Lisa Welge Photography is now The Goodness!

Ahhhh…the ceremony. I have the most vivid memories from this part of the day. It was SO EMOTIONAL! Geoff and I were both shedding tears of joy pretty much the whole time. It was awesome. We had some pretty simple decorations because the location was SO beautiful. The pond, the view overlooking endless trees, green grass, wonderful weather. It ended up being overcast which was perfect. I was so afraid we’d be in direct sun. Still, I wanted to tie in our fair / carnival / summer party-bbq theme a bit so I made this bunting (banners or flagging or garlands, whatever you want to call them) to go along the aisle. We shopped for a couple months to find cool patterned fabrics in our wedding colors.

Our altar was two young trees with big yellow bows on them. Geoff and I plan on planting the trees at our new house (we just got an offer accepted on!) as a tribute to our marriage. It will be fun to watch the trees grow as we grow with each other.

Here are the four bridesmaids dresses I made. I love that its the same dress but is worn and looks completely different on each girl. Each of them were able to choose a style that suits them best.

Our little ring bearer Shae was so cute. I love his hair! I made his little ring pillow about 1 in the morning two nights before the wedding.

Our cute little flower girl Dominique only got two little petals down on the aisle. That’s ok, it’s a tough job!

Then it was my turn to walk down with my dad. It was downhill and I was wearing very high heels, so I kept tripping! Good thing my Pop was there to keep my from falling!

By the time I got close enough to see Geoff’s face everything else faded away.

One of the best decisions we made was asking our friend Neil to be our officiant. It was so nice to have someone that means something to you doing the job. I couldn’t image having a hired stranger up there with us. As a man of the theatre, I don’t have to tell you he did a great job.

Geoff and I wrote the ceremony together. As I scoured the internet for help, there were things that made me cry as I read them aloud. Those were the readings that were added! Doing all of this ourselves made the whole thing that much more meaningful.

We also wrote own vows (the night before!) to read to each other. This is where we both completely lost it. We both could barely get through our vows we were crying so much.

Then it was ring-exchanging time! Geoff gave me back my engagement ring because I chose not to get a wedding band. I slipped Geoff awesome wooden ring onto his finger. (More photos of that later!)

THE KISS!!

We were Mr. and Mrs. Bardot! We walked back down the aisle to “All you need is love” by The Beatles. It was pure magic.

I had one request from our photographer and that was to get a HUGE group photo of everyone there. So glad we did it!

This truly was the happiest I have ever been. It was incredibly amazing. I love my new husband so much and am so excited for our life together. I’ve got more weddingness on they way, come back soon!

Oh. My. Goodness. We have wedding photos! So many wonderful photos in fact, I’ve got to break this down into parts. I present you with Part One: Before we got hitched. I’ve been waiting to do a write up about our wedding until now because its just not the same unless I can SHOW you. Let me start off by saying that we had the most amazing photographers ever, Sarah Maren Photography. Geoff and I had such a blast working with Sarah and her hubby Dustin and are so glad to now call them friends! Thank you both SOOOOO much Sarah and Dustin, the photos are amazing and working with you was a dream!

Oooookay…on to the main event! There are so many cliches out there about weddings, “It goes by so fast”, “It’s the happiest day of your life”, etc., etc. Well, they are all true! Our wedding day was absolutely EPIC. Was it everything I ever dreamed it would be? Um, YES! The feeling of joy all day was overwhelming. Marrying Geoff was THE most incredible, happy, wonderful, joyus, (I could go on) moment of my life. We owe so many thanks to so many people for pitching in and make the day as amazing as it was.

Let’s get to it! We girls got ready in Placerville at the Cary House hotel. Here is a photo of my sister’s figuring out how to tie the wrap dresses I made them.

Here’s all the colorful petticoats I neglected to take a photo of before when I showed you my dress.

Here are two of the THREE pairs of shoes I wore that day. I had a pair of gettin’ married shoes, dancin’ shoes, and party shoes! I LOVE the yellow ones, I wear them all the flippin’ time now!

My little sister helped me get in the dress. Yup, that’s her knee in my back.

Pinning on my sunny little flower.

While we gals were getting gussied up, Dustin was hanging out with Geoff and his guys as they got ready. Geoff wore that shirt especially for the day.

Geoff loved his blue socks!

Geoff and I wanted (of course!) to do a first look session. I can now speak from experience about how awesome this was. I had butterflies in my stomach as I walked up to Geoff with his back to me. I could see his smile without ever seeing his face. I recognized the deep breaths he takes when he gets choked up. Then I tapped him on the back and saw the handsome man I was about to marry. Instantly we both broke into tears. We were so incredibly happy. All we could say was, “I love you.”

Life was GOOD.

Geoff looked so handsome. I’m so glad we nixed the tuxes and went for suits for the guys. Geoff looked incredibly handsome. The orange-stripey tie, the perfectly fitted suit, his adorable bearded face. I’d never seen him look so good!

I also loved all of the APPLES EVERYWHERE! In case you didn’t know, apples are kind of a big deal for us. Geoff and I met each other working for Apple Inc. and we are huge Apple people. Our engagement pictures featured our his-and-hers Macbook Pros. We got married at Apple Hill because not only is it the place where I have cut down Christmas trees with my family every year for the past, um, forever, it is also the half way point between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe (Geoff lived in Tahoe for a while during our relationship and we did the long-distance thing) and just across the highway from where we married was where Geoff and I would meet, and he’d drive me the rest of the way to Tahoe. Apple Hill was the most perfect place to get married. Ever.

Sarah took us around for some rockin’ portraits. We had giant balloons. Yesss.

Geoff and his groomsmen shared a fine bottle of scotch pre-ceremony.

I gave my hubby-to-be a little gift for our wedding. Here he is reading the card I wrote him.

A Canon G10! I told Geoff that I was giving him the camera as a promise to spend good, quality, him-and-I time together and to make memories without having to worry about lugging ALL of our photography equipment around. Not everything in our lives has to be job, and to focus on US and our relationship. We made good use of it on our mini-moon to Disneyland!

I present you with the only photo WE took on our wedding day. Go G10!

After that it was time to get married! Geoff and I parted ways and got ready for the ceremony. I can’t wait to share more images and more wedding story. The love-filled-tear-fest ceremony, LOTS of details from cotton candy to board game-centerpieces to DIY up the wazoo, and the PARTY (oh, the party)! Come back soon for more!

Wowza, wowza, wowza. The wedding was AY-MAY-ZING! I cannot even begin to describe what a wonderful time it was…so I won’t. At least not yet. Geoff and I are on the tail end of our “mini-moon” but REALLY wanted to share the photos from the Photo Booth we set up at our wedding. (Full wedding write-up to come, I promise!) Hands-down the funnest part of the event, we were getting comments left and right from our guests about how awesome they thought the photo booth was. Below are a few of mine and Geoff’s favorite shots from the night, followed by a slideshow and (yes) ALL of the photos for you to see.

Here are the Mr. and Mrs. (I love that this is the first photo of us to surface)

Big love goes out to our photographers, Sarah and Dustin of Sarah Maren Photography. Of course they had to jump in as well!

My dad made the chalkboard thought and talk bubbles for the booth. He did such a great job, thank you pop!

Featuring our DIY mustaches on a stick.

That’s right. Grandma’s in the photo booth.

My cutie cousin Mattie was the bestest cotton candy machine guy evar!

My mom and dad even got in on the action.

My maid of honor was eight months pregnant at the wedding. She is expecting a little girl, “Eva” and I cannot wait to meet her!

I got to see so many friends from my sorority days in Chi Delta at Sac State. These girls are as fun as ever!

Sarah and Dustin, we CANNOT WAIT to see the wedding photos. You guys were rockin’ it hard!

That guy back there is Neil, our officiant. The guy who married us knows how to party.

Thank you to all of our guests for such a great time! Check out the slideshow below featuring some of our favorite shots from the booth.

Click here to see all of the photos from the photo booth!

I cannot believe the big day is really here. In about 16 hours Geoff and I will be husband and wife. I cannot even begin to express how much joy (and anticipation) I feel right now. Being engaged has been an amazing, whirlwind experience. From getting engaged, to growing our business, to shopping for a house together, to falling even more in love, this past year has been the best one of my life. SOOOOO, just a heads up for anyone who is trying to get a hold of us, Geoff and I will be doing Disney on our “mini-moon” until Friday (SO excited!). If you can’t seem to reach us, don’t take it to heart! We will try to get back to you as soon as we can.

That’s right, it’s done! I finished the dress yesterday (yes, last minute, I know) and I am sooooo happy! It is exactly what I wanted. It certainly didn’t come easy. Despite all the re-do’s and frustration I would never have done it differently. I’m so proud that I made my dress and it is just what I want to be wearing when I marry Geoff. Sigh…I can hardly wait.

Here is a photo of the full ensemble, veil, shoes, jewelry and all. You can see the colored petticoat peeking out ever so slightly at the bottom. HUMONGOUS thanks go out my mom and grandma who slaved over big poofy layers of tulle to help me make it. It’s a bit different that my original plan but I am super happy with the outcome. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Oh and if you plan on attempting a petticoat of your own, my advice is to make it first and give yourself plenty of time!

Here’s the back. It normally closes all the way, but my dress form is bigger than me now. That’s a good thing!

The sash was one of the last things I made yesterday. The dress just wouldn’t be complete without a nice big bow!

I made the flower originally for my hair, but last minute decided it looked better on the dress. I love it!

I cannot even put into words how excited I am. It’s great to see everything coming together. I’m excited for the parties, excited to see everything put together, excited to see all of my friends and family, but most of all, I’m excited to finally call Geoff my husband. I love his so much and cannot wait for the rest of our lives together.

Wanna check out the process of making the dress? Click here for the post!

When life is redonkulously busy, some of the wedding details get left until the last minute. Tonight, I made my birdcage veil. I am really happy with the outcome, so I thought I’d post a quick tutorial!

Basically, the ingredients were one yard of russian netting, a fake flower from the craft store, cute little scrapbooking flowers and hot glue. With the sewing machine, I gathered the netting on both of the short ends, and also along one long side. I gathered this all together in a pleasing shape then sewed like crazy over all of it, making a flat area to attach the flower.

To make the flower part, I dissected a faux flower, took all of the plastic bits out, then hot glued together enough layers of petals together to get the look I wanted. Then I glued in the little yellow flowers. (you can glue in anything you want, really, i.e. below)

Geoff said this was too random to wear with the real veil, so I think it will have to make an appearance at the reception. Yesssss. Really, who doesn’t love dinosaurs?

I glued the fabric to the gathered part of the netting with the hot glue. Then I added two alligator clips, for attaching the veil to my hair. I promise a much better tutorial soon for making hair flowers in this manner, they are so much fun!

Voila! Veil you have it! (ooh, bad pun.) Oh and that thing at the bottom of the picture below, its my dress. Its DONE! I am so excited! A post about it is coming soon I promise! I just need to take some good photos of it. 4 days to go, people!!!