Happiest of Monday eves, my dahlinks.
Ahhhh, the Kristen Stewart Twilight cheating scandal. What a hugely devastating situation-in-no-way-to-us-personally. Right, children of Earth? Shame; Hollywood relationships usually work out so much better.
Well anyway, I think we could all agree we’ve learned one pretty big lesson out of all this. And that is that Rob’s last name is actually spelled Pattinson – not “Patterson,” as I had previously thought.
THANK YOU FOR THE COVERAGE, INFINITE POOL OF GOSSIP WEBSITES THAT ARE SLOWLY DESTROYING ME!
You know you really can skip this part unless you want to hear me rant on some shiz.
Inappropriateness of Offense: Orange I guess? Source of inappropriateness: NBC cameraman/person(s) directing cameraman. Location: gymnastics… area–er-arena, I think? is it ‘floor?’
Not sure if any of you guys have been subjected to the rather unique coverage job NBC’s been executing with the London Olympics. But, for the record, it has not been in any way jolly good, bang on, OR bloody terrific — and I’m pretty sure Madonna would agree with me verbatim. In fact I literally *had to stop watching* around the end of women’s gymnastics, during the part where NBC acted like a Royal douchebag for SEVERAL MINUTES by fixating its lens on the sad-girl-most-full-of-knee-buckling-sadness, or, Jordyn Marie Wieber. It was around minute two of sustained footage of this girl as she wept immediately behind her more successful teammates who were being interviewed in the foreground (as well as wholly ignored by viewers since Jordyn was the obvious attraction here, it was undeniable)… that I broke. YELLED OUT FOR IT TO END. It just felt really wrong. Like SO wrong. Really– it is only ok to do this kind of filming in horror movies. And even then, I personally have never seen a horror movie home in on a murdered woman’s FACE for several minutes – while she’s suffering an emotional OR physical death! - in the hopes of delighting viewers. I don’t know a single person who wasn’t likely physically grossed out by the sustained footage of this poor athlete crying in defeat. It was like someone told the person filming to “stay on her until it is physically apparent to the viewer that she has come to terms with the harsh reality of disappointing a nation, and failing at the only thing she’s ever really been good at.”
Am I just being too emotional about this, and the truth is that we’ve been watching NBC cameramen get intrusive close-ups of young women crying after being humiliated, for years now? Or have these guys been taking their pointers from last night’s porno’s. You know exactly what I’m talking about.
Arighty let’s get down to business. No more kidding around; we have a hilarious music video, hilarious cat video and a hilarious and stunning couple’s wedding to get to – so you can see that this is SERIOUS. Ok, now! Here’s the deal: everybody loves a stellar video, right? And you guys already know that I don’t tend to feature videos outside of the wedding-related realm unless it’s super extra brilliant to the extreme. Cases in point: anything with kittens or puppies generally being adorable, double rainbows, or any other thing that makes my stomach toned from laughter. ”OLD NEWS, Alison” – I know.
But what is it, pray tell, that makes a certain type of video a uniquely rewarding viewing experience?
Well. If you’re familiar with the internet, the concoction seems simple enough: purchase a cat + purchase some kind of thing the cat might perhaps climb into/onto/around/through and/or hold firmly in order to attack + press record and wait until you capture a funny moment on your camera phone. S**t is that what they’re still calling it these days – a “camera phone” – ? My instincts tell me there’s a hipper way of saying camera phone. Aright WHATEVER SORRY so as far the cat videos go, here’s a prime example of one-uh-ma faaaaves:
Ahhh, good times. That kitten was trying to ball himself up, and I got to watch the whole thing, while also listening to a calming tune. Hehe. That was a pleasurable experience and I am better for watching it. But. There’s got to be more out there, more than cat videos to make us laugh contentedly while also inspiring happy emotions!! The kind of stuff that has a group of people behind it, and a great tune we can all enjoy, and in general a lot of people who really worked their butts off to create something unique; something truly keepsake-level awesome.
ENTER: this lip-dub day of wedding music video. :) I just took the scenic route to telling you that Melinda and Nick, along with their cinematographer and photographer team, made almost this whole thing you’re about to see ON THEIR WEDDING DAY. A day during which the last thing you have time to do is film a professional looking lip-dubbed music video using nearly every member of your family.
In fact I’d say this video, submitted by One Tree Photography (along with the couple’s pictures) completely absolves Melinda of the fact that she met Nick by crashing a wedding. You sneaky, brilliant girl. ;) (More on that in Melinda’s write-up!)
Seriously though you guys– if there ever was a good piece of evidence to prove how much fun your wedding day can turn out looking, it is this video; brimming with fun, smiles and that elusive ability *not* to get psyched out by extremely awkward lip-synching exchanges that require you to gaze into people’s eyes for unnatural lengths of time while being filmed up close by strangers.
Read about how they met and found love, in Melinda’s absolutely adorable and entertaining write-up:
About Us…
Nick and I met at a wedding. A wedding He was invited to and I came as a “crasher” to. One night I was with my friend Erin and we met up with Erin’s brother who told us all of his friends were at a wedding and we should stop by. Erin convinced me there were several single boys there that I should meet. So we loaded up the car and off we went. When we got there I was a little nervous but it ended up that I did get to strike up a conversation and laugh the night away with one particular guy. Nights after the wedding Erin and I would invite ourselves over to the guy’s house to make dinner. Eventually Nick left Erin off the e-mails and we began making our own dinner dates and dates. Erin, who also dates one of Nick’s friends, eventually moved to Washington D.C. to be closer to her boyfriend. After dating for a year and a half Nick and I took a trip to visit Erin and Andrew in Washington D.C. The morning we got in was the morning Nick took me up to the balcony over looking D.C. and got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. It was the most amazing day and I was so excited that we just looked at each other and laughed. A year and one month later we were married!
Nick is a fireman with the Kansas City, MO fire department. He loves hanging with the boys and having generally a good time. In his free time he also works at Favorite Healthcare and is getting adventurous in the kitchen. When Nick and Melinda met, Melinda’s family owned Mady and Me Children’s boutique. She loves all things shopping and likes to cook.
Wedding Details…
City and State of Wedding: Unity Village, MO
We wanted our wedding to reflect us. Laid back and lots of fun. We chose to do everything all in once place. People came to our ceremony, walked a few feet to the reception and if they stayed the night it was just a few more feet away. We wanted it to be more of a summer time bash over 4th of July weekend so we had a touch of Old Hollywood Glamour mixed with a backyard BBQ.
Since it was 4th of July weekend we did our own spin of patriotic colors and went with Tiffany Blue and Cherry Red. The day was very HOT! It had to be over 100 degrees during the day. Luckily our ceremony was in the evening just as the sun was going down.
Vendors…
Bridal Gown Designer: Melissa Sweet, Bridal Extraordinaire, Shawnee, KS. My Mom and I both saw the dress at separate times in a Martha Stewart magazine. I was at her house one day when she opened the magazine and said, “Here’s your dress.” She didn’t know that just days before I had seen the very same dress and fell in love with it. I was then very excited to find out that Bridal Extraordinaire was the place that carried the dress. We have been friends with the owners and I was hopping to get my dress with them. They flew in the dress and it fit perfectly. I really only tried on other dresses for fun. This dress was the one I had to have.
Bridal Shoes: Kate Spade-These shoes I had my eye on and when we went to Texas for a girl’s trip they had a Kate Spade store. I tried them on and fell in love. Since my dress was tea length, I had to have some killer shoes to match.
Bridesmaid Dress Designer (and store): Assortment of J.Crew dresses- I wanted my girls to have the same color of dress but be able to have a different cut if they wanted it. They all looked beautiful.
Cake/Bakery: White cake and cake balls in three flavors from Delectable
Desserts. The owner makes the most amazing cake. We had strawberry, carrot and Oreo cake balls to match. My husband loves carrot cake and Oreos, so we had these for him. The cake balls were all gone by cake cutting time.
Caterer: Unity Village-We had hamburger sliders, homemade sweet potato and potato chips, chicken skewers, veggies, crab Rangoon dip and cheese assortment
Ceremony Site: The Rose Garden at Unity Village
Ceremony Musicians: We had some friend’s of friends perform for us. They sang acoustic songs. My favorite was when I walked down the aisle to “It’s a Beautiful Day by U2.
DJ: Kelly Howe with Party Sounds
Favors: Our guests took pictures in a photo booth and had one copy to take home and one copy for a guest book.
Flowers: Amy Cason with Vintage Gardens-She was outstanding!
Hair Stylist: Jill Kessler-Friend of the Bride
Invitations: Announce This-Allie Statler-I found invitations that a man who worked at Mint had designed for his own wedding. They had a caricature of the couple and were just so cute and different. Allie with Announce This was able to take this design and make it our very own. Not to be biased but they were the most amazing invitations I have ever seen. Very unique and different. At the ceremony she also printed programs that had a couple games and also check marks next to the ceremony details so guests could check off what had been done.
Thanks so much for sharing your fanf**kinTASTIC wedding and adorably sweet and entertaining music video, Melinda and Nick! Awesome song choice, by the way. Jamming out in ma desk chair to a fun video that has the added bonus of getting to hear a song I haven’t yet tired of is something that does not happen everyday. :)
I just have to make a note of how fun it is that they met at another wedding, and that she CRASHED IT! I find that I enjoy this female and would like to make her acquaintance at some point IRL. Perhaps do a little harmless DNA testing, you know, hop over to clinic, say, ask for the results of our paternity test, and then a little catching up on the decades of biological sisterhood we missed out on? … or whatever. Call me maybe?
Ok so, friendlies – what do you think? About anything. Do you dig wedding day music videos? Would you do one yourself? I honestly don’t know how I wouldn’t nervously laugh through the whole thing and screw it all up, if it were me.
Can’t wait to hear your thoughts.
xoxo! - Alison
P.S. – In case any of you took my wedding crashing encouragement to heart, I would like to absolve myself of any blame going forward, should you adopt wedding crashing as your new hobby/method of cornering men if you are currently in pursuit. But also, omigod have so much fun.
Photography: One Tree Photography – Matt and Mike / Cinematography: Mike Ransdell with One Tree Photography / Bridal Gown Designer: Melissa Sweet, Bridal Extraordinaire / Bridal Shoes: Kate Spade / Bridesmaid dresses: J.Crew / Cake: Delectable Desserts / Caterer: Unity Village / Ceremony Site: The Rose Garden at Unity Village / DJ: Kelly Howe with Party Sounds / Flowers: Amy Cason with Vintage Gardens / Hair Stylist: Jill Kessler-Friend of the Bride / Invitations: Announce This-Allie Statler / Jeweler: Helzberg Diamond / Makeup Artist: Jill Kessler / Men’s Attire: The Tuxedo Butler / Officiant: Duke Tufty / Reception Venue: Unity Village