The Colas' Behind The Scenes Wedding Video

Oh? What's that? You thought my last recap about our Sunday-after luncheon was my last post? No way, I've still got a couple more things to share before I say goodbye, and I wouldn't leave you all without a proper farewell post!

I wanted to share with you our "behind the scenes" wedding video. One of my good friends, who couldn't make it to our wedding, put this together for us and gave it to me last week as a surprise. He does video editing as a hobby, and took bits and pieces of video that several of our guests filmed and created a mash up video.

I'm calling this a behind the scenes video because it's definitely not a wedding video. All of the (bumpy and grainy) filming was done by amateurs on low quality cameras, and because my friend who edited it only had a small selection of video to work with, there's no real timeline flow. And our guests, not being pros, filmed things more like a fly on the wall, so the footage my friend had to work with was really random.

All that said though, I think it's pretty fun to actually see our wedding (and a little bit of our after party) from behind the scenes. Having a videographer was never a priority in our budget, so this is definitely better than nothing! And it was free!

So here it is, the effort of several of our wedding guests and a good friend. The whole video is about 10 minutes long, but it includes a little of our ceremony and us reading our vows that we wrote, so feel free to skip that (from one minute in through about 4 1/2 minutes) if you like!

The Colas' Behind The Scenes Wedding Video from MsCola on Vimeo.

So what do you think? Not too bad for the cost of $0!

And this just goes to show that you can still have something to look at even if you don't have the budget for a professional videographer--you just need a few willing guests with video cameras. And in all honesty, any wedding video we would have paid for would have been something we'll only look at a handful of times throughout our lives, so I know we made the right decision by not hiring a videographer, especially now that we have this.

Are you having a videographer for your wedding? Or are you hoping your guests will take some free video for you on their personal cameras? And is anyone considering just renting higher quality cameras for a few select friends to use, for a cheaper-than-pro-videography option?

A Woodside Wedding: The Sunday Luncheon

The Sunday morning after our wedding, we woke up early-ish. But after staying up until about 3:30am the night before for our after party, we weren't moving too quickly. I had a Starbucks Double Shot and some leftover cupcakes for breakfast, and typed up a short morning-after blog post on my phone, before I was ready to take a shower, get dressed, and start cleaning up our messy hotel suite.

By around 10:30am we'd gotten both of our cars loaded with everything from the suite, and I headed up to my grandfather's house a couple miles away to help with setting up tables, while Mr. Cola checked us out of the hotel and went to Safeway for the luncheon food trays, ice and orange juice for mimosas.

Here's a look at my grandfather's house, all set up for the luncheon. We borrowed some extra tables and chairs from neighbors, bought linen-like disposable table cloths (the same kind we used for our rehearsal dinner tables), and reused the small reception centerpieces and bridesmaid purse bouquets to decorate the tables for the lunch. Plus my mom had bought brightly colored disposable plates and napkins on sale for about 80% off, so big win on cheap decor for our Sunday event!

I helped set up some umbrellas in the back yard, and a couple fans, since it was another ridiculously hot day for June, and Mr. Cola arrived with the build-your-own sandwich platters. We also had meatballs, BBQ chicken and ribs, various snacks, and of course, lots of left over cupcakes for dessert.

I poured mimosas for everyone, and managed to snap a few more photos of our luncheon before my mom yelled at me to sit down and eat something. But I was past the point of exhaustion at that point, and could only pick at my food.

I tell ya, after shopping for wedding flowers Wednesday morning, the low key bachelorette party Wednesday night, arranging flowers all day Thursday, our wedding party welcome dinner and sunset cruise Thursday night, the ceremony rehearsal and rehearsal dinner on Friday, our amazing wedding, and after party, I was about running on empty. So if you are planning on having a ton of wedding events like we did, just plan on being really, really tired after it's all over. Definitely pack some Double Shots or 5 Hour Energy shots in your purse, in case you need a last minute pick me up. And drink a ton of water, staying hydrated will help you keep your energy up through days of non-stop events!

After picking at my lunch, our officiant friend reminded us that we still had a very important matter to take care of. We'd forgotten to sign our marriage license at our wedding! So I ran out to my car to retrieve it, and then we had to figure out how to actually fill it out correctly.

I think I was counting out what day we had to mail it in by in this picture....

And to make sure we were all clear on who had to sign what and where, our officiant read the instructions out loud.

Form signing galore! I like that in this picture you can see that our smaller wedding centerpieces were still holding up pretty well, considering we arranged them on Thursday.

And....I'm totally not sure why I'm posing like a crazy person in this photo. Showing off my Anthro dress maybe? Who knows, like I said, I was too tired to be thinking completely clearly!

Once our officiant filled out his part, it was my sister and my BIL's turn to sign as witnesses.

And we too had to get in on the posing while signing action, even though we didn't really need to sign anything!

After posing for a few more photos as family members requested, it was time for hugs all around. Some of our guests were taking off to go sightseeing for the afternoon, and Mr. Cola and a groomsman had to go back up to our venue to pick up the Uhaul full of our wedding decor.

I loaded up my car, said goodbye to a few more of my family members, and just like that, it was all over. And it was surreal....and bittersweet.

15 months of planning, crafting, budgeting, blogging, more planning, and finally the executing--it was all over and done with. And I won't lie and say I wasn't a bit sad driving back home by myself. Actually, during my 25 minute drive home after our luncheon is probably the closest I came to crying our entire wedding week. I'm not a crier (at all!), but just thinking about how much love I'd felt all week, how great it was to see friends and family, how wonderful everything was, and the fact that everyone was packing up and going home, and it was really and truly over made me tear up a little.

But alas, luckily I couldn't dwell on it for too long. Once I arrived back home, we had to unload the 10 foot Uhaul truck, return it, pickup some last minute honeymoon items at the drug store, say goodbye to the last of our wedding party before they flew home, and procrastinate on finishing packing for our honeymoon by laughing at and uploading fauxtobooth pictures for guests to download. It ended up taking about 4x too long that night to pack for our honeymoon (which we were leaving for at 9am the next morning), because we were just plain dead tired and brain fried.

But that Sunday night was the best, most restful night of sleep we'd had in weeks, in our own bed, married.

Miss any wedding week details? Catch up here:

- I packed an emergency bag that saved my dress
- We had a crazy 4 days prepping for house guests and stuffing favors
- Shopping for a ton of wedding flowers to arrange ourselves
- Mr. Cola drinks a 40 and I have a night out on the town for our low-key bach parties
- A day of DIY'ing flower arrangements
- I kicked off our official recaps with my #1 wedding tip
- We began the weekend festivities with a sunset cruise for our wedding party
- We rehearsed our quick and easy ceremony
- I panicked, but we got our rehearsal dinner decorations set up just in time
- Our families met for the first time at our rehearsal dinner under the trees
- What went wrong on our wedding day, and my tips for future brides
- My bridesmaids and I got our hair and makeup done in the hotel suite
- I put on my wedding dress and became a bride
- The guys watched the World Cup, then got ready in 10 minutes
- Traffic delayed our decorations getting to the venue, and I almost ruined our first look
- We got to see each other for the first time on our wedding day at our first look
- We took some time for bride and groom pictures in the park
- I gave you a behind the scenes look at our family, friends and DOC setting up our venue
- Arriving at our venue and getting ready for the ceremony to start
- Everyone walked down the aisle
- Excerpts from our ceremony, and reading the vows we wrote for each other
- I interrupted our officiant, we exchanged rings, and with a kiss we were officially married!
- Wedding party and family portraits, and my thoughts on missing pictures
- Our guests enjoyed cocktail hour while we took a few more photos
- Everyone ate a delicious dinner, and our siblings gave beautiful toasts
- We didn't practice, but we had a very special and wonderful first dance as husband and wife
- I showed you some disposable camera pictures, which were totally worth it to include on our tables!
- I found a target and tossed my bouquet at her
- Mr. Cola finally managed to find my garter under my dress and tossed it
- We fed each other cupcakes, and our guests swarmed our 6ft tall cupcake tower
- We stole some private moments together that our photographers documented
- All our guests had some fun taking pictures in our DIY fauxtobooth
- We enjoyed the rest of the evening with our guests
- I showcased all the pretty details from our wedding, part 1 and part 2
- We snuck out of our reception and away into the night
- We partied into the early morning at our awesome after party

(All photos in this post are personal, taken on either my camera or Bridesmaid H's camera)

A Woodside Wedding: After Party Awesomeness!

Once we arrived back at the hotel after sneaking out of our reception, we had to rush, since we only had a half hour head start on our guests! Mr. Cola helped unlace my dress, we changed, emptied both of the ice machines on our floor, and scrambled to clean up the bridal suite for our after party.

Luckily one of my bridesmaids was texting me with updates as to how close the charter bus with everyone was, so by the time they arrived, Mr. Cola and I were ready to continue the party!

Our after party outfits were so typical of us--I was all dressed up in a nice dress and he was wearing a tuxedo t-shirt (which I bought for him, and he was very excited about) and shorts. I was even wearing 4 inch heels, while he went barefoot for most of the evening!

(I'd meant to shorten this dress to above my knees, but ran out of time. Oh well, after enjoying our open bar all night, I doubt anyone noticed it was too long!)

One of my friends, who owns his own bar and restaurant, started mixing drinks for everyone, and we got down to partying.

(We had a counter full of liquor and mixers, plus several buckets on the floor full of beer and ice. I still can't believe how many half gallons of booze we emptied that night!)

Early in the evening Mr. Cola broke out his "beer robot." It's actually just a remote controlled cooler that I got him for his birthday last year. But it was a hit....until the batteries ran out after about a minute of beer delivering action!

Then our late night snack of pizza, wings and bread sticks was delivered, and enjoyed by all.

(I took this last photo from the second story of our suite, oh, 10 minutes after the pizza was delivered. It sure didn't last long!)

And of course, after being fortified with some greasy pizza, some shots were in order with our wedding party!

We spent the rest of the night just hanging out with our friends, drinking, reminiscing, and just enjoying getting to hang out with a lot of people we love, but don't get to see very often. These photos pretty much sum up the rest of our after party!

(I totally love that my bridesmaids put back on their "getting ready" purple hoodies I'd decorated for them!)

(Showing off our new bling.)

(My sister swiped some of the mustaches from our fauxtobooth). And yes, it was so hot with all the drinking people in our suite that we turned the temperature down to 63 degrees so the AC would blast!)

(One of my favorite photos from our after party, since my sis and I never got a chance to pose together in our fauxtobooth.)

At around 2:30 in the morning it was time to call it a night, which I'm sure our neighbors in the hotel appreciated. Everyone trickled back to their own rooms (some, I suspect, continued partying for a while), and Mr. Cola and I could finally retire upstairs in our suite and rest our feet. And spend a good 45 minutes trying to untangle my hair and get all the bobby pins out (over 50 of them!).

This picture was taken towards the end of our after party, you can see that my curls were still going strong. What you can't see is that the under-layer of my hair was a giant tangled mat. I was SO tired, but couldn't go to bed that night until all the tangles were out!

Are you planning to continue your wedding night with an after party? I highly recommend it--it was the only time all evening that we got to spend with some of our closest friends!

Next up, my final wedding event recap (so sad!), our Sunday luncheon.


Miss any wedding week details? Catch up here:

- I packed an emergency bag that saved my dress
- We had a crazy 4 days prepping for house guests and stuffing favors
- Shopping for a ton of wedding flowers to arrange ourselves
- Mr. Cola drinks a 40 and I have a night out on the town for our low-key bach parties
- A day of DIY'ing flower arrangements
- I kicked off our official recaps with my #1 wedding tip
- We began the weekend festivities with a sunset cruise for our wedding party
- We rehearsed our quick and easy ceremony
- I panicked, but we got our rehearsal dinner decorations set up just in time
- Our families met for the first time at our rehearsal dinner under the trees
- What went wrong on our wedding day, and my tips for future brides
- My bridesmaids and I got our hair and makeup done in the hotel suite
- I put on my wedding dress and became a bride
- The guys watched the World Cup, then got ready in 10 minutes
- Traffic delayed our decorations getting to the venue, and I almost ruined our first look
- We got to see each other for the first time on our wedding day at our first look
- We took some time for bride and groom pictures in the park
- I gave you a behind the scenes look at our family, friends and DOC setting up our venue
- Arriving at our venue and getting ready for the ceremony to start
- Everyone walked down the aisle
- Excerpts from our ceremony, and reading the vows we wrote for each other
- I interrupted our officiant, we exchanged rings, and with a kiss we were officially married!
- Wedding party and family portraits, and my thoughts on missing pictures
- Our guests enjoyed cocktail hour while we took a few more photos
- Everyone ate a delicious dinner, and our siblings gave beautiful toasts
- We didn't practice, but we had a very special and wonderful first dance as husband and wife
- I showed you some disposable camera pictures, which were totally worth it to include on our tables!
- I found a target and tossed my bouquet at her
- Mr. Cola finally managed to find my garter under my dress and tossed it
- We fed each other cupcakes, and our guests swarmed our 6ft tall cupcake tower
- We stole some private moments together that our photographers documented
- All our guests had some fun taking pictures in our DIY fauxtobooth
- We enjoyed the rest of the evening with our guests
- I showcased all the pretty details from our wedding, part 1 and part 2
- We snuck out of our reception and away into the night

(All photos in this post are personal, taken on either my camera or Bridesmaid H's camera)

A Woodside Wedding: The One Where We Sneak Away Into The Night

The sun had long set.

We’d dined, danced, and enjoyed the evening, but it was over much too quickly.

At least for us it was.

Our guests, however, got to continue drinking and partying for another half hour. See, we didn’t actually do a send off. As much as I love the photos of guests waving flags, ribbon wands, or sparklers as the couple departs their wedding reception, we had a plan, and needed to stick to it.

Because we were having an after party in our hotel suite right after the reception, we needed to get a head start on our guests. So we snuck out of our reception a half hour before the charter bus was coming for everyone. We wanted the party to continue for everyone else, while we had time to change, get ice and set up everything for the after party.

But that didn’t mean we couldn’t still get a few cute departing photos!

Our DOC slyly gathered my bag, shoes and all the stuff we needed to take with us, and inconspicuously ushered us out the back of our venue and around to the front.

We hopped into the limo, the driver opened up the sunroof for us, and we were off!

It was about a half hour ride back to our hotel from our venue, and I must say, it was an amazing part of the night for both of us (I know, I know, I’ve said that about almost every part of our wedding!). We just cuddled in the back of the limo, and quietly recapped our wedding the whole way back to the hotel. Going over all the love we felt that night, how fun it was to see everyone, the highs (so many!) and the lows (so few), we just talked and reminisced, and it was wonderful. The drive felt like it was only a few minutes long, and we soaked up all the emotions from the day and just held on to them. It was a perfect end to our reception.

But that wasn’t the end of our night, we still had an after party to get ready for!

What are your plans for departing your wedding reception?

Miss any wedding week details? Catch up here:

- I packed an emergency bag that saved my dress
- We had a crazy 4 days prepping for house guests and stuffing favors
- Shopping for a ton of wedding flowers to arrange ourselves
- Mr. Cola drinks a 40 and I have a night out on the town for our low-key bach parties
- A day of DIY'ing flower arrangements
- I kicked off our official recaps with my #1 wedding tip
- We began the weekend festivities with a sunset cruise for our wedding party
- We rehearsed our quick and easy ceremony
- I panicked, but we got our rehearsal dinner decorations set up just in time
- Our families met for the first time at our rehearsal dinner under the trees
- What went wrong on our wedding day, and my tips for future brides
- My bridesmaids and I got our hair and makeup done in the hotel suite
- I put on my wedding dress and became a bride
- The guys watched the World Cup, then got ready in 10 minutes
- Traffic delayed our decorations getting to the venue, and I almost ruined our first look
- We got to see each other for the first time on our wedding day at our first look
- We took some time for bride and groom pictures in the park
- I gave you a behind the scenes look at our family, friends and DOC setting up our venue
- Arriving at our venue and getting ready for the ceremony to start
- Everyone walked down the aisle
- Excerpts from our ceremony, and reading the vows we wrote for each other
- I interrupted our officiant, we exchanged rings, and with a kiss we were officially married!
- Wedding party and family portraits, and my thoughts on missing pictures
- Our guests enjoyed cocktail hour while we took a few more photos
- Everyone ate a delicious dinner, and our siblings gave beautiful toasts
- We didn't practice, but we had a very special and wonderful first dance as husband and wife
- I showed you some disposable camera pictures, which were totally worth it to include on our tables!
- I found a target and tossed my bouquet at her
- Mr. Cola finally managed to find my garter under my dress and tossed it
- We fed each other cupcakes, and our guests swarmed our 6ft tall cupcake tower
- We stole some private moments together that our photographers documented
- All our guests had some fun taking pictures in our DIY fauxtobooth
- We enjoyed the rest of the evening with our guests
- I showcased all the pretty details from our wedding, part 1 and part 2

(Unless otherwise noted, all photos in this post were taken by the very talented photographers of Shoot Me Now Photography)

A Woodside Wedding: Details, Details, and More Pretty Details, Part 2

In my last post you saw part one of all our wedding day details (and if you missed it, go check out part one first). Now, here is the second half of one of my favorite posts I've put together, with lots of pretty picture overload!

Just like in part one, feel free to click on any of these for a larger view, and I’ve included the links to the original tutorial or inspiration posts at the bottom. Enjoy!

Photo 1: over 6 foot tall cupcake tower, Photo 2: our first dance, Photo 3: carving at our buffet dinner, Photo 4: choose your favor table, Photo 5: short DIY centerpiece and pre-ceremony refreshments, Photo 6: our rings with one of my something old items, Photo 7: DIY bride and groom chair signs, Photo 8: ceremony details, Photo 9: cocktail hour cheese table and bridesmaid purse bouquet, Photo 10: LED luminary escort cards, Photo 11: pictures in the park, Photo 12: signed stones from our memory stone guestbook, Photo 13: DIY programs, Photo 14: DIY laser cut wedding invitations and our first look, Photo 15: groomsmen suits, Photo 16: a stolen moment, Photo 17: our ceremony site waiting for guests to arrive, Photo 18: my bouquet and dress details, Photo 19: tall DIY centerpiece, LED lanterns, and DIY programs, Photo 20: our DIY bridal suite sign, Photo 21: bridesmaid purse bouquets at our ceremony, Photo 22: close up of centerpieces, Photo 23: my DIY shoes and more dress details, Photo 24: our venue at night

Another detail that I didn't have anything to do with, but I thought was really a great touch, was all thanks to our photographers. They provided a digital photo frame, which they placed on our guestbook table about halfway though our cocktail hour, loaded with all the (unedited) photos from earlier in the day. So our guests got a little peek at us getting ready, having our first look, and got to see our ceremony though our photog's eyes.

Our DOC snapped a few photos from the digital photo frame for us (although it's sort of funny that we didn't receive either of these photos in the final set from our photogs!):

(Hee hee, I was so excited about drinking my rum and COLA after our formal pictures, I didn't even know I was being photographed!)

Sadly, there were a few of my DIY details that we didn't receive pro photos of, but I thought I would give them a brief shout out here. Our bathroom baskets:

(personal photo)

Bathroom signs, to cover the ugly ones at the venue:

(personal photos)

And my framed signs for the buffet:

(personal photo)

Of course, there were a few other details I would have liked to see captured, but like I already said, I know it's not possible for photographers to be everywhere at once. And I love the photos we do have!

What are your favorite details from your wedding?

Miss any wedding week details? Catch up here:

- I packed an emergency bag that saved my dress
- We had a crazy 4 days prepping for house guests and stuffing favors
- Shopping for a ton of wedding flowers to arrange ourselves
- Mr. Cola drinks a 40 and I have a night out on the town for our low-key bach parties
- A day of DIY'ing flower arrangements
- I kicked off our official recaps with my #1 wedding tip
- We began the weekend festivities with a sunset cruise for our wedding party
- We rehearsed our quick and easy ceremony
- I panicked, but we got our rehearsal dinner decorations set up just in time
- Our families met for the first time at our rehearsal dinner under the trees
- What went wrong on our wedding day, and my tips for future brides
- My bridesmaids and I got our hair and makeup done in the hotel suite
- I put on my wedding dress and became a bride
- The guys watched the World Cup, then got ready in 10 minutes
- Traffic delayed our decorations getting to the venue, and I almost ruined our first look
- We got to see each other for the first time on our wedding day at our first look
- We took some time for bride and groom pictures in the park
- I gave you a behind the scenes look at our family, friends and DOC setting up our venue
- Arriving at our venue and getting ready for the ceremony to start
- Everyone walked down the aisle
- Excerpts from our ceremony, and reading the vows we wrote for each other
- I interrupted our officiant, we exchanged rings, and with a kiss we were officially married!
- Wedding party and family portraits, and my thoughts on missing pictures
- Our guests enjoyed cocktail hour while we took a few more photos
- Everyone ate a delicious dinner, and our siblings gave beautiful toasts
- We didn't practice, but we had a very special and wonderful first dance as husband and wife
- I showed you some disposable camera pictures, which were totally worth it to include on our tables!
- I found a target and tossed my bouquet at her
- Mr. Cola finally managed to find my garter under my dress and tossed it
- We fed each other cupcakes, and our guests swarmed our 6ft tall cupcake tower
- We stole some private moments together that our photographers documented
- All our guests had some fun taking pictures in our DIY fauxtobooth
- We enjoyed the rest of the evening with our guests
- I showcased all the pretty details from our wedding, part 1

(Unless otherwise noted, all photos in this post were taken by the very talented photographers of Shoot Me Now Photography)