Peek sneaking

It's taken me awhile to figure out where to start this post and how to progress it. See, I don't want to seem unhappy or dissatisfied or disappointed or regretful in any way.

The day was fantastic, and I love every single one of my vendors and the end results were fantastic and everyone loved them...

Enter Ashley brain. I'm not dissatisfied, but I can't stop thinking-- in hindsight-- about all the different photos I wanted, and I can't help feeling that we were more concerned with time than with letting Ben do his job. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure he got lots and lots and lots of pictures (around 3000 I believe) but I remember-- again, in hindsight-- that we completely forgot the awesome balcony at Riverdale:

because I was worried about being 5 minutes late for the ceremony (yes, being on time is important, but it probably wouldn't have even taken 5 minutes!). We also didn't take the time to do my Vanity Fair shots:

But I think that might have had something to do with the fact that I couldn't take the smile off my face all day, and you have to look bored and pompous for these shots. We're not models, or actors, and I have to stop being so neurotic!

Again, I trust Ben, I'm just worried that I've built this whole thing up way too high and that I'm going to expect too much...

Then Ben posted our sneak peek! I wish I could display, but I don't want to steal his stuff, BUT if you would like to see, his blog isn't password-protected or anything:

Ashley and Kyle's wedding at Riverdale Manor, Lancaster, PA

Sorry, I don't like stealing images if I can't right click-copy. ANYWAY! The point is, the pictures are fantastic (except for the typical "OHHEMMGEEE is that what we look like when we kiss?? I need to relax my chin!!" and "Please tell me I looked at the camera AT LEAST once walking down the aisle!"). Ben's image processing is top-notch fantastic. We look hot!! I cannot wait to see more... but like I said, it makes me think horrible things; did he get this, did he get that?! Someone please slap me and snap me out of it. Ben, if you're reading, I would never doubt you! I need to get out of my own head.

In the mean time!! Some of our fantastic family and friends have sent or posted photos... You wanna' see my favorites?? They're all mixed up, but thanks a million to Keri, Rae Ann, Uncle Dave, and Aunt Lori! I stole your photos!!

So here are some prep shots:

 I love that we got pictures of Ben in his hot painted-on pants ;)

Thank you Mia, you read my mind!

Welp, here goes nothin!

Then we headed to the ceremony:

Can I just say that no matter what else, the music for the ceremony was 100% on point thanks to Nick, our awesomely fantastic friend and DJ.

 
This is what I was talking about!!! Did I look at the right camera at least once? Did I smile a normal smile at least for a second?!?!

The Mister didn't cry

But I did...

Yay!!!

I'll dedicate another post (probably not till after the honeymoon... sorry!) to the reception, but I wanted to post up some details too.

The ceremony space, ALL DIY:

Hooray for getting the alter done!!

 I loooove these two shots. I really loved the aisle markers my sister put together, and I adore that second shot there with the candles as the aisle runner (so to speak).

Cake:

 
Fantastic yes?! I thought it was gorgeous and it tasted phenomenal! Really!! And thanks again to my Aunt Keirsten for making our love birds:

Awww!!!

Flowers:

 
Not 100% what that face is about but I absolutely love that his mom got this picture. I love it when grooms carry bouquets, and this was a total accident! But anyway, the flowers were phenomenal (I personally liked all the bouts better than all the bouquets, but still LOOOVED everything).


Decor (some DIY, some from Tara):

Don't know if anyone even noticed our chair banners :(

 
Hooray for chalkboards!!

I love it when a plan comes together! Oh, by the way, the candles that were lining the aisle were multi-purposed for the reception centerpieces ('cause I'm efficient like that!) so these shots took place before the candles were moved from the ceremony to the reception space.

This is by no means my recap. I'll do a nice... long... thorough recap once the professional photos come back, but for now, I wanted to honor those who did the right thing and posted their pictures to facebook! Or e-mailed them to me in huge zip files or burned me CDs! THANK YOU!!! Like I said, I will do another post for reception, because I seriously have over 150 pictures of the reception to go through, so I have to cut this off somewhere!

For now, I hope you enjoy! What do you think so far? And did you have a crazy-anxious phase before the professional photos came back??