Southern Sweethearts: Constellations

Mr. Lab and I came back inside from our little photography project mentioned in my last post (it's coming in the next one, I promise!) and we were met by this:

That's college buddy and fellow newscaster Kevin. He promised me a couple weeks before the wedding that he would sing for us.

You see, Kevin has this ah-mazing voice. He was even the winner of our college's version of American Idol, UGA Idol!

Kevin more than lived up to his promise. He sang us the most beautiful song ever.

And I was tickled silly about it! I felt like we had our own personal star serenading us on our wedding day!

We finished the night with a last song by the same artist who sang our first dance song:

Jack Johnson's "Constellations"

We started the dance with some of the kids.

The light was leaving
In the west it was blue
The children's laughter sang
And skipping just like the stones they threw
Their voices echoed across the way
It's getting late

It was just another night
With a sunset
And a moonrise not so far behind

To give us just enough light
To lay down underneath the stars
Listen to papa's translations
Of the stories across the sky
We drew our own constellations

While we were dancing, a couple bridesmaids were outside making this for us:

Our new monogram!

The kids left us alone on the dance floor about halfway through the song. My youngest niece, Morgan, made sure she had one of our mason jar favors full of candy from the buffet.

(guest photo)

And we finished out the song together, just a couple of newlyweds, alone on the dance floor.

Clouds keep moving to uncover the scene
Stars above us chasing the day away
To find the stories that we sometimes need
Listen close enough
All else fades

Fades away

It was just another night
With a sunset
And a moonrise not so far behind
To give us just enough light
To lay down underneath the stars
Listen to all the translations
Of the stories across the sky

We drew our own constellations.

Will you have any special performances at your reception? How about a designated last song?

Previously on Southern Sweethearts:

• Southern Belles Do Tea
• A Rude Vendor Interrupts Our Rehearsal
• We Have Dinner on the Savannah River
• A Spooky Ghost Tour and My Last Fling
• Our Wedding Trailer
• Becoming a Blushing Bride
• I Slip Into My eBay Wedding Dress
• The Fellas Get “Sessay”
• He Got Boudoir, I Got Bling
• An Unplanned First Look
• Our Wedding Party…and Paparazzi
• Details Tell the Story
• Years of Waiting for This Moment (Ceremony Part: 1)
• We Tie the Knot with Faith, Hope, & Love (Ceremony Part: 2)
• My Wedding Party Poses for Mug Shots While We Take Formals
• We Shared a Private Dinner for Two During Cocktail Hour
• Our Wedding Party Lines Up for Introductions
• We Nom on Publix and Sanford Stadium Cakes
• Dancing with Our “Stars”
• Toasts & Tosses
• We "Thrill" the Reception and Dance the Night Away
  

Next Up: We make our big exit!

*All professional photos by Lindsi Jones Photography. Some images may have been slightly altered by moi.

Southern Sweethearts: It's Close to Midnight...

Our wedding was just a week after Halloween (my favorite celebration of the entire year) and in a city known for its ghoulish residents. So in addition to the ghost tour after the rehearsal dinner, I thought it would be fun to do the official "Thriller" dance at the reception!

So, I put the word out to our guests well before the wedding to learn the dance if they wanted to participate. And as we lined up at the reception, I was actually surprised that we got so many takers!

Quickly going over the dance one last time.

I didn't practice as much as I should have, but I think I did all right. But a couple of my college buddies TORE UP the dance floor and could have put Michael Jackson himself to shame!

Mr. Lab decided he didn't know the dance well enough and bailed halfway through! LOL

Kevin, Kelly, and Ian doing their thing!

Bucket List:
Win the lottery.
Touch myself inappropriately at my own wedding.
Fly to the moon.

Ian and Kevin were really into the dance. They knew every move and I kept cheating off of them to keep up! I can't wait to see this part of our wedding video. I'm gonna DIE laughing!

(right photo by guest)

After "Thriller", the rest of our guests joined us for some "regular" dancing.

We had a little of everything. Classic rock, hip hop, pop, and of course, "Cupid's Shuffle", which is fast-becoming a wedding classic.

I spy two bees! ;)

We danced with the kids...

...in a circle of friends...

...and with relatives!

L: My younger brother and sister. R: With my mom's cousin.

I never knew until looking through the photos the serious moves some of our guests pulled of the bag. I'm guessing the full bar lead to some liquid courage.

I slipped out of the reception for a few minutes to change into something a little more comfortable. (And I finally fixed my hair flower!)

Our DJ played a couple slower songs for the guests with significant others.

At this point, our photographer stole us away to do a special project outside (which you'll see soon!). It was fun, but it took us way longer than I expected and we ended up missing a lot of the dancing. If you know me at all, you know I'm a dancer. Like, not only was I in a hip hop-focused dance company, but I also love to dance any time there's music. I expected our wedding to be a huge dance party, but I missed most of it! :(

Is a dance-reception important to you? Or will you take after someone like Mrs. Turtle and nix the dancing?

Previously on Southern Sweethearts:

• Southern Belles Do Tea
• A Rude Vendor Interrupts Our Rehearsal
• We Have Dinner on the Savannah River
• A Spooky Ghost Tour and My Last Fling
• Our Wedding Trailer
• Becoming a Blushing Bride
• I Slip Into My eBay Wedding Dress
• The Fellas Get “Sessay”
• He Got Boudoir, I Got Bling
• An Unplanned First Look
• Our Wedding Party…and Paparazzi
• Details Tell the Story
• Years of Waiting for This Moment (Ceremony Part: 1)
• We Tie the Knot with Faith, Hope, & Love (Ceremony Part: 2)
• My Wedding Party Poses for Mug Shots While We Take Formals
• We Shared a Private Dinner for Two During Cocktail Hour
• Our Wedding Party Lines Up for Introductions
• We Nom on Publix and Sanford Stadium Cakes
• Dancing with Our “Stars”
• Toasts & Tosses
  

Next Up: A guest sings us a special song!

*All professional photos by Lindsi Jones Photography. Some images may have been slightly altered by moi.

Southern Sweethearts: Spooky Guests and One Last Fling

The riverboat docked and we said goodbye to some of our rehearsal dinner guests who wanted to call it a night. But a few brave souls stuck around for the next event on our jam-packed wedding eve: the ghost tour!

Just before we hopped on the Old Town Trolley Tours to go on their “Ghosts and Gravestones Frightseeing Tour”, I heard a loud popping noise in the distance.

I turned around and saw this:

Fireworks!

I felt like the Savannah was congratulating us! It was so random to see fireworks on a Friday in November. We stopped to enjoy the show before boarding the trolley.

Mr. Lab and I get ready to be spooked!

That ghost tour didn't know what hit it. Our group took up more than half the seats and we were quite the giggling, tequila-liquored bunch.

See what I mean?

I've been on a ghost tour before in Savannah and it was pretty creepy. But with all of us cracking inappropriate jokes about the poor souls the tour was about, it was actually just plain funny most of the time.

BUT...there was some convincing creepiness. Like photo evidence of a "Confederate ghost":


Oh, you don't see it? Lemme highlight that for ya. Don't forget to click the photo to make it bigger and scare the mess out of you.


And then the was the famous EVP recording in the basement of the Sorrel-Weed house. The show "Ghost Hunters" visited the home and did all their "testings" to prove paranormal existence.

The last photo we took before screaming like little girls.

As the tour guide was telling us the story about the recording Ghost Hunters did, she exited the room, closed the doors, and turned off the lights. Then we heard the famous recording. Clicky below to hear it.

The recording ended and I had goosebumps at this point. We were in complete darkness and out of nowhere the doors to our right started rattling!

Everyone screamed bloody murder!!!

Come to find out, groomsman Trey (a Savannah native who'd been on the tour before), had locked our tour guide out of the room and she was just trying to get back in! He swears up and down that he thought he was unlocking the door, not locking it! Whatever Trey. Thanks for the tinkle in my pants.

We made our way outside to finish up the tour and compose ourselves.

Ahhh, we're soooo scared!

Um, is that orb a ghost trying to follow us home so it can crash our wedding?

The ghost tour was over and it was time to make our way to the hotel to end the night. But my girls weren't having it. It was my last night as a single lady and we couldn't just go to bed!

So the first thing we did was "get back" at Mr. Lab for having an over the top bachelor party at a strip club in Atlanta. We spotted some hot firefighters and decided to get a picture with them to make Mr. Lab jealous.

But the really hot ones didn't want to pose for photos. :( They probably had an inkling it would end up on a website somewhere... ;)

When we finally arrived at the hotel, we made our way to the bar and had a free round of cocktails thanks to a coupon we got at check in.

And after my girls told the bartenders it was the night before my wedding, they offered me a "blow job".



And you know me, when I haz the drinks, I haz to dance:


Since the firefighters let me down, we got the bartenders to make up for it!



Don't worry, Mr. Lab has seen these photos and thinks we're even now! ;)

Finally, it was time to start calling it a night. Brittany and I made a quick stop to the ladies' room on the way back and naturally, we had to take a photo while in there. (Don't hate. You'd take photos in every nook of the gorgeous Mansion too if you were there!)


When we got back into the room, we all decided to order a pizza. Good thing we were starving:




I took my pizza over to the corner and got to work on the final last-minute items and emails. I probably stayed up until about 4 am that night. I don't know how in the world I was functioning on the wedding day...


How late did you stay up the night before your wedding? Brides-to-be, are you setting a curfew for yourself?

Previously on Southern Sweethearts:
Southern Belles Do Tea
A Rude Vendor Interrupts Our Rehearsal
We Have Dinner on the Savannah River
Next Up: Our Wedding Day!