A Sunday Kind of Love: The final shots

As our wedding was winding down, and our wonderful photographers were getting ready to leave, they indulged me in one more set of pictures of me and Mr. Ly.  I knew I wanted shots taken at night, with our venue in the background and if we could swing it, Independence Hall too.  While Broad Street and the Art Museum are quintessential Philadelphia bridal pictures, it's not quite as often that you get photos with Independence Hall in the background.  If you recall, Mrs. Turkey mentioned this in her recaps, there are restrictions for taking pictures in front of Independence Hall.  But at 10pm on a Sunday night, in January, we didn't see a single soul outside who might reinforce these restrictions, so we went for it.

All photos by Mike Landis Photographer, unless otherwise noted.

Something I learned that night, too... it's much easier to take "serious" pictures when all you can think about is how cold you are! Remember that 57 degree sunny day we had? Well, by 10pm the temperatures had dropped, like into the 30's and a severe cold front was just hitting the east coast. With no sun for warmth, and a huge drop in temps - it was FREEZING! But we didn't let that stop us, at least not for a full 15 minutes or so.  And I'm so glad we didn't because we ended up with a few of my absolute favorite pictures of the night, and I'm so glad this is how our wedding came to a close - photographically speaking.

I absolutely love these pictures. And if it took a few minutes of being really cold, then it was totally worth it (and it was no where near as bad as the pain my shoes caused me that day!)

After this, we danced a little longer and before we knew it, our final song of the night was playing. The dance floor cleared and the pictures make it look like I was just hanging on Mr. Ly at that point - I was SO tired. It hit me all at once, all the adrenaline and excitement from the day was done, and I was so looking forward to getting back to our hotel, skipping the after party at the bar, taking a really long bath and going to bed (just another reason why it's probably best NOT to be pregnant at your own wedding! Oh well.).

The final picture of me of the day in the hotel lobby, just ready for a bath & bed / Personal Photo

Waiting for us in our room, was a plate of strawberries and a bottle of champagne from the hotel.  It was so sweet, and I ate some of the strawberries, had a few sips of champagne and called it a night.

Sweet treats from the Omni Hotel / Personal Photo 

And that wraps up our wedding day, from start to finish - and all the little moments and details in between.  Our brunch the following day was hosted at my aunt's restaurant in Philadelphia, SoWe. We don't really have many pictures from it, so I'm not going to include it in my recaps, but I highly recommend the restaurant if you're looking for great food in South Philly! 

And this, hive, is my final recap post! I am so glad that I got them done before Baby Lyre made his appearance!  I'll be 38 weeks tomorrow, so he could come at any time.  I hope to get some vendor reviews/budget breakdown/series posts in while I wait, but at the very least I finished my recaps! I hope you've enjoyed reading and seeing the details of our day, I'm so glad I got to share them with you.

I pre-capped our recaps with a big announcement!
Recaps began with our Same Day Edit video.
I needed to get some perspective the week of the wedding.
Personally brewed beers gave our rehearsal lunch a special touch!
I spent a fantastic last day as a Miss.
I shared some gifts for my bridesmaids. 
The girls spend an easy and relaxing morning getting made up.
The guys spent the morning building a chuppah and doing guy things.

I panicked when the morning went by too fast.

We exchanged lovely notes and gifts on the wedding morning.

I put on my dress and became a Blissful Bride.

Bridal details and my "somethings" rounded out the wedding morning.

We had our not-so-private first look.

We took some silly pictures, just the two of us.

Broad Street gave us gorgeous shots, but we nearly lost some of bridal party in traffic.

The Lyres and their huge bridal party storm the art museum, Rocky style.

I shed tears of pain at our final photo stop in Olde City

The ceremony space and details took our breath away when we arrived for a quick rehearsal.

We were officially married under Jewish law when we signed our Ketubah.

Guests were seated and the bridal party got our ceremony started.

I got a little emotional for my walk down the aisle.

We did not take our eyes off each other in our traditional Jewish ceremony.

Post-ceremony photos were taken with some special gender pictures for our surprise!

Our extra-long cocktail hour was full of delicious food and drinks, and a controversial ice-sculpture.

Our ceremony space was flipped into an elegant reception space with gorgeous details.

The bridal party made their entrance to some very viral video tunes. 

We danced our first dance as husband and wife.
I was lifted (briefly) in a chair during the Hora.
Our very special guests toasted us with well wishes, love, and happiness.
The food at our reception was hands down the best wedding food ever.
Parent dances and an awkward family crowning ceremony took place while our guests ate.
Not one, but TWO incredible cakes stole the show at our reception.
Our guests enjoyed an delicious dessert spread and danced the night away.
The photobooth gave our guests something to do, and we ended up with two guestbooks.

A Sunday Kind of Love: A Photobooth and Two Guestbooks

As our dance floor was packed most of the night, there were quite a few guests at the party who didn't dance - so what did we have for them to do? The photo booth was the main activity other than dancing that our guests took part in!  What I love about having a photo booth was we got so many pictures of guests that we did not get from our photographer.  We scored a pretty great deal on LivingSocial and got a 5 hour photo booth for our reception.  We decided since we had such a long cocktail hour, we'd have the booth open from 5pm - 10pm. The reception ended at 10:30, so we gave our guests the majority of cocktail hour and reception time to enjoy the photo booth.

Instead of paying for the photo booth company to bring a box of props and even extra for a scrapbook, we gathered props from all over - mustaches, lips, glasses, boas, hats, etc. and I bought a scrapbook on sale at a craft store and some glue dots.  We had them all out on display at the reception, and our guests really had a great time with it - and we have a great keepsake with all our photos and messages from guests!

Mr. Ly only made it into the photo booth once, we had just come inside from taking our post-ceremony pictures and it happened to be right when the attendant finished setting up - so we were the first two in the booth!  I made it into the booth a few more times, and wrapped up the night as well with my two best friends, and closed out the photo booth with the last photo as well.

All photo booth pictures by Chariot Photo Booths.

Some familiar faces got some time in the booth:

My photographer snapped some candid shots while the bees were in the photobooth:

Photo by Mike Landis Photographer

Photo by Mike Landis Photographer

We had another guest book for our guests besides the photo booth.  We took some of the photos from our engagement photo shoot and turned them into postcards through Moo.com.  We had them printed with our address and pre-stamped them (something to note:  stamp prices went up the week after our wedding, and we had to buy extra stamps to make sure our postcards made it to us!) and had our guests fill them out at the wedding.  Some people took them home with them, and some left them in our guestbook box. After the wedding one of our groomsman, Mark took them home with him, as a postal worker he puts one or two in the mail a week and we are still getting wedding mail all the time! I love going to the mailbox and getting memories of our wedding almost 6 months after our wedding!

I created a sign that we framed and displayed next to the postcards, and they were placed next to our card birdcage.

Guestbook display - created by Mrs. Lyre 

Postcard table / Photo by Mrs. Pain au Chocolat

Postcards up close / Photo by Mrs. Pain au Chocolat

Some people wrote messages, some gave advice, and some just drew us pictures - we love all the responses we've gotten so far and can not wait to see the rest as they come in over the year!

A handful of the postcards we've received so far 

Between the photo booth and the postcards we have mementos from almost all of our guests at our wedding. I am sure they both will be cherished memories of our wedding that we can share with our family for many, many years to come.

I pre-capped our recaps with a big announcement!
Recaps began with our Same Day Edit video.
I needed to get some perspective the week of the wedding.
Personally brewed beers gave our rehearsal lunch a special touch!
I spent a fantastic last day as a Miss.
I shared some gifts for my bridesmaids. 
The girls spend an easy and relaxing morning getting made up.
The guys spent the morning building a chuppah and doing guy things.

I panicked when the morning went by too fast.

We exchanged lovely notes and gifts on the wedding morning.

I put on my dress and became a Blissful Bride.

Bridal details and my "somethings" rounded out the wedding morning.

We had our not-so-private first look.

We took some silly pictures, just the two of us.

Broad Street gave us gorgeous shots, but we nearly lost some of bridal party in traffic.

The Lyres and their huge bridal party storm the art museum, Rocky style.

I shed tears of pain at our final photo stop in Olde City

The ceremony space and details took our breath away when we arrived for a quick rehearsal.

We were officially married under Jewish law when we signed our Ketubah.

Guests were seated and the bridal party got our ceremony started.

I got a little emotional for my walk down the aisle.

We did not take our eyes off each other in our traditional Jewish ceremony.

Post-ceremony photos were taken with some special gender pictures for our surprise!

Our extra-long cocktail hour was full of delicious food and drinks, and a controversial ice-sculpture.

Our ceremony space was flipped into an elegant reception space with gorgeous details.

The bridal party made their entrance to some very viral video tunes. 

We danced our first dance as husband and wife.
I was lifted (briefly) in a chair during the Hora.
Our very special guests toasted us with well wishes, love, and happiness.
The food at our reception was hands down the best wedding food ever.
Parent dances and an awkward family crowning ceremony took place while our guests ate.
Not one, but TWO incredible cakes stole the show at our reception.
Our guests enjoyed an delicious dessert spread and danced the night away.

A Sunday Kind of Love: Dessert & Dancing

As the night was winding down, and dessert was served, the dance floor was just picking up!

Dessert consisted of many stations, not unlike our cocktail hour, with sweets galore and a coffee station to meet any palate. There was a Viennese station, mini cakes, a multitude of 12" round cakes, pastries, a funnel cake station, Belgian waffles with ice cream, a bananas foster station, and my personal favorite - a crepe station! We had a choice of crepes, a chocolate fountain, or a breakfast station (with omelettes, pancakes, bacon & eggs, etc.) - we chose the crepes. As with the rest of the food that night, Cescaphe does not disappoint.  It was spectacular.

All Photos by Mike Landis Photographer, unless otherwise noted

Mini Pastries

Bananas Foster Display

A delicious way to warm up on a cold January night! 

Mrs. Pain au Chocolat sampled the waffles and the crepes / Photo by Mrs. PaC 

We had the option to have a passed dessert as well, we chose mini vanilla milkshakes and fries - which is a late night favorite of mine (really an all the time favorite now that I'm nearing the end of my pregnancy!) In hindsight, I probably could have gotten a full size milkshake instead of a mini one, considering I wasn't drinking anything else all night! But who thinks of these things during their own wedding?? 

Mini-milkshakes & fries 

Our DJ, Center Stage Entertainment (Sam, specifically) did an amazing job of keeping the dance floor going from the first dance until the last, and we are so lucky to have had such a wonderful experience.  Dancing really started after the first course, but it really picked up after we cut the cake, and our guests were ready to cut loose and dance off all the food that had been served all night!

People came up to us throughout the night, complimenting us on our DJ, which is exactly how we found him in the first place - when we were at another awesome wedding where he kept the party going the entire night. And we know of at least two more couples who have booked the company after us, after experiencing how fun they really are!

Sam, from Center Stage Entertainment, keeping our dance floor PACKED. 

We had slow dances

and fast dances. Some of these photos are my favorites from the entire evening, they really capture the fun that was had by our guests on the dance floor! 

 We had so much fun dancing at our wedding. Dancing with each other, dancing with our friends and family - we really could have danced all night if the venue had let us!

I pre-capped our recaps with a big announcement!
Recaps began with our Same Day Edit video.
I needed to get some perspective the week of the wedding.
Personally brewed beers gave our rehearsal lunch a special touch!
I spent a fantastic last day as a Miss.
I shared some gifts for my bridesmaids. 
The girls spend an easy and relaxing morning getting made up.
The guys spent the morning building a chuppah and doing guy things.

I panicked when the morning went by too fast.

We exchanged lovely notes and gifts on the wedding morning.

I put on my dress and became a Blissful Bride.

Bridal details and my "somethings" rounded out the wedding morning.

We had our not-so-private first look.

We took some silly pictures, just the two of us.

Broad Street gave us gorgeous shots, but we nearly lost some of bridal party in traffic.

The Lyres and their huge bridal party storm the art museum, Rocky style.

I shed tears of pain at our final photo stop in Olde City

The ceremony space and details took our breath away when we arrived for a quick rehearsal.

We were officially married under Jewish law when we signed our Ketubah.

Guests were seated and the bridal party got our ceremony started.

I got a little emotional for my walk down the aisle.

We did not take our eyes off each other in our traditional Jewish ceremony.

Post-ceremony photos were taken with some special gender pictures for our surprise!

Our extra-long cocktail hour was full of delicious food and drinks, and a controversial ice-sculpture.

Our ceremony space was flipped into an elegant reception space with gorgeous details.

The bridal party made their entrance to some very viral video tunes. 

We danced our first dance as husband and wife.
I was lifted (briefly) in a chair during the Hora.
Our very special guests toasted us with well wishes, love, and happiness.
The food at our reception was hands down the best wedding food ever.
Parent dances and an awkward family crowning ceremony took place while our guests ate.
Not one, but TWO incredible cakes stole the show at our reception.

A Sunday Kind of Love: CAKE.

I've been holding out on you, hive.  And I apologize.  Up to this point, I haven't shared any photos of either of our amazing cakes.  If you recall, we had not one, but two incredible pastry chefs making us cakes for our wedding.  The first one was gifted to us by my incredibly talented MOH. I didn't give her any specifications as to what I wanted, flavor, design or anything.  She had free reign to create something beautiful and delicious, and she did.  Our second cake was included in our wedding package from Cescaphe, and we decided to use that as our groom's cake.  Mr. Ly basically gave the caterer a list of all of the things he likes, from superheros to video games, and it was incorporated into a really intricate, airbrushed cake.  Our cakes were highlighted throughout the reception under a spotlight, in the location where the ceremony had taken place, and they received a lot of attention throughout the night.  If there was one thing that stood out when looking at our guests photos after our wedding (besides photos of us) - it was photos of the cakes!

Photos by Mike Landis Photographer, unless otherwise noted. 

Everyone taking pictures of the cakes!

Our cakes were displayed prominently in front of the fountain 

2 cakes, both incredibly crafted.

Photo by Jeffrey Fehder Photography

 The wedding cake was a 7 tier, chocolate cake with raspberry buttercream, covered in blue fondant and hand crafted sugar flowers.

Groom's Cake 

The Groom's cake was a 4 tier chocolate chip pound cake with traditional buttercream frosting, covered in fondant, and airbrushed with his favorite games, movies, cartoon characters, etc.

We cut the cake before the dessert stations were opened.  We chose to cut the cake to Weird Al's classic hit "Eat It,"  and we only cut the one cake.  Neither cake was actually served at the wedding, since there was so much dessert to be had.  A slice of each cake was placed in a bag and placed by the exit so guests could take some home with them for a sweet treat the next day!

We had agreed to NOT smash the cake, but I think we were both expecting the other one to break that promise. 

No smashing, just a sweet kiss 

Eating all the cake... we both just wanted to wipe our hands at this point (Mr. Ly is trying not to get cake on my back here) 

With our very talented MOH

 The cake was such a generous gift to receive from my best friend, and apparently we're not the only ones to think it's such a gorgeous cake.  If you're in NJ, and pick up a copy of New Jersey Bride - Fall/Winter edition - you just may see a picture of our wedding cake! How cool is that?

Personal Photo / New Jersey Bride Magazine Fall-Winter 2013

I pre-capped our recaps with a big announcement!
Recaps began with our Same Day Edit video.
I needed to get some perspective the week of the wedding.
Personally brewed beers gave our rehearsal lunch a special touch!
I spent a fantastic last day as a Miss.
I shared some gifts for my bridesmaids. 
The girls spend an easy and relaxing morning getting made up.
The guys spent the morning building a chuppah and doing guy things.

I panicked when the morning went by too fast.

We exchanged lovely notes and gifts on the wedding morning.

I put on my dress and became a Blissful Bride.

Bridal details and my "somethings" rounded out the wedding morning.

We had our not-so-private first look.

We took some silly pictures, just the two of us.

Broad Street gave us gorgeous shots, but we nearly lost some of bridal party in traffic.

The Lyres and their huge bridal party storm the art museum, Rocky style.

I shed tears of pain at our final photo stop in Olde City

The ceremony space and details took our breath away when we arrived for a quick rehearsal.

We were officially married under Jewish law when we signed our Ketubah.

Guests were seated and the bridal party got our ceremony started.

I got a little emotional for my walk down the aisle.

We did not take our eyes off each other in our traditional Jewish ceremony.

Post-ceremony photos were taken with some special gender pictures for our surprise!

Our extra-long cocktail hour was full of delicious food and drinks, and a controversial ice-sculpture.

Our ceremony space was flipped into an elegant reception space with gorgeous details.

The bridal party made their entrance to some very viral video tunes. 

We danced our first dance as husband and wife.
I was lifted (briefly) in a chair during the Hora.
Our very special guests toasted us with well wishes, love, and happiness.
The food at our reception was hands down the best wedding food ever.
Parent dances and an awkward family crowning ceremony took place while our guests ate. 

A Sunday Kind of Love: Family Moments

During one of the food courses, we had some special parent dances that took place while our guests enjoyed their meal.  My parents decided before the traditional father-daughter dance, they would say a few words to Mr. Ly and myself - not a toast per se... maybe more of a roast? See, at this point my dad is enjoying himself at the party, and he gets pretty silly (read: somewhat inappropriate) after a few drinks (although I think he would have said the exact same things if he were 100% sober). But as my parents were the very generous hosts of the evening, they had free reign to say/do what they wanted, right? They thanked all the guests for coming, talked about the joining of our families, and how pleased they were to be gaining Mr. Ly and his family as in-laws.  Not bad... yet.

Photos by Mike Landis Photographer

Well, it wasn't a "planned" speech, and we haven't seen the video yet, so there's no real telling what was said exactly. But my dad can't just thank everyone nicely and lead into our father-daughter dance. No. There has to be some fun had, at our expense.  I know Mr. Ly was teased for tearing up during the ceremony, and I was teased for just about everything I did as a teenager/young adult probably up through the week of the wedding, because that's just how my family is.  It's all meant with lots of love and while I used to be easily embarrassed, I know now to just roll with the punches.

This is a very typical "very funny" face that I give my parents as I'm sure I was being teased about something... 

Don't think my dad had all the fun, my mom threw some of her own jabs in there too. 

After my parents' speech, my dad invited me up to the dance floor for our father-daughter dance.  Now, I love my father and we have a very good relationship. But a serious relationship, it is not.  These photos perfectly capture our relationship, which is built on a lot of fun and humor.  As you may recall, we chose to dance to "Daughter" by Loudon Wainwright. 

I wouldn't normally post an ugly-laughing face picture, but really it captures us so well! 

Seriously, not one single picture that we were not laughing. Not one. 

Mr. Ly and his mom had a much more serious dance.  They danced to "Unforgettable" by Nat King Cole & Natalie Cole.

Halfway through the dance, the DJ invited all the mothers and sons who were there at the wedding to join Mr. Ly and his mom on the dance floor.  It was a really nice move to get more people involved in the special dances. And it gave Mr. Ly's brother a chance to join him and his mom for a moment as well.

This concluded our parent dances, but we still had one more special dance planned.  In Jewish tradition, when the last of your children gets married, the parents get "crowned."  This usually includes a wreath of some sort placed on one or both of the parents heads, and a circling dance, similar to the Hora.  However, we didn't really know what to do, so my sister, brother, our spouses, and I did some fairly awkward dancing around my parents while Fiddler on the Roof played in the background.

I crowned my mom, my dad opted against a crown.

Then we all looked at each other, pretty unsure what to do now...

Let's just go in a circle around my parents

As always, we are laughing - mostly at ourselves. 

A good family shot and then we called it quits on the crowning. My mom rocked that crown the rest of the night though.

That concluded our special dances of the evening.  I promise the rest of the time the DJ was keeping the dance floor packed with our guests, and they didn't have to watch my family dance awkwardly or laugh at each other for too long.  I'm glad my parents got to have a special moment at our wedding, as they really did deserve it for all they generously gifted us to make the day possible.

I pre-capped our recaps with a big announcement!
Recaps began with our Same Day Edit video.
I needed to get some perspective the week of the wedding.
Personally brewed beers gave our rehearsal lunch a special touch!
I spent a fantastic last day as a Miss.
I shared some gifts for my bridesmaids. 
The girls spend an easy and relaxing morning getting made up.
The guys spent the morning building a chuppah and doing guy things.

I panicked when the morning went by too fast.

We exchanged lovely notes and gifts on the wedding morning.

I put on my dress and became a Blissful Bride.

Bridal details and my "somethings" rounded out the wedding morning.

We had our not-so-private first look.

We took some silly pictures, just the two of us.

Broad Street gave us gorgeous shots, but we nearly lost some of bridal party in traffic.

The Lyres and their huge bridal party storm the art museum, Rocky style.

I shed tears of pain at our final photo stop in Olde City

The ceremony space and details took our breath away when we arrived for a quick rehearsal.

We were officially married under Jewish law when we signed our Ketubah.

Guests were seated and the bridal party got our ceremony started.

I got a little emotional for my walk down the aisle.

We did not take our eyes off each other in our traditional Jewish ceremony.

Post-ceremony photos were taken with some special gender pictures for our surprise!

Our extra-long cocktail hour was full of delicious food and drinks, and a controversial ice-sculpture.

Our ceremony space was flipped into an elegant reception space with gorgeous details.

The bridal party made their entrance to some very viral video tunes. 

We danced our first dance as husband and wife.
I was lifted (briefly) in a chair during the Hora.
Our very special guests toasted us with well wishes, love, and happiness.
The food at our reception was hands down the best wedding food ever.