<p>Jem, thank you so much for sharing!</p>
<p>CCC, you can’t abandon this site yet…I have suspicion that S2 is planning to get engaged sooner rather than later and i will need lots of help from cyber friends who have better and more creative ideas than I do.</p>
<p>Thanks for posting JEM! D is planning a 2015 wedding and I am taking notes! One thing that stands out is in letting some things go. I know that for the most part D and I are/will be on the same page and I need to remember that a few things that she wants and I am like “what?” will most likely turn out to be great.</p>
<p>Best wishes to your D and SIL.</p>
<p>^^Lol, Boysx3: </p>
<p>I’ll stick around to help you if I can, but I’m no expert! Just someone who likes to help others find their wedding outfits! I can only suggest… 
But there are many of us out there who can help!!</p>
<p>I tried to PM my email address, but it looks like cc put ***** instead. When I opened the link here, I got,the first post in that LONG thread about dresses, not the post with your dress. Could you maybe post the post number from that thread?</p>
<p>So glad to hear how things went! It sounds like a wonderful day, but from the planning, I was sure it would be.</p>
<p>As some here are aware, we went through this earlier in the summer. I am glad you had a trip afterward. We didn’t, but I was off work for the summer and H was a few weeks later, so we were able to have a very relaxing season. We planned less social occasions than usual for the summer and did a lot of recharging. That was really good.</p>
<p>I commend your visiting-ness during the wedding. Honestly beyond the groom’s immediate family, I didn’t spend much time with the rest. They tend to be (as per D’s estimation), a little clannish, and even more honestly, I decided that the reception was, in a small way, a present to myself as well as a gift to my D and SIL. What they most wanted was a giant dance party–which is a sacrosanct occasion in our family but hard to get everyone together for these days–and I made the most of it and danced my feet off. </p>
<p>Ultimately, like you said, it passed so fast that it feels like a blur now. I don’t know how to change that; I think it’s inevitable. But the glow of knowing it was a very personalized event that reflected the couple has remained. I’m so glad to hear you feel the same way.</p>
<p>and it’s nice to be done!</p>
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<p>Although I’m still a ways off from this life event, things are moving quickly with D2 and her boyfriend, so at least I see it in the future, whereas six months ago, I would have not predicted anything. So I have a question for some of you who have been through this. Did you hire a videographer? I know they’re expensive, but in light of garland’s reflections, I wonder if having a videographer helps take some of the sting out of everything becoming a blur afterwards? I guess the bigger question would be, do couples actually sit down and watch their videos after the wedding? I would be willing to pay extra for a videographer if my daughters didn’t make it a priority in their wedding budget, just so I could have more moments captured (of course I wouldn’t tell THEM that I would be willing to pay extra, until after they made that decision). But if, in reality, no one really looks at these videos, then maybe I’m deluding myself.</p>
<p>We did not have a videographer, or a paid photographer except for the ceremony and some family pics. D is relying on videos sent to a site by friends, as well as pics sent by them. I’ve seen a few, and they are fun. She forbade anyone from video-ing the ceremony itself. It was very important to her that it stayed in her memory, and not be replaced by the video of it (that’s her, all over.)</p>
<p>Overall, though I like pictures, and never get enough of seeing them, I concur with her that video takes over from memories.</p>
<p>But that’s us; we’re weird that way. :)</p>
<p>I totally agree with your daughter. It drives me crazy when people sit through weddings with their video cameras running the entire time. It’s about memories…</p>
<p>I totally agree with garland’s D, and abhor video of weddings. I’ve seen brides watch their wedding video and obsess about their veil being crooked or something that NO ONE noticed at the time. They are totally worthless, IMNSHO.</p>
<p>We did NOT hire a videographer. My D and her fiance controlled all wedding decisions, and I fully supported that decision. IMO a videographer would have been a huge distraction as he or she and his or her equipment would have been invasive, especially during the ceremony.</p>
<p>While there was a professional photographer, he was wonderfully discreet (I never even saw him during the actual ceremony) and he also caught terrific pictures we would never have been able to get otherwise. There was a special folk dance led by groom’s mother with a colorful kerchief that many, if not most, of the wedding guests participated in during the reception. Some guests who were watching shot photos but there was no way they could capture the group dynamic during that large ensemble dance. The photographer shot it from on high so we have wonderful images of the weaving circles the mother of groom created in leading the dance.</p>
<p>There were a couple of minor slips during the ceremony and my son later commented, “Mom, that’s why we had just a still photographer, and not a videographer. From all the evidence we have, everything went perfectly!” LOL. (Although the still photos do show my D putting the ring on the wrong hand of the groom!)</p>
<p>I know I ordered the video of my D’s college commencement when her school offered it and I have yet to watch it once! Yet I have often savored the still photos.</p>
<p>Anyhow, just one opinion, but D and her groom all along went with a “nice, but not over the top” approach to their wedding and that applied to the recording of it as well.</p>
<p>I am saving the prepared script of their self-written ceremony, including their “statements of intent” along with the text of their chosen readings and my son’s (the officiant of the day) address, along with the wedding memorabilia. So we have a full record of what was said during the ceremony.</p>
<p>Anyhow, just one opinion.</p>
<p>^^^^^^ thumper1, it was post # 295 on thread <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1469554-dress-people-mob-help-20.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1469554-dress-people-mob-help-20.html</a>
that linked to the dress I chose.
[Komarov</a> Pleated Charmeuse Dress & Chiffon Jacket (Regular & Petite) | Nordstrom](<a href=“http://shop.nordstrom.com/s/komarov-pleated-charmeuse-dress-chiffon-jacket-regular-petite/3132490?BaseUrl=Dresses%20&%20Separates&origin=category]Komarov”>http://shop.nordstrom.com/s/komarov-pleated-charmeuse-dress-chiffon-jacket-regular-petite/3132490?BaseUrl=Dresses%20&%20Separates&origin=category)
Hope this helps.
Thanks for your interest!</p>
<p>This forum was such a support during the wedding process. :)</p>
<p>P.S. If anyone wants to see photos of my D’s wedding, I would be willing to share via PM the link to the photographer’s slide show of some of his shots. Don’t want to post the link on this very public forum, but via PM to individuals should be OK, I think/hope.</p>
<p>^^Let me concur that the wedding-thread advice on this forum was a life-saver for me. Just in terms of shear sanity-keeping! (I really do think it should be considered for a sub-forum.)</p>