A Woodside Wedding: Don't Just Stand There, Let's Get To It

Strike a pose, there's nothing to it!

Immediately after our ceremony, Mr. Cola and I met our wedding party in front of the redwood trees, to take some formal portraits, while our parents tried to gather family for family pictures. I know formals are pretty boring if you don't know the people, so I'll try to keep this short! But I do have a purpose in showing you these, in regards to some missing photo advice at the bottom of this post.

Our wedding party formals were pretty standard, we did ones of us with everyone, us with just the groomsmen, and us with just the bridesmaids.

Then I took some photos with just my bridesmaids.

The must-have shoe shot!

Mr. Cola took some photos of just him and his groomsmen too, these are some of the more fun ones.

And then I posed with my sister.

Then with my parents and sister.*

Mr. Cola took some with his brother.

And then with his parents.

Then with his parents and brother.*

And I jumped in too.

Finally, it was really important to my mom that we get a photo with her whole side of the family. Even though it took forever, to gather everyone for the photo, it turned out pretty nicely.

*You may notice some key people missing from a few pictures. Namely, Mr. Cola not in a picture with my family, nor my sister's long-time boyfriend, and SIL Cola was missing from the pictures with Mr. Cola's family. Why? I have no idea. Just slipped my mind on our wedding day, and I was way too impatient for the formal photos to be over to care.

Would they have been nice to have? Definitely! Does it bum me out not to have these pictures? Nah, not really anymore.

Brides, take note. You WILL miss some of your must have photos. Be it in formals, small details, or key people. Your photographers can't be everywhere, or know who everyone is, it's just not possible, or realistic. So try not to be too disappointed, as I've heard so many brides are, when you get your pro pictures back if you can't find a certain photo of something. Give it a few days and then go back and look at them again. I promise, you will fall in love with all the photos you DO have, and the missed shots will matter less and less with time. (Plus, there are always guest photos, or Photoshop!)

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!

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

A Woodside Wedding: Pics In The Park

Since I never got to share engagement pictures with you all (since we didn’t take any), I’m going to over-share on the photos we took around the park after we had our first look!

Mr. Cola isn't a big fan of having his picture taken, so we compromised and didn’t do an e-pics session, but instead we scheduled an hour for us to do pictures of just the two of us after our first look. And I’m pretty happy we did, because if I had to pick, I would rather have these pro pics of us all dolled up in our wedding attire over more pictures in our everyday clothes!

After our first look we took a few minutes to just sort of soak in being with each other for the first time on our wedding day.

Then we relaxed on a bench next to the pond.

At some point our photographers told Mr. C to whisper something funny in my ear to make me laugh. Wanna guess his phrase of choice? "Cat butts!" Which I of course thought was hilarious, from a long standing inside joke about our silly cats.

Next we stood by the pond to get a closer look at the ducks! I'm an animal lover, what? (just kidding, nobody would let me go feed the ducks. Luckily I had someone cuter to concentrate on ;) !).

Then we took some close ups.

And got some gorgeous photos of the details on my dress.

Then we tried to look saucy on the path around the pond.

(I’m not sure we succeeded, we were pretty much just cracking each other up!)

Next we took some kissing pictures over a brick wall (which was hard because I’m short and had to stand on my tip toes!).

This is our “Haha, photographers, you just had to watch us make out” smirk!

Our photogs then asked me if I’d be willing to climb up on the brick wall, to which I replied, “OK, but how?” They set up a photo equipment box for me to step up on, and laid out some canvas bags on the wall so my dress wouldn’t get too dirty (which didn’t really work, as we already know).

Then Mr. Cola hopped up on the wall with me for a shoe shot (yup, I was still only wearing my flip flops, saving my heels for later). I still wish Mr. C would have worn cute argyle socks, but oh well, I still love this photo!

And with that we were out of time for pictures in the park, and had to jump in the limo and head up to our venue. It was almost time to get married!

Will you be scheduling any time on your wedding day to take photos of just you and your SO?

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

(All photos in this post were taken by the very talented photographers of Shoot Me Now Photography)