I Carry Your Heart: Goodnight, Sweethearts

While Mr. Rucksack and I were sharing a private moment on the dance floor with Michael Buble, our remaining guests were awaiting our arrival outside with beer and sparklers in hand. (I think you can see where this is going, yes?)

Despite my irrational fears of actually holding a sparkler, I knew that it simply had to happen. I mean, what's a little fire when you have the potential to end up with some gorgeous glittery photos, am I right?

And so it was settled. There would be fire and I would brave it!

 

As it turns out, there wasn't much fire to brave. I should have remembered Mrs. Unicycle's post about drunk guests and sparklers because she too had great visions. I also should have known better than to use the cheap 4th of July sparklers from Target. Why didn't I have the foresight to buy the extra long ones online?

 

So instead of being Pinterest perfect, our photos are a tad more real. Yes, people seem a little distracted and clumped and yep our friends are chugging beer in the background. 

But Mr. Rucksack and I were clueless at the time. All we knew was that we were married and happy and there were shiny firey objects being passed to us.

Plus I've learned that with the magic of Photoshop, anything is possible.

From a little cropping:

Bye Bye Beer Chuggers!

To borrowing some other brides' sparklers:

Hello 3 foot sparklers!

Ok, so maybe the last one is too big of a stretch, but I think the other adds just enough extra sparkle without setting off the liar liar pants on fire alarm.

I'd still do the sparkler exit again in a heartbeat, but take my advice planning bees and buy the long sparklers! I'd also have each guest hold two sparklers: both to maximize the sparkle effect and to minimize the beer drinking. Lastly, tell your coordinator or photographer to wrangle the guests and keep them focused like they do with small children sitting for Sears portraits.

Are you having a special post-reception send-off? Sparkler brides, any other advice for picture perfect sparkler exits?

(All photos by Abigail Scott unless otherwise noted)

Previously on the Rucksack Recaps:

• I have ALL the feelings
• I admit that wedding planning kind of sucks
• We run a million errands
• We practice how it’s gonna go down
• We have a big fat Italian rehearsal dinner
• A little rain won’t get me down!
• The girls get pretty
• The guys do whatever guys do
• I hang out in the hotel bathroom and make a bunch of bouquets
• I get my bride on!
• We exchange kisses and gifts during our first look
• I’m a runaway bride
• The bridal party processes and the ring bearer gets distracted
• I take my final steps as a single lady (and get stuck on a rose bush along the way!)
• We kick off the ceremony with some sweet words from The Princess Bride
• We share our love story and get our hands blessed
• We do!
• We miss cocktail hour for the sake of family photos
• We get everybody to join our first dance
• We frolic on the beach at sunset
• We have a beach-side ’90s dance party
• We eat cake and auction off our single friends
• We end our reception with a romantic private dance

I Carry Your Heart: A Private Dance with my Husband

After a very exciting day filled with love, joy and special moments, the time finally came for our little wedding to come to an end.

I'll admit that our private last dance was blatantly stolen from Mrs. Coach.  I filed that idea straight into my must have wedding moments as soon as I read her recap. And hive, let me tell you: I am so glad I did. Those last five minutes with my husband count as some of my best memories of the entire night.

After all of our guests were corralled to the front of the venue for our sparkler send-off, our DJ played one of our favorite songs. 

"The More I See You", sung by Micheal Buble, was one of the first songs Mr. Rucksack and I danced to. Before we had said "I love you," before we had even hit the one month mark, Mr. Rucksack and I got into a big argument. (Something about him panicking because he realized he had feelings for me. Feelings are scary.) When we made up the next evening, Mr. Rucksack officially won me over by spinning me around his living room to this song. It seemed fitting for us to end our wedding evening with something so meaningful.

I vividly remember dancing and thinking "Wow we are such great dancers when nobody's watching us." Mr. Rucksack was dipping and twirling me and we were at what I thought was our A game. I was convinced that the photos would depict us as dancing superstars. Instead, we look like sweaty tired amateurs. So I'll chalk up my high confidence levels to the champagne. I still absolutely adore these pictures and the memories they bring back.

It feels great to be Mr. Rucksack's wife.

 

(All photos by Abigail Scott unless otherwise noted)

Previously on the Rucksack Recaps:

• I have ALL the feelings
• I admit that wedding planning kind of sucks
• We run a million errands
• We practice how it’s gonna go down
• We have a big fat Italian rehearsal dinner
• A little rain won’t get me down!
• The girls get pretty
• The guys do whatever guys do
• I hang out in the hotel bathroom and make a bunch of bouquets
• I get my bride on!
• We exchange kisses and gifts during our first look
• I’m a runaway bride
• The bridal party processes and the ring bearer gets distracted
• I take my final steps as a single lady (and get stuck on a rose bush along the way!)
• We kick off the ceremony with some sweet words from The Princess Bride
• We share our love story and get our hands blessed
• We do!
• We miss cocktail hour for the sake of family photos
• We get everybody to join our first dance
• We frolic on the beach at sunset
• We have a beach-side ’90s dance party
• We eat cake and auction off our single friends

I Carry Your Heart: Getting the Wedding Cliches Out of the Way

Back in the planning days, I talked about how Mr. Rucksack and I would be incorporating some wedding cliches into our reception. I knew that I definitely wanted to toss my bouquet to my single lady friends, wear a really great Patriots themed garter, and feed each other some yummy Paleo cake.

However, when it came down to planning our timeline I made an executive decision: Get it all over with as fast as possible. Since I was so excited about our little dance party, I really didn't want to interrupt it and take people off the dance floor for long. So I decided that we would pause the party for a brief 20 minute stint that would allow people to take a cake break and maybe get lucky and catch a bouquet.

At 8:30, we stopped the dancing and Mr. Rucksack and I endured the most awkward cake cutting I have ever been a part of. Of course, this also the only cake cutting we've ever been a part of, so I can't really claim that I'm an expert on non-awkward cake cutting. No matter, I think it's pretty clear that we had no idea what to do here. I've seen hundreds of photos of couples cutting cakes together and posing nicely for the camera, but for some reason that all went out the window when we got in front of our cake. I think all I was focusing on was telepathically letting Mr. Rucksack know he'd be a dead man if he smeared cake on my face.

You'd think cutting a piece of pre-cut cake would be easy...

We both decided maybe Mr. R could just get in there and tackle it.

While I may have an evil look in my eyes, I did refrain from shoving cake in my new hubby's face

Luckily, Mr. R did the same

After everyone had managed to get their sugar rush, we invited  forced the single ladies onto the dance floor for the bouquet toss. I was irrationally excited about this and I have to tell you, I'm  convinced that my song choice of "Wannabee" by the Spice Girls was pretty darn perfect.

Remember when I joked about throwing my bouquet kettlebell style? Well, it turns out Crossfit is ingrained in me and my ridiculous stance was a kettlebell look-alike accident! 

There was some tough competition out there in single lady land. I later learned that the winner of the toss had made sure everyone out there knew that bouquet was destined to be hers and that she was going to fight for it!

Of course, she didn't have much fighting to do because it was thrown right her way!

So who is this lucky girl that I wanted so badly to win? That would be my lovely half-sister! I've mentioned that I don't have a relationship with my father, but what I failed to mention was that I have a wonderful new relationship with my half-sister. We've only known each other for a couple of years, but she is my family and I just love her. I felt so lucky that she was able to travel to be at our wedding.


Once I was free of my bouquet it was time for me to lose that garter! Mr. Rucksack's theme song in college was 50 Cent's "PIMP" so I thought it would be an appropriate surprise for the garter toss.

Oh hi. This is awkward. At least nobody's paying much attention...

After I was down a garter, some super excited guys got to see who would be the next to lose their bachelor status!!!

Nope. Not excited. Not even a little. Not even when a cat is being thrown at them. (Thanks for the idea, Weddingbee!)

 Luckily, one man stepped forward and caught the garter! (Actually, he picked it up off the floor after all of the other men went running. Same thing, right?)

And it's no other than Sissy's boyfriend! Could I be a happier half-sister? No I could not!

While this post may seem a million hours long, in reality I think we spent 20 minutes tops cutting cake and embarassing our single friends! Then it was back to the dance floor to complete our reception dance party before we made our grand exit.

So tell me, am I the only one who forgot how to cut a cake under pressure?

(All photos by Abigail Scott unless otherwise noted)

Previously on the Rucksack Recaps:

• I have ALL the feelings
• I admit that wedding planning kind of sucks
• We run a million errands
• We practice how it’s gonna go down
• We have a big fat Italian rehearsal dinner
• A little rain won’t get me down!
• The girls get pretty
• The guys do whatever guys do
• I hang out in the hotel bathroom and make a bunch of bouquets
• I get my bride on!
• We exchange kisses and gifts during our first look
• I’m a runaway bride
• The bridal party processes and the ring bearer gets distracted
• I take my final steps as a single lady (and get stuck on a rose bush along the way!)
• We kick off the ceremony with some sweet words from The Princess Bride
• We share our love story and get our hands blessed
• We do!
• We miss cocktail hour for the sake of family photos
• We get everybody to join our first dance
• We frolic on the beach at sunset
• We have a beach-side 90's dance party

I Carry Your Heart: Party Like a Rockstar

I know I've said it at least a dozen times, but Mr. R and I really wanted a kick ass party after our ceremony. We kicked the dancing off immediately by asking our friends and family to join our parent dances, and then started the party right back up after dinner.

Photo by Cousin E

Mr. Rucksack and I LOVE to dance. Never one to shy away from crazy dance moves and exaggerated faces, Mr. Rucksack is truly the perfect dance partner for me. We are ridiculous. To put it into perspective, Mr. Rucksack was a swimmer and lacrosse player in college, but his only two major injuries were not from sports. Instead, he had two knee surgeries due to 1) a wild night dancing at the club and 2) a rowdy game of limbo. That's my husband, folks!

Needless to say, we were really excited to show off our sweet moves on the dance floor.

I spent months whittling down our playlist, utilizing the help of my awesome cousin GM Brobot and watching VH1's Greatest Hits of the 90's. Because seriously, who doesn't love to jam out to Whitney Houston and Salt-N-Pepa?

Our DJ was amazing. He played every song I wanted, kept all of my no-plays away (even though we had some complaints that Rhianna wasn't allowed!) and he kept that dance floor packed all night long.

It was So Much Fun.

Our littlest bridal party members were the life of the party. I'm not exaggerating when I tell you those two never left the dance floor.

Ring Bearer Ruckus was my dance partner most of the night. He told his mom that he wanted to dance with the princess and kept stealing me from Mr. R! Totally made my night!

The night was one big whirl of dancing, but I can tell you that I vividly remember jamming to Call Me Maybe, dancing with my ladies through Bad Girls, and being generally thrilled and sweaty.

It was the best little beach side dance party I've ever been to.

(All photos by Abigail Scott unless otherwise noted) 

Previously on the Rucksack Recaps:

• I have ALL the feelings
• I admit that wedding planning kind of sucks
• We run a million errands
• We practice how it’s gonna go down
• We have a big fat Italian rehearsal dinner
• A little rain won’t get me down!
• The girls get pretty
• The guys do whatever guys do
• I hang out in the hotel bathroom and make a bunch of bouquets
• I get my bride on!
• We exchange kisses and gifts during our first look
• I’m a runaway bride
• The bridal party processes and the ring bearer gets distracted
• I take my final steps as a single lady (and get stuck on a rose bush along the way!)
• We kick off the ceremony with some sweet words from The Princess Bride
• We share our love story and get our hands blessed
• We do!
• We miss cocktail hour for the sake of family photos
• We get everybody to join our first dance
• We frolic on the beach at sunset

I Carry Your Heart: Speeches and Sunsets

While you're planning your wedding, people will tell you over and over how fast it will go by. Sure, you'll vow to take the time to eat and say hello to everyone and really be present, but in the end the day will still be one big blur of excitement. As I recap our wedding, I'm reminded of just how fast it all happened.

After our awesome family dance, we immediately went back to our tables for speeches and dinner. I don't have transcripts of our MOH's and Best Man's speeches, but they nailed it.

 And then we chowed! 

I sadly don't have any pictures of the buffet, but it was awesomely yummy. But then again, you can't really go wrong with lobster and steak. 

We really wanted to get some sunset photos in, which meant food was pretty much scarfed in between chatting with our awesome bridal party. About halfway through our meal, Abbey came and told us that we were getting close to that magical perfect lighting time of day. We chugged our champagne, scarfed the rest of our lobster, and then made a dash for the sand!

Where I bravely climbed up to the top of a lifeguard chair in a gown:

And dipped my toes in the ocean:

Made my new husband carry me:

And also decided to try this little viel shot I saw on Pinterest and through Mrs. Whale. When I told the girls to hop under my veil, they looked at me like I was crazy. I told them that it would either be super awesome or super ridiculous, but we were going to just go for it and see what happened. Luckily, I love how it turned out! (They kind of look like my harem, don't they?)

We frolicked in the water:

And the boys goofed around:

And when we returned to our little venue in the sand, we saw the wonderful gift Momma & Auntie America left us:

Candles everywhere!

And after a perfect sunset on a perfect day, we finally got the party started for real!

(All photos by Abigail Scott unless otherwise noted)

Previously on the Rucksack Recaps:

• I have ALL the feelings
• I admit that wedding planning kind of sucks
• We run a million errands
• We practice how it’s gonna go down
• We have a big fat Italian rehearsal dinner
• A little rain won’t get me down!
• The girls get pretty
• The guys do whatever guys do
• I hang out in the hotel bathroom and make a bunch of bouquets
• I get my bride on!
• We exchange kisses and gifts during our first look
• I’m a runaway bride
• The bridal party processes and the ring bearer gets distracted
• I take my final steps as a single lady (and get stuck on a rose bush along the way!)
• We kick off the ceremony with some sweet words from The Princess Bride
• We share our love story and get our hands blessed
• We do!
• We miss cocktail hour for the sake of family photos 
• We get everybody to join our first dance

I Carry Your Heart: First Dances with a Twist

Back when Mr. Rucksack and I first talked about the things we most wanted in our wedding, we decided that one of the most important things was for it to feel like a great big party. We really wanted to keep the event casual and we relied big time on our DJ to set the mood. We were so lucky that Matt completely understood us when we explained what we were looking for. Among many things, that included no big bridal party entrance and the shortest possible first dance.

Drinking champagne and getting bustled! (Photo by BM Veronica)

Asked if we wanted Al Green's Let's Stay Together played in its entirety, we simultaneously responded "No! Cut it as soon as we start to look awkward!" There's nothing I hate more than watching non-dancers sway around awkwardly throughout a 5 minute song when it's clear that they're completely miserable out there. No way was that going to be us.

We originally planned to use Something by George Harrison as our first dance, but changed our minds just days before the wedding as we practiced our awkward sway in the living room. If you're not planning on taking dance lessons, then I highly recommend at least practicing your dance one night with a bottle of wine. If it feels awkward in your living room, it's going to feel ten times more awkward on a dance floor with 100+ people staring at you. After nixing Something, we played through our entire love songs playlist until we found something that didn't make us super uncomfortable. Let's Stay Together was the perfect upbeat song that allowed us to be both silly and romantic.

 After a couple of verses, I made a quick speech and invited everyone up to the dance floor with us. I pretty much winged it, but this was the gist of it:

"At this time we'd like to invite the most important women in our lives up to dance with us: our moms. We'd also love to have you join us, so please bring your child or parent to the dance floor at this time. If you don't have a parent with you, grab someone special to dance with. You have to do what I say because I'm the bride. And also because it will be very special and sweet."

MIL Rucksack and I spent a long night poring over music until we found the perfect choice: All my Loving by The Beatles.

I'm so happy both moms were on board with this idea. It not only solved the dilemma of the missing father-daughter dance, but it also took away from some of the awkwardness of having all eyes on us. (One big spotlight dance was enough for me!) 

As my mom and I were dancing, she excitedly pointed out how many people had joined us. It was such a great twist on a tradition and I was so thrilled to be surrounded by our loved ones.

  

The energy was so high and happy and full of love. It was definitely one of my favorite moments of the day.

And this is where I have to thank you, hive, for the amazing suggestions for our parent dances! I couldn't be happier with the memories.

Have you thought about including a non-traditional first dance or parent dance into your reception?

(All photos by Abigail Scott unless otherwise noted) 

Previously on the Rucksack Recaps:

• I have ALL the feelings
• I admit that wedding planning kind of sucks
• We run a million errands
• We practice how it’s gonna go down
• We have a big fat Italian rehearsal dinner
• A little rain won’t get me down!
• The girls get pretty
• The guys do whatever guys do
• I hang out in the hotel bathroom and make a bunch of bouquets
• I get my bride on!
• We exchange kisses and gifts during our first look
• I’m a runaway bride
• The bridal party processes and the ring bearer gets distracted
• I take my final steps as a single lady (and get stuck on a rose bush along the way!)
• We kick off the ceremony with some sweet words from The Princess Bride
• We share our love story and get our hands blessed
• We do! 
• We miss cocktail hour for the sake of family photos