My Brother's Wedding

This weekend my big brother got married. I laughed, and cried and had such an amazing time. The weather, which had been icky all week (and has resumed it's overcast state once again) cooperated perfectly, and we even survived The Rapture.

I have to confess, I wasn't the most dutiful photographer this weekend, but that is what paid professionals and Facebook are for, right? So I'll give a mention when a photo isn't mine.

Photo by Louis Abate

For the rehearsal dinner dress, I made no fewer than three trips to TJMaxx (different ones) and finally ended up with this purple BCBG dress.

Photo by Louis Abate

My Mom gives a big thanks to everyone who helped her choose her rehearsal dinner dress - she went with the winning dress - the black and white Neiman Marcus.

Photo by Louis Abate

Kristin gifted her bridesmaids with adorable gold Coach wristlets!

This was my first time being in the wedding party, and I must say, it is way more fun than just being a guest. I'm sure it helped that all of Louis and Kristin's closest friends are wonderful, caring and hilarious people. It was great to be around them all, from the early morning to the late night.

The morning of the wedding I did a quick poll of the bridesmaids as to how I should have my hair done - I was still partial to the messy fishtail braid but they preferred the Taylor Swift curly bun, so I decided on a combination of the two. The girl doing my hair had the hardest time putting in the fishtail braid! After the third try she was asking me if I'd be okay with a regular braid, but I was pretty adamant. (For $90, can't I get the braid I want?) I took a couple hipstamatic getting ready photos, but you can't see the braid at all, so I kept it in until I got home for the sake of a photo.

At the church, everything went perfectly on time and smoothly. The ceremony was so lovely, and yeah, I cried, and I know my Brother was a little misty-eyed as Kristin walked down the isle.

Edit I threw in two more pics

All of these church pics were swiped off Facebook- thanks Melissa and Debbie

My favorite part of the day was doing the photoshoot at the beach before the reception, it was at a country club and we got to ride golf carts to the beach. All the groomsmen drove and of course brought their inner seven year-olds, racing and crashing into each other along the way.

The photographer was really great - he said he didn't want to do any posed shots, everyone should just muck about, talk and laugh.

The girls all decided we should jump off the sand dune, which was terribly fun, and I can't wait to see the frames caputred by the official photographer. This one is via Brother's iPhone. I think I'm about a half an inch away from a wardrobe malfunction, haha.

I'm so anxious to see how the rest of the shots came out, we ran all over the beach, went in the water, and had a blast.

Again, I didn't take a ton of photos at the reception, and I've already posted a ton, so here are just a couple more.
It was so wonderful to be a part of Louis and Kristin's big day, and Kristin really did an amazing job planning it. Pretty much a dream wedding.