final Touches - Slight chaos then ensued in the minutes before the ceremony started, consisting of me getting sewn into my dress and the boys getting their bouts pinned on at the last minute.

And So It Begins - The guests arrive, the wedding party lines up, and the ceremony space is revealed - complete with programs, white knots, and bubbles!

A Foxy Fête: Final Touches

(Alternate title: The One Where I Get Sewn Into My Dress)

Once we finally finished all those pictures, the troops headed back to the Vandiver with about a half hour to spare before the ceremony. The boys went off to one room, while most of the ladies and I went back to the bridal suite for some last minute touchups.

You know.. like physically sewing me into my dress.

All photos by Exclamation Imagery unless otherwise noted.

Things you should know: My dress had minimal boning in the front and had a zipped up back - there was no hidden corset to tighten or adjust. I also have a fairly small upper torso and waist, but some pretty large-and-in-charge hips. My one and only gripe about the dress since day one was that it had a tendency to "sink down" and rest on those big, ol' child-bearing hips. Taking it in a few inches at my alterations appointments and wearing a (tissue and toupee tape filled) corset bra definitely helped, but I was always still nervous about it - I even considered sewing thin spaghetti straps on to just prevent any possible issues. 

Alas, I love the strapless look too much. So I had to make it work. And while the tissues and tape seemed to be doing the trick when I first put it on, the dress slowly but surely started sinking down immediately after our first look. I mean.. the groomsmen even started placing bets on when it would just slip down entirely. True story.

Welp, thank goodness for Brideslady M - that's really all I can say. Just as she tried to tape me into place a few hours earlier, she came to my rescue yet again with safety pins and a needle and thread just minutes before the ceremony!

The woman was a freaking miracle worker; I mean.. she's is a dance teacher and has to deal with costumes that don't fit all. the. time.. so this was like second nature for her. Granted I had no idea what she was actually doing to me back there, but I really didn't care. I just needed that baby to stay up!

So while she pinned and pricked and sewed, I was loaded up with a few bites to eat, a few sips of our delicious signature cocktail, and popped a Xanax (hey, sometimes you just need one).

Yea. That's an attractive face.

With all the last minute touch ups and frenzy going on, I totally didn't even notice that my dear friend HK was creeping up on me (you can actually see her arm in the picture above!).

I was so thrilled to see her. Fun fact: she was actually originally going to be in the wedding party when we first started planning 2+ years ago, but had to drop out when a possible schedule conflict came up. There was a time when she wasn't even sure she could make it to the wedding at all, so to have her not only there, but to sneak back for a minute before the ceremony, meant the world to me.



After a few hugs and well wishes, HK went back outside to grab a seat, Brideslady M was almost done with Operation: Sew Fox Into Dress, and it was just about time for me to head out and get this whole wedding thing started! Breezy B gave me a quick once over..

..and MOH Copper smelled my armpits and put more deodorant on me (no picture of that one, unfortunately). Now that's friendship.

MOH Copper also apparently snuck out of the bridal suite a bit earlier in order to help the guys get their boutonnieres pinned on. (They didn't have them on for pictures because the florist was worried about them staying fresh for the ceremony.)

Oh, boys. What would you do without this amazing lady to help you out? ;)

I was so happy she was top of this, because I honestly completely forgot that the flowers still needed to be divvied up and pinned on. I'm betting she was also responsible for making sure the parents all got their flowers, too.. hooray for someone being on top of things!

Foxy Pops, getting his flower on!

Now that the boys were all flowered up, Foxy was smiling, I was practically glued to my dress, and the ladies had their bouquets and a fresh coat of lipstick, we were all just about ready to walk to down the aisle!

(Cue: heart beating at a million miles a minute.)

Miss a recap? Catch yourself up!

It's Wedding Week! - The week of the wedding started out pretty hectic, but we made it through (relatively) unscathed.

We're Cool People (who had to deal with a slight change of plans) - On Friday, we made our way to the venue, had a relatable moment on the radio, and learned about some last minute changes that we made an effort to take in stride.

Practice Makes Perfect.. And Crabs Don't Hurt, Either - After most everyone was settled in on Friday evening, we had our rehearsal followed by the best dinner ever - a Maryland crab feast!

Rise and Shine! - Wedding morning was soon upon us, and I woke up at the crack of dawn ready to get prettified.

Pretty Women - Over the course of the next several hours, myself and the girls hung out, got our hair and makeup done, had a photo shoot, and drank champagne.

Dressing Up - Soon enough, it was time for me to slip into my dress!

Dapper Dudes - At the same time, Foxy and his guys were ironing and getting into their suites - and Foxy was opening his wedding day gift!

The First of Many Looks - We had our first look, and both felt so much better after being able to see each other for the first time that day.

A School Bus Photoshoot - Our vehicle of choice for the day was a school bus, which we turned into a photo op both inside and out!

Smiles and Sun - The photos continued by the lighthouse and pier.. with sunglasses and a few funny stories along the way.

ALL The Family - We then met up with family at the lock house for even more pictures, and I started getting a bit antsy and having problems with my dress.

And Then There's Us - I kinda-sorta-maybe forgot all about couple and bridal pictures. Thank goodness for our amazing photog reminding us!

A Foxy Fête: Smiles and Sun

After our school bus shenanigans, it was time for some actual wedding party photos. (I would say "formals", but I just hate that word.. and they weren't really all that formal, you know?!)

The plan was for our little group to take pictures by the pier and lighthouse, then head over to the lock house and meet up for family formals photos; this was partially to keep the general hoopla of a wedding-party-in-a public-place to a minimum, but also to give the parents and rest of the family a bit more time to get ready before pictures. However, since my dad and stepmom were apparently ready when the rest of us kids were, they tagged along for wedding party pics as well!

All photos by Exclamation Imagery unless otherwise noted.

Once we got to the lighthouse, Laura and Alisa rallied the troops and had us get into various poses, combinations, settings, etcetera. You know, all your good, general wedding stuff.

Notice my stupid hand-on-hip arm? I apparently did this a lot. It's become second nature for me to pose in photos like this.. it totes makes your arm look so much thinner!

Are you ready to hate me a little bit? Because you will. See.. I'm not complaining by any means (I promise!).. but we had a really nice day for our wedding. Like, really, really nice - high of 82 degrees, incredibly sunny, not too hot or too cold. There were absolutely some wedding gods somewhere looking down on us.

Except, sometimes.. well, it was a bit too sunny.

Oh my god Mrs. Fox, shut the eff up.

Okay. I KNOW. Why the heck would I even mention that? Well, partially because I'm a whiney pants, and partially because part of the reason I loved our venue was the fact that it was right by the water, where I wanted to get a lot of wedding party pictures taken. Except it was too sunny to do a whole lot of those (think: no shade and squinty eyes), so we only got a couple of just the girls.

Don't get me wrong, I totally big puffy heart love these photos. But a teeny part of me wishes we could have gotten a few more. Alas, I'm pretty sure I'll live. ;)

(Also, you might now understand why there are a whole bunch of photos of us with our sunglasses on - sure, I wanted the fun pictures, but they were absolutely necessary at some points!)

Anyway, most of the photo ops ended up being under or around one of the many shady trees within the pier's vicinity. It was no water, but it still made for a lovely backdrop!

So here's a fun side story for you: I can't speak for all men, but I know that at least Foxy and a few of his man friends don't always like to smile in pictures. They seemed to do pretty okay for the most part on this particular occasion, but Laura definitely called upon MOH Copper at one point to "do something funny" in front of the guys in order to make them smile and/or laugh.

(personal photos)

Not that you can tell from these pictures, but she was definitely.. um, how shall I put this.. air humping Laura. I guess you had to be there. But hey, it got the guys to smile!



It got me to smile too, apparently. (AKA laugh like a moron.)

(personal photos)

"ZOMG you're so funnyyyyyy!"

Now that I think about, I may have also been laughing because of Groomsman Matty's little pants predicament. If you recall, there were issues with his pants being a bit incredibly too tight. He was a trooper, though, and ended up wearing the "right" (read: way too tight) pants for pictures and the ceremony, then changed into a looser pair for the reception. However, this definitely limited the positions he was able to go into for some of our posed photos - like the one below.

Oh hello, hand-on-hip pose. Again.

All in all, awesome picture. But you might notice Matty (far right) not resting on his knees quite as comfortably as the rest of the guys. I mean, I'm sure he could have, if he really wanted to.. or if he wanted a hole in his pants. Fortunately, though, we made it through pictures sans pants rippage!

This was supposed to be the "sasspot" picture. I don't think the boys understood.

And now that I've overwhelmed you with a bajillion pictures and stories of our fabulous wedding party, here's a few more! (You didn't think I would leave without showing you the one-on-ones with our nearest and dearest, did you?!)

My "nice" and "silly" shots with my fabulous ladies of honor, Copper and Blondie. In case you're wondering, bottom left is our ET pose. Obviously.

Bridesladies M, Bunny Love, and A

Groomsmen Carkey, Brother, Matty, and Negs

Another sort of funny story.. remember the whole "it was so sunny" thing? Well Foxy's eyes tend to be pretty sensitive to sunlight in general, so with each and every photo you see above, Laura had him keep his eyes shut until the very last possible second. It was kind of amusing to see him squint them closed super tight then pop them open with a big ol' smile on his face over and over again. And he was smiling, to boot! I'm kind of amazed, really.

So once we were pretty much done with all the wedding party pictures, everyone headed back to the bus while Foxy and I hung back for a few more shots of just the two of us.

I promise to share more of these photos soon, but I'm pretty sure I assaulted you enough with my face for one day. Besides, it was now time to head over to the lock house and get our family "formals" on!

Miss a recap? Catch yourself up!

It's Wedding Week! - The week of the wedding started out pretty hectic, but we made it through (relatively) unscathed.

We're Cool People (who had to deal with a slight change of plans) - On Friday, we made our way to the venue, had a relatable moment on the radio, and learned about some last minute changes that we made an effort to take in stride.

Practice Makes Perfect.. And Crabs Don't Hurt, Either - After most everyone was settled in on Friday evening, we had our rehearsal followed by the best dinner ever - a Maryland crab feast!

Rise and Shine! - Wedding morning was soon upon us, and I woke up at the crack of dawn ready to get prettified.

Pretty Women - Over the course of the next several hours, myself and the girls hung out, got our hair and makeup done, had a photo shoot, and drank champagne.

Dressing Up - Soon enough, it was time for me to slip into my dress!

Dapper Dudes - At the same time, Foxy and his guys were ironing and getting into their suites - and Foxy was opening his wedding day gift!

The First of Many Looks - We had our first look, and both felt so much better after being able to see each other for the first time that day.

A School Bus Photoshoot - Our vehicle of choice for the day was a school bus, which we turned into a photo op both inside and out!

A Foxy Fête: A School Bus Photoshoot

Oh, yes. It's true. I mean, who needs a fancy-pants limo when you can have a school bus?!

All photos by Exclamation Imagery unless otherwise noted.

The bus was actually such a last minute add-on.. like, five-days-before-the-wedding last minute. We were planning on having two stops for photos before the ceremony - one by a lighthouse and pier for just the wedding party, then one by a lock house across town for both wedding party and family. I initially thought that everyone could just pile into a variety of cars and car pool to the different locations, but that just seemed like a lot of effort on everybody's part - I didn't wan't to have our friends and family worried about how they would get to each spot on the actual day of the wedding. I also saw how amazingly convenient it was to have one form of transportation for everyone in the wedding party at Brideslady M's wedding a few weeks earlier. And so, (and really, since we couldn't afford anything else,) we took a note from our fab DOC Chasi and booked a school bus from Sutton Bus Company!

As soon as Foxy and I were done with our first look, we quickly reconvened with the rest of the wedding party and made our way over to the bus. This also just so happened to be the first time I saw the guys in their "non-matching" suit combo, complete with the last minute vests we purchased from Macy's just days before.

Hive, I literally can't tell you how freaking amazing they looked.. I'm pretty sure that unless you knew they didn't match, you wouldn't really know. I personally thought they looked awesome - maybe even better with the slight color difference. We seriously lucked out on that one!

So after I raved and loved on the boys and their get up for a hot minute, we all piled into the bus en route to our first photo location!

At this point, both Laura and I were having the same thought: instead of just using the bus as a mode of transportation, why not turn it into it's own photo locale? I mean, if you haven't noticed by now, I'm pretty much game for turning any situation into a photo shoot. So that's exactly what we did!

The best part in all this is that the last photo was the only one that was actually "posed". And while it's probably one of my favorites from the whole day, I still can't get enough of some of the other, more candid photos. I may be biased, but I think we totally had one of the most awesome groups of fun, good looking people to surround us on our wedding day! ;)

Eventually, the school bus shenanigans came to an end as we arrived at our first "real" photo location - the Concord lighthouse and pier overlooking the junction point of the Susquehanna River and the Chesapeake Bay. It was time for a few more formals.. and a few without our (clearly much-loved) sunglasses!

Miss a recap? Catch yourself up!

It's Wedding Week! - The week of the wedding started out pretty hectic, but we made it through (relatively) unscathed.

We're Cool People (who had to deal with a slight change of plans) - On Friday, we made our way to the venue, had a relatable moment on the radio, and learned about some last minute changes that we made an effort to take in stride.

Practice Makes Perfect.. And Crabs Don't Hurt, Either - After most everyone was settled in on Friday evening, we had our rehearsal followed by the best dinner ever - a Maryland crab feast!

Rise and Shine! - Wedding morning was soon upon us, and I woke up at the crack of dawn ready to get prettified.

Pretty Women - Over the course of the next several hours, myself and the girls hung out, got our hair and makeup done, had a photo shoot, and drank champagne.

Dressing Up - Soon enough, it was time for me to slip into my dress!

Dapper Dudes - At the same time, Foxy and his guys were ironing and getting into their suites - and Foxy was opening his wedding day gift!

The First of Many Looks - We had our first look, and both felt so much better after being able to see each other for the first time that day.