Up and Away : An Overdue Dance

We finished up the traditional spotlight wedding dances and as far as our guests were concerned it was time to finish eating, let loose and party! But Mr. Cloud and I had one last little surprise up our sleeves, this time for Mama and Daddy Cloud.

Mama & Daddy Cloud on their wedding day, 30 years before ours! (Personal Photo)

November weddings run in our family, including my parents who would be celebrating their thirty year wedding anniversary the same month we said our vows. Growing up I loved looking at their wedding album and hearing stories of the big day. One that has always stuck in my mind was when the band they hired ended up not knowing how to play the first dance song they requested. “Their song”, Unforgettable by Nat King Cole.

Well, what is a wedding sap like myself to do? Why make them have their first dance thirty years later of course! I’d had this idea in my head for YEARS, so I was super nervous when it came time to announce what was going on. So I blabbered into the microphone a bit about how grateful we are that they are in our lives and how thankful we are for all that they have done for us and then we had to practically drag them up on the dance floor.

Can you see Nana Cloud over on the left side? She cried through the whole thing and later said she felt like she was standing back at their wedding thirty years ago. She just might be the cutest little old lady alive.

My parents were so cute giggling as they danced under the spotlight. Then they insisted we dance with them for the last few moments of the song and I had another ugly cry moment as I thanked Daddy Cloud again for giving us such a beautiful day.

Are you planning any special dances other than the more “traditional” ones?

 

All credit for the images above (unless otherwise noted) go to our incredibly talented photographer Jessica Oriole Salay and amazing second shooter Jenny McQueen for Oriole Photography.

Miss a part of the Cloudy wedding? Catch up here...
Up and Away : The Tooth And The Breakdown
Up and Away : The Bridal Party Cleans Up – The Ladies
Up and Away : The Bridal Party Cleans Up – The Gents
Up and Away : Thank Your For Coming OOT
Up and Away : Favors For A Cause
Up and Away : The Bachelor Party Rules
Up and Away : The Girls Hit The Salon
Up and Away : Tea With My Ladies
Up and Away : Practice, Practice, Practice
Up and Away : An Embarrassed Bride
Up and Away : The First Chance to Celebrate
Up and Away : Time To Get Pretty
Up and Away : The Boys Chanel Their Inner GQ
Up and Away : A Little Somethin’ Somethin’
Up and Away : The Dress Of All Dresses
Up and Away : The Walk Of A Lifetime
Up and Away : We Do (Finally!)
Up and Away : Striking A Pose
Up and Away : A Brief Recap Interruption..
Up and Away : Cocktails And The Big Reveal
Up and Away : A Musical Surprise

This post was written for Weddingbee.com. Follow my entire adventure of planning and recapping our wedding here!

2010 Wrap Up

Yes, January is damn near over already so this is super late. But (I have a good excuse of course!) the camera cord has been MIA for months, which really hinders the whole recapping with pictures thing. Better late then never, right?

To say that 2010 was a whirlwind year is a bit of an understatement. Just as much as saying that I sort of neglected this blog along the way.. But since it is a new year I figure we will do a quick catch up and start fresh. I will eventually go back about some of the bigger things but at least this will make me finally stop using the excuse of not blogging because I need to talk about this or that first, right? So let’s start at the beginning..

We rang in the new year as fresh newlyweds in our tiny apartment in Richmond while sipping on bubbly that was smuggled out of the wedding. And by smuggled out I mean graciously given to us by the Jefferson of course.

Before we knew it all of our belongings were packed into the largest Budget truck I have ever seen and we were driving out of Richmond in the middle of the largest snow storm they had ever seen. The almost thirteen hour drive to our new home outside of Boston was interesting and something I hope never to have to do again.

By “new home” what I mean is my parents house. I’m sure hubs was super excited to be moving in with his in-laws after being married for a few short months. Space was limited as we were saving to buy something of our own, so my very generous aunt let us cram all of our crap into her basement. We have a LOT of crap but the treadmill is not ours, our crap does not include any exercise equipment.

I made quite a few trips down to my favorite little island, Manhattan. The first being with some of my most favorite ladies.

The second was to brunch with some fabulous Bees (who even got me to venture out to Brooklyn- a first for me)!

We spent a LOT of time hanging out with our little fur ball who realized she much prefers being a dog with lots of land, instead of a city dog who pees in grass patches.

And since we live here now it was only appropriate to visit Fenway as actual Massachusetts residents.

For my birthday we took some time to hang out in Boston and eat what could quite possibly be the best lobster ravioli I have ever tasted in the North End. Trust me, because I have eaten a LOT of lobster ravioli in my day.

Then we headed back to NYC.

Which was B’s very first experience in the big apple. Shocking I know. He always said he didn’t think he would be a fan, but he loved every second of it. I guess this means I will have to start bringing him with me more often.

Daddy was even nice enough to give us a tour of the amazingness that is the New York Times building. (Yes, amazingess is a word even if my spell-check disagrees). The building is awesome eco-friendly like I have never seen (read more here).

I made a solo trip back down to VA to visit my bestest and her little girl and also see one of my favorite girls get married.

{ Source } -because my pictures of the day are pathetic in comparison.

Oh what else, oh yes how could I leave out that we signed our lives away on the biggest purchase we have ever made (can you tell I am still in shock we actually did it?).

Before we knew it our one year anniversary had crept up on us. What else can one do but eat year old cake to celebrate! As a side note to anyone who ever happens to be wrapping up the top of a wedding cake for the newlyweds to enjoy a whopping 365 days later: don’t leave the flowers on the top. Frozen or not, they look gross. But at least the cake was super yummy.

That brings us to today, two blizzards later to welcome us into our first full winter in New England. Our backyard looks like a winter wonderland, and poor Bella has to be taken out on a leash to keep her from going into the “extra deep parts” (which results in us having to blow-dry her from head to toe. Backyard FAIL.). But it sure is pretty.

Here’s to a fabulous 2011, and hopefully a lot less snow!

Thirty Before 30

The hubs and I recently had a convo that got me thinking..
Me: "Hey, did you know so-and-so is turning 30 this year?! I always thought she was closer to my age, like 24 or 25."
Him: "So, she's only got 4 years on you."
Me: Um, no. I'm only 25.
Him: Ha, no! You just turned 26.
Me: quickly doing the math in my head.. "Shit."

Funny how I didn't feel old on my actual birthday this year, but all of the sudden I feel like I'm wasting time! I had big plans for things I wanted to do before I turned 30 (also known as my 'scary' age) but lately I've started to realize I haven’t been making much progress. Ok, I know that's a little bit ridiculous, we did get married and then picked up and moved, but still, time is ticking. My point is, this got me thinking about goals, some big, some small, some vague, some specific, and since I am a gal who loves a list I had to jump on the Thirty before 30 train. So, without further ado, my list...

1. Plant a garden.
2. Throw a surprise party.
3. Go to a wine tasting.
4. Spend an entire week at the beach.
5. Start my own business.
6. Try five new recipes that really scare me. (0/5)
7. Have a baby.
8. Take a calligraphy class.
9. Finish painting the interior of the house.
10. Watch all the movies on AFI's Top 100 Movies list.
11. Get back down to my wedding weight.
12. Sing karaoke. Sober.
13. Complete the 365 photo project.
14. Make a quilt.
15. Add a second bathroom upstairs.
16. Buy a dSLR (and learn how to use it).
17. Bake 10 cupcakes from Martha's book "Cupcakes".
18. Host Thanksgiving dinner.
19. Refinish a piece of furniture.
20. Adopt another fur baby.
21. Make a wedding scrapbook.
22. Pay off our credit card.
23. Participate in NaBloPoMo..
24. Make a big change with my hair.
25. Print and frame wedding pictures.
26. Go on a real road trip with the hubs.
27. Sew an article of clothing.
28. Set up a workspace of my very own.
29. Go camping (in a tent).
30. Go to the top of the Empire State building.

Follow my progress through this little list by either going to the link at the top of the page or just click here. Do you have a similar list? Please share!

 

(ps. This post has been a work in progress for quite a few months and has been sitting in “drafts” being changed at least a hundred times before now. I have been working on quite a few of the items already, so updates may be coming soon!)

Up and Away : A Musical Surprise

I guess its about time I share something that I’m pretty sure I have never mentioned before: I knew one hundred percent, absolutely, NOTHING about the music that was going to be played during our wedding reception. Shocking considering I am fully aware that I have a tendency to be a bit of a control freak. But Mr. Cloud has been DJing as both a hobby and professionally for years so the music aspect of the day was extremely important to him. Then one night, early on in the planning, my type A, always in control of the details self, decided he would be in charge of the music all together with no opinions from me. Then I must have just kept on drinking because then I decided I didn’t want him to tell me anything. Craaaazzy I tell you.

I won’t bore you will the awkward pictures of everyone walking into the main ballroom, lets just get to the good music. Hubs did not disappoint with his first few quirky picks. First came our parents and the bridal party to The Jackson’s “Can You Feel It”.

I was laughing uncontrollably by the time our entrance music came on, Dropkick Murphy’s “I’m Shipping Up to Boston”.

Some people recognized the song as my longstanding ringtone, others as a nod to my Irish heritage, but I don’t think anyone realized what a prediction of our future it would be when we actually up and moved to Boston a few short months later!

We walked straight into our first dance. We figured it would be better to just get all the dances out of the way right up front (let’s be serious, they can be boring for guests). When the music started playing one of our favorite songs (and the one I had secretly been hoping he would pick) I immediately started tearing up. Dave Matthew's Band “Up and Away”.

These might be my favorite pictures from the whole day..

They make me so happy.

Even though I was a little teary and the pictures look super serious, the truth is we were both cracking up the whole time. Apparently being newly married was really, really funny. 

After Daddy Cloud gave a both touching and hilarious speech, and the priest gave a blessing, salads were served. Maybe its not traditional to do it this way, but we figured it was only fair to let people eat while we kept the boring parent dances going. 

I found out later that it took Daddy Cloud FOREVER to pick a song for us to dance to. Apparently at one point he announced that he had “narrowed it down” to a whopping eleven songs! In the end he picked a great one, Tim McGraw “My Little Girl”.

And. I. Sobbed.

Ugly cry like a big old baby. Gah! I’m such a Daddy’s girl! My mom and best friend from when I was growing up were crying too, so that makes it ok right? I guess Daddy Cloud started to feel bad for me as I was bawling and clutching him for dear life so he started cracking jokes instead, which in turn made me laugh uncontrollably.

When people say that weddings are emotional roller coasters, they are not joking. Laughing, crying, I was a hot mess. Finally I could sit down and it was Mr. Cloud’s turn to dance with MIL Cloud to Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World”.

I have to say, Mr. C did a fantastic job, even if he went a bit overboard by giving the DJ an actual playlist to loosely follow! Most people were shocked to find out that I had let go of the music control completely, I told you, I’m a control freak! But I am proud to say that the music went a LONG way in our first lesson as newlyweds, TRUST. I had to trust that he would handle things, and he had to trust that I wouldn’t freak out about it. It is very easy to get sucked into wedding planning and feel like you have to do everything yourself, and that you are the only one who can do things right. It is also easy to let the other person just handle it all if they seem to know what they want. But, aw we found out, it is also incredibly refreshing to trust and to let things go and hand over a big, daunting task to your soon-to-be-spouse, and for that soon-to-be spouse to be willing to take it on. Especially when the results end up to be so, so, sweet.

Have you, or are you planning on having your significant other take complete control over a part of your wedding plans? Or better yet, did anyone else have a big ugly cry while dancing with their daddy? I can’t be the only one!

 

All credit for the images above (unless otherwise noted) go to our incredibly talented photographer Jessica Oriole Salay and amazing second shooter Jenny McQueen for Oriole Photography.

Miss a part of the Cloudy wedding? Catch up here...
Up and Away : The Tooth And The Breakdown
Up and Away : The Bridal Party Cleans Up – The Ladies
Up and Away : The Bridal Party Cleans Up – The Gents
Up and Away : Thank Your For Coming OOT
Up and Away : Favors For A Cause
Up and Away : The Bachelor Party Rules
Up and Away : The Girls Hit The Salon
Up and Away : Tea With My Ladies
Up and Away : Practice, Practice, Practice
Up and Away : An Embarrassed Bride
Up and Away : The First Chance to Celebrate
Up and Away : Time To Get Pretty
Up and Away : The Boys Chanel Their Inner GQ
Up and Away : A Little Somethin’ Somethin’
Up and Away : The Dress Of All Dresses
Up and Away : The Walk Of A Lifetime
Up and Away : We Do (Finally!)
Up and Away : Striking A Pose
Up and Away : A Brief Recap Interruption..
Up and Away : Cocktails And The Big Reveal

This post was written for Weddingbee.com. Follow my entire adventure of planning and recapping our wedding here!

Merry Christmas!

From our home to yours, we wish you a very Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!!

(Yes, my Husband built me a snowman.. Red Sox hat and all!)