I made my wedding dress

Yo, I am a bloggin' fool this week! Get me home from work earlier than 9PM and look what I can do! I posted about the process of making my wedding dress at the Stitch Lounge blog here. Check it out!

forgot to mention...

...that I've posted all our professional photos shot by Jennifer Kloss Heffner on our Flickr site here, so you can download as your little heart desires!

She took so many amazing photos; the emotions she captured were just incredible. Here are some of our faves...

The couple shots:





This one deserves to be seen very very big:



She made me look really good:



And Jeremy even better!:



I adore this photo of my mom and Jeremy's mom when they first saw each other at the tea ceremony:



And Kim, Jen's assistant photographer and best friend, caught Jeremy's reaction the first time he saw me that day:



Here's my dad losing it (one of many times that day!):



And this one of my momma watching me and my dad come down the aisle just melts my heart:



I loved her unique way of capturing the wedding party:



And this one of Kara helping me into my Chinese dress...oh, the beauty:



What a night, you guys...

See the entire Flickr set here.

XOX!

K + P

I realize that I am massively late on this, but I didn't want to neglect posting about Kara and Patrick's wedding. It happened a few short weeks after we returned from Huatulco, and its proximity to our wedding brought up so many surprising and unexpected feelings. I felt so honored to be by Kara's side during this truly special and meaningful day in her life, especially after meeting all the people who love and care about these two wonderful people. I kept thinking, "Why me? Why am I so special that I get to stand next to these two as they make this incredible commitment to each other?" Seriously, I hear people all the time b*tch and moan about being bridesmaids...being forced to wear ugly dresses with dyed-to-match shoes. These people clearly don't know what it's all about...I would have worn a burlap sack with some potatoes (???) on my feet for these two. I really can't explain the feeling other than to say that I felt so HONORED. I think that really says something about the couple when the "Best Babe" is eternally grateful just for being included!



Kara was such an amazing Mistress of Honor for me that I wanted nothing more than to do the same for her. I wanted to be there to take care of all the loose ends the day of; I wanted to take photos during all the non-photo ops so she would have a memento of the times when the pro photog wasn't there; I wanted to make sure my toast was incredible and memorable. Kara did all these things for me and I felt like I couldn't express my gratitude in words so I tried to do it through my actions.

Anyway, here are some of my favorite images from their wedding:

Kara's wedding gift to Patty was a set of Scrabble tiles...the letters "K" and "P". I took this photo on the bus to HollyHedge:



It's hard for me to pick which of the next 2 photos Kara looks prettier in:





Once I gave my toast, I was free to catch up with the other Party Poodles and shake my ass on the dance floor with my man:



The bride, having said her vows, also felt free to work the dance floor like she owned it (and she did):



The next day, our flight left late so we had the time to take a nice, leisurely walk along the towpath, where we took this photo:



See my entire Flickr set of photos from that weekend here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hopemeng/sets/72157603065974879/

I love you, Kara and Patty. May you always rock on with your cocks out.

Mah-wage

So, I went and got myself married. Yeah, I can't believe it either! Actually, it's not really that different than "living together" life, other than the fact that we get to wear some new rings, we spent a few weeks working our a$$es off planning this huge event, and we got to take a nice vacation. I think it was a bigger deal for Jeremy to change his email "from" name than to actually get married. :) Speaking of which, we haven't legally changed our names yet but I think we're going with "Menghermann" rather than "Meng Hermann", since everyone seems to be into that version of the spelling and most people are already using it. Plus, it's funny. :)

OK, so first off all, we had a fairly non-traditional wedding as far as weddings go (I think, it's really hard for me to tell at this point since I'm still too close to it) and to pull it off we had A LOT of support from our family and friends. I don't really want to get into some sort of Oscar speech here and have the powers that be start to cue the music before I'm ready to get off the stage, but to my momma and my auntie Ann and Vanessa, THANK YOU. Actually, I can't really say "thank you" enough...I could say it a million more times and still feel as though I am short-changing your efforts. It was a beautiful day and I don't think I (we, actually) could have imagined a more perfect experience.

Alrighty, less words, more pictures. :) Here are Brad's...he came in first (quality over quantity here, people):



Click here for Brad's Photo Set on Flickr

And for a more comprehensive set, by my cousin Felix, click here (click on Galleries [on the right hand side of the page] > Weddings > Hope and Jeremy). Felix is starting a photography business. He took some beautiful shots, though many of them are "unprocessed" right now and I think he is embarrassed to show them in this state. But honestly, if we think they are great right now, then how awesome are they going to be when he get around to running them through Photoshop?!! :) Here are some of my faves:









I'll update as more photos roll in...and stay tuned for our photos from the honeymoon in Huatulco!