Wedding Weekend

Chris' younger brother James got married last weekend so we got to cram in three whole days of family, food and fun! The wedding was beautiful and since in England you start with a chapel marriage ceremony, then reception, then temple sealing we had a full day! We were mostly just 'on call' for group pictures with the photographer and since the weather was perfect we spent the afternoon sitting on temple grounds enjoying the sunshine with friends and family. Strangely enough we came away with only two pictures of the actual bride and groom and about a hundred pictures of us since when are we ever all dressed up with camera in hand and time to kill on a sunny day with gorgeous gardens around us? 

 Mother of the groom aka 'Grandma'!

 I made it my personal mission to get a great picture of the kids together - you know that elusive one where they both have smiles on their faces and generally lack an air of 'I can't believe you are making me sit here and smile for this Mom'?

 These represent attempt #1 at the perfect Stella and Arthur photo.

 Ok, making sure four kids are sitting and smiling for a picture is definitely harder than two! Here they are with their cousins.

 As you can see things quickly deteriorated into silly faces and vacant expressions.

 Ta da- here it is, the only picture I managed to get of Stella looking like a sweet and normal child on her own in her dress....we will call it exhibit A....

 ...and now for exhibit b. Would it surprise you to know that we now have about 30 pictures of Stella making all sorts of silly faces apparently in an effort to foil my plans for the perfect picture? She is such a goose and to be honest I'm sure we will treasure these pictures all the more because they show her silly side so well! 

 Arthur was equally difficult to photograph that day! So much excitement and so little time to stand still! 

 The four of us together. Check out my shoes! Can you tell that I am discreetly squatting and Chris is discreetly standing on tip toe in order to balance our height a little bit? It wasn't my fault that they only shoes that matched my dress were ridiculously tall heels!

 

 Being silly with Arthur!

 Chris with his grandad.

 This might just be my favorite picture from the day. It pretty much embodies how we all felt at the end of it all!

 This one takes the prize for best kid photo!! 

 Grandad had his camera out as well and from where I was sitting it looked like he was having much more success than me at getting a great shot of the two of them. Then I walked around to see what magic he was creating...

 Hmmmm.....not quite what I was picturing and not quite what he was going for either I think!

 The groom!!

 Chris and his brothers.

 Overkill? Maybe- but I was dying for good pictures! We know it was getting desperate when I started shoving our camera at anyone within a five foot radius and demanding them to snap a picture of us, or several...

Stella really took to her Great Grandad and had a lovely time cuddling with all of the grandparents! I loved having an excuse to curl her hair, take a million pictures, and watch Arthur dash around in his bow tie all day! It will be hard to top this weekend for excitement!